Senate to vote on $40bn Ukraine aid bill initially blocked by Rand Paul – as it happened

We’re closing the US politics blog now. The US Senate is edging closer to passing Joe Biden’s $40bn package of military, humanitarian and economic aid to Ukraine after a hold-up last week by Republican senator Rand Paul.

It’s been a busy day:

• New White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made her historic debut at the briefing room podium, calling out the hatred and bigotry behind the Buffalo mass shooting.
• Joe Biden paid tribute to retired police officer and nine other victims of the Buffalo massacre, and will visit the city tomorrow with first lady Jill Biden.
• Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis said his administration intends to take over the running of Disney’s government after stripping the company of autonomy for opposing his “don’t say gay” law.
• Vice-president Kamala Harris landed in Abu Dhabi with a US delegation for the funeral of United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
• Liz Cheney, Wyoming Republican congresswoman and member of the bipartisan panel investigating the 6 January insurrection, accused Republican leadership of enabling “white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-Semitism”, following the tragedy in Buffalo.

Please join us again tomorrow, and remember you can follow developments in the Ukraine conflict on our live news blog here.

Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration would “continue to call out” anybody promoting the racist “great replacement theory” the Buffalo killer cited as a justification for the mass shooting, but would not be drawn into “a back and forth on names and who said what”.

Senior Republican and conservative figures including congresswoman Elise Stefanik and Fox News host Tucker Carlson are under scrutiny for promoting the discredited conspiracy theory that immigration threatens white values and western civilization.

Jean-Pierre was asked why she would not call out individuals:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}If a person has a white supremacy kind of extremism, we need to call that out. It doesn’t matter who it is. I’m not going to speak or call out any individual names.

[The president] is determined to make sure that we fight back against the forces of hate and evil and violence. That’s what we’re going to continue to call out, but we reject hatred and extremist ideologies.

Before taking reporters’ questions, Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged the significance of her appointment as White House press secretary.

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I am acutely aware that my presence at this podium represents a few firsts. I am a Black, gay, immigrant woman, the first of all three of those to hold this position. I would not be here today if it were not for generations of barrier-breaking people before me. I stand on their shoulders.

This room, this building, belong to the American people. We work for them. It’s not about me. It’s about them. On Jen [Psaki]’s first briefing, she made clear that the president’s, and her priority, was to bring truth and transparency back to this briefing room.

Jen did a great job at that and I will work everyday to continue to ensure we are meeting the president’s high expectation of truth, honesty, and transparency.

The press plays a vital role in our democracy. And we need a strong and independent press, now more than ever. We might not see eye to eye here in this room all the time, which is okay. That give and take is so incredibly healthy, and it’s a part of our democracy.

Karine Jean-Pierre’s first White House press briefing is under way a little later than scheduled, and she is paying tribute to the victims of Saturday’s mass shooting in Buffalo that claimed 10 lives.

“I want to take a moment to recognize the lives lost and forever changed in Buffalo,” she said, before reading out the names and ages of those killed and a few details about them.

She started with Aaron Salter, 55, the retired Buffalo police officer and security guard at Tops Friendly Market, who fired at the gunman but was struck and killed himself in the exchange. Joe Biden earlier paid his own tribute, and Jean-Pierre said:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We recognize their lives today. And those lost and affected by gun violence this weekend in Houston, in Southern California, Milwaukee and communities across the country.

Jean-Pierre said the president and first lady Jill Biden will visit Buffalo on Tuesday:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}[They will] meet with families of the victims, first responders and community leaders, they will comfort the families of the 10 people whose lives were senselessly taken in this horrific shooting, and they will express gratitude for the bravery of members of law enforcement and other first responders who took immediate action to try to protect and save lives.

The federal food and drug administration (FDA) is set to announce action on baby formula imports as soon as this afternoon to ease a chronic nationwide shortage, Reuters reports.

FDA commissioner Robert Califf told NBC News he does not expect the shortage of the critical baby product to last until the end of year, adding in a later appearance on CNN that he expects the situation to gradually improve in the coming weeks.

He did not provide a preview of what the measures would be.

Legislation introduced to the House on Monday seeks to ease restrictions on imports of formula from south America and Europe, and the surgeon general Vivek Murthy has just been on CNN saying that safety would be a priority:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The one thing the FDA will not compromise on in terms of these imports are the quality and safety of the products, and so they are setting up a process to be able to ascertain the quality of the ingredients, and the process in which these products are made to ensure that they’re safe.

The White House said it was continuing talks with the major formula manufacturers to identify logistical hurdles and provide any transportation support that could help them and major retailers get formula to where it is needed, Reuters says.

A historic moment is about to take place in the White House briefing room, where the newly appointed Karine Jean-Pierre is set to make her debut at the podium as the first Black press secretary.

Jean-Pierre’s appointment was announced earlier this month after Joe Biden’s only previous press secretary to date, Jen Psaki, said she was standing down.

Jean-Pierre, a political analyst, was Kamala Harris’s chief of staff during the vice-president’s presidential campaign in 2020 and served on Barack Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012. She was also an adviser and spokesperson for MoveOn.org, a progressive political action committee.

