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Overnight News Digest: Biden’s approval rises sharply [1]
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Date: 2022-09-15
AP
Biden approval rises sharply ahead of midterms: AP-NORC poll
President Joe Biden’s popularity improved substantially from his lowest point this summer, but concerns about his handling of the economy persist, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Support for Biden recovered from a low of 36% in July to 45%, driven in large part by a rebound in support from Democrats just two months before the November midterm elections. During a few bleak summer months when gasoline prices peaked and lawmakers appeared deadlocked, the Democrats faced the possibility of blowout losses against Republicans. Their outlook appears better after notching a string of legislative successes that left more Americans ready to judge the Democratic president on his preferred terms: “Don’t compare me to the Almighty. Compare me to the alternative.”
U.S. News & World Report
Biden’s Approval Ratings Rebound Amid Democratic Wins, Trump Probe
[…] Though the president has yet to return to the lofty 60% approval ratings he had for the first six months of his term, 45% is a dramatic improvement from his numbers over the summer. In May, June and July, his approval rating never exceeded 40%. The rising good fortunes for the president follow several recent wins for him and his party. Democrats passed two significant bills in August – the Inflation Reduction Act that makes historic investments in climate and the economy and the CHIPS Act that facilitates the growth of American manufacturing of computer chips. In addition, economic strain on Americans appears to be lessening.
NPR
Biden calls on the country to unite against white supremacy at a summit on hate
President Biden said Thursday that America can't remain silent when it comes to combating white supremacy and hate in an address at a White House summit on hate-based violence. The event, called the "United We Stand" summit, gathered experts and survivors and included bipartisan local leaders. It also honored communities that have been through hate-based attacks, including the mass shootings that took place at gay nightclub in Orlando in 2016; at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in 2019, where the assailant said he was targeting Mexicans; and the expressly racist shooting that killed 10 Black people in a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket earlier this year. Biden was introduced by Susan Bro, whose daughter Heather Heyer was killed during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. in 2017. The rally, Biden has said since 2019, is the reason he decided to run for president.
Bloomberg
Biden Accuses Republicans of Using Migrants as ‘Props’
President Joe Biden accused Republicans of using people “as props,” an apparent reference to GOP governors sending migrants from their states to liberal enclaves. “Republicans are playing politics with human beings,” Biden said Thursday at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Gala in Washington, without naming the governors or describing their actions. “What they’re doing is simply wrong. It’s un-American. It’s reckless.” Biden said immigration officials have processes in place to manage migrants at the border in a safe, orderly way and “Republican officials should not interfere with that process by waging these political stunts.”
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen
BLET, SMART-TD reach tentative agreement with railroads
Early this morning following nearly three years of bargaining, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), a Division of the Rail Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) reached a tentative National Agreement with the nation’s largest freight rail carriers which includes wage increases, bonuses, and no increases to insurance copays and deductibles. For the first time our Unions were able to obtain negotiated contract language exempting time off for certain medical events from carrier attendance policies. Our Unions will now begin the process of submitting the tentative agreement to the rank and file for a ratification vote by the memberships of both unions. […] This agreement would not have been reached without the hard work of President Biden, Labor Secretary Walsh, Deputy Secretary Julie Su and others in the administration. Congressional leaders, including Senators Schumer, Durbin and Sanders, along with Speaker Pelosi listened to your requests and stayed out of our dispute, allowing for an agreement to be reached across the bargaining table, rather than through legislation. x Thanks for your concern, @wsj. To answer your question: yes, the trains are running on time. pic.twitter.com/ZpJIyFZJvL — President Biden (@POTUS) September 15, 2022
Railway Age
No Work Stoppage for Now
It took an all-night bargaining session in the Washington, D.C., offices of Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, but as dawn approached Thursday, Sept. 15, three rail unions, representing almost 60% of unionized rail workers and which had been holding out for a better deal than was reached by nine others, came to terms with the National Carriers Conference Committee (NCCC) that represents most of the nation’s Class I railroads and many smaller ones. It means there will be no nationwide rail work stoppage beginning Friday, Sept. 16, or for the next few weeks, but the threat of a management lockout or labor strike is not over as memberships of only two of the 12 unions have so far ratified tentative agreements. […] The NCCC, on behalf of the rail industry, thanked Walsh, Buttigieg and Vilsack “for their assistance in reaching these settlements,” and despite 33 months of contentious and often bitter bargaining, also thanked “the unions’ leadership teams for their professionalism and efforts during the bargaining process.”
The Atlantic
Is Biden the Most Pro-Union President in History?
