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      John Fetterman says stroke he suffered ‘changes everything’ about his life

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      John Fetterman says stroke he suffered ‘changes everything’ about his lifePennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate insists his disability is temporary, while his opponent Mehmet Oz has mocked him for it John Fetterman, the Democratic candidate whose health has been mocked by his Republican opponent, Mehmet Oz, during a rancorous race for Pennsylvania’s US Senate seat, has admitted the stroke he suffered in May “changes everything” about his life.In a televised interview with NBC, in which he used a closed captioning machine to be able to read the questions put to him, he insisted his disability was temporary, and that in January “I’m going [to] be much better – and Dr Oz is still going to be a fraud”.His comments are the latest chapter in a tightening race that could decide control of the Senate.Fetterman and his opponent, whose career as a celebrity television doctor drew claims of quackery for allegedly fake diet pills and dubious Covid cures, have lobbed acrimony at each other throughout the campaign. Earlier this month, Fetterman seized on allegations of animal cruelty against Oz from his time as a researcher at Columbia University.In the NBC interview, Fetterman struggled to pronounce some words and had difficulty finding others. He conceded the stroke had affected his auditory processing and speech skills, which he deliberately highlighted after initially struggling to correctly express the word “empathetic”, also pronouncing it “emphetic”.“That’s an example,” he said. “I always thought I was empathetic before the stroke. I now really understand much more the kind of challenges Americans have day in, day out.”Asked by interviewer Dasha Burns how the stroke affected his own day-to-day life, Fetterman said: “It changes everything. Everything about it has changed.“I sometimes will hear things in a way that’s not perfectly clear. So I use captioning so I’m able to see what you’re saying.“And every now and then I’ll miss a word. Or sometimes I’ll maybe mush two words together. But as long as I have captioning, I’m able to understand exactly what’s being asked.”Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, recommenced public appearances in August after the stroke. He denied it would affect his ability to serve as a senator: “I don’t think it’s going to have an impact. I feel like I’m gonna get better and better, every day.”Oz’s campaign staff accused Fetterman of “hiding” when he dropped out of a debate in the summer. Following the Republican’s offer that “at any point John Fetterman can raise his hand and say bathroom break. We will pay for any additional medical personnel [he] might need to have on standby,” Fetterman retorted that “Dr Oz’s team … think it is funny to mock a stroke survivor.”Fetterman told NBC: “You can’t be any more transparent than standing up on a stage with 3,000 people and having a speech without a teleprompter and just putting everything and yourself out there like that. That’s as transparent as everyone in Pennsylvania can see.”Fetterman also attacked Oz over abortion, and defended himself against accusations that he was “soft on crime”.“If you’re going to be our next senator, you have to give the answer,” Fetterman said, referring to Oz’s wavering stance on abortion. “[Women] believe their choice belongs with them, and not with Dr Oz or the Republicans.”Recent polling aggregated by Real Clear Politics shows Fetterman maintaining a slender lead over Oz, down from double digits earlier in the year, with less than four weeks until election day.Oz has focused on Fetterman’s positions on crime, accusing his opponent of wanting to release one-third of Pennsylvania’s prisoners. Some of Oz’s attacks have been labeled “misleading” by factcheck.org, including a claim that Fetterman wanted to legalize heroin.“I believe in redemption,” Fetterman told NBC, citing the Oscar-nominated movie film Shawshank Redemption to explain his stance.“If you, at the end of the movie, would vote to have Morgan Freeman’s character die in prison, then that’s really the choice,” he said. “I haven’t met a single person that’s said, ‘Yeah, Morgan Freeman should die in prison.’“It’s all a choice on redemption, and giving somebody a chance to not die in prison that is not of any danger to the public whatsoever.”TopicsPennsylvaniaUS politicsUS SenateUS midterm elections 2022newsReuse this content More

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      Biden open to re-evaluating Saudi relationship after Opec+ cuts, says White House – as it happened

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      President Joe Biden will consider working with Congress to change the United States’ relationship with Saudi Arabia amid outrage over its support for an oil production cut that was seen as partial to Russia, a White House spokesman said.The comments from John Kirby, spokesman for the Biden administration’s national security council, largely reiterate what the president said last week, when the Opec+ bloc of oil producers, in which Saudi Arabia plays a leading role, announced they would reduce production by 2 million barrels per-day, even as countries struggle with energy prices that have spiked since Russia invaded Ukraine. Asked in an interview with CNN about calls from Democrats in Congress to cut off weapons sales and security assistance to Riyadh over the decision, Kirby said Biden was willing to discuss those proposals with lawmakers.“This is a relationship that we need to continue to re-evaluate, that we need to be willing to revisit. And certainly, in light of the Opec decision, I think that’s where he is,” Kirby said.Here’s more from the CNN interview:White House’s John Kirby says “the timeline is now” for working with Congress to re-evaluate the US-Saudi relationship. “I think [President Biden] is going to be willing to start to have those conversations right away.” pic.twitter.com/y6Hkw2TXXP— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) October 11, 2022
      The United States and Saudi Arabia are at loggerheads, after Riyadh pushed Opec+ to cut its crude output and potentially drive gas prices higher, defying Washington’s pleas for a delay. Today, the White House confirmed that president Joe Biden is willing to re-evaluate his country’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, potentially upending a decades-long alliance.Here’s what else happened today:
      Tulsi Gabbard left the Democratic party. The former Hawaii congresswoman unsuccessfully stood for its presidential nomination in 2020, but has become increasingly conservative since departing Congress last year.
      Elon Musk says he did not talk to Russian president Vladimir Putin about how to end the war in Ukraine.
      The supreme court’s conservative majority rejected an appeal from a death row inmate challenging his conviction over some jurors’ opposition to interracial marriage. It also turned down an appeal from racist murderer Dylann Roof, as well as a case concerning so-called “fetal personhood”.
      Ohio’s Senate candidates faced off in a debate last night. The race is unexpectedly close, but the Democratic candidate Tim Ryan believes the party’s leadership has given up on him.
      The supreme court today declined to weigh in on the topic of so-called “fetal personhood” by turning away a challenge to a Rhode Island law codifying abortion rights, Reuters reports.Had it taken the case, the court’s conservative majority – which in June overturned Roe v Wade and allowed states to ban abortion – could have had the chance to decide the point at which fetuses are entitled to constitutional rights. Here’s more from Reuters:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote in June’s ruling overturning the abortion rights precedent that in the decision the court took no position on “if and when prenatal life is entitled to any of the rights enjoyed after birth.”
      Some Republicans at the state level have pursued what are called fetal personhood laws, like one enacted in Georgia affecting fetuses starting at around six weeks of pregnancy, that would grant fetuses before birth a variety of legal rights and protections like those of any person.
      Under such laws, termination of a pregnancy legally could be considered murder.
      Lawyers for the group Catholics for Life and the two Rhode Island women – one named Nichole Leigh Rowley and the other using the pseudonym Jane Doe – argued that the case “presents the opportunity for this court to meet that inevitable question head on” by deciding if fetuses possess due process and equal protection rights conferred by the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
      The Rhode Island Supreme Court relied on the now-reversed Roe precedent in finding that the 14th Amendment did not extend rights to fetuses. The Roe ruling had recognized that the right to personal privacy under the U.S. Constitution protected a woman’s ability to terminate her pregnancy.The New York Times has published a story with more details about Christina Bobb, the lawyer for Donald Trump who may be in legal trouble for signing a document saying, incorrectly, that all government material requested by the justice department from the former president had been turned over.The news of Bobb’s meeting with the justice department was reported yesterday, and added to the intrigue surrounding the government secrets the FBI found when it searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in August, discoveries that contradicted the document Bobb signed months prior.Today’s story in the Times goes deeper into Bobb’s background, and her journey from the Marine Corps to the homeland security department to rightwing media and finally to Trump’s inner circle. Here’s more from their report:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The former president was in the midst of an escalating clash with the Justice Department about documents he had taken with him from the White House at the end of his term. The lawyer, M. Evan Corcoran, met Ms. Bobb at the president’s residence and private club in Florida and asked her to sign a statement for the department that the Trump legal team had conducted a “diligent search” of Mar-a-Lago and found only a few files that had not been returned to the government.
      Ms. Bobb, a 39-year-old lawyer juggling amorphous roles in her new job, was being asked to take a step that neither Mr. Trump nor other members of the legal team were willing to take — so she looked before leaping.
