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      Democrats’ Dianne Feinstein dilemma: party split over senator’s diminishing health

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      The Democratic party is facing an internal rift over how to handle the diminishing abilities of one of their own. There is open debate within the party over whether 89-year-old Senator Dianne Feinstein, whose health and cognitive abilities have come into question after a two-and-a-half month absence due to shingles and other medical complications, should resign.Questions over Feinstein’s ability to effectively represent California, the most populous US state, have been a sensitive issue for Democrats going back years. As her diminishing health plays out in the public eye there is a renewed urgency to the situation. Riding out her term in absentia until retirement next year is also not a viable option, with Feinstein the tie-breaking vote on the Senate judiciary committee, which holds confirmation hearings for judicial nominees, and effectively the only person who can ensure that President Joe Biden’s picks for judges go through.Feinstein’s compounding health issues and status as the oldest member of Congress now present Democrats with a complex problem that has pitted several prominent members of Congress against each other, as several lawmakers issued calls in recent weeks for Feinstein to step down.California Democrats, who voted her into office six times, are increasingly divided over whether she should continue to serve. More than 60 progressive organizations called on her to step down – noting that the 39 million constituents she represents deserve “constant representation”. It hasn’t helped that the senator has physically shielded herself from her constituents and the press, dismissing questions about her health and ability to serve.Feinstein’s eventual return to Washington on 10 May only prompted a new round of debate and news coverage, after she arrived looking exceedingly frail and appeared confused by reporters’ questions about her absence. Feinstein suffered more complications from her illness than previously disclosed, the New York Times reported, including post-shingles encephalitis and a condition known as Ramsay Hunt syndrome which causes facial paralysis.Democrats split over Feinstein’s futureThe New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted earlier this month on the social media app Bluesky that Feinstein “should retire”, and said her absence from Washington was causing “great harm” to the judiciary. Her message added to the push for Feinstein’s resignation from colleagues such as the California representative Ro Khanna, who has been publicly advocating for Feinstein to step down since early April.Several other Democrats also issued statements both during and after her absence suggesting that Feinstein should consider whether she can fulfill her role.“If she can’t come back month after month after month with this close of a Senate, that’s not just going to hurt California, it’s going to be an issue for the country,” the Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar said during a CNN appearance in April.Meanwhile, the Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips renewed his calls for Feinstein to step down in an op-ed for the Daily Beast this week. Phillips framed the Feinstein question as a matter of restoring voter trust in government and accountability, while claiming that Feinstein was unable to carry out her official duties.“She – or those on whom she relies – must now decide whether to protect the senator’s personal interest or our nation’s best interests,” Phillips wrote.But others in the party, including the California representatives Mike Levin and John Garamendi, have come to Feinstein’s defense over recent months, and yet more have deflected from taking any firm stance on the issue.One of Feinstein’s longtime friends and allies, the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, defended the senator during the push for her resignation and suggested that gender was playing a factor in the debate.“I don’t know what political agendas are at work that are going after Senator Feinstein in that way. I’ve never seen them go after a man who was sick in the Senate in that way,” Pelosi said in April after Khanna and Phillips pushed for Feinstein to step down. (In an apparent response to this argument, Ocasio-Cortez said in her Bluesky post that it was “a farce” to claim calling for Feinstein’s resignation was “anti-feminist”.)Pelosi’s eldest daughter is acting as Feinstein’s primary caregiver, according to Politico, adding another layer to Pelosi’s role in the situation. A spokesperson for Pelosi denied that the former speaker was exerting any undue influence, saying that Feinstein’s “service in the Senate is entirely her own decision”.Part of the debate among Democrats over Feinstein’s future also appears to relate to power dynamics and allegiances within the party. If Feinstein steps down, California Governor Gavin Newsom stated he will appoint a Black woman as her replacement – a role that could go to the representative Barbara Lee. This would potentially give Lee a boost in what is set to be a hotly contested Democratic primary for Feinstein’s Senate seat next year. Pelosi has already openly endorsed Adam Schiff for that seat, while Khanna is the co-chair of Lee’s campaign for the role.No clear path forwardDemocrats face a complicated situation in Feinstein. The Senate does have a mechanism for expelling members, but it requires a two-thirds majority and the last time it was used successfully was in 1862 to remove senators that supported the Confederacy. A scenario where Feinstein, a party icon who still has numerous supporters, is compelled to leave through such a proceeding is exceedingly unlikely.An alternate path is that Feinstein voluntarily decides to step down, either a result of mounting pressure from her colleagues or a personal reckoning that she is no longer able to do the job. Despite the recent calls for her resignation from prominent Democrats, however, there is nothing indicating that the legendarily stubborn Feinstein is willing to remove herself from power. Feinstein denied visits and ignored phone calls from other politicians during her illness, according to the New York Times, and has dismissed questions over her fitness for office. On multiple calls with the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, she reportedly showed no intention of ending her political career.“I continue to work and get results for California,” Feinstein said in a statement issued to the New York Times in mid-May.Even if Feinstein were to suddenly heed calls to resign, it’s not as simple as Democrats appointing a successor and continuing business as usual. Democrats currently hold an 11-10 majority on the judiciary committee, and there is a possibility that Republicans would use Feinstein’s retirement to stall judiciary appointments on procedural grounds – in a nightmare scenario for Democrats they could even hold up a potential supreme court justice nomination until after the 2024 election. Republicans already blocked an effort to temporarily replace Feinstein on the committee while she was absent last month, saying they would not give Democrats the ability to vote through their picks for judges. However, the Republican Lindsay Graham, the ranking Republican member of the committee has signaled that he would support replacing Feinstein if she retires.The problem of an ageing senator appearing to lose their ability to do the job has come up in the past – the former senator Strom Thurmond finally retired in 2003 at the age of 100, after years of calls for him to resign – but the issue has become increasingly sensitive as the average age in Congress ticks upward and concerns grow over American gerontocracy.Concerns over age and cognitive fitness for office are likely to become a persistent factor in Congress for years to come, with the Feinstein saga potentially setting a precedent for how parties handle similar situations in the future. Beyond Feinstein, perceptions of age and mental fitness are also likely to play a factor in the 2024 presidential election – with a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll showing that 43 percent of Americans surveyed believe that Donald Trump and Biden are both too old to serve another term.Guardian staff contributed to this story. More

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      US debt ceiling talks continue into weekend amid signs deal is close

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      Negotiations over America’s looming debt crisis pushed into Saturday amid signs that a deal between Joe Biden’s administration and Republicans was close to being struck even as the deadline for a potentially catastrophic US default was nudged by a few days.The Associated Press reported that work requirements for federal food aid recipients have emerged as a final sticking point in talks, even as Biden had said on Friday that a deal on raising the debt ceiling was “very close”.Biden’s optimism came after the deadline when the US government would run short of funds to pay all its bills was pushed back to 5 June, giving both sides more breathing room but also raising the prospects that talks – which had seemed almost at a deal on Friday evening – could now stretch into next week.On Saturday, Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters that he was making “progress” in negotiations with Biden, saying: “We do not have a deal … We are not there yet. We did make progress, we worked well into early this morning and we’re back at it now,” according to Reuters.When asked if Congress is able to meet the 5 June deadline, McCarthy swiftly responded: “Yes,” the Hill reports.Asked if a deal could be announced on Saturday, he replied: “I don’t know about today”.Biden and McCarthy have seemed to be narrowing on a two-year budget-slashing deal that would also extend the US debt limit into 2025 past the next presidential election.Both sides have suggested one of the main holdups is a Republican effort to boost work requirements for recipients of food stamps and other federal aid programs, a longtime Republican