In less than an hour, Twitter employees expect official notification of whether or not they will keep their jobs under Elon Musk’s ownership.
A bloodbath is expected, and Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco has been closed today while the news is delivered and employees digest their fates, or, as Musk may prefer, let the news “sink in”.
Continue reading...In Pennsylvania, Chris McGreal reports that a major pro-Israel group is facing criticism for backing Republicans who denied the 2020 election, but not a Democratic candidate who would make history if elected:
More than 240 Jewish American voters in Pittsburgh have signed a letter denouncing the US’s largest pro-Israel group for backing extremist Republican election candidates while spending millions of dollars to oppose a Democrat who would be Pennsylvania’s first Black female member of Congress.
Continue reading...The president speaks against election deniers running for office, saying they are leading a path to ‘chaos in America’
Donald Trump’s lawyers tailored their petition specifically to supreme court justice Clarence Thomas for reasons both practical and symbolic, Politico reports.
Thomas is well known for his conservative jurisprudence, but Politico notes he is also the justice responsible for handling emergency filings out of Georgia – which means he would get the Trump legal team’s petition about its election conduct, Politico says.
Continue reading...Leading historian warns that assault of Paul Pelosi was not an aberration amid erosion of democratic norms
Supreme court chief justice John Roberts has temporarily stopped the Internal Revenue Service from turning over Donald Trump’s tax returns to a House committee, Reuters reports.
The decision comes after Trump yesterday petitioned the high court to review lower court rulings that allowed the Democratic-led House ways and means committee to receive six years of the former president’s filings. According to the New York Times, Roberts, who handles petitions filed in Washington, wants the House committee to respond by Thursday:
Continue reading...A week out from US midterm elections, president pleads with energy firms to invest profits in lowering costs for American consumers
President Joe Biden has accused oil companies of “war profiteering” as he raised the possibility of imposing a windfall tax if companies don’t boost domestic production.
In remarks on Monday, just over a week away from the 8 November midterm elections, Biden criticised major oil companies for making record profits while refusing to help lower prices at the pump for American people. The president said he would look to Congress to levy tax penalties on oil companies if they don’t begin to invest some of their profits in lowering costs for American consumers.
Continue reading...Ukraine president says there were 8,000 air strikes; air force spokesman says Ukraine has shot down hundreds of Iranian-made drones
Russia has probably bolstered its troops with “mobilised reservists” west of the Dnieper River, the UK’s ministry of defence has said.
The region encompasses most of Kherson, a strategically important Russian-held city braced for a counter-offensive from Ukrainian troops.
Continue reading...Paul Pelosi was attacked at San Francisco home while House speaker was in Washington
The Guardian’s Joan E Greve has taken a close look at Democrats’ chances ahead of the 8 November midterms, and finds things are not looking good for Joe Biden’s party:
With less than two weeks to go until election day, Democrats’ hopes of defying political history and keeping their narrow majorities in the House and Senate appear to be fading, as many of the party’s candidates go on the defensive in the final days of campaigning.
Continue reading...Joe Biden is the oldest president ever inaugurated, and will turn 80 this year – but still plans to run for re-election, according to a reporter who recently interviewed the president, Martin Pengelly reports:
Joe Biden is “totally running” for a second term, the MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart has said, just days after interviewing the US president.
Continue reading...US president and new British PM reaffirm ‘special relationship’ after Sunak becomes Britain’s third leader in 2022
The US president, Joe Biden, and Britain’s new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, agreed during talks on Tuesday to work together to support Ukraine and stand up to China, the White House said.
They spoke for the first time a few hours after Sunak became Britain’s third prime minister this year, inheriting an economic crisis after the resignation of Liz Truss whose tenure lasted 49 days.
Continue reading...World leaders lauded the significance of Sunak’s victory as the UK’s first prime minister of colour
Rishi Sunak’s arrival in No 10 as Britain’s third prime minister in less than two months drew calls for stability from Europe and continued support from Ukraine, as well as cheers in New Delhi and praise as a “groundbreaking milestone” from the US.
In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wished the UK’s new head of government success in overcoming “all the challenges facing British society and the whole world today”, adding: “I’m ready to continue strengthening the strategic partnership together!”
Continue reading...Prosecutors urging two aides for more information about how documents were handled at the resort
Good morning, US politics blog readers. The steady drip of details about the investigation into government secrets found at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort continues, with the New York Times reporting yesterday that prosecutors are pressuring two aides to the former president for more information about how documents were handled at the south Florida property. There’s no saying yet what the revelation means, but it makes clear how many avenues investigators are pursuing as they look for answers about sensitive documents Trump took with him when he left the White House.
Here’s what’s happening in politics today:
Joe Biden will speak about America’s fight against Covid-19 at 2.05pm eastern time.
There’s a slew of debates between candidates standing in the 8 November midterm elections, including Pennsylvania’s Senate candidates Mehmet Oz, a Republican, and John Fetterman, a Democrat, who face off at 8pm eastern time.
Progressive Democrats appear to be walking back a letter sent to Biden yesterday urging more diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Republican senator Ted Cruz was a vociferous objector to the 2020 election, but ended up hiding in a supply closet when insurrectionists stormed the Capitol on January 6, as Ramon Antonio Vargas reports:
As a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol during the January 6 attack in a desperate attempt to keep him in the Oval Office, Ted Cruz hid in a closet next to a stack of chairs, but he never thought twice about continuing to sow doubt about the former president’s electoral defeat, the Republican senator from Texas has revealed.
