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      John Kerry backs UAE appointment of oil chief to oversee UN climate talks

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      John Kerry backs UAE appointment of oil chief to oversee UN climate talks US climate envoy says pick is a ‘terrific choice’ but activists equate pick to asking ‘arms dealers to lead peace talks’ US climate envoy John Kerry backs the United Arab Emirates’ decision to appoint the CEO of a state-run oil company to preside over the upcoming UN climate negotiations in Dubai, citing his work on renewable energy projects.In an interview Sunday with the Associated Press, the former US secretary of state acknowledged that the Emirates and other countries relying on fossil fuels to fund their state coffers face finding “some balance” ahead.However, he dismissed the idea that Sultan al-Jaber’s appointment should be automatically disqualified due to him leading the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. Activists, however, equated it to asking “arms dealers to lead peace talks” when authorities announced his nomination on Thursday.“I think that Dr Sultan al-Jaber is a terrific choice because he is the head of the company. That company knows it needs to transition,” Kerry said after attending an energy conference in the Emirati capital. “He knows – and the leadership of the UAE is committed to transitioning.”Still, Abu Dhabi plans to increase its production of crude oil from 4m barrels a day up to 5m even while the UAE promises to be carbon neutral by 2050 – a target that remains difficult to assess and one that the Emirates still hasn’t fully explained how it will reach.Kerry pointed to a speech al-Jaber gave Saturday in Abu Dhabi, in which he called for the upcoming Cop – or Conference of Parties – to move “from goals to getting it done across mitigation, adaptation, finance and loss and damage”. Al-Jaber also warned that the world “must be honest with ourselves about how much progress we have actually achieved, and how much further and faster we truly need to go”.“He made it absolutely clear we’re not moving fast enough. We have to reduce emissions. We have to begin to accelerate this transition significantly,” Kerry said. “So I have great confidence that the right issues are going to be on the table, that they’re going to respond to them and lead countries to recognize their responsibility.”Each year, the country hosting the UN negotiations nominates a person to chair the talks. Hosts typically pick a veteran diplomat as the talks can be incredibly difficult to steer between competing nations and their interests. The nominee’s position as “Cop president” is confirmed by delegates at the start of the talks, usually without objections.Al-Jaber is a trusted confidant of UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He also led a once-ambitious project to erect a $22bn “carbon-neutral” city on Abu Dhabi’s outskirts – an effort later pared back after the global financial crisis that struck the Emirates hard beginning in 2008. Today, he also serves as the chairman of Masdar, a clean energy company that grew out of the project.Skepticism remains among activists over al-Jaber, however. A call by countries, including India and the United States, for a phase down of oil and natural gas never reached a public discussion during Cop27 in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in November.Activists worry that Cop being held in a Mideast nation reliant on fossil fuel sales for a second year in a row could see something similar happen in the Emirates.Asked about that fear, Kerry said: “I don’t believe UAE was involved in changing that.”“There’s going to be a level of scrutiny – and and I think that’s going to be very constructive,” the former US senator and 2004 presidential contender said. “It’s going to help people, you know, stay on the line here.”“I think this is a time, a new time of accountability,” he added.TopicsCop28John KerryUnited Arab EmiratesUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      US turns back growing number of undocumented people after arduous sea journeys

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      US turns back growing number of undocumented people after arduous sea journeysBiden shifts toward political center as likely presidential rival Ron DeSantis calls out national guard Authorities in Florida have been turning back growing numbers of undocumented Cubans and Haitians arriving by sea in recent weeks as more attempt to seek haven in the US.Local US residents on jet skis have been helping some of the migrants who attempted to swim ashore after making arduous, life-threateningand days-long journeys in makeshift vessels.Joe Biden’s turn to the center over immigration comes as Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, attempts to plot his own strategy for handling a sensitive situation in the south of his state, calling out national guard troops in a hardline approach.Last Thursday, the US Coast Guard returned another 177 Cuban