House Approves Debt Ceiling Bill, Setting Up Clash
The House on Wednesday narrowly passed Republicans’ bill to raise the debt ceiling while cutting spending and unraveling major elements of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda. The bill was approved 217-215 along party lines. The legislation would raise the debt ceiling into next year in exchange for freezing spending at last year’s levels for a decade — a nearly 14% cut. Republicans conceded that their legislation was headed nowhere; the measure is dead on arrival in the Democratic-led Senate. Without action by Congress to raise the debt limit, the U.S. government faces a potentially catastrophic default as early as this summer.
In Vivid Detail, Trump Accuser Tells Her Story
Writer E. Jean Carroll on Wednesday told a Manhattan jury a harrowing story of being raped in the mid-1990s by Donald Trump in a department store dressing room — describing a brutal attack that she said has left her traumatized for decades. Just before she began testifying in federal court, the former president — who has so far avoided the trial — infuriated the judge overseeing the case by railing against the proceeding on social media. Carroll, 79, testified on Day 2 of the civil trial stemming from the lawsuit she filed against Trump last year. “Being able to get my day in court, finally, is everything to me,” she said.
Efforts to Ban Treatments for Transition See Setbacks
Republican efforts to restrict gender-transitioning treatment hit roadblocks in three states Wednesday. Kansas lawmakers failed to override the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill that would have banned the care for minors; the Justice Department sued Tennessee over its new ban; and a Missouri judge temporarily blocked the enforcement of an emergency rule that would have restricted treatment for transgender children and adults. At least 11 Republican-led states have passed laws or policies in recent months that ban or significantly limit the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and transition surgery for people under 18.
State Tax Breaks for Movies Get Mixed Reviews
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing to expand a state program that provides hundreds of millions of dollars each year in tax incentives to producers across the film and television industry. Hochul wants to increase funding for the program by nearly 70%, using the proposed state budget to shower as much as $7.7 billion in tax credits on the industry over the next 11 years. The proposed expansion to $700 million a year from $420 million has drawn stern rebukes from a range of critics who argue the decades-old program has consistently been a bad deal for taxpayers.
Biden Vows ‘End’ of North Korean Regime if It Attacks
President Joe Biden moved Wednesday to bolster the American nuclear umbrella guarding South Korea and vowed that any nuclear attack by North Korea would “result in the end” of the government in Pyongyang, underscoring a broad turn from diplomacy to deterrence in response to the threat from the volatile dictatorship. Hosting President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea at the White House for a state visit, Biden committed to giving Seoul a central role for the first time in strategic planning for the use of nuclear weapons in any conflict with North Korea. In return, South Korea disavowed any effort to pursue its own nuclear arsenal.
Xi and Zelenskyy Talk at Last, but Words Are Chosen Carefully
Two months after issuing a vague plan for ending the war in Ukraine, China’s leader, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday acceded to repeated requests from the Ukrainian president to talk. The one-hour telephone discussion between China’s Xi Jinping and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine was the first known contact between the two leaders since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. China’s official account of the discussion was notable for its omission of two words: “Russia” and “war.” It referred instead to the need for a “political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.”
Singapore Hangs Man for Conspiring to Traffic 2 Pounds of Cannabis
Singapore on Wednesday executed a man convicted of conspiring to traffic about 2 pounds of cannabis, a punishment that human rights groups called grossly excessive with other countries around the world relaxing their stances on marijuana. Tangaraju Suppiah, a 46-year-old Singaporean, was sentenced in 2018 for coordinating with two other men to import the cannabis in 2013. Although he never came into contact with the drug, he was sentenced to death by hanging after a judge ruled that he was linked to the other men through two phone numbers belonging to him.
Navalny, Top Kremlin Critic, Says New Charge Could Jail Him for Life
Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Wednesday that Russian authorities had initiated new “absurd” terrorism charges against him that could lead to life in prison. Navalny’s comments came as he appeared via video link at a court hearing over separate extremism charges that are widely seen as politically motivated. Navalny is already serving a sentence in a penal colony for fraud and contempt of court. Since returning to Russia after recovering in Germany from a poisoning attempt that the West has blamed on the Kremlin, he has repeatedly faced new charges from Russian authorities.
Boat Sinks in Mediterranean, and at Least 55 People Drown
At least 55 people drowned after their boat sank off the coast of Libya, the United Nations migration agency said Wednesday, the latest in a series of deadly accidents in just a few days involving migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. The rubber boat, carrying 60 people, left Tuesday from Garabouli, a small town a few dozen miles east of Tripoli, Libya’s capital, according to the agency, the International Organization for Migration. Only five survivors were brought to shore by the Libyan coast guard. So far this year, 661 people have died in the central Mediterranean, according to Flavio di Giacomo, a spokesperson for the U.N. agency.
By wire sources