goal that many Democrats have strenuously opposed.The White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Republican proposals on the issue were “cruel and senseless” and said Biden and Democrats would oppose them.But at the same time the Louisiana congressman Garret Graves, one of McCarthy’s negotiators, was blunt when asked if Republicans might relent, saying: “Hell no, not a chance.”Bates condemned House Republicans in a statement to Politico, accusing them of “threatening to trigger an unprecedented recession and cost the American people over 8 million jobs unless they can take food out of the mouths of hungry Americans.”Americans and the world have watched with growing fear and and anger as the negotiating brinkmanship that could throw the US economy into chaos has dragged on in yet another repeat of the regular political theater that always seems to surround the issue in Washington.Yet Biden was upbeat as he left for the Memorial Day weekend at Camp David, declaring: “It’s very close, and I’m optimistic.”In a blunt warning, the Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said on Friday that failure to act by the new date for default would “cause severe hardship to American families, harm our global leadership position and raise questions about our ability to defend our national security interests”.Anxious retirees and others were already making contingency plans for missed checks, with the next Social Security payments due next week.Any deal struck by the White House and Republican negotiators would need to be a political compromise, with support from both Democrats and Republicans needed to pass the divided US Congress.McCarthy has promised to give his Republican members 72 hours to go through any deal, pushing back a vote to at least Tuesday and possibly much later in the week, depending on when a deal can be announced.On Saturday, Axios revealed that independent senator Kyrsten Sinema has joined the negotiations, according to sources familiar with the matter.The outlet reported that as Sinema attempts to use her newfound independent position to help negotiators reach a compromise, some Democratic lawmakers are privately concerned that her involvement might limit key renewable energy proposals.Currently, Republicans are seeking to make modifications to the National Environmental Policy Act in order to remove legal restrictions for oil and gas companies. Meanwhile, Democrats have urged the Biden administration and Democratic congressional leaders to oppose any Nepa changes.Earlier this month, Arizona’s representative Raúl Grijalva, a ranking member of the House natural resources committee, sent a letter – along with 79 other Democrats – to Biden and Democratic leadership, urging them to oppose environmental rollbacks in any deal.Ultimately, focus would especially be on the reaction to rightwing Republicans in the House, especially those in the Freedom Caucus mostly aligned with former US president Donald Trump.“Raising the debt ceiling is not a ‘concession’ by Republicans – it’s their constitutional duty,” the New York Democratic representative Dan Goldman tweeted on Friday.“Republicans are extorting the American people by threatening to crater the economy to extract unreasonable demands they’d never be able to get in the ordinary appropriations process,” he added.Several credit-rating agencies have said they have put the US on review for a possible downgrade, which would push up borrowing costs and undercut its standing as the backbone of the global financial system.A similar 2011 standoff led Standard & Poor’s to downgrade its rating on US debt, hammering markets and sending the government’s borrowing costs higher. 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      Negotiators edge closer to debt ceiling deal as Yellen extends deadline to 5 June

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      Democratic and Republican negotiators struggled on Friday to reach a deal to raise the US government $31.4tn debt ceiling, as a key Republican cited disagreements over work requirements for some benefit programs for low-income Americans.On Friday, the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said the US would run out of money to pay its bills by 5 June, a slight extension of her earlier 1 June prediction.Talks had been reported to be close to conclusion, as lawmakers sought to avoid a disastrous and unprecedented default. Wall Street and European shares rose as the White House and congressional Republicans worked on the final touches of a package to present to Congress.Negotiators appeared to be nearing a deal to lift the limit for two years and cap spending, with agreement on funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the military, Reuters quoted a US official as saying. But a White House official told the same outlet talks could easily slip into the weekend.Lawmakers were placed on call after leaving Washington for the Memorial Day holiday.“We have made progress,” the lead Republican negotiator, Garret Graves, told reporters. “I said two days ago, we had some progress that was made on some key issues, but I want to be clear, we continue to have major issues that we have not bridged the gap on, chief among them work requirements.”The Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, told reporters at the Capitol: “We know it’s crunch time. We’re not just trying to get an agreement, we’re trying to get something that’s worthy of the American people, that changes the trajectory.”Democrats indicated Joe Biden was willing to consider spending cuts, including to planned extra funding for the IRS, a target of rightwing attacks, the Washington Post reported. Citing an anonymous official, Reuters said the deal would raise the ceiling for two years “while capping spending on everything but military and veterans”.On Thursday night, the North Carolina congressman Patrick McHenry, a Republican negotiator, said: “I think there’s a sense of understanding from both teams that we have serious issues still to work out and come to terms with, and that’s going to take some time. That’s all there is to it.”Any deal would have to pass the House and Senate, which typically takes days to complete.Yellen has warned for months that failing to raise the debt ceiling would be a “catastrophe”. In a letter to Congress released on Friday, she said the federal government was due to make more than $130bn in payments in the first few days of June, including payments to veterans and social Security and Medicare recipients, and leaving the treasury with “an extremely low level of resources”.Raising the debt ceiling is usually a formality, if subject to political grandstanding. Republicans raised the ceiling without preconditions three times under Donald Trump, while adding to the debt with tax cuts and spending rises.But McCarthy has only a five-seat majority and is beholden to the far right of his party, which is demanding stringent cuts.On Thursday the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters: “We’re fighting against Republicans’ extreme, devastating proposal that would slash … law enforcement, education, food assistance, all of these things are critical to American families who are just trying to make ends meet.”Most analysts say a default would cast the global economy into market chaos and probable recession. This week, the US treasury cash balance dropped to $49.5bn, prompting Bloomberg TV to report: “There are 24 individuals on the Bloomberg Billionaires list who have more money than the treasury does right now.”Reuters spoke to David Beers, a former head of sovereign ratings for Standard & Poor’s, which in 2011 reacted to a similar Republican-fueled debt standoff by downgrading its US credit rating, a move that stoked market instability.“We thought that the political polarisation in the country was likely to endure, and secondly, we were also concerned about the rising trajectory of debt,” Beers said. “On both of our counts, our expectations, if anything … have been exceeded. I have no doubt in my mind that was the right call.”Now, some on the Republican right, including Trump, the former president and current presidential frontrunner, say the party should let the US default if Biden refuses to cave.The deputy treasury secretary, Wally Adeyemo, told CNN the government did not have the capability to “triage” payments if the debt ceiling is not raised. Adeyamo also said invoking the 14th amendment – which says public debt “shall not be questioned” – would not solve the problem.Adeyemo said: “I don’t have any confidence that we have the ability to be able to do a type of prioritisation that will mean that all seniors, all veterans, all Americans get paid.”Some House Democrats are upset at being kept out of negotiations, and at how Biden has fielded advisers rather than consistently getting involved himself. Democrats have also bemoaned how Republicans seem to be winning the messaging war, public polling showing support for spending cuts – and a ceiling raise.Rosa DeLauro, from Connecticut, told Politico: “The scale of the cuts [demanded by Republicans] is staggering, which really the public knows very little about. The president should be out there.”Biden was due to meet winning basketball teams at the White House on Friday, then travel to the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland.Steven Horsford of Nevada, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said: “They need to use the power of the presidency … I need the American people to know that Democrats are here fighting, working, prepared to reach an agreement to avoid a default and only the White House, the president, can explain that in this moment.”Biden has not been silent. On Thursday, at the White House, he said Republicans wanted “huge cuts” that would hurt ordinary Americans.“It’s time for Congress to act, now,” he said, adding: “Under my administration, we’ve already cut the deficit by $1.7tn in our first three years. But Speaker McCarthy and I have a very different view of who should bear the burden of additional efforts to get our fiscal house in order.“I don’t believe the whole burden should fall on the backs of middle-class and working-class Americans. My House Republican friends disagree.”
