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      Donald Trump’s popularity has fallen among Republican voters, poll suggests

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      Donald Trump’s appeal has sunk among Republicans, a new poll has found.The former president, who faces criminal indictments in two cases and possibly a third, announced earlier this year that he is once again running for president in the 2024 election.Pew research found that 63% of Americans of all political affiliations have an unfavorable opinion of Trump – an increase from 60% last year.At 66%, the majority of those who identify as Republicans or Republican-leaning still view the former president in a favorable light, but that is 9 percentage points lower than last July’s 75%.Last July, about a quarter of those on the right viewed him as very or mostly unfavorably, but that figure has risen to 32%.Unsurprisingly, Democrats’ opinion of Trump is also low, though consistent with recent years. Ninety-one percent of Democrats polled viewed Trump unfavorably. Of that, 78% viewed him as very unfavorable.A mere 8% of Democrats view him favorably.By contrast, Biden’s popularity among the general popularity slipped about 4% since last year. Positive opinions of Vice-President Kamala Harris were worse, dropping from 43% to 36% since last year.Trump still remains the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, ahead of the far-right Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, according to FiveThirtyEight.It is unclear how Trump’s legal troubles will affect his campaign, if at all. This year, he was indicted on 37 counts for mishandling classified documents at Mar-A-Lago in Florida and on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records in New York. Trial dates in both cases have been set for during the 2024 primary season.He could also face the music for his role in inciting the 6 January insurrection at the Capitol in Washington DC in 2021.The poll does not address why Trump fell in the eyes of his own party, but many within the GOP have not shied away from sharing their distaste for him as their 2024 candidate.Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told the Hill in May that she was “certainly” looking for an alternative to Trump and DeSantis.“If that is the face of the Republican party, if that’s the contest, Republicans are doomed,” she said.
      This article was amended on 25 July 2023 to correct a typo concerning 91% of Democrats polled. More

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      Kamala Harris: supreme court rulings portend ‘attack’ on ‘hard-fought freedoms’

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      The US supreme court rulings which struck down the White House’s student debt relief plan, affirmative action in college admission and a Colorado law that protected LGBTQ+ rights portend “a national movement to attack hard-won and hard-fought freedoms”, Vice-President Kamala Harris has said.In an interview with National Public Radio’s Michel Martin, Harris declared that “this is a serious moment” for people “who believe in the promise of our country [but] understand we have some work yet to do to fully achieve that promise”.“Fundamental issues are at stake,” Harris said, as she called on Americans to vote – including in the 2024 presidential race – for political candidates who would work to shield rights rather than rescind them.Harris’s remarks came after the supreme court’s conservative supermajority on Thursday ended race-conscious admissions at universities across the US, defying decades of legal precedent to the detriment of greater student diversity on the nation’s campuses. The court on Friday also ruled that both a Colorado law which compelled businesses and organizations to treat same-sex couples equally as well as Joe Biden’s landmark student debt forgiveness plan were both unconstitutional.The decision on the Colorado law came on the last day of Pride month, which annually celebrates LGBTQ+ achievements and commemorates the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York, a key moment in the community’s civil rights movement.That decision and the two others all were handed down a year after the supreme court eliminated the federal abortion rights which had been established by the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling.Harris said she and other members of Joe Biden’s administration have a role in mounting a counteraction to the supreme court rulings, which she characterized as “moments of great consequence and … crises”.In the early stages of his 2024 re-election run, as some Republicans call for national abortion restrictions, the president has pledged to work to enshrine abortion rights, among other reproductive health care protections.Biden also outlined a new student debt relief plan within hours of the supreme court’s striking down his previous one.But Harris told Martin that voters can also help plot the way forward. Besides voting all the way down ballots during local, state and national elections, they can organize against the political forces which planted the seeds for this week’s volley of supreme court rulings, the vice-president said while appearing at the Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans on Thursday and Friday, according to Nola.com.The supreme court’s shift to the hard right became possible after the Donald Trump presidency succeeded in appointing the ultra-conservative justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.Harris predicted the week’s supreme court decisions would “have generational impact” and described herself “deeply concerned about the implications of this … to the future of our country”, Nola.com added.In her remarks at the Essence Festival, one of the US’s top annual showcases for Black culture, Harris said: “I feel very strongly that the promise of America will only be achieved if we’re willing to fight for it.” More

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      ‘A year of trauma and terror’: Democrats issue calls to action as US marks Roe reversal

