According to a source with knowledge of the situation, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has accepted an invitation to meet with President Joe Biden on May 9 to discuss the debt ceiling, setting the stage for a pivotal moment in the debt ceiling impasse.
Biden invited the four leaders of Congress to the meeting.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen informed legislators on Monday that the United States could default on its debt by June 1.
McCarthy and Biden have not met since February.
Last week, the House approved a plan to increase the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion. Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, has characterized the bill as “dead on arrival” in the Senate because it includes spending cuts, increased work requirements in safety net programs, and other provisions that Democrats will not support.
Biden told reporters, following the bill’s passage in the House, that he would be “happy to meet with McCarthy, but not to discuss whether the debt limit is extended.” The White House has maintained that in order for the president to approve a proposal to increase the nation’s borrowing limit, it must be unblemished.
McCarthy issued a statement on Monday in response to Yellen’s remarks that read, “The clock is ticking.”
McCarthy stated, “After three months of inaction by the Biden administration, the House acted, and a bill that would eliminate the risk of default is currently pending in the Senate.” “The Senate and the President need to get to work — and soon.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist, is polling close to 20 percent in some Democratic primary polls.
The April 19 University Poll placed his support at 14%, while the New Age sage Marianne Williamson received 5%. Since then, a more recent Emerson College survey places him at 21%, while Williamson is at 8%. According to a Fox News poll, he has 19 percent support, while Williamson has 9 percent.
While it seems unlikely that Kennedy, who recently launched his campaign to challenge President Joe Biden, will play a decisive role in the 2024 election, he could potentially embarrass the president (probably not to the extent that his famous uncle, Sen.
Ted Kennedy, embarrassed then-President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 primary—but surely no incumbent president wants a Kennedy in the primary mix).
Thus, it’s worth investigating why Kennedy is polling so well and what this could mean for the Democratic Party.
The straightforward explanation for Kennedy’s success is his name. However, in 2023, this will only get you so far. Not only is the Kennedy dynasty renowned, but it is also ancient. John F. Kennedy passed away sixty years ago.
Bobby Kennedy, the father of RFK Jr., has been deceased for 55 years. Ted Kennedy’s early and influential endorsement of Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in 2008 was likely the last time a Kennedy will ever have a significant impact on Democratic politics.
However, while the Kennedy dynasty, which epitomizes the establishment, is old and stale, an anti-establishment, unconventional philosophy has always held a certain perverse appeal. Moreover, if this was true in the past, it is undoubtedly true in 2023.
Although he lacks a resume comparable to that of his father, he has spent decades as an influential “conscience of the left” promoting the most extreme form of left-wing environmentalism. Recent examples include persuading his ex-brother-in-law, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, to close down a nuclear plant, which led to New York state emitting more carbon.
There are many left-wing activists who toil in obscurity, but Kennedy’s stupid activism—and his fame—were both promoted by a liberal mainstream media that spent years elevating him (in this regard, Kennedy is comparable to Donald Trump) and his wacky ideas.
If you have HBO Max, you can presently view RFK Jr.’s appearance in his sister Rory’s amateurishly produced 2004 documentary, Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable, which warns of a 9/11-style aerial attack on the nuclear plant located about 50 miles north of New York City. Although extremely alarmist, the documentary was taken seriously and even lauded by the adoring media. Ultimately, the Kennedy progeny claimed credit for advocating for the plant’s closure.
Kennedy promoted anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, which were arguably even more damaging than his radical environmentalism (which paradoxically led to increased fossil fuel use). Once again, he was assisted in spreading his message by reputable liberals.
According to the American Council on Science and Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was Jon Stewart’s guest on July 20, 2005. Stewart not only provided RFK Jr. with a platform to disseminate his anti-science rhetoric on vaccines, but he also praised his guest’s efforts to spread the word that vaccines cause autism.
As far as I am aware, Stewart has never apologized.
While Stewart, Bill Maher, and others bolstered his vaccine skepticism, RFK Jr. was reviled by the right.
Since COVID-19, however, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has reportedly spent “months” encouraging Kennedy to challenge Biden.
Concerns that Paraguay might sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of China have been allayed by the victory of a conservative politician in the country’s presidential election.
Sunday, the ruling party of president-elect Santiago Pea won a majority in the Senate and at least 15 of the 17 disputed governorates, according to the official provisional tally.
According to the Superior Court of Electoral Justice (TSJE), Pea received 42.9% of the vote while his opponent, Efran Alegre of the center-left Concertacion coalition, received 27.5%.
Alegre had argued for a diplomatic shift to China. Concerns about the country severing ties with Taiwan were substantially alleviated by the outcome.
