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    The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s tariffs: protectionism is no longer taboo in politics | Editorial

    Donald Trump’s broadside against America’s three largest trading partners, with whom it runs a $500bn trade deficit, should surprise no one. Since 2016, both Mr Trump and Mr Biden have departed from established norms in international trade. The two presidencies diverged significantly in approach: Mr Biden emphasised systemic reform while Mr Trump relied on rhetoric and theatrics. Although both administrations faced criticism for driving up costs through tariffs and industrial policy, global events were primarily behind rising prices.Mr Trump’s self-declared fondness for tariffs is closely tied to his ability to authorise them unilaterally, bypassing Congress under claims of national security. This may explain his recent announcement of plans to impose 25% tariffs on all goods from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% on Chinese imports, unless these countries address alleged issues of illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling. The US president-elect clearly sees tariffs as more than mere policies; they are a calculated means of gaining leverage. By threatening to impose them, Mr Trump is signalling a desire to negotiate – but only on his terms.Mr Trump’s trade tactics reshaped relations with Mexico and Canada, setting the stage for a 2026 review of the 2019 agreement he secured with the US’s neighbours. However, his approach faltered with China. Despite the first Trump administration imposing $112bn in tariffs and threatening to levy $500bn more, Beijing negotiated a 2020 trade deal but did not, after Covid, meet its commitments, leaving Mr Biden to continue the confrontation.Trade involves sacrifices to achieve gains. Cheaper consumer goods might lead to fewer domestic jobs or lower wages in certain industries. Increased imports can mean a reduction in local manufacturing. Running a trade deficit is not necessarily harmful, but it requires an activist policy to ensure that the pain is not geographically concentrated. For decades, the neoliberal economic order championed a vision of a borderless world, where goods and services flowed freely with minimal barriers. This ideal dominated global trade policy and corporate strategy, rendering “protectionism” taboo in mainstream debate. However, since the global financial crash, scepticism about globalisation has steadily grown.An increasing focus on justice, sustainability and better working conditions has reshaped trade priorities worldwide. There has also been a growing shift toward producing goods closer to home, either through increased domestic manufacturing or by developing nearby supply chains. However, wealthy nations, led by the US, have consistently resisted granting poorer countries the flexibility to modernise, while claiming exceptions to rules they enforce on others. During the pandemic, the US prioritised its pharmaceutical industry profits over global vaccine access, blocking life-saving doses for developing countries.Globalisation’s decline began long before Mr Trump, with his protectionist policies reflecting rather than driving this shift. The retreat from globalisation will probably continue, fuelled by geopolitical tensions, post-pandemic supply chain restructuring, and rising demands for equitable trade. Mr Trump’s policies, however, will make an uncertain world even more volatile. His suspicion of win-win deals will make it harder for policymakers around the world who seek to balance their national interests with the need for global cooperation. More

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    Biden will attend Trump’s inauguration in January, says White House

    President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will attend Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, a White House spokesperson said on Monday.“The president promised that he would attend the inauguration of whomever won the election,” said Andrew Bates, senior deputy press secretary at the White House, Reuters reported.“He and the First Lady are going to honor that promise and attend the inauguration.”The president-elect did not attend Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, which came days after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.Earlier this month, the US president welcomed Trump back to the White House – another tradition Trump eschewed after losing the 2020 election- with Biden promising a transfer of power that is “as smooth as it can get”.“We’re looking forward to having, like we said, a smooth transition. We’ll do everything we can to make sure you’re accommodated, what you need, and we’re going to get a chance to talk about some of that today,” Biden said earlier this month. “Welcome back.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump’s decision to skip Biden’s inauguration was not without precedent, but he was the first president to skip his successor’s inauguration in more than 150 years and his then outgoing administration was represented by then outgoing vice-president Mike Pence. More

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    Donald Trump slams federal cases against him after special counsel moves to drop them – live

    Trump has broken his silence on the decisions by prosecutors to drop the election interference charges and the classified documents case against him.In a post on Truth Social, the president-elect said: “These cases, like all of the other cases I have been forced to go through, are empty and lawless, and should never have been brought.”He continued:
    Over $100m Dollars of taxpayer Dollars has been wasted in the Democrat Party’s fight against their Political Opponent, ME. Nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before. They have also used State Prosecutors and
    District Attorneys, such as Fani Willis and her lover, Nathan Wade (who had absolutely zero experience in cases such as this, but was paid MILLIONS, enough for them to take numerous trips and cruises around the globe!), Letitia James, who inappropriately, unethically, and probably illegally, campaigned on “GETTING TRUMP” in order to win Political Office, and Alvin Bragg, who himself never wanted to bring this case against me, but was forced to do so by the Justice Department and the Democrat Party.
    It was a political hijacking, and a low point in the History of our Country that such a thing could have happened, and yet, I persevered, against all odds, and WON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
    Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will attend Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, a White House spokesman told Reuters.“The president promised that he would attend the inauguration of whomever won the election,” said Andrew Bates, senior deputy press secretary at the White House. “He and the First Lady are going to honor that promise and attend the inauguration.”Just hours after Joe Biden pardoned two turkeys in an event marking the official start of the holiday season in Washington, First Lady Jill Biden received the White House Christmas tree. The Frasier fir was delivered to the White House from the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, a region recently impacted by Hurricane Helene.Jack Smith is planning to release a final report into his investigations into Donald Trump’s classified documents and election interference cases, CNN reports.Attorney general Merrick Garland will publicly release the report, as he has past special counsel reports, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN. However, it remains unclear how much information will be included in the reports.Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has dropped his office’s lawsuit against Elon Musk and his America Pac. Krasner had sued Musk over his super Pac’s $1m-a-day lottery, where swing state voters were entered into a drawing every day before the presidential election in exchange for signing a petition.Teddy Schleifer of Puck News first posted a screen capture of the court case today, marking it “Discontinued and Ended”.A Philadelphia judge had rejected Krasner’s request for an injunction, on the basis that Musk’s lottery violated state election laws, on 4 November.Donald Trump has declined to sign presidential transition paperwork that requires disclosure of private donors. The memorandum of understanding, which requires an incoming president to disclose the names of private donors and caps their donations at $5,000, would give Trump access to up to $7.2m in federal funding.Here’s Robert Tait with more:Sidestepping it means Trump can raise unlimited amounts of cash from rich backers to finance his return to the White House while concealing what they are being promised in return.He is the first incoming president not to sign the federal transition funding agreement, which is dictated by the Presidential Transition Act.Transition funds are typically raised to pay for staff, office space and travel needed to put together an administration.Trump’s decision to avoid the standard procedure has alarmed ethics experts, who warn that it enables wealthy individuals to influence the makeup of a new administration without their names or potential conflicts of interest being disclosed.It also means the president-elect can accept unlimited donations from foreign donors, who – in contrast to rules prohibiting foreigners from contributing to election campaigns – are legally allowed to donate to transitions.Chuck Schumer, Senate majority leader, has scheduled Senate Democrats’ leadership elections for 3 December, according to reports.According to CNN, the leadership elections will start at 9:30am, per a Democratic leadership aide.Meanwhile, the Democratic national committee announced earlier today that it will select its next chair during a 1 February vote. The committee also plans to hold four forums for candidates in January.Trump has broken his silence on the decisions by prosecutors to drop the election interference charges and the classified documents case against him.In a post on Truth Social, the president-elect said: “These cases, like all of the other cases I have been forced to go through, are empty and lawless, and should never have been brought.”He continued:
    Over $100m Dollars of taxpayer Dollars has been wasted in the Democrat Party’s fight against their Political Opponent, ME. Nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before. They have also used State Prosecutors and
    District Attorneys, such as Fani Willis and her lover, Nathan Wade (who had absolutely zero experience in cases such as this, but was paid MILLIONS, enough for them to take numerous trips and cruises around the globe!), Letitia James, who inappropriately, unethically, and probably illegally, campaigned on “GETTING TRUMP” in order to win Political Office, and Alvin Bragg, who himself never wanted to bring this case against me, but was forced to do so by the Justice Department and the Democrat Party.
    It was a political hijacking, and a low point in the History of our Country that such a thing could have happened, and yet, I persevered, against all odds, and WON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
    While the case involving classified documents case will be dropped against Donald Trump, prosecutors say they will continue to pursue the case against two of his employees.According to CNN, special counsel Jack Smith said that while he is dropping the prosecution of Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents, prosecutors will proceed with the case against two of his employees – Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira – who are co-defendants in the case.Both individuals, who work for Trump, are accused of assisting the former president in obstructing the federal investigation into sensitive government documents.CNN noted that the case is now before the 11th US circuit court of appeals, which is reviewing a judge’s order dismissing all charges.Vice-president-elect JD Vance has responded to the news that prosecutors have dropped election interference charges and the classified documents case against Donald Trump.“If Donald J. Trump had lost an election, he may very well have spent the rest of his life in prison,” Vance wrote. “These prosecutions were always political.”He continued: “Now it’s time to ensure what happened to President Trump never happens in this country again.”In statement, Steven Cheung, the communications director for the president-elect, said: “Today’s decision by the DOJ ends the unconstitutional federal cases against President Trump, and is a major victory for the rule of law.“The American People and President Trump want an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and we look forward to uniting our country,” he added.Federal prosecutors have also moved today to abandon the classified documents case against Donald Trump, similarly to the election interference case, in light of longstanding justice department policy that says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution – even though Trump has not yet been inaugurated.The announcement in an appeals court filing in Florida came shortly after the similar filing was made by prosecutors in Washington DC, where they asked to dismiss the case accusing Trump of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, the Associated Press reports.The move amounts to a predictable but nonetheless stunning conclusion to a criminal case that just one year ago had been seen as the most perilous legal threat that he faced. It reflects the practical consequences of Trump’s electoral victory, ensuring he enters office free from scrutiny over his hoarding of top secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida after leaving office in January 2021 – conduct that prosecutors said had jeopardized national scrutiny.The dismissal had been foreshadowed in recent weeks by the revelation that special counsel Jack Smith was evaluating how to wind down both that case and a separate pending prosecution he brought charging Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.Justice department legal opinions dating back decades say sitting presidents cannot be indicted or prosecuted while in office and the government’s filings today indicate that, although unprecedented, they have decided this also applies to a president-elect who was charged while still a private citizen. More

