Розділ: Політика
Trump Defies State Coronavirus Guidelines With Large Outdoor Rally in North Carolina
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump attracted a crowd of thousands to his latest political rally at a North Carolina airport Tuesday evening. Trump marveled at a crowd he said totaled 15,000 people –- a number that reporters on site said was exaggerated. The rally was attended by 14,600 people and several thousand more either wanted to attend or were nearby, according to a senior administration official who spoke to reporters on Air Force One on the flight back from North Carolina. Journalists also noted the lack of social distancing among those seated and standing. Many of the attendees did not wear masks and some who did let them droop down below their noses. It was a crowd clearly in defiance of state guidance limiting outdoor mass gatherings to 50 people with social distancing and cloth face coverings. Trump contended again on Tuesday that his campaign has found a loophole to avoid violating such state regulations because “we decided to call all our rallies peaceful protests” – a reference to criticism from those on the right that some anti-racism protesters amid the pandemic have been hypocritical by not wearing masks. The president contrasted his rallies with those of challenger Joe Biden, mocking the socially distancing circles in gymnasiums that have been a feature of the Democratic Party nominee’s relatively few appearances. “Did you ever see the gyms with the circles? That’s his crowds,” Trump said. It was Trump’s third visit to North Carolina in two weeks. He won the state by four points in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, but polls show him virtually tied in the state with Biden.Supporters cheer as President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Smith Reynolds Airport, Sept. 8, 2020, in Winston-Salem, N.C.The former vice president did not make a public appearance on Tuesday, but his campaign released two new television advertisements in North Carolina during the day. One of the commercials, a narrator implored: “We need to get control over the virus. Donald Trump failed. Joe Biden will get it done.” Trump, in his Tuesday evening rally, accused Biden and running mate U.S. Senator Kamala Harris of trying to spread “anti-vaccine conspiracy theories” because they have questioned his claims that a COVID-19 vaccine is near. Biden and Harris released a joint statement on Tuesday “laying out three questions this Administration must answer to assure the American people that politics will play no role in the approval and distribution of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine.” The Democrats are asking the Trump administration to state what scientific criteria will be used to ensure safety and efficacy of the vaccine; who will validate an official decision greenlighting the vaccine; and what is the plan to allocate and distribute the vaccine to Americans “cost-free, safely, equitably and without politics.” Trump has been hinting that a vaccine for the coronavirus could be ready by Election Day on November 3. Nine drugmakers issued an unusual pledge on Tuesday, vowing to uphold the highest ethical and scientific standards in developing their vaccines. The announcement follows concern that Trump will pressure the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve a vaccine before it is proven to be safe and effective. As Trump began his evening rally, confirmation came from the developer of one of the vaccines, AstraZeneca, that it was halting late-stage studies of its vaccine candidate developed at Oxford University due to “a potentially unexplained illness” suffered by one patient in Britain. The “standard review process triggered a pause to vaccination to allow review of safety data,” the British-Swedish drugmaker said in a statement. “We are working to expedite the review of the single event to minimize any potential impact on the trial timeline.” The United States has reported the most infections and deaths from the coronavirus. More than 6.3 million cases have been reported in the country, with deaths totaling slightly more than 189,500 according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.
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By Polityk | 09/09/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Study Finds Transgender Americans Face Voting Barriers in 2020 Presidential Election
One segment of the electorate may be unable to vote if poll workers are not able to certify their identity. It is the reality facing hundreds of thousands of transgender Americans in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. An estimated 378,000 eligible transgender voters do not have identification such as a driver’s license that reflects their name, appearance or new gender identity, according to a study by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. “If those poll workers decide that those ID’s don’t adequately or accurately reflect the person who is standing in front of them, they wouldn’t be able vote,” said Jody Herman, a research scholar and co-author of the report. The Los Angeles-based organization founded in 2001 conducts independent nonpartisan research on sexual orientation, gender identity law and public policy. Registered voters in states with strict identification laws must produce a government-issued photo ID to cast a ballot at polling locations. “Trans people in general are frequently placed under immediate suspicion if they don’t conform visually to what their ID shows,” Sasha Buchert, a senior lawyer with Lambda Legal, told VOAIn this Friday, Feb. 28, 2020 photo, pedestrians pass signs near a polling site in San Antonio.Obtaining ID documents Some states have made it easier to make changes in identification documents such as gender markers on birth certificates, a process that varies state by state. Name changes can cost $500, in addition the costs of hiring an attorney. Advocates say in some states, transgender people must undergo gender affirming surgery that many consider invasive before their birth certificates and other identification documents can be updated. “The process can be very costly and sometimes even impossible for trans people to complete,” Herman, the report co-author, said. “Ohio and Tennessee don’t allow any changes to a birth certificate at all.” Advocates say transgender people of color are likely to be more impacted than white voters because they have more difficulty in obtaining a proper ID. They believe the measures could have a chilling impact and keep people from voting, especially if they cannot vote by mail. “We found just under a million trans adults would be eligible to vote in the 2020 election, but about 900,000 of those voters reside in 45 states where they do not conduct elections entirely by mail,” Herman told VOA. “Voters in those places would have to show up for in-person voting.” Political observers predict an unprecedented number of Americans will vote by mail because of the coronavirus. Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia allow excuse-free absentee voting, according to state websites. If transgender voters are turned away at the polls, they could be made to vote on a provisional ballot instead of a regular ballot. Provisional ballots are only counted if certain requirements are met in strict voter ID states. That means they would have to come back to the election officials within a certain amount of time with an acceptable ID for their vote to be counted, according to the Williams Institute. Increasing voter participation Nationwide, there are an estimated 11 million LGBTQ voters, of which 1.4 million are transgender, according to surveys by Human Rights Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based organization. According to its U.S. transgender survey, the party affiliation for the respondents was heavily Democratic. “Keeping trans people from voting could favor the Republican Party that is more conservative than its Democratic rival,” said Professor Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine. In 2016, the outcome of the presidential election was decided by fewer than 80,000 votes in three states. “Transgender people should not be denied their opportunity to participate in our democracy because laws and regulations around identification documents haven’t kept up with reality,” said Mara Keisling, head of The National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund. While some transgender Americans report progress in obtaining updated ID’s, human rights advocates maintain transgender people of color, young students, low income, and those with disabilities are overrepresented among those who would face barriers to voting. “We hear about folks in our community who feel so uncomfortable or who are made to feel so uncomfortable that they simply give up when they are challenged on their own identity,” said Tori Cooper, a Black transgender woman and director of community engagement for Human Rights Campaign’s Transgender Justice Initiative. “I know someone who is listed on a voter registration form as female, which does not accurately reflect their current gender identity, which is male. He’s afraid the way he looks and presents himself could actually keep him from being able to vote in person,” Cooper told VOA. “Voting is not about challenging people on their identities. It is giving people an opportunity to express their constitutional right to vote,” she said. Election observers say mail-in voting will remove possible negative interactions between transgender voters and poll workers. “We are trying to break down barriers, making sure folks have the tools they need to get to the polls safely or get their mail-in ballots,” said Jay Brown, senior vice president of Human Rights Campaign Foundation. “We are empowering trans people to do whatever they can and vote.”
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By Polityk | 09/09/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Visits Florida, North Carolina; Biden Unveils New Ads
U.S. President Donald Trump visited two political battleground states – Florida and North Carolina – Tuesday, while former Vice President Joe Biden unveiled new campaign ads airing in states critical to the outcome of the November 3 election. While in Jupiter, Florida, Trump signed a memorandum that prohibits drilling in the waters off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of Florida, and off the Atlantic coast of Georgia and South Carolina for a 10-year period, from July 1, 2022, to June 20, 2032. President Donald Trump holds a signed memorandum to expand the offshore drilling moratorium to the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina after speaking at the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum, Sept. 8, 2020, in Jupiter, Florida.He later flew to the city of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for an evening rally. Trump won both Florida and North Carolina in the 2016 election en route to a four-year term in the White House, but polls in the two states show him narrowly trailing Biden. A Trump loss in either state would significantly limit his chances of winning a second term. Before departing Tuesday, Trump said his campaign is doing “very well,” adding poll numbers he has seen were “very good.” He also addressed street violence linked to racial injustice protests in several U.S. cities, saying Biden “doesn’t have the strength” and “mental capability to control” the situation. FILE – U.S. Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about safety in America during a campaign appearance in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, August 31, 2020.The Biden campaign debuted a new 60-second ad in battleground states that attempts to depict the presidential race as a choice between the “darkness” of Trump’s tenure and the possibility of a “fresh start.” “This is our chance to put the darkness of the past four years behind us, to end the anger, the insults, the division, the violence and start fresh in America,” the narrator says as the ad opens. “We can stop focusing on a president who thinks it’s all about him and start focusing on what’s best for us.” The Biden campaign said the ad is part of a $47 million time purchase this week on broadcast and digital platforms in battleground states, including Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The focus by both Trump and Biden on specific politically divided states is a function of the way U.S. presidential elections are decided, through the Electoral College, not a national popular vote. Biden, as he has for months, is maintaining his lead over Trump in national polls, by about 7 percentage points, although his lead in battleground states is thinner. The U.S. decides the presidency through an indirect form of democracy, where the winner in each state receives all of that state’s electoral votes. Each state’s number of electoral votes is based on its population. Would-be presidents must win at least 270 of the 538 electoral votes. The most populous states – Democrat-controlled California with 55 votes, and Republican-dominated Texas with 38 – hold the most sway. Seven states and the national capital city of Washington have the fewest electoral votes, three apiece.
