US Politics

From 3h agoThe House of Representatives has started its debate ahead of the chamber’s final vote on the debt ceiling bill.We will be bringing you all the latest details.Transport secretary Pete Buttigieg has weighed in on the debate surrounding the debt ceiling deal, saying that “no one’s going to get everything they want when you have a negotiation like this.”During an interview with NBC host Chuck Todd on Meet The Press, Todd asked Buttigieg what responsibility he believes Democrats have to pass the bill for president Joe Biden.Buttigieg replied:
“Obviously, we all would have loved to see a clean bill that separated the budget conversation from the default conversation but also we’re in a moment of divided government where no one side, no one party is going to get everything that they want…
No one’s going to get everything they want when you have a negotiation like this, but this is one that we believe in that we think is the right way forward that also allows us to move on to the next conversation, putting the terrible and unacceptable specter default behind us.”
When asked whether Congress and the Biden administration are “mainstreaming” using debt ceiling as a budget negotiation tool, Buttigieg replied:
“Obviously, we didn’t ask for this situation that some of the more extreme voices in the House GOP put this country into … most reasonable people could agree, the best way to handle the budget negotiations is through the regular order process that the law and the Constitution set out.”
Donald Trump has promised to strip away birthright US citizenship if he gets elected into office again.In a video posted onto social media yesterday, Trump said if he becomes president, he will sign an executive order that will make sure children of undocumented migrants “will not receive automatic US citizenship.”He added that his order “will “choke off a major incentive for continued illegal immigration, deter more migrants from coming and encourage many of the aliens Joe Biden has unlawfully let into our country to go.”Trump’s reiteration of birthright removal comes 125 years after the supreme court settled the issue.During his first presidential run he condemned the right by inaccurately saying, “We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States … with all of those benefits. It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. And it has to end,” as over 30 countries currently offer birthright citizenship.Martin Pengelly has more:The House is now in recess subject to the call of the chair.The House will reconvene again at 7:15pm for one hour of debate that will be evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats before voting on the bill.The special counsel investigating former president Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results is looking into Trump’s firing of a cybersecurity official whose office called the election “the most secure in American history,” according to the New York Times.Reuters reports:The US special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat is examining his firing of a cybersecurity official whose office said the vote was secure, the New York Times said.Jack Smith, who is also investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents, has subpoenaed former Trump White House staffers as well as Christopher Krebs, who oversaw the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) under Trump, the Times said, citing unnamed sources.Trump fired Krebs in November 2020, days after Cisa issued a statement calling the 3 November election “the most secure in American history”, as the then-president made his unsupported accusations that the vote was rigged.Cisa, part of the Department of Homeland Security, works to protect US elections. Krebs told associates at the time he expected to be fired.Representatives for Smith declined to comment on the Times report. Representatives for Krebs and Trump could not be reached for comment.For more, click here:The debt ceiling bill has passed the first procedural hurdle in the House, with 52 Democrats bailing out the Republican lawmakers.In addition to 52 Democrats voting yes for the rule governing debate in the chamber, 189 Republicans voted yes. Voting no were 158 Democrats and 29 Republicans.One more hour of debate is left before the final voting round commences later tonight.Donald Trump was captured on tape acknowledging that he kept a classified Pentagon document regarding a potential attack on Iran, CNN reports.According to report, federal prosecutors obtained the recording which was made during a meeting in summer 2021 at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.Sources familiar with the matter told CNN that Trump made comments that suggested that he would like to share the information but that he was aware of his post-presidency limitations surrounding classified records.The report also cited sources saying that the meeting attendees did not have security clearance. Attendees included two people working on the autobiography of Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, in addition to former Trump aides including communications specialist Margo Martin.According to sources, the recording is an “important” piece of evidence in a potential case against Trump over his handling over classified documents following his presidency.Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell echoed similar sentiments alongside Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, saying that he will support the debt ceiling bill once it reaches the Senate chamber.“House Republicans’ unity gave them the upper hand, they used it to secure a much needed step in the right direction. When this agreement reaches the Senate, I’ll be proud to support it without delay,” said McConnell.Texas governor Greg Abbott has declared John Scott as the state’s temporary attorney general following the state House’s vote to impeach Republican attorney general Ken Paxton.The decision to impeach Paxton comes as a result of years of allegations including corruption, bribery, unfitness for office and abuse of public trust.According to the Texas Tribune, investigators testified at the state House general investigating committee, saying that they believed Paxton wrongly used official funds and abused his authority to assist a friend and financial backer.In response to the impeachment, Paxton said it was an attempt to “overthrow the will of the people and disenfranchise the voters of our state” and that the charges are based on “hearsay and gossip, parroting long-disproven claims,” the Associated Press reports.Meanwhile, Abbott, who has largely been silent during the whole ordeal, said in a statement, “John Scott has the background and experience needed to step in as a short-term interim Attorney General during the time the Attorney General has been suspended from duty,” the Associated Press added.New York Republican representative Marcus Molinaro hailed the tentative bill, calling it “an agreement [that] will move this nation forward.”
