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      Approval for Biden Ukraine aid request likely after Pelosi Kyiv visit, McCaul says

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      Approval for Biden Ukraine aid request likely after Pelosi Kyiv visit, McCaul saysRepublican says House likely to approve $33bn but also says Democrats have not acted quickly enough

      Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates
      Joe Biden’s $33bn request to Congress for more aid for Ukraine is likely to receive swift approval from lawmakers, a senior Republican said on Sunday, as the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, made a surprise visit to the war-riven country.Scholz defends Ukraine policy as criticism mounts in Germany Read moreThe president on Thursday had asked for the money for military and humanitarian support for Ukraine as it fights to repulse the Russian invasion now in its third month.Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican and ranking member of the House foreign affairs committee, went on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulous and said he expected the chamber would look favorably on the request in the coming weeks.McCaul’s comments came while Pelosi led a congressional delegation to Kyiv to meet the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the House speaker promised on behalf of the US: “We are here until victory is won.”McCaul was asked if he believed Congress would quickly pass Biden’s requested package, which includes $20bn in military aid, $8.5bn in economic aid to Kyiv and $3bn in humanitarian relief.“Yes, I do,” McCaul said. “Time is of the essence. The next two to three weeks are going to be very pivotal and very decisive in this war. And I don’t think we have a lot of time to waste. I wish we had [Biden’s request] a little bit sooner, but we have it now.”McCaul added that he believed Republicans, who have supported the Democratic president’s previous financial requests for Ukraine, might have acted more expediently if they held the House majority.The chamber is not sitting during the coming week while members tend to in-district affairs, delaying debate and a vote on the aid package.“If I were speaker for a day, I’d call Congress back into session, back into work,” he said.“Every day we don’t send them more weapons is a day where more people will be killed and a day where they could lose this war. I think they can win it. But we have to give them the tools to do it.”Meanwhile, Bob Menendez, the Democratic New Jersey senator who chairs the upper chamber’s foreign relations committee, echoed Pelosi’s pledge that the US would continue to support Ukraine financially.“We will do what it takes to see Ukraine win because it’s not just about Ukraine, it’s about the international order,” he said on NBC’s Meet the Press.“If Ukraine does not win, if [Russia’s president Vladimir] Putin can ultimately not only succeed in the Donbas but then be emboldened to go further, if he strikes a country under our treaty obligations with Nato, then we would be directly engaged.“So stopping Russia from getting to that point is of critical interest to us, as well as the world, so we don’t have to send our sons and daughters into battle. That ability not to have to send our sons and daughters into battle is priceless.”Menendez said that the US and its allies needed to “keep our eye on the ball” over a possible Russian move into Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, where explosions were heard in recent days.“I think that the Ukrainians care about what’s going to happen in Transnistria, because it’s another attack point against Ukraine,” he said.“We need to keep our eye on the ball. And that is about helping Ukraine and Ukrainians ultimately being able to defeat the butcher of Moscow. If we do that, the world will be safer. The international order will be preserved, and others who are looking at what is happening in Ukraine will have to think twice.”Samantha Power, administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), laid out the urgent need for Congress to approve the package during an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation.“There are vast swaths of Ukraine that have been newly liberated by Ukrainian forces, where there is desperate need, everything from demining to trauma kits to food assistance, since markets are not back up and running,” she said, noting that from previously approved drawdowns “assistance is flowing”.But she said that 40 million people could be pushed into poverty, and demands for help would only grow.“We’re already spending some of that money, but the burn rate is very, very high as prices spiral inside Ukraine and outside Ukraine,” Power said. “So that’s why this supplemental is so important. It entails $3bn of humanitarian assistance to meet those global needs, which are famine-level, acute malnutrition needs.“And it includes very significant direct budget support for the government of Ukraine, because we want to ensure the government can continue providing services for its people.”“Putin would like nothing more than the government of Ukraine to go bankrupt and not be able to cater to the needs of the people. We can’t let that happen.”TopicsUS CongressRepublicansJoe BidenBiden administrationUS politicsUkraineNancy PelosinewsReuse this content More

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      Biden’s top border official not worried about Republican impeachment threats

