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      Republicans threaten to punish colleges that allow pro-Palestinian protests

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      Top Republicans are threatening to pull billions of dollars of federal funding from some of the most prestigious universities in the US, stripping them of official accreditation to punish them for allowing pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses.The Guardian has reviewed a video recording of a meeting in Washington last week between House majority leader Steve Scalise and the powerful pro-Israel lobby group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac). In it, Scalise outlined how he planned to unleash a massive attack against universities that fail to squash criticism of Israel.The offensive, which would be coordinated with the White House should Donald Trump win the presidential race in November, could even threaten the existence of universities, Scalise warned. He talked about revoking accreditation, the system by which higher education institutions are approved and to which the bulk of federal funds are tied.“Your accreditation is on the line,” Scalise said. “You’re not playing games any more, or else you’re not a school any more.”The Aipac meeting was held on 1 October, and was attended by Scalise and his fellow Republican congressman, Pat Fallon from Texas. The event was ostensibly billed as a discussion on the spread of antisemitism in the US since the start of the Gaza conflict on 7 October last year, when Hamas killed 1,200 people inside Israel and took 250 hostage.The attack sparked the Israeli offensive, which has destroyed much of the Palestinian territory and killed almost 42,000 people, according to local health authorities. The fall-out continues to roil campuses and cities throughout the US.Latest FBI figures show that the monthly rate of hate crimes against Jewish people in the US spiked in the aftermath of 7 October from 103 offenses in September 2023 to 389 in November. Anti-Muslim incidents have also surged.Despite the Aipac-Scalise meeting’s framing on antisemitism, most of the talk was about how to crush criticism of Israel’s military operation in Gaza. There was no attempt during the hour-long conversation to distinguish hatred of Jews from pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli government sentiments.Aipac is the most influential pro-Israel lobby group in the US. It has a $100m war chest to spend on the election this year, and is using that muscle to support political candidates that back the actions of the Israeli government and oppose those who are critical.This summer Aipac invested $23m in unseating in primary contests two core members of the progressive Democratic group the “squad”, Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri. The pair had called for a ceasefire in Gaza and have highlighted the death toll of civilians there.Fallon praised Aipac for intervening in the races. “I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for firing Jamaal Bowman, and even more so, Miss Cori Bush. Great work,” he said.“That’s accountability, by the way,” Scalise added. He further commended Aipac for having “tentacles throughout the Republican and Democrat circles in 435 districts. You can see how people are voting – just put the pressure on those who are voting the wrong way.”Scalise reserved his most potent threats for universities that in his view have failed to quash anti-Israel protests. He told Aipac that a second Trump administration would wield federal purse strings to punish the schools.“We’re looking at federal money, the federal grants that go through the science committee, student loans. You have a lot of jurisdiction as president, with all of these different agencies that are involving billions of dollars, some cases a billion alone going to one school,” Scalise said.The congressman from Louisiana is the second highest-ranking Republican in the House. He has travelled to Israel several times on trips paid for by the American Israel Education Fund, a group created by Aipac.Scalise singled out Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, which have been rattled by the controversy over student protests around the Gaza war. Penn’s president