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Sanders: GOP has 'excellent' chance of gaining control of House, possibly Senate

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told Politico in an interview published Thursday that enthusiasm within the Democratic Party is “extremely low,” and warned of low turnout from the party’s base in this year’s midterm elections.

Sanders argued that Democrats won’t to clinch victories in this year’s midterm elections even after the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade and the GOP’s opposition to most gun control measures in the wake of two high-profile mass shootings in May.

“The Republicans stand an excellent chance of gaining control of the House and quite possibly the Senate,” Sanders told Politico.

Democrats face significant headwinds to maintain their razor-thin majorities in Congress in the midterm elections, a problem that has only been exacerbated by voters’ concerns over high inflation.

Inflation rates have soared to near 40-year highs in the wake of the pandemic. Many Americans are feeling the financial squeeze at the gas pump and the grocery store.

Sanders reiterated his long-publicized concern over the party’s handling of two of its centrists, Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), who have repeatedly opposed large components of President Biden’s top domestic agenda items.

After months of negotiations on Biden’s Build Back Better agenda last year, Manchin rejected the sweeping package that included climate-related provisions and an expansion of the social safety net.

In a 50-50 Senate, Democrats needed every member of their party’s vote to move forward with the legislation.

“Two corporate Democrats, Sens. Manchin and Sen. Sinema, sabotaged [Build Back Better],” Sanders told Politico. “And it has been downhill ever since for the Democratic Party.”

Manchin has been negotiating with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on a bill that would enact some pieces of the Build Back Better bill ahead of the midterm elections, namely legislation to confront climate change and lower prescription drug prices.

But Sanders criticized the lengthy back-and-forth between the two senators behind closed doors.

“They have been negotiating for nine months,” Sanders told Politico. “This is not exactly terribly effective negotiation. And during those nine months, support for Democrats has dissipated very rapidly.”

Sanders raised alarm bells about support “fading away” from the working class as well as young, Hispanic, Asian American and Black voters.

“You really can’t win an election with a bumper sticker that says: ‘Well, we can’t do much, but the other side is worse,’” Sanders told Politico.

Source: TEST FEED1

Will monkeypox spread as fast as COVID?

(NEXSTAR) – As health departments around the country start to report cases of monkeypox, some are getting flashbacks to early 2020 before the coronavirus spread like wildfire. With more than 30 cases across 13 states, will the virus start a new pandemic?

Key differences between the viruses make that unlikely. In a media briefing Tuesday, Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, outlined some of those differences.

While monkeypox can spread through respiratory droplets, Inglesby explained, evidence suggests spread is happening through close contact.

“It’s not spreading across a room or greater distance,” Inglesby said. In addition to respiratory droplets at close range, the virus can also be spread through bodily contact, or through contact with someone’s bedding or clothing, he said.

Monkeypox does pose a serious danger to those who get it. It results in death for as many as 10% of people who contract it in Africa, where the virus is endemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the way it spreads can make it easier to control outbreaks.

“It is not acting in a way like a disease that spreads through respiratory droplets or airborne dominantly does,” Inglesby said. “So it’s not acting like influenza or covid or chickenpox or measles – things that spread quickly in an unvaccinated community. It is acting more like a disease that is spreading by close contact.”

We also have a vaccine that works against the virus, the smallpox vaccine.

“If we all react quickly and we all work together, we will be able to stop this,” said the World Health Organization’s Dr. Rosamund Lewis. “We will be able to stop it before it reaches more vulnerable people and before it establishes itself as a replacement for smallpox.”

“It’s really important to do everything we can to try and control it,” Inglesby agreed, “but we’re not going to see the same kinds of early numbers we did as COVID because it’s spreading in different ways.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden administration announces national standards for electric vehicle charging networks

The Biden administration on Wednesday evening announced new standards to expand electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure throughout the U.S. 

The standards will be laid out formally in a proposed rule from the Federal Highway Administration, Energy Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters on a press call Wednesday. The rule will require EV charging stations every 50 miles and no more than a mile off the highway, emphasizing the interstate highway system and alternative fuel corridors, according to Buttigieg.  

“The proposed rule requires at least four 150-kilowatt DC fast-charging ports per station so that the station can serve multiple customers, and it ensures safe installation and maintenance by qualified technicians, creating new jobs in this EV infrastructure sector,” Buttigieg said.  

Buttigieg said the proposal will also bar any EV charging station receiving federal funds from requiring memberships in a club or loyalty program to use the chargers, which “ensures that charging stations funded under these programs can serve a broad range of vehicles … and it sends a market signals toward a standard charging port for stations to accommodate the widest possible set of vehicles and accommodate adapters for all vehicles.” 

