Manchin slams ‘17 educated idiots’ that were advising Biden during COVID
Outgoing Independent West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin slammed some of the advice President Biden received during his time in office, arguing that the guidance created blindspots for the president on inflation, immigration and Afghanistan. Appearing on CBS’s “The Takeout” podcast on Friday, Manchin recounted how he tried to convince Biden to work across the aisle on the American Rescue Plan and how he warned about the dangers of inflation if Democrats went through with plans to extend unemployment benefits through October 2021, but was ignored thanks to the advice of 17 Nobel laureates. “I warned of that, and I got criticized, as you recall, they told me they had 17 Nobel laureates,” Manchin said, later arguing that they were “17 educated idiots” that were telling Biden “what you want to hear because you paid them.” Manchin, who in the early days of Biden’s administration was still part of the Democratic Party, played a critical role in determining how much of the new president’s agenda would make its way through the Senate. JOE MANCHIN: THE AMERICAN PEOPLE PICKED TRUMP. NOW IS THE TIME TO DELIVER SOLUTIONS FOR EVERYONE Democrats held a slim majority in the upper chamber throughout Biden’s term and depended on the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris to pass the administration’s agenda, meaning the moderate West Virginia senator’s cooperation was key in getting many items passed. Manchin would eventually decide not to run for re-election and leave the Democratic Party altogether after a decades-long political career in the party, arguing that he had to be “true” to himself. “To stay true to myself and remain committed to put country before party, I have decided to register as an independent with no party affiliation and continue to fight for America’s sensible majority,” Manchin said in a May 2024 announcement. IN ELECTION VICTORY, TRUMP’S GAINS WENT BEYOND THE BATTLEGROUNDS During his interview with CBS, Manchin noted that Congress had worked in a bipartisan manner with the Trump administration to send out stimulus checks in the early days of pandemic shutdowns, arguing that lawmakers had “erred” on the side of action but later came to realize that pumping so much money into the economy “was a mistake.” Nevertheless, Manchin recalled that Biden went immediately to the budget reconciliation process to attempt to pass the American Rescue Plan through the Senate, something the then-Democratic senator resisted. “Remember when I stopped and it shut down for about eight or 10 hours? That’s because they were extending unemployment benefits and we had a vaccine that worked. And I told him then, I said, ‘You’ve got a vaccine that’s working, you’ve got people that have got money because we sent a check to everybody,’” Manchin said, adding that he warned that after months of lockdowns and several rounds of stimulus, American spending was likely to inflate the economy. “You’ve got inflation coming at you hard when you do this, and now you’re still keeping people out of the workforce because you’re going to give them an extension clear up until October 2021 of unemployment benefits, and they can’t go back and can’t be threatened to lose their unemployment benefits,” Manchin said. “You’ve got a perfect storm hitting you.”
First openly trans rep-elect claims GOP spotlighting transgender issues an ‘attempt to distract’ voters
The first openly transgender politician elected to the U.S. House, Democratic Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, claimed Sunday that the GOP’s focus on transgender issues is an “attempt to distract” voters. “I think we are all united that attempts to attack a vulnerable community are not only mean spirited, but really an attempt to misdirect. Because every single time we hear the incoming administration or Republicans in Congress talk about any vulnerable group in this country, we have to be clear that it is an attempt to distract,” McBride, who was elected to represent Delaware earlier this month, said Sunday morning on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “It is an attempt to distract from what they are actually doing. Every single time, every single time we hear them say the word ‘trans,’ look what they’re doing with their right hand. Look at what they’re doing to pick the pocket of American workers, to fleece seniors by privatizing Social Security and Medicare. Look what they’re doing, undermining workers,” McBride added. President-elect Trump, conservative voters and members of Congress have all raised concerns regarding transgender issues, including stretching back years, most notably in the context of barring biological men from competing in women’s and girls’ sports, as well as banning men from women’s bathrooms and locker rooms. SPEAKER JOHNSON ANNOUNCES NEW CAPITOL BATHROOM POLICY IN RESPONSE TO CONTROVERSY OVER TRANS HOUSE MEMBER On Capitol Hill, South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace introduced a resolution last week that moves to prohibit members, officers and employees of the House from using “single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.” Mace, a rape survivor, also introduced another bill that would “ban biological men from using women’s private, protected facilities – such as bathrooms and locker rooms – on all federal property” across the nation. NANCY MACE FIRES BACK AT AOC, CRITICS OF TRANS BATHROOM BAN: ‘HEIGHT OF HYPOCRISY’ Democrats, including McBride, slammed Mace as a “far-right” extremist for the legislation. “This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing. We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars,” McBride posted to X. