US Politics

US senator rejects Israeli army report on killing of Palestinian American reporterChris Van Hollen calls for independent US inquiry, saying IDF claim Shireen Abu Aqleh died amid gun battle unsupported by evidence A US senator has dismissed an Israeli army report that claims a soldier accidentally killed the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh in the midst of a gun battle, saying it is unsupported by the evidence.Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic senator for Maryland, repeated his call for an independent US investigation into Abu Aqleh’s killing in the West Bank in May, saying that the United Nations and reconstructions by major news outlets found that the Al Jazeera television journalist was not in the immediate vicinity of fighting with Palestinian militants and could not have been caught in the crossfire.US condemns Israel’s attack on Shireen Abu Aqleh’s funeralRead more“The crux of the ‘defense’ in this IDF [Israel Defence Forces] report is that a soldier was ‘returning fire’ from militants” when Abu Aqleh was struck, Van Hollen tweeted. “But investigations … found no such firing at the time. This underscores need for independent US inquiry into this American journalist’s death.”On Monday, more than four months after her killing, Israel finally admitted that it was “highly probable” that an Israeli soldier shot Abu Aqleh while she was reporting on a military raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.The report said Abu Aqleh was probably shot by an Israeli soldier who was under fire from a group of Palestinian gunmen. It claimed the soldier was using a telescopic sight and misidentified her as one from his armed opponents. The army said no crime was committed so no one will be prosecuted.However, eyewitness accounts and videos of Abu Aqleh and the area around her at the time of her killing do not show a gun battle. She was also wearing body armour and a helmet clearly labelled as “press”.A United Nations investigation said that Israeli soldiers fired “several single, seemingly well-aimed bullets” at Abu Aqleh and other journalists.Investigations by the New York Times, CNN, the Washington Post and other media questioned the official Israeli version of events. The New York Times said there were “no armed Palestinians near her when she was shot” and that its investigation “contradicted Israeli claims that, if a soldier had mistakenly killed her, it was because he had been shooting at a Palestinian gunman”.The Committee to Protect Journalists called the Israeli report “late and incomplete”.“They provided no name for Shireen Abu [Aqleh’s] killer and no other information than his or her own testimony that the killing was a mistake,” it said.The White House pressured Israel to reveal its findings amid demands for an independent US investigation from some members of Congress and Abu Aqleh’s family which accused Joe Biden’s administration of covering for Israel. Critics noted that the report was released on the Labor Day public holiday in the US when it was likely to receive less attention.The journalist’s niece, Lina Abu Aqleh, said the family had no confidence in the Israeli report.“We could never expect any type of accountability or legitimate investigation from the very entity responsible for gunning down an unarmed and clearly identifiable journalist,” she said.The family said an independent American investigation was “the bare minimum the US government should do for one of their own citizens”. But it also called for an international criminal court investigation, calling Abu Aqleh’s killing a “war crime”.Critics say the Israeli military has a long history of dissembling and making false claims over the killings of civilians while waiting for attention to move elsewhere. But the Abu Aqleh family was able to maintain interest in the case, and pressure on the Biden White House, because she was a US citizen.Israel’s account shifted several times over the four months since the journalist was shot.Immediately after the killing, the Israeli prime minister at the time, Naftali Bennett, said it “appears likely that armed Palestinians, who were firing indiscriminately at the time, were responsible”.The Israeli embassy in Washington posted a tweet purportedly showing the Palestinian gunmen who killed Abu Aqleh and then deleted it. The Israeli government released footage that created the impression the journalist was in the midst of a major battle. The Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, released its own video showing that the government’s footage was filmed several blocks from where Abu Aqleh was shot.As criticism grew, Bennett’s office condemned “hasty accusations against Israel”, and pro-Israel pressure groups attacked media investigations of the killing which challenged the official version.During the following weeks, the Israeli army admitted that one of its soldiers may have been responsible but claimed it was not able to carry out a proper investigation because the Palestinian Authority would not cooperate and hand over the bullet that killed the journalist.The US state department said it welcomed the “review of this tragic incident”. But it faced criticism for sidestepping demands that the soldier or soldiers responsible be held to account and for instead calling for “policies and procedures to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future”.TopicsUS politicsIsraelPalestinian territoriesJournalist safetyMiddle East and north AfricanewsReuse this content More

