Evelyn Reynolds

Retired federal judge Barbara Jones, who has been monitoring the finances of Donald Trump’s business empire, the Trump Organization, for over a year, has been confirmed to stay in that role for three more years, a judge decided today.Judge Arthur Engoron, in New York, who presided in Trump’s civil fraud trial in recent months, made the announcement on Thursday. The former US president has so far been unable to raise a massive bond of $454m to cover the fine imposed by Engoron for the fraudulent conduct, ABC news reported.As part of his judgment, he also announced that a monitor would oversee the Trump Organization and Jones will now have the power to crawl all over the family business empire’s books and also suggest changes to how it operates.Engoron issued his financial punishment to Trump and co-defendants, including his two adult sons, Don Jr and Eric, last month. The New York attorney general, Letitia James, sued Trump for inflating the value of his assets on government financial statements.Congress appears on course to avert a partial government shutdown that would have begun over the weekend, after Republican and Democratic leaders agreed to a compromise funding the departments where spending has not yet been authorized. Both parties touted wins in the deal, with Republicans pointing to its cuts to Unrwa, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, and the White House cheering its funding for the homeland security department, while warning more was needed. But as with all things in Congress, nothing is sure until it passes, and the House and Senate have until Friday if they want to prevent several federal departments from closing.Here’s what else happened today:
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg said no further delays in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial were necessary. We’ll see if a judge agrees.
Barbara Jones, a retired federal judge, had her term monitoring Trump’s finances extended for another three years.
The Republican Study Committee released its conservative budget proposal, which is meant to signal GOP priorities. Joe Biden seized on it to argue Republicans want to cut social security and ban abortion nationwide.
Top House Republicans called on Hamas to release hostages taken on 7 October, and Qatar and Egypt to pressure the group.
Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Trump asked. The Biden campaign answered.
An air force intelligence analyst is alleged to have shared classified information with supporters of a group that predicts a second civil war in the United States, the Washington Post reports, citing a newly unsealed FBI affidavit.The incident is similar to that of Jack Teixeira, a Massachusetts air national guard member who has pleaded guilty to charges related to sharing troves of classified information with gamers on the platform Discord. In the newly revealed case, air force intelligence analyst Jason Gray used Discord to share a smaller amount of classified material, and is currently jailed after being found with child pornography.Here’s more on that, from the Post:
Investigators said that Jason Gray shared information that he “likely obtained” from his access to National Security Agency intelligence while he served at a base in Alaska, according to the affidavit, which was dated November 2022 and accompanied a search warrant for a Discord account that Gray said he operated.
At the time the FBI sought the warrant, Gray had already admitted to Air Force investigators that he had created a Facebook group for supporters of the loosely-organized, anti-government Boogaloo movement, whose followers anticipate a second U.S. civil war. Gray, whom investigators described as unhappy with his military career, participated in several pro-Boogaloo Discord channels and shared the classified NSA intelligence with seven other individuals possibly “in furtherance of the Boogaloo ideology,” the affidavit stated.
…
It wasn’t immediately clear if investigators initially suspected Gray of sharing classified information on Discord when he consented to let them examine his account. But given that he had been discovered months before Teixeira was arrested, the incident raises questions about what the Defense Department knew about personnel who were able to share highly guarded government secrets on a chat platform.
Progressive lawmakers, led by independent senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, today unveiled another proposal for a “green New Deal” for public housing.In a speech at the Capitol, Ocasio-Cortez cast the policy as a way both to lower housing costs and to fight the climate crisis, while providing well-paid union jobs:Here’s more on the progressive push, from the Guardian’s Dharna Noor:Donald Trump may have been indicted four times, but each of his criminal trials is facing delays of various sorts that could leave them unresolved before the 5 November presidential election. In his prosecution in Florida for allegedly hiding classified documents, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that the judge overseeing the case appears sympathetic to some of his most far-fetched arguments, which have slowed the proceedings:The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s prosecution on charges of retaining classified documents appears to be entertaining his most brazen defenses that could ultimately result in ensuring the acquittal of the former president.The issue revolves around an order from the US district judge Aileen Cannon on Monday asking Trump and prosecutors in the office of the special counsel Jack Smith to draft jury instructions for two scenarios that gave extraordinary credit to Trump’s defense theories.The two jury instruction scenarios, as conceived by Cannon, were so beneficial to Trump and so potentially incorrect on the law of the Espionage Act that it would bring into serious doubt whether it made sense for prosecutors to take the case to trial.In her two-page order, Cannon asked for both parties to draft jury instructions supposing it was true that Trump had the power under the Presidential Records Act to turn any White House document – classified or not – into personal records: records he was authorized to retain.The authorization issue is key to the case because Trump was indicted for unlawfully retaining national security materials under the Espionage Act. If Trump could show that he was somehow authorized to keep the documents at Mar-a-Lago, it would preclude his prosecution.Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg told a judge today that after reviewing recently obtained documents, he does not believe any further delays are necessary in Donald Trump’s case over alleged hush-money payments.Bragg’s case was to be the first of Trump’s four criminal indictments to go to trial, with jury selections set to begin Monday. But Bragg last week asked for a delay of 30 days so lawyers could reviews documents received from federal prosecutors, who had previously investigated whether Trump paid an adult film star not to speak out about a sexual encounter.A judge agreed with that request, but in a filing today, Bragg said there was no need to delay the case further, arguing there has been “more than enough time for the parties to review what the people now have good reason to believe is the limited number of relevant records in the [federal prosecutors’] recent productions. This court should accordingly deny defendant’s request for more extreme sanctions.”Speaking of Donald Trump’s finances, the former president may get a lifeline on Friday if shareholders allow him to float his media company. But a clause in the deal means it’s unlikely to resolve his issues paying a massive civil fraud judgment. Here’s more on that, from the Guardian’s Dan Milmo:Donald Trump’s wealth is set to increase by about $3.4bn (£2.7bn) if a shareholder vote on Friday paves the way for the float of his Trump Media business.The former US president