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      Senate passes $858bn defense bill that rescinds army Covid vaccine mandate

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      Senate passes $858bn defense bill that rescinds army Covid vaccine mandateDemocrats agreed to Republican demands to scrap vaccination requirement for service members to win support for the bill A bill to rescind the Covid-19 vaccine mandate for members of the US military and provide nearly $858bn for national defense passed the Senate on Thursday and now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.The bill provides for about $45bn more for defense programs than Biden requested and roughly 10% more than last year’s bill as lawmakers look to account for inflation and boost the nation’s military competitiveness with China and Russia. It includes a 4.6% pay raise for servicemembers and the defense department’s civilian workforce.Petraeus: US would destroy Russia’s troops if Putin uses nuclear weapons in UkraineRead moreThe Senate passed the defense policy bill by a vote of 83-11. The measure also received broad bipartisan support in the House last week.To win GOP support for the 4,408-page bill, Democrats agreed to Republican demands to scrap the requirement for service members to get a Covid-19 vaccination. The bill directs Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to rescind his August 2021 memorandum imposing the mandate.Before approving the measure, the Senate voted down a couple of efforts to amend it, including a proposal from West Virginia senator Joe Manchin, to speed the permitting process for energy projects. The effort had drawn fierce opposition from some environmental advocacy groups who worried it would accelerate fossil fuel projects such as gas pipelines and limit the public’s input on such projects.Manchin, who chairs the Senate energy committee, secured a commitment from Biden and Democratic leaders last summer to support the permitting package in return for his support of a landmark law to curb climate change.Machin’s legislation sets deadlines for completion of National Environmental Policy Act reviews for major energy and natural resource projects. It would require courts to consider litigation involving energy project permits on an expedited basis. It also directs federal agencies to permit the completion of a natural gas pipeline in his home state and Virginia “without further administrative or judicial delay or impediment”.“We’re on the verge of doing something unbelievable, but let me tell you, most of it will be for naught. Because without permitting reform, the United States of America is more litigious than any nation on earth,” Manchin told colleagues.Biden voiced his support for Manchin’s legislation a few hours before Thursday’s vote. He said far too many projects face delays and described Manchin’s amendment “as a way to cut Americans’ energy bills, promote US energy security and boost our ability to get energy projects built and connected to the grid”.Not only did some environmental advocacy groups bash Manchin’s proposal, but so did many Republicans. Minority leader Mitch McConnell said it didn’t go far enough, calling it “reform in name only”.The amendment fell short of the 60 votes needed for passage, 47-47.An amendment from senators Ron Johnson and Ted Cruz, also went down to defeat. It would have allowed for the reinstatement of those service members discharged for failing to obey an order to receive the Covid-19 vaccine and compensate them for any pay and benefits lost as a result of the separation.“People serving our military are the finest among us. Over 8,000 were terminated because they refused to get this experimental vaccine, and so I’m urging all of my colleagues to support Senator Cruz’s and my amendment,” Johnson said.But opponents worried about the precedent of rewarding members of the military who disobeyed an order. Rhode Island senator Jack Reed, the Democratic chairman of the Senate armed services committee, said orders are not suggestions, they are commands.“What message do we send if we pass this bill? It is a very dangerous one,” Reed said. “What we’re telling soldiers is, ‘if you disagree, don’t follow the order, and then just lobby Congress, and they’ll come along and they’ll restore your rank, or restore your benefits, or restore everything.’”The amendment failed, with 40 senators supporting it and 54 opposing it.The defense bill sets policy and provides a roadmap for future investments. Lawmakers will have to follow up with spending bills to bring many provisions to reality. It’s one of the final bills Congress is expected to approve before adjourning, so lawmakers were eager to attach their top priorities to it.The directive to rescind the vaccine mandate for service members proved to be among the most controversial provisions, but Democrats agreed to it to allow the bill to advance.As of early this month, about 99% of the active-duty troops in the navy, air force and marine corps had been vaccinated, and 98% of the army. Service members who are not vaccinated are not allowed to deploy, particularly sailors or marines on ships. There may be a few exceptions to that, based on religious or other exemptions and the duties of the service member.The vaccination numbers for the guard and reserve are lower, but generally all are more than 90%.TopicsUS politicsUS national securityJoe BidenDemocratsRepublicansReuse this content More

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      Nancy Pelosi tells of ‘proud’ record as speaker in likely final press conference – as it happened