New Mexico official first politician removed over January 6 attackThis marks the first time since 1869 that a court removed an official for participating in an insurrection A New Mexico official was removed from elected office on Tuesday for his role in the January 6 siege on the US capitol, marking the first time a politician has lost their job for their involvement in the attack.Couy Griffin, one of three commissioners in Otero county in southern New Mexico, was immediately removed from his position and cannot hold elected office again, Francis Mathew, a district judge in Santa Fe, wrote in his ruling.The 14th amendment to the US constitution bars anyone who has participated in an insurrection from holding elected office. In June, Griffin was sentenced to 14 days in jail and a $3,000 (£2,604) fine for misdemeanor trespassing during the Capitol attack.“Mr Griffin’s crossing of barricades to approach the Capitol were overt acts in support of the insurrection, as Griffin’s presence closer to the Capitol building increased the insurrectionists’ intimidation by number,” Mathew wrote in his ruling. “Mr Griffin aided the insurrection even though he did not personally engage in violence. By joining the mob and trespassing on restricted Capitol grounds, Mr Griffin contributed to delaying Congress’s election certification proceedings.”Griffin told CNN he was “shocked” at the ruling and accused Mathew of being “tyrannical”.“I’m shocked. Just shocked,” Griffin said. “I really did not feel like the state was going to move on me in such a way. I don’t know where I go from here.”Earlier this year, Griffin sought to block Otero county, which voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2020, from certifying its official primary election results, citing concerns – which have been debunked – about voting machines.The state supreme court eventually ordered the three-member commission to certify the election, which it ultimately did with a 2-1 vote. Griffin was the lone holdout.“My vote to remain a ‘no’ isn’t based on any evidence, it isn’t based on any facts. It’s only based on my own gut feeling, my own intuition, and that’s all I need,” he said at the time.Tuesday’s decision marked a major win for watchdog groups that have sought to use the constitutional provision to block members of the US Congress who sought to prevent the delayed certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.Extremist supporters of Donald Trump caused the delay after invading the Capitol to try to prevent the certification. The insurrection is still under congressional and federal criminal investigation.An effort to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia congresswoman, from the ballot failed earlier this year. A similar effort seeking the removal of Arizona representatives Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar, as well as Mark Finchem, a Republican running to be Arizona’s top election official, also failed.Tuesday’s decision marked the first time since 1869 that a court removed an election official for participating in an insurrection, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington , a watchdog group that represented New Mexico citizens seeking to remove Griffin from office, said in a statement.“This decision makes clear that any current or former public officials who took an oath to defend the US Constitution and then participated in the January 6th insurrection can and will be removed and barred from government service for their actions,” Noah Bookbinder, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.TopicsUS newsFight to voteNew MexicoUS Capitol attackUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Lawyers for Donald Trump are conferring with justice department counterparts to come up by Friday with a list of possible candidates to be the “special master” approved by a district court judge over the former president’s hoarding of classified documents.Aileen Cannon’s surprise ruling on Monday has delayed the department’s inquiry into Trump’s possession of government documents at his Florida residence. Some law experts are pointing out the “deeply problematic” nature of the decision, and the fact it was made by a jurist appointed by Trump himself.Samuel W Buell, a Duke University law professor, told the New York Times in an email:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}To any lawyer with serious federal criminal court experience who is being honest, this ruling is laughably bad, and the written justification is even flimsier.
Donald Trump is getting something no one else ever gets in federal court, he’s getting it for no good reason, and it will not in the slightest reduce the ongoing howls that he is being persecuted, when he is being privileged.Cannon’s deadline of Friday doesn’t give much time for the two sides to agree candidates to act in the role of independent arbiter, typically a retired lawyer or judge, to go through material seized by the FBI at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion. They will look be looking for any that might be beyond the scope of the warrant or protected by executive privilege or attorney-client privilege.The attorneys must submit a joint filing to the court by Friday.As the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell and Victoria Bekiempis report, a special master was used, for instance, to review materials seized in the searches of the homes and offices of two of Trump’s former attorneys – Rudy Giuliani and Michael Cohen.Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, also called the special master request a “crock of shit”, in an interview with the New York Times.In a subsequent interview with Fox News, Barr said: “Even if [the documents] are subject to executive privilege, they still belong to the government. And any other documents that were seized… those were seize-able under the warrant”.Read more:Judge grants Trump’s request for special master to handle seized documentsRead moreThat’s all for today from our US politics blog. Thanks for being with us. Here’s what we looked at:
Lawyers for Donald Trump began conferring with justice department counterparts to meet a Friday court deadline for a list of possible candidates to be the “special master” approved by a district judge over the former president’s hoarding of classified documents.
Joe Biden said he would work with Britain’s new prime minister Liz Truss on the war in Ukraine, and bettering close ties. “I look forward to deepening the special relationship between our countries and working in close cooperation on global challenges, including continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression” Biden said in a tweet.
