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Harris: US has formally determined Russia has committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine

Vice President Harris said the United States has formally determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity during its war in Ukraine, vowing that it will be held accountable for its actions. 

Harris said during a speech at the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday that the world has witnessed Russian forces engaged in “horrendous atrocities and war crimes.” She said Russian soldiers have conducted a widespread attack against Ukrainian civilians, which has included “gruesome acts” of murder, torture, rape and deportation. 

“The United States has formally determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity, and I say to all those who have perpetrated these crimes, and to their superiors, who are complicit in these crimes, you will be held to account,” Harris said. 

The United Nations defines a crime against humanity as one or more of several acts that are part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population with prior knowledge of the attack. The acts include murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, enforced disappearance and apartheid. 

Atrocities committed by Russian soldiers have been documented since the start of the war nearly a year ago, with accounts of their actions coming shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last March, about one month into the war, that the U.S. had formally determined Russia was committing war crimes in Ukraine. 

Harris said Russian officials have forcibly deported hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, including children, from captured territory to Russia and separated children from their families. She said execution-style killings, beatings and electrocutions have also been observed. 

She noted examples: a pregnant woman who was killed after a Russian strike hit a maternity hospital where she was staying, civilians being “shot in cold blood” in the city of Bucha and a 4-year-old girl being sexually assaulted by a Russian soldier. 

Harris said the U.S. knows the legal standards and the evidence and can say that Russia’s actions are crimes against humanity. 

She said the world should “renew” its commitment to accountability and the rule of law. She added that the U.S. will continue to support the judicial system in Ukraine and international investigations. 

“Let us all agree on behalf of all the victims, both known and unknown, justice must be served,” she said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Subsidies have boosted Affordable Care Act’s enrollment. It’s setting up a potential fight

Health insurance sign-ups through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) jumped by nearly 2 million during the most recent enrollment period, which ended in mid-January, totaling 16.3 million people.  

The gains suggest the program known as Obamacare is going strong, despite repeated efforts by Republicans to kill it.  

It also suggests subsidies provided to the program through two massive pieces of legislation spearheaded by President Biden had an influence. The subsidies were established by the American Rescue Plan in 2021 and subsequently extended through the Inflation Reduction Act. 

“It really speaks to the improved affordability of ACA Marketplace plans. The expanded subsidies made ACA Marketplace plans a whole lot more affordable and attractive for people,” Krutika Amin, associate director at the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), told The Hill. 

The potential problem down the road for the Affordable Care Act is that these critical subsidies are set to expire in 2025 and would have to be renewed by Congress in order to continue.

Both the White House and Democrats in Congress have called for the subsidies to be made permanent, but Republicans are likely to oppose those efforts.

That sets up a battle within next year’s race for the White House and the congressional majorities.

Republicans on the House Budget Committee recently proposed cutting these subsidies to help address the nation’s debt. A change like this could impact future enrollment, casting a shadow on the expanded access to health care the Biden administration has included among its hallmark achievements. 

In its proposal, the House Budget Committee suggested capping ACA subsidies to 400 percent of the poverty level and below, essentially returning to the original standards set by the ACA. The panel estimated that “recovering overpayments” could save the government $65 billion. 

Whether a GOP majority would actually move forward with such a proposal is a real question, say some analysts.

“I’m kind of skeptical about this precisely because this is something that the budget committees do every year. It doesn’t represent necessarily something that the Republican majority would support generally speaking. It’s a starting point for some kind of a discussion,” Joseph Antos, a health policy analyst at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, told The Hill.

Antos noted the Republican Study Committee made no mention of reducing ACA premium subsidies in its proposed alternative budget for 2023, with the plan mostly focusing on regulatory changes to the program.

Ending the subsidies would be a politically fraught endeavor, especially with the program’s expanded use and popularity.

“The old saying is that once you’ve handed somebody an entitlement, you can’t take it back. And that’s what the ACA is,” said Antos. “It’s very difficult for a politician to actually take a cut in anything that directly affects voters. It really doesn’t matter whether you think that the people who are benefiting most are more likely to vote Democrat or Republican. It leaves a bad taste in everybody’s mouth.”

