US Politics

On Friday, 22 September, as Washington geared up for the weekend, a storm erupted. The US attorney general released a 39-page indictment accusing Senator Bob Menendez, his wife Nadine, and three others of involvement in a bribery scheme. The charges allege that they allowed Egyptian officials to gain illegitimate access to key figures in US foreign policy. On Thursday, federal prosecutors in New York accused Menendez of “conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government”.Menendez is accused of using his influence as the Senate foreign relations committee chairman to favor Egypt, facilitating US military aid and advocating for issues like the Ethiopian Renaissance dam. He’s also accused of pressuring officials to ignore anti-competitive practices by the firm ISEG Halal, the sole company authorized by Egypt to review American beef exporters, and of providing sensitive information about employees at the US embassy in Cairo that could endanger their lives.Following the indictment, key members of Congress have been weighing whether to delay $235m in military aid to Cairo as punishment for Egypt’s alleged involvement in this corruption and for Egypt’s failure to demonstrate consistent progress in releasing detainees and improving its human rights record. This has placed renewed strain on Egyptian-American relations. US law requires that military deals be approved by the president or a member of the Senate foreign relations committee, underscoring the regime’s strategic aim to influence Congress through Menendez.Yet Egyptian regime loyalists do not seem daunted by Menendez’s indictment or by US threats to withhold military aid. This is cause for grave concern to the international human rights community. The US already has a long history of providing assistance to Egypt despite documented human rights abuses. Egypt, sometimes dubbed “the Big Prison”, now has at least 169 prisons and detention centers. These prisons hold thousands of political detainees, including journalists and activists held in pretrial detention for years on frivolous terrorism charges.In Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index, Egypt is the 166th-ranked country, out of 188. In addition, human rights organizations estimate over 60,000 prisoners of conscience remain in Egyptian jails.In 2021, Egypt’s interior ministry inaugurated a massive new prison complex in the Wadi al-Natrun region, accompanied by a song titled Opportunity for Life. Constructed on Egyptian soil but on US terms, as described by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, it appeared to be an attempt to court the west and ease international human rights scrutiny. Situated in a desert area about 100km from Cairo, the complex was intended to isolate detainees from their families as a form of persecution.The US has repeatedly threatened to withhold a portion of its military aid to Egypt, but these threats are not consistently implemented. In 2013, for example, after the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi, the US announced the withholding of aid, but it reversed the decision in early 2014 after President Sisi assumed power.About $320m of this aid is supposedly tied to improving Egypt’s human rights record, raising questions about the sincerity of the US commitment to combating corruption and autocracy. In this context, the Egyptian regime has become proficient in speaking the disingenuous language of western countries, which use human rights issues to exert pressure on dictatorial governments in pursuit of their interests, spanning arms deals, economic issues, and global migration.Journalists and advocates like me have long sought accountability for Egyptian officials involved in human rights violations and the torture of political prisoners. I was once one of those political prisoners. For nearly two years, I was confined to a dark cell with nearly 150 other women. I endured physical abuse, harassment including degrading strip searches, sleepless nights, and the denial of basic healthcare needs.My personal experience is merely one among many. Countless individuals have endured the consequences of corruption, violence, and lack of accountability in Egypt.If the charges against Senator Menendez are substantiated, it may partly explain why the Egyptian regime seemed so indifferent to America’s previous threats: there were people working to get Egypt assistance without it needing to adhere to human rights commitments. That’s a sad message to the many Egyptian political prisoners hoping to be freed.
