Council for American-Islamic Relations calls for release of Samaher Esmail and other Palestinian Americans seized by IDF
An influential Arab-American group sought to increase pressure on Monday on the Joe Biden White House to use its influence with Israel to help free a US-Palestinian grandmother detained by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank.
Samaher Esmail’s family also alleges that she has been beaten and denied access to medical attention.
Continue reading...Prosecutors allegedly turn over exhibit on threats made against potential witness to Trump’s lawyers after judge ordered them to
Special counsel prosecutors have produced to Donald Trump a sealed exhibit about threats to a potential trial witness after the federal judge overseeing his prosecution for retaining classified documents ordered the exhibit turned over despite the prosecutors’ objections, people familiar with the matter said.
The exhibit was a point of contention because it detailed a series of threats made against a witness who could testify against the former president at trial, and the matter is the subject of a criminal investigation by a US attorney’s office. Prosecutors had wanted to withhold it from Trump’s lawyers.
Continue reading...The Joe Biden White House rebuked the former president’s comments as ‘appalling and unhinged’
Donald Trump has said he would “encourage” Russia to attack any of the US’s Nato allies whom he considers to have not met their financial obligations.
The Joe Biden White House immediately rebuked the former president’s comments, saying in a statement: “Encouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes is appalling and unhinged – and it endangers American national security, global stability, and our economy at home.”
Continue reading...Candidate’s ailing campaign will use mobile billboard in her home state to highlight her opponents’ many verbal gaffes
Nikki Haley’s Republican presidential nomination campaign in South Carolina is set to parade a mobile billboard drawing attention to rival Donald Trump’s age on Saturday, as ageing and mental acuity issues continue to dominate the US’s political discourse.
The stunt, which was scheduled to pass through Myrtle Beach, comes as Trump begins campaigning in Haley’s home state ahead of its primary on 24 February. It is scheduled to make stops outside a rally for the former president, according to the Hill, and show both Trump as well as Democratic incumbent Joe Biden appearing to fall into moments of confusion during public remarks.
Continue reading...Midjourney’s CEO David Holz says company close to ‘hammering’ images of Donald Trump, Joe Biden and others ‘for next 12 months’
The groundbreaking artificial intelligence image-generating company Midjourney is considering banning people from using its software to make political images of Joe Biden and Donald Trump as part of an effort to avoid being used to distract from or misinform about the 2024 US presidential election.
“I don’t know how much I care about political speech for the next year for our platform,” Midjourney’s CEO, David Holz, said last week, adding that the company is close to “hammering” – or banning – political images, including those of the leading presidential candidates, “for the next 12 months”.
Continue reading...As Biden was hit by a brutal special counsel report, Trump seemed set for victory at the supreme court and his only serious Republican rival suffered humiliation
For those campaigning to bring Donald Trump back to the White House, the past week has seen much to celebrate. For those concerned for the health of American democracy, it felt like a disaster.
Joe Biden was hit by a brutal special counsel report that painted him as elderly with a failing memory, fans of Trump eager to see him on the 2024 ballot appeared set for victory at the US supreme court, and Trump’s only remaining serious challenger in the Republican primary race suffered humiliation at the polls.
Continue reading...Ex-Maryland governor who Republicans hope can win in blue state told podcast last year sitting in Senate would be ‘really frustrating’
Larry Hogan, the former Republican governor of Maryland who on Friday announced a surprise US Senate run, told an interviewer last year he did not “have a burning desire to be a senator”, would find sitting in the Senate “really frustrating”, thought being a senator was “not where my skill set lies”, and said that though he could win a seat, “the problem was I would win and I would have to go be a senator”.
Hogan made the stark remarks, which may now come to haunt him, in an interview last May with Johanna Maska, host of the Press Advance podcast and a former White House aide to Barack Obama.
Continue reading...Democrats launch aggressive push back and defend president against Robert Hur’s description in report
Democrats and the White House on Friday launched an aggressive push back against a special counsel report that pushed Joe Biden’s age and memory to the front and center of the presidential election campaign and spurred a series of Republican attacks on the US president.
The special counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s handling of confidential documents on Thursday said the US president would not face criminal charges in the case but in a series of remarks characterized Biden as elderly and with a failing memory – triggering a political bombshell on an issue seen as a core weakness of Biden’s re-election campaign.
Continue reading...California doctors say growing number of patients have ‘fractures all over their body’ after falls from wall ‘like a three-story building’
Doctors at the University of California, San Diego’s trauma center (UCSD) have treated 455 patients with serious injuries sustained while trying to cross the US-Mexico border in 2023, a marked increase from the year before.
Ninety-seven per cent of the injuries, or 441 of them, occurred when people fell off the wall on the US side, said Alexander Tenorio, a resident neurosurgeon at UCSD who treats brain and spinal cord injuries.
Continue reading...President’s gaffes stoke concern over his age as election campaign against his presumptive opponent – also advanced in age – picks up
Joe Biden has twice made gaffes this week in which he told anecdotes wrongly identifying dead European leaders as having talked to him about the events of the attack on the Capitol on 6 January 2021.