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By Polityk | 09/09/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Officials: Israel, UAE to Sign Deal at White House
Israel and the United Arab Emirates will sign their historic deal normalizing relations at a White House ceremony on Sept. 15, U.S. officials said Tuesday. The officials said senior delegations from both countries will likely be led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the brother of the UAE crown prince. The officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the ceremony would either be on the South Lawn, the Rose Garden or inside depending on weather. The ceremony will come just a month after the agreement to establish full diplomatic relations was announced on Aug. 13. The historic deal delivered a key foreign policy victory to President Donald Trump as he seeks reelection and reflected a changing Middle East in which shared concerns about archenemy Iran have largely overtaken traditional Arab support for the Palestinians. That announcement has been followed by the first direct commercial flight between the countries, the establishment of telephone links and commitments to cooperate in numerous areas. UAE has also ended the country’s boycott of Israel, which allows trade and commerce between the oil-rich Emirates and Israel, home to a thriving diamond trade, pharmaceutical companies and tech start-ups. The Palestinians have rejected the deal. The UAE presented the agreement as taking Israel’s planned annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank off the table. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted the pause was “temporary.”
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By Polityk | 09/09/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Drug Execs Promise COVID Vaccine Safety Before Seeking Government Approval
Nine chief executives of competing drug companies working to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus jointly said Tuesday they would not seek U.S. government regulatory approval for its use until Phase 3 tests showed it was safe. The statement comes as President Donald Trump has suggested there could be an announcement on a successful vaccine before the Nov. 3 general election. “We believe this pledge will help ensure public confidence in the rigorous scientific and regulatory process by which Covid-19 vaccines are evaluated and may ultimately be approved,” the executives said in their joint statement. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One for a trip to Jupiter, Fla., Sept. 8, 2020.They vowed the companies would “only submit for approval or emergency use authorization after demonstrating safety and efficacy through a Phase 3 clinical study that is designed and conducted to meet requirements of expert regulatory authorities,” including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The executives said they would “always make the safety and well-being of vaccinated individuals our top priority.” In most instances, a statement that drug companies would adhere to safety standards would be unremarkable. But the drug chiefs’ statement comes as Trump pushes for a rapid vaccine approval. At a White House press conference Monday, Trump said vaccine authorization could come “before a very special date.” Accusations from BidenThe presidential election is in eight weeks, when the Republican Trump faces his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden has accused Trump of mishandling the government’s response to the coronavirus, which has now killed more than 189,000 Americans, more than in any other country, and infected more than 6.3 million. Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during an event in Lancaster, Pa., Sept. 7, 2020.Biden said Monday he would get vaccinated “tomorrow,” if a vaccine were available, but only if it was deemed safe by experts. “I would want to see what the scientists said,” he told CBS News. “I want full transparency on the vaccine.” Of Trump, Biden said, “One of the problems is the way he is playing with politics. He’s said so many things that aren’t true.” Biden’s vice presidential running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, told CNN on Sunday that she would “not trust” Trump’s declarations about the safety of a vaccine coming just before the election. In response, the White House said, “The American people can rest assured that any approval will maintain the FDA’s gold standard for safety and testing to ensure a vaccine or therapeutic is effective. This false narrative that the media and now the Democratic nominee for vice president are suggesting that politics is influencing approvals is not only false but is a danger to the American public.” Politics vs. scienceA recent STAT-Harris survey showed that 82% of Democrats and 72% of Republicans were concerned that approval of a vaccine would be driven more by politics than by science. Health experts have voiced fears that if the public does not trust the safety of any vaccine that is made available, many will refuse to be vaccinated, making it less effective in controlling the pandemic. Trump’s top vaccine adviser, Operation Warp Speed co-chief Moncef Slaoui, told National Public Radio last week that it is “very unlikely” a vaccine would be authorized before Election Day. FILE – A poster advertises a hunt for volunteers for a study of a possible COVID-19 vaccine, in Binghamton, N.Y., July 27, 2020.”There is a very, very low chance that the trials that are running as we speak could (be completed) before the end of October. And therefore, there could be — if all other conditions required for an Emergency Use Authorization are met — an approval,” Slaoui said. The drug executives’ statement left open the possibility that an emergency use application for a vaccine could be granted based on partial data from the participation of at least 30,000 test subjects. Such trials normally take years to complete. “FDA’s guidance and criteria are based on the scientific and medical principles necessary to clearly demonstrate the safety and efficacy of potential Covid-19 vaccines. More specifically, the agency requires that scientific evidence for regulatory approval must come from large, high quality clinical trials that are randomized and observer-blinded, with an expectation of appropriately designed studies with significant numbers of participants across diverse populations,” they said. Leaders of AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna, and Novavax, as well as those heading two joint vaccine projects, Pfizer and BioNTech, and Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, were the signatories of the statement. Combined, the companies said they have created 70 successful vaccines. FILE – VWade Bardo of Erin, N.Y., gets an injection as a study of a possible COVID-19 vaccine gets under way in Binghamton, N.Y., July 27, 2020.The headline on their statement, “Biopharma Leaders Unite To Stand With Science,” made clear their attempt to ease worries that a vaccine would be pushed to the market too soon due to political pressure. Earlier this year, the FDA approved the emergency use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus but withdrew approval after clinical trials showed it provided no benefit, while potentially increasing risks of fatal heart arrhythmia. Trump has touted hydroxychloroquine and said he took the drug earlier this year. The government also recently authorized emergency use of convalescent plasma as a coronavirus treatment. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn later apologized for overstating the benefits of plasma transfusions.
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By Polityk | 09/09/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Senate Republican Leader to Hold Vote on COVID-19 Relief Bill
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday the Republican-led Senate will vote “as soon as this week” on COVID-19 relief legislation after negotiations with Democrats broke off last month. “It does not contain every idea our party likes. I am confident Democrats will feel the same. Yet Republicans believe the many serious differences between our two parties should not stand in the way of agreeing where we can agree and making law that helps our nation,” McConnell said in a statement. The Senate returned to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a shortened pre-election session as hopes continue to diminish for passage of another relief bill to cope with the economic decline brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. After bipartisan unity led to the approval of a nearly $3 billion COVID-19 rescue package in the spring, the two sides have not been able to reach another agreement. The House of Representatives doesn’t return to work until September 14. FILE – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Aug. 27, 2020.White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said earlier Tuesday he was optimistic another measure would be passed before the November 3 presidential election but gave no indication of progress in talks with congressional Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted Sunday that “McConnell may have declared a ‘pause’ to America’s coronavirus response, but it is clear the virus never did the same.” The U.S. leads the world in confirmed COVID-19 deaths, with nearly 190,000. The U.S. is also home to a world-leading 6.3 million coronavirus infections, nearly one-quarter of the more than 27.3 million worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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By Polityk | 09/08/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
House to Investigate Possible DeJoy Campaign Law Violations
House Democrats said Tuesday they will investigate whether Postmaster General Louis DeJoy encouraged employees at his former business to contribute to Republican candidates and then reimbursed them in the guise of bonuses, a violation of campaign finance laws.
Five people who worked for DeJoy’s former company, New Breed Logistics, say they were urged by DeJoy’s aides or by DeJoy himself to write checks and attend fundraisers at his mansion in Greensboro, North Carolina, The Washington Post reported. Two former employees told the newspaper that DeJoy would later give bigger bonuses to reimburse for the contributions.