Solafa Magdy is an Egyptian journalist and former political prisoner More

As he excoriated Kevin McCarthy over his leadership of the House Republican conference last week, hard-right congressman Matt Gaetz accused the then speaker of cutting a “secret side deal” with Joe Biden to provide additional funding to Ukraine amid its ongoing war against Russia.“It is becoming increasingly clear who the speaker of the House already works for, and it’s not the Republican conference,” Gaetz, who represents a solidly Republican district in Florida, said in a floor speech at the time.The day after Gaetz delivered that speech, McCarthy was out of a job, becoming the first House speaker in US history ever to be ejected from office. Although McCarthy denied the existence of a side deal, Gaetz’s complaints underscored how funding for Ukraine served as one of the thorniest issues during the former speaker’s brief and contentious tenure.As Donald Trump’s “America First” philosophy has gained popularity among Republicans, anti-Ukraine sentiment has spread through the party’s base and now into the halls of Congress. Even as bipartisan support for Ukraine remains robust in the Senate, a majority of the House Republican conference appears skeptical if not outright hostile to the idea of more funding.That dynamic has further complicated House Republicans’ already difficult task of electing a new speaker, as any speaker candidate must negotiate with hard-right lawmakers who adamantly oppose more funding for Kyiv. Those lawmakers have made Ukraine funding a top priority in the search for a new speaker, and that tension raises serious questions about whether Congress will be able to approve another aid package, especially now that much of their attention has shifted to the war between Israel and Hamas. If lawmakers cannot pass more funding, Ukraine supporters warn the consequences could be deadly.“This is critical to the war effort for Ukraine, which is then critical to the defense of Europe and, I think, critical to US national security,” said Max Bergmann, the director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). “If Congress doesn’t act now, then a lot of Ukrainians are going to die.”The rising opposition to funding Ukraine among Republicans appears to be a direct response to Trump’s approach to foreign policy, which has resonated deeply with the more isolationist faction of his party. That philosophy has frustrated establishment Republicans, who embrace the party’s traditional vision of diplomacy, remembering the days of Ronald Reagan using the country’s military and economic might to fight communism abroad.“Republicans once stood against communism and thugs like Vladimir Putin, but it’s a shame that not every Republican is speaking out against what Russia is doing to Ukraine,” said Gunner Ramer, a spokesperson for the group Republicans for Ukraine.Ramer’s group, which is a project of the anti-Trump conservative group Defending Democracy Together, often conducts focus groups with Republican voters. Those discussions have seen an increase in anti-Ukraine sentiment in recent months, Ramer said, and polling confirms that trend.According to a CBS News/YouGov poll conducted last month, only 39% of Republicans now believe the US should send weapons to Ukraine, representing a 10-point drop in support since February. On the question of sending aid and supplies to Ukraine, 50% of Republicans support the idea while 50% oppose it. In contrast, 86% of Democrats and 63% of independent voters support sending aid and supplies to Ukraine.“I think it’s a top-down thing. We recognize that Donald Trump has overtaken the Republican party,” Ramer said. “What Donald Trump tapped into is this isolationist bit of the Republican party, and I think that that is affecting how Republican voters approach the issue.”When the House voted last month on a bill to provide $300m in funding for a program to train and equip Ukrainian fighters, a majority of the Republican conference – 117 members – opposed the legislation. The vote represented a crucial tipping point, as hard-right lawmakers like Gaetz have implored leaders to block any bill that does not have the support of a majority of the Republican conference.In a statement explaining his opposition to the bill, the congressman John Curtis of Utah, a Republican who had previously showed support for Ukraine, called on the Biden administration to articulate a clear strategy for defeating Russia and to specify how funds were being used.“I support Ukraine in their war,” Curtis said. “I support continued funding for their efforts, but these are basic questions any organization would ask in a transaction. To continue spending Utahans taxpayer dollars, Congress must receive assurances to these questions.”Ukraine still has support from many lawmakers of both parties in Congress, who have helped deliver more than $100bn in aid to Kyiv since the start of the war. But the rising opposition to Ukraine among House Republicans specifically, combined with the party’s razor-thin majority in the lower chamber, has made it all the more difficult for any speaker to lead the conference – as McCarthy knows all too well.Although McCarthy has been supportive of Ukraine aid, he used the power of his speakership to secure some wins for the “America First” contingent of his conference. When the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, visited Capitol Hill last month, McCarthy denied him the opportunity to deliver a joint address to Congress.As Congress scrambled late last month to avoid a government shutdown, McCarthy introduced a stopgap spending bill that included no additional funding for Ukraine. The Senate version of the stopgap bill, which was ultimately shelved in favor of McCarthy’s proposal, had included $6bn in Ukraine aid, and that was already well below the $24bn requested by Biden in August.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThose concessions were not enough to sway the eight House Republicans, including Gaetz, who collaborated with Democrats to oust McCarthy last week. Now Republicans must unite around a new speaker, and that process is proving even more arduous than expected.On Wednesday, Steve Scalise, the House majority leader, won his conference’s nomination, defeating the judiciary committee chair Jim Jordan. Scalise’s victory may have come as a relief to Ukraine supporters, given that Jordan had already signaled he would not support another aid package. Scalise, on the other hand, received a grade of B on Republicans for Ukraine’s lawmaker report card.Then, on Thursday evening, Scalise abruptly dropped out of the race due to opposition from some of the same hard-right lawmakers, who have also embraced anti-Ukraine views. After the ouster of McCarthy and the rapid downfall of Scalise, Ramer fears that the successful maneuvers staged by hard-right lawmakers might intimidate some of the pro-Ukraine Republicans in the House.