      “Wait a minute — I don’t know you,” Ms. Bobb replied to Mr. Corcoran’s request, according to a person to whom she later recounted the episode. She later complained that she did not have a full grasp of what was going on around her when she signed the document, according to two people who have heard her account.
      Ms. Bobb, who relentlessly promoted falsehoods about the 2020 election as an on-air host for the far-right One America News Network, eventually signed her name. But she insisted on adding a written caveat before giving it to a senior Justice Department official on June 3: “The above statements are true and correct to the best of my knowledge.”Trump lawyer told to certify Mar-a-Lago document search she did not conductRead moreWhether they’re watching TV or reading this blog, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) has found that Americans are losing sleep over politics.According to a survey by the academy, 58% of respondents lost sleep due to worries about the political situation, with about a third of Gen Zers saying they always, almost always or often lose sleep over what they read in the news.“Politics can be a charged topic for so many people—even more so when those topics hit close to home. The 24-hour news cycle brings us endless updates on both domestic and international events, conflicts, and opinions. This can weigh heavily on us both physically and emotionally,” said Seema Khosla, chair of the AASM public awareness advisory committee. “It is important to prioritize healthy, sufficient sleep, especially with the midterm elections coming up.”For all the uncertainty over the upcoming midterms, there are a few things that can be said for sure, including this: Madison Cawthorn, a conservative firebrand who has unreservedly embraced Donald Trump, will not be returning to Congress.The North Carolina representative lost his district’s Republican primary earlier this year, after being embroiled in a number of scandals that led the House’s Republican leadership to repudiate him.Is this the last we’ll hear of the 27-year-old lawmaker? The Washington Post has published a profile exploring that question, and taking a look at Cawthorn’s apparently unproductive days in office since he lost his primary:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Madison Cawthorn left his Capitol Hill office on a recent afternoon like a man with a purpose, though what that purpose is, exactly, has been something of an unknown since he lost his congressional primary five months ago.
      “I have to get to a floor speech real quick,” the North Carolina Republican said. Cawthorn, 27, who was partially paralyzed in a car accident in 2014, pivoted in his wheelchair and rolled out to the sidewalk, crossing Independence Avenue and heading toward the Capitol.
      Inside a nearly empty House chamber, Cawthorn read a one-minute speech in which he declared that “America cannot be saved through legislation.”
      “Christ, not Congress, will be what saves this country,” he said in an emphatic baritone.
      Cawthorn left the Capitol building, stopping at the corner of Independence and New Jersey avenues, a tin of Grizzly chewing tobacco on his lap. “I gotta grab my food real quick,” he told The Washington Post before heading to another nearby corner to await a delivery driver.
      As he lingered, a solitary figure in a stream of lunchtime passersby, the congressman spat tobacco juice on the sidewalk.
      What does Madison Cawthorn do, now that his days in Washington are numbered?
      At the Capitol, it seems, he has not made much of a mark. His standing among key Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, tanked after a series of missteps, perhaps the most consequential of which was his assertion in March that an unnamed colleague had invited him to an orgy and that he had seen another partake in a “key bump of cocaine.” Republicans who wanted to attack Democrats by talking about soaring gas prices and “Bidenflation” suddenly found themselves answering questions about whether the Capitol had turned into a swinger’s club.There are several races on the ballot this fall that will have profound consequences for American democracy. In several states, Republican candidates who doubt the election 2020 election results, or in some cases actively worked to overturn them, are running for positions in which they would have tremendous influence over how votes are cast and counted. If these candidates win, there is deep concern they could use their offices to spread baseless information about election fraud and try to prevent the rightful winners of elections from being seated.Here’s a look at some of the key candidates who pose a threat to US democracy:US midterms 2022: the key candidates who threaten democracyRead moreFurther evidence has emerged this afternoon that a significant diplomatic rift between Saudi Arabia and the United States is opening.Semafor reports that Washington is backing out of a meeting with the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council on air and missile defenses:SCOOP: A key US-Saudi meeting under review in the White House has been CANCELED, according to the contents of a letter obtained exclusively by Semafor. 1/7— Steve Clemons (@SCClemons) October 11, 2022
      The Text of the Letter Reads:The Embassy of the United States of America presents its compliments to the Gulf Cooperation Council Secretariat and hereby informs the Gulf Cooperation Council that United States officials will not be able to participate in the planned meetings 2/7— Steve Clemons (@SCClemons) October 11, 2022
      of the United States – Gulf Cooperation Council Working Group on Iran Integrated Air and Missile Defense.The point of contact is [REDACTED]The Embassy of the United States of America avails itself of this opportunity to renew the Gulf Cooperation Council of assurances of 3/7— Steve Clemons (@SCClemons) October 11, 2022
      its highest consideration.The Embassy of the United States of AmericaRiyadhOctober 7Semafor made public that there was White House discussion of ‘possibly canceling’ the US-GCC Working Group on Iran Integrated Air and Missile Defense scheduled for Oct 17 in Riyadh but 4/7— Steve Clemons (@SCClemons) October 11, 2022
      that no decision had been made. I was told by White House and Pentagon officials that this meeting ‘had not’ been canceled and that there was ‘no decision yet.’5/7— Steve Clemons (@SCClemons) October 11, 2022
      BUT THEN we saw the above letter, which shows clearly that the cancellation of the meeting was made 2 DAYS before our inquiry of the WH, Pentagon & State Department. 6/7— Steve Clemons (@SCClemons) October 11, 2022
      Meanwhile, Punchbowl News reports more senators are wondering why Washington should work with Riyadh.“I think we should look carefully at everything we’re sending. Because their inability to cooperate with the West and their willingness to cooperate with Russia is very disturbing,” said Democrat Jack Reed, who chairs the Senate armed services committee.“Why should we [send arms to Saudi Arabia]? If they don’t have any more concern for international security and the stability of the world economy, why should we be helping them?” Angus King, an independent senator who caucuses with Democrats, said. He sits on both the armed services and intelligence committees.Here’s what the White House National Security Council spokesperson, John Kirby, had to say earlier about reported geopolitical discussions between Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Obviously, he’s not representing the United States government in those conversations.”According to Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group, Musk spoke to Putin before tweeting a proposal to end the Ukraine war.According to Musk, though, Bremmer is mistaken. Asked if Bremmer’s report was true, the SpaceX and Tesla founder said: “No, it is not. I have spoken to Putin only once and that was about 18 months ago. The subject matter was space.”This one may develop.Here, meanwhile, is a recent report from Helen Davidson in Taipei about how people round there view Musk’s recent pronouncements on the delicate diplomatic matter of Taiwan and China…Taiwan politicians dismiss Elon Musk’s ‘ill-informed and belittling’ China comments Read moreHere’s a tweet from Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No2 Democrat in the US Senate, on matters concerning Opec+, oil production cuts and future US relationships and geopolitical priorities:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The Nopec Act passed in the judiciary committee with a bipartisan vote in May. Saudi Arabia’s collusion with Putin to fix prices will increase gas prices for Americans at a time when inflation is high. The Senate must take action against price fixing by Opec+ and pass this legislation.What is the Nopec Act, I hear you cry. Fortunately, our friends at Reuters are here to explain, including about how that characteristic congressional acronym came about:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels (Nopec) bill … is intended to protect US consumers and businesses from engineered oil spikes. The bipartisan bill would tweak US antitrust law to revoke the sovereign immunity that has protected Opec+ members and their national oil companies from lawsuits. If signed into law, the US attorney general would gain the option to sue the oil cartel or its members, such as Saudi Arabia, in federal court.
      It is unclear exactly how a federal court could enforce judicial antitrust decisions against a foreign nation. The US could also face criticism for its attempts to manipulate markets by, for example, its planned release of 165 million barrels of oil from the emergency oil reserve between May and November.
      But several attempts to pass NOPEC over more than two decades have long worried Opec+’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, leading Riyadh to lobby hard every time a version of the bill has come up. Previous versions of the bill have also failed amid resistance by oil industry groups, including top US oil lobby group, the American Petroleum Institute (API).
      But anger has risen in Congress about gasoline prices that earlier this year helped fuel inflation to the highest level in decades.For more on this story: Cutting oil output risks global economy, warns US Treasury secretaryRead moreWe have a statement from Joe Biden about the breakthrough between Israel and Lebanon, about which Bethan McKernan reported the following for the Guardian earlier:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Israel and Lebanon have agreed a deal in a dispute over gas fields and the two countries’ maritime border, a groundbreaking diplomatic achievement that could boost natural gas production in the Mediterranean before the European winter.
