President Biden and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday will deliver joint statements from Bethlehem.
The event is slated for 5:50 a.m.
Watch live in the video above.
Source: TEST FEED1
A man was indicted on hate crime charges for allegedly attacking two women of Korean descent inside the Rockefeller Center subway station while yelling anti-Asian slurs, the Manhattan district attorney announced Wednesday.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a release that Derrick Johnson, 40, was charged with two counts of assault in the third degree as a hate crime and two counts of aggravated harassment in the second degree.
“The subway is central to our city, and riders of all backgrounds deserve safety when they travel,” Bragg said.
“The rise of bias-driven crimes is unacceptable,” he added. “We are expanding our office’s Hate Crimes Unit to enhance these prosecutions while increasing community engagement and other preventative measures.”
Court records claim Johnson threw an unknown liquid at the two women in the subway station on May 8 and spit on them, according to the release. Johnson also reportedly made racially offensive remarks at them.
“I don’t know why you’re here,” he allegedly said.
Johnson charged at one of the women, who fell to the ground and sustained significant bruising to her arms and legs in addition to swelling in her head and jaw, the release stated.
The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Dashboard indicates roughly one in every five hate crimes in the city targets Asians, based on a year’s worth of the most recent data.
Source: TEST FEED1
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) will not support climate spending as part of a reconciliation package, likely dooming any major climate legislation before the 2022 midterms, multiple outlets reported Thursday night.
The West Virginia Democrat reportedly told Democratic leaders on Thursday that he was unwilling to support a spending package with either climate provisions or new tax increases on corporations or wealthy individuals, The Washington Post first reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Manchin said last December that he would not back the $2 trillion Build Back Better package, which included major climate provisions, seemingly killing its chances in the 50-50 Senate. Since then, Manchin has returned to the negotiating table with both Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and a bipartisan group of senators.
Manchin had previously expressed doubt about new spending Wednesday following the report that inflation surged 9.1 percent over the last year, the highest annual rate since 1981. Following the release of the report, the centrist senator suggested he was only sold on a proposal to reduce prescription drug prices.
“We know what we can pass is basically the drug pricing, OK? — on Medicare,” Manchin told reporters Wednesday. “Is there any more we can do? I don’t know but I am very, very cautious.”
The reported stalemate comes less than four months ahead of the 2022 midterms. Should Democrats lose their slim majority in one or both houses of Congress, Manchin’s announcement would likely close the door on any new climate spending for the remainder of Biden’s term. Progressives and environmental activists have faulted what they have said is Biden’s overly cautious approach to climate issues, and said it risks dampening voter enthusiasm among many of the voters who elected him in 2020.
The Hill has reached out to Manchin and Schumer’s offices for comment as well as the Senate Energy and Public Works Committee, which Manchin chairs.
Source: TEST FEED1
Beyoncé has joined TikTok.
The pop star posted her first video on the platform on Thursday, and Variety reported that her entire music catalog is now available for users to utilize as audio, known as “sounds,” in their own posts.
Beyoncé’s first video on the app included a montage of her fans dancing to her new single, “Break My Soul.”
“Seeing y’all release the wiggle made me so happy!” she wrote in the post’s caption. “Thank you so much for all the love for BREAK MY SOUL! – Love B —#RE”
TikTok has quickly gained widespread popularity across the U.S. in recent years, but has sparked concerns over data privacy.
The app’s parent company, ByteDance, is based in China, leaving some lawmakers and regulators worried about where TikTok stores data collected through the app and who has access to it.
TikTok has repeatedly claimed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) does not have access to U.S. data, but a BuzzFeed report last month contradicted that claim, citing recordings of TikTok employees indicating that engineers in China had access to nonpublic app data.
A Federal Communications Commission member asked Apple and Google to remove the app from their app stores over the concerns late last month.
President Biden revoked multiple executive orders in June 2021 signed by former President Trump, who sought to ban the app in the U.S.
Recently, a group of Senate Republicans have pressed the administration over the app, saying Biden is not enforcing a separate Trump-era executive order Biden didn’t repeal that directs ByteDance to divest its American assets and destroy U.S. data.
TikTok announced it was moving its U.S. data to Oracle’s cloud platform to dampen the concerns, but the senators argued the plan wasn’t sufficient.
Source: TEST FEED1
A lawsuit filed in the Michigan Court of Appeals on Thursday aims to prevent Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley from appearing on the ballot after he was charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
The suit, filed by Michigan citizen Lee Estes with the help of progressive nonprofit Progress Michigan, claims that Kelley’s alleged involvement in the insurrection disqualifies him from appearing on the ballot for the general election.
