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Last week, we learned that Herschel Walker, who’s the Republican nominee for a Senate seat in Georgia, lied to his own campaign team about how many children he had. This is not his only misstep, but the longtime friend of Donald Trump continues to have the support of Georgia Republicans.
Jonathan Freedland speaks to Roger Sollenberger of the Daily Beast about why Walker might prove a fatal blow for the GOP in November’s midterm elections

How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

Archive: CNN, New York Sports Experience, 11Alive, CBS46 Atlanta Follow the special series of the Guardian investigation into the Uber files Send your questions and feedback to [email protected] Help support the Guardian by going to theguardian.com/supportpodcasts More

Republicans in the Senate have blocked a Democratic proposal to protect people’s ability to cross state lines to seek an abortion, with one senator saying the proposal would encourage “abortion tourism” and help “fly-in abortionists.”The bill from Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto came in response to moves by Republican-led states to stop people from traveling to seek abortions, following the supreme court’s ruling last month overturning the right to access the procedure nationwide. Democrats attempted to get the senate to pass the measure unanimously on Thursday, but Republicans refused to do so.Senate Republicans just blocked my bill to protect women who travel for reproductive care and those who help them. They want to allow state legislators to reach across state lines to punish and control women. It’s absolutely outrageous. I won’t stop fighting for women’s freedom.— Senator Cortez Masto (@SenCortezMasto) July 14, 2022
Montana Republican Steve Daines was among those rejecting the measure, saying in a floor speech that it was “hastily put together” and “very very extreme.”“This bill would give fly-in abortionists free rein to commit abortions on demand up to the moment of birth,” Daines said. “This bill also protects the greed, frankly, of woke corporations who see it’s cheaper to pay for an abortion, an abortion tourism, than maternity leave for their employees.”Joe Biden was feted in Israel, giving him a respite from the troubles awaiting him back home, which include dismal approval ratings, states’ moves to criminalize abortion as well as Donald Trump and his aspirations in 2024.Here’s a recap of what happened today:
Republicans blocked a bill to guarantee that people seeking abortions could travel across state lines, with one lawmaker decrying “abortion tourism”.
Saudi Arabia and Israel could announce steps towards normalizing relations, which would give Biden a major win as he visits the region.
Trump gave an interview to New York Magazine in which he more or less said he was running in 2024, but was undecided on when to announce the campaign. The Washington Post reports that he’s leaning towards announcing before the November midterm elections, though some Republicans don’t think that is a good idea.
In what is surely a healthy sign for American democracy, voters in a New York county are leaning towards choosing a spider monster thing to represent their local elections.
The attorney general in Indiana said it would investigate the doctor that provided an abortion to a 10-year-old girl who was forced to travel from neighboring Ohio after being raped.
Donald Trump’s first wife Ivana Trump has died in New York City, the Associated Press reports.According to the AP:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} “I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “She was a wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life. Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. She was so proud of them, as we were all so proud of her. Rest In Peace, Ivana!”
The Trump family also released a statement. “It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved mother, Ivana Trump. Our mother was an incredible woman a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend. Ivana Trump was a survivor.“She fled from communism and embraced this country,” the statement continued. “She taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion and determination. She will be dearly missed by her mother, her three children and ten grandchildren.”An arrest warrant has been issued for Tina Peters, the Colorado county clerk and 2020 election denier who recently lost her bid for a position overseeing voting in the state, the Associated Press reports.Peters ran to be the Republican nominee for the position of Colorado secretary of state despite being indicted along with her deputy on charges related to tampering with election equipment. According to the AP, a judge issued the arrest warrant for Peters on Thursday after finding out she had left the state against his orders:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} A judge revoked bond for Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters after District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said in the documents that he had learned she traveled to Nevada for a conference.
Rubinstein said he made the discovery after Peters sent a letter notarized in Las Vegas on Tuesday to Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, according to court documents. The letter was released by the secretary of state’s office and requested a recount in her failed primary election bid for the GOP nomination in the state secretary of state’s race.Earlier this week, Peters’s election manager turned herself in on charges similar to those facing the clerk, who is accused of allowing an unauthorized person to impersonate a county employee and access and copy information from the county’s voting equipment.Election denier Tina Peters loses Colorado primary for top poll officialRead moreDemocrats’ prospects in the upcoming midterm elections are shaky, thanks in part to high inflation and President Biden’s low approval ratings. But Politico reports that when it comes to the senate, the party’s candidates have a clear edge in one area: fundraising.Colorado Senator Michael Bennet has 10 times the funds of his Republican opponent Joe O’Dea, while Georgia’s Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock raised more than double that of his Republican challenger in his most recent quarter. Democratic senators facing tough races in New Hampshire, Arizona and Nevada have also brought in big bucks.From the story:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} The race illustrates Democrats’ circumstances throughout the country: While Bennet is slugging it out with O’Dea in a state that President Joe Biden won by 13 points, the party still sees a bright spot in candidates’ fundraising as they hope to significantly outperform Biden’s sagging approval ratings in November.
Candidates are posting “blockbuster fundraising numbers,” as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson David Bergstein put it — though, in some cases, they are spending cash just as fast as they take it in. Nonetheless, Democrats see it as a sign of momentum after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last month and an uptick in their chances of keeping the Senate.