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    Lame duck Biden pardons Thanksgiving turkeys as the world burns

    This is the way Biden world ends. Not with a bang but a gobble.Joe Biden, 82, once the defender of democracy and saviour of America’s soul, is heading for the door, about to trade the nuclear codes for golf clubs and beach loungers. Power is as fickle as fame.But on a crisp, sunny Monday he pulled off one last win over old rival Donald Trump by drawing surely the biggest crowd ever seen at the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardoning. And he knows how obsessed Trump is with crowd sizes.“They tell me there’s 2,500 people here today,” said Biden, standing at the presidential lectern on the south lawn and quipping, “looking for a pardon.”He laughed and so did the crowd. When a downbeat Trump held this event at the end of his own presidency in 2020, there were shouted questions such as “Mr President, will you be issuing a pardon for yourself?” Biden has ruled out a last-minute pardon for his son, Hunter, convicted on federal gun charges.But a mischief-maker with a dark sense of humour might have named this year’s turkeys Nancy and Barack, after the two Democrats who hastened the president’s exit from the election race after his disastrous TV debate against Trump.Instead the two white-plumed birds, raised in Minnesota, were called Peach and Blossom, named after the official state flower of Biden’s home state, Delaware.Wearing his trademark aviator sunglasses, Biden, marking his final holiday season at the White House, could not resist remarking: “And by the way, Delaware has a long history of growing peaches. In fact, the peach pie in our state is one of my favorite. It’s a state dessert!”He added: “Peach blossom flower also symbolises resilience, which is, quite frankly, fitting for today.”It was ostensibly a comment about the turkeys’ resourcefulness in avoiding the Thanksgiving dinner table. Some might also have detected a poignant acknowledgement that, even Biden talked turkey, a man his allies branded a fascist is down at Mar-a-Lago preparing to hammer America’s democratic institutions all over again.George HW Bush made it an annual tradition to formally pardon a Thanksgiving turkey, though tales of the birds being spared from dinner tables go back to Abraham Lincoln’s presidency. Biden recalled that, in the past four years, he has continued the tradition by pardoning Peanut Butter and Jelly, Chocolate and Chip and Liberty and Bell. “And today, Peach and Blossom will join the free birds of the United States of America.”As he continued, Peach could be heard gobbling. “Yeah, I hear you,” Biden said, as the crowd laughed. “Peach wants to speak a little bit here.”Peach weighs 41lbs, loves to eat tater-tot-topped hotdish, enjoys cross-country skiing, dreams of seeing the Northern Lights and lives by the motto, “Keep calm and gobble on”, the president quipped. Blossom weighs 40lbs, loves to eat cheese curds and watch boxing, dreams of visiting each of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes and lives by the motto: “No fowl play, just Minnesota nice”.The turkeys had travelled 1,100 miles over 16 and a half hours, listening to their favourite music, including the song Living on a Prayer. Biden added: “Well, fellas, your prayer is going to be answered today. Based on your temperament and commitment to being productive members of society, I hereby pardon Peach and Blossom.”And so the lame duck pardoned the turkeys.As is customary, Biden then promised to close on a more serious note. He acknowledged that this would be his last time speaking here as president during this season. “So, let me say to you: It’s been the honour of my life. I’m forever grateful.”There were characteristic reflections on those who have lost loved ones, the importance of family and how America is the greatest country on earth. “And that’s not hyperbole,” he added, as if anticipating dissenters. “We are.“No matter what, in America, we never give up. We keep going. We keep the faith. We just have to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. There is nothing, nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together.”It is a line that Biden uses often at the end of his speeches. But on Monday it sounded like a plea from a man whose legacy is imperilled. With Trump’s promise of mass deportations, gutting of the federal bureaucracy and “America first” isolationism, a presidency that once seemed so consequential is at risk of fading fast.Despite the big crowd, Biden’s turkey farewell felt more muted than that of Barack Obama who, despite the knowledge that Trump was looming, managed to remain cheerful fire off a “a corny-copia of dad jokes about turkeys”. Obama that day seemed demob happy; Biden like a man in denial.Peach and Blossom will now head to an agricultural centre in Minnesota to help promote the state and educate future farmers. Biden, riding off into a sunset of his own, may find retirement brings far less peace. More

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    Biden must Trump-proof US democracy, activists say: ‘There is a sense of urgency’