A New Mexico state district court judge disqualified county commissioner and Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin from holding public office for engaging in insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. State district court judge Francis Mathew ruled Griffin was permanently barred from holding or seeking local or federal office.
Patrick Leahy, the eight-term Democratic senator for Vermont, has been nominated by Biden to become congressional representative for the US at the United Nations general assembly.
Voters were at the polls in Massachusetts, where Republicans were choosing their nominee for governor in November’s midterms: election denier Geoff Diehl or moderate Chris Doughty.
Please join us again tomorrow when Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama return to the White House for the unveiling of their official portraits.One more tweet from Joe Biden before we wrap for the day. He’s still underwater in the polls, and Democrats have their work cut out for them with exactly nine weeks to go until the midterm elections.But inside the White House, at least, there were smiles, as the president hosted a cabinet meeting Tuesday afternoon:Today, I met with my Cabinet to lay out how we’re going to swiftly implement recent legislative wins like the Inflation Reduction Act.This experienced and dedicated Cabinet is working to lower costs for families, create good-paying jobs, and increase American manufacturing. pic.twitter.com/liVG3y9O5b— President Biden (@POTUS) September 6, 2022
Joe Biden will mark the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and elsewhere by delivering remarks and laying a wreath at the Pentagon on Sunday, the White House said.Nearly 3,000 people died on 11 September 2001 when al-Qaida flew hijacked commercial airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, while another jet crashed into a Pennsylvania field.Jill Biden, the first lady, will speak on Sunday at the Flight 93 national memorial observance in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Vice-president Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman, will go to New York City for a commemoration ceremony at the national September 11th memorial.Joe Biden says he’s looking forward to working with Britain’s new prime minister Liz Truss on global challenges, including the war in Ukraine, and bettering the close ties between the US and UK.In a tweet, the president said: “I look forward to deepening the special relationship between our countries and working in close cooperation on global challenges, including continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression”.Congratulations to Prime Minister Liz Truss.I look forward to deepening the special relationship between our countries and working in close cooperation on global challenges, including continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression.— President Biden (@POTUS) September 6, 2022
Biden told reporters before a cabinet meeting Tuesday afternoon that he would be calling Truss later in the day to offer his congratulations. But, according to Reuters, he declined to answer a question about whether the two leaders would discuss negotiations with the European Union over Northern Ireland.“We’re going to be talking about a lot of things,” he said.Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, was asked about possible bilateral tensions over Northern Ireland at her earlier briefing. She also would not say if the issue would come up in the call, but added:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}He has been clear about his continued interest in Northern Ireland. Our priority remains protecting the gains of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and preserving peace, stability and prosperity for the people of Northern Ireland.While there was good news for Democrats in new polling from Navigator Research, as we reported earlier, there were also warning signs for Democrats, as the party prepares for the midterm elections this November.According to the progressive polling firm’s findings, Joe Biden’s approval rating remains in the tank, with 42% of voters approving of the president’s job performance while 56% disapprove.Biden’s approval rating, which has been underwater for more than a year, could sink Democrats’ hopes of retaining their narrow majorities in the House and the Senate. Historically, the president’s party loses congressional seats in the midterm elections.The economy could also prove to be a weakness for Democratic candidates this election cycle. When asked about which party they trusted more to handle specific issues, voters said they trusted Republicans more to rebuild the economy and address record-high inflation, Navigator found.Given that roughly three-quarters of US voters say the economy will be very important to their vote in this year’s congressional elections, Democrats will need to address those concerns if they want to avoid a Republican wave this fall.Some Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups are taking proactive steps to reframe the narrative around which party is better for the economy, as I reported over the weekend.We’ve heard little, correction, nothing so far of the progress of negotiations between lawyers for Donald Trump and the justice department over a list of candidates to become “special master” overseeing the classified documents inquiry.But that doesn’t mean nothing’s happening in the case. District judge Aileen Cannon, who ordered the appointment yesterday, has been busy on Tuesday, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell has discovered:New: Judge Cannon — overseeing Trump special master case — rejects proposed amicus brief submitted by former DOJ and state officials who served in GOP admins that opposed appointing a special master, per new paperless order— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) September 6, 2022
Hillary Clinton is having none of Republicans’ “whataboutism” amid the controversy over Donald Trump’s hoarding of highly classified materials belonging to the US government at his private Florida residence.“But her emails …” is a longstanding call of Trump supporters, referring to the former secretary of state’s use of a private email server at her home while she was in office from 2009 to 2013. Trump led numerous chants of “lock her up” during his campaign rallies.The FBI concluded Clinton and her aides were “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information but that she should not face charges.Trump’s conservative faithful has been quick to resurrect the issue as their leader faces increasing scrutiny over his own actions. But as her own string of tweets today show, Clinton herself is not impressed:I can’t believe we’re still talking about this, but my emails…As Trump’s problems continue to mount, the right is trying to make this about me again. There’s even a “Clinton Standard.”The fact is that I had zero emails that were classified.— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 6, 2022
A New Mexico state district court judge has disqualified county commissioner and Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin from holding public office for engaging in insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, the Associated Press reports.State district court judge Francis Mathew issued a ruling today that permanently prohibits Griffin from holding or seeking local or federal office.Griffin was previously convicted in federal court of a misdemeanor for entering Capitol grounds on January 6, without going inside the building. He was sentenced to 14 days and given credit for time served.The new ruling immediately removes Griffin from his position as a commissioner in Otero County in southern New Mexico..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Mr Griffin aided the insurrection even though he did not personally engage in violence. By joining the mob and trespassing on restricted Capitol grounds, Mr Griffin contributed to delaying Congress’s election-certification proceedings,” Mathew wrote..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Griffin was notified of his removal from office by Otero County staff, who prevented him from accessing his work computer and office space at a county building in Alamogordo.