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      Nancy Pelosi has given what she suggests will be her final press conference as House speaker, telling reporters this is “maybe the last time I see you in this way”.She’s been reflecting on some of the successes of her tenure, and paying tribute to Joe Biden and Barack Obama for most of them, from the passing of the Affordable Care Act to this week’s signing of the same-sex Respect for Marriage Act.Pelosi said she was “proud” to have her signature below Biden’s on that law:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}He has been a remarkable president. He has a record that is so outstanding, and for such a short period of time as well.
      People compare him to Lyndon Johnson, to Franklin Roosevelt, but I’d remind you all that Roosevelt had 319 Democrats in the House, President Biden 222, whatever it is, and even fewer now.She went on to list many of the items of legislation she was most proud of, under Biden’s leadership:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Passing the American rescue plan, getting vaccines at arms, money in pockets, children back to school and people safely back to work, the bipartisan infrastructure law, building roads, bridges, ports and water systems…
      Bringing people together, not projects that divide communities but bringing people together, and this such a source of pride, putting justice and equity front and center.Of her regrets, the inability to pass comprehensive gun reform saddened her, she said. Speaking one day after the 10th anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting that killed 20 elementary school children and six adults, she said:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We won’t relent until the job is done, until we can have background checks, and have banned assault weapons.Pelosi doesn’t leave office until early next month, and didn’t rule out speaking with the media again, particularly if there’s a resolution to threat of a government shutdown. The speaker says she’s optimistic that a “bipartisan, bicameral” omnibus spending deal will pass next week to keep the government funded for a year.We’re closing our politics blog now. Thanks for joining us. So far there’s no sign of a deal in the Senate over a stopgap funding agreement that would keep the government running. The House passed the measure last night.Here’s what we’ve been following:
      Nancy Pelosi praised Joe Biden and Barack Obama as she reflected on their legislative accomplishments during her time a House speaker. Pelosi, who steps down next month, gave what could be her last press conference in the job.
      Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis indicated he was ready to sign the nation’s most restrictive abortion law, a Texas-style “heartbeat ban” that outlaws the procedure as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around the sixth week of pregnancy.
      The House voted 233-191 to allow Puerto Rico to hold a vote on becoming the 51st state, a largely symbolic measure because the Puerto Rico Status Act is unlikely to get a hearing in the Senate.
      Joe Biden said he’ll be heading to sub-Saharan Africa soon. He was speaking at the conclusion of a summit with African leaders in which he pledged hundreds of millions of dollars for infrastructure, technology and free elections.
      First lady Jill Biden says she’s “all in” on her husband running again for the presidency in 2024, according to a report from CNN that says her position is a “tidal shift” from her reluctant feelings of just three months ago.
      Two conspirators convicted of terrorism last month in a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor Gretchen Whitmer were sentenced to prison sentences of 12 and 10 years respectively. A third convict is yet to be sentenced.
      The state department has announced a new round of sanctions against a number of Russian oligarchs, government officials and their families for enabling president Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
      An extreme “heartbeat” abortion ban looks to be coming to Florida after Republican governor Ron DeSantis announced his willingness Thursday to sign such a law.“I’m willing to sign great life legislation. That’s what I’ve always said I would do,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Fort Lauderdale, reported by the Florida Phoenix.A heartbeat ban outlaws an abortion once the presence of a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around the sixth week of pregnancy.A version of the law, the nation’s most restrictive abortion legislation, took effect in Texas in 2021 after the Supreme Court, which had yet to overturn federal abortion protections, declined to block it.Rightwinger DeSantis is seen as a likely contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, and leads in several recent polls of party members.Despite passing a raft of culture war legislation during his first term of office, including a 15-week abortion ban, DeSantis largely avoided the issue during campaigning ahead of his landslide reelection as Florida’s governor last month.The Republican supermajority in the Florida legislature means Democrats would be unable to block any new abortion law.Free-spirited Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema raised eyebrows last week when she announced she was leaving the Democratic party to sit as an independent. Now, it seems, she’s also become an independent trader.An extraordinary article published Thursday by Slate outs the enigmatic Sinema as a prolific seller of goods, especially shoes and clothes, on Facebook Marketplace, enough to rise to the level of a “side hustle”, the magazine says.Reporter Christina Cauterucci said she exchanged Facebook messages with the politician over the potential purchase of a pair of worn-only-once Badgley Mischka heels ($65, “in perfect condition”).Digging deeper, she found also for sale: a $215 cycling ensemble, a $25 trucker hat, and a $150 stainless steel watch with a silicone strap. Within the past six weeks, Cauterucci says, Sinema has “offloaded” a $150 fitness tracker ring, an $80 cycling jersey, and a $500 bicycle travel case. Longer ago, there were listings on Facebook for “several dozen personal items”, including a $100 pair of sunglasses (“Just too big for my tiny head!!”), two $50 puffer jackets, three $75 pairs of high-heeled boots, a $75 cycling bib, a $60 Lululemon raincoat, several mesh tanks at $55 a pop ($20 off the current retail price), and multiple bikinis, priced between $60 and $70, that ranged from “never worn” to “in great condition”.Slate is cautious and won’t state outright that it’s definitely Sinema who’s been selling off her worldly goods. “Would a sitting senator respond within seconds on a weekday morning to a message about her used heels?” Cauterucci wonders.“Would it be worth her time to photograph a pair of old shoes, write a sales listing, field inquiries from potential buyers, and arrange pickup logistics – all for just $65?”But as if to answer its own questions, Slate points out that it’s Sinema’s name on the Facebook Marketplace listing, it’s her in the profile photo, the seller’s biography says she lives in Phoenix, and she shares one mutual Facebook friend with the reporter who works for the Democratic party.The clincher, perhaps: The 4.5in, rhinestone-studded stilettoes “look as if they would fit pretty well in Sinema’s wardrobe”.It’s possible we’ll never know. According to Slate, Sinema’s staff would not confirm or deny the Facebook Marketplace account was hers, and did not respond to fact-checking queries.Here’s a video clip from Nancy Pelosi’s final press conference, definitely, maybe, as House speaker.Addressing the media on Thursday morning, Pelosi looked back on some of the main policy accomplishments that took place under her tenure, and praised presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden for getting them done.01:00“This may be the last time I see you in this way,” Pelosi said.She said she was particularly proud of the passage of the Affordable Care Act under Obama, which she said brought healthcare to tens of millions previously denied, and this week’s signing of the same-sex Respect for Marriage Act.Pelosi, a Democrat from California, became speaker in 2007. She will retire next month.Kevin McCarthy’s travails as he seeks to become House speaker when Republicans take over the majority in January are well documented, no more so than in this latest take by Politico.The California congressman has been scrambling to attract the 218 votes he needs to take the gavel, and making some pretty unsavory promises to rightwing extremists in his party to get there, if accounts are to be believed.Politico drills down on the fragile political game behind McCarthy’s maneuvering, the pledges he has had to make, and particularly something called the “motion to vacate the chair”, a potentially hazardous procedure in which any House member would be able to force a vote on deposing a sitting speaker.There’s horse trading going on between the pro and anti-McCarthy camps among House Republicans over setting a threshold of votes that would be needed for such a motion in exchange for support.One of McCarthy’s fears is that Democrats could use a motion to vacate in retaliation for his threats to remove prominent opposition congress members Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell and Ilhan Omar from committees.Politico likens the haggling to an episode of the TV gameshow The Price is Right. You can read their report here.In what was largely a symbolic gesture, the House has voted to allow Puerto Rico to decide whether it wants to pursue becoming the 51st state.The Puerto Rico Status Act passed 233-191 in the chamber, requiring the US territory to hold a vote of its residents on three options, statehood, independence or sovereignty in free association with the US.But with little to no time left on the Senate calendar, the measure, hailed by outgoing Democratic House majority leader Steny Hoyer, is unlikely to be heard there, sounding its death knell in this current Congress at least.Statehood for Puerto Rico was supported by the Biden administration. 16 Republicans voted for the bill in a free vote.A joint statement from bipartisan negotiators of the act said: “Many of us disagree on what that future should look like, but we all accept that the decision must belong to the people of Puerto Rico and to them alone. The Puerto Rico Status Act will grant them that choice.”Read more:Statehood or independence? Puerto Rico’s status at forefront of political debateRead moreCharlie Baker, the Republican governor of Massachusetts who will soon step down after choosing not to run for a third term – or for president or any other office as a GOP candidate despite (or perhaps because of) leading a Democratic-dominated state for so long – will be the next president of the NCAA, the largest governing body in US college sports.“The NCAA is confronting complex and significant challenges but I am excited to get to work as the awesome opportunity college athletics provides to so many students is more than worth the challenge,” Baker said on Thursday, about the job he will start in March, replacing Mark Emmert.“And for the fans that faithfully fill stadiums, stands and gyms from coast to coast, I am eager to ensure the competitions we all love to follow are there for generations to come.”As the Associated Press has it, the NCAA has recently been “battered by losses in court and attacks by politicians” and is “going through a sweeping reform, trying to decentralize the way college sports is run”.“College sports leaders, including Emmert, have repeatedly asked for help from Congress to regulate name, image and likeness compensation since the NCAA lifted its ban in 2021 on athletes being paid endorsers. Now the association will be led by a politician for the first time.”Baker, the AP says, “graduated from Harvard, where he played on the junior varsity basketball team. That’s the extent of his personal experience in college sports”.Linda Livingstone, president of Baylor in Texas and chair of the NCAA board, said Baker had “shown a remarkable ability to bridge divides and build bipartisan consensus, taking on complex challenges in innovative and effective ways. These skills and perspective will be invaluable as we work with policymakers to build a sustainable model for the future of college athletics.”Futher reading:Andrew Cooper, from college star to activist: ‘The NCAA does not exist to protect athletes’ Read moreIn something close to a policy announcement – a scarce feature of a 2024 presidential run that has so far featured little of anything, particularly polling success – Donald Trump has promised to stop government “impeding the lawful speech of American citizens”, should he retake the White House. In a video shared with the New York Post (a Murdoch-owned tabloid though not the source of support it used to be), the former president said: “I will sign an executive order banning any federal department or agency from colluding with any organization, business or person to censor, limit, categorize or impede the lawful speech of American citizens. I will then ban federal money from being used to label domestic speech as mis- or disinformation.”As the Post put it: .css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The 76-year-old Trump made the pledge as part of a broader ‘free speech’ platform … vowing also to impose a seven-year ban on former FBI and CIA workers handling private-sector US consumer records.Trump said he would fire bureaucrats deemed to have engaged in censorship, “directly or indirectly, whether they are the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI, the DOJ, no matter who they are”.He also said: “If any US university is discovered to have engaged in censorship activities or election interferences in the past, such as flagging social media content for removal of blacklisting, those universities should lose federal research dollars and federal student loan support for a period of five years, and maybe more.”Free speech, or a particular rightwing version of it, is of course the much-discussed topic of the day at Twitter, where the site’s new owner, Elon Musk, is dedicated to the concept to the extent of reinstating Trump’s account – though Trump has not yet returned to tweeting.TechScape: I read Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter Files’ so you don’t have toRead moreTrump, the Post reports, thinks this month’s ‘Twitter Files’ releases have “confirmed that a sinister group of Deep State bureaucrats, Silicon Valley tyrants, leftwing activists, and depraved corporate news media have been conspiring to manipulate and silence the American People.”“The censorship cartel must be dismantled and destroyed – and it must happen immediately.”Meanwhile:‘Losing the plot’: Trump mocked after announcing superhero card collectionRead moreWe’ve reached lunchtime on a busy day in US politics, which includes ongoing discussions in the Senate on approving a short-term funding measure to keep the government open for at least another week.We’re hoping to learn more this afternoon.Also happening today:
      Nancy Pelosi has been speaking of her “pride” in a number of legislative achievements during what could be her final press conference as House speaker. She paid tribute to Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
      Biden says he’ll be heading to sub-Saharan Africa soon on the first visit there of his presidency. He was speaking at the conclusion of a summit with African leaders in which he pledged hundreds of millions of dollars for infrastructure, technology and free elections.
      Two conspirators convicted of terrorism last month in a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor Gretchen Whitmer were sentenced to prison sentences of 12 and 10 years respectively. A third convict is yet to be sentenced.
      First lady Jill Biden says she’s “all in” on her husband running again for the presidency in 2024, according to a report from CNN that says her position is a “tidal shift” from her reluctant feelings of just three months ago.
      The state department has announced a new round of sanctions against a number of Russian oligarchs, government officials and their families for enabling president Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
      Joe Biden will soon visit sub-Saharan Africa, he announced on Thursday. It came at the conclusion of a three-day summit with African leaders in which he announced hundreds of millions of dollars in investment in the continent for infrastructure, technology initiatives and supporting free elections.A day earlier, the president said he was “all in” on strengthening US relations with African countries, which was why he had sent many of his top advisers there, including secretary of state Antony Blinken, treasury secretary Janet Yellin and commerce secretary Gina Raimondo.“I’m looking forward to seeing you in your home countries,” Biden told the leaders of 49 African countries on Thursday about what will be the first visit there of his presidency other than a brief stopover in Egypt last month, the Associated Press reported. He did state which countries he will visit or when the trip will happen.Biden on Thursday pledged $165m in US funding to support peaceful, credible elections in Africa next year as his administration looked to underscore the importance of fair voting in countries where it sometimes has been blighted by violence. More

