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      Nancy Pelosi defends Taiwan trip as ‘more important today than ever’ amid China tensions – live

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      US House speaker Nancy Pelosi has put out a statement explaining her trip to Taiwan, saying “America’s solidarity” with the island “is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy.”Here’s the full text of the statement:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} Our Congressional delegation’s visit to Taiwan honors America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant Democracy.
      Our visit is part of our broader trip to the Indo-Pacific – including Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan – focused on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance. Our discussions with Taiwan leadership will focus on reaffirming our support for our partner and on promoting our shared interests, including advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific region. America’s solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy.
      Our visit is one of several Congressional delegations to Taiwan – and it in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, U.S.-China Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances. The United States continues to oppose unilateral efforts to change the status quo.If Joe Biden is less than delighted that Nancy Pelosi is in Taiwan, quite a lot of Republican senators feel quite the opposite. Twenty-five of them – half the caucus in the evenly divided chamber – released a statement earlier, in support of the House speaker, otherwise a much-demonised figure throughout the GOP:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We support Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan. For decades, members of the United States Congress, including a previous Speaker of the House, have travelled to Taiwan. This travel is consistent with the United States’ One China policy to which we are committed. We are also committed now, more than ever, to all elements of the Taiwan Relations Act.The supportive senators are: Susan Collins (Maine), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), John Thune (South Dakota), Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma), Jim Risch (Idaho), Roy Blunt (Missouri), John Cornyn (Texas), John Barrasso (Wyoming), Kevin Cramer (North Dakota), Ben Sasse (Nebraska), Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee), Thom Tillis (North Carolina), Tommy Tuberville (Alabama), Steve Daines (Montana), Deb Fischer (Nebraska), Todd Young (Indiana), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Rob Portman (Ohio), Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Richard Burr (North Carolina), John Boozman (Arkansas), Tim Scott (South Carolina), Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania).There weren’t many Trumpian fire-eaters among the 25 but one senator who has been known to blow hot in such a fashion, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, had harsher words for Biden, tweeting: “The world overlooked Wuhan’s role in the Covid pandemic. The world overlooked Beijing’s human rights record during the genocide games. Now, Biden is pressuring the world to forget all about Taiwan’s freedom.”At the White House, the spokesman John Kirby said: “We will continue to support Taiwan, defend a free and open Indo-Pacific and seek to maintain communication with Beijing”. He also said the United States “will not engage in sabre-rattling”.China’s opposition to Nancy Pelosi’s trip has been well known and very well signaled by its government. The visit has plunged the Asia-Pacific region into a diplomatic crisis – though how much is just sabre-rattling is hard to tell. One person who will be told for sure is the US ambassador to China. This story is moving on the Chinese news wire Xinhua: CHINESE VICE FOREIGN MINISTER XIE FENG URGENTLY SUMMONED US AMBASSADOR TO CHINA NICHOLAS BURNS LATE TUESDAY NIGHT.
      Washington to China and everywhere in between reacted to House speaker Nancy Pelosi arriving in Taiwan as the first speaker of the house to do so in a quarter of a century.
      The justice department filed a lawsuit against the restrictive abortion law in Idaho, arguing that by prohibiting individuals from receiving abortions even if it may save their lives violated the federal emergency medical treatment and labor act, which requires every hospital that receives Medicare funds to provide necessary stabilizing treatment.
      The senate is purportedly gearing up for a vote on the Honoring our Pact Act, the bipartisan legislation that would make it easier for veterans to access military care related to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam and toxins from burn pits used to get rid of military waste in Iraq and Afghanistan. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer believes will pass after senators reached an agreement on amendments. There was widespread anger last week after Senate Republicans abruptly halted a procedural vote to advance the legislation. Veterans have been protesting outside the US Capitol since last week, camping outside the building and refusing to leave until lawmakers pass the legislation.
      Joe Biden is on his fourth day of his rebound case of Covid-19 and is still testing positive, and is suffering from a return of a loose cough.
      Senate Democrats remained optimistic on the $740bn reconciliation bill, officially known as Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Senator Joe Manchin was seen speaking to his fellow moderate Democrat, senator Kyrsten Sinema, whose position on the package is still unknown.
      Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan has caused a headache for Joe Biden who most likely would prefer not to be dealing with a foreign policy crisis when he has some – rare – successes to boast about at home and abroad. Here is some Reuters copy on the White House’s mixed feelings about the trip with what sounds like pleading to not “amp this up”. Its a delicate tightrope between not wanting to be seen to be critical of Pelosi, but also kind of wishing this was not happening..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The Biden administration wants to keep tensions between Washington and Beijing inflamed by a high level visit to Taiwan from boiling over into a conflict, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday.
      In a briefing with reporters, Kirby noted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was within her rights to visit Taiwan on Tuesday but also stressed that the trip did not constitute a violation of Chinese sovereignty or America’s longstanding “one-China” policy.
      “What we don’t want to see is this spiral into any kind of a crisis or conflict,” Kirby said. “There’s just no reason to amp this up.”
