September, 2022 | últimas notícias

Biden attacks Trump, saying his wing of the Republican party is a threat to democracy – NPR

President Joe Biden speaks outside Independence Hall on Sept. 1, in Philadelphia.

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President Joe Biden speaks outside Independence Hall on Sept. 1, in Philadelphia.

Evan Vucci/AP

President Biden on Thursday warned Americans that democracy is under attack from a faction of the Republican party led by former President Donald Trump, and called on Democrats, mainstream Republicans and independents to “speak up, speak out, get engaged — vote, vote vote.”

In a rare prime time speech, Biden attacked his predecessor, saying that “too much of what’s happening in our country today isn’t normal.” The speech came just two months ahead of midterm congressional elections, where Democrats are fighting to keep their slim majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Biden said the Republican party is “dominated, driven, intimidated by Donald Trump” and his supporters, calling it “a threat to this country.”

“They refuse to accept the results of a free election. And they’re working right now as I speak in state after state to give the power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself,” Biden said, speaking outside Independence National Historical Park in downtown Philadelphia.

The White House claimed it was not a political speech, but Biden launched multiple political broadsides against Trump and his supporters. He called them “MAGA Republicans” — referring to the ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan used by the former president.

“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” he said.

Biden is looking to capitalize on recent momentum, strategists say

After months of struggling in the polls, Biden is seeking to capitalize on a series of legislative wins, concerns about the impact of the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling — and from ongoing coverage of Trump’s legal problems, said Doug Sosnik, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton.

“The real power of the presidency is understanding the use of the bully pulpit,” Sosnik said. “The better your standing with the American public, the more likely you are to have an impact with the speech.”

Ben Tulchin, a Democratic pollster, praised Biden and his team for shifting their strategy and taking on Republicans more directly.

He said Biden is wise to establish more contrast between himself and Trump and the Republicans. “Every hero needs a villain,” Tulchin said. “And Donald Trump plays a very good villain.”

Republicans said Biden was being divisive

Speaking ahead of the address, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy called on Biden to apologize.

“President Biden has chosen to divide, demean, and disparage his fellow Americans — why? Simply because they disagree with his policies,” McCarthy said in his own speech from Pennsylvania. “That is not leadership.”

Biden sought to make clear that he was not criticizing all Republicans, calling on mainstream Republicans to reject that wing of their party.

“We are not powerless in the face of these threats. We are not bystanders in this ongoing attack on democracy,” he said. “There are far more Americans, far more Americans from every background and belief who reject the extreme MAGA ideology than those that accept it. “

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/09/01/1120235793/biden-speech-democracy

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Trump raid judge to unseal detailed inventory of what FBI seized at Mar-a-Lago, delays special master ruling – CNBC

WATCH LIVE

A federal judge in Florida said at a hearing Thursday that she will unseal a more detailed inventory of items FBI agents seized in the Aug. 8 raid of former President Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago residence.

Judge Aileen Cannon also will make public a status report by the investigation team probing the removal of documents from the White House when Trump left office in early 2021.

But Cannon ended the hearing without ruling on a pending request by Trump to appoint an independent watchdog, known as a special master, who would review government documents seized by the FBI before the DOJ would be allowed to use the records to advance its probe.

Cannon said she will rule later on that request, which Trump made in a lawsuit filed last month in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Trump’s lawyers had requested a more detailed list of documents taken from Mar-a-Lago than the less revealing inventory they have previously received from investigators.

The Department of Justice is opposing the call for a special master, arguing that it will unjustifiably delay its criminal investigation.

The DOJ also has said that a review of the documents by a team of internal department watchdogs already has completed its own review and identified some records that would potentially be exempt from use in the investigation because they are protected by the attorney-client privilege.

In a separate ruling Thursday, Cannon said she will keep seal a status report on that review by the DOJ’s so-called filter team.

Jay Bratt, the DOJ’s top counterintelligence official, at the hearing also argued that Trump is not entitled to a review by a special master of the documents because “he is no longer the president.”

“And because he’s no longer the president he had no right to those documents … that ends the analysis,” Brat said.

Special masters, often drawn from the ranks of retired judges, are typically appointed in cases where there is a risk that some of the records seized by law enforcement should be barred from use in an investigation because they are protected by the attorney-client privilege.

Trump’s lawyers however, argue that some of the records could be protected by executive privilege that would result from him having been president at the time they were created.

In a court filing Tuesday, the DOJ revealed that more than 100 classified documents were found at Mar-a-Lago, the private club in Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump maintains a residence, during the Aug. 8 raid.

That discovery came two months after Trump’s lawyers, in response to a federal grand jury subpoena, provided the DOJ with a sworn certification that a search of Trump’s living quarters and office had not found records that were marked classified.

Tuesday’s filing said there is evidence that government records including the ones marked classified were likely concealed and removed from a storage room at that residence in an effort to “obstruct the government’s investigation.”

Authorities have said that NARA tried for about a year after Trump left the White House in January 2021 to obtain documents it suspected were still in his possession. When Trump did give up 15 boxes of records from Mar-a-Lago earlier this year, they were found to contain highly classified material, leading to the opening of the DOJ probe, and eventually the Aug. 8 raid.

Trump has argued that he declassified the records before leaving office. But whether or not the documents remain classified is irrelevant under the criminal laws that the DOJ is eyeing in the case, which includes the espionage statute and obstruction of justice.

By law, White House records must be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration when a president leaves office.

Trump lawyer Jim Trusty during Thursday’s hearing repeated an analogy that has become popular among defenders of the former president.

