Biden news today: President knocks Matt Gaetz over Ukraine criticism while touting new Russia sanctions

Following Amazon workers’ successful union election in New York, marking the first-ever US union within the tech and retail giant, President Joe Biden underscored worker protections “to make sure the choice to join a union belongs to workers alone.”

“By the way: Amazon, here we come,” he said in remarks to North America’s Building Trades Unions Legislative Conference on 6 April.

The room burst into cheers, as he then urged members of Congress to pass the Pro Act, a stalled measure that would expand labour protections related to employees’ rights to organise and collectively bargain in the workplace.

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday vowed to “rachet up the pain” for Russian president Vladimir Putin with a new package of penalties meant to “dramatically escalate” the “financial shock” that has been levied against Moscow since Mr Putin ordered an unprovoked invasion of in February.

According to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the latest actions against Mr Putin and his government, Mr Biden will sign an executive order which will add Mr Putin’s two adult daughters — Maria and Katerina — as well as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s wife and children and members of Russia’s security council to the list of officials who’ve faced personal sanctions as a result of the invasion.

He will also levy “full blocking sanctions” on Sberbank — Russia’s largest financial institution — and the largest private bank in Russia, Alfa Bank, and impose a ban on any new US investment in Russia.

Republican legislators in Ohio have introduced what opponents have called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, mirroring a Florida law that critics warn will have a chilling effect on LGBT+ students, teachers and their families.

The bill goes further to include school prohibitions against “divisive or inherently racist concepts” including “critical race theory” as well as “diversity, equity, and inclusion learning outcomes,” including professional development initiatives for teachers and school staff.

A judge has issued the first acquittal of a defendant in the January 6 riot after a federal defence contractor claimed that police had waved him into the US Capitol.

New Mexico engineer Matthew Martin was found not guilty of four misdemeanor charges following a two-day bench trial before US District Court Judge Trevor McFadden, having rejected a jury trial.

Graeme Massie has the story.

The US Justice Department has been busy for more than a year tracking down and prosecuting participants in the Capitol riot, but is now facing an unprecedented problem; it doesn’t have enough lawyers to carry out the prosecutions.

NBC News reports that more than 775 supporters of Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol on 6 January have been arrested. More than 225 people have pleaded guilty thus far, and two have been convicted during a trial. More than 50 have been sentenced to prison.

The chair of the Democratic Party went on the attack and told voters that the Republican Party’s embrace of “fraud, fear and fascism” should not be rewarded with a return to power in Washington.

DNC chair Jamie Harrison made the comments during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, taking specific aim at GOP Sen Tom Cotton of Arkansas whose criticism of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson was widely criticised as cheap and based on a willful misreading of her past work.

John Bowden has the story from Washington, DC.

The House of Representatives voted 220-203 to refer two more ex-Trump White House aides for prosecution on criminal contempt of Congress charges for defying subpoenas to produce documents and give evidence before the select committee investigating the 6 January insurrection.

Just two Republicans — select committee members Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — joined 218 Democrats on Wednesday to approve a resolution holding former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Daniel Scavino and ex-National Trade Council director Peter Navarro in contempt and recommending they be prosecuted for refusing to heed subpoenas issued as part of the nine-member panel’s probe into the worst attack on the US Capitol since Major General Robert Ross ordered British troops to it set ablaze in 1814.

Andrew Feinberg and Eric Garcia report from Washington, DC.

Republicans are signalling an interest in litigating Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings through the power of Congress’s investigative mandate should the GOP retake control of one or both houses of Congress later this year.

A GOP congressman set to chair the House Oversight Committee, which has broad powers to investigate governmental affairs, told Politico in a recent interview that his committee will be “all over” Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings if he chairs the influential panel next year.

“The House Oversight Committee is going to be all over Hunter Biden,” said Rep James Comer.

The Independent’s Eric Garcia spoke with Ms Ocasio-Cortez at the US Capitol.

Failing to take action on the climate crisis and surrendering to a worsening spiral of wildfires, heatwaves, flooding, and extreme storms, could leave the federal government with an annual bill of $2 trillion by the end of the century, according to new federal analysis.

Louise Boyle, senior climate correspondent, reports for The Independent.