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Russia announced sanctions against top U.S. officials in retaliation for American sanctions against Russia. Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Russia announced sanctions against top U.S. officials in retaliation for American sanctions against Russia.

As sanctions imposed by the U.S., the European Union and allies continue to roil Russia's economy, Russia responded by issuing sanctions of its own against top American officials.

Russia's foreign ministry said it was issuing a "stop list" to prevent members of the Biden administration from entering Russia.

"This step, taken as a response measure, is the inevitable result of the extreme Russophobic policy of the current US Administration, which, in a desperate attempt to maintain American hegemony, has abandoned any sense of decorum and placed its bets on the head-on containment of Russia," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The list includes President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, CIA Director William Burns, press secretary Jen Psaki, deputy national security adviser Daleep Singh, USAID Administrator Samantha Power, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo and U.S. Export-Import Bank President and Chair Reta Jo Lewis.

Hillary Clinton and President Biden's son, Hunter Biden, are also on the list.

Psaki downplayed the significance of the announcement Tuesday, saying "none of us are planning tourist trips to Russia, none of us have bank accounts that we won't be able to access, so we will forge ahead."

The U.S. and allies have sanctioned Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov personally over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Russia said it would soon announce more sanctions on U.S. officials, lawmakers, business people and media personalities that the country accuses of "Russophobia."

Russia also said on Tuesday that it was sanctioning top Canadian officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and more than 300 lawmakers and officials.

Western countries have imposed a plethora of sanctions against Russian oligarchs and officials, Russian companies, Russian oil and Russian banks.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Sunday that the sanctions are having a severe impact on Russia's economy.

"We expect a deep recession in Russia," she told CBS.

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Russia sanctions Biden and Blinken in retaliation for US sanctions - NPR

LocalBoston Mayor Michelle Wu smiles after being sworn into office at City Hall in November 2021. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff

Hillary Clinton and Mayor Michelle Wu certainly have things in common both broke gender barriers in politics and took unconventional routes to get there. But, they also shared the unique challenge of having to raise a family in the political spotlight.

In an episode of Clintons podcast You and Me Both this week, Wu shared with the former First Lady, senator, secretary of state, and presidential candidate the challenges and surprises parenting her 4- and 7-year-old sons while in office has brought.

It has been such a test of parenthood raising kids in this time, Wu said. Its such a jarring experience to be working my hardest to raise boys who hopefully will turn into caring, kind, strong young men, concerned about the world, and ready to help their community, and then to have to explain to them what they are hearing when they wake up everyday outside their home.

Wu talked about how for months her family and neighborhood have been faced with 7 a.m. protests over the citys vaccine mandate. While she described a deep anxiety about raising kids in this time, she also said she is, in a way, grateful for the stage her children are at because they are full of joy and everything is an adventure.

A few months ago, when holiday cards were still coming in, Wus oldest son was helping sort the mail and exclaimed that he had found mail from the protestors. Wu said she rushed over, concerned about what it might say.

He gave a big sigh and said, Oh never mind, its to the honorable Michelle Wu, I thought it said to the horrible Michelle Wu, she said. He was truly disappointed because he was so excited that we were going to get this mail interaction. In some ways at the end of the day kids are kids and they have fun in any situation.

Clinton said she could relate and recalled the tough conversations she had to have with her then 6-year-old daughter Chelsea when Bill Clinton was running for governor of Arkansas.

The roughly half-an-hour conversation between Wu and Clinton didnt solely focus on parenting; the pair also touched on how Wu got into politics, the importance of prioritizing mental health, Wus impressions of being mayor so far, and affordable housing, among other topics.

Both Clinton and Wu took a more unconventional path into politics. Wu, who grew up in Chicago, said when she was younger she thought she would be a stay-at-home mom.

I had the opportunity of a lifetime to come to the Boston area when I got that scholarship to Harvard, but still in some ways was never thinking that far ahead and never saw people who looked like me in positions of power or in politics, Wu said. Its been a wild journey for me, unexpectedly into government, into public service, for the chance to try to shape our communities from someone who understands what its like from the outside.

When Wu was finishing college, her mother began struggling with mental health and Wu became her moms caregiver.

Theres really no way I would be where I am now in a position in government had it not been for my familys journey and for my moms experience with mental illness and hospital systems the many, many barriers that it felt like our family was always facing in the moments of greatest need, Wu said.

She said the most dehumanizing experience of all was when she finally convinced her mom to seek medical care and was in the emergency room.

In some ways that still drives me in what I do every day realizing how much it matters when government works but especially when government doesnt work for people, and the ways in which all the programming we create, all the funding we put to this, all the systems we are building, if it is not actually meeting people where they are in those moments then we arent delivering the impact that we could, Wu said.