Amin from KFF noted that the income limit for subsidies proposed by House Republicans would set a cutoff at a little over $54,000 in 2023. 

“If that does happen, where ACA subsidies are once again capped up to that income level, then some people — particularly middle-income people and older people — will have to pay a lot more for easy marketplace plans,” Amin said. 

Amin gave the example of a 60-year-old individual making about $55,000 annually. With the current subsidies, such an individual would pay about 8 1/2 percent of their income for a Silver health plan, a mid-level plan available through the Marketplace. 

“If the GOP proposal to cap the subsidies … moves forward, the 60-year-old would have to pay over 20 percent of their income on average in some states,” said Amin. 

While he did not touch on this specific proposal, Biden made it clear during his State of the Union address last week he would veto any legislative attempts by Republicans to drastically change the health care landscape, including access to abortion at the federal level and potential cuts to Medicare.

Apart from the subsidies, administration officials and health care stakeholders also attributed the boost in enrollment to concerted efforts on outreach and awareness. 

Liberal health care advocacy group Protect our Care cited the administration’s investment into the ACA’s Navigators program as another reason for the increasing enrollment numbers. Navigators are essentially ACA enrollment advisers who are tasked with raising awareness of Marketplace plans and assist consumers in preparing their applications. 

“The nation’s uninsured rate is at the lowest it has ever been in history,” Protect our Care said in a statement. “We’re finally starting to reach the true potential of the Affordable Care Act, and you see that reflected in the enrollment numbers. The lesson here is that the American people want us to keep pushing these policies forward until we ensure that everyone has the care they need to thrive.” 

A spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) echoed these sentiments, saying the level of outreach had risen to an “unprecedented scope and scale” this past year. 

“Enrollment outreach included investments to reach multiple audiences that experience lower access to health care. CMS has partnered with cultural marketing experts, for example, to deliver strong campaigns to African Americans, Spanish and English-speaking Latinos, and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in multiple languages,” the spokesperson said.

CMS invested nearly $100 million in grant funding to 59 Navigator organizations for this year’s enrollment period, another record amount according to the agency’s spokesperson. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Ranking the GOP’s top 10 presidential candidates

Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley this week became the second major Republican candidate for president in 2024, joining former President Trump in a field that is sure to grow.

Other potential candidates, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, are hinting that they could also declare soon. 

Enormous speculation is swirling around Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is widely seen as Trump’s most serious rival within the GOP and is reportedly beginning to staff up for a presidential bid.

With the race heating up, where do the contenders stand?

1. Former President Trump

In The Hill’s most recent previous rankings, in early January, Trump had dropped to second place behind DeSantis.

Back then, he was suffering through an especially bad period that had begun with poor performances by his endorsees in November’s midterms and was followed by a lackluster campaign launch.

Trump’s position has stabilized since then. In the polls, he is still the candidate to beat. 

In addition, Haley’s entry underscores the possibility of a large field of contenders — something that would help Trump enormously. Trump reacted to Haley’s announcement by telling Fox Digital “the more the merrier” — which is certainly true, as a political reality, for him.

Trump does face significant challenges, including the lingering fear among some Republicans that he is an electoral drag on the party.

Then there are the numerous legal threats, including special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into events around Jan. 6., 2021, and Trump’s possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump got an unexpected assist on the classified documents when President Biden and Pence both got caught in possession of broadly similar information — though they cooperated far more promptly with authorities in returning those documents than Trump did.

Still, the facts remain stark. Trump leads in virtually every poll, he can raise money with ease and his base is as fervent as ever.

2. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

If DeSantis were able to get Trump in a one-on-one electoral battle, he could very plausibly beat the former president.

Even in a multicandidate field, he is by far the biggest threat to Trump — a reality backhandedly revealed by Team Trump’s growing attacks on him.

DeSantis has enormous appeal to the GOP base. Many Republican voters are enthused about his combative approach to liberals and the media, his eager embrace of “culture war” issues and his perceived ability to move his political agenda forward with none of Trump’s self-defeating chaos.

Critics say DeSantis has not yet proven he can take a punch. 

But if he enters the race, it will be the start of an epic battle. 

3. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley

Haley had a near-flawless rollout to her campaign this week, announcing her candidacy with a slick video, holding her first event at a well-attended rally in her native South Carolina the next day and bathing in media attention.

Haley even got an unintentional assist from CNN, where 56-year-old anchor Don Lemon made comments that sparked outage about the 51-year-old former South Carolina governor being past her “prime.” Lemon later expressed regret about his “inartful” language.

Haley, unlike many other potential rivals to Trump and DeSantis, has a distinctive appeal. 

The daughter of Indian immigrants and a candidate who would become the first female presidential nominee in her party’s history if she won, she hopes to expand the GOP’s appeal. 

In her launch video, she noted that Republicans had lost the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential elections.

But Haley is also distrusted by the Trump wing of the party — and it’s far from clear that the primary electorate of today’s GOP would prefer her more modulated political approach over his.

4. Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas)

Cruz was the de facto runner-up to Trump back in 2016 and would clearly be a major candidate it he sought the nomination again.

Whether he will do so is much more doubtful, however. One key complication is that Cruz is up for reelection to the Senate in 2024. 

Cruz could choose to try to secure another six-year term in the Senate, while keeping his powder dry for a future presidential race.

Cruz, at 52, is almost a quarter-century younger than Trump, so he has time on his side.

Still, the presidential bug doesn’t easily leave ambitious figures like Cruz alone.

If he gets in the race, he will hope his deep conservatism and taste for political combat will power him past both Trump and DeSantis.

5. Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.)

Scott is one of the most intriguing potential candidates for the GOP in 2024.

His low-key, affable demeanor has led Beltway pundits to underplay the chances of him even launching a White House run.

But he is certainly making a lot of moves that follow the template for any would-be candidate. Just this week, he added a second stop to a scheduled trip to Iowa later in the month. 

The Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with his plans,” reported on Feb. 13 that Scott was “taking steps to run for president.” And he has recently bolstered the leadership of his super PAC.

Scott, the sole Black Republican senator, has at times been critical of Trump, especially on racial matters, without ever definitively breaking with the former president.

Scott has a conservative voting record, a compelling personal story and at least some history of trying to work across the aisle — he and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) devoted many months to a search for bipartisan police reform, though it was unsuccessful in the end.

6. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin

A presidential run would be an enormous undertaking for Youngkin, who only began his political career in 2021.

But his victory in Virginia’s gubernatorial race that year laid down a roadmap for Republican politicians in competitive states.

Youngkin placed enormous emphasis on education — specifically, the right of parents to be more involved in decisionmaking, including around the academic curriculum.

The issue has become a rallying cry for the GOP.

Youngkin was also politically nimble, neither entirely embracing nor disavowing Trump.

In the end, he beat Democrat Terry McAuliffe in a state Biden had carried by 10 points just 12 months previously.

There are real doubts that Youngkin will jump into the race, however. He has made few moves to suggest a bid is imminent.

7. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott 

Abbott, beginning his third term as governor of a huge state, should be a serious contender.

Abbott is perhaps best known nationally for his tough stances on migration, though critics to his left accuse him of “stunts” for his deployment of the Texas National Guard to the border and his tactic of transporting migrants to other states.

Abbott is often underrated politically. His reelection victory in November saw him dispatching one-time Democratic rising star Beto O’Rourke with ease.

The problem for Abbott, if he runs, is DeSantis.

The Florida governor has a very similar approach and agenda — and he has drawn far more support to his side.

8. Former Vice President Mike Pence

Pence has been very public about the fact that he is mulling a run. Just this week, he traveled to Iowa, where he held a rally focused on parents’ rights in Cedar Rapids.

Pence has deep roots among Christian conservatives, and the Iowa caucuses would be critical for him.

He has a clear vulnerability, however. In opinion polls, he has notably higher disapproval ratings among Republican voters than most other potential GOP contenders.

Those numbers are surely a legacy of Pence’s refusal to back Trump’s illegal plan to overturn the 2020 election, and his subsequent criticism of the former president.

But, as a fact of political life, that history makes it hard to see a realistic path for him to become the GOP’s 2024 nominee.

9. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

Pompeo told The Hill in a video interview earlier this week that he was not yet leaning one way or another as he and his family mull a presidential bid.

“There’s no lean,” he said. “It’s kind of binary. It’s a zero or one.”

In the same interview, Pompeo promised a substantive campaign in which, he said, “We’ll go make arguments. It’s not about tweets, it’s not about noise, it’s not about ‘owning the libs.’ It’s about presenting a rational argument about how to get our government to function.”

Pompeo has a hard-hitter’s resume. Prior to being Trump’s secretary of State, he was director of the CIA. Before that, he served three full terms representing Kansas’s 4th Congressional District in the House.

The problem for Pompeo, if he goes ahead with a campaign, will be how to distinguish himself from other candidates.

It’s simply not clear what his unique selling point is.

10. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem

Many campaign cycles throw up a dark-horse candidate who unexpectedly gathers momentum.

Noem could end up filling that role in 2024.

She is closely in sync with the MAGA wing of the party, in part due to her early and vigorous opposition to coronavirus-related mandates. This week, she told the libertarian Cato Institute that states that pursued more restrictive polices had been engaged in a “power grab that frankly in this country should be alarming to us.”

Noem is an accomplished media performer. And, for Republican voters who find the idea of a female nominee particularly appealing, she is more of a firebrand than Haley.

She suffers somewhat because her home state is so far removed from major media markets — and from the cities where most big GOP donors are based.

But she is adept at gaining national attention. In recent months, she became one of the first and most prominent GOP critics of TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media app that is the focus of numerous fears regarding data privacy and national security.

Source: TEST FEED1

Mystery still swirls around three objects US shot out of the sky

Two weeks after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon and one week after President Biden directed the military to shoot down three more unidentified objects, America is still gripped by questions over what the objects were and why they were flying at a height that posed a risk to air traffic.

President Biden on Thursday delivered his most extensive remarks to date on the situation, in which he all but ruled out that the three unidentified objects were part of the Chinese balloon program or that they were a foreign intelligence-gathering effort.

But with officials still unable to collect the debris from the latest downed objects, there is still much more to be learned about to whom, what their purpose was and how they ended up in a position to be shot down.

Who owns the objects?

Biden backed the intelligence assessment from his National Security Council that the unidentified flying objects (UFOs) were “most likely” related to a private company or research institution, but did not go further to explain the conclusion.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) was able to detect the UFOs after tuning its radars to scan for the objects, which were flying at an elevation of 40,000 feet or below and posed a threat to civilian aviation.

Guy Gratton, an associate professor of aviation and the environment at the United Kingdom’s Cranfield University, said hundreds of weather balloons go up across the world every day.

But it would be “irresponsible” to send them up to around 40,000 feet, where they can interfere with air traffic, Gratton explained.

“There are some really interesting questions about why they would be there,” he said. “Because you really do not want those floating around where passenger aircraft are flying.”

Some lawmakers have raised questions about the UFOs being benign or commercial, asking why no company or institution has come forward to claim them. One hobbyist group has said a balloon went missing around the time of the shoot-downs.

The tweaking of radars has raised questions on what the administration’s response will be to unknown objects zipping around the sky, considering they may start detecting more of them.

The White House announced an interagency task force this week to outline how the administration will respond to future UFOs.

How was information shared publicly?

The latter three UFO takedowns were followed by a vacuum of information, which bred conspiracy theories and uncertainty in the public. While White House and Pentagon officials spoke to reporters daily in the aftermath of the three objects being shot down, there was a limited amount of information available at the time.

A Pentagon official on Sunday said they could not rule out extraterrestrial life related to the three objects, a notion the White House refuted a day later. And for a time, so little was known about the UFOs that officials could only describe them as “objects” without getting more specific.

Natalie Baker, an associate professor studying national security strategy and how society responds to existential threats at the National War College, said it was important for the administration to consider a more careful approach in the future, given they may not be able to reveal a plethora of information quickly.

“It’s important for us to better understand how to relay information to the public,” Baker said. “That fosters trust, because there’s a lack of trust in the government by the public and I think situations like that reveal this issue.”

