“WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators blocked a bill to keep the government operating and allow federal borrowing, but Democrats aiming to avert a shutdown pledged to try again — at the same time pressing ahead on President Joe Biden’s big plans to reshape government.
The efforts are not necessarily linked, but the fiscal yearend deadline to fund the government past Thursday is bumping up against the Democrats’ desire to make progress on Biden’s expansive $3.5 trillion federal overhaul.
It’s all making for a tumultuous moment for Biden and his party, with consequences certain to shape his presidency and the lawmakers’ own political futures.
Success would mean a landmark accomplishment, if Democrats can helm Biden’s big bill to passage. Failure — or a highly unlikely government shutdown and debt crisis — could derail careers.
‘You know me, I’m a born optimist,’ Biden told reporters Monday, as he rolled up his sleeve for a COVID-19 booster shot. ‘We’re gonna get it done.’
Monday’s 50-48 vote against taking up the bill fell well short of the 60 needed to proceed over a GOP filibuster. Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer switched his vote to ‘no,’ a procedural step to allow him to bring the measure back for consideration, which he said would happen this week.” Read more at AP News
“WASHINGTON — House Democrats are set to huddle privately Monday as growing rifts within the party threatened to scuttle a planned vote this week on a roughly $1 trillion package to improve the nation’s infrastructure.
The full caucus meeting, called by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, sets the stage for an intensely busy next few days on Capitol Hill, where Democrats have pledged to advance critical components of President Biden’s broader economic agenda — all the while adopting must-pass measures that include a bill to prevent a government shutdown.
But some of the upcoming House work already is shrouded in political bickering between moderate and liberal-leaning party lawmakers — a standoff that Pelosi must resolve to avoid a rare embarrassment on the House floor.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Milley faces Congress. Mark Milley, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, testifies before the House Armed Services today with both parties prepared to grill the highest-ranking U.S. military officer on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and remarks in recent books about his influence on China and nuclear issues during the final days of the Trump administration.
Milley, who will appear alongside U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, is also expected to face tough questions about a U.S. drone strike in Kabul following the Islamic State-Khorasan bombings at Kabul airport. It soon emerged that U.S. forces had not hit Islamic State fighters at all: Ten civilians were killed instead, including seven children.” Read more at Foreign Policy
The singer R. Kelly at his arraignment in Chicago in 2019.Amr Alfiky/Associated Press
“R&B singer R. Kelly has been found guilty on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. Kelly faced nine counts in this federal case: one of racketeering, with 14 underlying acts that included sexual exploitation of a child, kidnapping, bribery and sex trafficking charges, plus eight counts of violations of the Mann Act, a sex trafficking law. He will be sentenced in May and could face decades in prison. The trial, which began in August, featured testimony from several alleged victims who said they were groomed, sexually abused and exploited by the singer. Some victims were underage at the time of the alleged abuse. Kelly also faces other criminal charges in Illinois for child pornography, obstruction and aggravated criminal sexual abuse; and in Minnesota for two counts of engaging in prostitution with a minor. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denies any wrongdoing.” Read more at CNN
“An ‘aberration’: The FBI reported a nearly 30% increase in murders in 2020, the largest single-year jump since the bureau began recording crime statistics six decades ago.” Read more at USA Today
“Colder weather is coming, which means a higher risk of Covid-19 transmission as people spend more time indoors. It’s well known that increased vaccination rates can mitigate this risk, and more and more leaders are employing vaccine mandates to provide that protection. Mandates work, too, according to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, but they can introduce other problems. New York, for instance, is prepared to deploy the National Guard to plug any health care vacancies that arise from the state’s vaccine mandate for hospital workers that went into effect overnight. A poll of recently vaccinated people shows it’s not just mandates that spurred them to get the shot. Among those vaccinated since June 1, 39% said they were motivated by the Delta variant, 38% by the growing burden of Covid-19 on hospitals and 36% by knowing someone who became seriously ill or died.” Read more at CNN
“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will publish a proposed rule Tuesday that would ‘preserve and fortify’ the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA . The memorandum called for the DHS to exercise ‘prosecutorial discretion’ for young children who came to the USA illegally, also known as ‘Dreamers.’ A DHS notice of the proposed rule said: ‘DACA recipients should not be a priority for removal.’ The move comes months after a federal judge in Texas ruled the program illegal and halted its acceptance of applications. The judge ruled DACA violated the U.S. Constitution because it undermines Congress’ authority on immigration laws. The Biden administration appealed that ruling.” Read more at USA Today
“A federal judge agreed on Monday to lift all remaining restrictions on John W. Hinckley Jr., who tried to assassinate President Reagan in 1981, next year if he stays mentally stable and continues to follow the conditions that he has been living under, prosecutors said.