Paraguay’s conservative candidate, who supports Taiwan, has won the presidency.
In a speech to supporters in Asunción, the 44-year-old Pea made an impassioned appeal for “unity and consensus” to achieve “our destiny of collective well-being and prosperity without exclusions.”
“The time has come to put our differences on hold and prioritize the national causes that unite us.”
The economist stated, “Starting tomorrow, we will begin to design the Paraguay that we all want, without gross inequalities or unfair social asymmetries.”
Pea will succeed Mario Abdo Bentez, also of the Colorado Party, as president.
After seven decades, the ruling party has now consolidated its authority.
After conceding defeat, Alegre said his “fight continues.”
“Clearly, there is a great deal of hope for change in Paraguay, as evidenced by the vote, and this calls for a project that can unite all efforts,” he said.
The candidate of the opposition, for whom some polls had predicted a victory over Pea, commended voters, including those who chose continuity. “That is democracy.”
The vote, in which nearly 4.8 million out of 7.5 million eligible citizens voted for senators, deputies, governors, and councilors, gave the Colorado Party a 43.75 percent majority in the Upper House.
In the election of governors, the party easily gained 15 of the 17 departments up for election. EFE
Russia fired its second significant salvo of missiles at Ukraine in recent days on Monday morning, damaging buildings and injuring at least 34 people in the eastern city of Pavlohrad but missing Kyiv, according to officials.
At approximately 3:45 a.m., air raid sirens began wailing throughout the capital, followed by the sounds of explosions as missiles were intercepted by Ukrainian defense systems.
In total, 18 cruise missiles were launched from the Murmansk and Caspian regions, and 15 of them were intercepted, according to the Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
Serhii Popko, the head of Kyiv’s municipal administration, stated that all missiles and drones fired at the city were intercepted. He did not provide additional information, but said it would be available later.
The attack follows the launch of over 20 cruise missiles and two incendiary drones at Ukraine on Friday, which was the first time in nearly two months that Kyiv was targeted.
Ukrainian officials claim Russia launched its second big missile volley at Ukraine recently.
In this attack, 21 people, including three children, were killed when Russian missiles struck an apartment building in Uman, a city about 215 kilometers (135 miles) south of Kyiv.
According to Serhii Lysak, the region’s senior official, missiles fired on Monday wounded 34 people, including five children, in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region’s Pavlohrad.
Seven missiles were fired at the city, and “some were intercepted” while others struck an industrial facility, igniting a fire, and a residential neighborhood, where 19 apartment buildings, 25 homes, six schools, and five stores were damaged, he said.
According to him, missiles also struck three other regions in the region, causing damage to residential structures and a school.
Throughout the 14-month war, Moscow has frequently launched long-range missile attacks, frequently targeting civilian areas without discrimination.
Ukraine has recently received Patriot missiles manufactured in the United States, which provide enhanced anti-missile defenses. However, it is unclear whether any of these missiles were used to thwart the attack on Monday morning.
As Kyiv prepares for an anticipated spring counteroffensive, its Western allies have also supplied armor for the Ukraine’s mechanized brigades, in addition to instructing Ukrainian troops and sending ammunition.
Saturday, two Ukrainian drones attacked a Russian oil depot in Crimea, the most recent attack on the occupied peninsula as Ukraine readies its counteroffensive.
In an interview last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the impending counteroffensive would aim to reclaim the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
In an effort to prevent further banking turmoil in the United States, regulators confiscated the troubled First Republic Bank and sold its deposits and the majority of its assets to JPMorgan Chase.
First Republic, based in San Francisco, is the third midsize bank to falter in the past two months. It has struggled since the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and investors and depositors grew increasingly concerned that it might not survive due to its high proportion of uninsured deposits and exposure to low-interest-rate loans.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced early Monday morning that the 84 branches of First Republic Bank in eight states will reopen as branches of JPMorgan Chase Bank.
Before the opening of U.S. stock markets on Monday, regulators labored through the weekend to find a solution. Monday, many markets around the globe were closed for May 1 holidays. The two open markets in Asia, Tokyo and Sydney, increased.
JPMorgan Chase Bank will acquire all First Republic Bank assets, according to the FDIC.
The FDIC reported that as of April 13, First Republic had approximately $229 billion in total assets and $104 billion in total deposits. The Federal Reserve ranked it fourteenth in size among U.S. commercial banks at the end of last year.
Prior to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, First Republic’s banking franchise was the industry standard. Its clientele, who were predominantly wealthy and influential, rarely defaulted on their loans. The 72-branch bank has made the majority of its profits from low-interest loans to the affluent, including reportedly Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms.