      Reuters contributed reporting More

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      Judge pauses South Carolina abortion ban; emerging debt ceiling agreement ‘has fewer cuts than expected’ – as it happened

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      From 5h agoA judge has blocked a South Carolina law enacted this week that bans most abortions past the six-week mark, a point at which most women are not yet aware they are pregnant, the Associated Press reports.The ruling by judge Clifton Newman is the latest complication conservative state lawmakers have faced as they move to cut off abortion access following the supreme court’s decision last year overturning Roe v Wade and allowing states to restrict the procedure entirely. Newman ordered the law put on hold until the state supreme court can review it, in a ruling that came 24 hours after the law was signed by governor Henry McMaster, the AP reports.The state now reverts to a previous law that bans abortions at about the 20-week mark.Talks are ongoing over reaching a debt ceiling deal, amid reports that negotiators for Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy are nearing an agreement that would cut some government spending while preserving many of the White House’s priorities. Meanwhile, the GOP-led push to tighten abortion access was dealt a setback in South Carolina, where a judge temporarily halted a newly passed ban on procedures past the sixth week of pregnancy until the state supreme court can review it.Here is what else happened today:
      Officials in Ron DeSantis’s administration have asked lobbyists for contributions to his newly announced presidential campaign, raising ethical and potentially legal questions.
      Texas lawmakers could as soon as today oust the state’s attorney general over an array of misconduct.
      In Iowa, Republican governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill curtailing children’s access to information about gender and sexuality in schools.
      No matter how the debt limit standoff is resolved, the United States is on a worrying financial path, a government report concludes.
      North Dakota’s governor Doug Burgum is poised to jump into the presidential race.
      The Republican presidential field will gain a new entrant early next month, when North Dakota governor Doug Burgum announces his campaign for president, the Washington Post reports.Burgum does not have much of a national profile, and it’s unclear how he will differentiate himself from the race’s frontrunner Donald Trump and his strongest challenger, Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Burgum has signed a law banning almost all abortions in the reliably-Republican state, and another cracking down on transgender rights.Despite his pursuit of rightwing policies typical of Republican governors nationwide, Burgum complained to the editorial board of North Dakota newspaper the Forum that many Americans feel alienated from the political process. “There’s definitely a yearning for some alternatives right now,” he said.Just what is keeping the debt ceiling negotiators from finding a deal? Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy said earlier today that overall government spending was the biggest point of contention.But CNN reports that Garret Graves, the Louisiana congressman who is McCarthy’s lead negotiators with Joe Biden’s deputies, said the GOP is insisting on stricter work requirements for government aid programs:Studies have shown that more stringent requirements for government aid recipients to work undercut the programs’ effectiveness. Perhaps most importantly for the talks aimed at warding off a US government default, several Democrats say they’re opposed to tightening work requirements, potentially threatening the path to enactment of any compromise that includes such provisions.Let’s have a quick vibe check of the US Capitol, home to both behind-closed-doors negotiations that may determine whether the world’s largest economy is brought to its knees by a debt default in a few days, and tour groups.Those who lead visitors around the Capitol are maintaining their sense of humor about all this, the Associated Press finds:Some of the tourists are, unfortunately, not, The Messenger reports:Here’s video of the moment a Louisiana State University women’s basketball player fainted onstage at the White House:The team’s coach told reporters on scene that the player was “fine”.At the White House, Joe Biden was in the middle of remarks honoring the Louisiana State University women’s basketball team for winning the NCAA title when someone collapsed onstage.The Guardian’s David Smith was covering the event when it happened, and reports the person has been taken out of the room.The South Carolina anti-abortion bill now on hold was approved on Tuesday. Here’s a bit more on what it contained:If signed into law the bill would ban most abortions at about six weeks, a period when most people are unaware they are pregnant.The Fetal Heartbeat and Protection From Abortion Act would ban abortions at the earliest detection of cardiac activity, and, if signed into law, would set up a judicial battle over whether the bill is constitutional. The bill already passed the state house legislature with overwhelming support, and is part of a wave of anti-abortion legislation passed or proposed throughout the country since the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last year and eliminated the constitutional right to abortion.Abortion access in the south – which already has some of the most restrictive laws in the country – has been dramatically curtailed with new legislation in North Carolina and Florida. A series of Texas laws prohibit abortions after six weeks and make performing abortions a felony punishable up to life in prison.The Guardian’s Nick Robins-Early reported for us on the decision earlier this week:Here’s some markets news. Traders are in a better mood.Reuters reports:
      Wall Street jumped on Friday following progress in negotiations on raising the U.S. debt ceiling, while chip stocks surged for a second straight day on optimism about artificial intelligence.After several rounds of talks, U.S. President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy appeared to be nearing a deal to increase the government’s $31.4 trillion debt limit for two years, while capping spending on most items, a U.S. official told Reuters.The Dow Jones Industrial Average was set to end a five-day losing streak, while the Nasdaq Composite Index jumped to its highest level since August 2022.”
      Investors were closely watching debt ceiling talks as Biden and McCarthy still seemed at odds over several issues heading into the long weekend, with the U.S. stock market closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.“All the signs point to a deal getting done and this rally being sustained, but if we get through the weekend and we don’t have a deal or it falls apart in some way, then we’re going to wake up Tuesday morning to some pretty material losses,” said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina.
      It’s an amazing/excruciating time to be alive when waiting for a debt ceiling deal. Into every news vacuum a little vacillation, vacuousness and vim must rush.Here’s a news “snap” from Reuters, moments ago.
      DEBT CEILING DEAL IS POSSIBLE ON FRIDAY BUT COULD EASILY SLIP INTO WEEKEND – BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL.”
