Biden Tests Positive for Covid Again in ‘Rebound’ Case – The New York Times
Biden Tests Positive for Covid Again in ‘Rebound’ Case – The New York Times

Taking the drug, Dr. Auwaerter said, could be like “moving the goal posts” in the course of an infection, suppressing the virus but not clearing it completely. Still, he said, high-risk people should “absolutely” still take the medication.

Dr. John P. Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, said researchers were still lacking correlations between age, risk factors or vaccination status. “I haven’t heard anyone come up with a definitive cause,” he said. “He’s just the unlucky guy in the one out of 20. It’s just a numbers game.”

Dr. Moore said that if data could support such a move, federal regulators might want to consider allowing a longer course of the drug, to definitively rid the body of the virus. “The simplest thing would be to go back on the drug for longer,” he said.

Mr. Biden’s rebound case will complicate his effort to turn his illness into a positive story. As the oldest president in the nation’s history, Mr. Biden, 79, has been eager to show that he remains fit, especially as he forecasts plans to run for a second term in 2024. He continued to work from the White House residence during his first isolation, appearing by video before several groups, and then made a triumphal return to work in person on Wednesday.

Instead of the narrative of beating the virus, however, the president’s rebound case reinforces the unpleasant reality that the pandemic refuses to go away. Although the death toll has fallen dramatically, Covid-19 remains a fact of life for Americans, some of whom have been infected multiple times.

Mr. Biden’s new positive test may also raise questions about his fidelity to precautions against infecting others after returning to the office. Aides said he would wear a mask while with others, but in every public appearance he made since Wednesday, his face remained uncovered.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/30/us/politics/biden-covid-positive.html

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Death toll rises to at least 25 in Kentucky flooding as people in stricken areas remain hard to reach, governor says – CNN
Death toll rises to at least 25 in Kentucky flooding as people in stricken areas remain hard to reach, governor says – CNN

(CNN)The death toll in flood-stricken parts of eastern Kentucky climbed to at least 25 and will almost certainly “get worse” as first responders work to account for missing residents, the state’s governor said Saturday.

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CNN’s Jalen Beckford, Raja Razek, Amy Simonson, Derek Van Dam, Joe Johns, Caroll Alvarado, Amanda Musa, Claudia Dominguez, Elizabeth Wolfe, Theresa Waldrop and Lauren Lee contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/30/weather/kentucky-appalachia-flooding-saturday/index.html

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President Joe Biden tests positive for Covid-19 again – CNN
President Joe Biden tests positive for Covid-19 again – CNN

President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid-19 again Saturday morning, per a letter from presidential physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, in what is likely a “rebound” Covid-19 positivity that the doctor noted is “observed in a small percentage of patients treated with Paxlovid.”

Biden has experienced “no reemergence of symptoms, and continues to feel quite well” and will, as a result, not resume treatment, the White House said. O’Connor said the President tested negative on Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning and Friday morning before testing positive on Saturday morning.

“However, given his positive antigen test, he will reinitiate strict isolation procedures,” the doctor noted. Biden ceased isolating on Wednesday after testing negative on successive antigen tests, celebrating his return in remarks from the White House Rose Garden.

Biden’s physician said the President is not experiencing any symptoms but that he will isolate at the White House. He canceled plans to travel to his home in Delaware Sunday and to Michigan, where he was expected on Tuesday to tout the recently passed bill aimed at boosting US semiconductor production, the White House said Saturday.

“Folks, today I tested positive for COVID again,” Biden wrote on Twitter. “This happens with a small minority of folks. I’ve got no symptoms but I am going to isolate for the safety of everyone around me. I’m still at work, and will be back on the road soon.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote Biden is “asymptomatic, feeling fine, and working in isolation from the Residence to protect others.”

A White House official said contact tracing efforts were underway Saturday after Biden’s positive Covid-19 test.

The President had resumed events at the White House after testing negative this week, though he was seen wearing a mask more regularly. White House officials said they worked to ensure there was social distancing at the public events he held at the White House.

Biden, 79, first tested positive on July 21. During his first bout with the disease, he experienced mild symptoms, including runny nose, fatigue, high temperature and a cough, according to his doctor. The President completed a five-day course of Paxlovid, which requires a doctor’s prescription and is available via emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration for treatment of mild to moderate Covid-19 in people 12 and older who are at high risk of severe illness.

When Biden first tested positive last week, the White House said he’d had 17 close contacts, none of whom ended up testing positive themselves.

First lady Jill Biden remains in Delaware, where she has been since the President first tested positive for Covid-19, a White House official told CNN. She has not been back to the White House.

The first lady had been scheduled to join the President when he traveled to Wilmington on Sunday.

Rebound cases

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health alert to doctors on May 24 advising that Covid-19 symptoms sometimes come back, and that may just be how the infection plays out in some people, regardless of whether they’re vaccinated or treated with medications like Paxlovid. The CDC said most cases of rebound involve mild disease and that there have been no reports of serious illness.

Biden is fully vaccinated and received two booster shots. He received his first two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine ahead of his inauguration in January 2021, his first booster shot in September and his second booster vaccination in March.

White House officials had previously suggested a rebound case of Covid was unlikely, based on reports of cases around the country. However, Biden continued to be tested and monitored.

Infectious disease experts have been calling on the government to study instances of rebound more systematically, saying the phenomenon needs to be better characterized to understand who is most at risk and whether the standard five-day course of treatment with the drug should be lengthened to prevent it. Studies have shown that people can pass the infection to others during a rebound, which is another reason to better understand it.

Pfizer, the company that makes Paxlovid, has said its studies show rebounds are rare and happen in people who take the drug as well as those who took a placebo pill. Because investigators noted the phenomenon in both groups, the company doesn’t believe it is tied to the medication.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci also experienced rebound Covid-19. His symptoms got worse when they returned after treatment, and his doctors prescribed another course of Paxlovid.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Kate Bennett, Brenda Goodman, Virginia Langmaid and Jamie Gumbrecht contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/30/politics/joe-biden-covid-19-positive/index.html

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Kentucky flooding live updates: Death toll in rises to 25 – USA TODAY
Kentucky flooding live updates: Death toll in rises to 25 – USA TODAY

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/30/kentucky-flooding-live-updates-deaths-could-rise-saturday/10189780002/

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Winning Mega Millions Ticket Sold in Illinois for Growing $1.34 Billion Jackpot – The New York Times
Winning Mega Millions Ticket Sold in Illinois for Growing $1.34 Billion Jackpot – The New York Times

Each state that participates in Mega Millions oversees the lottery operations within its jurisdiction, including sales, retailers, taxes owed and other financial liabilities. The laws, including whether the names of winners are required to be announced, differ among states.

