By Humeyra Pamuk
HANOI (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday kicked off a trip to Vietnam, a crucial Southeast Asian trade partner that Washington is looking to bolster ties with as it works to balance China's growing assertiveness in the region and beyond.
In his first trip to the country as the top U.S. diplomat, Blinken will meet with top Vietnamese officials, including Vietnamese General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.
He will also formally break ground on Saturday on a new U.S. embassy compound in Hanoi, before heading to Japan on Sunday for a meeting of the Group of Seven wealthy nations.
The United States faces challenges in Southeast Asia in building a coalition to counter China and deter any potential action by Beijing against Taiwan. Many countries in the region are reluctant to antagonize their giant neighbor, which is not just a military power but also a key trading partner and source of investment.
For Hanoi, it has been a difficult balancing act, being open to more cooperation with Washington without upsetting Beijing, even though Vietnam has been alarmed by China's growing military claims in the South China Sea.
The diplomatic calculus is further complicated by the increasingly close relationship between Beijing and Moscow, which last year declared a "no limits" partnership shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Last month saw a call between U.S. President Joe Biden and the head of Vietnam's ruling Communist party Nguyen Phu Trong, which together with Blinken's visit could lead to a meeting between the two in July, the 10th anniversary of the existing formal bilateral partnership, analysts say.
But while the United States will likely to push for stronger ties with Vietnam, Hanoi may not share the enthusiasm, Rand Corporation analyst Derek Grossman said.
"For one thing, there is no need, from Vietnam’s perspective, to unnecessarily antagonize China...Another is that Hanoi wants to avoid appearing openly part of the US Indo-Pacific Strategy designed to counter China," he said.
Blinken is also expected to raise human rights issues with Vietnamese officials. Rights groups have regularly raised concerns over the communist country's treatment of dissidents.
Earlier this week, a Hanoi court sentenced a prominent Vietnamese political activist to six years in prison for conducting anti-state activities, his lawyer said.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Kim Coghill)
Rep. Lauren Boebert's son was scheduled to have his day in court earlier this week, but the far-right Colorado Republican congresswoman’s son was a no-show, the independent Colorado outlet Westword reports.
Tyler Boebert, the congresswoman’s oldest son, was issued a “careless driving causing bodily injury” citation in connection with a Sept. 17 traffic collision in which his friend suffered injuries that required hospitalization.
Tyler Boebert was supposed to appear in court Monday for a mandatory hearing review over his court-ordered attendance in the state’s “Alive at 25” driver awareness program.
Westword through a Boebert source confirmed that the congresswoman was unaware that her son missed court.
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Noble D’Amato suffered concussions and a severely lacerated hand in the late-night collision when Boebert was driving his father’s SUV that flipped into a creek bed. D’Amato, 19, was riding shotgun at the time.
D’Amato said his friend’s failure to appear in court was a head-scratcher.
"Really, like what the (expletive)?" he told Westword.
"What else are you doing? Like, go to your court date. I would try to be like, 'Oh, (expletive), I should be on my best behavior.' Not even best behavior — I'd just try and be responsible."
A Boebert spokesperson in an emailed statement to Westword declined to address Tyler Boebert’s court no-show or the circumstances around the crash, instead assailing President Joe Biden’s son.
"If you want to write a hit piece on a politician’s son, go after Hunter Biden," the spokesperson said.
"Congresswoman Boebert’s children are not public figures, and they never sought to profit off of her public service. They are just trying to live their normal lives, and it would be nice if liberal reporters allowed them to do so. Meanwhile, Hunter Biden made $83,000 per month as a member of Burisma’s board, all in an effort for him to profit off of his dad’s position as Vice President."
By Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt
KNOCK, Ireland (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday he has decided to run for a second term and would formally announce his re-election campaign "relatively soon."
"We'll announce it relatively soon. But the trip here just reinforced my sense of optimism about what can be done," Biden told reporters at the tail-end of an emotional trip to Ireland. "I told you my plan is to run again."