    The skies above the White House were cold and grey. Joe Biden greeted the championship winning Boston Celtics basketball team, quipping about his Irish ancestry and tossing a basketball into the crowd. But the US president could not resist drawing a wider lesson.“When we get knocked down, we get back up,” he said. “As my dad would say, ‘Just get up, Joe. Get up.’ Character to keep going and keep the faith, that’s the Celtic way of life. That’s sports. And that’s America.”Such events continue to be among the ceremonial duties of a “lame duck” president with waning influence. Biden has cut a diminished figure in recent months, first surrendering his chance to seek re-election, then finding himself sidelined by the doomed presidential campaign of his vice-president, Kamala Harris.But with his legacy imperiled by Donald Trump, the president is facing calls to mitigate the oncoming storm. Advocacy groups say Biden, who turned 82 this week, can still take actions during his final two months in office to accelerate spending on climate and healthcare, secure civil liberties, and Trump-proof at least some fundamentals of US democracy.Trump’s signature campaign promise was a draconian crackdown on illegal immigration. He has nominated officials including Tom Homan and Stephen Miller, architects of family separations at the southern border during his first term, and vowed to use the US military to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.The plans include mandatory detention, potentially trapping immigrants in inhumane conditions for years as they fight deportation. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is leading an opposition effort, urging Biden to halt the current expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention facilities, especially those with records of human rights abuses.Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU national prison project, said Ice detention facilities “characterised by abusive conditions, pervasive neglect and utter disregard for the dignity of people in their custody” are key to Trump’s logistical plan.Dozens of people have died in Ice detention facilities – mostly owned or operated by private prison corporations – over the past four years, according to the ACLU, and 95% were likely preventable if appropriate medical care had been provided. Yet the Biden administration has backed new Ice detention facilities in states where they did not existed before, such as Kansas, Wyoming and Missouri.“We are calling on the Biden administration to take action now, in the final days of the administration, to halt any efforts to expand immigration detention and to shut down specifically abusive facilities once and for all,” Cho told reporters on a Zoom call this week. “We don’t need to put down runway for the Trump administration to put in place these mass detention and deportation machines.”She warned: “We know that the anti-immigrant policies of a second administration are going to be far more aggressive than what we saw in the first term, and mass arrest and detention is going to become perhaps the norm to create and carry out these deportation operations unless we can do all we can to put a halt to them.”View image in fullscreenAnother crucial area for Biden to make a last stand is criminal justice. In his first term, Trump oversaw the execution of more people than the previous 10 presidents combined. Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, then imposed a moratorium on federal executions in 2021.Trump has indicated his intention to resume such executions and even expand the death penalty. His nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, issued a public apology in 2013 while serving as Florida’s top law enforcement officer after she sought to delay the execution of a convicted killer because it conflicted with a fundraiser for her re-election campaign.Cassandra Stubbs, director of the ACLU’s capital punishment project, told reporters via Zoom that Trump said “he will work to expand the death penalty. He’s going to try to expand it to people who do not even commit killings. He’s called for expanding the death penalty to his political opponents.“But perhaps most dangerously in Project 2025 [a policy blueprint from the Heritage Foundation thinktank] – and we believe every word of it is this – he promised to try to kill everyone on death row, and the reason why we have to believe this and take it so seriously is the record that Donald Trump left where he, in a span of six months, carried out 13 executions.”The ACLU and other groups are therefore pressing Biden to commute the sentences of all individuals on federal death row to life in prison, fulfilling a campaign promise and preventing potential executions under Trump. Commuting “is really the thing that Biden can do to make it harder for Trump to restart executions”, Stubbs added.Pastor Brandi Slaughter, a board member of the pressure group Death Penalty Action, told reporters this week: “We know what the next president plans to do if any prisoners are left under a sentence of death under the Biden administration. We’ve been there, we’ve done that.”Biden has also received 8,000 petitions for clemency from federal prisoners serving non-death penalty sentences that he could either reduce or pardon. The former senator has long been criticised for his role in drawing up a 1994 crime law that led to the incarceration of thousands of Black men and women for drug offences.This week, members of Congress including Ayanna Pressley and James Clyburn led 64 colleagues in sending a letter to Biden urging him to use his clemency power “to reunite families, address longstanding injustices in our legal system and set our nation on the path toward ending mass incarceration”.They were joined at a press conference on Capitol Hill by Maria Garza, 50, from Illinois, a prison reform advocate who spent 12 years in a state prison. She said in an interview: “There is a sense of urgency because a lot of the people that are sitting waiting for clemency are people that have de facto life sentences that will die in prison if they don’t [receive clemency]. A lot of their unjust sentencing was because of the 1994 crime bill that he was the founding father of.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionMitzi Wall, whose 29-year-old son Jonathan is incarcerated on a seven-and-a-half-year federal cannabis charge, called on Biden to keep a campaign promise to grant clemency to more than 4,000 people in federal prison for nonviolent cannabis crimes.“We voted for President Biden,” she said. “He gave us hope and we’re asking him to do nothing more than keep his promise.”Wall, 63, from Maryland, added: “President Biden was partly responsible for writing the 1994 crime bill that thrust families into abject poverty and pain. I know he feels bad about that and he can right that wrong with the power of the pen. I’m appealing to him as a father whose son [Hunter] could very possibly be going to prison.”In other efforts to protect civil liberties, the ACLU is recommending a moratorium on all federal government purchases of Americans’ personal data without a warrant. It is also asking Congress to pass the Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act to prevent potential abuse of surveillance technologies under the Trump administration.Meanwhile, Trump has pledged to rescind unspent funds in Biden’s landmark climate and healthcare law and stop clean-energy development projects. White House officials are working against the clock to dole out billions of dollars in grants for existing programmes to minimise Trump’s ability to rescind or redirect these funds. Earlier this month, the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, announced more than $3.4bn in grants for infrastructure projects across the country.Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, notes that Trump will have the power of impoundment to stall the money flowing out of the government and can order rescissions to programmes funded by Congress.“The singular thing that Joe Biden can do is expedite the flow of federal dollars in all the programmes,” Schiller said.“Any money that is supposed to leave the treasury to go to schools, food safety, environmental protection – anything that is not yet distributed needs to get distributed. It’s like emptying literally the piggy bank before you go on a trip. President Biden needs to be literally getting as much money out the door in the hands of state, local and community organisations as he can.”Another priority for the White House is getting Senate confirmation of as many federal judges as possible, given the potential impact of the judiciary in challenging Trump administration policies. The Marshall Project, a non-profit news organisation, noted: “Federal judges restricted hundreds of Trump administration policies during his first term, and will likely play a significant role in determining the trajectory of his second.”Senate Republicans forced numerous procedural votes and late-night sessions this week in attempt to stall confirmations. Eventually a deal was struck that will bring Biden within striking distance of the 234 judicial confirmations that occurred in Trump’s first term – but four of Biden’s appellate court nominees will not be considered.The outgoing president could also engage with Democratic-led states and localities to bolster protections and establish “firewalls” against Trump’s agenda, particularly in areas such as immigration. These collaborations could involve reinforcing sanctuary city policies and providing resources to states that are likely to face pressure from the Trump administration.Chris Scott, former coalitions director for Harris, said: “What will be interesting is how or what can President Biden to work with states, especially where we have Democratic leadership in place, to be able to brace themselves and arm themselves with more protection. We already have places like a Michigan or Illinois where you have governors vowing to make sure that they have protections – even in the Trump presidency.”As Barack Obama discovered before handing Trump the keys to the Oval Office in 2017, however, lame duck presidents can only do so much. Trump will come into office with a flurry of executive orders, a supportive Congress and fewer guardrails than the first time around.Bill Galston, a former adviser in the Bill Clinton administration, said: “On January 20 Donald Trump will control all the instruments of government and, at that point, it’ll be up to the courts – and public opinion – to restrain him.” More

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    Five actions Biden can take to protect civil liberties before Trump’s presidency