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      As the US on Saturday marked one year since the country’s supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, abortion rights supporters and politicians issued a call to action – and prepared for reproductive health to be a flashpoint of the 2024 presidential election.The supreme court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health reversed the landmark 1973 decision that had enshrined a federal right to abortion. In the wake of its overturning, more than one dozen states have green-lighted abortion bans, and many others have passed laws dramatically restricting access to the procedure.“States have imposed extreme and dangerous abortion bans that put the health and lives of women in jeopardy, force women to travel hundreds of miles for care, and threaten to criminalize doctors for providing the health care that their patients need and that they are trained to provide,” Joe Biden said in a statement.The president added: “Yet state bans are just the beginning. Congressional Republicans want to ban abortion nationwide, but go beyond that, by taking FDA-approved medication for terminating a pregnancy off the market and [to] make it harder to obtain contraception. Their agenda is extreme, dangerous, and out-of-step with the vast majority of Americans.“My administration will continue to protect access to reproductive health care and call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v Wade in federal law once and for all.”During a powerful speech in North Carolina on Saturday, Vice-President Kamala Harris called for the restoration of abortion rights across the US, saying, “Extremist Republicans in Congress have proposed to ban abortion nationwide. But I have news for them. We’re not having that. We’re not standing for that. We won’t let that happen. And by the way, the majority of Americans are with us.“The majority of Americans, I do believe, agree that one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body. The United States Congress must put back in place what the supreme court took away.”On Twitter, Texas’s Democratic Congress member Jasmine Crockett described the period post-Dobbs as “a year of trauma & terror for women across the country, especially in states like Texas where Roe was our last line of defense”.“My district is 40% Black and majority women. It’s the people I represent that are hurt by life-saving medical care the most,” she wrote. “North Texas has the highest rate of hospitalization due to pregnancy complications in the entire state.“For all their talk about protecting babies, let me ask you this: What happens to the already born children of a mother who dies from pregnancy complications because she can’t get the treatment she needs during an ectopic pregnancy? Who’s protecting them?”The US House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, decried “rightwing extremists on the supreme court” for “shamefully” reversing the decades-long precedent.“Maga Republicans in Congress want to impose a nationwide ban on abortion care,” the New York Democrat warned, referring to the Donald Trump presidency’s Make American Great Again slogan. “House Dems are working hard to stop these extremists and restore reproductive freedom.”As many issued calls to action, some took steps to protect abortion rights. Arizona’s Democratic governor Katie Hobbs on Friday signed an executive order to better protect abortion rights across the south-western state.The executive order makes central all abortion-related prosecutions under Arizona’s attorney general so that local prosecutors don’t limit access to abortions. Hobbs’s executive order also directs state agencies not to aid in any investigations relating to providing, assisting, seeking or obtaining reproductive health care that would be legal in Arizona.Hobbs’s order also calls on Arizona to refuse extradition requests from other states that want to prosecute persons seeking or providing legal abortion services in Arizona.Amid Democrats’ calls for the restoration of abortion rights, a group of influential reproductive rights organizations – including Planned Parenthood – endorsed Biden and Harris in the 2024 presidential election.A statement from Alexis McGill Johnson, head of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said: “Abortion is healthcare. … We need leaders who are committed to protecting our freedoms, not taking them away.”While the upcoming presidential election is unlikely to be a landslide for either party – victories and losses in recent elections have been decided with thin margins – most American voters disagree with Roe’s reversal.In an NBC News poll published Friday, 61% of voters said they disagreed with the court’s decision in Dobbs. Sixty-seven percent of women disapproved of the ruling.Despite the fact that Roe’s reversal appears to have little popular support, anti-abortion leaders are describing the decision as a first step.“We are at the starting line,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America. “We have just begun. We have just begun a journey to start saving lives.”Protests opposing the Dobbs decision are expected across the US throughout the weekend. More

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      Biden’s inner circle: who’s who in the president’s 2024 bid for re-election?