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said later in the week that single-sex facilities on Capitol Hill, including bathrooms, will be used by individuals with the corresponding biological sex. NANCY MACE’S EFFORT TO BAN TRANSGENDER DELAWARE DEMOCRAT FROM CAPITOL WOMEN’S RESTROOMS GAINS SUPPORT “All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings – such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms – are reserved for individuals of that biological sex,” Johnson said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital. “It is important to note that each Member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol.” “Women deserve women’s only spaces,” he added. “Like all policies, it is enforceable,” Johnson later told reporters. “But we have single-sex facilities for a reason, and women deserve women’s only spaces. And we’re not anti anyone. We’re pro-women, and I think it’s an important policy for us to continue. It’s always been the, I guess, an unwritten policy, but now it’s in writing.” MACE FACES BACKLASH OVER EFFORT TO BAN NEW TRANSGENDER MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM WOMEN’S BATHROOMS McBride continued during her Sunday interview that the GOP’s focus on trans issues distracts Congress from policy issues such as lowering the cost of living. “Here’s also what we have to be clear about, because I think the last week has been a prime example of this. Every bit of time and energy that is used to divert the attention of the federal government to go after trans people is time and energy that is not focused on addressing the cost of living for our constituents. And we have to be clear that there is a real cost for the American worker every time they focus on this,” McBride said. Mace joined “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday, where she pushed back on Democrats criticizing her for introducing the legislation, notably New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “It’s sad and surprising that in 2024 I have to go on TV and on social media to explain to the radical left that men shouldn’t be allowed in women’s restrooms, that women shouldn’t be forced to undress in front of men.” Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind and Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
UP: 20 detained, internet shut down after violence during mosque survey in Sambhal
Around 20 people have been taken into custody following the alleged stone-pelting and clashes that erupted during a survey of a mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal on Sunday morning, police said.
State lawmakers, companies prepare to push back against DEI, ‘woke’ initiatives: experts
EXCLUSIVE: Some state lawmakers and companies will be preparing to roll back major Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies that are present in nearly every major U.S. industry, including the military, according to experts and a Republican attorney general. The DEI topic was back in the news last week due to an intense exchange between lawmakers during a markup of the “Dismantle DEI” bill in the House. Progressive firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Tex., lambasted a Republican congressman who referred to DEI policies as “oppression.” “There has been no oppression for the white man in this country,” Crockett said. “You tell me which white men were dragged out of their homes. You tell me which one of them got dragged all the way across an ocean and told that you are gonna go work, we are gonna steal your wives, we are gonna rape your wives. That didn’t happen. That is oppression.” DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKER RANTS ABOUT ‘THE WHITE MAN’ DURING HEARING ON THE DISMANTLE DEI ACT The incoming Trump administration will likely target many DEI initiatives. In 2020, then-President Trump issued an executive order to ban “divisive” training for federal contractors. And the House Oversight Committee held a hearing this week about dismantling DEI policies. “It is a multibillion-dollar industry that pushes a left-wing, far-left ideological orthodoxy in essentially every area of American life, which is why I’ve begun to call it the DEI enterprise, instead of just DEI, so that people have a sense of what I’m talking about,” Devon Westhill, constitutional and civil rights attorney, told Fox News Digital in an interview. Westhill, who researches DEI policies at the Center for Equal Opportunity, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank, said DEI isn’t interested in “diversity of thought, true diversity,” but rather, it is “interested in racial quotas.” Over the last four years, the Biden-Harris administration has encouraged DEI initiatives across several sectors of the federal government. In 2021, Biden widened an executive order directing agencies to assess and “remove barriers” to equal opportunity through DEI policies. Another executive order signed that year was a government-wide initiative to embed DEI principles in federal hiring. The Department of Education has also released reports encouraging DEI on public university campuses. The Biden-Harris administration also invested in DEI programs within the U.S. military. Large corporations across the U.S. have also adopted