Elizabeth Magill resigned last December and Harvard’s Claudine Gay a month later after they were accused of being evasive under Republican questioning about how they would respond to calls for the genocide of Jews.Columbia’s president Minouche Shafik stepped down in August after also facing criticism over her handling of pro-Palestinian protest encampments.In the Aipac meeting, Scalise scolded the former university chiefs for existing in a bubble in which Palestinians were painted as the real oppressed group. “You start siding with a terrorist organization, and you think that’s mainstream, because all your friends are in this little bubble, and I don’t know who you’re talking to – you’re sure not talking to normal people any more,” he said.The congressman went on to denigrate Jewish students who engage in pro-Palestinian protest, saying they “just feel guilty that they’re alive. I don’t know how you’re brought up to where you feel, ‘I’m a Jewish student, and I’m on the side with terrorists who want to kill me.’”Scalise said Republicans were determined to confront anti-Israel protests, which he called “disgusting” and “unacceptable in America”. “We’re bringing legislation to the floor to continue to confront it, to stand up against it, to show we support Israel,” he said.The Guardian invited Scalise, Fallon and Aipac to comment on the meeting and their discussion about punishing universities for pro-Palestinian campus protests, but they did not immediately respond.Part of the Republicans’ gameplan is to use House oversight powers to investigate colleges for alleged civil rights violations. Scalise told Aipac that any college deemed to have breached the law would have their accreditation revoked.“If you have a change in administration, President Trump has made it clear day one, if you’re a college that is violating the civil rights of your students, we’re taking away your accreditation. We have that ability,” he said.Under the current system, the bulk of federal money that flows to higher education institutions comes through student loans that are in turn dependent on formal approval of the school’s academic and other standards, known as accreditation. That approval is granted by 19 accrediting agencies, independent bodies that are in turn recognised by the US education secretary.Under a second Trump administration, the education department could decertify accrediting agencies that pursue liberal policies towards campus speech and favour agencies that follow a more draconian approach. Republicans could effectively punish universities by forcing the removal of their accreditation, with potentially dire consequences.“If accreditation becomes a political tool, then the concern is it will be used ideologically to punish particular views on campus, threatening free inquiry which is the bedrock of universities,” said Mark Criley of the American Association of University Professors.The plans being laid by top congressional Republicans chimes with Trump’s own vision of a second term. In his manifesto for a return to the White House, Agenda47, he says that “our secret weapon will be the college accreditation system”.He pledges that once back in the White House, “I will fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics.” He would then appoint new accreditors who would defend “the American tradition and western civilization” and remove “all Marxist diversity, equity and inclusion bureaucrats”.“We are going to have real education in America,” Trump said.Trump’s vice-presidential running mate, JD Vance, has taken a similarly hard line, calling universities “the enemy” in a 2021 speech. He said he would “aggressively attack the universities in this country”.In May, Vance introduced to a bill to the US Senate which he titled The Encampments or Endowments Act. Were it passed, it would give universities an ultimatum: remove protest encampments from campus grounds within seven days, or lose all federal funding.David Cole, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said the Republican vendetta against universities over pro-Palestinian protests was deeply disturbing. “That is viewpoint discrimination at its core. It’s an attack on academic freedom in its most basic form, and would raise serious constitutional concerns.” More

