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      Pan-Arabism Returns to the Middle East

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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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      With Queen Elizabeth gone, a New Elizabeth Takes Center Stage

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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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      in US Politics

      US trio jailed by Iran and accused of espionage sue former captors

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      US trio jailed by Iran and accused of espionage sue former captorsSarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal held for more than a year after being stopped while hiking along Iraqi border in 2009 Three Americans who were jailed by Iran for more than a year and accused of being spies while hiking along the border with Iraq are suing their former captors, hoping to persuade a judge to award them damages for the torture they say they endured.The lawsuit being pursued by Sarah Shourd, her ex-husband and fellow journalist Shane Bauer, and their friend Josh Fattal is being overseen by federal judge Richard Leon in Washington, who in 2019 ordered Iran to pay Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian $180m for imprisoning him for more than a year on false espionage charges.Any damages that Shourd, Bauer, Fattal and their families might receive through their lawsuit would come out of Iranian government assets that the US has seized through sanctions as part of the congressional Justice for Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund.Adding to the intrigue of a saga that began back in 2009 is that Shourd and Bauer had publicly presented themselves as opponents of US sanctions against Iran after they were freed. In 2016, he had called such penalties “totally irresponsible” and she had said they hit “the poorest of Iranians the hardest”.Attorneys for the former couple and Fattal did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment, and neither did the Pakistani embassy in Washington DC, which represents Iran’s interests in the US.The lawsuit recounts how Shourd and Bauer moved to Yemen and then Syria in 2008 while dating because they wanted to continue practicing their Arabic language skills while Shourd engaged in anti-war activism and Bauer supported himself through freelance journalism.Fettel visited them in July of the following year and accompanied them on a hike to a waterfall in Iraqi Kurdistan that was popular with tourists. During that hike, they apparently crossed into Iran without realizing it, and a group of soldiers whom they mistook for Iraqis stopped them to rummage through their hiking gear, cameras, wallets and passports, the lawsuit said.The soldiers forced the hikers into a sport-utility vehicle and drove them around for three days while the Americans feared they would be executed at any moment. They were eventually brought blindfolded into the infamous Evin prison in the capital, Tehran, and held in small, sparse cells.The prisoners were interrogated in a manner that seemed aimed at trying to get them they were US spies, the lawsuits contend. Bauer was asked if he was an employee of the US mercenary firm Blackwater or whether he could use his training as a journalist to write newspaper articles for the guards. Shourd faced questions about whether she’d ever visited the Pentagon – she had not – and if she was on a US government mission.At one point, a guard told Bauer that he knew the American wasn’t a spy. “But … it was up to the US government and the Iranian government to negotiate his release,” the guard added, according to the lawsuit.The plaintiffs’ lawsuit recounts how they often heard the screams of other prisoners who were being tortured, making them fear that they would be next.Bauer, Fattal and Shourd were all held in isolation, where they described barely clinging on to their sanity. Eventually, Bauer and Fattal were put together in one cell, the lawsuit said – but Shourd remained alone, denied treatment for a breast lump, precancerous cervical cells and other health problems.The Iranian regime let Shourd free in September 2010, holding up her release as an act of clemency honoring the end of Ramadan after the intervention of the country’s president at the time, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.Bauer and Fattal were released a year later, apparently as a gesture meant to curry favor for Ahmadinejad as he prepared to fly to New York to attend a United Nations general assembly meeting. At the time, the Obama White House issued a statement saying: “All Americans join their families and friends in celebrating their long-awaited return home.”The three described experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress after returning to the US, making it difficult for them to readjust to their lives there. Shourd and Bauer – whose work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times and Mother Jones – married near the ocean in California in 2012. They divorced seven years later.Family members of theirs also reported suffering high levels of distress not knowing whether their efforts to bring Shourd, Bauer and Fattal back to them alive would work.Alongside her mother, Shourd sued the Iranian government in May, arguing that the daughter was held as nothing more than a political hostage while demanding compensation for the ordeal that they subsequently weathered. Fattal, his parents, and his brother followed suit in July. And Bauer, his parents, and his sisters did the same in August.The Iranian regime had not responded to their complaints in court and no trial date had been set as of Friday.Iran’s government never replied to the lawsuit Rezaian filed against it in October 2016. But Leon heard the case in Iran’s absence before awarding him $30m in compensatory damages and $150m in punitive damages meant to discourage the regime from ever again behaving similarly, according to the Wilmer Hale law firm, which represented Rezaian.TopicsUS newsIranUS politicsMiddle East and north AfricanewsReuse this content More

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      Trump backed failed campaign coup against Kushner, Navarro book says