First Republic’s total assets more than doubled from $102 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2019, when its full-time personnel was 4,600, due to deposits from the wealthy.
However, the overwhelming majority of its deposits, including those in Silicon Valley and Signature Bank, were uninsured, exceeding the FDIC’s $250,000 limit. And this caused analysts and investors concern. If First Republic failed, its depositors might not receive their entire deposits returned.
The bank’s most recent quarterly results crystallized these concerns. The bank reported that depositors withdrew more than $100 billion during the April crisis. First Republic, based in San Francisco, stated that it was only able to stop the bleeding after a consortium of significant banks stepped in with $30 billion in uninsured deposits.
Since the onset of the crisis, First Republic has been searching for a means to quickly recover. The bank intended to dispose of unprofitable assets, including the low-interest mortgages it offered to affluent customers. It also announced intentions to lay off up to a quarter of its approximately 7,200 employees at the end of 2022.
Investors continued to be apprehensive. Since the bank reported its results, its executives have not taken any queries from investors or analysts, causing First Republic’s stock to decline further.
And it is difficult to restructure a balance sheet profitably when a company must rapidly liquidate assets and has fewer bankers to identify investment opportunities. After the global financial crisis of 15 years ago, it took years for institutions like Citigroup and Bank of America to return to profitability, but they had the support of a government backstop to keep them afloat.
The fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the country is Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. And this explosive growth is accompanied by a growing influence.
POLITICO is recognizing the contributions and influence of Asian power actors at the local, state, federal, and even international levels during AAPI Heritage Month.
Here are five Asian American politicians and activists worth monitoring.
They were featured in March on our annual Power List of forty individuals with undeniable influence over major policy battles, including abortion, environmental justice, elections, and fraught negotiations with geopolitical adversaries.
Kamala Harris
The vice president, who was included on The Recast Power List for leading the White House’s abortion access struggle during the midterm elections, urged the administration to continue discussing the abortion issue, arguing that it was a matter of personal liberty and would resonate with voters of any gender.
Expect Harris to play a prominent role in convincing voters to grant the Biden-Harris administration four more years, in light of Biden’s announcement of his reelection bid last week.
Diana Hwang
Hwang is nothing short of a catalyst for change. She established a program to identify and promote progressive AAPI women in political leadership years ago. In the past year, she has stepped up her game, with the Asian American Women’s Political Initiative establishing a fellowship program that awards up to $10,000 to women for civic impact initiatives.
With upcoming elections in 2019 and a growing AAPI political presence, we anticipate that you will hear much more about her in the future years.
Kimberly Yee
A politician who can connect with their constituents is unparalleled. Yee demonstrated this unlike any other Arizona Republican in the previous election cycle. In a year in which election deniers Kari Lake and Blake Masters ran on the same ticket and lost their respective campaigns, Yee easily won the state treasurer’s race. She ascribed it to her campaign’s commitment to avoiding “side issues.”
Yee is now one of the few Asian American women nationwide to hold a statewide office. Expect her standing among National Republicans to increase over the next year.
Todd Kim
If you care about holding pollutants accountable, contact Kim. Kim’s specialty is taking companies to court and compelling them to pay to limit the release of toxic chemicals into the air, as well as submitting complaints in cities like Jackson for violating safe drinking water regulations for residents.
Environmental justice is a key pillar of the Biden administration’s platform, so keep a watch out for the DOJ attorney as he continues this battle.
Lindsay Kagawa Colas
Colas, who was paired on our list with Cherelle Griner, the wife of formerly detained WNBA superstar Brittney Griner, played a crucial role in securing the basketball player’s release from a Russian prison. Colas used her bullhorn to emphasize why Griner was in Russia in the first place: the enormous pay gap between WNBA and NBA champions.
Colas, who functions as Griner’s agent, will assist Griner as she navigates her way back to court while advocating for other detained Americans in Russia.
Saturday, thousands of workers, members of labor organizations, and Iranian Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare officials convened with Ayatollah Khamenei at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Hussainiya.
In his remarks at the meeting, the Leader stated that the purpose of the annual meeting with workers is to emphasize their value in society, adding that work is equivalent to the life of a society because it fulfills all the needs and requirements of the people and the nation.
“Work is what sustains a society. Work is the foundation of human existence. Without labor, nothing exists. The food we consume, the clothing we don, and the life-sustaining facilities we utilize are all the results of labor. Who performs this task? Workers. So, what is a worker’s value? Equal to the value of a society’s existence is the value of a worker. “They are equivalent to the worth of human lives,” he said.
Ayatollah Khamenei believed it was essential to comprehend labor activity and workers in order to produce real and useful labor.