Biden has long said he intended to run for re-election but the lack of a formal announcement has sometimes given jitters to supporters unsure if the 80-year-old Democrat, one of the oldest world leaders, would really commit to another four-year term.
Yet behind the scenes, close aides and allies have already begun putting the steps in place to stand up a campaign infrastructure and fundraising apparatus ahead of a 2024 bid that could be a re-run of the 2020 match-up with Republican ex-president Donald Trump, who has already launched his campaign.
Biden's expected pitch is to "finish the job" after a first term that included several legislative wins, including billions of dollars in federal funds to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and for new infrastructure.
But Biden's age makes his re-election bid a historic and risky gamble for the Democratic Party, which faces a tough election map to hold the Senate in 2024 and is the minority in the House of Representatives now. Biden's approval ratings are stuck in the low 40s; he would be 86 by the end of a prospective second term, nine years older than the average U.S. male life expectancy.
Doctors declared Biden, who does not drink alcohol and exercises five times a week, "fit for duty" after an examination in February. The White House says his record shows that he is mentally sharp enough for the rigors of the job.
(Reporting by Steve Holland in Knock, Ireland, and Trevor Hunnicutt in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
Donald Trump, who in recent weeks has spoken and posted almost exclusively about being politically persecuted amid a torrent of criminal investigations and civil litigation, on Friday delivered what by comparison seemed like a more traditional campaign speech.
In a video the former president released Friday on Rumble and his own Truth Social website, ostensibly to advocate for deregulation, he attacked “rogue bureaucrats” and called for all federal employees to pass a “new civil service test.” He also squeezed in a dig at investigators looking into whether he improperly handled classified documents.
The 2024 candidate appeared to present a more presidential air as he spoke for more than three minutes standing between two American flags wearing a dark blue suit, a red tie, and a white shirt.
He said he would develop so-called “freedom cities” that would be a hub for future innovation.
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“As I work to quickly save America from Joe Biden's economic disaster – that's what it is one of the great economic disasters of all time – I will restore my famously successful executive order requiring that for every one new regulation two old regulations must be eliminated,” Trump said.
Trump said he’d create an “ultra-streamlined federal regulatory framework specifically for freedom cities, allowing them to be true frontiers for the return of US manufacturing, the invention of new industries.”
His call for a civil service test is likely to trouble critics who recall an executive order he issued in the weeks leading up to the 2020 election that according to The Washington Post “would remove job security from an estimated tens of thousands of civil servants and dramatically remake the government.”
“Finally, I will require every federal employee to pass a new civil service test demonstrating an understanding of our constitutional, limited government,” Trump said.
“This will include command of due process rights, equal protection, free speech, religious liberty, federalism, the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure I know all about that at Mar-a-Lago, don't I? And all other constitutional limits on federal power.
“We will put unelected bureaucrats back in their place, liberate the US economy and attract millions of jobs and trillions of dollars to our shores.”
BALLINA, Ireland (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden broke down in tears on Friday after a chance meeting at an Irish church with the priest who performed the last rites on his son Beau, a priest who accompanied Biden during the visit said.
Father Richard Gibbons, who led Biden on a tour of the Catholic shrine of Knock, said he had not known that one of his colleagues, ex-U.S. Army chaplain Father Frank O'Grady, had performed the sacrament until the president arrived.
Beau Biden, the president's eldest son, died in the United States in 2015 from brain cancer. Biden has often said that Beau, a former Delaware attorney general, should be president instead of him.
"It just so happened, and this is spontaneous, that we have working at the shrine here the chaplain who gave the last rites, the last anointing, to his son in the United States," Gibbons told the BBC.
"He (President Biden) wanted to meet him straight away, he dispatched a secret service agent to go and find him. He was crying, it really affected him and then we said a prayer, we said a decade of the rosary for his family, lit a candle and he took a moment or two of private prayer."
"He laughed, he cried and it just kind of hit the man. You could just see how deeply it all felt and meant to him. It was an extraordinary afternoon."