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      Trump backed failed campaign coup against Kushner, Navarro book saysEx-adviser says president in 2020 agreed that his son-in-law had to be replaced by Steve Bannon but did not dare try to fire him In June 2020, less than five months before polling day, Donald Trump agreed to a “coup d’état” to remove his son-in-law Jared Kushner from control of his presidential re-election campaign and replace him with the far-right provocateur Steve Bannon.‘You have to run’: Romney urged Biden to take down Trump, book saysRead moreThe coup had support from Donald Trump Jr but according to a new book by the former Trump aide Peter Navarro it did not work, after Trump refused to give Kushner the bad news himself.Fearing “family troubles if [he] himself had to deliver the bad news to … the father of his grandchildren”, Trump asked Bernie Marcus, the founder of Home Depot, a major Republican donor and a central player in the coup, “to be the messenger” to Kushner.In Navarro’s telling, Kushner first insulted Marcus by skipping a call, then told Trump’s emissary “things were fine with the campaign, there was no way he was stepping down and, in effect, Bernie Marcus and his big moneybags could go pound sand”.Navarro writes: “And that was that. And the rest is a catastrophic strategic failure history.”In November, Trump lost the White House to Joe Biden.With his wife, Ivanka Trump, Kushner was a senior adviser to Trump in the White House and on the campaign, essentially acting as a shadow chief of staff.Before entering the White House, Navarro, with a Harvard PhD in economics, wrote a number of books attacking China (and liberally quoting a source whose name was an anagram of his own).His new book, Taking Back Trump’s America: Why We Lost the White House and How We’ll Win It Back, will be published later this month. The Guardian obtained a copy.Navarro’s dim view of Kushner permeates his new book: one section is titled Both Nepotism and Excrement Roll Downhill.Navarro also took a central role in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. He says planning for the campaign coup originated when Kushner told Fox News in April 2020 the pandemic would be over by the summer.“In being so wrong,” Navarro writes, “Jared ‘Pangloss’ Kushner woke up” big donors who until then thought “Kushner and the Trump campaign would, at some point, get its ship together”.Dr Pangloss is a character in Voltaire’s Candide, given to extreme optimism in the face of adversity.Navarro reprints a journal entry for 25 June 2020 which describes a meeting in New York between Bannon and donors who “want[ed] Kushner and Brad Parscale [the campaign manager] out the door”. He adds: “Don Jr [and his girlfriend] Kimberly Guilfoyle feel the same way. This could be really interesting. It could also be our last chance for victory.”According to Navarro, the plotters thought Bannon, who chaired Trump’s campaign in 2016, was the only operative who could steer him to re-election four years later.The plotters also knew that Kushner would never agree to the change – Navarro says Kushner told him he wanted to “crush Bannon like a bug” – and that Trump resented Bannon for taking “too much credit for the 2016 win”.Bannon was fired as White House strategist in August 2017, amid controversy over Trump’s supportive remarks about far-right protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. Returning to Breitbart News, Bannon remained influential in Trump’s orbit.On the page, Navarro risks Trump’s ire by criticizing his actions as president, at one point devoting six pages to outlining “why a president who is supposed to be one of the greatest assessors of talent … would make such bad personnel choices across so many White House and cabinet-level positions”.He also writes that Trump could not have beaten Hillary Clinton in 2016 without Bannon, at the behest of another big donor, Robert Mercer, “coming in towards the end of the campaign and righting the Kushner ship”.In 2020, Navarro says, he conquered his “trepidations” about angering Trump and pressed ahead with the anti-Kushner plot. Navarro says he set up and attended a White House meeting between Trump and Marcus at which Trump “readily agreed with Bernie that Jared had to be replaced with Steve”.But there was another problem, again at odds with the ruthless image Trump constructed on The Apprentice, his NBC reality TV hit, in which his catchphrase was “You’re fired!”As has been extensively documented, Trump in fact does not like firing people.Peter Navarro: what Trump’s Covid-19 tsar lacks in expertise, he makes upRead more“Rather than being shot himself,” Navarro writes, Trump “asked Bernie to be the messenger” to Kushner.Marcus “accepted the mission, albeit grudgingly”. The mission failed. Parscale, the campaign manager under Kushner, was removed in July but the son-in-law stayed in control.Navarro played a central role in Trump’s attempts to overturn his election defeat, outlining a plan called the “Green Bay Sweep” which was meant to block certification of Biden’s win.In November, Navarro will stand trial. He is charged with contempt of Congress, for refusing to comply with the January 6 investigation. He faces up to two years in jail. The judge in the case refused a request to hold the trial next April, so Navarro could market his new book.TopicsBooksDonald TrumpJared KushnerSteve BannonTrump administrationUS elections 2020RepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Holding the Line review: Geoffrey Berman blasts Barr and dumps Trump