On Wednesday at a campaign fundraiser in New York, Biden reportedly referred to the former German chancellor Helmut Kohl as talking to him about European concerns about the attempt to stop the certification of his 2020 election win, when he apparently meant Angela Merkel. Kohl died in 2017.
Continue reading...Zelenskiy aide says ‘foreign policy has become a hostage of internal politics’ after Republicans torpedo aid bill
The repeated failure of the Biden administration to get a funding package for Ukraine approved by the Senate will have real consequences in terms of lives on the battlefield and Kyiv’s ability to hold off Russian forces on the frontline, say Ukrainian officials.
The latest move by Senate Republicans to torpedo a bipartisan bill that would have combined $60bn (£48bn) in aid for Ukraine with aid to Israel and increased border security measures is a bitter blow for Kyiv. It could signal a very grim year ahead as the US political agenda settles into an election year with Donald Trump all but certain to be the Republican candidate.
Continue reading...Gallup survey shows big drop in only three years among Black and Hispanic voters, a concern for Biden’s re-election campaign
Black and Hispanic voters are deserting the Democratic party in numbers that will present a concern for Joe Biden’s re-election effort, a poll has found.
Among Black Americans expressing a party preference, the Democratic lead over Republicans has dropped by almost 20% in only three years, according to the Gallup survey.
Continue reading...Exclusive: RNC reported $8m in cash to spend, less than half of what it had in 2016, as it starts preparing for the 2024 election
Top officials at the Republican National Committee want Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, to drop out of the race for the GOP nomination so it can launch a joint fundraising committee with Donald Trump to bolster its finances, according to people familiar with the situation.
The RNC last week reported $8m in cash to spend in its year-end filing, an amount less than half of what it had when Trump was running for the presidency in 2016 and below what it needs to stand up operations as it prepares to take on Joe Biden in the general election.
Continue reading...New Orleans man asks White House to follow through on Biden’s promise to respond ‘if you harm an American’ in mother’s case
A New Orleans-area man who has reported that Israeli troops kidnapped his mother – a US citizen – from a family home on the occupied West Bank Palestinian territory is asking Joe Biden’s White House to follow through on the president’s recent promise to respond “if you harm an American”.
Ibrahim Hamed said he realizes that Biden’s remarks on Friday – “if you harm an American, we will respond” – came after the United States and Britain attacked Houthi targets in Yemen in retaliation for a drone strike that killed three US army troops. But he said the sentiment should apply as well even in the case of a Palestinian American who has been taken by Israeli troops.
Continue reading...Election day off to a quiet start with no major candidates in the state and with voters slow to trickle into polling sites
Polls have closed in Nevada, which is holding its first presidential primary contest in the US west, has been damp – and oddly quiet.
None of the major candidates are in the state, and voters have been slow to trickle into polling sites. Only about 12,000 people had opted to vote at polling stations on election day. About 151,000 people voted early, the majority of them by mail.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed. For more on Biden’s address, you can read our full story:
This right here is what Joe Biden, most Democrats and the apparently dwindling number of Republicans who support the immigration bill are up against.
The House speaker, Mike Johnson, is leading the campaign against the compromise legislation, which would enact hardline policies Democrats generally oppose while also sending military assistance to Ukraine and Israel. In remarks today, he expressed approval at reports that the deal is on “life support” in the Senate:
Continue reading...Senate bill includes aid to Ukraine and Israel, as House tries to advance bill with Israel aid only, which Biden says he would veto
Joe Biden urged Congress to pass the bipartisan border bill in a pointed speech on Tuesday, accusing Republicans of “caving” in to Donald Trump’s demands to block the legislation from advancing.
“All indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor. Why? A simple reason: Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump thinks it’s bad for him politically,” Biden said at the White House. “He’d rather weaponize this issue than actually solve it.”
Continue reading...Vote comes amid protests against the methodology the council adopted for signature matching on referendum petitions
The Atlanta city council adopted new rules on Monday that would allow the referendum process for the public to vote on the “Cop City” project to move forward. The vote came amid protests against the methodology the council adopted for signature matching on referendum petitions, which critics say gives the city a way to block a public vote on the controversial project.
Three people calling for the signature matching element of the ordinance to be removed were escorted from the council chambers ahead of the 10-5 vote adopting the ordinance.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the Senate immigration bill, read our most recent report:
In a just-released statement, the top Republicans in the House called on the Senate to vote down the bipartisan immigration policy legislation.
“Any consideration of this Senate bill in its current form is a waste of time. It is DEAD on arrival in the House. We encourage the U.S. Senate to reject it,” speaker Mike Johnson, majority leader Steve Scalise, whip Tom Emmer and conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik said.
Continue reading...Oglala Sioux tribe banishes Republican Kristi Noem after she spoke about wanting to send razor wire to Texas
A South Dakota tribe has banned the state’s Republican governor, Kristi Noem, from one of the US’s largest reservations after she spoke this week about wanting to send razor wire and security personnel to Texas to help deter immigration at the southern border with Mexico.
The Oglala Sioux tribe president said Noem’s ban from the Pine Ridge reservation resulted from the fact that many arriving at the US border with Mexico are Indigenous people from places like El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico, who come “in search of jobs and a better life”.
Continue reading...