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      Joe Biden, who early into his presidency said he intended to seek a second term, formally announced he was running for re-election in April, exactly four years after he entered the 2020 presidential race.The president has swiftly assembled a mix of trusted advisers on a campaign team that paints a picture of his 2024 strategy, which includes engaging Latino communities and touting his first-term achievements.Here’s a look at the key players in Biden’s inner circle.Top campaign namesJulie Chávez Rodríguez, campaign managerBiden picked Chávez Rodríguez, a senior adviser and assistant to the president, to steer his re-election campaign. Chávez Rodríguez was a deputy campaign manager on the Biden-Harris ticket and oversaw the campaign’s outreach to Latino voters. She is the granddaughter of the late labor leader Cesar Chavez, who founded the powerful United Farm Workers of America union, and attended labor rallies at a young age.She also served as state director for the then California senator Kamala Harris and held senior roles on Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign. She became the highest-ranking Latina in the Biden-Harris administration as director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. She served in a number of roles under former president Barack Obama, including as a director of domestic policy.Quentin Fulks, deputy campaign managerFulks, who served as campaign chief for the Georgia senator Raphael Warnock’s re-election bid in 2022, joined Biden’s 2024 team as principal deputy campaign manager. He also helped run JB Pritzker’s 2018 campaign for governor of Illinois and then served as a senior adviser.Fulks, who is Black, said in an interview with the Associated Press that growing up in a majority white town in rural Georgia helped him understand what Democrats needed to win votes in conservative-majority states, speaking of Warnock’s successful re-election bid.Kevin Muñoz, pressMuñoz, a former White House spokesperson who oversaw its messaging on the Covid-19 pandemic, is helping manage the press office on Biden’s re-election campaign as it makes key hires months after formally taking shape. He previously served as a campaign spokesperson for Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, leading efforts in Nevada and Florida, according to LinkedIn.Chávez Rodríguez told CNN in March that Muñoz, who frequently made appearances speaking Spanish, is someone who can “figure out how to best identify the issues and communicate those in English and in Spanish”.Jill BidenThe first lady, Jill Biden, encouraged her husband to seek a second term. According to the president’s senior advisers, he will often consider her opinion before making final decisions on official matters. She is also expected to play a large role on the campaign trail as Biden faces backlash for his family. A career educator, she offers a perspective over GOP fights about book bans and other policies in schools, and has served as a connection to suburban voters, particularly women.“She is really effective in talking about how the Biden agenda is good for moms, for women, for working women,” Kate Bedingfield, a former White House communications director and 2020 deputy campaign manager, told Politico.Kamala HarrisVice-President Kamala Harris will play a significant role in Biden’s re-election campaign as his running mate. At 58, Harris is decades younger than Biden, 80, whose age has been a concern among some voters, and could face more scrutiny on the campaign trail as the person second in line for the presidency.Harris, who defended abortion following the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, is also expected to help shore up support over reproductive rights, a top issue among voters. Harris is the highest-ranking woman in the current administration and the first person of Black and Asian descent to hold the vice-presidency. She was previously attorney general of California and was later elected senator.Trusted White House officials who steered Biden’s 2020 campaignJen O’Malley DillonO’Malley Dillon was the campaign manager for Biden’s 2020 presidential bid. She joined the campaign in March 2020 from her post as campaign chief for Beto O’Rourke after he withdrew from the race and led a historic effort to win voters amid the pandemic shutdown.She joined the Biden-Harris administration as deputy chief of staff, along with a slate of top 2020 campaign advisers, including Chávez Rodríguez, who is leading Biden’s re-election bid.Jeff Zientsskip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionZients, who has been Biden’s chief of staff since January, served as co-chair of the transition in 2020. Zients, whom Biden picked to oversee the White House Covid-19 response, served a number of roles during the Obama administration, including as director of the national economic council.Earlier this year, Axios reported that Zients called members of Biden’s cabinet to tell them if they wanted to resign, they should do it now, because the cabinet would play a key role in touting the president’s first-term achievements on the 2024 trail.Anita DunnThe veteran campaign strategist Anita Dunn, one of Biden’s closest advisers, had begun planning for his campaign before he officially filed for re-election. Dunn is leading Biden’s 2024 messaging from the White House, where she serves as a senior adviser, but is working closely with the president’s re-election team, according to CNN.Dunn previously served as White House communications director under Barack Obama and is credited with crafting media strategies across several campaigns. She was a senior adviser on Biden’s 2020 campaign and worked at the White House temporarily to help craft the president’s agenda before returning to her political consulting firm, SKDK. She rejoined the Biden administration last April ahead of the 2022 midterms.Mike DonilonAs chief strategist of Biden’s 2020 campaign, Donilon helped shape the message that guided Biden to victory over Donald Trump. Donilon, now a senior adviser to the president, has worked with Biden since the 1980s and served in the Clinton and Obama administrations.Donilon has worked on six presidential campaigns and helped secure dozens of Democratic gubernatorial and congressional victories.Steve RicchettiRicchetti, counselor to the president, is one of Biden’s most loyal advisers, having joined his vice-presidential staff in 2012. He was Biden’s campaign chair in 2020 and previously encouraged him to run in 2016. Ricchetti, a former congressional lobbyist, has held numerous roles in the Obama and Clinton administrations.Ricchetti was one of the White House officials picked to lead the negotiations over the debt ceiling with the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and shepherded the trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure deal past last-minute disagreements. He also helped Biden negotiate a lucrative book deal and tour, according to the New York Times.Bruce ReedReed, who advised Biden on technology policy during his 2020 campaign, is a White House deputy chief of staff and is expected to remain in his administration role while advising the president on his re-election bid.He also served as chief of staff to Biden when he was vice-president, from 2011 to 2013, succeeding Ron Klain. He served as a deputy campaign manager for Bill Clinton and later worked in his administration as director of the domestic policy council.Other key namesValerie Biden OwensBiden’s younger sister, Valerie Biden Owens, has played a key role throughout the president’s political career, serving as a senior adviser to his 2020 campaign. She managed Biden’s seven consecutive runs for the US Senate, as well as his first presidential campaign in 1988.Ron KlainKlain, who stepped down from his role as White House chief of staff earlier this year, is one of Biden’s most trusted advisers and worked as a top aide on his 2020 campaign. He previously served as chief of staff to Biden when he was vice-president, a job he also held during the Clinton administration, to Al Gore. Before Biden officially announced he was running for re-election, Klain said Biden had the best shot among Democrats at beating Donald Trump. More

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      White House releases show Biden’s book royalties fell sharply last year

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      Joe Biden’s personal finances changed little between 2022 and the previous year, though his book royalties fell sharply, according to White House financial disclosure reports released on Monday.Biden earned between $2,500 and $5,000 in book royalties in 2022, down from $30,000 a year earlier. He also earned less than $3,000 in “speaking and writing engagements”, from close to $30,000 last year, the disclosures show.The disclosures, which included Jill Biden’s income, showed her book royalties also dropped. She earned between $5,000- $15,000 in 2022 compared to $15,000- $50,000 from book sales a year earlier.The report also showed the couple’s assets were worth between $1.09m and $2.57m.They owe between $250,000 and $500,000 on a mortgage on their Delaware home, plus between $45,000 and $150,000 on other loans.In April, the Bidens released their federal tax return, showing the couple earned nearly $580,000 last year and paid an effective federal income tax rate of 23.8%. The Bidens reported an income of almost $611,000 in 2021, about $4,000 more than they made in 2020, according to tax documents released by the White House.The federal tax return for Kamala Harris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, also released in April, showed $457,000 in income.The vice-president earned just over $41,000 in royalties for her 2019 memoir and $40,209 from her 2019 children’s book, according to the disclosure forms released by the White House on Monday.Biden receives a $400,000 salary as the US president while Jill Biden earned $82,335 as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College. Harris receives a salary of $235,100 as vice-president.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe remainder of their income is drawn from investment interest, pensions, annuities, distributions from retirement accounts and social security as well as a corporation that collects their book royalties, according to the joint tax return.The couple’s annual income has dropped in recent years, falling by more than a third when Biden ran for president in 2020 from almost $1m in 2019 to $607,336 in 2020. Harris and her husband saw their earnings dramatically decline from $3.1m in 2019 to $1.7m in 2020. More

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      Proud Boys leader and three others convicted of seditious conspiracy for January 6 attack – as it happened

