Category Archives: US Congress

‘We’re not attacking Russia,’ Biden says as he asks for $33bn in Ukraine aid – as it happened

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Joe Biden is also taking steps to ensure the money raised from assets seized from sanctioned allies of Vladimir Putin directly aids Ukraine.

According to a White House fact sheet about Biden’s new aid request, the administration is “proposing legislation to streamline the process to recoup proceeds from seized and forfeited assets and use them to remediate the harm caused in Ukraine”.

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Biden announces another $800m in military aid for Ukraine: ‘We’re in a critical window’ – as it happened

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Here are some more details from the defense department on the new $800m military assistance package to Ukraine:

For those keeping track on how much the US has provided Ukraine so far in military assistance:

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Biden heads to North Carolina in effort to reset stalled agenda – live

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Elon Musk has launched an audacious bid to buy Twitter for more than $40bn, saying he wants to release its “extraordinary potential” to boost free speech and democracy across the world.

The Tesla chief executive and world’s richest person revealed in a regulatory filing on Thursday that he had launched a hostile takeover of Twitter. The news came just days after he bought a 9.2% stake in the social media company and was subsequently offered a seat on the board, but then refused to take up the position.

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McConnell will ‘make Biden a moderate’ if Republicans retake Congress

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Senate minority leader projects ‘pretty good beating’ for Biden administration in November midterms

The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, said on Sunday Republicans will force Joe Biden to govern as a “moderate” if the GOP retakes Congress in November.

Speaking to Fox News Sunday, McConnell attacked Biden on subjects including reported crime increases in large US cities, the decision to extend a moratorium on repaying student loan debts, and the administration’s attempt to lift a Trump policy that allowed border patrol agents to turn away migrants at the southern border, ostensibly to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

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‘TV is like a poll’: Trump endorses Dr Oz for Pennsylvania Senate nomination

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Former president enthuses about TV doctor in statement and at rally but many on far right doubt conservative credentials

Donald Trump has endorsed Dr Mehmet Oz for the Republican nomination for Senate in Pennsylvania, an expression of support for a fellow TV star which could test the former president’s grip on his party.

Being on TV was “like a poll, that means people like you,” the former president and Celebrity Apprentice star said of Oz, a heart surgeon turned daytime host.

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House votes to hold Trump duo Navarro and Scavino in contempt of Congress

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Approval of contempt resolution over months-long defiance of subpoenas sets pair on path towards criminal prosecution by DoJ

The House voted on Wednesday to hold two of Donald Trump’s top advisers – Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino – in criminal contempt of Congress for their months-long refusal to comply with subpoenas issued by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack.

The approval of the contempt resolution, by a vote of 220 to 203, sets the two Trump aides on the path toward criminal prosecution by the justice department as the panel escalates its inquiry into whether Trump oversaw a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.

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‘Feels like the good old days’: Joe Biden welcomes Barack Obama back to White House – live

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Ivanka Trump will testify before the January 6 committee this afternoon.

The Guardian confirmed that former president Donald Trump’s oldest daughter, and former senior White House adviser, will speak to the panel virtually.

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Suspect arrested in Sacramento shooting that left six dead

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Police say they have received more than 100 videos or photos from the scene and have executed three search warrants

Police in the California state capital have made an arrest in connection with Sunday’s mass shooting that left six people dead and at least a dozen others injured. In the hours after the bloodshed, police say they have received more than 100 videos or photos from the scene and executed search warrants on three homes.

They identified a 26-year-old man as one of the individuals arrested in connection to the shooting, in a press release. He has been charged with assault and illegal firearm possession offenses.

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Sarah Palin announces run for US Congress in Alaska

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The former governor says she will ‘combat the left’s socialist, big-government, America-last agenda’

Sarah Palin has announced her run for Alaska’s only seat in the US House of Representatives, marking her first run for public office in over a decade.

“America is at a tipping point,” Palin said in a statement released on her Twitter account announcing her candidacy. “As I’ve watched the far left destroy the country, I knew I had to step up and join the fight.

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US ends Trump-era policy of blocking asylum seekers on Covid grounds – live

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention terminates Title 42 from 23 May, ending policy widely criticized as pretext to keep migrants out

• Senate deal on drastically pared-down Covid aid package may be imminent

US adds 431,000 jobs as hiring spree cuts unemployment rate to 3.6%

• Disney staff stage walkouts over ‘don’t say gay’ bill

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The late supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is to be honoured by having a US navy ship named after her.

The yet-to-be-built fuel tanker will join a fleet of John Lewis-class “replenishment oilers” named for historical figures in human and civil rights. The navy took delivery of the first of the fleet, a tribute to the former Democratic congressman, last summer.