O'Grady, an Irish priest who worked at Walter Reed Military Hospital in Washington D.C., described his 10-minute meeting with Biden, his son Hunter and the president's sister Valerie as a "nice chat."
"He was delighted to see me and I was delighted to see him. He gave me a big hug. Hunter gave me a big hug. It was like a reunion," O'Grady told Irish state broadcaster RTE.
"His faith sustained him in the past at that difficult time and still does," O'Grady said. "I said to him he has challenges coming up and he said he has."
Biden, who is wrapping up a three-day trip to Ireland, later visited a nearby County Mayo hospice where he broke ground ahead of its construction in 2017. A plaque on the ground at the entrance to the hospice is dedicated to Beau Biden.
The president, a devout Catholic, took a moment to pause and inspect the plaque with his family before entering the hospice to meet the staff.
(Reporting by Steve Holland in Ballina and Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Daniel Wallis)
Rep. George Santos (R-NY) hit out at what he called President Joe Biden's lies on Friday – and was hit by a tidal wave of mockery.
"Joe Biden has lied to the American people for 40+ years costing us lives & Tax payer dollars," the disgraced New York Republican tweeted. "Biden has FAILED to protect American interests here or abroad without accountability."
The reactions hit immediately.
"Right. Joe Biden is the liar here. Not you," said Twitter user Reema Rasool.
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"Joe's been lying since before I was born," Santos responded.
"Pot...Kettle...Black," Mike Falvo tweeted.
And a Twitter user named Blum said: "Wow! You have the unmitigated gall to accuse someone of lying? You truly have no shame."
Santos, who was elected in Congress in 2022, has been caught in lies over and over again, with his education and work credentials being exposed as fraudulent, along with his purported Jewish heritage and even his mother supposedly being in the Twin Towers on 9/11. He's also accused of scamming a homeless veteran trying to raise money for his dying service dog.
He's subject to multiple investigations, including federal probes, state reviews to a criminal investigation in Brazil.
By Andrew Chung
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The abortion pill mifepristone may not be available for months if limits on it set by lower courts are allowed to take effect, President Joe Biden's administration and the drug's manufacturer told the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday as they fight to defend access to the drug.
The Justice Department filed an emergency request asking the justices to put on hold a ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas that would significantly restrict the pill's distribution while litigation in a challenge by anti-abortion groups to mifepristone's regulatory approval proceeds.
Kacsmaryk's order - a preliminary injunction - was set to take effect at 12 a.m. CDT (0500 GMT) on Saturday.
Biden's administration is seeking to defend the availability of mifepristone in the face of mounting abortion bans and restrictions enacted by Republican-led states since the Supreme Court in June 2022 overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that had legalized the procedure across the country. The Supreme Court 6-3 conservative majority.
The Justice Department said the lower court orders issued in the past week limiting mifepristone's availability would have "sweeping consequences" for women who need access to it and the FDA's scientific judgment authority over drug safety.
Mifepristone, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000, is used in combination with another drug called misoprostol to perform medication abortions, which account for more than half of all U.S. abortions. The FDA is the U.S. agency that signs off on the safety of food products, drugs and medical devices.
Danco Laboratories, mifepristone's manufacturer, also asked the Supreme Court for similar relief on Friday. The company said it may be forced to halt operations in the face of regulatory uncertainty.
Current drug labels for mifepristone do not account for the new limits and would have to be adjusted, a process that could last months, the Justice Department and Danco said in their filings. The generic version of mifepristone would also lose its approval, the department said.
"The resulting disruption would deny women lawful access to a drug FDA deemed a safe and effective alternative to invasive surgical abortion," the department told the justices.
In a case that could also undercut the FDA's authority to decide on the safety of drugs, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday declined the administration's request to block the restrictions ordered by Kacsmaryk on April 7. The 5th Circuit halted another part of Kacsmaryk's order that would have suspended the FDA's approval of the drug, effectively pulling it off the market.