“The Fiscal Responsibility Act takes important action, not at all to punish our most vulnerable. In fact, it takes real steps to ensure those most vulnerable among us are protected and served and have access to the support that they deserve, and by the way, find their way to work.
This bill hold states like New York and others accountable for waving restrictions, expanding access, not to help the most vulnerable, but to bloat and to grow and to increase state government. Because of action states have taken, the most vulnerable are left to fend for themselves…
States like New York increased their infrastructure, their government and leveraged federal taxpayer dollars, not to benefit those who need the help the most but to benefit state government. And this bill starts a very important step of holding states accountable…
We have an opportunity here to make a measurable difference in the lives of those who struggle the most. And this is an effort to ensure that that happens.”
Texas Republican representative Chip Roy lashed out against Democrats over the tentative bill during the House debate, saying:
“I don’t wanna hear a whole hell of a lot about what we’re doing to devastate American families with rampant inflation, because we keep spending money we don’t have.
To my colleagues on this side of the aisle, my beef isn’t that I don’t understand the struggle with the negotiators against that kind of reasoning. My beef is that you cut a deal that shouldn’t have been cut…”
The House of Representatives has started its debate ahead of the chamber’s final vote on the debt ceiling bill.We will be bringing you all the latest details. More

Climate activists have stepped up protests over the inclusion of a provision to speed up a controversial gas pipeline’s completion in the deal to raise the debt ceiling as Congress prepares to vote on Wednesday, aiming criticism at Democrats Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin.The pipeline project has long been championed by Manchin, the West Virginia senator who was the top recipient of fossil fuel industry contributions during the 2022 election cycle.Activists, led by the advocacy group Climate Defiance and supported by Food and Water Watch, Climate Families NYC, Center for Popular Democracy, Sunrise Movement NYC and others, rallied outside the Senate majority leader home in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood on Tuesday evening, chanting “Schumer, stop the dirty deal” and demanding the $6.6bn Mountain Valley Pipeline be stripped from the legislation.Schumer has also received donations from one of the companies behind the pipeline.The protests came hours after nearly 200 groups sent a letter to Schumer and members of Congress remove the pipeline from the deal.“The unscrupulous brinkmanship on display in Washington is endangering our very future,” Eric Weltman, senior New York organizer at the environmental advocacy group Food and Water Watch, said in a statement. “Our climate and communities are not for sale – any deal that holds the economy and climate hostage for the profit of dirty energy donors is a betrayal.”Last year, Manchin failed to make the approval of the pipeline part of the Inflation Reduction Act. But in exchange for his crucial vote for the legislation, he secured a commitment from Schumer to pass a separate bill to expedite the pipeline’s construction and help fast-track the construction of other energy infrastructure. The permitting legislation failed at the hands of Senate Republicans who were unhappy with the compromise.NextEra Energy, one company behind the Mountain Valley pipeline, is a major contributor to Manchin and Schumer. In the 2022 cycle, the company’s employees and political action committees gave $60,000 to Manchin and a stunning $302,000 to Schumer, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.Food and Water Watch is also doing daily phone banks and has set up a dedicated hotline to Schumer’s office. Meanwhile, Appalachian Voices is holding three rallies at Senator Mark Warner’s Virginia office pushing for a debt deal that does not include the pipeline.“President Biden made a colossal error in negotiating a deal that sacrifices the climate and working families,” said Jean Su, energy justice program director at the national environmental organization Center for Biological Diversity.House and Senate lawmakers from both parties have also filed amendments to strip the Mountain Valley pipeline from the debt ceiling deal. A group of House Democrats from Virginia have led the push to cut the provision.Democratic senator Tim Kaine plans to file a similar Senate amendment.“Senator Kaine is extremely disappointed by the provision of the bill to greenlight the controversial Mountain Valley pipeline in Virginia, bypassing the normal judicial and administrative review process every other energy project has to go through,” a Kaine spokesperson said in a statement. “This provision is completely unrelated to the debt ceiling matter.”Environmentalists have spent a decade fighting the construction of the $6.6bn Mountain Valley pipeline, which is intended to carry natural gas 300 miles from the Marcellus shale fields in West Virginia to Virginia, crossing nearly 1,000 streams and wetlands. A report from Oil Change International last year found the project would result in the emission of 89m metric tons of planet-heating pollution annually, or the equivalent of building 26 new coal power plants.The pipeline has long faced scrutiny in courts. Since construction began in 2018, the Mountain Valley pipeline has been cited for hundreds of violations in West Virginia and Virginia. Last month, a US court of appeals struck down certain permits for the project on the grounds they would violate the Clean Water Act.The Biden administration has in recent months signed off on several necessary federal permits for the Mountain Valley pipeline. But the debt ceiling legislation would go even further by shielding the project from future litigation.