Tag: the americas

5 dead in Raleigh, North Carolina, shooting, mayor says | CNN

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Five people – including an off-duty police officer – are dead after a shooting Thursday in eastern Raleigh, North Carolina, according to Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin.

Two people were taken to the hospital, one of whom was a Raleigh K9 officer with non-life threatening injuries and was later released, authorities said. The other victim is in critical condition, Raleigh police spokesperson Lt. Jason Borneo said during a news conference Thursday night.

“Tonight, terror has reached our doorstep. The nightmare of every community has come to Raleigh,” Gov. Roy Cooper said at the news conference.

The suspect was taken into custody shortly after 9:30 p.m, Borneo said. The suspect is a White male juvenile, police said, and have not identified him further.

“This is a sad and tragic day for the city of Raleigh,” Baldwin said. “All of us in Raleigh right now need to come together. We need to support those in our community who have suffered a terrible loss. A loss of a loved one. We need to support the family of the police officer who was killed and also the police officer who was shot.”

The hours-long ordeal and subsequent search for the suspect began shortly after 5 p.m. when multiple people were shot in the Hedingham neighborhood. Earlier helicopter footage from CNN affiliate WRAL-TV showed more than a dozen emergency vehicles lined up on a road through a wooded area.

A woman who was at the Hedingham Golf Club driving range said an “unending stream of police” drove by the area. “A golf pro came out to tell us to shelter inside or leave ASAP,” she told CNN. “They were very calm, but I could tell something was wrong, so we left right away.”

Police tweeted shortly before 6 p.m. that officers were “on the scene of an active shooting in the area of the Neuse River Greenway near Osprey Cove Drive and Bay Harbor Drive.”

At around 8:30 p.m., police advised residents to remain in their homes “until further notice.”

Numerous local and state law enforcement agencies are assisting Raleigh police, including the Charlotte Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Gov. Cooper tweeted he spoke with the mayor and “instructed state law enforcement to provide assistance responding to the active shooter in East Raleigh.”

“State and local officers are on the ground and working to stop the shooter and keep people safe,” the governor said.

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October 13, 2022
Five takeaways from the Michigan gubernatorial debate | CNN Politics

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Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her Republican challenger, conservative commentator Tudor Dixon, squared off in their first debate Thursday night in Grand Rapids.

Whitmer has placed her support for abortion rights at the forefront of her bid for a second term in a state where Republicans control the legislature. She has also touted her economic efforts and increased funding for schools.

Dixon, who is backed by former education secretary Betsy DeVos’ family and won the GOP nomination after an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, has criticized Whitmer’s pandemic policies. She has also leaned into cultural battles, proposing a policy that would ban transgender girls from competing in sports with the gender they identify with, as well as one modeled after the controversial measure Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law earlier this year, which critics dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

Here are five takeaways from their debate:

The governor’s race has largely revolved around the stark differences between Whitmer and Dixon on abortion rights, and Whitmer opened the debate by pointing to her lawsuit to halt the enforcement of a 1931 law banning abortions in virtually all instances in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade earlier this year.

“The only reason that law is not in effect right now is because of my lawsuit stopping it,” Whitmer said.

Whitmer also backed a referendum that is appearing on Michigan’s ballots this year that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

Dixon responded by accusing Whitmer of opposing any limits on abortion rights. But she also downplayed her position, saying she will respect the outcome of that referendum.

“I am pro-life with exceptions for the life of the mother. But I understand that this is going to be decided by the people of the state of Michigan or by a judge,” Dixon said. “The governor doesn’t have the choice to go around a judge or a constitutional amendment.”

Whitmer highlighted Dixon’s comment in a podcast interview in which she said a 14-year-old child who is raped by a family member should not be allowed to have an abortion.

“To protect our rights, we cannot trust Ms. Dixon,” Whitmer said.

Dixon has repeatedly parroted Trump’s lies about Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election coming as a result of widespread fraud.

Whitmer sharply criticized Dixon over those comments early in Thursday night’s debate, as the Democratic governor sought to cast doubt on her Republican challenger’s claim that she would accept the results of the abortion referendum on this year’s ballot.

“This is a candidate who still denies the outcome of the 2020 election,” Whitmer said.

“For her to stand here and say she will respect the will of the people, when she has not even embraced the outcome of a last election or pledged to embrace the outcome of a future election, tells me we cannot trust what you say,” Whitmer said.

Dixon did not respond to Whitmer on the issue, or comment on whether she accepts the outcome of the 2020 election, during the debate.

Dixon was critical of Whitmer’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying that school and business closures were too far-reaching and long-lasting.

“Not only did she make bad choices when she closed it down and refused to open our schools, but she hasn’t figured out how to recover,” Dixon said.

She said Whitmer kept children “locked out of schools, and wouldn’t listen to parents when they begged her to let them play.”

Whitmer, meanwhile, defended her actions amid the crisis, saying that “we made tough decisions because lives were on the line,” even as she conceded she would have done some things differently in hindsight.

Whitmer said 35,000 people in Michigan died during the pandemic. “They may not matter to some. But they matter to me, every single one of them,” Whitmer said.

“If I could go back in time with the knowledge we have now, sure, I would have made some different decisions. But we were working in the middle of a crisis and lives were on the line,” she said.

Whitmer’s memorable 2018 campaign slogan – “fix the damn roads” – was among the reasons she won the governor’s office.

On Thursday night, Dixon took aim at one way Whitmer attempted to pay for those road improvements: increasing Michigan’s 27 cents per gallon gas tax by 45 cents per gallon.

Dixon said Whitmer “didn’t fulfill her promise,” citing a report by the Michigan Transportation Asset Management Council warning that roads are continuing to deteriorate.