      Yair Lapid, Israel’s prime minister, said months of US-brokered negotiations had resulted in a “historic agreement” between two nations technically at war since Israel’s creation in 1948. The deal would “strengthen Israel’s security, inject billions into Israel’s economy, and ensure the stability of our northern border”, he added.
      A statement from the office the Lebanese president, Michel Aoun, said the latest version of the proposal “satisfies Lebanon, meets its demands, and preserves its rights to its natural resources”.
      The agreement is expected to enable Israeli production of natural gas from the Karish maritime reservoir … while relatively small in terms of global production, bringing Karish online is a welcome development for Israel’s western allies, as the invasion of Ukraine has sent energy prices soaring and left Europe searching for alternatives to Russian oil and gas.Here’s a taste of what Biden has to say, with perhaps the most pointed part bolded up:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I have just spoken with the Prime Minister of Israel, Yair Lapid, and the President of Lebanon, Michel Aoun, who confirmed the readiness of both governments to move forward with this agreement. I want to also thank President Emmanuel Macron of France and his government for their support in these negotiations.
      Energy – particularly in the eastern Mediterranean – should serve as the tool for cooperation, stability, security, and prosperity, not for conflict.Biden also says the deal “promotes the interests of the United States and the American people in a more stable, prosperous, and integrated Middle East region, with reduced risks of new conflicts”.Here’s Bethan’s full report:Israel and Lebanon reach ‘historic’ maritime border and gas fields dealRead moreThe United States and Saudi Arabia are at loggerheads, after Riyadh pushed Opec+ to cut its crude output and potentially drive gas prices higher, defying Washington’s pleas for a delay. Today, the White House confirmed that president Joe Biden is willing to re-evaluate his country’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, potentially upending a decades-long alliance.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      Tulsi Gabbard has left the Democratic party. The former Hawaii congresswoman unsuccessfully stood for its presidential nomination in 2020, but has become increasingly conservative since departing Congress last year.
      The supreme court’s conservative majority rejected an appeal from a death row inmate challenging his conviction over some jurors’ opposition to interracial marriage. It also turned down an appeal from racist murderer Dylann Roof.
      Ohio’s Senate candidates faced off in a debate last night. The race is unexpectedly close, but the Democratic candidate Tim Ryan believes the party’s leadership has given up on him.
      US officials asked Saudi Arabia to hold off on pushing the Opec+ coalition of crude producers for a cut in their output, but Riyadh refused, The Wall Street Journal reports. The story suggests that relations between Riyadh and Washington are worse than they appear, even after president Joe Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia in July to mend relations and potentially convince the country to pump more oil and, in turn, lower gas prices in the United States. The visit was criticized by many of the president’s allies, who wanted him to stick to a campaign promise to turn Saudi Arabia into a “pariah” for its human rights abuses.According to the Journal, Saudi officials viewed the Biden administration’s request to delay the Opec+ production cut by a month as an attempt to salvage their fortunes ahead of the midterm elections, where Democrats are fighting to retain control of Congress. Now, the White House is mulling ways to punish Riyadh for its decision, the Journal reports.Here’s more from their story:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}In one of its first responses, U.S. officials said, the Biden administration is weighing whether to withdraw from participation in Saudi Arabia’s flagship Future Investment Initiative investment forum later this month.
      U.S. officials said the OPEC+ decision was unhelpful as inflation driven by high energy prices threatens global growth and represents an economic weapon against the West for Russian President Vladimir Putin. It threatens to drive up American gasoline prices ahead of the Nov. 8 midterms.
      The one-month delay requested by Washington would have meant a production cut made in the days before the election, too late to have much effect on consumers’ wallets ahead of the vote.
      Adrienne Watson, a National Security Council spokeswoman, rejected Saudi contentions that the Biden administration efforts were driven by political calculations.
      “It’s categorically false to connect this to U.S. elections,” she said. “It’s about the impact of this shortsighted decision to the global economy.”
      Adel al Jubeir, Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs, said the kingdom is committed to ensuring oil-market stability and noted that OPEC+ had increased output through much of the year. He said global economic headwinds justified the decision to cut production.
      He blamed the Washington reaction on “the emotions that have to do with the upcoming elections,” in an interview that aired on Fox News on Sunday. “The idea that Saudi Arabia would do this to harm the U.S. or to be in any way politically involved is not correct at all.”Ed Pilkington reports that some candidates running to manage their state’s elections in the 8 November midterms have openly said they will use their position to ensure Donald Trump returns to power:The head of a US coalition of election deniers standing for secretary of state positions in key battleground states has made the most explicit threat yet that they will use their powers, should they win in November, to subvert democracy and force a return of Donald Trump to the White House.Jim Marchant, who is running in the midterms as the Republican candidate for secretary of state in Nevada, has vowed publicly that he and his fellow coalition members will strive to make Trump president again. Speaking at a Make America Great Again rally in Minden, Nevada, on Saturday night, he repeated the lie that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from Trump.Marchant said he had investigated what he described as the “rigged election” and had discovered “horrifying” irregularities. He provided no details – an official review of the 2020 count in Nevada, which Joe Biden won by 34,000 votes, found no evidence of mass fraud.Nevada secretary of state contender pledges to secure Trump victory in 2024Read moreStudents at the University of Florida are not pleased by the news that Republican senator Ben Sasse has been selected as the new president, and told him so during a visit to the campus yesterday, Martin Pengelly reports:Less than a week after being revealed as the likely next president of the University of Florida (UF), the Republican senator Ben Sasse was met with protests when he appeared on campus in Gainesville on Monday.“Hey-hey, ho-ho, Ben Sasse has got to go,” protesters chanted, seeking to draw attention to the Nebraskan’s views on LGBTQ+ rights.According to the UF student newspaper, the Independent Florida Alligator, after Sasse left a student forum early, leaders of a crowd of around 300 called the senator “homophobic and racist in between yelling from the audience”. One protester called out “Get the fuck”, the crowd responding, “Out of our swamp!”Students protest Ben Sasse’s views on LGBTQ+ rights at University of FloridaRead more More

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      Republican Chuck Grassley vows to vote against a national abortion ban

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      Republican Chuck Grassley vows to vote against a national abortion banThe longest-tenured US senator joins a growing chorus of conservative lawmakers opposed to such a restriction The longest-tenured Republican in the US Senate has pledged to vote against a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy which a prominent fellow party member and chamber colleague proposed last month, joining a growing chorus of conservative lawmakers opposed to that idea.Chuck Grassley, who’s been one of Iowa’s senators since 1980 and is seeking an eighth term in his seat during November’s midterms, expressed his opposition to such a ban during a televised debate Thursday night with his Democratic challenger Mike Franken.Anti-abortion Republican man says: I wish women could decide on lawRead more“I would vote ‘no,’” the 89-year-old lawmaker said in the verbal faceoff with Franken, a retired Navy admiral who’s thought to be more than 9 percentage points behind Grassley in the polls, according to the website FiveThirtyEight.Grassley’s remark during the recent debate is by no means an indication that he’s softening an anti-abortion stance that is typical among Republicans. He was among 43 GOP co-sponsors of a federal ban on aborting pregnancies beyond 20 weeks that was pitched last year by Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina.Graham last month introduced a bill aiming to ban abortions after 15 weeks with few exceptions, and just nine Republican senators co-sponsored the measure. Grassley was not among those nine.Graham’s fellow Republicans likely have met Graham’s bill with a cold reception because polling data show many voters disapproved of the US supreme court’s decision in June to eliminate the nationwide abortion rights that had been established by the landmark 1973 case Roe v Wade. In fact, one poll found that as many as 60% of voters support abortion rights in most are all cases.The Hill reported on its website that Grassley may have adopted his position on Graham’s more recently proposed ban out of fear for motivating opposition among Democratic voters in Des Moines and Iowa City, areas that are significantly more liberal than the rest of the strongly conservative state.Donald Trump won Iowa when the Republican captured the Oval Office in 2016 and then lost it to Joe Biden in 2020. The state had gone to Biden’s fellow Democratic president Barack Obama in the previous two elections.During the midterms, the Democrats are trying to preserve their advantage in a Senate that is evenly divided but which they control because of a tiebreaker vote in Biden’s vice-president Kamala Harris.Nonetheless, even if they lose the chamber to the Republicans, the party’s Senate leader Mitch McConnell has said that he doesn’t envision bringing Graham’s 15-week ban up for a vote in 2023. McConnell, of Kentucky, has said he believes each state should determine the legality of abortion in their jurisdiction.Since the supreme court’s controversial abortion ruling in June, the legislatures of 26 states have prohibited, severely limited or were expected to impede access to the termination of pregnancies, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. Meanwhile, just 21 American states had laws protecting abortion access.The co-sponsors of Graham’s proposed 15-week ban are Steve Daines of Montana, Marco Rubio of Florida, Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven of North Dakota, John Thune of South Dakota, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Roger Marshall of Kansas, and Josh Hawley of Missouri.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022AbortionRepublicansIowaUS SenateUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Woman tells New York Times that Herschel Walker urged her to have second abortion