    In less than two months, Donald Trump will take office, threatening several areas of American life and international policy. The president-elect has pledged to take aim at LGBTQ+ rights, specifically for transgender and gender-non-conforming people. He has promised to conduct mass deportations and raids as a part of a far-right approach to US immigration. And he is expected to roll back data collection practices on police misconduct and stifle any hope of passing police reform in Congress – specifically the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.Trump will largely be able to roll out his agenda, outlined in the 900-plus-page Project 2025 document, as Republicans took control of Congress during the 2024 general election. Joe Biden’s actions in his remaining time in office could be a crucial buttress against the expected impacts of the next four years.Six experts spoke with the Guardian about what the US president could do in his remaining time to protect the most vulnerable people:1. LGBTQ+ rights: fulfill executive order initiatives and confirm judgesAmong Trump’s collection of anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives, his administration’s plans to redefine sex are of particular concern, said Elana Redfield, the federal policy director at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy.  Sex would be redefined “in such a manner that actually eradicates trans people”, said Redfield, and would not allow for “self-identification”. “The definition of sex that they would propose is that sex is defined based on anatomical characteristics at birth and is unchangeable.” The definition of sex is “at the core of some of the biggest civil rights conversations we’re having in the LGBTQ+ context”, said Redfield. The Biden administration has interpreted the definition of “sex” to include sexual orientation and gender identity. But with Trump, redefining sex could rollback protections and cause issues for transgender people attempting to access federal programs such as social security benefits, especially as many programs ask for participants to enroll with a gender identification. A redefinition of sex could also result in people being investigated for fraud if their gender doesn’t match across all federal identification documents, said Redfield. Many of these questions around the federal government’s ability to define sex will face legal challenges. So Biden, in tandem with Democrats, should continue to confirm federal judges who will probably hear legal cases about gender, Redfield said. Congressional Democrats have managed to confirm several and are only 15 short of the 234 judicial confirmations needed to match the record set by Trump during his first term. Biden should also complete everything outlined in his Executive Order 14075, including checking in with federal agencies to make sure they are well equipped to handle increased needs from LGBTQ+ people amid Trump’s presidency. “For example,” Redfield said, “if everyone’s changing their passports right now, they need to make sure they have enough staffing for that.”2. Police reform: make sure data on policing is publicly availableThrough executive orders, Biden largely increased data collection on patterns and practices of police departments, said Patrice Willoughby, the chief of policy and legislative affairs at the NAACP. But such data, which tracks police actions including traffic stops, arrests and use of force, will probably come to a “complete stop” under Trump’s administration, likely to boost “the narrative of Black violence” cited by conservatives. Willoughby added that Trump will not provide an opportunity to continue reform efforts seen under Biden, especially given past comments supporting a “violent day” of policing to end perceived increases in crime. With his remaining term, Biden must make sure that data on policing is “available publicly for advocacy organizations, state and local governments” and disseminated so it does not “disappear during a second Trump presidency”. Additionally, the Biden administration should ensure that the “methodology of collecting data” is available to state and local municipalities so it can be “replicated across different ecosystems”, said Willoughby. “States and localities that are interested in police reform [can] have the path forward in order to continue to collect data and apply it in their individual communities.”It’s also important for Biden to direct federal agencies to use funding that has already been earmarked by Congress to address police reform, especially, she said, as conservatives will probably “claw back” funding allocated towards equity and communities of color.3. Immigration: close detention centers and slow rate of detentions Biden should close the estimated 200 US detention sites that will be used by Trump to carry out mass deportation and slow down the current rate of detention for undocumented people, said Naureen Shah, deputy director of government affairs at the ACLU.“When I think about the Trump presidency, I’m anticipating an avalanche of anti-immigrant action from day one, from within hours of inauguration,” said Shah. She added that Ice will probably conduct raids using state and local law enforcement, targeting of undocumented students and attacks on birthright citizenship. The biggest issue is that the Biden administration has left “intact the infrastructure for abuse”, Shah said, including the US detention sites that will be used during Trump’s mass deportation. “We urged the Biden administration early on to close detention facilities across the country,” she said. “We argued that they needed to close the facilities so that another administration couldn’t come in and fill them up.”But instead, the number of detentions has increased throughout the Biden administration, now reaching approximately 37,000 a day, said Shah, with Trump planning to increase that amount. Shah warned that Trump would now have “the empty beds to fill” because “the Biden administration left it all there”. Biden also left in place 287(g) agreements, which allow Ice to tap local law enforcement to identify and place immigrants in the deportation pipeline. Requests for the Biden administration to end said agreements have gone unfulfilled, said Shah.“At this point, we’re calling on the Biden administration to at least slow down the expansion that is planned of Ice detention and to close facilities run by abusive sheriffs and private prison companies,” Shah said, naming the Baker county detention center as a site that advocates have been flagging for years.4. Gaza: end arms sales to Israel Biden could withdraw US military assistance and arms sales as well as allowing for an “honest assessment of Israel’s conduct”, said Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch. “It’s not too late for Biden to invoke that leverage as US law requires and even in recognizing that Trump would probably reverse it, it still would be an extremely important statement,” Roth said. Allowing for a review of Israel’s actions, including the restriction of humanitarian aid and bombing shelters housing civilians, would make clear that such conduct “[are] war crimes”. “It would be more than just an important rebuke of how the Israeli government is fighting this war. It would help to lay the groundwork for potential international criminal charges,” Roth said, adding that Trump could later face charges for “aiding and abetting war crimes” if the war is still conducted in this manner. But such actions are unlikely. The Biden administration could have allowed the United Nations security council to insist on a ceasefire with “no political cost”, Roth said, comparing the moment to when Barack Obama allowed a security council resolution on the illegality of Israel’s West Bank settlements to go through before Trump’s inauguration in 2016. “[But] Biden wouldn’t do it. He vetoed it … [He] would not do the comparable thing, even though the stakes are much higher. “Biden has said all the right things. He’s pressed for a ceasefire, he’s urged greater attention to civilian casualties, he’s pressed for food and humanitarian aid to come into Gaza,” Roth said. “He’s done nothing to use his leverage to back up those pleas.”5. Education: broadly expand DEI effortsTrump’s plans to rescind diversity, inclusion and equity (DEI) efforts from the Biden administration could embolden states that are already targeting such initiatives in education, through anti-CRT (critical race theory) laws, which often restrict classroom material and curriculum on topics including race, sexual orientation and gender identity, said Jordan Nellums, a higher education senior policy associate at the Century Foundation, a progressive thinktank. “The problem that we’ve seen in some states like Texas is that now faculty are looking at their syllabi for classes and realizing that they can’t even use the word ‘race’ or any type of word that may indicate that there’s going to be a discussion on race in certain classes,” he said.With the Department of Education potentially being dismantled, it could also pause its work at making sure that students facing discrimination have a means of reporting it, specifically through the Office of Civil Rights within the education department. Education is largely a “state issue”, said Nellums, but the Biden administration could sign executive actions to mandate that agencies protect DEI efforts more broadly. In terms of student debt, an issue disproportionately affecting people of color and low-income people, Biden could also make sure that those who are eligible for student loan forgiveness, specifically with public servant loan forgiveness and individuals who were defrauded by their college, said Aissa Canchola-Bañez, policy director for the Student Borrower Protection Center. “The Biden-Harris administration has done so much great work in trying to  fix some of the programs that were broken under the last Trump administration, fixing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program and fixing Income Driven Repayment program,” said Canchola-Bañez. But many people are still waiting to get debt relief due to bureaucratic backlogs, said Canchola-Bañez. “The Biden administration can also work to make sure that all those folks who were promised relief actually see it happen.” More

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    ‘We create gods because the world is chaos’: Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow and Stanley Tucci on celebrity, sin and papal thriller Conclave