Whitmer touted a bonding program and measures approved by the legislature that she said amount to $4.8 billion in transportation funding. She also credited Biden and the Democratic-led Congress for its infrastructure bill, which she said “sent us billions.”

“There are orange cones and barrels all over the state because we are fixing the damn roads,” Whitmer said.

She added: “We are fixing the damn roads. We are moving dirt. We are using the right mix and materials, and they are built to last. But you don’t overcome decades of disinvestment overnight.”

Dixon, acknowledging that a shift to electric vehicles will over time reduce gas tax revenue, said Michigan will need to pursue “public-private partnerships” to fund road construction. She did not detail what those would include, but such partnerships typically involve tolls.

“We will have to find a way to fund the roads. It’s going to take public-private partnerships in the future. But it’s going to be a ways out, because the entire country is not going to go to EV vehicles overnight,” she said.

Among the clearest differences in Thursday night’s debate was over gun rights, with Whitmer advocating a series of restrictions while Dixon said she opposed policies that she said would “take guns away from law-abiding citizens.”

Whitmer said she supports background checks and “red flag” laws. She also criticized Dixon for opposing gun-free zones in places like schools and for supporting permitless carry.

Dixon’s positions would lead to “more guns, less oversight, less training,” Whitmer said.

Dixon responded that Michigan should respond to gun crimes by being “tough on crime in this state.”

“This idea that you’re going to take guns away from law-abiding citizens and somehow that’s going to keep them out of the hands of criminals? That’s never going to work,” Dixon said. “When we find someone who commits a gun crime, they need to be put away.”

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October 13, 2022
Apple store workers in Oklahoma to vote on labor union | CNN Business

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Apple workers in Oklahoma City are set to vote this week on whether to form the second-ever labor union at one of the tech giant’s US stores.

The Apple store workers in Oklahoma are seeking to gain representation with the Communication Workers of America union. Voting is set to take place on Thursday and Friday, with the vote-tally scheduled for Friday evening. Just under 100 employees at the Apple store in the Penn Square Mall are eligible to vote in this union election.

Earlier this year, Apple store workers at a mall in Towson, Maryland, made history when they voted to become the first unionized Apple store in the United States. The move was lauded by President Joe Biden, among others. In late June, the National Labor Relations Board officially certified the union election win, paving the way for the workers and Apple management to negotiate their first contract.

The organizing efforts at Apple stores come amid the backdrop of a tidal wave of workplace activism emerging at major companies from Amazon to Starbucks after the pandemic exposed new pressures on frontline workers and a tight labor market gave these workers new leverage.

Leigha Briscoe, a worker at the Oklahoma Apple store, said that their group was inspired to organize after “seeing what was happening in the labor movement across the United States with other large corporations.”

“Particularly watching Amazon and Starbucks has been the two that really stuck out to me,” she said. “That really kind of brought to light the possibility of us being able to do that in our store.”

Watching these other workers seize new power via organizing also helped in “shifting my view of what a labor union was, and seeing that, ‘Hey, this is something that can still be done in the modern workforce,’” Briscoe added. “That’s really what kind of helped me see that this was going to be valuable for our team, and I think it’s safe to say that a lot of our other team members were also watching that happen as well, and that kind of inspired them in the same way as it has me.”

“Fundamentally, what we’re looking for is being able to have a seat at the table and negotiate what our experience looks like,” she said.

An Apple spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the Oklahoma City vote. Ahead of the union election at the Maryland store earlier this year, Apple said in a statement that it deeply values its retail team members and emphasized that it offers a “very strong compensation and benefits for full time and part time employees.”

One of the worker organizers at the Maryland location previously told CNN that “compensation is important” but “the most important” goal was “having a say” in store policies that impact staff.

Patrick Hart, another worker at the Oklahoma City Apple store, echoed that sentiment. Hart said he was tired of hearing from his managers that “that’s just how it is” when he raised concerns or brought feedback to them about their workplace experiences. He said they are seeking more of a voice in their workplace with their unionization efforts.

Hart also emphasized that he was inspired by the resurgence of the organized labor movement, and especially efforts to unionize Amazon warehouses. The new labor push comes as union membership overall in the United States has plummeted in recent decades. The unionization rate for all wage and salary workers in the United States last year was some 10.3%, Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data indicates, compared to 20.1% in 1983, which was the first year comparable data was available.

After taking inspiration from others, Hart said he hopes that their efforts in Oklahoma can similarly embolden fellow workers to band together – no matter what industry they may be in.

“I want everyone to realize unions aren’t just for those bad and hard workplaces, it is for everyone in America, we have the right to unionize,” Hart said. “I just want people to realize that, because it can do a lot of good for a lot of people who feel they’re stuck in their workplace.”

Hart continued: “They don’t have to leave their job, they can just make their current one a better place.”

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October 13, 2022
Blinken says US reviewing ‘consequences’ for Saudi Arabia after OPEC+ decision | CNN Politics

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that Saudi Arabia knew that the OPEC+ decision to cut oil production “would increase Russian revenues” and that the United States is reviewing “consequences” for that decision.

The top US diplomat also confirmed that American officials had urged the oil cartel to hold off its choice, saying the US suggested OPEC+ wait and see how markets reacted in the coming weeks.

The organization’s decision to slash production by two million barrels a day has sparked outrage from the Biden administration and US lawmakers and has prompted calls for a drastic shift in the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia.

Speaking at a press conference at the State Department, Blinken said that prior to the announcement of the decision, “the Saudis had conveyed to us both privately as well as publicly their intention to reduce oil production, which they knew would increase Russian revenues and potentially blunt the effectiveness of sanctions.”

“We made clear that that would be the wrong direction on that basis alone, the impact that it would have potentially on sanctions, but also because we’re in a global economic recovery,” he said. “The recovery is fragile. We’re dealing with headwinds from Covid. We’re also dealing with headwinds from the Russian aggression itself. And so now is not the time to take energy off the market.”