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      Woman tells New York Times that Herschel Walker urged her to have second abortionThe Republican candidate for a Georgia US Senate seat has insisted that he does not know the woman’s identity Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate for a Georgia US Senate seat, has maintained he does not know the identity of a woman who claims that in 2009 she terminated a pregnancy that was the result of her and Walker’s relationship.But on Friday, the woman at the center of a political storm that threatens to undo the former Dallas Cowboys running back’s campaign told the New York Times that Walker urged her to terminate a second pregnancy two years later and that their relationship ended when she declined.Republicans throw support behind Herschel Walker after abortion denialRead moreThe woman, a former girlfriend whom Walker has referred to as “some alleged woman”, said the Senate hopeful backed by former president Donald Trump had scarcely been involved in their son’s life other than child support and gifts.But she offered a perspective on a candidate who has appealed to the state’s social conservatives as an opponent of abortion – even in cases of rape and incest.“As a father, he’s done nothing,” she told the Times, insisting on anonymity to protect her son. “He does exactly what the courts say, and that’s it.“He has to be held responsible, just like the rest of us. And if you’re going to run for office, you need to own your life.”She provided the paper with a $575 receipt from an Atlanta women’s clinic where the 2009 procedure was performed, as well as a check deposit slip showing a copy of a $700 check she claims Walker gave her as reimbursement.But Walker said Thursday on conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt’s show: “I know this is untrue. I know it’s untrue. I know nothing about any woman having an abortion.”Walker’s wife, Julie Blanchard, disclosed to the Daily Beast on Friday that she had been in touch with the woman who had told her it was “cruel” that Walker “continues to claim he doesn’t know me or the abortion he paid for”.“He brought all of this on himself when he decided to get on a platform and denounce abortion and make a mockery of his children who have done NOTHING to deserve this,” the anonymous woman reportedly also said.Blanchard said that “this makes me incredibly sad”, adding that she “witnessed everyday Herschel pray for you and [your son] & everyone in our family”.She told the outlet that Walker calls and texts the 10-year-old child “regularly” and feels “sadness” when he gets no response – to which the woman replied, “Are you kidding me?”The woman has said that Walker has never missed any of his $3,500 monthly child-support payments, but the complex drama has nonetheless focused attention on the Republican candidate that his campaign did not want.Besides his opposition to abortion, he has four children with four different women after openly criticizing absentee dads in the Black community.Walker has disputed that he does not acknowledge his children. “I just chose not to use them as props to win a political campaign,” he said in June. “What parent would want their child involved in garbage, gutter politics like this?”But some criticism has come from close to home. “You’re not a ‘family man’ when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over 6 times in 6 months running from your violence,” Walker’s adult son and conservative social-media influencer Christian Walker said on Twitter.Herschel Walker responded with his own tweet: “I LOVE my son no matter what.”But the revelations have challenged Walker’s conservative political positions as he faces off with Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock for the US senate seat that could determine control of the evenly divided legislative body.A Fox News poll conducted after reports emerged last week that Walker had paid for the former girlfriend to have an abortion showed Warnock at 47% and Walker at 44%.Warnock’s campaign recently reported having $13.7m in cash on hand.Walker’s campaign said it has more than $7m. Walker campaign manager Scott Paradise said the candidate had his best fundraising days immediately after the abortion revelation, contained in a Daily Beast article on 3 October.Nonetheless, there’s apparently been an atmosphere of chaos in the Walker campaign since the bombshell Daily Beast report. Two days after the report, the campaign cut ties with its political director, Taylor Crowe, CNN reported, citing multiple sources.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022GeorgiaAbortionUS SenateUS politicsReuse this content More

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      Trump ally Lindsey Graham told ex-cop Capitol rioters should be shot in head

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      Trump ally Lindsey Graham told ex-cop Capitol rioters should be shot in headMichael Fanone recounts meeting with South Carolina Republican senator in book to be published next week02:36Republican senator and Trump ally Lindsey Graham told a police officer badly beaten during the Capitol attack that law enforcement should have shot rioting Trump supporters in the head, according to a new book.Capitol attack officer Fanone hits out at ‘weasel’ McCarthy in startling interviewRead more“You guys should have shot them all in the head,” the now ex-cop, Michael Fanone, says the South Carolina Republican told him at a meeting in May 2021, four months after the deadly attack on Congress.“We gave you guys guns, and you should have used them. I don’t understand why that didn’t happen.”On January 6, Fanone was a Metropolitan police officer who came to the aid of Capitol police as Trump supporters attacked. He was severely beaten, suffering a heart attack and a traumatic brain injury.He has since resigned from the police, testified to the House January 6 committee and become a CNN analyst. His book, Hold the Line, will be published next week.Politico reported the remarks Fanone says were made by Graham. The site also said Fanone secretly recorded other prominent Republicans, among them Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader and possibly the next speaker, who has also stayed close to Trump.Politico said Fanone told McCarthy efforts to minimize the Capitol insurrection were “not just shocking but disgraceful”. McCarthy reportedly offered no response.Last week, Rolling Stone published an extraordinarily frank interview in which Fanone, a self-described lifelong Republican, called McCarthy a “fucking weasel bitch”. McCarthy did not comment.According to Politico, Fanone told Graham he “appreciated the enthusiasm” the senator showed for shooting rioters “but noted the officers had rules governing the use of deadly force”.Fanone says the meeting with Graham was also attended by Harry Dunn, a Capitol police officer who has also testified in Congress, and Gladys Sicknick and Sandra Garza, the mother and partner of Brian Sicknick, an officer who died after the riot.Fanone says Graham snapped at Gladys Sicknick, telling the bereaved mother he would “end the meeting right now” if she said more negative things about Trump.Nine deaths, including officer suicides, have been linked to the Capitol attack. The riot erupted after Trump told supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden, which he maintains without evidence was the result of electoral fraud. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s attorney, urged Trump’s supporters to stage “trial by combat”.Testimony to the House January 6 committee has shown Trump knew elements of the crowd were armed but told them to march on the Capitol and tried to go with them.Representatives for Graham did not comment to Politico. The senator was previously reported to have advocated the use of force against Capitol rioters on the day itself.The Divider review: riveting narrative of Trump’s plot against AmericaRead moreThat same day, Graham seemed to abandon his closeness to Trump. In a Senate speech hours after the Capitol was cleared, he said: “Count me out.” Days later, he said he had “never been so humiliated and embarrassed for the country”.But like most Republicans, McCarthy literally so, Graham returned to Trump’s side. Like all but seven Republican senators, Graham voted to acquit in Trump’s second impeachment trial, for inciting the Capitol attack.He recently predicted “riots in the streets” if Trump is indicted for retaining classified documents after leaving the White House.In their recent book, The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021, Peter Baker of the New York Times and Susan Glasser of the New Yorker quote Graham as calling Trump “a lying motherfucker” … but “a lot of fun to hang out with”.TopicsBooksUS Capitol attackUS politicsRepublicansUS SenateUS CongressUS policingnewsReuse this content More

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      Ben Sasse, Republican who voted to convict Trump, to depart Congress