“We’ve characterized it at times as an overdue-library-book scenario where there’s a dispute — not even a dispute — but ongoing negotiations with [the National Archives] that has suddenly been transformed into a criminal investigation,” Trusty said, according to NBC News.

Trusty’s claim omitted mention of a grand jury subpoena issued for the documents.

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Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/01/trump-fbi-raid-ruling-on-special-master-to-come-later-judge-says.html

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Former NYPD officer sentenced to 10 years in prison for assaulting a police officer on January 6 – CNN

(CNN)Former New York Police Department officer Thomas Webster, who unsuccessfully tried to convince a Washington, DC, jury that he was merely acting in self-defense against a police officer who he assaulted on January 6, 2021, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/01/politics/nypd-officer-january-6-sentencing/index.html

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Biden to target ‘MAGA Republicans’ in prime-time speech about threats to democracy – NBC News

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UN inspectors arrive at Ukraine nuclear plant amid fighting – The Associated Press

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — A U.N. inspection team entered Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant Thursday on a mission to safeguard it against catastrophe, reaching the site amid fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces that prompted the shutdown of one reactor and underscored the urgency of the task.

The 14-member delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in a convoy of SUVs and vans after months of negotiations to enable the experts to pass through the front lines and get inside Europe’s biggest nuclear plant.

“The IAEA is now there at the plant and it’s not moving. It’s going to stay there. We’re going to have a continued presence there at the plant with some of my experts,” IAEA director Rafael Grossi, the mission leader, declared after the group got its first look at conditions inside.

But he added: “I will continue to be worried about the plant until we have a situation which is more stable.”

As the experts made their way through the war zone toward the complex, Russia and Ukraine accused each other of shelling the area and trying to derail the visit. The fighting delayed the team’s progress.

“There were moments when fire was obvious — heavy machine guns, artillery, mortars at two or three times were really very concerning, I would say, for all of us,” Grossi said.

Just before the IAEA team arrived, Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear power company, said Russian mortar shelling had led to the shutdown of one of its reactors by its emergency protection system and had damaged a backup power supply line used for in-house needs.

One of the plant’s reactors that wasn’t operating was switched to diesel generators, Energoatom said.

Once inside the plant, Grossi said, his experts were able to tour the entire site, including control rooms, emergency systems and diesel generators. He said he met with the plant’s staff and residents of the nearby village, Energodar, who asked him for help from the agency.

He reported that the team had collected important information in its initial inspection and will remain there to continue its assessment.

“It is obvious that the plant and the physical integrity of the plant has been violated several times by chance, deliberately — we don’t have the elements to assess that,” Grossi said. “And this is why we are trying to put in place certain mechanisms and the presence, as I said, of our people there.”

The Zaporizhzhia plant has been occupied by Russian forces but run by Ukrainian engineers since the early days of the 6-month-old war. Ukraine alleges Russia is using it as a shield to launch attacks, while Moscow accuses Ukraine of recklessly firing on the area.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had tough words for the IAEA delegation. While applauding its arrival at the plant, he said independent journalists were kept from covering the visit, allowing the Russians to present a one-sided, “futile tour.”

And he said that while Grossi agreed to support Ukrainian demands for the demilitarization of the plant — including the withdrawal of Russian forces from it — the IAEA has yet to issue such a call publicly.

Fighting in early March caused a brief fire at its training complex, and in recent days, the plant was briefly knocked offline because of damage, heightening fears of a radiation leak or a reactor meltdown. Officials have begun distributing anti-radiation iodine tablets to nearby residents.

Experts have also expressed concern that the Ukrainian staff is overworked and stressed out from the occupation of the plant by Russian forces — conditions they say could lead to dangerous errors.

Grossi said after his initial tour that the Ukrainian employees are “in a difficult situation, but they have an incredible degree of professionalism. And I see them calm and moving on.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow expects “impartiality” from the team.

“We are taking all the necessary measures to ensure that the plant is secure, that it functions safely and that the mission accomplishes all of its plans there,” he said.

Ahead of the visit, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that Ukrainian forces unleashed an artillery barrage on the area and sent a group of up to 60 scouts to try to seize the plant on the Dnieper River. It said that the Ukrainian troops arrived in seven speedboats but that Russian forces “took steps to destroy the enemy,” using warplanes.

Some of the Ukrainian shells landed 400 meters (yards) from the plant’s No. 1 reactor, Russian authorities said.

The Russian-installed administration in Enerhodar reported that at least three residents were killed early Thursday by Ukrainian shelling.

Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, accused Russian forces of shelling Enerhodar and a corridor that the IAEA team was set to go through.

Neither side’s version of events could immediately be independently verified.

The fighting came as Ukraine endeavored to start the new school year in the middle of a war. Just over half of the country’s schools are reopening to in-person classes despite the risks.

In other developments, authorities with the Russian-backed separatist government in the eastern region of Donetsk said 13 emergency responders were killed by Ukrainian shelling in Rubtsi, a village in neighboring Kharkiv province. Much of the fighting in recent weeks and months has centered on the area.

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Gatopoulos reported from Kyiv, Ukaine.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kyiv-united-nations-ce8c3e254c8dd44b8ae4eb3cea3c5907

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Fires rage, power grid tested as intense heat wave hits SoCal – Los Angeles Times

Southern California experienced its most intense heat wave of the year Thursday as firefighters battled large fast-moving blazes that forced evacuations. Meanwhile, the possibility of rolling blackouts loomed over the state after officials announced a Flex Alert because of an extreme power demand.