is preparing to list Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates the Truth Social tech platform, via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or Spac.The Spac, called Digital World Acquisition, has scheduled a vote on the merger with Trump Media for Friday. However, there are complications around the planned vote after Digital World sued sponsor ARC Global Investments, which is trying to delay the deal, to back the merger.If the merger goes ahead and Trump Media goes public as soon as next week, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee would not be able to cash in any of his potential paper wealth immediately. The merger document contains a provision that blocks major shareholders from selling stock for six months.Trump’s finances are under pressure as he prepares to contest the US presidency with the incumbent, Joe Biden, for a second time. Last month Trump was formally ordered by a New York judge to pay $454m following a civil fraud case, in which the former president was found to have manipulated the value of his properties to obtain advantageous loan and insurance rates.Retired federal judge Barbara Jones, who has been monitoring the finances of Donald Trump’s business empire, the Trump Organization, for over a year, has been confirmed to stay in that role for three more years, a judge decided today.Judge Arthur Engoron, in New York, who presided in Trump’s civil fraud trial in recent months, made the announcement on Thursday. The former US president has so far been unable to raise a massive bond of $454m to cover the fine imposed by Engoron for the fraudulent conduct, ABC news reported.As part of his judgment, he also announced that a monitor would oversee the Trump Organization and Jones will now have the power to crawl all over the family business empire’s books and also suggest changes to how it operates.Engoron issued his financial punishment to Trump and co-defendants, including his two adult sons, Don Jr and Eric, last month. The New York attorney general, Letitia James, sued Trump for inflating the value of his assets on government financial statements.The draft US security council resolution on Gaza marks a shift in the American position, but it is a nuanced shift, retaining the linkage between a ceasefire and hostage release while loosening that linkage and emphasising that an immediate end to hostilities is the priority.The primary focus for now is the hostage negotiations underway in Qatar which are moving into high gear again, with CIA and Mossad chiefs, William Burns and David Barnea expected to fly into Doha on Friday.The US draft resolution is designed to provide a sense of urgency to those talks. It also represents an attempt by the Biden administration to keep pressure on Hamas while seeking to regain some international credibility and mend ties with allies after three vetoes of UN ceasefire resolutions.The latest veto was cast on 20 February, on an Algerian ceasefire resolution. At the time the US envoy to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, insisted that an unconditional ceasefire could derail the talks on a hostage deal, which Washington portrayed as the best way to a sustainable truce. The US mission at the UN circulated an alternative text which the security council “underscores its support for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released.”A month has passed since then, however. There has been no hostage deal and Gaza has slipped much further towards absolute catastrophe, with a UN panel of experts warning that a famine is imminent. The US is struggling to avoid the accusation of complicity in that disaster, and February’s version of the text now looks all the more complacent.The new version of the draft resolution circulated on Thursday morning represents stronger language.The full article of which the above is an extract will be launched online by the Guardian very soon. All eyes are on the United Nations headquarters in New York to see what happens next.Congress appears on course to avert a partial government shutdown that will begin over the weekend, after Republican and Democratic leaders agreed to a compromise funding the departments where spending has not yet been authorized. Both parties touted wins in the deal, with Republicans pointing to its cuts to UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, and the White House cheering its funding for the homeland security department, while warning more was needed. But as with all things in Congress, nothing is sure until it passes, and the House and Senate have until Friday to do that if they want to prevent several federal departments from closing.Here’s what else is going on today:
The Republican Study Committee released its conservative budget proposal, which is meant to signal GOP priorities. Joe Biden seized on it to argue Republicans want to cut Social Security and ban abortion nationwide.
Top House Republicans called on Hamas to release hostages taken on 7 October, and Qatar and Egypt to pressure the group.
Are you better off now than you were four years ago, Donald Trump asked. The Biden campaign answered.
Yesterday, at the conclusion of their latest hearing in their troubled impeachment investigation into Joe Biden, oversight committee chair James Comer proposed having the president himself testify. The White House’s reaction? “LOL”. Here’s more, from the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly:A White House spokesperson poured cold water on Republicans’ stated intention to invite Joe Biden to testify in public in his own impeachment hearings, lamenting “a sad stunt” and telling the rightwing congressman steering the effort: “Call it a day, pal.”James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chair of the House oversight committee, has led attempts to impeach the president over alleged corruption involving the business dealings of his son Hunter Biden.At the end of a long hearing on Wednesday, Comer said: “In the coming days I will invite President Biden to the oversight committee to provide his testimony and explain why his family received tens of millions of dollars … We need to hear from the president himself.”Ian Sams, the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, responded swiftly and brutally.“LOL,” Sams wrote, adding a face-palm emoji.He added: “Comer knows 20-plus witnesses have testified that [Joe Biden] did nothing wrong. He knows that the hundreds of thousands of pages of records he’s received have refuted his false allegations. This is a sad stunt at the end of a dead impeachment. Call it a day, pal.”On his Truth Social network, Donald Trump recently asked a question presidential candidates have posed to voters for more than 40 years: are you better off now than you were four years ago?On X, Joe Biden’s campaign seized on the post to remind Americans that the last ten months of Trump’s presidency were catastrophic, as Covid-19 devastated the economy upended daily life, and killed hundreds of thousands of people:The White House said it “strongly supports” passage of the bill to fund the remaining federal departments that have not yet had spending authorized for the 2024 fiscal year, calling it “a compromise between Republicans and Democrats” that would invest “in key priorities for the American people”.But in their statement, the Office of Management and Budget has one quibble. It notes that the Biden administration “fought for and secured additional resources in H.R. 2882 so that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can maintain its current capacity to manage the border”, which is seeing a surge in migrant arrivals, but that funding won’t be sufficient:
However, DHS funding levels are still inadequate and the Administration reiterates its call to the Congress to take up and pass the bipartisan border security agreement, which would provide DHS with policy changes and resources it needs to better secure our border and protect the homeland.
