“We know about white-led movements for social change in a way that has a tendency, in the public square, to overshadow Black brilliance, Black leadership and Black organizational capacity,” Professor Foreman said.
“Why don’t we know about Black-led movements? One reason is because they are saying the same thing we are saying today,” she continued, noting that the conventions dealt not just with ending slavery but also with issues like equal pay, labor rights, voting rights and other issues that remain pressing almost two centuries later.
There are multiple artists in the class as well. Among them is Amanda Williams, whose “Embodied Sensations” installation was at the Museum of Modern Art in 2021.There are also musicians like Ikue Mori, who, over five decades, transformed the use of percussion in improvised music, and the jazz cellist and composer Tomeka Reid.
The youngest fellow is Steven Prohira, 35, a physicist engineering new tools to detect subatomic particles. The oldest, at age 69, are Professor Ross and Robin Wall Kimmerer, a plant ecologist known for environmental stewardship that is grounded in both scientific research and the body of knowledge cultivated by Indigenous peoples.
Steven Ruggles, 67, is also among this class of fellows. A historical demographer, he built the world’s largest publicly available database of population statistics.
“I’m not the most obvious candidate for something like this,” he said, noting that he is older and has already procured considerable grant money. Still, he, conceded, “It’s a humbling thing.”
President Joe Biden said he does not believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin would use a tactical nuclear weapon on Ukraine.
“I think it’s irresponsible for him to talk about it, the idea that a world leader of one of the largest nuclear powers in the world says he may use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine,” Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an exclusive interview with the network.
“The whole point I was making was it could lead to just a horrible outcome. And not because anybody intends to turn it into a world war or anything, but just once you use a nuclear weapon, the mistakes that can be made, the miscalculations, who knows what would happen,” Biden continued.
When asked if the United States had considered what would happen if Putin did use a nuclear weapon and what the “red line” for his administration would be, Biden said it would be irresponsible of him to discuss specifics but made it clear that the Pentagon did not have to be asked to game out potential outcomes.
“He, in fact, cannot continue with impunity to talk about the use of a tactical nuclear weapon as if that’s a rational thing to do. The mistakes get made. And the miscalculation could occur, no one can be sure what would happen and could end in Armageddon,” Biden added later on in CNN’s interview.
Biden was questioned on whether he thought Putin was a rational actor and made it clear that he thought Putin was “a rational actor who miscalculated significantly.”
“I think he thought he was going to be welcomed with open arms, that this was the home of Mother Russia in Kyiv, and that where he was going to be welcomed, and I think he just totally miscalculated,” Biden said.
Following a large explosion on the Kirch Strait Bridge last Saturday, Russia, who has blamed Ukraine for the attack, has retaliated with a wave of powerful attacks across Ukraine with missile strikes on Kyiv and around the nation, killing at least 19 and injuring hundreds more.
Biden said he has “no intention” of meeting with Putin at the G20 taking place next month in Indonesia.
“He’s acted brutally, he’s acted brutally. I think he’s committed war crimes. And so I don’t, I don’t see any rationale to meet with him now,” said Biden.
But he did include a caveat with that statement.
“If he came to me at the G20 and wanted to talk about the release of Griner, I’d meet with him,” said Biden. “We’ve taken a position. I just did a G-7 meeting this morning … I’m not about to, nor is anyone else prepared to, negotiate with Russia about them staying in Ukraine, keeping any part of Ukraine.”
“But look, he’s acted brutally, he’s acted brutally. I think he’s committed war crimes,” Biden continued. “I don’t see any rationale to meet with him now.”
President Biden’s National Security Strategy outlines how the United States will advance our vital interests and pursue a free, open, prosperous, and secure world. We will leverage all elements of our national power to outcompete our strategic competitors; tackle shared challenges; and shape the rules of the road.
The Strategy is rooted in our national interests: to protect the security of the American people, to expand economic opportunity, and to realize and defend the democratic values at the heart of the American way of life. In pursuit of these objectives, we will:
Invest in the underlying sources and tools of American power and influence;
Build the strongest possible coalition of nations to enhance our collective influence to shape the global strategic environment and to solve shared challenges; and
Modernize and strengthen our military so it is equipped for the era of strategic competition.
COOPERATION IN THE AGE OF COMPETITION In the early years of this decisive decade, the terms of geopolitical competition will be set while the window of opportunity to deal with shared challenges will narrow. We cannot compete successfully to shape the international order unless we have an affirmative plan to tackle shared challenges, and we cannot do that unless we recognize how heightened competition affects cooperation and act accordingly.
Strategic Competition. The most pressing strategic challenge we face as we pursue a free, open, prosperous, and secure world are from powers that layer authoritarian governance with a revisionist foreign policy.
We will effectively compete with the People’s Republic of China, which is the only competitor with both the intent and, increasingly, the capability to reshape the international order, while constraining a dangerous Russia.
Strategic competition is global, but we will avoid the temptation to view the world solely through a competitive lens, and engage countries on their own terms.
Shared Challenges. While this competition is underway, people all over the world are struggling to cope with the effects of shared challenges that cross borders—whether it is climate change, food insecurity, communicable diseases, or inflation. These shared challenges are not marginal issues that are secondary to geopolitics. They are at the very core of national and international security and must be treated as such.
We are building the strongest and broadest coalition of nations to enhance our collective capacity to solve these challenges and deliver for the American people and those around the world.
