US Politics

US Capitol attackPelosi rejects two Republicans from Capitol attack committeeHouse minority leader Kevin McCarthy calls move ‘abuse of power’ and threatens to withdraw Republicans from inquiry Hugo Lowell in WashingtonWed 21 Jul 2021 17.38 EDTLast modified on Wed 21 Jul 2021 17.42 EDTThe House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, announced on Wednesday that she would veto the two top Republican appointments to the new House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, saying the Trump-allied congressmen could threaten the integrity of the investigation.But the move sparked the immediate prospect of a boycott from the other Republicans picked by their party to serve on the committee and a threat that they would set up their own inquiry of the events of 6 January.Capitol attack committee chair vows to investigate Trump: ‘Nothing is off limits’Read moreThe top Democrat in the House said in a statement that she was rejecting Republicans Jim Banks and Jim Jordan from the panel because of their remarks disparaging the inquiry and their ties to Donald Trump, who will be the subject of the select committee’s investigation.Pelosi said her move was an unprecedented but necessary step given the gravity of the select committee’s inquiry into 6 January, when supporters of the former president stormed the Capitol in a violent insurrection that left five people dead and nearly 140 injured.“I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan to the select committee,” Pelosi said. “The unprecedented nature of January 6 demands this unprecedented decision.”The move also demonstrated Pelosi’s far-reaching and unilateral authority to steer the direction of the investigation. Pelosi made her decision after deliberating with her leadership team and her picks for the panel, according to a source familiar with the matter.The Republican House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, had included Banks and Jordan – both outspoken Trump allies who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s election victory – among his picks on Monday, foreshadowing a bitter partisan fight over the direction of the inquiry.The top Republican in the House slammed her move as an “egregious abuse of power” that would “irreparably damage this institution”, and threatened to withdraw Republicans from the investigation unless Pelosi reversed course and installed all five appointments.“This panel has lost all legitimacy and credibility and shows the speaker is more interested in playing politics than seeking the truth,” McCarthy said. “Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts.”Still, Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the one Republican member picked by Pelosi to serve on the select committee after she castigated Jordan on the House floor on 6 January, blaming him for the attack, told reporters that she supported Pelosi’s decision.“I agree with what the speaker has done,” she said.The decision by Pelosi to block the pair from serving on the select committee came after a series of calls between Pelosi, her leadership team and the Democratic caucus on Tuesday morning, the source said.House Democrats were outraged with Banks’s appointment in part because of a statement released on Monday night in which he inexplicably blamed the Biden administration for its response to the 6 January attack, which took place during the Trump administration, the source said.Banks also drew the ire of Pelosi and House Democrats after he arranged a trip for House Republicans to join Trump at a recent event at the southern border alongside an individual who participated in the Capitol attack itself.Pelosi also expressed deep concern about the selection of Jordan, the source said, especially given he may have spoken to Trump as rioters stormed the Capitol and disparaged attempts to investigate the deadliest attack on the Capitol since the war of 1812.The chairman of the select committee, Bennie Thompson, previously told the Guardian that any conversations that involved Trump on 6 January would be investigated by the panel, raising the prospect that Jordan would end up examining his own conduct.TopicsUS Capitol attackNancy PelosiHouse of RepresentativesUS politicsRepublicansDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

OpinionUS politicsThe biggest win for the working class in generations is within reachBernie SandersIf our budget passes, it would be one of the most important pieces of legislation since the New Deal. But we must fight for it Wed 21 Jul 2021 06.29 EDTLast modified on Wed 21 Jul 2021 14.38 EDTNow is the time.At a time when the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider, when two people now own more wealth than the bottom 40% and when some of the wealthiest people and biggest businesses in the world pay nothing in federal income taxes, the billionaire class and large profitable corporations must finally start paying their fair share of taxes.Now is the time.At a time when real wages for workers have not gone up in almost 50 years, when over half our people live paycheck to paycheck, when over 90 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, when working families cannot