“It says enthusiasm, I think it says that people understand it’s the United States Senate that confirms judges, particularly in light of what’s happened,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), the No. 4 party leader.Texas is suing the Biden administration over its determination that federal law requires hospitals to offer abortions in cases of medical emergencies.After the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, health and human services secretary Xavier Becerra wrote a letter to healthcare providers saying the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act protects providers from any purported state restrictions, should they be required to perform emergency abortions.Texas is suing over that determination, saying in a statement the Biden administration “seeks to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic.”“This administration has a hard time following the law, and now they are trying to have their appointed bureaucrats mandate that hospitals and emergency medicine physicians perform abortions,” Texas attorney general Ken Paxton said in filing the lawsuit Thursday. “I will ensure that President Biden will be forced to comply with the Supreme Court’s important decision concerning abortion and I will not allow him to undermine and distort existing laws to fit his administration’s unlawful agenda.”US law overrules states on abortions in medical emergencies, health secretary saysRead moreRepublicans in the Senate have blocked a Democratic proposal to protect people’s ability to cross state lines to seek an abortion, with one senator saying the proposal would encourage “abortion tourism” and help “fly-in abortionists.”The bill from Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto came in response to moves by Republican-led states to stop people from traveling to seek abortions, following the supreme court’s ruling last month overturning the right to access the procedure nationwide. Democrats attempted to get the senate to pass the measure unanimously on Thursday, but Republicans refused to do so.Senate Republicans just blocked my bill to protect women who travel for reproductive care and those who help them. They want to allow state legislators to reach across state lines to punish and control women. It’s absolutely outrageous. I won’t stop fighting for women’s freedom.— Senator Cortez Masto (@SenCortezMasto) July 14, 2022
Montana Republican Steve Daines was among those rejecting the measure, saying in a floor speech that it was “hastily put together” and “very very extreme.”“This bill would give fly-in abortionists free rein to commit abortions on demand up to the moment of birth,” Daines said. “This bill also protects the greed, frankly, of woke corporations who see it’s cheaper to pay for an abortion, an abortion tourism, than maternity leave for their employees.”Might Saudi Arabia normalize relations with Israel during Biden’s visit? Axios reports that Israel’s government has approved a deal that would resolve Saudi Arabia’s claim to two strategic islands in the Red Sea, which has been a sticking point in getting the countries to establish diplomatic ties.While it’s unclear if the deal will result in an agreement for Riyadh to fully recognize Israel, which it has never done before, Biden could seize on it as a win that would be comparable to what Donald Trump pulled off during his term. The Republican leader presided over deals that got the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan to recognize the country. The potential deal involves the Tiran and Sanafir islands in the Red Sea, and the obligations of the two countries, as well as Egypt, under the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace agreement. According to Axios, “The deal includes moving multilateral forces of observers currently on Tiran and Sanafir to new positions in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, as well as cameras to monitor activity on islands and the Strait of Tiran.” Saudi Arabia would pledge to allow ships to pass along the islands, while the United States would give Israel security commitments under that deal, the report said.Joe Biden once pledged to turn Saudi Arabia into a pariah state but the day before his first visit to the country as president, The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan reports he’s downplaying his views on Saudi Arabia’s rights record, including its murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi:Joe Biden has defended his imminent trip to Saudi Arabia, saying he will not avoid human rights issues on the final leg of his Middle East tour, despite refusing to commit to mentioning the murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi when he meets the kingdom’s crown prince. Speaking during a news conference with the interim Israeli prime minister, Yair Lapid, in Jerusalem on Thursday, the US leader said his stance on Khashoggi’s killing was “absolutely” clear. US intelligence services concluded last year that Khashoggi’s killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was approved by the powerful heir to the throne, Mohammed bin Salman. On the campaign trail, the president vowed to turn the conservative Gulf kingdom into a “pariah state”, but the turmoil in global oil markets unleashed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced a U-turn.Joe Biden defends human rights record ahead of Saudi visitRead moreJoe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid stood side-by-side in Jerusalem moments ago and declared they would not allow Iran to become a nuclear power.They parted ways, though, on how to get there, the Associated Press writes.The US president, in a joint news conference after a one-on-one meeting with the Israeli leader, said he still wants to give diplomacy a chance.Seconds earlier, Lapid had insisted that words alone won’t thwart Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.While Biden suggested his patience with Iran was running low, he held out hope that Iran can be persuaded to rejoin a dormant deal intended to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome,” Biden said on the second day of a four-day visit to Israel and Saudi