The heat wave is expected to last into next week, perhaps as late as Wednesday, bringing high temperatures to both inland and coastal areas and heightening fire dangers.

Firefighters made some progress Thursday in their battle against a wildfire near Castaic that had burned more than 5,000 acres overnight, but fire officials said the high temperatures and fire conditions faced by firefighters on the front lines should serve as a warning of the extreme fire risk in the days ahead.

“It should be a wake-up call to us all,” said U.S. Forest Service Fire Chief Robert Garcia. “The days ahead are going to be very challenging.”

The fire, called the Route fire, exploded across 5,208 acres overnight and was 12% contained by Thursday morning, according to an incident update by the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

One home was destroyed, and 550 other structures remained threatened by fast-moving moving flames that Garcia described as “explosive fire behavior.”

No civilian casualties were reported, but seven firefighters were taken to a hospital with injuries related to heat exhaustion, said Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief Thomas C. Ewald.

All of the firefighters were treated and released, but the number of injuries also served as a reminder to fire officials of the extreme conditions firefighters are expected to confront on the front lines Thursday and in the coming days as the heat wave, and dangerous fire conditions, linger in the region.

“For our folks that are out there, they don’t have the opportunity to go into an air-conditioned environment,” Ewald said. “They’re on the line, they’re not in the shade. Their No. 1 tool is hydration and preparation.”

Nine helicopters and two fixed-wing planes were used throughout the night to fight the fire. The aircraft were in the air by 6:30 a.m. Thursday, dumping fire retardant and water to put out hot spots and establish a perimeter around the fire.

But the heat wave and extreme fire conditions across the state also threatened to spread resources thin. Fire officials made sure to launch aircraft early Thursday morning, mindful that they could be diverted to a fire threatening homes near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Low humidity, excessive heat and steep terrain also threaten responders’ efforts. According to the incident report, teams are focused on keeping the fire west of Castaic Lake, east of Palomas Canyon, south of Fall Creek and north of Lake Hughes Road.

The fire was first reported along the 5 Freeway near Lake Hughes Road just after noon Wednesday, leading to full lane closures in both directions. According to the California Department of Transportation, one northbound lane and two southbound lanes between Lake Hughes Road and Templin Highway remained closed Thursday. There was no timeline on when they might reopen.

The blaze also led to evacuation orders for north of Northlake Hills Elementary School and south of Templin Highway. Evacuation orders for the Paradise Ranch Estates mobile home park — east of the 5 and west of Castaic Lagoon, were lifted by Thursday morning.

The Red Cross opened two shelters for evacuees, including at Frazier Mountain High School, at 700 Falcon Way in Lebec, and West Ranch High School, at 26255 W. Valencia Blvd. in Santa Clarita.

Evacuations south of Northlake Hills Elementary School were lifted Wednesday evening, according to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.

Schools are under voluntary closures, Jensen said. Northlake Hills Elementary School remained closed Thursday. Castaic area high schools remained open.

Videos from KTLA-TV Channel 5 show that parts of the fire produced fire whirls Wednesday afternoon. At least 378 firefighters, two fixed-wing aircraft and nine helicopters were assigned to the fire Thursday morning. .

Little said the blaze was being driven by fuels parched by years of drought.

A fast-moving wildfire in rural east San Diego County charred more than 4,240 acres Wednesday, racing through bone-dry brush, injuring two people and destroying at least four buildings as the region baked under extreme heat.

Records already broken

The first day of a punishing heat wave brought new temperature records to the Los Angeles area Wednesday.

Woodland Hills reached 112 degrees, breaking the previous record for the date of 111 degrees set in 1998, according to the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

The temperature could continue climbing “and probably isn’t done yet,” meteorologists said.

Burbank’s high of 112 broke the previous daily record of 108 degrees set in 2017, and Sandberg reached 100 degrees, exceeding the previous high of 98 degrees, also in 2017, the weather service said.

Flex Alerts

Authorities are worried about power capacity in part because high temperatures are forecast not just across inland regions that typically broil this time of year, but also along many parts of the coast. That could mean many more people turning on their air conditioners during peak hours.

Officials are asking Californians to limit electricity use when possible to minimize strain on the state’s energy providers, otherwise risking rolling blackouts. Losing power during such extreme heat can be highly dangerous, if not deadly, especially for the most vulnerable.

California officials on Wednesday issued a statewide Flex Alert, as most of the state experienced extreme heat. A second Flex Alert was issued for Thursday.

During a Flex Alert, consumers are urged to reduce their electricity use from 4 to 9 p.m., when the grid is most stressed because of high demand and less available energy from solar panels.

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-09-01/route-fire-california-severe-heat-wave-castaic

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Putin denies Gorbachev a state funeral and will stay away – Reuters.com

Sept 1 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin is to miss the funeral of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, denying the man who failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet empire the full state honours granted to Boris Yeltsin.

Gorbachev, idolised in the West for allowing eastern Europe to escape Soviet communist control but unloved at home for the chaos that his “perestroika” reforms unleashed, will be buried on Saturday after a public ceremony in Moscow’s Hall of Columns.

The grand hall, within sight of the Kremlin, hosted the funerals of Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and Leonid Brezhnev. Gorbachev will be given a military guard of honour – but his funeral will not be a state one.

State television on Thursday showed Putin solemnly placing red roses beside Gorbachev’s coffin – left open as is traditional in Russia – in Moscow’s Central Clinical Hospital, where he died on Tuesday aged 91.