Tight Senate margins and a Democratic president would make it impossible for GOP leaders to deliver on the party’s most hardline fiscal wishes, at least with President Joe Biden still in office. The disappointment would surely prompt blowback from right-leaning Republicans already known as the sharpest thorns in the party’s side.
“Spare me if you’re a Republican who puts on your frigging campaign website, ‘Trust me, I will vote for a balanced budget amendment, and I believe we should balance the budget like every family in America.’ No shit,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the pro-Trump Freedom Caucus, said in an interview.
Continue reading...Federal appeals court temporarily halts Biden’s cancellation of student debt after motion brought by six Republican-led states
The Biden administration is urging student loan borrowers to continue applying for debt relief despite a federal appeals court order late on Friday that temporarily halted this program.
“[This] temporary order does not prevent borrowers from applying for student debt relief,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement following the eighth circuit court of appeals’ temporary stay.
Continue reading...Program has been paused as the court considers a motion filed by six Republican-led states
Joe Biden’s plan to cancel billions of dollars in federal student loans has been temporarily halted by a federal appeals court as it considers a motion from six Republican-led states to block the program.
The eighth circuit court of appeals issued the temporary stay on Friday, ordering the Biden administration not to act on the program while it considers the appeal.
Continue reading...Steve Bannon has just spoken with reporters outside the courthouse in Washington DC, telling them he “respects” the judge’s sentence, and veering off quickly into an attack on Joe Biden’s administration.
In a brief, and chaotic appearance at the microphone, Bannon said of judge Carl Nichol’s four-month sentence:
The sentence he came down with today is his decision. I fully respect it, I’ve been totally respectful this entire process on the legal side.
I testified before the Mueller commission for more hours. I testified in front of [congressman Adam] Schiff in the House intelligence committee more than any other person in the Trump administration. I testified in front of the senate intelligence [committee], I think more than anybody, about the issues related to Russiagate, to all of that. The same process every time.
I had lawyers that were engaged, they worked through the issues of privilege. At that time, I went and testified. And this thing about I’m above the law is an absolute and total lie.
Today was my judgment day by the judge. And we’ll have a very vigorous appeals process. I’ve got a great legal team, and there’ll be multiple areas of appeal.
But as that sign says right there, vote. On November 8, there’s gonna have [sic] judgment on the illegitimate Biden regime and, quite frankly, Nancy Pelosi and the entire [January 6] committee. And we know which way that’s going.
Continue reading...Move is president’s attempt to mitigate concerns over the economy as midterms approach
Donald Trump in 2021 asked a group of people whether a Jewish documentary filmmaker was “a good Jewish character”, according to a video of the former president that was released as part of footage that was subpoenaed by the House special committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, the New York Times reports.
The interaction was recorded by documentary filmmaker Alex Holder at an event at Trump’s New Jersey golf club in May 2021. Trump, speaking to several people, was responding to a woman’s comment about “Jews who didn’t vote for you”.
Continue reading...President announces release of 15m barrels of oil from strategic reserve as he fights to keep gas prices in check before midterms
Joe Biden has called on oil companies to pass on their massive profits to consumers as he announced the release of 15m barrels of oil from the US strategic petroleum reserve.
Biden is fighting to keep gas prices in check ahead of November’s midterms. He blamed Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine for the global spike in oil prices and said his administration was doing all it could to keep prices in check.
Continue reading...Major retailers will begin selling hearing aids over the counter without a prescription and at a much lower cost, as part of a new Biden administration rule that take effect today.
“Starting today, hearings aids are now on store shelves across the country — for thousands of dollars less than they previously cost,” the White House said in a fact sheet on Monday.
Continue reading...Richard Blumenthal to seek reassurances from Pentagon that ‘they are on top of’ risk of sharing information with Gulf state
A senior Democratic lawmaker has raised alarms about the possibility that sensitive US defense technology could be shared with Russia by Saudi Arabia in the wake of the kingdom’s recent decision to side with Moscow over the interests of the US.
Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate armed services committee who has proposed a one-year freeze on weapons sales to Saudi following Opec+’s decision to cut oil production, said he would “dig deeper into the risk” in discussions with the Pentagon.
Continue reading...As the row between the US president and the Gulf kingdom over increasing oil production escalates, the UK arms industry giant may have to choose which of its two lucrative customers to side with
The UK has long had an awkward relationship with Saudi Arabia, but that unholy alliance now faces a stern test. After Joe Biden reacted angrily to the Opec+ decision to cut oil production, workers at BAE Systems’ fighter jet factory at Warton, on the banks of the Ribble in Lancashire, will have an eye on the fallout from the oil cartel’s decision.
The US president had hoped to persuade the world’s largest oil producer to ramp up production in order to lower oil prices, which have fed into surging inflation and fears over a global recession. Biden had been cultivating relations with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, illustrated by a fist bump in Jeddah in July. But despite all that, Prince Mohammed defied Biden, with Opec+ opting for a cut in output, a move that was seen as siding with fellow cartel member Russia, helping prop up its arms revenues.
Continue reading...