The bipartisan border security agreement they are referring to appears to be dead, killed by Republicans who felt it did not go far enough – even though their lawmakers were involved in negotiating it.Congress is in the midst of passing a consensus budget that will avert a government shutdown set to begin over the weekend. But, as it does every year, the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC) yesterday released a budget proposal that would enact a number of rightwing policies on everything from immigration to abortion to taxation.The RSC is the largest caucus among House Republicans, and its budget is meant to show where lawmakers stand on various issues. It’s also fodder for Democrats, as they seek to convince voters that Republican intend to enact extreme policies. Here’s what Joe Biden has to say about it, in a statement:
My dad had an expression, “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” The Republican Study Committee budget shows what Republicans value. This extreme budget will cut Medicare, Social Security, and the Affordable Care Act. It endorses a national abortion ban. The Republican budget will raise housing costs and prescription drugs costs for families. And it will shower giveaways on the wealthy and biggest corporations. Let me be clear: I will stop them.
A summary of the RSC’s budget can be found here.The Biden administration’s plans to at the United Nations call for a ceasefire in Gaza may mark a significant shift in its policy towards Israel, the Guardian’s Julian Borger and Peter Beaumont report:The US has drafted a new UN security council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” and hostage deal in Gaza, amid mounting pressure on Israel to halt its military campaign and allow the delivery of substantial amounts of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.The secretary of state, Antony Blinken, presented the resolution as calling for “an immediate ceasefire tied to the release of hostages”.The US has consistently argued that the route to a ceasefire has to be through a hostage deal, but the new draft resolution presented on Thursday, seen by the Guardian, is more ambiguous about the linkage.The draft says the UN security council “determines the imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides, allow for the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance, and alleviate humanitarian suffering, and towards that end unequivocally supports ongoing international diplomatic efforts to secure such a ceasefire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages”.A European diplomat at the UN said the stress on an “immediate” ceasefire and the phrase “towards that end” showed significant movement in the US position. “I think it is a shift in saying that a ceasefire is not contingent on a specific deal,” the diplomat said.Three top-ranking Republicans in the House, speaker Mike Johnson, majority leader Steve Scalise and foreign affairs committee chair Michael McCaul, have called on Hamas to release the remaining hostages taken in the 7 October attack, and on Qatar and Egypt to use their leverage to get the group to accept a deal:
It is despicable that Hamas continues to hold over 130 innocent civilians hostage, including American citizens, nearly half a year later. As negotiations to secure their release resume, we urge Qatar and Egypt to use all of their leverage to immediately secure the release of the hostages on reasonable terms. There must be tangible, severe consequences for delaying or impeding negotiations, and Hamas should understand that delays or further harm to these civilians will come at a cost. Lives are at stake and time is of the essence. Continued negotiations should carry a vital sense of urgency.
Donald Trump’s campaign and his Save America Pac reported raising a combined $15.9m in February and ended the month with more than $37m on hand, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission last night.That is up from January, when the committees raised only $13.8m, but it is still lagging behind Joe Biden’s campaign, which said he and the Democratic National Committee raised $53m last month and ended February with $155 on hand.In a statement, Trump’s campaign communications director, Steven Cheung, said:
Americans know that they were better off with President Trump four years ago than with Crooked Joe Biden and his disastrous policies. We need a return to America First policies that successfully kept our country safe and supercharged the economy for all Americans.
“If Donald Trump put up these kinds of numbers on The Apprentice, he’d fire himself,” Biden’s campaign communications director, Michael Tyler, said in a statement.The US government on Thursday filed a sprawling antitrust case against Apple, alleging that the tech giant has illegally prevented competition by restricting access to its software and hardware.The case is a direct challenge to the company’s core products and practices, including its iMessage service and how devices such as the iPhone and Apple Watch connect with one another.The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Jersey, alleges that Apple has monopoly power in the smartphone market and uses its control over the iPhone to “engage in a broad, sustained, and illegal course of conduct”, the Associated Press reported.The US Department of Justice’s suit against Apple is a landmark case targeting the most valuable publicly traded company in the world and follows a raft of antitrust suits aimed at big tech. Amazon, Apple, Meta and Google have all faced investigations from regulators in recent years, both in the United States and Europe, over allegations that they have consolidated power while illegally stifling competition. All have market capitalizations above a trillion dollars. More

Donald Trump on Thursday again asked loyal supporters for cash to help him meet mounting legal expenses and keep the “filthy hands” of the New York attorney general off Trump Tower and other properties.The appeal came as Trump faced an imminent deadline to pay a huge bond from a New York fraud trial that ended in a $454m civil judgment against him for overstating his net worth and the value of his real estate properties. If he is unable to post it, authorities could start to seize the former US president’s assets.Under the headline “Keep your filthy hands off Trump Tower!” a Trump fundraising email sent to supporters read: “Insane radical Democrat AG Letitia James wants to SEIZE my properties in New York. This includes the iconic Trump Tower.”The twice-impeached Trump – currently the presumptive Republican presidential nominee – continued: “Democrats think that this will intimidate me. They think that if they take my cash to stifle my campaign, that I’ll GIVE UP!“But worst of all? They think that YOU will abandon me, and that you will GIVE UP on our country. Here’s one thing they don’t know: WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER!”Trump did surrender last August, to state authorities in Georgia in a case now concerning 10 election subversion charges. Facing 78 other criminal charges (for election subversion, retention of classified information and hush-money payments), he has used his Georgia mugshot in fundraising appeals.In New York, Trump faces 34 criminal charges in the hush-money case and recently paid a $92m bond to cover his appeal in a civil case arising from a rape allegation a judge called “substantially true”.But his chief concern in the state at present is meeting obligations while appealing a multimillion-dollar civil judgment in the civil business fraud case successfully brought by James in New York.Lawyers for Trump said this week he could not find surety companies willing to cover the full $454m bond, making it “a practical impossibility” to pay in full.Payment is due on Monday. If the bond is not paid, James will be entitled to begin seizing and selling Trump properties.Doing so will be politically precious but James said last month: “If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets.“We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers, and yes, I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day.”That property, the Trump Building, is in lower Manhattan. Trump Tower, which Trump built in the early 1980s and lived in until becoming president in 2017, is in midtown, a Fifth Avenue landmark.On Thursday, James’s office reportedly made preliminary steps in Westchester county which suggested a Trump-owned golf course and estate north of Manhattan could be in line to be seized. Similar steps have been taken in New York City. CNN said steps had not yet been taken in Florida, where Trump lives and owns golf courses, or in Chicago where he owns a hotel.ABC reported the reappointment for three years of Barbara Jones, a retired federal judge who has been overseeing Trump Organization finances since November 2022.Trump used his Truth Social platform – from which he reportedly stands to make $3.4bn if its parent company lists on the stock market – to allege that the judge in the case “picked a number out of THIN AIR … and wants me to bond it, which is not possible for bonding companies to do in such a high amount, before I can even appeal.“That is CRAZY! If I sold assets, and then won the appeal, the assets would be forever gone. Also, putting up money before an appeal is VERY EXPENSIVE. When I win the appeal, all of that money is gone, and I would have done nothing wrong.”Trump’s financial woes already extend to the campaign trail.On Wednesday, Federal Election Commission filings showed that a political action committee tied to Trump spent $5.6m on legal expenses in February and in all had received from a pro-Trump Super Pac more than $50m to cover legal costs.Filings also showed Trump far behind Joe Biden in fundraising for the November election. Trump’s campaign raised nearly $22m in February and had $42m on hand. The Biden campaign raised about $53m and had $155m on hand.Biden’s campaign communications director, Michael Tyler, said: “If Donald Trump put up these kinds of numbers on The Apprentice [the NBC reality show he fronted from Trump Tower before entering politics], he’d fire himself.”According to the Washington Post, which cited four sources close to Trump, the former president is not considering declaring bankruptcy, a move which would delay payment in the civil fraud case, because of the damage doing so might do to his campaign.On Thursday, on Truth Social, Trump also called Judge Arthur Engeron “crooked” and James, who is Black, “corrupt and racist”, alleging both were involved in “election interference”.In his fundraising email lamenting the threat to Trump Tower, he said donations would help send “Biden’s corrupt regime … the message … that our patriotic movement CANNOT BE STOPPED!“So before the day is over, I’m calling on ONE MILLION Pro-Trump patriots to chip in and say, STOP THE WITCH HUNT AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP!” More

Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said on Thursday that he plans to invite Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, to speak before Congress.The comments come a week after Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, called for elections in Israel which could oust Netanyahu, claiming the prime minister has “has lost his way”.Republican support for Netanyahu has remained staunch, despite the death toll in Gaza rising to more than 30,000 in the face of Israel’s continued military action.“I would love to have him come in and address a joint session of Congress,” Johnson said on Thursday morning, in an interview with CNBC. “We’ll certainly extend that invitation.”Johnson said it would be “a great honor of mine” to invite the Israeli leader. He added: “We’re just trying to work out schedules on all this”.Netanyahu addressed Republican senators virtually at a closed door event on Wednesday. Earlier in the week Israel’s prime minister said he was “determined” to carry out a ground invasion of Rafah, the city in the south of Gaza, despite opposition from Joe Biden. An estimated 1.5 million Palestinians have taken shelter in Rafah after fleeing violence elsewhere in the country.Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the United States, was criticized by Republicans and by Israel’s ruling Likud party after he said Netanyahu “has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel” in a speech in the Senate.The Senate leader pointed out that Netanyahu had included far-right figures in his government, and said the prime minister “has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.”On Thursday, Schumer said he would welcome Netanyahu to speak before Congress.“Israel has no stronger ally than the United States and our relationship transcends any one president or any one prime minister,” Schumer said in a statement.“I will always welcome the opportunity for the prime minister of Israel to speak to Congress in a bipartisan way.”Johnson’s invitation comes after Reuters reported on Wednesday that a bill being worked on by the House, Senate and the Biden administration would continue a ban on funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa), the main UN agency for Palestinians, until March 2025.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe White House said in January it was temporarily pausing new funding to Unrwa after Israel accused 12 of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the 7 October Hamas attack.Australia, Sweden, the European Commission and Canada recently reinstated funding to Unrwa, having paused funding while the allegations were investigated.In announcing the resumption of funding Penny Wong, the Australian foreign minister, said: “The best available current advice from agencies and the Australian government lawyers is that Unrwa is not a terrorist organization.”In 2015, Netanyahu infuriated the Obama administration by accepting an invitation from John Boehner, then the Republican speaker, to address a joint sitting of Congress about the threat of a nuclear Iran.That speech was interpreted as a partisan intervention in US politics, and an attempt to wreck western negotiations with Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme. The White House was particularly incensed that Boehner and Ron Dermer, then the Israeli ambassador to Washington, conspired to arrange the speech without consulting the administration. More