In Illinois, winners of $250,000 or more can request to keep their name and residence anonymous when they claim their earnings. However, the information may still have to be revealed if a public records request is submitted or the Illinois Lottery is legally mandated to do so, the agency writes in its handbook.

Marie Kilbane of the Ohio Lottery said that in her state, this includes whether a winner owes child support. “Internally, we do check whoever that person is,” she said. “With all our winners.”

Ohio is one of at least seven states that allow winners, who might be wary of fraud or of becoming targets of crime, to hide their identities. Others include Delaware, Maryland, Kansas, North Dakota and South Carolina. States differ in what conditions they allow winners to remain anonymous, or whether they can collect in the name of a trust, she said.

In Texas, a winner of $1 million or more can remain anonymous. In Arizona, winners of $100,000 or more can choose anonymity, but their city and county of residence are not confidential. In California, the names of winners are part of the public record. Some states, like Michigan, do not allow a trust for multistate lotteries such as Mega Millions or Powerball.

Not all lottery winners are required to appear at a news conference with a broad grin, holding a giant fake check. Under its open records law, Wisconsin’s lottery releases the name and city of the winner on request. Any other information, including news media interviews, is up to the winner.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/29/us/megamillions-jackpot.html

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One ticket in Illinois won the second-largest Mega Millions jackpot of nearly $1.34 billion – CNN
One ticket in Illinois won the second-largest Mega Millions jackpot of nearly $1.34 billion – CNN

By Jason Hanna and Keith Allen, CNN

Updated 12:02 PM ET, Sat July 30, 2022

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/30/us/mega-millions-lottery-jackpot-saturday/index.html

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Catastrophic flash flooding kills 25 in Kentucky and at least a dozen missing – The Guardian US
Catastrophic flash flooding kills 25 in Kentucky and at least a dozen missing – The Guardian US

Catastrophic flash flooding in eastern Kentucky has now claimed 25 lives, with at least a dozen more people reported missing, as officials in the Appalachian region attempt to calculate the cost of the worst natural disaster there in decades.

The Kentucky governor, Andy Beshear, said he expected the death toll to continue to rise in the state and warned officials still could not reach certain areas.

Beshear told CNN on Saturday there could be “many more” deaths due to the devastating flooding in the eastern part of the state.

“It’s going to get worse. And I think that we will be updating it, maybe even for weeks to come … There are still so many people unaccounted for. And in this area, it’s going to be a hard task to get a firm number of folks unaccounted for.”

“We are still in search and rescue for what is an ongoing disaster,” he added, confirming the bodies of four young siblings were among those found after being swept away from their parents’ grip.

In Breathitt county, Coroner Hargis Epperson, the coroner, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that three bodies had been recovered in the past six or seven hours. “There could be more. We just don’t know,” he said. “There’s areas that we still can’t access.

“It’s hard to explain how much water,” he added. “It flooded places where it has never ever flooded.”

The New York Times reported that the dead included four young children from one family who had initially sought safety on their trailer home rooftop and then a tree, before being swept away by the rising waters.

The bodies of the children – Maddison Noble, eight, Riley Jr, six, Nevaeh Noble, four, and Chance Noble, two – were found on Friday in Knott county. The childrens’ parents, who were also in the tree, survived the flood.

“The rage of the water took their children out of their hands,” Brittany Trejo, a cousin, told the newspaper.

A flooded valley, as seen from a helicopter during a tour with Beshear over eastern Kentucky on 29 July. Photograph: Office Of Gov. Andy Beshear/Reuters

Beshear also said that it would probably take years for communities affected by the flooding to rebuild again, with the deluge coming less than a year since the southern part of the state was strafed by powerful, late-season tornados that killed 70.

“I don’t want to lose another Kentuckian. We have lost far too many,” Beshear said, adding that the state was “going to be there to help them rebuild and as we rebuild, we rebuild stronger”.

Joe Biden on Friday approved a disaster declaration to allow federal assistance to be channeled to the state. But the scale and intensity of the rainfall that caused the flooding in the remote area has alarmed scientists.

While the global climate crisis cannot be held directly responsible for most individual weather events, it does make the likelihood and frequency of catastrophic events much more common.

Bill Haneberg, a climate expert and the state’s geologist, said this rainfall event is “extraordinary” for Kentucky. At least 33,000 people now have no electricity and mudslides have made roads impassable.

According to the US Geological Survey, Kentucky saw eight to 10 inches of rainfall in a 24-hour period. Beshear said even “folks who deal with this for a living, who have been doing it for 20 years, have never seen water this high”.

The Kentucky flooding came days after rainfall in the St Louis region of Missouri was hit with a foot of rain that killed two people and disrupted roads and neighborhoods.

Kentucky’s rivers are expected to peak this weekend, with more rain expected after a break in the bad weather on Saturday. “More storms are expected Sunday, so, unfortunately, flash flooding will remain a concern through the weekend at least,” said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Dan Pydynowski.

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/30/kentucky-flash-flooding-death-toll-missing

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Sinema indicates she may want to change Schumer-Manchin deal – Axios
Sinema indicates she may want to change Schumer-Manchin deal – Axios

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) had a message for her Democratic colleagues before she flew home to Arizona for the weekend: She’s preserving her options.

Why it matters: Sinema has leverage and she knows it. Any potential modification to the Democrat’s climate and deficit reduction package — like knocking out the $14 billion provision on carried interest — could cause the fragile deal to collapse.

  • Her posture is causing something between angst and fear in the Democratic caucus as senators wait for her to render a verdict on the secret deal announced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin last Thursday.

Driving the news: Sinema has given no assurances to colleagues that she’ll vote along party lines in the so-called “vote-a-rama” for the $740 billion bill next week, according to people familiar with the matter.

  • The vote-a-rama process allows lawmakers to offer an unlimited number of amendments, as long as they are ruled germane by the Senate parliamentarian. Senators — and reporters — expect a late night.
  • Republicans, steaming mad that Democrats have a chance to send a $280 billion China competition package and a massive climate and health care bill to President Biden, will use the vote-a-rama to force vulnerable Democrats to take politically difficult votes.
  • They’ll also attempt to kill the reconciliation package with poison pills — amendments that make it impossible for Schumer to find 50 votes for final passage.

The intrigue: Not only is Sinema indicating that she’s open to letting Republicans modify the bill, she has given no guarantees she’ll support a final “wrap-around” amendment, which would restore the original Schumer-Manchin deal.

The big picture: Schumer made a calculated decision to negotiate a package with Manchin in secrecy. He assumed that all of his other members, including Sinema, would fall into line and support the deal.

  • Now his caucus is digesting the specifics, with Sinema taking a printout of the 725-page bill back to Arizona on Friday for some dense in-flight reading.
  • Schumer will find out this week if his gamble in keeping Sinema in the dark will pay off.