“I do have a concern that a lot of even rank-and-file Republicans are going to look at what happened to McCarthy and be afraid to alienate this isolationist part of the Republican party,” Ramer said.Ukraine supporters have suggested a number of ideas to ease the passage of another aid package through Congress, such as including the money in a broader bill providing funding for Taiwan and border security. With House Republicans eager to approve more funding for Israel following the Hamas attacks last weekend, members of both parties proposed a joint Ukraine-Israel aid package.Hard-right lawmakers have staunchly opposed the idea of a Ukraine-Israel package, but such a bill could provide some political cover for the next Republican speaker, Bergmann noted.“It gives a new speaker the opportunity to say that their hands were tied, and they have to bring this to the floor and essentially get Ukraine funding over the line, without being seen as betraying the far right,” Bergmann said.Another idea floated by some Ukraine supporters in Congress, including the Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, involves passing a much larger aid package to support Kyiv through next year – thus avoiding another drawn-out fight on the issue until after the 2024 elections.“You just want to make this done through this political cycle, and then you can approach it again during the lame-duck session,” Bergmann said. “[It] makes all the sense in the world. Frankly, to not do that is crazy.”The clock is ticking. Ukraine cannot indefinitely continue its current efforts without more aid, and a prolonged delay could imperil its military and humanitarian missions. If that happens, Bergmann suggested, the hard-right Republicans who oppose Ukraine aid may soon start to see the political tide turn against them, which could prompt a change of their hearts.“The ads sort of write themselves,” Bergmann said. “When there’s imagery of Ukrainian cities getting pummeled, the ads will be: these people caused this, and they have blood on their hands.” More

The US’s closest ally in the Middle East is reeling from what many call its “9/11” and now a humanitarian disaster looms in Gaza. Winter is approaching in Ukraine, which needs urgent supplies to maintain its counteroffensive against Russia. From China’s expansive ambitions, to coups in Africa, to the climate crisis, the world is crying out for leadership.But on Capitol Hill in Washington, Republicans can’t find one. Friday marked the 10th day of paralysis as the party struggles to elect a speaker of the House of Representatives to replace the ousted Kevin McCarthy. This after majority leader Steve Scalise won a closed-door vote but abandoned his run because he lacked enough support to win on the House floor.Such petty bickering, grievances and vendettas might typically fascinate seasoned Washington watchers and readers of political insider newsletters but be met by a shrug by many Americans and indifference overseas. This time, however, is different. The ripples of Republican dysfunction could soon be felt across a troubled world.“It’s a dangerous game that we’re playing,” Michael McCaul, chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, told reporters on Thursday. “It just proves our adversaries right that democracy doesn’t work. Our adversaries are watching us and Israel is watching. They need our help.”McCaul, a Republican congressman from Texas, has put forward a bipartisan resolution with Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the committee, condemning Hamas and reaffirming support for Israel. But the House cannot vote on it until there is a speaker in the chair.McCaul added: “I’m going to remind my colleagues about how dangerous this is. If we don’t have a speaker, we can’t assist Israel in this great time of need after this terrorist attack. So I think we’re playing with fire and we need to stop playing games and politics with this and vote a speaker in.”The House speaker is the third-highest-ranking elected official in the country, second in line to the presidency. Without one, legislative business is at a standstill. The House is currently under the control of Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, who was named as the temporary speaker after McCarthy’s departure, but his ability to move legislation is unclear.Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he would seek approval from Congress for additional funding for Israel in the wake of the devastating attack by Hamas. But the fight over the speakership puts a question mark over how soon such aid could be approved and sent.Biden has also requested $24bn in additional funding for Ukraine but this too hangs in limbo. Although the White House has claimed that the vast majority of House Republicans still support such assistance, there has been growing dissent in recent weeks and the issue was a factor in McCarthy’s downfall.Then there is the threat of a government shutdown that would further dent US credibility overseas. Congress has until a self-imposed deadline of 17 November to pass 12 new bills to fund the government for the rest of the year and into 2024. The leadership vacuum is sucking up precious time and energy and making a shutdown more likely.Biden had spent the first two years of his presidency seeking to restore order and rebuild alliances after the “America first” mayhem of the Donald Trump years. But when Republicans gained control of the House in January with a narrow majority that empowered the far right, that effort was always likely to suffer erosion.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionKarine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters: “What we’re seeing is certainly shambolic chaos over there on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue, and they need to get their act together … We’ve never seen a conference behave this way or be this chaotic.”Biden’s speech on Tuesday was described as one of the most powerful statements of support for Israel ever given by a US president; he has previously spoken of his deep-rooted love for the country. Huge uncertainties remain: Israel has ordered a million people to evacuate northern Gaza ahead of an expected ground invasion; Hamas could still have more surprises in store; Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia based in Lebanon, could still open a second front.But instead of addressing the crisis with one voice, Republicans are consumed with a bogus impeachment inquiry into Biden and the publicity-seeking antics of members such as Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Nancy Mace. And this week New York Republicans moved to expel accused fraudster George Santos.Kyle Herrig, executive director of the Congressional Integrity Project, said: “Since day one the Maga Republicans in the House majority have failed to work on real domestic priorities and instead focused on partisan stunts in their extreme efforts to return Donald Trump to the White House.“Their ongoing dysfunction, misplaced priorities and failures now impede the efforts of President Biden to come to the aid of key allies internationally. Chaos, not governance, defines the House Republican Caucus.” More