      Pelosi arrived in Taiwan late on Tuesday on a trip she said shows an unwavering American commitment to the Chinese-claimed self-ruled island, but China condemned the highest-level US visit in 25 years as a threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.White House national security spokesman John Kirby spoke vaguely about the efforts to negotiate the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and former marine Paul Whelan, two high-profile Americans currently detained in Russia. “We are working hard, government to government, to get Paul and Brittney home,” he said. “We made a serious proposal. We made a serious offer,” Kirby said. “We urge the Russians to take that offer because it was done with sincerity and we know we can back it up.”Read more here: US’s proposed swap for Griner and Whelan met with skepticism and furyRead moreWhite House national security spokesman John Kirby acknowledged that the killing of top al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri signifies a violation of the Doha agreement – the landmark peace agreement in which the Taliban agreed to sever ties with al-Qaida and other international terror groups. Secretary of state Antony Blinken had previously said the Taliban “grossly violated the Doha Agreement and repeated assurances to the world that they would not allow Afghan territory to be used by terrorists to threaten the security of other countries”.While Kirby said he could not speak to what steps the US was going to take to hold the Taliban accountable for violating the agreement, “we made it very clear that that was a violation of the Doha agreement”. “We made it clear to the Taliban that we know what they did,” he said. “We know who they harbored. We know some of the steps they tried to take after the strike to cover up the evidence of it. We’re mindful of it. But I’m not going to get ahead – policy decisions haven’t been made. We’re not going to take the Taliban at their word. They claim they want a relationship with the United States and the West. They claim they want to open up and be part of the international community. They claim they want financing. If that’s true and if that’s what they really want, it would behoove them to pay close attention to what we just did over the weekend and meet their agreements under the Doha agreement.”He said he felt that with or without the Taliban’s cooperation, this weekend’s drone strike proved that Afghanistan would not be a safe haven for terrorists. “The strike itself shows how serious we are about accountability,” Kirby said. “It shows how serious we are about defending our interests. We’re going to maintain this over-horizon capability. We’re going to continue to improve that capability going forward.”Later, Kirby said, “Mr Zawahiri’s death is good for everyone in the world. He was a killer. It’s a good thing that he’s no longer walking the face of the earth.” As to House speaker Nancy Pelosi and her trip to Taiwan, White House national security spokesman John Kirby reiterated much of what he said at yesterday’s briefing. He put some distance between her and Joe Biden, saying that Congress was its own separate branch of government that could make its own travel decisions, but that her trip was in line with US policy and China was out of line for reacting with threats. “Let me be clear: the speaker’s visit is totally consistent with our long-standing One China policy. We have been very clear that nothing has changed with our One China policy,” Kirby said. “We have said that we do not support Taiwan independence and we said that we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.”He said China’s reaction – China put its military on high alert and announced a series of targeted military operations – was “right in line with what we anticipated”. “There’s no reason for Beijing to turn this visit, which is consistent with long-standing US policy, into some sort of crisis, or use it as some kind of pretext to increase aggressiveness and military activity in or around now or beyond her travel,” Kirby said. Kirby continued: “The United States will not seek and does not want a crisis. We are prepared to manage what Beijing chooses to do. At the same time, we will not engage in sabre rattling. We will continue to operate in the seas and the skies of the western Pacific as we have for decades. We will continue to support Taiwan, defend a free and open Indo-Pacific and seek to maintain communication with Beijing.” White House national security spokesman John Kirby kicked off today’s press briefing by addressing the US drone strike in Afghanistan that killed the top al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Joe Biden has described Zawahiri as one of the world’s most wanted men who was the deputy and successor to Osama bin Laden.“President Biden has consistently said that we will not allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for terrorists who might bring harm to Americans and the homeland,” Kirby said. “We have met that commitment. This action demonstrates that without American forces on the ground in Afghanistan and in harm’s way, we still remain able to identify and locate even the world’s most wanted terrorists and take actions to remove them from the battlefield.”An update on the reconciliation bill, officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the $740bn legislative package that seeks to enact deficit reduction to fight inflation, lower energy costs, reduce carbon emissions by roughly 40% by 2030 and allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, among other things.This week, Senate Democrats must meet with the Senate parliamentarian, who will parse through the text of the bill to make sure it meets all the rules of what’s allowed within the scope of reconciliation. That’s not the only challenge they face though: Senate Republicans have vowed to thwart the bill, and it’s still unclear whether moderate Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema is on board or not. But two days into the week, Democrats remain optimistic. “On track,” Schumer says of passing their reconciliation bill later this week. “All text and CBO and JCT scores have been submitted for review” to the Senate parliamentarian, he said. Parl has yet to rule— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 2, 2022
      Democrats taking a bit of a preemptive victory on the reconciliation package:Schumer it “breathtaking,” noting “it gives Democrats real happiness “”Democrats will pass this bill in the coming days.”— @lindsemcpherson (@lindsemcpherson) August 2, 2022
      Manchin chatting up Sinema in the chair right now— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) August 2, 2022
      Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said senators have reached an agreement on the Honoring our Pact Act, the bipartisan legislation that would make it easier for veterans to access military care related to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam and toxins from burn pits used to get rid of military waste in Iraq and Afghanistan.He said he’s planning to call a vote at 5pm local time. Schumer just announced an agreement with amendments on the PACT Act. Says he’s planning a vote around 5pm today and he expects it will pass.— Jessica Dean (@jessicadean) August 2, 2022
      Several Senate Democrats have introduced a bill seeking to impose term limits on supreme court justices. Several Democratic senators just introduced a bill to impose term limits on Supreme Court justices.Under their bill, a new justice would take the bench every 2 years and spend 18 years in active service.— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) August 2, 2022
      Senators sponsoring this bill:Sheldon WhitehouseCory BookerRichard BlumenthalBrian SchatzMazie Hirono— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) August 2, 2022
      This is the Senate version of the bill introduced last week by Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga).https://t.co/C8YZqmOPEZ— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) August 2, 2022
      Don’t see bill text, but here’s an overview of it. It’s called… the Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization Act.Or, the TERM Act. Nailed the acronym. pic.twitter.com/K7AxpmxzQ8— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) August 2, 2022
      “Speaker Pelosi was right.” “Speaker Pelosi was right,” Roy Blunt says, noting he rarely says those words, referring to her decision to go to Taiwan— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 2, 2022 More