What we’re watching: While Sinema supported the 15% minimum book tax back in December, which would raise more than $300 billion, Schumer never bothered to check if her position changed, given the darkening economic outlook.

  • Schumer and Manchin also inserted the language on taxing carried interest as regular income, which would raise approximately $14 billion, knowing full well that Sinema never agreed to it. That move blindsided Sinema.

The intrigue: While Schumer and Manchin have a well-documented and tumultuous relationship — replete with private fence-mending Italian dinners — Schumer and Sinema do not regularly engage.

Flashback: The Schumer-Sinema relationship took a big blow back in February when Schumer declined to endorse Sinema for her 2024 re-election when directly asked by CNN.

  • She didn’t attend her party’s caucus meeting on Thursday.

Between the lines: Sinema and Manchin always agreed that President Biden’s initial $3.5 billion Build Back Better plan needed to be trimmed down.

  • They are also on the same page on the need to act on climate change.
  • If Manchin has been primarily concerned with inflation, her guiding principles have always been economic growth and new jobs in Arizona.

The bottom line: Sinema isn’t terribly pleased with how Schumer has foisted this package upon her. She reserves the right to modify it.

  • But she also knows that a progressive challenger, like Rep. Ruben Gallego, is all but guaranteed in 2024 if she’s held responsible for killing the Democrats best shot at a climate bill in years.

Editor’s note: This version corrects the date of the caucus meeting.

Source Article from https://www.axios.com/2022/07/30/sinema-schumer-manchin-deal-democrats

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More than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war killed in ‘petrifying war crime’ – New York Post
More than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war killed in ‘petrifying war crime’ – New York Post

More than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been killed in a bombing that President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Friday as a “terrorist attack organized by Russian inhuman monsters.”

“This is another confirmation that Russia is a terrorist state,” the president wrote, confirming that “more than 50 captured Ukrainian defenders were cynically killed” in Olenivka.

The targeted prison, in an area controlled by the Moscow-backed Donetsk People’s Republic, had housed nearly 200 troops captured in Mariupol, the scene of many of the war’s worst atrocities.

Images Friday showed the smoking remains of a cavernous burned-out building — with charred bodies lying on metal beds and military stretchers.

“Russia has committed another petrifying war crime by shelling a correctional facility in the occupied Olenivka where it held Ukrainian POWs,” Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted.

“I call on all partners to strongly condemn this brutal violation of international humanitarian law and recognize Russia a terrorist state.”

An adviser to Zelensky decried the shelling as “a deliberate, cynical, calculated mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners.”

The prison, in an area controlled by Moscow-backed Donetsk People’s Republic had housed troops captured in Mariupol, the scene of many of the war’s worst atrocities.
AP Photo

The separatists in control of the group confirmed at least 53 people were killed and at least 75 wounded.

However, it blamed Kyiv, as did Russia, whose defense ministry called it an “egregious provocation” designed to stop soldiers from surrendering and exposing Ukraine’s own military crimes.

Russian state media also claimed that there had been fragments of High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) rockets that the US gave Ukraine.

This image from the Russian Investigative Committee shows the destroyed detention center in the separatist-held region of Donetsk, where Ukrainian POWs were killed in a bombing.
Investigative Committee of Russia/AFP via Getty Images

“The political leadership of Ukraine decided to use US-producer multiple-launch rocket systems HIMARS to carry out a strike here to veil the crimes that the Ukrainian captives started talking about,” the separatists’ spokesman, Eduard Basturin, told local media.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak ripped those claims as “a classic, cynical and elaborate false flag operation” by the Kremlin.

“The purpose — to discredit in front of our partners and disrupt weapons supply,” he said of the “deliberate, cynical, calculated mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners.”

Ukraine’s military leaders shared a similar message in a shared statement later Friday.

“The committed explosion is a cynical terrorist act of the Russian Federation, a military provocation and a classic false flag operation, the purpose of which is to cover up war crimes, discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine, disrupt the supply of Western weapons and increase social tension in Ukrainian society,” they said.

Ukrainian officials alleged that the feared Russian mercenary Wagner Group carried out the assault.

On the same day, UK intelligence noted how the private military company had been unusually active on the frontlines, acting as regular troops rather than its usual work in special missions.

“This is a significant change from the previous employment of the group since 2015,” the UK report noted, saying it confirmed Wagner’s close ties with the Kremlin and also appeared to prove Russia was suffering a “shortage of combat infantry” in its invasion.

With Post wires

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2022/07/29/more-than-50-ukrainian-pows-killed-in-petrifying-war-crime/

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Biden Savors Much-Needed Victories. But Will the Highs Overshadow the Lows? – The New York Times
Biden Savors Much-Needed Victories. But Will the Highs Overshadow the Lows? – The New York Times

The stimulus plan he pushed through at the beginning of his term distributed hundreds of billions of dollars to individuals and businesses in the midst of the pandemic. His $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law is making large investments in clean energy, broadband and long-delayed projects to fix crumbling roads, pipes and bridges.

David Axelrod, who was a top adviser to President Barack Obama, wrote on Twitter on Friday that Mr. Biden was “the victim of his own expansive expectation-setting.”

“He’s quietly amassing a record of historic wins on infrastructure, guns, manufacturing—& now maybe Rx pricing, climate & energy,” Mr. Axelrod wrote. “Not a new New Deal but pretty damned impressive in a 50/50 Congress.”

Still, Mr. Biden has so far struggled to ensure that his victories break through the often grim reports that dominate news coverage. Critics, including some members of his own party, say his speaking style fails to convey the sense of urgency that many Americans feel.

“I think we’re looking to be inspired,” said Jamie L. Manson, the president of Catholics for Choice, who was disappointed after Mr. Biden’s speech following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Dakota Hall, the executive director of the Alliance for Youth Action, which advocates on behalf of young people and people of color, said Mr. Biden had failed to live up to the promises he made on the campaign trail for bold change in a number of areas.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/30/us/politics/biden-inflation-economy-approval.html

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Ukraine says scores of Russians killed in southern fighting – Reuters
Ukraine says scores of Russians killed in southern fighting – Reuters

KYIV, July 30 (Reuters) – The Ukrainian military said on Saturday it had killed scores of Russian soldiers in fighting in the south, including the Kherson region that is the focus of Kyiv’s counter-offensive in that part of the country and a key link in Moscow’s supply lines.

Rail traffic to Kherson over the Dnipro River had been cut, the military’s southern command said, potentially further isolating Russian forces west of the river from supplies in occupied Crimea and the east.

Defence and intelligence officials from Britain, which has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies in the West since Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion, portrayed Russian forces as struggling to maintain momentum.

