List of All Articles with Tag 'politics'

The Biden administration wants to crack down on short-term health insurance plans, which it says can leave patients saddled with hefty medical bills.

The office of special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading several high-profile investigations into former President Donald Trump, has spent more than $5 million since his appointment in November, according to the first public accounting of his expenses.

The US economy added 209,000 jobs in the month of June, far lower than expectations, though wage growth remained resilient, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The number comes a day after ADP said that the economy added 497,000 jobs last month, far higher than the actual number reported by the US government. In addition, the BLS revised the jobs report from April from 294,000 jobs added down to 217,000 jobs and 339,000 jobs added in May down to 306,000 jobs. The unemployment rate ticked down from 3.7 per cent in May to 3.6 per cent in June. At the same time, hourly earnings remained robust, increasing 0.4 per cent in June and 4.4 per cent in the past 12 months. Unemployment for white people ticked down slightly from 3.3 per cent in May to 3.1 per cent in June. But jobless rates for other major groups including adult men, adult women, teenagers, Black, Asian and Hispanic workers remained unchanged. President Joe Biden, who has in recent days been touting his economic record with a series of appearances across the US, said in a statement that the continued job growth represents “Bidenomics in action” and pointed out that the 13.2 million jobs added to the US economy since the start of his term is more than any president has overseen in a full four-year term. “The unemployment rate has now remained below 4 percent for 17 months in a row—the longest stretch since the 1960s. The share of working-age Americans who have jobs is at the highest level in over 20 years. Inflation has come down by more than half. We are seeing stable and steady growth,” he said. “That’s Bidenomics—growing the economy by creating jobs, lowering costs for hardworking families, and making smart investments in America”. The news comes despite the fact that the Federal Reserve paused raising interest rates last month after it had consistently done so to cool down a hot labour market as a way to ease inflation. Increased jobs typically coincide with higher inflation given that employed consumers have more demand in the economy. Employment in government led the job increases, adding 60,000 jobs during June followed by health care, which added 41,000 jobs and social assistance, which added 24,000 jobs. But retail trade employment shed 11,000 jobs, while building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers lost 10,000 jobs. Furniture, home furnishings, electronics, and appliance retailers lost 5,000 jobs. The decidedly mixed jobs report comes as Mr Biden has attempted to tout his economic record, adopting the term “Bidenomics” to describe his policies such as the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed last year. On Thursday, he visited South Carolina to talk about his record and tout the fact that the United States attracted almost half a billion dollar private investment in manufacturing. “It’s historic, and it’s Bidenomics in action,” he said. “Instead of exporting jobs to cheaper labor costs -- what we did for decades -- we’re creating jobs here and exporting American product.” Read More Biden touts his economic record in fiery speech: ‘Guess what – Bidenomics is working’ Watch: Antony Blinken visits China for high-stakes meeting after ‘spy balloon’ Biden administration says judge's social media order could cause 'grave harm' Trump’s ex-press sec’y says there’s ‘no way’ White House cocaine is Hunter Biden’s NATO leaders set to offer Ukraine major support package but membership is off the table for now The US will provide cluster munitions to Ukraine as part of a new military aid package: AP sources

In a crowded Pizza Ranch on Wednesday night, former Vice President Mike Pence found himself confronted about his role on January 6, 2021, by an Iowan who blamed him for President Joe Biden being elected president.