'FUNDAMENTAL ERRORS'
"To the government's knowledge, this is the first time any court has abrogated FDA's conditions on a drug's approval based on a disagreement with the agency's judgment about safety - much less done so after those conditions have been in effect for years. And the lower courts reached that unprecedented result only through a series of fundamental errors," the Justice Department said in its filing.
The restrictions set by the lower courts would restore curbs on mifepristone that had been lifted since 2016 as the FDA steadily expanded access. These revived restrictions include a requirement for three in-person doctor visits to obtain mifepristone and limiting its use to the first seven weeks of pregnancy, down from the current 10.
Some 61% of Americans, including 51% of Republicans, oppose efforts to restrict access to abortion pills, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll concluded on Wednesday. Just 37% of respondents said they trusted the Supreme Court to act impartially in abortion-related cases.
The challengers to mifepristone have called the restrictions critical safeguards to a medication they consider dangerous. The Justice Department has said the challengers have no basis for second-guessing the FDA's scientific judgment and that when used as directed, adverse effects of mifepristone are exceedingly rare "just as they are for many common drugs like ibuprofen."
Since last year's Supreme Court decision, 12 U.S. states have put in place outright bans while many others prohibit abortion after a certain length of pregnancy. The latest Republican-led move came in Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed a new law that bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, setting the stage for abortion access to be drastically curtailed in the state and across the U.S. South.
Anti-abortion groups led by the recently formed Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and four anti-abortion doctors sued the FDA in November seeking to pull approval of misoprostol.
Kacsmaryk found that the FDA, in approving the drug, exceeded its authority by ignoring "legitimate safety concerns" about mifepristone and relying on "plainly unsound reasoning and studies" when approving it.
The 5th Circuit found that the plaintiffs had waited too long to challenge the FDA's regulatory approval but were likely to succeed in targeting the agency's decisions in recent years to make access to mifepristone easier.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
US President Joe Biden, winding down an emotive visit to Ireland, broke down in tears Friday during a chance encounter with the priest who read the last rites to his late son.
The Irish-American president was on a visit to the celebrated Roman Catholic pilgrimage shrine at Knock, northwestern Ireland, on the final day of a three-day tour of his ancestral homeland.
Biden will later wrap up his trip with an outdoors address to thousands of well-wishers at St Muredach's Cathedral in Ballina.
In 1828, Biden's forebear Edward Blewitt sold the bricks that went into the construction of the Catholic cathedral, using the money to fund his family's later emigration to the United States.
At the Knock Shrine, organizers made the last-minute discovery of a link between the Biden family and one of their priests, Father Frank O'Grady, who returned to Ireland after years serving as a chaplain in the US army.
The president's son Beau Biden died of brain cancer aged 46 in 2015. Father O'Grady administered the Catholic rites at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center outside Washington.
O'Grady was not on the official guest list but was given hurried security clearance.
Biden "wanted to meet him straight away, he dispatched a Secret Service agent to go and find him," Knock Shrine parish priest Father Richard Gibbons told the BBC.
"He got the shock of his life, to come over, so that was a wonderful spontaneous thing that happened.
"He (Biden) was crying, it really affected him and then we said a prayer, said a decade of the rosary for his family.
"He lit a candle and then he took a moment or two of private (reflection) for prayer."
O'Grady told Irish broadcaster RTE that he had a "nice chat" with Biden, the president's remaining son Hunter and sister Valerie Biden Owens for about 10 minutes in the Knock Shrine chapel.
"He was delighted to see me and I was delighted to see him. He gave me a big hug. Hunter gave me a big hug. It was like a reunion," the chaplain said.
"He told me he appreciated everything that was done for him (Beau Biden)."
The US president went on to visit the Mayo Roscommon Hospice nearby with his son, sister, and Irish cousin Laurita Blewitt.
In 2017, he came for the building's groundbreaking, and a plaque there commemorates Beau Biden.