Ukraine has used Western-supplied long-range missile systems to badly damage three bridges across the Dnipro in recent weeks, cutting off Kherson city and – in the assessment of British defence officials – leaving Russia’s 49th Army stationed on the west bank of the river highly vulnerable.

The Ukrainian military’s southern command said more than 100 Russian soldiers and seven tanks had been destroyed in fighting in the south on Friday.

The first deputy head of the Kherson regional council, Yuri Sobolevsky, told residents to stay from away from Russian ammunition dumps.

“The Ukrainian army is pouring it on against the Russians and this is only the beginning,” Sobolevsky wrote on the Telegram app.

The pro-Ukrainian governor of Kherson region, Dmytro Butriy, said Berislav district was particularly hard hit. Berislav is across the river northwest of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant.

“In some villages, not a single home has been left intact, all infrastructure has been destroyed, people are living in cellars,” Butriy wrote on Telegram.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Officials from the Russian-appointed administration running the Kherson region earlier this week rejected Western and Ukrainian assessments of the situation.

In an intelligence update on Saturday, Britain’s defence ministry said Russia had likely established two pontoon bridges and a ferry system to compensate for bridges damaged in Ukrainian strikes.

Russian-installed authorities in occupied territories in southern Ukraine were possibly preparing to hold referendums on joining Russia later this year, and were “likely coercing the population into disclosing personal details in order to compose voting registers,” it added. read more

On Friday the ministry described the Russian government as “growing desperate”, having lost tens of thousands of soldiers in the war. The chief of Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence agency, Richard Moore, added on Twitter that Russia is “running out of steam”.

PRISON DEATHS

Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations over a missile strike or explosion that appeared to have killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war in eastern Donetsk province. The incident took place early on Friday in the frontline town of Olenivka held by Moscow-backed separatists.

Russia’s defence ministry on Saturday published a list of Ukrainian prisoners of war who it said were killed and wounded in what it said was a missile strike by the Ukrainian military. It said the strike by U.S.-made HIMARS rockets had killed 50 prisoners and injured another 73.

Ukraine’s armed forces denied responsibility, saying Russian artillery had targeted the prison to hide the mistreatment of those held there. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Friday Russia had committed a war crime and called for international condemnation.

Reuters could not immediately verify the differing versions of events, but some of the deaths were confirmed by Reuters journalists who visited the prison.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his condolences over the deaths in a phone call on Friday with Kuleba, according to a State Department statement on Saturday.

The United States is committed to “hold Russia accountable for atrocities committed by its forces against the people of Ukraine,” Blinken told Kuleba.

The United Nations is prepared to send a group of experts to Olenivka to investigate the incident, if it gets consent from both parties, U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq said. The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday it was seeking access to the site and had offered to help evacuate the wounded.

Russian defence ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday that “all political, criminal and moral responsibility for the bloody massacre against Ukrainians falls on (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskiy, his criminal regime and Washington who supports them”.

A charity linked to Ukraine’s Azov regiment said on Telegram it was not immediately able to confirm or deny the authenticity of the Russian list of people killed and wounded.

Ukraine has accused Russia of atrocities and brutality against civilians since its invasion and said it has identified more than 10,000 possible war crimes. Russia denies targeting civilians and has denied allegations of war crimes.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-says-scores-russians-killed-kherson-fighting-2022-07-30/

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Jan. 6 hearings chip away at Trump’s hold on GOP, as 2024 hopefuls circle – NPR
Jan. 6 hearings chip away at Trump’s hold on GOP, as 2024 hopefuls circle – NPR

Then-President Donald Trump looks on as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Florida Homecoming rally at the BB&T Center in 2019.

SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images


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Then-President Donald Trump looks on as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Florida Homecoming rally at the BB&T Center in 2019.

SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

When Casey DeSantis was introducing her husband, Ron, to Florida voters in an ad during his first run for governor four years ago, she insisted he was “so much more” than a Trump devotee.

He was a caring dad who played with their son, read him books and was teaching his daughter to talk. But there was a punchline. The ad showed the blocks they played with were to “build the wall,” the book was about how then-President Donald Trump likes to fire people (DeSantis’ “favorite part”) and the talking lesson used a Make America Great Again campaign sign.

The point of the joke was clear – Trump was the man, and a Republican would be a fool to deviate. Lots of other GOP candidates were finding ways to genuflect to their leader, too. But now, four years later, times are starting to change with some Republican voters contemplating something new.

“I think one of the vulnerabilities for Trump running again in 2024 is that he doesn’t have a lot of new material,” Sarah Longwell, a Republican political consultant opposed to Trump who has conducted a number of focus groups with Trump voters since the Jan. 6 committee hearings began, told NPR.

She noted Trump’s continued relitigation of the 2020 election is getting old for many Republicans.

“I’m not sure that’s the right strategy,” she said. “One of the things I hear in focus groups all the time from Republican voters is how much they want to move on from the Jan. 6 conversation.”

Make no mistake — Trump is still the big fish in Republican politics. Scores of GOP candidates continue to channel him and seek his endorsement. He remains the most popular figure in the party and the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, if he wants it.

But there are signs that Trump’s once-ironclad grip is beginning to loosen. Having lost reelection by millions of votes, and under pressure from multiple investigations, including the Justice Department’s probe of his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, focus groups and surveys (more on the data below) are starting to show that rank-and-file Republican voters are starting to see Trump as a liability.

Even editorial boards once friendly to Trump, like the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post and Wall Street Journal have in the last week called him “unworthy” to be president again, citing his “character” and conduct on Jan. 6.

GOP presidential hopefuls, like fish circling chum, are testing the waters. That includes DeSantis, who is now increasingly seen as the most likely post-Trump MAGA standard-bearer; Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence; and lots of others.

The steps taken by these Republicans who are openly angling for presidential runs show they feel safer doing so now than they might have before Jan. 6, the hearings investigating them and Trump’s persistent lies about a stolen election.

If not Trump, who?

Ron DeSantis

His is the first name that comes to the lips of Republican strategists and voters when asked who could win the nomination, if it’s not Trump or if Trump doesn’t run.

Some voters are even saying they like DeSantis more. A University of New Hampshire poll out this week showed DeSantis besting Trump in a primary and faring better than the former president against Biden.

The fact that DeSantis focuses so heavily on Biden’s policies is raising eyebrows about his intentions, though his office says he is focused solely on his reelection to governor this year.

  • Why the buzz? For as divisive as DeSantis has been in Florida, pushing culture-war issues like how racism is taught about in schools and backing what’s been seen as anti-LGBTQ legislation, the Yale and Harvard graduate, who also served in the U.S. House, is seen as Trump, without the baggage. He’s their culture warrior without the endless loop of chaos and drama.