      As we wait for more information, here’s a brilliant tweet from a CNN reporter/producer.Democrats are buoyant in Minnesota after a powerhouse legislative session and former US president Barack Obama has noticed and is holding the state up as an example and a fillip for his politics and party.“If you need a reminder that elections have consequences, check out what’s happening in Minnesota,” he tweeted earlier today.Obama further tweets that: “Earlier this year, Democrats took control of the State Senate by one seat after winning a race by just 321 votes. It gave Democrats control of both chambers of the state legislature and the governor’s mansion.“Since then, Minnesota has made progress on a whole host of issues – from protecting abortion rights and new gun safety measures to expanding access to the ballot and reducing child poverty. These laws will make a real difference in the lives of Minnesotans.”And a further optimistic note.The Minpost.com article Obama linked to in the first tweet describes the legislative session just ended as “transformational” and “bonkers” depending on your party.The so-called DFL, which stands for Democratic Farmer Labor party, aka the Democrats in Minnesota, “codified abortion rights, paid family and medical leave, sick leave, transgender rights protections, drivers licenses for undocumented residents, restoration of voting rights for people when they are released from prison or jail, wider voting access, one-time rebates, a tax credit aimed at low-income parents with kids, and a $1 billion investment in affordable housing including for rental assistance,” the publication noted.As Republican legislatures continue their march to the right, Iowa’s latest move is to ban teachers from raising gender identity and sexual orientation issues with students up to grade six (typically 11-years-old), and all books depicting sex acts will be removed from school libraries, under a bill Republican governor Kim Reynolds signed today.The Associated Press reports:
      The new law is among similar measures that have been approved in other Republican-dominated statehouses around the country. As with many of those proposals, Iowa Republicans framed their action as a commonsense effort to ensure that parents can oversee what their children are learning in school and that teachers not delve into topics such as gender and sexuality.
      Despite the opposition of all Democratic legislators, Republicans who hold large majorities in Iowa’s state House and Senate approved the measure in April and there was little doubt that Reynolds would sign it; she had made issues related to gender identity and sexuality a focal point of her legislative agenda this year.
      “This legislative session, we secured transformational education reform that puts parents in the driver’s seat, eliminates burdensome regulations on public schools, provides flexibility to raise teacher salaries, and empowers teachers to prepare our kids for their future,” Reynolds said in a statement.
      Under the new law, school administrators also would be required to notify parents if students asked to change their pronouns or names. Religious texts will be exempt from the library ban on books depicting sex acts.
      Democrats and LGBTQ+ groups argued that the restrictions would hurt children by limiting their ability to be open with teachers about gender and sexuality issues and to see their lives reflected in books and other curriculum.
      The law also requires schools to post online a list of books in libraries, along with instructions for parents on how to review them and classroom instructional material, and to request that any material be removed. Schools would need parental approval before they could give surveys to students related to numerous topics, including mental health issues, sex and political affiliation.
      This builds on two bills that Reynolds signed into law earlier in the year, restricting the restrooms transgender students can use and banning gender-affirming medical care, such as puberty blockers, for people younger than 18.
      The anti-abortion law that a judge in South Carolina just blocked is similar to a ban on abortion once cardiac activity can be detected that lawmakers there had passed in 2021.The Associated Press adds:
      The state supreme court decided previously that the 2021 law violated the state constitution’s right to privacy. Legislative leaders said the new law makes technical tweaks. But judge Clifton Newman said: “The status quo should be maintained until the supreme court reviews its decision. It’s going to end up there.”
      Tuesday’s law went into effect immediately after it was signed and Planned Parenthood reported that nearly all of the 75 women with appointments for abortions over the next several days appeared to be past six weeks pregnant, an attorney for the women’s health group, Kathleen McDaniel said, who said the harm to women “is happening. It has already happened.”
      The South Carolina measure joins stiff limitations pending in North Carolina and Florida, states that had been holdouts providing wider access to the procedure.
      We are awaiting news of a debt ceiling deal, amid reports that negotiators for Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy are nearing an agreement that would cut some government spending while preserving many of the White House’s priorities. Meanwhile, the GOP-led push to tighten abortion access was dealt a setback in South Carolina, where a judge temporarily halted a newly passed ban on procedures past the sixth week of pregnancy until the state supreme court can review it.Here is what else has happened today:
      Officials in Ron DeSantis’s administration have asked lobbyists for contributions to his newly announced presidential campaign, raising ethical and potentially legal questions.
      Texas lawmakers could as soon as today oust the state’s attorney general over an array of misconduct.
      No matter how the debt limit standoff is resolved, the United States is on a worrying financial path, a government report concludes.
      Shortly after Roe v Wade was overturned, an Indiana doctor went public with the story of a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio who had to seek an abortion in the state, which prompted Indiana’s Republican attorney general to demand that the doctor be disciplined for her statements. The Guardian’s Poppy Noor reports on a new development in the case:The Indiana state medical board has ruled that it will allow Dr Caitlin Bernard to continue practicing in Indiana after she spoke out about a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled to Indiana for abortion care due to restrictions in the girl’s own state of Ohio.The doctor will not lose her license, although the seven-person board ruled that Bernard violated patient privacy laws in discussing the 10-year-old’s case with media. Bernard was not found to have violated reporting requirements about child abuse in the case – another charge against her.The board was asked by the state attorney general to discipline Bernard last summer, in a nationally watched case that has drawn accusations of being motivated by anti-abortion politics.As the debt ceiling negotiations have worn on, progressive Democrats have called on Joe Biden to consider invoking the constitution’s 14th amendment to continue paying the government’s bills, even if no increase is agreed on.Biden never seemed that willing to entertain the idea, and in an interview with CNN today, deputy Treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo confirmed the idea was off the table:The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports that Donald Trump was the victim yesterday of a roasting from an unusual party – his own son:Donald Trump Jr accidentally insulted his father on Thursday night, mixing up his words while trying to condemn Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump’s closest rival for the Republican presidential nomination.“Trump has the charisma of a mortician and the energy that makes Jeb Bush look like an Olympian,” Trump Jr said on his online show, Triggered With Don Jr, on the Rumble video platform on Thursday night.Jeb Bush was a former governor of Florida and party establishment favourite when Trump Sr won the Republican primary in 2016.DeSantis, the current governor of Florida, made his 2024 campaign official on Wednesday, with a glitch-filled launch on Twitter.As Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign heats up, there’s still the matter of his ongoing fight with entertainment giant Disney over the Florida governor’s approach to gay and transgender rights. The Guardian’s Richard Luscombe takes a look at the feud, and what it might mean for DeSantis’s White House bid:It has become one of the most compelling Disney stories ever told, but so far without a happily ever after. In fact, the entrance this week of Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis into the race for his party’s presidential nomination only adds gasoline to his raging feud with the theme park giant over diversity and transgender rights.It’s a battle that is, conversely, both an essential ingredient to the culture war agenda DeSantis believes will win him the White House in 2024; and a headache he could well do without as he attempts to prove his credentials as a fiscally responsible conservative.From the moment Disney’s bosses dared to speak out in March 2022 against DeSantis’s notorious parental rights in education bill, the so-called “don’t say gay” law that outlaws discussion in Florida’s classrooms of sexual orientation and gender identity, the governor climbed aboard a rollercoaster he doesn’t seem to want to get off.“DeSantis is running for president and looking for issues that will appeal to potential Republican primary voters all across the country,” said Aubrey Jewett, professor of political science at the University of Central Florida, and a long-time Disney observer.“Certainly the main reason for attacking Disney is he believes it will increase his name recognition and visibility in a positive way, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense. More

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      US House adjourns for holiday weekend without debt ceiling deal