Biden was to head on to the picturesque riverside town of Ballina, which was proudly displaying US flags and red, white and blue bunting as locals thronged the streets in excited anticipation.
Ballina commissioned a five-meter-high (16-foot-high) mural of Biden when he won the 2020 presidential vote -- and much of the trip has appeared designed by the White House to build up to a 2024 re-election bid.
Blewitt descendants still live in the town, where the Mocha Beans cafe changed its shop sign to read "Mocha Biden" for the occasion.
"That buzz is incredible around Ballina today," the cafe's owner Trevor Mangan told AFP.
As a baby, Flori Garvin was given a cuddly toy donkey by Biden when the Democrat visited Ballina as vice president. Now aged seven, she was back with her grandmother, Elizabeth Robinson, 63.
"She hasn't stopped talking about it," Robinson said. "She thinks she's going to see him herself."
The surrounding county of Mayo was the ancestral homeland of one branch of the Biden family, and the president was also to tour a genealogy centre to find out more about his origins.
On Thursday, Biden declared in a speech to the Irish parliament: "I'm home."
Ahead of a potential election rematch against Donald Trump, the president dwelt on the success of Irish emigres in carving out a new life far from home.
The United States and Ireland are joined in "not just the hope but the conviction that better days lie ahead", he said.
But, following a testy visit to Belfast prior to Dublin, Biden also issued a pointed warning that the UK "should be working closer with Ireland" to protect a 25-year-old peace deal in Northern Ireland.
The audience included veteran nationalist leader Gerry Adams, who hugged Biden after the speech. The pair posed for a selfie which the former Sinn Fein leader posted on Twitter.
Adams is still a hate figure for many pro-UK unionists in Northern Ireland for his alleged involvement in the paramilitary Irish Republican Army (IRA). The imagery fueled accusations that Biden is "anti-British".
Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar echoed the White House in denying that. He insisted that Biden was keen to help protect the peace process without being "overbearing or interfering".
© Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON — Once a titan of the Senate, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is nearing the end of her career. The question is whether she’ll leave Capitol Hill on her own terms — she says she will serve out her current term, which ends in January 2025 — or if she’ll give in to pressure from her fellow Democrats and retire in the coming weeks or months.
Raw Story and other news organizations have recently observed a confused and forgetful Feinstein, sometimes personally contradicting official statements her office puts out in her name. For example, in August, at the tail end of an all-night vote-a-rama session, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) spoke to Feinstein as if she were a child — and helped direct the senator back to her office for a nap.
This week, Feinstein enlivened the debate over her ability to serve when she announced she’s “temporarily” stepping down from the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee after being absent for more than a month while suffering from shingles, which has stalled the confirmations of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees.
But with California Democrats now debating whether the 89-year-old should resign – as Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is calling for – or not – as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seems to believe – we’ve reviewed our recent interactions with the six-term senator so you can judge for yourself.
It’s time for @SenFeinstein to resign. We need to put the country ahead of personal loyalty. While she has had a lifetime of public service, it is obvious she can no longer fulfill her duties. Not speaking out undermines our credibility as elected representatives of the people.
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) April 12, 2023
In January, Feinstein told Raw Story that she wouldn’t announce her 2024 re-election plans until 2024.
“I need a little bit of time, so it's not this year,” Feinstein said from the Capitol.
Hours after Raw Story broke the news that her decision was potentially a year away, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) launched his campaign to replace her in the Senate.
Four days later, Bloomberg’s Laura Litvan reported Feinstein changed her timeline. Feinstein said she would make her decision one way or another “in the spring sometime. Not in the winter. I don’t announce in the winter.”
By February, the Capitol buzzed with alerts and salutations after Feinstein’s office released a statement announcing the senator would not seek another six-year term and retire in 2025.
January 2023: @davelevinthal quoting @LauraLitvan's reporting:
"And this is totally different than what Feinstein told @RawStory's @MattLaslo four days ago.