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      From 6h agoFormer Proud Boys extremist group leader Enrique Tarrio has been convicted of seditious conspiracy.The conviction follows a seven-day jury deliberation on five members of the far-right neo-fascist organizations who have been accused of conspiring against the peaceful power transition between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in January 2021.Three other members of the Proud Boys – Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl – have also been convicted after facing a slew of charges including conspiracy charges, evidence tampering and obstruction of the Electoral College vote.Member Domic Pezzola was also charged but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on his seditious conspiracy charge.Tarrio was not in Washington on January 6, 2021 during the deadly Capitol riots but prosecutors said he organized and directed the attack by Proud Boys who stormed the Capitol where 5 people died.Since the riots, Tarrio became a top target of the largest investigation by the justice department in American history.Defense lawyers argued that there was no plan to attack the Capitol or stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s win. One of Tarrio’s lawyer tried to divert the blame on Trump, saying that the former president incited the attack after he told the mob to “fight like hell,” the Associated Press reports.The seditious conspiracy charge carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.It’s 4pm in Washington DC today. Here is a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
      A grandnephew of Clarence Thomas, whom the supreme court justice described as a “son”, had his private school tuition paid for by billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow, according to a new investigation by ProPublica. Financial documents reviewed by ProPublica showed that in July 2009, a payment was made by Crow’s company to Hidden Lake Academy, a private boarding school in northern Georgia where tuition ran over $6,00 monthly.
      Former Proud Boys extremist group leader Enrique Tarrio has been convicted of seditious conspiracy. The conviction follows a seven-day jury deliberation on five members of the far-right neo-fascist organizations who have been accused of conspiring against the peaceful power transition between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in January 2021.
      Donald Trump is seeking to move his his criminal case by Manhattan’s district attorney to federal court, his lawyers said on Thursday. Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, said that Trump’s defense team is planning to file a motion on Thursday that will transfer the case involving hush-money payments from state court to federal court.
      New York City mayor Eric Adams has criticized representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over her remarks that condemned the death of a homeless subway rider. “I don’t think that’s very responsible at the time where we are still investigating the situation,” Adams said on CNN on Wednesday night after Ocasio-Cortez called the death of Jordan Neely a “murder.”
      In the latest behind-the-scenes video of Tucker Carlson published by the progressive watchdog Media Matters for America, the now fired Fox News host asks a makeup artist about what women do in the bathroom and if they ever have pillow fights. The footage of the insinuating comments follows the leak of video of Carlson making coarse remarks about a woman and Fox News viewers in general.
      Following vice president Kamala Harris’s meeting today with CEOs of tech companies including Microsoft and Google, Harris said the private sector has a “legal responsibility” to ensure the safety of AI products. “As I shared today with CEOs of companies at the forefront of American AI innovation, the private sector has an ethical, moral, and legal responsibility to ensure the safety and security of their products. And every company must comply with existing laws to protect the American people,” said Harris in a statement.
      White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has declined to comment on the recent reports surrounding supreme court justice Clarence Thomas’s acceptance of undisclosed luxury gifts. Jean-Pierre told reporters: “Right now…as it relates to the ethics, as it relates to that process, the senate is clearly moving forward with their own senate procedural process. I’m going to leave it there for now,” she said.
      Following the verdict delivered earlier today that found three members and the leader of the neo-fascist group Proud Boys guilty of seditious conspiracy, the White House declined to comment on the case,” saying that it does not want to “interfere.” Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, “We have seen the verdict but while the verdict has been reached in this case, we are also mindful that there are other similar cases pending and so we don’t want to interfere with those.”
      Democratic senator Ron Wyden, chairman of the senate finance committee, has announced that he is urging Harlan Crow “for answers” on his luxury gifts to supreme court justice Clarence Thomas. “I’m pushing Harlan Crow for answers on his lavish gifts to Clarence Thomas. If he doesn’t comply by May 8, I will absolutely explore other tools at the Finance Committee’s disposal to shed more light on what appears to be blatant corruption,” he said.
      That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as we wrap up the blog for today. Thank you for following along.Democratic senator Ron Wyden, chairman of the senate finance committee, has announced that he is urging Harlan Crow “for answers” on his luxury gifts to supreme court justice Clarence Thomas. On Thursday, following reports that Thomas accepted private school tuition payments made to his grandnephew by the GOP billionaire donor, Wyden tweeted:
      “I’m pushing Harlan Crow for answers on his lavish gifts to Clarence Thomas. If he doesn’t comply by May 8, I will absolutely explore other tools at the Finance Committee’s disposal to shed more light on what appears to be blatant corruption.”
      Following the verdict delivered earlier today that found three members and the leader of the neo-fascist group Proud Boys guilty of seditious conspiracy, the White House declined to comment on the case,” saying that it does not want to “interfere.”Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, “We have seen the verdict but while the verdict has been reached in this case, we are also mindful that there are other similar cases pending and so we don’t want to interfere with those.”“I would refer you to the department of justice for comment on this case….but we’re going to be mindful as we know there are other pending issues here,” she added.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has declined to comment on the recent reports surrounding supreme court justice Clarence Thomas’s acceptance of undisclosed luxury gifts. When asked by a reporter during Thursday’s press briefing on why she has not commented on any stories related to Thomas and his code of conduct, Jean-Pierre replied:“Right now…as it relates to the ethics, as it relates to that process, the senate is clearly moving forward with their own senate procedural process. I’m going to leave it there for now,” she said.Last month, following reports of Thomas’s acceptance of undisclosed luxury gifts including travel and private school tuition from GOP billionaire donor Harlan Crow, senate Democrats urged supreme court chief justice John Roberts to investigate the undisclosed luxury trips.Earlier this week, senate Democrats called for tighter rules on the supreme court justices surrounding ethics standards but met resistance from Republicans who condemned Democrats’ efforts as an “assault.”Republican senator Lindsey Graham condemned Democrats, labeling their efforts as an attempt to “delegitimize a conservative court.”Following vice president Kamala Harris’s meeting today with CEOs of tech companies including Microsoft and Google, Harris said the private sector has a “legal responsibility” to ensure the safety of AI products.