Griffin, who served as his own legal counsel at a two-day bench trial in August, called the ruling a “total disgrace” that disenfranchises his constituents in Otero county.
The ruling arrives amid a flurry of similar lawsuits around the country seeking to punish politicians who took part in January 6 under provisions of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which holds that anyone who has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution can be barred from office for engaging in insurrection or rebellion.
The lawsuit against Griffin was brought by three plaintiffs in New Mexico with support from the Washington-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The NAACP and progressive watchdog group Common Cause filed briefs in support of Griffin’s removal.
Griffin, a Republican, forged a group of rodeo acquaintances in 2019 into the promotional group called Cowboys for Trump.The blank-check acquisition firm that agreed to merge with former US president Donald Trump’s social media company has failed today to secure enough shareholder support for a one-year extension to complete the deal, Reuters reports.At stake is a $1.3bn cash infusion that Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which operates the Truth Social app, stands to receive from Digital World Acquisition Corp, the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that inked a deal in October to take TMTG public.The transaction has been on ice amid civil and criminal probes into the circumstances around the deal. Digital World had been hoping that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is reviewing its disclosures on the deal, would have given its blessing by now.Digital World chief executive Patrick Orlando told a special meeting of his shareholders today he would push back to noon on Thursday the deadline for the vote on extending the life of the SPAC by 12 months.Digital World needs 65% of its shareholders to vote in favor of the proposal, but the support as of late Monday fell far short, Reuters reported. Digital World did not disclose the margin on Tuesday.Digital World shares fell 17% to $20.74 in New York early Tuesday afternoon.Digital World is set to liquidate on Thursday and return the money raised in its September 2021 initial public offering to shareholders unless action is taken.Digital World shareholders had been given more than two weeks to vote on the SPAC’s extension and it is unclear if two additional days would make a difference.Most Digital World shareholders are individuals and getting them to vote through their brokers has been challenging, Orlando said last week.If Digital World fails to get enough shareholder support, its management has the right to unilaterally extend the life of the SPAC by up to six months.Trump appeared to manage expectations for the deal with a post over the weekend on Truth Social:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I don’t need financing, ‘I’m really rich!’ Private company anyone???”
Digital World has disclosed that the SEC, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and federal prosecutors have been investigating the deal with TMTG, though the exact scope of the probes is unclear.It’s been a relatively quiet morning on the US politics front, although the White House has been defending itself against criticism that Joe Biden’s recent attacks on extremist Maga Republicans had alienated regular Republican voters.Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the 75m Republican voters who supported Donald Trump in 2020 “weren’t voting for attacking the Capitol, they weren’t voting for overruling an election. They were voting for philosophy he put forward.”Here’s what else has been happening:
Biden will call the new British prime minister Liz Truss this afternoon to pass on his congratulations, Jean-Pierre said.
Patrick Leahy, the eight-term Democratic senator for Vermont, has been nominated by Biden to become congressional representative for the US at the United Nations general assembly.
It’s primary day in Massachusetts, where Republican voters are choosing their nominee for governor in November’s midterms: election denier Geoff Diehl or moderate Chris Doughty.
Lawyers for Donald Trump are conferring with justice department counterparts to meet a Friday court deadline for a list of possible candidates to be the “special master” approved by a district judge over the former president’s hoarding of classified documents.