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      'This may be the last time': Nancy Pelosi at what she suggests is her final press conference – video

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      ‘This may be the last time I speak to you this way,’ said Nancy Pelosi in what she suggested could be her final press conference. The former Democrat house speaker defended her record in office, noting the passing of the Affordable Care Act as one of her greatest achievements. ‘Nothing in any of the years that I was there compares to the Affordable Care Act,’ Pelosi told reporters, adding: ‘It is a values issues for our country, so that for me was the highlight.’
      Pelosi announced in November that she would be stepping down as house speaker, ending a historic run as the first woman in the position. The California Democrat held the post for nearly two decades

      Nancy Pelosi tells of ‘proud’ record as speaker in likely final press conference – live More

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      Biden says he’s ‘all in’ on Africa’s future at leadership summit – as it happened

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      Joe Biden has committed to strengthening Africa’s food supplies, tackling the climate emergency and partnering with the continent’s nations to take on the rising global power in the region of China and Russia.In an address at the US Africa Business Leaders forum in Washington DC, the president says “the US is all in on Africa’s future”. He’s outlining a multi-prong approach to strengthen those ties, including the signing of a memorandum of understanding that Biden says will “unlock new opportunities for trade and investment between our countries and bring Africa and the US even closer than ever”:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}It’s an enormous opportunity for Africa’s future, and the US wants to help make those opportunities real.Included in the package are, he says, up to $370m from the US international development finance fund for new projects, including investing $100m for clean energy for sub-Saharan Africa.Entrepreneurship and innovation are at the top of Biden’s list, he says.And he wants $350bn from Congress for a “digital transformation” for Africa, which includes involving companies such as Microsoft to build networks and infrastructure to bring internet access to five million Africans who are currently not connected:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}When Africa succeeds, the United States succeeds and, quite frankly, the whole world succeeds as well,” Biden says.It’s time to close the blog on an eventful day in US politics. Joe Biden says he’s “all in” on Africa’s future after unveiling a package of investments and supports at a summit with the continent’s business leaders in Washington DC.The president says infrastructure and the climate emergency are among his top priorities for Africa, as he seeks to build closer ties and limit Russian and Chinese influence in the region.Here’s what else we’ve been watching:
      Survivors from mass shootings at gay nightclubs in Florida and Colorado gave harrowing testimony at a hearing of the House oversight committee looking into surging violence against the LGBTQ+ community. Democrats say Republicans have “stoked the flames of bigotry” with hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ laws nationwide.
      A new poll shows voters have little appetite for a presidential election rematch in 2024 between Biden and Donald Trump. Almost two thirds of registered Democrats and Republicans say they don’t want their 2020 nominees to run again.
      Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said it was time to drop the general election runoff system that forced Democrat Raphael Warnock to beat Republican challenger Herschel Walker twice within weeks to retain his Senate seat.
      In a statement marking the 10th anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting that killed 20 children and six adults, Biden said the US should have “societal guilt” at taking so long to address the problem of gun crime.
      Thanks for being with us! Please join us again tomorrow.North Dakota has become the latest state to ban the popular social media app TikTok from devices owned by the state government’s executive branch, the Associated Press reports.Governor Doug Burgum signed an executive order Wednesday afternoon, joining Republican colleagues from other states, including South Dakota and Texas, to have previously done so over concerns about the platform’s Chinese ownership and perceived data sharing and national security worries.In addition to prohibiting downloads of TikTok on government-issued equipment or while connected to the state’s network, it bars visiting the TikTok website.“TikTok raises multiple flags in terms of the amount of data it collects and how that data may be shared with and used by the Chinese government,” Burgum said in a statement, according to the AP.In its own statement Wednesday, TikTok said it was “disappointed that so many states are jumping on the bandwagon to enact policies based on unfounded, politically charged falsehoods”.Read more:Texas bans TikTok on government devices amid China data-sharing fearsRead moreA hair-raising moment, literally, took place on the Senate floor at lunchtime when New Jersey senator Cory Booker rose to urge colleagues to progress the Crown Act, the acronym for a bill seeking to “create a respectful and open world for natural hair”.It might sound frivolous, but the bill seeks to enshrine in federal statute a measure already passed in 19 states to prevent racial discrimination on the grounds of hair style or color.“You go to my city right now and you’ll find hairstyles of different types, locks, cornrows with braids, Bantu knots, and of course what I once had, afros,” the famously bald Booker said.“[But] there’s a decades-long problematic practice of discrimination against natural hair in this country.”@Dove and the #CROWNCoalition applaud #Alaska — the 19th state to provide legal protections against hair discrimination.#hairdiscrimination #naturalhair #crownact #hairlove #equity #Alaska pic.twitter.com/ebvh2iC7bE— The CROWN Act (@thecrownact) September 12, 2022
      He cited the case of Andrew Johnson, an 18-year-old student in 2018 whose dreadlocks were cut off on the orders of a judge at a high school wrestling match before he was allowed to compete. The episode was caught on video.“You can see the deep hurt and pain on the face of this young man,” Booker said.“It’s the pain felt by many. Traumatic at times, hurtful experiences that make you question your very belonging in a community. “The beauty of your hair, its natural style, your immutable characteristics, your cultural beliefs, your connection to your heritage. No person in America should have to deal with this pain.”Opposing Booker’s plea to advance the bill, Kentucky Republican Rand Paul said it was not necessary. The bill, he said, might compromise the safety of workers who could have the legal right to refuse to wear a helmet in the workplace because of their hair.“Using hairstyle as a pretext for racial discrimination is already illegal,” Paul claimed.The state that prolonged November’s midterms until 6 December won’t be able to do it again, if a proposal by its top election official gets approved.Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, says it’s time to get rid of the runoff system that requires a revote any time that no candidate in a general election reaches 50% of the votes cast.It’s the reason incumbent Democratic senator Raphael Warnock had to beat Republican challenger Herschel Walker for the second time in a month after coming close to, but not quite reaching, the 50% threshold in November.“Georgia is one of the only states in country with a general election runoff. We’re also one of the only states that always seems to have a runoff,” Raffensperger said, according to Fox5 Atlanta.“I’m calling on the general assembly to visit the topic… and consider reforms.”He said the current system made it difficult for counties, especially those in rural areas with few staff, to handle two elections within weeks of each other, a period that includes Thanksgiving.“No one wants to be dealing with politics in the middle of their family holiday,” he said.Raffensperger was the recipient of an infamous telephone call from Donald Trump asking him to “find” enough votes in Georgia to reverse his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden. A huge part of the Biden administration’s just-announced investment in Africa’s future will be a half-billion dollar investment in infrastructure, specifically the building and maintaining of roads linking ports to interior countries.The money, Joe Biden says, will come from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, an independent government foreign aid agency with a brief to reduce global poverty. The president said that MCC had made new investments of almost $1.2bn in Africa, and expected to commit an additional $2.5bn across the continent over the next four years:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}This compact will invest $500m to build and maintain roads, put in place policies that reduce transportation costs, make it easier and faster for ships to ship goods from the port of Cotonou [in Benin] into neighboring landlocked countries.The climate emergency, Biden stressed, will be another top focus, with work already under way, funded by $80m in public and private finance, to replace 12 coal-fired power plants in South Africa with renewable energy sources, and to develop “cutting edge energy solutions” such as clean hydrogen.He cited a $2bn deal to build solar energy projects in Angola, and a $600m high speed communications cable linking south Asia and Europe through Egypt, and $800m to help protect African countries against cyber threats..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}One of the most essential resources for many entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to participate in the global economy is reliable and affordable access to the internet.