The US House of Representatives will remain leaderless into a third week as Republicans continue to confront a familiar conundrum: how to unite their fractious majority and prove to a skeptical US public that they are a party capable of governing, not just funneling rightwing outrage and culture war rhetoric.More than a week after a cadre of discontented Republicans deposed their own speaker, Kevin McCarthy, the conference is still deeply divided over who should replace him with no one candidate seemingly able to garner enough support to end the squabbling.Congressman Steve Scalise, the House majority leader, won the first secret internal election to be the party’s nominee to be speaker on Wednesday but by Thursday evening he had withdrawn his consideration.On Friday, Republicans met again and chose his challenger, congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, a founder of the ultraconservative House Freedom caucus and one of Donald Trump’s most loyal allies on Capitol Hill. But the behind-closed-doors vote showed he was still a staggering 65 votes short of the 217 needed to get the job.If Jordan were to eventually win – and a floor vote could now come on Tuesday next week – it would be a remarkable victory for the hard-right faction of Republican lawmakers. After years of driving their party’s speakers from power, they are now on the cusp of claiming the gavel for themselves.But victory is far from certain in a Republican party once known for its iron discipline and ability to stay on message but now seen as a group of politicians scrapping for power and influence among themselves.The long saga to elect a new speaker underscores the dramatic evolution of the House Republican conference, whose own members now fear may no longer be governable. As McCarthy’s short tenure proved, grievance not the gavel is the coin of the realm in present-day Republican House politics. And whenever there is a handful of discontented Republicans, dysfunction is likely to follow.“These guys want to be in the minority,” Congressman Don Bacon of Nebraska, who represents a swing district being targeted by Democrats, told reporters on Thursday. “I think they would prefer that because they could just vote no and yell and scream all the time.”In another era, it would have been unthinkable for House Republicans to undermine their party’s chosen candidate for speaker. But in present-day Republican politics, there are often more incentives than consequences for breaking the rules and thwarting the majority.Case in point: Jordan was elected to be the party’s candidate to lead the House, days after losing to Scalise in the House’s internal election for speaker. But an intervention on his behalf by Donald Trump, and a refusal by his supporters to stand down, blocked Scalise’s path and afforded Jordan a second chance at the nomination.It marks quite the journey for the Ohio congressman, who the former Republican House speaker John Boehner once branded Jordan a “legislative terrorist”. Jordan and his allies tormented Boehner until he left the post. Boehner’s successors worked harder to appease the right flank of their party, but it did little to ease the internal unrest.Among the many concessions McCarthy made to the far right in exchange for their support for his speakership bid was a rule allowing any single member of the House to force action on a resolution to remove the speaker. It won him the gavel, after an unprecedented 15 rounds of balloting, but it also sealed his fate as the first speaker in US history to be removed from the position.Tensions were already boiling on the right, when a handful of ultraconservative Republicans revolted and triggered his ouster last week. They were angry with McCarthy for forging an 11th-hour deal with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown. It came after McCarthy worked with Democrats and the White House earlier this year to avert a calamitous debt-default, which they viewed as a betrayal.Since his removal, McCarthy has insisted he would not have done it differently.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“I think it’s important whoever takes that job is willing to risk the job for doing what’s right for the American public,” McCarthy said, insisting he did what a speaker should do when faced with government closure: compromise with the minority party.Yet Jordan has shown repeatedly that he is willing to risk a debt default or government shutdown when the alternative means a compromise with Democrats. Jordan voted earlier this month against a measure that kept the government open.A fixture of rightwing media, the Ohio congressman is better known for his hardball tactics and loyalty to Donald Trump than his legislative accomplishments, of which there are few. Vanderbilt University’s Center for Effective Lawmaking ranked Jordan 217th out of 222 House Republicans in the 117th Congress. Compare that to Scalise who ranked 95th.In 2018, Jordan was instrumental in triggering the longest federal government shutdown in US history. Two years later, he helped amplify Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and voted against certifying the electoral college vote in the hours after the January 6 assault on the US Capitol. Over the last year, he has used his position as chair of the House judiciary committee to pursue politically-motivated investigations into Biden and his administration.Several of the party’s relatively moderate members, especially those who represent districts Biden won in 2020, are wary of where a Speaker Jordan might lead. But whether there is an appetite to find a more mainstream alternative remains to be seen.Congress is under pressure to respond to the war between Israel and Hamas, there is the question of additional funding for Ukraine as it attempts to repel invading Russian forces, and the stopgap bill to keep the government open is set to expire in mid-November.With Americans, and the world, watching, Republicans are poised to return to the House floor next week to once again attempt to elect a new speaker. But whether Jordan wins or loses, it all sets the stage for another combustible speakership. More