    Faith, death and vengeful vaping: of all the Oscar contenders this year, Conclave is the one that best combines chewy religious inquiry and lavish side-eye. Adapted by Wolf Hall screenwriter Peter Straughan from the Robert Harris novel, Conclave has been directed by All Quiet on the Western Front’s Edward Berger as a heavy-breathing battle for hearts, minds and power.Ralph Fiennes stars as Cardinal Lawrence, who, after the sudden death of the pope, must park his own religious doubts to wrangle the 113 cardinals who have descended on the Vatican. These men will be sequestered until they can elect one of their number as the new pontiff. Among them are the gentle progressive Bellini (Stanley Tucci) and smooth traditionalist Tremblay (John Lithgow). Both have secrets. But are they as lethal as those of their friends – and rivals?The film was shot in Rome 20 months ago; triangulating the actors’ schedules for a reunion seemed to take almost as long. Fiennes is completing work on a new Alan Bennett adaptation and zombie follow-up 28 Years Later; Tucci shooting the Russo brothers’ latest and promoting his new memoir; Lithgow stars at the Royal Court in new play Giant, as Roald Dahl, railing against accusations of antisemitism.In the end, they all dialled in early one morning from different parts of London. Fiennes was in a tasteful kitchen and vast cardie, Tucci his home office, teetering with books and sketches, while Lithgow beamed from a creamy Chelsea rental.View image in fullscreenCatherine Shoard: Did any of you find or renounce God while making the film?John Lithgow: No. But we were in Rome, so taking a warm bath in Renaissance Italian art, which is as Christian as you can get. And we were working on something that really felt worthy. So it was a spiritual experience.Stanley Tucci: I was raised Catholic but broke with the church. It just never made sense to me. It was a myth I had great difficulty believing. But as John said, being in Rome is always incredibly moving. I remember as a kid living in Italy and being profoundly moved by the experience of going into a church, simply because of the art and the amount of time and energy that was devoted to creating it – and sustaining the myth. But it didn’t sway me one way or the other.Ralph Fiennes: I feel a bit differently. My mother was a committed Catholic, but quite enlightened. She had brothers and a great uncle who had been priests. My great uncle, Sebastian Moore, is quite a well-known theologian. So God was not unfamiliar to me. Questions about faith were something I grew up with.I rebelled against my upbringing when I was 13. I said to my mother: “I’m not going to mass.” I didn’t like the heaviness. There was a very claustrophobic, dominant feeling from the church in Ireland, where we then were living, in the early 70s. I hated the sense of compulsion and constriction.I don’t think of myself as a practising anything, but I’ve never stopped having a curiosity about what it is to have faith. I’m also very moved by what we can encounter with the art the church has produced. Not just the Catholic church. I was in Thessaloniki recently and went to a museum of icons there, which was profoundly moving. What is it that makes us want to build these churches and shrines? Faith is a huge, potent thing that mankind seems to want to have, even if the forces of logic and science and reason go against it. I’m curious about that energy.CS: Why are people drawn to faith?RF: It’s about looking for answers. Life is messy. Life is shitty. Life is unpredictable. I think human beings want a sense of coherence in their inner selves. And often faith does contain helpful guidances or moral rulings. Of course, the Catholic church has done terrible things. It’s full of twisted and dark corners, but all power structures will go that way. I think the precept of a faith brings people together and gives communities a sense of coherence.Christ was teaching at a time when tiny communities were held together by messengers on horseback or on ships, taking letters or preaching vocally. They didn’t have mass communication. So in a small community, how you cohered was really important. I have some experience with visiting Inuit peoples in northern Canada, where they worship animals and have a real respect for the elements. Their communities have been totally shattered and wounded by encounters with the Christian churches. But they have their stories which help them survive and cohere.ST: I think that this sense of camaraderie and community is something we all long for and there’s no question that the church does that. But we create these ideas of God, or gods, because the world is chaos. It’s to dispel our fears. We have no control over our lives and that causes anxiety. Fear of death is the most potent; we’ve created all these constructs to make ourselves feel better about when we or a loved one dies.View image in fullscreenEach society has their own construct to dampen those fears, to make it OK. If we think about religion as making order out of chaos, it’s exactly the same thing that art does. And yet so much art has been created by the church. Of course all of these incredible artists could only paint religious subjects. I have faith, I have faith in art. That’s where my faith lies.JL: What they said! It’s such a deeply thought-out film. What’s fascinating about telling a story like this is the context of a political event – the election of a new pope – and examining the electorate. The college of cardinals are all men who’ve been drawn to religion by a longing to commit their lives to faith. And so wholeheartedly that they are at the top of the food chain of a great big religious construct.But when it comes right down to it, they all have to vote and compete. There are rivalries and betrayals and deceptions and jealousies and ambitions and aspirations, all of which go counter to the entire reason they’re there: a devotion to Christ and the idea of the Catholic church. Any story with that tension between virtue and sin is automatically great. I think that’s why people are responding so fervently to this film. They see these tensions: men who went into something for deep personal reasons that have gradually been eroded by ambition.CS: Do you think there’s anything unhelpful about the drama of elections? Are we addicted to horserace narratives?JL: It’s inevitable when a leader is chosen that it’s going to get political. But it’s just an incredibly interesting moment for this film to arrive. While we were shooting the film, there was the great fight in the US House of Representatives for the House speaker. There were 15 ballots before Kevin McCarthy finally survived the process – it was just like what we were acting out.View image in fullscreenThat was uncanny event No 1 – the second is what happened two weeks ago. Had the only voters in that been the cast and crew of Conclave, there would’ve been the opposite result. There’s a great liberal tradition in film – and the great example is Mr Smith Goes to Washington. The forces of corruption and money in politics fail at the end and the simple man prevails. That’s very much the movie paradigm. And Conclave basically follows those rules. It’s just amazing the tide has turned so much in the last few weeks. It makes our movie into a kind of wish-fulfilment story – which I think is another reason people have been attracted to it.ST: The film does follow a certain trope, in a way, as the book did. But it’s a fascinating one – and not an easy one. So often movies are made just to make us feel better. That’s why there are so many happy endings in movies, because there are so many unhappy endings in life.CS: In the film someone pointedly says that the papacy is a heavy burden for an older man. Should there be an upper age limit on positions of power? Or even voting for them? In real life, cardinals can’t vote once they’re over 80.RF: It would be a great guideline in the current US government: 80 as a signoff. We’d have two years of Trump but not four.JL: I don’t think it would pass Congress at the moment.RF: But maybe that’s a good idea, to have an age limit on any electoral governmental ruling system. I’m sure that’s smart, but who decides whether it’s 75, 80, 70? There are plenty of people with alert minds working vigorously into their early 80s. But the patriarchal element seems to me one of the looming themes, that begs all kinds of questions. Stanley’s character, Cardinal Bellini, articulates the very, very vital issues of how the church should go forward in relation to gender and sexual identity and diversity. Mostly the film has been well-reviewed. Some people seem to think it’s a bit simplistic, but I think it puts on the table quite coherently and intelligently big themes that could be discussed without it being an attack on the church.View image in fullscreenThe Catholic church is riven with it. That’s why it’s very frustrating to read Saint Paul: he preaches love, but his strictures on women are just horrendous. It’s so conflicted. It needs a good clean out. And yet these patterns of behaviour do seem to appeal to all the world. People love the ritual. They love the tradition. It’s kind of a conundrum, isn’t it? The church is so potent. Clearly it does good. It does lots for suffering peoples and the poor, but it’s also got this other side where it’s so backwards in its conventions and thinking. Its traditions are holding it back.CS: What can the church do to change?ST: Priests should be able to get married. That changes everything. And nuns. Why can’t you be devoted to God and love someone at the same time? I don’t understand that. Priests used to be married many years ago but the Catholic church stopped that. The excuse was that priests needed to devote themselves to God. But really it was because when they died, everything went to their wives. It wasn’t about devotion but money. And I think that’s a problem. Priests being able to be married would ground them in reality and only enhance their spirituality. Let’s just start with that.CS: Yet in the US the democratic process recently embraced a return to patriarchy. Why are people drawn to institutions and leaders who seek to roll things back?View image in fullscreenRF: I think it comes back to a story and how it’s put out. Trump told a story. The way he described the problem with America and what he could do, was a story. He has a remarkable gift for talking and accessing people’s deeper gut feelings. And the story in its simplicity appealed. Whatever you think of the horror of the language and the racism and sexism that we all identify on the liberal side, it speaks to people. He’s the man in the bar who says: “I’ll get rid of this shit. We’ll make your lives better.” His win was a visceral response to a man saying: “I’m going to sort it for you.” Basically, his story won. It’s not my country, but it seems to me that the Democrats were increasingly perceived as a sort of removed elite. Theirs wasn’t a story that I think was put across very strongly. Trump told the best story, whether you like it or not.JL: He also told the story of the Democrats. He dominated the narrative with a much bolder, louder voice, and with the support of a huge amount of the media. Story is a very potent word in in this conversation. The Democrats couldn’t get their story out, or whatever was persuasive and compelling about their story couldn’t rise above all the noise.ST: By simplifying everything, he distilled it down to ideas that were very easy for people to grasp.JL: And that’s how tyranny operates.ST: He just played on everyone’s fears and he did what so many fascistic-minded people do, which is find a scapegoat: immigrants. It’s always the other. So people go: that’s why I have no money, because of that guy. It’s not true, at all. But it works. It’s worked before and it worked again.RF: It seems the rate of inflation in America has wrong-footed a lot of people; the price level people are used to dealing with suddenly went up.JL: Well, there was a simple story to tell there that never got articulated: inflation was substantially a result of the huge crisis of Covid and it had been coming down steadily for months. The Biden administration was doing a very good job at handling an inflation crisis, but that story never got told. And it doesn’t matter how many graphs you see in a newspaper, it still feels like prices are too high. But prices are too high because the country suffered a traumatic economic episode. It was being handled. God knows what’s gonna happen now, with tariffs being the new go-to solution. They’re gonna create inflation.ST: How are tariffs gonna help? I don’t know.CS: Conclave is a very theatrical film. Does all the smoke and bling and the costumes attract certain people to the pulpit? Someone like Trump – embraced by the religious right – is used to being immediately judged on his performance.View image in fullscreenRF: The spoken word in the space to a body of people is the business we’re all in. There’s John every night embodying Roald Dahl with extremely toxic views. In a way that’s a pulpitian provocation. That’s what the theatre does – and Giant is a fascinating, compelling play. As actors, when we speak on a stage and we have our audience, that’s a potent thing that’s created. I don’t know that people are drawn to the church so that they can always be speaking, but clearly if you are a priest, there is that moment when you get up and you deliver your homily for the week. You have to put across a view or a lesson or a teaching or an idea that is meant to send your community out with, hopefully, questions to improve their moral wellbeing or the way they engage with life.My memory of listening to homilies is that they are sort of provocations based in the religious text that say: think about this or think about that. How we listen as a congregation is fascinating. That’s why I love what the theatre is.JL: There’s something in all of us three – actors, not men of the cloth – that is mainly interested in impact. We just wanna reach people, and we’re playing roles and we’re telling stories that are not our personal stories. But the three of us have had hundreds of experiences of reaching people, throttling them with theatrics, making them laugh or cry or scream out in horror.RF: Or go to sleep.JL: Our great ambition is to wake them up and to startle them and get huge rounds of applause. There are two major, beautifully written speeches in our film that have an extraordinary impact on the college of cardinals. That’s why we are in the game. We understand the thrill of succeeding at making an impact.RF: And we understand that crushing disappointment when you realise you haven’t made the impact you’d hoped.JL: Oh, it’s awful!CS: The characters you play are trying to emulate God and falling short. As actors who are public figures, are you more conscious of being treated like quasi-gods – and of your own failings coming under more scrutiny?JL: Different types of actors are treated very differently. I’m a strange actor who’s gone off and done extremely peculiar roles. I’m the go-to psychopath or hypocrite or villain from time to time. I guess all three of us are character actors in a sense. My whole game is surprising people. I have a sort of perverse enthusiasm for upending people’s expectations of me. People don’t go to me for political wisdom. I come off very pretentious if I get anywhere near that kind of talk. But my acting is completely surprising and sometimes revolting. I just go for it.View image in fullscreenST: These people are trying to emulate God and yet they created God. So that’s weird. But without question, people in the public eye are always under more scrutiny. You’re larger than life. But I think that’s changed over the years. You used to see actors on stage, from a distance, in a proscenium. Then you saw them in movies, but still in this big rectangle. Everybody was big and what they did was big. Over the years things got smaller and smaller and now you can put me in your pocket.That changes the way we look at people. It used to be only posthumously that you’d find out somebody in Hollywood was a sexual deviant or a terrible drinker or whatever. In life, it was like: let’s just leave them alone. And everybody did. Television altered how much access to people you were allowed. But now, you can watch me on like your wristwatch and that changes the way you look at me. So people realise that yes, actors are just people. But they still want them not to have these faults. Yet they can’t wait to find out about them.JL: It’s interesting to hear you talk about this, Stanley, because of the three of us people have come to know you the best.ST: Because I made that food show.JL: But that food show is very much the Stanley show and the world has got to know you so well and like you so much. In Rome you were virtually worshipped in that wine shop.View image in fullscreenST: That was really funny. I remember when we went to a grocery store. You were always able to hide behind a persona or a character. So it’s odd because it’s the first time I’ve ever just been myself. And I was very uncomfortable with it at first, even though it was my idea. I don’t know what I was thinking, and now I’m more comfortable with it. I know the idea of connecting through food makes people so happy, so that makes me happy. I just think it’s a nice thing. But I’m never eating Italian food again …RF: I don’t know if priests are emulating God. I think they’re meant to be conduits or shepherds for the message. We’re all sinners – even priests. I think priests or nuns are mostly just answering a calling to preach the message. But of course, if you are preaching the message and you’re in the pulpit, naturally people will expect that you are going to be an example. Cinema is very potent in how it puts an actor’s face on screen. We are conduits for a playwright or a character, we’re not there necessarily preaching a religion or political idea or any kind of philosophy. We’re just drawn to roles. We’re drawn to the drama. The workings of cinema are so keyed into key myths that we want to keep telling ourselves. So audiences will project on to actors huge things, and the media massages the sense of projection. So you suddenly can feel very exposed. People in all forms of entertainment can suddenly realise that there’s an expectation of them as a private person. I think that’s troubling.CS: There are two lines in the film I want to ask your opinion on. The first is: “Things fall apart. The abyss calls out.” Which is a warning from one cardinal about what will happen if the church embraces liberalism. Where do you see the church in 50 years’ time? The second is Stanley’s character’s line that to not know yourself at his age is shameful. Is it, and do you?ST: I’m still learning about myself and trying to make myself better. I don’t always succeed. Sometimes we know ourselves and sometimes we just don’t. I don’t fully know myself. I worry that I’m going to have an epiphany about myself on my deathbed. Then I’ll just die sad.CS: What might it be?ST: Suddenly it’ll occur to me that I really just don’t like myself at all. And then it’ll be over. I’d have no time to rectify it.View image in fullscreenJL: You’d have time for a phone call, Stanley.ST: But I’d wanna go back and change things and make things better and I’ll just be dead.JL: By now, I have settled into a strong sense of myself as a good actor. I wouldn’t work all the time if I weren’t good at it. What I love about the profession is also what makes me feel a little guilty: it seems the most irresponsible thing you can do. Your lines are written for you. Everyone takes good care of you lest you miss a performance or lose a shooting day. You’re treated like a much bigger deal than you actually are. But I think the more you are content with that self-image, the better off you are.RF: I would like to think the church will evolve by dialogue within itself. That it can be a force for good. But I think the evolution of the church is going to be difficult and hard. Our journey through life is a constant evolution with relation to ourselves and in relation to others with whom we connect. There are always traps for us as individuals with our egos and our sense of anxiety. The best of the church or any faith, or any structure, or just your therapist, is in helping each other deal with the world.View image in fullscreenThe acting community at its best is wonderful at supporting each other. The experience where I thought this, at its best, is a fantastic profession to be in, was a production of King John, directed by Deborah Warner at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1988. The sense of ensemble and community was so fantastic in that production. Everyone flowered in their parts and within themselves as a group. The best the church can be is as a fantastic group. And the energy and the positivity of the group reaches out, and groups everywhere are wonderfully self-supportive of each other.ST: That’s the ideal, but I worry that this right-leaning ideology that’s taking over so much of the world will once again make the church retreat. And that’s really scary.RF: But at the end of our film, the group celebrates the person who seems to me to carry the spiritual depth and coherence and integrity that is needed. Going forward in the world now, we’re very frightened of what might come at us because of what’s happened. But we mustn’t lose sight of the power of what we can have. We must keep intact our aspiration to an ideal. More