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      Holding the Line review: Geoffrey Berman blasts Barr and dumps Trump The fired New York prosecutor has produced a classic of a modern literary genre: Trump alumni revenge pornFive months before the 2020 election, Bill Barr fired Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the southern district of New York.‘You have to run’: Romney urged Biden to take down Trump, book saysRead moreTrying to justify the decision, Barr twisted himself into a pretzel. Donald Trump had not nominated Berman. Jeff Sessions, Barr’s predecessor as attorney general, named him to the post on an interim basis and a panel of federal judges kept him on. Barr’s authority to rid himself of this troublesome prosecutor was at best disputable.Revenge is best served cold. Two years and three months later, Berman is back with a memoir, Holding the Line. In the annals of Trump alumni revenge porn, it is an instant classic. It is smart and crisp. It is full of bile and easy to read.Barr wrote his own book. He has toured the TV studios, seeking rehabilitation. Over 350 pages, Berman immolates all that.He also tells the public what Trump and his own transition team knew from the outset: Rudy Giuliani was “unhinged”, and friends with the bottle. The chaos of Giuliani’s work as Trump’s attorney, through impeachment and insurrection, cannot have been a surprise. It may be surprising, though, that he was once in contention to be secretary of state.Berman also pulverizes Trump’s contention that Merrick Garland’s justice department is hyper-politicized. Berman shows that under Trump, Main Justice was a haven for lackeys all too willing to do the big guy’s bidding. He accuses Trump of weaponizing the justice department, pushing it to prosecute his critics and enemies while sparing his friends.After New York prosecutors brought charges against Michael Cohen, Trump’s one-time fixer, and Chris Collins, a New York congressman, the powers-that-be purportedly advised Berman: “It’s time for you guys to even things out.”Practically, that meant launching an investigation at Trump’s behest into John Kerry, for allegedly violating the Logan Act in talks with Iranian officials after retiring as secretary of state.Briefly, the Logan Act, from 1798, bars non-government officials from negotiating with foreign powers. In the case of Greg Craig, Barack Obama’s White House counsel, it meant charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. After Berman unsuccessfully argued that Craig should not have been prosecuted, Craig was acquitted by a federal jury. Kerry was never indicted.Berman is a Republican. He volunteered on Trump’s 2016 campaign and was once a law partner of Giuliani. He is also a former editor of the Stanford Law Review, happy to punch up. As with most Trump memoirs, Holding the Line is full of score-settling. Berman calls Barr a liar, a bully and a thug.Writing about his dismissal, Berman says: “I would describe Barr’s posture that morning as thuggish. He wanted to bludgeon me into submission.”“If you do not resign from your position, you will be fired,” Barr purportedly warned. “That will not be good for your resume and future job prospects.”Think of Berman as the honey badger – if the honey badger headed up a white-collar practice at a Wall Street law firm. He doesn’t give a fig. He holds the receipts. William Barr defends FBI and justice department over Mar-a-Lago searchRead more“Several hours after Barr and I met,” he writes, “on a Friday night, [Barr] issued a press release saying that I was stepping down. That was a lie.”“A lie told by the nation’s top law enforcement officer.”Barr’s stints in government are emblematic of the descent of the Republican party in the last 30 years. Barr was George HW Bush’s attorney general. Next time round he was simply Trump’s guy at Main Justice.Barr coddled Mike Flynn, Paul Manafort and Roger Stone. He marched to St John’s church with the president and misled the public about the use of teargas to disperse protesters. More than once, his relationship with the truth drew the ire of the federal bench. His last-moment departure from the Trump administration bore all the marks of the arsonist who flees when the flames grow uncomfortably close.As for Giuliani, Berman portrays him as a boozy and incoherent Islamophobe. In the spring of 2016, Berman organised a “cross-selling dinner” to introduce Giuliani and other lawyers to clients “at a large financial institution”. Things headed south. Giuliani “continued to drink”. The dinner morphed into “an utter and complete train wreck”.At one point, Berman writes, Giuliani turned to a man “wearing a yarmulke [who] had ordered a kosher meal”. Under the impression the man was a Muslim, Giuliani said: “I’m sorry to have tell you this, but the founder of your religion is a murderer.”“It was unbelievable,” Berman gasps. “Rudy was unhinged. A pall fell over the room.”Two years later, the law firm, Greenberg Traurig, shoved Giuliani out the door. He had opined that hush-money payments made via a lawyer were perfectly normal, even when not authorised by the client. In the case in question, Michael Cohen acted as a conduit between Stormy Daniels, an adult film star, and Trump.Donald Trump once tried to pay a lawyer with a horse, new book saysRead more“That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds,” Giuliani told Fox News. “Michael would take care of things like this, like I take care of this with my clients.”Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges – and became a target of Trump’s animus and Barr’s vengeance.‘Unhinged’ Rudy Giuliani drank and ranted about Islam, new book claimsRead moreThese days, Giuliani is in the cross-hairs of prosecutors in Fulton county, Georgia, over Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat in the state. Trump’s own legal exposure appears to grow almost hourly. Barr surmises that an indictment may be imminent.From the looks of things, Geoffrey Berman is having the last laugh.
      Holding the Line: Inside the Nation’s Preeminent US Attorney’s Office and Its Battle with the Trump Justice Department is published in the US by Penguin Press
      TopicsBooksTrump administrationDonald TrumpWilliam BarrRudy GiulianiUS politicsRepublicansreviewsReuse this content More

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      DoJ bids to regain access to classified documents seized in Trump search – as it happened