Clinton and Wu went on to discuss how mental health will continue to be its own pandemic once COVID recedes.

Wu has been the target of criticism and hatred since taking office, especially regarding the vaccine mandate. Clinton asked how she is dealing with the constant criticism and attacks, especially in regard to the protests outside Wus house. Wu called this a difficult moment in our history, and said despite the protests, she sleeps well at night knowing her decisions were guided by experts.

I am lucky that Boston is home to such expertise, and the way that I like to lead and make decisions is to ensure that the people who are closest to the issue, with the greatest expertise on this, are informing the decision making, Wu said. At the end of the day this is not about vaccines to a lot of these people, this is about a changing country and power structure that sees women advancing in leadership, and women of color, we are here to stay.

After talking with Wu, Clinton spent the rest of the episode talking with New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The podcast is available wherever podcasts are found, including on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart.

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A wild journey: Mayor Wu joins Hillary Clinton to talk mental health, politics, and parenting - Boston.com

STEVEFLETCHER| Lexington

I understand and appreciate a newspapers goal of providing us readers with contrasting viewpointsso, presumably, we can pick and choose from among competing ideas those that resonate. Hopefully, the end result is that we are better educated about ourselves and whats happening locally, nationally, and globally;better able to make smarter decisions about public policy and who we elect. We can sort the wheat from the chaff.

Accordingly,I suffer Cal Thomas and John Hood, whose columns routinely disparage government meddling, especially if it will raise taxes, without any meaningful analysis of whether the government might in fact be accomplishing something of value that the so-called private sector is unable or unwilling to provide. Take a look at the Scandinavian countries and decide for yourself whether higher taxes might actually contribute to an improved quality of life.

This kind of mindset is perhaps best crystallized in Ronald Reagans infamous pronouncement: The nine most terrifying words in the English language are,Im from the government and Im here to help. Its not that government sometimes screws up (as we all do). The message is that government is evil, a message that has metastasized into the anti-government, anti-intellectualism that threatens our ability to deal effectively with the threats confronting us today that are truly terrifying.

And then there is Victor Davis Hanson, whose column in The Dispatch, Hillary Clintons greatest masterpiece, exceeds my capacity for tolerance.You dont have to be a defender of Hillary (Im not) and/or acolyte of Donald Trump to be repelled by the lies, distortions, and outlandish logic depressingly displayed in this diatribe. It is conspiracy theory on steroids, barely removed from QAnon craziness.

Publishing Hansons piece without disclaimer or correction only serves to spread the virus that so infects our current public discourse.

STEVEFLETCHER

Lexington

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Hanson's column on Hillary Clinton is 'conspiracy theory on steroids': Letter to the editor - Lexington Dispatch

Prosecutors alleged that El-Saadi and Diab served as conduits for Andy Khawaja, the high-flying owner of a payment processing company, to route money into the U.S. political system during the 2016 presidential campaign.

While Khawaja reportedly became a billionaire as a result of the success of his Allied Wallet payments business, a grand jury indictment returned in 2019 said the funds directed to U.S. politics originated with a man who played a prominent role in U.S. Middle East policy and business deals for several decades, George Nader.

However, outside the presence of the jury, prosecutors said they believed that the original source of the money was actually the government of the United Arab Emirates.

The campaign finance indictment charged a total of eight men, including El-Saadi, Diab, Khawaja and Nader, who came under scrutiny in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation of ties between Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign and foreign governments.

Nader worked closely with the Trump White House on Mideast issues but had a history of child pornography charges and got a 10-year sentence in a sex-abuse case in 2020.

Of the eight indicted in the campaign finance case, El-Saadi and Diab were the only ones to go on trial this month in U.S. District Court in Washington. Nader and four other defendants pleaded guilty in the case and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, while Khawaja was arrested in Lithuania in 2019 and has been fighting extradition to the U.S.

Judge Randy Moss, who oversaw the trial, has declared Khawaja a fugitive.

The verdicts in El-Saadis favor on a conspiracy charge and a straw-donor charge were returned shortly after jurors sent the judge a note asking what they should do if they could reach verdicts for one defendant but not the other.

When the jurors filed into Moss courtroom late Thursday, the foreman read the not guilty verdicts aloud for El-Saadi. He was masked like other courtroom participants, and there was no immediately visible reaction. However, he and his lead defense attorney, Justin Shur, later exchanged handshakes with the prosecutors. Shur also clasped El-Saadis shoulder to congratulate him.

Moss notified El-Saadi that all restrictions of his pretrial release were lifted and he was free to go.