To preserve and increase international cooperation in an age of competition, we will pursue a dual-track approach. On one track, we will work with any country, including our competitors, willing to constructively address shared challenges within the rules-based international order and while working to strengthen international institutions. On the other track, we will deepen cooperation with democracies at the core of our coalition, creating a latticework of strong, resilient, and mutually reinforcing relationships that prove democracies can deliver for their people and the world.
INVESTING AT HOME The Biden-Harris Administration has broken down the dividing line between domestic and foreign policy because our strength at home and abroad are inextricably linked. The challenges of our age, from strategic competition to climate change, require us to make investments that sharpen our competitive edge and bolster our resilience.
Our democracy is at the core of who we are and is a continuous work in progress. Our system of government enshrines the rule of law and strives to protect the equality and dignity of all individuals. As we strive to live up to our ideals, to reckon with and remedy our shortcomings, we will inspire others around the world to do the same.
We are complementing the innovative power of the private sector with a modern industrial strategy that makes strategic public investments in our workforce, strategic sectors, and supply chains, especially in critical and emerging technologies.
A powerful U.S. military helps advance and safeguard vital U.S. national interests by backstopping diplomacy, confronting aggression, deterring conflict, projecting strength, and protecting the American people and their economic interests. We are modernizing our military, pursuing advanced technologies, and investing in our defense workforce to best position America to defend our homeland, our allies, partners, and interests overseas, and our values across the globe.
OUR ENDURING LEADERSHIP The United States will continue to lead with strength and purpose, leveraging our national advantages and the power of our alliances and partnerships. We have a tradition of transforming both domestic and foreign challenges into opportunities to spur reform and rejuvenation at home. The idea that we should compete with major autocratic powers to shape the international order enjoys broad support that is bipartisan at home and deepening abroad.
Our alliances and partnerships around the world are our most important strategic asset that we will deepen and modernize for the benefit of our national security.
We place a premium on growing the connective tissue on technology, trade and security between our democratic allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific and Europe because we recognize that they are mutually reinforcing and the fates of the two regions are intertwined.
We are charting new economic arrangements to deepen economic engagements with our partners and shaping the rules of the road to level the playing field and enable American workers and businesses—and those of partners and allies around the world—to thrive.
As we deepen our partnerships around the world, we will look for more democracy, not less, to shape the future. We recognize that while autocracy is at its core brittle, democracy’s inherent capacity to transparently course-correct enables resilience and progress.
AFFIRMATIVE ENGAGEMENT The United States is a global power with global interests; we are stronger in each region because of our engagement in the others. We are pursuing an affirmative agenda to advance peace and security and to promote prosperity in every region.
As an Indo-Pacific power, the United States has a vital interest in realizing a region that is open, interconnected, prosperous, secure, and resilient. We are ambitious because we know that we and our allies and partners hold a common vision for the region’s future.
With a relationship rooted in shared democratic values, common interests, and historic ties, the transatlantic relationship is a vital platform on which many other elements of our foreign policy are built. To effectively pursue a common global agenda, we are broadening and deepening the transatlantic bond.
The Western Hemisphere directly impacts the United States more than any other region so we will continue to revive and deepen those partnerships to advance economic resilience, democratic stability, and citizen security.
A more integrated Middle East that empowers our allies and partners will advance regional peace and prosperity, while reducing the resource demands the region makes on the United States over the long term.
In Africa, the dynamism, innovation, and demographic growth of the region render it central to addressing complex global problems.
A federal judge rejected former President Donald Trump’s attempt to pause his deposition in a defamation lawsuit scheduled for later this month saying Trump’s efforts to delay the case are “inexcusable.”
Trump is scheduled to be deposed on October 19 in the defamation lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, a former magazine columnist who accused Trump of raping her in a department store in the mid 1990s. Trump has denied the allegations.
Judge Lewis Kaplan said the lawsuit wasn’t over yet and as they wait for a federal appeals court to rule on a key element of the case, “completing those depositions – which have already been delayed for years – would impose no undue burden on Mr. Trump, let alone any irreparable injury.”
“The defendant should not be permitted to run the clock out on plaintiff’s attempt to gain a remedy for what allegedly was a serious wrong,” Kaplan wrote.
The judge said that Carroll would face “substantial injury” from further delay, citing the lengthy appeal process, which has already taken 20 months and is still not over, and the ages of Carroll and Trump, who are both in their 70s. Carroll’s deposition is scheduled for this Friday.
Kaplan noted Trump’s efforts to delay the lawsuit and said his production of “virtually” no documents was “inexcusable.”
An attorney for Trump could not immediately be reached.
“We are pleased that Judge Kaplan agreed with our position onto to stay discovery in this case. We look forward to filing our case under the Adult Survivors Act and moving forward to trial with all dispatch,” said Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney.
Carroll’s attorney had suggested that Trump wanted to stop his deposition after learning that she intends to sue him in November under a new New York state law that allows victims of sexual assault to sue years after the encounter.
The judge said the question of whether Trump raped Carroll is “paramount” to the current case and the future lawsuit and stopping the deposition now because it could be used in the future “would make no sense.”
Carroll sued Trump for defamation in 2019 after he denied raping her in the mid-1990s and said that she wasn’t his type and accused her of fabricating the claim to boost sales of her book.
Trump and the Justice Department argued Trump was a federal employee and his statements denying Carroll’s allegations were made in response to reporters’ questions while he was at the White House. They argued the Justice Department should be substituted as the defendant, which, because the government cannot be sued for defamation, would end the lawsuit. Judge Kaplan ruled against Trump and the DOJ. They appealed.