Arabia.It’s his first trip to the Middle East as president. Biden’s emphasis on a diplomatic solution contrasted with Lapid, who said Iran must face a real threat of force before it will agree to give up on its nuclear ambitions..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} Words will not stop them, Mr President. Diplomacy will not stop them. The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if they continue to develop their nuclear program the free world will use force,” Lapid said.Lapid suggested that he and Biden were in agreement, despite his tougher rhetoric toward Iran.Resurrecting the Iran nuclear deal brokered by Barack Obama’s administration and abandoned by Donald Trump in 2018 was a key priority for Biden as he entered office.But administration officials have become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of getting Tehran back into compliance.The US Department of Justice is expected to file an antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet Inc’s Google in weeks over its dominance in the online advertising market, Bloomberg News reported today, citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters writes.The Justice Department is likely to reject concessions offered by Alphabet, the report said.DoJ did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment and Google declined to comment.Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google has offered concessions to avoid a potential US antitrust lawsuit, including a proposal to spin off parts of its business that auctions and places ads on websites and apps into a separate company under Alphabet.However, a Google spokesperson told Reuters on Friday that it was engaging with regulators to address their concerns, adding that it has no plans to sell or exit the ad-tech business.The DoJ has been investigating Google’s ad-tech practices since 2019 and expedited the inquiry into the advertising market in recent months under the supervision of antitrust division’s official Doha Mekki, the report said.The Justice Department sued Google in October 2020, accusing the company of illegally using its market muscle to hobble rivals, in the biggest challenge to the power and influence of “Big Tech” in decades.A new US immigration enforcement directive issued today calls on federal officers to ask immigrants about their parental status during arrests, part of a broader effort by Joe Biden to prioritize family unity and replacing more restrictive policies under former US president Donald Trump, Reuters reports.The directive, issued to all US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) employees, also calls for previously deported immigrants outside the United States to be allowed back into the country on a temporary basis for child custody hearings.Democratic president Joe Biden has promised a more humane and orderly approach to immigration than his Republican predecessor, but has faced large numbers of migrant arrests at the US-Mexico border.The new Ice directive replaces Trump-era guidance issued in 2017 that did not explicitly require officers to inquire about and record parental status or guardianship.In another departure from the Trump-era policy, the new guidance applies to parents or guardians of incapacitated adults as well as children.Ice acting director Tae Johnson said in an email to staff that the agency is “committed to safeguarding the integrity of our immigration system and preserving the parental and guardianship interests of noncitizen parents and legal guardians.”Federal courts have blocked separate Biden memos that sought to focus immigration enforcement efforts on individuals convicted of certain serious crimes.Joe Biden is being feted in Israel even as challenges mount at home. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of them: dismal approval ratings, states’ moves to criminalize abortion, Donald Trump and his aspirations in 2024.Let’s have a look at what happened today so far:
Trump gave an interview to New York Magazine in which he more or less said he was running in 2024, but was undecided on when to announce the campaign. The Washington Post reports that he’s leaning towards announcing before the November midterm elections, which some Republicans don’t think is a good idea.
In what is surely a healthy sign for American democracy, voters in a New York county are leaning towards choosing a spider monster thing to represent their local elections.
The attorney general in Indiana said it would investigate the doctor that provided an abortion to a 10-year-old girl who was forced to travel from neighboring Ohio after being raped.
A Republican senator tested positive for Covid-19.
A leaked audio recording from top Trump advisor Steve Bannon shows just how gung-ho the president was when it came to declaring victory on election night in 2020, Adam Gabbatt reports:Days before the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump was already planning to declare victory on election night, even if there was no evidence he was winning, according to a leaked Steve Bannon conversation recorded before the vote.In the audio, recorded three days before the election and published by Mother Jones on Wednesday, Bannon told a group of associates Trump already had a scheme in place for the 3 November vote.“What Trump’s gonna do is just declare victory. Right? He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner,” Bannon, laughing, told the group, according to the audio.‘Game over’: Steve Bannon audio reveals Trump planned to claim early victoryRead moreNew York Magazine snagged an interview with Donald Trump. The former president lives up to his reputation for loquaciousness in the piece, but the real question is what he’s thinking when it comes to 2024.Here’s what he had to say about that:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} “Look,” Trump said, “I feel very confident that, if I decide to run, I’ll win.”
I fixated on If I decide. Trump is less a politician than a live-action mythological creature, and so punditry and all of the standard forms of analyses tend to fail. What would factor into such a decision for such an unusual person? “Well, in my own mind, I’ve already made that decision, so nothing factors in anymore. In my own mind, I’ve already made that decision,” he said.
He wouldn’t disclose what he’d decided. Not at first. But then he couldn’t help himself. “I would say my big decision will be whether I go before or after,” he said. “You understand what that means?” His tone was conspiratorial. Was he referring to the midterm elections? He repeated after me: “Midterms.” Suddenly, he relaxed, as though my speaking the word had somehow set it free for discussion. “Do I go before or after? That will be my big decision,” he said.