The White House is defending itself against criticism that Joe Biden’s recent attacks on Maga Republicans as “semi-fascists”, and posing a threat to democracy, alienated the 75m voters who supported Donald Trump in the 2020 election.Even though the president noted in a primetime address in Pennsylvania last week that he was referring only to the extremist wing of the Republican party, not regular Republican voters, conservative commentators have seized on the speech as divisive.In Philadelphia, Biden warned that US democracy was imperiled by Trump and his supporters who “fan the flames” of political violence in pursuit of power at any cost.In her daily briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}When people voted for Donald Trump they weren’t voting for attacking the Capitol, they weren’t voting for overruling an election. They were voting for philosophy he put forward, so I’m not talking about anything other than its inappropriate.
It’s not only happening here, but other parts of the world where there’s a failure to recognize and condemn violence whenever it is used for political purposes, a failure to condemn an attempt to manipulate electoral outcomes, a failure to acknowledge when elections were won or lost.Talking specifically about the deadly 6 January Capitol insurrection incited by Trump and carried out by his supporters, Jean-Pierre added:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We saw an insurrection, a mob that was incited by the person who occupied this campus, this facility, and at that time, and it was an attack on our democracy.
Let’s not forget people died that day. Law enforcement were attacked that day. That was the danger that we were seeing at the time. That’s what the president has called out. And that’s what he’s going to continue to call out. More

Hillary Clinton reveals lingerie ad that prompted trademark pantsuit lookIntrusive press photographs and official visit to Brazil led to then first lady adopting style of dress that she made famous Hillary Clinton decided to start wearing the pantsuits that became her political trademark after “suggestive” photos taken of her during a visit to Brazil were used in a lingerie ad in the mid-1990s, she has revealed.Hillary Clinton addresses husband’s infidelity in trailer for new TV showRead moreThe former US secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate told CBS News in an interview that aired on Sunday that the choice came after a 1995 trip to Brazil she took with her husband, Bill Clinton, then in the first of two terms as president.A photo of Clinton showed a glimpse of her underwear while seated. The Brazilian lingerie company DuLoren deployed the image in an ad containing the words: “A tribute to one of the most important women of the decade.”DuLoren’s vice-president at the time insisted the advertisement “was meant as a compliment” to Clinton, but the company pulled the ad from circulation after an American embassy in Brazil complained.“I was sitting on a couch, and the press was let in – there were a bunch of them shooting up,” Clinton said, recalling the episode. “All of a sudden the White House gets alerted to these billboards that show me sitting down with I thought my legs together, but the way it’s shot, it’s sort of suggestive.”Clinton continued: “And then I also began to have the experience of having photographers all the time – I’d be on a stage, I’d be climbing stairs, and they’d be below me. I just couldn’t deal with it, so I started wearing pants.”Her daughter, Chelsea, who was seated next to her in the interview, at one point remarked: “So creepy.”Clinton followed up her time as the country’s first lady by representing New York in the US Senate from 2001 to 2009 before spending the next four years as secretary of state for the Barack Obama White House.She won the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, and her supporters during that race rallied around the social media hashtag “Pantsuit Nation”, paying tribute to her attire of choice while conducting political business. Many of those who voted in that election also wore pantsuits to the polls to tacitly signal their support for her, though she ultimately lost to her Republican rival Donald Trump.Clinton is promoting an Apple TV+ docuseries she made with Chelsea called Gutsy, which profiles brave and trailblazing women.The former secretary of state was asked in Sunday’s interview to define what a gutsy woman is.“I think a gutsy woman is … determined to make the most of her own life but also to try to use whatever skills, talents, persistence that she has to bring others along,” Clinton said.TopicsHillary ClintonUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Trouble for Trump’s Truth Social as investors back away from cash boostInjection of $1.3bn for former president’s media company looks set to be derailed because of lackluster investor support Donald Trump’s beleaguered social media company is facing further financial turmoil after a long-awaited $1.3bn cash injection looks set to be derailed due to lackluster investor backing.Shareholders of the special purpose acquisitions firm, which last year brokered a deal to take the Trump Media and Technology Group public, have not backed a one-year extension to complete the transaction, which threatens to spoil the merger.Trump Media and Technology Group is the company that launched the ex-president’s Truth Social platform.The $1.3bn cash infusion from Digital World Acquisition Corp has been on hold since last October due to civil and criminal investigations into the circumstances around the merger. The Nasdaq-listed acquisitions company requires the support of 65% of shareholders, who are mostly individual investors, for the extension it needs to try to secure the deal.The outcome of the vote will be announced at a special shareholders meeting on Tuesday, when it is likely to be more bad news for the former president. Digital World executives do not believe they will be able to muster enough shareholder support in time and have started to consider alternative options, Reuters reported.Options include a unilateral six-month extension against the wishes of shareholders, and another is extending the final