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      Pelosi defends Taiwan visit amid China tensions: ‘Never give in to autocrats’

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      Pelosi defends Taiwan visit amid China tensions: ‘Never give in to autocrats’‘We cannot stand by as China proceeds to threaten Taiwan,’ says speaker in op-ed, but trip poses diplomatic headache for Biden 01:00Having landed in Taiwan amid soaring tensions with China’s military, the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, defended her controversial trip to the self-ruling island, saying she was making clear that American leaders “never give in to autocrats” in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post.“We cannot stand by as [China] proceeds to threaten Taiwan – and democracy itself,” said Pelosi’s piece, published just as the veteran California congresswoman’s plane touched down on Tuesday. “Indeed, we take this trip at a time when the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy.”Given that Pelosi’s trip presents a serious diplomatic headache for the Joe Biden White House, there had been much speculation about the motivations behind the controversial visit. In her op-ed Pelosi struck a hard line against China’s position that her trip was a provocation and placed it in the context of a broader global struggle over political freedom.In the article Pelosi said: “We take this trip at a time when the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy. As Russia wages its premeditated, illegal war against Ukraine, killing thousands of innocents – even children – it is essential that America and our allies make clear that we never give in to autocrats.”Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is unfolding during a tour of Asian nations this week. Her diplomatic mission aims to punctuate a foreign policy career that has seen her defend human rights and democratic values abroad. But it has infuriated China, which claims Taiwan as a province of its own and has threatened retaliation over the visit. The US officially supports a “one-China” policy but in practice treats Taiwan as an economic and democratic partner.She is the highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan since the Republican Newt Gingrich went there as the House speaker in 1997, going there even after Biden recently said the American military did not think it was a good idea for her to travel there.Chinese state media reported that fighter jets were flying across the Taiwan strait just as Pelosi’s plane landed in the island’s capital, Taipei.Analysts do not expect China to follow through with a hostile military act, at least not while Pelosi is there. But already on Tuesday authorities in China had announced a ban on imports from more than 100 Taiwanese food companies, which many had interpreted as retribution over Pelosi’s trip.If her piece in the Washington Post is any indication, none of it fazed Pelosi, who in 1991 unfurled a banner in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square hailing the pro-democracy student activists killed there two years earlier.Pelosi’s op-ed said it was 43 years ago that the US Congress passed an act recognizing Taiwanese democracy that thenpresident Jimmy Carter signed into law.“It made a solemn vow by the United States to support the defense of Taiwan [and] to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means … [a] grave concern to the United States,” Pelosi’s piece added, noting that her trip sent an important message nearly six months after Russia invaded Ukraine and unbalanced global peace.“Today,” Pelosi continued, “America must remember that vow. We must stand by Taiwan, which is an island of resistance.”TopicsNancy PelosiTaiwanChinaBiden administrationJoe BidenUS foreign policyAsia PacificnewsReuse this content More

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      in US Politics

      Families of 9/11 victims hail killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri

