US and allies set to revoke normal trade relations with Russia over Ukraine war, says Biden – follow live | US news

Biden is now offering a lengthy explanation for rising gas prices, an issue that Republicans have used to hammer Democrats ahead of the midterms. The culprits, he said, were the coronavirus and Vladimir Putin, not Democrats’ spending.

He highlighted fact-checks and an op-ed accusing Republicans of hypocrisy for pushing Biden to ban Russian oil imports while attacking him for rising fuel costs.

“Democrats didn’t cause this problem, Vladimir Putin did,” he said.

While fighting to bring down the cost of gas, Biden said Democrats can “save people a lot of money” by bringing down the costs of childcare, prescription drugs and senior care.

“There’s no one way to increase the standard of living,” he said.

Biden is now sharpening his attacks on Republicans, a rhetorical pivot many Democrats have been waiting for.

“On this anniversary of the American Rescue Plan, let’s be clear,” Biden said. “We did it alone – without one single, solitary Republican vote.”

“The American economy was flat on its back, it was the Democrats – it was you that – brought us back,” Biden said, drawing a big applause.

Biden then praised passage of the Infrastructure law. In a notable shift, Biden, who has long touted the bipartisan support for the law, joked with Democrats that only a handful of Republicans in the House supported the measure but many more are eager to take credit for the public works projects in their districts.

How many House Republicans backed the infrastructure bill, Biden asked. “13, 14 or something? I mean c’mon, I was happy for them, don’t get me wrong,” he said, as members shouted 13.

He continued: “Have you noticed that every new bridge, every trench dug to take out lead pipes … there’s a Republican standing there saying, ‘This is a great thing. Wonderful. We did it!”

Biden opened his remarks to House Democrats with a joke about having attending many such retreats himself and knows that when the “last speaker’s up you want to get the hell out of here no matter who it is.”

Getting serious, Biden sought to lay out the stakes this November, saying that the midterm elections may be “the most important in modern history.” He said the stakes were high and Democrats had much left to do.

If Democrats lose their majorities,” Biden said. “the only thing i’ll have then is the veto pen.”

Acknowledging tensions between House Democratic leaders and the White House over the response to Russia, Biden thanked members for their patience and said it gave him time to unify the US allies behind the latest efforts to punish Putin. Biden told them that he had just spoken to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy for nearly an hour, as he does almost daily.

He covered familiar territory – vowing to support Ukraine with weapons and humanitarian aid. He said the US would welcome refugees and that the US would not fight a war with Russia in Ukraine, but would defend Nato territory.

Then he moved to more domestic matters, touting the administration’s achievements combatting the pandemic and the impact of the American Rescue Plan, which Congress passed exactly one year ago today.

“It didn’t cause the inflation,” Biden said, rejecting a Republican attack line. “Look, there’s more to the story than that.”

Bates only took one question before he was interrupted by the pilot asking passengers to take their seats. Shortly thereafter the feed your live-blogger was using to follow the mid-flight briefing cut out.

Asked to elaborate on what consequences Russia could face if it used chemical weapons against Ukraine, Bates deferred to the president’s remarks and said the “meaning was unmistakable”.

He said the US was taking part in today’s UN Security Council session so that it could “forcefully debunk” Russia’s claims that Ukraine was operating a biological weapons program and to “further call Putin out, as we have during this entire episode successfully at each juncture, where we have reason to believe they are trying to fabricate another false justification for more violence.”

“The truth is,” Bates said, “Russia is the only country in this equation with a chemical and biological weapons program in violation of international law.”

He also said there were “strong indications” that Russia was committing war crimes.

“If Russia is intentionally targeting civilians, that would be a war crime,” Bates said, noting that the attacks on apartment complexes, a maternity hospital and evacuation corridors have resulted in rising civilian deaths. “Evidence is mounting, and we are documenting it as as it takes place. There are strong indications that this is occurring and that the heinous way Russia is prosecuting this war will result in war crimes.”