“Singling out the Mountain Valley pipeline for approval in a vote about our nation’s credit limit is an egregious act,” said Peter Anderson, Virginia policy director with Appalachian Voices, an activist group which has fought the project for years.“By attempting to suspend the rules for a pipeline company that has repeatedly polluted communities’ water and flouted the conditions in its permits, the president and Congress would deny basic legal protections, procedural fairness and environmental justice to communities along the pipeline’s path.”Climate groups, led by the Virginia and West Virginia organization Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights are also planning to rally in front of the White House next week. More

The former New Jersey governor Chris Christie will reportedly announce a second run for president next week, seeking to take the political fight over the 2024 Republican nomination to Donald Trump.The news site Axios first said Christie, 60, would launch his campaign in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Tuesday.Trump dominates Republican primary polling, leading his closest challenger, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, by more than 30 points in most polling averages.DeSantis, who endured a glitch-filled campaign launch on Twitter last week, is pursuing the same hard-right supporters as Trump.Other candidates, including the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, the South Carolina senator Tim Scott and the former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, have sought to distance themselves from the two men but have not made an impact.Citing members of Christie’s campaign team, Axios said he planned to offer Republicans “a happy warrior who speaks his mind, takes risks and is happy to punch Donald Trump in the nose”.The former governor aims to run “a national race … a non-traditional campaign … mixing it up in the news cycle and engaging Trump”, the site quoted a Christie adviser as saying.The adviser added: “Will not be geographic dependent, but nimble.”A political heavyweight with a New Jersey brawling style, Christie rose to national prominence after winning election in 2009 but suffered in Republican eyes after being photographed working with Barack Obama in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, during the 2012 presidential election.In 2015 he left office under a cloud, amid the Bridgegate scandal about alleged political payback.Christie ran for the Republican nomination in 2016 but aside from brutally taking down the Florida senator Marco Rubio on the debate stage, failed to make an impression. He quickly endorsed Trump and was by his side as he won the nomination and then the White House. But Christie lost his role planning the Trump transition, he said because Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, resented Christie’s role in putting Kushner’s father in jail.Christie proved unable to quit Trump, advising him through the 2020 election. He finally broke with him after the deadly January 6 assault on Congress.According to Axios, Christie now hopes to be “joyful” on the campaign trail, aiming to hit “a more hopeful note aimed at America’s ‘exhausted majority’”.Assessing Christie’s hopes, the Washington Post writer Aaron Blake said: “Say what you will about Chris Christie; he is a smart man … He must know that he has precious little chance in 2024 … and while he has insisted this isn’t just a kamikaze mission to take down Donald Trump, it’s difficult to see how it could amount to much else.”Christie is expected to soon be joined in the race by Doug Burgum, the North Dakota governor, and Mike Pence, the former Indiana governor and vice-president to Trump.Polling has shown the potential for a large primary field to split the vote and hand Trump the nomination without a majority, as happened in 2016.Bill Kristol, a conservative commentator and Trump critic, said: “Chris Christie behaved reprehensibly from 2016 through 2020. Also, I wish him well in his efforts to stop Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis from being the Republican nominee in 2024.”Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican congressman from Illinois turned anti-Trump conservative, said that though he appreciated “Christie’s newfound outrage, it’s important to remember he took down Rubio for Trump then dutifully endorsed him with googly eyes.” More

The New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she would vote against the debt limit deal on Wednesday night, as the 5 June deadline looms.On Tuesday, the Hill said the office of one of the most high-profile progressives in the US House confirmed she would not support the controversial agreement to raise the debt ceiling, which was agreed by Republicans under the speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and the Biden White House.Ocasio-Cortez, widely known as AOC, had previously signaled that she would not support the deal.“My red line has already been surpassed,” Ocasio-Cortez said last week. “I mean, where do we start? [No] clean debt ceiling. Work requirements. Cuts to programs. I would never – I would never – vote for that.”Several far-right Republicans have also opposed the deal, saying it does not go far enough to cut spending.Support from Democrats will probably be needed for the bill to pass the House on Wednesday night. But progressive support is split, as some lawmakers raise concerns about work requirements added to welfare programs.