DeSantis’ popularity hasn’t gone unnoticed at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s opulent Florida residence. It’s likely why Trump’s PAC has sent out polling showing Trump leading a potential GOP primary field – and why he has floated making DeSantis his next vice presidential running mate.

  • One challenge: The latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found DeSantis is well liked by Republicans with a 63%/10% favorable/unfavorable rating with them. Trump, though, maintained a higher 83%/15% rating. The survey shows DeSantis has some work to do to increase his name identification, as more than a quarter of Republicans said they weren’t sure or hadn’t heard of DeSantis, mirroring the 28% of adults overall in the broader sample who said so.

Mike Pence

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Young Americas Foundation Student Conference Tuesday.

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Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Young Americas Foundation Student Conference Tuesday.

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Pence and Trump’s relationship soured after Jan. 6. Pence refused to go along with Trump’s scheme to overturn the election by not counting the chosen electors. The rioters at the Capitol then targeted Pence after Trump said he didn’t have the “courage” to do what was needed to help him retain power.

Pence is now taking a higher-profile role than at any time since leaving office. This past week, he held rallies and speeches in Arizona and D.C., the same places his former boss did, and he has endorsed opposing candidates to those Trump is backing.

  • What he’s said: “Some people may choose to focus on the past,” Pence said in D.C., alluding to Trump’s focus on the 2020 election they lost. “But elections are about the future, and I believe conservatives must focus on the future to win back America.”

Pence also has a book coming out, and there’s no surer sign of a candidate wanting to run – because they always write a book.

  • Reality check: While Pence and Trump held what has been billed as dueling events, Trump’s crowds and energy were far greater than Pence’s. Pence’s favorability ratings also lag the former president’s with the base. In the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, Pence had a 62%/29% favorable/unfavorable rating with Republicans, lower than Trump’s.

Nikki Haley

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has been on the conservative speaking circuit, hinting at a potential 2024 run.

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Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has been on the conservative speaking circuit, hinting at a potential 2024 run.

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The former ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration and former South Carolina governor was critical of Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 in the immediate aftermath of the insurrection. But she’s since softened her tone.

She’s been on the conservative speaking circuit lately, including in the key early caucus state of Iowa last month. “If it looks like there’s a place for me next year,” she said she would run. Haley seemed a little more bullish on a potential presidential bid two weeks ago when she spoke to the Christians United for Israel summit in D.C. Haley referred to a potential return to an Iran nuclear deal under Biden – with a little something added.

  • What she’s said: “If this president signs any sort of deal, I’ll make you a promise – the next president will shred it on her first day in office,” Haley said with a wry smile. After extended applause, Haley added, “Just saying, sometimes it takes a woman.”

Kristi Noem

The South Dakota governor is from a state where it’s hard to launch a national campaign. She’s largely out of the limelight being from there, but she’s taking steps to fix that by running national cable ads and digital ads in key early primary states.

  • What her ads say: “Here, freedom runs free, so saddle up. We’re just getting started,” Noem says of South Dakota in a gauzy bio ad showing her racing a horse across an open field. She touts her handling of the COVID pandemic: “Over the last two years, South Dakotans faced dark days, but as dad always said, we don’t complain about things, we fix them. And we did. I held the reins and refused to let fear steal our freedom.”
  • In another ad from earlier this year, she focuses on the culture issue of transgender people in sports – “In South Dakota, only girls play girls sports,” an announcer says.

Tom Cotton

The Arkansas senator was in Iowa earlier this month, making two stops. It was his seventh trip there since 2020 – and he didn’t rule out a 2024 bid.

  • What he said: “We do have a lot of opportunity in 2024, not just for the White House but for the Senate as well,” he said, adding about his own presidential prospects, “Future elections I’ll consider in the future.”
  • Taking it seriously: Cotton met with two dozen of his top donors at a posh D.C. hotel last month, Politico reported. Among other things outlined in the story, a senior political adviser to Cotton ran donors through a 15-slide PowerPoint that noted his team had studied past GOP presidential campaigns and that they were taking steps to build an infrastructure. Trump would not necessarily be a deterrence, the report said. Cotton is set to make a final decision after the 2022 midterm elections.

Tim Scott

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. addresses the 2020 Republican National Convention. Scott has been talked about as a potential 2024 presidential candidate.

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Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. addresses the 2020 Republican National Convention. Scott has been talked about as a potential 2024 presidential candidate.

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The South Carolina senator is the only Black Republican in the Senate. He delivered the rebuttal to Biden’s first address to Congress last year, and he, too, has made multiple trips to Iowa. When out there last month, he downplayed a potential 2024 bid.

  • The exchange: The state GOP chairman asked Scott: “Take us on a little journey of what you’re dreaming right now. Someone from the audience shouted: “President!” Scott replied with a laugh: “Of my homeowner’s association, yes.”

Others are taking steps as well, including Trump’s former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo; Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who won the Iowa caucuses in 2016; as well as Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Jan. 6 committee Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who would run as explicitly anti-Trump.

Despite their profiles being raised, Trump’s decision looms large.

“I’m sure it clears it out significantly,” Cruz told Fox News. “We’ll see what happens. Look, the lay of the land is everyone is waiting to see what Trump decides to do. Anyone who tells you they’re not is lying to you.”

Trump made sure to circulate Cruz’s comments via his PAC.

The loosening of Trump’s grip

Former President Trump holds up a fist to supporters on the campaign trail in 2020. Trump’s grip on the party, by many accounts, appears to be loosening.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images


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Former President Trump holds up a fist to supporters on the campaign trail in 2020. Trump’s grip on the party, by many accounts, appears to be loosening.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

There’s lots of evidence of Trump erosion. Here’s just a sampling – and how the Jan. 6 hearings may be shifting things:

  • Increase in blaming Trump for Jan. 6: A Reuters/Ipsos poll also found that 40% of Republicans said before the last Jan. 6 hearing that they now “believe Trump is at least partially responsible for the deadly riot.” That’s up from 33% before the hearings.
  • A drop in Republicans saying the election was stolen: Reuters/Ipsos also found that before the hearings began, 67% of Republicans believed the election was stolen, now it’s 55%.
  • More Republicans saying they don’t want Trump to be the nominee: 55% of Republicans in a recent CNN poll said they don’t want Trump to be their standard-bearer in 2024, up from 49% in February. Similarly, Reuters/Ipsos found a third of Republicans said Trump should not run again, up from a quarter before the Jan. 6 hearings.
  • Republicans saying Trump’s focused too much on the past: 52% of Republicans said in an Echelon Insights survey that Trump is too focused on what happened in the 2020 election, the top reason given for what would be a good reason to oppose a Trump 2024 run.