This afternoon, after Biden addresses House Democrats at their retreat in Philadelphia, he will visit a majority-Hispanic elementary school to mark the one-year anniversary of the American Rescue Plan. There he will discuss how the pandemic aid helped schools across the country re-open and to help address the long-term impact the pandemic has had on students in terms of both learning and mental health.

Biden will also speak directly from the students, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told reporters aboard Air Force One, previewing the visit to Philadelphia.

He also highlighted bipartisan praise for Biden’s supreme court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, who completed a second week of meetings with senators ahead of her confirmation hearings later this month.

Bates said Biden would sign a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government open until the bipartisan funding bill is ready to be signed next week.

He added that the White House intends to hold an event next week commemorating women’s history month and that there was a “decent bet” it would celebrate St. Patrick’s day on Thursday.

This blog is largely focused on US-related Ukraine news and general US politics. If you’d like to read more about the war in Ukraine, I would invite you to follow the Guardian’s global liveblog, which is providing around the clock coverage sourced from our reporters around the world.

At the end of his remarks, Biden took one question from a reporter who asked about the intelligence underpinning the US’ claims that Russia may be preparing to use chemical weapons and whether that would warrant a military response.

Biden declined to comment on the intelligence, and said only that Russia would “pay a severe price” if it used chemical weapons against Ukraine.

The US and Britain have warned that Russia may be creating a pretext to use chemical weapons by making “false flag claims” about a biological weapons program operating inside Ukraine.

The assertion by Russia that the US is conducting “biological activities” in Ukraine – a claim presented without evidence and which Ukraine has vehemently denied and the US has called gaslighting – is the subject of today’s UN Security Council meeting, due to convene shortly at Moscow’s request.

The development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons is banned by an international treaty signed by 193 countries, explain the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh and Julian Borger. Direct attacks on civilians or civilian infrastructure are considered war crimes.

Nevertheless, chemical weapons have nevertheless been used on at least 17 occasions during Syria’s civil war, according to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which has accused the Russian-backed regime of Bashar al-Assad of being behind several high-profile attacks.

In his remarks, Biden said the US would welcome Ukrainian refugees with “open arms” and vowed to provide additional support to the besieged nation. Repeating the message Harris just delivered in Romania, Biden, speaking from the White House’s Roosevelt Room, pledged again that the US was prepared to defend “every single inch of Nato territory with the full might of a united and galvanized” security alliance.

“We will not fight a war against Russia in Ukraine,” he said. “Direct confrontation between Nato and Russia is world war three, something we must strive to prevent.”

Biden declared that Putin’s war against Ukraine had already failed.

[Putin] hoped to dominate Ukraine without a fight. He failed. He hoped to fracture European resolve. He failed. He hoped to weaken the Transatlantic alliance. He failed. He hoped to split apart American democracy, in terms of our positions. He failed.

The American people are united. The world is united and we stand with the people of Ukraine. We will not let autocrats and would-be emperors dictate the direction of the world. Democracies are rising to meet this moment, rallying the world to the side of peace and the side of security. We are showing our strength and we will not falter.”

Joe Biden has announced that the US was moving to revoke Russia’s “most favored nation status” in coordination with allies.

Revoking Russia’s permanent normal trade relations will “make it harder for Russia to business with the United States”. He said the US was “taking the first steps” to ban imports of Russian vodka, seafood and diamonds.

Biden thanked Pelosi for pushing the US to take this action, and for holding off on a measure in Congress until he “could line up all of our key allies.”

“Putin is the aggressor and Putin must pay a price,” he said.

He also detailed other economic sanctions the US has taken to destabilize the Russian economy and squeeze Putin and those around him.

Biden said the US and its allies were targeting an expanded list of Russian oligarchs,and ramping up efforts to capture their “ ill-begotten gains.”

“They support Putin. They steal from the Russian people and they seek to hide their money in our countries,” Biden said, emphasizing one of the most popular aspects of the west’s crackdown on Russia. “They’re part of that kleptocracy that exists in Moscow and they must share in the pain of these sanctions.”