It’s not illegal to encourage employees to contribute to candidates, but it is illegal to reimburse them as a way of avoiding federal campaign contribution limits.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement Tuesday that if the allegations are true, “DeJoy could face criminal exposure — not only for his actions in North Carolina, but also for lying to our Committee under oath.”
She was referring to DeJoy’s testimony before her committee last month, when he forcefully denied that he had repaid executives for contributing to Trump’s campaign.
Maloney, a New York Democrat, urged the Postal Service Board of Governors to immediately suspend DeJoy, whom “they never should have selected in the first place.”
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., chairman of the oversight panel’s government operations subcommittee, said DeJoy has “repeatedly broken the trust of the American people and must resign or be fired.”
Monty Hagler, a spokesperson for DeJoy, told the Post that DeJoy was unaware that any workers felt pressure to make donations. Hagler also said DeJoy believes he has always complied with campaign fundraising laws and regulations.
President Donald Trump said Monday that DeJoy, a major donor to Trump and other Republicans, should lose his job if campaign finance irregularities are uncovered.
DeJoy already faces unrelated scrutiny from Congress for U.S. Postal Service changes that some fear will slow delivery of mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 elections.
DeJoy was put in charge of the Postal Service in June after a career in logistics and set in motion a series of policy changes that have delayed mail and sparked concern over the agency’s ability to process a flood of mail-in ballots expected this fall due to coronavirus fears.
The oversight committee recently subpoenaed DeJoy for records about widespread mail delivery delays that have pushed the Postal Service into the political spotlight.
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By Polityk | 09/08/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Hopes Fade for Coronavirus Deal as Congress Returns to Work
At least there won’t be a government shutdown. But as lawmakers return to Washington for an abbreviated preelection session, hopes are dimming for another coronavirus relief bill — or much else. Talks between top Democrats and the Trump administration broke off last month and remain off track, with the bipartisan unity that drove almost $3 trillion in COVID-19 rescue legislation into law this spring replaced by partisanship and a return to Washington dysfunction. Expectations in July and August that a fifth bipartisan pandemic response bill would be agreed on despite increased obstacles has been replaced by genuine pessimism. Recent conversations about COVID-19 aid among key players have led to nothing. Democrats seem secure in their political position, with President Donald Trump and several Senate GOP incumbents lagging in the polls. Trump is seeking to sideline the pandemic as a campaign issue, and Republicans aren’t interested in a deal on Democratic terms — even as needs like school aid enjoy widespread support. Trump said Monday that Democrats “don’t want to make a deal because they think that if the country does as badly as possible … that’s good for the Democrats.” FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump listens to a question during a news conference at the White House in Washington, Sept. 4, 2020.”I am taking the high road,” he told reporters at the White House. “I’m taking the high road by not seeing them.” All of this imperils the chances for another round of $1,200 direct payments delivered under Trump’s name, the restoration of more generous unemployment benefits to those who’ve lost their jobs because of the pandemic, updates to a popular business subsidy program, and money to help schools reopen and states and local governments avoid layoffs. “I personally would like to see one more rescue package, but I must tell you the environment in Washington right now is exceedingly partisan because of the proximity to the election,” said GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at an appearance in Kentucky last week. “We’ve been in discussion now for the last month or so with no results so far. So I can’t promise one final package.” McConnell had been a force for a deal but does not appear eager to force a vote that exposes division in his ranks. Many Senate Republicans are also wary or opposed outright to another major chunk of debt-financed virus relief, even as GOP senators imperiled in the election, such as Susan Collins of Maine and Cory Gardner of Colorado, plead for more. Republicans are struggling to coalesce around a unified party position — and that’s before they engage with Democratic leaders, who are demanding far more. FILE – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Aug. 27, 2020.The relationship between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and her preferred negotiating partner, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, is civil but isn’t generating much in the way of results, other than a promise to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month by keeping a government-wide temporary spending bill free of controversy. That measure is likely to keep the government running into December. It’s likely to contain a bunch of lower-profile steps, such as an extension of the federal flood insurance program and a temporary reauthorization of spending from the highway trust fund. The decision for a controversy-free stopgap bill, known as a continuing resolution, means that both sides will forgo gamesmanship that uses the threat of a government shutdown to try to gain leverage. Trump forced a shutdown in 2018-2019 in a failed attempt to extract money for his U.S.-Mexico border wall, while Democrats lost a shutdown encounter in 2017 over legislation to help immigrants brought illegally to the country as children win permanent legal status. “Now we can focus just on another relief bill, and we’re continuing to do that in good faith,” Vice President Mike Pence said Friday on CNBC. But if talks continue to falter, there’s little to keep lawmakers in Washington long, particularly with the election fast approaching. The Senate returns Tuesday to resume its diet of judicial and administration nominations. The House doesn’t come back until Sept. 14 for a schedule laden with lower-profile measures such as clean energy legislation and a bill to decriminalize marijuana. Some Democrats are expected to continue to take advantage of remote voting and may not return to Washington at all.
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By Polityk | 09/08/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Supporters Meet for Vehicle Rally Outside Portland
Hundreds of people gathered Monday afternoon in a small town south of Portland for a pro-Donald Trump vehicle rally — just more than a week after a member of a far-right group was fatally shot after a Trump caravan went through Oregon’s largest city. Vehicles waving flags for Trump, the QAnon conspiracy theory and in support of police gathered at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City about noon, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. The rally’s organizers said they would drive to the state capital, Salem, and members of the right-wing groups the Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer would be in attendance. Organizers said they did not plan to enter Multnomah County, where Portland is located. Oregon City is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Portland. On Aug. 29, Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a supporter of Patriot Prayer, was killed in Portland after a pro-Trump caravan went downtown. Trump supporters fired paintballs at counterdemonstrators, who tried to block their way. Danielson’s suspected killer, Michael Forest Reinoehl, was fatally shot by police Thursday. Reinoehl was a supporter of antifa — shorthand for anti-fascists and an umbrella description for far-left-leaning militant groups. Demonstrations in Portland started in late May after George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis and have continued for more than 100 days. In this image taken from video a mattress burns in the street near the Portland Police Bureau’s North Precinct, Sept. 6, 2020, in Portland, Ore.A fire started outside a police precinct on Portland’s north side resulted in about 15 arrests during protests Sunday night into Monday morning, police said. Demonstrators protesting police brutality began marching about 9 p.m. Sunday and stopped at the North Precinct Community Policing Center, the site of several volatile protests in recent months. Officials warned demonstrators against entering the precinct property, saying they would be trespassing and subject to arrest. Shortly after arriving, the crowd began chanting, among other things, “burn it down,” police said in a statement. Some in the group lit a mattress on fire. Most of those arrested were from Portland. Others were from San Francisco; Sacramento, California; Mesa, Arizona; and two from Vancouver, Washington. Charges included interfering with an officer, resisting arrest, reckless burning and possession of a destructive device.