Putin made a sign of the cross in Russian Orthodox fashion before briefly touching the edge of the coffin.

“Unfortunately, the president’s work schedule will not allow him to do this on Sept. 3, so he decided to do it today,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

He said Gorbachev’s ceremony would have “elements” of a state funeral, and that the state was helping to organise it.

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A man places a rose on a sculpture of Mikhail Gorbachev in memory of the final leader of the Soviet Union, at the “Fathers of Unity” memorial in Berlin, Germany August 31, 2022. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

Nevertheless, it will be a marked contrast to the funeral of Yeltsin, who was instrumental in sidelining Gorbachev as the Soviet Union fell apart and hand-picked Putin, a career KGB intelligence officer, as the man most suited to succeed him.

When Yeltsin died in 2007, Putin declared a national day of mourning and, alongside world leaders, attended a grand state funeral in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

Russia’s intervention in Ukraine appears aimed at reversing at least in part the collapse of the Soviet Union that Gorbachev failed to prevent in 1991.

Gorbachev’s decision to let the countries of the post-war Soviet communist bloc go their own way, and East and West Germany to reunify, helped to trigger nationalist movements within the 15 Soviet republics that he was powerless to quell.

Five years after taking power in 2000, Putin called the breakup of the Soviet Union “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century”.

It took Putin more than 15 hours after Gorbachev’s death to publish a restrained message of condolence that said Gorbachev had had a “huge impact on the course of world history” and “deeply understood that reforms were necessary” to tackle the problems of the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

Gorbachev’s foundation said the funeral would begin at 12 noon (0900 GMT), not 10 a.m. (0700 GMT) as previously announced.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-will-not-attend-gorbachev-funeral-due-scheduling-constraints-kremlin-2022-09-01/

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Judge Says Lindsey Graham Can Be Questioned About Election Activity – The New York Times

Mr. Raffensperger, in his memoir, said that Mr. Graham’s call to him, which came 10 days after Election Day, was baffling. “I didn’t understand why Senator Graham would interject himself into a neighboring state’s affairs,” he wrote.

Mr. Raffensperger, a Republican, said that Mr. Graham told him he was worried that some Georgia counties might have approved invalid absentee ballots, “and he seemed to imply that we could audit all signatures and throw out the ballots from counties that had the highest frequency of error rates,” Mr. Raffensperger wrote. “But no state can do that.”

Ms. Willis’s office has indicated in court documents that prosecutors wanted to learn more about Mr. Graham’s role in Mr. Trump’s postelection strategy, and about who he spoke to on the Trump campaign team before or after he called Mr. Raffensperger. This line of inquiry would track with an effort to build a multi-defendant case that there was a broad criminal effort to violate Georgia election law, whether Mr. Graham ends up being one of those defendants or not.

“These are going to be very uncomfortable inquiries for the senator,” said Norman Eisen, a lawyer who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the first Trump impeachment. Ms. Willis, he said, “is allowed questioning that is nonlegislative, that is very important to the investigation,” including, he noted, questions about whether Mr. Graham asked that ballots be thrown out, or that Georgia’s election procedures or tallies be changed.

A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office declined on Thursday to comment on the judge’s order. Mr. Graham’s lawyers have been instructed to file a new brief with the appeals court by Oct. 11.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/us/lindsey-graham-georgia-subpoena.html

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Trump special master hearing: DOJ, Trump facing off in court – The Washington Post

“Three weeks after an unprecedented, unnecessary, and legally unsupported raid on the home of a President — and possibly a candidate against the current chief executive in 2024,” Trump’s legal team wrote in a filing Wednesday night, “the Government … has filed an extraordinary document with this Court, suggesting that the DOJ, and the DOJ alone, should be entrusted with the responsibility of evaluating its unjustified pursuit of criminalizing a former President’s possession of personal and Presidential records in a secure setting.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/01/trump-documents-special-master-hearing/?itid=ap_perrystein

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Fox & Friends’ Steve Doocy calls out Donald Trump over secret files – Business Insider

Fox News host Steve Doocy wondered aloud why Trump kept “all that secret stuff at Mar-a-Lago.”
Doocy said he couldn’t recall any president “carting off” so many files during their time in office.
He also questioned why Trump didn’t simply hand the documents over, given their classified nature.

“Fox & Friends” host Steve Doocy is the latest media ally of former President Donald Trump to call him out over the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago.

During a Wednesday episode of the show, Doocy asked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, another Trump ally, for her take on the Mar-a-Lago raid — but not before wondering aloud why Trump didn’t hand over the documents to the government and instead took them to his Florida home.

“Well, ultimately it comes down to — why did he have all that secret stuff at Mar-a-Lago?” Doocy asked.

He referenced Trump’s claim about declassifying the files through a standing order and pointed out that this defense didn’t hold up as the supposed move was also “news to the agencies that those documents belong to.”

“He had, apparently, three classified documents in his desk,” Doocy said, referring to the DOJ’s court filing on the raid.

Doocy also referred to a photo released by the DOJ of the top-secret documents found at Mar-a-Lago.

“It shows five yellow folders marked ‘top secret,’ and another one with that says ‘secret SCI’ which means ‘sensitive compartmentalized information,'” Doocy said. “Those are the biggest secrets in the world.”

Noem attempted to defend Trump, calling for more transparency in the DOJ’s investigation. However, Doocy sidestepped her argument and stated: “I don’t think any President has ever carted off that many documents to their house after they left the presidency.”