For now, the country’s railroads will continue to run. A national strike—which would’ve started at midnight tonight and disrupted both freight and passenger rail—was averted by a tentative deal between union leaders and railroad management. That deal still needs to be ratified by the union members themselves. President Joe Biden praised the agreement as “a big win for America.” The president “basically twisted the arm of the rail companies,” Erik Loomis, a professor at the University of Rhode Island who specializes in U.S. labor history, told me. Biden’s rationale may have been partly political, Loomis said: A shutdown of freight deliveries could worsen inflation at a delicate moment for his approval rating. But another element of it, he said, could be linked to his Scranton identity and his upbringing in “one of these ultimate working-class industrial towns.” Though Loomis warns that it is still early, he believes Biden might turn out to be the country’s most pro-union president. At the very least, he argues, the current president ranks well ahead of any recent Democratic president.
The Kyiv Independent
440 graves found in liberated Izium as Russia continues to fire at infrastructure across Ukraine
Russian artillery fire, missile and air strikes have inflicted damage on infrastructure in more than 20 settlements across Ukraine on Sept 15, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported. In total, Russian forces conducted five misslie and five air strikes on Sept. 15, according to the report. Some of the strikes targeted critical infrastructure in Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelensky located in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The city has suffered multiple attacks on Sept. 15, as it continued to deal with the aftermath of the Sept. 14 strike on a local dam that had caused flooding. Meanwhile, fighting continued in the east and south of Ukraine.
EuroNews
Zelenskyy raises flag in recently recaptured Izium Access to the comments
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy watched as his country’s flag was hoisted in Izium, a city recently recaptured from the retreating Russians. […] Zelenskyy, with his hand on his heart, looked on and sang the national anthem as the flag was raised in front of a burned-out city hall building. “The view is very shocking but it is not shocking for me," Zelenskyy told the press. "Because we began to see the same pictures from Bucha, from the first de-occupied territories … the same destroyed buildings, killed people.”
The Guardian
Putin tells Xi he understands China’s ‘questions and concerns’ over Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has told Xi Jinping that he understands China’s “questions and concerns” about the war in Ukraine, in a rare nod to tensions between the two states caused by the Russian invasion. […] But it was Putin’s cryptic acknowledgment of Chinese “concerns” over the invasion that drew the most attention. In doing so, the Russian leader seemed especially keen to curry favour with Xi, striking a conciliatory tone on a topic where he is often volatile and uncompromising. “We highly value the balanced position of our Chinese friends when it comes to the Ukraine crisis,” Putin said. “We understand your questions and concerns about this. During today’s meeting, we will of course explain our position.”
Los Angeles Times
‘Torment of hell:’ Ukraine medic describes Russians routinely torturing her and other prisoners
A volunteer Ukrainian medic detained in Ukraine’s besieged port city of Mariupol told U.S. lawmakers Thursday of comforting fellow detainees as many died during her three months of captivity, cradling and consoling them as best she could, as male, female and child prisoners succumbed to Russian torture and untreated wounds. Ukrainian Yuliia Paievska, who was captured by pro-Russian forces in Mariupol in March and held at shifting locations in Russian-allied territory in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, spoke to lawmakers with the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, better known as the Helsinki Commission, a government agency created in part to promote international compliance with human rights. […] “Do you know why we do this to you?” a Russian asked Paievska as he tortured her, she recounted to the commission. She told the panel her answer to him: “Because you can.”
Deutsche Welle
Despite war, reconstruction booms in Ukraine's capital
Builders in Kyiv are working non-stop to repair homes damaged by Russian shelling. Residents hope to move back in before the temperatures drop. "The builders are doing a great job," said Tamara Herasymenko, a resident of a 16-story apartment building on the western outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. "They're working seven days a week," she enthused. […] Some 100 construction workers are busy at the site every day, according to Denys Titov, a project manager at Askon, the company that's running the site. "We think we'll have this done by the time the heating season starts, mid-October or November," he said — although he adds that the war is delaying the delivery of some construction materials.
The New York Times
Democrats Delay Senate Vote to Protect Gay Marriage as G.O.P. Balks
Senate Democrats decided on Thursday to postpone a planned vote on legislation to provide federal protections for same-sex marriage until after the midterm elections in November, amid dimming hopes of drawing enough Republican support to ensure its passage with tight races on the line. […] The decision to do so came as a relief to Republicans, the vast majority of whom oppose the measure and were worried that voting against it so close to the elections would alienate voters. It spared Republican senators in difficult re-election races, including Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Marco Rubio of Florida, a fraught choice of casting a vote that would anger their party’s conservative base or one that could sour independent voters in the closing days of the campaign.
