Top eight today

Top eight stories for today including Russian forces intensified their attacks on Ukrainian cities; A state judge ruled the New York attorney general cannot force the shuttering of the National Rifle Association; The Supreme Court showed discomfort about a case that could widen the decades-old precedent governing federal officials who violate constitutional protections, and more.

National

Russian oligarchs under fire as US ramps up sanctions for war in Ukraine

Escalating the West's efforts to isolate Russia economically as a punishment for starting a war in Ukraine, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Wednesday the launch of a multi-agency task force targeting Russian oligarchs.

Composite photo clockwise from left showing Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich, banker Oleg Tinkov, Mikhail Fridman, co-founder of Alfa-Group, and Russian metals magnate Oleg Deripaska. (AP file photos)

Capitol rioter confronted with own words at start of first trial on insurrection

Laying out the case against the first Capitol rioter to go on trial for last year's deadly insurgency, prosecutors quoted liberally in their opening argument Wednesday from the Texas man's own violent rhetoric.

The U.S. government says this photo shows Guy Reffitt rinsing his eyes out with water after being sprayed with a chemical irritant at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (DOJ photo via Courthouse News)

Tech companies cut ties with Russia over Ukraine invasion

Silicon Valley is taking its gadgets out of Russia as more companies joined the exodus over Vladimir Putin's globally unpopular invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainians who live in Lebanon holds placards and chant slogans during a protest against Moscow's attack on their country outside the Russian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Justices hesitant to expand civil liability for federal officials

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the Supreme Court showed discomfort Wednesday morning about a case that could widen the decades-old precedent governing federal officials who violate constitutional protections.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent is posted at the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Abram-Perezville, Texas, as agents take migrants into custody in March 2021. (Julio Cortez/AP)

Regional

New York loses bid to dissolve gun lobby giant for fraud

The New York attorney general cannot force the shuttering of the National Rifle Association, a state judge ruled on Wednesday.

FILE - This Feb. 29, 2020 file photo, National Rifle Association Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre speaks at Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2020, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md. New York’s attorney general is suing the National Rifle Association, seeking to put the powerful gun advocacy organization out of business over allegations that high-ranking executives diverted millions of dollars for personal benefit. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

Ex-public defender brings sex harassment case to Fourth Circuit

A Fourth Circuit hearing Wednesday shined a light on a lack of legal recourse for employees of the federal court system who have been harassed or discriminated against.

International

Russia bombing expands, troops close in on Ukrainian cities

Russia on Wednesday stepped up its attack on Ukraine with catastrophic bombing of cities, causing more civilian deaths, while it slowly moved a massive convoy of weaponry closer to the capital Kyiv in preparation for a bloody assault on a heavily guarded city of 3 million people.

A woman is overwhelmed by emotion in the backyard of a house reportedly damaged by a Russian airstrike in Gorenka, Ukraine, outside the capital Kyiv, on Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Soaring energy prices drives inflation to a new high across Eurozone

In the weeks leading up to Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, energy inflation hit 31.7%, driving rising inflation rates across the 19 nations that use the euro, up to a record high 5.8% in February, according to the European Union's statistics agency Eurostat.

Euro banknotes are piled up on a table in the foreign exchange department of UBS bank in Zurich, Switzerland, in this 2001 file photo. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martin Ruetschi, File)