Last month a federal appeals court ruled that Trump was a federal employee when he denied Carroll’s claim of rape and sexual assault. However, the federal appeals court in New York asked the DC appeals court to determine if Trump was acting in the scope of that employment when he made the allegedly defamatory statements. If the DC court finds that Trump was acting within his role, then the Justice Department would likely be substituted as a defendant.
The DC appeals court has not yet taken up the matter.
This story has been updated with additional details.
Last Thursday evening, President Joe Biden dropped a political bombshell when he said the world is now at the highest risk of nuclear “Armageddon” than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
For the first time since that Cold War confrontation began on Oct. 16, 1962 – nearly 60 years ago to the day – there now exists “a direct threat of the use of the nuclear weapon if, in fact, things continue down the path they’ve been going,” Biden said.
WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden pledged on Tuesday “there will be consequences” for U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia after OPEC+ announced last week that it would cut its oil production target over U.S. objections.
His announcement came a day after powerful Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the United States must immediately freeze all cooperation with Saudi Arabia, including arms sales.
Biden, in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, would not discuss what options he was considering.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said a policy review would be conducted but gave no timeline for action or information on who would lead the re-evaluation. The United States will be watching the situation closely “over the coming weeks and months”, she said.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the OPEC+ decision was purely economic and was taken unanimously by its member states.
“OPEC+ members acted responsibly and took the appropriate decision,” Prince Faisal told the Al Arabiya television channel.
OPEC+, the oil producer group comprising the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) plus allies including Russia, announced the production target after weeks of lobbying by U.S. officials against such a move.
The United States accused Saudi Arabia of kowtowing to Russia, which objects to a Western cap on the price of Russian oil in reswponse to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. officials had been quietly trying to persuade its biggest Arab partner to abandon the idea of a production cut, but Saudi Arabia’s de factor ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was not swayed.
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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and U.S. President Joe Biden meet at Al Salman Palace upon his arrival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, July 15, 2022. Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via REUTERS
Bin Salman and Biden had clashed during Biden’s visit to Jeddah in July over the death in 2018 of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
EYE ON IRAN
U.S. intelligence says the crown prince approved an operation to capture or kill Khashoggi, a Saudi insider-turned-critic, who was murdered and dismembered by Saudi agents inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.
The prince, son of King Salman, 86, has denied ordering the killing but acknowledged it took place “under my watch”. Biden said in July he told the prince he thought he was responsible.
John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, said Biden would work with Congress “to think through what that relationship ought to look like going forward”.
“And I think he’s going to be willing to start to have those conversations right away. I don’t think this is anything that’s going to have to wait or should wait, quite frankly, for much longer,” Kirby added.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price also said on Tuesday that the Biden administration would not overlook Iran, a U.S. adversary and a bitter regional rival of Saudi Arabia, in the review. read more
Much of U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia have been made with Iran’s threat in the region in mind.
“There are security challenges, some of which emanate from Iran. Certainly, we won’t take our eye off the threat that Iran poses not only to the region, but in some ways beyond,” Price said.
Prince Faisal said that military cooperation between the United States and Saudi Arabia served the interests of both countries.
Russia’s missile strikes on Ukrainian cities Monday, which President Vladimir Putin said targeted “energy, military command and communications facilities,” also hit downtown streets, a playground and residential areas, bearing a grim resemblance to Russia’s brutally indiscriminate military style in Syria, where the Kremlin’s new top commander of the war on Ukraine, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, rose to prominence.
Nury Martinez attends Women’s March Action: March 4 Reproductive Rights at Pershing Square on Oct. 2, 2021 in Los Angeles.
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Nury Martinez attends Women’s March Action: March 4 Reproductive Rights at Pershing Square on Oct. 2, 2021 in Los Angeles.
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“Unacceptable” and “appalling” is how White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described the crude and disparaging racist remarks that surfaced this week in a recording of three city council members in Los Angeles. President Biden believes all three council members should give up their seats, Jean-Pierre said. The recording was first reported by the Los Angeles Times on Sunday.
On Tuesday, Councilwoman Nury Martinez announced that she intends to take a leave of absence, but she stopped short of submitting her resignation. Martinez employed racist and derogatory language to describe the son – who is black – of another council member, using a Spanish term meaning “little monkey” and stating that the boy needed “a beatdown.” In addition, she described Oaxacan immigrants in Koreatown as “short little dark people.” Council members Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León also participated in the conversation.
All three council members have issued apologies.
The president’s statement comes as he embarks on a West Coast tour where he is scheduled for several public events, including a fundraiser with Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. He joined high-ranking California officials in his call for the council members’ resignations. Scores of outraged protesters interrupted a city council meeting on Tuesday.
The White House used the occasion to excoriate Republicans for their treatment of incidents of racism within their own party.
“Here’s the difference between Democrats and Republicans: When a Democrat says something racist or antisemitic … we hold Democrats accountable,” said Jean-Pierre. “When a MAGA Republican says something racist and or antisemitic, they are embraced by cheering crowds and become celebrated and sought after.”
Councilman Mike Bonin — whose son was the subject of the derogatory remarks — gave an emotional statement on Tuesday. “I take a lot of hits, but my son?” said Bonin. He called his fellow council members’ comments unforgivable.
A US district judge could decide Wednesday whether to temporarily block President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program from taking effect.
Six Republican-led states filed a lawsuit last month challenging the legality of the policy and are asking the court to grant a preliminary injunction, which could put student loan cancellation on hold until the judge issues a final ruling on the case.