In addition to seizing their “superyachts” and vacation homes, Biden said the US was also banning the export of luxury luxury goods to Russia, calling it the latest, but “not the last step we’re going to take.”

Speaking to reporters at the Democrats’ retreat-that-is-not-a-retreat in Philadelphia, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the US would revoke Russia’s “most favored nation” trade status over its invasion of Ukraine.

Biden is set to speak shortly about ending Russia’s special trade status in coordination with the EU and G7 nations, a move that will allow the countries to raise tariffs on Russian imports. It is the latest step in a series of escalating economic sanctions and actions taken to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

The US currently only excludes two countries from this designation: Cuba and North Korea, the Guardian’s economic correspondent Richard Partington explains. Removing Russia’s status would would increase its border tax on Russian goods in the US to more than 10 times the current applied rate of about 3% on average.

Long after the sun set over the US capitol on Thursday, US senators, loathe to work on a Friday, gave final approval to a $1.5tn funding bill.

The sweeping omnibus bill belatedly funds the federal government through the fiscal year, ending a cycle of stop-gap measures and shutdown threats. The package, which was passed with bipartisan support in both chambers, includes $13.6bn of military and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine and its European allies. The bill now goes to Biden for his signature.

In a statement, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, said the bipartisan support for the bill “proves once more that members of both parties can come together to deliver results for the American people”.

It will reduce costs for families and businesses, support our economic recovery, and advance American leadership abroad. With these resources, we will be able to deliver historic support for the Ukrainian people as they defend their country and democracy, launch a bold new initiative to drive unprecedented progress in curing cancer and other diseases, and provide additional support to our law enforcement so they can protect our communities.

Psaki also urged Congress to re-start negotiations over “the funds urgently needed to prevent severe disruptions to our Covid response”. In a blow to Democrats and the White House, the House dropped a provision providing $15.6bn in funding for bolstering efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic after lawmakers balked at the proposed offsets for the relief money, which would have resulted in cuts to aid states were relying on.

Everett Kelley, the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, welcomed the bill’s passage but said it was “no cause to celebrate”.

Because of continued threats of government shutdowns from political obstructionists and uncertainty caused by stopgap continuing resolutions, federal agencies for a year and a half have been forced to operate under the budget priorities of the previous administration,” he said.

“In the future, ideally beginning with the 2023 fiscal year approaching in just six months, Congress must pass agency operating budgets on time so government agencies avoid unnecessary obstacles to delivering for the American people.”

Speaking in Bucharest, Kamala Harris reaffirmed the US’s commitment to Nato’s article five, that an attack on one member is an attack on all. Echoing the president, she said the US was prepared to defend “every inch” of Nato territory, declaring the alliance “bigger and stronger than ever” and “ironclad”.

The message, delivered from a former Soviet satellite state, was intended to calm nerves in eastern Europe and to send a clear message to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, should he escalate the war beyond Ukraine’s borders.

Turning to Iohannis, Harris said she was moved by his stories of refugees fleeing Ukraine. She thanked Romania for welcoming tens of thousands of refugees with “such compassion and such grace”.

Welcome to our live coverage of the news in Washington and around the country.

Shortly we will hear from Joe Biden, where he is expected to announce that the US will join G7 nations and the European Union in calling for a suspension of normal trade relations with Russia to punish Moscow for what the White House calls its “unprovoked and unjustified war on Ukraine”.

Then he will travel to Philadelphia, where House Democrats are cooped up for a three-day retreat that began inauspiciously, with members angry and upset over the machinations that delayed and almost derailed passage of a $1.5tn omnibus funding bill. The president will deliver remarks at the conference, rallying his party ahead of what is expected to be a bruising midterm for Democrats.

That measure, which includes aid to Ukraine and funds the federal government through September, passed the Senate late Thursday night. It now goes to Biden’s desk for signature.

Meanwhile, vice-president Kamala Harris is concluding her trip to Poland and Romania. Any minute, she will appear with the Romanian president Klaus Iohannis for a press conference.