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      Biden vows to combat ‘venom and violence’ of white supremacy

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      Biden vows to combat ‘venom and violence’ of white supremacy President also decries Trump’s reluctance to condemn rightwing racism at Charlottesville rally in 2017 Joe Biden vowed to combat the “venom and violence” of white supremacy in America and decried Donald Trump’s reluctance to condemn the rightwing racism on display in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, which spurred Biden to run against him for the presidency.“White supremacists will not have the last word and this venom and violence cannot be the story of our time,” Biden said on Thursday in a summit at the White House to push back on rising hate crime in the US, entitled United We Stand.The US president also unveiled a new set of initiatives aimed at countering hate-fueled violence.Biden and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, delivered remarks at the summit, which was attended by lawmakers of both parties and community leaders from across the county.In his afternoon speech, Biden announced what he called “a new era” of national service to “foster stronger communities”.He is asking Congress to raise the payment for national service through programs such as Americorps, an independent federal agency that involves millions of Americans in volunteer work for a stipend, to $15 an hour.The president also mentioned new training on identifying and reporting hate-fueled violence for local law enforcement groups, workplaces and houses of worship.The Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services will work with schools on programs to deter bullying, the White House said. And the Department of Homeland Security will offer $20m in grants for state, local and tribal governments, non-profits and universities to prevent hate-fueled violence.Biden did not mention former president Trump by name, but while discussing the notorious “Unite the Right” 2017 rally in Charlottesville, he did refer to “the last guy” defending the white supremacists in the aftermath of the violence that weekend.“When the last guy was asked, ‘What do you think?’ he said he thought there were some fine people on both sides,” Biden said.He added: “We remain in a battle for the soul of our nation,” a theme he used in his 2020 presidential campaign and has lately revived to galvanize votes in this November’s midterm elections.Survivors and loved ones of victims of hate-fueled violencealso participated in the gathering and spoke about horrors experienced because of racism, xenophobia and antisemitism.The president was introduced by Susan Bro, the mother of Heather Heyer – who was murdered in 2017 while protesting against the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, mown down in a far-right terrorist attack by a neo-Nazi sympathizer who deliberately rammed his car into counter-demonstrators.“Across the country, hate crimes are on the rise,” Bro said. And while her daughter’s death received national and international attention, “all too often these hateful attacks are committed against people of color with unacceptably little public attention,” she added.Biden had specifically asked Bro to introduce him at the summit.He later tweeted: “White supremacy and all forms of hate-fueled violence have no place in America. Failure to call it out is complicity. Silence is complicity. And we cannot remain silent.”White supremacy and all forms of hate-fueled violence have no place in America. Failure to call it out is complicity. Silence is complicity. And we cannot remain silent.— President Biden (@POTUS) September 15, 2022
      Last year Charlottesville removed a Confederate statue that had been a focal location for the rightwing rally in 2017 from the town after a long legal battle. The state capital of Richmond not long after took similar action.Thursday’s summit came four months after a white supremacist gunman attacked a supermarket in a predominantly Black area of Buffalo, New York, killing 10.Similar attacks in recent years have included the 2019 shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, where a gunman had published an anti-immigrant screed, and the 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.The White House earlier said federal agencies would strengthen coordination to address hate crimes and more resources would be made available to schools, libraries and other community institutions to prevent hate-fueled attacks.In addition to the new policies, major technology companies have outlined steps to limit the spread of hate content on their platforms.YouTube said it would start removing content glorifying violent acts that could inspire similar violence, even if the content creators are not linked to a designated terrorist group.Microsoft pledged to expand its application of artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect and prevent violence, while Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced a partnership with the Middlebury Institute of International Studies’ Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism.The White House earlier noted that Biden signed the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act last year. That bipartisan law addressed the increase in reports of hate-related incidents against Asian Americans, amid the coronavirus pandemic.In June, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant attempt to address gun violence in 30 years. The legislation expanded background checks among the youngest gun buyers and included funding for states to enact “red-flag laws” which help keep firearms out of the hands of those considered a danger to themselves or others.Biden promised to help heal “the soul of the nation” but evidence suggests that the country is more divided than it has been in decades. According to a survey last month, two in five Americans believe a civil war is at least somewhat likely in the next decade.The survey also found that two-thirds of Americans believe political divisions have worsened since Biden took office.TopicsJoe BidenKamala HarrisUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Kamala Harris says ‘everything on the line’ in midterm elections