Donald Trump ally Jim Jordan has emerged as the next Republican House speaker nominee following an internal vote amongst House Republicans.The vote was reported to be 124-81, with 81 of the votes going to Georgia’s Republican representative Austin Scott.Jordan’s nomination follows a chaotic week in the House during which initial chief contender Steve Scalise dropped out on Thursday night after failing to secure enough support for a floor vote.Jordan will now attempt to garner unified support for a bid ahead of a floor vote across a fractioned Republican-led House that includes several hard-line rightwing extremists.In another House spectacle, Republican representative George Santos flew into a tirade on Friday with someone who appeared to be a protestor, saying that he “has no business” of being at the Capitol and called him a “terrorist sympathizer.”While yelling as cameras pointed in his face, Santos said, “What is happening in Israel is abhorrent. What is happening to the people of Israel should not be defended. Nobody defending Hamas should have any business in this building.”As Jordan prepares to rally support, calls from some Republicans to fall in line Earlier today, Georgia congressman Austin Scott ran against Jim Jordan in an internal Republican vote over who to support as the next House speaker. In a last-minute bid, Scott reportedly got 81 votes to Jordan’s 124.Now, Scott is publicly rallying support for Jordan, as the Ohio congressman and Trump ally tries to pick up the 65 additional votes he would need to secure the speakership next week.Axios is also reporting, citing one unnamed GOP source, that Kevin McCarthy and Patrick McHenry have also urged fellow Republicans to fall in line behind Jordan, something they reportedly did not do after House majority leader Steve Scalise failed to get to 217 votes yesterday.Tweeting it out: frustration among GOP lawmakers is very public Over the past few days, Georgia congressman Mike Collins’ social media posts have capture the anger and scorn at Republican infighting that many Republicans are feeling.Jim Jordan will work over the weekend to get more GOP support, CNN reports With an internal vote putting Jim Jordan 65 votes short of the number he needs to become speaker of the house, the Ohio congressman will spend the weekend trying to woo some of his opponents, CNN’s Manu Raju reports.Former GOP speaker Kevin McCarthy argued earlier today that the House should move forward and hold an official and public vote on whether to make Jordan speaker, even if internal votes have not shown that he has the support he needs to win that vote. Jordan, in contrast, suggested he did not want to move ahead to an official vote if it does not look like he could win.Stalemate math: why Jim Jordan’s latest vote count is bad news for himIf you’re following along and need a recap of why the House of Representatives remains without a leader, and largely unable to function, here’s a reminder of the vote count math.Last week, Kevin McCarthy, the GOP speaker of the house, was ousted from his speakership in a historic vote, in which a small group of Republicans who opposed McCarthy’s leadership joined together with the unified members of the Democratic party to vote McCarthy out.Since then, House Republicans have failed to find a new speaker candidate who can unify the party, including anti-McCarthy and pro-McCarthy factions. As the AP puts it:
With the House narrowly split 221-212, with two vacancies, any nominee can lose just a few Republicans before they fail to reach the 217 majority needed [to elect a speaker] in the face of opposition from Democrats, who will most certainly back their own leader, New York congressman Hakeem Jeffries.
After GOP house majority leader Steve Scalise failed to get the votes necessary to move forward yesterday, Trump’s pick, Ohio congressman Jim Jordan, has taken the lead. But in the most recent internal vote today, with Republicans asked if they would vote for Jordan officially on the House floor, he was reportedly 65 votes short of the number he needs to win.After more than a week of continued GOP infighting, Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman asked the obvious question: will Republicans ever agree on a candidate they can all support? Or will a GOP candidate have to get the backing of some Democratic members of congress in order to move forward?Republicans will leave for the weekend with Congress in limbo, no speaker in sight Punchbowl News, which has been ahead on the updates from Republicans’ internal negotiations, is reporting that Republicans have decided to give up for this week and go home.This means that the US House of Representatives will remain unable to conduct official business during a major geopolitical crisis.Falling short, Jim Jordan gets support from 152 Republicans in internal vote: reportIn the ongoing Republican battle over choosing the next Speaker of the House, Ohio congressman Jim Jordan, who earned Donald Trump’s endorsement for the role, is currently the leading contenderBut in an internal Republican vote today, meant to gauge party support before an official floor vote in the House, Jordan captured just 124 votes.So Republicans held another internal vote to gauge whether they were ready to hold a floor vote in support of making Jordan speaker. This time, Jordan picked up just 154 votes, far short of the 217 Republican votes he needs to be confident of winning an official vote to become speaker on the floor, PunchBowl’s Jake Sherman reports.House Republicans are currently carrying out a second ballot on Jim Jordan and whether they want a floor vote.“Will you support Jordan on the floor,” is the question, Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman reports.Donald Trump ally Jim Jordan has emerged as the next Republican House speaker nominee following an internal vote amongst House Republicans.The vote was reported to be 124-81, with 81 of the votes going to Georgia’s Republican representative Austin Scott.Jordan’s nomination follows a chaotic week in the House during which initial chief contender Steve Scalise dropped out on Thursday night after failing to secure enough support for a floor vote.Jordan will now attempt to garner unified support for a bid ahead of a floor vote across a fractioned Republican-led House that includes several hard-line rightwing extremists.Meanwhile, House Republicans are currently holding their internal speaker vote.Earlier, CNN’s Manu Raju asked former House speaker Kevin McCarthy whether chief contender Jim Jordan should “battle it out on the floor” if he is short of 217 votes, to which McCarthy replied, “Yes.”While in Philadelphia to deliver remarks on Bidenomics, Joe Biden revealed that he held a Zoom call for an hour and fifteen minutes with the families members of “all those Americans who are still unaccounted for” in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
“It’s gut-wrenching. I assured them my personal commitment to do everything possible to return every missing American to their families,” said Biden.