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      10 years of the long read: Farewell to America (2015) – podcast

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      As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the authors.
      This week from 2015: After 12 years in the US, Gary Younge is preparing to depart – as the country’s racial frictions seem certain to spark another summer of conflict. By Gary Younge

      How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know More

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      The high life: Kamala Harris cracks open a beer with Stephen Colbert

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      When they go low, she goes high. Miller High Life to be precise.Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, took her election campaign to late night television on Tuesday by cracking open a can of the lager with host Stephen Colbert. The moment set her apart from Joe Biden and Donald Trump – both, famously, teetotallers.The vice-president also used the interview in New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater to lambast Trump over a report that he sent Covid testing kits to Russia’s Vladimir Putin even as US citizens went without. “He thinks, well, that’s his friend,” she said. “What about the American people? They should be your first friend.”The appearance before a live audience capped a media blitz for Harris who, having previously been criticised for dodging interviews, spoke in recent days to CBS’s 60 Minutes, the podcast Call Her Daddy, the daytime show The View and radio host Howard Stern.The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has featured Harris, Biden and numerous other politicians over the years, blending serious political issues with light relief. During Tuesday’s interview in New York, he noted that people are calling this “the vibe election” and that voters typically want a candidate they can have a beer with.He duly invited Harris to share a drink and said she had requested Miller High Life in advance. The vice-president remarked: “OK, the last time I had beer was at a baseball game with Doug. Cheers.”Harris repeated the popular slogan “The champagne of beers”, while Colbert noted that it comes from Milwaukee, in the swing state of Wisconsin. He said: “So that covers Wisconsin. Let’s talk Michigan. Let’s appeal to the Michigan voters, OK? What are your favourite Bob Seger songs?”The host proceeded to reel off a list of Seger songs but Harris did not appear enthusiastic. Finally, she said: “I’ll go Aretha or Eminem. You got any?”The 40-minute interview, due to be broadcast on CBS on Tuesday night, also tackled serious topics. Colbert asked about the 7 October attack by Hamas and Israel’s response. Harris said: “We must have a ceasefire and hostage deal as immediately as possible. This war has got to end. It has to end.”Progress on a deal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages is “meaningless”, she acknowledged, until it is reached. Harris said she has met with the families of hostages and the families of Palestinians killed in Gaza. “We’ve got to get a deal done and we’re not going to give up.”The interview took place after it emerged that journalist Bob Woodward writes in his new book, War, that Trump has had as many as seven private phone calls with Putin since leaving office and secretly sent the Russian president Covid test machines in 2020. Trump has denied the claims.Harris commented: “He openly admires dictators and authoritarians. He has said he wants to be a dictator on day one if he were elected again as president. He gets played by these guys. He admires so-called strongmen and he gets played because they flatter him or offer him favour.”Referring to the Covid test kits, she went on: “I ask everyone here and everyone who is watching: do you remember what those days were like? You remember how many people did not have tests and were trying to scramble to get them?”Harris became visibly irate as she recalled that hundreds of people were dying every day, some comforted only by nurses because their families could not reach them.
      “And this man is giving Covid test kits to Vladimir Putin? Think about what this means on top of him sending love letters to Kim Jong-un. He thinks, well, that’s his friend. What about the American people? They should be your first friend.”Earlier Colbert asked Harris about a now celebrated image of her in the presidential debate against Trump in which she frowned and rested her chin on a hand. Asked what she was thinking at that moment, she replied: “It’s family TV, right? It starts with a W, there’s a letter between it, then the last letter’s F.” She burst into laughter.The comedian asked if Trump lost the 2020 election, something he has always denied. Harris said: “You know, when you lost millions of jobs, you lost manufacturing, you lost automotive plants, you lost the election. What does that make you? A loser. This is what somebody at my rallies said. I thought it was funny.”She laughed and Colbert remarked: “It’s accurate. It’s accurate.”Then Harris pointed out: “This is what happens when I drink beer!” More

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      Hurricane Milton strengthens into category 5 storm again as Biden warns storm could be worst in over 100 years – live updates