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      Biden’s top border official not worried about Republican impeachment threatsHomeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas forging ahead with plans to ease Covid-related immigration restrictions Joe Biden’s top border official said on Sunday he was unconcerned by threats from the top House Republican that the GOP could impeach him if it regains the majority after the midterm elections, as the Biden administration forges ahead with plans to ease a coronavirus-related immigration restriction.Republicans return to politics of immigration as midterm strategyRead moreSpeaking on CNN’s State of the Union, Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, addressed the remarks from the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy.“I am incredibly proud to work with 250,000 dedicated and talented personnel and I look forward to continuing to do so,” Mayorkas said.“I am not [concerned about the possibility of impeachment] – I am focused on mission and supporting our incredible workforce.”Republicans are building a key part of their midterm strategy around a byzantine public health order invoked by Donald Trump’s administration in March 2020 to ostensibly control the spread of Covid-19 along the border with Mexico.Faced with pressure from immigration advocates and progressives, the Biden administration wants to lift the so-called title 42 restriction, which allows authorities to immediately expel migrants seeking entry instead of allowing them to remain while their claim for asylum is reviewed.But Republicans, and even some Democrats, argue that the federal government is not prepared for the projected increase in migrants making asylum claims if title 42 is lifted on 23 May as planned.The homeland security department anticipates as many as 18,000 migrants daily at the border in the wake of elimination of Title 42, up from 6,000.On Sunday, Mayorkas acknowledged “that is going to be an extraordinary strain on our system”. He also declined an opportunity to say whether or not he believed title 42 should remain, saying he was “not a public health expert” but rather an enforcer of laws.Nonetheless, Mayorkas insisted the administration was prepared for the consequences of lifting title 42 and expecting cooperation from Mexico and other countries south of the border.“We didn’t just start this,” Mayorkas said, echoing his message in more than eight hours of testimony on Capitol Hill over two days recently. “We’ve been doing it for months.”McCarthy invoked Mayorkas’s name during a trip to the border last month, as Republicans sought to tie the title 42 debate to election themes such as crime and voter fraud.Trump accepted ‘some responsibility’ for Capitol attack, McCarthy audio revealsRead moreThe top Republican in the House had just made headlines over audio recordings of him telling other lawmakers in his party he thought Trump should be impeached – if not resign – over the Capitol attack.McCarthy tried to deny he ever said any of that – before the release of the audio recordings.At the border, McCarthy said it was Mayorkas who should worry about impeachment if the Republicans flip Congress in the midterm elections, unless the homeland security secretary kept title 42 in place.“This is his moment in time to do his job,” McCarthy said. “But at any time if someone is derelict in their job, there is always the option of impeaching somebody.”Mayorkas also addressed criticisms aimed at him over his office’s recent creation of a so-called misinformation governing board tasked with counteracting misleading information about the border, whether from political enemies of the US or smugglers trying to convince migrants to hire them for help crossing into the country despite not having permission.Some lawmakers, mainly Republicans, have argued that the board could stifle free speech. But Mayorkas said the board would simply issue recommendations on how best to combat misrepresentations that in the past have fueled sudden surges of travel to the border and overwhelmed authorities there.“Those criticisms are precisely the opposite of what this small working group … will do,” Mayorkas said.TopicsUS immigrationUS politicsUS midterm elections 2022Biden administrationUS domestic policyUS CongressnewsReuse this content More

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      Rand Paul promises Covid review if Republicans retake Senate in midterms

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      Rand Paul promises Covid review if Republicans retake Senate in midtermsKentucky senator who has clashed publicly with Dr Anthony Fauci champions lab leak theory in remarks at rally The Kentucky senator Rand Paul promised on Saturday to wage a vigorous review into the origins of the coronavirus if Republicans retake the Senate and he lands a committee chairmanship.This Will Not Pass review: Trump-Biden blockbuster is dire reading for DemocratsRead moreSpeaking to supporters at a campaign rally, the senator denounced what he sees as government overreach in response to Covid-19. He applauded a recent judge’s order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs.“Last week I was on an airplane for the first time in two years and didn’t have to wear a mask,” he said, drawing cheers. “And you know what I saw in the airport? I saw at least 97% of the other free individuals not wearing masks.”Paul has clashed repeatedly with Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, over government policies and the origins of the virus.Paul, who is seeking a third term, said he was in line to assume a committee chairmanship if the GOP wins Senate control. The Senate has a 50-50 split, with the vice-president, Kamala Harris, the tie-breaking vote.“When we take over in November, I will be chairman of a committee and I will have subpoena power,” Paul said. “And we will get to the bottom of where this virus came from.”The senator, an ophthalmologist before politics, continued to offer his theory about the origins of the virus.02:49“If you look at the evidence, overwhelmingly, not 100%, but overwhelmingly the evidence points to this virus being a leak from a lab,” Paul said.Many US conservatives have accused Chinese scientists of developing Covid-19 in a lab and allowing it to leak.US intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the coronavirus but believe China did not know about the virus before the start of the global pandemic, according a Biden-ordered review released last summer.The scientific consensus remains that the virus most likely migrated from animals. So-called “spillover events” occur in nature and there are at least two coronaviruses that evolved in bats and caused human epidemics, SARS1 and MERS.At the Kentucky rally, the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, the state’s senior senator, also pointed to Paul’s opportunity to lead a committee. If that occurs, he said, Paul would become chairman of “one of the most important committees in the Senate – in charge of health, education, labor and pensions”.McConnell was upbeat about Republican prospects in November.“I’ve never seen a better environment for us than this year,” said McConnell, who is in line to again become majority leader.The rally featured other prominent Kentucky Republicans, including several considering running for governor in 2023, when Andy Beshear, a Democrat, will seek a second term.In his speech, Paul railed against socialism, saying it would encroach on individual liberties. The senator was first elected to the Senate in the Tea Party wave of 2010.02:21“When President Trump said he wanted to ‘Make America Great Again’, I said, ‘Amen,’” Paul said. “But let’s understand what made America great in the first place, and that’s freedom, constitutionally guaranteed liberty.”Charles Booker is by far the best known Democrats seeking their party’s nomination for Paul’s seat in the 17 May primary. Paul is being challenged by several little-known candidates. A general election campaign between Paul and Booker would be a battle between candidates with starkly different philosophies.Booker, a Black former state lawmaker, narrowly lost a bid for the Democratic nomination in 2020. He is a progressive who touts Medicare for all, anti-poverty programs, a clean-energy agenda and criminal justice changes.Paul, a former presidential candidate, has accumulated a massive fundraising advantage.Kentucky has not elected a Democrat to the US Senate since Wendell Ford in 1992.TopicsRepublicansRand PaulUS midterm elections 2022CoronavirusUS politicsDemocratsAnthony FaucinewsReuse this content More