The Department of Education is expected to open an application for the student loan forgiveness program this month. TheBiden administration, which released a preview of the application Tuesday, aims to deliver debt relief worth up to $20,000 to millions of borrowers before federal student loan payments resume in January after a nearly three-year, pandemic-related pause.
The motion for a preliminary injunction will be heard by District Judge Henry Edward Autrey, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush.
The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Missouri by state attorneys general from Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska and South Carolina, as well as legal representatives from Iowa.
The states argue that the Biden administration does not have the legal authority to grant broad student loan forgiveness. The states also argue that the policy would hurt them financially, as well as the revenues of a student loan servicer based in Missouri known as MOHELA.
The loan forgiveness policy creates an incentive for borrowers to consolidate Federal Family Education Loans owned by MOHELA into Direct Loans owned by the government, “depriving them (MOHELA) of the ongoing revenue it earns from servicing those loans,” according to the lawsuit.
On the same day the lawsuit was filed, the Department of Education changed its policy so that borrowers whose federal student loans are guaranteed by the government but held by private lenders – including those made by the former Federal Family Education Loan program – were no longer eligible for debt relief.
In a court document, lawyers for the government argue that Congress gave the secretary of education the power to discharge debt in a 2003 law known as the HEROES Act. They also argue that the plaintiffs don’t have standing to ask for an injunction.
To win a preliminary injunction, the states are required to demonstrate that the student loan forgiveness policy will cause them irreparable harm if the injunction is not implemented.
The last-minute policy change to exclude the FFEL borrowers could weaken the states’ lawsuit.
“I think the government’s move to cut off the path to debt relief for people whose student loans aren’t held by the federal government undercut much of the standing in this case,” said Abby Shafroth, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.
The losing party could immediately appeal the judge’s Wednesday ruling on the injunction, sending the case to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, where it is likely to face a panel of conservative judges.
The Biden administration is also facing several other lawsuits over the student loan forgiveness policy. Two of the lawsuits have already been dismissed. One ongoing lawsuit was filed by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, and another was filed this week by a conservative group, the Job Creators Network Foundation, on behalf of two student loan borrowers in Texas who do not qualify for the full $20,000 in debt relief under Biden’s program.
James Brennand — a former San Antonio Police Department officer who shot and critically wounded a teenager who was eating in his car in a McDonald’s parking lot — has been arrested and charged with assault. Brennand was fired from the force on Oct. 4, two days after the shooting.
Brennand turned himself in Tuesday night, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said during a press conference. He now faces two counts of aggravated assault by a public servant.
McManus said the two charges were for each of the two people in the car at the time of the shooting.
Brennand shot 17-year-old Erik Cantu on Oct. 2. Body camera video showed Brennand walking toward a parked car in a McDonald’s parking lot. He then opened the driver side door and ordered Cantu to get out of the car. Cantu, holding a hamburger, appeared shocked and reversed the car.
As the car backed away, the open door struck Brennand. About five seconds after he had opened the door, Brennand fired five rounds into the car. He fired an additional five shots as the car drove away.
Brennand, who had been on the force for less than one year, violated his training and police procedures after approaching the car, police training commander Alyssa Campos said in a statement announcing he had been fired.
“The officer abruptly opened the driver’s door and ordered the driver out of the car” before the arrival of backup officers that Brennand had requested, Campos said.
“Nothing that that officer did that night were in accordance with our training or our policies,” McManus said Monday.
McManus on Tuesday said that Brennand was certified to patrol alone, but that the shooting was “unjustified, both administratively and criminally.”
He said that the department and training academy staff are “confident that our policies and our training, when it came to this type of incident, are sound.”
“This was a failure for one individual police officer,” McManus said. “It had nothing to do with our policies. Policies do not allow that. Our training does not teach that.”
Cantu’s family said Tuesday that the teenager remains on life support.
“The last two days have been difficult and we expect more difficulty ahead, but we remain hopeful,” the family said in a statement. “We’d like to correct any misrepresentations that Erik is in ‘stable condition’ or he is ‘going to be fine.’ That is not true. Every breath is a struggle for Erik. We ask for everyone’s continued prayers for our son.”
McManus noted in his Tuesday press conference that if Cantu “does not make it, then the charges will change.”
Brennand was called to the McDonald’s for an unrelated disturbance. He told investigators that the car looked like one that had evaded him the day before.
A Texas prosecutor said in a statement Friday that he has not seen enough evidence to file charges against the teenager.
“While Sunday’s shooting of an unarmed teenager by a then-San Antonio Police officer remains under investigation, the facts and evidence we have received so far led us to reject the charges against Erik Cantu for further investigation,” Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said.
MOSCOW, Oct 12 (Reuters) – Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday that it had detained five Russians and three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia over the explosion that damaged the Crimea Bridge last Saturday.
The FSB said the explosion was organised Ukrainian military intelligence and its director, Kyrylo Budanov. The explosive device was moved from Ukraine to Russia via Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia, the FSB said.
The FSB, which is the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, also said that it had prevented Ukrainian attacks in both Moscow and the western Russian city of Bryansk.
Ukraine has not officially confirmed its involvement in the bridge blast, but some Ukrainian officials have celebrated the damage.
The explosion on the twelve mile-long bridge destroyed one section of the road bridge, temporarily halting road traffic. It also destroyed several fuel tankers on a train heading towards the annexed peninsula from neighbouring southern Russia.