The president on Thursday made clear that while it is still unknown what the three objects shot down last week were, “nothing right now suggests they were related to China’s spy balloon program or that they were surveillance vehicles from any other country.”

Biden added that he made “no apologies” for shooting down the Chinese balloon. Administration officials have said they were able to predict the balloon’s path and protect sensitive military sites, and argued that by waiting to take it down until it was over water, they were able to prevent property damage and injuries.

The administration’s ability to definitively rule out a connection to China’s spy balloon program came days after Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) told USA Today that the three unidentified objects were “almost certainly a case of the Chinese trying to come up with new or creative ways to spy on us.”

What exactly were the later 3 objects?

The object shot down over Lake Huron in Michigan on Sunday appeared to be an octagonal object, and the one shot down over the waters of Alaska was the size of a small car.

Gratton, the aviation professor from Cranfield University, said some balloons could reach the size of a small car as they float upward. 

And while balloons are generally round and not octagonal, it’s also possible the pilot who identified the octagonal shape above Lake Huron saw it through a camera lens that distorted his perception of it, according to Gratton.

Details are even murkier on the object taken out over Canada’s Yukon. Canadian Chief of the Defense Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre said in a Wednesday Twitter thread the UFO was a suspected balloon.

Eyre described the retrieval efforts as “challenging in the remote, mountainous area with deep snow, risk of avalanche, and harsh weather conditions.”

An Illinois-based hobbyist group, the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, wrote in a now widely circulated blog post that one of its balloons had gone missing around the time the objects were shot down. A member of the group told Politico on Friday that they believe the object shot down over the Yukon could be their balloon.

John Kirby, a national security spokesperson at the White House, said Friday that he was unable to confirm reports that the hobbyist group might be connected to the object, and he said no organization has come forward to claim ownership of any of the objects.

A lot of mysterious flying objects do turn out to be weather balloons, said Rep. André Carson (D-Ind.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation subcommittee who chaired the first congressional hearing on UFOs in 50 years last spring.

But Carson added that the UFOs shot down last weekend may not be “completely benign.”

“There’s a lot of work that we are going to do,” Carson told WTHR 13 News on Tuesday. “The issue of [unidentified aerial phenomena] will continue to come up. We can’t make rash judgements until we have all of the information.”

Kirby on Friday acknowledged that some questions about the objects may remain a mystery indefinitely. He noted that one balloon was shot down over frozen sea ice, another was over the wilderness of the Yukon, and the third landed in Lake Huron.

“It’s going to be very difficult to find them, let alone once you find that debris be able to do the forensics to identify it,” Kirby said. “So I can’t promise you that we’ll know definitively one way or another.”

Source: TEST FEED1

US calls off search for unidentified aerial objects shot down over Alaska, Lake Huron

The United States has called off the search for two unidentified flying objects that were respectively shot down over Alaska and Lake Huron last week, The New York Times reported Friday. 

A U.S. official told The Times that conditions made locating the two objects too difficult despite trying to find them for days. 

The U.S. military shot down three objects last weekend in the aftermath of a Chinese balloon that drifted across the continental U.S. that officials say was designed to conduct surveillance. The first of the three objects was downed over Alaska, while the second was over a region of Canada and the third was over Lake Huron near Michigan. 

The objects have not been specifically identified, but President Biden said on Thursday that they were likely linked to a private company or researchers and not meant for surveillance as the Chinese balloon was. 

The official said Canada is continuing to search for the object that was taken down over the territory of Yukon. 

The object that was shot down over Alaska is believed to be about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, according to the official. They added that their pilots used aircraft with radar that could see through the ice, but still couldn’t find any remnants. 

An Illinois balloon hobby group said one of their small balloons went missing off the coast of Alaska, but added that they could not be sure if their balloon was what the military shot down. 

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a briefing on Friday that no group has claimed any of the three objects that the military downed.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden ups pressure for gun reform in wake of Mississippi shooting: 'Enough'

President Biden responded on Friday to the shooting in rural Mississippi that left six dead, saying it’s “enough” and calling on Congress to “act now” to pass gun reform.

“Jill and I are mourning for the six killed in today’s violence in Tate County, Mississippi — as we have for far too many Americans,” Biden said in a statement. “We grieve with their families and with Americans nationwide as gun violence claims yet more lives.”