migrants to their island nation, while scores of Haitians who swam ashore in Miami were taken into custody by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).As the Cuban exodus continues, Biden adjusts immigration policyRead moreThe coastguard says that since 1 October, it has intercepted and returned more than 4,900 Cubans at sea, compared with about 6,100 in the 12 months to 30 September.DeSantis, seen as a likely contender for his party’s 2024 presidential nomination, has taken swipes at the White House for what he claims are Biden’s “lawless” immigration policies and perceived open borders.The Biden administration has hit back, accusing DeSantis of “making a mockery” of the immigration system by staging his own series of political stunts, including an episode last year in which he sent a planeload of mostly Venezuelan migrants to Massachusetts, flying them from Texas at Florida taxpayers’ expense.The governor is under criminal investigation in Texas and defending a separate lawsuit over the flight, and another to Biden’s home state of Delaware that was canceled, which reports said involved covert operatives linked to DeSantis recruiting migrants at a San Antonio motel with false promises of housing and jobs.In the latest incidents of migrants attempting to land in south Florida, the TV station WPLG spotted city of Miami marine patrol jet skis rescuing at least two people found swimming in the ocean, and a CBP spokesperson, Michael Selva, said beachgoers on Virginia Key had helped others ashore on Thursday using small boats and jet skis.Two days earlier, another group of about 25 people made landfall near Fort Lauderdale. Authorities arrested 12, while others ran away.Increasing numbers of people are risking their lives to reach the US despite stricter policies from the Biden administration intended to deter irregular immigration and increase humanitarian visa numbers for Cubans, and others, to enter legally – but with a high bar to entry unattainable to many of the thousands fleeing existential threats including extreme violence, political oppression, severe poverty and hardships exacerbated by the climate crisis or failed states.Biden has responded to conservative voices inside the Democratic party and Republicans calling for a tougher stance. But critics say the president’s new “carrot and stick” approach, cracking down on undocumented immigration while appearing to offer an olive branch of more visas, presents obstacles that most migrants would struggle to overcome.Biden’s ‘carrot and stick’ approach to deter migrants met with angerRead moreThe White House says up to 30,000 people a month from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela will be admitted to the US, but only if they apply online, can pay their own airfare and find a financial sponsor.Writing in the Guardian last week, Moustafa Bayoumi, immigration author and professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, said Biden was “throwing migrants under the bus”.“This is a program obviously designed to favor those with means and pre-established connections in the US, and it’s hard to imagine it as anything but meaningless for those forced to flee for their lives without money or planning,” he said.DeSantis, seeking to build political capital from a president many expect him to challenge for the White House in 2024, accused Biden of under-resourcing the federal response to the Florida arrivals and placing a burden on local law enforcement.Meanwhile, the impact of the recent increase in migrant landing attempts continues to be felt in south Florida. The Dry Tortugas national park, off the Florida Keys, has only just reopened after being turned into a makeshift processing center for hundreds of people earlier this month.TopicsUS immigrationFloridaJoe BidenRon DeSantisUS politicsMigrationnewsReuse this content More

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      Republican targeting Hunter Biden says: ‘I don’t target individuals’

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      Republican targeting Hunter Biden says: ‘I don’t target individuals’Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson grilled on why Jared Kushner should escape scrutiny for profiting from proximity to presidency The Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson refused to say Republicans planning investigations of Hunter Biden for profiting from his connection to the presidency should also investigate Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser who secured a $1.2bn loan from Qatar while working in the White House.George Santos a ‘bad guy’ who did ‘bad things’ but should not be forced out, top Republican saysRead more“I’m concerned about getting to the truth,” Johnson insisted. “I don’t target individuals.”Republicans are undoubtedly targeting Hunter Biden, for allegedly making money thanks to his father, Joe Biden. In the House, newly under GOP control, committees have promised investigations.Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Johnson focused his own fire on the president’s surviving son.The host, Chuck Todd, said: “Senator, do you have a crime that you think Hunter Biden committed because I’ve yet to see anybody explain. It is not a crime to make money off of your last name.”Johnson referred to investigations pursued with Chuck Grassley, a Republican senator from Iowa, and a report written by a Trump-aligned group which Johnson said “detail[ed] all kinds of potential crimes” involving Joe Biden’s son.Todd said: “Let me stop you there. ‘Potential’. This is potential. Potential is innuendo.”Johnson said: “Is it a crime to be soliciting and purchasing prostitution in potentially European sex trafficking operations? Is that a crime? Because Chuck Grassley and I laid out about $30,000 paid by Hunter Biden to those types of individuals over December of 2018, 2019, about $30,000.“That’s about the same time that President Biden offered to pay about $100,000 of Hunter Biden’s bills. I mean … that’s just some information. I don’t know exactly if it’s a crime.”Hunter Biden is known to be under investigation over his tax affairs. He has denied wrongdoing. His struggles with addiction have been widely discussed, not least in his memoir. He has not been charged with any crime.On Sunday, after some back and forth over what Johnson said was media bias against Republicans – a key focus of the new GOP House – Todd said: “Senate Democrats want to investigate Jared Kushner’s loan from the Qatari government when he was working in the [US] government negotiating many things in the Middle East.“Are you not as concerned about that? … I say that because it seems to me if you’re concerned about what Hunter Biden did, you should be equally outraged about what Jared Kushner did.”Johnson paused, then said: “I’m concerned about getting to the truth. I don’t target individuals.”Todd said: “You don’t? You’re targeting Hunter Biden multiple times on this show, senator. You’re targeting an individual.”Johnson said: “Chuck, you know … part of the problem, and this is pretty obvious to anybody watching this, is you don’t invite me on to interview me. You invite me on to argue with me. You know, I’m just trying to lay out the facts that certainly Senator Grassley and I uncovered.‘It’s going to be dirty’: Republicans gear up for attack on Hunter BidenRead more“They were suppressed. They were censored. [The FBI] interfered in the 2020 election. Conservatives understand that. Unfortunately, liberals and the media don’t. And part of the reasons are our politics are inflamed, is we do not have an unbiased media. We don’t. It’s unfortunate. I’m all for a free press.”After more cross-talk, Todd said: “Look, you can go back on your partisan cable cocoon and talk about media bias all you want. I understand it’s part of your identity.”The interview moved on to Johnson’s connections to Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election and links between Trump advisers and the abortive coup in Brazil.The conversation ended with host and senator talking over each other again.TopicsRepublicansHunter BidenUS politicsJared KushnerUS CongressUS SenatenewsReuse this content More

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      George Santos a ‘bad guy’ who did ‘bad things’ but should not be forced out, top Republican says

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      George Santos a ‘bad guy’ who did ‘bad things’ but should not be forced out, top Republican saysNew York congressman’s résumé is largely fiction and campaign finance questions abide but support is vital for speaker McCarthy The New York Republican congressman George Santos, whose résumé has been shown to be largely fictional, whose campaign finances are the subject of increasing scrutiny and who is under local, federal and international investigation, is a “bad guy” who has done “really bad” things, the new House oversight committee chairman said on Sunday.McCarthy may be speaker, but Trump is the real leader of House RepublicansRead moreBut Santos should not be forced to quit, James Comer said.“He’s a bad guy,” the Kentuckian told CNN’ State of the Union. “This is something that you know, it’s really bad … but look, George Santos was a duly elected by the people. He’s going to be … examined thoroughly. It’s his decision whether or not he should resign.”Saying Santos was “not the first politician unfortunately to be in Congress to lie”, Comer said he had not introduced himself to Santos, “because it’s pretty despicable the lies that he told”. But he said only proven campaign finance violations should lead to Santos’s removal.Santos was going to be investigated, Comer said, “not necessarily for lies but for potential campaign finance violations … It’s his decision whether or not he should resign.”Santos won New York’s third district, which covers parts of Long Island and Queens, in November. Since then his biography has been shown to be largely made-up and his campaign finances scrutinised amid questions about his personal wealth.This week, Democrats in Congress requested an ethics committee campaign