The bridge, a prestige project personally opened by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018, had become logistically vital to his military campaign, with supplies to Russian troops fighting in south Ukraine channelled through it.
Russian forces launched mass missile strikes against Ukrainian cities, including power supplies. At a televised meeting of Russia’s Security Council on Monday, Putin said the strikes were a retaliation for the Crimea bridge blast, which he said had been organised by Ukraine’s secret services.
In this Feb. 8, 2020, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, speaks during the McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner in Manchester, N.H.
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In this Feb. 8, 2020, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, speaks during the McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner in Manchester, N.H.
Mary Altaffer/AP
Former congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has announced she is leaving the Democratic party.
“I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic party,” she said on an episode of her podcast. “It’s now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers, driven by cowardly wokeness…”
Gabbard additionally accused the party of “stoking anti-white racism,” being contemptuous toward religion and police and driving the country closer to nuclear war.
Gabbard was first elected to her native state of Hawaii’s legislature in 2002 as a Democrat, at the age of 21. She has identified as a Democrat ever since, she said.
In 2012, Gabbard became the first Hindu and one of the first two female combat veterans elected to Congress. She began building a national profile during the 2016 election, when she resigned from her post as vice chairperson of the Democratic National Committee to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for president.
She announced her own presidential run on CNN in January 2019, saying, “There is one main issue that is central to the rest, and that is the issue of war and peace.”
“I didn’t know anything about it,” Joe Biden said in an interview that aired Tuesday on CNN, of his son possibly lying about drug use on an application to purchase a gun. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
President Joe Biden addressed the possibility of his son, Hunter Biden, being prosecuted for tax crimes and a false statement during a gun purchase — the first time the elder Biden has answered questions about the possibility of charges, first reported by the Washington Post.
“I didn’t know anything about it,” the president said in an interview that aired Tuesday on CNN, of his son possibly lying about drug use on an application to purchase a gun.
Federal agents think they have enough evidence to charge the younger Biden with tax crimes and the false statement, the Washington Post reported last week. However, no such charges have been filed by the U.S. Attorney in Delaware — an appointee of former President Donald Trump — yet.
“Jokingly, you know, we call this ‘West-splaining,’” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said. The West’s message, he said, was that “after 50 years of occupation, it’s understandable that you would have trust issues with a country that occupied you.”
President Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “rational actor” but said he miscalculated with his decision to invade Ukraine.
“I think he is a rational actor who has miscalculated significantly,” Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper, according to an excerpt released ahead of an interview that will air on Tuesday.
The president also called Putin’s speech just before Russia launched its invasion in February “irrational.”
“You listen to what he says. If you listen to the speech he made … I mean, it’s just, I just think it’s irrational,” Biden said. “I think the speech, his objectives were not rational. I think he thought … he was going to be welcomed with open arms, that this was the home of Mother Russia in Kyiv, and that where he was going to be welcomed, and I think he just totally miscalculated.”
His comments come as Putin has launched dozens of missiles that landed in cities across Ukraine, including Kyiv, since Monday.
Before the CNN interview on Tuesday, Biden met with Group of Seven leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The president and allies vowed in the virtual meeting to hold Russia accountable if it follows through on threats to use nuclear weapons amid the war in Ukraine.
The application, which will be accessible on cell phones as well as computers, will be published in both English and Spanish and designed for people with disabilities. It will require entering a Social Security number.
The application also will require the borrower to sign and agree to a form about what they earn. Anyone who is found to have provided false information would be subject to significant fines and perhaps jail time, according to White House officials.
Officials described the application as “simple and straight forward,” keeps questions to a minimum and was designed after being tested.
When the form will go live is still up in the air, however.
“We don’t have an announcement to make on the launch date,” a White House official said on a call with reporters.
Biden senior administration officials, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity, said it’s “full steam ahead” with the student loan cancellation plan even amid legal challenges from Republican-led states. Officials did not provide a release date – or a website where borrowers can access the application – but said the White House is on track for an October launch after initially targeting “early October.” They also shared a video about the application.
Applicants will not be required to log in with their federal student aid ID, nor will they have to upload any documents.
When news first broke about the White House’s debt forgiveness plan, its website focused on federal financial aid buckled under the weight of borrower interest. Officials said they’re using “best practices and lessons learned” to make sure the site can handle the volume of applications.
Borrowers are eligible to receive $10,000 or $20,000 in debt relief depending on their income and whether they received a Pell Grant in college. The Education Department has said borrowers who apply in October could have a chunk of their debt wiped out as soon as November. The feds have encouraged borrowers to file their forms by Nov. 15 if they want the debt cancellation applied to their balances before the end of a freeze on payments that began during the pandemic and ends in January. Borrowers will have through the end of 2023 to apply for the student debt relief.
About 43 million people hold $1.6 trillion in federal student loans, and about 40 million are expected to qualify for the one-time debt cancellation. But the loan program, or at least the publicly available details about it, has evolved as the application window approached and legal challenges mounted. These changes mean fewer applicants can take advantage of the relief.
One group, the Pacific Legal Foundation, sued to stop mass cancellation on the grounds that borrowers living in some states would be unfairly taxed. But within days of that suit being filed, the White House said borrowers would be able to opt out of the relief plan. A federal judge in Indiana dismissed the group’s request to halt the forgiveness plan, saying the plaintiff couldn’t be injured if his debt wasn’t being forgiven.
Six conservatives states – Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina, filed a suit together, arguing Biden had overstepped his authority. A hearing in that case, in Missouri federal court, is scheduled for Wednesday.