vote deadline to attempt mustering up more support in hopes that the Financial Regulatory Authority and US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will soon give the green light for the deal to proceed.If Digital World fails to come up with a stopgap solution before Tuesday’s shareholder meeting, it will be forced to liquidate its shares and return the money it raised in its initial public offering.Digital World, a so-called blank check company created specifically for the purpose of acquiring or merging with an existing business, has previously said that Trump’s media group has “sufficient funds” until April 2023.Trump leveraged his vast social media following throughout his presidency to fire up his base, rile opponents and hire and fire staff – a modus operandi which eventually led to his banishment from the most popular platforms.Trump has more than 4 million followers on Truth Social, where has been posting since April, which is just a fraction of the 89 million he had on Twitter. Twitter and Facebook banned Trump after his supporters staged the deadly January 2021 attack on the US Capitol in a desperate attempt to prevent the congressional certification of his defeat to Joe Biden in the previous year’s election.The app is currently available to download on Apple’s app store, and it was recently banned from Google Play where the vast majority of apps are downloaded for Android users. Google said the platform violates its policies on banning content that involves physical threats and could incite violence.It is unclear how Trump’s media company has been operating without access to Digital World’s funding, but last week it said that Truth Social is “on strong financial footing” and would soon begin running advertisements.Reuters contributed to this reportTopicsUS newsDonald TrumpUS politicsAppsnewsReuse this content More

No doomsday bunker, not a single gun – if the US really is heading for civil war, I’m stuffedArwa MahdawiThe super-rich are preparing to ride out the apocalypse by their underground swimming pools. Ordinary Americans have bought another 20m firearms. And me? I have a broom and a butter knife How long do you think you would survive if everything went to hell, civil war erupted, institutions crumbled and there was absolutely nowhere safe in the world left to run? Me, I’d give myself one week; maybe two. I would like to think that I’m a tough survivor type but the last time I went camping I forgot to bring a sleeping bag and sobbed myself to sleep, so on balance I would have to admit that I’m not. I did have a brief period this year when, in a fit of madness, I thought I’d take up urban farming and become as self-sufficient as is possible with a scrap of garden in Philadelphia. That seemed to go well until I proudly sent my mum a photo of all the luscious berry bushes I had cultivated and she informed me that they were poisonous weeds and I should get rid of them immediately. So, yeah, I don’t give myself great odds on surviving the apocalypse.I bring all this up because … well, I mean, look around you! Things are not great. In the UK, the cost of living crisis has become so extreme that ITV’s This Morning offered viewers the chance to get their energy bills paid on its Spin the Wheel segment. When people have to compete for basic necessities on daytime TV shows it’s generally not an indicator that your supposedly rich country is in a healthy state.But, to be fair, very few places are. More than 80% of countries are experiencing inflation of above 6%, leading to an unprecedented rise in civil unrest around the world, according to analysis published last week by a UK-based risk consulting firm. Out of 198 countries, Verisk Maplecrof reported, 101, including the UK, now have a heightened risk of conflict and instability. “We’re talking about numerous powder kegs around the world simply waiting for that spark to be ignited,” one of the company’s analysts told the Guardian. “We don’t know where that spark will come first.”A lot of sparks certainly seem to be flying in the US. Not so long ago people would have regarded you as a bit of a loon if you had said you thought civil war was imminent in the US. Not any more: more than 40% of Americans think civil war is at least somewhat likely in the next decade, according to a recent YouGov survey. Among strong Republicans (the people with all the guns), 54% said civil war was at least somewhat likely. Civil war is now casually discussed on cable TV shows in between ads for haemorrhoid creams and car insurance. “These days, it feels like we are not just at the brink of a civil war, but that one has already begun,” the host of a popular MSNBC show said during a Saturday segment titled Democracy in Danger. To back up her point, she showed clips of the Republican senator Lindsey Graham recently telling Fox News that “there will be riots in the street” if Donald Trump is prosecuted for mishandling classified records.Americans aren’t just worrying about civil war; they seem to be getting ready for it. The 1%, in particular, are snapping up doomsday bunkers equipped with stocked pantries and luxurious amenities. Which I find pretty hilarious, to be honest. Do billionaires really think that they’ll be able to sit out societal collapse by an underground pool? Who do they think is going to service that pool or cook for them?While billionaires are buying bunkers, the rest of the US seems to be buying ballistics. Firearm sales have rocketed since the pandemic. Americans bought almost 20m guns last year, which is down from 2020’s record-breaking 22.8m sales, but still incredibly alarming. I’m about as anti-gun as you can get, but lately I’ve found myself wondering if I should maybe learn how to shoot. After all, I don’t really rate my chances of surviving civil unrest in gun-nut America armed only with a broom, a butter knife and a garden full of poisonous berries.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
TopicsUS politicsOpinionUK cost of living crisiscommentReuse this content More