“We’re working around the clock to secure their release of Americans held by Hamas in close cooperation with Israel and our partners in the region and we’re not going to stop until we bring them home,” he added.
House Republicans Mike Rogers of Alabama and Carlos Gimenez of Florida have voiced their speakership support for former House speaker Kevin McCarthy. Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju whether the disarray could cost Republicans the majority, McCarthy, who said he will support Jim Jordan, responded:
“I think a lot of things have happened so far that make a real damage for us moving forward. I fear of different people retiring. I fear of having the resources to be able to do the job.”
House Republicans are set to hold a vote this afternoon on the House speaker.Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman reports that some Republicans are pushing for a floor vote today, despite the absence of many Democrats.Additionally, Steve Scalise’s supporters have told Sherman that they’ll “never vote” for Jim Jordan who is currently the top contender.Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy said today that he will support Jordan as the nominee.California’s Republican representative Darrell Issa has also thrown his support behind Jordan, saying, “Jim Jordan is the one you want in the toughest of fights. There’s a reason why Jim has been named to select committees, tasks forces, standing committees, and is a leading voice for the conference on the issues that matter most.” More

Republicans in the US House of Representatives scrambled to find a new speaker on Friday as Congressman Jim Jordan won an internal vote but with a margin that suggests the disarray is far from over.Jordan, endorsed by former president Donald Trump and ex-speaker Kevin McCarthy, defeated a surprise candidate, Austin Scott of Georgia, who had barely campaigned.According to media reports, Jordan’s won by 124 votes to 81, meaning that he gained only 25 votes since his defeat by Steve Scalise in a previous contest. Scalise subsequently abandoned his bid after failing to secure enough support for a floor vote. It remains far from certain whether Jordan can avoid a similar fate.Without a speaker, the House has been paralyzed for 10 days, unable to take up legislation including approving aid for Israel following the attacks by Hamas, a priority for many Republicans.Scalise, from Louisiana, announced his decision to drop out on Thursday, following a meeting in which it became clear he had no path to securing the 217 votes any winner would need.“There are still some people that have their own agendas,” Scalise said. “And I was very clear: we have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs. This country is counting on us to come back together. This House of Representatives needs a speaker, and we need to open up the House again.”The conference met again on Friday morning, seeking to determine whether Ohio congressman Jordan, 59, the judiciary committee chair, a hard-right bomb-thrower and a leading supporter of Trump, the presidential frontrunner, could cobble together enough votes to become speaker.He prevailed but must now seek the votes of 217 members of the full House, including Democrats, in a vote on the floor. Among those he will have to win over is Scalise ally Ann Wagner of Missouri, who told CNN on Thursday she was a “non-starter” on Jordan.Jordan is a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus. He was a key Trump ally before and after the January 6 insurrection who refused to cooperate with the House panel that investigated the attack. Liz Cheney, a former Wyoming congresswoman from an influential Republican family, had suggested the conference would make a dangerous mistake if it elected Jordan.“Jim Jordan was involved in Trump’s conspiracy to steal the election and seize power; he urged that [then vice-president Mike] Pence refuse to count lawful electoral votes,” Cheney, who was vice-chair of the January 6 committee, said on social media. “If [Republicans] nominate Jordan to be speaker, they will be abandoning the constitution. They’ll lose the House majority and they’ll deserve to.”Scott, 53 and the longest-serving House Republican from Georgia, if with a strikingly low profile in Washington, offered himself as a relatively moderate alternative to Jordan. “We are in Washington to legislate, and I want to lead a House that functions in the best interest of the American people,” he wrote on social media.In January 2021, in the aftermath of the deadly attack on Congress by Trump supporters, Scott was not among the 139 House Republicans (and eight senators) who voted to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory.He also rejected the move to eject Kevin McCarthy last week, dismissing the eight Republicans who made their own speaker the first ever removed from the role by his own party as “grifters” working “in the name of their own glory and fundraising”.Elsewhere on Friday, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, widely thought a possible candidate, ruled himself out of the running – “after much prayer and deliberation”. According to CNN another name widely touted in the corridors of Capitol Hill, Tom Emmer of Minnesota, was planning to stay as majority whip but could mount a challenge if Jordan could not muster the votes.As Republicans hold the House by a razor-thin majority, any candidate for speaker can only afford four defections if they are to win the gavel.Brian Mast, from Florida, acknowledged that Scalise’s downfall so soon after that of McCarthy had created bad blood in the party.