Doocy is just one of many members of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire who appear to have shifted their stance on supporting Trump in recent weeks. Last month, Fox News host Eric Shawn asked aloud during a live broadcast if Trump could have tried to “sell or share” classified information with Russia or Saudi Arabia.

In July, Trump also expressed his unhappiness with “Fox & Friends,” a talk show he was known to do nearly weekly calls with during his presidency. In a Truth Social post, he called the talk show “terrible” and said it had “gone to the dark side” after Doocy questioned his poll numbers.

These rumblings from Fox News hosts may signal a shift in Murdoch’s empire’s attitude toward Trump. This week, for one, the former president raged against the Murdoch-owned New York Post over an opinion piece it published titled “Republicans are lucky to have Mitch McConnell: Trump’s gripes are beyond ridiculous.”

The Post also denounced Trump in an editorial piece in July, calling him “unworthy to be this country’s chief executive again.” Additionally, the Wall Street Journal — another Murdoch-owned publication — called Trump “The President Who Stood Still on Jan. 6” while praising former Vice President Mike Pence.

Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating whether Trump broke three federal laws, including the Espionage Act, by keeping classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The agency removed 11 sets of classified documents — some of which were marked as top secret and concerned nuclear weapons, according to The Washington Post — from the property while executing a search warrant on August 8.

Source Article from https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-doocy-calls-out-donald-trump-over-top-secret-files-2022-9

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Biden’s ‘direct’ prime-time address on democracy comes as he grows more concerned about Trump’s influence – CNN

By Kevin Liptak, Phil Mattingly and Kaitlan Collins, CNN

Updated 1:20 PM ET, Thu September 1, 2022

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/01/politics/joe-biden-democracy-speech/index.html

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Trump’s seized passports could be a problem for him, legal experts say – NBC News

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UN inspectors finally reach Ukraine nuclear plant after shelling and emergency shutdown of reactor – CNBC

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s mission to inspect the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has set off, but there are reports this morning of shelling around Enerhodar, where the plant is located.

The IAEA team is due to begin an inspection of the plant this morning following rising concerns over the safety and stability of the facility, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly blamed each other for shelling in the area and on Thursday there were more reports of shelling in the region.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said the mission was aware of “increased military activity in the area” but was pressing ahead with its plan to visit the facility and meet personnel there, Reuters reported.

Russian news agency Interfax reported that its forces had fired on a group of Ukrainian troops which had landed in the Enerhodar region on Thursday morning.

Alexander Volga, head of the provisional administration of the city (a Russian-installed official), told Interfax that, “there was a landing of Ukrainian troops, they are currently immobilized, lying in a summer cottage. Our aviation is working on them. Scouts have figured out their location, at the moment they are being hit by fire. I think that everything will be finished in the near future, and we will win.”

Interfax repeated Russian claims that Enerhodar was “subjected to a massive artillery strike from the Armed Forces of Ukraine” this morning in which it said apartment buildings and a kindergarten were hit.

Ukraine has not responded to those claims, but Oleksandr Starukh, the Ukrainian head of the Zaporizhzhia region, said on Telegram Thursday that Russian forces were shelling the pre-agreed route the IAEA team are due to take to the nuclear power plant.

“The UN advance team cannot continue the movement due to security reasons. Ukraine continues to make efforts to organize safe access of the international IAEA mission to the ZNPP. We demand that the Russian Federation stop the provocations and grant the IAEA unhindered access to the Ukrainian nuclear facility,” he said.

— Holly Ellyatt

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/01/russia-tries-to-restore-supply-lines-in-southern-ukraine-north-korea-could-send-workers-to-rebuild-the-donbas.html

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Reading and Math Scores Plummeted During Pandemic, New Data Show – The Wall Street Journal

The Education Department’s first look at test-score trends since the pandemic began reveals the worst drop in math and reading scores in decades for students in fourth grade, a crucial indicator for educational and economic trajectory.

Scores released Thursday show unprecedented drops on the long-term trends tests that are part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the “Nation’s Report Card.” The tests are administered to U.S. students age 9.

Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/articles/education-departments-first-pandemic-era-trend-data-show-worst-reading-math-declines-in-decades-11662004860

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The first bus carrying migrants from the US-Mexico border in Texas arrives in Chicago, officials say – CNN

By Travis Caldwell, Andy Rose and Omar Jimenez, CNN

Updated 3:58 AM ET, Thu September 1, 2022

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/01/us/texas-buses-migrants-chicago/index.html

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New York enacts new gun restrictions in response to supreme court decision – The Guardian US

After a federal judge said New York could implement new gun restrictions passed after the US supreme court struck down a century-old law, the state attorney general saluted “a victory in our efforts to protect New Yorkers”.

“Responsible gun control measures save lives and any attempts by the gun lobby to tear down New York’s sensible gun control laws will be met with fierce defense of the law,” Letitia James said on Wednesday night.

In June, in the aftermath of mass shootings at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas and a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, the conservative-dominated US supreme court overturned a New York law passed in 1911.

The law said anyone wanting to carry a handgun in public had to prove “proper cause”.

Justice Clarence Thomas said the 111-year-old law was a violation of the second amendment right to bear arms and also the 14th amendment, which made second-amendment rights applicable to the states.

“Apart from a few late-19th-century outlier jurisdictions,” Thomas wrote, “American governments simply have not broadly prohibited the public carry of commonly used firearms for personal defense.”

In dissent, Stephen Breyer, a liberal, wrote: “In 2020, 45,222 Americans were killed by firearms. Since the start of this year there have been 277 reported mass shootings – an average of more than one per day.”