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Biden and allies vow to keep up Russia punishment for ‘brutal attacks in Ukraine’ – US politics live

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A North Carolina court has blocked a law prohibiting people with felony convictions from voting while they are not incarcerated, a move that could enfranchise an estimated 56,000 people in the state.

A panel of three superior court judges ruled 2-1 to block the law, which plaintiffs said was rooted in an effort to discriminate against Black people at the turn of the 20th century in the state. The panel said the statute violated the state constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under law and free elections.

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Republican senator says tax rises in own plan are ‘Democratic talking points’

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Rick Scott of Florida grilled on Fox News Sunday about suggested income tax rise and letting social security and Medicare fall

A Republican senator and reputed presidential hopeful found himself in a tough spot when he claimed tax rises contained in his own “11 point plan to rescue America” were “Democratic talking points” instead.

“No, no, it’s in the plan!” his interviewer exclaimed, on Fox News Sunday. “It’s in the plan!”

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Mitch McConnell says he will not support Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination – as it happened

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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the new sanctions on members of the Russian Duma would punish lawmakers who have “supported the Kremlin’s violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

“President Putin’s war continues to inflict horror and widespread suffering on the people of Ukraine,” Blinken said in a statement.

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US not optimistic about Ukraine talks as Zelenskiy ups pressure on Biden

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  • Ukraine president raises specter of ‘third world war’
  • Biden to travel to Poland on Friday
  • US president pressed to increase military aid ahead of Nato visit
  • Ukraine – live coverage

Joe Biden’s ambassador to the United Nations warned on Sunday there was little immediate hope of a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine, as pressure continued to build on the US president ahead of a crucial Nato summit in Europe this week.

Biden, who faces growing dissatisfaction over his approach to the war, will travel to Brussels on Thursday and then on to Poland, it was announced on Sunday night. He will hear a proposal from Poland for Nato to send a peacekeeping force into Ukraine, something Linda Thomas-Greenfield said was unlikely.

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Republican Hawley’s attack on supreme court nominee Jackson is wrong, says senator

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Senate judiciary committee chair Dick Durbin says Hawley’s attacks should be ignored in confirmation hearings this week

The Missouri Republican Josh Hawley is wrong to attack Ketanji Brown Jackson, Joe Biden’s supreme court nominee, and should be ignored in confirmation hearings this week, the Senate judiciary chair said.

Hawley, the Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin said, is “part of the fringe within the Republican party … a man who was fist-bumping the murderous mob that descended on the Capitol on 6 January of the last year.

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‘Mosquito in a nudist colony’: Republican Ron Johnson targets Fauci and Hunter Biden

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Wisconsin senator says if GOP retakes control it will use committees to move against Democrats and Biden

Hunter Biden and Anthony Fauci will be prime targets of Senate Republicans should the party win control in November, a senior senator said.

Asked by the Hill what he would want to investigate should he control a committee with subpoena power, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said: “Like everything? It’s like a mosquito in a nudist colony, it’s a target-rich environment.”

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Progressive Democrats set out list of executive orders to push Biden agenda

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Congressional Progressive Caucus urges president to bypass legislative logjam and give Democrats record to campaign on

The leftwing Congressional Progressive Caucus unveiled its highly anticipated list of suggested executive orders on Thursday, outlining a strategy for Joe Biden to advance Democrats’ policy priorities in the US while much of his legislative agenda has stalled on Capitol Hill.

The move reflects pressure from the left of the Democratic party to try to keep Biden pushing an ambitious program of action, despite setbacks and as November’s midterm elections are widely expected to favor a resurgent Republican party.

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Biden calls Putin a war criminal after Zelenskiy speaks to Congress

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Ukrainian president receives standing ovation as he urges US to send more military aid and impose further sanctions

Joe Biden has denounced Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, delivering his sharpest rebuke yet of the Russian leader just hours after the Ukrainian president pleaded with Congress to provide more aid to his country.

“I think he is a war criminal,” Biden said of Putin on Wednesday.

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Joe Biden calls Vladimir Putin a ‘war criminal’ – as it happened

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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addressed the US Congress seated in a high-backed office chair with a plain white wall behind him and a prominently-displayed Ukrainian flag to his right.

He was neatly turned out with a trimmed beard and wearing what has become his characteristic combat-green tee shirt, since Russia invaded Ukraine last month and he was forced to shelter in a hidden bunker somewhere in Kyiv with his top team.

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Biden to visit Nato and EU in Brussels as pressure over Ukraine increases – as it happened

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If spending legislation remains stalled in Congress, the US will soon run out of funding for Covid booster shots, new treatments and testing efforts, a Biden administration official told NBC News.

To recap: the White House requested $22.5bn in Covid relief funding. Democrats negotiated the funding down to $15bn, but still had to take it out of the $1.5tn omnibus package in order for it to pass.

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