He was thinking aloud now. “I just think that there are certain assets to before,” he said. “Let people know. I think a lot of people would not even run if I did that because, if you look at the polls, they don’t even register. Most of these people. And I think that you would actually have a backlash against them if they ran. People want me to run.” More

Joe Biden defends human rights record ahead of Saudi visitPresident says he will not avoid rights issues but skirts commitment to discuss Khashoggi murder00:47Joe Biden has defended his imminent trip to Saudi Arabia, saying he will not avoid human rights issues on the final leg of his Middle East tour, despite refusing to commit to mentioning the murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi when he meets the kingdom’s crown prince.Speaking during a news conference with the interim Israeli prime minister, Yair Lapid, in Jerusalem on Thursday, the US leader said his stance on Khashoggi’s killing was “absolutely” clear.US intelligence services concluded last year that Khashoggi’s 2018 killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was approved by the powerful heir to the throne, Mohammed bin Salman. On the campaign trail, the president vowed to turn the conservative Gulf kingdom into a “pariah state”, but the turmoil in global oil markets unleashed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced a U-turn.“I have never been quiet about talking about human rights,” the president said. “The reason I am going to Saudi Arabia though, is much broader, it’s to promote US interests.“And so there are so many issues at stake, I want to make clear that we can continue to lead in the region and not create a vacuum; a vacuum that is filled by China and/or Russia.”Biden embarked on his first visit to the region as president with engagements in Israel on Wednesday, a trip dominated by the threat posed to the region by the growing military capabilities of Iran and its proxies around the Middle East.Joe Biden arrives in Middle East at time of rapid changeRead moreThe Biden administration hopes that Israel’s new relationships with several Arab states – including a gradual warming of ties with Saudi Arabia, which vies with Tehran for regional hegemony – will strengthen a fledgling regional alliance against Iran.After a cursory meeting with Palestinian leaders in Bethlehem on Friday, the president will fly to the Saudi city of Jeddah with the aim of convincing Gulf oil producers to increase supply, as well as lobbying for fully integrating Israel into the emerging regional defence architecture.Iran was top of the agenda for Israeli officials on the second day of Biden’s visit, during which the president pledged that the US was prepared to use “all elements of its national power” to deny Iran nuclear weapons.The “Jerusalem declaration”, a joint communique issued by Biden and Lapid after their meeting, reaffirmed an “ironclad” US commitment to Israel’s security, as well as Israel’s right to defend itself.The two countries, however, continue to disagree on the utility of rescuing the landmark nuclear deal with Iran, abandoned by Donald Trump in 2018. Talks to revive the accord began in April 2021, but have made little progress.The Islamic Republic could still be prevented from enriching uranium to the level needed to manufacture a nuclear bomb, Biden said, and “Diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome”, although the US is “not going to wait forever”.Lapid, on the other hand, said: “The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if they continue to develop their nuclear programme, the free world will use force.”The Jerusalem declaration offered little to the Palestinians other than a brief reaffirmation of Biden’s commitment to a two-state solution to the conflict. Israel made no mention of the peace process, instead promising to improve the economy and quality of life for the 5 million people living in the occupied Palestinian territories.Biden has declined a request for an audience from the family of the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, who the US state department concluded was accidentally killed by the Israeli army in May.The family, who accused Biden’s administration of siding with Israel by not calling for a criminal investigation, have instead been invited for talks in Washington. Protests demanding justice for Abu Aqleh are planned for Friday morning outside a US-funded hospital in East Jerusalem which Biden is scheduled to visit.Palestinian expectations for Biden’s trip to Bethlehem are low; Washington has not pressured Israel to return to the peace process, nor moved to curb Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank.The administration has also not fulfilled a promise to reopen a US mission to the Palestinians in Jerusalem, which was closed by Trump after he recognised the divided city as Israel’s capital in 2017.TopicsJoe BidenBiden administrationIsraelSaudi ArabiaJamal KhashoggiPalestinian territoriesIrannewsReuse this content More

Let’s rebuild the US microchip industry – not give it a $50bn-plus checkBernie SandersIf private companies are going to benefit from taxpayer subsidies, the financial gains made by these companies must be shared with the American people For two months, a 107-member conference committee has been working to finalize an agreement on the US Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) which would provide more than $50bn in corporate welfare to the highly profitable microchip industry with no strings attached.There is no doubt that there is a global shortage in microchips and semiconductors which is making it harder for manufacturers to produce the cars, cellphones and electronic equipment that we need. This shortage is costing American workers good jobs and raising prices for families. That is why I fully support efforts to expand US microchip production.But the question is: should American taxpayers provide the microchip industry with a blank check of over $50bn at a time when semiconductor companies are making tens of billions of dollars in profits and paying their executives exorbitant compensation packages? I think the answer to that question should be a resounding NO.Let’s review some recent history. Over the last 20 years, the microchip industry has shut down more than 780 manufacturing plants in the United States and eliminated 150,000 American jobs while moving most of its production overseas – after receiving over $9.5bn in government subsidies and loans.In other words, in order to make more profits, these companies took government money and used it to ship good-paying jobs abroad. Now, as a reward for that bad behavior, these same companies are in line to receive a giant taxpayer handout to undo the damage that they did. That may make sense to someone. It does not make sense to me.In total, it has been estimated that five big semi-conductor