Trump returns documents taken from White House
Former President Donald Trump last month handed over to the National Archives 15 boxes of documents, letters, gifts and mementos that he had taken with him when leaving office but that he had been legally required to leave in the custody of the federal government, officials said Monday. The materials included the original versions of a letter that former President Barack Obama had left for Trump, as well as correspondence from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The boxes contained items taken during a hasty exit after Trump had spent the bulk of the presidential transition trying to remain in power.
Supreme Court restores Alabama’s voting map
The Supreme Court on Monday reinstated an Alabama congressional map that a lower court had said diluted the power of Black voters, suggesting that the court was poised to become more skeptical of challenges to voting maps based on claims of race discrimination. The vote was 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the court’s three liberal members in dissent. The Supreme Court’s brief order, which included no reasoning, was provisional, staying a lower court’s decision while the case moves forward. The justices said they would hear Alabama’s appeal of the lower court’s ruling, but they did not say when.
Air Force ordered to pay $230M to victims of 2017 church shooting
A federal judge ordered the U.S. Air Force on Monday to pay more than $230 million to the survivors and the families of the victims of a 2017 shooting at a Texas church because the Air Force had failed to report the gunman’s criminal history. In his ruling, Judge Xavier Rodriguez of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas wrote that the Air Force could have blocked the gunman, Devin P. Kelley, from buying the rifle he used to kill 26 people on Nov. 5, 2017, at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
Macron meets Putin in Moscow
President Emmanuel Macron of France said Monday that Europe was at a “critical crossroads” amid fears over Russia’s military buildup surrounding Ukraine as he met in Moscow with President Vladimir Putin. Macron said he hoped that the meeting at the Kremlin, with the two leaders sitting about 20 feet apart at a long table to maintain social distancing, would begin a process of de-escalation. Macron was scheduled to continue his diplomatic outreach Tuesday with a visit to Ukraine and a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
Free community college is off the table, Jill Biden says
During his first address to Congress last spring, President Joe Biden said that Jill Biden, the first lady, would lead an effort to fulfill his administration’s promise to provide two years of free community college to all eligible students. That provision, tucked inside a massive social spending package that has struggled to win support, was the first lady’s signature legislative initiative. But on Monday, Jill Biden addressed a summit of community college leaders and confirmed what her husband has recently suggested: The plan has no future in a bill that Democrats are trying to whittle down in order to salvage.
By wire sources
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