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      Republicans return to politics of immigration as midterm strategy

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      Republicans return to politics of immigration as midterm strategyHearings with homeland security secretary about the US-Mexico border also revealed rifts within Democrat ranks Four years after Republicans embraced Donald Trump’s nativist and often racist playbook in an attempt to keep control of Congress, the party is once again placing the volatile politics of immigration at the center of its midterm election strategy.Biden ends Trump-era asylum curbs amid border-region Democrat backlash Read moreFrom the US-Mexico border to the US Capitol, in hearing rooms and courtrooms, Republicans are hammering the issue. At the forefront of the debate is a once-obscure public health order invoked by the Trump administration in March 2020 ostensibly as a means for controlling the spread of the coronavirus along the south-western border.Seizing on a decision by the Biden administration to lift such “Title 42” border restrictions, Republicans have sought to paint Democrats as pursuing an extremist immigration agenda that they say has cost the nation its very sovereignty.The provocative and often misleading messaging campaign was on full display when Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, testified on Capitol Hill.For more than eight hours, across two days, Republicans pelted Mayorkas with accusations and insults, demanding he accept the blame for what they described as dangerous and dire conditions along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico.“We’re all really border states now,” Congressman Steve Chabot of Ohio said darkly.In another tense exchange, Ken Buck of Colorado said his constituents believed Mayorkas was guilty of treason and deserved to be impeached – something conservatives have vowed to pursue if they win the House.“What you have just said – it is so profoundly offensive on so many different levels, in so many different regards,” Mayorkas responded, visibly upset. Mayorkas forcefully defended the administration’s handling of the border and said it was up to Congress to act.“We inherited a broken and dismantled system that is already under strain,” Mayorkas said. “It is not built to manage the current levels and types of migratory flows. Only Congress can fix this.”The hearings laid bare the tensions within Democratic ranks over Biden’s immigration actions, particularly over Title 42.For months, immigration advocates and progressives have been pressuring Biden to lift Title 42, which gives officials the authority to swiftly expel migrants trying to enter the US instead of allowing them to seek asylum and remain in the country while their claim is evaluated.“You’re essentially doing policymaking by crisis,” said Claudia Flores, an immigration policy expert at the left-leaning Center for American Progress thinktank. “And that’s just not effective.”As a matter of public policy, Flores said, it was dangerous to use a public health order to control immigration. Not only was the rule insufficient for addressing problems at the border, she added, but it had carried “grave humanitarian consequences” for asylum seekers.But some vulnerable Democrats have appealed to Biden to hold off on lifting the order, fearing it could be a political liability ahead of a difficult election cycle. Agreeing with Republicans, they have expressed concern that the administration lacks a comprehensive plan for dealing with the anticipated increase in migrants making asylum claims when the order is lifted in late May.“This is not good for Democrats in November,” the Texas congressman Henry Cuellar, a Democrat facing a progressive challenge for his border-district seat, told Fox News Digital.“You know, in talking with some of my Republican colleagues, they’re saying, ‘We can’t believe the White House is giving us this narrative. We can’t believe that they’re hurting Democrat candidates for the November election.’”In his testimony, Mayorkas argued that his department had a plan to handle the expected surge of migrants. He repeatedly directed lawmakers to a six-point plan, released in advance of the hearings, that outlined a more aggressive effort to enforce immigration laws after the public health rule is lifted. It also included efforts to partner with non-profits that help migrants in the US while their cases are processed and to work with countries across the region to address “root causes” of migration.“When the Title 42 public health order is lifted, we anticipate migration levels will increase, as smugglers will seek to take advantage of and profit from vulnerable migrants,” the memo stated.It did little to appease Republicans and some Democrats.