      “As I shared today with CEOs of companies at the forefront of American AI innovation, the private sector has an ethical, moral, and legal responsibility to ensure the safety and security of their products. And every company must comply with existing laws to protect the American people,” said Harris in a statement.
      She added that she is working alongside president Joe Biden are working on advancing potential new regulations and supporting new legislation “so that everyone can safety benefit from technological innovations.”More lunchtime reading, this time from Poppy Noor, who considers the considerable political challenges facing Republicans over strict abortion bans passed after the downfall of Roe v Wade …In one state, Republican women filibustered to block a near total abortion ban introduced by their own party.In another, the Republican co-sponsor of a six-week abortion ban tanked his own bill. On the federal level, a Republican congresswoman warns that the GOP’s abortion stance could meaning “losing huge” in 2024.As states continue to bring in tighter restrictions on abortion following the fall of Roe v Wade, internal divisions within the Republican party on the issue are starting to show.READ ON:Our regular guest columnist, the Vermont senator and former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, would like a word about American workplace culture and particularly the toll of so spending so many hours in the office, factory, shop or other place of gainful employ …In 1938, as a result of a massive grassroots effort by the trade union movement, the Fair Labor Standards Act was enacted by Congress to reduce the work week to 40 hours. Back then, the American people were sick and tired of working 80, 90, 100 hours a week with very little time for rest, relaxation or quality time with their families. They demanded change and they won a huge victory. That’s the good news.The bad news is that despite an explosion in technology, major increases in worker productivity, and transformational changes in the workplace and American society, the Fair Labor Standards Act has not been reformed in 80 years. The result: millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages, with the average worker making nearly $50 a week less than he or she did 50 years ago, after adjusting for inflation. Further, family life is suffering, as parents don’t have adequate time for their kids, life expectancy for working people is in decline, and increased stress is a major factor in the mental health crisis we are now experiencing.Compared with other countries, our workplace record is not good. In 2021, American employees worked 184 more hours than Japanese workers, 294 more hours than British workers, and 442 more hours than German workers. Unbelievably, in 2023 there are millions of Americans who work at jobs with no vacation time.It’s time to reduce the work week to 32 hours with no loss in pay. It’s time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life. It’s time to make sure that working people benefit from rapidly increasing technology, not just large corporations that are already doing phenomenally well.READ ON:In the latest behind-the-scenes video of Tucker Carlson published by the progressive watchdog Media Matters for America, the now fired Fox News host asks a makeup artist about what women do in the bathroom and if they ever have pillow fights.The footage of the insinuating comments follows the leak of video of Carlson making coarse remarks about a woman and Fox News viewers in general; a discussion of sexual technique with Piers Morgan; disparaging remarks about the Fox Nation streaming service; and comments about a lawyer who deposed Carlson in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit, who the host called a “slimy little motherfucker”.That suit, over Fox News’ broadcast of Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 US election, was settled last month for $787.5m. Shortly after that, Carlson was surprisingly fired.Speculation and reporting about why Carlson was fired continues.Earlier this week, the New York Times published a racially inflammatory text message Carlson sent after the Capitol attack. That message was redacted in Dominion filings but other message, including abusive comments, were released. Carlson’s comments about Fox News executives were reportedly linked to his firing, including one in which he is reported to have called a female executive a “cunt”. A former booker on his show also filed suit, alleging a misogynistic working atmosphere.Fox News has not commented on why Carlson was fired. It has called the suit from the former booker, Abby Grossberg, “unmeritorious” and “riddled with false allegations against the network and our employees”.Last week, a person close to Carlson told the Guardian the firing was not over abusive messages or crude comments.“An elderly Australian man” – the Fox News owner, Rupert Murdoch, 92 – “fired his top anchor with no warning because he was so offended by a dirty word? Stupidest explanation ever. Please. A big decision requires a powerful motive. Naughty words in text messages don’t qualify.”In the footage released on Thursday, Carlson is seen on-set, having makeup applied by an unidentified woman.He says: “Can I ask you a question? You don’t have to answer, it’s personal.”The woman indicates assent.Carlson says: “I’m not speaking of you, but more in general with ladies, when they go to the ladies room and ‘powder their noses’, is there actually nose-powdering going on?The woman says: “Sometimes.”Carlson says: “Oooh. I like the sound of that.”The woman says: “Most of the time, it’s lipstick.”Carlson says: “Do pillow fights ever break out? You don’t have to, you don’t have to –”The woman says: “Not in the bathroom.”Carlson says: “OK. Not in the bathroom. That’d be more a dorm activity.”After an unintelligible remark off camera, Carlson apologises.“I’m sorry,” he says. “You are such a good sport. Such a good person. Thank you. I know you do, but you do not deserve that. And I mean it with great affection.”New York City mayor Eric Adams has criticized representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over her remarks that condemned the death of a homeless subway rider.“I don’t think that’s very responsible at the time where we are still investigating the situation,” Adams said on CNN on Wednesday night.“Let’s the DA conduct his investigation with the law enforcement officials. To really interfere with that is not the right thing to do,” he continued.Adams’ remarks comes after Ocasio-Cortez condemned the death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year old Black homeless person who died after a 24-year-old former marine placed him in a chokehold on the subway.
      “Jordan Neely was murdered. But bc Jordan was houseless and crying for food in a time when the city is raising rents and stripping services to militarize itself while many in power demonize the poor, the murderer gets protected w/ passive headlines + no charges. It’s disgusting,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
      “It is appalling how so many take advantage of headlines re: crime for an obsolete ‘tough on crime’ political, media, & budgetary gain, but when a public murder happens that reinforces existing power structures, those same forces rush to exonerate & look the other way. We shouldn’t,” she added.