“One of the obstacles is simply the fact that Kevin got thrown out [and] Steve wasn’t able to come to the floor,” Mast said. “Just that being the case, there’s going to be people that are upset and … possibly want to take it out on Jim just because that happened.”Patrick McHenry of North Carolina continues to serve as temporary speaker but his limited powers have left the chamber unable to work. Michael McCaul of Texas, the chair of the foreign relations committee, warned that the standoff was sending the wrong message to foreign powers such as Russia and China.“It’s a dangerous game that we’re playing,” McCaul said. “It just proves our adversaries right that democracy doesn’t work. Our adversaries are watching us.”The House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, continued to call on moderate Republicans to “break with the extremists” and form a bipartisan coalition.“We are ready, willing and able to do so,” Jeffries told PBS. “I know there are traditional Republicans who are good women and men who want to see government function but they are unable to do it within the ranks of their own conference, which is dominated by the extremist wing, and that’s why we continue to extend the hand of bipartisanship to them.”Republicans have shown no sign of entertaining that idea. Despite the chaos, though, some chose to laugh at their own mismanagement.Mike Collins, of Georgia, said: “The good thing is, at the rate we’re going, I should have my turn [to try to get] 217 [votes] by Halloween. Plenty of time to get my flyers ready.” More

The Department of Energy has selected seven projects for a $7bn program to launch the development and production of hydrogen fuel, the White House announced on Friday.The Biden administration says the program will constitute a major boost to the country’s nascent clean hydrogen industry, helping it achieve its climate goals. But many climate advocates are skeptical that it will actually help reduce emissions.Unlike coal, oil, and gas, when burned, hydrogen does not produce greenhouse gas emissions. It can be produced using carbon-free energy, but roughly 96% of it is currently derived from planet-heating fossil fuels – something the Biden administration hopes to change.“With this historic investment, the Biden-Harris administration is laying the foundation for a new, American-led industry that will propel the global clean energy transition,” said Jennifer Granholm, secretary of energy, in a statement.The money will be awarded to proposed hydrogen projects on the Gulf Coast, the mid-Atlantic, Appalachia, the midwest, the upper midwest, the Pacific north-west and California. Dozens of regions competed for funds from the $7b pot, set aside in the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. On Friday, Joe Biden will travel to Philadelphia to promote the mid-Atlantic hub.The Department of Energy says it expects the funding to help cut 25m metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, the equivalent of removing 5.5m gasoline-powered vehicles from the road each year.But some experts say the new initiative could amount to little more than greenwashing. Though researchers agree that truly clean hydrogen, produced without fossil fuels, can fulfill certain crucial roles in hard-to-decarbonize sectors, including in the production of synthetic fertilizers and steel, studies have found it to be much less efficient for home heating and transportation than technologies such as heat pumps and electric vehicles.“Direct electrification and batteries offer so much more, and much more quickly,” Robert Howarth, professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University, told the Guardian this year.Despite this, fossil fuel companies have spent years promotinghydrogen production as a catch-all climate solution. Some have used the hope of clean hydrogen to justify building more pipelines, claiming that they can be used to transport the climate-friendly fuel in the future.Climate advocates also note that hydrogen production, even when powered by renewable energy, can be highly water intensive. And since hydrogen is also a highly flammable and corrosive element, it can create risk for workers.Oil companies often say fossil fuels can power hydrogen production, so long any emissions produced are trapped with carbon capture and kept out of the atmosphere.But carbon capture technology is not currently available at commercial scale, and a 2021 paper co-authored by Haworth found that using methane gas paired with carbon capture to produce so-called “blue” hydrogen for home heating, could produce more climate-warming pollution burning gas, coal or diesel oil.“At face value – and according to the Biden playbook – the hydrogen hub grants aim to help transition the United States to clean energy,” said Marion Gee, co-executive director at the Climate Justice Alliance, a national coalition of grassroots environmental justice groups. “In reality, they amount to another corporate scam, one that preserves and extends the life of the extractive economy and prevents the frontline communities most impacted by climate disaster from having input.”Julie McNamara, deputy policy director of the science and climate advocacy organization Union of Concerned Scientists, said the administration should impose stricter regulations on the hydrogen hubs to boost community input and ensure only completely fossil-free projects receive funding.“Concerningly, today’s H2Hubs announcement advances multiple projects premised on fossil fuel-based hydrogen production and risky hydrogen end uses,” she said. “Billions of taxpayer dollars are at risk of perpetuating fossil fuel industry injustices and harms while subsidizing fossil fuel greenwashing.” More

