The president is about to embark on a legislative push with almost no room for error
In what could be the most consequential stretch of his presidency, Joe Biden faces an autumn sprint to advance a once-in-a-generation expansion of the social safety net.
Related: House Democrats are scared to tax billionaires – that’s a costly mistake | Robert Reich
Continue reading...The former Democratic congressman Beto O’Rourke is set to mount a third campaign for major political office with a run for governor in Texas, Axios reported on Sunday.
Related: Beto O’Rourke on Texas: ‘I don’t know that we’re a conservative state’
Continue reading...Pre-emptively branding as rigged an election you are likely to lose risks turning off GOP voters and undermining democracy
It was a pre-emptive strike against truth by some of the biggest names on the American right wing.
Former president Donald Trump warned that the ballot would be “rigged”. The Republican candidate Larry Elder predicted “shenanigans”. The conservative media star Tomi Lahren suggested that “voter fraud” was inevitable.
Continue reading...Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker of the US Congress, has likened the 6 January attack to 9/11, saying one had been an assault on US democracy from within and the other from the outside. Speaking at a Chatham House seminar in London on Friday, she also claimed the Republicans had been hijacked by a cult that believed neither in science nor government, making it hard for the US to be governed
Continue reading...California voters resoundingly reject choice to replace Democratic governor, who faced a battle for his political life
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom has prevailed in a historic recall election that had him battling for his political life. In a referendum on the governor’s leadership through the pandemic, voters resoundingly rejected the choice to replace him with a Trumpist Republican.
The Associated Press projected the results about 45 minutes after polls closed on Tuesday night. Newsom’s most popular challenger was Larry Elder, a rightwing radio host who drew comparisons to the former president and who attempted to sow baseless doubts about the election process.
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Damien Gayle reports:
Facebook has kept internal research secret for two years that suggests its Instagram app makes body image issues worse for teenage girls, according to a leak from the tech firm.
Related: Facebook aware of Instagram’s harmful effect on teenage girls, leak reveals
Joe Biden will reportedly propose a target for 70% of the world’s population to be vaccinated within the next year at a global vaccines summit he intends to convene alongside the UN general assembly in New York this month.
The US president’s target, reported by the New York Times, is in line with ambitions set jointly by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the WTO and the World Health Organization (WHO) but is more ambitious than current performance and the targets set at the G7 meeting in Cornwall chaired by the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson. The G7 agreed to donate 870m doses of Covid-19 vaccines directly, with an aim to deliver at least half by the end of 2021.
Related: Joe Biden to propose target of vaccinating 70% of world in a year
Continue reading...Biden and Harris among leaders at ceremonies in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania
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The Guardian’s David Smith has the full report on today’s commemorations so far:
Some wept. Some held photos of loved ones. At 8:46am, precisely two decades after a passenger plane became a new and deadly weapon here, all fell silent in remembrance.
Families of the victims gathered at the 9/11 memorial plaza in New York on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary of terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and helped shape the 21st century.
Related: America mourns as leaders and families mark 20th anniversary of 9/11 attacks
Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived in Pennsylvania earlier and walked out to the Flight 93 National Memorial, where they bowed their heads as they helped to place a wreath of white and red roses.
Continue reading...South Carolina and Arizona governors decry ‘big government overreach’ after president orders larger businesses to demand employees be vaccinated
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That’s it for me tonight. Thanks for reading along! Here’s some of what we covered:
Related: US Capitol rioter photographed wearing horns pleads guilty
Tennessee’s controversial abortion law was blocked by a federal appeals court today, ruling that the measure was “constitutionally unsound”.
The law banned abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which typically occurs around 6 weeks into the pregnancy — often before many women know they are pregnant.
Appeals court strikes down Tennessee abortion restrictions, with Judge Thapar (a Trump appointee) writing lengthy partial dissent taking aim at Roe v. Wade: https://t.co/bZqizndvtJ pic.twitter.com/J1kcQRDBMn
Related: AOC on Texas governor’s ‘disgusting’ abortion remarks: ‘He is not familiar with a female body’
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Statements are coming in from opponents of the new Texas voting law. Here are some edited versions of some of them:
Here’s where the day stands so far:
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A group of parents in Iowa are filing a lawsuit against the state for its ban on mask mandates, says the law discriminates against students with disabilities that make them more susceptible to Covid-19.
The plaintiffs in the case are asking the federal judge to block the ban on mask mandates and order to allow the states to allow mandates.
In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal published yesterday, Democratic senator Joe Manchin said that he will not pass the $3.5tn spending bill that progressive members of the party want to pass through reconciliation.
Manchin said that Democrats looking to pass the bill have “no regard to rising inflation, crippling debt or the inevitability of future crises.”
The Northeast is flooded after torrential rain.
The West Coast is on fire.
The Gulf is still reeling from the hurricane.
This is no time to pause or pull back. We need to pass the President's Build Back Better agenda and invest in urgent climate action NOW. Lives are at stake.
White House’s @KJP46 on the Manchin op-Ed: “Senator Manchin is an important partner to our administration. The president firmly believes that critical investment in our future should be paid for and if we do, economists tells us that they should not increase the inflation risk.”
Continue reading...Bill, nearly identical to a measure that passed last week, gives poll watchers more power and prohibits 24-hour and drive-thru voting
The Texas legislature gave its final approval on Tuesday to a new bill that would impose substantial new restrictions on voting access in the state.
