Tag: Biden, Joseph R Jr

Ukraine Aid Bill Heads for Collapse in Senate as Biden Makes Final Plea

President Biden’s sweeping emergency spending measure to fund the war in Ukraine teetered on the brink of collapse in Congress on Wednesday as Republicans prepared to block it in the Senate over their demands to attach unrelated measures cracking down on migration into the United States. With a critical late afternoon vote looming, Mr. Biden […]

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White House Delays a Decision on Banning Menthol Cigarettes

The Biden administration delayed a decision on Wednesday about whether it would ban menthol cigarettes amid intense lobbying from tobacco companies, convenience stores and industry-backed groups that contend that billions of dollars in sales and jobs will be lost. The proposal has also generated concerns that Black smokers will become the targets of aggressive police […]

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House Republicans Threaten Hunter Biden With Contempt Charge

House Republicans on Wednesday threatened to hold Hunter Biden, the president’s son, in contempt of Congress if he did not appear for a closed-door deposition they scheduled for next week as they hunt for evidence to try to impeach his father. Hunter Biden has offered to testify publicly but resisted submitting to private questioning, saying […]

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Biden Plans to Call on Congress to Approve Aid to Ukraine

President Biden plans to call on Congress on Wednesday to put aside partisan differences and promptly pass a multibillion-dollar aid package for Ukraine, warning that failure to do so could enable President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to reclaim momentum in the war. Efforts to resupply Ukraine as well as Israel appear at an impasse […]

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‘This Is Grim,’ One Democratic Pollster Says

In addition, Kessler wrote, in the past month, The price of gasoline has fallen 20-cents to a national average of $3.24 a gallon. Headline and core inflation have begun their final descent toward benign, historic levels. Interest rates have fallen about 40 basis points in the past several months. The so-called “misery index” (inflation + […]

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Biden’s Strategy Faces a Test as Israel Pushes Into Southern Gaza

For two months, President Biden has strongly backed Israel’s right to defend itself after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas, in effect banking credibility with Jerusalem to be spent on moderating its response. But as Israeli forces push into southern Gaza, the question is when Mr. Biden’s account will be drained and the checks […]

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Biden Says ‘I’m Not Sure I’d Be Running’ if Not for Trump

President Biden suggested on Tuesday that he might have been content to serve only a single term if his predecessor, former President Donald J. Trump, were not attempting to recapture the White House. At a campaign fund-raiser in the Boston area, Mr. Biden presented his decision to run for re-election as driven largely by his […]

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Johnson Plans Vote on Impeachment Inquiry, Predicting Unanimous G.O.P. Support

Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday promised a floor vote to authorize a formal impeachment inquiry against President Biden, hoping to provide legal heft to an investigation that has been underway for months but has so far failed to prove Republicans’ claims that Mr. Biden accepted bribes. Republicans have for months avoided scheduling such a vote, […]

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Is Liz Cheney Really Thinking About Running for President in 2024?

Liz Cheney was widely seen as a Republican superstar in the making, perhaps even a future president, before she was elected to Congress in 2016. Ms. Cheney never discouraged the talk, but Donald J. Trump shattered her glittering future after she voted to impeach him in 2021 and became a pariah in the G.O.P. Now, […]

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White House Condemns Protest at Israeli Restaurant in Philadelphia

White House and state officials said that a protest on Sunday was hateful and antisemitic after dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators opposed to Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip chanted slogans charging “genocide” outside an Israeli-style falafel shop in Philadelphia. The White House issued a statement on Monday that called the protest targeting the establishment “unjustifiable,” […]

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R.F.K. Jr. Allies Say They’ll Spend Over $10 Million on Ballot Access

A super PAC backing the independent presidential candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to spend $10 million to $15 million to get Mr. Kennedy on the ballot in 10 states, a substantial effort that, even if partly successful, could heighten Democratic concerns about his potential to play the role of spoiler in 2024. […]

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U.S. Moves to Crack Down on Money Behind Fentanyl Trade

The Biden administration said on Monday that it was creating a “counter-fentanyl strike force” within the Treasury Department to combat trafficking of the drug into the United States by more aggressively scrutinizing the finances of suspected narcotics dealers. The Treasury’s office of terrorism and financial intelligence and the criminal investigation unit of the Internal Revenue […]

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Talk About Abortion, Don’t Talk About Trump: Governors Give Biden Advice

America’s Democratic governors brag about booming local economies, preside over ribbon-cuttings of projects paid for with new federal legislation and have successfully framed themselves as defenders of abortion rights and democracy. Almost all of them are far more popular in their home states than the Democratic president they hope to re-elect next year. While President […]

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Will COP28’s Climate Fund Promises Become a Reality?