“Some number of progressives, including myself, lean no,” Greg Casar, the Progressive caucus whip and a Democrat from Texas, told Axios.The progressive caucus chair, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, said on a Tuesday press call the bill contained measures progressives were “seriously concerned about”.“There will be real harmful impacts for poor people and working people,” Jayapal said, noting that several members had “serious concerns about the environmental justice implications of this bill”.Other progressives emphasized the need to avoid a default.“You have to deal with reality in politics,” the Tennessee representative Steve Cohen, a progressive caucus member, told Axios, adding that concerns about the bill’s contents are “totally secondary to keeping the world’s economy … on track”.The compromise announced on Sunday would suspend debt-limit negotiations through 1 January 2025 and raise the US debt limit from $31.4tn.The deal includes changes to federal assistance programs, including new work requirements for food stamps access. Unspent Covid-19 aid will be returned to the government.Several Democrats have criticized Biden for negotiating with Republicans under threat of a default. More

Pride Month is about to get started and you know what that means: the shops are full of rainbow flags and what the Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC) has called “demonic paraphernalia”. As insiders know, Clause 3.4 of the Gay Agenda stipulates that during the month of June homosexuals of the world must unite to brainwash the masses and convert innocent heterosexuals to our dastardly ways.For the last few years corporations have happily gone along with all this. They’ve made a big song and dance about how they value things like inclusivity and diversity and human rights. They’ve spoken about how important kindness is. They’ve kowtowed to LGBTQ+ people who have made unreasonable demands that they be treated like people. They’ve talked about dangerous things like respect and acceptance.Now, however, conservatives are fighting back and demanding corporations embrace good old-fashioned bigotry again. The last few weeks have seen a wave of hate campaigns against brands who have aligned themselves with the LGBTQ+ community in even the smallest of ways. The unhinged backlash over Bud Light sending a few personalised cans of beer to the transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney kicked things off. Politicians like Ron DeSantis eagerly weighing in on the manufactured controversy added fuel to the fire. Bud Light’s bungled response to the hate campaign, which appeared to pander to the right, made things even worse.Seemingly emboldened by their success in intimidating Bud Light, conservatives have taken on new targets including Target. Last week CPAC attacked the US retailer because it was selling some products designed by the trans creator Erik Carnell’s brand Abprallen. What exactly was the issue? One of Abprallen’s products is a T-shirt with the slogan “Satan respects pronouns”. According to a statement issued by CPAC this obviously tongue-in-cheek joke meant Target had partnered “with a Satanic designer in promoting demonic paraphernalia”.The Satan T-shirt, it should be noted, wasn’t actually for sale at Target. According to the Daily Dot, the Abprallen merchandise stocked by Target for Pride consisted of an adult T-shirt with the slogan “cure transphobia, not trans people”, a bag featuring a rainbow and the caption “too queer for here”, and a fanny pack that reads “we belong here”. All of which had the folk at CPAC clutching their pearls in horror.It’s weird that they have the time to devote to this hate campaign, by the way, because the group has its own internal issues to deal with: Matt Schlapp, the head of CPAC, was recently accused of groping a male aide. “Matt Schlapp of the CPAC grabbed my junk and pummeled it at length,” his accuser said in a video. Schlapp has denied this, but his accuser is proceeding with a lawsuit seeking millions in damages for alleged sexual battery and defamation.As well as being shocked by phrases like “we belong here”, conservatives lost their collective minds over the fact that Target was selling a swimsuit geared towards trans women. “Did you know @Target also sells ‘tuck-friendly’ bathing suits for children in the Pride section? Well now you do,” a rightwing Twitter account with nearly 291,000 followers wrote. This was an outright lie: the swimsuit wasn’t for kids but that didn’t stop people melting down about it.“Melting down” is putting it lightly. Conservatives went a lot further than just getting angry online or organizing a boycott. “Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work,” Target said in a statement about the 2023 Pride collection. The threat to employees was so pronounced that Target has removed some of the Pride merchandise in response.Target was in a difficult position and needed to ensure its staff was kept safe. Still, it’s incredibly depressing to see big brands cave to violent intimidation campaigns. Conservatives have been very clear about what they want to achieve from all of this: they want to make corporations terrified to align themselves with the LGBTQ+ community ever again.