The US must support Israel “no ands, ifs or buts”, the former US president George W Bush said as he advocated for tough action in response to violence by Hamas which many observers have likened to the 9/11 attacks on US soil, after which Bush led his country and much of the Middle East into 20 years of war that cost millions of lives.In an interview with the historian Mark Updegrove, reported by Axios, the 43rd president, now 77, was asked for his thoughts on the attacks that have killed more than 1,100, prompting Israeli air strikes that have killed more than 1,500 in Gaza amid expectations of a ground invasion, with more than 100 Israeli hostages taken.“My thoughts were that we need to support Israel,” Bush said. “No ands, ifs or buts.“This is an unprovoked attack by terrorists, people willing to kill innocent people to achieve an objective. Hamas is a political organisation. They do not reflect the majority of the Palestinians. Don’t be surprised if Israel takes whatever action is necessary to defend herself. And it’s gonna be ugly for a while.”On 11 September 2001, Islamist terrorists hijacked four airliners, crashing two into the World Trade Center in New York, one into the Pentagon in Virginia and one into a field in Pennsylvania. The death toll was 2,977.In October 2001, the US invaded Afghanistan, which had sheltered leaders of al-Qaida, the group behind the attacks. In March 2003, US and allied troops invaded Iraq, which Bush sought without evidence to tie to 9/11. The US withdrew from Iraq in 2011 and Afghanistan 10 years later after a huge cost in human life, the vast majority civilians.The Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University puts the US death toll in post-9/11 war operations at 7,057 and the number of wounded far higher. It says 30,177 US veterans of the 9/11 wars have died by suicide.According to the Imperial War Museum, 454 Britons were killed in Afghanistan and 179 in Iraq. Other US allies also lost troops. The toll on regional allies was huge: the Watson Institute says approximately 177,000 “uniformed Afghans, Pakistanis, Iraqis and Syrian allies [had] died as of November 2019”.Of the civilian death toll related to US operations after 9/11, it says: “Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and Pakistan have taken a tremendous human toll.“As of September 2021, an estimated 432,093 civilians in these countries [had] died violent deaths as a result of the wars. As of May 2023, an estimated 3.6-3.8 million people [had] died indirectly in post-9/11 war zones. The total death toll in these war zones could be at least 4.5-4.7 million and counting … civilian deaths have also resulted from US post-9/11 military operations in Somalia and other countries.”Nonetheless, in conversation with Updegrove in Santa Barbara, California, Bush held a hard line for a military response to the Hamas attacks. For Israel, he said, responding would be “tough … you know, going out in the neighbourhoods of Gaza is gonna be tough.“[Israel has] a very seasoned military but they just called up 300,000 reservists … and to the extent they’d be put in harm’s way it’s gonna be awfully difficult on the prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] but he’s got to do what he’s got to do.“You’re dealing with cold-blooded killers. And you can make all kinds of excuses why they are but they are and [Netanyahu’s] job is to protect his country. And anyway, we’ll find out what he’s made of.”Observers say Israel’s response, inevitably killing civilians, risks exchanging one war crime for another.Bush faced similar accusations after 9/11.In January 2002, in his State of the Union address, he coined the phrase “axis of evil”, to describe Iran, Iraq and North Korea. In California on Thursday, Updegrove asked to what extent Bush linked Iran to the Hamas attacks.“I don’t know,” Bush said. “I don’t get the intelligence anymore. Their stated objective is the destruction of Israel. That’s what the leaders say. And in this world, you got to take what they say seriously. And Iran has been pretty good at using surrogate terrorist groups, Hezbollah [in Lebanon] being the key word of course.“… I am kind of a hardliner on all this stuff. I never thought we should try to accommodate Iran, in any way, shape or form … these are the kind of people that if you show softness, they will take advantage of it.”Saying the US should “stand squarely with Netanyahu” and praising Joe Biden for doing so, Bush said: “The immediate future doesn’t look very bright. Particularly if you’re on the Hamas side. It’s going to be chaotic.“In a democracy, the people’s voices matter. And there’s gonna be a weariness. You watch. The world is going to be, ‘OK, let’s negotiate. Israel’s got to negotiate.’ They are not going to negotiate. These people have played their cards. They want to kill as many Israelis as they can. Negotiating with killers is not an option for the elected government of Israel.“And so we’re just gonna have to remain steadfast. But it’s not going to take long for people to say, ‘This is going on too long. Surely there’s a way to settle this, with negotiations. Both sides are guilty.’ My view is one side is guilty, and it’s not Israel.”His comments were met with applause. More