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      Families of 9/11 victims hail killing of Ayman al-ZawahiriDrone strike against al-Qaida leader praised across US political spectrum but 9/11 families press for Saudi accountability Families torn apart by the deadly September 11 terrorist attacks celebrated Sunday’s killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the top al-Qaida leaders behind the 2001 attacks, but they continued demanding accountability for the Saudi Arabian government’s alleged role.How Ayman al-Zawahiri’s ‘pattern of life’ allowed the US to kill al-Qaida leader Read moreMeanwhile, Democratic politicians touted Zawahiri’s death as a major accomplishment for Joe Biden.The president announced Zawahiri’s killing on Monday during a live televised address from the White House, saying, “Justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more.“People around the world no longer need to fear the vicious and determined killer.”Survivors of those killed by the September 11 attacks published a statement on Zawahiri’s killing, expressing gratitude about the al-Qaida leader’s death but expressing a desire to see Saudi Arabia held to account for its alleged role in the terror plot. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi nationals.“This news is also a reminder that in order to achieve full accountability for the murders of thousands on September 11 2001, President Biden must also hold the Saudi paymasters accountable for killing our loved ones,” the national chairperson of 9/11 Families United, Terry Strada, said in a statement.Referring to a controversial trip Biden took to Saudi Arabia last month where Biden fist bumped the country’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Strada added: “The financiers are not being targeted by drones, they are being met with fist pumps and hosted at golf clubs. If we’re going to be serious about accountability, we must hold everyone accountable.”The organization wrote that they have repeatedly requested meetings with the president about punishing the Saudi Arabia government for September 11, but Biden has refused to meet.Barack Obama, for whom Biden once served as vice-president, stood prominently among politicians who hailed Zawahiri’s death.01:05He tweeted in part: “It’s a tribute to President Biden’s leadership, to the members of the intelligence community who have been working for decades for this moment, and to the counter-terrorism professionals who were able to take al-Zawahiri out without a single civilian casualty.”Obama called Zawahiri’s death “proof that it’s possible to root out terrorism without being at war in Afghanistan”.The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, in his own statement on Zawahiri on Twitter, added: “This is a major accomplishment to bring to justice one of the world’s most wanted terrorists who helped orchestrate the cold-blooded murder of thousands of my fellow New Yorkers on 9/11.”Conservatives have had mixed reaction to the announcement of Zawahiri’s killing, with few directly praising Biden for the attack and calling for increased scrutiny of al-Qaida’s presence in Afghanistan.The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, said in a statement that Biden “deserves credit” for approving the strike that killed Zawahiri, but the Republican stalwart noted that the administration needs a “comprehensive plan” to address al-Qaida in Afghanistan.The House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, wrote on Twitter celebrating the “brave Americans who took out the terrorist, [al-Zawahiri]”. McCarthy added that a briefing is needed from the Biden administration to address questions over al-Qaida’s remaining in Afghanistan after the American military’s withdrawal from the region between February 2020 and August 2021.On Twitter, the Colorado representative Lauren Boebert also praised Zawahiri’s killing, writing that it “is undoubtedly a win for the world”.“This truly evil man can do no more harm to anyone,” Boebert added. “God bless the USA!”Zawahiri’s death came after his family had moved into a reported safe house in downtown Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, according to White House officials.In the months leading up to his death, the 71-year-old had been spotted several times on a balcony, making al-Qaida propaganda videos.Zawahiri had just stepped on to the balcony Sunday morning when the drone strike that killed him unfolded.TopicsAyman al-ZawahiriUS politicsJoe BidenAl-QaidaChuck SchumerBarack ObamanewsReuse this content More

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      How Ayman al-Zawahiri’s ‘pattern of life’ allowed the US to kill al-Qaida leader

