Meanwhile, even in seemingly performative ways, Republicans have settled on a blueprint for 2022. Having underestimated the significance of education as an issue in the gubernatorial race in Virginia, Democrats were still reading the exit polls when House Republicans, moving to nationalize an issue that was traditionally a strong suit for Democrats, introduced a “parental bill of rights” in the House. The National Republican Congressional Committee announced within hours of the election that it was expanding its map, adding 13 more Democratic-held House seats to its offensive targets in the midterms.
“Democrats are losing the messaging war,” said Kelly Dietrich, a former Democratic fundraiser and founder of the National Democratic Training Committee, which trains candidates across the country. “We talked about this in ‘20. We promised to solve problems, and rather than talk and brag and point out the fact that government is working the way it should — making sausage is messy — we’re bogged down in process, and in the meantime, the other side is capitalizing on issues that really matter to the day-to-day lives of voters.”
He said, “It’s got to get fixed in like eight to 10 months, and the prospects for ’22, it’s a year away, I don’t know … Honestly, I don’t know. We need some radical change within the Democratic ecosphere.”
None of this is new. Following Democrats’ losses in Virginia and New Jersey in the gubernatorial elections in 2009, Barack Obama’s White House downplayed the significance of the off-year contests, while prominent Democrats on the sidelines feverishly tried to make sense of why independents defected from the party, casting it as a “wake-up call.” It didn’t make a difference. The party sleep-walked all the way into the midterms the following year, when Democrats lost more than 60 House seats in what Obama described as a “shellacking.”
The difficulty conducting a postmortem after an election like last week’s is that the losses were so widespread that it’s hard to pin defeat on any one thing. Democrats lost the culture wars, but they also got pinned down on the economy. They were drubbed in rural areas and with non-college educated whites, but they also lost independents in the suburbs. And two issues that worked so well for Democrats last year — the coronavirus and Donald Trump — no longer resonated as much with voters.
In the aftermath of the election, there was broad recognition that McAuliffe made specific missteps that a candidate in 2022 could avoid, like saying during a debate, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” And there were certain things, like supply chain disruptions, rising gas prices and the electorate’s dim mood, that Democrats in Virginia could do nothing about.
But beyond that, Democrats were reading Virginia like a Rorschach test. Progressive Democrats saw the election as a rebuke of the corporate wing of the party and Clintonesque Democrats like McAuliffe. Centrists saw it as a revolt against the “wokeism” of the left. For rural Democrats, the election confirmed that Democrats need to focus more on voters outside of cities. For urban Democrats, it confirmed the need for Congress to pass legislation that might appeal to the party’s base.
13 House Republicans broke ranks and voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill Friday.
Now, some of their fellow Republicans are calling them “traitors” and “Democrats.”
The bill also passed with Republican votes in the Senate in August.
Thirteen House Republicans broke ranks Friday and voted with House Democrats, passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill and drawing the ire of some of their colleagues.
Leading up to the vote, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy trashed the bill as “reckless, irresponsible spending” and urged his party not to vote for it.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia warned that any Republican who votes for the bill will “feel the anger of the GOP voter,” while Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina said: “Vote for this infrastructure bill and I will primary the hell out of you.”
Biden hailed the bill’s passage as a “once-in-a-generation investment” that will “create millions of jobs, modernize our infrastructure” and “turn the climate crisis into an opportunity.”
But some Republicans who didn’t support the bill focused on their colleagues who did.
Greene labeled them “traitors” and tweeted out a list of their names along with their office numbers.
Others went for a potentially more insulting label: Democrats.
“There’s a lot of Democrats who call themselves Republicans in the US House,” Cawthorn tweeted Saturday.
Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado said in a tweet “these fraudulent RINOs” should be penalized “for advertising themselves as Republicans but governing as Democrats.”
“I can’t believe Republicans just gave the Democrats their socialism bill.” Rep Matt Gaetz of Florida said.
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas retweeted Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio, who said it was “painful” to watch his Republican colleagues deliver the votes to Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the Republicans who voted for the bill, responded to Greene in a tweet, mocking her for referring to the infrastructure bill as communist: “Infrastructure=communism is a new one. Eisenhower’s interstate system should be torn up or else the commies will be able to conveniently drive!”
Rep. John Katko, another Republican who voted for the bill, released a statement on Twitter regarding his vote, calling it a “historic day” and praising the bill as “comprehensive infrastructure reform.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi survived an alleged assassination attempt on Sunday, local time, two Iraqi officials told The Associated Press.
“The rockets of treason will not shake one bit of the steadfastness and determination of the heroic security forces,” al-Kadhimi tweeted. “I am fine and among my people. Thank God.”
Seven of the prime minister’s security guards were wounded in the incident.
In a statement issued through state-run media, the government said that an “explosives-laden” drone had tried to target al-Kadhimi, the AP noted.
The attack, which included three drones, was aimed at his residence and occurred in the Green Zone — a heavily secured area where government offices and embassies are situated.
Details of who was behind the attack were not immediately clear.
The U.S. condemned the drone attack late Saturday night, calling it an “apparent act of terrorism.”
“We are following the reported drone attack targeting the residence of Iraqi Prime Minister Kadhimi. We are relieved to learn the Prime Minister was unharmed,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.
“We are in close touch with the Iraqi security forces charged with upholding Iraq’s sovereignty and independence and have offered our assistance as they investigate this attack. Our commitment to our Iraqi partners is unshakeable,” he added.
The drone strike comes only a few days after a protest against the results of last month’s parliamentary election turned violent, with dozens of security officials injured and one supporter of a pro-Iran Shiite militia killed, the AP noted.
Last month Iraq held its parliamentary election, which suffered low voter turnout.
Those supporting the pro-Iran Shiite militias, which suffered the biggest losses following the election, have been pushing back against the results and situated themselves for close to a month outside of the Green Zone in protest, according to the AP.
Virginia Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin’s 17-year-old son attempted to vote twice on Election Day but was turned away by poll workers both times due to his age, officials said.
The teenager tried to cast his ballot at the Hickory precinct polling place at Great Falls Library, which is not the polling place assigned to his address, election officials told NBC4.
“This morning, November 5, 2021, the General Registrar was made aware of concerns that a 17 [year-old] male attempted on two occasions to vote on election day,” the Fairfax County Office of Elections told NBC4 in a statement.
