Joe Biden

Former president Donald Trump invoked the U.S. Space Force on Saturday in response to a question about what he would do in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

During a news conference before his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump was asked, "If you were president right now, and the situation is what it is right now ... what should Joe Biden do?"

In a video posted to Twitter by the Washington Post's Robert Costa, controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was put on the spot by a CBS reporter as he attempted to get her to explain why she agreed to speak to a group of white nationalists at a conference in Florida.

During the tense confrontation, with the Georgia Republican flanked by security, she batted aside specific questions about her speech at the meet-up organized by a prominent white supremacist provocateur who she posed with for pictures, but then claimed she didn't know who he was.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's two decades of relations with the West, initially marked by fascination over what the ex-KGB agent stood for and then bursts of cooperation, have now reached a point of no return with his invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

The attack has created an indelible rupture between Russia and the European Union and United States as long as Putin stays in power, with Moscow now likely to turn to China as its main ally.

During a speech at the CPAC conference being held in Florida, conservative Julie Kelly gave a speech entitled "The Truth about January 6th: A conversation with Julie Kelly," where she compared the Jan 6th Capitol rioters facing jail time to Ukrainians and Russians protesting the invasion of Uktaraine by Vladimir Putin.

Addressing the crowd, she, without specifying who she was talking about explained, "He's using this law enforcement agency, armed agents, military-style vehicles to conduct pre-dawn raids at the homes of political dissidents. Terrorizing these dissidents in front of their children, and, in some cases, their elderly spouses. Hauling them off, concocting charges against them, fabricating evidence, and in almost 100 cases, hauling them off to prison where they have been denied bail."

According to the Guardian's David Smith who is attending the annual CPAC conference in Orlando this year, supporters of Donald Trump are still neck-deep in conspiracy rumors and denial, leading him to suggest they appear to be living in a "parallel universe."

Reporting from the annual confab that has drawn current far-right GOP lawmakers and aspiring candidates looking to boost their campaigns, Smith said attendees he spoke with have a litany of complaints about the 2020 election results, the damage they believe President Joe Biden is inflicting on "democracy" and how they think the Jan 6th Capitol riot that sent lawmakers fleeing for their lives has been portrayed in the press.

Energy markets responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Thursday with soaring energy prices — the global benchmark for oil exceeded $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014 — which will bring higher profits for Texas’ oil and gas industry, at least temporarily.

Energy analysts say the conflict could slow the flow of oil and gas from Russia — one of the world’s largest producers — to Europe in the weeks ahead. The price of oil dipped back down to $99 late Thursday after President Joe Biden did not target Russian oil and gas when he announced sanctions against Russia.

The United States top health agency on Friday drastically revised its guidelines for masking to stop Covid-19 transmission, a decision that means most Americans won't be advised to wear them in indoor public spaces, including school children.

"We're in a stronger place today as a nation with more tools to protect ourselves and our communities from Covid-19," said Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a call with reporters.

"Unethical," "scary" and "maddening" -- human rights groups have reacted with fury to a Texas order that a state agency should investigate cases of transgender children receiving gender-affirming medical care as child abuse.

Earlier this week, Republican Governor Greg Abbott sent a letter to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, directing it to probe "any reported instances of Texas children being subjected to abusive gender-transitioning procedures".

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) said at CPAC on Friday that he questioned whether Vice President Kamala Harris really understood the experience of most Black Americans because both of her parents were so well educated.

In a discussion with conservative network Real America's Voice, Issa was asked about his recollections of Harris during her days as a politician in his home state of California.

On Friday, CNN's Annie Grayer reported that David Shafer, a Republican from Georgia who served on the list of "alternative" electors declaring former President Donald Trump the winner of the state, told the House January 6 Committee that the Trump campaign gave the order for the Georgia Republican Party to create the fake elector slate.

All told, 84 people allowed their names to be put forward as fake electors in the scheme, which included slates from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — all states won by President Joe Biden. The fake electors included eight current officeholders and five former officer holders.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Friday was forced to explain to Fox News’ Peter Doocy how diplomacy in international conflicts works.

Doocy tried to suggest that President Joe Biden has done nothing to restrain Russian President Vladimir Putin from attacking Ukraine, even as world leaders have presented a united front in the face of Putin’s illegal war, and even as the hosts on the top shows on Doocy’s network have been praising Putin.