“It’s clear to me that the federal government is not prepared – not even close,” Greg Stanton of Arizona, a border-state Democrat, said during the hearing.Biden has worked to reverse many hardline policies that were at the heart of Trump’s “zero tolerance” approach to immigration. The number of migrants attempting to cross the border has risen sharply.Biden has argued that the only way to address the migration is at the source – an ambitious plan that will probably take years to bear fruit. In the short term, his administration faces acute operational and political challenges.At a White House meeting last week, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus urged the president to stand firm behind the decision to end the public health order.“Title 42 must end on 23 May,” the California congresswoman Nanette Barragán, a deputy chair of the CHC, said she told the president, while urging him to “not support legislation to extend the end-date”.With the prospects of legislative action dim ahead of the midterms, the caucus is urging Biden to use his executive authority to make good on some of his promises to Latino voters on immigration, the environment, healthcare and the economy. They have argued that it is both good policy and good politics, as Latino support for Democrats is waning amid concern over the economy and inflation.“After four years of traumatic, xenophobic and inhumane immigration policies being forced on our most vulnerable communities, we have a duty to deliver them the protection and support they and their families so desperately need,” the Democratic congressman Adriano Espaillat, of New York, said after the meeting.Fears over Title 42 are only one element of the Republicans’ messaging. Republicans have sought to tie illegal immigration to other potent themes like voter fraud and crime. Allegations of undocumented migrants voting in large numbers have been repeatedly disproved. Studies have found that migrants commit crime at lower rates than native-born citizens.Republicans have long used immigration as a political weapon – with mixed results. In 2018, they lost the House in a wave election fueled in part by fury over Trump’s hardline policies that separated migrant children from their parents. The same year they expanded control in the Senate.US immigration courts struggle amid understaffing and backlog of casesRead moreThe political winds have reversed. Republicans are heavily favored to take the House, and possibly the Senate. The national mood has soured on Biden and the Democrats as concerns over the economy and inflation deepen.But even as economic discontent dominates political debate, polling suggests immigration remains a pressing issue, particularly for Republicans. Four in 10 Americans, and nearly 70% of Republicans, say they worry a “great deal” about illegal immigration, according to a Gallup survey.During a tour of the border in Texas last week, the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, chided a reporter for asking about his false claim that he never urged Trump to resign after the January 6 insurrection – comments captured by an audio recording.“After all this, that’s what you want to ask?” he said. “I don’t think that’s what the American people are asking. I think they want to know about what’s going to happen here and how we’re going to secure the border.”Democrats blame Republicans for whipping up fear while standing in the way of reform. It has been almost a decade since Congress seriously considered immigration reform, a bipartisan plan that was derailed by House conservatives.“Let me tell you why our Republican colleagues don’t want to do their job – why they won’t work with us or vote for any of the bills that we have brought forward in the House,” the Texas congresswoman Veronica Escobar said. “It’s because the status quo works for them.”“They love Title 42,” she said, arguing that it “helps them push this xenophobic rage machine that they believe will help them get elected and re-elected”.It is unclear how the administration plans to proceed if a court rules it cannot lift Title 42. Biden declined to say whether he would sign legislation delaying the removal, which is under consideration by a bipartisan group in Congress.Vanessa Cardenas, deputy director of America’s Voice, a pro-immigration group, said Democrats must be more aggressive in defending their vision for reform. Keeping Title 42, she said, would not only play into Republicans’ hands, but would be a major disappointment to voters, particularly Latino voters who helped Democrats win in 2018 and 2020.“In an election season where margins matter, in states like Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, where the presence and the vote of the Latino community can make a difference, it’s really important that Democrats are able to articulate a vision that is in contrast to the other side,” Cardenas said.Referring to Trump’s hardline adviser, she added: “A Stephen Miller-Lite approach to immigration is not going to motivate the base.”TopicsUS immigrationBiden administrationUS midterm elections 2022US politicsDemocratsRepublicansfeaturesReuse this content More