Kelley pleaded not guilty to four misdemeanor charges related to the insurrection last week, arguing that he was exercising his First Amendment rights, after being arrested by the FBI last month.
Footage from Jan. 6 shows Kelley climbed the U.S. Capitol to get to the North West Courtyard during the riot, and was “using his hands to support another rioter who is pulling the metal barricade,” the lawsuit claims.
“He is a clear and present danger to democracy in Michigan,” it reads.
The suit asks Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) and the Board of State Canvassers to declare Kelley ineligible for both the August Republican primary, in which he is the frontrunner, and the November general election based on the charges filed against him.
“It’s simple, really. If you supported and participated in the January 6 insurrection, you should not have the privilege of holding – or even running – for public office,” wrote Progress Michigan Executive Director Lonnie Scott in a statement.
Kelley claimed that the lawsuit was meant to distract from serious issues under consideration during the election.
“Their claims of insurrection are laughable. It is an attempt to deflect from the actual crimes and hardships that have been caused by the ‘Whitmer crime family,’” he wrote, referring to Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
The charges to which Kelley pleaded not guilty included entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, disorderly and disruptive conduct, knowingly engaging in an act of physical violence against a person or property and willfully injuring property.
Kelley argued that he did not enter the Capitol and thus that he could not accurately be convicted of any of the charges.
Lee Estes has made campaign donations to Whitmer and Benson, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Source: TEST FEED1
Vice President Kamala Harris made a galvanizing pitch to thousands of her sorority sisters in Florida on Thursday, encouraging them to take action ahead of the critical midterm races in November.
“We need two additional United States senators to protect voting rights. We need two additional United States senators to protect a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body,” Harris said to applause while speaking at the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority’s 70th Boule in Orlando. “And we need to elect people who will defend these rights up and down the ballot — from district attorneys to state attorneys general to local sheriffs to governors.”
“And to make this happen, let us do what we do best: We build coalitions. We know how to do that. We got the meanest, baddest phone trees in the world,” she said, according to a transcript of her remarks. “We know how to network. We are fueled in the deeply held belief that we all have so much more in common than what separates us.”
“So, let’s do the kind of work that we have done, because we do it so well, and continue to activate and organize our communities,” she continued. “Let’s continue to be on the frontlines of the greatest movement for progress in our country.”
The remarks came amid a wide-ranging address Harris delivered at the event on Thursday that spanned issues like gun safety and voter suppression. She also boasted progress made in various areas since assuming office, including policing, maternal health, the expanded Child Tax Credit, as well as an effort by the Biden administration to combat racial bias in home appraisals.
According to local NBC-affiliate WESH 4, over 12,000 members of the sorority took part in the event in person, and roughly as many tuned in online.
The event arrives just months before the midterm elections in November, when Democrats will try to hold onto their narrow majority in Congress.
Though the AKA does not endorse political candidates, women in the organization, which boasts of having roughly 300,000 members on its website, mobilized in their individual capacities to support Harris in her 2020 campaign to become the nation’s first Black, Asian American and female vice president.
In her remarks on Thursday, Harris credited those efforts with helping secure her and President Biden’s election win two years ago.
“Our sorority registered more than 250,000 people to vote. Our sorority teamed up with our Divine Nine sisters and strolled to the polls — indeed — and with the entire Divine Nine to combat voter suppression,” she said. “And I will never forget how, during those long days, you turned out for almost every rally and campaign event.”
“So, in 2020, just as a most recent example, you not only showed up for President Biden and me, you showed up for America. And together, we were joined in our fight for progress, which is part of our legacy,” she said.
“And so much of what we have fought for is on the line again,” the vice president added. “And so, we know what we need to do.”
Source: TEST FEED1
The Biden administration will start talks with Kenya on a strategic partnership aimed at stoking growth and investment in Kenya’s economy while also addressing climate change, corruption and regulatory practices, among other issues.
The United States-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP) is “an ambitious roadmap” for “economically meaningful outcomes,” according to a Thursday release from the U.S. Trade Representative’s office.
The partnership was announced virtually by U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai and Kenyan Cabinet Secretary Betty Maina on Thursday.
The two countries will also focus their talks on advancing and enhancing digital trade, customs procedures and workers’ rights.