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By Polityk | 09/08/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Hopes Fading for Coronavirus Deal as Congress Returns
At least there won’t be a government shutdown. But as lawmakers return to Washington for an abbreviated preelection session, hopes are dimming for another coronavirus relief bill — or much else. Talks between top Democrats and the Trump administration broke off last month and remain off track, with the bipartisan unity that drove almost $3 trillion in COVID-19 rescue legislation into law this spring replaced by partisanship and a return to Washington dysfunction. Expectations in July and August that a fifth bipartisan pandemic response bill would be agreed on despite increased obstacles has been replaced by genuine pessimism. Recent conversations about COVID-19 aid among key players have led to nothing. Democrats seem secure in their political position, with President Donald Trump and several Senate GOP incumbents lagging in the polls. Trump is seeking to sideline the pandemic as a campaign issue, and Republicans aren’t interested in a deal on Democratic terms — even as needs like school aid enjoy widespread support. Trump said Monday that Democrats “don’t want to make a deal because they think that if the country does as badly as possible … that’s good for the Democrats.” FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump listens to a question during a news conference at the White House in Washington, Sept. 4, 2020.”I am taking the high road,” he told reporters at the White House. “I’m taking the high road by not seeing them.” All of this imperils the chances for another round of $1,200 direct payments delivered under Trump’s name, the restoration of more generous unemployment benefits to those who’ve lost their jobs because of the pandemic, updates to a popular business subsidy program, and money to help schools reopen and states and local governments avoid layoffs. “I personally would like to see one more rescue package, but I must tell you the environment in Washington right now is exceedingly partisan because of the proximity to the election,” said GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at an appearance in Kentucky last week. “We’ve been in discussion now for the last month or so with no results so far. So I can’t promise one final package.” McConnell had been a force for a deal but does not appear eager to force a vote that exposes division in his ranks. Many Senate Republicans are also wary or opposed outright to another major chunk of debt-financed virus relief, even as GOP senators imperiled in the election, such as Susan Collins of Maine and Cory Gardner of Colorado, plead for more. Republicans are struggling to coalesce around a unified party position — and that’s before they engage with Democratic leaders, who are demanding far more. FILE – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Aug. 27, 2020.The relationship between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and her preferred negotiating partner, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, is civil but isn’t generating much in the way of results, other than a promise to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month by keeping a government-wide temporary spending bill free of controversy. That measure is likely to keep the government running into December. It’s likely to contain a bunch of lower-profile steps, such as an extension of the federal flood insurance program and a temporary reauthorization of spending from the highway trust fund. The decision for a controversy-free stopgap bill, known as a continuing resolution, means that both sides will forgo gamesmanship that uses the threat of a government shutdown to try to gain leverage. Trump forced a shutdown in 2018-2019 in a failed attempt to extract money for his U.S.-Mexico border wall, while Democrats lost a shutdown encounter in 2017 over legislation to help immigrants brought illegally to the country as children win permanent legal status. “Now we can focus just on another relief bill, and we’re continuing to do that in good faith,” Vice President Mike Pence said Friday on CNBC. But if talks continue to falter, there’s little to keep lawmakers in Washington long, particularly with the election fast approaching. The Senate returns Tuesday to resume its diet of judicial and administration nominations. The House doesn’t come back until Sept. 14 for a schedule laden with lower-profile measures such as clean energy legislation and a bill to decriminalize marijuana. Some Democrats are expected to continue to take advantage of remote voting and may not return to Washington at all.
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By Polityk | 09/08/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump, Biden Clash Over COVID-19 Vaccine Rhetoric
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday unleashed another extended verbal attack on his opponent in the November election, claiming that the Democratic Party nominees Joe Biden and Kamala Harris “should immediately apologize for the reckless anti-vaccine rhetoric.” Biden said on Monday that he would like to see a vaccine tomorrow, even if it cost him the election. But “if we do have a really good vaccine, people are going to be reluctant to take it” because the president’s repeated misstatements and falsehoods with respect to the virus are “undermining public confidence.” “He’s said so many things that aren’t true,” Biden said. Trump, holding his first news conference on the North Portico of the White House, said that contrary to “political lies,” any vaccine approved for mass inoculation by the federal government will be “very safe and very effective.” The Republican and Democratic party nominees made their remarks as the presidential campaign turned to the homestretch on the annual Labor Day holiday – a time when COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is still killing about 1,000 Americans every day, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Biden went Monday to the key political battleground state of Pennsylvania in the eastern U.S. for a virtual town hall with AFL-CIO union President Richard Trumka in the state capital of Harrisburg. Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during an event with local union members in the backyard of a home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Sept. 7, 2020.Biden, a former vice president, has accused Trump of mismanaging the pandemic, spawning greater economic turmoil and the layoffs of millions of workers. Trump, in contrast, hailed his administration’s performance amid the pandemic, predicting a swift, “Super-V” recovery for the U.S. economy and predicting that if Biden, whom he called “a stupid person,” wins the election, “China will own this country.” Trump has portrayed himself as standing up to China on trade issues and criticizing that country for allowing the coronavirus to spread globally, wrecking America’s economic recovery. The U.S. jobless rate dipped to 8.4% in August, but economic experts say it could take months for a more robust recovery to take hold. Only about half the 22 million jobs that were lost in the pandemic have been recovered, with many employers paring their payrolls even as they have reopened their businesses. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference on the North Portico of the White House, Sept. 7, 2020, in Washington.Biden is collecting endorsements from three organized labor groups: The Laborers’ International Union of North America, the International Union of Elevator Constructors and the National Federation of Federal Employees. Collectively, the three unions represent hundreds of thousands of workers nationwide the Biden campaign hopes to mobilize for support. Trump has emphasized his endorsement for the unions representing police officers, stressing a “law and order” message amid peaceful urban demonstrations and some violence at protests in response to the deaths of Blacks by police in numerous cities. Trump is also fighting to maintain support among veterans and those serving in the U.S. military after a magazine, citing four unnamed people, reported that he had referred to Marines buried in an American cemetery near Paris as “losers” and “suckers” and declined to visit their graves during a 2018 trip to France. “Only an animal would say that,” Trump replied when asked about The Atlantic’s article during Monday’s news conference. He termed the article a “phony story” that others have refuted. Several news organizations, including Fox News, which is generally sympathetic to Trump, have confirmed elements of the story, attributed to their own sources, which they have not named. Biden on Monday met with three union workers who had served in the U.S. military at a home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “Do you think most of those guys and women are suckers?” Biden asked, adding a sarcastic chuckle. Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., listens during a tour of the IBEW 494 training facility in Milwaukee, Sept. 7, 2020.Biden’s vice presidential running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris, and Vice President Mike Pence both visited the highly contested battleground state of Wisconsin in the Midwest on Monday. FILE – Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a campaign event on the grounds of Kuharchik Construction, Inc., in Exeter, Pa., Sept. 1, 2020.Harris, in her first solo, in-person campaign appearance as part of Biden’s ticket, met with unionized electrical workers and Black business owners in Milwaukee. She also met with the family and legal team of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was shot and paralyzed in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in front of three of his children last month. Pence, Trump’s second in command, toured an energy facility in the city of La Crosse. Both Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, two traditionally Democratic states that Trump won in 2016 to help him capture a four-year White House term, are again expected to be pivotal states this November. Polls show Biden narrowly ahead in both states. Biden, who has a thin lead in some other battleground states, is maintaining his advantage over Trump in national polls by about 7 percentage points. While the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed about 190,000 people in the country, has sharply curtailed huge political rallies that are a mainstay of typical U.S. presidential campaigns, both Trump and Biden are planning numerous trips in the coming weeks to politically important states in front of more modest crowds. Trump plans to visit North Carolina, Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania later in the week. Biden plans to return to Pennsylvania on Friday, when both he and Trump plan to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the 2001 al-Qaida terrorist attacks on the U.S. in Shanksville, where a jetliner crashed into a field as passengers tried to commandeer the plane from the hijackers. Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report.
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By Polityk | 09/08/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
1st Presidential Debate Set for September 29
Now that the U.S. presidential nominating conventions have ended, the next key date on the campaign calendar is Tuesday, September 29 — the race’s first presidential debate. Republican President Donald Trump and his Democratic Party rival, former vice president Joe Biden, spent the week after the conventions making their opening arguments in some of the U.S. States critical to winning the election, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina. “I think that we can expect to see a rowdy debate between the two presidential candidates,” said Jennifer Mercieca, assistant professor of Communications at Texas A&M University. “Both of these candidates are fighters.” Mercieca says indications of Trump’s debating style can be found in how he described his 2016 campaign as a “counterpunch.” FILE – In this Oct. 9, 2016 file photo, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton walks past Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during the second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis.“He regularly uses ad hominem attacks, which is attacking the person instead of their argument. And he isn’t shy to do that, to mock people and bully them during a debate. He did that in 2016,” she said, adding that Biden’s debating history shows he will stand his ground. “We saw in 2012 that his vice-presidential debate was similar, I think, to Trump in style and that he [Biden] sort of mocked his opposition a little bit. He laughed at him [Paul Ryan], you know, sort of right in his face,” Mercieca said. “I don’t think that he [Biden] goes to the extremes that Donald Trump does in terms of mocking his opposition or threatening them. But, you know, he’s definitely capable of standing his ground and not allowing himself to be intimidated.” FILE – Vice President Joe Biden (R) and Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan depart at the conclusion of the vice presidential debate in Danville, Kentucky, Oct. 11, 2012. Debates format Since the first presidential debate in 1960 and since their resumption in 1976, the format has generally been the same: candidates answering questions from a moderator. “What they basically are, are joint press conferences where they share, you know, press conference soundbites back and forth and they stay on their own message,” says John Koch, director of Debate at Vanderbilt University. Koch proposes different formats, including taking questions from experts instead of a moderator and watching the candidates tackle the issues. “The debate would start with: Here’s the issue or the situation. You have 30 minutes or whatever it is to meet with your consultants and advisers and then we want you to come back with a position, explain your position. The other candidates will explain their position. And then we’ll have a debate about how you arrived at that decision and then the quality of those decisions, because what we really want out of a president is somebody who can, in a crisis or when an issue presents itself to meet with their consultants or advisers, make a decision and then be able to defend it,” Koch explained. “It is actually informative to see both candidates in contrast to one another. So, to hear how they speak, the tone they use, but also to hear about their policies,” Mercieca said. “It allows them to directly accuse one another of doing things. And it also allows them to make rebuttals so that they can defend themselves.” Do debates change minds? In 2016, an estimated 84 million Americans watched the first debate between then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The high interest in the 2020 election may set a new record, but whether it sways voters is questionable. FILE – Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speak simultaneously during their first presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, Sept. 26, 2016.“A lot of the research on presidential debates have shown that it kind of lets people identify with the candidate that they kind of already identify with and it just kind of lets them see who shares their positions,” said Koch. “There’s not a lot of evidence per se that changes presidential debates changed minds.” According to Pew Research, 10% of 2016 voters said they decided their vote during or just after the debates. Mercieca says it is “a shame” that America’s political polarization has gotten this bad. “I really think that, you know for these debates to have any kind of effect like they should, that the audience itself has a responsibility to listen with an open mind.”