Compare and contrast: https://t.co/GuHgLKWoIv https://t.co/U9RoQDm1wE
— Matt Laslo (@MattLaslo) April 13, 2023
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The statement seemed to end years of speculation over whether Feinstein would attempt to serve well into her 90s.
Except, it didn’t.
“I heard you finally announced you’re retiring?” Raw Story asked Feinstein as she walked through the Capitol, just minutes after her office blasted out the announcement.
“Oh no, I’m not announcing anything,” Feinstein replied.
“No?”
“I will one day…” Feinstein said, “… not too far away."
National Journal reporter Savannah Behrmann then captured a bizarre exchange between Feinstein and a staffer that indicated Feinstein was unaware of her own retirement announcement.
“I haven’t released anything,” Feinstein said.
NEW: Dianne Feinstein tells @RawStory's @MattLaslo that she is "not announcing anything ... I will one day" — after announcing earlier today she would not seek re-election. https://t.co/5yk4uwRSCv
— Dave Levinthal (@davelevinthal) February 14, 2023
“We put out the statement,” the staffer replied.
“You put out the statement?” Feinstein asked.
Ultimately, Feinstein’s office clarified that, indeed, Feinstein would not seek a seventh term in the Senate.
In January, California endured back-to-back mass shootings within 48-hours of each other.
While celebrating the Lunar New Year on Jan. 21 in Monterey Park, 11 people were slaughtered and another nine left permanently scarred. Two days later, on Jan. 23, in northern California, a farmworker killed seven people while injuring at least eight others.
Later that day, as Californians reeled from their second mass shooting in two days, Feinstein’s office reintroduced the historic 1990s assault weapon ban she had championed.
Three days later, Feinstein couldn’t remember her own measure. .
“What was that?” she asked after a member of the press corps asked about her measure.
No one in the congressional press corps asked a follow-up question. They just whispered about Feinstein’s failing health.
Last year, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision that effectively overturned Roe v. Wade nationally while leaving abortion policy to each state, Democrats coast-to-coast cheered after Kansas residents voted to keep abortion legal.
It took a few moments for Sen. Feinstein to remember the earth-moving news from the Great Plains.
Once she remembered, Feinstein was optimistic as she told Raw Story that upending Roe was an "enlightened finding" by the right wing of the Supreme Court.
Feinstein’s reaction put her at odds with every elected Democrat in Washington, save Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), the anti-abortion Democrat who Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and other progressives tried to primary out of the party. Feinstein’s statement also put her at odds with herself — her own Senate website describes Feinstein as someone who “strongly supports congressional efforts to codify the protections Roe v. Wade.”
But on that historic day, Feinstein said: "This is a country of different beliefs. We're not all unilateral. So, it didn't surprise me."
In August, senators were needed for an all-night vote-a-rama before taking the rest of the month off. The following morning, Raw Story found it peculiar when Feinstein was escorted off the Senate floor by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), along with Feinstein’s chief of staff.
“Puppies have a nap, now it’s time for you to have one,” Warren told Feinstein.
During yesterday's vote-a-rama I overheard @ewarren telling @SenFeinstein: “Puppies have a nap, now it’s time for you to have one” https://t.co/bK7aUUxpAc
— Matt Laslo (@MattLaslo) August 8, 2022
The entourage then escorted Feinstein to her expansive personal office tucked deep in the Capitol’s rafters.
Feinstein’s anything but predictable. In 2012, as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, she dropped classified information about a highly sensitive Obama-era prisoner swap to a hallway full of reporters.
In 2014, Feinstein’s anti-torture speech from the well of the ornate – if objectively boring – Senate floor was carried live by CNN. In 2018, she bucked critics and was, at times, energized and eloquent – well, as eloquent as any soundbite-peddling politician ever is.
As she’s done since 1992, when she first flexed and won the coveted Senate seat, that focused, perpetually fighting spirit shows itself occasionally these days.
But not often. Even before her fellow California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna called for her to step aside, other politicians raised concerns about the ability of lawmakers of advanced age to execute their public responsibilities. While some have proposed term limits, others are now floating age limits or tests to address such concerns.