“The goal is to make ‘Pride’ toxic for brands,” Matt Walsh, a rightwing commentator, tweeted last week. “If they decide to shove this garbage in our face, they should know that they’ll pay a price. It won’t be worth whatever they think they’ll gain. First Bud Light and now Target. Our campaign is making progress. Let’s keep it going.”Unfortunately, their hate campaign is still going strong. Last week, the Los Angeles Dodgers were bullied into disinviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag charity group, from a Pride event. (The Dodgers then apologized and re-invited them.) Now the outdoor apparel company North Face seems to have become the latest target. The outdoor company has been accused of “preying” on children by having – wait for it because this is really shocking – kid-sized merchandise in rainbow colours. They also featured a drag queen in a Pride advert.North Face has so far refused to pander to the bigots and has stood beside the LGBTQ+ community. “We recognize the opportunity our brand has to shape the future of the outdoors and we want that future to be a more accepting and loving place,” the company wrote in a comment on its Pride post.I hope North Face stays steadfast, and that other companies follow its lead. Certainly brands need to have a plan in place for what happens when the rightwing mob comes for them. Because the mob will come for them: what’s happening right now isn’t just a bunch of bigots getting angry; it’s a coordinated intimidation campaign. I don’t think this can be stressed enough. The same people who go on about free speech are actively trying to shut others up. The people obsessed with cancel culture are trying to cancel anyone who isn’t like them.Companies can choose to stand with hate or they can choose to stand with love. Their LGBTQ+ consumers, and anyone who cares about equality, will be watching.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist More

Members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus have attacked the proposed spending cuts in the debt ceiling bill as woefully inadequate, and vowed to oppose the legislation when it hits the floor.“We had the time to act, and this deal fails – fails completely,” Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, chair of the Freedom Caucus, said on Tuesday. “We will do everything in our power to stop it and end it now.”The House is expected to hold a final vote on the bill on Wednesday, while other members of the Freedom Caucus continue to denounce the compromise brokered by the Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and President Joe Biden over the weekend.The compromise bill, formally named the Fiscal Responsibility Act, would suspend the debt ceiling until 2025, allowing the US to avoid a default that could reap devastating consequences on the American economy. The treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has warned that the federal government will be unable to pay its bills starting on 5 June unless Congress takes action.In addition to the debt ceiling suspension, the bill includes government spending cuts and expanded work requirements demanded by McCarthy.“There has been a lot of hard work and a lot of late nights that have gone into changing the spending trajectory in this town,” Steve Scalise, the House majority leader, told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday night. “For once in a long, long time, Washington is actually going to spend less money next year than it is this year, and that’s a reform that all of us can support.”Republicans on the House rules committee voted late on Tuesday to advance the bill, clearing the way for a final vote on Wednesday.During that hearing, two Freedom Caucus members who sit on the panel, Chip Roy of Texas and Ralph Norman of South Carolina, attempted to block the legislation from advancing, but they were outnumbered by their colleagues. The final vote in the rules committee was 7-6 to advance the bill, with four Democrats joining Roy and Norman in opposing the measure.“The Republican conference right now has been torn asunder,” Roy said ahead of the hearing. “Not one Republican should vote for this deal. It is a bad deal.”But the Republican chair of the rules committee, Tom Cole of Oklahoma, defended the bill as the party’s best possible option with Democrats in control of the White House and the Senate.“Today’s bill is a product of compromise that reflects the realities of a divided government,” Cole said at the hearing. “In a true negotiation, you always get less than you want and give up more than you’d like.”Despite reassurances from McCarthy and his allies, it remains unclear how many House Republicans will support the proposal. In addition to the Freedom Caucus, some of the more centrist members of the House Republican conference like representatives Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Wesley Hunt of Texas said they would vote against the bill.Dan Bishop of North Carolina, a member of the Freedom Caucus, predicted that most of the House Republican conference would oppose the legislation, forcing McCarthy to rely on Democrats to pass the bill.“This is a career-defining vote for every Republican,” Bishop said Tuesday. “This bill, if it passes, must pass with less than half of the Republican conference.”The House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, underscored the reality that Republicans must provide most of the 218 votes needed to get the bill approved.“This is an agreement that, at their insistence, they negotiated with the administration,” Jeffries said. “It’s our full and complete expectation that they are going to produce at least 150 votes.”Some House Democrats also appeared conflicted over the compromise measure on Tuesday, bemoaning the proposed spending cuts while emphasizing the crucial need to increase the government’s borrowing limit before 5 June.