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      The US House adjourned on Thursday for the Memorial Day holiday weekend without any deal reached on the debt ceiling, as America creeps closer to a potential default that could wreak havoc on the economy and global markets.Lawmakers left Washington for their home districts as advisers to the House speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy, and members of the Biden administration continued to haggle over the details of a deal to raise the debt ceiling and limit government spending.“Speaker McCarthy and I have had several productive conversations, and our staffs continue to meet – as we speak, as a matter of fact – and they’re making progress,” Biden said on Thursday at the White House. “There will be no default, and it’s time for Congress to act now.”Emphasizing that default was not an option, Biden said the negotiations have focused on creating the outlines of a budget that can win bipartisan support, as the president and McCarthy have clashed over their “competing visions for America”.“Speaker McCarthy and I have a very different view of who should bear the burden of additional efforts to get our fiscal house in order,” Biden said. “I don’t believe the whole burden should fall on the backs of middle-class and working-class Americans. My House Republican friends disagree.”With just one week left before the potential default deadline of 1 June, negotiators plan to continue their efforts to reach an agreement over the holiday weekend. Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday, McCarthy said the previous day’s talks continued well past midnight, and negotiators were meeting around the clock until a deal is reached.“I thought we made some progress,” McCarthy said. “There’s still some outstanding issues, and I’ve directed our teams to work 24/7.”Congressman Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, one of the chief Republican negotiators in the talks, said he did not expect a deal to be announced on Thursday.“Everything’s sensitive at this moment,” McHenry told reporters. “There’s a balance that has to be struck, and there’s a lot more work that has to be done. But the work that we’re doing centers in on a shorter and shorter array of issues.”Defense spending has emerged as a key point of tension in the talks, as congressional Republicans have pushed to exempt the Pentagon from potential budget cuts. Democrats have flatly rejected that proposal, insisting they will not allow non-defense priorities like education and healthcare to bear all of the proposed cuts.According to the Associated Press, Republicans have expressed openness to the idea of keeping defense spending at the levels proposed by the Biden administration while redirecting some of the funding previously allocated to the Internal Revenue Service.As negotiators edged closer to a deal, some hard-right lawmakers complicated matters for McCarthy by adding additional demands to their budgetary wishlist.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionMembers of the House Freedom Caucus sent a letter to McCarthy on Thursday calling on him to add border security provisions to the debt ceiling bill while cutting funding to build a new headquarters for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.They also demanded that the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, provide evidence to substantiate the threat of a default as early as 1 June.“The power of an undivided Republican party guided by conservative principles cannot be overstated,” the Republican members wrote to McCarthy. “As you navigate the debt limit debate, you are the steward of this unity and will determine whether it continues to strengthen and places a historic stamp on this Congress or evaporates.”The letter underscored that McCarthy will probably need some Democratic support to get a debt ceiling compromise through the House, but his colleagues on the other side of the aisle voiced sharp criticism of Republicans’ proposed spending cuts and their decision to leave Washington without a deal.“Republicans have decided to skip town,” the progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said in a floor speech on Thursday. “They are accusing Democrats, saying we spend too much. For anyone that wants to entertain that thought, I ask you to think about the last time a person has said in this country that the government does too much for them, that their social security check was too high, that teachers are paid too much. When was the last time anyone has heard or seen that?” More

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      Joe Biden vows ‘there will be no default’ after latest round of debt ceiling talks with Republicans – as it happened

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      From 3h agoJoe Biden said he has had “several productive conversations” with Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy, and despite outstanding differences over raising the debt ceiling, “there will be no default”.“The only way to move forward is with a bipartisan agreement, and I believe we’ll come to an agreement that allows us to move forward and that protects the hardworking Americans in this country,” the president said at the White House during an event to introduce Charles Q Brown Jr, his nominee for chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.He spoke positively of his negotiations with McCarthy, and said, “our staffs continue to meet, as we speak as a matter of fact, and they’re making progress. I made clear, time and again, that defaulting on our national debt is not an option … congressional leaders understand that and they’ve all agreed there will be no default.”He then went on to criticize the GOP’s negotiating platform, saying “speaker McCarthy and I have a very different view of who should bear the burden of additional efforts to get our fiscal house in order. I don’t believe the whole burden should fall on the backs of the middle-class and working-class Americans, my House Republican friends disagree.”After weeks of uncertainty and tension, reports indicate that Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy is nearing a deal with Joe Biden to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for cutting some government spending. But both the GOP-controlled House and Democratic-led Senate have to approve whatever compromise emerges in order to prevent a US government default that could happen as soon 1 June. At the Treasury, they’re not taking any chances – the Wall Street Journal reports that officials have dusted off a plan in case the limit is not lifted in time.Here’s what else happened today:
      Ron DeSantis is trying to make the most of yesterday’s campaign announcement on Twitter, which was marred by the site’s prevalent technical glitches.
      The supreme court’s conservatives weakened environmental protections concerning waterways in a case brought over a couple’s attempt to build a lakeside house in Idaho.
      Donald Trump had classified materials lying around at Mar-a-Lago and sometimes showed them to people, the Washington Post reported.
      Centrist Democrats are annoyed that McCarthy has allowed House lawmakers to head home for the Memorial Day weekend without resolving the debt standoff first.
      Kamala Harris paid tribute to rock’n’roll star Tina Turner, who died yesterday, aged 83.
      Earlier today, most of the supreme court’s conservative justices banded together to weaken environmental protections on America’s waterways in a case stemming from a couple’s attempt to build a lakeside house in Idaho, the Guardian’s Oliver Milman reports:The scope of a landmark law to protect America’s waterways has been shrunk by the US supreme court, which has sided with an Idaho couple who have waged a long-running legal battle to build a house on wetlands near one of the state’s largest lakes.In a ruling passed down on Thursday, the conservative-dominated court decided that the federal government was wrong to use the Clean Water Act, a key 50-year-old piece of legislation to prevent pollution seeping into rivers, streams and lakes, to prevent the couple building over the wetland beside Priest Lake in Idaho.The justice’ decision in effect overhauls the definition of whether wetlands are considered “navigable waters” under the act and are therefore federally protected.Michael Regan, the administrator of the EPA, said he was disappointed by a ruling that “erodes longstanding clean water protections”, adding that the agency would consider its next steps in protecting American waterways.Donald Trump used Twitter to great effect during his 2016 campaign and for most of his presidency.And while he has not tweeted since the platform banned him shortly after the January 6 insurrection in 2021 (even though owner Elon Musk let him back on last year, after he bought the company) Twitter has this afternoon become host to the latest flare-up in the feud between Trump’s surrogates and Ron DeSantis’s allies.The opening volley from Trump’s team:And the retort from top DeSantis aide Christina Pushaw:To which the former president’s people said:And on and on. Follow the tweets if you want more.The Washington Post reports new details of how Donald Trump handled classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida, including that they were visibly displayed and shown off by the former president to visitors, and that staff moved boxes of papers the day before federal agents searched the property last year.Trump’s possession of government secrets from his time as president that he was not authorized to keep is one of three major issues being investigated by Jack Smith, the justice department’s special counsel. The Post reports that grand jury activity slowed down this month, and Trump’s attorneys have taken steps that indicate a decision over whether to bring charges against the former president could happen soon.Here’s more from the Post’s report:
      Two of Donald Trump’s employees moved boxes of papers the day before FBI agents and a prosecutor visited the former president’s Florida home to retrieve classified documents in response to a subpoena — timing that investigators have come to view as suspicious and an indication of possible obstruction, according to people familiar with the matter.