Take Nikki Haley. The GOP presidential candidate’s enviable resume – she’s a former U.N. ambassador and governor of South Carolina – is so far doing nothing to outshine former President Donald Trump, who’s also running in 2024 and happens to be Haley’s former boss.
Haley needs headlines, and she got them this January for proposing a mental health test for lawmakers who are 75-year-old or older. While popular among voters, the odds Congress would pass a law subjecting its own members to such scrutiny are about as likely as any of them living to age 150.
At the time, Raw Story asked Feinstein about it.
“I don't have a problem with it,” Feinstein told Raw Story.
“You’d embrace it?”
“No,” Feinstein replied. “But I don’t have a problem with it.”
When Bill O’Reilly was hosting "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News, he often referred to his program as "The No-Spin Zone" — which his critics found ironic, arguing that O'Reilly was feeding his audience nothing but spin. O'Reilly would open the program by telling viewers, "Caution! You are about to enter the No-Spin Zone."
"The O'Reilly Factor" aired on Fox News from 1996-2017, and Fox News fired O'Reilly after deciding that the sexual harassment allegations against him had become a liability for the right-wing cable news outlet. O'Reilly has been gone from Fox News for six years, but the channel has many other hosts who are no less controversial — from Tucker Carlson to Jeanine Pirro to Laura Ingraham. And Fox News is facing a $1.6 billion dollar defamation lawsuit from Domination Voting Systems, which alleges that it defamed the company in late 2020/early 2021 by promoting the false, thoroughly debunked claim that its voting equipment was used to help now-President Joe Biden steal the 2020 presidential election from then-President Donald Trump.
The case Dominion v. Fox News Network is schedule to go to trial in Wilmington, Delaware on Monday, April 17. In an op-ed published on April 14, CNN's Oliver Darcy argues that when the trial begins, Fox News really will be entering a "No-Spin Zone."
"When I watched Fox News broadcast election lies in the aftermath of the 2020 election," Darcy notes, "never did I expect the network to be held accountable in a meaningful way. I've covered Fox News for a while now. I've watched thousands and thousands of hours of the right-wing channel's programming. I've seen its hosts, over the years, undermine public health, make gross anti-immigrant remarks, peddle lies and propaganda and push deranged conspiracy theories that were once reserved for the right-wing's furthest fringes. The network has always seemed to find a way to sail through the controversy, even the most hellish storms it has faced. Sometimes, it has emerged even stronger and more emboldened than before."
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Darcy continues, "But this time is different. This time, the normal tricks the network turns to during times of crisis will not free it from trouble. This time, in a court of law, the network will need to put forward an honest, fact-driven argument. Fox News is about to enter the true No Spin Zone, where deception is strictly prohibited — where it is not in charge. And where its top executives like Rupert Murdoch and Suzanne Scott and hosts like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity cannot simply ignore a request for comment and resort to, instead, attacking 'the media' on-air."
Under the standard that the U.S. Supreme Court laid down 59 years ago in 1964’s New York Times v. Sullivan, defamation is very difficult to prove. The plaintiff must show "actual malice" on the part of the defendant, and that is what Dominion needs to show in its defamation lawsuits against Fox News and others. Dominion is also suing attorney Sidney Powell, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and two Fox News competitors — Newsmax TV and One America News (OAN) — for promoting false claims about the company.
But Dominion certainly has plenty of evidence in its lawsuit against Fox News, including text messages and e-mails showing that its employees knew that the Big Lie was total nonsense but promoted it anyway.
Judge Eric Davis' Delaware courtroom, Darcy stresses, is a radically different environment from Fox News' broadcasts.
"In this setting, where lies cannot be casually told and truth cannot be distorted beyond reality to fit a dishonest narrative, it will be fascinating to see how the network fares," the CNN journalist argues. "If the pre-trial hearings are any indicator, it won't be pretty. The case hasn't even started, and the presiding judge has already lost his patience with Fox's legal team and put them on notice. Perhaps the winds will shift for Fox News when the judge gavels in the trial on Monday, but if they play out like the last few weeks of court have, Fox News is in for a brutal ride."