Blinken reiterated that the Biden administration believes energy supply needs to meet market demand, and said OPEC+ “presented no market basis for the cuts.”

“We suggested that if they did have concerns about prices going down significantly, if their objective was to keep prices at a certain level, they should they should wait and see how markets reacted over the coming weeks and wait at least until their next monthly meeting,” he said. “So that’s what we strongly urged them to do … they didn’t do it.”

“As the President’s made very clear, that decision has to have consequences and that’s something that we’re reviewing as we speak,” Blinken said, but noted that the US has “a multiplicity of interests in Saudi Arabia.”

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday that the decision was not politically motivated and was “based purely on economic considerations.”

The statement said Saudi officials had conveyed to the US “that all economic analyses indicate that postponing the OPEC+ decision for a month, according to what has been suggested, would have had negative economic consequences.”

“The Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia affirms that any attempts to distort the facts about the Kingdom’s position regarding the crisis in Ukraine are unfortunate, and will not change the Kingdom’s principled position, including its vote to support UN resolutions regarding the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, based on the Kingdom’s position on the importance for all countries to adhere to the United Nations Charter, principles of international law, and the Kingdom’s rejection of any infringement on the sovereignty of countries over their territories,” the statement said.

On Thursday morning, US National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby accused the Saudi Foreign Ministry of trying to “spin or deflect.”

“Other OPEC nations communicated to us privately that they also disagreed with the Saudi decision, but felt coerced to support Saudi’s direction,” Kirby said.

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October 13, 2022
FCC could ban all new purchases of Huawei and ZTE telecom gear | CNN Business

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CNN Business
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The US government is poised to ban all future telecom equipment produced by Huawei and ZTE, two Chinese technology giants, from the American market in an expanding crackdown against perceived national security risks from China, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The restrictions, outlined in a draft order by the Federal Communications Commission, would also target video surveillance gear by three other Chinese firms: Hytera, Hikvision and Dahua, the person said, adding that the ban would only apply to new products by the companies that have not already received FCC equipment authorization.

A vote to approve the measure is expected before mid-November, the person added. The draft order was first reported by Axios.

Asked for comment, an FCC official confirmed the proposal’s existence and told CNN that, if approved, it would update agency rules surrounding its list of providers deemed to be unacceptable national security risks — and fulfill the agency’s congressional mandate under the Secure Equipment Act of 2021.

That bipartisan legislation, signed by President Joe Biden last November, required the FCC to develop rules within one year to stop reviewing or approving devices made by the covered companies.

All electronics that can emit radio frequencies must undergo an FCC authorization process before they can be sold in the United States. The long-established process is intended to keep devices out of the US market that may produce harmful signal interference. But under the draft order the FCC would, for the first time, apply a national security interest to the equipment authorization process, the person said.

“The FCC remains committed to protecting our national security by ensuring that untrustworthy communications equipment is not authorized for use within our borders, and we are continuing that work here,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement provided to CNN Business on Thursday.

In a separate statement, Republican commissioner Brendan Carr said: “The FCC has determined that Huawei, ZTE, and similar gear pose an unacceptable risk to our national security. That is why I have urged the FCC to stop reviewing and approving that equipment for use in the U.S. I look forward to achieving that result.”

Spokespeople for the companies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The proposed ban would go further than prior steps the FCC has taken against Huawei and ZTE, whose networking equipment US officials have said could be used to intercept or monitor US communications.

Previously, the FCC restricted US telecom carriers from using federal funding to purchase products from Huawei and ZTE, as well as from other providers on the agency’s so-called “covered list.” Later, officials such as Carr highlighted how the products were still available to carriers through the use of non-federal funding, and said the FCC should use its equipment authorization powers to effectively block them from the United States entirely.

Biden’s subsequent signing of the Secure Equipment Act started a one-year clock for the FCC to put those restrictions into place.

The FCC has also established a program to help carriers “rip and replace” Huawei and ZTE gear from their networks, though the program’s estimated cost has ballooned to $5.6 billion, up from initial estimates of around $2 billion.

The top US wireless carriers have said they do not use Chinese-made equipment; telecom policy experts have said it is almost exclusively found in the networks of small providers seeking to minimize costs.

Separately, in 2019, the Trump administration added Huawei to the Commerce Department’s so-called Entity List, which restricts exports to people and organizations named on the list without a US government license. The following year, the US government expanded on those restrictions by seeking to cut Huawei off from its chip suppliers that use US-made technology.

The policies have contributed to sharp declines in Huawei’s telecom and handset businesses as the company has sought to shift focus to cars, cloud computing and its own mobile operating system.

Huawei’s founder and CEO has previously claimed the company would never hand data over to the Chinese government, but western security experts have said the country’s national security and intelligence laws require Chinese companies to comply with demands for information.

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October 13, 2022
Barnes seeks to rebut crime attacks headed into final Senate debate with Johnson in Wisconsin | CNN Politics

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Mandela Barnes, the Democrat taking on Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in Wisconsin’s Senate race, on Thursday faces what could be his last clear shot at rebutting the avalanche of GOP attacks on crime and police funding that have taken a months-long toll on his campaign.

Barnes and Johnson are set to meet for their second and final debate Thursday night – hours after the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol holds a hearing that is expected to function as its closing argument ahead of the November midterm elections.

Barnes is highlighting Johnson’s actions on that day, seeking to cast him as an unreliable and hypocritical messenger on what it means to support police officers. Johnson, who played a role in trying to push “fake electors” for then-President Donald Trump before the start of the congressional certification of the 2020 electoral votes, has repeatedly downplayed the attack on the Capitol, saying it was not an “armed insurrection,” including as recently as earlier this month.