The same source, the Gun Violence Archive, now puts that total at 450.

Breyer wrote: “Gun violence has now surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death among children and adolescents. Many states have tried to address some of the dangers of gun violence … the court today severely burdens states’ efforts to do so.”

Joe Biden said: “I call on Americans across the country to make their voices heard on gun safety. Lives are on the line.”

Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, said: “The supreme court is setting us backwards … This decision is not just reckless, it’s reprehensible.”

Hochul also said she was “prepared to call the legislature back into session to deal with this”.

An extraordinary session produced the Concealed Carry Improvement Act, or CCIA.

As defined by James, the CCIA “strengthens requirements for concealed carry permits, prohibits guns in sensitive locations, allows private businesses to ban guns on their premises, enhances safe storage requirements, requires social media review ahead of certain gun purchases, and requires background checks on all ammunition purchases to protect New Yorkers”.

The law was challenged by the Gun Owners of America and the Gun Owners Foundation. On Wednesday, the GOA said the CCIA “would essentially make all of NY a gun-free zone and infringes upon the rights of its citizens”.

Judge Glenn Suddaby, of the US district court in the northern district of New York, said the two gun groups lacked standing to bring the case.

But he also indicated support, describing “a strong sense of the safety that a licensed concealed handgun regularly provides, or would provide, to the many law-abiding responsible citizens in the state too powerless to physically defend themselves in public without a handgun”.

An appeal is likely. The CCIA will go into effect on Thursday.

On Wednesday the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, said: “The US supreme court’s … decision was the shot heard round the world that took dead aim at the safety of all New Yorkers.

“New York City will defend itself against this decision, and, beginning tomorrow, new eligibility requirements for concealed carry permit applicants and restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons in ‘sensitive locations’, like Times Square, take effect.”

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/01/new-york-to-enact-new-gun-restrictions-in-response-to-supreme-court-decision

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Democrat Mary Peltola beats Sarah Palin in Alaska special election – Reuters.com

Aug 31 (Reuters) – Mary Peltola, a Democratic former state lawmaker, won a special election to fill Alaska’s sole U.S. House of Representatives seat, becoming the first Alaska Native to represent the state in Congress, the Alaska Division of Elections announced on Wednesday.

She defeated Republican former Governor Sarah Palin by 51.47% to 48.53%. Palin is widely known for her unsuccessful vice presidential run with John McCain in 2008.

Peltola will finish the remainder of the term of Republican Representative Don Young, who died earlier this year, and will face re-election on Nov. 8.

She is the first Alaska Native to represent a state where almost 20% of the population is Indigenous, the highest proportion in the United States.

Palin’s campaign for the House seat was her first run for public office after the McCain loss. She is seen as having helped open the door to a more far-right wing of the Republican Party.

During her campaign, Peltola ran as “Alaska’s best shot at keeping an extremist from winning,” according to her campaign website. She highlighted her status as “the only candidate in this race who isn’t a multi-millionaire.”

The election is the first one run under the state’s new ranked choice system, with voters listing candidates in order of preference on the ballot. A candidate must clear 50% of the vote to be declared the winner.

The special election was called after the death of Young, 88, who was first elected in 1973.

The winner of the special election will serve out Young’s term, which expires at the end of this year. Palin, Peltola and Republican Nick Begich III will vie in a Nov. 8 election to fill the seat for the next two years.

Meanwhile, Democratic Representative Charlie Crist on Wednesday announced he was resigning, effective immediately, from his House seat so that he can focus on his gubernatorial campaign against Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/us/palin-or-peltola-alaska-announce-results-us-house-special-election-2022-08-31/

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Texas governor Greg Abbott will send migrant buses to Chicago – New York Post

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday night that immigrants will be bussed from the Lonestar State to Chicago in the latest iteration of his controversial bussing program.

The first busload of immigrants arrived at Chicago’s Union Station Wednesday night as the Windy City becomes the third destination city for asylum-seeking immigrants who are being bussed from Del Rio, Texas, Abbott’s office said.

He has already sent migrants to Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York City.

“To continue providing much-needed relief to our small, overrun border towns, Chicago will join fellow sanctuary cities Washington, D.C. and New York City as an additional drop-off location,” said Abbott.

“Mayor Lightfoot loves to tout the responsibility of her city to welcome all regardless of legal status, and I look forward to seeing this responsibility in action as these migrants receive resources from a sanctuary city with the capacity to serve them.”

In April, Abbott started bussing immigrants from the border to Washington, D.C. Immigrants started arriving in New York City in June.

Migrants wait outside in Chicago after being bused from Texas under Governor Greg Abbott.

CBS News Chicago

Abbott has previously sent migrants to DC and New York City.

Shelby Tauber/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Abbott’s bus program, which uses both taxpayer money and private donations, has racked up a price tag of $12 million, or about $1,300 per immigrant bused to the east coast so far.

The immigrants who are part of Abbott’s program are not illegal immigrants. They have cleared the first step of seeking asylum and have been granted legal permission to remain in the country while the federal government decides if they qualify for asylum or not.

The Post traveled to the US-Mexico border to witness first-hand how asylum-seekers from countries like Venezuela and Cuba board the buses in Del Rio, Texas after being screened by federal immigration authorities.

The first busload of immigrants arrived at Chicago’s Union Station Wednesday.

Jacob Silberberg/Getty Images

The governor’s office has maintained that the bus program is voluntary and that immigrants can get off the bus anytime they want, however, immigrants aboard a Texas to Big Apple bus called 911 after they say they weren’t allowed to get off the bus in Tennessee.