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      Ben Sasse, Republican who voted to convict Trump, to depart CongressNebraska senator, to take top post at University of Florida, is latest GOP legislator to leave Capitol Hill after voting to impeach in 2021 Another Republican who stood up to Donald Trump is on his way out of Congress, with the news that the Nebraska senator Ben Sasse is set to become president of the University of Florida.What are the US midterm elections and who’s running?Read moreOf the 10 House Republicans and seven senators who voted to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial, for inciting the January 6 Capitol attack, only two congressmen and four senators are on course to return after the midterm elections.High-profile casualties include Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the House January 6 committee vice-chair who lost her primary to a Trump-backed challenger in August.Like Cheney, Sasse, 50, has been thought a possible contender for the Republican presidential nomination, a notional 2024 contest still dominated by Trump.The senator does not have to face voters again until 2026. But on Thursday Rahul Patel, a member of the University of Florida board of trustees, told the Tampa Bay Times the college needed “a visionary, an innovator and big thinker who would differentiate us from others – a leader who is transformational. The committee unanimously felt Ben Sasse is a transformational leader.”Sasse decried “Washington partisanship” and called Florida “the most interesting university in America right now”.A university president before he entered politics, at Midland in Nebraska, Sasse will in November be the sole candidate interviewed for the Florida position.If he resigns as a senator, the Nebraska governor – the Republican Pete Ricketts, or a likely Republican successor if Sasse resigns in January – will appoint a replacement.NBC News reported that Sasse’s move was the result of Republican rivalries. Quoting “a top Republican insider”, the outlet said the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, was behind the move, which was meant as one in the eye for Trump.Marc Caputo, a reporter, wrote: “In May, Trump said he regretted supporting Ben Sasse. Now, DeSantis’s man at UF has engineered Sasse’s hiring. ‘Everyone knows what this is about: Ron and Don,’ a top Republican insider tells me, echoing others.”As the only Republican who polls even close to Trump, DeSantis is widely thought to be planning a presidential run of his own.Ricketts, the Nebraska governor, is from the family behind the stockbroker TD Ameritrade and a former co-owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. He made headlines in June 2020, amid national protests for racial justice, when he apologised for calling Black leaders “you people”.The Ricketts family has ties to DeSantis. On Friday, in messages viewed by the Guardian, a Trump insider said the Sasse move was “about Ricketts money to DeSantis. This is what Pete wanted so he can appoint himself to the Senate.” In a statement, Ricketts said he learned about Sasse’s planned resignation on Thursday, “when he called to notify me”.He added: “If I choose to pursue the appointment, I will leave the appointment decision to the next governor and will follow the process established for all interested candidates. It is the honor of a lifetime to serve as the governor of Nebraska. It is the greatest job in the world, and it will remain my number one focus for the remainder of my term.”Sasse was elected to the Senate in 2014 and emerged as a critic of Trump and his effect on US politics when the billionaire ran for the White House two years later. Sasse called Trump a “megalomaniac strongman” and said he would not vote for him or his opponent, Hillary Clinton.Sasse’s wife, Melissa, said her husband had “a need for competition. Also he’s an idiot.”From 2017 to 2021, Sasse voted with Trump more than 85% of the time. He voted to acquit in Trump’s first impeachment trial, for blackmailing Ukraine for political dirt.Nevertheless, in November 2020 Sasse claimed: “I’ve never been on the Trump train.”In February 2021, Sasse said he voted to convict Trump over the Capitol attack because he had “promised to speak out when a president – even of my own party – exceeds his or her powers”. Such words earned him his share of Trumpian abuse, including a nickname, “Liddle Ben Sasse”.In 2018, Sasse wrote a book, Them, in which he lamented political polarisation. He wrote: “We are in a period of unprecedented upheaval. Community is collapsing, anxiety is building, and we’re distracting ourselves with artificial political hatreds. That can’t endure. And if it does, America won’t.”On Thursday, the Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin had a suggestion for what Sasse might do next.“Why not join Liz Cheney to campaign against GOP election liars/deniers. It might even impress his new employers. Otherwise his Senate career has been a total nothing burger.”TopicsRepublicansUS SenateUS CongressWashington DCFloridaUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      ‘We won’t be intimidated by Putin’s rhetoric,’ says White House after Biden’s ‘Armageddon’ warning – as it happened

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      Russia’s use of a nuclear weapon in Ukraine would cause “unintended consequences” for Moscow, the White House press secretary said, while noting there’s no evidence yet that president Vladimir Putin intends to use his atomic arsenal.“Russia’s talk of using nuclear weapons is irresponsible, and there’s no way to use to use them without unintended consequences. It cannot happen… We won’t be intimidated by Putin’s rhetoric,” Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One during president Joe Biden’s short flight to Hagerstown, Maryland, where he is to speak about the economy.She downplayed the possibility that the first use of a nuclear weapon in war since 1945 was imminent.“We have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture, nor do we have indications they are preparing to use them, but Putin can de-escalate this at any time and there is no reason to escalate.”She did not comment directly on Biden’s prediction last night that Russia’s use of a nuclear weapon would cause “Armageddon”.Joe Biden has issued a dire warning about Vladimir Putin’s willingness to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and warned that if such weapons are deployed, “armageddon” would follow. The White House said the president’s comments weren’t based on any new intelligence or signs that such an attack might happen soon, but rather an indication of how seriously the administration takes such threats.Here’s what else happened today:
      September was another decent month of job growth, though there were signs of weakness in the US labor market, according to new government data.
      The White House press secretary declined to comment on reports that prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to charge the president’s son Hunter Biden with crimes related to lying on a firearm purchase background check and not reporting all his income.
      Biden’s student debt relief plan survived another court challenge.
      Herschel Walker, the Republican Senate candidate in Georgia, fired a top staffer amid revelations Walker paid for an abortion despite his hardline stance against the procedure.
      President Joe Biden has issued a statement of congratulations to the winners of this year’s Nobel Peace prize, which went to rights activists in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.The decision was seen as a repudiation of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Here’s what Biden’s had to say:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}This year’s Nobel Peace Prize winners remind us that, even in dark days of war, in the face of intimidation and oppression, the common human desire for rights and dignity cannot be extinguished. On behalf of the American people, I congratulate Ales Bialiatski of Belarus, Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, and the Russian organization Memorial on this deserved honor. For years, they have tirelessly fought for human rights and fundamental freedoms—including the right to speak freely and criticize openly. They have pursued their mission with passion and persistence. Throughout its history, Memorial has revealed the truth about the abuse of Soviet and Russian citizens, despite intense intimidation. Ales Bialiatski has never backed down from demanding the democratic freedoms the Belarusian people deserve, even while imprisoned. And, in the midst of Russia’s brutal and unprovoked war against Ukraine, the Center for Civil Liberties is documenting in real time the war crimes and atrocities Russia is inflicting on the Ukrainian people. Above all, the brave souls who do this work have pursued the truth and documented for the world the political repression of their fellow citizens—speaking out, standing up, and staying the course while being threatened by those who seek their silence. In doing so, they have made our world stronger. Ales Bialiatski, the Center for Civil Liberties, and Memorial deserve to be recognized for the work they have done, the example they have set, and the hope they inspire for a better future through their unwavering dedication to fundamental freedoms.Nobel peace prize given to human rights activists in Belarus, Russia and UkraineRead moreIn other Senate news, Marco Rubio, a Republican representing Florida who is up for re-election this year, has found himself in a feud with a drag queen, Coral Murphy Marcos reports:A drag queen called the Florida senator Marco Rubio a bigot, after the Republican included her in a campaign ad in which he attacked “the radical left”.Lil Miss Hot Mess, who performs in Los Angeles, responded to Rubio in a video after he used footage of her reading to children during Drag Queen Story Hour, a children’s program that started in 2015.“I have one question for Marco Rubio,” Lil Miss Hot Mess said in the video released by Glaad, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group.“Why are you so obsessed with me and Drag Story Hour? We’re simply out here reading books to children, encouraging them to use their imagination to envision a more just and fabulous world.Drag queen featured in Marco Rubio campaign ad calls him a bigotRead moreHerschel Walker, the Republican senate candidate in Georgia, has fired his campaign’s political director, according to CNN. The decision came after The Daily Beast reported Walker, who backs banning abortion nationwide without exceptions, paid for the abortion of a woman who he later had another child with. The Georgia senate race in which Walker is trying to unseat Democrat Raphael Warnock is seen as crucial to controlling Congress’s upper chamber, but many high-profile Republicans continue to support Walker, despite the revelations.Here’s more from CNN:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The departure of Taylor Crowe, who previously held the same role on ex-GOP Sen. David Perdue’s failed bid for Georgia governor this year, comes just weeks before Election Day in the crucial Senate contest against Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock. With an evenly split Senate, Republicans are hoping to flip the Georgia seat as they look to take control of the chamber.
      Two people familiar with the matter said Crowe was fired after suspected leaking to members of the media. It is unclear if there were any other factors at play.