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By Polityk | 09/07/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
New York Arena Becomes Polling Site Following NBA Player Protest
About 20 U.S. professional basketball teams will convert their venues into pandemic-safe voting centers for the 2020 presidential election. The move is part of a deal with the NBA players, who briefly halted their participation in the season-ending playoffs to protest racial injustice and police brutality. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports the latest arena to announce its plans is New York City’s Barclays Center, home to the Brooklyn Nets.
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By Polityk | 09/05/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Battleground State Voters Gear Up for Final Months of Presidential Campaign
In the final 60 days of the 2020 election campaign for the White House, former Vice President Democrat Joe Biden leads incumbent Republican President Donald Trump in opinion polling in several key battleground states, including Wisconsin, which Trump won by a narrow margin in 2016. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, organizers are working to register voters amid continuing racial unrest and the global coronavirus pandemic that has cost more than 187,000 American lives.
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By Polityk | 09/05/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Republicans, Democrats Adapt Conventions to COVID Pandemic
It may not have been as large as he had hoped, but President Donald Trump got his wish to deliver his acceptance speech before a live crowd to close the 2020 Republican National Convention. Both political parties had to grapple with the reality that the coronavirus pandemic would not allow the staging of a traditional convention, with thousands of people crowded into sports arenas. Democrats, instead, held a “virtual convention,” using a combination of messages from party leaders recorded from their homes, slickly produced promotional videos and user-generated content woven around a handful of live events to produce what could be described as a social media feed of political content. FILE – Joe Biden and his wife wave to supporters watching remotely during the last day of the Democratic National Convention, being held virtually, in Wilmington, Delaware, Aug. 20, 2020.Republicans went more traditional, using a classic Roman-columned auditorium not far from the White House for the backdrop of many of their recorded speeches. But the similarities ended with the staging of live speeches by key speakers. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden; his wife, Jill Biden; vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris and former president Barack Obama delivered their speeches live, but with no audience, save for some reporters. Coronavirus politics But coronavirus distancing measures were less rigorously applied during key Republican speeches. First lady Melania Trump spoke to an audience of about 70 in the White House Rose Garden. Vice President Mike Pence had about 100 people attend his speech at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. And about 1,500 supporters were seated side by side on the White House South Lawn for Trump’s nomination acceptance speech Thursday night. Few masks were visible at any of the events, and most of the attendees were not tested for coronavirus before entering White House grounds. FILE – President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House during the Republican National Convention, in Washington, Aug. 27, 2020.Matthew Continetti, a resident fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, noted that both parties sent subtle signals about their way forward with the pandemic. “You can look at the ways in which the two nominees handled their panel discussions. Joe Biden, of course, talked to his guests via Zoom remotely. And whenever Biden was in proximity with other people, he always was sure to model the use of a mask,” Continetti said. “Donald Trump, on the other hand, conducted his panels in person, in the White House, and there were no masks involved,” he added. “I think that speaks to larger differences between the two parties, not only on how to approach the coronavirus, but also the future of America in general,” Continetti said. Among the key pieces of party business conducted at a convention is the adoption of a platform, which is a statement of the party’s guiding principles and policy positions. Democrats adopted their platform on the second day of their convention and revealed that more than 1,000 delegates out of the total of 3,979 voted no on the platform. Continetti said the lack of arena-filled audiences helped quiet intra-party divisions. “You didn’t have any boos or heckles of when an elected official voiced a more moderate position during DNC … and you also didn’t have those chants of ‘lock her up,’ which kind of were interspersed among all the speeches at the RNC four years ago,” Continetti noted. Republicans simply renewed their platform from 2016 and added a resolution to “enthusiastically support” Trump’s agenda. Past and future There was also a conspicuous absence of former party leaders at the Republican convention. Nearly all of Joe Biden’s primary opponents spoke at the Democratic convention along with former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.FILE – In this image from video, former President Bill Clinton speaks during the second night of the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 18, 2020.Former president George W. Bush did not speak at the Republican convention for the second consecutive time. And of Trump’s 11 Republican primary opponents in 2016, just Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and Housing Secretary Ben Carson delivered convention remarks. “The absence of the old guard of the Republican Party is definitely meaningful,” said Vanessa Beasley, communications professor at Vanderbilt University. “You want to show the continuity of the party itself, you want to show the party’s behind you, and the absence of key figures signals … that’s not necessarily the case,” she noted. FILE – Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson speaks on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention from the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, Aug. 27, 2020.While many of the featured speakers at the Republican convention were members of the president’s immediate family and their significant others, Continetti says it was that way in 2016 and it plays to Trump’s branding as a celebrity. “So much of his support is tied to him personally, that I think if the goal of the convention is to enthuse his voter base, maybe remind them of why they voted for Donald Trump four years ago, a family member is just as likely to do that as a Republican elected official, and perhaps even more likely, since one thing we know about the Trump base is that they are extremely suspicious of politics as usual,” Continetti said. Optimistic messages Both candidates claim they are optimistic while painting a dark picture of the American future if the opposing candidate wins. “I think what’s interesting about this moment is that that optimism as a claim is being manifest quite differently,” notes Beasley, an expert on political communication and presidential rhetoric. “In the Democratic National Convention, it was almost a more somber and intimate tone, some sense of even some mourning, especially when they showed pictures of people whose lives have been lost to COVID-19.” “And the optimism in the Republican case was manifest in terms of a higher volume, a tone of what will happen if the future is left in the hands of the Democrats,” Beasley said. Without a live audience to react and applaud, speeches were shorter at both conventions. But fewer people watched either convention on television than did four years ago. Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
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By Polityk | 08/29/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US House Panel Announces Contempt Proceedings Against Pompeo
The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee announced contempt proceedings against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday, citing his refusal to comply with a subpoena for records into his “transparently political misuse” of department resources.
The Democratic chairman of the committee, Eliot Engel, also cited Pompeo’s speech from Jerusalem before the Republican National Convention and said “he has demonstrated alarming disregard for the laws and rules governing his own conduct and for the tools the constitution provides to prevent government corruption.”
The committee last month issued a subpoena to Pompeo demanding documents he provided to Republicans investigating Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.“The House Foreign Affairs Committee is seeking documents which the State Department has already produced to Senate Democrats,” a State Department spokesperson said. “We have previously offered to provide copies of these documents to Chairman Engel, with the only condition being that he send a letter explaining what foreign policy issue he is investigating that requires these documents. Once this letter is received, the Department will produce the documents. This press release is political theatrics and is an unfortunate waste of taxpayer resources.”
A Republican-led U.S. Senate committee has been gathering information related to Hunter Biden, son of the former U.S. vice president, Republican President Donald Trump’s opponent in the November election.
Hunter Biden was a former board member of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The company was thrust into the global spotlight last year in the impeachment inquiry into whether Trump improperly pressured the government in Kyiv into opening a case involving his election rival.
“I gave Mr. Pompeo ample opportunity to fulfill my request for documents, which I first made more than three months ago. These documents were already produced to the Senate, and his refusal to provide them to the Foreign Affairs Committee required that I issue a subpoena on July 31,” Engel said in a statement.