The Trump officials who took children from their parents should be prosecutedAustin Sarat and Dennis AftergutThe border policy violated international law – and prosecuting those responsible may be the best way to prevent it from happening again In the Trump administration’s four years of undermining America’s image of decency, perhaps no policy did so as effectively, or as viciously, as his family separation policy – which separated 5,000 children, some as young as four months old, from their mothers and fathers.The theory behind the policy was that inflicting excruciating pain on thousands of parents and children separated at the border would deter migration to the US. It was another example of the Trump administration’s calculated cruelty.We now know something about why officials throughout the government went along with the family separation policy. They “were under orders from Trump”, Kevin McAleenan, the Department of Homeland Security’s commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, told Caitlin Dickerson of the Atlantic. McAleenan was “just following directions”, as Dickerson puts it. Those directions came from Stephen Miller, Trump’s fiercely anti-immigrant enforcer.Just following orders. We’ve heard that before from perpetrators of great wrongs.Whatever their reasons, the actions government officials took in pursuit of the family separation policy demand a response. Doing justice for the victims of the policy demands accountability for those who designed and implemented it. And deterring such conduct in the future is only possible if there are consequences for engaging in it.International law offers a framework for accomplishing those goals and for seeing the family separation policy for what it was: a crime against humanity.But before exploring that framework, let’s examine what we know about why government officials would go along with Trump and Miller’s calculated cruelty.In 1963, the Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram offered the best-known answer. Milgram enlisted subjects in a “learning experiment”. Their job was to apply what they thought were increasing levels of electrical shock to “learners” whenever they gave incorrect answers.Unknown to subjects, the “learners” were Milgram’s collaborators. They intentionally gave wrong answers and feigned excruciating pain as the voltage seemingly increased to severe shock. Under the direction of a “research administrator”, who became increasingly firm when subjects hesitated to apply more pain, two-thirds of them ended up administering the maximum dose of “electricity”.As Milgram put it: “The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study.”Evil, it turned out, was as banal as Hannah Arendt, the famed political theorist, described it in her celebrated chronicle, Eichmann in Jerusalem. This is the evil done by those without whose complicity Trump’s family separation policy could not have been carried out.Eichmann’s 1961 conviction, and those at Nuremberg, established the principle that individuals who claimed to be “just following orders” are as culpable for crimes they commit as those who give the orders.And the 1998 “Rome statute” created a forum that can provide accountability for the people who designed and implemented the family separation policy – the international criminal court.The Rome statute authorized the ICC to prosecute individuals who commit crimes against humanity, including “inhumane acts … [that] intentionally caus[e] great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.”There is no question that systematic actions separating parents from children meet that definition.While the United States is one of only seven countries not to have ratified the Rome Statute, this fact should offer little solace to those who violate its principles. Here is why.First, under the “principle of complementarity”, the ICC may exercise its jurisdiction when a country is either unwilling or unable to investigate and prosecute crimes within its territory.Applying the complementarity doctrine, in 2011 the ICC initiated prosecution of Libya’s one-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi, though his country never ratified the Rome statute.Second, the Nuremberg principles that the United States wrote before the trials began justify prosecuting crimes against humanity in the complete absence of any agreement by an accused violators’ country. That Germany did not ratify those principles was no barrier to prosecution of Nazi officials at Nuremberg.Third, the US has signed other international agreements incorporating protections against crimes such as the ones implicated by Trump’s policy to separate families. For example, in 1992, President George HW Bush signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Congress had ratified, making it the law of the land.Article 24 of the ICCPR provides that “[e]very child shall have, without any discrimination as to race, … national or social origin … the right to such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor.” As the UN high commissioner for human rights emphasized in a 2010 report, “the principal normative standards of child protection are equally applicable to migrant children and children implicated in the process of migration.”Another relevant treaty under which American officials could be charged is the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, ratified by the US in 1988. It defines “torture” as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted … for such purposes as … punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed … when such pain or suffering is inflicted … at the instigation of a public official.”While the Biden administration has made considerable progress reuniting families, it has not moved quickly enough to completely end the policy. It is up to the public to ensure that result and to demand that Trump administration officials answer for making crimes against humanity a centerpiece of US immigration policy.There is more than enough binding law and precedent for bringing charges against those officials. They should have their day in court, where they can offer their legal defenses and explain to the world why they did what they did.Prosecutors at The Hague should bring before the bar of justice Trump officials who instituted the policy of separating children from their mothers and fathers. Humanity and history require it.