Trump’s choice

Of course, Trump doesn’t have to win a majority in the primaries to win the nomination again. He just has to win a plurality, as he did in many of the early 2016 primaries.

And Trump has shown no signs of backing off from a 2024 run. Just the opposite, in fact. At every rally and event he attends, including in Washington, D.C., Arizona and Florida in the past week, he teases that he’s running. Trump told New York magazine that he’s “already made that decision,” and that his “big decision will be whether I go before or after” the 2022 midterms.

“We may just have to do it again,” Trump said in D.C. this week. “We have to straighten out our country.”

He called the members of the Jan. 6 committee “hacks and thugs,” and added, “They really want to damage me, so I can no longer go back to work for you. And I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

That was met with chants of “four more years.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/07/30/1114578872/trump-desantis-pence-president-2024

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Do you have a winning ticket for the $1.28 billion Mega Millions? Here are the six numbers – CNN
Do you have a winning ticket for the $1.28 billion Mega Millions? Here are the six numbers – CNN

[Breaking news update, published at 11:03 p.m. ET]

The winning numbers for Friday’s Mega Millions drawing worth $1.28 billion were 13-36-45-57-67 with a Mega Ball of 14.

[Previous story, published at 4:26 p.m.]

The Mega Millions jackpot for Friday has risen to an estimated $1.28 billion, according to the game’s website – and would be the second-largest in the game’s 20-year history and the third-largest of any US lottery game.

The cash value option of Friday’s jackpot is $742.2 million. The drawing is at 11 p.m. ET at the WSB-TV studio in Atlanta.

The Mega Millions jackpot record is $1.537 billion, won by a single ticket sold in South Carolina in 2018. That’s the second-largest jackpot for any US lottery game, though it’s the world’s largest lottery prize won by just one ticket, according to Mega Millions.

The largest jackpot of any US lottery game was $1.586 billion – a Powerball prize from January 13, 2016, shared by winners in California, Florida and Tennessee.

Timothy Schultz, who won a $28 million Powerball jackpot in 1999 and now hosts a lottery podcast, told CNN winning can “really turn your life on its head.”

He said after he checked his numbers in the newspaper and realized he won, some of the first calls he made were to attorneys and financial advisers.

21 ways to live luxe if you win the $1.28 billion Mega Millions jackpot

“It can change pretty much everything, relationships, your ability to live a life,” he said. “I think it can buy time, which can be invaluable. And, you know, it’s one of the most surreal life changing things that can possibly happen to somebody.”

He said working with a financial adviser will benefit people who have no experience with millions because an adviser will help the winners understand what they can realistically can do with the winnings.

Schultz said he didn’t consider himself to be materialistic before he won so his most extravagant purchases were some cars and real estate.

“I found that for myself and for a lot of people that I’ve met and interviewed that if you win the lottery jackpot it magnifies, or at least it can magnify, your personality. It doesn’t necessarily change who you are,” he said.

He said while he rarely plays the lottery these days, he did buy one ticket for Friday night’s drawing.

Mega Millions jackpots start at $20 million for the annuitized prize and grow based on game sales and interest rates for 30-year US treasuries. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.

There are seven other less valuable prizes that depend on how many and what type of balls a ticket matches. Odds of winning a $1 million runner-up prize – if a ticket matches the five white balls but not the Mega Millions ball – are 1 in 12,607,306.

Mega Millions tickets are sold in 45 states, Washington DC, and the US Virgin Islands, with drawings on Tuesday and Friday. Tickets are sold online in Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and DC, but the purchaser must be in that state.

CNN’s Jamiel Lynch contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/29/us/mega-millions-lottery-jackpot-friday/index.html

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Jon Stewart Fires Back at Ted Cruz’s ‘Bullshit’ Excuses – The Daily Beast
Jon Stewart Fires Back at Ted Cruz’s ‘Bullshit’ Excuses – The Daily Beast

After days of lobbying Republican senators from Capitol Hill and the airwaves of Newsmax and Fox News, Jon Stewart is showing no signs of letting up on the fight to pass the Honoring Our PACT Act, which would give additional health benefits to veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits overseas.

And while he may not have The Daily Show platform anymore, he does have a YouTube channel associated with his Apple TV+ series, which he used on Friday afternoon to respond directly to the latest excuses from Senator Ted Cruz.

Cruz was at an airport earlier in the day when a TMZ correspondent cornered him to ask about Stewart’s crusade. “He’s actually quite funny,” the Republican said of Stewart before claiming to support the PACT Act, even though he voted against it. With a Diet Dr. Pepper in his hand, Cruz went on to accuse the Democrats of playing a “budgetary trick” by taking “discretionary” spending and moving it to “mandatory.”

In response, Stewart called Cruz’s comments “inaccurate, not true, bullshit” before systematically breaking down why his argument makes no sense. “Now I’m not a big-city, Harvard-educated lawyer,” he said, “but I can read. It’s always been mandatory spending, so the government can’t just cut off their funding at any point. No trick, no gimmick, been there the whole fucking time.”

“This is bullshit,” Stewart reiterated, calling out Cruz for voting for the bill in June before joining a large block of Republicans who switched sides even though the text of the bill remained exactly the same.

The comedian and activist closed out his message with the juxtaposition of Cruz “praising to the heavens our nation’s fighting men and women” and a clip of him “fist-bumping his Senate colleagues after removing those same veterans’ benefits and healthcare for toxic wounds.”

“Motherfucker,” he concluded.

For more, listen and subscribe to The Last Laugh podcast.

Source Article from https://www.thedailybeast.com/jon-stewart-fires-back-at-ted-cruzs-bullshit-excuses

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Kentucky floods kill at least 19 as governor warns toll will be "a lot higher" – CBS News
Kentucky floods kill at least 19 as governor warns toll will be "a lot higher" – CBS News

Search and rescue teams backed by the National Guard searched Friday for people missing in record floods that wiped out entire communities in some of the poorest places in America. Kentucky authorities said at least 19 people have died, a toll the governor said he expected to grow. 

Gov. Andy Beshear said that 16 people died and at least six children were among the victims. After Beshear’s comments, the Breathitt County coroner told CBS News that an additional three people died in the floods. 

“That’s hard,” the governor told reporters during a briefing Friday afternoon. “That’s even harder for those families and those communities, so keep praying. There’s still a lot of people out there, still a lot of people unaccounted for. We’re going to do our best to find them all.”

Beshear said earlier Friday the death toll was “going to get a lot higher.” He said later officials may be updating the number of fatalities “for the next several weeks.”

Powerful floodwaters swallowed towns that hug creeks and streams in Appalachian valleys and hollows, swamping homes and businesses, leaving vehicles in useless piles and crunching runaway equipment and debris against bridges. Mudslides marooned people on steep slopes, and thousands of customers were without power.