The partnership will consider ways to encourage the participation of women and youth in trade and to integrate Kenya’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) into the international trade arena.
The Trump administration announced its intent to negotiate a trade deal with Kenya in 2020, but the effort has been stalled over the past two years.
Tai wrote in a statement following the announcement that she looks forward to starting discussions with Kenya within the next three months.
“We also hope that this initiative can serve as a model for trade policy engagement in Africa, one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing regions in the world,” Tai wrote.
Source: TEST FEED1
Today in health care, a GOP senator blocked a bill seeking to protect interstate travel for abortions as legislative fights heat up on the issue.
Welcome to Overnight Health Care, where we’re following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. For The Hill, we’re Peter Sullivan, Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Subscribe here.
GOP Sen. James Lankford (Okla.) on Thursday blocked a Democratic request to unanimously pass a bill seeking to protect interstate travel for abortion.
“Does that child in the womb have the right to travel in their future?” Lankford said in objecting. “Do they get to live?”
“There’s a child in this conversation as well,” he added.
Big picture: With full-scale legislation to codify Roe v. Wade lacking the votes to pass the upper chamber, Democrats have looked for other legislative responses after the Supreme Court struck down the nearly 50-year decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.
Unanimous consent requests can get GOP senators on record blocking measures.
A series of Democratic senators had spoken in favor of the measure before the request Thursday.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) said that “if people from other states need to come to Colorado to access the care they need, Congress has the obligation to shield them from prosecution.”
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday sidestepped a major crackdown on companies that make popular synthetic nicotine products.
Synthetic nicotine is made in a lab, and was a way for companies to skirt FDA regulation, since the agency previously did not have the ability to regulate it like it does with tobacco-derived nicotine.
Synthetic nicotine products are often fruity flavored and popular with young people.
Advocacy groups and senators said the agency needs to do more and slammed the lack of concrete action.
SAN FRANCISCO AT RISK OF AN ‘UNCONTROLLED MONKEYPOX SPREAD’
California Sen. Scott Wiener (D) said the city of San Francisco is veering toward a public health crisis due to the uncontrolled spread of the monkeypox virus in a statement Thursday.
The city’s Department of Public Health tweeted Wednesday that its walk-in clinic will close for the remainder of the week due to the vaccine shortage. Other city clinics are working through remaining appointments and joining the DPH center in “urgently asking for more doses.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 1,700 San Francisco residents have been vaccinated against the virus, according to the San Francisco DPH.
The warning: Wiener said the vaccination rate will continue to be slow, which will cause a spread in the city and surrounding communities. He said “failure to control this outbreak” will harm residents, especially the city’s LGBTQ+ community.
“We need an enormous amount of additional vaccine doses, and we need it immediately. The federal government’s failures are threatening to deeply harm our community,” Wiener added. “Once we move past this emergency, we need accountability for these failures — failures that put people’s lives and health in jeopardy.”
AG: STATE WILL LOOK AT DR WHO PROVIDED ABORTION TO 10-YEAR-OLD
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) says he will be looking into the licensure of the physician who provided abortion services to a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio who made national headlines after she traveled out of state to receive the procedure.
Caitlin Bernard, an Indiana obstetrician-gynecologist, publicly shared earlier this month in an interview published by the The Indianapolis Star that she would be assisting the young girl, who was prohibited from getting an abortion under Ohio’s six-week ban.
The case has been the focus of intense scrutiny, as it comes just weeks after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, eliminating the federal right to an abortion.
Rokita appeared on Fox News Wednesday and referred to Bernard as an “abortion activist acting as a doctor.” He accused of her having a history of failing to report abortions and that an investigation into the physician and her license is underway.
“We’re gathering the evidence as we speak, and we’re going to fight this to the end, including looking at her licensure if she failed to report. And in Indiana it’s a crime … to intentionally not report,” Rokita said.
Texas is suing the Biden administration over its recent guidance reminding hospitals and physicians that federal law requires them to provide abortions if there is a medical emergency and the health or life of the patient is at risk.
The allegations: According to the suit, filed in the Northern District of Texas, the Biden administration “seeks to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic,” and is “flouting the Supreme Court’s ruling before the ink is dry.”
The state is asking the court to issue a permanent injunction prohibiting the administration from enforcing the guidance.
“I will ensure that President Biden will be forced to comply with the Supreme Court’s important decision concerning abortion and I will not allow him to undermine and distort existing laws to fit his administration’s unlawful agenda,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said in a statement.