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By Polityk | 08/29/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Accepts GOP Nomination, Slams Biden on China, Economy
During his White House address Thursday accepting his party’s nomination for a second term, President Donald Trump said the November election “will decide whether we will defend the American way of life or whether we will allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.” Trump, who faces a strong challenge from former Vice President Joe Biden, told a large crowd on the White House South Lawn “this is the most important election in the history of our country.” People watch video screens before President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington.The 1,000-plus invited attendees, including many Republican members of Congress, were seated close to each other and most did not wear face masks, defying public health advice amid the coronavirus pandemic. Trump, who trails Biden in national polls and political battleground state surveys, devoted much of his speech to a blistering attack on his Democratic opponent, denouncing him at one point as a “Trojan horse” for far left radicals and anarchists who want to destroy the country.To rousing cheers from the audience, Trump said the former vice president “is not a savior of America’s soul. He is the destroyer of America’s jobs. And if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness.”“For 47 years, Joe Biden took the donations of blue-collar workers, gave them hugs and even kisses,” Trump said. “And told them he felt their pain. And then he flew back to Washington and voted to ship our jobs to China and many other distant lands.”President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington.Tough on ChinaThe president, in his 70-minute speech, emphasized what he called his tough approach toward China, in terms of the economy and blaming Beijing for allowing the coronavirus to escape its borders. In fact, Trump enjoyed good relations with China leader Xi Jinping early in his administration while the two leaders engaged in major trade talks, and later, after the coronavirus began to spread, Trump praised Xi for his handling of the crisis. Once the relationship soured and Trump began blaming China for U.S. public health and economic woes, the president stepped up his criticism of Biden as a dupe of China.“Joe Biden’s agenda is made in China. My agenda is made in the USA,” Trump said. If reelected, Trump promised, “We will go right after China. We will not rely on them one bit.” Just before the president’ speech, Biden’s campaign attacked Trump as “the weakest president that we’ve ever had when it comes to China.”“He has failed again and again to stand up for American interests to the Chinese government,” the Biden campaign said in a statement.The Democratic Party nominee’s campaign contended that “when coronavirus was emerging, Trump spread Xi’s lies. And his tariff war with China has devastated American farmers, businesses, consumers, and workers. He even begged President Xi to bail out his reelection campaign.”Wrong side of history In his speech, Trump said Biden “has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history.”The president also sought to draw a philosophical and moral contrast between the two parties. “In the left’s backward view, they do not see America as the most free, just and exceptional nation on Earth. Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sin.” Trump declared that “Joe Biden is weak. He takes his marching orders from liberal hypocrites.” Biden, at a virtual campaign event earlier Thursday, criticized the president as “totally irresponsible” for holding a purely political event on the White House lawn, “virtually throwing every major rule in the dust bin.” Ivanka Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)Mix of virtual, live eventsA fireworks display, which spelled out the name “Trump” and “2020” above the Washington Monument and the National Mall immediately followed the president’s speech. Aside from his speech live in front of the crowd at the White House, and one Wednesday night in Baltimore by Vice President Mike Pence, the Republicans’ four-day convention was mostly a virtual affair, similar to the Democratic conclave a week ago. By turning to virtual conventions, both parties were attempting to limit the spread of the coronavirus that has killed more than 180,000 people in the U.S. and infected 5.8 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. “We’ll produce a vaccine before the end of the year, or maybe even sooner,” Trump predicted Thursday evening. The president’s key advisers believe he improved his political standing this week with speakers praising his 3½-year tenure in the White House and lambasting Biden, most of them standing on a stage at the empty Mellon Auditorium a short distance from the White House. Trump was introduced by one of his daughters, Ivanka, who is also a White House adviser. “Dad, people attack you for being unconventional, but I love you for being real,” she said. “And I respect you for being effective.” The National Guard protect the perimeter of government buildings in Kenosha, Wis. on Aug. 27, 2020.Racial unrest During the Republican convention, racial turmoil erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where the police shooting Sunday of a Black man, Jacob Blake, touched off street protests against police. Buildings were also set afire in the Midwestern city of 100,000 residents. A 17-year-old youth from the neighboring state of Illinois has been arrested and charged in the killing of two protesters and the wounding of a third. Trump, in his acceptance speech did not mention the wounding of Blake, who is paralyzed from the waist down, his father said. He re-emphasized his law-and-order approach, condemning agitators, looters and anarchists in several Democrat-run cities. Trump and Pence, along with numerous convention speakers, portrayed their administration as a staunch supporter of law enforcement, standing against protests, some of which have turned violent, that have erupted since the May 25 death of a Black man, George Floyd, while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. From left, Tiffany Trump, President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and Barron Trump stand on stage on the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020.Fact checks & polls The president’s address kept fact-checkers busy.
Some of the president’s comments were false or misleading, according to PolitiFact, which is run by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school and research organization. Polls show Biden leading Trump by about 7 percentage points, according to an aggregation of surveys by the Real Clear Politics website. However, Biden’s edge is thinner in several key battleground states that could once again prove decisive in the election. Only two U.S. presidents have lost reelection contests after a single term in office in the past four decades: Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992.
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By Polityk | 08/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Protesters Try to Drown Out Trump Speech, Yell at Sen. Paul
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered around the White House for a “noise demonstration and dance party” in an attempt to drown out President Donald Trump’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination.
And later, a crowd enveloped U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky as he left the convention, yelling for him to say the name of police shooting victim Breonna Taylor, who was killed in his state, but there was no indication the protesters were the same.
“I hope you hear us, Trump,” the leader of the popular local band TOB shouted near the site of Trump’s speech. The band blared Go-Go music, a distinctive D.C. variant on funk, as it moved in the direction of the White House, where Trump delivered his acceptance speech to a crowd of more 1,500 people on the South Lawn.
One protester held up a sign, “Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue” — the street where the White House is located.
There was no indication that Trump heard the protesters, but there were a few points when a mix of sirens, music and blowhorns could be heard in the background and spectators in the back turned to see where the sounds were coming from.
Acknowledging the coronavirus pandemic, the demonstrators wore masks but there was no social distancing.
“Make some noise if you want to drown out Trump,” protest organizer Justin Johnson said.
After the convention concluded, there were skirmishes as protesters yelled and threw water bottles at police at the historic St. John’s Church near Black Lives Matter Plaza. There were some arrests.
Video posted online showed dozens of people confronting Senator Paul and his wife, who were flanked by police officers, on a street after midnight. Protesters shouted “No Justice, No Peace” and “Say Her Name” before one appears to briefly clash with an officer, pushing him and his bike backward, sending the officer into Paul’s shoulder.
Paul later tweeted that he had been “attacked” by a “crazed mob” a block from the White House. The senator and his wife kept walking and did not appear to have been touched by any of the protesters or to have suffered any injuries.
Videos showed other attendees also being confronted by protesters after leaving Trump’s event.
There was a robust police presence, but the noise demonstration outside the White House was generally peaceful. There was a moment of levity at the end.
“You guys gotta get some rhythm,” a protester told Secret Service officers.
“Would you have rhythm if you were wearing 30 pounds of gear,” one responded.
The demonstration was significantly smaller than the protests that rocked the nation’s capital this past spring after George Floyd died at police hands in Minneapolis.
Floyd’s family and the families of other Black Americans who were victims of police violence were expected to participate Friday in a commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington that is being led by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III.
Before Trump spoke, there was a brief standoff between police and demonstrators, who shouted anti-police slogans. “Free the people, fight the power,” they chanted. Nearby protesters set up a small guillotine, with the District of Columbia flag as the blade.
Lafayette Park, a traditional site of demonstrations across from the White House, was sealed off and there were some street closures.
The groups ShutdownDC and Long-Live Go-Go had put out word in advance about the planned “noise demonstration and dance party” to coincide with Trump’s speech.
“We’ll be at the White House on Thursday to drown out (Trump’s) racist rhetoric with another vision for the future of our country,” the groups said in a statement.
A longtime D.C. signature sound, Go-Go music emerged last year as a battle anthem for activists fighting fast-moving gentrification in the nation’s capital. The music has been a regular presence in recent protests against racial injustice and rolling Go-Go trucks with live bands have appeared frequently at the epicenter of the protests, which was renamed by the city as Black Lives Matter Plaza.
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By Polityk | 08/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Accepts the Republican Party’s Nomination
President Donald Trump concluded the final night of the Republican National Convention with an acceptance speech delivered in front a live audience of about 1,500 people on the South Lawn of the White House. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this recap.