“The young man presented identification but was ineligible to be registered due to his age and was not permitted to vote,” the statement added. “The man was given a registration form and encouraged to register for future elections.”
He has not been charged with any crimes.
Fairfax County Registrar Scott Konopasek said that it does appear that the minor committed any kind of crime under Virginia state election laws. It is explicitly illegal to provide fraudulent information to vote — however, attempting to vote when not eligible and not succeeding is not clearly defined as a crime.
“The man did not vote. He made no false statements. He did not disrupt voting,” Konopasek said in a statement. “Based upon information available to me now, it appears that he committed no election offense as defined in Chapter 10 of the Elections Code.”
According to handwritten notes from the Hickory precinct chief, the teen first arrived at 9:30 a.m. on Election Day and requested a ballot. He was told he must be 18 years old to vote and was instead offered a registration — which he declined– before leaving, NBC4 reported.
Fairfax County Registrar Scott Konopasek said that Youngkin’s son did not appear to break Virginia election laws.AP
He returned a half hour later at 10 a.m. and requested a ballot and was again told he was not eligible to vote and offered registration form which he again declined.
“He declined if he would not be able to vote today,” the chief wrote in his notes.
Youngkin’s campaign responded to the incident in a statement, claiming the teen’s attempts to vote were a misunderstanding of law — and also blaming the information going public on political rivals.
“It’s unfortunate that while Glenn attempts to unite the Commonwealth around his positive message of better schools, safer streets, a lower cost of living, and more jobs, his political opponents — mad that they suffered historic losses this year — are pitching opposition research on a 17-year old kid who honestly misunderstood Virginia election law and simply asked polling officials if he was eligible to vote; when informed he was not, he went to school,” the report said.
Youngkin shocked the nation when he defeated former Gov. Terry Mcauliffe in an upset in Virginia’s gubernatorial race, drawing the largest number of voters in the state’s recent history.
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — As COVID-19 ravaged Hungary in April, Budapest resident Akos Sipos received his second vaccine dose, believing he was doing the right thing for his own health and to help end the pandemic.
But Sipos, 46, soon discovered that the vaccine he received, Russia’s Sputnik V, disqualified him from traveling to a number of other countries where it hadn’t been approved. The nations include the United States, which is pushing forward with a new air travel policy that will make Sipos and many like him ineligible to enter.
“I thought it’s better to get Sputnik today than a Western vaccine at some uncertain future time,” Sipos, who works as a search engine optimization specialist, said of his initial decision to receive the jab. “But I couldn’t have known at that time that I wouldn’t be able to travel with Sputnik.”
Starting Monday, the United States plans to reopen to foreign travelers who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. But there’s a catch: non-immigrant adults need to have received vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration or which received an emergency use listing from the World Health Organization.
That leaves many hopeful travelers across the globe who have taken full courses of vaccines widely used in other parts of the world — Sputnik V and the China-produced CanSino jab, in particular — scrambling to get reinoculated with shots approved by U.S. authorities.
Two other Chinese vaccines, Sinopharm and Sinovac, have been approved by the WHO and will thus be accepted for travel into the U.S.
Mexico received nearly 12 million doses of CanSino and almost 20 million of Sputnik V after shipments began earlier this year. Residents who got the required two shots of those vaccines now are looking to top up with shots of the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson vaccines, hoping that will make them eligible to cross the border.
“They screwed those of us who got this vaccine,” said Rosenda Ruiz, 52, a public relations manager in Mexico City who received Sputnik V. “There are lots of Mexicans who want to travel, but we can’t. I am thinking of getting whatever other vaccine I can get.”
While Sputnik V is used in around 70 countries worldwide, it has still not been approved by either the FDA or the U.N. health agency. Nearly 1 million people have received the vaccine in Hungary, a Central European country of around 10 million.
Hungary was one of only two countries in the 27-member European Union to roll out the Russian vaccine. Fewer than 20,000 people received it in Slovakia.
Judit Molnar, president of the Association of Hungarian Travel Agencies, says so many Hungarians being unable to travel to the United States — or even to some countries in the EU which don’t accept the jab — has had an effect on her industry.
“We see that in the last few months, travelers are increasingly asking us when they can travel to America,” said Molnar, who is also president of the OTP Travel agency.
“These travelers are saying they really hope the situation will change and that the United States will accept the Sputnik vaccine. There are many people who would like to travel and in Hungary, many people were vaccinated with Sputnik,” she said.
Citizens of Russia, where use of Sputnik V is most widespread, also are seeking Western-approved shots so they can travel abroad. Faced with the prospect of being turned away from flights, Russians have booked tours to Serbia, which has authorized use of the Pfizer-BioNTech, China’s Sinopharm and the AstraZeneca vaccines in addition to Sputnik V.
Russia, which unveiled Sputnik V with much fanfare as the world’s first registered vaccine in August 2020, criticized U.S. plans to leave the vaccine off its list of approved shots.
“There are exactly zero reasons for such decisions,” Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the foreign relations committee in the Russian Duma, or lower house of parliament. “The effectiveness and safety of the Sputnik V vaccine has been proven not only by specialists, but also by its practical application.”
But the World Health Organization still is reviewing the vaccine, and months of holdups make it unclear when Sputnik V might receive an emergency use listing.
Hungary’s government has made bilateral agreements with 24 countries — including Russia, Serbia, Mongolia, Georgia, and Kazakhstan — on mutually recognizing proof of vaccination, regardless of vaccine type.
Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told The Associated Press that it is open to a similar agreement with the United States, but “currently there is no ongoing negotiation.”
Sipos, the search engine specialist, said that while he was confident in Sputnik V’s efficacy, he recently sought a Western-approved booster shot, Moderna, so he could travel where he wants.
“I felt deceived because they accept Sputnik in more than 60 countries in the world, but in tons of other countries they don’t,” he said.
Silvia Morales, 38, a public high school teacher in Monterrey, Mexico, said she recently received a Moderna shot after hearing that the U.S. government wouldn’t recognize her CanSino vaccine.
She said she “needed to have peace of mind” about her level of protection against the virus.
“But I also love traveling to the United States,” she said.