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Top Biden administration officials pressed House lawmakers on Thursday to move quickly on legislation designed to boost domestic production of semiconductors, warning of both the national security and economic harm that could come with inaction.
If the early response was any gauge, their pitch was highly successful.
“Across the board everyone wants to get something done,” said Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.). “My walkaway was — at least in that room — everyone was on the same page.”
The House and Senate have both passed much larger legislative packages designed to improve U.S. competitiveness with China. But the bills — known as “America COMPETES” in the House and “USICA” in the Senate — have been stalled for weeks in tough conference negotiations between the chambers with no resolution in sight.
In a closed-door briefing in the Capitol Visitors Center with House lawmakers of both parties, administration officials — Commerce Secretary Gina Raimonda, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks — urged Congress to step on the gas.
And to grease the skids, they’re urging lawmakers to focus on just a portion of the larger bills — a piece called the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act — which features emergency funding to help domestic semiconductor manufacturers and wean the U.S. from its dependance on Chinese-made chips.
Their message was “very straightforward,” said Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.). “Pass USICA-COMPETES right away.”
“They made the point that the core issue from a national security standpoint is CHIPs.”
The push comes a day after Raimondo and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin delivered a letter to congressional leaders in both chambers urging quick passage of the CHIPs legislation.
“If these funds are not appropriated in the coming weeks, the United States will miss out on the current wave of semiconductor investment,” they warned.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) appears ready to respond, eyeing a vote on a version of CHIPs as early as next week, according to Senate sources familiar with the plan. The bill would provide more than $50 billion in funding, the sources said.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday said House Democrats are still pushing for a larger package, but she did not rule out the possibility of taking up the CHIPs bill on its own. She cited Raimondo’s recent push for “CHIPs — or maybe CHIPs plus a thing or two.”
“She said, ‘Chips,’ and then she said, ‘Chips plus,'” Pelosi said during a press briefing in the Capitol. The latter, the Speaker added, is “what we’re more interested in.”
“We have been working constantly on the CHIPs bill, and we need to have the transformative nature of research and education and the rest, to make us continue to be preeminent in the world,” she continued. “How it shapes up in the next short period of time, we’ll see. But we are determined that we will pass a bill.”
House Democrats have been fighting for the much broader competitiveness provisions in their COMPETES Act, which passed through the lower chamber in February. Still, after Thursday’s briefing, even liberals in the caucus said they’re ready to support the CHIPs bill as a standalone vote for the sake of speed.
“The whole ball of wax is important,” said Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.). “But if we have to carve out a certain portion of the bill and get it passed expeditiously, I’m in favor of that.”
Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.) said he’d “like to see the biggest thing possible.” But echoing the others, he said he’s ready to back a trimmer CHIPs strategy.
“I think it will pass,” he said.
The fight ahead will focus on what additional provisions, if any, are able to pass through both chambers and reach President Biden’s desk.
Schneider, for one, says he’s not ready to concede CHIPs alone.
“CHIPs is a piece of it, but everything around it is important as well,” he said. “I’m not walking away saying it’s CHIPs only.”
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) offered a similar assessment, saying some Democrats will likely insist on safeguards to ensure that the tens of billions of dollars in new funding doesn’t go to support semiconductor production in China.
“The sense of the House seems to be if it’s only CHIPs, it’s got to have guardrails — significant,” he said. “I think the Senate isn’t as convinced.”
Still, the administration’s national security concerns are sinking in, and House lawmakers say they’re hoping to pass something before the fast-approaching August recess.
“I think the sense is we have to,” Phillips said of that timeline. “It’s just a matter of how much, and which one.”
Source: TEST FEED1
It’s still unclear if President Biden will raise the topic of the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week, a question that the White House has dodged repeatedly ahead of the commander-in-chief’s highly watched trip to the Middle East.
We’ll share why that matters and what the White House has revealed compared to what it has told Khashoggi’s widow.
Plus: We’ll look at Biden’s latest remarks on the Iran nuclear deal, the amendments that made it into the House’s version of the annual defense authorization bill and the latest on the bill meant to expand benefits for veterans who suffer illnesses from toxic exposures.
This is Defense & National Security, your nightly guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. For The Hill, I’m Ellen Mitchell. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.
President Biden on Thursday indicated he would raise the topic of human rights during his meeting with Saudi Arabian leaders this week, but would not commit specifically to bringing up the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Saturday.