afford childcare or higher education for their kids, when many Americans no longer believe their government represents their interests, the US Congress must finally have the courage to represent the needs of working families and not just the 1% and their lobbyists.Now is the time.At a time of unprecedented heatwaves, drought, flooding, extreme weather disturbances and the acidification of the oceans, now is the time for the US government to make certain that the planet we leave our children and future generations is healthy and habitable. We must stand up to the greed of the fossil fuel industry, transform our energy system and lead the world in combating climate change.As chairman of the US Senate budget committee I fought hard for a $6tn budget which would address these and other long-neglected needs. Not everyone in the Democratic caucus agreed with me and, after a lot of discussion and compromise within the budget committee, an agreement was reached on a smaller number. (Needless to say, no Republicans will support legislation which taxes the rich and protects working families.)While this budget is less than I had wanted, let us be clear. This proposal, if passed, will be the most consequential piece of legislation for working people, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor since FDR and the New Deal of the 1930s. It will also put the US in a global leadership position as we combat climate change. Further, and importantly, this legislation will create millions of good-paying jobs as we address the long-neglected needs of working families and the planet.Why is this proposal so significant?We will end the days of billionaires not paying a nickel in federal income taxes by making sure the wealthy and large corporations do not use their accountants and lawyers to avoid paying the massive amounts that they owe. This proposal will also raise the individual tax rate on the wealthiest Americans and the corporate tax rate for the most profitable companies in our country. Under this proposal, no family making under $400,000 a year will pay a nickel more in taxes and will, in fact, receive one of the largest tax cuts in American history.We will aggressively reduce our childhood poverty rate by expanding the child tax credit so that families continue to receive monthly direct payments of up to $300 per child.We will address the crisis in childcare by fighting to make sure that no working family pays more than 7% of their income on this basic need. Making childcare more accessible and affordable will also strengthen our economy by allowing millions more Americans (mostly women) to join the workforce.We will provide universal pre-kindergarten to every three- and four-year-old.We will end the international disgrace of the United States being the only major country on Earth not to guarantee paid family and medical leave as a right.We will begin to address the crisis in higher education by making community colleges in America tuition-free.We will address the disgrace of widespread homelessness in the United States and the reality that nearly 18m households are paying over 50% of their incomes for housing by an unprecedented investment in affordable housing.We will ensure that people in an ageing society can receive the home healthcare they need and that the workers who provide that care aren’t forced to live on starvation wages.We will save taxpayers hundreds of billions by having Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry and use those savings to cover the dental care, hearing aids and eyeglasses that many seniors desperately need.We will rebuild our crumbling roads, bridges, water systems, wastewater treatment plants, broadband and other aspects of our physical infrastructure.We will take on the existential threat of climate change by transforming our energy systems away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.This effort will include a nationwide clean energy standard that moves our transportation system, electrical generation, buildings and housing and agriculture sector toward clean energy.Through a Civilian Climate Corps we will give hundreds of thousands of young people good-paying jobs and educational benefits as they help us combat climate change.We will fight to bring undocumented people out of the shadows and provide them with a pathway to citizenship, including those who courageously kept our economy running in the middle of a deadly pandemic.In the midst of the many long-ignored crises that this legislation is attempting to address, we will not have one Republican senator voting for it. Tragically, many Republican leaders in Congress and around the country are just too busy continuing to lie about the 2020 presidential election, undermining democracy by suppressing voting rights, denying the reality of climate change and casting doubts about the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccines.That means that the 50 Democrats in the US Senate, plus the vice-president, will have to pass this most consequential piece of legislation alone. And that’s what we will do. The future of working families is at stake. The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake.Now is the time.