The states also said quasi-state agencies that service old student loans in the FFEL program would lose money. Those loans are backed by the federal government but held by commercial banks. Prior to Sept. 29, the government had allowed borrowers to consolidate these loans into one loan owned by the federal government, thereby allowing it to cancel student debt.
The states argue they would lose money because borrowers would collectively ditch their existing FFEL loans for those offered by the government. On the same day the lawsuit filed, the federal government barred any remaining FFEL borrowers from consolidating their loans.
The federal government has said the new policy will cut nearly 800,000 borrowers from the debt forgiveness program, though nearly 4 million borrowers have FFEL loans.
The state of Arizona also sued the Biden administration, arguing the widespread availability of debt relief would steer some borrowers away from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. That’s a government initiative meant to encourage workers to forgo the high wages in the private sector and opt for work in the public sector. After a decade in these roles, a borrower’s entire outstanding loan balance may be forgiven.
Other legal challenges were dismissed almost as quickly as they were filed. In Wisconsin, a conservative group attempted to stop the debt cancellation by arguing the president didn’t have the authority to cancel debt. It also claimed the White House intentionally crafted the program to benefit borrowers of color, which they say violated the constitution’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws. The suit was filed on Oct. 4th, and by Oct. 6th a judge had dismissed the case, saying the group didn’t have standing.
How much will the president’s student debt relief plan cost?
It depends on whom you ask. The federal government has estimated the plan would cost about $30 billion a year for the next 10 years, or $300 billion over the next decade. The Congressional Budget Office put that cost at about $400 billion over the next 30 years, though it added in a report that such measurements are “highly uncertain.” That model is based on 90% of eligible applicants filling out their forms, a high adoption rate that has raised some skepticism from the White House.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has estimated the debt cancellation will cost about $360 billion.
Contact Chris Quintana at (202) 308-9021 or cquintana@usatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter at @CQuintanadc.
An angry crowd confronted the Los Angeles city council Tuesday following the release of a racist conversation between councilmembers, as President Biden joins calls for resignations.
Why it matters: The nation’s second-largest city is in the midst of a mayoral election where rising crime, growing homelessness and the economy have dominated. A new mayor will have to tackle those issues — and heal a new fallout.
Driving the news: The White House said Tuesday that Biden believed Los Angeles councilmembers Nury Martinez and others should resign from city council over racist remarks heard in leaked recordings made public this week.
“The president is glad to see that one of the participants in that conversation has resigned, but they all should,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
She called the comments on the recording “unacceptable” and “appalling.” Biden is scheduled to visit Los Angeles on Wednesday as part of a four-day Western swing
Details: Protesters met with councilmembers Tuesdayin their first meeting since the release of the secret recording and demanded three Latino councilmembers in the audio resign.
The crowd chanted “fuera” — “out” in Spanish — and “we’re with the Blacks” and “shut it down.”
Demonstrators vowed to keep protesting going until councilmembers stepped down.
Background: In a nearly year-old recording, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, then-Los Angeles City Council President Martinez made racist comments about a white councilmember’s Black son.
In the recording, she complained that another official was “with the Blacks” in a redistricting fight, and made racist remarks about Indigenous people from the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
Councilmembers Gil Cedillo, Kevin de León and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera were on the call and did not challenge Martinez.
Herrera resigned Monday, Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, head of the California Labor Federation, told KABC-TV.
Yes, but: Martinez resigned as city council president and announced Tuesday she was taking a leave of absence from the legislative body. She remains on the council.
Cedillo and de León, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, have apologized but have not resigned.
Of note: Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, mayoral candidates Karen Bass and Rick Caruso, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and other members of the city council have called for all three councilmembers to step down.
Meanwhile, in a new recording of the same conversation, Martinez can be heard saying the “judíos” — which means Jews in Spanish — “cut their deal with South L.A.,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Zoom out: Martinez’s racist comments came during a discussion about the once-in-a-decade redistricting process of the city’s 15-member city council.
The Latino population in Los Angeles has exploded while the percentage of Black residents has stagnated yet Black leaders were able to keep some Black-majority seats.
State of play: “There’s an anxiety on the part of the African American population is they’ve been pushed out of these historic neighborhoods in South L.A.,” Tom Hogen-Esch, a California State University, Northridge political science professor, told Axios.
Hogen-Esch said the recording confirms the distrust among some Black leaders that some Latino elected officials don’t understand the struggles of Black residents.
What they’re saying: Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin fought back tears as he addressed the taped racist comments about his Black son at Tuesday’s meeting.
“There are a lot of people who are now asking for forgiveness. … First, you must resign and then ask for forgiveness,” Bonin said.
What’s next: The crisis is unlikely to affect the upcoming mayoral election, but if the councilmembers refuse to resign and the protests continue tension will increase.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with L.A. City Councilmember Mike Bonin.
President Biden on Tuesday called for the departure of the three council members in the nation’s second-largest city. “He believes they should all resign,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said. “The language that was used and tolerated in that conversation was unacceptable, and it was appalling.”
The recorded conversation involving some of Los Angeles’s top power brokers exposed the racial and ethnic factions that have come to dominate politics in California. But it also highlighted the political impatience among leaders of the city’s largest ethnic group: Latinos, who make up roughly half of the city’s population but who hold only four of its 15 City Council seats.
