While welcoming refugees from Ukraine, Italy continue its “Fortress Europe” prosecution of former Mayor Domenico Lucano.

Nearly 20 years ago, the rapper wrote the McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It” jingle. Now, he’s striking back with a wacky new commercial for a fast-food competitor

According to Ma-Riah Roberson Moody, a big part of the reason that Minneapolis and St. Paul teachers and educational support professionals (ESPs) voted to strike in March was that they were “feeling disrespected in our jobs.”

A super PAC backing Pennsylvania Senate candidate Conor Lamb is warning prospective donors that he is trailing frontrunner John Fetterman by 30 percentage points in the Democratic primary — and that the public’s perception of his opponent’s ideology must change for Lamb to have a shot. “[P]rimary voters don’t yet see Fetterman as the liberal he is,” reads a memo circulated by the pro-Lamb group Penn Progress, which was obtained by POLITICO. “For Conor Lamb to have a path in the primary, this dynamic needs to change.” Unlike the bloodbath taking place in Pennsylvania’s Republican primary, the contest on the Democratic side has been a relatively tame affair. Fetterman and Lamb haven’t laid a finger on each other on TV, and no outside Democratic groups have aired attack ads on television either. The nine-page slide deck disseminated by Penn Progress after a recent fundraising call with donors suggests that could soon change. The document highlights the testing of aggressive negative messaging against Fetterman, who is Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, including that he is a “dangerous radical who proudly calls himself a socialist,” “supports far-left policies like a $34 trillion-dollar government takeover of healthcare,” and has “spoken at Defund the Police rallies and wants to release convicted felons back onto our streets.”

Call them the ‘Blockchain Eight.’ On March 16, a bipartisan group of congressmen decided to weigh in on the Security and Exchange Commission’s ongoing investigation into cryptocurrency and blockchain companies. In a letter sent to the regulatory agency, the group demanded that SEC chair Gary Gensler and his department explain themselves in their information-gathering, calling into question the commission’s authority and approach. “We have questions regarding the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (the Commission) utilization of Division of Enforcement and Division of Examination authorities,” the letter begins, stating that rather than using those powers in the context of an enforcement investigation, “those authorities are better suited to the SEC’s divisions charged with seeking public commentary as part of the rulemaking process.” “We have reason to believe these requests might be at odds with the Paperwork Reduction Act,” the letter continues, essentially bemoaning the notion that crypto and blockchain firms might have to rustle up some documents to respond to the SEC. The letter concludes by asking Gensler 13 specific questions regarding the investigation. The letter was signed by Republicans and Democrats alike: Reps. Tom Emmer (MN), Warren Davidson (OH), Byron Donalds (FL), and Ted Budd (NC) from the Republican side of the aisle; Reps. Josh Gottheimer (NJ), Jake Auchincloss (MA), Ritchie Torres (NY), and Darren Soto (FL) for the Democrats. That wasn’t all. The letter’s lead author, Rep. Emmer, took to Twitter to issue an even more explicit statement, writing that “crypto startups must not be weighed down by extra-jurisdictional and burdensome reporting requirements. We will ensure our regulators do not kill American innovation and opportunities.” The comments made it unequivocally clear that, in Emmer’s view, the congressional inquiry to the SEC was meant to protect cryptocurrency firms from investigation. The letter and subsequent statement are stunning for a number of reasons. First, it appears to be an obvious attempt to exert influence on a federal law enforcement investigation. The SEC is an independent regulatory and law enforcement agency that conducts its own investigations, which are not supposed to be influenced by politicians. Members of Congress can call for investigations into sectors or businesses; it’s extremely uncommon for them to call for the thwarting or redirection of an ongoing investigation. The House and Senate have lengthy and detailed ethics rules. There are also federal statutes in place to prevent political interference into ongoing investigations. In the case of issuing a public statement that could alter the course of an inquiry into a sector, especially in the information-gathering stage, it’s likely that those congressmen would have (or at least should have) sought counsel from their lawyers regarding those ethics proceedings. The Prospect sent requests for comment as to whether that counsel was indeed sought and what recommendation was made, or if it was never sought in the first place, to the offices of Reps. Emmer, Auchincloss, Torres, and Gottheimer. None were returned. The justification for that intervention is also noteworthy. Invoking the Paperwork Reduction Act as grounds for limiting the SEC’s investigation is a highly dubious rationale. According to Elise Bean, a former investigator on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the Paperwork Reduction Act would be a highly unusual justification for limiting an investigation. “The PRA does not apply to ‘an administrative action or investigation involving an agency against specific individuals or entities,’” Bean said. “That’s why it is rare to see anyone invoke the PRA to try to stop or slow down a federal investigation.”

Rep. Stephanie Murphy got everything she wanted, and it’s a disaster, so she’s retiring.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was admitted to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC, on Friday evening "after experiencing flu-like symptoms," the court's public information office said Sunday evening, but he does not have Covid-19.