“There are some pros to the bill. The chief one is that it raises the debt limit to 2025 and ensures that we avoid a Republican-led catastrophic default,” Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said on Tuesday.“I don’t want to minimize the challenges with the bill. There will be real harmful impacts for poor people and working people,” she added.Jayapal said her team was in the process of conducting a whip count to assess where progressive members stand on the debt ceiling bill, but it appears certain that the legislation will win bipartisan support in the House, as the center-left New Democrat Coalition has endorsed the proposal.If the bill passes the House, it will move on to the Senate, where lawmakers will have only a few days to approve the proposal before the 5 June default deadline. Even if McCarthy’s compromise can become law, the speaker’s troubles may be just beginning.Members of the Freedom Caucus, some of whom initially resisted McCarthy’s speakership bid in January, toyed with the idea of ousting him depending on the outcome of Wednesday’s vote.Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida told Newsmax on Tuesday, “If a majority of Republicans are against a piece of legislation, and you use Democrats to pass it, that would immediately be a black-letter violation of the deal we had with McCarthy to allow his ascent to the speakership, and it would likely trigger an immediate motion to vacate.” More

Whether DeSantis has it in him to wrest Republican playground bragging rights from Trump remains to be seen, as David Smith reports from Washington.The Guardian Weekly has a split cover this week, depending where in the world you get the magazine.Our North America edition puts the cover focus on the US race for the Republican presidential nomination. Ron DeSantis finally confirmed his candidacy, despite a nightmare launch on social media platform Twitter, which means the Florida governor is already playing catch-up with his arch-rival, Donald Trump.To capture the schoolyard-rumble feel of the race, illustrator Neil Jamieson tried to channel his 10- and 13-year-old kids who, he says, love to press each other’s buttons. “This cover leans in to the work of my hero George Lois, the legendary American creative director of Esquire whose acerbic wit and eye for composition redefined the American magazine cover in the 1960s,” adds Neil.Whether DeSantis has it in him to wrest the Republican playground bragging rights from Trump remains to be seen, as David Smith reports from Washington.For readers elsewhere, the cover reflects the record figures of people migrating to Britain – a subject that affects the lives of many around the world, more recently from countries such as Hong Kong, India and Ukraine, to name but a few.As our big story explores, one of the main talking points is not that the numbers are so high but why, when migration is such a dynamic and enduring reality of the modern world, successive Conservative governments have perpetuated the simplistic notion that UK immigration can easily be reduced.Home affairs editor Rajeev Syal breaks down the figures, while south Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen finds out why Indians studying abroad are so keen on British universities. Finally, Daniel Trilling outlines how the UK’s controversial policy to stop small migrant boats crossing the Channel is partly inspired by Greece’s hardline crackdown, one area in which post-Brexit Britain seems happy to emulate its European neighbours.If you’ve wondered what inspires people to stand on one leg blindfolded for hours, or to attempt the loudest burp, don’t miss Imogen West-Knights’ long read on how the weird and wonderful Guinness World Records is still thriving in the digital age.In Culture, as the TV series Succession ended this week, writer Jesse Armstrong discusses the show’s genesis and the real-life characters who inspired its fearsome media mogul protagonist, Logan Roy.Get 12 issues of the Guardian Weekly magazine for just £12 (UK offer only) More

From 3h agoThe House rules committee has started debating the debt ceiling bill, a compromise between Biden and McCarthy that has garnered growing opposition from Republican lawmakers.The stream of the debate is available at the top of the liveblog.Democrats and Republicans contended with the debt ceiling deal reached over the long weekend. Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy insisted the deal would be “easy” for his party to support, while right-wing members blasted it.House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, said his party is “committed to making sure we do our part in avoiding default”.Points of contention included expanded work requirements for long-term recipients of food stamp benefits. Republicans said that the new work requirements would save money, and help get poor Americans back on their feet – despite studies indicating otherwise (work requirements don’t increase work or earnings). Still, the White House said provisions in the deal that access to Snap for veterans and unhoused Americans would offset work requirement expansions.Here’s more information about the deal and next steps:Shalanda Young, Biden’s top negotiator on this debt deal, told reporters that the expanded access to food stamps for the unhoused and veterans could “offset” the number who might lose coverage due to new qualifications that the Republicans pushed for.Food stamps have been a big point of division between Democrats and Republicans, and the new work requirements to receive Snap benefits is a