Kyle Rittenhouse, a 21-year-old gun rights activist who was acquitted after shooting dead two people and injuring another during racial justice protests in 2020, sparked fierce outrage during a speech at the University of Memphis.On Wednesday, Rittenhouse was met with widespread student protests as he spoke at a campus event organized by the university’s chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative student organization.Rittenhouse’s speech topics included the importance of the second amendment and “the lies of Black Lives Matter”, according to event details.Pictures posted online showed students protesting Rittenhouse’s appearance with signs that said “Murderers don’t belong here!” and “Where’s the tears now, lil boy?” – an apparent reference to Rittenhouse’s emotional sobs during his murder trial in 2021.In August 2020, Rittenhouse, who was 17 years old at the time, traveled from his home in Antioch, Illinois, armed with an AR-15-style rifle to aid a Kenosha-based militia that was calling for protection for businesses against protesters supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.At the protests, Rittenhouse shot and killed 36-year-old Joseph Rosenbaum before shooting and killing 26-year-old Anthony Huber. Rittenhouse also wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, a 26-year-old protester and volunteer medic at the time who carried his own gun.Following a widely watched and controversial trial in which he repeatedly claimed self-defense, Rittenhouse was acquitted in November 2021. His acquittal was largely regarded by critics as a revelation of the favorable treatment from law enforcement towards white self-styled militant vigilantes, in contrast to the treatment meted out to racial justice protestors.The University of Memphis said it was legally obligated to allow Rittenhouse to speak despite the widespread protests.“The upcoming event at the University of Memphis featuring Kyle Rittenhouse is not sponsored by the university. A registered student organization, University of Memphis TPUSA, is hosting the event. Under the first amendment and Tennessee’s Campus Free Speech Act, the University of Memphis cannot legally prohibit such events from being hosted by a registered student organization,” it said, the Commercial Appeal reported.Speaking to WREG, one student said: “They’re portraying him like this icon for the gun people … We already have enough gun violence in Memphis itself, so having this guy come here and spread racist views and also talking about how we need more guns on the street … I think it’s awful, just baffling, that they allow this. Because this is borderline free speech, but this is more toward hate speech.”Another student told WMC-TV: “We’re also a city that is predominately Black and we’re also a city that is grappling with gun violence … We are actively giving a platform to a white nationalist.”One video posted online showed students booing and walking out of the auditorium as Rittenhouse spoke. Another video showed a student yelling to Rittenhouse: “What lie? What lie? Tell me the lies of Black Lives Matter? Tell me the lies you’re [going to] talk about?”In a separate video, a student was seen confronting Rittenhouse, who was on stage with a dog, about comments made by Turning Point USA’s founder Charlie Kirk.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“The CEO of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, has said a lot of racist things,” the student said from his seat.“What racist things has Charlie Kirk said?” Rittenhouse replied before repeating his question.“He says that we shouldn’t celebrate Juneteenth, we shouldn’t celebrate Martin Luther King Day – we should be working those days – he called [supreme court justice] Ketanji Brown Jackson an affirmative action hire, he said all this nonsense about George Floyd and he said he’d be scared if a Black pilot was on a plane. Does that not seem racist?” the student said.In response, Rittenhouse said: “I don’t know anything about that.”“Well, after all the things I just told you, would you consider that hate speech?” the student asked.“I’m not going to comment on that,” Rittenhouse said, prompting cries from the audience.Following the event, Rittenhouse posted a video on X, saying: “Great event! I think it’s funny that a lot of the media is saying that we got booed off stage. In reality we did a hard cut off time and just happened to leave at that.” More

The far-right Republican candidate running to oversee public schools in North Carolina decried “extreme agendas that threaten our children’s future”, after being confronted by reporters over tweets in which she called for the executions of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.“Don’t let extreme agendas threaten our children’s future,” Michele Morrow said on social media on Thursday, posting an address in which she said she was “facing the most radical extremist Democrats [that] have ever run for superintendent in the history of North Carolina”.But Morrow, who is running for superintendent of public instruction, also had to respond to a CNN crew who confronted her about posts, unearthed by the same network, in which she advocated violence against leading Democrats.Comments made by Morrow between 2019 and 2021 and reported by CNN included a May 2020 tweet in which Morrow said Obama should be the subject of “a Pay Per View of him in front of a firing squad”, adding: “I do not want to waste another dime on supporting his life. We could make some money back from televising his death.”In December 2020, when Biden, as president-elect, said he would ask Americans to wear masks against Covid-19 for 100 days, Morrow – a nurse – wrote: “Never. We need to follow the constitution’s advice and KILL all TRAITORS!!!”Other Democrats that Morrow said should be executed, CNN said, included the Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar; the North Carolina governor, Roy Cooper; former New York governor Andrew Cuomo; the former first lady, senator, secretary of state and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton; and the New York senator Chuck Schumer.Morrow also called for the executions of Anthony Fauci, a senior public health adviser to Donald Trump during the Covid pandemic, and Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and vaccination campaigner.She also promoted slogans and claims associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory.Morrow first responded to the report by saying: “According to [CNN], Obama’s drone attacks on hundreds of innocent Muslims in Yemen are not treasonous. The insanity of the media demonstrates the need to teach K-12 students real history and critical thinking skills.”Then, on Thursday, CNN played footage of a parking-lot confrontation between Morrow and its correspondent Shimon Prokupecz.Prokupecz said: “Do you still stand by your comments about former president Barack Obama and that he should be executed, calling for the death of other presidents, do you stand by that?”Morrow repeatedly said: “No comment.” She also said she was “focused on helping the families of North Carolina, for their children to get quality education, for them to be safe, and for us to be sure that our money is going into the classroom rather than bureaucracies”.Pressed about her tweets advocating executions of prominent Democrats, Morrow said: “How do you know those are my words?”Prokupecz said: “Because you tweeted. Are those not your tweets?”Morrow said she only wanted to “discuss education”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionOn Thursday, in video posted to social media, Morrow complained: “Three CNN reporters from New York City have been on my street for the last 48 hours, watching my every move. They’ve been stalking me and my family.”The North Carolina public school system is responsible for the education of 1.3 million students. Amid proliferating attempts by the Republican right to gain control of public schooling, the North Carolina superintendent race promises to attract national attention.The Democratic candidate is Mo Green, a former county superintendent and executive director of a foundation focusing on public education.Morrow, a “lifelong Christian conservative” who homeschools her children, is endorsed by Moms for Liberty, a rightwing pressure group with a national profile. In the Republican primary, she pulled off an upset by defeating the incumbent superintendent.As reported by local media, Morrow was at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, when Trump supporters attacked Congress in an attempt to keep Trump in power.Speaking to the Raleigh News & Observer, she described seeing rioters attempting to break a window and asking them to stop.“I was frustrated and disgusted when I found people had broken in,” she said. “I felt it was so immature and was not going to solve anything.”Asked about the January 6 Capitol attack, Morrow recently told Axios: “I won this campaign because of my focus on scholastics … We want to focus on math, reading and science. And I think that’s what North Carolina businesses expect for us to do.”In her comments on Thursday, Morrow said the CNN crew who confronted her were “trying to interfere in the 2024 election, just like they did in the 2020 election”. More