___
Marcos Martínez Chacón in Monterrey, Mexico, and Jim Heintz in Moscow, contributed to this report.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has told Ethiopians they must be ready to make “sacrifices” to save the country from rebel forces, as the United States ordered non-emergency government employees to leave Ethiopia
The yearlong fighting between federal government troops and Tigrayan rebels, who are threatening to march on the capital, Addis Ababa, has intensified in recent days.
“There are sacrifices to be made, but those sacrifices will salvage Ethiopia,” Abiy said on Twitter on Saturday.
“We have seen the tests and obstacles and it made us stronger,” he continued, adding: “We have more allies than the people who turned their backs on us.”
Abiy’s comments came a day after nine groups said they would join forces in an alliance built around the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), with the aim of removing Abiy’s government by force or negotiations.
The government has dismissed the coalition formation as a “publicity stunt” and said most of the groups involved do not have any traction.
“For us, Ethiopians, dying for our sovereignty, unity and identity, is an honour. There is no Ethiopianism without sacrifice,” the government’s communication service said on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the US embassy in Addis Ababa ordered the departure of its non-essential diplomats on Saturday, a day after advising all US citizens to leave Ethiopia “as soon as possible” – as have several other embassies, including those of Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Norway.
“Incidents of civil unrest and ethnic violence are occurring without warning. The situation may escalate further and may cause supply chain shortages, communications blackouts, and travel disruptions,” the US embassy said on its website on Saturday.
It came after the US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, was seemingly unable to strike a breakthrough in his bid to bring an end to the fighting during a visit this week to Addis Ababa.
While regional and international efforts are under way amid calls for an immediate cessation to hostilities and talks for a lasting ceasefire, a diplomatic source told Al Jazeera that Ethiopian government officials and the US envoy were unable to agree on a path to solving the conflict.
The source said Ethiopia rejected Feltman’s proposal to hold unconditional negotiations with the rebels, as the government considers the TPLF a “terrorist” group and demands the immediate withdrawal of its fighters from the Amhara region without conditions.
The same source added that the US and Ethiopian sides differed over the nature of the negotiations, with the latter insisting it was the one that determined this without the interference of external parties.
Last weekend, the TPLF said it had taken two strategic cities in Amhara, where its fighters had advanced after retaking their Tigray bastion in June. It said on Wednesday it had reached the town of Kemissie in Amhara, 325km (200 miles) northeast of the capital.
The TPLF added it was running “joint operations” with another rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Army, and indicated it might advance on Addis Ababa. The Tigrayan forces say they are pressuring Ethiopia’s government to lift a deadly months-long blockade on their region of around six million people, where basic services have been cut off and humanitarian food and medical aid are denied.
“If marching to Addis is what it takes to break the siege, we will,” said TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda.
The Ethiopian government, which on Tuesday declared a nationwide state of emergency, has denied any major rebel advance or threat on the capital, promising to press on to victory in “an existential war”.
Abiy’s spokeswoman Billene Seyoum on Friday accused the rebels of spinning “an alarmist narrative that is creating much tension among different communities, including the international community”.
“This information warfare and this propaganda that they have been propagating is giving a false sense of insecurity,” she added.
Abiy, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, sent troops into Tigray in November 2020 to topple the TPLF, which he accused of having attacked military bases. Weeks later, he declared a victory.
By late June the rebels had retaken most of Tigray and expanded into the neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara.
The brutal conflict has killed thousands and displaced more than 2.5 million. The United Nations has said up to seven million people in the regions of Tigray, Amhara and Afar need help, including five million in Tigray where some 400,000 people are estimated to be living in famine-like conditions.
The fighting has also exacerbated ethnic rivalries, in particular on social media where calls for war and hatred have been rife.
Twitter announced on Saturday that it had temporarily disabled its “trends” section, which groups the most viral tweets on a subject, for Ethiopia.
The social media giant said it was “focused on protecting the safety of the conversation on Twitter,” adding that “inciting violence or dehumanising people is against our rules”.
Facebook’s parent company Meta said on Wednesday that it had deleted a post by Abiy that called for Ethiopians to “bury” the rebels.
Following Tuesday’s declaration of the six-month emergency, reporters citing lawyers have said many Tigrayans had been detained.
The authorities say they are only targeting TPLF supporters.
But rights watchdog Amnesty International slammed the emergency measures, calling them “a blueprint for escalating human rights violations”.
Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, a retiring Ohio Republican, warned that former President Donald Trump will claim voter fraud and try to subvert the election results again if he loses the 2024 presidential election.
Trump has not officially announced a bid for 2024, although he has repeatedly teased a return to the White House since leaving office earlier this year.
In a new CNN documentary, titled Trumping Democracy: An American Coup, Gonzalez discussed the possibility of the former Republican president running for the White House in 2024 and securing the party’s nomination.
“I think it’s all pushing towards one of two outcomes: He either wins legitimately, which he may do, or if he loses again, you just try to steal it,” Gonzalez said. “Should he be the nominee, or should he run again, I’ll do everything I can to stop him.”
Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) is seen during a House Financial Services Committee oversight hearing to discuss the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on December 02, 2020 in Washington, DC. Getty Images
“Can I stop him? I have no idea. But I believe as a citizen of this country who loves this country and respects the Constitution, that’s my responsibility,” he added.
Gonzalez, who was among the 10 House Republicans to cross party lines and vote for Trump’s impeachment in January, announced that he would not seek reelection in the 2022 midterm elections. In retiring, the congressman will avoid a face off against a pro-Trump candidate in the party’s primary in his state.
Following the impeachment vote, Trump embarked on a revenge campaign, vowing to oust any Republican lawmaker who stood against his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.
Trump has also targeted the nine other House Republicans who voted to impeach him and seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict him for allegedly inciting the January 6 Capitol riot.
“January 6 was an unconstitutional attempt led by the President of the United States to overturn an American election and reinstall himself in power illegitimately. That’s fallen nation territory, that’s third world country territory. My family left Cuba to avoid that fate. I will not let it happen here,” Gonzalez said.
The lawmaker indicated that Trump has been attempting to remove dissidents in the GOP to clear the way for his return to the White House in 2024.
“He’s going methodically state by state at races from, you know, state Senate races all the way down to county commissioner races trying to get the people who―the Republicans, the RINOs, in his words―who stopped this, who stopped him from stealing the election,” he said.
Newsweek reached out to Trump representatives for comment.