“We are also praying for the recovery of those injured in this horrendous attack, and for survivors who will carry both grief and trauma with them for the rest of their lives,” he added.

Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesperson Bailey Martin confirmed the deaths in Tate County on Friday, adding that the state’s Bureau of Investigation was asked to assist in the ongoing investigation.

Federal law enforcement is also involved, according to Biden, who said he’s “directed that all federal support be made available.”

“Enough. We are 48 days into the year and our nation has already suffered at least 73 mass shootings,” Biden wrote. “Thoughts and prayers aren’t enough. Gun violence is an epidemic and Congress must act now.”

“We need—need—commonsense gun law reforms,” he continued. “That includes requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, fully closing the boyfriend loophole to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, requiring safe storage of guns, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets.”

Biden has long been a proponent for gun reform.

He signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in June of last year in light of the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, N.Y. The legislation enhanced background checks for gun purchasers under 21 and made obtaining firearms through straw purchases or trafficking a federal offense.

He has also been a strong supporter of a pair of bills from Senate Democrats that would ban military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines as well as raise the age of purchasing them to 21 years old.

Gov. Tate Reeves (R) confirmed that the suspect — Richard Dale Crum, 52, as reported by The Associated Press — was arrested on one charge of capital murder. He is currently being held without bond.

The incident in Mississippi comes just days after three students were killed and five were injured in a shooting at Michigan State University.

Source: TEST FEED1

Senate Energy Committee to hold hearing on East Palestine train derailment effects

The Senate Energy and Public Works Committee plans to hold a hearing on the environmental and public health impacts on the local community following the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio earlier this month.

Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.), the chairman of the committee, and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the ranking member, said in a statement that they will focus on the local, state and federal response in the immediate aftermath of the derailment and the efforts to clean up the toxic chemicals that were slowly released into the environment. 

“We believe this is an important step to ensure that response prioritizes the health and safety of those impacted by this terrible accident,” they said. 

The statement did not provide information on when the hearing would be scheduled, but noted that it would be held soon. 

The announcement comes as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plan to send toxicologists to the site near Ohio’s border with Pennsylvania on Saturday to conduct tests to determine the safety of the residents, and whether they can to return to their homes. 

Officials have said the air and water are safe after the Norfolk Southern train derailment that allowed hazardous materials to become exposed to the air on Feb. 3. Their analyses are based on tests they have conducted in the weeks following the crash. 

But some residents have reported strong odors of chemicals in the area and symptoms of illness potentially resulting from the chemicals. 

One of the most dangerous chemicals on board the train was vinyl chloride, a cancer-causing material that is used to create plastics — and is also explosive. Officials burned the substance and conducted a “controlled release” of the chemicals into the air to avoid a potential explosion. 

Residents have called for Norfolk Southern to be held accountable for its role in the crisis. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) has said the company should pay for the effects of the derailment, including medical screenings for residents potentially impacted. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Friday that it would send federal assistance to the train derailment site.

DeWine initially said the agency determined that the area was not eligible for disaster support because it usually steps in when significant home and property damage happens from a natural disaster like a hurricane.

Source: TEST FEED1

Finger-pointing flies from lawmakers over Ohio train derailment and spill

Lawmakers are doling out blame and demanding answers on the train derailment in Ohio.

Legislators from both parties are expressing frustration and asking for more to be done, though Republicans in particular have put Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg directly in the hot seat. 

“Secretary Buttigieg is nowhere to be found on this issue. It really is a remarkable thing that he hasn’t gone to East Palestine to see what happened there,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on Fox Business this week. “He hasn’t come to Congress to explain what happened. For whatever reason, the Secretary seems to fill his days with politics. I know he has aspirations, but he actually has a day job.”

Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) floated impeaching Buttigieg over how he has handled the derailment.

“I hope he does resign, and if he doesn’t, there’s a long list of impeachment criteria,” Davidson told conservative outlet Real America’s Voice Thursday. “I never would have thought we’d see a point where we need to impeach a Secretary of Transportation, but daggon, how many failures have to happen on his watch before we call it?”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this week that the White House has “absolute confidence” in Buttigieg.

The derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3 released chemicals, including toxic vinyl chloride, into the surrounding community, prompting a temporary evacuation. 

State and federal authorities have said that the area’s air and water are now safe, but residents remain fearful and concerned. 

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are questioning Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) about why it isn’t providing emergency assistance. 

Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), who represents East Palestine, led a letter signed by the entire Ohio congressional delegation urging FEMA to provide assistance.

Johnson also told The Hill in a written statement that there may be room for congressional or administrative action once investigations on the issue are complete. 

 “Congress and the administration must take a close look at the findings to determine what policies to modify and/or implement to better prevent anything like this from happening again,” he said. 

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has called on Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) to declare an emergency, though DeWine’s office has said that it was told by FEMA that it was not eligible for assistance. 

A FEMA official told reporters Friday that the agency “continues to have ongoing conversations with the governor’s office” on the state’s support needs. Administration officials also emphasized a commitment from Norfolk Southern to pay for cleanup and other costs.

Beyond the issue of FEMA, Republicans have sent mixed messages on water quality.

The state has said testing indicated that municipal water in East Palestine is safe, but DeWine has also told residents to drink bottled water out of an “abundance of caution.”

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) has also said that he would drink bottled water; He posted a video on Thursday showing what appeared to be chemicals in a creek, saying there were “dead worms and dead fish all throughout this water.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, traveled to East Palestine and posted a video of himself drinking water that he said came from its taps — saying that he was helping the mayor of East Palestine get the word out that the tap water is safe to drink. 

“What’s clear is there is a lot of work to do. I thank the first responders and personnel on site for all their efforts thus far. I will work in a bipartisan effort to ensure our freight rail system is as safe as possible and prevent tragedies like this from occurring again,” Nehls said in a statement.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), too, has criticized the administration’s timeliness. 

“It is unacceptable that it took nearly two weeks for a senior Administration official to show up,” he said in a statement on EPA Administrator Michael Regan’s visit to the area. 

DeWine, for this part, called on Congress to take action if it is true that the railroad was not required to notify the state about the chemicals on the train because they were not considered high hazardous materials, Fox 19 reported.

Vance supported the call for labeling the materials as hazardous, though he said that the responsibility lies not only with Congress but also with the Transportation Department. 

“I don’t want to let Congress off the hook here because Congress can legislate a solution to this problem and that’s exactly what I’m going to try to do. We should have some legislation coming out here to that effect in the next few days, but look, the Department of Transportation can act on this issue too. This is a regulatory problem and a legal problem,” he told reporters this past week. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Five top revelations from Dominion’s explosive court filing in Fox News lawsuit

A filing in Delaware state court by Dominion Voting Systems as part of the company’s blockbuster lawsuit against Fox News and its parent company contains never-before-revealed vignettes from inside the network in the days that followed the 2020 election. 

Text messages, e-mails and testimony contained in the filing show the outlet’s top executives and hosts casting doubt on former President Trump’s false claims of a stolen election, and worrying about how fact-checking those assertions on the air might be received by the conservative media outlet’s massive audience. 

Dominion is suing Fox for defamation, seeking $1.6 billion in damages, alleging the network knowingly aired false information about its software based on competitive and political pressure. 

Fox has argued in legal filings and public statements it was simply covering Trump’s allegations about voter fraud as any news organization would, and is accusing Dominion’s lawyers of “cherry picking quotes” from its employees in this week’s filing to build a stronger case.

“There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners, but the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan,” the network said in a statement this week. 

Here are the most explosive revelations contained in Dominion’s filing:

Leading hosts called foul on ‘insane’ Powell, Giuliani claims

The filing includes a number of text messages and emails between Fox’s top talent showing them insulting pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, who made many of the on-air claims at the center of the suit.

“Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane,” Tucker Carlson wrote to fellow prime-time host Laura Ingraham on Nov. 18, according to the filing.

“Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy,” Ingraham purportedly responded, apparently referring to Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.

Both Powell and Giuliani publicly promoted unfounded claims that Dominion shifted vote counts to steal the election from Trump.