When wrangling legislation, sometimes it’s best to sound out a problem in front of you.In Georgia, it sounds like the state senator Colton Moore. But it only sounds like Colton Moore.Todd Jones, a Republican state representative who chairs the Georgia house committee on technology and infrastructure innovation, has proposed legislation outlawing the use of artificial intelligence deepfakes in political communication. To illustrate the point, Jones presented a deepfake video to the judiciary committee using an AI image and audio of Moore and Mallory Staples, a former Republican congressional candidate who now runs a far-right activist organization, the Georgia Freedom caucus.The video uses an AI tool to impersonate the voices of Moore and Mallory falsely endorsing passage of the bill. The video contains a continuous disclaimer at the bottom citing the text of the bill.Moore and Mallory oppose the legislation.The AI impersonation of Moore says: “I would ask the committee: how is using my biometric data, like my voice and likeness, to create media supporting a policy that I clearly don’t agree with the first amendment right of another person?”The video continues: “The overwhelming number of Georgians believe the use of my personal characteristics against my will is fraud, but our laws don’t currently reflect that. If AI can be used to make Colton Moore speak in favor of a popular piece of legislation, it can be used to make any one of you say things you’ve never said.”Brad Thomas, the Republican co-sponsor of the bill and co-author of the video, said he and his colleagues used commonly available tools to create the video.“The particular one we used is, like, $50. With a $1,000 version, your own mother wouldn’t be able to tell the difference,” he said.The pace of advancement of visual AI generative tools is years ahead of the legislation needed to prevent abuses, Thomas said: “Cinematography-style video. Those individuals look absolutely real, and they’re AI-generated.”The bill passed out of committee on an 8-1 vote.Moore is not popular in Georgia’s legislative circles. His peers in the state senate threw him out of the Republican caucus in September, accusing him of making false statements about other conservatives while he was advocating fruitlessly for a special session to remove the Fulton county prosecutor Fani Willis from office.Last week, Moore was permanently barred from the Georgia house chamber after rhetorically attacking the late speaker at a memorial service being held on the house floor.Through the Georgia senate press office, Moore declined to comment.In social media posts, Moore has voiced opposition to this bill, which he said is an attack on “memes” used in political discourse, and that satire is protected speech.Staples, in newsletters to her supporters, cited the federal conviction of Douglass Mackey last year as an example of potential harms. Mackey, also known as the alt-right influencer “Rickey Vaughn”, sent mass text messages in November 2016 encouraging Black recipients to “vote by text” instead of casting a real vote, with the texts claiming they had been paid for by the Clinton campaign.Federal judges rejected Mackey’s first amendment arguments on the ground that the communications amounted to acts of fraud which were not constitutionally protected. Mackey was sentenced in October to serve seven months.House bill 986 creates the crimes of fraudulent election interference and soliciting fraudulent election interference, with penalties of two to five years in prison and fines up to $50,000.If within 90 days of an election, a person publishes, broadcasts, streams or uploads materially deceptive media – defined as appearing to depict a real individual’s speech or conduct that did not occur in reality and would appear to a reasonable person to be authentic – they would be guilty of a felony, as long as the media in question significantly influences the chances for a candidate or referendum to win, or confuses the administration of that election. Thus, it would also criminalize using deepfakes used to cast doubt on the results of an election.Deepfakes entered the 2024 election at its start, with an AI-generated audio call featuring Joe Biden telling New Hampshire voters not to vote. After the call, the Federal Communications Commission announced a ban on robocalls that use AI audio. But the Federal Elections Commission has yet to put rules in place for political ads that use AI, something watchdog groups have been calling for for months. Regulations are lagging behind the reality of AI’s capabilities to mislead voters.In the absence of federal elections rules for AI content, states have stepped in, filing and, in several instances, passing bills that typically require labels on political ads that use AI in some way. Without these labels, AI-generated content in political ads is considered illegal in most of the bills filed in states.Experts say AI audio, in particular, has the ability to trick voters because a listener loses context clues that might tip them off that a video is fake. Audio deepfakes of prominent figures, such as Trump and Biden, are easy and cheap to make using readily available apps. For less well-known people who often speak publicly and have a large volume of examples of their voices, like speeches or media appearances, people can upload these examples to train a deepfake clone of the person’s voice.Enforcement of the Georgia law might be challenging. Lawmakers struggled to find ways to rein in anonymous flyers and robocalls spreading misinformation and fraud ahead of elections long before the emergence of AI.“I think that’s why we gave concurrent jurisdiction to the attorney general’s office,” Thomas said. “One of the other things we’ve done is allow the [Georgia bureau of investigation] to investigate election issues. Between the horsepower of those two organizations, we have the highest likelihood of figuring out who did it.”Lawmakers are only just starting to get at the implications of AI. Thomas expects more legislation to emerge over the next few sessions.“Fraud is fraud, and that’s what this bill is coming down to,” Thomas said. “That’s not a first amendment right for anyone.”Rachel Leingang contributed reporting More