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      The justice department’s legal filing is expected sometime today expanding its arguments why district court judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, must reverse her decision appointing a “special master” in the case of the former president’s hoarding of classified materials at his Florida residence.In a strongly-worded notice of intent to appeal submitted on Thursday, department lawyers let Cannon know in no uncertain terms that her decision was impeding the progress of an investigation critical to national security.The lawyers made clear it needed access back immediately to classified documents seized last month at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion by FBI agents, while Trump’s attorneys are claiming he is entitled to have sent back to him everything that was taken away.The inquiry took on added poignancy this week when it was reported that another country’s nuclear secrets were among the stash of highly classified documents Trump is said to have hidden from federal agents.The department will make its own arguments, but we couldn’t explain things any better than Politico Playbook likening Trump to a jewel thief demanding the return of his ill-gotten gains:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Imagine that someone allegedly stole a sack of diamonds from a jewelry shop and then stashed the gems in junk drawers around their house. The cops raid the place, take away everything in the drawers where they find stolen diamonds, and spend two weeks separating them from the junk.
      Then a judge comes along and says that the big issue in the case isn’t the stolen diamonds but that the cops still have some of the alleged thief’s personal belongings. She halts the heist investigation until an outside expert can sort the gems from the junk.
      The government thinks the judge’s decision is absurd – no other suspect has received this special treatment – but they offer the judge a compromise: let us keep all of the diamonds, and we’ll return all of the alleged thief’s junk, even a few cheap watches that they think he might have swiped from the store.Also today, the justice department and Trump’s legal team were due to jointly file a list of possible candidates to serve as the “special master” to review the records seized by the FBI.We’ll bring you news on both fronts as we get it.Read more:Trump lawyers and justice department to file list of special master candidatesRead moreThat’s it for the US politics live blog today! Here were some of the events we followed:
      The Biden administration announced that it plans to admit up to 125,000 refugees in next fiscal year, the same target for this current period, announced state department spokesperson Ned Price.
      Joe Biden gave a speech about transforming America’s Rustbelt region into “the silicon heartland” while speaking at the groundbreaking of a new Intel semiconductor factory in Ohio.
      Kamala Harris was in Houston and spoke to astronauts aboard the international space station. The vice-president also chaired a meeting of the National Space Council this afternoon.
      Department of Justice lawyers aimed to regain access to highly classified documents that were seized during an FBI search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida mansion. Lawyers called the seized documents “critical” to national security.
      Have a great weekend and thank you for reading!As of August 31st, only 19,919 refugees have been admitted to the US under the Biden administration.The figure falls fairly short of the 125,000 goal proposed by his administration and doesn’t include refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine who have come more recently.From CNN reporter Priscilla Alvarez:The US has admitted only 19,919 refugees into the country as of Aug 31, falling far short of the Biden admin’s goal of 125K refugees with a month left in the fiscal year, according to federal data. That doesn’t include the thousands of Afghans and Ukrainians paroled into the US.— Priscilla Alvarez (@priscialva) September 8, 2022
      The Biden’s administration says it will recommend to Congress a cap on refugee admissions to 125,000 for the fiscal year 2023, the same target for the current period, the state department says.Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement that the figure would “address the growing needs generated by humanitarian crises around the globe, including the more than 100m displaced persons around the world”.Under the previous administration of Donald Trump, the refugee cap was reduced to 15,000, its lowest ever level, something Joe Biden said during his campaign for the White House he would seek to reverse.“Over the past fiscal year, we have taken steps to increase the resettlement of members of particularly vulnerable populations including refugees from the Americas, Congolese, Syrians, Ukrainians, populations from Burma, and many other nationalities, as well LGBTQI+ persons, all while providing additional initial resettlement support to more than 80,000 Afghans in communities across the US,” Price said.“The US is, and will continue to be, a global leader in international humanitarian response, including through refugee resettlement”.Two extremist Donald Trump supporters who invaded the Capitol during the 6 January riot incited by the former president pleaded guilty Friday on felony charges.Nicholas Ochs, 36, founder of the Hawaii Proud Boys chapter, and Nicholas DeCarlo, 32, a Fort Worth, Texas, resident, shared a social media channel called Murder the Media and claimed to have been in Washington DC covering the Trump “stop the steal” rally as journalists.They will be sentenced in December and face up to four years in prison, although the judge has discretion to go beyond the guidelines.The men admitted to throwing smoke bombs at police trying to keep the mob from the stage set up for Biden’s inauguration, and posed for photos in front of a door in which they scrawled “murder the media”.According to the Associated Press, more than 870 people have been charged so far in the Capitol riot and almost 400 have pleaded guilty to charges ranging from low-level misdemeanors for illegally entering the building to felony seditious conspiracy.By all appearances, Steve Bannon likes to think that he represents the soul of the Maga movement. He sees himself as a tireless champion of the common man, fighting their battles against America’s corrupt elites. It’s not for nothing that his radio show is called War Room and carried by the Real America’s Voice network. But just like everybody else who has worked closely with Donald Trump, Bannon is either delusional or trying to delude. He’s not the everyman – he’s the corrupt elite.This was driven home once again on Thursday, when Bannon surrendered himself to New York prosecutors to face charges of defrauding donors to We Build the Wall, a non-profit organization that raised more than $25m to build a wall to keep immigrants from crossing