Bernie Sanders is a US senator, and the ranking member of the Senate budget committee. He represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress
TopicsUS politicsOpinionBernie SandersJoe BidenUS domestic policycommentReuse this content More

Britney SpearsBritney Spears: US House of Representatives introduce bill to end conservatorship abuseInspired by Spears’ case, the Free Act would bring protection and oversight to a ‘broken system’ Laura SnapesWed 21 Jul 2021 05.31 EDTLast modified on Wed 21 Jul 2021 05.33 EDTBritney Spears’ fight to end her conservatorship has inspired a new bipartisan proposal in the US House of Representatives.The Freedom and Right to Emancipate from Exploitation (Free) Act would allow a person bound by a conservatorship to petition to replace their court-appointed private conservator with a public conservator, family member or private agent without having to prove abuse.The bill, introduced by Republican Nancy Mace and Democrat Charlie Crist, would offer state funding for case workers to oversee conservatorships. States accepting the funds would require case workers and public guardians to disclose their finances, as well as to provide annual reports on conservatorships.“Abusive conservatorships can be an unending nightmare, and tragically we don’t know how many people are being held captive against their will under the broken guardianship system,” said Crist. “Under the Free Act, we would free Britney along with the countless numbers of seniors and persons with disabilities being abused and exploited by the broken system.”“To see a woman like Britney Spears have her most basic human rights permanently stripped away from her under the guise of ‘protection’ should be illegal,” said Mace.In June, Spears petitioned a Los Angeles court to end the conservatorship that has controlled her personal life, career and finances since 2008. In her explosive testimony, she said she had been forced to work against her will, blocked from marrying and removing her IUD to have a baby, and from being driven by her boyfriend in his car.She accused her father, Jamie Spears – a co-conservator – of abuse and said that he and the team behind the conservatorship “should be in jail”.In response, Jamie Spears filed documents claiming that he has had no power over his daughter’s personal affairs for nearly two years, and asked the court to investigate “serious allegations regarding forced labor, forced medical treatment and therapy, improper medical care, and limitations on personal rights”. His lawyers also said that his daughter should have the “right to give informed consent for her own medical treatment”.On 30 June, a judge denied a request to remove Jamie Spears from the star’s conservatorship. The Bessemer Trust, the wealth management fund that oversees Spears’ finances, resigned on 2 July; her long-term manager Larry Rudolph followed suit four days later. Her court-appointed lawyer Samuel D Ingham asked to resign soon after.Britney Spears’ forced birth control has a long, dark history in the United States | Moira DoneganRead moreSpears won a small victory last week when the court allowed her to appoint her own representation for the first time in the history of her arrangement. Mathew Rosengart, a former federal prosecutor who has represented Steven Spielberg and Sean Penn, replaces Ingham.On 20 July, Rosengart said he is working “aggressively and expeditiously” to remove Jamie Spears as conservator “unless he resigns first”.Since her widely praised court appearance, Spears has continued to share details of her experiences under the conservatorship on her social media. She apologised to fans for “pretending to be OK” in her offbeat Instagram posts.In an Instagram post celebrating Rosengart’s appointment, Spears used the hashtag #FreeBritney for the first time. She later stated, “I’m not gonna be performing on any stages anytime soon with my dad handling what I wear, say, do, or think”.In her latest Instagram post, Spears wrote: “I think we all know that I will never be able to let go and fully move on until I’ve said all I needed to say … and I’m not even close !!!! I was told to stay quiet about things for so long and I finally feel like I’m just getting here 🕊️🕊️🕊️ !!!!”TopicsBritney SpearsUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Donald TrumpCapitol attack committee chair vows to investigate Trump: ‘Nothing is off limits’ Bennie Thompson tells Guardian he will pursue wide-ranging inquiry to uncover root causes of January 6 attackHugo Lowell in WashingtonWed 21 Jul 2021 02.00 EDTLast modified on Wed 21 Jul 2021 02.52 EDTCongressman Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the new House select committee to scrutinize the Capitol attack, says he will investigate Donald Trump as part of his inquiry into the events of 6 January – a day he sees as the greatest test to the United States since the civil war.Trump supporter sentenced to eight months in prison for role in Capitol riotRead moreIn an interview with the Guardian, Thompson said that he is also prepared to depose members of Congress and senior Trump administration officials who might have participated in the insurrection that left five dead and nearly 140 injured.