El-Saadi also exchanged an embrace with the other defendant, Diab, who will have to return for further proceedings.

Outside the courtroom, El-Saadi seemed to be tearing up as he texted others with the news.

Just after the verdicts were read, Moss read a standard charge to the jury to continue to try to reach verdicts on the three felony charges Diab faces. Moss said he was ready to send the jury home for the day, but the foreman said jurors wished to stay late to deliberate further. Jurors then huddled for almost an hour and a half before heading home just before 6:30 p.m. A fourth day of deliberations is expected on Friday.

While the indictment put the amount the men sought to send to pro-Clinton committees at more than $3.5 million, in front of the jury prosecutors made a more modest claim during opening statements.

This is a case about a large-scale conspiracy to funnel well in excess of $1 million into the U.S. political system money that came from the United Arab Emirates, prosecutor Michelle Parikh told jurors.

After Trumps victory in 2016, the conspiracy shifted to direct some funds to Republicans, while still aiding Democrats, according to prosecutors. The indictment in the case lists $750,000 in donations to the Republican National Committee in 2017, as well as $225,000 to the GOPs Protect the House committee and $337,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee the following year. Khawaja also gave $1 million to the Trump inaugural committee and got inaugural tickets in return, the indictment alleges.

One of the charges the jury is still deliberating on against Diab stems from the $225,000 donation he made to the committee backing House GOP candidates in 2018.

Prosecutors say the campaigns were not aware of the straw-donor arrangement or that the funds originated abroad.

During the trial, El-Saadis attorneys insisted that the $150,000 he donated to a Clinton fundraising committee in September 2016 was a genuine donation motivated by their clients fears that Trumps promised ban on Muslim visitors to the U.S. would devastate El-Saadis services to high-end travelers passing through Southern Califonia.

He believed that his contribution to Hillary Clintons campaign would save his business, defense lawyer Megan Church said in her opening statement. His company catered to clients who were travelers from Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East the same people Mr. Trump intended to ban from the U.S. A Trump presidency posed a fatal threat to Mr. El-Saadis business. Thats why he donated.

Diabs lawyer, Harland Braun, said his client is Khawajas cousin and served as the chief operating officer of Allied Wallet. Braun said Diab was unfamiliar with campaign finance laws.

In opening statements, Braun also briefly suggested to the jurors that the prosecution was the product of a political vendetta against Hillary Clinton. However, moments later the defense lawyer seemed to back away from that.

Braun emphasized that the U.S. political system is awash in cash and that ultra-wealthy donors can legally give much more than the sums at issue in the Khawaja case. In fact, there really is no limit on political donations in the U.S, the attorney said.

The best government money can buy, Braun quipped.

The prosecutions first witness, Diane Hamwi, a former Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser, said Khawaja hired her for $7,500 a month in the spring of 2016 to advise him on how to get closer to American politicians and to seek appointment to a part-time government post or commission related to the Mideast.

He hired me to help him develop more relationships in the political sphere, Hamwi said. I was ensuring that when he made the large contributions he was making that he was getting the most for that.

Khawaja leapt into political giving with gusto, Hamwi said, hosting an event at his Los Angeles home with former President Bill Clinton in June 2016 in exchange for donating or raising about $1 million for committees associated with Hillary Clintons campaign

With many of the defendants, witnesses and events from the Los Angeles area, Hollywood gossip migrated into the courtroom. Jurors heard that Hamwi and Khawaja first met during a breakfast fundraiser that then-President Barack Obama attended in April 2016 at the Brentwood home of Spider-Man actor Tobey Maguire.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of Harland Braun.

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Jury acquits one defendant of conspiring to funnel millions to back Clinton in 2016 - POLITICO

A day after Russian warplanes bombed a maternity hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol in war-torn Ukraine, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday (March 10) condemned President Vladimir Putin for committing war crimes.

The deadly attack by Russia on the maternity hospital in Mariupol left three dead and 17 injured. The civilian building was targeted several times with high explosive Russian bombs, thereby, forcing pregnant women to deliver their newborn in the basement.

In a tweet, Clinton wrote, If Russian leadership would rather not be accused of committing war crimes, they should stop bombing hospitals.

While Hillary Clinton has been upfront in calling out the atrocities committed by Russia in Ukraine, the United States also has a long history of targeting hospitals and civilian buildings. Many such war crimes were committed by the States during her tenure as the 67th Secretary of State between 2009 and 2013.

In June 2011, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), of which the United States is a part, acknowledged that a missile intended for a military missile site struck a civilian home in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

It appears that one weapon did not strike the intended target and that there may have been a weapons system failure which may have caused a number of civilian casualties, NATO had conceded.