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      This Will Not Pass review: Trump-Biden blockbuster is dire reading for Democrats

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      This Will Not Pass review: Trump-Biden blockbuster is dire reading for Democrats Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns have made waves with tapes of Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans – but the president’s party has more to fear from what they revealThis Will Not Pass is a blockbuster. Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns deliver 473 pages of essential reading. The two New York Times reporters depict an enraged Republican party, besotted by and beholden to Donald Trump. They portray a Democratic party led by Joe Biden as, in equal measure, inept and out of touch.The Right review: conservatism, Trump, regret and wishful thinkingRead moreMartin and Burns make their case with breezy prose, interviews and plenty of receipts. After Kevin McCarthy denied having talked smack about Trump and the January 6 insurrection, Martin appeared on MSNBC with tapes to show the House Republican leader lied.In Burns and Martin’s pages, Trump attributes McCarthy’s cravenness to an “inferiority complex”. The would-be speaker’s spinelessness and obsequiousness are recurring themes, along with the Democrats’ political vertigo.On election day 2020, the country simply sought to restore a modicum of normalcy. Nothing else. Even as Biden racked up a 7m-vote plurality, Republicans gained 16 House seats. There was no mandate. Think checks, balances and plenty of fear.Biden owes his job to suburban moms and dads, not the woke. As the liberal Brookings Institution put it in a post-election report, “Biden’s victory came from the suburbs”.Said differently, the label of socialism, the reality of rising crime, a clamor for open borders and demands for defunding the police almost cost Democrats the presidency. As a senator, Biden knew culture mattered. Whether his party has internalized any lessons, though, is doubtful.On election day 2021, the party lost the Virginia governor’s mansion. Republican attacks over critical race theory and Covid-driven school closures and Democrats’ wariness over parental involvement in education did them in. This year, the midterms offer few encouraging signs.This Will Not Pass portrays Biden as dedicated to his belief his presidency ought to be transformational. In competition with the legacy of Barack Obama, he yearns for comparison to FDR.“I am confident that Barack is not happy with the coverage of this administration as more transformative than his,” Biden reportedly told one adviser.Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, is more blunt: “Obama is jealous of Biden.”Then again, Hunter Biden is not the Obamas’ son. Michelle and Barack can’t be too jealous.A telephone conversation between Biden and Abigail Spanberger, a moderate congresswoman from Virginia, captures the president’s self-perception. “This is President Roosevelt,” he begins, following up by thanking Spanberger for her sense of humor.She replies: “I’m glad you have a sense of humor, Mr President.”Spanberger represents a swing district, is a former member of the intelligence community and was a driving force in both Trump impeachments.This Will Not Pass also amplifies the disdain senior Democrats hold for the “Squad”, those members of the Democratic left wing who cluster round Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.Martin and Burns quote Steve Ricchetti, a Biden counselor: “The problem with the left … is that they don’t understand that they lost.”Cedric Richmond, a senior Biden adviser and former dean of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), is less diplomatic. He describes the squad as “fucking idiots”. Richmond also takes exception to AOC pushing back at the vice-president, Kamala Harris, for telling undocumented migrants “do not come.”“AOC’s hit on Kamala was despicable,” Richmond says. “What it did for me is show a clear misunderstanding of what’s going on in the world.”Meanwhile, Cori Bush, a Squad member, has picked a fight with the CBC and led the charge against domestic terror legislation.Burns and Martin deliver vivid portraits of DC suck-ups and screw-ups. They capture Lindsey Graham, the oleaginous senior senator from South Carolina, in all his self-abasing glory.During the authors’ interview with Trump, Graham called the former president. After initially declining to pick up, Trump answered. “Hello, Lindsey.” He then placed Graham on speaker, without letting him know reporters were seated nearby.Groveling began instantly. Graham praised the power of Trump’s endorsements and the potency of his golf game. Stormy Daniels would not have been impressed. The senator, Burns and Martin write, sounded like “nothing more than an actor in a diet-fad commercial who tells his credulous viewer that he had been skeptical of the glorious product – until he tried it”.This Will Not Pass also attempts to do justice to Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona senator and “former Green party activist who reinvented herself as Fortune 500-loving moderate”. In addition to helping block Biden’s domestic agenda, Sinema has a knack for performative behavior and close ties to Republicans.Like Sarah Palin, she is fond of her own physique. The senator “boasted knowingly to colleagues and aides that her cleavage had an extraordinary persuasive effect on the uptight men of the GOP”.Palin is running to represent Alaska in Congress. Truly, we are blessed.Subtitled Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future, Burns and Martin’s book closes with a meditation on the state of US democracy. The authors are anxious. Trump has not left the stage. Republican leadership has bent the knee. Mitch McConnell wants to be Senate majority leader again. He knows what the base is thinking and saying. Marjorie Taylor Greene is far from a one-person minority.Martin and Burns quote Malcolm Turnbull, a former prime minister of Australia: “You know that great line that you hear all the time: ‘This is not us. This is not America.’ You know what? It is, actually.”The Republicans are ahead on the generic ballot, poised to regain House and Senate. Biden’s favorability is under water. Pitted against Trump, he struggles to stay even. His handling of Russia’s war on Ukraine has not moved the needle.Inflation dominates the concerns of most Americans. For the first time in two years, the economy contracts. It is a long time to November 2024. Things can always get worse.
      This Will Not Pass is published in the US by Simon & Schuster
      TopicsBooksPolitics booksUS politicsJoe BidenBiden administrationDonald TrumpUS elections 2024reviewsReuse this content More

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      Democrats announce plans to ‘go after’ big oil in effort to bring down prices

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      Democrats announce plans to ‘go after’ big oil in effort to bring down pricesNancy Pelosi says oil companies ‘hoarding the windfall while keeping prices high at the pump’ amid concerns over US inflation The Biden administration is to propose legislation that would allow US federal and state agencies to “go after” oil companies on wholesale and retail sales practices, lambasting the industry over price gouging and profiteering.As American voters express increasing concerns about the high prices of a wide range of consumer goods, including energy and food, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said passing legislation to bring down retail gasoline prices “is at the very top of our list”.‘We’re not attacking Russia,’ Biden says as he asks for $33bn in Ukraine aid – liveRead moreNeither Schumer nor House speaker Nancy Pelosi would say when such legislation will be voted upon, or how much money it could end up saving consumers if enacted into law.“Big oil has profiteered and exploited the marketplace,” Pelosi told reporters, noting companies’ strong corporate profits over the past year. “They are hoarding the windfall while keeping prices high at the pump,” she added.The move comes as gas prices have surged in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite recent falls, the average price of a gallon of gas is now over $4 in the US, up from $2.88 a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association.Oil companies have enjoyed record profits as prices have soared. Exxon, the largest US oil company, is expected to report record earnings on Friday and rival Chevron recently reported “the best two quarters the company has ever seen”.Pelosi said the White House had discussed a “holiday” for Federal gas taxes but said that there was no evidence that oil companies would pass those savings on to consumers.Oil companies are not alone in reporting huge surges in profits even as consumers face higher bills thanks to soaring inflation. An analysis of 100 leading US companies found their net profits had risen by a median of 49%, and in one case by as much as 111,000%. The increases came even as prices rose and average wage increases were eroded by rising inflation.Reuters contributed to this storyTopicsOil and gas companiesUS politicsBiden administrationInflationEconomicsEnergy industrynewsReuse this content More

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      ‘A PhD in my brother’: Valerie Biden Owens on the Joe she knows