      So today, I’m announcing a new initiative, the digital transformation with Africa. We’re here with Congress to invest $350bn, to facilitate more than almost a half a billion dollars in financing to make sure people across Africa participate in a digital economy.Biden brought his speech to a close just before the kick-off of the France v Morocco World Cup semi-final.Joe Biden has committed to strengthening Africa’s food supplies, tackling the climate emergency and partnering with the continent’s nations to take on the rising global power in the region of China and Russia.In an address at the US Africa Business Leaders forum in Washington DC, the president says “the US is all in on Africa’s future”. He’s outlining a multi-prong approach to strengthen those ties, including the signing of a memorandum of understanding that Biden says will “unlock new opportunities for trade and investment between our countries and bring Africa and the US even closer than ever”:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}It’s an enormous opportunity for Africa’s future, and the US wants to help make those opportunities real.Included in the package are, he says, up to $370m from the US international development finance fund for new projects, including investing $100m for clean energy for sub-Saharan Africa.Entrepreneurship and innovation are at the top of Biden’s list, he says.And he wants $350bn from Congress for a “digital transformation” for Africa, which includes involving companies such as Microsoft to build networks and infrastructure to bring internet access to five million Africans who are currently not connected:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}When Africa succeeds, the United States succeeds and, quite frankly, the whole world succeeds as well,” Biden says.Joe Biden is speaking now at the US-Africa leadership summit where he’s about to announce partnerships with African nations and a pathway to better ties and business relations.But the president said he was aware of people knowing the France v Morocco World Cup game was starting at the top of the hour, and were thinking: “Make it short Biden. There’s a semi-final game coming up”.We’ll bring you the best of Biden’s comments.Earlier this month, the Guardian’s Joan E Greve travelled to Newtown, Connecticut to speak with Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden of Sandy Hook Promise, the parents of Dylan and Daniel, who were killed 10 years ago today. For the Guardian’s Politics Weekly America podcast, Joan also met teenagers from the Junior Newtown Action Alliance, who now go through terrifying lockdown drills as preparation for another shooting and who want to see more change in gun legislation, and spoke to Senator Chris Murphy, who helped draft the first significant gun control policy in the US in 30 years this year.10 years since Sandy Hook – what’s changed? Politics Weekly America special – podcastRead moreThe Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren is pressing Congress to adopt bipartisan legislation which would force crypto firms to abide by the same regulations as banks and corporations, in an attempt to crack down on money laundering through digital assets. Ed Pilkington reports…Warren is pushing for the new controls on the crypto industry in the wake of the spectacular collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. On Tuesday its founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, was charged with eight criminal counts including conspiracy to commit money laundering.Warren’s bill is being co-sponsored by the Republican senator from Kansas Roger Marshall. The Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act would essentially subject the world of crypto to the same global financial regulations to which more conventional money markets must conform.Under current systems, crypto exchanges are able to skirt around restrictions designed to stop money laundering and impose sanctions. Should the bill be enacted into law it would authorize the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) to reclassify crypto entities as “money service businesses” which would bring them under basic regulations laid out in the Bank Secrecy Act.In a statement to CNN, Warren said “commonsense crypto legislation” would protect US national security. “I’ve been ringing the alarm bell in the Senate on the dangers of these digital asset loopholes,” she said, adding that crypto was “under serious scrutiny across the political spectrum”.Bankman-Fried, 30, was indicted by prosecutors at the southern district of New York and is being held in custody in the Bahamas. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also brought civil charges against him, accusing him of creating a firm that was a “house of cards”Five things we know about the collapse of FTX and Sam Bankman-FriedRead moreSome news out of Oregon that came later yesterday, which we wanted to record: the outgoing Democratic governor Kate Brown has commuted the sentences of all 17 of the state’s death row prisoners to life without parole.“I have long believed that justice is not advanced by taking a life, and the state should not be in the business of executing people – even if a terrible crime placed them in prison,” Brown said in a statement released by her office.“Since taking office in 2015, I have continued Oregon’s moratorium on executions because the death penalty is both dysfunctional and immoral.“Today I am commuting Oregon’s death row so that we will no longer have anyone serving a sentence of death and facing execution in this state. This is a value that many Oregonians share.”Brown’s order will also see the closure of the state’s execution chamber. Oregon’s most recent execution was in 1997, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.Governor John Kitzhaber first declared a moratorium on executions in 2011, which Brown has kept in place ever since.Full story:Oregon governor commutes sentences of everyone on death row in stateRead moreVoters have little appetite for a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump for the presidency in 2024, a poll released Wednesday lunchtime has found.Roughly six in 10 Republicans, and the same margin in the Democratic party, don’t want their respective 2020 nominees to run again, according to the CNN poll conducted by SSRS.Support from registered Republicans for Trump, especially, has plummeted, a reflection of the former president’s burgeoning legal troubles and, perhaps, the rising star of rightwing Florida governor Ron DeSantis.In January, CNN found, 50% said they hoped Trump would be the nominee and 49% wanted someone else. By July, 44% wanted Trump to be the party’s nominee, and now, only 38% say the same.Trump announced last month his third run at the White House as a Republican.There’s slightly better news for Biden. 40% of registered Democrats want the president to run again in 2024, the poll says, up from only 25% in the summer. But both figures are a drop from the 45% support he received in January.You can read about the poll here.The former Trump campaign chair and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has repeatedly praised the Republican National Committee on Fox News while failing to disclose that it has paid her firm more than $800,000 since last year, Media Matters reports.Eric Hananoki, an investigative reporter for the liberal media watchdog, writes: “The lack of disclosure about Conway’s financial ties goes against the ethics-challenged network’s purported policy”. He adds: .css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}A Fox News spokesperson told the Washington Post in 2019 regarding work Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer did with the RNC that ‘Fox News requires contributors to disclose ties related to any topic he or she discusses on the air in which the contributor may have a financial interest.’ The spokesperson added that such a rule would apply when talking about ‘the RNC on air.’ Elsewhere, the Daily Beast adds that “Karl Rove, another Fox News contributor with deep ties to the GOP, was allowed to keep his paid network gig while overseeing Senate Republicans’ fundraising efforts in 2020”.As Hananoki notes, the RNC and its chair, Ronna McDaniel, have faced fierce criticism since the midterm elections, in which Republicans took back the House but by a slim majority and failed to win back the Senate – a disappointing performance widely blamed on former president Donald Trump, who endorsed a string of defeated candidates.Conway, Hananoki writes, “has used her Fox News platform to praise the RNC and play defense for McDaniel”. According to Media Matters, the RNC “has paid KAConsulting $829,969.38 since 2021 for a variety of expenses. The RNC’s most recent payment was on 4 November for ‘political strategy services’. The organisation recently announced that Conway would serve on a Republican Party Advisory Council ‘to inform the Republican Party’s 2024 vision and beyond’.” Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The final witness testimony before a Q and A session at today’s House hearing into anti-LGBTQ violence was a chilling account of inside Orlando’s Pulse nightclub as a gunman murdered 49 mostly gay and transgender patrons in 2016.“There were gunshots, endless gunshots; the hair standing up on the back of my neck; the stench of blood and smoke burning the inside of my nose,” said Brandon Wolf, a survivor who lost his two best friends in the massacre, and who has now become a prominent gun control and LBGTQ+ advocate.“A nervous huddle against a wall; a girl trying desperately so hard not to scream. I could feel her trembling on the tiles underneath us. “There was a sprint to the exit, all atop this bang, bang, bang, from an assault weapon. A man filled with hate an armed with a Sig Sauer MCX charged into Pulse, an LGBTQ safe space, and murdered 49 of those we loved.”On hand and ready to testify on anti-LGBTQ hate alongside the Club Q community.Tune in live: https://t.co/4bLU0X0ZWq pic.twitter.com/eSDKZiiROD— Brandon Wolf (@bjoewolf) December 14, 2022
      Wolf called out the bigotry and hatred of extremists who have fomented violence against the LBGTQ+ community, and spread hateful narratives that have resulted in attacks, threats and clampdowns on everything from drag shows, to donut shops to school libraries.“For years cynical politicians and greedy Grifters have joined forces with right wing extremists to pour gasoline on anti LGBTQ hysteria and terrorize our community,” he said.“My own governor Ron DeSantis has trafficked in that bigotry to feed his insatiable political ambition and propel himself toward the White House. “We have been smeared and defamed. Hundreds of bills have been filed in order to erase us; powerful figures have insisted that the greatest threats this country face are a teacher with they-them pronouns, or someone in a wig reading Red Fish, Blue Fish.” Barack Obama has called the Sandy Hook massacre “the single darkest day of my presidency”.In his own statement marking the 10th anniversary of the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, the former president also said he believed “the tide is turning” on gun violence.I consider December 14th, 2012 the single darkest day of my presidency. The news from Sandy Hook Elementary was devastating, a visceral blow, and like so many others, I felt not just sorrow but anger at a world that could allow such things to happen. pic.twitter.com/Y2log7FBaH— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 14, 2022
      His administration was unable to renew a nationwide assault weapons ban, lamenting that inaction on gun safety laws was the “biggest regret” of his time in office.Here’s Obama’s statement today:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The news from Sandy Hook Elementary was devastating, a visceral blow, and like so many others, I felt not just sorrow but anger at a world that could allow such things to happen.Even then we understood that mere words could only do so much to ease the burden of the families who were suffering. But in the years since, each of them has borne that weight with strength and with grace. And they’ve drawn purpose from tragedy – doing everything in their power to make sure other children and families never have to experience what they and their loved ones did.The journey hasn’t always been easy – and in a year when there hasn’t been a single week without a mass shooting somewhere in America, it’s clear our work is far from over. But of late, I’ve sensed that slowly, steadily, the tide is turning; that real change is possible. And I feel that way in no small part because of the families of Sandy Hook Elementary.Ten years ago, we all would have understood if those families had simply asked for privacy and closed themselves off from the world. But instead, they took unimaginable sorrow and channeled it into a righteous cause – setting an example of strength and resolve.They’ve made us proud. And if they were here today, I know the children and educators we lost a decade ago would be proud, too. More