      Donald Trump is seeking to move his his criminal case by Manhattan’s district attorney to federal court, his lawyers said on Thursday.Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, said that Trump’s defense team is planning to file a motion on Thursday that will transfer the case involving hush-money payments from state court to federal court.The announcement comes a month after Trump appeared at a Manhattan courtroom for his arraignment as prosecutors accused him of committing 34 felony counts involving an alleged cover up of an extramarital sex scandal involving adult star Stormy Daniels.Trump has pleaded not guilty.Trump’s attempt to transfer the case to federal court will likely be a “long shot,” the New York Times reports, and will not have any immediate impact on the current state case.A federal judge will decide whether to approve the request or not.Former Proud Boys extremist group leader Enrique Tarrio has been convicted of seditious conspiracy.The conviction follows a seven-day jury deliberation on five members of the far-right neo-fascist organizations who have been accused of conspiring against the peaceful power transition between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in January 2021.Three other members of the Proud Boys – Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl – have also been convicted after facing a slew of charges including conspiracy charges, evidence tampering and obstruction of the Electoral College vote.Member Domic Pezzola was also charged but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on his seditious conspiracy charge.Tarrio was not in Washington on January 6, 2021 during the deadly Capitol riots but prosecutors said he organized and directed the attack by Proud Boys who stormed the Capitol where 5 people died.Since the riots, Tarrio became a top target of the largest investigation by the justice department in American history.Defense lawyers argued that there was no plan to attack the Capitol or stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s win. One of Tarrio’s lawyer tried to divert the blame on Trump, saying that the former president incited the attack after he told the mob to “fight like hell,” the Associated Press reports.The seditious conspiracy charge carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.Several political advocacy organizations have issued statements condemning Clarence Thomas in light of recent reports surrounding his failure to disclose luxury gifts. Stand Up America, a nonprofit grassroots organization focusing combatting corruption and voter suppression, has called for a “thorough investigation” into Thomas. In a statement to the Guardian, Brett Edkins, managing director of policy and political affairs, said:
      “This ethical crisis at the Supreme Court just keeps getting worse… We don’t yet know the full extent of Justice Thomas’ ethical violations, but the existing evidence of a corrupt relationship is overwhelming and should alarm every American.
      Congress must hold this Court in check and restore public trust in our justice system by conducting a thorough investigation into Thomas’ financial dealings with Crow and finally passing a code of ethics for the Supreme Court. The American people should have confidence that their highest court is free from corruption.”
      Similarly, Acccountable.US, a nonpartisan watchdog organization that sheds light on special interests and unchecked power, has called for “urgent reform” in the supreme court.In a statement to the Guardian, Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig said:
      “Billionaire benefactor Harlan Crow didn’t just bankroll Thomas’s luxury travel, his mother’s house, and his wife’s job — he also covered his kid’s private school tuition, which he conveniently didn’t disclose.
      Over decades, these two have maintained a highly problematic financial relationship that has facilitated what looks like corruption at the highest levels. Meanwhile, Chief Justice Roberts has completely dodged responsibility by refusing to take action while the Court’s legitimacy crisis grows. We need urgent reform to restore public trust in our Court.”
      A new investigation by ProPublica revealed that billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow paid the tuition of Mark Martin, a grandnephew of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas.According to ProPublica, Mark Martin, whom Thomas obtained legal custody over when Martin was 6-years old, attended a private boarding school in northern Georgia called Hidden Lakes Academy for about a year.During his time at the school, his tuition was paid for by Crow, former school administrator Christopher Grimwood told ProPublica. A bank document reviewed by the investigative outlet from 2009 showed a wire transfer of $6,200 to the school from Crow’s company. The transfer was labeled with “Mark Martin.”The investigation also found that before and after Martin’s time at Hidden Lake Academy, he attended Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia, another boarding school. “Harlan said he was paying for the tuition at Randolph-Macon Academy as well,” Grimwood recalled Crow telling him during a visit to the real estate magnate’s estate in the Adirondacks.Despite disclosing a gift of $5,000 for Martin’s education from another friend several years earlier, Thomas did not disclose Crow’s tuition payments, according to ProPublica.Crow’s spokespersons have defended Crow’s payments, telling ProPublica in a statement:
      “Harlan Crow has long been passionate about the importance of quality education and giving back to those less fortunate, especially at-risk youth… he and his wife have supported many young Americans through scholarship and other programs at a variety of schools…
      Harlan and Kathy have particularly focused on students who are at risk of falling behind or missing out on opportunities to better themselves… Tuition and other financial assistance is given directly to academic institutions, not to students or to their families. These scholarships and other contributions have always been paid solely from personal funds, sometimes held at and paid through the family business.”
      The report follows last month’s bombshell report by ProPublica that revealed Thomas had accepted luxury travel from Crow annually for decades without publicly disclosing them.The revelations have caught the ire of many lawmakers and ethics experts.Earlier this week, Democrats called for tighter rules and ethics standards for the supreme court justices, which Republicans pushed back against, calling Democrats’ efforts an “assault…[and] about trying to delegitimize a conservative court.”Good morning, US politics readers. A great-nephew of Clarence Thomas, whom the supreme court justice described as a “son”, had his private school tuition paid for by billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow, according to a new investigation by ProPublica.Financial documents reviewed by ProPublica showed that in July 2009, a payment was made by Crow’s company to Hidden Lake Academy, a private boarding school in northern Georgia where tuition ran over $6,00 monthly. The payment of $6,200 was labeled with the name of Thomas’s great-nephew, Mark Martin.Martin, who was taken into legal custody by Thomas when he was six years old, had his tuition paid for entirely by Crow during his time at Hidden Lake Academy, which was about a year, according to a former school administrator Christopher Grimwood.Thomas did not report Crow’s tuition payments on his annual financial disclosures, ProPublica revealed in its investigation. This investigation follows another ProPublica report last month which revealed that Thomas accepted luxury travel from Crow for decades without disclosing them on his financial reports.Here are other developments in US politics:
      A New York judge has thrown out Donald Trump’s 2021 lawsuit that accused the New York Times of an “insidious plot” to obtain his tax records.
      Vice president Kamala Harris will meet with Google and Microsoft CEOs today to discuss AI risks.
      Iowa lawmakers have passed a Republican-led bill that allows teenagers to work longer hours and take previously banned jobs. More