“The country’s and society’s vital need for work, a worker’s need for work in order to manage his/her life, a person’s spiritual need for work, and the completely tangible effect of work in eliminating and preventing all types of corruption, demonstrate the critical importance of planning, investing, and taking action to generate work and genuine employment.”
Ayatollah Khamenei further defined the 14,000 martyrs who belonged to the community of workers as 14,000 honor flags held by workers.
“The most significant indicator of the labor community’s allegiance to the system over the past few decades is their intelligent conduct. “(For instance), they thwarted the efforts of certain groups to cripple the establishment at the start of the Revolution by shuttering their workshops, and they also wisely resisted the widespread propaganda of foreign ill-wishers who sought to turn the working class against the government,” the Leader explained.
According to Khamenei.ir, he referred to the workers’ vigilance and resistance to foreign provocations as “the great jihad of the workers’ community.”
He stated, “By the grace of God, they will no longer be able to turn the workers’ community against the government.”
Friday, Fitch Ratings downgraded France’s debt rating from AA to AA-, citing a threat to President Emmanuel Macron’s economic reform policies posed by political gridlock and social movements. It further stated that the nation’s “fiscal metrics are weaker than peers.”
“Public finances, and particularly the high level of government debt, are a rating weakness,” noted the credit rating agency.
“Political stalemate and (sometimes violent) social movements pose a threat to Macron’s reform agenda and could create pressures for a more expansionary fiscal policy or a rollback of previous reforms,” the report continued.
Lower economic growth prospects and a decline in competitiveness could contribute to a further downgrade in ratings, the agency warned.
We shall proceed with reforms: French administration
After the ratings were released, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire stated that the government would continue with structural reforms to restructure the economy.
“I believe that the circumstances render Fitch’s evaluation invalid. AFP quoted Le Maire as saying, “We are able to implement structural reforms and will continue to implement structural reforms for the country.”
“Do not question our unwavering resolve to restore the nation’s public finances. We have demonstrated the ability to pass reforms that fundamentally alter the French economic model.”
The assessment by Fitch comes less than a week after Macron suggested that his government may be in jeopardy as the far-right leader Marine Le Pen continues to gain ground.
“Marine Le Pen will come to power if we fail to address the country’s challenges and if we adopt a habit of lying or denying reality,” he said.
Macron lamented that he was insufficiently involved in promoting his incredibly unpopular pension reform measure to the public.
Macron told Le Parisien, “Perhaps my mistake was not being sufficiently present to give the reform substance and carry it out myself.”
The French court accepts the measure
The French court approved Macron’s pension reform proposal to raise the retirement age earlier this month. After nearly three months of protests across the country, the decision was ratified by the nine-member Constitutional Council.
The council believed that the government’s actions were constitutional and that the retirement age should be increased.
However, the protests against the reforms have not yet ended. The Parisians continue to take to the streets to demand that Macron restore the status quo, which, according to Fitch, may hinder the city’s economic development even further.
Saturday, the MP-MLA court in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, sentenced ex-criminal turned politician Mukhtar Ansari to 10 years in prison and a fine of 5 lakh for the hijacking and murder of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Krishnanand Rai.
Afzal Ansari, the older sibling of the defendant and a member of the BSP parliament, had his verdict reserved.
Earlier on Saturday, the window of Rai, who was allegedly murdered in 2005 in Ghazipur by Ansari and Afzal Ansari, declared that the rule of the mafia in Uttar Pradesh has ended and that she has faith in the judiciary. “I have faith in the legal system. Alka Rai stated that the rule of Goondas and Mafias has ended (in the state).
Who is Mukhtar Ansari?
Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari is a five-time MLA from the Uttar Pradesh Mau constituency. He is related to the former Vice President of India, Mohammad Hamid Ansari.
Involved in underworld activities in and around Ghazipur in the 1970s, Ansari earned a reputation as a gangster before entering politics. Ansari, who has been incarcerated for over 15 years, has nearly 60 cases of land theft, extortion, and homicide on his record.
Mohammad Hamid Ansari, the former Vice President of India, is one of the few well-known members of Ansari’s family. His paternal grandfather, Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, was a liberation fighter and the president of the Congress party. Mohammad Usman, his maternal ancestor, was a Brigadier in the Indian Army. He was killed in the 1948 Indo-Pak conflict and awarded the Mahaveer Chakra posthumously.
Political foundation
Ansari began his political career as a student union leader at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in the early 1990s before being elected as an MLA in 1996.
Eventually, Ansari became the uncontested chief of the Poorvanchal region. Ansari had capitalised on Muslim votebank. Additionally, Ansari has been accused of inciting communal violence in the district of Mau.