finance investigation and a nonpartisan watchdog, the Campaign Legal Center, filed its own request for an investigation by the Federal Election Commission.The CLC complaint said: “Particularly in light of Santos’s mountain of lies about his life and qualifications for office, the [FEC] should thoroughly investigate what appear to be equally brazen lies about how his campaign raised and spent money.”Santos’s district party has disowned him and New York Republicans in Congress have called on him to resign. Santos has said he will not.Kevin McCarthy, the House speaker who Santos supported through 15 rounds of voting earlier this month, and who must operate with a small majority, has not taken action, instead pointing to a House ethics office his party is attempting to gut.On Sunday Don Bacon of Nebraska, a Republican moderate, told ABC’s This Week: “You know, if that was me, I would resign. I wouldn’t be able to face my voters.”But Bacon still followed the party line: “This is between him and his constituents, largely. They’ve elected him and they have to deal with him on that. I don’t think his re-election chances would be that promising.”One of the Democrats who demanded an investigation said he had written to McCarthy and other senior Republicans.Dan Goldman, also of New York, told CBS’s Face the Nation: “The speaker of the House indicated that he would support an ethics investigation.“And in fact this morning, Congressman [Ritchie] Torres and I sent a letter to Speaker McCarthy, [Republican] chairwoman [Elise] Stefanik and the head of the Congressional Leadership Fund, Kevin McCarthy’s super Pac, because there’s really, really bombshell … reporting from the New York Times that they all knew about Mr Santos’s lies prior to the election.”Goldman said he and Torres were calling on Republicans “to be fully cooperative with the investigators, both in Congress and outside of Congress to disclose exactly what they knew about Mr Santos’s lies, and whether they were complicit in this scheme to defraud voters.“George Santos is a complete and total fraud … nearly everything has proven to be a lie. His financial disclosures have clear false statements and omissions. And that’s what we refer to the ethics committee for an investigation to get to the bottom of whether he broke the law.“Eight Republican Congress members have called on him to resign … This is a scheme to defraud the voters of the third district in New York, and this needs to be investigated intensively. And Mr Santos needs to think twice about whether he belongs in Congress. And more importantly, the speaker needs to think twice about whether Mr Santos is fit to serve in Congress.”On Saturday, a prominent GOP right-winger – and ringleader of the attempt to stop McCarthy becoming speaker – offered Santos support.Speaking to CNN, Matt Gaetz of Florida said: “George Santos represents over 700,000 people in New York. And whether people like that or not, those people deserve to have members of Congress collaborating with the person who serves them.“George Santos will have to go through the congressional ethics process. I don’t want to prejudge that process, but I think he deserves the chance to at least make his case.”Serial liar George Santos is the politician Americans deserve | Moira DoneganRead moreEarlier this week, Gaetz spoke to Santos on the former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s podcast. Asked about his wealth, Santos nodded to Republican claims about Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, saying: “I’ll tell you where it didn’t come from – it didn’t come from China, Ukraine or Burisma.”Santos is under investigation in Brazil, over the use of a stolen chequebook, and in the US over claims about his college history, business career and family background shown to be untrue. Santos has admitted “embellishing” his résumé but insisted he has done nothing wrong or unethical.On Bannon’s podcast, Gaetz said: “Embellishing one’s résumé isn’t a crime. It’s frankly, how a lot of people get to Congress. And we want everyone to be honest.”Writing for the Guardian, the columnist Moira Donegan pointed to Santos’s rise in a Republican party led by Donald Trump.“It would be a mistake to think that George Santos’s pathologies are his alone,” she wrote. “His lies are the product of a political system that incentivises dishonesty, punishes sincerity and is rife with opportunities for petty crooks.“In that sense, Santos is the politician that we deserve.”TopicsGeorge SantosRepublicansUS politicsUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesNew YorknewsReuse this content More

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      Biden honors Martin Luther King Jr with sermon: ‘His legacy shows us the way’