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      How Ayman al-Zawahiri’s ‘pattern of life’ allowed the US to kill al-Qaida leader After a decades-long hunt the simple habit of sitting out on the balcony gave the CIA an opportunity to launch ‘tailored strike’ In the end it was one of the oldest mistakes in the fugitive’s handbook that apparently did for Ayman al-Zawahiri, the top al-Qaida leader killed, according to US intelligence, by a drone strike on Sunday morning: he developed a habit.The co-planner of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 had acquired a taste for sitting out on the balcony of his safe house in Sherpur, a well-to-do diplomatic enclave of Kabul. He grew especially fond of stepping out on to the balcony after morning prayers, so that he could watch the sun rise over the Afghan capital.According to a US official who briefed reporters on Monday, it was such regular behavior that allowed intelligence agents, presumably CIA, to piece together what they called “a pattern of life” of the target. That in turn allowed them to launch what the White House called a “tailored airstrike” involving two Hellfire missiles fired from a Reaper drone that are claimed to have struck the balcony, with Zawahiri on it, at 6.18am on Sunday.It was the culmination of a decades-long hunt for the Egyptian surgeon who by the time he was killed had a $25m bounty on his head. Zawahiri, 71, was held accountable not only for his part as Bin Laden’s second in command for 9/11, with its death toll of almost 3,000 people, but also for several other of al-Qaida’s most deadly attacks, including the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000, which killed 17 US sailors.The mission to go after the al-Qaida leader was triggered, US officials said, in early April when intelligence sources picked up signals that Zawahiri and his family had moved off their mountainside hideaways and relocated to Kabul. Following the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan last August, and with the support of the Haqqani Taliban network, Zawahiri and his wife, together with their daughter and grandchildren, had moved into the Sherpur house.MapIn their telling of events, US officials were at pains to stress that under Joe Biden’s instructions the mission was carried out carefully and with precision to avoid civilian casualties and US officials said no one else was killed or wounded in the attack.Social media images of the strike suggested the use of a modified Hellfire called the R9X with six blades to damage targets, sources familiar with the weapon told Reuters. They caused surprisingly little damage beyond the target, suggesting they may be a version of the missile shrouded in secrecy and used by the US to avoid non-combatant casualties.The US president was first apprised of Zawahiri’s whereabouts in April, and for the next two months a tightly knit group of officials delved into the intelligence and devised a plan. A scale model of the Sherpur house was built, showing the balcony where the al-Qaida leader liked to sit. As discussions about a possible strike grew more intense, the model was brought into the situation room of the White House on 1 July so that Biden could see it for himself.The president “examined closely the model of al-Zawahiri’s house that the intelligence community had built and brought into the White House situation room for briefings on this issue”, a senior administration official told reporters.The White House made further claims to bolster its argument that the attack was lawful, flawless and with a loss of life limited to Zawahiri alone. Officials said that engineers were brought in to analyse the safe house and assess what would happen to it structurally in the wake of a drone strike.Lawyers were similarly consulted on whether the attack was legal. They advised that it was, given the target’s prominent role as leader of a terrorist group.Biden, by now quarantined with Covid, received a final briefing on 25 July and gave the go-ahead. It was a decision in stark contrast to the advice he gave Barack Obama in May 2011 not to proceed with the special forces mission that killed Bin Laden in a raid on his safe house in Abbottabad, Pakistan.On Monday evening, Biden stood on his own balcony – this one in the White House with the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial as his backdrop – to address the nation.“I authorized the precision strike that would remove him from the battlefield once and for all,” Biden said. “This measure was carefully planned, rigorously, to minimize the risk of harm to other civilians.”Biden’s insistence that no one other than the al-Qaida leader was killed in the attack was amplified repeatedly by US officials. The narrative given by the White House was that Zawahiri was taken out cleanly through the application of modern technological warfare.Skepticism remains, despite the protestations. Over the years drone strikes have frequently proved to be anything but precise.In August last year one such US drone strike in Kabul was initially hailed by the Pentagon as a successful mission to take out a would-be terrorist bomber planning an attack on the city’s airport. It was only after the New York Times had published an exhaustive investigation showing that the strike had in fact killed 10 civilians, including an aid worker and seven children, that the US military admitted the mission had gone tragically wrong.Perhaps mindful of the doubts that are certain to swirl around the Zawahiri killing for days to come, the White House said that the Sherpur safe house where the drone strike happened had been kept under observation for 36 hours after the attack and before Biden spoke to the nation. Officials said that Zawahiri’s relatives were seen leaving the house under Haqqani Taliban escort, establishing that they had survived the strike.TopicsAyman al-ZawahiriAfghanistanTalibanSouth and central AsiaJoe BidenBiden administrationUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden’s climate agenda faces yet another obstacle: Kyrsten Sinema