A federal appeals court on Saturday temporarily halted the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay of the requirement by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration that those workers be vaccinated by January 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said the action stops Democratic President Joe Biden “from moving forward with his unlawful overreach.”
“The president will not impose medical procedures on the American people without the checks and balances afforded by the constitution,” said a statement from Landry, a Republican.
Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda said the U.S. Department of Labor is “confident in its legal authority to issue the emergency temporary standard on vaccination and testing.”
OSHA has the authority “to act quickly in an emergency where the agency finds that workers are subjected to a grave danger and a new standard is necessary to protect them,” she said.
Such circuit decisions normally apply to states within a district — Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, in this case — but Landry said the language employed by the judges gave the decision a national scope.
“This is a great victory for the American people out there. Never before has the federal government tried in a such a forceful way to get between the choices of an American citizen and their doctor. To me that’s the heart of the entire issue,” he said.
At least 27 states filed lawsuits challenging the rule in several circuits, some of which were made more conservative by the judicial appointments of former Republican President Donald Trump.
The Biden administration has been encouraging widespread vaccinations as the quickest way to end the pandemic that has claimed more than 750,000 lives in the United States.
The administration says it is confident that the requirement, which includes penalties of nearly $14,000 per violation, will withstand legal challenges in part because its safety rules pre-empt state laws.
The 5th Circuit, based in New Orleans, said it was delaying the federal vaccine requirement because of potential “grave statutory and constitutional issues” raised by the plaintiffs. The government must provide an expedited reply to the motion for a permanent injunction Monday, followed by petitioners’ reply on Tuesday.
Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert at Georgetown University’s law school, said it was troubling that a federal appeals court would stop or delay safety rules in a health crisis, saying no one has a right to go into a workplace “unmasked, unvaxxed and untested.”
“Unelected judges that have no scientific experience shouldn’t be second-guessing health and safety professionals at OSHA,” he said.
Download our Free App
For Breaking News & Analysis Download the Free CBS News app
Iraq’s military says Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi survived an assassination attempt after a drone laden with explosives targeted his residence in the capital, Baghdad.
Al-Kadhimi escaped unhurt, but security sources told Reuters news agency that at least six members of the prime minister’s personal protection force were wounded in Sunday’s attack.
Al-Kadhimi appealed for calm and restraint in a post on Twitter.
“I’m doing fine, praise be to God, and I call for calm and restraint on the part of everyone for the good of Iraq,” he said.
He later appeared on Iraqi television, seated behind a desk in a white shirt, looking composed. “Cowardly rocket and drone attacks don’t build homelands and don’t build a future,” he said.
The early morning attack came after deadly protests in the Iraqi capital over the result of a general election on October 10.
The groups leading the protests are heavily armed Iran-backed militias that lost much of their parliamentary power in the election. They have alleged voting and vote-counting irregularities.
Supporters of Iraqi Shia armed groups burn portraits of al-Kadhimi and Iraq security officials during a protest against the election results near the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, November 6 [Thaier Al-Sudani/ Reuters]
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack on al-Kadhimi’s residence in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign embassies.
A statement from the Iraqi military said the failed assassination attempt was with “an explosives-laden drone” and that the prime minister was in “good health”.
“The security forces are taking the necessary measures in connection with this failed attempt,” it said.
Violent protests
Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Baghdad, said residents of the city heard explosions and gunfire from the Green Zone and that security has been tightened in and around the central district.
He also said a spokesman for the pro-Iranian militias, known as the Hashd al-Shaabi, has also stated that he was “very sceptical of the assassination attempt, saying that this is just made up by the government in a bid to put blame on the protesters”.
The attack comes after protests by supporters of parties who dispute the vote results turned violent on Friday, with demonstrators pelting police with stones near the Green Zone.
The police responded with tear gas and live fire, killing at least one demonstrator.
Some of the leaders of the most powerful militia factions openly blamed al-Kadhimi for Friday’s clashes and the protester’s death.
“The blood of martyrs is to hold you accountable,” said Qais al-Khazali, leader of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia, addressing Kadhimi at a funeral held for the protester.
“The protesters only had one demand against fraud in elections. Responding like this (with live fire) means you are the first responsible for this fraud,” he said.
Iraqis carry the coffins of two Hashd al-Shaabi supporters, who the Hashd says died a day earlier in clashes with security forces while protesting in Baghdad, at their funeral in the holy city of Najaf on November 6 [Ali Najafi/ AFP]
Preliminary results of that poll showed that a bloc led by influential Muslim Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr won 73 seats, maintaining its position as the largest group in Iraq’s 329-member parliament. While he maintains good relations with Iran, al-Sadr publicly opposes external interference in Iraq’s affairs.
Meanwhile, the political arm of Hashd al-Shaabi, which is known as the Conquest Alliance, won about 15 seats, down from 48 in the last parliament.
Independent analysts say the election results were a reflection of anger towards the Hash al-Shaabi, which are widely accused of involvement in the killing of nearly 600 protesters who took the street in separate, anti-government demonstrations in 2019.
‘Stupid and shortsighted’
Randa Slim, director of the Conflict Resolution and Track Two Dialogues Program at the Middle East Institute, said Sunday’s attack was not “just an attack on Kadhimi, it is also an attack against the political class”.
“It really amounts to a coup attempt,” she told Al Jazeera, adding that while there has been no claim of responsibility, “there’s a lot of circumstantial evidence pointing to the Iran-backed Iraqi militias”.
Noting that the militias have blamed al-Kadhimi for the protester’s death on Friday, she said that the relationship between al-Kadhimi and the Iran-backed militias have been tense for a long time.
“Recently, some members of the militias have been indicted for killing some of the protesters two years ago. And al-Kadhimi’s late adviser, Hisham al-Hashemi, was assassinated by suspected members of these militias. So they and al-Kadhimi have been engaged in this tug of war and they stand to benefit most from forcing al-Kadhimi out of the picture.
“But in my opinion, it’s a very stupid and shortsighted move, because if anything it’s going to make al-Kadhimi a victim and will elevate his political chances of going back to the prime minister’s office.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s top security official, Ali Shamkhani, condemned Sunday’s attack, calling it “a new sedition”.
“The attempt … is a new sedition that must be traced back to foreign think-tanks,” he said on Twitter, without giving further details.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq also condemned in the “strongest terms the assassination attempt” against Kadhimi.