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      Veep hunting season has opened. But Kamala Harris is in with a shot | Simon Tisdall

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      Being vice-president of the United States is not much fun, or so it often seems from the outside. All the trappings of power are present: high-profile events, free foreign travel, big limos, secret service protection and a turreted mansion in the grounds of Washington’s Naval Observatory.But the job itself is a cemetery from which few escape with their political lives. Indeed, attending funerals is in the job description. The incumbent is forever overshadowed by the president of the day, blamed for his blunders, given thankless tasks to perform.To think of the post as a stepping stone is misleading. George HW Bush, Ronald Reagan’s deputy, moved directly into the top job in 1989. Few others have pulled it off. Joe Biden, Barack Obama’s loyal No 2 for eight long years, was passed over in favour of Hillary Clinton.Of course, there’s always a chance the ‘phone will ring – and everything changes in a proverbial heartbeat. That happened to Lyndon Johnson, after JFK’s assassination, and, in less tragic circumstances, to Gerald Ford. Yet mostly, ex-vice-presidents slip unlamented into obscurity, diminished and finished. Gaffe-prone Dan Quayle, 1989-93, the “deer caught in headlights”, was terminally mauled. Snarling Dick Cheney, 2001-9, departed widely loathed. Donald Trump thundered that his reluctant fall guy Mike Pence, 2017-21, deserved lynching.Veep hunting: it’s a favourite Washington bloodsport. Foreshadowing Prince Harry’s “Spare”, Benjamin Franklin suggested re-titling the incumbent “Your Superfluous Excellency”. One Veep spluttered the job was “not worth a bucket of warm piss”.It’s like having your head in the stocks. Expectations are set impossibly high, then the victim is pilloried and pelted with mud pies for failing to match them.Veep hunting recommenced in earnest last week after Biden confirmed he will seek a second term with Kamala Harris again at his side. As vice-president, Harris has been patronised by friends, ridiculed by pundits and traduced by enemies.Evidently, some of this pain goes with the job. And perhaps her sometimes less-than-stellar performance partly warrants it. Yet even by past standards, Harris has had an unusually rough ride. Why? The fact she is the first woman vice-president, has Black and Asian American roots, and is a liberal from California provides a clue. As divided America’s crucial 2024 election looms, her reselection effectively pins a target on her back for Trump – the most likely GOP candidate – plus Maga extremists, rabid Republicans, preachifying evangelicals, lying TV hosts and assorted wackos, racists and bigots to aim at. This is a figure of speech – hopefully.Yet security is certainly a worry given the Capitol Hill insurrection and out-of-control gun crime. Last week, Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis, another female Black Democrat – who is expected to charge Trump with election tampering – requested extra FBI protection.Harris will face intense scrutiny for one reason entirely beyond her control: Biden’s age. The president is already the oldest ever; he will be 86 by January, 2029. Pretending this is not an issue is foolish. Recent polls suggest most voters, including most Democrats, believe he should step down.Biden’s refusal means, actuarially speaking, that Harris, 58, stands an inexorably increasing chance of becoming president as his notional second term proceeds. Given that her disapproval rating is 53%, Democrats worry this possibility could alienate uncommitted independents, representing around half of all voters.“Because … the chance of [Biden’s] health failing is not small, people will be asked to vote as much for his vice-president as for him, maybe more than in any other election in American history,” veteran commentator Tom Friedman predicted last week. Whether or not her problems stemmed from inflated expectations, from being out of her depth, or from “a mix of sexism and racism”, Harris continued to struggle with public perceptions, he wrote. If the past is any guide, Republicans will try to capitalise on Harris’s uncertain appeal, and weaponise her progressive views, against the constant, unspoken, unwritten and infinitely divisive subtext of colour and ethnicity.It’s already begun, with an AI-generated TV attack ad last week depicting street riots during a second term. Harris was sneered at for another so-called “word salad” public speaking snafu.Watching America, a similarly divided world is “loading for bear”, as Americans say. A victory for Trump, 76, would spell disaster for democracy, Europe – and Ukraine. Yet reactionaries of all stripes prefer that to the prospect of Harris sitting in the Oval. Typically, an opinion piece last week in Britain’s Daily Telegraph warned: “President Kamala Harris should terrify us all”. Oblivious to the irony, the article’s female author suggested Harris was the product of “tokenism” favouring women and minorities.Such mud-slinging is unavoidable. And there’s a lot more to come. Yet looked at another way, Harris has a golden opportunity to turn the tables and de-fang her detractors. Biden’s increasing reliance presages a raised profile and more top-line campaign appearances.It also means Harris, less fearful of White House second-guessing and backstabbing, will be freer to speak her mind. Two powerful Democrat women, Jill Biden and Hillary Clinton, who have not always been entirely supportive, should rally round. Harris has earned this chance to make her case.She is already the administration’s lead advocate for abortion rights following the supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade last year. The issue is splitting and hurting Republicans from Nebraska and Wisconsin to South Carolina. Her strong stand on police reform, civil rights, GOP voter suppression, climate and education may energise vital centre-ground support.In this age of disillusionment, of distrust and cynicism about old-boy politics, Harris is honest, passionate – and relatively young. Far from being the liability conventional wisdom suggests, this latest incarnation of the much-abused Veep may prove the Democrats’ saving grace. More