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      Kamala Harris says ‘everything on the line’ in midterm elections Vice-president warns that the elections will determine whether ‘age-old sanctity’ of right to vote would be protected Kamala Harris warned on Sunday that the midterm elections in November would determine whether the “age-old sanctity” of the right to vote would be protected in the US or whether “so-called extremist leaders around the country” would continue to restrict access to the ballot box.With just 56 days to go until the elections, and with the paper-thin Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress, the vice-president said that “everything is on the line in these elections”.In an interview with NBC News’ Meet the Press, she said that the country was facing a rising domestic extremism threat.“I think it is very dangerous and I think it is very harmful, and it makes us weaker,” she said.Harris pointed to the plethora of extreme election deniers, many endorsed by Donald Trump, who have embraced Trump’s lie that the 2020 election, won by Joe Biden, was “stolen” from him.Many of them, whom Biden has lately slammed as “Maga Republicans”, after the Trump campaign slogan Make America Great Again, have won Republican nomination for statewide positions that control election administration.Were they to win in November they could command considerable power over both state elections and the 2024 presidential contest.“There are 11 people right now running for secretary of state, the keepers of the integrity of the voting system of their state, who are election deniers,” Harris said. “Couple that with people who hold some of the highest elected office in our country who refuse to condemn an insurrection on January 6.”She said that an “age-old sanctity” – the right to vote – had been violated as a response to Biden’s victory which saw Americans turn out to vote in unprecedented numbers, often via mail or drop-boxes, which helped increase access. “I think that scared some people, that the American people were voting in such large numbers,” she said.Congressional attempts to shore up voting rights have so far been stymied by the Senate filibuster, which requires 60 votes to pass most legislation. Harris said that should Democrats increase their Senate majority in the midterms, Biden would abolish the filibuster specifically for voting rights legislation. He could then pass stalled voting rights legislation that increases democratic safeguards.“We need to have protections to make sure that every American, whoever they vote for, has the unobstructed ability to do that when it is otherwise their right,” she said.On Sunday morning, Harris and the second gentleman, her husband, Doug Emhoff, joined the remembrance event at the National September 11 Memorial in New York to mark the anniversary of the al-Qaida terrorist attacks on the US, which killed 2,977 people.The vice-president did not speak, as per tradition, but in the NBC interview that aired she also spoke of America’s reputation as a world role model for democracy being under threat.She cited the right-wing challenges to election integrity, including the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, in a bid to overturn Donald Trump’s defeat , and extremist Republicans’ unwillingness to condemn it, while also fielding many candidates in current elections who still refuse to accept the true result.And she added that when meeting foreign leaders, the US “had the honor and privilege historically of holding our head up as a defender and an example of a great democracy. And that then gives us the legitimacy and the standing to talk about the importance of democratic principles, rule of law, human rights….through the process of what we’ve been through, we’re starting to allow people to call into question our commitment to those principles. And that’s a shame.”TopicsUS voting rightsFight to voteKamala HarrisUS midterm elections 2022US politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      in World Politics

      The Future of Vice President Kamala Harris in American Politics

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      in Elections

      US Senate passes $739bn healthcare and climate bill – video

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      Senate Democrats passed their climate and healthcare spending package on Sunday, sending the legislation to the House and bringing Joe Biden one step closer to a significant legislative victory ahead of crucial midterm elections in November.
      ‘To the tens of millions of young Americans who spent years marching, rallying, demanding that Congress act on climate change, this bill is for you,’ said Chuck Schumer, the US Senate majority leader. 
      ‘The time has come to pass this historic bill’

      Senate passes $739bn healthcare and climate bill after months of wrangling
      Climate bill could slash US emissions by 40% after historic Senate vote
      What does the US-China row mean for climate change? More