Vice
Blake Masters Wants to Fire All Generals and Replace Them With Conservatives
Blake Masters, the Republican nominee for Senate in Arizona, has repeatedly said the U.S. should clean house on the senior ranks of the military, pushing the claim that all the generals and admirals are “woke” and “left-wing” losers who’ve never won a war. His solution? Fire them all, and promote “the most conservative colonels.” “Your entire general class, they're left-wing politicians at this point. It's very hard to become a general without being some kind of left-of-center politician,” he said… “I would love to see all the generals get fired. You take the most conservative colonels, you promote them to general. Not because the ideology is important, but because the conservative colonels will be able to leave the ideology aside. They just care about an effective fighting force.
The Hill
New Hampshire GOP candidate does 180 after primary, says election wasn’t stolen
New Hampshire Republican Senate nominee Don Bolduc on Thursday said the 2020 presidential election was not stolen, reversing course after claiming during his primary that … Trump won. […] “Don Bolduc has spent the entire campaign touting the Big Lie, and he can’t hide from that record,” [Maggie] Hassan campaign spokesperson Kevin Donohue said in a statement. “He has even said that he supports overturning the results of the 2024 election if it doesn’t go his way. A word salad on Fox will not erase his record of election denial.”
ABC News
Judge denies DOJ request for stay in investigation of Trump's Mar-a-Lago docs
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday denied the Department of Justice's request for a partial stay of her ruling that enjoined the FBI from using roughly 100 documents seized from Mar-a-Lago with classification markings in its ongoing criminal investigation of Donald Trump -- and mandated they be handed over to a special master for review. Cannon has also appointed Raymond Dearie, senior district judge for the Eastern District of New York, as special master. In a filing last week that amounted to a line-by-line rebuke of Cannon's ruling, DOJ prosecutors wrote that they would seek intervention by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals if she declined to act on their request for a partial stay by the end of Thursday. x A federal judge in Florida keeps on hold the Justice Department probe of why Donald Trump had dozens of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The judge basically doesn't believe the feds when they say the documents are classified.
https://t.co/vhb3EPa86P pic.twitter.com/B6qREwvIqA — Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) September 15, 2022 x It’s not that Trump tilted the judiciary; he *corrupted* it. With lifetime appointments. The GOP is responsible for this. — Dan Froomkin/PressWatchers.org (@froomkin) September 16, 2022
CNN
Exclusive: Mark Meadows complied with DOJ subpoena in January 6 probe
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has complied with a subpoena from the Justice Department's investigation into events surrounding January 6, 2021, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN, making him the highest-ranking Trump official known to have responded to a subpoena in the federal investigation. Meadows turned over the same materials he provided to the House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack, one source said, meeting the obligations of the Justice Department subpoena, which has not been previously reported. […] Meadows' compliance with the subpoena comes as the Justice Department has ramped up its investigation related to January 6, which now touches nearly every aspect of … Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss…
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Bucks Jan. 6 rioter ousted from elected post after conviction and saying she’d shoot Pelosi in the ‘friggin’ brain’
Bucks County Republicans voted this month to oust an elected committee person two months after she was sentenced to incarceration for participating in the Capitol riot. Dawn Bancroft, a 60-year-old former CrossFit gym owner, narrowly won her seat against an opponent in the May primary after she admitted to a federal judge in Washington that she had filmed a video during the insurrection in which she said she’d been looking for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi so she could “shoot her in the friggin’ brain.” She pleaded guilty last year to one misdemeanor count of illegally demonstrating on Capitol grounds and was sentenced in July to 60 days… Still, the vote taken by 100 members of the GOP executive committee last week was not unanimous… [and] did not bar Bancroft from running again for the post after she has served her time.
Business Insider
Exclusive: Former top FBI official involved in Trump-Russia investigation under scrutiny by federal prosecutors for his own ties to Russia
A former high-level FBI agent who was involved in the investigation into the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia during the 2016 election has himself come under scrutiny by federal prosecutors for his ties with Russia and other foreign governments. Late last year, according to internal court documents obtained by Insider, US attorneys secretly convened a grand jury that examined the conduct of Charles McGonigal, the former head of counterintelligence at the FBI field office in New York City. The Justice Department declined to comment on what the grand jury was investigating or whether it remained ongoing. But a witness subpoena obtained by Insider seems to indicate that the government, in part, was looking into McGonigal's business dealings with a top aide to Oleg Deripaska, the billionaire Russian oligarch who was at the center of allegations that Russia colluded with the Trump campaign to interfere in the 2016 election.