In a statement, UNAMI said: “Terrorism, violence and unlawful acts must not be allowed to undermine Iraq’s stability and derail its democratic process.”
For its part, the United States strongly denounced Sunday’s attack.
“This apparent act of terrorism, which we strongly condemn, was directed at the heart of the Iraqi state,” said Ned Price, spokesman for the US Department of State.
“We are in close touch with the Iraqi security forces charged with upholding Iraq’s sovereignty and independence and have offered our assistance as they investigate this attack,” he added.
President Joe Biden kicked off a speech today praising the House’s passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill by making a subtle jab at his predecessor, Donald Trump.
“Finally, infrastructure week,” Biden said Saturday morning, laughing. “I’m so happy to say that: infrastructure week.”
During the Trump administration, the phrase “infrastructure week” became a running joke. On numerous occasions, Trump’s team declared infrastructure to be the week’s theme, but the plans never earned broad Congressional support.
On Friday evening, Congress delivered a major victory for the Biden administration, with the House’s passage of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, a key portion of the president’s legislative agenda, which has been stalled for months.
During his speech, Biden said that with the bill’s passage, “we did something that’s long overdue, that long has been talked about in Washington, but never actually been done.”
He called the bill a “once-in-a-generation investment that’s going to create millions of jobs, modernize our infrastructure—our roads, our bridges, our broadband, and a whole range of things to turn the climate crisis into an opportunity.”
“It’s going to create more jobs, good paying jobs, union jobs that can’t be outsourced, and they’re going to transform our transportation system,” Biden said.
The president said that the legislation offers the most significant investments in passenger rail, roads and bridges in decades, and “more investment in public transit than we’ve ever ever made. Period.” He added that it would build out “the first ever national network” of electric vehicle charging stations “all across the country.” Biden said the legislation would produce more than 500,000 charging stations.
President Joe Biden kicked off a speech praising the House’s passage of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill by making a subtle jab at former President Donald Trump. Above, Biden speaks during a press conference at the White House on November 6. Samuel Corum
The House of Representatives passed the infrastructure bill on Friday evening in a vote of 228 to 206. All but six Democrats voted in favor of the legislation, as did 13 Republicans.
Moderate and Progressive Democratscame to an agreement on the bill Friday, with moderates pledging to pass the Build Back Better Act—a wide-ranging bill that funds a variety of social programs and climate change measures prioritized by progressives—in the coming days, after they receive financial analysis about the legislation.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s press office for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication on Saturday afternoon.
President Biden heads to Scotland following his trip to Rome where he will lay out the U.S plan for climate
Protesters in the tens of thousands braved rain and gusts to march through Glasgow, host of a United Nationsclimate summit, part of what organizers said would be a coordinated global demonstration pushing for more action from governments to curb global warming.
Police had blocked off swaths of the city, and organizers said by late afternoon the march and rally drew some 100,000 participants, in a city with a population of about 600,000.
Protests on Saturday came at the end of the first of two weeks of climate talks by world leaders and representatives from almost every country on Earth.
Protesters, decked out in raincoats and jackets, had started gathering in the late morning in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park. By early afternoon, thousands of marchers had descended on the city center. With darkness falling amid a downpour in the late afternoon, speakers were addressing throngs of participants.
Demonstrators were expected to include indigenous leaders from the Amazon, national trade unions and environmental groups, along with high-profile climate-change campaigners such as Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. They plan to march to the city center, where a rally there was expected around 3 p.m. local time.
A similar march and rally on Friday, headlined by Ms. Thunberg, took aim at the U.N. climate summit, called COP26. Ms. Thunberg has called it a talking shop with few concrete accomplishments to show for itself.
“I think there’s some really good statements” coming from governments during the summit, said Tess Humble, a protest organizer from a group called COP26 Coalition. “But it doesn’t take much to see there’s a whole load of greenwashing.”
TOPSHOT – Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks during a climate strike demonstration of Fridays for Future in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 22, 2021. – Sweden OUT (Photo by Erik SIMANDER / TT News Agency / AFP) / Sweden OUT (Photo by ERIK SIMANDER/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images) (Photo by ERIK SIMANDER/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. special climate envoy John Kerry, in a press briefing Friday, said there would be lots of work still to do after the conference. But, he said, “what we’ll also have is a level of ambition, and a statement of goals and a capacity to get where we need to go that we’ve never had before.” The U.K., the summit’s host, has said it welcomes the protests.
Climate demonstrations were expected to take place Saturday in other U.K. cities including London and Manchester, and events were planned in France, Australia and Canada.
The protest comes at the end of the first of two weeks of talks by world leaders and representatives from almost every country on Earth aimed at agreeing to several measures to accelerate efforts to curb climate change. Countries have wrangled over specific emissions-cutting targets aimed at bringing greenhouse-gas emissions to levels scientists hope will limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial-era temperatures.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain November 1, 2021. Evan Vucci/ Pool via REUTERS (Reuters/Evan Vucci)
They are also negotiating financial support the developed world has promised poorer countries to help them transition from fossil fuels and mitigate damage from climate change.
While talks continue on those high-profile goals, countries have signed more-limited pledges among smaller, like-minded coalitions, promising to fight deforestation, for example, reduce coal use and end financing of overseas oil and natural-gas projects.
The United States ordered non-emergency officials to leave Ethiopia on Friday due to the ongoing armed conflict and possible supply shortages.
In a security alert, the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa said that incidents of unrest and ethnic violence were “occurring without warning.”
“The situation may escalate further and may cause supply chain shortages, communications blackouts, and travel disruptions,” the advisory said.
The advisory amid concerns from the U.S. about the embattled nation. The Ethiopian government has continued to engage in its year-long battle against the opposition Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
The Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency on Tuesday as rebel forces inched closer to Addis Ababa, the country’s capital city.
Jeffrey Feltman, the U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, visited the nation on Thursday. Earlier in the week, he said situation was “getting worse … and we are, frankly, alarmed by the situation.”
A report from the United Nations has accused all sides in the war of being involved with “extreme brutality,” like torture, killings and ethnically targeted arrests of civilians.
The Biden administration said Tuesday that it is ending Ethiopia’s involvement in a trade pact — the African Growth and Opportunity Act — due to human rights violations.