      Trump and his aides also allegedly carried out a “dress rehearsal” for moving sensitive papers even before his office received the May 2022 subpoena, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive ongoing investigation.
      Prosecutors in addition have gathered evidence indicating that Trump at times kept classified documents in his office in a place where they were visible and sometimes showed them to others, these people said.
      Taken together, the new details of the classified-documents investigation suggest a greater breadth and specificity to the instances of possible obstruction found by the FBI and Justice Department than has been previously reported. It also broadens the timeline of possible obstruction episodes that investigators are examining — a period stretching from events at Mar-a-Lago before the subpoena to the period after the FBI raid there on Aug. 8.
      That timeline may prove crucial as prosecutors seek to determine Trump’s intent in keeping hundreds of classified documents after he left the White House, a key factor in deciding whether to file charges of obstruction of justice or of mishandling national security secrets. The Washington Post has previously reported that the boxes were moved out of the storage area after Trump’s office received a subpoena. But the precise timing of that activity is a significant element in the investigation, the people familiar with the matter said.
      Grand jury activity in the case has slowed in recent weeks, and Trump’s attorneys have taken steps — including outlining his potential defense to members of Congress and seeking a meeting with the attorney general — that suggest they believe a charging decision is getting closer. The grand jury working on the investigation apparently has not met since May 5, after months of frenetic activity at the federal courthouse in Washington. That is the panel’s longest hiatus since December, shortly after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel to lead the probe and coinciding with the year-end holidays.
      Sam Levine has a fascinating report today on the plight of Robert Zeidman, a cyber forensics expert who took up a challenge from the Trump ally and election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell…Robert Zeidman was not planning on making the trek to Sioux Falls, South Dakota in August 2021 for a “cyber symposium” hosted by Mike Lindell, the MyPillow chief executive who was pledging to unveil hard data that showed China interfered with the 2020 election.Zeidman, a 63-year-old consultant cyber forensics expert, voted twice for Trump because he did not like the alternative candidates. He thinks there was some fraud in the 2020 election, though not enough to overturn the result. And he believed it was possible Lindell could have discovered evidence voting machines were hacked. He was curious to see Lindell’s evidence, and a bit skeptical, so he thought he would follow along online.But Lindell – one of the most prolific spreaders of election misinformation – was pledging $5m to anyone who could prove the information was not valid data from the 2020 election, and Zeidman’s friends encouraged him to go.Zeidman hopped on a plane from his home in Las Vegas, figuring he would meet a lot of interesting people and witness a historic moment.“I still had my doubts about whether they had the data,” he said in an interview on Monday. “But I thought it would be a question of experts disagreeing or maybe agreeing about what the data meant.“I didn’t think it would be blatantly bogus data, which is what I found.”More:The top US general has issued a stark warning about how a debt default would affect the military, Reuters reports, with chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Mark Milley saying it would undercut its readiness and capabilities, as well as US national security as a whole.“I think it would be very, very significant without a doubt in that absolutely clear, unambiguous implications on national security,” Milley told a press conference.“I think there’s no doubt whatsoever that there would be a very significant negative impact on the readiness, morale and capabilities of the United States military if we defaulted and didn’t reach a debt ceiling [agreement].”Over at the Capitol, Politico reports that consternation is growing among House Democrats, who want Joe Biden to take a more aggressive stance against the GOP’s demands for spending cuts to raise the debt ceiling:Joe Biden said he has had “several productive conversations” with Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy, and despite outstanding differences over raising the debt ceiling, “there will be no default”.“The only way to move forward is with a bipartisan agreement, and I believe we’ll come to an agreement that allows us to move forward and that protects the hardworking Americans in this country,” the president said at the White House during an event to introduce Charles Q Brown Jr, his nominee for chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.He spoke positively of his negotiations with McCarthy, and said, “our staffs continue to meet, as we speak as a matter of fact, and they’re making progress. I made clear, time and again, that defaulting on our national debt is not an option … congressional leaders understand that and they’ve all agreed there will be no default.”He then went on to criticize the GOP’s negotiating platform, saying “speaker McCarthy and I have a very different view of who should bear the burden of additional efforts to get our fiscal house in order. I don’t believe the whole burden should fall on the backs of the middle-class and working-class Americans, my House Republican friends disagree.”Politico reports from Sioux City, Iowa on how Republican voters in the state that will vote first in the GOP primary next year didn’t think too much about Ron DeSantis’s Twitter Spaces disaster on Wednesday night – if they thought about it at all.The site spoke to attendees at a town hall event hosted by Tim Scott, the South Carolina senator who is competing with DeSantis for the Republican presidential nomination.Asked about DeSantis’s glitch-filled launch, Clinton Vos, 63, said: “I knew that it was going to happen today on Twitter but I’m not a Twitter follower.”Curtis Kull, 30, was asked if he’d heard about DeSantis and Elon Musk’s difficulties.“I did not,” he said.Scott Bowman, 65, said he could yet choose to back DeSantis, though he thought the Twitter fumble meant the Florida governor was “going to get a lot of heat, and I just don’t know if DeSantis can hold up to the questions. It’s a fumble by his campaign”.Gwen Sturrock, “a teacher in her 50s”, said she had heard about the Twitter Spaces event “stalling or whatever”.In a perhaps unconscious nod in the direction of Oscar Wilde – who in The Picture of Dorian Gray wrote “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about” – and perhaps giving comfort to any DeSantis aides still seeking plausible spin, Sturrock pointed to one possible upside of the Twitter fiasco.It “might mean that a lot of people were very interested” in the DeSantis campaign, Sturrock said.Here’s some further reading on the DeSantis-Musk mess, from Dan Milmo, our global technology editor:Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers group, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after being convicted of seditious conspiracy over his role in the January 6 attack on Congress.Prosecutors had sought a 25-year sentence for the first person convicted of seditious conspiracy in relation to the Capitol attack, which was mounted by supporters of Donald Trump in an attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.Lawyers for Rhodes said he should be sentenced to time already served since his arrest in January last year.Here’s more from court in Washington today, from the Associated Press:
      At Thursday’s hearing, in a first for a January 6 case, US district judge Amit Mehta agreed with prosecutors to apply enhanced penalties for ‘terrorism’, under the argument that the Oath Keepers sought to influence the government through ‘intimidation or coercion’.
      Judges in previous sentencings had shot down the justice department request for the so-called “terrorism enhancement” – which can lead to a longer prison term – but Mehta said it fitted Rhodes’ case.
