Joe Biden attracted criticism from both progressives and Republicans after a report indicated the White House was planning a visit to Saudi Arabia to discuss global oil supply.

Axios reported on Sunday that Biden’s senior advisers were considering a spring trip to Saudi Arabia in an effort to improve relations and to propose a potential increase in oil exports. The Biden administration did not confirm. The White House did not respond to a Guardian request for a comment.

The report comes as the US and its western allies consider banning imports of Russian Oil in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The White House had dismissed a ban, out of concern for how it would limit oil supply and further drive up gas prices which have already hit a 14-year US high.

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Federal prosecutors were expected to make closing arguments today in the first jury trial of someone charged with joining in the 6 January attack of the US Capitol.

Guy Reffitt of Texas, the first of some 750 people charged with joining the riot to face trial in Washington, has been charged with carrying a semi-automatic handgun while on Capitol grounds and obstructing justice by threatening his children with harm if they reported him to authorities.

About 200 defendants have pleaded guilty to charges relating to the attack. Read more here:

Here’s a good list of some brands that have cut ties with Russia in the days since the invasion:

Joe Biden is in a video teleconference with Emmanuel Macron, president of France; Olaf Scholz, chancellor of Germany; and Boris Johnson, prime minister of the United Kingdom.

It should be an interesting chat, given the recent report that Biden is willing to move forward with a ban on Russian oil imports, even without the participation of the country’s European allies – many of whom will be deeply affected by such a ban and could possibly be pushed into a recession.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Joe Biden’s nominee for the supreme court, is meeting with senators ahead of her senate confirmation hearings in two week.

Mark Meadows played a key role in supporting and advancing Donald Trump’s lie about widespread electoral fraud in his defeat by Joe Biden, but the former White House chief of staff may have committed such fraud himself.

According to the New Yorker, Meadows registered to vote at a property in North Carolina at which he appears never to have lived.

Meadows resigned from the US House and became Trump’s fourth and last chief of staff in March 2020. He registered to vote in September, the New Yorker said.

Asked for the address “where you physically live”, the magazine said, Meadows “wrote down the address of a 14ft-by-62ft mobile home in Scaly Mountain”, North Carolina, and “listed his move-in date for this address as the following day, 20 September”.

“Meadows does not own this property and never has,” the New Yorker said. “It is not clear that he has ever spent a single night there.”

Meadows did not comment to the magazine. The New Yorker spoke to the home’s former and current owners and neighbors and said that while members of Meadows’ family may have spent time in the property, it was not clear he ever slept there.

The current owner said: “I’ve made a lot of improvements. But when I got it, it was not the kind of place you’d think the chief of staff of the president would be staying.”

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In a speech to Republican donors in New Orleans, Donald Trump said the US should put the Chinese flag on F-22 jets and “bomb the shit out of Russia” in retribution for its invasion of Ukraine.

The Washington Post reported the remarks, which were made on Saturday night.

To laughter, the paper said, the former president said: “And then we say, ‘China did it, we didn’t do it, China did it,’ and then they start fighting with each other and we sit back and watch.”

According to the Post, Trump also called Nato a “paper tiger”, said the US military had won “skirmishes” against Russian troops while he was president, and claimed to have been tougher on Vladimir Putin than any other US leader.

Trump has faced severe criticism for praising the Russian leader since the invasion began. He has also said the invasion was wrong.

In his speech to “about 250 of the Republican party’s top donors at the elite Four Seasons” hotel, the Post said, Trump echoed GOP talking points against Joe Biden, claiming Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if he, Trump, had still been in power.

“I knew Putin very well,” Trump said. “He would not have done it. He would have never done it.”

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Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has sent out a letter to colleagues on the week ahead, noting that Senate will vote on postal service reform and that “Democrats have made a reasonable global offer to Republicans” regarding an omnibus package on government funding ahead of the 11 March deadline.

“We have been working on a bipartisan, bicameral basis through the weekend to finish work on an omnibus package that includes robust assistance to the people and government of Ukraine and additional funds to ensure our country is prepared if and when the next Covid variant strikes,” he wrote.