U.S. Capitol Police on Friday announced that they stopped an "assault rifle, with an extended magazine" from getting to Capitol Hill.
"Just after 5:00 a.m, a USCP screening team spotted the gun, which was partially wrapped in a blanket in the back seat of a large Ford pick-up truck. The rifle was confiscated at an off-site delivery facility where the Department inspects delivery vehicles before they get to Capitol Grounds," said police in a statement. "Although our investigators are still looking into this case, at this time, there is no evidence that shows this person was targeting the Congress or the Capitol Complex."
USCP noted in the statement that. last year alone, 40 guns were confiscated on or near the Capitol Grounds.
"Even if you have a gun that is legally registered in another state, it is still illegal to bring it on Capitol Grounds, which includes screening facilities like the one from this morning," the police note.
READ MORE: Fox News is in for a 'brutal ride' at next week's Dominion trial: analysis
Washington, D.C. has some of the nation's strictest gun laws, and the prohibition is especially strict around the Capitol Complex to protect the safety of lawmakers.
That being said, there is an exception for members of Congress, who may transport firearms to their own personal offices as long as they are unloaded and stored securely. This was clearly demonstrated in 2020 when Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) posted a viral video showing off an AR-15 hanging on the wall of his D.C. office and daring President Joe Biden and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-TX) to "come and take it."
The issue was a point of contention after Republicans won back a majority in the House and proceeded to remove the metal detectors installed after the January 6 attack, along with doing away with the explicit ban on lawmakers carrying guns in committee rooms. Firearms are still prohibited within the House chamber itself.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's ambassador to the United States said Washington had threatened retaliation after Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained on espionage charges, and suggested it might be time to cut the number of U.S. journalists in Russia.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on March 30 it had detained Gershkovich in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and had opened an espionage case against him for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex.
Gershkovich, the first American journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War, and the Journal have denied he was involved in espionage.
The United States has urged Russia to release Gershkovich and cast the Russian claims of espionage as ridiculous. U.S. President Joe Biden has called for Gershkovich's release.
"The Americans have threatened us with retaliatory measures if we do not release Gershkovich in the near future," Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov told Russia's First Channel state television. "We shall see how they will act."
Antonov said he had had a "very harsh" conversation with U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who accused Russia of illegally detaining Gershkovich. Antonov said Nuland had repeatedly interrupted him in a counterproductive way.
The Russian ambassador said that it might be time to reduce the number of American journalists working in Russia.
"The Americans have a very good word - reciprocity which they always insist on," Antonov told the Bolshaya Igra show.
"Perhaps it is the time for us to show reciprocity and reduce the number of American journalists who work in Moscow and in Russia as a whole to the number [of Russian journalists] who work in Washington and New York," Antonov said.
The Kremlin said Gershkovich had been carrying out espionage "under the cover" of journalism. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has told the United States that Gershkovich was caught red-handed while trying to obtain secrets.
The United States on Monday determined that Russia had "wrongfully detained" Gershkovich, effectively saying that espionage charges are bogus and that the case is political.
Many U.S. reporters left Russia after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine last year - and more have left since the detention of Gershkovich.
The United States has repeatedly told its citizens to leave Russia due to the war in Ukraine and the risk of arbitrary arrest or harassment by Russian law enforcement agencies.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Mark Potter)
The Supreme Court decided not to block a $6 billion student loan debt settlement based on thousands of claims that colleges misled students. Several of the colleges had tried to challenge the settlement but the Supreme Court rejected their requests. The 200,000 claims made up a class action lawsuit that a number of colleges, mostly for-profit institutions, misled students who in turn took out federal loans. The case is not related to President Joe Biden’s student debt relief program, which was blocked by a federal appeals court and is set to be voted on by the Supreme Court. California-based U...
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