The New York Times
N.Y. Attorney General May Sue Trump After Rejecting His Settlement Offer
The New York attorney general’s office has rebuffed an offer from Donald J. Trump’s lawyers to settle a contentious civil investigation into [Trump] and his family real estate business, setting the stage for a lawsuit that would accuse Mr. Trump of fraud, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The attorney general, Letitia James, is also considering suing at least one of Mr. Trump’s adult children, the people said. Ivanka, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. have all been senior executives at Mr. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization.
The Washington Post
Georgia 2020 election inquiry may lead to prison sentences, prosecutor says
The prosecutor investigating efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to challenge the 2020 election results in Georgia said this week that her team has heard credible allegations that serious crimes have been committed and that she believes some individuals may see jail time. “The allegations are very serious. If indicted and convicted, people are facing prison sentences,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis told The Washington Post.
The Dallas Morning News
Texas AG Ken Paxton will be deposed in fraud case after election, lawyer says
Lawyers representing the men who accused Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of securities fraud will be able to question him under oath — but not until after the election. Collin County District Court Judge Cynthia Wheless has ordered Paxton to sit for a one-hour deposition on Nov. 28, court records show. […] The deposition order comes after Paxton filed motions to reject at least two subpoenas in the last three months, citing scheduling conflicts. […] In addition to his 7-year-old fraud indictments, the conservative Republican also faces a whistleblower lawsuit and an FBI bribery investigation.
The Texas Tribune
Hispanic Texans may now be the state’s largest demographic group, new census data shows
A closely watched estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday indicates that Texas may have passed a long-awaited milestone: the point where Hispanic residents make up more of the state’s population than white residents. The new population figures, derived from the bureau’s American Community Survey, showed Hispanic Texans made up 40.2% of the state’s population in 2021 while non-Hispanic white Texans made up 39.4%. The estimates — based on comprehensive data collected over the 2021 calendar year — are not considered official.
Bolts
Texas Students Are Again Battling the Closure of a Campus Polling Place
[… Kristina] Samuel, president of [the Texas A&M University] chapter of the voting rights group MOVE Texas, and other student activists have asked for a second campus polling place to accommodate the largest student body in the state, and one of the largest in the nation. This summer, however, local officials took the opposite approach. The Brazos County Commissioners Court in July decided to eliminate the student center as a polling place during the two weeks of early voting for the 2022 midterms. Now there will be nowhere on campus for students to vote between Oct. 24 and Nov. 4. “I’m afraid the reality is that we’re going to have such lower student and young person turnout than we normally would in a very crucial election,” Samuel told Bolts. The student center will remain an Election Day polling place this year, but Samuel worries that eliminating the early voting there will lead to longer lines that deter students who try to vote on Nov. 8. Other TAMU students have denounced the majority-Republican commission for making this decision in early July, when most students were out of town for the summer.
Los Angeles Times
Senate doesn’t have to release full CIA torture report, judge rules
The U.S. Senate does not have to release its full report detailing the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation and detention program following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a federal judge ruled Thursday. […] District of Columbia District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the report “does not qualify as a public record subject to the common law right of public access” because although it was part of the committee’s investigation, it was aimed at gathering information and did not make recommendations or propose legislation. […] The government interest in keeping the information secret outweighs public interest, Howell wrote.
The Washington Post
Customs officials have copied Americans’ phone data at massive scale
U.S. government officials are adding data from as many as 10,000 electronic devices each year to a massive database they’ve compiled from cellphones, iPads and computers seized from travelers at the country’s airports, seaports and border crossings, leaders of Customs and Border Protection told congressional staff in a briefing this summer. The rapid expansion of the database and the ability of 2,700 CBP officers to access it without a warrant — two details not previously known about the database — have raised alarms in Congress about what use the government has made of the information, much of which is captured from people not suspected of any crime. CBP officials told congressional staff the data is maintained for 15 years.
Democracy Now!
Sweden’s New Government Will Be Led by Far-Right Party Founded by Neo-Nazis
In Sweden, four right-wing parties have agreed to form a new coalition government after winning a narrow majority in Sunday’s parliamentary elections. The anti-immigrant far-right Sweden Democrats Party won 73 seats with more than 20% of the vote, becoming the second-largest party in Sweden’s parliament. The party emerged out of Sweden’s neo-Nazi movement in the late 1980s. Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson announced her resignation after her government’s defeat.