      Walker campaign manager Scott Paradise declined to comment when reached by CNN on Friday. Crowe himself did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
      CNN has not been able to independently verify the allegation against Walker, who has repeatedly denied that he ever paid for an abortion.Republicans throw support behind Herschel Walker after abortion denialRead moreThe White House has hit out at a bill proposed by Republican senators to roll back provisions of an August spending measure that are projected to reduce both the US budget deficit and prescription drug prices for people who receive health insurance through the government.The ability for the Medicare and Medicaid programs to negotiate drug prices was a change long sought by Democrats, and included in the Inflation Reduction Act spending bill Joe Biden signed in August. Yesterday, Republican senators James Lankford and Mike Lee introduced a bill to repeal that ability, arguing it “creates even more barriers to effectively bringing down the cost of prescriptions, particularly for senior adults on Medicare.”Here’s what White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had to say about that:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Today, MAGA Congressional Republicans introduced legislation that puts special interests before working families. Their new bill is a giveaway to big pharma at the expense of seniors by ending Medicare’s new ability to negotiate lower drug prices. Their vision for the country is extreme and out of touch with working families across the country.Julian Borger, our world affairs editor, writes from Washington…The past week has seen a rapid escalation in nuclear rhetoric, beginning with Vladimir Putin’s threat to use “all forces and means” to defend newly seized territory in Ukraine and ending with Joe Biden’s warning of “Armageddon” if Russia crosses the nuclear Rubicon.However, the realities underlying the menacing vocabulary are a far greyer area than the bluster suggests. It is far from certain that Putin would be prepared to be the first leader to use nuclear weapons in wartime since 1945, over his territorial ambitions in Ukraine. If his primary goal is to stay in power, that could be exactly the wrong way of going about it.Even if he did issue the launch order, he has no guarantee it would be carried out. Nor can he be absolutely sure that the weapons and their delivery systems would work.On the US side, despite Joe Biden’s apocalyptic language at a private fundraiser on Thursday night, it is not at all inevitable that Washington would respond to Putin’s nuclear use with nuclear retaliation. Past wargaming suggests there would be vigorous debate within the administration to say the least.Full story:Are Putin’s nuclear threats really likely to lead to Armageddon?Read moreNBC News reports that the Republican Nebraska senator Ben Sasse’s imminent departure from Congress to be president of the University of the Florida, first reported on Thursday, is the result of high-level Republican rivalries.Quoting “a top Republican insider”, NBC says the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, was behind the move, which was meant as one in the eye for Donald Trump.Marc Caputo, an NBC reporter, writes: “In May, Trump said he regretted supporting Ben Sasse. Now, DeSantis’s man at UF has engineered Sasse’s hiring. ‘Everyone knows what this is about: Ron and Don,’ a top Republican insider tells me, echoing others.”As the only Republican who polls even close to Trump, DeSantis is widely thought to be planning a presidential run of his own.There could be another angle to Sasse’s move.Pete Ricketts, the Republican Nebraska governor, will appoint a replacement for Sasse, should he join UF as expected and resign before January, when a new governor will be in place.On Friday, in messages viewed by the Guardian, a Trump insider said the Sasse move was “about Ricketts money to DeSantis. This is what Pete wanted so he can appoint himself to the Senate.”A spokesperson for Ricketts did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Full story:Ben Sasse, Republican who voted to convict Trump, to depart CongressRead moreIn Hagerstown, Maryland, Joe Biden has delivered a long attack on Republican policies on taxation, spending, healthcare, drugs prices and benefits including social security and Medicare. The midterm elections are just a month away, after all. He singles out Paul Gosar, a far-right Arizona Republican who has slammed Biden’s agenda as “socialist” but, Biden says, has asked for federal spending in his district. Biden asks, who’s the socialist there? “I was surprised to see so many socialists in the Republican caucus,” he adds.Biden says: “When it comes to the next Congress, it’s not a referendum. It’s a choice, a choice between two very different ways of looking at the economy.”He repeatedly decries “trickle-down economics”, the notion that tax cuts for the rich will benefit everyone else, so central to the current British government under Liz Truss, of course. Biden also decries Republican election denial, among those who claim he stole the 2020 election from Donald Trump, but says he has “never been more optimistic about America’s prospects”.Raising his voice, he insists there is “nothing, nothing we’ve ever set our mind to that we have not been able to do”.Music, applause … and scene.In Hagerstown, Maryland, Joe Biden has hailed this morning’s jobs numbers.“We’re proving that our best days are ahead of us, not behind us. Just look at today’s jobs report. Our economy created 263,000 jobs last month – that’s 10 million jobs since I’ve come into office. That’s the fastest job growth at any point of any president in American history. Historic progress. “The unemployment rate remains at historic lows: 3.5% unemployment. That includes the lowest unemployment among Hispanic Americans ever in the history of this country, the second-lowest employment among Black teenagers.”The president does adds a nod to expectations of a slowdown in jobs numbers soon: “Our jobs recovery will cool while still powering our recovery.”Our business editor, Dominic Rushe, has more on such concerns:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}According to career services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, it was the fifth month this year that job cuts were higher than the corresponding month in 2021. Challenger also reported a sharp slowdown in hiring intentions, with employers announcing in September that they planned to take on 380,014 workers, the lowest September total since 2011.
      “Some cracks are beginning to appear in the labor market. Hiring is slowing and downsizing events are beginning to occur,” senior vice-president Andrew Challenger said in a statement.
      “The cooling housing market and Fed’s rate hikes are leading to job cuts among mortgage staff at banks and lenders. The recession concerns are leading to increased uncertainty, and companies across sectors are beginning to reassess staffing needs.”US employers added 263,000 new jobs in September as ‘cracks’ appear in labor marketRead moreJoe Biden is now speaking in Hagerstown, Maryland, where he is visiting Volvo Group Powertrain Operations to talk about unions, jobs and other pressing pre-midterms priorities. Of course, a lot of minds are on what he said yesterday in New York, about Russia, the threat of nuclear war and the possibility of “Armageddon”.“I’m a union guy,” he says in Hagerstown, also branding himself the most “pro-union president American history”, dedicated to the “single best workers in the world”.We’ll keep listening, of course.Joe Biden has issued a dire warning about Vladimir Putin’s willingness to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and warned that if such weapons are deployed, “armageddon” would follow. The White House said the president’s comments weren’t based on any new intelligence or signs that such an attack might happen soon, but rather an indication of how seriously the administration takes such threats.Here’s what else is going on today:
      September was another decent month of job growth, though there were signs of weakness in the US labor market, according to new government data.
      The White House press secretary declined to comment on reports that prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to charge the president’s son Hunter Biden with crimes related to lying on a firearm purchase background check and not reporting all his income.
      Biden’s student debt relief plan survived another court challenge.
      The White House press secretary had less to say about the reports published yesterday and today revealing that federal investigators believe they have enough evidence to bring charges against Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.“This is an ongoing investigation being handled independently by the department of justice so I would refer you to the department of justice,” Karine Jean-Pierre replied when asked about the reports.Republicans have long tried to use the allegations of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden to paint the president as corrupt. During his administration, Donald Trump pressured Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate both Joe and Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the country to hurt the former’s presidential prospects, leading Democrats to impeach Trump in 2020. Hunter Biden has been under investigation since 2018, and The Washington Post along with CNN and The Wall Street Journal say that prosectors believe they have the evidence to charge Hunter Biden with crimes related to lying on a background check for purchasing a firearm, and for not reporting all of his foreign income. A Trump-appointed US attorney in Delaware will ultimately make a decision on whether or not to bring a case against the president’s son.Biden’s remarks last night weren’t based on any new intelligence, but rather a reinforcement of what Washington officials have been saying publicly in response to Putin’s threats using nuclear weapons, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.“The president… has been a very consistent. He was reinforcing what we have been saying, which is how seriously… we take these threats about nuclear weapons as we have done when the Russians have made these threats throughout the conflict,” Jean-Pierre said aboard Air Force One. “So the kind of irresponsible rhetoric we have seen is no way for the leader of a nuclear-armed state to speak, and that’s what the President was making very clear.”As Biden did in remarks to Democratic donors last night, Jean-Pierre also brought up the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Soviet Union and the United States came perilously close to nuclear conflict in 1962. “If the Cuban missile crisis has taught us anything, it is the value of reducing nuclear risk and not brandishing it,” she said.Russia’s use of a nuclear weapon in Ukraine would cause “unintended consequences” for Moscow, the White House press secretary said, while noting there’s no evidence yet that president Vladimir Putin intends to use his atomic arsenal.“Russia’s talk of using nuclear weapons is irresponsible, and there’s no way to use to use them without unintended consequences. It cannot happen… We won’t be intimidated by Putin’s rhetoric,” Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One during president Joe Biden’s short flight to Hagerstown, Maryland, where he is to speak about the economy.She downplayed the possibility that the first use of a nuclear weapon in war since 1945 was imminent.“We have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture, nor do we have indications they are preparing to use them, but Putin can de-escalate this at any time and there is no reason to escalate.”She did not comment directly on Biden’s prediction last night that Russia’s use of a nuclear weapon would cause “Armageddon”.Biden isn’t the only leader whose comments about Russia are grabbing headlines today.Here’s Finland’s prime minister Sanna Marin wasting no words on how the war in Ukraine should end:Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin was asked about a potential off-ramp for Russia to end the war in Ukraine. Her reply: pic.twitter.com/VblWxkMuFc— Rikhard Husu (@RikhardHusu) October 7, 2022 More

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      Biden pardons all federal offenses of simple marijuana possession – as it happened

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      President Joe Biden has announced a pardon of all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“There are thousands of people who have prior Federal convictions for marijuana possession, who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result. My action will help relieve the collateral consequences arising from these convictions,” Biden said in a statement released on Thursday afternoon.He went on to urge all governors to do the same with regards to state offenses, saying, “Just as no one should be in a Federal prison solely due to the possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either.”The president also called on the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to begin the administrative process to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.Marijuana is currently classified in Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act under federal law. This classification puts marijuana in the same schedule as for heroin and LSD and even higher than the classification of fentanyl and methamphetamine, two drugs that are fueling the ongoing overdose epidemic across the country. It’s nearly 4pm in Washington DC. Here’s where things stand:
      Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes told a member of the extremist group before the 2020 election that he had a contact in the Secret Service, a witness testified Thursday in Rhodes’ Capitol riot trial. John Zimmerman, who was part of the North Carolina chapter, said Rhodes told him that Rhodes had a Secret Service agent’s telephone number.