She is the first Black person and first out gay person in the role.

We’ll bring you coverage as she speaks.

Read more:

Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis has revealed who he’s going to place in charge of the Disney government he moved to abolish over the company’s resistance to his “don’t say gay” bill: himself.

At an event in Sanford, close to Disney’s Orlando theme park empire, on Monday, DeSantis laid out a new plan for the future of the company’s autonomous Reedy Creek development district, which was to have ceased to exist next summer.

Florida’s Republican-dominated legislature quickly acceded to his wish to pass legislation abolishing Reedy Creek in a special session last month, but failed to properly look at the economics involved.

Critics have pointed out that absorbing Reedy Creek into two local authorities per state law would likely land local taxpayers with an additional $1bn in debt burden, so DeSantis has had a rethink.

Now, according to the Orlando Sentinel, instead of abolishing Reedy Creek, he says he wants the state government he heads to take it over, and is working on an alternative proposal for the legislature later this year.

“I’d much rather have the state leading that effort than potentially having local government [in charge],” DeSantis said Monday, according to the Sentinel.

“Disney will have to follow the same laws that every other company has to follow in the state of Florida. They will pay their share of taxes, and they will be responsible for paying the debts.”

DeSantis, seen as a likely Republican presidential candidate for the 2024 election, has been feuding with Disney, the state’s largest private employer, over the “don’t say gay” law banning classroom discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation.

Disney, which is noted for the diversity of its workforce, known as cast members, angered DeSantis by halting political donations and pledging to help overturn the law.

Vice-President Kamala Harris has landed in Abu Dhabi and disembarked Air Force Two, while on her visit leading the presidential delegation to the United Arab Emirates.

The White House pool reports that Harris was greeted on the tarmac by a group of UAE and US officials. Among those already in the country from the US and greeting Veep were secretary of state Antony Blinken, defense secretary Lloyd Austin and Barbara Leaf, the national security council’s top Middle East and North Africa specialist.

She is being accompanied on the trip also by climate envoy John Kerry and CIA director Bill Burns, among others.

Harris’s official purpose on the visit is to offer condolences on the death of the president of the UAE, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who suffered a stroke in 2014, and was 73.

She is meeting with the new president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who has been regarded as the de facto leader of the country in recent years.

Harris spoke out strongly yesterday against the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, where the suspect has published white supremacists screeds.

She said: “Racially motivated hate crimes are harms against all of us.”

She said more on the tarmac on her way to Abu Dhabi, including:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}In our country we have to recognize that we may very well be experiencing an epidemic of hate towards so many Americans.

That is wrong. It is taking on a level of violence in the case of what happened in Buffalo and we’ve seen it in other places in our country.

And we all must speak out against it. I think we all have to know that this is something that we have to not only speak about, but we’ve got to do everything in our power as a nation to stop it, to stop it.

There’s too much at stake. We should be working at it and thinking about it, not hating one another.”

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot has tightened a citywide curfew for young people, a day after she restricted access by unaccompanied minors to downtown’s Millennium Park following the weekend shooting death of a 16-year-old boy near “The Bean” sculpture at the park, the Associated Press reports.

The citywide weekend curfew for minors now will begin each night at 10pm, instead of the 11pm curfew in place since the 1990s, Lightfoot said.

At Millennium Park, which is a popular stop for tourists and Chicago residents, minors will not be allowed in the park after 6pm Thursday through Sunday without an adult.

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We need to make sure they are safe and importantly that our young people understand and respect basic community norms, respect for themselves, respect for each other, and we must ensure that every one of our residents and visitors no matter who they are or where they come from or how old they are are able to safely enjoy our public space.

My interest is not rounding up young people and throwing them in the back of a wagon… [but] we’re not going to hesitate to take action.

On Sunday, police announced that a 17-year-old boy who was taken into custody following Saturday evening’s shooting had been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and aggravated battery.

Another teen, who was allegedly armed with a ghost gun, a weapon that does not have a serial number and can’t be traced, was arrested in connection to the shooting, police said.

In total, 26 minors and five adults were arrested during the gathering in the park on Saturday evening.

Hundreds of people were at the park earlier Saturday as part of demonstrations around the US against the recently leaked draft opinion that suggests the US Supreme Court is prepared to overturn the nationwide right to abortion afforded by the 1973 landmark ruling Roe v Wade.

There’s been a stream of US politics news so far today and there will be more to come. The new White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, will hold her first briefing in the role today, expected at 2.30pm ET. Meanwhile, here’s where things stand:

• Joe Biden has paid tribute to the retired police officer, Aaron Salters Jr, 55, who was shot dead in Saturday’s Buffalo grocery store mass shooting that killed 10.
• The latest, massive, $40 billion US aid package for Ukraine could be passed by Congress this Wednesday. The bill has bipartisan support but was held up last week by libertarian Republican Rand Paul, of Kentucky.
• Liz Cheney, Wyoming Republican congresswoman and member of the bipartisan panel investigating the insurrection on Jan 6 2021 by extremist Trump supporters, has accused Republican leadership of enabling “white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-Semitism”, following the tragedy in Buffalo.