The Post obtained the 911 recording where immigrants told authorities they were being “held against their will.”

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2022/09/01/texas-gov-greg-abbott-sends-migrant-buses-to-chicago/

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Biden’s Message Shifts From Compromise to Combat Ahead of Midterms – The New York Times

The speech will also be an opportunity for Mr. Biden to focus on falling gas prices, a booming job market and legislative victories on climate change, drug prices, infrastructure improvements and veterans’ health care.

But Mr. Biden is leaning into more political attacks, aides and allies said, in part because of what he sees as a growing embrace of violent political speech by Republicans and a threat to the democratic process of governing. The aides said he was dismayed by the number of Trump-backed election deniers who have won Republican primaries for governor or secretary of state across the country.

Mr. Biden, whose own approval ratings have begun to improve slightly since lows earlier this summer, is hoping that his party can maintain control of Congress and deliver a forceful rebuke to Mr. Trump and his followers.

It is a moment, one adviser said, to make sure people understand what is at stake.

“Given everything that is happening right now, I have to imagine that this is weighing on him very heavily,” said Symone D. Sanders, who served as the chief spokeswoman for Vice President Kamala Harris and now hosts a new MSNBC show. “He feels as though he needs to ring the alarm, sound the alarm as he did throughout all of 2019, throughout all of 2020 in the lead-up to the election.”

How Times reporters cover politics.
We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause.

Republicans have noticed the new tone. Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, said on Wednesday that the president was “the divider in chief and epitomizes the current state of the Democrat Party: one of divisiveness, disgust and hostility toward half the country.”

Mr. Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Saturday, just two days after Mr. Biden’s planned speech in Philadelphia and four days after the president made his own visit to Wilkes-Barre. Pennsylvania, a swing state, is home to key races for the House and Senate as well as a closely watched governor’s race.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/31/us/politics/biden-trump-republicans.html

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Trump lawyers again push for special master to review documents in FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago – CNBC

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on Wednesday once again called for a federal judge to appoint a “special master” to review documents seized from Trump’s Florida home by the FBI.

The narrowly focused filing in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach came one day after the Department of Justice argued that appointing a special master could harm the government’s national security interests.

The DOJ’s filing also said that “efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation” into the records that had been shipped to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence after the end of his presidency.

And the DOJ revealed that the FBI seized more than 100 classified documents from the Palm Beach resort during its search of the premises earlier this month. The agency also shared a redacted FBI photo showing documents with classification markings that had been recovered from a container in Trump’s “45 Office.”

Trump’s legal team in its Wednesday night reply accused the DOJ of twisting “the framework of responding to a motion for a Special Master into an all-encompassing challenge to any judicial consideration, presently or in the future, of any aspect of its unprecedented behavior in this investigation.”

The government’s “extraordinary document” suggests “that the DOJ, and the DOJ alone, should be entrusted with the responsibility of evaluating its unjustified pursuit of criminalizing a former President’s possession of personal and Presidential records in a secure setting,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.

They also accused the DOJ of providing multiple “misleading or incomplete statement[s] of purported ‘fact,'” but offered few specifics.

Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, has set a hearing for Thursday at 1 p.m. ET in a West Palm Beach courthouse.

Trump had sued to block the Justice Department from further investigating any materials taken in the Mar-a-Lago raid until a special master is able to analyze them. That step is typically taken when there is a chance that some evidence should be withheld from prosecutors because of various legal privileges.

The DOJ told the judge on Monday that its review of the seized materials was complete, and that a law enforcement team had identified a “limited set” of materials that may be protected by attorney-client privilege. That privilege often refers to the legal doctrine that protects the confidentiality of communications between an attorney and their client.

Trump’s lawyers responded Wednesday that the so-called Privilege Review Team was “wholly deficient” in identifying and separating all potentially privileged documents from the rest of the seized materials.

Trump and his office have publicly claimed that he declassified all the documents that had been seized by the FBI. But Trump’s legal team has not made that explicit argument in the civil lawsuit before Cannon.

The DOJ in Tuesday’s late-night filing said that when 15 boxes were retrieved from Mar-a-Lago by the National Archives in January, Trump “never asserted executive privilege over any of the documents nor claimed that any of the documents in the boxes containing classification markings had been declassified.”

The government also said that no claims about declassification were made when FBI agents went to Mar-a-Lago on June 3, pursuant to a grand jury subpoena to collect any more records in Trump’s possession that bore classification markings.

The DOJ said it obtained that subpoena in May, after the FBI developed evidence that dozens of boxes with classified information — beyond the 15 boxes retrieved in January — were still at Trump’s residence.

“When producing the documents, neither counsel nor the custodian asserted that the former President had declassified the documents or asserted any claim of executive privilege. Instead, counsel handled them in a manner that suggested counsel believed that the documents were classified: the production included a single Redweld envelope, double-wrapped in tape, containing the documents,” the DOJ wrote.

At the same time, Trump’s custodian of records had also provided a sworn certification letter, claiming that “any and all” documents responsive to a grand jury subpoena had been handed over, the DOJ wrote.

But the FBI later “uncovered multiple sources of evidence” indicating that more classified documents remained at Mar-a-Lago, according to the DOJ’s filing.

“The government also developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation,” the DOJ wrote.

That and other information led the government to seek a warrant to search Mar-a-Lago, which was ultimately carried out Aug. 8.

In their reply on Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers wrote that the DOJ’s account of the June 3 meeting “has been significantly mischaracterized.”