DEI workplace policies, including Accenture, Johnson & Johnson, Mastercard, Marriott International, Kaiser Permanente, EY (Ernst & Young), Target, Google, Bank of America and American Express. BRAGG CASE ‘EFFECTIVELY OVER’ IN ‘MAJOR VICTORY,’ TRUMP OFFICIALS SAY “It wasn’t so much a dollars and cents motivation [for corporations],” Will Hild, executive director of Consumer’s Research, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “You had it coming from the federal government, where if you wouldn’t go along with under the Biden administration, with the DEI regime, they were threatening to sue you, or to claim that you’re violating civil rights of minorities. So, it was more a combination of the threat of bad press or government action against these corporations.” Hild said he expected to see over the next year many red state attorneys general “start suing these corporations” for hiring based on racial quotas. Consumers have also suffered as a result of DEI policies, he said, arguing that it shifted companies’ focus away from the quality of goods. TRUMP LAWYERS DEMAND BRAGG CASE BE ‘IMMEDIATELY DISMISSED,’ SAY ELECTION ‘SUPERSEDES’ POLITICAL ‘MOTIVATIONS’ The integration of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and DEI benchmarks has also influenced investment decisions and pension fund strategies. Pension funds have been increasingly incorporating ESG and DEI considerations into their investment processes over the last four years. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said this will be one area of focus her office will examine. “We want to make sure that we are protecting people’s pensions, because no one’s retirement and life savings should be gambled for these woke ESG and DEI goals,” Bird said. “And so that means that our work with that issue will continue, whether it’s the investment managers or the proxy advisers, you know, making sure that these pensions are being invested, so that it’s there for people when they need it, and not for any kind of social engineering or other types of woke political goals.” Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
Israeli attacks kill six across Gaza, army issues new ‘evacuation order’
At least six people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza amid a new so-called evacuation order issued by Israeli forces in a Gaza City suburb. On Sunday, Israeli attacks have so far killed one person in Nuseirat and two in Maghazi, both in central Gaza, as well as three people in Rafah, southern Gaza. In northern Gaza, which Israeli forces have besieged since early October, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said the Kamal Adwan Hospital was attacked, injuring its director, Hussam Abu Safia. In a video circulated by the ministry on Sunday, Abu Safia said the Israeli drone attack would “not stop us from completing our humanitarian mission and we will continue to do this job at any cost”. “We are being targeted daily. They targeted me a while ago but this will not deter us,” he said from his hospital bed. Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal told the AFP news agency that Abu Safia suffered an injury to his back and left thigh due to metal fragments but that he was now in a “stable” condition in hospital. Kamal Adwan Hospital is one of the three hospitals that are barely operating in northern Gaza after Israeli forces detained and expelled medical staff and prevented emergency medical equipment from reaching. Reporting from Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said the attack on Abu Safia was typical of Israeli attacks on Palestinians in intensive care units in northern Gaza, unable to receive medical aid due to a blockade. “In the northern Gaza Strip, there are no civil defence teams, ambulances or paramedics. This is also adding more misery because even if you can get the chance for anyone to help rescue you, there are no teams to help you or save your life,” Khoudary said. In the past few weeks, Israel has said it facilitated the delivery of medical and fuel supplies to northern Gaza, but the amount of aid going in is still below the needs of the residents. In Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoon, towns in northern Gaza that are being heavily attacked, residents told the Reuters news agency that Israeli forces had blown up hundreds of houses in the latest attacks. Palestinians in Gaza say Israeli tactics seem to be directed at depopulating the area completely and creating a buffer zone, a claim denied by Israel. Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Sunday that at least 44,211 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, and 104,567 others have been wounded. Forced displacement Meanwhile, the Israeli army issued evacuation orders in the Shejaia suburb of eastern Gaza City on Sunday. “For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the south,” army spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on X. Adraee’s address came after Hamas claimed a rocket volley on Saturday, which it said had targeted an Israeli army base over the border. On social media, footage showed Palestinians leaving Shejaia on donkey carts and rickshaws moving to southern Gaza. Since the war began 13 months ago, Israel has issued several evacuation orders, each time forcing Palestinians to move from places previously designated as “safe zones”. The orders have been criticised as effectively being tantamount to the forced displacement of Palestinians. Adblock test (Why?)