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      The National Hurricane Center is reporting that Milton has strengthened back into a category 5 hurricane.Milton’s maximum sustained winds were up to 165mph, the agency said Tuesday afternoon. It will likely fluctuate in intensity, but will continue to be a “dangerous major hurricane” when it makes landfall in Florida Wednesday evening.“This is a very serious situation and residents in Florida should closely follow orders from their local emergency management officials,” the National Hurricane Center said. “Evacuations and other preparations should be completed today. Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida.”A team of “hurricane hunters” from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) flew through Milton as the category 5 hurricane barrelled towards Florida’s coast.The team shared footage of their bumpy ride into the storm to gather data that will provide information for forecasting and hurricane research.Milton is expected to be one of the worst hurricanes to hit the US in decades. Joe Biden warned that evacuation orders for those in the storm’s path were a matter of “life and death” while the Tampa mayor told residents: “If you choose to stay … you are going to die.”The National Hurricane Center is reporting that Milton has strengthened back into a category 5 hurricane.Milton’s maximum sustained winds were up to 165mph, the agency said Tuesday afternoon. It will likely fluctuate in intensity, but will continue to be a “dangerous major hurricane” when it makes landfall in Florida Wednesday evening.“This is a very serious situation and residents in Florida should closely follow orders from their local emergency management officials,” the National Hurricane Center said. “Evacuations and other preparations should be completed today. Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida.”Fema has stationed major resources in Florida to support the state before Hurricane Milton makes landfall, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.The agency has dispatched dozens of teams overseeing incident management, search and rescue, swift water rescue, disaster medical assistance and temporary power along with 300 ambulances and 30 “high water vehicles” from the defense department. More than 20m meals and 40m liters of water are available as needed, Fema said.“The National Hurricane Center forecasts Hurricane Milton will be a large and extremely dangerous hurricane when it approaches the west coast of Florida tomorrow, bringing devastating hurricane-force winds and life-threatening [storm] surge,” the statement read. The agency also warned “time is running out to prepare for the hurricane’s potentially deadly impacts”.The announcement comes as the Biden administration grapples with the effects of back-to-back hurricanes as well as misinformation spread by Donald Trump and his supporters and others about the federal response to recent storms and false claims that Fema is preventing people from evacuating in Florida.As Florida residents prepare to flee Hurricane Milton, which is expected to be one of the state’s strongest storms in a century, gas stations are running out of fuel.About 1,300 of the state’s 7,500 gas stations, or 17.4%, were out of gas on Tuesday afternoon, CNN reported, citing data from GasBuddy. In areas under evacuation orders, the shortages were even more dire: on Monday night, 70% of stations in Fort Myers were without gas.“These numbers will continue to rise very fast,” Patrick De Haan, an analyst at GasBuddy, told Reuters.The state’s governor said that officials are working with fuel companies to continue bringing in gasoline before Milton makes landfall on Wednesday.“We have been dispatching fuel over the past 24 hours as gas stations have run out,” the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, said. “So we currently have 268,000 gallons of diesel, 110,000 gallons of gasoline. Those numbers are less than what they were 24 hours ago because we’ve put a lot in, but we have an additional 1.2m gallons of both diesel and gasoline that is currently en route to the state of Florida.”Meanwhile, the supreme court’s latest term is under way, and the nine justices heard oral arguments today in a case challenging the Biden administration’s regulation of “ghost guns”. As the Guardian’s Cecilia Nowell reports, the conservative-dominated body seemed ready to take the government’s side. Here’s more:The US supreme court signalled a willingness to uphold the regulation of “ghost guns” – firearms without serial numbers that are built from kits that people can order online and assemble at home.The manufacturers and gun rights groups challenging the rule argued the Biden administration overstepped by trying to regulate kits.Justice Samuel Alito compared gun parts to meal ingredients, saying a lineup including eggs and peppers isn’t necessarily a western omelet. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, though, questioned whether gun kits are more like ready-to-eat meal kits that contain everything needed to make a dinner like turkey chili.Chief Justice John Roberts seemed skeptical of the challengers’ position that the kits are mostly popular with hobbyists who enjoy making their own weapons, like auto enthusiasts might rebuild a car on the weekend.Many ghost gun kits require only the drilling of a few holes and removal of plastic tabs.“My understanding is that it’s not terribly difficult to do this,” Roberts said. “He really wouldn’t think he has built that gun, would he?”A ruling is expected in the coming months.Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, says he expects Hurricane Milton to reach the state’s west coast by tomorrow night or early on Thursday morning.He also says his administration has taken steps to help people flee areas under evacuation warnings, including negotiating lower hotel prices and arranging free rides with Uber:From his perch on the International Space Station, Nasa astronaut Matthew Dominick got a view of Hurricane Milton as it churned across the Gulf of Mexico towards Florida’s west coast:Speaking in Milwaukee at an event to promote his efforts to rid the US of lead pipes, Joe Biden repeated that his administration was prepared for Hurricane Milton, and that Floridians should heed the warnings of authorities.“We’re prepared for another horrible hurricane to hit Florida. I directed my team to do everything they can to save lives and help communities, before, during and after this hurricane. The most important message today for all those who may be listening to this and the impacted areas: listen to the local authorities. Follow safety instruction, including evacuation orders,” Biden said.The rest of Kamala Harris’s interview with Howard Stern was mostly free of heavy topics, with the vice-president answering, and occasionally parrying, questions on an array of subjects.Such as what she eats for breakfast every morning: “I don’t eat Raisin Bran every morning,” Harris replied. She said she was a fan of Special K, and that her mother used to make Special K cookies.Stern wondered whether Liz Cheney, the former Republican representative who lost her primary after breaking with Donald Trump and co-chairing the January 6 commission, might be someone she would appoint to her cabinet.“I gotta win, Howard,” Harris replied.Stern pondered the pressures of being both vice-president and also a candidate for the presidency, and asked Harris whether she might consider going to therapy. “This is my form of therapy right now, Howard,” the vice-president replied.Her interviewer then brought up people who might not vote for Harris because is a woman. She responded: “Listen, I’ve been the first woman in almost every position I’ve had. I believe that men and women support women in leadership. And that’s been my life experience and that’s why I’m running for president.”Kamala Harris continued her media blitz in New York City, making the second of three stops scheduled today at the studios of Howard Stern, the one-time shock jock who has lately become known for conducting in-depth interviews.Stern asked the vice-president for her reaction to the revelation – from a forthcoming book by investigative journalist Bob Woodward – that Donald Trump sent Vladimir Putin Covid-19 testing machines during the period when the virus was at its worst.Harris replied:
      That is just the most recent stark example of who Trump is, that he secretly sent Covid test kits for the personal use of Putin of Russia, an adversary to the United States, when he was talking about Americans should be putting bleach in their blood. Think about what this is. …
      This election is about strength versus weakness. The weakness of someone who puts himself before the American people, who does not have the strength to stand for their needs and make sure we’re a secure nation.
      The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Aircraft Operations Center posted a video on social media on Tuesday, showing one of their aircraft flying through the hurricane to collect data to improve forecasts and to support hurricane research.Aircraft data and satellite images of Hurricane Milton indicate that Milton’s maximum sustained winds have increased to near 155 mph with higher gusts, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center.“While fluctuations in intensity are expected, Milton is forecast to remain an extremely dangerous hurricane through landfall in Florida” reads the 2pm advisory.It adds: “Today is the last full day for Florida residents to get their families ready and evacuate if told to do so.”The Florida Department of Corrections announced on Tuesday that over 4,636 inmates have been evacuated ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall on Wednesday.“Additional evacuations are under way” the department added.The Department also announced the cancelation of visitation statewide through Sunday, in response to anticipated inclement weather.As of 1pm ET, at least 13 counties in Florida have issued mandatory evacuation warnings, and more than 50 counties are under a state of emergency as the state prepares Hurricane Milton’s arrival.Milton became a category 4 hurricane on Tuesday morning, and forecasters predict that the hurricane’s center will likely make landfall along the west-central coast of Florida sometime on Wednesday night.Joe Biden is warning people who live in the path of Hurricane Milton to heed evacuation orders, saying it could be the “worst storm to hit Florida in over a century”. The president postponed his travel to Angola and Germany as the storm churns eastward, and the White House is stepping up its outreach efforts ahead of what could be the next major disaster to befall the southeast, after Hurricane Helene swept through the region not two weeks ago. Kamala Harris gave a similar warning in an live interview on popular talk show the View, while also outlining her plans to relieve the burden on families who support both children and aging relatives.Here’s what else has happened today so far:

      On the View, Harris was asked what she would do different from Biden. The vice-president initially said nothing, then amended her answer, saying she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet.

      The FBI never acted on tips received about Brett Kavanaugh during his supreme court nomination process, a Democratic senator opposed to the Trump appointee revealed in a report.

      Trump secretly sent Covid-19 testing machines to Vladimir Putin in 2020, and has called the Russian leader as many as seven times since leaving the White House, investigative journalist Bob Woodward has reportedly written in a forthcoming book.
      The Guardian’s community team is hoping to hear from undecided voters in the seven swing states this election about their thoughts on the contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.If you vote in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona or Nevada and still haven’t picked a candidate, we have some questions for you, and you can find them below:The Trump campaign has seized on Kamala Harris’s comment on the View that she wouldn’t do anything different from Joe Biden to (no surprise) cast her as unfit for the presidency.“If you’re a voter who wants to turn the page from Joe Biden’s failed economy, open border, and global chaos then Kamala Harris is NOT the candidate for you,” an email from the campaign’s rapid response team reads.While Harris initially said in the morning interview that she could not think of anything she would do differently than Biden, she later said he would appoint a Republican to her cabinet – something the president has not done.Joe Biden issued a dire warning about the severity of Hurricane Milton, saying it could pose a historic threat to Florida.“The current path is terminated … in the Tampa Bay area and cuts directly across the state, east to west, all the way across the state, with the potential for this storm to both enter Florida as a hurricane and leave Florida as a hurricane on the Atlantic coast,” Biden said at the White House.“This could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century, and God willing, it won’t be but that’s what it’s looking like right now.”He also added that he had spoken to Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida who yesterday refused a call from Kamala Harris.“The governor of Florida has been cooperative. He said he’s gotten all that he needs. I talked to him again yesterday, and … I said, ‘No, you’re doing a great job. It’s being all being done,’” Biden said, adding he gave DeSantis his personal phone number.The president also said he would find another time to travel to Germany and Angola, two trips he postponed as the storm approached. More

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      Kamala Harris tells Howard Stern Trump is a ‘sore loser’ in interview blitz

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      Kamala Harris appeared on the Howard Stern show on Tuesday, calling Donald Trump a “sore loser” and receiving an endorsement from the host, Howard Stern.Her appearance on the radio show, whose listenership skews white and male, comes as Harris embarks on a series of sit-down interviews on popular talkshows and podcasts, including Stern, The View, the podcast Call Her Daddy and the Late Show With Stephen Colbert.During the show, Harris blasted Trump for his comment that he would be a “dictator on day one” and called him a “sore loser” for his role in promoting false claims of widespread voter fraud after the 2020 election. “Understand what dictators do,” said Harris. “They jail journalists, they put people who are protesting in the street in jail.”The interview comes just weeks after Trump, who appeared on Stern’s show in years past, claimed on Fox News that the host “went woke”. Stern shrugged off the charge last year, telling listeners that he takes “woke” as a compliment and that “the opposite of being woke is being asleep.”The interview also hit on personal subject matter – from therapy (she’s not seeing a therapist currently), to her preferred choice of breakfast cereal (Special K), to her family.During the interview Stern asked if she thought there were Americans who would refuse to vote for a woman.“Listen, I’ve been the first woman in almost every position I’ve had,” said Harris. “I believe that men and women support women in leadership. And that’s been my life experience and that’s why I’m running for president.”Stern revealed that he plans to vote for Harris. According to the show, Stern’s listenership leans white and male, a demographic that the Harris campaign and Democratic party have sought to win over through campaigns like “White Dudes for Harris” – which started as a Zoom call that drew roughly 200,000 attenders on 29 July.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionHarris also appeared on Tuesday on ABC’s The View, where she announced a plan to expand Medicare to cover in-home healthcare for seniors. When asked whether she would have done anything differently than Biden in the last four years, Harris defended Biden’s legacy and said “there is not a thing that comes to mind”, adding that she had a role in most major decisions by the administration.Harris’s series of sit-down interviews is probably intended to reach key audiences – and dispel criticism about her infrequent interviews with journalists. Her media spree will continue when a taped interview airs on Tuesday night on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. More

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      Giggling Elon Musk revisits ‘joke’ about Kamala Harris assassination