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      Biden signs bill protecting same-sex and interracial marriage rights – as it happened

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      Joe Biden has signed the legislation into law, in a joy-filled ceremony on the south lawn at the White House.In attendance were the first lady, Jill Biden, as well as the vice-president, Kamala Harris, the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, and hundreds of LGBTQ+ couples, senior members of Congress, including the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and gay lawmakers looking on.Here’s the Guardian’s Washington Bureau chief, David Smith, who has witnessed the event:Joe Biden: “Today is a good day!… Marriage is a simple proposition. Who do you love and will you be loyal to that person you love? It’s not more complicated than that.” pic.twitter.com/ZsL2PEkLri— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 13, 2022
      Biden made a short but spirited speech.Biden: “Now the law requires that interracial marriage and same sex marriage be recognised in every state in the nation.”— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 13, 2022
      Biden pays tribute to many of those activists and campaigners gathered.Biden: “Those who believe in equality and justice, you never gave up… You put your relationships on the line, you put your jobs on the line, you put your lives on the line. From me and the entire nation, thank you, thank you, thank you.”— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 13, 2022
      Here’s the president on Twitter:Today is a good day. Today, America takes another step toward equality. Toward liberty and justice not just for some, but for all. Because today, I sign the Respect for Marriage Act into law.— President Biden (@POTUS) December 13, 2022
      It’s been a lively though unusual day in US politics. We’re ending this live blog now and we’ll be back on Wednesday morning to bring you all the day’s developments as they happen.Here’s where things stand:
      Joe Biden signed the Respect For Marriage Act into law, in a joy-filled ceremony on the south lawn at the White House.
      The US president noted that: “Racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia – they are all connected. But the antidote is love.”
      The January 6 House select committee will on 19 December vote on referring people they believe broke the law to the justice department, Politico reports, citing committee chair Bennie Thompson.
      Carolyn Maloney, chair of the oversight committee in the House wrote to the National Archives asking for a review of what’s been discovered at a storage unit at Donald Trump’s Florida residence, the Washington Post reported.
      Government energy officials announced that the US has taken “the first tentative steps towards a clean energy source that could revolutionize the world” through a successful fusion experiment.
      Biden cheered government data released today that showed inflation declining by a greater amount than expected in November, calling it proof that his economic policies were delivering Americans relief from the price increase wave battering the economy.
      Samuel Bankman-Fried is not testifying before Congress, because he was arrested in the Bahamas yesterday. Instead, the newly appointed CEO of FTX, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange Bankman-Fried founded, is being grilled by lawmakers alone.
      Reforms to the Electoral Count Act intended to stop another January 6 may end up being included in year-end spending legislation Congress is negotiating.
      It’s official: rightwing lawmaker Lauren Boebert has been re-elected, after winning her unexpectedly close House race.
      Under sunny skies, the ceremony for Joe Biden to sign the Respect for Marriage Act was a lively one, just wrapping up now.The bill’s primary driver, Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, can be seen smiling broadly, just behind a beaming Nancy Pelosi.Joe Biden has signed the legislation into law, in a joy-filled ceremony on the south lawn at the White House.In attendance were the first lady, Jill Biden, as well as the vice-president, Kamala Harris, the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, and hundreds of LGBTQ+ couples, senior members of Congress, including the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and gay lawmakers looking on.Here’s the Guardian’s Washington Bureau chief, David Smith, who has witnessed the event:Joe Biden: “Today is a good day!… Marriage is a simple proposition. Who do you love and will you be loyal to that person you love? It’s not more complicated than that.” pic.twitter.com/ZsL2PEkLri— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 13, 2022
      Biden made a short but spirited speech.Biden: “Now the law requires that interracial marriage and same sex marriage be recognised in every state in the nation.”— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 13, 2022
      Biden pays tribute to many of those activists and campaigners gathered.Biden: “Those who believe in equality and justice, you never gave up… You put your relationships on the line, you put your jobs on the line, you put your lives on the line. From me and the entire nation, thank you, thank you, thank you.”— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 13, 2022
      Here’s the president on Twitter:Today is a good day. Today, America takes another step toward equality. Toward liberty and justice not just for some, but for all. Because today, I sign the Respect for Marriage Act into law.— President Biden (@POTUS) December 13, 2022
      Joe Biden says love is the antidote to discrimination.“Racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, they are all connected. But the antidote is love,” Biden just said at the White House, as he prepares to sign the Respect for Marriage Act into law.Biden reminds those gathered that the legislation was spurred by the signal made by supreme court justice Clarence Thomas that, having overturned Roe v Wade, access to contraception and the right to same sex marriage could be next on the conservative bench’s agenda.Joe Biden is now speaking and thanking the lawmakers who drove the legislation that he is about to sign into law as the Respect for Marriage Act.He thanks, to a huge cheer from those gathered, Wisconsin’s Democratic senator Tammy Baldwin, the first out gay person ever to serve in the US Senate, who introduced the legislation and helped steer it to victory.The US president thanked Maine Senator Susan Collins, a Republican, who joined Baldwin in pushing the bill forward and garnering bipartisan support.Biden is celebrating the new law that protects not just same sex marriage but also interracial marriage, which have federal protections via the US Supreme Court but are not codified in US legislation.As the nation saw when the right-wing supermajority on the supreme court in June ditched the federal abortion legalization afforded by Roe v Wade in 1973, without congressional support in the form of legislation, rights can be taken away overnight by the court.Biden just quoted the great Edie Windsor’s words about gay marriage: “Don’t postpone joy.”“The road to this moment has been long,” Biden said. He tips his hat to those who “put their jobs on the line” to fight for the rights “I’m about to sign into law.”Goodbye, Edie Windsor. Thank you for never giving up | Steven W ThrasherRead moreKamala Harris is speaking at the White House ceremony, and she recalls Valentine’s Day, 2004, when she performed some of the US’s first same sex marriages, in San Francisco city hall, when she was the district attorney in that city.She quotes the late Harvey Milk in saying: “Rights are won by those who make their voices heard.”The vice president talks of marrying friends, the tears of joy, and also recalls the victory, ultimately, over the ban on marriage equality in California that had been passed in 2008, known as Proposition 8. More