“Absolutely,” Thompson said of his intent to pursue a wide-ranging inquiry against the former president and some of his most prominent allies on Capitol Hill. “Nothing is off limits.”The aggressive move to place Trump in the crosshairs of the select committee underscores Thompson’s determination to uncover the root causes of 6 January, even after Senate Republicans, fearing political damage, blocked the creation of a 9/11-style commission.The move comes at the same time as many Republicans have been seeking to downplay the attack on the Capitol – in which five people died – or, in the case of Trump himself, cast its protagonists in a more positive light.But there is no doubt in Thompson’s mind of the seriousness of the event. Addressing some of the key questions at the heart of the select committee’s investigation into the attacl, Thompson characterized the inquiry as an undertaking to safeguard the peaceful transition of power and the future of American democracy.“The issues of January 6 are one of the most salient challenges we have as a nation, to make sure that this democracy does not fall prey to people who don’t really identify with democracy,” Thompson said.The central thrust of the investigation will focus on the facts and circumstances surrounding the Capitol attack, Thompson said, and the first hearing scheduled for 27 July will feature current and former US Capitol police and DC Metro police officers.But in pursuing a broad mandate to also examine the root causes of the insurrection, Thompson reiterated that he remains prepared to issue subpoenas to compel testimony from an array of Trump officials connected to the attack should they refuse to appear voluntarily.Trump and McCarthy among top witnessesThompson indicated that Trump and the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, are among the top witnesses for his investigation, in large part because McCarthy was on the phone with the former president as the riot unfolded.McCarthy called Trump in a panic as rioters breached the Capitol and begged him to call off his supporters, only for Trump to chastise the top Republican in the House for not doing more to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.“There will not be a reluctance on the part of the committee to pursue it,” Thompson said of McCarthy’s call. “The committee will want to know if there is a record of what was said.”The exchange between McCarthy and Trump is of singular importance, since it provides a rare window into what Trump, sequestered in the West Wing, was privately thinking and saying as the Capitol was invaded.But Thompson went further, and said that he expects anyone – whether a sitting member of Congress or former White House official – who may have spoken to Trump on 6 January to become the subject of the select committee’s investigation.That prospect took on added significance on Monday, after McCarthy named House judiciary committee chairman Jim Jordan as one of his picks for the panel. Jordan has previously suggested he may have also spoken to Trump as the assault took place.“If somebody spoke to the president on January 6, I think it would be important for our committee to know what was said. I can’t imagine you talk about anything else to the president on January 6,” Thompson said.He also warned Republicans against attempting to stymie the committee’s investigation, saying that it had no deadline to furnish a report and as a result, would be immune to delay tactics previously deployed during the first Trump impeachment inquiry.“Notwithstanding elections next year, we will not stop until our investigation is complete,” Thompson said.Subpoenas to be enforced in courtAgainst that backdrop, Thompson said he expects to demand testimony from senior Trump administration officials who were in the Oval Office as the riot unfolded, from the then White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to Trump’s daughter Ivanka.If Trump administration officials refuse to appear before the committee, citing executive privilege, Thompson said he would issue subpoenas and launch lawsuits to enforce his congressional oversight authority.“We will pursue it in court,” he said.Thompson added that he expects the select committee and senior House investigators to meet with the attorney general, Merrick Garland, and expressed optimism for conducting his investigation in close coordination with the justice department.He was adamant that his investigation would not overlap with existing criminal probes opened by the justice department and the US attorney for the District of Columbia. Still, he said he hoped the DoJ would cooperate with his inquiry.“We don’t want to get in the way of indictments,” Thompson said. “But I think there could be some sharing of information that could be germane to our investigation, just like other committees have negotiated in the past.”Thompson said that although no date has been set for a meeting with the attorney general, it will involve the 6 January select committee’s members and senior staff. The senior staff may be named as soon as this week, according to a source familiar with the matter.To emphasize his seriousness, Thompson said the select committee would draw on legal counsel and investigative staff from existing House panels as well as the US intelligence community – including the NSA, CIA and FBI.Thompson also said he expects the National Archives, the agency now in possession of records from the Trump White House, to make materials available for his investigation. “That should not be an issue,” he said, though he left open the possibility of subpoenas in the event of noncompliance.And he vowed to refer criminal charges should Trump White House records, covering the period from the November election through 6 January, be missing or destroyed – a persistent worry among Democrats as Trump grew increasingly unhinged in the final weeks of the administration.“That violates the law,” Thompson said. “I don’t see any hesitation on our part to pursue that. If the respect for the rule of law is not adhered to, that’s even more reason for this select committee to exist.”TopicsDonald TrumpUS Capitol attackUS politicsRepublicansUS CongressnewsReuse this content More