Johnson and Republican outside spending groups have hammered Barnes, the Wisconsin lieutenant governor, throughout the fall in television advertisements, at events and in their first debate on crime – echoing a theme the GOP has made a core component of its closing message in Senate races across the map. Those attacks have coincided with Johnson rebounding from a summer slump in the polls less than four weeks from Election Day.

During a campaign event Tuesday in Milwaukee where the Wisconsin Fraternal Order of Police and the West Allis Professional Police Association endorsed the two-term Republican senator, Johnson said that Barnes has shown “far greater sympathy for the criminal or criminals versus law enforcement or the victims.” He pointed to Barnes’ history of statements in support of decreasing or redirecting police funding.

“The dispiriting nature of attempting to cut or use the code words of ‘reallocate,’ ‘over bloated budgets,’ – my opponent says that it pains him to see a fully funded police budget. I mean, that type of rhetoric,” Johnson said, “Those types of policies are very dispiriting for police.”

Barnes, who says he does not support defunding the police, is attempting to shift the debate over crime away from his previous comments by targeting Johnson’s actions around the attack on the Capitol after President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Ahead of Thursday’s debate, Barnes plans to hold a virtual news conference with retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who served on the National Security Council and emerged as a star witness against Trump during the his first impeachment. Barnes’ campaign said the event would serve to “hold Ron Johnson accountable for his attempt to send a fake slate of electors to the Vice President.”

Johnson’s role in trying to put forward the slate of electors who had not been certified by any state legislature was uncovered in June by the House select committee investigating the events around the insurrection. “I was aware that we got this package and that somebody wanted us to deliver it, so we reached out to Pence’s office,” Johnson told CNN at the time.

In his first debate with Barnes, Johnson said he did not know what he was being asked to hand Pence.

“I had no idea when I got a call from the lawyers for the president of the United States to deliver something to the vice president, did I have a staffer who could help out with that – I had no idea what it was,” Johnson said. “I wasn’t even involved. I had no knowledge of an alternate state of electors.”

His comment was part of perhaps the most memorable clash in their first debate last week. Barnes said that Johnson didn’t have any concern for the “140 officers that were injured in the January 6 insurrection.”

“One officer was stabbed with a metal stake. Another crushed between a revolving door. Another hit in the head with a fire extinguisher,” Barnes said. “Let’s talk about the 140 officers that he left behind because of an insurrection that he supported.”

Johnson said of the insurrection that he “immediately and forcefully and have repeatedly condemned it and condemned it strongly.”

Barnes consistently led polls of the Senate race over the summer. But that edge has evaporated, more recent polls show – a change that has coincided with Republicans spending millions on TV ads focused on crime.

A Marquette University Law School poll of Wisconsin released Wednesday showed movement among likely voters toward Johnson. The Republican led Barnes by 6 percentage points, 52% to 46%, among likely voters, the poll found. That’s a jump in Johnson’s favor from the neck-and-neck race the same poll found, with Johnson at 49% to Barnes’ 48%, in September.

The poll’s results among likely voters are significantly more favorable to the GOP than are its results among all registered voters, suggesting substantial uncertainty hinging on Democrats’ ability to turn out less motivated supporters. By contrast, in Marquette’s latest results among all registered voters, Barnes and Johnson are tied at 47% in the Senate race.

Other recent polls of the race have found likely voters deadlocked. In a CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday, Johnson took 50% to Barnes’ 49% among likely voters.

The Marquette poll found that inflation is a top issue in Wisconsin, with 68% of registered voters saying they are very concerned about it. Smaller majorities are also very concerned about public schools (60%), gun violence (60%), abortion policy (56%), crime (56%) and an “accurate vote count” (52%).

But it’s crime that Republican strategists say has been central to Johnson’s rebound in the race.

The attacks have taken place against the backdrop of rising violent crime figures, including a 70% increase in Wisconsin’s homicide rate from 2019 to 2021, according to the state’s Department of Justice. Republicans have also highlighted those convicted of violent crimes who have been paroled by the Wisconsin Parole Commission, an independent agency whose chairperson is appointed by the governor.

“They don’t have an answer,” Brian Schimming, a Republican strategist in Wisconsin, said of Barnes’ campaign. “With Mandela Barnes, it’s not just one thing. It’s not anecdotal. There are three, four, five issues there that are not playing with an electorate that’s pretty concerned about crime right now, and not just if they’re in Milwaukee.”

In the month of September, 61% of the nearly $9 million that Johnson and GOP groups spent on TV ads in the Wisconsin Senate race was behind ads focused on crime, according to data from the firm AdImpact.

That share has dropped to 30% so far in October, but nine of the 14 ads that Republican groups have aired so far have been focused on crime.

It has forced Democrats to respond. Barnes and Democratic groups have focused 40% of their TV ad spending so far in October on crime, with ads rebutting the GOP groups.

The Republican attacks have focused on Barnes’ efforts as a state lawmaker to end cash bail, as well as a 2020 interview with PBS Wisconsin – weeks after the police killing of George Floyd in neighboring Minnesota – in which Barnes suggested that funding should be redirected from police budgets to other social services.

“We need to invest more in neighborhood services and programming for our residents, for our communities on the front end,” he said then. “Where will that money come from? Well, it can come from over-bloated budgets in police departments.”

He did, however, also stress in that same interview that he did not want police budgets completely done away with, saying, “The more money we invest in opportunity for people, the less money we have to spend on prisons.”

One Johnson campaign ad shows video of Barnes saying that “reducing prison population is now sexy.” A narrator in the ad highlights Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration’s efforts to reduce the state’s prison population and says: “That’s not sexy. It’s terrifying. And as a mother, I don’t want Mandela Barnes anywhere near the Senate, from defunding our police to releasing predators.”