Judge Paul L. Friedman, during a hearing in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, said he would issue his written order on the plan this week, his office said.
‘If he hadn’t tried to kill the president, he would have been unconditionally released a long, long, long time ago,’ the Associated Press quoted the judge as saying during the hearing. ‘But everybody is comfortable now after all of the studies, all of the analysis and all of the interviews, and all of the experience with Mr. Hinckley.’” Read more at Boston Globe
“Facebook delayed Instagram Kids, meant for children under 14, ahead of a congressional hearing on the platform’s effects on mental health.” Read more at New York Times
“Two Fed officials who came under fire for trading securities in 2020 will leave their posts.” Read more at New York Times
“New service standards": Americans who have been frustrated with the slow service of the U.S. Postal Service probably won’t be thrilled to hear this: The service is about to get even slower.” Read more at USA Today
“China allowed an American brother and sister to return home after three years. Their release coincides with a U.S. deal letting a Huawei executive back into China.” Read more at New York Times
“SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired a short-range missile into the sea Tuesday at nearly the same moment its U.N. diplomat was decrying the U.S.’s “hostile policy” against it, in an apparent return to its pattern of mixing weapons displays with peace overtures to wrest outside concessions.
The launch, its third round of weapons firings this month, came only three days after North Korea repeated its offer for conditional talks with South Korea. Some experts say the latest missile launch was likely meant to test how South Korea would respond as North Korea needs Seoul to persuade Washington to ease economic sanctions and make other concessions.” Read more at AP News
“A presidential egging: French leader Emmanuel Macron was hit on the shoulder by an egg thrown at him by a young man in the city of Lyon.” Read more at USA Today
“Days before Germany’s federal elections, Facebook took what it called an unprecedented step: the removal of a series of accounts that worked together to spread COVID-19 misinformation and encourage violent responses to COVID restrictions.
The crackdown, announced Sept. 16, was the first use of Facebook’s new ‘coordinated social harm’ policy aimed at stopping not state-sponsored disinformation campaigns but otherwise typical users who have mounted an increasingly sophisticated effort to sidestep rules on hate speech or misinformation.
In the case of the German network, the nearly 150 accounts, pages and groups were linked to the so-called Querdenken movement, a loose coalition that has protested lockdown measures in Germany and includes vaccine and mask opponents, conspiracy theorists and some far-right extremists.
Facebook touted the move as an innovative response to potentially harmful content; far-right commenters condemned it as censorship. But a review of the content that was removed — as well as the many more Querdenken posts that are still available — reveals Facebook’s action to be modest at best. At worst, critics say, it could have been a ploy to counter complaints that it doesn’t do enough to stop harmful content.
“This action appears rather to be motivated by Facebook’s desire to demonstrate action to policymakers in the days before an election, not a comprehensive effort to serve the public,” concluded researchers at Reset, a U.K.-based nonprofit that has criticized social media’s role in democratic discourse.
Facebook regularly updates journalists about accounts it removes under policies banning ‘coordinated inauthentic behavior,’ a term it created in 2018 to describe groups or people who work together to mislead others. Since then, it has removed thousands of accounts, mostly what it said were bad actors attempting to interfere in elections and politics in countries around the world.
But there were constraints, since not all harmful behavior on Facebook is ‘inauthentic’; there are plenty of perfectly authentic groups using social media to incite violence, spread misinformation and hate. So the company was limited by its policy on what it could take down.
But even with the new rule, a problem remains with the takedowns: they don’t make it clear what harmful material remains up on Facebook, making it difficult to determine just what the social network is accomplishing.
