A Colorado student defied officials with a Mexican flag, the vice-president visited West Point and a service animal lent a paw
A Colorado high school student defied a federal judge’s ruling and wore a Mexican flag sash to her high school graduation after fending off repeated resistance from the school.
The event was just one of a clutch of unusual graduations and commencements across the country in the last week, with some firsts – and one furry companion.
Continue reading...Vice-president addresses graduating cadets at elite US military academy and warns of threats of Russian and Chinese aggression
Vice-President Kamala Harris on Saturday became the first woman at West Point’s 221-year history to deliver a commencement speech.
Addressing over 900 graduating cadets at the elite American military academy in West Point, New York, Harris told them that they are graduating “into an increasingly unsettled world where long-standing principles are at risk”, and cited the threats of Russian and Chinese aggression in her speech.
Continue reading...Supreme court justice did not report Crow’s tuition payments on his annual financial disclosures, ProPublica reports
A new investigation by ProPublica revealed that billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow paid the tuition of Mark Martin, a grandnephew of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas.
According to ProPublica, Mark Martin, whom Thomas obtained legal custody over when Martin was 6-years old, attended a private boarding school in northern Georgia called Hidden Lakes Academy for about a year.
“Harlan Crow has long been passionate about the importance of quality education and giving back to those less fortunate, especially at-risk youth… he and his wife have supported many young Americans through scholarship and other programs at a variety of schools…
Harlan and Kathy have particularly focused on students who are at risk of falling behind or missing out on opportunities to better themselves… Tuition and other financial assistance is given directly to academic institutions, not to students or to their families. These scholarships and other contributions have always been paid solely from personal funds, sometimes held at and paid through the family business.”
A New York judge has thrown out Donald Trump’s 2021 lawsuit that accused the New York Times of an “insidious plot” to obtain his tax records.
Vice president Kamala Harris will meet with Google and Microsoft CEOs today to discuss AI risks.
Iowa lawmakers have passed a Republican-led bill that allows teenagers to work longer hours and take previously banned jobs.
Continue reading...Steven van Zandt, the musician and actor who starred as Silvio Dante in The Sopranos and plays guitar as Little Steven in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, called Jamie Raskin his “brother from another mother” today, in a message of support for the Maryland Democrat’s fight against cancer.
Raskin, 60, is undergoing chemotherapy for large B-cell lymphoma, a process which causes hair loss, and has taken to wearing bandannas. Van Zandt is known for wearing such headgear on stage.
Continue reading...Former president heading to East Palestine, Ohio, after loosening safety regulations for rail operators
Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg will visit East Palestine, Ohio on Thursday, Politico reports.
He’ll receive an update from the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the freight derailment that spilled toxic chemicals in the community, according to the report, which cites a person familiar with his plans.
Continue reading...The Rev Al Sharpton delivers passionate eulogy at church service to Black man, 29, who died at hands of police in January
Thousands of mourners on Wednesday attended the funeral of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who died three days after Memphis police officers beat him following a traffic stop last month.
Nichols’ beating shocked many in the US after being captured on camera, and triggered yet another bout of soul-searching over racism and police brutality. The five officers involved have been charged with murder and other crimes.
Continue reading...Three buses of Central and South American migrants arrived to the vice-president’s home from Texas
Three busloads of migrants were dropped off outside the Washington DC home of US vice-president Kamala Harris late on Christmas Eve, the latest episode in an escalating battle between the Joe Biden White House and the governors of southern Republican states over federal immigration policy.
The Central and South American migrants, believed to be sent from Texas, were dropped off in below-freezing temperatures, with some wearing only sweatshirts and shorts.
Continue reading...The ceremony will be a nod to the barriers broken by the two most powerful women in California politics and beyond
US vice-president Kamala Harris will swear in Karen Bass as Los Angeles mayor, marking the historic election of the first Black woman to lead the second largest city in the country.
The swearing-in ceremony on Sunday will bring together two elected leaders who have repeatedly broken barriers in California politics and beyond. In 2020, Harris became the first woman, first Black person and first Asian person to be US vice- president. In 2008, as a California state assemblymember, Bass became the first Black woman to serve as the speaker of any US state legislature; she was elected to represent Los Angeles in the US congress in 2010 and later became chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Continue reading...Coast guard cut towing cable the Phillipines navy was using, say military officials, on eve of visit to region by Kamala Harris
China’s coast guard forcibly seized the suspected debris of a Chinese rocket that the Philippine navy was towing to its island in the South China Sea, Philippines military officials have said, in the latest confrontation in the disputed sea.