Just when we think we’ve found the best first post on Threads, Instagram’s new “civil” text-based app to rival Twitter, another one comes along which is miles better – and former Labour MP Ed Balls may be the all-out winner after posting exactly what you would think he would post. Well-known for his 2011 Twitter blunder in which he tweeted out his own name instead of searching for it, the Good Morning Britain presenter and ex-shadow chancellor now marks the iconic moment every 28 April on ‘Ed Balls Day’. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Now, adhering to the politician’s principle of giving the people what they want, Mr Balls has set up an account on Threads and kicked things off by posting those two magic words. And it’s fair to say other users on the platform absolutely loved it. One declared: “You’ve won Threads today!” “Thread Balls,” quipped another. A third replied: “I think you win the internet today.” Others, though, have questioned what this means for marking the special occasion, seeing as the Twitter mishap occurred on 28 April (as mentioned previously), but this more deliberate posting happened on 6 July. “Ed! Now I need to rearrange my whole calendar for a new holiday,” complained one user. A second jokingly fumed: “Who do you think you are, Ed? The monarch? You don’t get two special days.” Another asked if the post marked “the new Ed Balls Day”, but that question remains unanswered. It’s unknown whether his wife Yvette Cooper MP, the shadow home secretary, will replicate the meme by reposting one of her Twitter typos. She does have a Threads account, at least… Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The team investigating Donald Trump led by special counsel Jack Smith has indicated their ongoing attention is on a 2020 Oval Office meeting during the last days of his administration, it has been reported. According to CNN, investigators have questioned multiple witnesses about the bizarre Oval Office meeting which involved former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. The investigation has been ongoing for several months. Nearly a month after Donald Trump was arraigned on the 38-count federal indictment that he and his longtime aide Walt Nauta are facing for allegedly unlawfully retaining national defence information and obstructing justice, the ex-president’s co-defendant has pleaded not guilty to charges of having assisted Mr Trump in concealing classified documents from the government. Mr Nauta, a retired Navy chief petty officer who served as Mr Trump’s White House valet before following him to Florida after the end of the Trump administration, is on his own charged with a single count of making a false statement to federal investigators. Surveillance footage from the Mar-a-Lago estate, allegedly showed that dozens of boxes were moved in the days before investigators from the Department of Justice visited to retrieve records. Read More Special counsel zeroing in on ‘unhinged’ Oval Office meeting when Trump hosted conspiracy theorists – report DeSantis campaign video crossed a line for gay right-wing pundits despite governor’s record on LGBT+ rights Turnout spiked among younger voters in the last three elections. This is what’s needed for that to be repeated in 2024 Prosecutors knew Trump was hiding more documents thanks to Mar-a-Lago CCTV tapes

Revelations that special counsel Jack Smith has been digging into efforts to overturn former President Donald Trump's Arizona election loss in 2020 bolster growing indications that his investigation is nearing a critical point.

Special counsel Jack Smith's team has signaled a continued interest in a chaotic Oval Office meeting that took place in the final days of the Trump administration, during which the former president considered some of the most desperate proposals to keep him in power over objections from his White House counsel.

Greece’s conservative government promised late Thursday to continue a multi-billion euro defense modernization program during its second term in office, setting its sights on acquiring F-35 fighter jets in five years. “Our priority is to safeguard the country,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told parliament at the start of a debate to approve a new government after his conservative New Democracy party won a general election last month. Athens is acquiring 24 advanced French-built Rafale jets, and upgrading 58 F-16 fighters from its aging fleet. It wants to add 20 F-35s with an option to buy as many as 28 more at a later date – requests that still require final approval from the Unites States. Greece has long-standing disputes with neighbor and fellow-NATO member Turkey and is modernizing its military after emerging from a severe financial crisis in 2018. It currently has the largest defense budget in the alliance relative to the size of its economy, at 3.54% of gross domestic product in 2022, according to NATO’s annual report published in March. It is one of seven members that spends above the 2% NATO guideline, along with the United States, Lithuania, Poland, the United Kingdom, Estonia and Latvia. Mitsotakis said the high spending on defense would continue despite a welcome thaw in tension with Turkey in recent months. He is due to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan next week on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Lithuania. Concluding a three-day debate, the Greek parliament will hold a vote of confidence Saturday, to back the new Mitsotakis government. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