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      in US Politics

      Kamala Harris urges voters to elect a ‘pro-choice Congress’ in midterms

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      Kamala Harris urges voters to elect a ‘pro-choice Congress’ in midtermsVice-president highlights that down-ballot contests at local level would also be central to restoring abortion rights Vice-President Kamala Harris renewed pleas to voters ahead of the midterm congressional races to elect pro-choice candidates, as the Biden administration continues to face criticism from progressives over a perceived lackluster response to the recent landmark supreme court decision striking down federal abortion rights in the US.In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Harris urged voters to elect a “pro-choice Congress” in November and highlighted that down-ballot contests at the local level would also be central to restoring abortion rights in certain parts of the country.“You don’t have to advocate or believe that this is right for you or your family, but don’t let the government make the decision for her family, whoever she may be,” Harris said in a pre-recorded interview. “It means state offices, governors, secretaries of state, attorneys general. It means local races, who’s going to be your DA, who’s going to be your sheriff, enforcing laws that are being passed to criminalize medical health providers, and maybe even the women who seek the service.”On Friday, Joe Biden signed a limited executive order designed to protect access to reproductive health services by expanding access to emergency contraception and bolstering legal services to support people who cross state lines to seek an abortion.But for many abortion advocates and progressive Democrats, the president’s measures do not go far enough. The administration has, for example, resisted calls to use federal land in anti-abortion states to facilitate terminating pregnancies, or subsidizing travel to people forced to travel in order to access services.At least nine US states have banned abortion in the wake of 6-3 supreme court ruling that overturned the Roe v Wade decision that had enshrined the procedure as a constitutional right since 1973. The ruling makes it likely that around half the country – 26 states – will eventually outlaw abortion in some way.The decision followed Donald Trump’s installation of three rightwing justices to the supreme court, paving the way for a conservative super majority on the court.Harris, then a US senator, voted against the former president’s appointments of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. And she said on Sunday she had never believed assurances made in private and public by Gorsuch and Kavanaugh that they respected the precedence of the Roe decision.“I start from the point of experience of having served in the Senate,” Harris said. “I never believed them. I didn’t believe them. So I voted against.”Asked if the Democrats should have done more to enshrine the right to abortion into federal law when the party controlled both chambers of Congress, Harris responded: “We certainly believe that certain issues are just settled. Certain issues are just settled. And that’s why I do believe that we are living, sadly, in real unsettled times.”Democrats have faced criticism for fundraising drives off the back of the supreme court decision and recent polling indicates their party still faces a tough day at the ballot box in November, with Biden’s approval ratings plummeting and the party looking set to lose its majority in the House of Representatives.On Sunday, Harris sought to quell calls for Biden to serve just one term as president before allowing a new Democratic nominee to contest the 2024 election.“Listen to President Biden,” Harris said. “He intends to run. And if he does, I intend to run with him.”TopicsKamala HarrisUS midterm elections 2022US politicsRoe v WadeAbortionUS supreme courtLaw (US)newsReuse this content More

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      in Elections

      'This is not over': Kamala Harris speaks out against overturning of Roe v Wade – video

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      Kamala Harris decried the supreme court’s decision to overturn the right to an abortion. She said: ‘Millions of women in America will go to bed tonight without access to the healthcare and reproductive care that they had this morning.’ The decision by the court’s conservative majority overturned the landmark Roe v Wade ruling and is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half of all US states

      US supreme court overturns abortion rights, upending Roe v Wade More

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      in US Politics

      Russia bans 963 Americans from entering country

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      Russia bans 963 Americans from entering countryList includes Biden and other senior officials, but not Trump, as country says it is retaliating against what it calls hostile US actions Russia on Saturday released a list of 963 Americans it said were banned from entering the country, a punctuation of previously announced moves against president Joe Biden and other senior US officials.The country, which has received global condemnation for its 24 February invasion of Ukraine, said it would continue to retaliate against what it called hostile US actions, Reuters reported.The lifetime bans imposed on the Americans, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and CIA head William Burns, are largely symbolic.Putin warns Ukraine allies against intervention | First ThingRead moreThey came on the same day Biden signed a support package providing nearly $40bn (£32bn) in aid for Ukraine.But the latest action by Russia forms part of a downward spiral in the country’s relations with the west since its invasion of Ukraine, which prompted Washington and allies to impose drastic sanctions on Moscow and step up arms supplies to Ukraine’s military.Several on the Russian government’s list of undesirables wouldn’t have been able to make the trip anyway: they are already dead.John McCain, the former Republican US presidential candidate and long-serving senator; Democrat Harry Reid, who served as senate majority leader from 2007 to 2015; and Orrin Hatch, whose 42 years in the chamber made him the longest-serving Republican senator in history; are all included.McCain died in August 2018 at the age of 81; Reid died last December, aged 82; and Hatch died on 23 April at 88.Notably, Donald Trump, who as president from 2017 to 2021 sought a close relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, is absent from the ban list.Others who are still very much alive, but now banned from Russia for perceived slights against Putin or his regime, are the actor Morgan Freeman, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, British journalist and CNN correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of the DreamWorks animation studio.Last month, Russia’s foreign ministry banned Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Ben Wallace and 10 other British government members from entering the country.The ministry said the decision was made “in view of the unprecedented hostile action by the UK government”.TopicsRussiaJoe BidenKamala HarrisAntony BlinkenUS politicsEuropenewsReuse this content More

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      in Elections

      Senate Democrats aim to reveal which Republicans oppose abortion ahead of midterms – live

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      US politics liveUS politicsSenate Democrats aim to reveal which Republicans oppose abortion ahead of midterms – live
      How GOP lawmakers are prepping to ban abortion as soon as possible
      Groups perpetuating Trump’s 2020 election lie face scrutiny and lawsuits
      Capitol attack panel moves closer to issuing subpoenas to Republicans
      Russia-Ukraine war – latest updates
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      LIVE Updated 12m agoRichard LuscombeMon 9 May 2022 11.10 EDTFirst published on Mon 9 May 2022 09.21 EDT Show key events onlyLive feedShow key events onlyFrom More