“If the Government provided the same untrue account in the affidavit in support of the search warrant, then they misled the Magistrate Judge,” the former president’s lawyers wrote.

Trump, in a social media post earlier Wednesday evening, also accused the DOJ of being “very deceiving” by sharing a photo that appears to show numerous classified papers strewn about on a carpeted floor.

Trump clarified that the FBI “took them out of cartons and spread them around on the carpet, making it look like a big ‘find’ for them.”

“They dropped them, not me – Very deceiving…And remember, we could have NO representative, including lawyers, present during the Raid. They were told to wait outside,” Trump wrote.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/31/trump-lawyers-again-push-for-special-master-in-fbi-raid-of-mar-a-lago.html

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Peltola beats Palin, wins Alaska House special election – The Associated Press

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Democrat Mary Peltola won the special election for Alaska’s only U.S. House seat on Wednesday, besting a field that included Republican Sarah Palin, who was seeking a political comeback in the state where she was once governor.

Peltola, who is Yup’ik and turned 49 on Wednesday, will become the first Alaska Native to serve in the House and the first woman to hold the seat. She will serve the remaining months of the late Republican U.S. Rep. Don Young’s term. Young held the seat for 49 years before his death in March.

“I don’t think there will be another birthday like today,” Peltola said.

“Really I’m just so grateful to Alaskans and all the Alaskans who put their faith in me to fill out the remainder of Congressman Young’s term,” she said in an interview. “My desire is to follow in Congressman Young’s legacy of representing all Alaskans, and I’m just looking forward to getting to work.”

Peltola’s victory, in Alaska’s first statewide ranked choice voting election, is a boon for Democrats, particularly coming off better-than-expected performances in special elections around the country this year following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. She will be the first Democrat to hold the seat since the late U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, who was seeking reelection in 1972 when his plane disappeared. Begich was later declared dead and Young in 1973 was elected to the seat.

Peltola ran as a coalition builder while her two Republican opponents — Palin and Begich’s grandson, also named Nick Begich — at times went after each other. Palin also railed against the ranked voting system, which was instituted by Alaska voters.

All three – Peltola, Palin and Begich – are candidates in the November general election, seeking a two-year term that would start in January.

The results came 15 days after the Aug. 16 election, in line with the deadline for state elections officials to receive absentee ballots mailed from outside the U.S. Ranked choice tabulations took place Wednesday after no candidate won more than 50% of the first choice votes, with state elections officials livestreaming the event. Peltola was in the lead heading into the tabulations, followed by Palin and then Begich.

State elections officials plan to certify the election by Friday.

Alaska Democratic Party leaders cheered Peltola’s win.

“Alaskans have made clear they want a rational, steadfast, honest and caring voice speaking for them in Washington D.C., not opportunists and extremists associated with the Alaska Republican Party,” state Democratic party chair Michael Wenstrup said in a statement.

Wednesday’s results were a disappointment for Palin, who was looking to make a political comeback 14 years after she was vaulted onto the national stage when John McCain selected her to be his running mate in the 2008 presidential election. In her run for the House seat, she had widespread name recognition and won the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.

After Peltola’s victory was announced, Palin called the ranked voting system “crazy, convoluted, confusing.”

“Though we’re disappointed in this outcome, Alaskans know I’m the last one who’ll ever retreat,” Palin said in a statement.

Begich in a statement congratulated Peltola while looking forward to the November election.

During the campaign, critics questioned Palin’s commitment to Alaska, citing her decision to resign as governor in July 2009, partway through her term. Palin went on to become a conservative commentator on TV and appeared in reality television programs, among other pursuits.

Palin has insisted her commitment to Alaska never wavered and said ahead of the special election that she had “signed up for the long haul.”

Peltola, a former state lawmaker who most recently worked for a commission whose goal is to rebuild salmon resources on the Kuskokwim River, cast herself as a “regular” Alaskan. “I’m not a millionaire. I’m not an international celebrity,” she said.

Peltola has said she was hopeful that the new system would allow more moderate candidates to be elected.

During the campaign, she emphasized her support of abortion rights and said she wanted to elevate issues of ocean productivity and food security. Peltola said she got a boost after the June special primary when she won endorsements from Democrats and independents who had been in the race. She said she believed her positive messaging also resonated with voters.

“It’s been very attractive to a lot of people to have a message of working together and positivity and holding each other up and unity and as Americans none of us are each other’s enemy,” she said. “That is just a message that people really need to hear right now.”

Alaska voters in 2020 approved an elections process that replaced party primaries with open primaries. Under the new system, ranked voting is used in general elections.

Under ranked voting, ballots are counted in rounds. A candidate can win outright with more than 50% of the vote in the first round. If no one hits that threshold, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Voters who chose that candidate as their top pick have their votes count for their next choice. Rounds continue until two candidates remain, and whoever has the most votes wins.

In Alaska, voters last backed a Democrat for president in 1964. The number of registered voters who are unaffiliated with a party is greater than the number of registered Republicans or Democrats combined, according to statistics from the Division of Elections.

The last Democratic member of Alaska’s congressional delegation was Mark Begich, Nick Begich’s uncle, who served one term in the U.S. Senate and lost his 2014 reelection bid.

Alaska’s U.S. senators, Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, congratulated Peltola.

Murkowski said Peltola “has a long track record of public service to our great state.” Murkowski and Peltola were in the state Legislature together.

___

Follow AP coverage of 2022 Midterm Elections: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-sarah-palin-voting-government-and-politics-f9855f1138a922ab1147da7900819fa8

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