When there’s a global crisis, wealthy countries tend to find money. That was the case in the United States when big banks were bailed out to soften a global financial crisis. That was the case for the coronavirus pandemic. And for military aid to allies like Ukraine. But the climate crisis? It’s complicated. This weekend, […]

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Trump’s Defense to Charge That He’s Anti-Democratic? Accuse Biden of It

Former President Donald J. Trump, who has been indicted by federal prosecutors for conspiracy to defraud the United States in connection with a plot to overturn the 2020 election, repeatedly claimed to supporters in Iowa on Saturday that it was President Biden who posed a severe threat to American democracy. While Mr. Trump shattered democratic […]

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Desperate Families Search for Affordable Home Care

It’s a good day when Frank Lee, a retired chef, can slip out to the hardware store, fairly confident that his wife, Robin, is in the hands of reliable help. He spends nearly every hour of every day anxiously overseeing her care at their home on the Isle of Palms, a barrier island near Charleston, […]

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Biden Administration Announces Rule to Cut Millions of Tons of Methane Emissions

The United States will, for the first time, require oil and gas producers to detect and fix leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that wafts into the atmosphere from pipelines, drill sites and storage facilities and dangerously speeds the rate of global warming. Michael S. Regan, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, announced […]

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Biden Administration Unleashes Powerful Regulatory Tool Aimed at Climate

The Biden administration’s crackdown on methane leaks from oil wells is based in part on a new powerful policy tool that could strengthen its legal authority to cut greenhouse gas emissions across the entire economy — including from cars, power plants, factories and oil refineries. New limits on methane, announced Saturday by the Environmental Protection […]

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Republicans Insist on Deposing Hunter Biden, Saying Public Hearing Must Wait

House Republicans on Friday demanded that Hunter Biden, the president’s son, sit for a closed-door deposition in their impeachment inquiry into his father, rejecting his request to testify only in public and suggesting he could face punishment if he did not agree to their terms. In a letter, Representatives James R. Comer of Kentucky, chairman […]

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How Biden and Other Presidents Saw Kissinger: Adviser, Friend and Foil

Henry A. Kissinger, the former secretary of state who died this week, was a go-to adviser for many American presidents over his decades in politics. Here are some thoughts and stories over the years from several of those presidents, expressing awe, exasperation and sharp criticism. President Biden “I’ll never forget the first time I met […]

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A Timeline of Plots Against Sikh Activists, According to Canada and the U.S.

Federal prosecutors in the United States announced this week that they had charged an Indian national in a murder-for-hire scheme that targeted a Sikh activist in New York. The plot was foiled, they said, but it further complicated the delicate diplomatic relations between the United States, Canada and India. President Biden has sought to strengthen […]

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Democrats Clash Over Move to Add Asylum Changes to War Funding Bill

Democrats and Republicans are also discussing whether to expand requirements that asylum seekers apply for protections in “safe third countries” they pass through on the way to the United States, or risk expulsion to those countries. But Republicans are also seeking far more aggressive steps, including changes to parole, the practice of allowing migrants who […]

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It’s Not the Economy. It’s the Fascism.

In his newsletter Old Goats, Jonathan Alter paid tribute to Charlie Peters, the founder of The Washington Monthly: “In a world of received wisdom, Charlie was a genuinely original thinker, with a mind that forged ores of common sense into a brilliant alloy of skepticism and idealism.” (Peter Magnusson, Chico, Calif.) In The Wall Street […]

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Elon Musk and Other DealBook Summit Highlights

“Is that clear?” Andrew here. Yes, I was surprised at what Elon Musk said at the DealBook Summit on Wednesday — you can see that in the moment from our conversation when he left me temporarily speechless. But I would encourage everyone to watch the entire interview, as we covered so much more than that. […]

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Biden Administration to Require Replacing of Lead Pipes Within 10 Years

The Biden administration is proposing new restrictions that would require the removal of virtually all lead water pipes across the country in an effort to prevent another public health catastrophe like the one that came to define Flint, Mich. The proposal on Thursday from the Environmental Protection Agency would impose the strictest limits on lead […]

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There’s a Bomb Under the Table

Alfred Hitchcock explained the nature of cinematic terror with a story about the bomb under the table. People are sitting around a table having a mundane conversation about baseball when — boom! — a bomb goes off, instantly killing everyone. You’ve momentarily surprised the audience. But what if, Hitchcock asked, we are shown beforehand that […]

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Could a Democrat Really Challenge Biden at This Point? Here’s What to Know.

The Democratic anxiety that has swirled around President Biden for over a year has kicked into overdrive in recent weeks, as his approval ratings have stayed stubbornly low and polls have shown the possibility of his losing to former President Donald J. Trump. That anxiety has crystallized into one question, repeated like a drumbeat: Can’t […]

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DeSantis-Newsom Debate: What to Watch for at Tonight’s Showdown

Call it the “Debate Me Please” showdown. Ron DeSantis of Florida, 45, and Gavin Newsom of California, 56, two relatively youthful governors adept at seeking — and finding — the spotlight, will square off at 9 p.m. Eastern on Thursday in a nationally televised debate in Alpharetta, Ga., in suburban Atlanta. Both pleaded for this […]

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Kissinger’s Death Ends an Era in U.S.-China Relations

State media outlets hailed him as “China’s old friend.” On Chinese social media, people said his death marked the end of an era. They recalled his last visit to the country, in July, at age 100. For many in China, Henry A. Kissinger represented a now-bygone chapter in relations between China and the United States, […]

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