point of contention for many on the left. Ultimately, if it would save the federal government any money – as Republicans claim it would.Under the deal, so-called able-bodied adults who are 54 and younger and do not have children must work or participate in work training programs to get access to food stamps for an extended period. The current work requirements apply to those age 49 and under, and anti-poverty advocates said the changes could disproportionately impact poor, older Americans.The White House, however, estimates that since many food stamp recipients are unhoused, veterans, or both – expanded access for those groups could ultimately mean that the number of people who are exempt from work requirements will be relatively unchanged.California representative Joe Neguse got into into a disagreement with Missouri representative Jason Smith about whether the Biden administration submitted the budget late, despite Republicans not submitting a budget at all.“Only in the rules committee could the witness lay blame at the president for being a few weeks late in submitting his budget, when his party hasn’t submitted a budget, period,” said Neguse.Neguse added that Republicans submitted a bill, but not a budget.Before the disagreement, Neguse doubled down on previous comments that the current debt ceiling crisis is Republican’s fault.“This is a manufactured crisis. No question about it. House Republicans are in control. You have the gavels. You’re in the majority. And the fact that we’re a mere few days from potential default because the majority decided to engage in this hostage taking … I think is a dangerous harbinger for how this body may function into the future.”Schumer has said that he will bring the debt ceiling agreement to the floor “as quickly as possible” to get votes before the default deadline of 5 June.From CBS News’ Natalie Brand:More Democrats are saying the bipartisan debt agreement is a win as several assistance programs were not cut in the compromise.“There are, however, things to celebrate in this bill because of what is not in it. The sort of damage that we saw from the Republican partisan bill that passed here just a month ago,” said Pennsylvania representative Brendan Francis Boyle, who noted that programs such as veterans healthcare were not affected by the latest agreement.Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell signaled his support for the debt ceiling agreement, in comments made Tuesday.“The speaker’s deal secures reductions in discretionary spending,” said McConnell. “Speaker McCarthy & House Republicans deserve our thanks,” McConnell added.From Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio:Representative Jason Smith of Missouri criticized the Biden administration for taking too long to negotiate the debt ceiling bill.“The American people didn’t have to wait those 100 days [Biden] chose to sit on the sidelines. But we have an agreement now and an opportunity to deliver some big wins for the American people,” said Smith, referring to the stalemate over the bill that took place across several months.Meanwhile the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, has said he supports the bipartisan debt ceiling agreement, despite opposition on both sides.From Politico’s Burgess Everett:McGovern also called out Republicans attacking benefits, such as food assistance, as a part of the debt ceiling agreement.“These adjustments will make poorer, older Americans hungrier. Full stop.”Republicans included work requirements for adults receiving food-assistance benefits, requiring adults under the age of 54 to work at least 20 hours a week to qualify.Ranking member Jim McGovern is currently speaking on the debt limit agreement, calling out Republicans for not negotiating on the agreement months ago.“Frankly we should not be here. We should’ve taken care of this months ago,” said McGovern.“This represents an all-time high in recklessness and stupidity.”The House rules committee has started debating the debt ceiling bill, a compromise between Biden and McCarthy that has garnered growing opposition from Republican lawmakers.The stream of the debate is available at the top of the liveblog.Utah representative Chris Stewart will resign from the House due to his wife’s health issues, according to sources familiar with the matter.The Salt Lake Tribune first reported that Stewart will probably step down from office as early as this week, shrinking the Republican majority in the House.The Tribune did not confirm what health issues Stewart’s wife is dealing with.Stewart was first elected in 2012 and is serving his sixth term in the House. Many believed Stewart would leave his House seat to unseat Mitt Romney as US senator for Utah, the Tribune reported.Stewart’s departure will kick off a special election in the House, organized by the Utah governor’s office.Here’s an exclusive from the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell, as Trump’s lawyer says that he was steered away from searching Trump’s office for secret records, where the FBI later found the most sensitive materials.
Donald Trump’s lawyer tasked with searching for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after the justice department issued a subpoena told associates that he was waved off from searching the former president’s office, where the FBI later found the most sensitive materials anywhere on the property.
The lawyer, Evan Corcoran, recounted that several Trump aides had told him to search the storage room because that was where all the materials that had been brought from the White House at the end of Trump’s presidency ended up being deposited.