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That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
The Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh and Aubrey Allegretti report:
Afghans who want to flee to Britain may be better off “trying to get to the border” than awaiting RAF evacuation, the defence secretary has said as British troops made last-ditch attempts to airlift at least 1,500 remaining interpreters and others who have supported the UK.
Related: Fleeing Afghans should try to get to border, says UK defence secretary
Continue reading...Bill that requires places with history of discrimination to be under federal supervision passes 219-212 – but could fail in the Senate
The US House of Representatives has passed an update to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, restoring a critical provision of the landmark civil rights law that requires places with a history of voting discrimination to be under federal supervision.
The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act passed 219-212 on a party-line vote.
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Joe Biden had a conversation with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson today, as the US and its allies continue evacuations from Kabul.
“They discussed the ongoing efforts by our diplomatic and military personnel to evacuate their citizens, local staff, and other vulnerable Afghans,” the White House said in a readout of the call.
Joe Biden urged more private businesses to require coronavirus vaccinations for their employees, now that the Food and Drug Administration has granted full approval to the Pfizer vaccine.
“Today, I’m calling on more companies ... in the private sector to step up with vaccine requirements that will reach millions more people,” Biden said.
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The US State Department has put out a joint statement from the foreign ministers of the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), after a meeting earlier today, appealing to the Taliban, effectively, in a display of resolve that appears undermined by the scenes on the ground in Afghanistan - and what is known of the Taliban.
We are united in our deep concern about the grave events in Afghanistan and call for an immediate end to the violence. We also express deep concerns about reports of serious human rights violations and abuses across Afghanistan.
We affirm our commitment to the statement by the UN Security Council on 16 August, and we call for adherence to international norms and standards on human rights and international humanitarian law in all circumstances.
Related: Afghanistan reports of torture and killing contradict Taliban’s promises
The Afghan people deserve to live in safety, security and dignity, and to build on the important political, economic and social achievements they have made over the last twenty years. We stand by civil society actors who must be able to continue to safely play their meaningful role in Afghan society. We call on all parties in Afghanistan to work in good faith to establish an inclusive and representative government, including with the meaningful participation of women and minority groups. Under the current circumstances, NATO has suspended all support to the Afghan authorities.
Any future Afghan government must adhere to Afghanistan’s international obligations; safeguard the human rights of all Afghans, particularly women, children, and minorities; uphold the rule of law; allow unhindered humanitarian access; and ensure that Afghanistan never again serves as a safe haven for terrorists.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Continue reading...A week after Andrew Cuomo resigned as the governor of the state of New York, Jonathan Freedland revisits a conversation he had with Alexis Grenell back in March. The pair discuss how Cuomo rose to the top, and then fell spectacularly from grace.
Continue reading...Frank’s views were disturbing, a brazen assertion of white privilege. But with our fates more clearly tied together than ever, I needed to understand him
On 11 March 2021, I took a selfie at the Baltimore Convention Center and pressed send. I’d just received my first dose of a Covid vaccine. “Feels pretty momentous,” I texted an acquaintance. “It was exactly one year ago that our university shut down.” Frank wrote back immediately from his small town in southern Michigan. “Momentous, yes. But not for the reasons you subscribe to,” he wrote.
Related: Battle for the Soul: can Joe Biden beat Trump’s Republicans in the war of words?
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Joe Biden will host Israel’s new prime minister Naftali Bennett in Washington on August 26, the White House has just announced.
Students in Florida’s Broward County went back to school under a mask mandate today, even as their school board faced threats of severe penalties for defying Republican governor Ron DeSantis.
And school officials in Hillsborough and Miami-Dade counties planned to address the public health measure later Wednesday, hoping to reduce infections in classrooms.
In Miami, Florida’s largest school district with 334,000 students, a task force of medical experts recommended students should be required to wear masks when they return to classrooms next week.
Continue reading...President acknowledges his decision would be criticized by many but says he would not ‘shrink from my share of responsibility’
– Joan E Greve and Maanvi Singh
The South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham called Joe Biden after his victory over Donald Trump to tell the president he only joined attacks on his son, Hunter Biden, as a “bare minimum” to satisfy Trump supporters.
The detail was included in a lengthy profile of Graham and his Washington manoeuvres published by the New York Times. It said the call, intended to “revive a friendship damaged by [Graham’s] call for a special prosecutor to investigate the overseas business dealings” of Hunter Biden, was “short, and not especially sweet”.
Related: ‘Short and not especially sweet’: Lindsey Graham called Biden over Trump support
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Joe Biden held a virtual meeting today with business, university and healthcare leaders to discuss strategies to get more Americans vaccinated against coronavirus.
The meeting included the CEOs of Kaiser Permanente, United Airlines and DESA, Inc., as well as the president of Howard University. All four have already announced vaccine requirements for their employees or students.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention said on Wednesday that pregnant women should get vaccinated after an analysis of data that showed no increased risk of miscarriage among women who received it.
The advice comes as hospitals in hot spots around the US are see disturbing numbers of unvaccinated mothers-to-be seriously ill with the virus, the Associated Press reports.
Related: CDC urges pregnant women to get Covid vaccine, finding no increased risk of miscarriage
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