Debt Ceiling Talks, Paris Hotels, & Robo-Calls
May 25, 2023
Sustained Ceiling Squabbles
On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen reminded us that the debt ceiling is, indeed, still looming overhead. Her comments, made at a Wall Street Journal CEO Council event, confirmed that it was “almost certain” that the U.S. government would run out of borrowing space by early June. “Treasury and President Biden will face very tough choices if Congress doesn’t act to raise the debt ceiling and if we hit the so-called X-date without that occurring,” Yellen warned.
Meanwhile, it appears that debt ceiling negotiations between top Republicans and President Biden are still ongoing, though Democrats have expressed frustration with Biden’s handling of the situation. “The president needs to fully utilize the bully pulpit, the power of the presidency, to get the message across to the American people what’s really at stake here,” said one Democratic legislator. “As of this time, the American people haven’t been fully informed what is truly at stake by what default means for this country.”
Other Democrats have criticized Republicans for not allowing compromises in their proposed budget. “Kevin McCarthy has more red lines than Crayola,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa). Republicans won’t allow discussion on establishing new tax revenues or cuts to military spending, limiting budget talks to cuts in domestic discretionary spending. As the deadline approaches, some Republicans have decided to use cuts to safety net programs – including Medicaid and Snap – as bargaining chips. The cuts would likely add work requirements to the programs, putting undue pressure on the nation’s most vulnerable and forcing them into dead-end jobs, and creating a “bureaucratic nightmare for Americans,” according to Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden.
Some Good News
- France bans short-haul flights to cut carbon emissions (BBC)
- Paralysed man walks using device that reconnects brain with muscles (Guardian)
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Ousted For The Olympics
- Paris is looking to clear out its homeless population ahead of the city’s upcoming 2024 Olympic Games. Since March, France’s government has been asking prefectures across the country to open up temporary reception centers for the city’s homeless, hoping to move them out of hotels around Paris which are normally used as emergency accommodation centers. The move was pushed in part by hotels looking to make a nice profit off of Olympic travelers.
- Local governments and charities are pushing back on the effort, describing it as poorly planned and chaotic. One proposed reception center in the northwestern region of Brittany would have posed health risks to homeless residents. “The ground is polluted by heavy metals and petrol. For us, these are not dignified conditions in which to house people,” said the mayor of the area.
More Russian Raids Down The Road
- On Wednesday, Denis Kapustin, the leader of a Russian paramilitary group that conducted a border raid from Ukraine into Russian territory promised that more attacks are on the way. He claims that his group was able to seize “some weapons,” an armored personnel carrier, and multiple prisoners while only having two soldiers injured, though Moscow claims that Russian troops killed over 70 of the raiders.
- The Liberty of Russia Legion (LSR), which claimed joint responsibility for the Monday attack on Russian territory, said two of its forces were injured while ten more were killed. Both groups claim they want to take down Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government, though their motives are a little less than pure.
- Kapustin has stated that he wants a mono-ethnic Russian state (Russia is home to over 190 ethnic groups), and an independent Ukrainian investigative group has shown his links to neo-Nazis in Ukraine. Ukraine’s Azov Battalion has similar ideals – it was founded by a known neo-Nazi, is consistently described as “a far-right nationalist” group, recruits known white supremacists from Western countries, and regularly uses Nazi symbolism.
Additional World News
- Russia says it shot down drones in border region after raid from Ukraine territory (ABC)
- Boris Johnson referred to police over potential Covid rule breaches (BBC)
- WHO countries condemn Russia’s war on Ukraine (Politico)
- Rishi Sunak decides not to order inquiry into Suella Braverman speeding row (BBC)
- Cathay Pacific fires cabin crew over alleged discrimination against passenger from China (CNN)
- Rainbow Swatch watches confiscated in Malaysia-company (Reuters)
- Death of Russian minister on return from Cuba is latest unexplained incident involving Moscow’s elites (CNN)
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Hiding The Hill We Climb
- The poem written by Amanda Gorman for President Biden’s inauguration, entitled “The Hill We Climb,” has been removed from the elementary section of a Miami-Dade County public school and placed in the middle school section after a parent complaint and school review. The complaint said it “is not educational and have (sic) indirectly hate messages” and the poem could “cause confusion and indoctrinate students.”
- Gorman, the first-ever Youth Poet Laureate, was 22 when she performed “The Hill We Climb” at Biden’s inauguration in 2021, and was partly inspired by the January 6 insurrection that took place two weeks prior. She issued a statement on Tuesday saying she was “gutted” to find out her poem was being censored in any way.
- “I wrote ‘The Hill We Climb’ so that all young people could see themselves in a historical moment. Ever since, I’ve received countless letters and videos from children inspired by ‘The Hill We Climb’ to write their own poems,” she wrote. “Robbing children of the chance to find their voices in literature is a violation of their right to free thought and free speech.”
The Most Vulnerable Target
- Target announced on Wednesday that, in the wake of “volatile” anti-LGBTQ threats being made against its employees, it will remove some products that celebrate Pride Month (June). The company hasn’t yet confirmed which products will be removed, but a women’s swimsuit that was described as “tuck friendly” for its ability to conceal male genitalia has become the focus of right-wing anger in recent days.
- The company told the Wall Street Journal that people have confronted workers in stores, knocked down Pride merchandise displays, and shared threatening social media posts with videos from inside stores. Target offers more than 2,000 products as part of its Pride collection, but it seems that so far, only Abprallen products have been removed.
Additional USA News
- Elite Virginia high school doesn’t discriminate against Asian Americans, court finds (NBC)
- McLean VA: A man told officers at the CIA headquarters gate, ‘I’m here and I have a gun,’ law enforcement source says (CNN)
- Chief Justice Roberts says building a fence around Supreme Court was the ‘hardest decision’ of his tenure (NBC)
- South Carolina approves six-week abortion ban for most women (BBC)
- GOP cooks up a new storm on gas stove rules (Politico)
- House Ethics Committee ends investigation into Rep. Eric Swalwell (NBC)
- US professor fired after machete threat to New York Post reporter (BBC)
Don’t (Robo) Call Me Up
- On Tuesday, 51 attorneys general from across the U.S. filed a suit against a robocall company located in Arizona. Their suit accuses Avid Telecom of making over 7.5 billion robocalls to people on the national Do Not Call Registry, seeking a jury trial to determine the damages caused by the call campaign.
- The attorneys general were all part of the national bipartisan Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, which was formed last year to investigate and sue the telecommunications companies responsible for allowing the routing of mass amounts of robocalls.
- “Every day, countless Arizona consumers are harassed and annoyed by a relentless barrage of unwanted robocalls — and in some instances, these illegal calls threaten consumers with lawsuits and arrest,” said Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. “More disturbingly, many of these calls are scams designed to pressure frightened consumers, often senior citizens, into handing over their hard-earned money.” The lawsuit also states that Avid used fake or invalid caller ID numbers, including some impersonating companies as well as government and law enforcement agencies.
Additional Reads
- Alex Murdaugh indicted on financial fraud charges related to housekeeper’s death (NBC)
- German prosecutor says clues to McCann child disappearance possible at Portuguese dam site (AP)
- Red Sea corals threatened by mass sea urchin die-off, Israeli researchers say (AP)
- Norway warns people to keep away from ‘spy’ whale for animal’s safety (CNN)
- OpenAI leaders call for regulation to prevent AI destroying humanity (Guardian)
- Rapper Fetty Wap sentenced to 6 years in prison for drug trafficking scheme (NBC)
- Watch owned by China’s last emperor sells for record $6.2 million (NBC)