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      Elon Musk has said it would be “pointless” to try to kill Kamala Harris weeks after a pressure campaign led to him to delete a social media post expressing surprise that no one had tried to assassinate the vice-president or Joe Biden.The Tesla and Space X entrepreneur re-entered the murky waters of political assassinations in a web video interview with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson which Musk then posted on the X platform that he owns.Referencing the original comment at the beginning of the one hour and 48 minute exchange, Musk tells Carlson: “I made a joke, which I realised – I deleted – which is like: nobody’s even bothering to try to kill Kamala because it’s pointless. What do you achieve?”Both men dissolved into laughter, with Carlson responding: “It’s deep and true though.”“Just buy another puppet,” Musk continues, before adding: “Nobody’s tried to kill Joe Biden. It’d be pointless.”“Totally,” agrees Carlson.Invited to elaborate on the post, Musk goes on: “Some people interpreted it as though I was calling for people to assassinate her, but I was like … Does it seem strange that no one’s even bothered? Nobody tries to assassinate a puppet … She’s safe.”“That’s hilarious,” Carlson deadpans, as his guest laughs at his own joke.Authorities have notably made multiple arrests of individuals who have made death threats against Harris and Biden. A Virginia man was arrested in August and charged with making threats against the vice-president.Musk’s original comment on X was posted in the immediate aftermath of a suspected second assassination attempt on Donald Trump last month. On 15 September, a man was arrested after a Secret Service agent spotted the barrel of a gun sticking out of bushes at the former president’s golf club in Palm Beach, Florida. A suspect, Ryan Routh, has since been charged with trying to kill Trump. He denies the charges.“And no one’s even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” Musk wrote after the incident, with a emoji symbolising puzzlement attached.Musk, a vocal and committed supporter of Trump’s campaign to re-enter the White House, later deleted the post amid an angry backlash and comments from the Secret Service that it was “aware” of it.“Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on 𝕏,” he later wrote in explanation.“Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text.”The interviewer then laughed uproariously after suggesting to his guest: “If he [Trump] loses man … you’re fucked, dude.”Musk bantered back: “I’m fucked. If he loses, I’m fucked.”To the sound of general background laughter and Carlson’s obvious delight, the tech billionaire continued: “How long do you think my prison sentence is going to be. Will I see my children, I don’t know.”Musk’s latest assassination comments came just days after he appeared on stage with Trump last weekend at the same site in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a would-be assassin tried to kill the ex-president on 13 July. In that instance, Trump’s ear was grazed with a bullet and a rally-goer was shot dead before the perpetrator himself was killed by a Secret Service agent.Trump was endorsed by Musk moments after that attempt. He later said he would appoint Musk to lead a government efficiency commission if he became president again.The Secret Service – which stepped up its security protection for Trump following criticism of its failure to prevent the first assassination attempt – has said it is familiar with Musk’s latest comments, according to the Washington Post. More

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      US supreme court signals willingness to uphold regulation on ‘ghost gun’ kits