Corcoran found 38 classified documents in the storage room. He then asked whether he should search anywhere else, like Trump’s office, but was steered away, he told associates. Corcoran never searched the office and told prosecutors the 38 papers were the extent of the material at Mar-a-Lago.
The assertion that there were no classified documents elsewhere at the property proved to be wrong when the FBI seized 101 classified documents months afterwards, including from the office, which was found to be where the most highly classified documents had been located.
Read the full article here.Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has been diagnosed with dementia, the the Carter Center announced Tuesday.The non-profit founded by the Carters released a statement on Carter’s condition.The center said that the 95-year old continues to live at home with her husband, former president Jimmy Carter, and receive visits from loved ones.The statement also noted Carter’s role as a mental health advocate and work to decrease mental health stigma, adding that releasing the statement was to help increase conversations around dementia.“We recognize, as she did more than half a century ago, that stigma is often a barrier that keeps individuals and their families from seeking and getting much-needed support. We hope sharing our family’s news will increase important conversations at kitchen tables and in doctor’s offices around the country,” read the statement.A majority of Republican voters think Donald Trump would be their strongest nominee for president next year, according to a new poll.According to the survey, from Monmouth University in New Jersey, 45% of Republicans (including Republican-leaning voters) think Trump is definitely the strongest candidate the party can hope to field against Joe Biden. Another 18% of such voters think Trump is probably the strongest possible GOP nominee.This, remember, is a former president who has pleaded not guilty to 34 criminal counts over a hush money payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels; who was found liable for sexual assault and defamation against the writer E Jean Carroll, and fined $5m; who faces further problems in a related case after continuing to criticise Carroll; who faces a New York state civil suit over his business affairs; who faces indictment in state and federal investigations of his election subversion, including inciting the deadly January 6 attack on Congress; and also faces indictment over his retention of classified materials.He’s also the former president who, according to the Washington Post, made 30,573 false or misleading statements in his four years in office. That too.In the Monmouth poll, 13% of Republicans thought another candidate would definitely be the strongest nominee and 19% said another would probably be strongest.More bad news, you’d think, for Ron DeSantis: the hard-right Florida governor who remains Trump’s closest challenger … if around 30 points behind in most polling averages and after a campaign rollout featuring its fair share of hiccups.DeSantis, however, is feeling bullish. Here’s what he told Fox News he plans to do after winning the nomination and a general election against Biden. Clue – he doesn’t plan to start small:And in more news from Texas – though unrelated – Elizabeth Holmes, the Theranos founder who was found guilty of defrauding investors, has begun her 11-year prison sentence.It marks the end of the blood-testing firm’s fraud saga after the 39-year-old had tried and failed to delay her prison sentence.Here’s a video of Holmes arriving at the prison in Bryan, Texas:And you can read the full report here:Away from the debt ceiling for a moment, it has emerged that the wife of the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, has a vote in the impeachment proceedings against him.The AP reports that state senator Angela Paxton could be voting on whether to restore her suspended spouse to office or banish him permanently.It is a conflict of interest that would not be allowed in a criminal trial and one that raises an ethical cloud over the senate proceeding.One legal expert says it will be up to Angela Paxton’s “moral compass” to decide if she will recuse herself. The impeachment charges against Ken Paxton include bribery related to his extramarital affair with an aide to a state senator.Here’s an explainer from Mary Yang on how the debt ceiling compromise could get passed.
What are its chances of getting through?
While lawmakers have expressed confidence that the bill would successfully get past Congress, some hardline Republicans have signaled they will not sign the deal.
Representative Chip Roy of Texas, a member of the Rules committee, has urged fellow lawmakers to vote no on the deal.
“This is not a deal that we should be taking,” Roy told Fox News’ Glenn Beck on Tuesday.
What’s in the deal?
If passed, the deal would suspend the US debt limit through 1 January 2025, well past the next US presidential election, which is in November 2024. But suspending the debt limit is a temporary measure, and the US would need to bring down the national debt or raise the ceiling by the new deadline.
The deal would keep non-defense spending roughly the same for fiscal year 2024 and raise it by 1% in fiscal year 2025.
The bill would also place new restrictions on SNAP benefits, limiting the number of individuals eligible for food stamps. Unspent emergency aid related to the Covid-19 pandemic, totaling about $30bn, will also be returned to the government.
Read the full explainer here.An increasing number of Freedom Caucus members speaking during Tuesday’s press conference are telling their Republican colleagues to reject the debt ceiling compromise. More