      “Mr Rhodes directed his co-conspirators to come to the Capitol and they abided,” the judge said.
      A defense lawyer, Phillip Linder, denied that Rhodes gave any orders for Oath Keepers to enter the Capitol on January 6. Linder told the judge Rhodes could have had many more Oath Keepers come to the Capitol “if he really wanted” to disrupt Congress’ certification of the electoral college vote.
      Some lighter lunchtime reading, courtesy of House Democrats and after a demand for decorum in the chamber from the far-right Georgia Republican and noted decorum-free controversialist Marjorie Taylor Greene.Of the Wednesday demand, which met with gales of laughter, Jared Huffman, from California, said: “Irony died today on the House Floor, but comedy triumphed as the GOP chose MTG as their keeper of ‘decorum’.”Another Californian, Jimmy Gomez, tried a couple of jokes.Greene calling for decorum, Gomez said, is “like Leonardo DiCaprio telling people to date people their own age” or, in reference to another controversial Republican, “like George Santos telling people not to lie”.Here’s the moment in question:And here’s our story:After weeks of uncertainty and tension, reports indicate that Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy is nearing a deal with Joe Biden on raising the debt ceiling in exchange for cutting some government spending. But nothing is done until it is passed, and both the House and Senate have to approve whatever compromise emerges in order to prevent a US government default that could happen as soon 1 June. At the Treasury, they’re not taking any chances – the Wall Street Journal reports that officials have dusted off a plan in case the limit is not lifted in time.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      Ron DeSantis is trying to make the most of yesterday’s campaign announcement on Twitter, which was marred by the site’s prevalent technical glitches.
      Centrist Democrats are annoyed that McCarthy has allowed House lawmakers to head home for the Memorial Day weekend without resolving the debt standoff first.
      Kamala Harris paid tribute to rock’n’roll star Tina Turner, who died yesterday, aged 83.
      The Treasury is preparing for the possibility that Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling on time, the Wall Street Journal reports.Officials have turned to a plan drawn up in 2011 during a previous debt limit standoff between Democrats and Republicans that resulted in a major credit agency downgrading America’s rating for the first time ever.Twelve years later, the Journal reports that the goal is much the same now as it was then: prevent as much damage to the country’s financial reputation as possible if Washington’s leaders can’t reach an agreement by early June, the approximate deadline when the US will exhaust its cash on hand.Here’s more from their story:
      Under the backup plan created for a debt-limit breach, federal agencies would submit payments to the Treasury no sooner than the day before they are due, the people familiar with the talks said. That would represent a change from the current system, in which agencies may submit payment files well before their due dates. The Treasury processes them on a rolling basis, often ahead of the deadlines. Some payments are already sent to the Treasury one day early, one person said.
      If the Treasury can’t make a full day’s worth of payments, it would likely delay payments until it has enough cash to pay the full day’s worth of bills, the people familiar with the matter said. The plan has been discussed across the government, but the Treasury hasn’t instructed agencies to change how they pay bills.
      The centrist New Democrat Coalition has condemned Kevin McCarthy and the House Republicans for adjourning the chamber ahead of the long Memorial Day weekend without resolving the debt ceiling standoff.“House Republicans are skipping town –– willing to risk the full faith and credit of the United States and plunge the country into an unprecedented crisis,” read a statement from Annie Kuster, the chair of the House caucus.“As Speaker McCarthy remains beholden to the most extreme elements of his party, New Dems are committed to working with responsible Republicans to advance a solution that will pass the House and Senate. As lawmakers, we have a responsibility to rise above partisanship and act in the best interest of our nation. There is no time to waste.”Reports indicate that Joe Biden and the House speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy, are nearing an agreement on a bill that would raise the debt ceiling through the 2024 election, which would allow the president to avoid another standoff until after voters go to the polls.That proposal is already receiving pushback on the far right, underscoring that McCarthy will likely need Democratic votes to get any bipartisan bill through the House.“Kevin McCarthy is on the verge of striking a terrible deal to give away the debt limit [through] Biden’s term for little in the way of cuts,” said Russ Vought, who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget under Donald Trump.“Nothing to crush the bureaucracy. They are lining up Democrats to pass it. The DC cartel is reassembling. Time for higher defcon. #HoldTheLine”Over in the Senate, Republican Mike Lee of Utah has already pledged to “use every procedural tool at my disposal to impede a debt-ceiling deal that doesn’t contain substantial spending and budgetary reforms.” Such a delay in the upper chamber could increase the risk of default. More

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      House Democrats laugh off Marjorie Taylor Greene’s call for ‘decorum’

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      Democrats in the House chamber burst into raucous laughter when Marjorie Taylor Greene called for “decorum”.The far-right Georgia Republican, controversialist and conspiracy theorist was presiding over the House on Wednesday as Steve Scalise, the Republican majority leader, was speaking.Scalise was discussing the debt ceiling standoff between House Republicans and the Biden White House.He said: “We are in fact the only body in this town who has actually taken steps to address the debt ceiling and the spending problem in Washington.”An unseen lawmaker yelled something. From the dais, Greene pounded her gavel and called for order.Scalise asked: “I ask that the House be in order and there be some decorum on the other side.”After a pause, Greene pounded her gavel and said: “The members are reminded to abide by decorum of the House.”The chamber erupted in laughter and catcalls. Greene banged her gavel repeatedly. Eventually, Scalise returned to his remarks.Greene has risen to power in Republican ranks by courting controversy and confrontation. She has voiced antisemitic conspiracy theories, called mass shootings false flag attacks and spoken at events staged by white supremacists.In 2021, citing such behaviour, Democrats stripped Greene of committee assignments. Those assignments were restored after Republicans took the House last year.In Joe Biden’s last two appearances in the House chamber for the State of the Union address, Greene has made headlines by standing to catcall, jeer and boo. Last year she and Lauren Boebert of Colorado heckled the president. This year, Greene shouted that he was a “liar”.Greene has harassed political opponents, including the New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and young gun control activists.Just last week, Greene made headlines with an angry confrontation with Jamaal Bowman, a New York Democrat, then claiming being called a white supremacist was as bad as being called the N-word.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBowman accused Greene of an “utter and blatant lie” in the “long tradition … of Black men who are passionate, outspoken, or who stand their ground, being characterised as ‘threatening’ or ‘intimidating’”.Greene did not immediately comment on the laughter in the House chamber on Wednesday. Many Democrats did.Jared Huffman, from California, said: “Irony died today on the House Floor, but comedy triumphed as the GOP chose MTG as their keeper of ‘decorum’.”Another Californian, Jimmy Gomez, tried a couple of jokes, saying Greene calling for decorum was “like Leonardo DiCaprio telling people to date people their own age” or, in reference to another controversial Republican, “like George Santos telling people not to lie”.Matt Royer, chief of staff at Young Democrats of America, drew a comparison to the more unruly House of Commons in the UK.“This is some parliament-type behavior as Democrats laugh off MTG’s plea for decorum in the House,” he said. “And I am absolutely here for it.” More

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      Marianne Williamson: ‘You don’t even know what misogyny is until you’ve been a woman running for president’