In 2007, Ansari and his sibling joined the Bahujan Samaj Party. They were admitted to the party after claiming that the charges against them were false and politically motivated.
Ansari contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi for the BSP while incarcerated. In 2010, the two were expelled from the party.
The present instance
On November 29, 2005, BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai was murdered while attending a wedding in his hometown.
During the time that contracted assassins were at Ansari’s residence, police warned Rai of a death threat.
Rai was convinced to play cricket instead of using his bulletproof vehicle. On his journey home, Rai was shot with automatic weapons. Seven people in total had perished.
Ansari was incarcerated at the moment.
Additional charges against Mukhtar Ansari
The case against Mukhtar Ansari was registered under the Gangster Act after he was charged with involvement in the 1996 hijacking of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Nandkishore Rungta. The case also detailed his participation in the 2005 assassination of Rai.
This is the fourth time Ansari has been found guilty. Last year, he was convicted of three additional offenses. One of them was for intimidating an on-duty jailer. Ansari had verbally abused and threatened to murder the jailer.
Ansari was also sentenced to five years in a case dating back 23 years. Under the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Antisocial Activities (Prevention) Act of 1986, he was convicted.
Over sixty cases have been lodged against Ansari for land extortion, murder, and other crimes. He has been in prison since 2005. Ansari is presently incarcerated in the Banda district jail.
Soledad Nunez, a forty-year-old engineer and former minister, seeks to become Paraguay’s first elected female vice president in Sunday’s election. Nunez is a former minister and engineer.
It has been difficult for women to enter politics in Paraguay, a country with a reputation for a misogynistic’machista’ culture, even in a generally conservative region. 15% of legislators are female, well below the Latin American regional average of roughly one-third.
In the last election, five years ago, only one of the presidential and vice presidential candidates was a woman. This time, however, there are seven female candidates out of a total of 26.
“Something is shifting, even if slowly,” Nunez told Reuters in an interview, recalling how, when she was a student, a university professor informed her engineering class of eight women and over ninety men that women should clean the floors and prepare meals.
Women in Paraguay face an uphill battle to achieve political equality.
“From a young age… I saw very few women in political and business leadership positions,” said Nunez, who at age 31 became the youngest female minister ever in 2014.
“Having a woman at the top will have consequences,” she explained. Simply being present is crucial because it encourages others to participate.
Nunez is the vice presidential nominee for the principal opposition coalition, which seeks to unseat the Colorado Party. Opinion assessments prior to the election were inconsistent, and the contest is anticipated to be close.
If elected, Nunez and her running companion for the presidency, Efrain Alegre, have pledged to achieve gender parity in the cabinet. Approximately one-quarter of current ministers are female.
The more conservative party in Colorado has also approved gender equality plans for the cabinet, despite having two men on its ticket.
Former Paraguayan finance minister from the Colorado Party, Lea Gimenez, told Reuters that women face a “tough, hard-fought” process to enter local politics.
“Oftentimes, women who enter politics are less experienced than men, which necessitates a learning curve,” she said. “However, I’d rather make it for having done a good job than for meeting a quota.”
Women in Paraguay have made uneven progress.
In 1961, they were among the last in Latin America to be permitted to vote or register as candidates. In 1992, following the restoration of democracy following a 35-year dictatorship, gender equality was enshrined in the constitution.
In the elections held five years ago, none of the 17 state governors elected were women. In municipal elections in 2021, however, approximately one-quarter of positions went to women.
In 2021, an electoral change was implemented that requires voters to rank their preferred legislators, as opposed to selecting from a closed list; the goal is to create a larger and more competitive field of candidates.
Some women are concerned that this may disadvantage female candidates, who must often contend with fewer political resources and campaign funding.
Senator Esperanza Martinez, 63, stated, “Each candidate will have to campaign independently, resulting in enormous costs for individuals, which is detrimental to female nominees.”
Martinez, a member of the Frente Guasu alliance, is one of 45 senators seeking re-election. Currently, only eight Senate seats, or roughly one-fifth, are held by women, a number she anticipates will decrease after the election.
“There can be a long list of female candidates to choose from, but they won’t be elected if they don’t have national visibility and travel,” she said. Our limited representation in the Senate will deteriorate under this system.
Political activist and politician Lilian Soto concurred, stating, “From now on, you’ll need more resources to become known.”
Martinez stated, however, that the gender parity policy of the cabinet was a significant step in the context of broader debates in universities and businesses over women’s rights, which are frequently advocated by younger generations.
“By insisting on gender equality, the debate is expanded,” Martinez said. However, the barriers to entry into politics remain insurmountable.