The Chinese vessel twice blocked the Philippine naval boat before seizing the floating debris it was towing on Sunday off Philippine-occupied Thitu island, Vice Admiral Alberto Carlos said on Monday. He said no one was injured in the incident.
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...Pyongyang fired ballistic missiles into the sea just hours before US vice-president arrived in Seoul
The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, has condemned North Korea’s “provocative nuclear rhetoric” during a trip to South Korea that included a visit to the heavily armed border dividing the peninsula.
Harris arrived in Seoul on Thursday, hours after North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, in a move that underlines Washington’s struggle to rein in the regime’s weapons programme.
Continue reading...DMZ trip comes days after North Korea warned that the South and the US risked ‘triggering conflict’ with joint naval drills
The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, is to visit the heavily armed border separating North and South Korea on Thursday, amid rising tensions on the peninsula.
Harris will arrive at the demilitarised zone (DMZ) on the southern side of the border, days after the regime in Pyongyang warned that South Korea and the US risked “triggering a conflict” following the launch of large-scale naval exercises for the first time in five years.
Continue reading...More than 50 past and present leaders to gather amid domestic opposition to ceremony fuelled by links between Abe’s party and Unification Church
The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, and British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, will be among foreign dignitaries arriving in Japan to attend a state funeral for the assassinated former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, despite strong public opposition to the ceremony.
They will be among about 700 people from overseas, including 50 former and current leaders, who are expected to attend the funeral in Tokyo on Tuesday, almost three months after Abe was shot dead while making a campaign speech.
Continue reading...About 50 mainly Venezuelan migrants including a baby deposited unannounced at Naval Observatory in Washington
About 50 migrants, including a one-month-old baby, have been sent in a bus from Texas to the Washington DC residence of Vice-President Kamala Harris, in the latest move by Republican-led states to transfer migrants unannounced across the country.
The bus let off the migrants, who are believed to be mostly Venezuelan, outside the Naval Observatory, the traditional home of US vice-presidents, on Saturday morning.
Continue reading...President also urges Congress to do more to force social media companies to address spread of hate through their platforms
Joe Biden vowed to combat the “venom and violence” of white supremacy in America and decried Donald Trump’s reluctance to condemn the rightwing racism on display in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, which spurred Biden to run against him for the presidency.
The US president also called afresh for Congress to do more to force social media companies to address the spread of hate through their platforms.
Continue reading...Vice-president warns that the elections will determine whether ‘age-old sanctity’ of right to vote would be protected
Kamala Harris warned on Sunday that the midterm elections in November would determine whether the “age-old sanctity” of the right to vote would be protected in the US or whether “so-called extremist leaders around the country” would continue to restrict access to the ballot box.
With just 56 days to go until the elections, and with the paper-thin Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress, the vice-president said that “everything is on the line in these elections”.
Continue reading...The vice-president blasts the supreme court’s conservative majority over abortion rights in an interview with NBC
Kamala Harris has excoriated the US supreme court for being an “activist” institution after stripping away nationwide abortion rights earlier this year.
The vice-president’s remarks criticizing the supreme court’s conservative majority for its decision in June to reverse the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that established the federal right to an abortion came during an interview with Chuck Todd of NBC’s Meet the Press.
Continue reading...Fijian police escort the men from media space where US vice-president Kamala Harris was making virtual address
Two Chinese defence attaches have been kicked out by Fijian police from a Pacific Islands Forum meeting at which the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, was giving a virtual address.
The men were sitting in on a session of the forum’s fisheries agency at which Harris announced the step-up of US engagement in the region, believed to be in response to China’s growing influence.
Continue reading...Vice-president Kamala Harris has announced postings in Kiribati and Tonga as leaders gather in Fiji for the Pacific Islands Forum
The US has announced a major step-up in its engagement with the Pacific region, including the establishment of new embassies in Kiribati and Tonga, in moves that will be seen as attempts to counter China’s growing influence in the region.
The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, made the announcement on Tuesday, as Pacific leaders gathered in Suva, Fiji for the Pacific Islands Forum, the most significant regional meeting.
Continue reading...Vice-president demands action after speaking at funeral for Ruth Whitfield, oldest person killed in Buffalo shooting
Kamala Harris called for a ban on assault weapons in the US and the passage of much-delayed gun control legislation after speaking on Saturday at a funeral for the oldest victim of the Buffalo mass shooting earlier this month.
After giving remarks at the service for Ruth Whitfield, the oldest person killed during the grocery store shooting two weeks ago, Harris called upon lawmakers to pass an assault weapons ban, while speaking with reporters.
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