America’s southern border. Although donors to the group were assured that 100% of their money would be used on construction, large sums were siphoned into the pockets of those running the group. And who as chairman of the board allegedly took the greatest sum of all? None other than Steve Bannon.Full column:Steve Bannon’s indictment reveals the truth about Trumpism | Andrew GawthorpeRead moreElizabeth II, who died yesterday at the age of 96, visited the US as both a princess and queen, meeting more American presidents than any other head of state, according to the White House. Here’s a pictorial look at her visits:Washington to Yosemite: the Queen’s visits to the US over the years – in picturesRead moreAnd for further reading, here’s Hadley Freeman’s look at the Queen’s relationship with America and Americans….css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Few countries are as obsessed with celebrity as the US, and royals are the ultimate celebrity, being exotically unattainable and – unlike most other celebrities – intriguingly silent. Even the most arrogant come over all awed in the Queen’s presence. When then president Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, made their 2019 state visit, he might not have understood royal protocol, occasionally walking in front of the Queen during a parade, but he was still uncharacteristically respectful in her presence.Full story: For Americans, the Queen was the ultimate celebrity | Hadley FreemanRead moreHere’s a taste of Joan E Greve’s report on another (and more explicitly political) Biden speech, made in Maryland on Thursday night…Joe Biden continued his attacks on “extreme Maga Republicans” on Thursday night, as he spoke at the Democratic National Committee summer meeting in Oxon Hill, Maryland.“We’re in a serious moment in this nation’s history,” Biden said. “That’s why those who love this country – Democrats, independents and mainstream Republicans – have to be stronger, more determined and more committed to saving American democracy than the Maga Republicans are to literally destroying American politics. You just have to vote.”Full report:Biden seeks to motivate voters from all parties against ‘Maga Republicans destroying politics’Read moreJoe Biden says it’s time to “bury the label Rust Belt and call it the silicon heartland” as he touts the groundbreaking of a new Intel semiconductor factory in Ohio, and what he says is a new dawn for US technology.The president is taking a victory tour of the US following the passage of the $52bn bipartisan Chips and Science Act this summer that he hopes will kickstart the stalled production of semiconductors in the US.That shortfall, he says, has held back the country’s automobile, healthcare, manufacturing and other industries:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The US has to lead the world in producing advanced chips, and this law makes sure that we will.
      The act moves us up once again. We’re going to make sure we lead the world in industries of the future, in quantum computing, artificial intelligence, advanced biotechnology… think of the things this kind of investment can deliver, vaccines for cancer, cures for HIV, inventing the next best thing that hasn’t even been imagined yet.Aware of criticism from some Republicans, and others, that the Chips Act is a corporate giveaway, and threatens national security by sending taxpayer money to companies who do business with global competitors including China, Biden made an attempt at reassurance:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The act is not handing out blank checks to companies. I’ve directed my administration to be laser focused on the guardrails that will protect taxpayers dollars.
      We’ll make sure that companies partner with unions, community colleges, technical schools, to offer training and apprenticeships and to work with small minority owned businesses.
      We’re going to make sure that companies that take taxpayer dollars don’t turn around and make investments in China to undermine our supply chain and national security. We have the power to take back any federal funding if companies don’t meet these requirements.The Intel factory, Biden says, is a “field of dreams”:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}It’s fitting to break ground for American infrastructure here in Ohio.
      Think about our tradition here. The Wright brothers, Neil Armstrong, John Glenn… they defined American spirit, a sprit of daring innovation.
      Intel’s vision builds on that legacy, a brand new $20bn campus, 7,000 construction jobs, 3,000 full-time jobs paying an average of $135,000 a year and not all of them require a college degree.He’s finished the speech now, which was focused entirely on the Chips Act and did not veer off into any other global events.Joe Biden is in the intriguingly named Licking county, Ohio, where he’s at the groundbreaking ceremony of a new Intel factory and about to deliver remarks about the Chips Act, which will boost US production of semiconductors.The White House says this particular groundbreaking is a different occasion from the usual “scripted, backslapping affairs for political dignitaries”. We’re about to find out, but so far various industry officials and political dignitaries have spent a lot of time lauding each other and talking about the forthcoming factory.We’ll bring you the best of Biden’s remarks when he delivers them.”Groundbreaking ceremonies are often scripted, backslapping affairs for political dignitaries, but this marks an important milestone for a project with major regional and national implications.” https://t.co/dCFJNsQkVC— Herbie Ziskend (@HerbieZiskend46) September 9, 2022
      Self-confessed “space nerd” Kamala Harris had a problem in Houston this morning as she spoke with astronauts aboard the international space station.The vice-president is at the Johnson Space Center to chair an afternoon visit of the National Space Council, and took the opportunity to call astronauts Jessica Watkins, Bob Hines and Kjell Lindgren orbiting 250 miles above Earth. It didn’t end well.The National Space Council, chaired by @VP, will meet today at @NASA_Johnson. The vice president will talk to astronauts aboard the @Space_Station before sharing remarks about advancing space exploration & touring the home of the astronaut corps. Details: https://t.co/A5wHAyGz6M pic.twitter.com/LGpd8wP3IF— NASA (@NASA) September 9, 2022