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    House committee reportedly told of second sexual encounter between Matt Gaetz and 17-year-old – live

    According to CNN, the woman who says she had sex when she was 17 years old with then-Representative Matt Gaetz told the House ethics committee that she had two sexual encounters with him at one party in 2017.The CNN report cites unnamed sources, who claim that the second sexual encounter, not previously been reported, included another adult woman.The network also states that after being asked for comment regarding the new allegations, the former representative announced that he was withdrawing from the attorney general nomination.Gaetz has repeatedly denied the allegations against him.The other woman in the alleged second sexual encounter, who was an adult at the time, has also denied taking part in the encounter, according to multiple sources familiar with her ethics testimony, CNN reported.Elon Musk, who Trump has tapped to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), has also faced allegations of sexual misconduct and overseeing a culture of sexual harassment at his companies.Guardian Opinion columnist Arwa Mahdawi recapped them recently:
    In 2021, for example, just weeks after the billionaire’s “Texas Institute of Technology” quip, a Tesla factory worker called Jessica Barraza filed a complaint alleging the car company had a “pervasive culture of sexual harassment … including frequent groping on the factory floor.” Barraza claimed she was frequently propositioned and subject to comments like “Look at those titties” and “She’s got cakes”. Barraza is just one of a number of former Tesla workers who have filed sexual harassment lawsuits against the Musk-led company.
    These issues aren’t confined to Tesla. Last week SpaceX (the entrepreneur’s rocket company) and Musk were sued by eight engineers who said they were illegally fired in 2022 for raising concerns about alleged sexual harassment and discrimination against women. The plaintiffs allege that they experienced harassing comments from co-workers that “mimicked Musk’s [Twitter] posts” and created a hostile work environment. The court filings claim Musk also participated in a video making light of sexual misconduct which, inter alia, demonstrated the “correct” way to spank a co-worker. “Musk trumpets SpaceX as the leader to a brave new world of space travel, but runs his company in the dark ages – treating women as sexual objects to be evaluated on their bra size,” the complaint proclaims. Tesla and SpaceX deny any wrongdoing.
    The SpaceX lawsuit coincided with a new Wall Street Journal report about the entrepreneur’s behaviour headlined “Musk’s boundary-blurring relationships with women at SpaceX.” Those blurred boundaries being that he, to quote the piece: “had sex with an employee and a former intern, and asked a woman at his company to have his babies”
    The progressive women’s group UltraViolet has celebrated Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal from consideration as attorney general, but noted that several others among Donald Trump’s nominees have also been accused of sexual abuse.Shaunna Thomas, executive director at UltraViolet, wrote:
    Gaetz isn’t the only abuser who should have no place in our government. Trump has nominated an abhorrent cabinet of abusers thus far; including Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who was nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services; and Pete Hegseth, who was nominated to lead the Department of Defense. Both Hegseth and Kennedy have long records of allegations of sexual abuse–and in RFK, Jr’s case, owned up to groping his children’s babysitter. Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Education, Linda McMahon, is also being sued for enabling child sex abuse.
    The Republican-controlled US House on Thursday passed a bill that would give the government broad powers to punish non-profit organizations it deems support “terrorism”.This was the second time members voted on the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, or HR 9495. Last week, after suspending House rules to fast-track the bill, the lower chamber failed to garner the two-thirds majority required to pass. This time, after passing the House committee on rules, the bill – requiring only a simple majority to pass – survived by a vote of 219-184. Fifteen Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the measure.The bill, which gives the treasury the power to strip non-profits it claims support “terrorism” of their tax-exempt status, does not require the treasury to adhere to any evidentiary standard in releasing its findings. Although groups targeted could appeal to the IRS or the courts for review, simply being identified as a supporter of terrorism could have a chilling effect on advocacy groups, critics warn.In the days since the first vote last week, non-profit organizations that have historically worked closely with Democrats have pushed against the passage of the bill, arguing that it would give Donald Trump sweeping powers to crack down arbitrarily on his political opponents in civil society. Thirty-seven fewer Democrats supported it during the Thursday vote than last week.The bill merges the non-profit measure with another, uncontroversial measure that would grant tax relief to Americans unjustly imprisoned abroad.“A sixth-grader would know this is unconstitutional,” said the Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, during debate over the bill on Monday. “They want us to vote to give the president Orwellian powers and the not-for-profit sector Kafkaesque nightmares.”Nikki Haley, the former UN ambassador and Republican presidential hopeful, criticized two of Donald Trump’s cabinet picks, calling his choice for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, “a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer” and Robert F Kennedy Jr, tapped for health secretary, a “liberal Democrat” with no background in relevant policy.“So now she’s defended Russia, she’s defended Syria, she’s defended Iran, and she’s defended China,” Haley said of Gabbard on her SiriusXM radio show on Wednesday. “No, she has not denounced any of these views. None of them. She hasn’t taken one of them back.“This is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer,” Haley continued, adding that the director of national intelligence “has to analyze real threats” to US security.Gabbard, 43, is a former progressive congresswoman who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 but who has since become a Republican.Kennedy, 70 and a scion of a famous political family turned vaccine conspiracy theorist, ran for the Democratic nomination this year before switching to run as an independent and then dropping out to back Trump.Haley said: “He’s a liberal Democrat, environmental attorney, trial lawyer who will now be overseeing 25% of our federal budget and has no background in healthcare. Some of you may think RFK is cool, some of you may like that he questions what’s in our food and what’s in our vaccines, but we don’t know, when he is given reins to an agency, what decisions he’s going to make behind the scenes.”Haley was governor of South Carolina before becoming UN ambassador in Trump’s first administration, resigning in 2018. This year, she ran second to Trump in the Republican presidential primary – a race in which she called her opponent “unhinged”, “diminished”, “confused” and not “mentally fit”, and said voting him into office would be “like suicide for our country”.Still, after Trump won the Republican nomination, Haley endorsed him. No job offer has been forthcoming.Here’s a look at where things stand:

    Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration as Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general. In a full statement on Thursday, Gaetz, who has been swept in a series of sexual allegation controversies, said: “While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.”

    Donald Trump has released a statement on Matt Gaetz’s attorney general nomination withdrawal, saying on Truth Social. “I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be attorney general. He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the administration, for which he has much respect,” he said.