The West, the ICC, and ‘mtu wetu’ in Israel
The arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), have brought back not-so-fond memories to many Kenyans. More than a decade ago, then Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy – current President William Ruto – became the first incumbent heads of state or government to actually face an ICC trial, having been indicted before they got into office. However, while both Kenyatta and Ruto chose to cooperate with the court – at least on the face of it – and attended their trials, thus obviating the need for an arrest warrant, it is unlikely that Netanyahu and Gallant will be taking a trip to The Hague any time soon. Kenyatta and Ruto were accused of being responsible for the violence that followed the country’s disputed 2007 election, in which more than 1,300 people lost their lives. The two had been on opposing sides of the conflict and were alleged to have organised and funded “tribal” militia to carry out killings. To date, only a handful of people have ever been prosecuted for the murders, rapes and mutilation that led to the forcible displacement of 660,000 people, and it was only after the Kenyan state proved unwilling to act that the ICC stepped in. Similarly, when he applied for warrants for the Israeli leaders in May, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan – who coincidentally headed Ruto’s defence team – also indicated he would be happy to defer prosecution if Israel’s justice system shows any willingness to take action against Netanyahu and Gallant and “engage in independent and impartial judicial processes that do not shield suspects and are not a sham”. The ICC judges have now agreed that there are reasonable grounds to believe the two bear criminal responsibility for the many crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinians during its ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza. With an official death toll of more than 44,000, Gaza has witnessed murders, rapes and displacement on a vast scale, as well as mass starvation, and the deliberate targeting of schools, hospitals and places of worship. Many have complained about the seven-month-long delay in the ICC judges issuing the arrest warrants, but Kenyans had to wait for two years to have the ICC prosecutor send a request for an investigation and then another five months for the court to approve it. It then took another 12 months for the actual indictment of specific individuals – six of them – to be handed down. Thus, by comparison, the Palestine cases have moved much faster. Among the reasons for the delay in the Palestine case were the numerous briefs challenging the court’s jurisdiction and the admissibility of the allegations. There was also a lot of pressure put on the ICC by Israel and its Western friends. There were Israeli attempts to intimidate the court even before the war started last year, with Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, facing threats by the Mossad not to launch an investigation into Israel’s war crimes of 2021. Khan now himself faces accusations of sexual misconduct. It is notable that few Western nations came to Kenyatta’s and Ruto’s aid. On the contrary, there was more than a subtle hint given to Kenyans that electing Kenyatta and Ruto would be a bad idea – that “choices have consequences”. I am not saying they should have opposed the duo’s arraignment, but there is more than a whiff of double standards here. It does seem that there is more of an interest in seeing justice done when those in the dock are Africans, and not just anti-Western. That point is driven home when one considers how the indictments of Israeli officials have been framed in the Western press. The Guardian, for example, described it as “the first time a western ally from a modern democracy has been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity by a global judicial body”. This account comes as a surprise to Kenya, which for well over six decades has considered itself a “Western ally” and which – having held regular elections throughout that time – can be described as something of a “modern democracy”, whatever that means. Unless, of course, these are euphemistic descriptors of more problematic relationships. Kenyans have a name for this sort of thing: the “mtu wetu [our guy] syndrome”. Whenever our politicians find themselves being investigated or – God forbid! – charged with crimes, they try to rally their ethnic kinsmen around the idea that it is the “tribe” being targeted. The mobilisation of an imagined identity is a political tactic that is very effective in scaring off prosecutors and intimidating judges both locally and internationally. “Mtu wetu” is how Kenyatta and Ruto were able to avoid prosecution at home and then instrumentalise their control of the Kenyan state to undermine their cases at the ICC. It is why the ICC found itself accused of “race hunting” – of focusing on prosecuting Black Africans, an allegation that conveniently ignored the fact that most of the situations the court was pursuing had been