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      Biden honors Martin Luther King Jr with sermon: ‘His legacy shows us the way’ President gave sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and spoke about the need to protect democracy Joe Biden marked what would have been Martin Luther King Jr’s 94th birthday with a sermon on Sunday at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, celebrating the legacy of the civil rights leader while speaking about the urgent need to protect US democracy.There’s one winner in the Biden documents discovery: Donald TrumpRead moreBiden said he was “humbled” to become the first sitting president to give the Sunday sermon at King’s church, also describing the experience as “intimidating”.“I believe Dr King’s life and legacy show us the way and we should pay attention,” Biden said. He later noted he was wearing rosary beads his son, Beau, wore as he died.“I doubt whether any of us would have thought during Dr King’s time that literally the institutional structures of this country might collapse, like we’re seeing in Brazil, we’re seeing in other parts of the world,” Biden said.In a sermon that lasted around 25 minutes, the president spoke about the continued need to protect democracy. Unlike some of his other speeches on the topic, Biden did not mention Donald Trump or Republicans directly.The GOP has embraced new voting restrictions, including in Georgia, and defended the former president’s role in the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January.“Nothing is guaranteed in our democracy,” Biden said. “We know there’s a lot of work that has to continue on economic justice, civil rights, voting rights and protecting our democracy.”He praised Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who noted at a ceremony after she was confirmed it had taken just one generation in her family to go from segregation to the US supreme court.“Give us the ballot and we will place judges on the benches of the south who will do justly and love mercy,” Biden said, quoting King.Biden preached in Atlanta a little over a year after he gave a forceful speech calling for the Senate to get rid of the filibuster, a procedural rule that requires 60 votes to advance most legislation, in order to pass sweeping voting reforms.“I’m tired of being quiet,” the president said in that speech.A Democratic voting rights bill named after John Lewis, the late civil rights leader and Georgia congressman, would have made election day a national holiday, ensured access to early voting and mail-in ballots and enabled the justice department to intervene in states with a history of voter interference.But that effort collapsed when two Democrats, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, refused to get rid of the filibuster. Sinema is now an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.Since then, there has been no federal action on voting rights. In March 2021, Biden issued an executive order telling federal agencies to do what they could do improve opportunities for voter registration.The speech also comes as the US supreme court considers a case that could significantly curtail Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the 1965 law that was one of the crowning achievements of King and other activists. A ruling is expected by June.Biden’s failure to bolster voting right protections, a central campaign pledge, is one of his biggest disappointments in office. The task is even steeper now Republicans control the House. In advance of Biden’s visit to Atlanta, White House officials said he was committed to advocating for meaningful voting rights action.“The president will speak on a number of issues at the church, including how important it is that we have access to our democracy,” senior adviser Keisha Lance Bottoms said.Bottoms, who was mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022, also said “you can’t come to Atlanta and not acknowledge the role that the civil rights movement and Dr King played in where we are in the history of our country”.This is a delicate moment for Biden. On Thursday the attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced the appointment of a special counsel to investigate how Biden handled classified documents after leaving the vice-presidency in 2017. The White House on Saturday revealed that additional classified records were found at Biden’s home near Wilmington, Delaware.Biden was invited to Ebenezer, where King was co-pastor from 1960 until he was assassinated in 1968, by Senator Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor. Like many battleground state Democrats in 2022, Warnock kept his distance from Biden as the the president’s approval rating lagged. But with Biden beginning to turn his attention to an expected 2024 re-election effort, Georgia can expect plenty of attention.Warnock told ABC’s This Week: “I’m honored to present the president of the United States there where he will deliver the message and where he will sit in the spiritual home of Martin Luther King Jr, Georgia’s greatest son, arguably the greatest American, who reminds us that we are tied in a single garment of destiny, that this is not about Democrat and Republican, red, yellow, brown, black and white. We’re all in it together.”In 2020, Biden won Georgia as well as Michigan and Pennsylvania, where Black