companies will receive the lion’s share of this taxpayer handout: Intel, Texas Instruments, Micron Technology, Global Foundries and Samsung. These five companies made $70bn in profits last year.The company that will probably benefit the most from this taxpayer assistance is Intel. I have nothing against Intel. I wish them well. But, let’s be clear. Intel is not a poor company. It is not going broke.In 2021, Intel made nearly $20bn in profits. During the pandemic, Intel had enough money to spend $16.6bn, not on research and development, but on buying back its own stock to reward its executives and wealthy shareholders. Last year, Intel could afford to give its CEO, Pat Gelsinger, a $179m compensation package. Over the past 20 years, Intel spent more than $100m on lobbying and campaign contributions while shipping thousands of jobs to China and other low-income countries. Does it sound like this company really needs corporate welfare?Another company that would receive taxpayer assistance under this legislation is Texas Instruments. Last year, Texas Instruments made $7.8bn in profits. In 2020, this company spent $2.5bn buying back its own stock while it has outsourced thousands of good-paying American jobs to low-wage countries.In 1968, Dr Martin Luther King Jr said: “The problem is that we all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free enterprise capitalism for the poor.”I am afraid what King said 54 years ago was accurate back then and it is even more accurate today.We have heard a lot of talk in the halls of Congress about the need to create public-private partnerships – and that all sounds very good. But when the government adopts an industrial policy that socializes all the risk and privatizes all the profits that’s not a partnership. That is crony capitalism.In my view, we must prevent microchip companies from receiving taxpayer assistance unless they agree to issue warrants or equity stakes to the federal government. If private companies are going to benefit from generous taxpayer subsidies, the financial gains made by these companies must be shared with the American people, not just with wealthy shareholders. In other words, if microchip companies make a profit as a direct result of these federal grants, the taxpayers of this country have a right to get a reasonable return on that investment.Further, if microchip companies receive taxpayer assistance, they must agree that they will not buy back their own stock, outsource American jobs overseas or repeal existing collective bargaining agreements, and they must remain neutral in any union organizing effort.This is not a radical idea. All of these conditions were imposed on companies that received taxpayer assistance during the pandemic and passed the Senate by a vote of 96-0.Bottom line: let us rebuild the US microchip industry, but let’s do it in a way that benefits all of our society, not just a handful of wealthy, profitable and powerful corporations.
Bernie Sanders is a US senator from Vermont and the Chairman of the Senate budget committee
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Democratic voters say Biden could be doing a lot more for the climate crisisA Pew survey found more Americans favor stricter environmental laws and regulations – even at an economic cost More than 80% of Democrats think the government is not doing enough to tackle the climate crisis, according to a large nationwide survey that found younger voters across both parties are most frustrated with the pace of political action on green issues.Overall, Americans are largely split along party lines in how they view Joe Biden’s record on pressing climate and environmental challenges like clean water and air quality, according to the Pew Research Center survey of more than 10,000 adults.Just 15% of Republicans think the president’s climate policies are taking the country in the right direction compared with 79% of Democrats.Global dismay as supreme court ruling leaves Biden’s climate policy in tattersRead moreBut worryingly for Biden, whose popularity among his own party has fallen steeply according to recent polls, almost two-thirds of those broadly supportive Democrats think he could be doing a lot more to tackle the climate crisis. As it stands, the US is unlikely to meet its pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as Biden’s climate legislation has been stonewalled by fossil fuel friendly Democratic senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and the entire Republican party.The political stagnation is shocking given that 71% of those polled by Pew said their community had suffered an extreme weather event in the past year. This included severe floods or storms (43%), heatwaves (42%), droughts or water shortages (31%), large wildfires (21%), and shoreline erosion due to rising sea levels (16%). Overall, more than eight in ten of those affected by extreme weather believe the climate crisis contributed to the event.The survey was conducted over the first week of May – before the supreme court’s monumental decision limiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to set standards and emissions. In another sign that the conservative justices do not reflect the views of most Americans, Pew found that 72% of Americans favor requiring energy companies to use more renewable sources such as wind and solar, while 68% support linking corporate taxes to carbon emissions.The results are an indication of Biden’s struggle to translate rhetoric – he has called climate change “the existential threat to human existence as we know it” – into tangible action. Any hopes of passing significant climate legislation could be essentially snuffed out within weeks if the Republicans come out on top in the November midterms, with dire long-term implications for people suffering worsening heatwaves, droughts, floods and other impacts in the US and overseas.Yet the need for urgent transformative political action could not be clearer. The US was battered by 20 separate billion-dollar climate and weather disasters in 2021, one of the most catastrophic climate years on record, which led to at least 688 deaths, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).After a myriad of dangerous backward steps under Donald Trump, climate action was expected to be a top priority of the Biden administration after the US rejoined the Paris climate agreement and passed a major infrastructure bill with funding for adaptation and renewables.But Biden’s Build Back Better bill, championed as the most aggressive action ever proposed to combat global heating, has been sunk by the opposition of Manchin, who holds a crucial swing vote in an evenly split US Senate.Democrats still hope to scramble about $300bn in clean energy spending in a separate bill before the Senate begins its summer recess in August, after which focus will switch to midterm elections that are expected to go badly for the party. But there is no guarantee Manchin will agree to this, given his objections to support for electric vehicles and a reluctance to do anything that sidelines fossil fuels, an industry in which he is personally invested in via a coal trading company.