Case in point: the Querdenken network. Reset had already been monitoring the accounts removed by Facebook and issued a report that concluded only a small portion of content relating to Querdenken was taken down while many similar posts were allowed to stay up.” Read more at AP News
The Women's March, seen here on Jan. 19, 2019, will hold its fifth annual event this weekend. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post)
“The Women’s March returns to Washington this Saturday for its fifth annual event.
Though recent marches have been smaller than the first, which drew millions of participants, organizers say women have plenty to protest. The pandemic revealed striking wage and employment gaps for women, and a national child care crisis has left many overwhelmed and tapped out financially.
Most of the previous marches have occurred in January, but organizers decided to host this year’s event in October to fight imminent threats to abortion access. Texas recently enacted one of the most restrictive abortion laws in decades, and a U.S. Supreme Court case out of Jackson, Miss., could overturn Roe v. Wade this fall. Eleven other states have trigger laws set to ban abortion if Mississippi prevails.
Leaders of this year’s march said they applied for permits for 10,000 people. They will rally at 11 a.m. at Freedom Plaza then wind toward the steps of the Supreme Court. Participation at the D.C. march may be smaller than 10,000, though, organizers said, as fewer people are traveling this year and instead are rallying in their hometowns. Activists have planned more than 600 ‘sister marches’ across the country in cities from Charleston, W.Va., to Boise, Idaho.” Read more at Washington Post
“In a bet on electric vehicles, Ford plans to build three battery factories and an electric truck plant in the U.S.” Read more at New York Times
“The Taliban banned women from working or studying at Kabul University.” Read more at New York Times
“A U.S. Belt and Road? The United States is set to begin a scouting mission in Latin America this week, searching for infrastructure projects to fund as part of plans to compete with China’s Belt and Road initiative. Daleep Singh, the U.S. deputy national security adviser for international economics, is set to travel to Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama to solicit ideas from local officials. The United States is hoping to offer a better deal than China, White House officials said, by focusing on projects with high labor and environmental standards as well as by providing more transparent financial terms.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Virus measures | Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is set to lift a state of emergency over the coronavirus, one of his last actions as leader, with his ruling party slated to pick his successor tomorrow. The four lawmakers looking to replace him as head of the Liberal Democratic Party have a range of views on how to deal with the virus in the future.” Read more at Bloomberg
“When Brazil’s crops were scorched by the worst drought in a century and then frozen this year by an unprecedented Antarctic front that repeatedly coated the land in thick frost, price spikes contributed to a surge in global food inflation. No country puts more breakfasts on kitchen tables than Brazil: Its farms produce four-fifths of the world’s orange juice exports, half of its sugar shipments and a third of coffee exports.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Hakuho, the most accomplished sumo wrestler in history, is retiring from the sport at 36.” Read more at New York Times
“Lives Lived: Frances ‘Sissy’ Farenthold was a liberal force in Texas politics and beyond. She championed racial parity and women’s rights, and her name was placed in nomination for the vice presidency in 1972. She died at 94.” Read more at New York Times
“President Obama and Michelle Obama will preside over groundbreaking festivities for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago this afternoon.
The Obamas, with Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, will make brief remarks in Jackson Park. In a bow to COVID, the audience will be virtual.
The library will be on 19 acres on Chicago's South Side, along Lake Michigan, between the University of Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry.
The complex will include an athletic field, walking trails and a vegetable garden.
During an alumni Zoom yesterday with David Plouffe and others, President Obama, 60, said: ‘I'm not old enough to want to just ... be in my rocking chair and think back to ... glory years.’
‘There will be an entire section about the campaign in Iowa. ... We’ll have a replica of the Oval Office, and Michelle's gowns and all that stuff and ... discussion of various issues like the economic crisis.’
‘But even in the museum, what we're going to be doing is setting up a series of exhibits showing the degree to which we were just a continuation of a thread — a running thread in American history.’
Valerie Jarrett, president of the Alumni Foundation, said she hopes visitors will see the library and museum as ‘a catalyst for change that each one of us is capable of making, beginning here in Chicago and rippling across the world.’” Read more at Axios
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