      Joe Biden has announced a pardon of all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana. “There are thousands of people who have prior Federal convictions for marijuana possession, who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result. My action will help relieve the collateral consequences arising from these convictions,” Biden said in a statement released on Thursday afternoon.
      Biden addressed workers at the IBM manufacturing plant in Poughkeepsie, New York on Thursday afternoon where he spoke of the Chips and Science Act that includes over $52bn in federal subsidies. The $280bn package seeks to boost the US’s semiconductor industry and scientific research in attempts to create more high-tech jobs across the country while also help it compete better with international rivals such as China.
      The federal government on Thursday expressed support for New York City’s lawsuit seeking to halt the spread of “ghost guns” as city and state officials try to hold sellers of the largely untraceable firearms accountable. In a “statement of interest” filed in Manhattan federal court, the Department of Justice expressed “serious concerns” about the proliferation of ghost guns, and said kits containing the weapons’ components are classified as firearms under federal gun control law.
      A federal judge has temporarily blocked parts of New York state’s new gun law, in order to allow the Gun Owners of America, an advocacy group, to pursue a lawsuit challenging the legislation. The law came into effect on 1 September, creating new requirements for obtaining a license, including submitting social media accounts for review, and creating a list of public and private places where having a gun became a felony crime, even for license holders.
      The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a health advisory, regarding an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda. The alert summarises “recommendations for public health departments and clinicians, case identification and testing, and clinical laboratory biosafety considerations.”
      Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes told a member of the extremist group before the 2020 election that he had a contact in the Secret Service, a witness testified Thursday in Rhodes’ Capitol riot trial.Associated Press reports: John Zimmerman, who was part of the North Carolina chapter, said Rhodes told him that Rhodes had a Secret Service agent’s telephone number. Zimmerman said he believed Rhodes spoke on the phone with the agent about the logistics of a September 2020 rally that then-President Donald Trump held in Fayetteville, North Carolina.The claim came on the third day of testimony in the case against Rhodes and four others charged with seditious conspiracy for what authorities have described as a detailed, drawn-out plot to use force to stop the transfer of presidential power from Trump to Democrat Joe Biden, who won the election.Prosecutor Kathryn Rakoczy had asked Zimmerman whether Rhodes ever told him about having any kind of connection to Trump.Zimmerman could not say for sure that Rhodes was speaking to someone with the Secret Service — only that Rhodes told him he was — and it was not clear what they were discussing. Zimmerman said Rhodes wanted to find out the “parameters” that the Oath Keepers could operate under during the election-year rally.The significance of the detail in the government’s case is unclear. Trump’s potential ties to extremist groups have been a focus of the House committee investigating the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Another Oath Keeper expected to testify against Rhodes has claimed that after the riot, Rhodes phoned someone seemingly close to Trump and made a request: tell Trump to call on militia groups to fight to keep him in power. Authorities have not identified that person; Rhodes’ lawyer says the call never happened.Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said it is not uncommon for “protest groups” to contact the agency with logistical questions about rallies. He noted that firearms are always prohibited within restricted areas being secured by the agency.“The Oath Keepers are certainly a known demonstration group.” he said.Guglielmi said he is not aware of any contact between Rhodes and an agency representative but would not be surprised if Rhodes said he had contacted the secret Service before the North Carolina event..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“I don’t have any way to track that down without some more information,” the spokesman said.Rhodes, from Granbury Texas, and four associates are being tried on a Civil War-era charge. President Joe Biden has announced a pardon of all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“There are thousands of people who have prior Federal convictions for marijuana possession, who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result. My action will help relieve the collateral consequences arising from these convictions,” Biden said in a statement released on Thursday afternoon.He went on to urge all governors to do the same with regards to state offenses, saying, “Just as no one should be in a Federal prison solely due to the possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either.”The president also called on the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to begin the administrative process to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.Marijuana is currently classified in Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act under federal law. This classification puts marijuana in the same schedule as for heroin and LSD and even higher than the classification of fentanyl and methamphetamine, two drugs that are fueling the ongoing overdose epidemic across the country. President Joe Biden addressed workers at the IBM manufacturing plant in Poughkeepsie, New York on Thursday afternoon where he spoke of the CHIPS and Science Act that includes over $52 billion in federal subsidies. .css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“Since we’ve been elected, we’ve created 678,000 new manufacturing jobs where, And we’re just getting started. Where is it written that we can’t lead manufacturing in the world? I don’t know where that’s written. And that’s one of the things that CHIPS Act is going to change – the law that’s going build the future in a proud, proud legacy, not only for IBM but for the country,” Biden said. The $280 billion package seeks to boost the US’s semiconductor industry and scientific research in attempts to create more high-tech jobs across the country while also help it compete better with international rivals such as China. .css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“American manufacturing – the backbone of our economy got hollowed out because companies began to move jobs and production overseas. And as a result, today, we’re down to barely 10% of the world’s chips, despite leading in chip research and design,” Biden said.
      “We need [these chips] in conductors, not only to make Javelin missiles, but also the weapon systems, the future that is going to rely even more on advanced chips, Unfortunately we produce 0% of these advanced chips today…China is trying to move ahead of us in manufacturing them,” he added. “The United States has to lead the world in producing these advanced chips,” Biden said, adding that “some of our friends” on the Republican side bought into China’s lobbying in Congress against the act. .css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“The CHIPS and Science Act is not handing out blank checks to companies… I’ve directed my administration… to be laser focused on the guard rails that’s gonna protect taxpayers dollars.”
