Joe Biden’s first Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, is expected to be confirmed today by a vote on the Senate floor. Having garnered the support of three Republican senators – Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney – she is also expected to have the support of all 50 Democrats, setting her up to become the court’s first Black woman justice.
The vote comes after a seven-week nomination process that saw her heavily criticised by Republicans who focused on her supposed record of leniency towards sexual offenders who targeted children. That criticism was in turn widely rejected as a distortion of her past decisions.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is stepping up sanctions against Russia, whose economy it says is approaching the point of catastrophe because of western restrictions on imports, businesses and wealthy individuals.
Announcing a new round of sanctions, Mr Biden promised that “we will keep raising the economic cost and ratchet up the pain for Putin and further increase Russia’s economic isolation”.