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      Interview‘A PhD in my brother’: Valerie Biden Owens on the Joe she knowsDavid Smith in Washington In her newly published memoir, Growing Up Biden, the president’s sister pays tribute in a moving portrait of sibling loveWho wouldn’t want Valerie Biden Owens in their corner? The first sister of the United States gives no inch in defending her big brother. Asked about Joe Biden’s notorious gaffes, for example, she simply rejects the premise.Overcoming Trumpery review: recipes for reform Republicans will never allow Read more“He doesn’t have gaffes,” she insists. “He speaks the truth. Like, hello, surprise, I just said what was true!”At the end of a carefully crafted speech last month in Warsaw, Poland, the president ad libbed that Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, “cannot remain in power”. To the world’s media it was a howler implying regime change that upended weeks of diplomacy and sent aides scrambling.To Biden Owens, however, it was truth-telling after meeting refugee mothers and children.“This is a man, you see what you get,” she says, with recognisable flintiness. “His wife died. Two of his children died, one by a long death and one by a sudden death. And one almost from addiction. He was speaking from his heart. What kind of man [Putin] does this? That’s the real Joe Biden. That was not a gaffe.”Biden Owens, 76, is talking about her newly published memoir. Growing Up Biden is a lucid account of a middle-class childhood remarkable only for its ordinariness, becoming the first woman in US history to run a presidential campaign, and helping “Joey” emerge from personal and political disasters to reach his own mountaintop.It is also a moving portrait of sibling love. Joe is the oldest of four Biden children. Valerie was born three years later, followed by Jimmy and Frank.“At an age when a lot of other older brothers pretended they didn’t even know their sister, Joey took me everywhere with him,” she writes. “When his friends would ask, ‘Why did you bring a girl?’ he answered, ‘She’s not a girl. She’s my sister. If you want me around, she’s going to be around, too.’”Family life began in Scranton, Pennsylvania but work dried up for Joe Biden Sr, who found opportunities in Delaware, cleaning boilers and selling cars. The Bidens moved to a two-bedroom apartment there when Joe was 10.Valerie’s book does not dwell long on her brother’s childhood stutter but, via Zoom from her home in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, she elaborates.“I don’t remember as a little girl that he stuttered; he was just my big brother. But as I got older then I saw that he was a stutterer. I could hear it and I was aware that he was made fun of and that he was made to feel less and put in a corner.“When you’ve been bullied, you have two ways to go: you can become a bully yourself or you can realise that we’re all in this together and there’s more to life than kicking somebody who’s down. So my brother, layer by thin layer, developed a backbone of steel and determined that he was not going to be defined by a bully.”How did their parents react to it?“Contrary to what he had incoming – because he stuttered, he was stupid – my mother said, ‘Oh no, Joey, it’s because you are so smart, you can’t get the words out fast enough’. So my mother gave him confidence. When a person stutters the natural inclination is to jump in and say the word for them but we didn’t do that.”Joe spent hours alone in front of a mirror, reciting Irish poetry. “He spit the stutter out. He worked at it. In the end, adversity builds character. My brother turned out to be the man that he is with such great empathy because he was a stutterer, so that turned out to be one of his best gifts in hindsight.”Joe worked as a lawyer, joined the county council and became known in Democratic politics in Delaware. Fifty years ago last month, he announced that he would challenge a popular incumbent for a US Senate seat. Valerie, a 26-year-old high school teacher, ran his long-shot election bid.It must have been hard going, in a year that would produce campaign accounts with titles such as The Boys on the Bus?She reflects: “Politics was a boys’ club. Women in in the 1970s and through that period only opened and closed headquarters and got coffee and ordered the paper.“There were few women candidates. There were no women consultants or women campaign managers or even women journalists with rare exceptions. It was a brand new world for a woman but I had it a lot easier than a lot of women because my brother pulled up a chair for me at the table of all men and said, ‘This is my sister. She speaks for me. She’s the boss. What she says goes, nothing passes through or gets out of here unless she approves.’“It wasn’t because I was such a brilliant campaign strategist because I had never met a campaign manager before – nor had Joe and I really ever met a United States senator before. It was because I had a PhD in my brother. I knew Delaware, I knew my brother, I knew what the issues were and I knew how we wanted to present what we stood for and I knew how to listen to the people in Delaware who told us what they needed.“I had it easier until Joe left the room and then there were always doubters who looked at me as either the token relative or the token sister. But I was raised with a wonderful, decent man who was my father and three brothers, so I was not intimidated by men. I enjoyed them and I realised we’ve got to work together.”Biden won that first election by 3,163 votes, or less than 1.5%. Six weeks later, his wife Neilia and baby daughter, Naomi, were killed when their car collided with a tractor trailer. His sons, Beau and Hunter, were seriously injured but survived.His sister’s most vivid memory of that day is the clack, clack, clack sound of hers and Joe’s heels as they hurried through the marble hallway of the US Capitol minutes after getting the call from their brother Jimmy. She writes: “Joe turned to me, eyes stricken, voice choked. ‘She’s dead, isn’t she?’ I remember his eyes. I wish I didn’t. Staring into them at that moment was like staring straight into hell.”She adds now: “My mom always said the eyes are the windows of the soul and I was looking into two dark, dark spaces, because he knew. It was horrible.“On 7 November, my brother was the too-young-to-serve newly elected senator from Delaware, 29 years old, the hope of the future of the Democratic party, had a beautiful wife, three magnificent children, and six weeks later the whole world turned on its axis. He was a young man whose heart had been ripped out. A young widower.“Life has a way of interrupting. You think you’re in control and then, bam. My dad said that’s when you’ve got to get up and keep moving. Joe had to get up because he had Beau and Hunter, his two sons, who were just ready to turn three and four years old, so he had a purpose.”Valerie moved in and helped raise the boys. She also guided Joe – who married Jill Jacobs in 1977 – to six more Senate terms, although they fared less well running for the White House. In the 1987 presidential campaign, he was accused of plagiarism after quoting the British politician Neil Kinnock but forgetting to credit him.Biden Owens recalls: “The whole incident of Neil Kinnock hurt me a lot personally because it went after my brother’s character and it was a slip of the tongue of omission. Joe should have said it and he didn’t and so he took the hit for it.”Joe ran a short campaign for the 2008 nomination but after eight years as Barack Obama’s vice-president he opted not to run in 2016. His sister suggests this had more to do with another tragedy, the death of his 46-year-old son, Beau, from brain cancer than discouragement from Obama.