referred to it by African governments. “Mtu wetu” is why Netanyahu today accuses the court of anti-Semitism, suggesting his prosecution is an attack on all Jews. “Mtu wetu” is why suddenly Germany seems less keen on upholding its obligations under international law, and why US politicians are threatening all and sundry, even those in Canada and Europe who perhaps mistakenly thought they would be always part of the tribe. It is sadly ironic that on the 140th anniversary of the Berlin West Africa Conference – which set the stage for European colonisation of Africa and which subsequently introduced the scourge of tribalism to the continent – that the same irrational and totalising conception of identity is being weaponised in the West to defend people accused of some of the worst categories of crimes imaginable. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s
Far right in strong position as Romania votes in presidential election
Social Democrat Marcel Ciolacu and far-right George Simion are the most likely to move on to a run-off on December 8. The first round of presidential elections has begun in Romania, with voters choosing a replacement for the outgoing President Klaus Iohannis. Romanians are choosing between 13 candidates on Sunday, with the top two moving on to a second round of voting on December 8 if no single candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round. That second presidential vote may be between current Social Democratic Party (PSD) Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and the far-right leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), George Simion. Social Democratic Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu casts his ballot in the Romanian presidential election on November 24, 2024 [Daniel Mihailescu/AFP] By 12:00 GMT, Romania’s central election bureau said the voter turnout was 27 percent. Romanians have until 19:00 GMT to cast their votes. Ciolacu has been leading in the polls with 25 percent compared with Simion, who according to opinion polls holds the support of 15 to 19 percent of the country. Romanian political analyst Cristian Pirvulescu said that the AUR party could get a boost in the parliamentary election slated for December 1 if Simion performs well in the presidential vote, and other right-leaning voters could coalesce around Simion if he reaches the run-off. “Romanian democracy is in danger for the first time since the fall of communism in 1989,” Pirvulescu told the news agency AFP. Ciolacu’s PSD has shaped the country’s politics since 1990, but this election comes at a tumultuous time in the European Union member state amid rising inflation and the ongoing war in neighbouring Ukraine. Simion has been able to tap into an affordability crisis in the country. While inflation is trending downwards from a record 10 percent last year, the far-right candidate has tapped into voter frustrations about economic issues. Presidential candidate and leader of the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians, George Simion, greets the press outside a polling station in Bucharest, Romania, November 24, 2024 [Andrei Pungovschi /AFP] Inflation is expected to be 5.5 percent by the end of 2024. Simion opposes sending military aid to Ukraine – a country with which Romania shares a 650-kilometre (400-mile) border. Simion, who has repeatedly praised United States President-elect Donald Trump, has tapped into a hard right message that appears to be growing in popularity in both the US and Europe. Borrowing from the Trump playbook, Simion has warned of possible electoral fraud, and has also opposed sending military aid to Ukraine. Simion has also campaigned for unification with Moldova, which has renewed a five-year ban on him entering the country. “We are at a point where Romania can easily divert or slip towards a populist regime because [voter] dissatisfaction is pretty large among a lot of people from all social strata,” Cristian Andrei, a political consultant, told The Associated Press news agency. “And the temptation for any regime, any leader, will be to go on a populist road.” Adblock test (Why?)
Jhansi hospital fire: Death toll spikes to 17, after 2 more rescued babies die out of 39 infants rescued infants
The birth weight of both infants was 800 grams and one of them also had a hole in the heart, he added. Meanwhile, Congress sources said on Sunday that the party’s state chief Ajay Rai and Barabanki MP Tanuj Punia would travel to Jhansi and visit the medical college. They will also meet the families
‘Never claimed BJP would win election’, says Himanta Biswa Sarma after Jharkhand poll results
Assam Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday that he had “never claimed that the party would win the assembly election in Jharkhand and form the next government”, news agency PTI reported.
‘Odisha is land of saints and scholars, progress of Northeast priority’: PM Modi at Odisha Parba 2024
Addressing the ‘Odisha Parba 2024’ in the national capital, PM Modi said that “Odisha has always been a land of saints and scholars.