Camera: Virginia Gunawan
Produced by: Barry Unger
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By Polityk | 08/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Accepts GOP Nomination, Calls Biden ‘Destroyer of American Greatness’
During his White House address Thursday accepting his party’s nomination for a second term, President Donald Trump said the November election “will decide whether we will defend the American way of life or whether we will allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.”Trump, who faces a strong challenge from former Vice President Joe Biden, told a large crowd on the White House South Lawn “this is the most important election in the history of our country.”The 1,000-plus invited attendees, including many Republican members of Congress, were seated close to each other and most did not wear face masks, defying public health advice amid the coronavirus pandemic.Trump, who trails Biden in national polls and political battleground state surveys, devoted much of his speech to a blistering attack on his Democratic opponent, denouncing him at one point as a “Trojan horse” for far left radicals and anarchists who want to destroy the country.To rousing cheers from the audience, Trump said the former vice president “is not a savior of America’s soul. He is the destroyer of America’s jobs. And if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness.”“For 47 years, Joe Biden took the donations of blue-collar workers, gave them hugs and even kisses,” Trump said. “And told them he felt their pain. And then he flew back to Washington and voted to ship our jobs to China and many other distant lands.”The president, in his 70-minute speech, emphasized what he called his tough approach toward China, in terms of the economy and blaming Beijing for allowing the coronavirus to escape its borders.President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington.In fact, Trump enjoyed good relations with China leader Xi Jinping early in his administration while the two leaders engaged in major trade talks, and later, after the coronavirus began to spread, Trump praised Xi for his handling of the crisis. Once the relationship soured and Trump began blaming China for U.S. public health and economic woes, the president stepped up his criticism of Biden as a dupe of China.“Joe Biden’s agenda is made in China. My agenda is made in the USA,” Trump said.If reelected, Trump promised, “We will go right after China. We will not rely on them one bit.”Just before the president’ speech, Biden’s campaign attacked Trump as “the weakest president that we’ve ever had when it comes to China.”“He has failed again and again to stand up for American interests to the Chinese government,” the Biden campaign said in a statement.The Democratic Party nominee’s campaign contended that “when coronavirus was emerging, Trump spread Xi’s lies. And his tariff war with China has devastated American farmers, businesses, consumers, and workers. He even begged President Xi to bail out his reelection campaign.”In his speech, Trump said Biden “has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history.”The president also sought to draw a philosophical and moral contrast between the two parties.“In the left’s backward view, they do not see America as the most free, just and exceptional nation on Earth. Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sin.”Trump declared that “Joe Biden is weak. He takes his marching orders from liberal hypocrites.”Biden, at a virtual campaign event earlier Thursday, criticized the president as “totally irresponsible” for holding a purely political event on the White House lawn, “virtually throwing every major rule in the dustbin.”Ivanka Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington.A fireworks display, which spelled out the name “Trump” and “2020” above the Washington Monument and the National Mall, immediately followed the president’s speech.Aside from his speech live in front of the crowd at the White House, and one Wednesday night in Baltimore by Vice President Mike Pence, the Republicans’ four-day convention was mostly a virtual affair, similar to the Democratic conclave a week ago.By turning to virtual conventions, both parties were attempting to limit the spread of the coronavirus that, according to Johns Hopkins University, has killed more than 180,000 people in the U.S. and infected 5.8 million.“We’ll produce a vaccine before the end of the year, or maybe even sooner,” Trump predicted Thursday evening.The president’s key advisers believe he improved his political standing this week with speakers praising his 3½-year tenure in the White House and lambasting Biden, most of them standing on a stage at the empty Mellon Auditorium a short distance from the White House.Trump was introduced by one of his daughters, Ivanka, who is also a White House adviser.“Dad, people attack you for being unconventional, but I love you for being real,” she said. “And I respect you for being effective.”During the Republican convention, racial turmoil erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where the police shooting Sunday of a Black man, Jacob Blake, touched off street protests against police. Buildings were also set afire in the Midwestern city of 100,000 residents. A 17-year-old youth from the neighboring state of Illinois has been arrested and charged in the killing of two protesters and the wounding of a third.Trump, in his acceptance speech did not mention the wounding of Blake, who is paralyzed from the waist down, his father said. He reemphasized his law-and-order approach, condemning agitators, looters and anarchists in several Democrat-run cities.Trump and Pence, along with numerous convention speakers, portrayed their administration as a staunch supporter of law enforcement, standing against protests, some of which have turned violent, that have erupted since the May 25 death of a Black man, George Floyd, while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.The president’s lengthy address kept fact-checkers busy.Some of the president’s comments were false or misleading, according to PolitiFact, which is run by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school and research organization.The New York Times also attempted a comprehensive running fact check during the address and gave the president mixed reviews in terms of adhering to the truth.There were more than 20 false or misleading claims made by Trump in his speech, according to CNN’s Daniel Dale.”This President is a serial liar.”In a lengthy acceptance speech delivered almost entirely from a teleprompter, CNN’s @ddale8 says President Trump made at least 20 false or misleading claims https://t.co/qKSEhb8N6dpic.twitter.com/RfqWW2epYS— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 28, 2020Polls show Biden leading Trump by about 7 percentage points, according to an aggregation of surveys by the Real Clear Politics website. However, Biden’s edge is thinner in several key battleground states that could once again prove decisive in the election.Only two U.S. presidents have lost reelection contests after a single term in office in the past four decades: Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992.
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By Polityk | 08/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Republicans and Democrats Adapt Conventions to Coronavirus Pandemic
Republicans have their turn this week holding their convention to renominate Donald Trump to run for a second term as president of the United States. As with the Democrats last week, the coronavirus pandemic forced Republicans to rethink holding a convention while remaining socially distant. VOA’s Steve Redisch examines how it is working.
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By Polityk | 08/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Five Former CDC Directors Speak Out About Ending Coronavirus Pandemic
Former directors of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the world-renowned American agency that has long taken the lead in fighting communicable diseases, are voicing unusual criticism of the U.S. handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the CDC’s limited role in that effort.COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed more than 180,000 people in the U.S., and those are only the confirmed cases. The CDC says the actual number of COVID-19 deaths is much higher and that the virus will be a leading cause of deaths in the U.S. in 2020.Five former CDC directors, appointed by both Republican and Democratic administrations, say the agency should be doing more to lead the effort to contain the pandemic.FILE – Dr. Richard Besser, May 8, 2013, in New York.Among them is Dr. Richard Besser, who as acting director of the CDC held daily televised news conferences during the H1N1 flu pandemic of 2008-09, which infected more than 60 million people in the U.S. and killed 12,469 people. Globally, the World Health Organization estimated that a half-million people died.During the current pandemic, however, the White House Coronavirus Task Force is being led not by the CDC, but by Vice President Mike Pence, prompting questions about the extent to which the task force’s advice may be seen as politically motivated.“It really concerns me that we’re not hearing from CDC every day. We’re not hearing from them about what they consider to be the best practices in terms of isolation and quarantine, what needs to be done,” Besser said in a recent interview with STAT, a health publication run by the publishers of the Boston Globe newspaper.“We’re seeing so much that’s being presented to us by political leaders, and when that’s the case, half the country says, ‘Great, I’m on board,’ and the rest rejects things out of hand because of the messenger. … The more you can depoliticize the response, the more successful you’re going to be.”FILE – Dr. David Satcher, May 31, 2012, in Atlanta.That concern is shared by Dr. David Satcher, who was appointed to lead the CDC by Democratic President Bill Clinton. “I think it was obvious during the time that we were having daily reports about the pandemic that CDC was being sidelined,” Satcher said in an interview, regarding the task force’s late afternoon briefings earlier this year.He contrasted that with the prestigious role the agency held when he was director. “What I remember is that whenever there was a major issue in the world, people called the CDC before they called the World Health Organization, even though there was a very good working relationship between the CDC and WHO.”The former directors acknowledge shortcomings in the performance of the agency itself, which in the early days of the pandemic rolled out a defective test and advised the public against wearing face masks – advice that was later reversed when the extent of asymptomatic transmission became understood.But medical professionals have learned a lot about the coronavirus since then, according to Dr. Julie Gerberding, who became director of the CDC under Republican President George W. Bush. She is now an executive vice president at the pharmaceutical giant Merck.FILE – Merck Executive Vice President and Chief Patient Officer Julie Gerberding is seen on a screen as she gives a statement during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, June 23, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.Gerberding recently told ABC News that she would love to turn back the clock because so much has been learned about the virus since it first appeared. “We know it is incredibly transmissible,” she said, “and we know that most people are still susceptible.”When Dr. Tom Frieden headed the CDC, after his appointment by President Barack Obama, a Democrat, the CDC was highly involved in the Ebola crisis in West Africa, from 2014 to 2016. Frieden now heads a global public health initiative called Resolve to Save Lives.He has been among the most outspoken of the former directors in accusing the Trump administration of dictating health policy to the CDC.FILE – Dr. Tom Frieden, Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), speaks at the New America think tank in Washington, D.C., July 13, 2016.