US newsDelta variant accounts for 83% of new cases in US, CDC director saysA cluster of midwestern and southern states have emerged as new hotspots for Covid

Coronavirus – live global coverage
Maya YangTue 20 Jul 2021 15.43 EDTFirst published on Tue 20 Jul 2021 12.26 EDTThe highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus now accounts for 83% of all sequenced cases in the US, a top federal health official said on Tuesday.Fox News host Sean Hannity urges viewers to ‘take Covid seriously’Read more“This is a dramatic increase, up from 50% [in] the week of 4 July,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in Senate testimony.Walensky also said Covid fatalities had risen by nearly 48% over the past week to an average of 239 a day.“Each death is tragic and even more heartbreaking when we know that the majority of these deaths could be prevented with a simple, safe available vaccine,” she said.A cluster of midwestern and southern states have emerged as the new hotspots for Covid-19.With less than half of the US population fully vaccinated, infection rates in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi are among the highest – with vaccination rates among the lowest.Alabama ranks lowest in vaccination rates, with only 42.4% of its adult population fully vaccinated. Vermont has the highest fully vaccinated adult population, at 77.3%.In the last two weeks, the rate of infection across the US has increased by 198%. States that had some of the highest increases in that period include Oklahoma, at 387%, and Louisiana and Mississippi at 376% and 308%.The national vaccination campaign has slowed down significantly. The US is administering 521,000 doses daily, a 85% decrease from a peak in April when 3.38m doses were administered every day.“This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Walensky said last week. “We are seeing outbreaks of cases in parts of the country that have low vaccination coverage because unvaccinated people are at risk. Communities that are fully vaccinated are generally faring well.”With the Biden administration having fallen short of its goal of administering at least one shot to 70% of adults by 4 July, the rapid transmission of the Delta variant poses a serious challenge to attempts to control the pandemic.In addition to prioritizing speed, the administration is focusing on distributing shots equitably to communities hardest hit.According to Jeff Zients, coordinator of the White House coronavirus team, the administration is working on outreach in communities with high vaccine hesitancy, as well as improving accessibility at doctors’ offices and workplaces.According to data from the New York Times, the most socially vulnerable counties have a lower average vaccination rate than the least vulnerable. The majority of the most disadvantaged counties are in the south.“The people who have not gotten vaccinated so far are a very diverse group,” said Dr David Dowdy, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University.“It’s easy to portray it as … a political stripe, but vaccination rates are higher, for example, in those who are older, and that’s irrespective of political leaning.”The most vaccinated and least vulnerable counties are in the midwest and north-east.There also remains a divide on Capitol Hill surrounding the role that the National Institutes of Health played in funding controversial research in Wuhan, China.During the Senate hearing on Tuesday, Senator Rand Paul accused Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, of previously lying to Congress about his knowledge of how the Wuhan lab used the NIH funds. He cited an academic paper that purportedly shows the lab was conducting research to create “potential pandemic pathogens that exist only in the lab, not in nature”.Fauci vehemently denied the claims, saying: “Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about,” before adding, “I totally resent the lie you are now propagating.” Fauci maintains that it is molecularly impossible that NIH-funded research was responsible for SARS-CoV-2.Overall, the US remains in significantly better shape than at all previous points of the pandemic, despite the national rise in infections. Death rates have remained near their lowest levels since last spring and hospitalization rates are much lower compared with last winter’s peak.TopicsUS newsCoronavirusVaccines and immunisationUS politicsBiden administrationnewsReuse this content More

WisconsinMandela Barnes announces Wisconsin Senate run to replace Ron JohnsonFirst Black lieutenant governor will be state’s first African American US senator if he wins primary and beats Trump ally

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