      Harris and the ISS crew exchanged pleasantries and a conversation about plants being grown on the space station, and the astronauts’ perspective looking down on the planet.“We look down and we see a world with no borders,” Hines said.“You realize how fragile it is and how much we have to take care of it as well”.The trouble came when Harris, who introduced herself to the crew as a “space nerd”, wanted some guidance for young people who might want to become astronauts, or part of the Nasa team supporting their missions. “What’s your advice for our students?” she wondered.“Well, I think that…” the reply came, followed by the audible equivalent of a black hole.“Just as the vice-president was asking her question, we passed out a range of our tracking and data relay satellite system,” a Nasa commentator on the ground interjected.Harris will deliver remarks this afternoon about “advancing space exploration”, six days after Nasa’s most recent attempt to launch its new Artemis 1 moon rocket from Florida was called off for technical problems.There are developments in the war in Ukraine, with Russian forces being driven out of areas they formerly occupied and the Ukrainian military appearing to be closing in on the city of Kupiansk, a key logistical hub for the invading forces in the Kharkiv region.The US, with its western allies, continues to provide military and humanitarian support for the Ukrainian defense effort, Joe Biden announcing two weeks ago the largest tranche of aid to date, bringing to $13bn the total the country has supplied or pledged to Kyiv since the president took office.A reminder that you can follow all the developments in the Ukraine-Russia war in our live blog here:Ukraine-Russia war live: nuclear watchdog calls for Zaporizhzhia safety zone to avoid accidentRead moreOn the night of the 2018 midterm elections, as a wave of anti-Trump sentiment swept Democrats to take control of the House, top Republican Mitt Romney urged Joe Biden to run for president.“You have to run,” said Romney, the Republican presidential nominee Biden and Barack Obama defeated in 2012, speaking to the former vice-president by phone.The same night, Romney was elected a US senator from Utah, a post from which he would twice vote to convict Donald Trump in impeachment trials.Romney’s exhortation to a man then seen as a likely challenger to Trump in 2020 will probably further enrage the former president, his supporters and the Republican party they dominate.The Biden-Romney call is described in The Long Alliance: The Imperfect Union of Joe Biden and Barack Obama, a book by Gabriel Debenedetti that will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.Describing how Biden spent 6 November 2018, Debenedetti writes: “Biden spent election night glued to his phone as usual … He talked to most of the candidates he’d campaigned for, and plenty he didn’t, either to congratulate or console them, or just to catch up.“This time felt better than 2016” – when Trump beat Hillary Clinton for the presidency – “in part because Democrats were winning big, at least in local races and in the House.“But it was also because of a refrain [Biden] kept hearing, and not always from the most expected sources.“At one point he connected with Mitt Romney, who’d been easily elected to the Senate that night as a rare Trump-opposing Republican. They were warm as Biden cheered Romney’s win.“Then Obama’s old rival got to the point: You have to run, Romney said.”Read more:‘You have to run’: Romney urged Biden to take down Trump, book saysRead moreA federal judge in Florida has dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and former top FBI officials, rejecting the former president’s claims that they and others acted in concert to concoct the Russia investigation that shadowed much of his administration.According to the Associated Press, US district judge Donald Middlebrooks said in a sharply worded ruling that Trump’s lawsuit, filed in March, contained “glaring structural deficiencies” and that many of the “characterizations of events are implausible.”He dismissed the idea that Trump had sued to correct an actual legal harm, saying that “instead, he is seeking to flaunt a 200-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him, and this court is not the appropriate forum.”The lawsuit named as defendants Clinton and some of her top advisers, as well as former FBI director James Comey and other FBI officials involved in the investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of the election.A 2019 justice department inspector general report identified flaws by the FBI during the Russia investigation, but did not find evidence that the bureau’s leaders were motivated by political bias.Ginni Thomas, the self-styled “culture warrior” and extreme rightwing activist, has links to more than half of the anti-abortion groups and individuals who lobbied her husband Clarence Thomas and his fellow US supreme court justices ahead of their historic decision to eradicate a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy.A new analysis of the written legal arguments, or “amicus briefs”, used to lobby the justices as they deliberated over abortion underlines the extent to which Clarence Thomas’s wife was intertwined with this vast pressure campaign.The survey found that 51% of the parties who filed amicus briefs calling for an end to a federal abortion right have political connections to Ginni Thomas, raising concerns about a possible conflict of interest at the highest levels of the US judiciary.The six-to-three rightwing majority of the court, supercharged by Donald Trump’s three appointed conservative justices, in June overthrew the constitutional right to an abortion. Clarence Thomas was among the six who voted for the hotly contested ruling, Dobbs v Jackson.The ruling was one of the most consequential in the supreme court’s 233-year history. It has triggered the lightning spread of partial or total abortion bans across Republican-controlled states, affecting almost one in three women aged 15 to 44.The Dobbs case, brought by Mississippi which sought to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, attracted an almost unprecedented 130 amicus briefs from both sides of the legal argument. Of those, 74 were filed in favour of overturning the right to an abortion, enshrined in 1973 in Roe v Wade.In turn, the new analysis shows that 38 of the 74 anti-abortion amicus briefs – 51% – were produced by entities and individuals with links to Ginni Thomas. They included rightwing groups, religious interests, prominent conservative individuals and lawyers.“The Thomases are normalizing the prospect of too close an association between the supreme court and those who litigate before it,” said Melissa Murray, a law professor at New York University and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast. “This isn’t the first time that Mrs Thomas has had dealings with those who come before the court and seek her husband’s vote.”Read the full story:Revealed: Ginni Thomas’s links to anti-abortion groups who lobbied to overturn RoeRead moreThe Washington Post’s White House reporter Matt Viser has taken a fascinating look at some of the similarities between Joe Biden and King Charles III.The White House said Friday that Biden would join other world leaders in attending the state funeral in London of Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on a date yet to be confirmed, but likely to be Monday 19 September.Biden was the 13th US president to meet with Queen Elizabeth II — and will likely now be the first to meet with King Charles III. Both men late in life assumed a role they spent decades hoping for, bringing experience after having served as an understudy. https://t.co/8qIJrBWCRw— Matt Viser (@mviser) September 9, 2022