The Biden administration has set a broader goal of halving U.S. carbon emissions by 2030, and the bipartisan infrastructure law President Biden signed last year includes $7.5 billion for EV charger infrastructure. At the same time, as gas prices soar, the administration has sought to counteract the perception of EVs as a luxury item irrelevant to lower-income consumers beset by gas prices. 

The administration included a $12,500 tax credit for electric vehicles in the Build Back Better infrastructure package, which passed the House last year but stalled out in the Senate after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) announced his opposition. Last month, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told reporters the tax credit was one of the major stumbling blocks for him in ongoing bipartisan climate talks. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Sen. Markey, Rep. Khanna make wager on NBA finals

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) make a friendly wager as their respective teams, the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics, who are currently facing off in this year’s NBA Finals. 

In a tweet on Wednesday, Markey, rocking a Celtics jersey, told his fellow Democrat lawmaker that he will send him some Dunkin’ Donuts if his team loses to the Warriors, but noted that his Celtics might not need it. 

“Ro I’m challenging you, Celtics vs. Warriors, but we know the Celtics are gonna win because they have the greatest team of all time,” Markey said in a video. 

“But if we lose, I’ll send you some Dunkin Donuts but I think it’s a slam dunk Celtics tonight and for the series,” Markey concluded as he tosses a ball in a miniature hoop in his office. 

In response, Khanna, donning a Warriors hat, said he will send Markey a Draymond Green jersey if his Warriors win, adding that if the Celtics win, his office will send Ghiradelli chocolates to Markey’s office as a congratulatory gift. 

Khanna also took time to poke fun at Markey’s Celtics, mentioning how the Celtics were a league dynasty during Markey’s days as a House Representative, last winning a title in 2008, five years before Markey was elected to the U.S. Senate. 

“Hey Ed, I get it. The Celtics were a good team back when you were in the House of Representatives, Larry Bird and all. But guess what, last 10 years the Warriors have won three rings,” Khanna said in a video.  “I don’t see how many rings the Celtics have won in the past decade. So I’ll tell you what if the Warriors win tonight, which I think they will, I’m gonna give you a Draymond Green jersey and I’m excited about you wearing that.” 

“And if the Celtics somehow pull it off, well, we’ll come with Ghiradelli chocolates. for you and the office,” Khanna concluded. “Go, Dubs!” 

Unfortunately for Khanna’s Dubs, they lost Game Three of the 2022 NBA Finals to Markey’s Celtics 116- 100 on Wednesday night. The Celtics lead the best-of-seven series 2 games to 1. 

Game Four of the 2022 NBA Finals will take place on Friday at Boston’s TD Garden.

Source: TEST FEED1

Weekly jobless claims rise by 27,000

New jobless claims jumped higher during the first week of June, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department.

In the week ending June 4, initial applications for unemployment insurance totaled 229,000, a gain of 27,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 202,000 claims. The U.S. has seen an average of 215,000 claims per week over the past four months, rising from an average of 207,000 claims in May.

Jobless claims have remained low for most of 2022 as employers struggle to fill a record number of open jobs from a workforce still smaller than it was before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. With roughly two open jobs for every unemployed worker, businesses have avoided laying off employees already on payroll and have seen a steady stream of consumer spending to keep business relatively strong.

New jobless claims data is often volatile and subject to steep revisions, so last week’s steep jump in claims will not likely trigger alarms among economists. Even so, policymakers are carefully watching the labor market for signs of a slowdown as the Federal Reserve ramps up its fight against inflation.

As the Fed raises interest rates, borrowing costs throughout the economy increase and spending by consumers and businesses tend to slow. Businesses often slow the pace of hiring or reduce the size of their staff during Fed rate hike cycles as their profit margins narrow and sales decline.

The Fed is hoping to slow the economy enough to curb inflation and bring price and wage growth down to more sustainable paces. Job openings are likely to fall off as rates get higher and jobless claims may linger at higher levels as companies adapt to higher rates.

But many economists fear that a combination of supply chain issues and a record-hot U.S. economy could force inflation too high for the Fed to bring down without causing a deep economic downturn. 

Developing

Source: TEST FEED1

Small business owners urge Senate to expand background checks on gun sales

A coalition of nearly 900 small business owners, executives and entrepreneurs on Thursday pressed senators to pass a bipartisan bill to expand background checks on gun sales, citing the damage gun violence inflicts on their communities. 