Another Johnson spot features the sheriffs of Ozaukee and Waukesha counties, both huge sources of Republican votes in the Milwaukee suburbs.

“Barnes wants to defund our police,” Waukesha County Sheriff Eric Severson says in the ad.

“Mandela Barnes’ policies are a threat to your family,” Ozaukee County Sheriff Jim Johnson says.

Barnes’ campaign has responded with ads of its own, including one in which Barnes says of GOP ads claiming he supports defunding the police, “That’s a lie.”

“Mandela doesn’t want to defund the police,” a retired Racine Police Department sergeant says in another Barnes spot. “He’s very supportive of law enforcement and I know his objective is to make every community in the state of Wisconsin better.”

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October 13, 2022
New poll finds Georgia Senate race remains unchanged after allegations about Walker | CNN Politics

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Sen. Raphael Warnock continues to hold an advantage over Herschel Walker in Georgia’s US Senate race, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac University, with the margin between the two candidates little changed compared with polling conducted before allegations emerged that Walker paid for a woman’s abortion and encouraged her to have another one.

The survey, which was conducted after the allegations about Walker emerged last week, finds Warnock with 52% support among likely voters to 45% for Walker, about the same as in a mid-September poll. Walker’s favorability rating has shifted narrowly more negative, from 51% saying they held an unfavorable view of him in September to 55% now. Warnock’s favorability rating is unchanged.

Voters broadly say that Walker is not honest (57% feel that way, including 96% of Democrats, 63% of independents and 16% of Republicans), and 58% feel he does not have good leadership skills. Majorities say Warnock is honest, by contrast (54% overall, including 93% of Democrats, 58% of independents and 14% of Republicans), and that he does have good leadership skills (57%). More also see Warnock as caring about average Georgians (57% say Warnock does vs. 46% saying Walker does).

The race between Walker and Warnock is one of the most competitive Senate contests this midterm cycle, and is key to control of the evenly split chamber.

Last week, the Daily Beast reported that Walker, who has opposed abortion rights during his campaign, had reimbursed a woman with whom he was in a relationship for a 2009 abortion. Additionally, The New York Times reported that he asked her to get the procedure again when she became pregnant two years later; she refused the second time.

CNN has not independently confirmed the woman’s allegations.

The Republican has repeatedly denied the allegations made in the reports, including in a Tuesday interview with ABC. “Yes, she’s lying,” he told the outlet.

Georgia’s gubernatorial contest is also largely unchanged from Quinnipiac’s prior polling on it and suggests there is no clear leader in the race, with 50% behind incumbent Brian Kemp and 49% backing Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams.

The survey of 1,157 Georgia likely voters was conducted October 7-10 by telephone and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

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October 13, 2022
New York City announces its largest fentanyl seizure in history, eclipsing record bust from last month | CNN

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Days after federal officials announced the largest fentanyl seizure in New York City history, an even greater quantity of the highly addictive substance has been found, authorities say.

Two people have been arrested and charged with multiple drug and firearm charges in connection to the seizure on October 7 at a Bronx apartment building, prosecutors said in a news release.

Authorities found roughly 300,000 rainbow-colored fentanyl pills inside two closets in the apartment, and more than 22 pounds of the drug in powdered form were wrapped in clear plastic packaging in multiple rooms, according to the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York. The total sum of the drugs is worth about $9 million in street value, officials said.

The historic seizure saved lives, according to DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino.

“Hundreds of thousands of lethal pills were lying in wait in a Bronx apartment to be unleashed onto our streets. In today’s world, the potential to overdose is dangerously high,” Tarentino said. “There is no quality control in these fake pills and it only takes two milligrams of fentanyl to be lethal.”

The seizure comes after federal officials announced last week that a woman has been charged with concealing about 15,000 rainbow-colored fentanyl pills in a Lego box as part of a drug trafficking scheme in September. That seizure at the time was also deemed the largest of fentanyl in New York City’s history.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that’s highly addictive. It can be up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control said.

Rainbow fentanyl comes in bright colors and can be used in pill form or powder.

“Rainbow fentanyl is the latest threat we face in our fight against the opioid epidemic that sadly continues to ravage our communities – a multi-colored poison specifically designed to attract younger users,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly said.

And as Halloween nears, officials have been warning families to be especially vigilant regarding their children’s candy before they consume it.

The dangerous drug has been a major driver of fatal and nonfatal overdoses in the US as well as the opioid epidemic.

Although there has been a slight decrease in recent months in drug overdose deaths, the numbers remain high. About 108,000 people died of a drug overdose in the 12-month period ending May 2022 – which is down from the record high of more than 110,000 deaths reported in the 12-month period that ended March 2022, CDC provisional data published Wednesday shows.

The latest overdose death figure remains 32% than it was two years earlier and higher than any other period before November 2021, according to the CDC data. Synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, were involved in more than two-thirds of deaths in the 12-month period ending May 2022, and psychostimulants were involved in nearly a third.

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October 12, 2022
US State Department says Iran nuclear deal ‘not our focus right now’ | CNN Politics

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The Iran nuclear deal is “not our focus right now,” US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Wednesday, noting the administration was instead focusing on supporting the protesters in Iran as efforts to restore the nuclear deal have hit yet another impasse.

“The Iranians have made very clear that this is not a deal that they have been prepared to make, a deal certainly does not appear imminent,” Price said at a department briefing.

“Iran’s demands are unrealistic. They go well beyond the scope of the JCPOA,” he said, using the acronym for the formal name of the deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

“Nothing we’ve heard in recent weeks suggests they have changed their position,” Price added.