      Viser notes that Biden was the 13th US president to meet the Queen, and will likely become the first to meet with King Charles after his accession.“Both are men who late in life assumed a role they had spent decades positioning themselves for, and who took their positions with a deep well of experience after having served as an understudy. They also arguably capture less of the public’s fascination than their predecessors,” he writes.You can read the article here.When the far-right firebrand Steve Bannon was hit with fresh fraud charges for an alleged border wall fundraising scheme, he joined the ranks of several close Donald Trump cronies recently prosecuted by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.In 2019, then district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr brought mortgage fraud charges against Paul Manafort, Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman. And in 2021, the current district attorney, Alvin Bragg, charged the former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg with fraud, and Ken Kurson with felony cyberstalking, in separate cases.Put together the cases suggest that the actions of some top Trump allies can still generate legal headaches long after Trump left the White House and also despite being issued pardons.Charges do not necessarily lead to convictions, of course, let alone hard prison time, as evidenced by the outcome of these past cases. Manafort, who was convicted in federal court before the New York case unfolded, ultimately didn’t face state charges on double-jeopardy grounds. Manafort was pardoned by Trump about two months before the decision came down that he couldn’t be tried in state court due to double jeopardy.Kurson – who was first charged in Brooklyn federal court for cyberstalking, but pardoned by Trump before he left office – pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors and was ordered to do community service in his state case. Weisselberg, meanwhile, is expected to serve just 100 days in local jail under his plea deal.On the surface, some might wonder whether Bannon’s state-level case has the same legal weakness as Manafort’s did. Bannon was charged federally in August 2020 for allegedly siphoning more than $1m from the “We Build the Wall” online fundraising campaign. Trump also pardoned Bannon before his case went to trial.But longtime attorneys told the Guardian that Bragg’s Bannon case was different from Vance’s Manafort prosecution because when Bannon was pardoned, state-level charges for the same alleged misconduct do not carry the same double-jeopardy risks, they said.Read the full story:Legal fallout for Trump cronies persists despite his pardonsRead moreThe justice department’s legal filing is expected sometime today expanding its arguments why district court judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, must reverse her decision appointing a “special master” in the case of the former president’s hoarding of classified materials at his Florida residence.In a strongly-worded notice of intent to appeal submitted on Thursday, department lawyers let Cannon know in no uncertain terms that her decision was impeding the progress of an investigation critical to national security.The lawyers made clear it needed access back immediately to classified documents seized last month at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion by FBI agents, while Trump’s attorneys are claiming he is entitled to have sent back to him everything that was taken away.The inquiry took on added poignancy this week when it was reported that another country’s nuclear secrets were among the stash of highly classified documents Trump is said to have hidden from federal agents.The department will make its own arguments, but we couldn’t explain things any better than Politico Playbook likening Trump to a jewel thief demanding the return of his ill-gotten gains:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Imagine that someone allegedly stole a sack of diamonds from a jewelry shop and then stashed the gems in junk drawers around their house. The cops raid the place, take away everything in the drawers where they find stolen diamonds, and spend two weeks separating them from the junk.
      Then a judge comes along and says that the big issue in the case isn’t the stolen diamonds but that the cops still have some of the alleged thief’s personal belongings. She halts the heist investigation until an outside expert can sort the gems from the junk.
      The government thinks the judge’s decision is absurd – no other suspect has received this special treatment – but they offer the judge a compromise: let us keep all of the diamonds, and we’ll return all of the alleged thief’s junk, even a few cheap watches that they think he might have swiped from the store.Also today, the justice department and Trump’s legal team were due to jointly file a list of possible candidates to serve as the “special master” to review the records seized by the FBI.We’ll bring you news on both fronts as we get it.Read more:Trump lawyers and justice department to file list of special master candidatesRead moreGood morning, it’s Friday, and welcome to our US politics blog. An unusually busy week has plenty more to offer, including the justice department spelling out today in a legal filing its arguments for regaining access to highly classified documents seized in an FBI search of Donald Trump’s Florida mansion.Department lawyers on Thursday said they would appeal the ruling by district judge Aileen Cannon to appoint a “special master” in its investigation of the former president’s improper hoarding of confidential materials – including another nation’s nuclear secrets – at his residence, arguing her decision was blocking an inquiry critical to national security.They’ll flesh out their arguments in today’s expected legal filing, and Trump’s lawyers will have until Monday to respond. But it’s already evident the justice department is playing hardball. We’ll have more analysis coming up.The White House, meanwhile, announced that Joe Biden would join other world leaders at the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in London, expected to be on Monday 19 September.Here’s what else we’re watching today:
      Joe Biden is heading for Ohio and the groundbreaking for a new Intel factory, where he’ll deliver remarks on the Chips Act at 12.15pm.
      There’s no scheduled White House media briefing, but press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will hold a “gaggle” for reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Ohio.
      Vice-president Kamala Harris is in Houston to talk to astronauts aboard the international space station, and chair a meeting of the National Space Council this afternoon.
      It’s a day off and a long weekend for both the US House and Senate, so we’re not expecting big news out of Congress. More