votes made up much of the Democratic electorate. Turning out Black voters in those states will be essential to Biden’s 2024 hopes.The White House has tried to promote Biden’s agenda in minority communities, citing efforts to encourage states to take equity into account under the $1tn infrastructure bill. The administration also has acted to end sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses, scrapping a policy widely seen as racist.The administration highlights Biden’s work to diversify the judiciary, including his appointment of Jackson as the first Black woman on the supreme court and the confirmation of 11 Black women judges to federal appeals courts – more than under all previous presidents.King fueled passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Members of his family attended Biden’s sermon. The president planned to be in Washington on Monday, to speak at the National Action Network’s annual breakfast, held on the MLK holiday.TopicsJoe BidenBiden administrationUS voting rightsUS politicsCivil rights movementMartin Luther KingRacenewsReuse this content More

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      Republicans accuse Biden of hypocrisy over classified documents discoveries

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      Republicans accuse Biden of hypocrisy over classified documents discoveriesHouse oversight chair requests Delaware visitor logs as Democrats stress difference from Trump classified records case Republicans pounced on the discovery on Saturday of more classified documents at Joe Biden’s residence, accusing the president of hypocrisy and questioning why the records were not brought to light earlier.There’s one winner in the Biden documents discovery: Donald TrumpRead moreBiden lawyers have discovered at least 20 classified documents at his residence outside Wilmington, Delaware, and at an office in Washington used after he left the Obama administration, in which he was vice-president.It is not yet clear what exactly the documents are, but Biden lawyers have said they immediately turned over the documents to the National Archives. This week, the attorney general, Merrick Garland, appointed a special counsel, former US attorney Robert Hur, to look into the matter.The materials are already a political headache for Biden. When the FBI raided Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort to obtain classified material the former president kept, Biden said: “How could that possibly happen? How anyone could be that irresponsible?”On Sunday, Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, told ABC’s This Week: “It just just reminds me of that old adage, ‘If you live in a glass house don’t throw stones.’ And I think President Biden was caught throwing stones.”James Comer of Kentucky, the new chair of the House oversight committee, told CNN’s State of the Union: “While he was doing this, he knew very well that he himself had possession of classified documents so the hypocrisy here is great.”There is no evidence Biden was aware he had the documents. His lawyers have said they were misplaced.Comer also noted Biden’s attorneys discovered the classified material on 2 November, days before the midterm elections, and questioned why the discovery hadn’t been made public earlier.“Why didn’t we hear about this on 2 November, when the first batch of classified documents were discovered?” he said.Comer has requested visitor logs for Biden’s Delaware residence from January 2021 to the present as well as additional communications about the search for documents, CNN reported.Marc Short, who was chief of staff to Mike Pence in the Trump administration, told NBC’s Meet the Press: “Why’d they hold it? Why didn’t anybody talk about it? Is it because of the midterm elections they didn’t want to interfere with?”Even though two special counsels are looking into how both Trump and Biden handled classified material, there are key differences between the cases.Trump had hundreds of classified files and rebuffed government efforts to return them. The White House has said the 20 or so Biden documents were inadvertently misplaced and turned over as soon as they were discovered.Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House oversight committee, told CNN: “We were delighted to learn that the president’s lawyers, the moment they found out about the documents that day, turned them over to the National Archives, and ultimately to the Department of Justice.“That is a very different posture than what we saw with Donald Trump. He was fighting for a period of more than eight months to not turn over hundreds of missing documents that the archives was asking about.“There are some people who are trying to compare having a government document that should no longer be in your possession to inciting a violent insurrection against the government of the United States,” Raskin added, referring to the 6 January 2021 attack on Congress Trump incited after losing the 2020 election to Biden.