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      Los Angeles official involved in racism scandal caught fighting activist on video

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      Los Angeles official involved in racism scandal caught fighting activist on videoKevin de León, who has resisted resigning after the debacle, was involved in an altercation in which he appears to push an organizer00:52Kevin de León, the embattled Los Angeles city council member involved in a racism scandal that threw city hall into upheaval, is facing criticism again after video footage captured him in a physical fight with an activist.De León, who has resisted calls to resign, made his first in-person appearance at a council meeting in nearly two months on Friday. Hours later he was involved in an altercation at a holiday toy giveaway in which video appeared to show him shoving a local organizer.Biden calls for resignation of LA city council members over racist remarksRead moreIn a short clip, organizer Jason Reedy and other activists can be seen following the official, demanding his resignation, and crowding around him when De León appears to push Reedy into a table, the councilman’s Santa hat falling off amid the chaos. De León claims the activist headbutted him and that he was acting in self-defense while Reedy’s attorney told media his client was assaulted.The incident comes as the councilman tries to rehabilitate his reputation after widespread outrage and protest over a leaked recording that revealed De León and other Latino Democrats making racist comments as they plotted to expand their political power at the expense of Black voters during a realignment of district boundaries.De León, a former state legislator, is the only council member still resisting calls from top Democrats, including Joe Biden, to step down. Meanwhile, he has continued to collect his annual salary of nearly $229,000.Gil Cedillo, another councilman involved in the scandal over the leaked recording of racist insults, had refused to resign, but vanished from public view within days of its disclosure in October. His term expired Monday at 12.01am, after he lost a re-election bid earlier this year.De León, who has been stripped of his ability to participate in council meetings and faced widespread pressure to resign, has been maneuvering in private to emerge from political purgatory despite being reviled by colleagues who say they cannot work with him.In a statement issued after the Friday night altercation, Paul Krekorian, the council president who has called on De León to step down, said the councilman, one of his staff members and a volunteer were attacked, calling the incident intolerable. The Los Angeles Times reported that activists said De León was the aggressor.“This city has endured horrendous division and toxicity in recent months,“ Krekorian said. “We need to reject hatred in all of its forms and we need to reject the atmosphere of intimidation, bullying and threats.”De León has said he acted in self-defense: “Once we were able to push open a door and try to get out, Reedy launched a pelvic thrust, followed by a headbutt to my forehead,” he said to media. “My response, in defense of myself, was to push him off of me.”The attorney for Reedy, Shakeer Rahman, told CNN that the councilman initiated the assault.“Video footage clearly shows him and his supporters initiating this assault while Mr Reedy stands with his hands up. Not only has Kevin de León lost all political legitimacy, his claims that he was the one attacked here simply underscores how he’s lost touch with reality,” Rahman said in a statement.De León appeared on Friday at his first council meeting since mid-October, setting off a chaotic protest between competing factions in the audience. About a dozen protesters bellowed at De León to leave the ornate chamber, while his supporters chanted: “Kevin, Kevin.”Some council members walked out and police ejected two people, fearing they might fight.“Leave, Kevin!” one protester shouted at de León. “This is why these meetings need to be shut down.”De León has apologized but said he will not resign, arguing that he wants to continue working on homelessness, fallout from the pandemic and the threat of evictions for renters in his district.There is no legal avenue for his colleagues to remove him – the council can only suspend a member when criminal charges are pending.Krekorian, the council president, has said: “The only way we can begin to heal as a city is for Mr de León to take responsibility for his actions, accept the consequences and step down.”While De León has largely stayed away from city hall, he has continued to quietly conduct business, including attending holiday events and meeting officials on pending homeless projects and illegal dumping problems.With his appearance at the council meeting on Friday, it is clear he is trying to gradually step back into the public sphere. Meanwhile, organizers behind an effort to recall him from office have been cleared to collect petition signatures needed to qualify the proposal for the ballot.TopicsCaliforniaLos AngelesUS politicsDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

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      Special counsel investigating Trump subpoenas Georgia secretary of state – as it happened