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      in US Politics

      Steve Bannon’s indictment reveals the truth about Trumpism | Andrew Gawthorpe

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      Steve Bannon’s indictment reveals the truth about TrumpismAndrew GawthorpeIn the end, Maga is nothing but a scam with hate in its heart and other people’s money in its pockets By all appearances, Steve Bannon likes to think that he represents the soul of the Maga movement. He sees himself as a tireless champion of the common man, fighting their battles against America’s corrupt elites. It’s not for nothing that his radio show is called War Room and carried by the Real America’s Voice network. But just like everybody else who has worked closely with Donald Trump, Bannon is either delusional or trying to delude. He’s not the everyman – he’s the corrupt elite.Steve Bannon expected to turn himself in to face fraud charges – liveRead moreThis was driven home once again on Thursday, when Bannon surrendered himself to New York prosecutors to face charges of defrauding donors to We Build the Wall, a non-profit organization that raised over $25m to build a wall to keep immigrants from crossing America’s southern border. Although donors to the group were assured that 100% of their money would be used on construction, large sums were siphoned into the pockets of those running the group. And who as chairman of the board allegedly took the greatest sum of all? None other than Steve Bannon.This affair – in which two people have already pleaded guilty – is a very direct example of a prominent figure in the Maga movement lining their pockets with the money of unsuspecting marks. But it also stands as a metaphor for the movement as a whole. Far from standing up for the interests of “ordinary Americans”, Maga exists to funnel money, power and prestige to a small elite while not lifting a finger to improve the lives of anyone else.During his first presidential campaign in 2016, Trump – with Bannon at his side – tried to present himself as a champion of the downtrodden. He promised to bring jobs back from overseas and help Americans get over their economic anxiety. But as soon as he got into office, he governed as a plutocrat. His one significant legislative achievement before the coronavirus pandemic was a 2017 tax bill which forced lower-income groups to pay more and allowed higher income groups to pay less. And every year the administration proposed steep cuts to the social programs used by real ordinary Americans, including a 2021 budget which would have cut $1.2tn from Medicaid, food stamps and elsewhere.In office, Trump continued to benefit from the economic recovery which had begun under Barack Obama, allowing him to tout high employment and wage levels. But just as the Biden administration is largely powerless to fight inflation right now, this economic performance had precious little to do with Trump. When he did intervene – for instance by launching a trade war with China – it was in ways which harmed manufacturers and cost American jobs. But for Trump and the Maga movement it’s posturing for their nationalist base, not the real effect on real people, which matters.But Trump and Bannon have done something even more pernicious than this. For they have also tried to exclude a large part of the population from even being considered as “ordinary Americans” at all. Theirs is an agenda not for the racially diverse working and middle classes that actually exist in America, but for a narrow white subset of it. They have made a mythic folk hero out of the white male worker, promising to return the country to an era like the 1950s, in which such people reigned supreme. That they then have actually done little to help even white workers should not obscure the fact that they have also poured hatred and vitriol on the immigrants and people of color who do so much of America’s actual work.All of which brings us neatly back to Bannon and the wall. It’s no coincidence that when Bannon left office, he dedicated himself to building the wall rather than building working-class communities. The border wall has endured as the ultimate symbol of Trumpism because the soul of his movement is racism and exclusion, not charity and assistance. It is through the stoking of hatred and division that Maga elites keep the punters engaged and happy to open their wallets. It’s also how they keep themselves rich and – through blocking any attempt to actually help working people – ensure the poor stay poor.This, the true driving force of Trumpism, makes a mockery of conservatives who pretend that the Republican party can become a “multiethnic, multiracial, working-class party”. The proposition is absurd not only because the party is in hock to a movement built on racial hate but also because the same movement has never evinced any interest in actually helping “ordinary Americans”. Its leading figures will eventually depart from life leaving wealthy heirs but no record of ever having helped the people they supposedly stand for. In the end, Maga is nothing but a scam with hate in its heart and other people’s money in its pockets. Just ask Steve Bannon.
      Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States and host of the podcast America Explained
      TopicsSteve BannonOpinionDonald TrumpUS politicscommentReuse this content More

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      in World Politics

      Egypt’s foreign policy under Al-Sisi and its relationship with Saudi Arabia

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