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      Biden’s climate agenda faces yet another obstacle: Kyrsten SinemaWhile the centrist senator Joe Manchin has announced his support, it is unclear whether Sinema will also back the bill The most ambitious attempt yet to pass climate legislation in the US may have surprisingly won the crucial backing of a senator who owns a coal company. Now it faces a further, deeply ironic, obstacle – a lawmaker who was once a member of the Green party.Last week, Joe Manchin, the centrist West Virginia senator who has been lavished by donations from the fossil fuel industry and made millions of dollars from his ownership of a coal-trading firm, stunned Washington by announcing his support for $369bn in spending to boost renewable energy and slash planet-heating emissions.Manchin’s backing of the bill, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, is critical given Democrats’ slender control of an evenly divided senate. But the fate of Joe Biden’s agenda, along with broader hopes of maintaining a livable climate, now appears to have shifted to another swing vote in the US Senate: Kyrsten Sinema.It’s unclear whether Sinema, an enigmatic and elusive figure, will support the bill, which requires all 50 Democratic votes to pass in the face of unified Republican opposition to acting on the climate crisis. Sinema’s office has said the Arizona lawmaker will “need to review the text and what comes out of the parliamentarian process” before deciding whether to back it.The uncertainty adds to a tortuous process that has stretched back for more than 18 months, with both Manchin and Sinema stymying Biden’s original plan for a $3.5tn bill that included sweeping measures to force down emissions.A pared-down bill, which includes vast tax credits for clean energy and incentives to purchase electric cars has now, eventually, been agreed with Manchin, who on Sunday called Sinema a “friend” and that he “would like to think she’d be favorable to it”.But there is no guarantee of Sinema’s support, given her mercurial career, which began as a Green party member who was anti-war and criticized capitalism, before becoming one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress. Since being elected to the US Senate in 2018, the first Democrat to do so from Arizona since 1976, Sinema has become best known for her colorful wigs, unconventional outfits and calls for bipartisan agreement with Republicans.Her previous action to block Biden’s initial attempt at climate legislation has alarmed advocates and some scientists who warn the US is running out of time to act on global heating. “It seems distinctly possible that she will sink the bill, or make enough concessions to Republican opponents to climate action that the bill is rendered toothless,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State University.“She seems much more interested in working toward the interests of her corporate donors than the people she is supposed to represent. I hope that my suspicions are proven wrong.”Mann said that if Sinema does sink the bill, legislation that analysts said would slash US emissions by about 40% this decade, he would endorse a primary opponent to Sinema. Although she rarely gives interviews or engages with many of her constituents, Sinema has previously expressed reticence to raise taxes on corporations and may look unfavorably at measures in the new bill, called “closing loopholes” by Manchin, that would require large companies to pay a certain level of tax.However, backers of the bill say they are hopeful that Arizona’s vulnerability to rising temperatures will help convince Sinema of the need for significant action to reduce emissions. Arizona is one of the fastest-heating states in the US, with Phoenix enduring a record year so far for heat-related deaths. In May, Sinema toured the aftermath of a huge wildfire near Flagstaff that she called “sobering”.“By supporting this bill Senator Sinema can help grow Arizona’s energy economy while protecting her constituents from the extreme heat, droughts and wildfires that runaway climate change would inflict on them,” said Paul Bledsoe, a former US Senate staff member, who is now with the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington. “Those strong incentives make her support seem overwhelmingly likely.”Mann said people in Arizona are “suffering the devastating consequences of climate change already, in the form of extreme heat, deadly floods and wildfires. If she votes down this bill, it is a slap in the face of her constituents.”Republicans have not given up hope of obstructing the bill’s progress, with Pat Toomey, a GOP senator from Pennsylvania, expressing optimism that Sinema could be convinced to vote against it.“I’m not speculating about what she is going to do, but I do know there are some provisions in this field that she has had reservations in the past,” Toomey told Bloomberg on Monday. “I’m looking forward to chatting with her this week.”TopicsUS politicsDemocratsJoe BidenClimate crisisfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Democrats prepare for showdown over key spending and climate bill – as it happened