“I don’t think there’s ever been a time before when people from the White House or HHS are dictating what goes on technical documents on the CDC website,” he said Thursday during a webinar sponsored by Vital Strategies, a global health organization. “This is dangerous. This is a big problem. It’s a big problem for a lot of reasons, as some of you know the CDC.”Satcher and the others are critical of President Donald Trump’s push to open schools and businesses when, they say, the virus is not yet under control. They say rushing to get things back to normal will only spread the virus.A number of universities have had to close after the virus spread when students returned to campus for the fall semester. A judge in Florida ruled that public schools don’t have to abide by the state’s requirement for in-person instruction because it “arbitrarily disregards safety” and denies local school boards the ability to decide when students can safely return.Besser, now president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the largest health philanthropy in the U.S., says CDC guidance needs to be followed for the public good and that it should not be seen as “a barrier to getting children back into school instead of a road map for doing it safely.”Satcher, who founded the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine, told VOA that “the priority in any pandemic ought to be prevention.” He also said fighting a pandemic requires leadership from the president.The former directors have been critical of what they called misleading information coming from the White House. Trump has touted the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which the health specialists say does not cure COVID-19 and may be harmful.Although Trump later said he was being sarcastic, a remark he made about injecting disinfectants as a means to treat the virus prompted companies that produce them to run televised advisories warning people that their products could be deadly if injected or ingested.FILE – Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, August 29, 1999.Dr. Jeffrey Koplan spent 26 years at the CDC. He was the director from 1998 to 2002, and later established the Atlanta-based Emory Global Health Institute.”We need to feed truth back to the American public and to use those truths with our scientific evidence to control this disease,” he said.All agree that pulling together and following the science is the best course. They also recommend following standard disease prevention methods like avoiding crowds, practicing good hand hygiene, staying at least two meters from others, and wearing masks when in public.Trump has been seen wearing a mask in public only twice. An audience at the White House Rose Garden did not wear masks during first lady Melania Trump’s speech during the Republican National Convention.When VOA asked for a response from the White House, Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere told VOA, “The White House and CDC have been working together in partnership since the very beginning of this pandemic to carry out the president’s highest priority: the health and safety of the American public.”The CDC is the nation’s trusted health protection agency and its infectious disease and public health experts have helped deliver critical solutions throughout this pandemic to save lives,” Deere said. “We encourage all Americans to continue to follow the CDC’s guidelines as we responsibly continue to open up America.”The CDC has reversed its recommendations on testing for COVID-19. The agency had been recommending that those who have been exposed to the virus get tested, even if they did not have symptoms. On August 25, the CDC said people who don’t have symptoms “do not necessarily need a test,” even though it’s known that people without symptoms can pass the virus to others.Several U.S. news organizations claim the CDC was pressured to revise its testing guidelines by Trump administration officials.The American Medical Association issued a statement saying “COVID-19 is spread by asymptomatic people. Suggesting that people without symptoms, who have known exposure to COVID-positive individuals, do not need testing is a recipe for community spread and more spikes in coronavirus.”The leading U.S. doctors group also asked the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services to provide the scientific justification for this change in testing guidelines.In an email to VOA, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said the agency is placing emphasis “on testing individuals with symptomatic illness”; those “with a significant exposure,” such as people in nursing homes, health care workers and first responders; or people “who may be asymptomatic when prioritized by medical and public health officials.”Redfield said, “Testing may be considered for all close contacts of confirmed or probable COVID-19 patients.”Redfield’s statement said the new guidelines were “coordinated in conjunction with the White House Coronavirus Task Force.”
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By Polityk | 08/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden Rejects Suggestion He Not Debate Trump
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is rejecting calls that he not formally debate President Donald Trump. “I’m going to debate him. I am going to be the fact-checker on the stage while I’m debating him,” Biden said Thursday during an interview with MSNBC. The former vice president added, “I think everybody knows that this man has a somewhat pathological tendency not to tell the truth.” Trump and Biden are scheduled for debates on September 29, October 15 and October 22. Biden made the statements shortly after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she did not think there should be any presidential debates this year. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Aug. 27, 2020.“I wouldn’t legitimize a conversation with him, nor a debate in terms of the presidency of the United States,” Pelosi said. She predicted that during the debates, Trump would “probably act in a way that is beneath the dignity of the presidency,” recalling what she termed his “disgraceful” actions during the 2016 debates with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when he loomed over the Democratic nominee during a town hall-style encounter. With 67 days left until the 2020 election, Democrats are continuing to assail Trump for his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed 180,000 people in the United States — the most reported by any country, according to Johns Hopkins University data. In some of the most searing language yet by the opposition party’s ticket, Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, said that while the threat from the virus increased, “Donald Trump stood idly by, and folks, it was a deadly decision.“Donald Trump froze. He was scared. And he was petty and vindictive,” she said in a livestreamed speech from George Washington University in Washington. Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks in Washington, Aug. 27, 2020.In her first solo outing of the campaign, Harris said that while Biden has proposed a plan to combat COVID-19, the current president still does not have a plan. “You can’t stop it with a tweet,” she said. Harris said Trump has failed miserably to carry out a president’s most fundamental duty, which is to protect the American people. Trump has repeatedly emphasized his decision at the end of January to ban entry to anyone who had been in China during the previous 14 days, a decision that came immediately after the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency. The president credits his action with saving potentially millions of American lives, and says Biden criticized it at the time. On the day after the China ban, Biden called Trump xenophobic and said the president should make decisions based on science. But Democrats contend the former vice president was criticizing Trump in general, not the specific policy.
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By Polityk | 08/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Accepting VP Nominatin, Pence Makes Case for Trump 2nd Term
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence accepted the nomination for a second term in office as Republicans met for a third day in a mostly virtual national convention. Mike O’Sullivan reports that, in the midst of civil unrest in many American cities, Pence offered an upbeat message with warnings about his Democratic Party opponents.
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By Polityk | 08/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
White House, Democrats Resume Coronavirus Aid Talks; No Progress Reported
The White House and congressional Democrats made no progress Thursday on a coronavirus financial relief package that has been stalled for weeks, as benefits ran out for millions of unemployed Americans.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a Thursday afternoon call with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows “made clear that the White House continues to disregard the needs of the American people as the coronavirus crisis devastates lives and livelihoods.”Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer last met with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Meadows at the end of July, just as $600 a week in supplemental federal unemployment benefits expired for millions of Americans put out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic.White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, center, waits in the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Aug. 3, 2020.Commenting Tuesday on Pelosi’s negotiating position to Politico, Meadows said, “I think privately she says she wants a deal, and publicly she says she wants a deal, but when it comes to dealing with Republicans and the administration, we haven’t seen a lot of action.”In a statement Thursday, Pelosi said negotiations would resume “once Republicans start to take this process seriously.”Pelosi and other Democrats have proposed an extension of those benefits, while Republicans have countered with a measure that would set aid at 70% of what a worker was paid before being laid off.U.S. lawmakers are running out of days in the session to negotiate an agreement. The congressional schedule includes more district work periods, allowing members to campaign for approaching elections in their home districts.Agreeing on an overall price tag for a second massive relief package will also be difficult in an election year. Democrats are calling for $3 trillion in new spending, while Republicans have proposed $1 trillion.The Republican-majority Senate is working on a smaller, so-called “skinny relief” bill that would provide some temporary aid and that could be tied to the upcoming September 30 government funding deadline. But Pelosi and other Democrats have rejected a “piecemeal” approach to more coronavirus relief aid.Earlier this year, Congress quickly passed a $2.2 trillion measure, one of the largest relief packages in U.S. history, to address the economic and health crises caused by the pandemic.
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By Polityk | 08/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Republican Convention Highlights Law & Order, Downplays Coronavirus
President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has made “law and order” a central theme of this week’s Republican National Convention, focusing attention on incidents of violence and vandalism that have accompanied widespread racial justice protests. VOA’s Brian Padden reports on what Trump supporters see as a growing threat to public safety and why his opponents say Trump is politicizing the crisis.
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By Polityk | 08/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