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      A penthouse-gym in north-west Washington DC served as a campaign stage for the long-shot Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson last week. Athleisure-clad political consultants came and went, as if typecast from a political TV drama. The Washington monument poked between buildings in the distance.Williamson is far from an average political candidate, even in the modern era of American politics where it often feels much of what was once unthinkable has become a scary new normal. She is not a politician, but instead an author and wellness guru, whose quixotic first tilt at the White House four years ago was far from successful but saw her grace the Democratic debates and score a viral hit with her message to Donald Trump that she would “harness love” to defeat him.This time around, Williamson is running a tougher, more grounded campaign – treading the turf as a political outsider appalled at how America’s political elites have ignored the needs of its ordinary people.The chances that Williamson will become Democratic nominee for president next year are very slim. But there’s no doubt that her message has the power to resonate, particularly among the young and with women, and with those who feel America’s current travails cut deep and are being ignored.“I’ve had a 40-year-career working with people whose lives are in trouble. When I started that was the exception, not the rule. The work I did then was an adequate response to the suffering I saw in front of me, but now there seems to be a ubiquitous wave of people’s lives falling apart.”Williamson is also increasingly clear on some of the traditional barriers she faces. Williamson, 70, is just the second woman – the first being Republican Nikki Haley – to have thrown her name into the 2024 presidential nomination contest ring. Both have received a seemingly reflexive push-back from their respective parties and some quarters of the media.Sexist? Quite possibly.“An obelisk is much more than a phallus,” Williamson said at her event, observing the monument beyond. And then more directly: “You don’t even know what misogyny is until you’ve been a woman running for president.”But Williamson was less interested in symbols of power than her political agenda. She’s never held public office, though she ran unsuccessfully for California’s 33rd congressional district in 2014, and for the Democratic party nomination in 2019, endorsing Bernie Sanders after dropping out the following year.Among her platform positions is an increase in the minimum wage, reparations for racial injustice, a more muscular response to climate change, comprehensive educational reforms and the creation of a US Department of Peace. She talks of “soulless hyper-capitalism” which she sees as the fundamental affliction of an America run by a government “of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations”.Now she’s doggedly upgrading her old messaging about personal growth and universal love, attempting to dig a channel from new age enlightenment to political power, and to turn around what she sees as an economic, environmental and social crisis engulfing America.“I’m socio-economically well-travelled,” she said. “And my experience has had to do with the endurance and transformation of chaos. I’m interested in the principles of truth, and the realization that America is out of control. America is in chaos.”The liberal, Jewish ex-lounge singer from Texas arrived in Los Angeles in the 1980s and began to gather the stars – Madonna, Michael, Liz and Warren – and Hollywood power brokers of the era around self-healing psychotherapy and applied her energy to the Aids crisis.She set up in New York, giving a talk once a month on a Course of Miracles. Her career took off via Oprah Winfrey, and she became known as the TV star’s “spiritual adviser”. A book publishing empire followed. Almost all her titles applied “love” to whatever the title subject at hand.After her first run for the party nomination in 2020 she moved to Washington, which she describes as a walled city, not a bubble. She’d recently gotten out to visit East Palestine, Ohio, after the toxic train derailment turned the sleepy burgh into a byword for chemical disaster at the hands of a big corporation.“The economically oppressed in this country are being oppressed by the same forces, whether on the left or the right. The real divide is not left and right, that’s a veil of illusion, it’s between those who are suffering and those who don’t seem to have a clue. It’s about millions of people living with chronic economic insecurity,” she said.There’s little sign that those actually arranging Democrat political power have much time for Williamson, and they have fenced her out. But she is not put off, touring the country and doing campaign stops.“Why would I capitulate? I’m a 70-year-old woman. I’m not part of that system. I’m not coming from that place of do what they tell you and you might get on that committee or get to run in 2028,” she said.“There’s such a fear of Donald Trump, they assume the best way to go is with Joe Biden. I disagree. You have to be in complete denial to think that status quo, transactional politics are going to be enough to defeat the energy that he [Trump] represents.“People are blinded by their fear of him,” Williamson continued. “They think if they attack him enough people will change their minds. But this a man who said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and supporters wouldn’t care, and I think that’s probably true.“You’ll beat him by offering the American people a better deal, and agenda for genuine economic reform, an economic U-turn.”Integral to that, she said, would be a 21st-century economic bill of rights – universal healthcare, free tuition, free childcare, paid family leave, guaranteed housing, a livable wage and sick pay.Last week, Williamson also announced plans for a Department of Children and Youth, arguing that children, because they have no economic agency and no vote, are “systematically neglected”.“Public policy in America sets children up to fail. Our children are the biggest collateral damage from hyper-capitalism. So I would place a tremendous focus on children, and create a massive transformation of resources. I want every school to be a center of learning, culture and arts.”Students go to school in fear of gun violence, a situation she says that will exacerbate mental health issues in the future. The current debate, she says, doesn’t begin to address the issue. “It’s a sophomoric question, is it cultural or is it guns? It’s both. It’s gun safety laws and the glamorization of violence that people make money off.“Our food policies are violent, our climate policies are violent, our justice policies are violent, our economic policies are violent. The violence perpetrated against women on TV blows my mind – and the emotional violence on social media. We’ve sexualized violence, and we will have a violent society until we chose to become non-violent.”But her message of love and equity could be marred by other reports of the author behind the scenes. Shortly after she announced her run, Politico ran an article claiming she had episodes of “foaming, spitting, uncontrollable rage” during her 2020 White House run. Williamson later called the accusations a “hit piece”.“I raised my voice in the office. They said I threw a phone but I’ve never thrown a phone at anyone. If people feel I’ve been disrespectful to them, of course, I’m very sorry,” she says.Some also detect a political hand. Williamson has claimed the Democratic National Committee is “rigging” the party’s primaries in favor of Biden by ruling out a debate – “candidate suppression if a form of voter suppression,” she says – and the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, responded to questions about Williamson’s candidacy with jokes about auras and crystal balls.“Of course they call me an unserious candidate because they don’t want to be called to the carpet for being so unserious about the things that matter most,” she hit back.“Of course they would see me and those like me as dangerous, because from the perch they’re on I am dangerous.”Politicians love to talk, but none possibly as much as Oprah-trained spiritual gurus turned politicians. And Williamson is now on a tear. Over the past month, 38 videos have gleaned 4m views and more than 600,000 “likes” on Gen-Z popular TikTok.But this may be where Williamson likes to be – firing salvoes, getting her voice out there, offering the damned salvation, slipping on occasion into what sounds like life-coaching.And after the traumatic four-year experiment of allowing a political outsider from the far right to enter the walled city of US politics without knowledge of or care to learn how the levers of political power operate, resistance to another outsider on a political quest is unquestionably elevated.“I can see that it would be an extremely difficult job, and I can’t imagine that it would be fun every day,” Williamson says of the prospect of the presidency.“I would simply try to be as good a person as I can be. I’m not claiming to be what I’m not. I’m running for president, not sainthood. I am a decent woman who has, I feel, some insights about this country and some insights about what is happening that could be of value.” More