For a while, the “Katespiracies” were the most fun people have had on the internet in a long time.The whereabouts of the Princess of Wales after her planned abdominal surgery and subsequent recovery were not particularly high stakes, and so many reveled in the threads and group chats as the “what ifs” got wilder – the theories both more specific and more incredible at the same time.Some postured that Catherine had been replaced with a body double, had been photoshopped into photos not just now but for months, or maybe treated unjustly by an increasingly sinister Prince William. Or: could it be that the princess was dead?The royals did not help their own case. With each vague and defensive correspondence from Buckingham Palace confirming Catherine was actually fine and on track for a recovery by Easter, the online world doubled down.“The Princess of Wales has returned home to Windsor to continue her recovery from surgery. She is making good progress,” a Kensington Palace spokesperson said back in January. “The prince and princess wish to say a huge thank you to the entire team at the London Clinic, especially the dedicated nursing staff, for the care they have provided.”When the Associated Press noted that a photo of Catherine and her children had been doctored, presumably manipulated by the princess herself, the frantic cycle of speculation only escalated.For many it felt like a break from reality and a news cycle dominated by war and politics, and an exercise in collective creativity. It was Twitter/X at its funniest, and the common person working towards a common goal. (That, and the Timothée Chalamet meme.)Then, suddenly, it got dark.A video was released this week by the Sun of Catherine and William shopping near their home. The metadata confirmed the location and timing. In a normal world, this would be enough to slow the rumor mill. But of course, it wasn’t. Internet sleuths kept sleuthing.Why were the Christmas decorations still up in March? She didn’t look exactly like herself, did she? Why were all these videos so damn blurry?It was proof that nothing would satiate the hive mind in the post-truth world, a world where people are fed an onslaught of information, much of it true, some of it manufactured, and some of it somewhere in between. And when people are primed to believe something is false, there’s little one can do, short of maybe meeting the princess in person, that will put an end to the doubt.That matters far beyond what may – or may not – be going on with Britain’s future queen.The US is currently battling a deep distrust in institutions that, while fallible and constantly evolving, are actually founded in the public good – from the Department of Justice to the CDC. That distrust, paired with the ease of proliferating conspiracy theories, has made the ability to have civic discourse, or to report the truth, increasingly difficult. It gives way not to the most likely explanation, or the most fact-based – but the one that most fits with the narrative the court of public opinion has cultivated.There are many depressing versions of Katespiracies that hound Americans in the political world. For example: Ashley Biden’s (fake) diary, QAnon and pretty much anything to do with Anthony Fauci. How do you convince people who believe these hoaxes – which have been disproven many times over, that the real threat to their lives is losing critical social safety nets or birth control, herd immunity, or public education?It is true that the world is rife with misinformation, and blindly trusting those in power has never been a good idea. The royal family, specifically, has a long history of scandal and secrecy. And public institutions, similarly, owe us transparency and clarity.Yet three months of speculation on Catherine is a sign that healthy doubt and questioning can be easily replaced by the inability to accept any truth at all. In the absence of information, on any subject, we’ve now seen what can happen when the court of public opinion takes over the conversation. Even when the facts emerge, there’s a possibility that it will no longer matter. More

The Senate’s Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, indicated he rejected a request from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to address his lawmakers today.“When you make these issues partisan, you hurt the cause of Israel,” Schumer told reporters when asked if he turned down Netanyahu. US media outlets report that prime minister wanted to talk to Democratic senators during a closed-door meeting.Last week, Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States, broke with Netanyahu and called on Israel to hold new elections. He criticized the prime minister for the high civilian death toll in Gaza, and said Netanyahu was among a group of politicians and groups who were undermining efforts to implement a two-state solution to the crisis between Israel and Palestine.Texas has experienced a case of judicial whiplash, after the supreme court yesterday allowed its law giving police the power to arrest suspected illegal border crossers to go into effect. But just hours later, a federal appeals court blocked it again, and the matter seems set for further legal wrangling that may well wind up before the US supreme court at some point in the future. Back in Washington DC, the Democratic Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, indicated that he turned down a request from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to address his lawmakers, warning that support for the country should not become “partisan”. But Republican senators were happy to hear from Netanyahu, who said the prime minister told them he had no plans to change his military strategy in Gaza.Here’s what else happened:
House Republicans pressed on with the impeachment investigation of Joe Biden, while Democrats attacked their witnesses’ credibility, and one showed up in a Vladimir Putin mask.
A Georgia judge allowed Donald Trump to appeal his ruling last week that prosecutor Fani Willis could stay on the election subversion case against him, but only if the special counsel Nathan Wade leaves.
The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, said he understood where Trump was coming from when he accused Democratic Jews of hating Israel and their religion – comments that drew accusations of antisemitism.
Biden announced new rules that could dramatically slash emissions from passenger cars and trucks to fight the climate crisis.
A special election in California to replace the former House speaker Kevin McCarthy appears headed to a runoff between two Republicans, likely to Johnson’s chagrin.
In an address to Senate Republicans, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had no plans to change his military strategy in Gaza, Reuters reports.Netanyahu spoke to Republicans via videolink at their behind-closed-door lunch today, days after Chuck Schumer, the chamber’s Democratic majority leader, broke with him and called for new elections in Israel.“He’s going to do what he said he’s going to do. He’s going to finish it,” the Republican senator Jim Risch said after hearing from Netanyahu.Here’s more, from Reuters:
Wednesday’s meeting underscored the politicization of Washington’s Israel policy. Netanyahu has long been aligned with Republicans, who accused Schumer of seeking to “overthrow” the Israeli leader.
“We asked … him for an update and we got it on the war, on the release of the hostages and in the efforts to defeat Hamas. We told him Israel has every right to defend themselves and he said that’s exactly what they continue to do,” Senator John Barrasso said.
Democratic leaders have been grappling with divisions in their party over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza five months into a war that began with attacks on Israel by Hamas militants on Oct. 7.
…
Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Netanyahu had addressed civilian casualties and the need to get more aid into Gaza. He said Netanyahu was “very supportive” of plans to build a temporary pier and bring in aid by sea.
“He’s very sensitive to the fact that every civilian casualty is a very unfortunate event,” Risch said.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Netanyahu had made a presentation and then taken questions from senators.
“I made it clear to him, that it’s not the business of the United States to be giving a democratic ally advice about when to have an election or what kind of military campaign they may be conducting,” McConnell told reporters.