Los Angeles is a kind of microcosm of the world; its roughly four million residents speak a combined 200-plus languages at home. Over the decades, the assorted constituencies have tried to develop a coalition style of politics based on common interests in the heavily Democratic city, but, beneath that veneer, the reality often has been a quest for power and political spoils.
The recording was a conversation among Nury Martinez, the Council president; Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, council members; and Ron Herrera, the leader of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, that took place in October 2021 during intense negotiations over City Council redistricting.
Ms. Martinez is heard comparing the Black child of Councilman Mike Bonin to a “changuito,” Spanish for little monkey, and joking with Mr. de León that Mr. Bonin carries the child around like a designer handbag. Those were only two of the offensive comments in the 80-minute recording, which included ugly remarks describing recent migrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca and disparaging remarks about the trustworthiness of white liberals and a councilwoman who is of South Asian descent.
Protesters gathered outside Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday.Credit…Lauren Justice for The New York Times
News of the recording was first reported on Sunday by The Los Angeles Times; by Monday night, Mr. Herrera had resigned from the labor federation and Ms. Martinez had relinquished her leadership post on the City Council, although she resisted calls for her to leave the Council entirely. Mr. Cedillo and Mr. de León also have resisted calls for them to step down from their council seats.
Although the raw language on the audio riveted the city, political observers said the recording was less a reflection of Los Angeles residents — who in polls largely express pride in the city’s diversity — than of the political climate in City Hall. Challenged by Covid-19, besieged with a succession of public corruption investigations and presented with the political opportunity of new political maps, Los Angeles local government has, in the past couple of years, been a hotbed of internecine conflict.
“As much as it was a racist, racial, ethnic disparagement of everyone in town, it was more about power,” Zev Yaroslavsky, a longtime Los Angeles leader who served for 40 years on the City Council and the county’s Board of Supervisors, said of the meeting.
“It was a raw power grab,” he said.
Mr. Cedillo and Mr. de León appeared on the dais near the start of Tuesday’s meeting and were greeted with shouted profanities from the packed gallery. They left after a brief discussion with Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, who was presiding over the meeting as president pro tem.
Outside, before the session, protesters chanted “fuera,” or “out” in Spanish, demanding that the three council members resign. Inside, the cacophonous demonstration was so relentless and deafening that the council members recessed, hoping, in vain, for calm.
Later, during the meeting, Mr. Bonin said through tears: “I take a lot of hits, and I know I practically invite a bunch of them. But my son? Man, that makes my soul bleed.”
Mr. O’Farrell, the council member leading the meeting, condemned the comments and the political maneuvering of his colleagues. “There are no excuses,” he said. “The court of public opinion has rendered a verdict, and the verdict is they all must resign.”
Councilman Kevin de León, left, and the Council’s president, Nury Martinez, conferred at a City Council meeting this month.Credit…Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times, via Getty Images
For more than a half-century, Los Angeles politics have been a study in demographic constituencies and race relations. Not for nothing is Rodney King’s plea during the 1992 riots often viewed as the city’s signature utterance: “Can we all get along?”
White Angelenos, particularly in the San Fernando Valley and on the city’s affluent Westside, have long controlled the city’s wealth and power, but they now represent only 28 percent of the population.
The city’s Black community, with a vibrant middle class and powerful community leaders like Tom Bradley, a former mayor, and Magic Johnson, the Los Angeles Lakers star, has long wielded clout. Still, Black Angelenos are leaving the city as many are priced out of the communities they have built over decades. Although 20 percent of the Council seats are held by Black elected officials, Black Angelenos make up only 8.8 percent of the population.
The city’s Asian community has become a rising political force with nearly 12 percent of the population. But Latinos make up the city’s largest ethnic group by far.
In recent years, young progressives who studied the Los Angeles riots in school have risen to power, learning from past racial and ethnic conflicts in the city. Labor organizations also have gained influence as their ranks have swelled with Latino workers following California’s battle over immigrant rights in the 1990s.
“There are naturally tensions,” said Mr. Yaroslavsky, who now teaches at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles, which conducts annual surveys of Los Angeles County. “The question is how you deal with that tension. I think there’s been a lot of effort made in this city and county to manage it.”
Protesters outside City Hall on Tuesday.Credit…Lauren Justice for The New York Times
Constance L. Rice, a veteran civil rights lawyer in the city, said that efforts to work together tended to intensify during zero-sum contests such as the redrawing of political boundaries that occurs each decade. A citizen advisory committee conducts Los Angeles’s redistricting process and recommends maps, but — unlike California’s statewide line-drawing by an independent commission — the final boundaries are determined by the City Council.
In years past, Ms. Rice said, lawyers with expertise in federal voting rights law wielded considerable influence on the drawing of local political boundaries. As the Supreme Court has eroded the federal Voting Rights Act, however, outside experts have wielded less clout and political battles have intensified, she said.
“It used to be all about maximizing rights and balancing power,” Ms. Rice said. “Now it’s ‘Game of Thrones.’”
As Angelenos processed the furor, calls for solutions focused on whether the city’s redistricting process had been changed — and whether it might have been corrupted. Council members said on Tuesday that they intended to seek an independent redistricting process that doesn’t allow them to draw their own political lines.
Stephen Jn-Marie, a pastor and longtime activist in Los Angeles, said he participated in a Zoom call with roughly 60 Black organizers to discuss the audio recordings on Sunday night. On Tuesday morning, he arranged a news conference ahead of the City Council meeting “so folks could get the word out about how we feel and what must be done to move forward.”