“Businesses like ours lose $1.4 million every day in productivity, revenue, and costs related to gun violence. And we know that communities that experience gun violence are less likely to attract new business, investment, customers, and talent,” the business leaders wrote in a letter to senators organized by the Business Forward Foundation.

“Mass shootings and daily gun violence take place in locations that are vital to our economy and our communities — like retail stores, grocery stores, movie theaters and nightclubs — and are becoming a tragic reality for our employees and our customers.”

The letter comes as a bipartisan group of senators negotiates a gun package that will not include provisions to expand background checks to all gun sales, including transfers between private parties. The House passed two bills to enhance background checks last year, but the measures stalled in the Senate amid opposition from Republican senators and pro-gun groups.  

Senators are facing calls to pass stricter gun laws after a gunman shot and killed 19 children and two adults at a Uvalde, Texas elementary school. Shortly before that incident, 10 people lost their lives to a racially motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York supermarket. 

The small business leaders noted in their letter that the vast majority of Americans approve of expanding background checks. A poll from NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist released Thursday found that 82 percent of voters support stricter background checks. 

“No one has their ear closer to the ground than small business owners, so it’s telling that so many of them are saying don’t look away from the terrible costs of inaction on gun violence,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement. 

The House on Wednesday night passed a wide-ranging gun package that would prohibit civilian use of ammunition magazines with more than 15 rounds and raise the age to buy certain semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21 years old, among other measures. 

Those measures aren’t expected to garner enough GOP support to earn 60 votes in the Senate, where negotiations are focused around mental health, school safety and incentives for states to enforce “red flag” laws to take away guns from individuals who pose a threat. 

Source: TEST FEED1

EV tax credits ‘on the table’ as Democrats try reviving parts of Build Back Better

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) recently threw another wrench into the Biden administration’s economic agenda by saying it was “ludicrous” to pursue tax credits for electric vehicles (EVs), which would make up half of all cars on the road by 2030 if White House economic planners get their way.

But Democratic lawmakers looking to revive elements of President Biden’s Build Back Better plan say that EV tax credits are still under consideration as part of broader legislation to make the economy more environmentally friendly.

“There’s a lot of promise with EV tax credits, and I believe it’s still on the table,” Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) said in an interview.

“My vision on this would be to have a strong utilization of our tax code to incentivize and bolster and support R&D initiatives,” she added. “I don’t think it’s all in the tax code, but there’s certainly a lot of potential.”

Under the House-passed version of the Biden administration’s Build Back Better Act, which never made it to a vote by the Senate thanks in large part to Manchin, a $7,500 tax rebate for consumers who purchased EVs would have been bumped up to a $12,500 rebate, provided vehicles were made with union labor and domestic component parts.

Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) thought the bumped-up credit with the union-labor provision was worth it.

A statement from his office said he “believes expanding our use of affordable electric vehicles with batteries that are made in America with American materials and union labor is integral to our transition to a clean energy future.

The union labor stipulation ruffled the feathers of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose factories aren’t unionized and who referred to Biden as a “UAW [United Auto Workers] sock puppet” on Twitter, a platform he has since announced a plan to buy.

The EV tax credit is still alive in the eyes of other Democratic lawmakers, as well, including Rep. John Larson (Conn.), member of the chief tax-writing committee in the House.

“Rising gas prices due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine crystallize the urgent need to end our dependency on fossil fuels,” Larson said. “To do that, electric vehicles can’t just be for the wealthy. That’s why I strongly support electric vehicle tax credits to bring the cost down and make this technology available to all Americans.”

Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) concurred.

“Now is the time for Congress to drive the future of transportation,” she said in a statement.

While EV tax credits may be contentious in Congress, the auto industry generally favors any sort of policy designed to boost its sales.

“Consumer incentives are very important still at this stage in the game, while we’re still at very low levels of EV penetration, right at 4 percent,” John Bozzella, head of auto industry trade association Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said during a panel presentation earlier this year.

“Eventually you’ll see that type of support for those sales phase out as we get to much higher levels of EV penetration, but they’re important now,” he said.

Republicans are generally unenthused by EV tax credits and consistently voice support for the established industrial practices of the fossil fuel industry and even advocate for its expansion, despite a near-global consensus on the need to curb carbon emissions and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

“Given that only the richest 1 percent of Americans are driving electric vehicles, the committee should be focused on more pressing issues,” Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) told the House energy subcommittee in March.

At a recent meeting, he said, “America is the world’s leading producer of oil and gas, and we should act like it. We can produce significantly more energy than we do today and unleash the vast resources under our feet.”