      “We’ll make sure the companies partner with unions, community colleges, technical schools, and offer training and apprenticeships. We’re going to make sure…small and minority owned businesses get to participate. We’re gonna make sure the companies do not take these taxpayers dollars, do not turn around and make investments in China, investments that undermine our supply chains and natural security. That’s a guarantee.” “It’s about economic security…it’s about national security…and that’s what we’re going to see in this factory, in the Hudson Valley,” Biden added. “We have the best and most productive workers in the world. We have the best research universities in the world… We wrote and passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law…and we finally decided that we’re going to move up from number 13 in the world on infrastructure to number one,” Biden said. “The Chips and Science Act is not handing out blank checks to…companies…we’re going to make sure that small and minority-owned businesses get to participate,” Biden said. “In this law, I have the power to take back federal funding if companies are not meeting the requirements,” he added. “The future of the chips industry is going to be made in America…and many of these good paying jobs don’t require a set of college degrees,” Biden said. “The largest American investment of its kind,” Biden said in his address as he celebrates this summer’s passage of a $280 billion legislative package intended to boost the US semiconductor industry and scientific research.Joe Biden is set to deliver remarks at around 2pm ET at the IBM site in Poughkeepsie, New York.Biden is expected to speak on creating jobs in the Hudson Valley and lowering costs, among other topics.We will bring you the latest updates on his address so do stay tuned.The Biden administration announced that the US will start screening travelers from Uganda for Ebola as an additional precaution aimed at trying to prevent an outbreak in the African country from spreading, the Associated Press reports.The federal government on Thursday expressed support for New York City’s lawsuit seeking to halt the spread of “ghost guns,” as city and state officials try to hold sellers of the largely untraceable firearms accountable.In a “statement of interest” filed in Manhattan federal court, the Department of Justice expressed “serious concerns” about the proliferation of ghost guns, and said kits containing the weapons’ components are classified as firearms under federal gun control law.“Ghost guns are a major contributor to the ongoing plague of gun violence,” US Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn said in a statement accompanying the filing, which US Attorney Damian Williams in Manhattan also signed..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“The United States will continue to employ every means available, including civil tools, to keep ghost guns and other illegal firearms out of the hands of criminals and reduce the risk of gun violence. The United States filed a Statement of Interest in this important litigation to ensure that the Court is informed of the federal government’s views of pertinent firearms statutes and regulations,” he added. New York City and state Attorney General Letitia James on June 29 filed two lawsuits accusing 10 out-of-state distributors of creating a public nuisance by selling unfinished frames and receivers to buyers within the state.Ghost guns do not have serial numbers and can be acquired without background checks, potentially letting people otherwise ineligible to buy firearms to construct finished guns..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“We are not going to let gun companies turn New York into a city of mail-order murder,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said when announcing the city’s lawsuit.Both lawsuits were filed six days after the supreme court struck down a century-old New York law that strictly limited the carrying of guns outside the home.Federal law largely shields gun makers from lawsuits over shootings. There is an exception for when sellers knowingly violate statutes governing firearms sales and marketing.Three of the five defendants in the city’s lawsuit have settled, and agreed to stop sales to city residents.Steven Donziger, a human rights lawyer, environmental justice advocate and Guardian US columnist, writes today about a ‘terrifying case’ about to be heard by the US supreme court…It is well-known that intense competition between democracy, authoritarianism, and fascism is playing out across the globe in a variety of ways – including in the United States. This year’s supreme court term, which started this week, is a vivid illustration of how the situation is actually worse than most people understand.A supermajority of six unelected ultraconservatives justices – five put on the bench by presidents who did not win the popular vote – haveaggressively grabbed yet another batch of cases that will allow them to move American law to the extreme right and threaten US democracy. The leading example of this disturbing shift is a little-known case called Moore v Harper, which could lock in rightwing control of the United States for generations.The heart of the Moore case is a formerly fringe legal notion called the Independent State Legislature (ISL) theory. This theory posits that an obscure provision in the US constitution allowing state legislatures to set “time, place, and manner” rules for federal elections should not be subject to judicial oversight. In other words, state legislatures should have the absolute power to determine how federal elections are run without court interference.Think about this theory in the context of the last US election. After Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump resoundingly in both the popular vote and in the electoral college, Trump tried to organize a massive intimidation campaign to steal the election which played out in the storming of the Capitol building on 6 January. But behind the scenes, the legal core of this attempt was to convince the many Republican-controlled state legislatures (30 out of 50 states) to send slates of fake Trump electors from states like Arizona, Georgia and Michigan where Trump lost the popular vote.If Trump had succeeded, he would have “won” the election via the electoral college (itself an anti-democratic relic) and been able to stay in office. If the supreme court buys the theory in the Moore case, this could easily happen in 2024 and beyond. In fact, it is possible Republicans will never lose another election again if this theory is adopted as law. Or put another way, whether Republicans win or lose elections via the popular vote will not matter because they will be able to maintain power regardless.That’s not democracy.The most terrifying case of all is about to be heard by the US supreme court | Steven DonzigerRead moreA federal judge has temporarily blocked parts of New York state’s new gun law, in order to allow the Gun Owners of America, an advocacy group, to pursue a lawsuit challenging the legislation.Reuters has the report:“The law came into effect on 1 September, creating new requirements for obtaining a license, including submitting social media accounts for review, and creating a list of public and private places where having a gun became a felony crime, even for license holders.Lawmakers in New York’s Democratic-controlled legislature passed the law during an emergency session in July after the US supreme court found the state’s licensing regime for firearms to be unconstitutional following a challenge by the New York affiliate of the National Rifle Association, a powerful gun-owners’ rights group.On Thursday, Glenn Suddaby, chief judge of the US district court in Syracuse, agreed to issue the order at the request of six New York- resident members of Gun Owners of America, which competes with the National Rifle Association in political influence. Suddaby said his order would not take effect for three days, to allow the New York government to appeal.Suddaby last month ruled that much of the new law was unconstitutional in dismissing an earlier lawsuit by Gun Owners of America in which he found neither the group nor an individual member of it had standing to sue before the law came into effect.” Background:New York enacts new gun restrictions in response to supreme court decisionRead moreThe Florida mayor to whom Joe Biden uttered a profanity captured by a live microphone, sparking a minor viral fuss, said the presidential f-bomb did not bother him in the slightest.The two men met on Wednesday, as Biden visited areas of Florida hit by Hurricane Ian. The president was heard to say: “Nobody fucks with a Biden.”The incident set off a minor media storm. The White House did not comment.Ray Murphy, the mayor of Fort Myers Beach, told NBC: “It was not directed at anybody. It was just two guys talking. It didn’t faze me one bit. That’s just the way two guys talk to each other from our respective backgrounds.”We have video of the moment:00:31Murphy told NBC he and the president quickly discovered they had a lot in common.“We’re both Irish Catholics,” he said. “We’re both devout Catholics. But every once [in] a while a little salty language comes out.”Biden has had brushes with hot mics and salty language before. Most famously, in 2010 he enlivened the signing ceremony for the Affordable Care Act by telling his then boss, Barack Obama: “This is a big fucking deal.”Biden later told NPR: “Thank God my mother wasn’t around to hear.”In January this year, Biden appeared to think his microphone was off when he called a Fox News reporter, Peter Doocy, “a stupid son of a bitch” for asking a question about inflation. The president said sorry.Florida mayor not offended by Biden’s ‘salty language’ on live microphoneRead moreThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a health advisory, regarding an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda.The alert summarises “recommendations for public health departments and clinicians, case identification and testing, and clinical laboratory biosafety considerations”.The federal agency emphasises that the alert is a precaution, as “no suspected, probable, or confirmed EVD cases related to this outbreak have yet been reported in the United States”.Its aim, it says, is to raise awareness among clinicians.Reuters, meanwhile, reports that the Biden administration “will begin redirecting US-bound travelers who have been to Uganda within the previous 21 days to five major American airports to be screened for Ebola”..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The change is expected to take effect within the coming week or so, a source said. The travelers will need to arrive at New York-JFK, Newark, Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare or Washington Dulles. There is no vaccine for the Sudan strain of the disease behind the latest Uganda infections.The Biden White House does contain experience in dealing with Ebola. Ron Klain, the president’s chief of staff, was Barack Obama’s Ebola tsar during an outbreak in 2014.In 2020, during the darkest days of the Covid pandemic, Klain wrote for the Guardian: “Of the many hard days I spent coordinating the US fight against Ebola in 2014-15, none was more painful than 29 November 2014, when I spoke at the funeral of Martin Salia, a doctor who left Maryland to return to his native Sierra Leone to help cope with the devastating death toll among healthcare workers during that epidemic.“Dr Salia contracted Ebola while performing surgery; by the time he was airlifted back to the US for treatment, he was too ill to be saved. At his funeral, I noted that while history is filled with all sorts of accidental heroes and unwilling heroes, ‘the greatest heroes are people who choose to face danger, who voluntarily put themselves at risk to help others.’”Here’s Klain’s full piece:I was Obama’s Ebola tsar. US healthcare workers are dying at a shameful rate | Ronald A KlainRead moreDemocrats are seething over Saudi Arabia’s push for Opec+ to cut oil production, potentially driving up US gas prices just as voters head to the midterm elections. Meanwhile, Joe Biden has embarked on a long day of travel that will see him tout the Chips bill to boost semiconductor production, and also attend two Democratic fundraisers as the party prepares to defend its slim holds on both the House and Senate.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, said he knew “nothing about” a woman’s claim he paid for her to have an abortion – and then had a child with him.
      Republicans may decide to impeach homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas if they win a majority in the House.
      Election deniers appear poised to win many races in the upcoming midterms, no matter what happens, The Washington Post found. More