On Wednesday, the State Department urged that nongovernment employees and their families to voluntarily leave Ethiopia because of the conflict. The State Department currently has a “do not travel” advisory for Ethiopia due to the conflict.
Reuters reported that Italy and Denmark have asked their citizens in Ethiopia to leave while commercial flights are available.
WASHINGTON – The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that the House approved late Friday passed with the help of several Republicans, who faced a swift backlash Saturday from their GOP colleagues.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York was one of 13 Republicans who voted for the bipartisan bill, which passed 228-206, with some progressive Democrats voting against it.
“After months of being held hostage by Progressive Democrats, the House was finally able to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill,” Garbarino said on Twitter. “Make no mistake, tonight’s vote was about roads, bridges, and clean water. It was about real people, and the tangible actions Congress could take to better their lives by rebuilding and revitalizing our nation’s crumbling infrastructure.”
The measure is one of President Joe Biden’s key domestic priorities. On Saturday, he called passage of the bill “a monumental step forward as a nation.”
But the GOP members faced harsh criticism afterward for supporting the bill, including from fellow Republican members. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., called her colleagues “RINOS” – Republicans in name only.
“RINOS just passed this wasteful $1.2 trillion dollar ‘infrastructure’ bill,” Boebert tweeted late Friday night. “Pelosi did not have the votes in her party to pass this garbage. Time to name names and hold these fake republicans accountable.”
Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., added to the backlash, calling colleagues who voted for the bill “spineless” on Twitter.
“Only 3 days after voters rejected Biden’s failed policies in deep blue VA & NJ, 13 spineless “Republicans” decided to tag-team with Democrats and helped pass their $5 TRILLION socialist takeover of our country,” Miller tweeted.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., tweeted that the Republicans who voted with Democrats “handed over their voting cards” to Pelosi to pass Biden’s “Communist takeover of America via so-called infrastructure.”
But Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who voted with Democrats Friday, hit back at Greene.
“Infrastructure = communism is a new one. Eisenhower’s interstate system should be torn up or else the commies will be able to conveniently drive! Red Dawn in real life,” Kinzinger tweeted.
Reps. Nicole Malliotakis of New York, David B. McKinley of West Virginia, Fred Upton of Michigan, Tom Reed of New York, Chris Smith of New Jersey, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Jefferson Van Drew of New Jersey, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Don Young of Alaska, Brain Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and John Katko of New York were also among the Republicans who voted for the bipartisan measure.
Six House Democrats –Reps. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Jamaal Bowman of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Talib of Michigan– voted against the bill. They had sought assurances that moderate Democrats would back Biden’s $1.85 trillion Build Back Better budget bill before voting on the infrastructure bill.
The bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure package allocates funding to modernize highways, rebuild water lines and billions for electric vehicle charging stations – making it the larger transportation spending package in U.S. history.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, right, pictured with Gov. John Bel Edwards in 2020, said the court action halts President Biden’s administration from “moving forward with his unlawful overreach.”
Bill Feig/The Advocate via AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Bill Feig/The Advocate via AP
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, right, pictured with Gov. John Bel Edwards in 2020, said the court action halts President Biden’s administration from “moving forward with his unlawful overreach.”
Bill Feig/The Advocate via AP
NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court on Saturday temporarily halted the Biden administration’s vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay of the requirement by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration that those workers be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said the action stops President Biden “from moving forward with his unlawful overreach.”
“The president will not impose medical procedures on the American people without the checks and balances afforded by the constitution,” said a statement from Landry, a Republican.
At least 27 states filed lawsuits challenging the rule in several circuits, some of which were made more conservative by the judicial appointments of former President Donald Trump.
The Biden administration has been encouraging widespread vaccinations as the quickest way to end the pandemic that has claimed more than 750,000 lives in the United States.
The administration says it is confident that the requirement, which includes penalties of nearly $14,000 per violation, will withstand legal challenges in part because its safety rules pre-empt state laws.
The 5th Circuit, based in New Orleans, said it was delaying the federal vaccine requirement because of potential “grave statutory and constitutional issues” raised by the plaintiffs. The government must provide an expedited reply to the motion for a permanent injunction Monday, followed by petitioners’ reply on Tuesday.
GLASGOW, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of protesters marched on Saturday through rainy downtown Glasgow, and in many other cities around the world, to demand bolder action at the U.N. climate conference.
Students, activists and climate-concerned citizens linked arms as they moved slowly through the streets of the Scottish city, host of the COP26 meeting that began on Monday.
Some pushed children in strollers, some danced to stay warm. Police watched the procession from the flanks.
“It’s good to have your voice heard,” said Kim Travers of Edinburgh. “Even with the rain, I think it makes it a bit more dramatic.”
Just a few blocks from the procession, back-room negotiations continued at the COP26 meeting. On stage, speakers sounded the alarm over the threat of global warming to food security.
Since the climate talks began, national delegations have been working to agree on technical details for the final pact, to be announced at the end of the conference after more negotiations this week.
The first week also saw countries make a slew of promises to phase out coal, slash emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane and reduce deforestation. Business leaders and financiers, meanwhile, pledged to invest more in climate solutions.
But activists have demanded that the meeting make more progress. read more
Ros Cadoux, a grandmother from Edinburgh, said she came to march for future generations. “If you’ve got kids and grandkids – my God, What else could you do?”
Colorful banners bore slogans ranging from earnest calls for “Climate Justice Now,” to the more comical: “No planet = no beer”.
One group bounced along to the sound of a drum and chanted “Get Up, Get Down, Keep that Carbon in the Ground.”
“The climate crisis is about the survival of humanity as we know it,” said Philipp Chmel, who traveled from Germany for the march. “It’s up to the youth and the workers, the working class, to bring about the change that is necessary.”
One group of youths – some with bullhorns – blamed companies for the climate crisis and chanted calls in favour of socialism while punching their fists in the air.
1/5
Police officers keep guard as demonstrators attend a protest amid the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, November 6, 2021. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
Around midday, the rain cleared for a few hours, and an enormous rainbow streaked across the sky.
“If ever there was a time for activism, and if ever there was a time for the people to come out onto the streets, then it is today,” said University of Glasgow student Theo Lockett, 20.
Climate activists held rallies in many other cities, including Seoul, Melbourne, Copenhagen and London.
CONFERENCE HALLS
During a panel of speeches on Saturday, Democratic U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse urged companies to rein in groups lobbying politicians to block climate action.