“If there’s people that don’t want to produce more fossils, then you got a problem,” Manchin said on Monday, citing fears that reduced oil production will further add to inflation.Scientists have said the world must cut emissions in half this decade if disastrous heating is to be avoided, and there is little chance this will happen without swift action from the US. Biden’s administration is now reportedly contemplating allowing various polluting projects, such as a gas pipeline in West Virginia, as well as oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, in return for Manchin’s support to bolster renewable energy.This previously unthinkable trade-off by the White House has dismayed climate activists already critical of Biden’s call for increased oil production to bring down gasoline prices and his failure to meet a campaign promise to halt fossil fuel leases on public land.“Locking in decades of deadly, planet-heating fossil fuels is an outrageous trade that negates the benefits of an ever-weaker climate bill,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Pandering to Manchin has proven disastrous, and continuing to do so will have catastrophic consequences.”Despite Manchin’s fear mongering, according to the Pew survey 53% of Americans believe stricter environmental laws are worth any associated cost to the economy – though this is down from 65% in 2019. On this issue, the partisan divide is actually widening: three-quarters of Republicans say stricter environmental laws would hurt jobs and the economy – up 20 percentage points from 2019. Among Democrats, only 21% have a negative view of stricter environmental laws and regulations, up from 14% in 2019.There is some common ground across the political divide. The vast majority of Americans (90%) say they favor planting a trillion or so trees to absorb carbon emissions to help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and 79% favor tax credits to encourage businesses to develop technology to capture and store carbon.But despite record high fuel prices Biden, and whoever succeeds him in the Oval Office, has an uphill battle persuading Americans to give up gas-guzzling cars. Pew found that 55% of people oppose phasing out new gasoline cars and trucks by 2035.TopicsClimate crisisBiden administrationJoe BidenDemocratsUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Boeing, GM, FedEx: these are as complicit as the far right in threatening US democracyRobert ReichCorporations are underwriting the thuggery of Trump and his allies – all because they want to pay as little tax as possible In 2016, when clashes with taxi drivers broke out in 2016 in Paris, Uber’s then-chief executive Travis Kalanick texted fellow executives that “violence guarantees success” in what was a key market for the company.Uber leveraged the violence against its drivers to win sympathy from regulators and the public, as it also did in South Africa where Uber drivers were burned when their cars were set on fire. (This look inside Uber’s internal deliberations came from records Uber lobbyist Mark MacGann turned over to the Guardian.)John Bolton says he ‘helped plan coups d’etat’ in other countriesRead moreI’ve been thinking about Uber’s capitalist thuggery in light of the corporations underwriting Trump’s thuggery, which includes violent groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who led the attack on the US Capitol.Tuesday’s hearing of the January 6 committee added more grim details, such as numerous connections between these violent groups and Trump confidants Roger Stone, Michael Flynn.Trump’s thuggery continues. A phone message received by White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson just before she testified before the January 6 committee warned that someone “let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you know he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal. And you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.”If this sounds like a gangster threat, that’s the point.During Hutchinson’s earlier depositions before the committee, her legal counsel was paid for by Trump’s “Save America Pac” (the Pac paid the legal expenses of other panel witnesses, too.) When she realized “she couldn’t call her attorney to say, ‘Hey, I’ve got more information’” because the attorney “was there to insulate the big guy”, according to a friend, she secured free counsel who would not inhibit her. Now, after testifying in public, Hutchinson is in hiding.Meanwhile, the “big guy” continues to stir up his mob with lies about stolen elections and secret plots – fueling a new wave of threats against committee members.Several have increased their personal security. Committee chair Bennie Thompson, co-chair Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger have security details; other members have requested them.Kinzinger, one of the panel’s two Republican members alongside Cheney, says he’s received “constant” death threats. “There is violence in the future, I’m going to tell you,” Kinzinger told ABC. “And until we get a grip on telling people the truth, we can’t expect any differently.”Kinzinger has announced he will not be seeking re-election. Cheney has paused participating in public events in part because of safety concerns.Does any of this remind you of Hitler’s Brown Shirts or Mussolini’s Blackshirts?At the least, it should raise questions about the wealthy individuals and corporations that continue to bankroll this thuggery – among them, billionaires Peter Thiel, Rebecca Mercer, Charles Koch, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, ex-casino mogul Steve Wynn, and shipping magnate Richard Uihlein.Funding is also coming from Boeing, Koch Industries, Home Depot, FedEx, General Dynamics, Toyota, AT&T, Valero Energy, Lockheed Martin, UPS, Raytheon, Marathon Petroleum, GM and FedEx.In April alone, the most recent month for which data is available, Fortune 500 companies and trade organizations gave more than $1.4m to members of Congress who voted not to certify the election results. AT&T led the pack, giving $95,000 to election objectors.Toyota is even funding Trump ally Andrew Biggs, a fervent devotee of the big lie who refuses to comply with a congressional subpoena to testify before the committee. Six congressmen who have refused to testify have raked in more than $826,000 from corporate donors since the assault on the Capitol.Why are these wealthy individuals and corporations doing this? Presumably because they want to pay as little in taxes as possible and believe Trump and his Republicans will deliver even more tax cuts than they did before.But how is this capitalist thuggery in pursuit of profits different from Uber’s thuggery? And is it more excusable than the political thuggery it’s enabling?To state the question in historical terms, how different is their behavior from the wealthy European industrialists who quietly backed the fascists in the 1920s and 1930s?These billionaire and corporate funders are as complicit as are the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers in threatening American democracy.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