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      The US supreme court signalled a willingness to uphold the regulation of “ghost guns” – firearms without serial numbers that are built from kits that people can order online and assemble at home.The manufacturers and gun rights groups challenging the rule argued the Biden administration overstepped by trying to regulate kits.Justice Samuel Alito compared gun parts to meal ingredients, saying a lineup including eggs and peppers isn’t necessarily a Western omelet. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, though, questioned whether gun kits are more like ready-to-eat meal kits that contain everything needed to make a dinner like turkey chili.Chief Justice John Roberts seemed skeptical of the challengers’ position that the kits are mostly popular with hobbyists who enjoy making their own weapons, like auto enthusiasts might rebuild a car on the weekend.Many ghost gun kits require only the drilling of a few holes and removal of plastic tabs.
      “My understanding is that it’s not terribly difficult to do this,” Roberts said. “He really wouldn’t think he has built that gun, would he?”A ruling is expected in the coming months.As ghost guns were increasingly used in crimes – including 1,200 homicides and attempted homicides between 2016 and 2022, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms – the Biden administration issued new rules regulating them in 2022. The new ATF rule classified ghost gun kits as firearms under the Gun Control Act of 1968, the US’s main firearms law – making them subject to the same regulations as all other guns.Since the rule went into effect, police departments in cities like New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia have all recovered fewer ghost guns at crime scenes.However, firearms manufacturers and gun-rights groups quickly sued to block the ATF rule. A federal district court judge in Texas ruled against the ATF in 2023 – but the Biden administration appealed the decision to the fifth circuit court of appeals. While that decision was pending, the supreme court intervened to keep the regulation in effect, by a narrow 5-4 vote. The fifth circuit ultimately ruled against the Biden administration, which then appealed the case to the supreme court.Garland v VanDerStok will require the supreme court to consider issues of firearm policy, but also the extent of federal regulatory powers. The court has been resistant to regulate guns in recent years, issuing decisions like a 2022 ruling striking down New York state’s ban on concealed carry firearms and a decision earlier this year overturning a ban on bump stocks.At the same time, the court has been wary of federal regulatory power, overturning a 40-year-old legal precedent known as Chevron deference, which allowed agencies like the ATF to broadly interpret the laws they are charged with implementing, earlier this year.The supreme court sided with the Biden administration last year, allowing the regulation to go. Roberts and Barrett joined with the court’s three liberal members to form the majority.Ghost guns, which can be assembled at home in under an hour to produce a fully functional weapon, used to be rare, except among hobbyists. In 2016, police recovered about 1,800 such firearms. But by 2021, that number had soared to nearly 20,000, according to the justice department. The weapons’ popularity was in part tied to the fact they were not regulated like already assembled firearms: they had no serial number, no sales records and did not require a background check.

      The Associated Press contributed reporting More

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      Former aide to Eric Adams arrested on charges of witness tampering

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      A former aide to Eric Adams was arrested Tuesday on charges of witness tampering and destroying evidence in relation to a federal investigation that has spawned FBI raids, a string of resignations and bribery charges brought against the New York mayor.Mohamed Bahi, who ran the mayor’s community affairs office, had already stepped down when he was charged on Tuesday with instructing multiple witnesses to lie to federal investigators about a December 2020 fundraiser for Adams’ victorious mayoral election campaign.Federal prosecutors in New York allege that Bahi, 40, deleted Signal, an encrypted messaging app that he used to communicate with the mayor from his phone, when he realized the FBI was on his trail.“The charges unsealed today should leave no doubt about the seriousness of any effort to interfere with a federal investigation, particularly when undertaken by a government employee,” Damian Williams, US district attorney for the southern district of New York, said in a statement.At least three federal corruption investigations are focused on Adams and his aides. Prosecutors charged the mayor in September with five counts of public corruption, including bribery and violating campaign finance laws.Adams has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has petitioned the court to drop the bribery count.“I am going to serve my term and run for the election,” Adams said Tuesday, adding: “I think when both sides of this come out, people are going to have a second look at this entire event that’s taking place.”The ongoing raids and resignations, including that of his chief legal adviser, have raised questions about Adams’ ability to simultaneously lead the city, run for re-election and defend himself from the allegations.The New York governor, Kathy Hochul, the only elected official with the power to remove Adams from office, has not called for him to step down. If he did, the city would be run by Jumaane Williams – a progressive Democrat who serves as public advocate for the city – until elections are held.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBut with tight congressional elections in the suburbs of New York City on 5 November, and Hochul facing her own re-election in 2026, it is not believed that the governor is willing to risk political discord by removing Adams as mayor.Hochul has reportedly told Adams to clean house and to work to regain the trust of New Yorkers. “I’ve talked to the mayor about what my expectations are, and I don’t give out details of private conversations,” Hochul said recently. More