“We’ve still got a lot of searching to do,” said Jerry Stacy, the emergency management director in Kentucky’s hard-hit Perry County. “We still have missing people.”

Homes along Gross Loop off of KY-15 are flooded with water from the North Fork of the Kentucky River, on July 28, 2022.

Arden S. Barnes/For The Washington Post via Getty Images


Floodwaters rushed through the area so violently and quickly that residents, many still recovering from the last flood, barely had time to get out.

“I lost everything — twice,” Dennis Gross told CBS affiliate WKYT-TV. “This makes twice that I’ve lost everything, and I ain’t the only one.”

Emergency crews made close to 50 air rescues and hundreds of water rescues on Thursday, and more people still needed help, the governor said. “This is not only an ongoing disaster but an ongoing search and rescue. The water is not going to crest in some areas until tomorrow.”

Determining the number of people unaccounted for is tough with cell service and electricity out across the disaster area, he said: “This is so widespread, it’s a challenge on even local officials to put that number together.”

More than 290 people have sought shelter, Beshear said. He deployed National Guard soldiers to the hardest-hit areas. Three parks set up shelters, and with property damage so extensive, the governor opened an online portal for donations to the victims. President Biden called to express his support for what will be a lengthy recovery effort, Beshear said, predicting it will take more than a year to fully rebuild.

“It’s the worst we’ve had in quite a while,” Breathitt County Emergency Management Director Chris Friley told WKYT-TV. “It’s county-wide again. There’s several spots that are still not accessible to rescue crews.”

Perry County dispatchers told WKYT-TV that floodwaters washed out roads and bridges and knocked homes off foundations. The city of Hazard said rescue crews were out all night, urging people on Facebook to stay off roads and “pray for a break in the rain.”

Mr. Biden also declared a federal disaster to direct relief money to more than a dozen Kentucky counties, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency appointed an officer to coordinate the recovery.

Beshear had planned to tour the disaster area on Friday, but postponed it because conditions at an airport where they planned to land are unsafe, his office said. He got a look at the flooding later in the day aboard a helicopter. He tweeted that “the situation is even more devastating to see firsthand” and said it will be “a long road to recovery.”

More rain Friday tormented the region after days of torrential rainfall. The storm sent water gushing from hillsides and surging out of streambeds, inundating roads and forcing rescue crews to use helicopters and boats to reach trapped people. Flooding also damaged parts of western Virginia and southern West Virginia, across a region where poverty is endemic.

“There are hundreds of families that have lost everything,” Beshear said. “And many of these families didn’t have much to begin with. And so it hurts even more. But we’re going to be there for them.”

Poweroutage.us reported more than 31,000 customers remained without electricity as of Friday evening in eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia, with the bulk of the outages in Kentucky.

Van Jackson checks on his dog, Jack, who was stranded at a church by floodwaters following a day of heavy rain in Garrett, Kentucky, July 28, 2022.

Pat McDonogh/USA Today Network via Reuters


Rescue crews also worked in Virginia and West Virginia to reach people in places where roads weren’t passable. Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency for six counties in West Virginia where the flooding downed trees, caused power outages and blocked roads. Gov. Glenn Youngkin also made an emergency declaration, enabling Virginia to mobilize resources across flooded areas of southwest Virginia.

“With more rainfall forecasted over the next few days, we want to lean forward in providing as many resources possible to assist those affected,” Youngkin said in a statement.

The National Weather Service said another storm front adding misery to flood victims in St. Louis, Missouri, on Friday could bring more thunderstorms to the Appalachians early next week.


Rain continues as Kentucky floodwaters recede

00:54

Brandon Bonds, a weather service meteorologist in Jackson, Kentucky, said the hardest-hit areas of eastern Kentucky received between 8 and 10 1/2 inches over a 48-hour period ending Thursday. Some areas got more rain overnight, including Martin County, which was pounded with another 3 inches or so leading to new a flash flood warning on Friday.

The North Fork of the Kentucky River rose to break records in at least two places. A river gauge recorded 20.9 feet in Whitesburg, more than 6 feet over the previous record, and the river crested at a record 43.5 feet in Jackson, Bonds said.

Krystal Holbrook already had enough on Thursday, as her family raced through the night to move vehicles, campers, trailers and equipment as the rapidly rising floodwaters menaced Jackson. “Higher ground is getting a little bit difficult” to find, she said.

In Whitesburg, Kentucky, floodwaters seeped into Appalshop, an arts and education center renowned for promoting and preserving the region’s history and culture.

“We’re not sure exactly the full damage because we haven’t been able to safely go into the building or really get too close to it,” said Meredith Scalos, its communications director. “We do know that some of our archival materials have flooded out of the building into Whitesburg streets.”

Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kentucky-flooding-power-outages-deaths/

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Mega Millions drawing for Friday, July 29, 2022: Lottery numbers for $1.28-billion jackpot – Detroit Free Press
Mega Millions drawing for Friday, July 29, 2022: Lottery numbers for $1.28-billion jackpot – Detroit Free Press

The winning numbers are in for the Friday, July 29 Mega Millions drawing, with a jackpot of $1.28 billion on the line. It’s the largest Mega Millions jackpot of the year and the second-largest in Mega Millions history.

The cash option for the jackpot is $747.2 million.

Mega Millions winning numbers

The winning numbers from the Friday, July 29 drawing are 67, 45, 57, 36 and 13. The MegaBall was 14. The Megaplier was 2x.

Did anyone win the Mega Millions jackpot?

Check back here for results.

If the winning jackpot ticket is sold in Michigan, it’ll be the second time the past two years a billion-dollar jackpot was won in the Great Lakes State; In January 2021, the $1.05-billion jackpot was won on a Mega Millions ticket sold at Kroger in Novi.

Source Article from https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/07/29/mega-millions-numbers-results-lottery-jackpot-michigan/10188326002/

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Jon Stewart Fires Back at Ted Cruz’s ‘Bullshit’ Excuses – The Daily Beast
Jon Stewart Fires Back at Ted Cruz’s ‘Bullshit’ Excuses – The Daily Beast

After days of lobbying Republican senators from Capitol Hill and the airwaves of Newsmax and Fox News, Jon Stewart is showing no signs of letting up on the fight to pass the Honoring Our PACT Act, which would give additional health benefits to veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits overseas.

And while he may not have The Daily Show platform anymore, he does have a YouTube channel associated with his Apple TV+ series, which he used on Friday afternoon to respond directly to the latest excuses from Senator Ted Cruz.

