'America stands up to bullies'
| 'We stand up for freedom'  Every presidential speech contains multiple layers of meaning, and is designed to send clear messages of White House policy to other world leaders, foreign populations and political figures and voters inside the US.
The more critical the moment, the more important it is that a president communicates clearly to the world. Joe Biden's address to the American people following the Russian invasion of Ukraine was carefully structured to explain exactly where the crisis stands and how it will develop. In its way, Biden's speech answered President Vladimir Putin's angry and rambling address that slammed the West earlier this week.
Here was what Biden was saying, between the lines.
"The Russian military has begun a brutal assault over the people of Ukraine. Without provocation, without justification, without necessity, this is a premeditated attack," Biden said. "For weeks, for weeks we have been warning that this would happen, and now it's unfolding largely as we predicted." 
"Putin's actions betray his sinister vision for the future of our world, one where nations take what they want by force. But it is a vision that the United States and freedom-loving nations everywhere will oppose with every tool of our considerable power," Biden said. "Putin will be a pariah on the international stage."
Biden unveiled sanctions designed to cut Russia off from the international economy and to hurt Russian elites and to hammer the economy. If the last Cold War was primarily an ideological struggle between communism and capitalism, Biden defined the terms of the new one. "Liberty, democracy, human dignity — these are the forces far more powerful than fear and oppression. They cannot be extinguished by tyrants like Putin and his armies," the President said. 
"I made crystal clear, the United States will defend every inch of NATO territory with the full force of American power. There is no doubt, no doubt, that the United States and every NATO ally will meet our Article 5 commitments, which says an attack on one is an attack on all."
Biden added steel to his words by nodding to an earlier deployment order of ground and air forces to Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania. He also said he'd authorized sending more troops to Germany and said he was ready to put more Americans in Europe. He has been clear, however, that US troops will not be sent to fight in Ukraine. 
This was no exception, but Biden's rallying cry was especially significant given the spectacle of ex-President Donald Trump siding with Putin as he crushed the freedom of millions of Ukrainians. "This aggression cannot go unanswered. If it did, the consequences for America would be much worse," Biden said. "America stands up to bullies. We stand up for freedom. This is who we are."
"We've been coordinating with major oil producing and consuming countries toward our common interest to secure global energy supplies," Biden said, hours after oil prices hit $100 a barrel, hinting at more economic pain and inflation on the way for everyday Americans already feeling the heat. "I know this is hard and that Americans are already hurting. I will do everything in my power to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump.  The war and America The US says Russia plans to encircle and threaten Kyiv
The WHO is "gravely concerned" for the Ukrainian people
Scores of anti-war protesters were arrested in Moscow
Russian forces seized control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
Meanwhile in America ... A top House Republican blasts Biden as 'weak, feckless and unfit' over the Ukraine invasion
And Sean Penn is in Ukraine, making a documentary
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 '569 seconds' A federal jury found former Minneapolis police officers Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane guilty of violating George Floyd's civil rights.
The jurors found the officers deprived Floyd of those rights by showing deliberate indifference to Floyd's medical needs as ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020, ultimately killing him. Thao and Kueng were also found guilty of a separate charge for not intervening to stop Chauvin.
Video of Floyd's death in May 2020 became a rallying cry for the civil rights movement worldwide and spurred calls for police reform in the United States. Chauvin was found guilty of murder and manslaughter in a state trial last year. He was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison.
As part of a plea agreement, Chauvin pleaded guilty in December to the federal civil rights charges related to Floyd's death. He now faces between 20 and 25 years in prison, which prosecutors have requested he serve concurrently with his previous sentence.
"It wasn't a split-second use of force like a gunshot," said Assistant US Attorney Manda Sertich, referring to the horrible circumstances of Floyd's death at the hands of Chauvin. "Not 30 seconds, not a minute, several minutes — 569 seconds." Thanks for reading.
On Friday, NATO convenes a virtual leaders summit following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
On Saturday, anti-Donald Trump Republicans attend the two-day "First Principles Summit" in Washington as the former President speaks to the annual conference of the right-wing Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida.
On Sunday, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards are handed out for film and television. View in browser | All CNN Newsletters
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