The spokesperson said the administration’s current focus “is on the remarkable bravery and courage that the Iranian people are exhibiting through their peaceful demonstrations, through their exercise of their universal right to freedom of assembly and to freedom of expression.”

“And our focus right now is on shining a spotlight on what they’re doing and supporting them in the ways we can,” Price said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in late September that he did not “see any prospects in the very near term” to bring about a return to the Iran nuclear deal.

In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Blinken said that “Iran has continued to try to add extraneous issues to the negotiation that we’re simply not going to say yes to.”

“We will not accept a bad deal, the response that they’ve given to the last proposals put forward by our European partners have been a very significant step backwards,” he said.

A senior State Department official said at that time that “we’ve hit a wall” because of Tehran’s “unreasonable” demands.

Speaking to reporters during the UN General Assembly, the official said the UN nuclear watchdog’s probe into unexplained traces of uranium found at undisclosed Iranian sites remained the key sticking point.

“At the same time as Iran is standing against its people on the street, it’s standing in the way of the kind of economic relief that a nuclear deal would provide. So I think they have to explain that to their own people why, on the verge of the deal, they would choose this issue and jeopardize at this point the possibility of the deal,” the official said in late September.

Amid the standstill on the JCPOA, the Biden administration has unveiled a series of measures aimed at punishing the regime for its repression of the Iranian people and to try to support the protesters.

In late September, the US announced sanctions on Iran’s Morality Police following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in their custody.

In a statement, the US Treasury Department said it was sanctioning the morality police “for abuse and violence against Iranian women and the violation of the rights of peaceful Iranian protestors.”

Shortly thereafter, amid internet shutdowns by the Iranian government in the face of widespread protests over Amini’s death, the US government took a step meant to allow technology firms to help the people of Iran access information online.

Last week, the US issued additional sanctions on seven senior Iranian officials for the government shutdown of internet access and the violence against protesters, targeting Iran’s Minister of the Interior, Ahmad Vahidi, who oversees all Law Enforcement Forces that have been used to suppress protests, as well as its Minister of Communications.

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October 12, 2022
Louisiana prosecutor says he will take Ronald Greene case to a grand jury in November | CNN

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More than three years after the incident, a grand jury will finally get to hear evidence in the case of motorist Ronald Greene, who died after he was violently arrested by Louisiana State Police troopers.

Union Parish District Attorney John Belton told CNN he will present evidence in the incident involving Greene and the Louisiana State Police to a grand jury starting on November 10.

Greene, a 49-year-old Black man, died in May 2019 after what the police described as resisting arrest and a struggle with officers. However, his family said state police initially informed them that Greene died in a car crash after a police chase.

CNN has reached out to Greene’s family for comment.

Greene’s family has filed a wrongful-death civil lawsuit against the state troopers involved in the incident, as well as their superiors – seeking damages for payment for all medical and funeral expenses.

The troopers have maintained that Greene’s death “was caused by crash-related blunt force chest trauma that resulted in a fractured sternum and ruptured aorta” and said they used force “for their own personal safety and for the safety of the public,” according to court documents.

Video of the incident released two years later showed officers kicking, punching and using a Taser on Greene before he died in their custody.

An independent investigation looking into the circumstances of Greene’s death was conducted by the US attorney’s office at Belton’s request, the district attorney told CNN. The investigation took about two and a half years to complete, he said.

“They completed the investigation this summer, and I received their files this summer,” said Belton, noting that it was a large file.

“It’s taken me this long to review it and prepare,” said Belton. “I can’t guarantee an indictment. I can only say I will present all evidence to the grand jury,” he added.

Belton said he expects to finish presenting the evidence by the end of the year, barring any possible witness availability problems.

Belton did not specify who he intends to seek indictments for. So far, no troopers have been charged in relation to Greene’s death.

The US Department of Justice is also looking into Greene’s death. The investigation includes prosecutors from department’s civil rights division.

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October 12, 2022
Jury awards nearly $1 billion to Sandy Hook families in Alex Jones case | CNN Business

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Erica Lafferty, the daughter of Sandy Hook Elementary principal Dawn Hochsprung, who was killed during the school shooting, told reporters Wednesday that the verdict against Alex Jones is a moment “years in the making.”

Lafferty recounted how difficult it was for her and her family to deal with the threats fueled by the conspiracy theories led by Jones.

“As I was upstairs testifying about the rape threats that were sent to me, Alex Jones was standing right here holding a press conference. After almost a decade of threats and messages from conspiracy theorists led by Jones, this is a moment years in the making,” she said.

Lafferty went on to say how she wished she could tell call her mother to tell her about the verdict and the years leading up to it.

“And in this big moment, like in every big moment, since the shooting, I wish I could just call my mom and tell her about it. I would tell her about the horror of watching Alex Jones hold court with the press outside, right here. About the disappointment of so many news outlets who’ve known us since 12-14 run his words unfiltered. The heartbreak of reliving the shooting as so many families shared stories of their slain loved ones. But I would also like to tell her about the bright spots. News stations, like NBC Connecticut, refused to give a dangerous conspiracy theorist a platform throughout this trial, and I thank them. The jury bravely bore witness to our pain, sitting through hours upon hours of testimony that will never leave their minds,” she said.

Lafferty then thanked the people in her life who were by my side throughout this trial… You guys were my guideposts and my shining lights throughout all of this and I cannot thank you enough for your compassion, extreme expertise, and your friendship. I wish I could tell ,my mom about all of this. I wish I could tell her about so many things that can happen, that have happened since she was murdered. Mostly that I’ll never stop missing her.”

She added that while she hopes to put this chapter of her life behind her, she and her family are aware of the stain Jones’ actions have left on their lives.