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      Senate Democrats are working to face off on the reconciliation bill – officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Moderate Democratic senator Joe Manchin made the rounds on all the talk shows touting the $740bn legislative package that the senate parliamentarian will go over later this week.
      Meanwhile, John Cornyn, the Republican senator from Texas, tested positive for Covid-19. He vowed to continue fighting the reconciliation bill while in quarantine.
      Joe Biden also remains in quarantine after testing positive again for Covid-19. Though his physician reports that he has minimal symptoms, he still continues to test positive, as expected.
      House speaker Nancy Pelosi is in Asia and multiple news outlets are reporting that she will be including Taiwan in her itinerary. It would mark the first visit to Taiwan by a house speaker in a quarter of a century, but the White House spent the press briefing talking it down as not a big deal. “The speaker has the right to visit Taiwan, and the speaker of the House as visited Taiwan before, without any incident, as have many members of Congress, including this year,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby. Kirby said if Pelosi does choose to visit Taiwan, her decision would have no standing on the US stance on the One China Policy that does not support Taiwan’s independence.
      Kirby had strong words for China’s threats that its military would “not sit idly by” if the visit happened. “There is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit consistent with long-standing US policy into some kind of crisis or conflict or use it as a pretext to increase aggressive military activity in or around the Taiwan strait,” he said.
      The Biden administration will authorize today a $550m security assistance package for Ukraine, bringing the total aid to $8bn.
      Guy Reffitt, the first of the horde of Donald Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 to be convicted, has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison. 🚨 SENTENCE: U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich orders Guy Reffitt to serve 87 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. Warns if he violates terms she will send him back to prison for up to maximum term. $2,000 in restitution. pic.twitter.com/IGZjxFqoXb— Jordan Fischer (@JordanOnRecord) August 1, 2022
      While it is the harshest sentence for any of the individuals involved in the attack on the US Capitol, it is considerably less than the 15 years the justice department had sought with the terrorism enhancement. JUST NOW: Judge Friedrich DENIES prosecutors’ request to impose a terrorism enhancement and other upward departures at the sentencing of Guy Reffitt. His recommended sentencing range will be 87-108 months in prison.— Jordan Fischer (@JordanOnRecord) August 1, 2022
      Senators Tim Kaine and Kyrsten Sinema – Democrats – joined with Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski to introduce the Reproductive Freedom for All Act today, legislation to codify Roe v Wade, which was recently overturned by the supreme court. Senate Democrats Kaine & Sinema and Republicans Collins & Murkowski introduced the Reproductive Freedom For All Act today,bipartisan legislation to codify the Roe v. Wade decision recently overturned by the Supreme Court. House passed their version of the bill earlier this month. https://t.co/EIRl7ChQMP— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) August 1, 2022
      All close contacts Joe Biden had when he tested positive for Covid-19 have tested negative, said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. He is not experiencing any reoccurring symptoms. “He’s feeling fine,” Jean-Pierre said. “There’s no reason for this to escalate,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said of House speaker Nancy Pelosi and her purported Taiwan trip. While House speaker Nancy Pelosi “has not confirmed any travel plans” regarding a decision to visit Taiwan on her trip to Asia, “we have been clear from the very beginning that she will make her own decisions and that Congress is an independent branch of government,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby “Our Constitution embeds a separation of powers,” Kirby said. “This is well known to the (People’s Republic of China), given our more than four decades of diplomatic relations. The speaker has the right to visit Taiwan, and the speaker of the House as visited Taiwan before, without any incident, as have many members of Congress, including this year.”Pelosi visiting Taiwan on this trip won’t change anything, Kirby said. “Nothing has changed about our One China Policy,” Kirby said. “We have repeatedly said that we oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We do not support Taiwan independence and that we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.”Kirby had strong words for China’s threats that its military would “not sit idly by” if the visit happened. Even before Pelosi arrived in the region, China conducted a live-fire exercise, and Kirby said that China appears to be positioning itself to potentiallhy take further steps in the coming days, be they military provocations, air or naval activities or military exercises. “There is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit consistent with long-standing US policy into some kind of crisis or conflict or use it as a pretext to increase aggressive military activity in or around the Taiwan strait,” he said. “We will not take the bait or engage in sabre rattling. At the same time, we will not be intimidated. We will keep operating in the seas and the skies in the western Pacific, as we have for decades. We will continue to support cross-strait peace, stability, support Taiwan, defend a free and open Indo-Pacific, and we’re still going to seek to maintain lines of communication with Beijing. All of that is important and all of that is preserving the status quo.”White House national security spokesman John Kirby kicked off today’s press briefing by celebrating the first ship to successfully leave the port of Odessa in Ukraine carrying agricultural exports and announcing a $550m security assistance package for Ukraine. The ship was allowed out under a recent deal brokered between the United Nations, Turkey, Ukraine and Russia to allow for Ukraine, Europe’s breadbasket, to export some of its agricultural products as a way to ease the world’s food insecurity crisis. Previously, Russia had a blockade on Ukraine’s ports since the start of its invasion. . “We urge Russia to meet its commitments under this new arrangement, including by facilitating unimpeded exports of agriculture products from Black Sea ports in order to ease the food insecurity around the world,” Kirby said. “We will be watching that closely.”The $550m security assistance package stems from the president’s drawdown authority, bringing the total to $8bn that Joe Biden has drawn down for Ukraine since the Russia invasion began, Kirby said. The Associated Press is reporting that the North Carolina state board of elections voted unanimously today to recognize the Green Party as a new political party, reversing a previous decision to reject the party’s petition while the board investigated the signature sheets for fraud.The North Carolina Green Party has submitted more than enough signatures validated by both the state and county elections boards to earn immediate recognition, Katelyn Love, the board’s legal counsel, said. But Green Party candidates still face an ongoing legal battle to appear on the November ballot after the state board’s initial rejection of the petition led the party to miss the 1 July deadline.The elections board’s Democratic majority previously rejected the Green Party petition in a 3-2 vote on 30 June, citing petition sheets with nearly identical handwriting as well as incomplete personal information, duplicate names and deceased signatories.The Green Party sued the board on 14 July, alleging Democratic interference in the petitioning process and asking the court to reverse the board’s decision. The board filed a response to the lawsuit on Friday, opposing the Green Party’s demand that a judge order the board to include its candidates on the ballot. The board agreed the court should extend the candidate filing deadline should the party earn official recognition at Monday’s board meeting, the brief states.Democrats have warned that Green Party certification could divide progressive voters and clear a path for Republican victories in key races — particularly the tight US senate race between Democrat Cheri Beasley and Trump-endorsed Republican congressman Ted Budd. Prior to the board’s initial vote, the Democratic senatorial campaign committee acknowledged contacting signers of the Green Party’s petition to request they remove their names.K Ryan Parker, a plaintiff in the Green Party lawsuit, called the board’s decision “a welcome surprise and a huge win for democracy,” which he believes was prompted by the recent onslaught of media attention and a desire to settle the matter outside federal court.“It doesn’t change the fact that the Democratic party attempted to disenfranchise North Carolina voters like me by hiring operatives to call, text and visit voters in their home, attempting to compel them to remove their signatures from the petition,” Parker said in an interview Monday. “And it doesn’t change the fact that this two-party system, this duopoly, has failed us at every turn and continues to force voters into a dilemma every four years of voting for a lesser evil.”Tomorrow’s a big primary day in a lot of states, and one big race to watch is the Missouri senate Republican primary. With Republican senator Roy Blunt retiring, basically everybody and their neighbor has come out to vie for his seat. Eric Greitens, the former governor of Missouri, initially held the lead, but he has been dogged by scandal after scandal, with his ex-wife alleging that he abused her and their child and a woman accusing him of sexually and physically abusing her and then threatening to release nude photos of her if she told anyone.Trump posts that he plans to endorse today in #mosen ahead of primary tomorrow. Many Rs had long been concerned he could endorse Greitens— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 1, 2022
      John Cornyn, the Republican senator from Texas, has tested positive for Covid-19. After dodging it for 2+ years I’ve tested positive for COVID-19. I’m fully vaccinated and boosted, and doing fine. While quarantining I’ll continue to fight Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin’s massive tax increase on working families remotely, consistent with CDC guidelines.— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) August 1, 2022
      Cornyn will be quarantining during a very crucial week for Senate Democrats. They want to pass the reconciliation bill – officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 – and once it gets past the senate parliamentarian, they need just a narrow majority to do so. With Cornyn being out due to COVID, this means Dems could potentially pass Manchin bill without VP Harris breaking the tie if all 50 Dems are healthy & are yeas— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) August 1, 2022 More