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Why a ‘spider crab’ is crawling to the top of a US ‘I voted’ sticker contestVoters in Ulster county, New York, may receive a sticker of Hudson Rowan’s design this November – and many say it’s ‘a fitting image’ of the political scene Get the latest updates on voting rights in the Guardian’s Fight to vote newsletterHello, and Happy Thursday,One morning a few months ago, Ashley Dittus, a Democratic election commissioner in Ulster county, New York, came into work and saw that someone had sent in the first submission in a countywide contest for an “I voted” sticker. She opened the email and was shocked. “It was a moment I’ll never forget,” Dittus told me on Wednesday.The design was a skull-like head with bloodshot eyes and multicolored teeth sitting atop turquoise spider legs. To the creature’s right, the words “I voted” were scribbled in graffiti-like font. It was 4/20 so she wondered whether someone was playing a trick.But the design was real. It was the creation of Hudson Rowan, a 14-year-old from Marbletown, which is about 100 miles north of New York City. Dittus circulated the design around the small office, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, and everyone laughed.The staff chose it as one of six finalists in the contest and put it on the board’s website for the public to vote on. Now, it appears extremely likely that Ulster county voters will get the sticker when they go to the polls this November. As of Wednesday morning, it had received nearly 174,000 votes out of nearly 186,000 cast. That’s more votes than there are registered voters in the county (voting is open to all members of the public). Last year, in the county’s first design contest, 2,200 people voted.I’ve become mildly obsessed with the design, which is such a clear break from the usual charming, but restrained, designs of the stickers Americans get when they cast their vote. Hudson told me yesterday that when his mom told him about the contest, he wasn’t really into the idea because the typical “I voted” designs aren’t really his style of drawing. But he decided to bring his own style to the contest and doodled out the creature in about 10 minutes on his iPad. There wasn’t anything in particular that inspired the creature, but he noted it was reminiscent of a robot spider he used to paint when he was younger.“I didn’t want to do what everyone would expect. I just decided to import my own style of drawing and see what would happen,” he said.“I think the colors and the craziness just represents the world how it is right now. And how everyone feels when they’re like voting and how the world is. And everyone’s kind of emotions through the colors,” he said. “I feel like my creation kind of changes it up … adds a new flair and hope to the world.”He said the last few days have been “amazing” as the design has gone viral and people have reached out with support.“I’m glad that I can and I hope I will inspire many people to vote. So many people have told me that they’re going to go vote just so they can get my sticker, which I think is crazy and amazing,” he said.I sent the sticker design to my colleague Jonathan Jones, who reviews art for the Guardian, and asked him why he thought it had resonated with so many people. He said the design was “hilarious” and “perhaps a fitting image of the desperate political scene”.“This grimacing skull-like head on kinda spider legs has the nihilism of Rick and Morty and speaks to a generation whose recent political education includes a riotous coup attempt and a supreme court revoking an essential human right,” he said. “Yet it turns that monster around, making it a comedy badge of using the vote to fight back.”There’s also something about the unpolished drawing that may resonate with average people, said Jeremy Fish, an artist who grew up in upstate New York. “This humanoid spider crab is an ugly drawing, and sometimes that is what it takes to get the average dude to engage in the ugliness of modern politics,” he said. “Cheers and good job, Hudson.”Raquel Breternitz, the design director for Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign, said she had also become obsessed with the image. It is “very obviously not what you’d expect from a ‘political design’”, she said. It’s not polished, and lacks the typical red, white and blue, and iconography typically used in politics, she noted.“What I believe is speaking to people about this image is that it hits at more nuanced, mixed feelings re: voting, than what we’ve come to expect,” she wrote in an email. “It gives the sense of us, continuing to go and cast our silly little votes, for our silly little democracy, while things feel desperate; like they’re falling to pieces around us, and the representatives we voted for seemingly lack the political will to respond in kind.”“The fascinating piece of this to me is that the design legitimately is motivational and is expected to boost turnout. It’s inspiring people to vote,” she added. “At this point, what a lot of people want to hear isn’t the bland, positive assertion that voting is some great duty that will fix what ails us, but the honest admission that it’s small, desperately small in the face of things, and yet still – essential.”Siddhartha Mitter, an art critic in New York, was concise in his review. “Looks about right,” he said.Dittus, the election commissioner, said her office has been flooded with calls from all over the country asking how to get one of the stickers and requests for T-shirts and other apparel with the design. She said she has passed the branding requests to Hudson, who said he’s considering it.She said she hopes that the sticker will increase voter turnout, especially for voters aged 25 and under, traditionally a group with low turnout. “If it inspires people to go vote just to get a funny sticker and take a second to think about and look at what’s on the ballot, then I think we’ve done a good job of raising awareness for voting,” she said.“Whatever this humanoid is, he certainly looks very happy in the picture. He’s smiling, his rainbow teeth are on full display. He looks happy that he voted.”Also worth watching …
Grid published a deep dive into the Conservative Partnership Institute, a conservative non-profit, that has been leading a push to recruit election workers, among other efforts.