Austin Sarat is a professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College and the author of Lethal Injection and the False Promise of Humane Execution
Dennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor, is of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy
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The Democrats are gaining because Americans want jobs, not Capitol mobsLloyd GreenThe supreme court’s abortion decision, a drop in gas prices, and Trump’s legal dramas have all helped strengthen Biden’s ratings – and Democrats’ chances this fall Can the Democrats make the formerly Republican slogan “jobs, not mobs” their midterm mantra?They just might get away with it. In politics, jiujitsu is fair play – and these days Republicans are less the party of “law and order” and more the party that denies the outcomes of democratic elections and attacks the US Capitol.The Republican party has reason to fear the midterms | Lloyd GreenRead moreOn Thursday night, President Joe Biden launched a frontal assault on Donald Trump and the right’s embrace of creeping authoritarianism. Twelve hours later, the government reported 315,000 new jobs added in August and stunning prime-age labor force participation.Along the way, Trump said he would “very, very seriously” consider January 6 pardons if re-elected, and bragged of giving financial assistance to some of the insurrectionists. As each day passes, the Republican nexus to law, order and democracy grows more tenuous. Meanwhile, the summer’s special elections and the latest polls portray the Democrats with the wind in their sails.Alaska announced the election of Democrat Mary Peltola to Congress and the defeat of Sarah Palin, the state’s former governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee. A week earlier, a Democrat pulled off an upset for a vacant House seat in rural upstate New York.The supreme court’s evisceration of abortion and privacy rights, a sharp drop in gasoline prices, and Trump’s latest legal drama have resurrected Biden’s ratings and the Democrats’ chances. The latest Quinnipiac poll gives them a four-point edge on the generic ballot, placing Nancy Pelosi within striking distance of retaining control of the speaker’s gavel.A separate Wall Street Journal poll showed Democrats now leading among independents.Earlier this year, “Republicans were cruising, and Democrats were having a hard time,” Tony Fabrizio, a Trump pollster told the Journal. “It’s almost like the abortion issue came along and was kind of like a defibrillator to Democrats.”As if to prove his point, Republicans are now scrapping references online to Trump and abortion. Blake Masters, the Republican Senate challenger in Arizona, removed language from his website in which he described himself as “100% pro-life”.For the record, Masters garnered Trump’s endorsement during the Republican primary and a bucketful of bucks from Peter Thiel. Thiel once publicly lamented extending voting rights to women and minorities.“Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women – two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians – have rendered the notion of ‘capitalist democracy’ into an oxymoron,” he wrote in 2009.In a similarly benighted spirit, Herschel Walker, another Trump favorite, branded inflation a women’s issue. “They’ve got to buy groceries,” Walker, a Republican Senate candidate in Georgia, said. On top of his Heisman trophy and football rushing records, Walker holds a record of alleged domestic violence.Also count on Trump’s mishandling of top secret and classified documents to grab headlines in the run-up to election day. Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, the Republican would-be Senate majority leader and would-be House speaker, respectively, cannot be happy.According to the inventory filed with the court, the FBI search netted dozens of empty folders with “Classified” banners, together with seven documents marked “Top Secret”. Whether Trump retained copies of the President’s Daily Briefing, one of the crown jewels of the intelligence community, is an active and open question too.To be sure, Trump caught a break on Labor Day. A federal judge granted his motion to appoint a special master to weigh claims of executive and attorney-client privilege. The court also enjoined prosecutors from proceeding with their review of documents.At the same time, the court made clear that it would not interfere with the assessment being conducted by the director of national intelligence. An appeal by the government is likely – as is ensuing delay.And then there is Newt Gingrich. He’s back. The disgraced former House speaker may have played an outsized but behind-the-scenes role in Trump’s efforts to cling to power, according to the January 6 committee.“Some of the information we have obtained includes email messages that you exchanged with senior advisers to President Trump and others, including Jared Kushner and Jason Miller, in which you provided detailed input into television advertisements that repeated and relied upon false claims about fraud in the 2020 election,” Bennie Thompson, the committee chairman, wrote Gingrich.Once upon a time, Gingrich, a former Georgia congressman, was in the line of presidential succession, right behind vice-president Al Gore. According to the Federal Elections Commission, the Gingrich 2012 campaign remains more than $4.6m in debt. As Business Insider put it, “No presidential campaign from any election cycle owes creditors more money.”“Don’t be measuring the drapes,” Representative Tom Emmer, head of the national Republican campaign committee, recently advised colleagues. “This isn’t the typical midterm that we’re talking about.”
Lloyd Green served in the Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992
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