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      Kamala Harris praises courage of ‘Tennessee Three’ on visit to Nashville

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      About 500 people packed the chapel at Fisk University, a historically Black college in Nashville, Tennessee, and sang the civil rights anthem This Little Light of Mine while they waited for US vice-president Kamala Harris to appear. When she did, the crowd erupted in cheers.Harris and her listeners were there to show support for her fellow Democrats and state lawmakers Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson – Jones and Pearson were ousted from the Republican-controlled Tennessee house of representatives after joining a protest in favor of gun control at the capitol in Nashville, and Johnson narrowly survived an expulsion vote.“We are here because [Jones, Pearson and Johnson] and their colleagues in the Democratic caucus chose to show courage in the face of extreme tragedy,” Harris said, alluding to how the targeted representatives stood with gun control advocates after the killings of three students and three staffers at the Covenant elementary school in Nashville on 27 March. “They chose to lead and show courage and say that a democracy allows for places where the people’s voice will be heard and honored and respected.”The vice-president said they also added another chapter to a vibrant local history of civil rights activism that previously saw sit-ins at segregated lunch counters led by the late US congressman John Lewis and his movement colleague Diane Nash, saying it was on their “broad shoulders upon which we all stand”.Harris’s visit punctuated a dramatic week for the so-called “Tennessee Three”, who faced expulsion proceedings after talking without being given the floor by the Republican house speaker Cameron Sexton. Johnson, Jones and Pearson said they spoke out in that manner because capitol staff had cut their microphones off when they attempted to bring up gun control and regulation efforts in response to the shooting deaths at Covenant.Jones and Pearson led chants from protesters in favor of their proposed measures with a bullhorn while Johnson stood by them silently in solidarity.Their colleagues then drew up papers to expel all three from the seats in the chamber to which they were democratically elected. Votes on Thursday left Jones and Pearson – two Black men and the house’s youngest members – ousted while Johnson, a 60-year-old white woman, managed to keep her seat by a single vote.“A democracy says you do not silence the people, you do not stifle the people, you do not turn off their microphones when they are speaking,” Harris said, outraged. “These leaders had to get a bullhorn to be heard.”Such expulsions are exceedingly rare even in today’s ultra-divided political climate, and they are generally used against lawmakers accused of misconduct more serious than a decorum breach. For instance, the body had previously expelled one lawmaker accused of spending federal nursing school grant money on a wedding and another who allegedly had improper sexual contact with more than 20 women in four years in office. Meanwhile, the state legislature opted against expelling a Republican representative accused of sexual misconduct in 2019.County commissions in Jones and Pearson’s districts are now set to pick someone to serve in the newly vacant seats until special elections can be held. Jones and Pearson remain eligible to run in those special elections and could also possibly be appointed by the county commissions to stay in their seats until those contests, though the commissions are reportedly facing pressure to choose interim replacements.To be sure, Jones and Pearson’s expulsions have given both men significant national platforms. In addition to Harris’s remarks, Joe Biden met with them and Johnson virtually. The president tweeted a photo of the meeting, saying: “Our country needs to take action on gun violence – to do that we need more voices like theirs speaking out.”The chapel was warmly receptive to the vice-president, responding to her statements with the sort of affirmations that are familiar in the halls of Black churches.“Some things are up for partisan debate,” she said. “Sure. But regarding the issue of gun safety laws, background checks, the policy is really pretty straightforward.”“Facts!” someone shouted from one of the pews.“Assault weapons … are weapons of war,” Harris continued. “These are weapons that are designed to kill a lot of people quickly. They have no place on the streets of a civil society.”Murmurs of “amen”, and “I know that’s right”, moved through the crowd.Young Black women – Fisk students – lined the aisles of the chapel wearing pearls and bright pink-and-green apparel signifying their association with the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority of which Harris is also a member. One of them, Kayla Willis, told the Guardian it was “an honor to see our legacy as a sorority and also as a Black-founded organization to be put at the forefront, especially in this political climate”.Willis is a senior studying political science and Spanish, and she said she was deeply disappointed with the expulsion of representatives Jones and Pearson. Still, the turnout, the speeches from local activists and officials, and Harris’s appearance lifted her spirits.State representative Torrey Harris – who, like Pearson, is a Black Democrat representing Memphis – was similarly affected. He noted how he was the legislature’s youngest member after the expulsions which targeted two men whom he referred to as “brothers” and people whom he had “grown to love”.Harris said he had no doubt race factored into Jones and Pearson’s expulsions as well as the more favorable outcome for Johnson.“We have to be honest and transparent that race plays a huge part in a lot of the decision-making that happens not only in this state, but in other states,” Harris said. “To cut off somebody else’s belief and ability to fight for their people is wrong. We live in a country that is built on democracy, and I would hope that we will one day get back to that place.” More