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Nebraska GOP Congressman Jeff Fortenberry on Saturday resigned from Congress after being  convicted  of lying to the FBI. “Due to the difficulties of my current circumstances, I can no longer serve you effectively,” Fortenberry said in a  statement . Kevin McCarthy joined Speaker Pelosi and called for Fortenberry to step down. “I think when someone’s convicted, it’s time to resign,” McCarthy told reporters, according to  Politico . “Congressman Fortenberry’s conviction represents a breach of the public trust and confidence in his ability to serve. No one is above the law,” Pelosi, a lifelong crook who mysteriously made hundreds of millions of dollars as a member of Congress said on Friday. Fortenberry was convicted on three felony counts – one count of falsifying and concealing material facts and two counts of making false statements (each count carries five years) by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles. Fortenberry’s lawyers argued at trial that the FBI lured the Congressman into givi

View of the U.S. flag as a trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., March 21, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Side-by-side declines in U.S. equity and fixed income markets are pushing investors into cash, commodities and dividend-paying stocks as geopolitical uncertainty and worries over a hawkish Federal Reserve rock asset prices. With the first quarter of 2022 winding down, the S&P 500 is down around 5% year-to-date, after falling as much as 12.5% earlier in the year. The ICE BofA Treasury Index, meanwhile, was recently down 5.6% this year, its worst start in history. Investors have traditionally counted on a mix of stocks and bonds to blunt declines in their portfolio, with stocks ideally rising amid economic optimism and bonds strengthening during times of uncertainty. That strategy can go awry, however, and market gyrations stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, soaring commodity prices and the Fed’s hawkish tilt have combined

Silhouette of a Kyiv territorial defence member with a Kalashnikov rifle in his hands, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 25, 2022. REUTERS/Mikhail Palinchak Rocket struck the outskirts of the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday for what appeared to be the first time since Russia’s invasion, and Russian forces took control of a town where workers at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant live. Intense fighting raged in several parts of Ukraine, suggesting there will be no swift let-up in the month-old war, and U.S. President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “butcher” after meeting Ukrainian refugees in Poland. The Kremlin was cited by Russia’s TASS news agency as saying such comments would further damage prospects for mending Russian-U.S. ties. After more than four weeks of fighting, Russia has failed to seize any major Ukrainian city and the conflict has killed thousands of people, sent nearly 3.8 million abroad and driven mor

FILE PHOTO: General view of Taal volcano's crater lake, Batangas province, Philippines July 2, 2021. in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. Video recorded with a drone. PHIVOLCS-DOST via REUTERS A small but restive volcano south of the Philippine capital spewed a 1.5 km plume on Saturday, prompting authorities to raise an alert level and evacuate more than a thousand residents. The alert for the Taal volcano, about 70 km (45 miles) south of central Manila, was increased to level 3 from level 2 on the 5-level scale, which the seismology and volcanology agency said meant “there is magmatic intrusion at the main crater that may further drive succeeding eruptions”. “Magma in the shallow part of the crater interacted with water, causing an eruption called phreatomagmatic activity,” Renato Solidum, head volcanology agency, told DZMM radio station. But Solidum said activity would not be as explosive as the January 2020 eruption and that ash fall could be limited to commun

Smoke billows from an industrial facility after a Russian military attack in the area on March 26, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi issued an official statement that the explosion is "burning one of the industrial facilities where fuel is stored." (Joe Raedle/Getty) At least three explosions were heard near Ukraine's western city of Lviv on Saturday, with the city's mayor reporting he believes the Russian military had carried out a strike on the site of an industrial facility being used for fuel storage.  Lviv is located in the western part of the country and is about 250 miles from where President Joe Biden is in Poland while meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda, Ukrainian officials, and refugees from the war, now at the end of its first month.  Biden is also scheduled to deliver a major address later Saturday from Poland, and has been briefed about the explosions,  reports CNN .  Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on Twitter that "habitable in

(Alex Wong/Getty Images) While speaking to reporters at a NATO event Thursday, President Joe Biden said he would be "very fortunate" if former President Donald Trump runs against him again in the 2024 presidential election. "In the next election I'd be very fortunate if I had that same man running against me,"  Biden said  at a news conference from NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Biden's remark comes as he faces  public approval ratings  hovering at 40% and also as Trump has hinted that he will likely seek the Republican nomination in 2024. A reporter at the NATO event told Biden, "There are widespread concerns in Europe that a figure like your predecessor might get elected president again." The reporter then asked if there were "any steps, anything you're trying to do, and NATO is trying to do" to prevent Trump from repealing the alliance's initiatives. Biden answered that he wasn't planning to run for president after

President Joe Biden listens as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the U.S. Mission in Brussels, Friday, March 25, in Brussels. (Evan Vucci/AP) T he United States and European Union on Friday announced a new partnership to reduce the continent's reliance on Russian energy, a step top officials characterized as the start of a yearslong initiative to further isolate Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine. President Joe Biden asserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin uses energy to "coerce and manipulate his neighbors" and uses the profits from its sale to "drive his war machine." Biden said the partnership he announced jointly with a top European Union official will turn that dynamic on its head by reducing Europe's dependence on Russian energy sources, as well reducing the continent's demand for gas overall. The president said such a step is not "only the right thing to do from a mora