“And those are obviously completely different things. That’s apples and oranges.”The California Democrat Adam Schiff, the former chair of the House intelligence committee, praised the appointment of a special counsel in the Biden matter and said he wanted Congress to do its own intelligence assessment of the Biden and Trump materials.But Debbie Stabenow, a Democratic senator from Michigan, acknowledged that the discovery of additional documents on Saturday was “certainly embarrassing” and that Republicans would use it as a distraction.“It’s embarrassing that you would find a small number of documents, certainly not on purpose,” she told NBC.Biden’s lawyers, she said “don’t think [this] is the right thing and they have been moving to correct it … it’s one of those moments that obviously they wish hadn’t happened.“But what I’m most concerned about, this is the kind of things that the Republicans love.”TopicsJoe BidenBiden administrationDonald TrumpTrump administrationUS politicsUS national securityRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      US Emergency Departments Are Overstretched and Doctors Burned Out

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      The Fair Observer website uses digital cookies so it can collect statistics on how many visitors come to the site, what content is viewed and for how long, and the general location of the computer network of the visitor. These statistics are collected and processed using the Google Analytics service. Fair Observer uses these aggregate statistics from website visits to help improve the content of the website and to provide regular reports to our current and future donors and funding organizations. The type of digital cookie information collected during your visit and any derived data cannot be used or combined with other information to personally identify you. Fair Observer does not use personal data collected from its website for advertising purposes or to market to you.As a convenience to you, Fair Observer provides buttons that link to popular social media sites, called social sharing buttons, to help you share Fair Observer content and your comments and opinions about it on these social media sites. These social sharing buttons are provided by and are part of these social media sites. They may collect and use personal data as described in their respective policies. Fair Observer does not receive personal data from your use of these social sharing buttons. It is not necessary that you use these buttons to read Fair Observer content or to share on social media. More

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      What hopes for gun reform now Republicans have House control?

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      What hopes for gun reform now Republicans have House control?State-level victories such as those Illinois and New York likely to become crucial in the battle against gun violence The Illinois capitol was a site of celebration on Tuesday, as state legislators passed a ban on military-style firearms. The legislation made Illinois the ninth US state to enact a ban on such weapons, which have been used in many of the country’s most devastating mass shootings.“Illinois now officially prohibits the sale and distribution of these mass killing machines and rapid-fire devices,” the Democratic governor JB Pritzker said as he signed the bill. He added: “We must keep fighting, voting and protesting to ensure that future generations will only have to read about massacres.”Illinois bans military-style weapons in win for gun control advocatesRead moreIn recent years, the US has seen a flurry of activity at the state level to combat gun violence, which the American Public Health Associations has classified as an epidemic. According to the Gun Violence Archive, guns claimed the lives of more than 44,000 Americans in 2022, including 24,000 who died by suicide. Gun safety groups say passing new laws like the Illinois assault weapons ban will become even more crucial in the coming months to address this issue: with Republicans now in control of the House of Representatives, the prospects for enacting additional federal gun legislation in the near future appear bleak.Republicans regained their majority in the House this month on the heels of one of the most successful years for the gun safety movement in decades. Last June, Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which expanded background checks for the youngest gun buyers and provided funding for mental health and violence intervention programs, among other initiatives. The passage of the BSCA marked the first time in nearly 30 years that the US Congress approved a major gun safety bill.