The Wisconsin supreme court ruled on Friday that ballot drop-boxes were illegal. Writing in dissent, three justices said the majority’s rhetoric was “downright dangerous to our democracy”.
Election officials are worried about insider threats to voting systems
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‘Lives are at stake’: hacking of US hospitals highlights deadly risk of ransomwareThe number of ransomware attacks on US healthcare organizations increased 94% from 2021 to 2022, according to one report Last week, the US government warned that hospitals across the US have been targeted by an aggressive ransomware campaign originating from North Korea since 2021. Ransomware hacks, in which attackers encrypt computer networks and demand payment to make them functional again, have been a growing concern for both the private and public sector since the 90s. But they can be particularly devastating in the healthcare industry, where even minutes of down time can have deadly consequences, and have become ominously frequent.The number of ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations increased 94% from 2021 to 2022, according to a report from the cybersecurity firm Sophos. More than two-thirds of healthcare organizations in the US said they had experienced a ransomware attack in 2021, the study said, up from 34% in 2020.Ransomware attacks on healthcare are particularly common in the US, with 41% of such attacks globally having been carried out against US-based firms in 2021.“The current outlook is terrible,” said Israel Barak, CISO of Cybereason. “We are seeing the industry experience an extremely sharp increase in both the quantity and level of sophistication of these attacks.”Ransomware hacks have caused major healthcare disruptions, including delayed chemotherapy treatments and ambulances being diverted from a San Diego emergency room after computer systems were frozen. In 2021, a lawsuit filed by the mother of a baby who died in Alabama alleged the first “death by ransomware”, blaming a 2019 hack of a hospital for fatal brain damage of the newborn after heart rate monitors failed.‘We are not ready’: a cyber expert on US vulnerability to a Russian attackRead moreThe possibly devastating consequences for medical facilities may be one of the reasons hackers have identified them as a high-profile target. “The North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors likely assume healthcare organizations are willing to pay ransoms because these organizations provide services that are critical to human life and health,” said the advisory from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).CISA and others advise hospitals against paying ransoms, but providers often feel they have no choice, said Barak. In 2021, 61% of healthcare organizations that suffered a ransomware attack paid the ransom – the highest percentage of any industry sector.“When lives are at stake, it makes the decision very easy,” Barak said. “These attackers have identified medical organizations as very, very good targets because they are more likely to pay.”Attacks are typically carried out by private groups of criminals, experts say: in the third quarter of 2021, 30% of ransomware attacks on healthcare entities were carried out by Conti, a crime syndicate thought to be based in Russia, according to an industry report from cybersecurity firm BreachQuest.But the North Korea incident revealed last week is just the latest state actor to orchestrate ransomware attacks on health care organizations after the FBI revealed in June it had thwarted an attack from Iran on a Boston Children’s hospital.Underfunded hospitals hit by Covid squeezeThe healthcare industry has been hit by a perfect storm of factors that have escalated the ransomware problem, experts say: patient information is increasingly being digitized as hospitals struggle with small internet security budgets.In 2009, the Obama administration passed a bill requiring all public and private healthcare providers to adopt electronic medical records by 2014, resulting in a massive migration of paper patient records to online systems. But today, just 4-7% of the average healthcare provider’s annual IT budget is focused on cybersecurity, the BreachQuest study said.“Healthcare providers have gone through massive digital transformation in a very short amount of time,” said Hank Schless, senior security expert at the cybersecurity firm Lookout.The move was accelerated by the pandemic, he added, as more providers shifted to telehealth to connect with patients during lockdown and hospital staff were stretched thin by the influx of sick and dying patients.CISA has advised a “3-2-1 backup approach” for healthcare entities, including saving three copies of each type of data in two different formats, including one offline. But the agency’s advisory to hospitals is “somewhat unhelpful”, said Vincent Berk, chief security officer at the cybersecurity firm Quantum Xchange, offering generic recommendations about securing data with little clear path to doing so.“The issue with this attack, and any other ransomware attack, is that the cure doesn’t really exist,” he said. “In other words, if it happens, it is already too late.”Legislators are attempting to fill in those gaps. In May, Senator Patty Murray of Washington led a hearing on strengthening cybersecurity in the healthcare and education sectors, saying that the US “needs to address cybersecurity attacks and ensure they are treated like the national security threat they are”.“These kinds of challenges don’t just cause major headaches, lawsuits, and expenses for hospitals,” she said. “They put patients in danger. They undermine our national security. And in some cases they even cost lives.”In March 2022 the Senate introduced a bipartisan bill called the Healthcare Cybersecurity Act, which would direct CISA and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to collaborate on a plan to bolster cybersecurity measures among healthcare and public health organizations.Those measures would include cybersecurity training to employees of health organizations and authorize studies from CISA to identify risks in the industry. It is unclear when the bill is set for a vote, but experts say such legislation is more urgent than ever.“There’s zero deterrence right now,” Barak said. “Until we find a more effective way to tackle this issue, I am afraid the outlook is not looking good.”TopicsHackingHealthcare industryData and computer securityCybercrimeUS politicsUS healthcarenewsReuse this content More