“Corporate members who made big promises here at this COP have got to get their trade associations under control so they’re not undercutting our work in Congress,” said Whitehouse, who was at COP26 with a bipartisan group of Congress members.
He also told journalists that it was crucial to resolve a carbon price for carbon markets — one of the key sticking points in the negotiations.
Earlier at the conference, actor Idris Elba acknowledged that he had few credentials to speak on climate change, but said he was at COP26 to amplify the climate threat to global food security.
Sitting on the same panel, climate justice campaigner Vanessa Nakate of Uganda implored the world to stop burning fossil fuels, the main cause of rising global temperatures.
“We are watching farms collapse and livelihoods lost due to floods, droughts and swarms of locusts,” she said – all of which scientists say are being exacerbated by climate change.
“The climate crisis means hunger and death for many people in my country and across Africa.”
Civil society leaders and representatives from companies like Unilever (ULVR.L) and PepsiCo (PEP.O) spoke about corporate responsibility in making trade and commerce less of a burden on nature.
Speaking about using satellite technology to monitor global landscapes, the director and founder of Google Earth Outreach (GOOGL.O) urged better stewardship of the world’s forests.
“We don’t want to be writing the obituary of our planet in high resolution,” Rebecca Moore said.
“Each and every one of my votes here in D.C. has been in the interest of saving lives,” Representative Cori Bush, an activist-minded freshman from St. Louis, proclaimed of her dissent. “And tonight was no different.”
Two squeamish centrists, Representatives Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Jared Golden of Maine, withheld their signatures from a key statement that secured enough liberal votes for the infrastructure bill. That statement, using Mr. Biden’s name for the social welfare and climate bill, declared, “We commit to voting for the Build Back Better Act, in its current form other than technical changes,” as soon as the signers obtain an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office consistent with White House figures showing that the measure is fully paid for. With those two signatures withheld, it appears Ms. Pelosi can afford only one or two more defections to save the sprawling bill from defeat.
On the other side of the aisle, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia sicced her social media followers on the Republicans who dared vote for spending vast sums of money, some of it for projects in their districts: “These are the 13 ‘Republicans’ who handed over their voting cards to Nancy Pelosi to pass Joe Biden’s Communist takeover of America via so-called infrastructure,” she wrote on Twitter before listing their names and office phone numbers.
Although 19 Republican senators, including their leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, had voted for the bill in August, Republican leaders in the House pressed their members to oppose the measure, to further the image of a rudderless Democratic majority. And the vast majority of House Republicans did just that, hoping to deny Mr. Biden and Democrats a victory ahead of next year’s midterms — even though the legislation would bring big projects and jobs to many of their states and districts.
Ms. Pelosi’s mobilizing of the Black Caucus was deft. House leaders figured the liberals of the Progressive Caucus would be more receptive to African American members than them — even though most of the group of Black members who carried the compromise forward were also members of leadership or Ms. Pelosi’s lieutenants.
“The C.B.C. wants to land the plane because the C.B.C. represents communities that have the most to gain,” said Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic Caucus chairman who was also part of the Black caucus group that brokered the compromise. “It’s no more complicated than that.”
A missing teenager was rescued after a 911 caller reported she used hand gestures that indicate domestic violence.
The symbols have grown popular on TikTok since reports emerged of increasing rates of domestic abuse during the pandemic.
The 61-year-old man found with the teenager was arrested for unlawful imprisonment and possession of child pornography.
A missing North Carolina teen was reportedly rescued after she used a viral TikTok hand gesture to indicate she was in danger and needed help.
The 16-year-old was found in Kentucky on Thursday after a 911 caller reported that a female passenger riding in the car ahead of them was using the signals, Fox 8 Cleveland reported. According to the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office, investigators on the scene found the driver, 61-year-old Herbert Brick, in possession of a photo of the teen engaged in sexual acts.
The teen was first reported missing by her parents in Asheville, North Carolina, on Tuesday, according to the report. Investigators discovered that Brick had driven with the girl to Ohio, though promptly left when relatives of Brick expressed concern about her age and discovered she had been reported missing.
Brick is currently at the Laurel County Correctional Center, where he was arrested for unlawful imprisonment and posession of content showing sexual activity by a minor, Fox8 reported.
The signals — a mix of three hand gestures that convey “violence at home,” “I need help,” and “domestic violence” — have spread on TikTok as a means to help victims of abuse. In one popular video, which has more than 3.5 million views and 130,000 shares, a woman demonstrates how to subtly use the signals while on a video call with a friend.
Such posts first began to circulate in June 2020 in tandem with reports that found rates of domestic violence increased globally due to coronavirus lockdowns that left many victims trapped inside with their abusers. According to the United Nations, cases of domestic abuse increased by upwards of 20% during lockdowns, part of a disturbing trend the organization called a “shadow pandemic.”
In the US, the heightened rate of abuse is increasingly leading to death. Last week, Iowa reported that 17 people died at the hands of domestic violence in 2021, the highest rate the state has reported since 2010, according to Axios.
On TikTok, users have continued to share public service posts in the past year showing how to use the signals, raising awareness that is proving vital to helping victims like the North Carolina teenager.
“I hadn’t seen this before… the ‘violence at home’ signal,” wrote one TikTok user in September. “Would only work if we all know about it. It’s so important that you watch and share!”
On Sunday, the annual occasion of “falling back” will occur at 2 a.m. for Oregonians as the clocks must switch from daylight saving time back to standard time. But the state is trying to stop the practice.
In June 2019, Oregon took the first step toward eliminating the time change when legislators passed a measure that would allow most of the state – the majority which falls into the Pacific Time Zone – to remain in daylight saving time.
Gov. Kate Brown signed the legislation, yet it hasn’t gone into effect. It’s been two years, so why not? There are a few layers.
More than a century ago, 1918 to be exact, the federal government first “delegated time zone supervision to the federal organization in charge of railroad regulation — the Interstate Commerce Commission,” according to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s website.
Clock technician Dan LaMoore, of Woonsocket, R.I., adjusts clock hands on a large outdoor clock under construction at Electric Time Company, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, in Medfield, Mass. Daylight Saving Time ends Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021, at 2:00 a.m., when clocks are set back one hour.