Ron DeSantis has championed his record targeting LGBT+ people, particularly transgender youth, with a platform that has echoed in state legislatures across the US and in the halls of Congress and drawn widespread condemnation from human rights groups. The governor’s far-reaching platform targeting civil liberties and trans rights is fuelling his campaign for the 2024 Republican nomination for president, with a pledge to impose his agenda at the national level. At the end of Pride Month, his campaign shared a video clipping together past statements from his Republican rival Donald Trump celebrating Pride and vowing protections for LGBT+ rights, before cutting to a fast-paced series of headlines and comments labeling the DeSantis agenda “draconian”, a threat to “trans existence” and “totalitarianism in disguise,” with a series of images and quick edits that mirror far-right and authoritarian memes. That appeared to be the last straw for gay right-wing influencers, pundits and political organizations who have otherwise endorsed him. An anti-trans group with close ties to the DeSantis camp appears to have imploded over the video, with a Gays Against Groomers co-founder resigning in protest after the “extremely anti-gay” video. Despite appearing in a pro-DeSantis ad less than a year ago, David Leatherwood appears to be among several recent departures from the far-right group, with speculation that blowback over the latest video provided a pretext among now-former DeSantis boosters to step away after lagging poll numbers. Log Cabin Republicans called the video’s message “divisive and desperate”. “This old playbook has been tried in the past and has failed – repeatedly,” group president Charles Moran said in a statement. “Ron DeSantis and his team can’t tell the difference between commonsense gays and the radical Left gays. He, sadly, sees them all the same. His naive policy positions are dangerous and politically stupid.” Republican US Rep George Santos of New York, who had vocally supported the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill last year, now says he feels “used” by Mr DeSantis. “I used to think he was a great governor,” he told The Hill. “Now, I’m starting to think differently.” Former Trump adviser and ambassador Richard Grenell, who is gay, called the video “undeniably homophobic.” Caitlin Jenner, who appears in the video, said that the governor has “hit a new low”. “But he’s so desperate he’ll do anything to get ahead – that’s been the theme of his campaign,” she wrote. “You can’t win a general, let alone 2028 by going after people that are integral parts of the conservative movement!” In May, Mr DeSantis approved a slate of bills that restrict affirming healthcare for transgender minors and threaten access to care for trans adults, forbid people from using bathrooms that match their gender identity, target public drag performances, and prevent people from using their chosen pronouns in school. Last year, he signed a law barring trans women and girls from playing on public school teams that align with their gender. He also backed legislation derided by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill prohibiting classroom discussion of issues related to gender and sexuality, sparking fears that its broad scope could be used to effectively block discussion of LGBT+ people, history and events from state schools, and threaten schools with potential lawsuits over perceived violations. The governor expanded the law to explicitly cover all grade levels this year. Florida’s surgeon general Joseph Ladapo has been accused of deliberately misrepresenting research surrounding gender-affirming care to promote state policy and health guidelines that health experts have labelled “incorrect and scientifically unfounded.” The governor’s former press secretary, Christina Pushaw, helped elevate the “groomer” smear alleging LGBT+ people of abusing children. She now works for his campaign. “Opposing the federal recognition of ‘Pride Month’ isn’t ‘homophobic.’ We wouldn’t support a month to celebrate straight people for sexual orientation, either,” she wrote in defence of the video on Twitter. “It’s unnecessary, divisive, pandering. In a country as vast and diverse as the USA, identity politics is poison.” Mr DeSantis himself has defended the video, telling far-right influencer Tami Lohren that the former president is “a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream, where he was having men compete against women in his beauty pageants, I think that’s totally fair game.” “He’s now campaigning, saying the opposite, that he doesn’t think that you should have men competing in women’s things like athletics,” he added. The former president, meanwhile, has accelerated his campaign against trans people, including plans to strip federal funds from schools that discuss “gender ideology” and impose a national ban on trans women and girls participating in sports that match their gender. He also wants to direct the US Food and Drug Administration to study the effects of gender-affirming healthcare and so-called “trans ideology” on mental health and “violence”, amplifying a baseless narrative that trans people are responsible for violent attacks across the country. Mr Trump’s four years in office included banning trans people from openly serving in the US military and reversing federal guidance under the Civil Rights Act that protected trans people from employment discrimination. The US Department of Education during his administration also eliminated guidance that ensured protections for trans students, among a slate of other measures opposed by LGBT+ advocates. Read More DeSantis doubles down on ‘homophobic’ anti-Trump ad: ‘Totally fair game’ Federal judge partially blocks Florida’s ‘latest assault on the right to vote’ Pete Buttigieg takes down Ron DeSantis over ‘strange’ anti-LGBT campaign video with ‘oiled-up bodybuilders’ Florida schools remove books by John Milton and Toni Morrison and restrict Shakespeare under DeSantis rules Federal court halts Florida’s drag ban, calling it attempt to ‘suppress the speech’ rights of performers

A federal judge ruled Thursday that Donald Trump can be deposed in the lawsuit ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok brought against the Justice Department for his wrongful termination after the Russia investigation.

The Secret Service is expected to conclude its investigation into a bag of cocaine found in the West Wing early next week, a federal law enforcement official told CNN -- regardless of whether a suspect is identified.