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      Jack Smith, the special prosecutor handling the criminal probes of Donald Trump, has sent a subpoena to the secretary of state in Georgia, one of the states the former president targeted in his effort to overturn the result of the 2020 election, the Associated Press reports.Smith has sent a number of subpoenas to officials nationwide since attorney general Merrick Garland last month appointed him to oversee the justice department’s investigations into the January 6 insurrection and Trump’s attempts to remain in power, as well as the discovery of government secrets at his Mar-a-Lago resort.The latest subpoena was sent to Brad Raffensperger, the Republican official tasked with overseeing Georgia’s elections who defied Trump’s demand to “find” him the votes necessary to win the state in the 2020 election, even after it had been held.Here’s more on what Smith wants, from the AP:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The special counsel is seeking “any and all communications in any form” between June 1, 2020, and Jan. 20, 2021, “to, from or involving” Trump, his campaign, lawyers and aides, including former campaign officials such as Bill Stepien and Justin Clark and lawyers John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, L. Lin Wood, Sidney Powell and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, according to the subpoena, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
      Efforts by Trump and his associates to reverse his loss in Georgia are currently the subject of a separate investigation led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Atlanta. A special grand jury seated to aid that investigation has heard from dozens of witnesses, including a number of high-profile Trump allies, over the past six months and is expected to wrap up its work soon.
      Among other things, Willis is investigating the Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Raffensperger.
      It was not immediately clear whether any counties in Georgia had also received subpoenas from the special counsel.
      In the weeks following the 2020 election, Trump focused in part on Fulton County, which includes most of the city of Atlanta, making unsupported allegations of election fraud. But the county had not received a subpoena by Monday morning, a spokesperson said.Special prosecutor Jack Smith has continued his subpoena salvo as he investigates Donald Trump, this time with a summons to Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state who famously defied Trump’s attempts to meddle in the state’s 2020 election result. Elsewhere, the supreme court agreed to hear another case against Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, which remains on hold, while we’ll find out tomorrow about a reported breakthrough in fusion energy.Here’s more about what happened today:
      A federal judge has officially nixed the special master’s review of documents taken from Mar-a-Lago, which slowed down the investigation into whether Donald Trump unlawfully retained government secrets.
      The January 6 committee is continuing to mull how many criminal referrals to send to the justice department as a result of its investigation.
      The White House condemned rightwing lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene after she made comments asserting her prowess at organizing insurrections. The congresswoman said she was just being sarcastic.
      Legislation to stop another January 6 may end up being attached to a big funding bill Congress is trying to reach an agreement on.
      Black Lives Matter has set up its own student loan relief fund to make up for the Biden administration’s hamstrung program.
      With the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan stalled in court, the Associated Press reports that the Black Lives Matter foundation has started its own debt relief effort. The $500,000 program administered by the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is aimed at current and former Black students, and will award more than 500 recipients with payments of between $750 and $4,500. The application for the relief can be found here.Here’s more on the program from the AP:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The BLM foundation’s Student Solidarity Fund is an expansion of a previous initiative it started last year as millions of Americans struggled to make ends meet amid economic uncertainty in the coronavirus pandemic. This time the foundation said it intends to use philanthropic dollars to draw attention to issues of economic injustice, especially while a proposed federal student debt forgiveness plan is held up by litigation from opponents.
      “The fact of the matter is that Black people who work to get an education are struggling right now,” BLM foundation board chair Cicley Gay said. “We recognize that we can’t build a world of true liberation without the brilliance of Black people who are committed to furthering their education.”
      The relief is meant for bachelor’s degree recipients, as well as those who did not complete their degree but still carry student loan debt. Applicants must have attended a college or university in the U.S. The foundation is asking applicants to submit loan documents to prove their eligibility.
      If selected, applicants with $75,000 or less in debt will receive $1,500. Applicants with debt between $75,001 and $150,000 will receive $3,000. And applicants with $150,001 or more in debt will receive $4,500.
      The money is not restricted for use only on student loan payments, but the foundation said its relief funds are meant to lower recipients’ overall debt burden.
      In a second phase of the fund, the BLM foundation said it will give microgrants of $750 to relief fund applicants who are currently attending historically Black colleges and universities, to help with housing, food, technology, books and transportation costs.There are many, many pieces of unfinished business lawmakers in Congress would like to get done before the year ends. One of them is a bill to stop the type of legal plot Donald Trump attempted on January 6. Its fate now appears tied to a long-term government funding bill Democrats are hoping to pass, NBC News reports.The measure clarifying parts of the 1887 Electoral Count Act appears to have the support needed to pass both the House and Senate. Democrats support the proposal and Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, said he’d vote for it, a good sign that it’ll get the GOP support necessary to overcome a filibuster in that chamber.But amid fevered negotiations in the House and Senate on passing a long-term government funding bill, it’s unclear when the electoral count reform proposal will come up for a vote. According to NBC, Amy Klobuchar, a Democratic senator who played a major role in forging the compromise legislation, says attaching the electoral count act reforms to the omnibus funding bill under negotiation is “the most obvious” way of getting it passed.“We will get this done by the end of the year if I have to slow everything else down,” Klobuchar told NBC, adding, “It’s going to happen.”Jack Smith, the special prosecutor handling the criminal probes of Donald Trump, has sent a subpoena to the secretary of state in Georgia, one of the states the former president targeted in his effort to overturn the result of the 2020 election, the Associated Press reports.Smith has sent a number of subpoenas to officials nationwide since attorney general Merrick Garland last month appointed him to oversee the justice department’s investigations into the January 6 insurrection and Trump’s attempts to remain in power, as well as the discovery of government secrets at his Mar-a-Lago resort.The latest subpoena was sent to Brad Raffensperger, the Republican official tasked with overseeing Georgia’s elections who defied Trump’s demand to “find” him the votes necessary to win the state in the 2020 election, even after it had been held.Here’s more on what Smith wants, from the AP:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The special counsel is seeking “any and all communications in any form” between June 1, 2020, and Jan. 20, 2021, “to, from or involving” Trump, his campaign, lawyers and aides, including former campaign officials such as Bill Stepien and Justin Clark and lawyers John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, L. Lin Wood, Sidney Powell and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, according to the subpoena, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
      Efforts by Trump and his associates to reverse his loss in Georgia are currently the subject of a separate investigation led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Atlanta. A special grand jury seated to aid that investigation has heard from dozens of witnesses, including a number of high-profile Trump allies, over the past six months and is expected to wrap up its work soon.
      Among other things, Willis is investigating the Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Raffensperger.
      It was not immediately clear whether any counties in Georgia had also received subpoenas from the special counsel.
      In the weeks following the 2020 election, Trump focused in part on Fulton County, which includes most of the city of Atlanta, making unsupported allegations of election fraud. But the county had not received a subpoena by Monday morning, a spokesperson said.Last publicly owned Confederate monument comes down in RichmondThe Hill reports that the last publicly owned Confederate monument in Richmond, Virginia, has come down on Monday.The move completes a process initiated in 2020 in the state’s capital city to take down statues glorifying the slave states of the Confederacy.It adds: “Workers operating cranes lifted up a statue of A.P. Hill — a Confederate general in the Northern Virginia army who was a trusted associate of Gen. Robert E. Lee — and placed it on a flatbed truck.The statue will now head to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia. Hill’s memorial had towered over a busy intersection in the city near a school for more than 130 years.The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia applauded the statue’s removal.“Let’s not forget: Removing symbols of racism is only one of the first steps to dismantling racist systems,” the organization tweeted.”Rightwing lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene has released a statement defending her comments on the January 6 insurrection as a “sarcastic joke” and saying Democrats and the White House “continue to accuse me of something I had nothing to do with”.“The White House needs to learn how sarcasm works. My comments were making fun of Joe Biden and the Democrats, who have continuously made me a political target since January 6th,” Greene said.The Republican House representative from Georgia sparked fury over the weekend by saying that if she and former Donald Trump White House adviser Steven Bannon had been in charge of the attack on the Capitol, the crowd would have won, and attendees “would’ve been armed”. Greene said the condemnation that followed, including from a spokesman for the Biden administration, put her at risk.“Every day, I receive violent threats against my life simply because Democrats and the media have lied and smeared my character for the past two years. This includes threats resulting in actual arrests with criminal charges and threats against my home in an attempt to have me killed,” Greene said.She went on to reiterate a number of the far-right conspiracies theories that have been her hallmark ever since arriving in Congress last year. Here’s the rest of Greene’s statement:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The only time Democrats “support” the 2A is when armed Antifa larpers want to defend perverts at drag queen story time or when leftist Hollywood celebs and politicians are protected by armed bodyguards.
      Rather than trying to weaponize a sarcastic joke I made, they should be going after people like Yoel Roth who silenced a sitting President and allowed child pornography to run rampant on Twitter.
      I will never back down from my support of the Second Amendment. And I will never allow the White House, Democrats, or the media to continue to accuse me of something I had nothing to do with.Tim Scott to run for Republican nomination in 2024?With Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign firmly on the ropes just a month after his announcement, a whole host of other Republican names are now being mentioned as contenders for the party nomination.Perhaps none are as fascinating as Tim Scott, a Black Republican senator from South Carolina. Scott is a firm conservative, close to Trump but also admired by many other sections of the party, especially as it digests its woeful underperformance in the recent midterm elections.Politico takes an in-depth look here.But here is a key taster: “His Republican colleagues are buzzing about his massive reelection victory this year, rising national profile, substantial fundraising hauls and cross-country travels for other candidates. And they’re happy to talk him up.The South Carolinian carved out a unique lane in the GOP, well-liked by mainstream leaders like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell but never publicly at odds with Trump world, even when he’s offered halted criticism of the former president. And as the only Black Republican senator, he’d offer his party a compelling chance to build on its long-running effort to boost diverse candidate recruitment by further appealing to Democratic-leaning constituencies.”New polling released by CNN in the wake of the midterms shows Americans remain as divided as ever when it comes to their views of the country’s leadership.The poll conducted by SSRS finds 51% of respondents say they have more confidence in the new Republican majority in the House, against the 49% that are more faithful to Joe Biden. However, they expect the new GOP majority to improve the federal budget situation by an 11-point margin, according to the poll. Splits are deeper when it comes to other issues, the survey indicates:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Americans are more closely divided on the effect the GOP majority will have on inflation (37% positive, 33% negative), gun policies (39% positive, 41% negative) and tax policies (34% positive, 38% negative). And they tend to expect a harmful impact on immigration laws (32% positive, 41% negative) and the level of cooperation within the federal government (23% positive, 43% negative).Americans are generally downbeat when it come to both parties’ leaders, although they do tend to support members of their own team:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}While 53% of US adults hold an unfavorable opinion of outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and just 33% have a favorable one, Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents express positive views by a roughly 3 to 1 margin (63% favorable, 20% unfavorable). Far fewer Americans have formed an opinion of incoming House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (64% have either not heard of him or have yet to form an opinion), but Democratic-aligned views are generally positive (33% favorable, 5% unfavorable among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents). Views of House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who is vying to become speaker, tilt negative among the full public, 36% unfavorable to 19% favorable, with nearly half unsure how they feel about him. Among Republicans and Republican leaners, there’s been a shift toward the positive since this summer: 39% now have a favorable view and 16% unfavorable, compared with 19% favorable and 28% unfavorable in CNN’s polling this summer.Both parties like to accuse the other of being extreme, and the survey indicates the sentiment is widespread among the public – though the GOP is viewed as more extreme overall:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Half of Americans currently say the GOP’s views and policies are too extreme, rather than generally mainstream, while 44% call the Democratic Party too extreme – both numbers are little changed since last summer.The supreme court has agreed to hear a second challenge to Joe Biden’s plan to relieve some federal student loan debt, which remains on hold. Meanwhile, the science world is preparing for tomorrow’s big announcement from the energy department, which is reportedly the success of an experiment that produced more energy from a fusion reaction than was put in.Here’s what else has happened so far today:
      A federal judge has officially nixed the special master’s review of documents taken from Mar-a-Lago, which slowed down the investigation into whether Donald Trump unlawfully retained government secrets.
      The January 6 committee is continuing to mull how many criminal referrals to send to the justice department as a result of its investigation.
      The White House condemned rightwing lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene after she made comments asserting her prowess at organizing insurrections.
      The US government’s trade regulator is weighing whether to OK the merger of two of the country’s largest supermarket chains, even as workers fret it could lead to mass layoffs, Michael Sainato reports:Thousands of workers at two of America’s biggest supermarkets are warning of potential mass layoffs as the giant firms push for a merger.Kroger, the second largest grocery chain in the US, and Albertsons, the fourth largest, are pushing for a merger through the Federal Trade Commission, which is reviewing the proposal.Local unions representing over 100,000 Albertsons and Kroger workers strongly oppose the merger because of its likely impact on competition, prices for consumers, and job cuts that will result as scores of stores are divested.During US Senate panel hearings, Kroger’s chief executive, Rodney McMullen, claimed no employees would be laid off, but said the company planned to place 100 to 350 stores into a spin-off company. Albertsons announced it would pay shareholders about $4bn in special dividends as part of the merger agreement, and spend $24.6bn to acquire Kroger, with expectations to close the deal by early 2024 if approved by federal regulators.“A win for our customers, a win for our associates, and a win for the communities,” McMullen has said in support of the merger. McMullen’s salary of $18m in total compensation is 679 times that of the median worker at Kroger.But many grocery workers who witnessed the 2014 and 2015 merger between Albertsons and Safeway saw similar promises made and then broken by corporate executives.‘We’re really worried’: US supermarket mega-merger raises mass layoff fearsRead moreJoe Biden is under pressure from media organizations and others to drop the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Eric Lichtblau reports:The Biden administration has been saying all the right things lately about respecting a free and vigorous press, after four years of relentless media-bashing and legal assaults under Donald Trump.The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has even put in place expanded protections for journalists this fall, saying that “a free and independent press is vital to the functioning of our democracy”.But the biggest test of Biden’s commitment remains imprisoned in a jail cell in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been held since 2019 while facing prosecution in the United States under the Espionage Act, a century-old statute that has never been used before for publishing classified information.Biden faces growing pressure to drop charges against Julian AssangeRead more More