The aftershocks from Republican insurgents’ historic ouster of Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, and his subsequent resignation from Congress, continue to reverberate, notably in the race to replace him in his central California district.Vince Fong, a Republican California assemblyman, currently leads the official vote count after the Tuesday special election to replace McCarthy. But he does not appear to have won the 50% support necessary to avoid a runoff, meaning Fong will have to stand in May against whoever comes in second place. That is on course to be his fellow Republican Mike Boudreaux, with the Democratic candidate, Marisa Wood, trailing in third place – not much of a surprise, considering McCarthy’s former district is considered California’s most Republican.However that race ultimately turns out, the biggest loser last night may have been the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, who is trying to pass legislation with a tiny majority. Had Fong won, it would have given the speaker a sorely needed vote, but now he’ll have to wait till May to see McCarthy’s replacement seated.McCarthy’s decision to resign after being ousted from Republican leadership – which came a year after Nancy Pelosi left House Democratic leadership – comes amid a period of turnover in Golden State politics. The longtime Democratic US representatives Anna Eshoo, Tony Cárdenas and Grace Napolitano have also announced plans to step down.Two weeks after California’s primary, the race to replace Eshoo in her Bay Area district remains exceptionally close. Just two votes separate the Democratic candidates Evan Low, a state assemblyman, and Joe Simitian, a Santa Clara county supervisor, with ballot counting ongoing. The winner will advance to the November general election and face the Democrat Sam Liccardo, the former mayor of San Jose.Chuck Schumer’s public criticism of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his call for the country to hold elections came after months of deliberations, the Democratic Senate leader revealed to the New York Times this weekend.“I said to myself, ‘This may hurt me politically; this may help me politically.’ I couldn’t look myself in the mirror if I didn’t do it,” Schumer, who represents New York, said in an interview. He added that the point of his speech “was to say you can still love Israel and feel strongly about Israel and totally disagree with Bibi Netanyahu and the policies of Israel”.Schumer noted he spent about two months working on his speech, writing multiple drafts of an address intended to make clear he believed Netanyahu is “the fount of the problems”.The Senate leader has faced considerable criticism for his public break with Netanyahu, most notably from Republicans. Here’s more on that:The rift between the top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, became public suddenly, amid continuing reports of terrible humanitarian conditions in Gaza. Here’s the latest on that, from the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont:The accusation by the UN and other humanitarians that Israel may be committing a war crime by deliberately starving Gaza’s population is likely to significantly increase the prospect of legal culpability for the country, including at the international court of justice.Amid reports that the Israel Defense Forces are hiring dozens of lawyers to defend against anticipated cases and legal challenges, the charge that Israel has triggered a “man-made famine” by deliberately obstructing the entry of aid into Gaza is backed by an increasing body of evidence.Already facing a complaint of genocide from South Africa at the ICJ, the UN’s top court – including an allegation that senior Israeli political officials have incited genocide in public statements – Israel is also the subject of a provisional emergency ruling by the court ordering it to admit life-saving aid to Gaza.The Senate’s Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, indicated he rejected a request from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to address his lawmakers today.“When you make these issues partisan, you hurt the cause of Israel,” Schumer told reporters when asked if he turned down Netanyahu. US media outlets report that prime minister wanted to talk to Democratic senators during a closed-door meeting.Last week, Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States, broke with Netanyahu and called on Israel to hold new elections. He criticized the prime minister for the high civilian death toll in Gaza, and said Netanyahu was among a group of politicians and groups who were undermining efforts to implement a two-state solution to the crisis between Israel and Palestine.Pete Aguilar, chair of the House Democratic caucus, said that Donald Trump “doesn’t belong anywhere near the Oval Office” following the ex-president’s comments that there will be a “bloodbath” in the US if he loses the election.Aguilar said:
He represents a clear and present danger to democracy. His comments over the weekend …should be taken both literally and seriously … Donald Trump would sacrifice our way of life in a heartbeat if he thought that it could bring him political power. He doesn’t belong anywhere near the Oval Office and don’t just take our word for it – the former VP, his former chief of staff, his former defense secretary, and his former secretary of state all agree.
Here are more details from Punchbowl News on Chuck Schumer’s reported refusal to allow Benjamin Netanyahu to address the Senate Democratic caucus:According to Schumer, having Netanyahu address the caucus would “not be helpful to Israel”, Punchbowl News reports.The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, has declined a request from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to address the Senate Democratic Caucus, Punchbowl News reports.According to the outlet, Schumer said these conversations should not happen “in a partisan manner”.Netanyahu is scheduled to address Senate Republicans virtually during their lunch meeting today.Last week, Schumer sparked backlash from Republican leaders and Netanyahu’s Likud party after he called for new elections in Israel and criticized Netanyahu’s leadership.Since October, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians while forcibly displacing 2 million survivors across the narrow strip.Texas has experienced a case of judicial whiplash, after the supreme court yesterday allowed its law giving police the power to arrest suspected illegal border crossers to go into effect. But just hours later, a federal appeals court blocked it again, and the matter seems set for further legal wrangling that may well wind up before the supreme court at some point in the future. Back in Washington DC, Republicans pressed on with their impeachment investigation into Joe Biden, despite revelations that a key source for their unproven allegations received information from Russian intelligence. At a hearing of the House oversight committee, Democrats hammered the credibility of the GOP’s witnesses, and one lawmaker made the point by showing up in a Vladimir Putin mask.Here’s what else is happening:
A Georgia judge allowed Donald Trump to appeal his ruling last week that prosecutor Fani Willis could stay on the election subversion case against him, but only if special counsel Nathan Wade leaves.
The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, said he understood where Trump was coming from when he accused Democratic Jews of hating Israel and their religion – comments that drew accusation of antisemitism.
Joe Biden announced new rules that could dramatically slash emissions from passenger cars and trucks to fight the climate crisis.
Republicans invited two witnesses to today’s House oversight committee hearing: Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis, both former business associates of Hunter Biden.But only Bobulinski could actually show up, since Galanis is currently incarcerated for securities fraud.Bobulinski, meanwhile, has his own checkered past, one that the committee’s top Democrat Jamie Raskin made note of at the hearing:House Republicans have long clamored for Hunter Biden to appear before them.And while the president’s son did consent to a behind-closed-doors interview, NBC News reported that his lawyer last week told Republicans: “Mr Biden declines your invitation to this carnival side show.”So the oversight committee today left an empty seat with a placard reading “Mr Biden”, perhaps hoping he would make another surprise appearance:House Republicans appear to be pressing on with their impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden’s alleged corruption, even as they have yet to turn up evidence that the president benefited from his family members’ overseas business dealings.They’re also dealing with the fallout from revelations that an informant crucial to their case received information from Russian intelligence. But as the House oversight committee gathered for their latest hearing in the investigation, Democratic lawmaker Jared Moskowitz sought to remind them by showing up in a Vladimir Putin mask: More