“I wish that after today, I could just be a daughter grieving her mother and stop worrying about conspiracy theorists sending me threats or worse. But I know that this is not the end of Alex Jones in my life. I know that his hates, his hate, lies and conspiracy theories will follow both me and my family through the rest of our days. But I’m also hopeful for what happened here today. That it may save other families from high-profile tragedies from the cycle of abuse and re-traumatization that we have all been put through as we simply tried to survive the hardest days, weeks, and years of our lives,” Lafferty said.

She continued, “I’m incredibly proud and thankful for the message that was sent here today. The truth matters. And those who profit off of other people’s pain and trauma will pay for what they have done. There will be more Alex Joneses in this world, but what they learned here today is that they absolutely will be held accountable.”

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October 12, 2022
LA City Councilmember Nury Martinez resigns from office, two days after stepping down from leadership post | CNN

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[Breaking news update, published at 5:50 p.m. ET]

Los Angeles City Council member Nury Martinez resigned from her seat on Council District 6, two days after stepping down from her post as president for making racist remarks.

“It is with a broken heart that I resign my seat for Council District 6, the community I grew up in and my home,” she said in a news release.

[Original story, published at 4:32 p.m. ET]

A day after Los Angeles City Council’s president resigned from her post for making racist remarks, the new acting president proposed several changes to help move the city forward.

During a loud and contentious council meeting Tuesday – the first meeting since the scandal broke – Acting President Mitch O’Farrell proposed “major reform of the city charter, city council and how we approach redistricting, representation – the topics at the center of this crisis.”

He called for expanding the council and an independent redistricting commission to map out representation of the “diverse metropolis.”

It was the first council meeting since audio posted online revealed then-President Nury Martinez made racist comments about another council member’s family and said that colleague’s son “needs a beatdown.”

The remarks were part of leaked audio that was posted anonymously on Reddit and obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Martinez publicly apologized for her comments Monday and resigned from her post as council president. On Tuesday, she also took a leave of absence from the council.

O’Farrell presented a motion for a ballot measure that could be posed to voters to decide if the council should grow.

The number of members – 15 – has not changed since 1925, when Los Angeles had less than 1 million residents, O’Farrell said.

The city’s population has since quadrupled, according to US Census data.

“This council should reflect and represent the residents we serve,” O’Farrell said. “A ballot measure that increases the number of council seats to help us meet that goal and involve Angelenos in the process, as will an immediate redistricting process, should the people decide they want an expanded city council.”

When the council reconvenes Wednesday, members will discuss another ballot measure that calls for an independent redistricting commission that would determine the boundaries set every 10 years.

According to The Los Angeles Times. the leaked audio captured conversation from October 2021 involving Martinez; her fellow councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León; and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera.

Much of the conversation focused on maps proposed by the city’s redistricting commission and the councilmembers’ frustration with them, as well as the need to “ensure that heavily Latino districts did not lose economic assets” in the once-in-a-decade process, according to the Times.

The councilmembers then discussed Councilmember Mike Bonin, a White man. In clips of the leaked audio posted by the Times, Martinez is heard recounting a conversation and says “Bonin thinks he’s f**king Black.”

According to the Times, Martinez says Bonin appeared with his son on a float in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade and he “handled his young Black son as though he were an accessory.” The boy is 8 years old, according to a Facebook post by his father.

The Times reported that Martinez also said of Bonin’s child, “Parece changuito,” or “He’s like a monkey.”

In the leaked audio, Martinez can be heard talking about Bonin’s son allegedly misbehaving while at the parade by hanging from a railing of their float, saying “this kid is going to tip us over.”

“They’re raising him like a little White kid,” Martinez said in the audio released by The Times. “I was like, this kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner and then I’ll bring him back.”

CNN has not been able to verify the audio recording. But the fallout has been swift.

On Monday, Herrera resigned as president of Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Councilmember Cedillo issued a public statement saying he should have stepped in during the conversation.

“I want to start by apologizing. While I did not engage in the conversation in question, I was present at times during this meeting last year,” Cedillo said Sunday. “It is my instinct to hold others accountable when they use derogatory or racially divisive language. Clearly, I should have intervened.”

Councilmember de León also said he should have acted differently.

“On that day, I fell short of the expectations we set for our leaders – and I will hold myself to a higher standard,” he said in a written statement Sunday.

“There were comments made in the context of this meeting that are wholly inappropriate; and I regret appearing to condone and even contribute to certain insensitive comments made about a colleague and his family in private. I’ve reached out to that colleague personally.”

Officials near and far – including Sen. Dianne Feinstein and President Joe Biden – believe the councilmembers who took part in the recorded conversation should resign.

“At a time when our country has seen a steep rise in racially motivated hate crimes, it’s critical that elected officials set a positive example on behalf of everyone they represent,” said Feinstein, the senior US senator from California.

The city council’s new acting president also called for the full resignation of the three colleagues.

“I do not believe we can have the healing that is necessary or govern as we need to while council members Martinez, de Leon, and Cedillo remain as members of this council,” O’Farrell said Tuesday.

A motion to elect a new council president will be heard next Tuesday.

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October 12, 2022
Saudis aren’t weaponizing oil like Americans claim, top official says | CNN Business

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Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir said his country partnered with Russia to slash oil production in order to stabilize markets and denied that there were political motives behind the decision, which has enraged US leaders and sparked calls to rethink ties with Riyadh.

“We’re trying to make sure we don’t have erratic swings in prices,” al-Jubeir, one of Saudi Arabia’s top diplomats, told CNN’s Becky Anderson on Wednesday. “Our track record has been clear – we have always worked assiduously to maintain stability in the oil markets.”