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      Karen Bass starts as Los Angeles mayor with plan to address homelessness crisis

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      Karen Bass starts as Los Angeles mayor with plan to address homelessness crisisKamala Harris gave Bass, the first female mayor of Los Angeles, the oath of office and Stevie Wonder gave a surprise performance Karen Ruth Bass, a former physician assistant who shattered glass ceilings with her rise to a leadership post in the California legislature and later a prominent spot in Congress, took a ceremonial oath of office on Sunday as mayor of Los Angeles.A progressive Democrat, Bass becomes the first woman and second Black person to hold the city’s top job and will formally assume her duties on Monday amid multiple crises in the nation’s second most populous city.She was sworn in ceremonially by Kamala Harris, the US vice-president, former California attorney general and a longtime friend. The formal oath was administered privately by the city clerk.Bass will be tasked with easing rising crime rates, restoring trust in a City Hall shaken by racism and corruption scandals and addressing the issue of more than 40,000 people living in trash-strewn encampments or rusty RVs that have spread into virtually every neighborhood.Striking a tone of unity, Bass said the many, disparate arms of government must come together to confront homelessness.To move in a new direction “we must have a single strategy” that brings together government, the private sector and other stakeholders, Bass said, speaking in a downtown theater near City Hall.She said if people link arms rather than point fingers, lives will be saved. She called that “my mission” as mayor.She also urged residents to become involved in city government, echoing John F Kennedy’s presidential inaugural address in which he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”“I call on the people of our city to not just dream of the LA we want, but to participate in making the dream come true,” Bass said.Bass, who was on Joe Biden’s shortlist for vice-president,claimed the post last month after overcoming more than $100m in spending by rival Rick Caruso, a billionaire developer and Republican-turned-Democrat who campaigned as a centrist and promised a strong emphasis on public safety.Caruso would have represented a turn to the political right for the heavily Democratic city. Bass swayed voters by arguing she would be a coalition builder to help heal a troubled city of nearly 4 million.“We are going to build a new Los Angeles,” Bass had promised at an election night rally.A marquee outside the theater featured a photo of a beaming Bass with the slogan “A new day for Los Angeles”. The backdrop for the stage, topped by US flags, was an oversized shot of the steps and columns of City Hall.In a surprise appearance, Stevie Wonder got the crowd dancing, playing Living for the City. He and Bass shared a hug.Bass, 69, ran as the consensus pick of the Democratic establishment and was endorsed by Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.Despite her close ties with the Democratic political community, she has described herself as a change agent who plans to declare a state of emergency on her first day in office to deal with homelessness. She has signaled she will seek to marshal “all of the resources, all of the skills, the knowledge, the talent of the city” to get homeless people into housing.Details on the emergency order have yet to emerge, though she has said she intends to get over 17,000 homeless people into housing in her first year through a mix of interim and permanent facilities.She also will contend with entrenched urban problems that include a housing shortage, crumbling streets and some of the nation’s worst traffic.“The mayor’s first priority and likely the main one for some time to come is homelessness,” said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles.“The voters don’t expect a miracle but will be looking for a clear and credible path toward measurable and visible improvement,” Sonenshein said. “It’s an opportunity for an energetic reset on a crisis that has seemed stuck, and also a chance to restore confidence in local government in Los Angeles.”TopicsCaliforniaUS politicsDemocratsnewsReuse this content More