As per a report in The New York Times, at least 9 people were killed in the misfire. The blast knocked the top off the structure, leaving a concrete staircase reaching into the air. Several carports on the block collapsed, crushing the vehicles within, the report emphasised.

A month later, The Atlantic reported that NATO bombed a hospital in Zliten town in Western Libya. The deadly attack killed 7 people and destroyed several food warehouses, besides the towns hospital.

An eyewitness named Osama Mahmoud told the reporters that the military operation took place overnight. He had said, In this whole area there is no military. While speaking about the bombings, Major General Nick Pope claimed that the NATO forces had attacked only staging posts near Zliten.

Popular Twitter user, Hadi Nasrallah, pointed out how the US misadventure in the North African country had left it in tatters. Look at the destruction Russias bombs did to Ukraine. This is a war crime. Sorry, I meant NATOs bombs in Libya, he had tweeted.

Following reports that Muammar Gaddafi was killed by NATO-backed rebels, a joyous Hillary Clinton had announced, We came, we saw, he died. While lambasting the US for leaving Libya in ruins, journalist Richard Mehdurst stated, Ten years on Libya has slave markets, a shattered economy, and its resources plundered.

During the 2011 invasion of Libya, the NATO forces deliberately targeted State-owned water installations and crippled Libyas water supply. Even to this day, the North African country is struggling with the water crisis.

The deliberate destruction of a nations water infrastructure, with the knowledge that doing so would result in massive deaths of the population as a direct consequence, is not simply a war crime, but potentially a genocidal strategy, wrote Nafeez Ahmed in The Ecologist.

During the Obama administration, the US Air Force launched an airstrike on October 3, 2015, targeting a clinic named Kunduz Trauma Centre in northern Afghanistan. The hospital was run by the charity Mdecins Sans Frontires (Doctors Without Borders). The incident had claimed 42 lives and injured 30 others.

While MSF labelled the attack as war crime, the Pentagon had denied the allegations and called the attack unintentional. It claimed that the airstrike at the hospital was the result of technical and human errors.

According to General Joseph Votel, the US mistook the Kunduz hospital for a building captured by the Taliban. Although he assured that disciplinary action would be taken against 16 US personnel, the accused would not face any criminal charges. The fact this was unintentional takes it out of the realm of being a deliberate war crime, he had claimed.

Mdecins Sans Frontire had informed that the US officials did not stop the air raid despite multiple requests. On April 29, 2016, the charitys President remarked, Todays briefing amounts to an admission of an uncontrolled military operation in a densely populated urban area, during which US forces failed to follow the basic laws of war.

Khalid Ahmad, one of the victims gravely injured in the aerial raid, had said that the US Air Force personnel are criminals, who ought to be jailed.

Hillary Clinton served as the First Lady between January 1993 and January 2001. During her husband Bill Clintons tenure as the 46th US President, war crimes were committed in Somalia, Yugoslavia and Sudan.

Journalist Alan MacLeod pointed out how in September 1993, the US Army Rangers had fired two mortars outside the Digfer Hospital in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu.

The Chicago Tribune had reported, Hospital director Dr Fuji Mohammed says three women were killed when the bomb exploded. He says the hospital received six or seven hits, but he does not know the total number of victims because patients and their relatives fled when the attack started, taking the dead and wounded with them.

A similar incident took place in May 1999 when NATO warplanes used laser-guided missiles to destroy a hospital in Belgrade in Yugoslavia. The tragic attack claimed the lives of 3 people and injured several others, including 2 women in labour and medical staff.

Nato spokesman Jamie Shea acknowledged that one of its laser-guided bombs had gone astray over the capital and struck a building about 450 metres away from its intended target, The Guardian had reported.

Reportedly, the Al Shifa factory in Khartoum in Sudan manufactured half of the countrys pharmaceutical products, including anti-malarial drugs. However, on August 20, 1998, the Clinton administration ordered the bombing of the medicine factory.

Fourteen years later, its wreckage remained, a shrine to an incident that locals still refer to as a terrorist attack. The Al Shifa plant had been taken out on the direct orders of Bill Clinton. The strike was in retaliation for Osama bin Ladens recent bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, it was stated.

Journalist Alan MacLeod had tweeted that the deliberate attack destroyed Sudans main source of drugs, leading to tens of thousands of deaths.

While Hillary Clinton is busy calling out Russia for bombing a maternity clinic, she did not speak a word against the atrocities committed by the US against civilians of different nations during her husbands administration or that of her tenure as the US Secretary of State.

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Hillary Clinton calls the Russian bombing of maternity hospital a war crime: Heres the sordid US track record she conveniently glosses over - OpIndia