“That’s just the beginning, and we’re just scratching the surface there,” said Zeenat Yahya, director of policy for the gun safety group March For Our Lives. “That’s not the end all, be all, but it was really exciting to see that progress.”Despite gun safety advocates’ demands for more action at the federal level, including a nationwide assault weapons ban, such reform will be difficult to achieve. Even if Senate Democrats manage to pass additional gun regulations, the newly elected House speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy, will be able to block those bills from receiving a vote in the lower chamber.While acknowledging the challenges posed by a divided Congress, Yahya dismissed suggestions that Republicans’ House majority eliminates the possibility of new federal laws. Biden could still issue executive orders on gun safety, and the passage of the BSCA demonstrated the possibility for bipartisan cooperation on the issue, she argued.“I do believe that there’s still opportunity regardless of the fact that obviously the House is under Republican control now,” Yahya said. “We want to be able to make sure that gun violence prevention is still at the forefront of a conversation, and we’re playing an active role at the federal level.”Still, Yahya agreed that reform at the state level has become “even more important with the Republican control of the House”. In the past year, states have already enacted a number of new gun laws championed by groups like March For Our Lives. According to the group Everytown for Gun Safety, at least 51 new laws aimed at reducing gun violence were passed in 2022, while dozens of bills backed by the gun lobby were defeated.New York’s legislative progress was a particular point of pride for gun safety advocates last year. The state passed a slate of gun proposals in the wake of the massacre at a supermarket in Buffalo, where a white supremacist fatally shot 10 Black shoppers and workers last May. In response, New York legislators raised the age requirement to purchase a long gun from 18 to 21. Lawmakers also established a code of conduct for gun dealers and closed a legal loophole regarding the ownership of high-capacity magazines.But New York’s efforts to reform its laws simultaneously underscored the significant challenges that the gun safety movement faces. Last June, the conservative-leaning supreme court struck down a New York law that placed strict regulations on carrying a firearm in public. In response to the court’s ruling, New York legislators enacted a new law that included an extensive list of sensitive places where guns would be prohibited – such as schools, medical facilities and government buildings. The new policy is now facing legal challenges, although the supreme court ruled Wednesday that the law can remain in effect for the time being.Gun safety advocates highlight New York’s legislative response to the supreme court’s ruling as a key example of how states can proactively address gun violence, even as federal legislation remains stalled.“This year, we’ll be doubling down on our efforts to go statehouse by statehouse to continue to pass life-saving laws,” said Monisha Henley, managing director of state government affairs at Everytown. “That is happening no matter what’s going on in DC.”If history is any indication, the policies now being advanced by state legislatures could one day filter up to the federal level. The BSCA included funding to help states establish “red flag laws,” which allow courts to temporarily confiscate guns from those considered a danger to themselves or others. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have already enacted such policies. “As states are passing critical legislation around safe storage, background checks, red flags … it gives us the opportunity to ladder up at the federal level and say, hey, the majority of states are already doing this,” Yahya said.While advocacy press for more action at the state and federal levels, Americans continue to grapple with the daily reality of gun violence. According to Everytown, more than 110 Americans are killed with guns every day, and more than 200 are shot and wounded.Gun owners also make up a growing share of the US population, although they still represent a minority. Americans have bought roughly 150m firearms since the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. One recent study found that an estimated 6 million Americans carried a loaded handgun on a daily basis in 2019, compared to 3 million who said the same in 2015.In America’s capital city, a local nonprofit has started hanging posters reading “Thou shalt not kill” in a poetic attempt to combat the alarming rise in gun violence that has gripped Washington in recent years.The violence has made Henley and her allies more determined to enact reform across the country, and she predicted that 2023 would bring more change. After the midterm elections, four additional states – Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Minnesota – now have Democrats controlling both the state legislature and the governor’s mansion, clearing the way for lawmakers to pas new gun laws.“The states have been leading the way. They will continue leading the way,” Henley said. “[With] these brand new trifectas with gun safety majorities, there will be a lot of positive action that’ll continue to happen on this issue.”TopicsUS gun controlUS politicsRepublicansHouse of RepresentativesfeaturesReuse this content More