According to Mr. Jn-Marie, the questions arising about redistricting were the most important. “We are going to need to look at those maps,” he said. “Because of the fact that it was redistricting in the context of Black and Indigenous folks and minimizing their power, we are calling for an investigation.”
Adam Nagourney, Ken Bensinger and Corina Knoll contributed reporting.
The bloc – which consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US – promised to continue providing “financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal” support to his country “for as long as it takes”.
Facing outrage over a controversial leaked audio recording, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera resigned Monday night, and the organization’s remaining leaders demanded Tuesday that the three City Council members involved in the scandal submit their resignations as well.
“Racism in any form has no place in the House of Labor. It is unconscionable that those elected to fight for our communities of color would engage in repulsive and vile anti-Black, anti-LGBTQ, anti-Asian and anti-Oaxacan remarks that pit our working communities against each other. These sentiments will not be tolerated by our organization or those who we represent,” the chair of the federation’s executive board, Thom Davis, who has taken over as interim president, said in a statement Tuesday.
A leaked recording of L.A. City Council members and a labor official includes racist remarks. Council President Nury Martinez apologizes; Councilmember Kevin de León expresses regret.
“The Executive Board of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor also calls on those elected officials who were present to follow President Herrera’s example by immediately resigning as well,” Davis said.
The federation, which represents 800,000 workers across 300 unions, has been at the epicenter of the crisis rocking Los Angeles’ political leadership over the past two days.
“Obviously, I’m deeply disappointed in what took place and what was said. This is not what the labor movement is about,” said Chris Griswold, secretary-treasurer and principal officer of Teamsters Local 986 and vice president at large of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Griswold sits on the county federation’s executive committee, which comprises dozens of vice presidents from unions around the Los Angeles region.
“We’ve all recognized that this was a betrayal to all of us,” Griswold said of the leaked conversations. The federation, he added, has “issues, and they have to be addressed — not only the board, but the staff as well.”
At the federation’s MacArthur Park headquarters on Tuesday, labor staff asked about attending protests related to the controversy and were assured that they could do so, federation spokeswoman Stephanie Saporito said.
Criticism has also come down from the labor movement’s biggest halls of power. AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement Sunday, “We will gather all the facts, but the hateful speech reported in that meeting is inexcusable.”
“We are a movement of large organizations and deeply ingrained processes,” Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, president of the California Labor Federation, which is separate from the local federation, said in a tweet Monday night. “But, we ultimately prioritize working class solidarity across all racial groups above all else. It’s now time for our labor movement to come together and start the hard work to heal.”
Herrera — along with Los Angeles City Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo — had participated in an October 2021 closed-door conversation at the federation’s offices at which Martinez said Councilmember Mike Bonin handled his Black son as though he were an “accessory” and described the child as “Parece changuito” (like a monkey).
Other racist and derogatory remarks were made during the conversation, which largely focused on the city’s once-every-decade redistricting process and preserving and maintaining Latino political power.
“The hateful language used during this meeting, held within the walls of the House of Labor, was entirely unacceptable, as was the very nature of the meeting itself — scheming to disenfranchise Black and Asian voters by way of redistricting, the practice of which is deeply rooted in racial discrimination,” the executive board of American Federation of Musicians Local 47, one of the federation’s officials, said in a Tuesday statement. “These are not the values of the labor movement, nor are they the values of Angelenos.”
The conversation remained private for roughly a year before exploding into public view Sunday in a report by The Times. The leaked audio was originally posted on Reddit, which declined to comment on the posts or the controversy.
The labor federation internally described the leaked audio as part of a “serious security and privacy breach” at its offices involving “illegal” recordings of “many private and confidential conversations in private offices and conference rooms,” according to text provided to The Times.
The federation has not publicly addressed the source of the recordings apart from initially attacking The Times for publishing the contents. That defensive approach, rather than immediate condemnation of the racist content, angered some of the organization’s leaders.
“When I saw that, I about threw my phone,” one of the federation’s vice presidents said Tuesday, requesting anonymity to criticize internal decision-making.
L.A. councilmembers’ leaked audio reveal racist conversations on Mike Bonin’s son, Oaxacans in Koreatown, George Gascón and Mark Ridley-Thomas.
Herrera’s resignation came after snowballing demands that Martinez, De León and Cedillo step down from the City Council and that Herrera leave his post at the head of one of the nation’s most powerful and influential labor organizations. Martinez, who had been City Council president, announced Monday morning that she was resigning her leadership post and said Tuesday that she was taking a leave of absence from the council.
“It’s so disappointing,” Griswold said of the councilmembers. “They don’t represent labor in any way.”
Support for Herrera’s withdrawal had spread broadly across the labor movement Monday, including among the leaders of eight Service Employees International Union California branches with Los Angeles-area members, United Teachers Los Angeles, Unite Here Local 11 and the California Nurses Assn.
Shortly before Monday night’s meeting, Herrera’s home local, Teamsters Local 396, joined other Teamsters locals in calling for him to quit his federation post.
Herrera did not attend the Monday meeting, which was held over Zoom, and instead a statement was read by Davis, according to two sources who attended. One source said most members were more concerned about the fallout than about who recorded the conversations.
Herrera and Davis did not respond to interview requests.
“If you’re a political figure, or whether you’re elected, or you’re a labor leader, you ought to be very careful what you say behind closed doors,” said a source who attended the meeting.
Times staff writer Julia Wick contributed to this report.
Audio of Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo speaking with labor leader Ron Herrera quickly became a new and incendiary issue in the Nov. 8 election.
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