Carlson at one point allegedly confronted Powell directly about her claims, saying, “You keep telling our viewers that millions of votes were changed by the software. I hope you will prove that very soon. You’ve convinced them that Trump will win. If you don’t have conclusive evidence of fraud at that scale, it’s a cruel and reckless thing to keep saying.” 

Carlson and Hannity talked about getting Fox reporters fired for fact checking Trump 

The filing alleges Carlson and Sean Hannity floated the idea of pressuring network leaders to fire Fox White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich after she fact-checked a tweet from Trump promoting some of the Dominion claims.

The filing says Carlson told Hannity, “Please get her fired. Seriously….What the fuck? I’m actually shocked…It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.” 

Hannity then told Carlson, “I’m 3 strikes. Wallace shit debate[.] Election night a disaster[.] Now this BS? Nope. Not gonna fly. Did I mention Cavuto?” 

The two hosts weren’t the only ones taking issue with reporters’ fact checking, Dominion alleges.

After White House correspondent Kristin Fisher fact-checked claims that Powell and Giuliani made at a Nov. 19, 2020, press conference, Dominion claims that Fox’s executives “were not pleased.”

Washington Bureau Chief Bryan Boughton allegedly called Fisher and told her that she needed to do a better job of “respecting our audience.”

Fox leadership worried about getting flanked to the right 

As Trump grew increasingly critical of Fox in the weeks leading up to and after the election, Dominion alleges that some at the network became concerned about the brief ascendance of Newsmax, a smaller conservative channel that aired many of Trump’s false election fraud claims.

Dominion alleges Carlson texted a producer on his weeknight primetime show: “Do the executives understand how much credibility and trust we’ve lost with our audience? We’re playing with fire, for real….an alternative like newsmax could be devastating to us.”

In an exchange among executives one week after the election, Lauren Petterson, the president of Fox Business Network, purportedly wrote of Newsmax, “they definitely have a strategy across all shows to try to target and steal our viewers.” 

Dominion further alleged that Jay Wallace, the president of Fox News Channel, at one point wrote, “The Newsmax surge is a bit troubling—truly is an alternative universe when you watch, but it can’t be ignored.” 

Murdoch dismissed Trump’s election claims

When Rupert Murdoch watched Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell make false claims of electoral fraud on November 19, he told Suzanne Scott: “Terrible stuff damaging everybody, I fear,” according to the filing. 

On January 5, a day before the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, Murdoch wrote to Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott saying “It’s been suggested our prime time three should independently or together say something like ‘the election is over and Joe Biden won,’” and that such a statement “would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election stolen.” 

Since the 2020 election, Murdoch has publicly distanced himself from Trump and the network has grown increasingly critical of the former president in some of its programming, favoring other leading Republican candidates. 

Murdoch separately told Fox News leadership THAT Guiliani was to be taken “with a very large grain of salt,” and bemoaned the fact the former New York City mayor was advising Trump in the post-election period, the filing shows. 

Fox prepping First Amendment defense in court, questions Dominion’s motives

Dominion’s case against Fox’s hinges on its ability to prove that the network acted with “actual malice,” or reckless disregard for the truth, a legal precedent that has been a high bar to clear for parties suing media companies and other publishers in recent years. 

Fox has for months argued it was doing its journalistic duty covering the claims of electoral fraud coming from Trump and his team, and in a filing of its own this week said it “fulfilled its commitment to inform fully and comment fairly,” on Trump’s claims. 

“Some hosts viewed the president’s claims skeptically; others viewed them hopefully,” Fox’s filing reads. “All recognized them as profoundly newsworthy.”

Fox last summer hired Dan Webb, a veteran defense attorney and high-profile lawyer, as part of its legal team defending itself. 

The spokesperson for the outlet said this week Dominion’s filing “takes an extreme and unsupported view of defamation law and rests on an accounting of the facts that has no basis in the record.” 

The company has separately argued Dominion has inflated its valuation in pursuit of the $1.6 billion in damages it is seeking from Fox Corp. 

“Dominion could not possibly suffer damages in that amount,” Fox’s filing reads. “Let alone suffer such damages because of a single press outlet’s coverage of a story that was reported by media throughout the world.”

Source: TEST FEED1