“We wanted to run for president but my brother hadn’t had time to heal and the way that we heal is as a family. What choice is there: to be with your son who you know has been given a death sentence or be out talking to the primary voters in New Hampshire? Just no choice. You have to go through a period of grief and mourning. Every person does it differently but the presidency was not on the cards for us.”‘Swings and misses’Joe wears Beau’s rosary on his left wrist every day. His sister insists that loss upon loss has not shaken their faith in God’s existence.“For me, being a Catholic is a package and, if you believe in the afterlife, it still is pretty hard. Particularly when Beau died, I remember yelling, ‘Why God, what possible good could come from this?’ It was a heart wrenching cry.“A friend of mine said to me maybe it’s because where he is now, he’ll be able to do even more good than were he with you on Earth. It gave me pause because it’s part of the story of the resurrection and life after death. I didn’t lose my faith because I, Valerie Biden Owens, need something bigger to hold on to than herself.”It looked like the end of the road for Joe’s political ambitions. But then, Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump and the sight of white nationalists marching through Charlottesville, Virginia, galvanised Biden for one more bid. Yet again, there was a rocky start.At a Democratic debate in Miami in June 2019, the California senator Kamala Harris challenged Biden’s opposition to mandatory desegregation busing in the 1970s, telling the story of a girl who was part of schools’ racial integration and ending with dramatic effect: “That little girl was me.”Biden Owens was not impressed. “Being a campaign manager, I know sometimes your candidate swings and misses. That was a swing and a miss and certainly it was not an accurate representation but it was a campaign. Immediately in the fallout, it was clear that was not a smack to Joe.”Biden went on to win the primary with significant support from Black voters. Bearing no grudge, he picked Harris as his running mate. His sister adds: “Look, my brother’s a smart man. He had been vice-president and he knew what it took and what he needed as his partner, and he chose her. So it all was OK.”This time the campaign was managed by Greg Schultz and then Jen O’Malley Dillon, with Valerie as adviser. She admits she had been hesitant about her brother running because Trump was sure to launch vulgar and dishonest attacks on the family.Sure enough, Republicans obsessed over Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine, which included high-paid consultancies and gifts, alleging without evidence that Joe abused the vice-presidency to enrich his son. There is still a frenzy over emails and photos found on a laptop abandoned by Hunter at a repair shop in Delaware in April 2019. Hunter did confirm that he was under federal investigation over a tax matter. He also wrote a memoir of his struggles with addiction.His aunt does not watch the rightwing media onslaught. “It’s been the same story for four years,” she says. “There’s nothing new. It’s the same one, same one, same one, same one. And by the way, the president has never been accused of any indication that he’s done anything wrong.“It’s the same accusations they’re dishing out. If that’s how they hope to win as opposed to anything that’s positive, what the hell difference does that make to the ordinary American who’s worried about food or medicine and education for their child? Who cares? Talk about something that matters, Republican party. Step up to the plate. Help middle-class America.”Perhaps voters agree. The attacks on Hunter never quite stuck like the “Lock her up!” attacks on Clinton. Biden won the White House, promising to heal “the soul of America” after four years of American carnage.There have been accomplishments for sure – a coronavirus relief package, a record 7.9m jobs created, a $1tn infrastructure law and a reassertion of America on the global stage – but disappointments persist on the climate crisis, police reform and voting rights in a Congress where Democrats’ majority is wafer-thin.Biden Owens reflects: “What I think was mom’s most profound statement was ‘beware the righteous’ and we’ve got them on the right and we have them on the left equally now. I don’t know how these men and women in Congress are married, how they stay married. Compromise is not a dirty word. It doesn’t mean giving up your principles; it means rubbing off those rough edges.“It’s been a very difficult time and we’re all just trying to keep our head above water. But when you look at what Joe’s done – more jobs, more judges, more diversity, first woman vice-president, first African American woman on the [supreme court] bench – Joe remembers his roots. He’s a middle-class, ordinary American who had opportunities to do an extraordinary thing, becoming president. He’s got his eye on the ball, which is middle class America.”‘All Republicans aren’t bad guys’The president has been criticised, however, for relying on an old operating system in which compromise was possible and failing to recognise that today’s Republican party has embraced Trump’s authoritarianism and lies.“What puzzles me is this: what happened to Lindsey Graham?” Biden Owens writes, referring to the Republican senator for South Carolina. “After John McCain died, perhaps a part of Senator Graham’s soul died as well. The man is unrecognisable to me.”She elaborates via Zoom: “I don’t know Lindsey Graham well but, to me, the good guy, the decent person, a large portion of that left him. The Republican party has become a party of a personality cult.‘All these men’: Jill Biden resented Joe’s advisers who pushed White House runRead more“All Republicans aren’t bad guys and there are good men and women who are Republicans and God bless them because that’s what we got to do to keep our democracy working. But the kissing the ring of the former president, I don’t understand it. It’s there and it’s something to be dealt with. But I have hope that the good men and women will stop this slide.”Valerie, who is married to Jack Owens, a lawyer and businessman, and has three children, says her brother will run again in 2024 and the question of his age – he turns 80 this year – is for the voters to decide. Early in her book, she reflects matter-of-factly that she lived the first 40 years of her public adult life in his shadow.Does she have any regrets – and wonder, perhaps, if she could have been President Biden? She quotes the novelist Edith Wharton: “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”She explains: “That’s me and Joe. Sometimes he was the candle, sometimes I was the mirror, but it also flipped. My light was never snuffed out. My life was doing what I wanted to do and what I could do best. I could talk about Joe Biden much better than Joe Biden could talk about Joe Biden.“People could take the measure of the man or not and he got to do what he did best, which was go out, listen to the voters, tell what he was about and be the best Joe Biden that he could be. So no, it was a wonderful partnership and I wouldn’t have changed it.”
      Growing Up Biden is published in the US by Celadon
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      Joe Biden supports US Rugby World Cup bid in letter to Bill Beaumont