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      Joe Manchin hails expansive bill he finally agrees to as ‘great for America’

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      Joe Manchin hails expansive bill he finally agrees to as ‘great for America’Rewritten $739bn bill, now called the Inflation Reduction Act, that tackles US debt and the climate crisis could pass Senate this week West Virginia Democratic senator Joe Manchin on Sunday hailed the legislation he almost killed off, calling the rewritten $739bn bill he agreed to last week to pay down US debt and tackle the climate crisis “great for America”.Manchin, on a tour of all five Sunday morning TV politics talk shows, told CBS’s Face the Nation that the energy and climate deal he’s now supporting will tackle inflation because it will be “aggressively producing more energy, to get more supply, to get the prices down”.Republicans charge that the deal would in fact add to inflation, currently running at a 40-year-high.But the centrist Democrat said he hoped his Senate colleagues would “take a good look at the bill”, which also controversially boosts planet-heating fossil fuels, an industry that has made Manchin very wealthy.“They wanted more energy, I want more energy, we’re going to be producing more energy. There’s an agreement that we’re going to be drilling and doing more than we can to bring more energy to the market that reduces prices. They like that,” he said of Republicans.Manchin reiterated to Fox News that he believes the bill would not raise inflation, while saying that previous Biden spending packages he’d supported, including last year’s $1.9tn American Rescue Plan, had done just that.“I’ll make sure I don’t make that mistake again,” Manchin said.He once again declined to say if he’d back Joe Biden for re-election in 2024.“Everybody’s worried about the election. That’s the problem. It’s the 2022 election, 2024 election. I’m not getting involved in that,” Manchin told ABC’s This Week. “Whoever is the president, that’s my president. Joe Biden is my president right now,” he added.Manchin agreed on a deal with Senate majority leader and fellow Democrat Chuck Schumer last Wednesday, announcing an expansive $739bn package, that had eluded them for months, that addresses healthcare and the climate crisis, raising taxes on high earners and corporations and reducing federal debt.The bill replaces the $3.5tn Build Back Better flagship infrastructure and social support legislation that Manchin crushed last fall and the reduced $1.75tn version that he rejected in December, then was renegotiating, then caused to suffer a near-death experience just weeks ago when he turned away from that too.The new legislation, now called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, could pass the Senate this week, although it is not a done deal and Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona has not yet committed. “Senator Sinema is my dear friend…She has an awful lot in this piece of legislation, the way it’s been designed as far as…letting Medicare go ahead and negotiate for lower drug prices,” Manchin said, referring to the government health insurance program for older Americans and people with disabilities.“Also, basically, when she said … ‘we’re not going to raise taxes,’ I agree with that,” he added.As a budget-related bill, Democrats aim to be able to use the so-called reconciliation process to pass it with a simple majority in the Senate, which would need all 50 Democratic senators in the 100-seat chamber and the swing vote of US vice-president Kamala Harris to pass.“I sure hope so,” Manchin told CNN’s State of the Union show on Sunday morning, when asked if the Senate would vote to approve the bill before they go on summer recess at the end of the week.It’s “a great opportunity. It’s not a Democrat bill, it’s not a Republican bill, it’s definitely not a ‘green’ bill, it’s a red, white and blue bill,” he told host Jake Tapper.Manchin appeared to walk away from the legislation earlier this month on inflation concerns, enraging supporters of climate action and his own colleagues on Capitol Hill. He has repeatedly thwarted his own party and was seen as jeopardizing world climate goals and, at home, Democratic political fortunes, while himself making millions in the coal industry.He refused to support more funding for climate action and came out against tax raises for wealthy Americans to pay for it.“There were things in there I considered could be considered inflammatory…inflation is the biggest challenge we have in our country,” he said on Sunday.Then, he added, “we re-engaged” in negotiations. There was relief among Democrats and climate experts last week, and a sense of turning a corner if the bill passes, both for climate action and the performance of the beleaguered Biden administration, despite the reduced bill.Manchin hailed Biden.“You do not do anything of this size without the president,” he saidthanking Biden for his support in the negotiations.What’s in the climate bill that Joe Manchin supports – and what isn’t Read moreThe bill includes $369bn, especially tax credits to encourage renewable energy production that gets the US close to its planet-heating emissions reductions target of a 50% cut by 2030, and support for purchasing electric cars.TopicsJoe ManchinWest VirginiaUS politicsJoe BidennewsReuse this content More

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      Do the Democrats have a Biden problem?

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      The approval ratings of the US president are at a record low. Washington DC bureau chief David Smith considers whether Joe Biden will stand for re-election in 2024

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      After the chaos of Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s appointment as US president was supposed to bring a return to normal: a safe, competent politician who knows how to get things done. But more than two years since he came to office, the US is moving from one crisis to the next. With decades-high inflation, near-weekly mass shootings and failure to make progress on the climate crisis, Biden has reached record levels of unpopularity with voters. And some Democrats are now questioning whether he’s the best candidate to lead their party. The Guardian’s Washington DC bureau chief, David Smith, tells Michael Safi that November’s midterm elections may be pivotal in deciding the president’s future. More