Steven Senne / AP
The concept of daylight saving time transpired once the U.S. entered World War I, after the government noticed Germany’s practice of changing time to conserve fuel and power with extended daylight hours. The U.S. was inspired and copied the idea.
Once World War I ended, daylight saving time was abolished for the nation as a whole but allowed to continue on a state-by-state basis.
“As a result, confusion and collisions caused by different local times once again became a transportation issue,” according to the U.S. DOT.
In 1966, the department was founded and given regulatory power over time zones, which included the renewal of uniform daylight saving time across the country with dates for the twice-yearly time transitions set by law.
Currently, two states (Arizona and Hawaii) and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Guam don’t observe daylight saving time.
Doing away with “falling back” and “springing forward” in Oregon is not just up to Oregon – its Pacific Time Zone neighbors are involved, too.
All three West Coast states are trying to stay in daylight saving time. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a similar measure as Oregon in 2019. In California, voters supported year-round daylight saving time in 2018. The proposition then went to California lawmakers, but the effort reached a dead end when legislators didn’t pass it by the end-of-session deadline.
So, California is the main reason the change is in a holding pattern on the West Coast.
However, even if California followed the suit of Oregon and Washington, there’s still another party that gets a say: Congress.
In the case that the trio of states would be in favor of year-round daylight saving time, federal lawmakers would have to give a stamp of approval to the change and having all three states on the same page would likely help. Congress needs to get involved because the federal Uniform Time Act doesn’t allow for year-round daylight saving time.
There is, but it’s tricky. It relates to how Arizona and Hawaii don’t observe daylight saving time.
As noted earlier, those two states remain in standard time year-round. Oregon’s measure has approved the state to always observe daylight saving time.
Under federal law, a state can exempt itself from daylight saving time transitions by being in standard time year-round. There isn’t a requirement for congressional approval when a state goes that route.
Joe Biden saluted a “monumental step forward as a nation” on Saturday, after House Democrats finally reached agreement and sent a $1tn infrastructure package to his desk to be signed, a huge boost for an administration which has struggled for victories.
“This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America,” Biden said, “and it’s long overdue.”
There was also a setback, however, when Democrats postponed a vote on a second, even larger bill. That 10-year, $1.85tn spending plan to bolster health, family and climate change programmes, known as Build Back Better, was sidetracked after centrists demanded a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Biden said he was confident he could get it passed.
Walking out to address reporters at the White House, the president began with a joke at the expense of his predecessor, Donald Trump.
“Finally, its infrastructure week,” he said.
Under Trump, the administration’s failure to focus on infrastructure amid constant scandal became a national punchline.
“We’re just getting started,” Biden said. “It is something that’s long overdue but long has been talked about in Washington but never actually been done.
“The House of Representatives passed an Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. That’s a fancy way of saying a bipartisan infrastructure bill, once-in-a-generation investment that’s going to create millions of jobs, modernise our infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our broadband, a range of things turning the climate crisis into an opportunity, and a put us on a path to win the economic competition of the 21st century that we face with China and other large countries in the rest of the world.”
The House approved the $1tn bill late on Friday, after Democrats resolved a months-long standoff between progressives and centrists. The measure passed 228-206. Thirteen Republicans, mostly moderates, supported the bill while six leftwing Democrats opposed it, among them Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
Approval whisked the bill to the desk of a president whose approval ratings have dropped and whose party struggled in elections this week. Biden said he would not sign the bill this weekend because he wanted those who passed it to be there when he did so.
“We’re looking more forward to having shovels in the ground,” Biden said. “To begin rebuilding America.
“For all of you at home, who feel left behind and forgotten in an economy that’s changing so rapidly, this bill is for you. The vast majority of those thousands of jobs that will be created don’t require a college degree. There’ll be jobs in every part of the country: red states, blue states, cities, small towns, rural communities, tribal communities.
“This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America, and it’s long overdue.”
This week, Democratic candidates for governor were defeated for governor in Virginia and squeaked home in New Jersey, two blue-leaning states. Those setbacks made leaders, centrists and progressives impatient to demonstrate they know how to govern. Democrats can ill afford to seem in disarray a year before midterm elections that could see Republicans retake Congress.
At the White House, Biden said: “Each state is different and I don’t know but I think the one message that came across was get something done … stop talking, get something done. And so I think that’s what the American people are looking for.
“All the talk about the elections and what do they mean? They want us to deliver. Democrats, they want us to deliver. Last night we proved we can on one big item. We delivered.”
The postponement of a vote on the spending bill dashed hopes of a double win. But in a breakthrough brokered by Biden and House leaders, five moderates agreed to back the bill if CBO estimates of its costs are consistent with numbers from the White House and congressional analysts.
The agreement, in which lawmakers promised to vote on the bill by the week of 15 November, was a significant step towards shipping it to the Senate. Its chances there are not certain: it must pass on the casting vote of Vice-President Kamala Harris and with the approval of Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, centrists who have proved obstructive so far.
The spending bill “is fiscally responsible”, Biden said. “That’s a fancy way of saying it is fully paid for. It doesn’t raise the deficit by a single penny. And it actually reduces the deficit according to the leading economists in this country over the long term. And it’s paid for by making sure that the wealthiest Americans, the biggest corporations begin to pay their fair share.”
Republicans have highlighted what they say will be the spending plan’s effects on dangerous economic inflation.
“According to economists,” Biden said, “this is going to be easing inflationary pressures … by lowering costs for working families.”
He also said: “We got out of the blue a couple of weeks ago a letter from 17 Nobel prize winners in economics and they determined that [the two bills] will ease inflationary pressures not create them.”
Biden acknowledged that he will not get Republican votes for the spending bill and must “figure out” how to unite his own party. On Friday, that effort meant an exhausting day for Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker. She told reporters: “Welcome to my world. This is the Democratic party. We are not a lockstep party.”
Biden said he was confident he could find the necessary votes. Asked what gave him that confidence, the president alluded to his legislative experience as a senator and vice-president, saying: “Me.”
On Friday night, Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, delayed plans to travel to Delaware as the president worked the phones. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters Biden even called her mother in India. It was unclear why.
“This was not to bribe me, this is when it was all done,” Jayapal said, adding that her mother told her she “just kept screaming like a little girl”.
This is a widget area - If you go to "Appearance" in your WP-Admin you can change the content of this box in "Widgets", or you can remove this box completely under "Theme Options"
