For only the fourth time in U.S. history, the House of Representatives has started a presidential impeachment inquiry. House committees are trying to determine if President Donald Trump violated his oath of office by asking a foreign country to investigate a political opponent.
A quick summary of the latest news:
WHAT'S NEXT
House Republicans are expected to push a vote Monday on a resolution to censure Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, one of the panels investigating impeachment. Republicans, who are a minority in the House, are taking issue with how Schiff is conducting the investigation.
"The very least we can do is censure him," the House Republican leader, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, said on Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures."
MORE WITNESSES ON TAP, BUT WILL THEY APPEAR?
William "Bill" Taylor, the diplomat who expressed unease about the Trump administration's hold on U.S. security assistance for Ukraine, is expected to testify in private Tuesday.
Taylor at one point sent a text reading: "As I said on the phone, I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign." The text prompted the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, to reply: "Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The president has been crystal clear no quid pro quo's of any kind. The President is trying to evaluate whether Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that President Zelensky promised during his campaign.
"I suggest," he added, "we stop the back and forth by text."
Among others invited for closed-door testimony this week are Philip Reeker, acting assistant secretary of state for Europe; Michael Duffey of the White House's Office of Management and Budget; Alexander Vindman of the National Security Council; and Laura Cooper, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia.
CRACKS IN TRUMP'S SUPPORT?
Trump's support among Republicans in Congress has held during the impeachment inquiry, but there are hints of strain amid broader frustrations about the president's handling of foreign policy.
Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., made waves by saying he was keeping an open mind about impeachment. The next day, he announced he would retire at the end of his term.
For now, no other Republicans seem to be following Rooney's lead, but it bears watching in the days ahead as Trump fights to keep impeachment a purely party-line affair.
Asked Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" what his message is to GOP colleagues as impeachment proceeds, Rooney said: "Well, we only have one thing in our life, and that's our reputation. Everything else is transitory, including life itself. And so I'm not going to ruin mine over anything, much less politics. And I think it's very bad that the system that we have now, which would probably disappoint our founders, is so oriented toward reelection, raising money. And it creates a bias against action. Everybody is quaking in fear of being criticized by the president or something."
WORTH WATCHING
An Associated Press-produced animation covers the basics of the impeachment process in less than two minutes: https://youtu.be/TSuLV_kDzeo
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Thursday's news conference by acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney confirmed that the decision to hold up military aid to Ukraine was linked to a demand that Ukraine investigate the Democratic National Committee and the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Mulvaney later clarified his remarks, and Trump has stood by him.
Mulvaney, in an interview on "Fox News Sunday," was asked whether he offered or thought to office his resignation to Trump, after the news conference, given the criticism he received from his performance.
"No, absolutely not. ... I'm very happy working there. Did I have the perfect press conference? No. But again, the facts were on our side," he said.
Video of Mulvaney's news conference comments: https://youtu.be/iQFAh_MU69E
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.
Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).
Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.
That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.
In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.
Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.
In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.
“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.
Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.
It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.
“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.
It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.
While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.
“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.
Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.
Jill Lawless contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