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      Joe Biden supports US Rugby World Cup bid in letter to Bill BeaumontPresident says US can deliver ‘most successful’ rugby events in history, for men in 2031 and women in 2033, with decision in May A letter from Joe Biden to Sir Bill Beaumont, chairman of World Rugby, was part of a finalised World Cup package submitted by USA Rugby in its bid to host the men’s event in 2031 and the women two years later.World Rugby is due to announce the success or not of the US bid on 12 May. Alan Gilpin, chief executive of the governing body, has said World Rugby believes it “can deliver the right outcomes with this hosting plan”.Rugby fan Biden wishes Ireland luck against All Blacks – and celebrates winRead moreIn his letter to Beaumont, Biden wrote: “The United States strongly supports the effort to bring the 2031 Menʼs Rugby World Cup Tournament and the 2033 Womenʼs Rugby World Cup Tournament to our country and looks forward to working with Rugby World Cup Limited to help deliver the most successful Rugby World Cups in history”.The president also pledged “to promote the development of rugby in the United States and worldwide in a sustainable and humanitarian manner, without any discrimination whatsoever, regardless of race, nationality or creed”, and says the US government will work to ensure that “any adverse impacts on the environment as a result of the tournaments are minimised”.Biden said governmental guarantees sought by World Rugby would be “executed by officials who have the competence and authority” to do so, or in co-operation with states and private entities. The US will also seek the enactment of any necessary legislation, the letter says.Biden’s Democrats stand to lose control of Congress to Republicans this November. There is however a bipartisan Congressional Rugby Caucus which supports the World Cup bid.In the formal letter, Biden does not mention his own rugby experience as a player at law school and as a fan, notably of Ireland. The president has often expressed his love for the game and recently hosted a White House visit from the former Ireland and Lions full-back Rob Kearney, a cousin.After Kearney’s visit, when Biden’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, made his own White House visit, a signed rugby ball was visible in the Oval Office. In a tweet, Kearney shared a picture of himself giving Biden the ball before “kicking practice in the garden”.I spy a rugby ball in the Oval Office 👀 pic.twitter.com/UymjnGnzV9— USA Rugby (@USARugby) April 8, 2022
      In statements accompanying the release of Biden’s letter, Jim Brown, the chair of the USA Rugby World Cup bid, said: “We are honoured and humbled that President Biden shares our optimism not only about hosting upcoming Rugby World Cups in the United States, but also about the vast potential the sport has in this country.“The support of federal, state and local governments is fundamental to the successful planning and execution of a world-class event and this strong endorsement by the president marks a huge step forward in our plans to host incredible Rugby World Cup tournaments in the United States in 2031 and 2033.”Ross Young, the chief executive of USA Rugby, said: “We now optimistically look forward to World Rugbyʼs final decision in less than a month. The potential to grow the sport of rugby in the United States is truly immense, and weʼre all excitedly awaiting next steps should the US be awarded the opportunity to host.”No other host will be announced for the men’s event in 2031, should the US not succeed. Australia is set to be named host for 2027. The next men’s tournament is in France next year. The US have not yet qualified, needing to beat Chile this summer. The next women’s World Cup kicks-off in New Zealand in October.On Wednesday, USA Rugby also released a list of cities pursuing hosting rights for Rugby World Cup games.All Blacks run up three figures but it’s not all doom and gloom for USA | Martin PengellyRead moreOther cities could be used. The cities listed were: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Birmingham, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New York/New Jersey, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Washington DC.Washington – or in fact Landover, Maryland, home of the Commanders NFL team – hosted the US Eagles men’s team last October. A showpiece game against New Zealand ended in defeat by 104-14 but attracted a crowd of around 40,000.Bid materials sent to World Rugby alongside the Biden letter, the US bid said, include “a preliminary budget structure, comprehensive data on the candidate host cities and stadiums [and] an initial rugby development and legacy proposal to elevate growth across all levels of the game in the United States”.TopicsRugby World CupJoe BidenBiden administrationWorld RugbyRugby unionUSA rugby union teamSport politicsnewsReuse this content More