In March, United Nations Environment Program chief Inger Andersen said that “urgent action is needed — on financing, adapting to climate impacts, and cutting emissions, especially by the big emitters. Making the shift now means phasing out coal; putting a price on carbon; ending fossil fuel subsidies; and ensuring a just transition to renewables.”

While EV tax credits may eventually cut back on the carbon output of the transportation sector in the U.S. by getting more electric vehicles on the road, analysts say they’re not nearly as powerful a tool as a carbon tax.

“There’s still a very long way to go. It would be a lot more efficient, by any measure, to use a carbon tax to incentivize electric vehicle purchases,” Thornton Matheson, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank, said in an interview. “In other words, instead of making the electric vehicles cheaper, make fuel more expensive.”

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who introduced a law to overhaul the federal energy tax code last year with emissions-based rules that favor low-carbon electricity and transportation, said talks on environmental legislation and carbon taxes are not where they need to be.

“There isn’t anything even in the pipeline that plausibly reduces carbon emissions.”

Manchin’s argument against EV credits was essentially that it doesn’t make sense for the government to subsidize purchases of electric vehicles when demand exceeds supply, since people don’t need to be encouraged to buy something they already want.

“In the short run, Manchin is right,” Howard Gleckman of the Tax Policy Center wrote in a brief. “But in the long run his reasoning is exactly the justification for a carbon tax, though he might not want to admit it. If the goal is to use government policy to encourage manufacturers to dramatically increase the supply of EVs, a carbon tax would be much more efficient than an EV credit.”

Revenue proposals from the Treasury Department released in March did include a bid to eliminate certain fossil fuel tax preferences in the energy sector, including eliminating a credit for nearly depleted oil wells and a write-off for exploration and development costs.

Source: TEST FEED1

UN warns of food catastrophe

The United Nations is warning of the potentially devastating impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on global access to food.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday during remarks in New York that “for people around the world, the war, together with the other crises, is threatening to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution.”

“Food prices are at near-record highs.  Fertilizer prices have more than doubled, sounding an alarm everywhere,” Guterres continued. 

“Without fertilizers, shortages will spread from corn and wheat to all staple crops, including rice, with a devastating impact on billions of people in Asia and South America, too. This year’s food crisis is about lack of access.  Next year’s could be about lack of food,” he added.

Guterres also noted that the World Food Programme estimated that the ripple effect of the war could contribute to 47 million people facing food insecurity this year.

“Ukraine’s food production, and the food and fertilizer produced by the Russian Federation, must be brought back into world markets — despite the war,” the secretary-general said.

During the invasion, Russia has blockaded the Black Sea, inhibiting Ukrainian exports. Now, Ukraine has been forced to use trains or smaller river ports to ship out goods including grain, Reuters noted. Those exports are particularly important as Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky echoed concerns about the limited exports having an impact on global hunger. 

“We cannot export our wheat, corn, vegetable oil and other products that have played a stabilizing role in the global market,” Zelensky said in an address released Thursday. 

“This means that, unfortunately, dozens of countries may face a physical shortage of food. Millions of people may starve if Russia’s blockade of the Black Sea continues,” he added.

Source: TEST FEED1

Zelensky: Fate of eastern Ukraine being decided in Severodonetsk

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that the fate of the eastern part of the country is being decided in the Severodonetsk region as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine still rages on. 

In his daily presidential address, Zelensky said that Severodonetsk remains the epicenter of the ongoing conflict with Russia in the Donbas region, adding that Ukraine has defended its positions in the region and caused mass casualties among Russian forces. 

“According to the results of this day, the 105th day of the full-scale war, Severodonetsk remains the epicenter of the confrontation in Donbas,” Zelensky said in his address. “We defend our positions, inflict significant losses on the enemy.” 

Zelensky also said that the battle of Severodonestk will be the most difficult throughout the ongoing conflict, expressing his gratitude toward those who have defended the battle-worn region. 

“This is a very fierce battle, very difficult. Probably one of the most difficult throughout this war,” Zelensky said in his address. “I am grateful to everyone who defends this direction. In many ways, the fate of our Donbas is being decided there.” 

The comments comes as Ukraine’s defense ministry said on Thursday that it has captured new ground in the southern part of the country, conducting a counter-attack in the Kherson province, according to Reuters. 

The battle of Severodonetsk, which is a small industrial city in eastern Ukraine, has been one of the blondies battles of the conflict, leading to mass causalities on both sides, Reuters reported. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, has killed thousands on both sides and led more than 7.2 million refugees to flee Ukraine due to ongoing fighting, the United Nations said.

Source: TEST FEED1