Solidarity is not a verb

Following Pixar employees’ response to the handling of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

After being rescued by a pair of pontoon boaters, Nathan Drew Morgan began assaulting his rescuers, officials said in a statement. Then, one of his rescuers shot him. (Jetski madness strikes again!)

Ammon Bvundy and his whackjobs won.

Shoji Morimoto doesn't talk much but he will sit and listen and be there for events people fear to share with someone they know.

The House is set to hit the snooze button on the Senate’s plan to permanently change the nation’s clocks. “It could be weeks — or it could be months” before House Democratic leaders decide whether to tee up a vote on eliminating the biannual clock changes that have governed daily life in most states for decades, said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D.-N.J.), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee that oversees time change policies. While the Sunshine Protection Act, which unanimously passed the Senate on Tuesday, would nationally shift clocks an hour later to maximize daylight, some doctors have argued that adopting permanent standard time would be a healthier option and better align with humans’ natural rhythms. Pallone, who held a hearing last week on daylight saving time, said he shares the Senate’s goal to end the “spring forward” and “fall back” clock changes linked to more strokes, heart attacks and car accidents. But he wants to collect more information, asking for a long-delayed federal analysis on how time changes might affect productivity, traffic and energy costs, among other issues. “There isn’t a consensus, in my opinion in the House, or even generally at this point, about whether we should have standard versus daylight saving as the permanent time,” Pallone said. “Immediately after the Senate passed the bill, I had members come up to me on the floor and say, ‘Oh, don’t do that. I want the standard time,’ ” he added, declining to identify the lawmakers.

Lieutenant Chornovol, 42, is a former activist in Ukraine’s street protest movement who sent her two children to safety before reporting for duty as a reserve officer. She commands two teams of a half-dozen or so people each, firing Ukrainian-made, tripod-mounted missiles, which they transport to ambush positions in their personal cars. Lieutenant Chornovol drives a red Chevy Volt electric hatchback, which she calls an “ecologically clean killing machine.” Interviewed beside a burning grocery warehouse in the suburban town of Brovary, the lieutenant popped the hatchback to reveal a beige tube, holding a Stugna-P missile. It has a range of three miles and hits a target within a diameter of one foot. Seemingly unfazed by combat, Lieutenant Chornovol described the Ukrainian tactic of ambushes that has defined the early phases of the battle for the capital. Last week, she said, she blew up a Russian tank a few miles east of Brovary on the M01 highway. “We look for firing positions where we can see a stretch of road,” Lieutenant Chornovol said, adding that “we know a column will drive on the road” eventually. With her car parked some distance away, covered in camouflage, she and her team lay in wait in a tree line for three days before a Russian column came rumbling down the road. When the command came to open fire, she used a laser to lock in on the tank, pushed a button, then watched as the tank lit up in flames before she rushed back to her car to escape return fire. “I shoot at armor,” she said, when asked about the human toll. “If they climb inside, it’s their fault.”

Federal oversight officials this week told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to move everyone out of Torrance County detention center in Estancia, N.M., until it can fix unsanitary and unsafe conditions inside. “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement must take immediate steps to address the critical staffing shortages that have led to safety risks and unsanitary living conditions at the Torrance County Detention Facility,” Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari wrote in an alert published Wednesday. ICE responded by accusing the Homeland Security Department’s Office of the Inspector General of publishing false information. In addition to housing migrants, the Torrance County lockup houses federal prisoners and serves as the county’s jail. It’s owned and operated by CoreCivic. ICE pays the company about $2 million a month under their contract, according to the report. CoreCivic also owns and runs migrant detention in Cibola County.

Maryland-National Capital Park Police Officer Mark Miles filed the federal civil rights lawsuit, which alleges discrimination, harassment and retaliation.

"This event is completely unprecedented and upended our expectations about the Antarctic climate system," one expert said.

With precious few trees left to slow the wind in this once fertile corner of southern Madagascar, red sand is blowing everywhere: onto fields, villages and roads, and into the eyes of children waiting for food aid parcels.

The estimates from the International Organization for Migration suggests Ukraine is fast on course in just three weeks toward the levels of displacement from Syria’s devastating war, which has driven about 13 million people from their homes both in the country and abroad.

The snarled up 65km Russian convoy that was stuck for days outside Kyiv neatly illustrated Moscow’s misplaced belief that it could achieve a lightning-fast victory in Ukraine. Western military analysts say Russia’s leadership initially thought its “special military operation” would reach the capital and other big Ukrainian cities in days, forcing Volodymyr Zelensky’s government to capitulate and allow a puppet administration to be installed. “It’s clear that Russia was pursuing regime change in Ukraine,” said Michael Kofman, Russia studies director at CNA, a US think-tank. “Regime change operations are often derived of hubris and bad assumptions — and they usually go terribly wrong.”