Cruz was at an airport earlier in the day when a TMZ correspondent cornered him to ask about Stewart’s crusade. “He’s actually quite funny,” the Republican said of Stewart before claiming to support the PACT Act, even though he voted against it. With a Diet Dr. Pepper in his hand, Cruz went on to accuse the Democrats of playing a “budgetary trick” by taking “discretionary” spending and moving it to “mandatory.”

In response, Stewart called Cruz’s comments “inaccurate, not true, bullshit” before systematically breaking down why his argument makes no sense. “Now I’m not a big-city, Harvard-educated lawyer,” he said, “but I can read. It’s always been mandatory spending, so the government can’t just cut off their funding at any point. No trick, no gimmick, been there the whole fucking time.”

“This is bullshit,” Stewart reiterated, calling out Cruz for voting for the bill in June before joining a large block of Republicans who switched sides even though the text of the bill remained exactly the same.

The comedian and activist closed out his message with the juxtaposition of Cruz “praising to the heavens our nation’s fighting men and women” and a clip of him “fist-bumping his Senate colleagues after removing those same veterans’ benefits and healthcare for toxic wounds.”

“Motherfucker,” he concluded.

For more, listen and subscribe to The Last Laugh podcast.

Source Article from https://www.thedailybeast.com/jon-stewart-fires-back-at-ted-cruzs-bullshit-excuses

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House overcomes internal rancor to pass assault weapons ban – The Washington Post
House overcomes internal rancor to pass assault weapons ban – The Washington Post

The five Democrats who voted against were Reps. Henry Cuellar (Tex.), Vicente Gonzalez (Tex.), Jared Golden (Maine), Ron Kind (Wis.), and Kurt Schrader (Ore.). Golden, Cuellar and Gonzalez find themselves in competitive races, while Kind and Schrader will not be returning to Congress.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/29/house-overcomes-internal-rancour-pass-assault-weapons-ban/

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Exclusive: DHS inspector general knew of missing Secret Service texts months earlier than previously known – CNN
Exclusive: DHS inspector general knew of missing Secret Service texts months earlier than previously known – CNN

By Whitney Wild, Zachary Cohen, Jeremy Herb and Priscilla Alvarez, CNN

Updated 8:17 PM ET, Fri July 29, 2022

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/29/politics/secret-service-missing-texts-january-6-dhs-inspector-general/index.html

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Russia wants to add murderer to prisoner swap for Griner, Whelan: Report – Yahoo News
Russia wants to add murderer to prisoner swap for Griner, Whelan: Report – Yahoo News

The Russian government has requested that convicted murderer Vadim Krasikov be added to the U.S.-proposed prisoner swap exchanging Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for detained Americans Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, CNN reported Friday.

The Russians apparently shared the request with the U.S. earlier this month, albeit through an informal backchannel used by spy agency and KGB-successor FSB, CNN notes. Because of the manner of the request, the U.S. did not “view it as a legitimate counter” to the original offer for Griner and Whelan. There is also the problem that Krasikov is currently in German custody, having murdered a Chechen fighter in Berlin’s Kleiner Tiergarten in 2019. He was sentenced to life in prison.

But, “underscoring how determined the Biden administration has been to get Griner and Whelan back to the US,” CNN writes, officials did in fact speak with the Germans about including Krasikov in a trade, per a senior German government source. When asked for comment on the situation, a State Department official told CNN that “in order to preserve the best opportunity for a successful outcome, we’re not going to comment publicly on any speculation.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed a swap with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday. Per CNN, it is likely the Russians demand two prisoners in exchange for Griner and Whelan.

Whelan was convicted on charges pertaining to alleged espionage in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Griner is currently on trial in Russia for drug possession. Both are considered wrongfully detained by the State Department, CNN reports.

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Source Article from https://news.yahoo.com/russia-wants-add-murderer-prisoner-201555736.html

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Manchin-Schumer spending bill targets tax loophole favored by investors – Fox Business
Manchin-Schumer spending bill targets tax loophole favored by investors – Fox Business
video

Billionaire investor warns US can’t keep spending and bring down inflation

Neil Cavuto sits down with billionaire investor Ray Dalio to give an economic outlook on Friday’s ‘Cavuto: Coast to Coast.’

The surprise reconciliation bill unveiled this week by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin abandons many of the tax promises made by President Biden in the early days of his presidency.

But the tax, climate and health care proposal outlined Wednesday, if passed, would still mark one of the largest tax hikes in decades. 

The initiative, repackaged by Democrats as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, would raise an estimated $739 billion over the next decade by increasing IRS funding, establishing a 15% minimum corporate tax targeting companies’ book income, allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug costs and closing a popular tax loophole used by private equity and hedge fund managers.

Manchin, D-W.Va., and Schumer, D-N.Y., proposed repealing the break for carried interest, which allows private equity fund managers to pay lower taxes on their earnings than they would for regular income. 

US ECONOMY ENTERS TECHNICAL RECESSION AFTER GROWTH TUMBLES 0.9% IN THE SECOND QUARTER

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol July 28, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Under the loophole, an investment manager’s income can be taxed as a capital gain — a 23.8% levy — rather than regular income, which is taxed at 37.9%.

Requiring fund managers to pay taxes on their profits would raise an estimated $63 billion over the next decade, according to a previous estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation. The Democrats projected it would raise about $14 billion over the next year.

The plan has already elicited fierce criticism from industry groups, including the American Investment Council, a private equity lobbyist group based in Washington. 

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., leaves the U.S. Capitol following a vote Aug. 3, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images / Getty Images)

IS THE UNITED STATES ENTERING A RECESSION?

“Over 74% of private equity investment went to small businesses last year,” AIC President Drew Maloney said in a statement. “As small business owners face rising costs and our economy faces serious headwinds, Washington should not move forward with a new tax on the private capital that is helping local employers survive and grow.”

Revenue raised by the policies would go toward initiatives designed to combat climate change and curb pharmaceutical prices, as well as efforts to reduce the nation’s $30 trillion debt. It includes about $433 billion in new spending, while roughly $300 billion of the new revenue raised would go toward paying down the nation’s deficit, a priority for Manchin.

Senate Aviation and Space Subcommittee ranking member Sen. Kyrsten Sinema questions witnesses during a hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill May 14, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty / Getty Images)

“This is the action the American people have been waiting for. This addresses the problems of today — high health care costs and overall inflation — as well as investments in our energy security for the future,” Biden said in a statement.

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Still, it is unclear whether this particular tax proposal will make it into the final legislation. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., is a crucial vote in the 50-50 Senate and, in the past, declined to support ending the break for carried interest. A spokesperson for Sinema has said she is still reading the legislation and has not yet made a decision on whether to support it.

Source Article from https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/manchin-schumer-spending-bill-targets-tax-loophole-favored-by-investors

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