    According to CNN, the woman who says she had sex when she was 17 years old with then-Representative Matt Gaetz told the House ethics committee that she had two sexual encounters with him at one party in 2017. The CNN report cites unnamed sources, who claim that the second sexual encounter, not previously been reported, included another adult woman.

    Rainn, the US’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, has issued a response to Matt Gaetz’s attorney general nomination withdrawal, saying, “This decision was in response to survivors and advocates using their voices to demand accountability.” “We could not reconcile the justice department – the department responsible for providing survivors with avenues for justice – being led by an alleged abuser of women,” it said.

    Incoming Senate majority leader John Thune says that he respects Gaetz’s decision to withdraw. “I think everybody has to make a decision that’s good for them and for their family,” Thune said, according to CNN.

    A handful of Republican senators reacted to Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal, issuing a variety of responses. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell called the decision “appropriate” according to the Washington Post. Meanwhile, senator Cynthia Lummis told CNN that it was good that Gaetz recognised he was a distraction, and that this will allow Trump to appoint someone “equally tenacious” to lead the justice department.
    A woman accusing Robert F Kennedy Jr of sexual assault says she chose to speak out following his release of a campaign ad based on an advertisement of his uncle and former president, John F Kennedy. Martin Pengelly reports for the Guardian:“I literally was just watching the Super Bowl and saw the ad and thought, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding me,’” Eliza Cooney told USA Today.Released when Kennedy was running for president as an independent, the ad attracted criticism from members of the famous Democratic political family. Kennedy Jr apologized – but kept the ad online.Nine months later, after dropping out of the presidential race and backing Donald Trump, Kennedy is Trump’s nominee for US health secretary.A hugely controversial choice given his promotion of vaccine conspiracy theories and other disputed health claims, Kennedy is also one of a number of Trump cabinet picks to be accused of sexual misconduct.Cooney initially told Vanity Fair about how she went to work for Kennedy in 1998, when she was 23 and he was a 45-year-old environmental attorney. Describing a series of unwanted advances, she said Kennedy ultimately “came up behind her … and began groping her, putting his hands on her hips and sliding them up along her rib cage and breasts”, before being interrupted by someone walking into the room.For the full story, click here:The liberal super-PAC American Bridge 21st Century also responded to Matt Gaetz’s attorney general nomination withdrawal, saying:“Donald Trump simply didn’t care that he was nominating someone who allegedly preyed on children, engaged in sex trafficking, and bragged about it to anyone who would listen. Trump didn’t see a predator in Matt Gaetz; he saw a loyal henchman who would carry out his revenge fantasies and put their MAGA allegiance ahead of their commitment to the country. “Republicans in Congress who chose the path of least resistance and decided not to release the House Ethics Committee’s report on Gaetz are complicit in letting an accused sexual predator come within an arm’s reach of becoming the top cop in the nation. If they have a shred of integrity they will release the report and shed light on why Gaetz chose to leave his only job as a member of the House of Representatives. “Matt Gaetz is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Trump choosing predators and extremists to fill out major cabinet positions in his administration.”Rainn, the US’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, has issued a response to Matt Gaetz’s attorney general nomination withdrawal, saying, “This decision was in response to survivors and advocates using their voices to demand accountability.”
    “We could not reconcile the justice department – the department responsible for providing survivors with avenues for justice –— being led by an alleged abuser of women. RAINN heard you, Matt Gaetz heard you, and survivors will not be silenced.
    “For the other nominees facing allegations of sexual assault: We ask the relevant Senate committees to gather and consider all the facts before voting on any such nomination …
    Sexual assault happens to someone in the US every 68 seconds. It occurs in our places of business, our schools, our doctors’ offices; urban or rural, in private and in public. Every single political appointee will have to confront their role in sexual assault response, prevention and recovery. And it starts now.”
    Matt Gaetz has responded to Donald Trump’s statement following his decision to withdraw his nomination for attorney general.In response to Trump who said Gaetz “has a wonderful future”, Gaetz wrote: “Thank you President Trump!” on X.Gaetz has repeatedly denied the sexual assault allegations surrounding him and resigned from Congress shortly after Trump announced his nomination last week.It remains to be seen what Gaetz’s political future holds, now that he is no longer a representative in the House.Matt Gaetz reportedly called Donald Trump and JD Vance separately to inform them of his attorney general nomination withdrawal, CNN reports, citing a source familiar with the call.In a statement on Thursday, Trump said Gaetz “did not want to be a distraction” while JD Vance has yet to release a statement.Incoming Senate majority leader John Thune says that he respects Gaetz’s decision to withdraw.“I think everybody has to make a decision that’s good for them and for their family,” Thune said, according to CNN. “And, you know, for whatever reason, he decided not to pursue it, so we respect the decision.”Florida senator Rick Scott says he is “disappointed” about Gaetz’s withdrawal.“I’m disappointed. I’ve known Matt since I started running for governor, and he was a smart guy, worked hard,” Scott told CNN. “I had a great, great working relationship with him”.When asked about who should be nominated to the role now that Gaetz has withdrawn, Scott told CNN that “the American public has completely lost trust of the federal government, and so we’re going to have to have somebody in there that goes and creates trust.”Speaking to a reporter, Representative Michael Guest, who chairs the House Ethics Committee, said that Gaetz’s withdrawal should end the discussion about whether the committee should “continue to move forward in this matter.”This comes as just a day ago, the House ethics committee was deadlocked regarding the release of a report examining allegations of sexual misconduct against Gaetz.Lawmakers from both parties had called for the report to be released before the Senate was scheduled to vote on whether to confirm Gaetz’s nomination as attorney general.More Republican Senators are reportedly reacting to the news of former representative Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal from the nomination for attorney general.Here’s a quick roundup of some responses:Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell called the decision “appropriate” according to the Washington Post.Senator Cynthia Lummis told CNN that it was good that Gaetz recognised he was a distraction, and that this will allow Trump to appoint someone “equally tenacious” to lead the justice department.“He must have gotten some signals yesterday during conversations that he was having with senators that this was going to be a distraction,” Lummis reportedly said.Senator Susan Collinsexpressed that she was “surprised” but “pleased” with Gaetz’s decision, adding that he “has put country first, and I’m pleased with his decision”.Senator Roger Wickerreferred to the withdrawal as a “positive development”.Republican senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma describes Matt Gaetz’s decision to withdraw as “probably a good decision”.“I think because of the reports that were coming out, it was probably a good decision” Mullin told reporters, adding that “I’m sure he talked to the President about it first.”According to CNN, the woman who says she had sex when she was 17 years old with then-Representative Matt Gaetz told the House ethics committee that she had two sexual encounters with him at one party in 2017.The CNN report cites unnamed sources, who claim that the second sexual encounter, not previously been reported, included another adult woman.The network also states that after being asked for comment regarding the new allegations, the former representative announced that he was withdrawing from the attorney general nomination.Gaetz has repeatedly denied the allegations against him.The other woman in the alleged second sexual encounter, who was an adult at the time, has also denied taking part in the encounter, according to multiple sources familiar with her ethics testimony, CNN reported.Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina says that he respects former Representative Matt Gaetz’s decision to withdraw from the attorney general nomination.His statement reads:
    I respect former Representative Matt Gaetz’s decision to withdraw his name from consideration and appreciate his willingness to serve at the highest level of our government.
    He is very smart and talented and will continue to contribute to our nation’s wellbeing for years to come.
    I look forward to working with President Trump regarding future nominees to get this important job up and running.
    Donald Trump has released a statement on Matt Gaetz’s attorney general nomination withdrawal, saying on Truth Social:
    I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be attorney general.
    He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the administration, for which he has much respect. Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!
    Gaetz reportedly informed Trump late Thursday morning that he will be withdrawing his nomination, ABC reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. More