“My views on Khashoggi have been absolutely positively clear, and I have never been quiet about talking about human rights,” Biden said at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
A direct role: U.S. intelligence has concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed played a direct role in ordering the 2018 killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident who was critical of the crown prince as a columnist for The Washington Post.
Flipping positions: Biden pledged on the campaign trail to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” on the global stage for its human rights record, but political realities such as high gas prices, tensions with Iran and efforts to foster collaboration in the Middle East led to this week’s trip.
“There are so many issues at stake that I want to make clear that we can continue to lead in the region and not create a vacuum, a vacuum that is filled by China and/or Russia,” Biden said Thursday. “And so the purpose of the visit is to coordinate with nine heads of state, whether in U.S. interests and I believe in Israel interests as well.”
WIDOW: WH SAID KHASHOGGI’S DEATH WOULD COME UP IN MEETING
Khashoggi’s widow, meanwhile, says the Biden administration promised to bring up her husband’s death during his visit to Saudi Arabia later this week.
Hanan Khashoggi told Spectrum News Wednesday that she’s sure the president will bring up during key meetings U.S. intelligence that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved Jamal Khashoggi’s 2018 killing, saying the administration assured her that her husband’s case would be discussed.
“This is [an] opportunity for me to thank President Biden and his administration. He did keep his promise by bringing [the] report of intelligence out in February last year, and he did take action, assertive action against [those involved] in my husband tragedy,” Hanan Khashoggi said in her Spectrum News appearance.
Khashoggi called Biden’s visit “practical” diplomatically, adding that “Jamal would not like it” if the diplomacy was disrupted.
President Biden on Thursday in Jerusalem affirmed his administration’s desire to return to the nuclear deal with Iran but warned he wouldn’t “wait forever,” as Israel expressed its continued opposition to reviving the agreement.
In opening remarks at a press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Biden maintained that diplomacy represented the best chance to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Reassurances: Biden, who met one-on-one with Lapid earlier Thursday on his first trip to the Middle East as president, sought to assure Israel throughout the visit of the U.S. commitment to its security and preventing a nuclear Iran.
“We mean what we say. They have an opportunity to accept, this agreement has been laid down. If they don’t, we have made it absolutely clear: We will not — let me say it again — we will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon,” Biden said later during the press conference.
An opposition: Israel has consistently opposed the Obama-era nuclear deal, from which former President Trump withdrew the U.S. in 2018. Biden pledged to revive the deal as president but talks have stalled, raising fresh doubts about the prospect of a breakthrough.
The House adopted an amendment to the annual defense spending bill on Wednesday that would give the mayor of Washington, D.C. authority over the capital city’s National Guard.
What it would do: The measure calls for giving the D.C. mayor, currently Muriel Bowser, command over the D.C. National Guard. While governors are in charge of the national guards in their respective states, the president currently oversees the force in Washington, D.C.
Why it matters: Conversations about who has authority over the D.C. National Guard moved into the spotlight after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Norton’s argument: During debate on the House floor Wednesday, Norton referenced the Capitol riot as reason why the amendment is needed.
“During Jan. 6, the Trump administration delayed deploying the D.C. National Guard to the Capitol for several hours, likely costing lives and prolonging the attack,” she said.
She also said the D.C. mayor is best equipped to make decisions for the nation’s capital, noting that the president would still have the ability to federalize and deploy the force if needed.
Also from The Hill:
HOUSE PASSES BILL EXPANDING CARE FOR VETS EXPOSED TO TOXINS
The House passed much-anticipated legislation Wednesday to expand benefits for veterans who suffer illnesses from toxic exposures during their military service.
The Sgt. First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our PACT Act largely aims to expand access to care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to 3.5 million veterans who served after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack and were exposed to toxic burn pits.
‘A new standard’: Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said in floor remarks that Congress was “setting a new standard with the PACT Act.”
“We’re telling our veterans the burden of proof is not on you,” Takano said. “Because of your sacrifice to our country, this Congress and the American people are giving you the benefit of the doubt you have earned.”
The legislation also expands presumptions related to Agent Orange — used largely during the Vietnam War — to veterans who served in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Guam.
Some background: Burn pits were used in the post-9/11 era for open-air combustion of medical waste, human waste and anything else that needed to be disposed of. Over time, exposure to the toxins can lead to illnesses such as asthma, rhinitis and cancer, some of which can take years after exposure to develop.
In April, the VA added nine rare respiratory cancers that are presumed service-connected due to exposures, including five different lung cancers.
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