Reuters
Mexico arrests general over 2014 disappearances of 43 students
Mexican authorities have arrested retired general Jose Rodriguez for his suspected involvement in the 2014 disappearance of 43 student teachers, a senior official said Thursday, making him the highest-ranking military officer so far held over the case. Deputy Security Minister Ricardo Mejia said four arrest warrants had recently been issued against military officials over the notorious abduction of the 43 students in the southwestern city of Iguala in 2014.
BBC News
Pakistan floods: Dengue cases soaring after record monsoon
Pakistani health officials are warning of a looming health crisis in the country after devastating recent floods.Thirty-three million people have been affected by the flooding, which has left nearly 1,500 dead since the middle of June. As rescue and evacuation efforts continue in parts of the country, health experts are reporting a surge in dengue, malaria and severe gastric infections. Many displaced people are living near stagnant water. Dengue fever is already claiming lives and cases are increasing by the day. About 3,830 cases of dengue fever have been reported by health officials in southern Sindh province, with at least nine deaths, but there are concerns this may be a conservative estimate.
Al Jazeera
Death toll in Azerbaijan-Armenia border clashes rises
Azerbaijan says 71 of its troops have been killed this week during border clashes with Armenia, which marked the worst fighting between the rival neighbours since their 2020 war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Armenia said 105 of its soldiers died in the violence, which each side blames on the other. The flare-up threatened to drag Turkey, Azerbaijan’s key backer, and Armenia’s ally Russia into a wider conflict at a time of already high geopolitical tensions.
UPI
Mosquito Fire now California's largest of the year at 64,159 acres
Fire officials in California said Thursday that the Mosquito Fire was now the largest in the state in 2022, burning more than 64,000 acres. The wildfire in Eldorado and Placer counties has grown to 64,159 active acres after beginning Sept. 6 at Mosquito Road and Oxbow Reservoir east of Foresthill in Placer County, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire said. The blaze was 20% contained Thursday, with 3,655 active fire-fighting personnel, according to Cal Fire.
OPB News
Boardman smokestack demolished, marking the end of a coal-fired era in Oregon
A demolition contractor on Thursday imploded the towering smokestack and 19-story boiler building at Portland General Electric’s shuttered coal-fired power plant near Boardman, bringing a symbolic close to the era of coal-fired power generation in Oregon. Imported electricity generated from coal still flows through transmission wires across the Pacific Northwest, but that looks to be winding down soon, too. […] “Very emotional for me and very emotional for a lot of the people that I worked with for a number of years,” said PGE Vice President of Utility Operations Brad Jenkins, a former plant manager at Boardman. “The coal plant has been just a workhorse of the fleet for 40 years,” Jenkins said. “But if you look around the landscape here, we’ve got lots of clean, renewable resources coming in. We’re transitioning and this is just part of that transition.”
Reuters
End of COVID pandemic is 'in sight' -WHO chief
The world has never been in a better position to end the COVID-19 pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, his most optimistic outlook yet on the years-long health crisis which has killed over six million people. "We are not there yet. But the end is in sight," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a virtual press conference. That was the most upbeat assessment from the UN agency since it declared an international emergency in January 2020 and started describing COVID-19 as a pandemic three months later.
CNBC
Millions of borrowers may be eligible for a refund on student loan payments made during Covid
There’s good news for the millions of people with federal student loans who’ve made payments on that debt during the Covid pandemic: many of them will be eligible to get the money back. The U.S. Department of Education says that many borrowers eligible for President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan who made payments on their debt during the pandemic-era pause on the bills will automatically be refunded. The relief policy has been in effect since March 2020, and is scheduled to end Dec. 31. More than 9 million people made at least one payment on their federal student debt between April 2020 and March 2022, according to the government. The vast majority of borrowers haven’t made any payments, taking advantage of the suspension of the bills and accrual of interest.
Mongabay
Eight new-to-science geckos described from biodiversity haven Madagascar
On the northern tip of Madagascar, scientists have described eight new-to-science species of geckos, all about the length of your thumb. For decades, scientists have studied the Lygodactylus madagascariensis species group of dwarf geckos believing it consisted of only five valid species. But after more careful examination of the geckos’ bodies and analyzing their DNA, they confirmed there are as many as 18 species within the species group. Eight of these new to science species have been formally described in the journal Zootaxa as species in their own right. “This was a remarkable discovery,” Miguel Vences, a professor at Braunschweig Technical University in Germany and the first author of the study, said…
Ars Technica
US launches program to boost floating wind turbines
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