Last week, OPEC+, the oil cartel led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, agreed to slash production by 2 million barrels per day, twice as much as analysts had predicted, in the biggest cut since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The move came despite an intense pressure campaign from the United States, which had warned Arab allies that such a move would increase prices and help Russian President Vladimir Putin continue to fund his war in Ukraine. Experts also fear that continued high oil prices could make it more difficult for the US to tamp down inflation, which has already skyrocketed this year.

Al-Jubeir, who is also the country’s climate minister, denied that there were any political motives to the decision and said the production cut was made to avoid major swings in the price of oil, which can affect consumers worldwide, and pointed to the fact that the price of oil has gone down since the reduction was announced last week.

“Saudi Arabia is not siding with Russia,” he told CNN. “Saudi Arabia is taking the side of trying to ensure the stability of the oil markets.”

“Saudi Arabia does not politicize oil. We don’t see oil as a weapon. We see oil as our commodity. Our objective is to bring stability to the oil market,” al-Jubeir said.

US President Joe Biden told CNN on Tuesday that Washington must now “rethink” its relationship with Riyadh following the cut. The decision was a particular affront for Biden because of his efforts over the summer to repair ties with Saudi Arabia, despite the kingdom’s woeful human rights record and the role of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Bin Salman denied involvement in the murder, which captured international headlines in part due to the lurid details of the killing.

“I am in the process, when the House and Senate gets back, they’re going to have to – there’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done with Russia,” Biden said.

Watch the full exclusive interview with President Joe Biden

On Wednesday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden would examine all aspects of US ties with Saudi Arabia, including arms sales, as administration officials begin quiet discussions with members of Congress and congressional aides about how the US could impose consequences on the kingdom following the oil output cut.

“There is a range of interests and values that are implicated in our relationship with that country,” Sullivan told reporters. “The President will examine all of that. But one question he’s going to ask is: Is the nature of the relationship serving the interest and values of the United States and what changes would make it better serve the interests and values?”

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman al-Saud said in an interview with Saudi TV earlier Wednesday that OPEC+ needed to be proactive as central banks in the West moved to tackle inflation with higher interest rates, a move that could raise prospects of a global recession, which could in turn reduce demand for oil and drive its price down. Cutting production would ensure a smaller supply of oil, keeping its price higher. While that would protect the Saudi economy by ensuring it receives a steady flow of income from oil sales, it would force consumers across the world to pay more for energy and gas, further fueling inflation.

Saudi officials have insisted that the production cut is being done to protect the country’s economic interests. Because of its heavy dependence on oil revenues, the Saudi economy has a history of falling victim to boom and bust cycles in the oil market, where high prices bring in a flow of cash followed by downturns.

In the United States, however, the cut could have massive political ramifications ahead of next month’s midterm elections. After reaching highs over the summer, gas prices in the United States had been steadily decreasing, providing Biden and his top aides a potent talking point in the lead-up to the elections.

But a combination of factors, including rising demand and maintenance at some US refineries, has caused prices to begin ticking back up. The OPEC+ decision is likely to aggravate those factors.

The decision set off bipartisan fury in Washington when it was first announced last week. Saudi Arabia is now being accused of filling the Kremlin’s coffers with oil revenues just days after President Putin’s regime began carrying out large-scale missile attacks on civilian targets across Ukraine

“What Saudi Arabia did to help Putin continue to wage his despicable, vicious war against Ukraine will long be remembered by Americans,” tweeted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, on Friday.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut on Wednesday called for immediate action on his bill that would stop US arm sales to Saudi Arabia.

“The Saudis actions aid and abet a murderous and brutal criminal invasion by Russia,” Blumenthal said.

When asked about growing calls in Washington to limit ties with Saudi Arabia, al-Jubeir said he hoped that such talk was motivated by domestic politics ahead of the midterms.

Al-Jubeir said the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia remains “robust.”

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the US have had a very strong relationship for eight decades … and we look forward to this relationship continuing for the next eight decades,” he added.

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October 12, 2022
Biden sends a careful but chilling new nuclear message to Putin in CNN interview | CNN Politics

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It’s never going to feel normal to hear a president discussing the danger of “Armageddon” – especially now, on camera.

But Joe Biden used an exclusive CNN interview on Tuesday to send another careful, yet clear and chilling message to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the disastrous consequences of using nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine.

The first president since the 1980s to really have to game out calculations about nuclear arsenals and deterrence, Biden was asked by Jake Tapper whether he thought that Putin – who has warned he is prepared to use every option in Russia’s arsenal – might consider detonating one of the world’s most heinous weapons as an act of desperation in a losing war.

Biden replied: “I don’t think he will.”

But the President, who first touched on this subject at an off-camera fundraiser in New York last week, made crystal clear he was sending a public message to Putin about the dangers of thinking that using a lower yield, tactical nuclear bomb would be an isolated event.

“What I am talking about, I am talking to Putin. He, in fact, cannot continue with impunity to talk about the use of a tactical nuclear weapon as if that’s a rational thing to do,” Biden said, before warning of dangerous consequences of such a move.

“The mistakes get made, the miscalculation could occur, no one could be sure what would happen and it could end in Armageddon,” he said, again stressing that a nuclear blast that kills thousands of people could lead to events barreling way out of control.

Biden is stating the fear of some strategists who warn about a ladder of escalation that could occur if a nuclear bomb is used and triggers reprisals by the West – even though any initial US response would certainly go no further than conventional military action.

He also appears to be trying to create a narrative of deterrence around the specific situation in Ukraine. The logic of the US and Russia’s long-range strategic nuclear arsenals is that the use of them is deterred because a conflict would be suicidal for both sides. That equation does not exist in Ukraine, since the country has no nuclear arsenal and it’s hard to conclude that it represents a vital national interest that would lead Washington to respond in kind to Putin going nuclear. By stressing that even a tactical device – which could be small enough to destroy an airbase or large enough to reduce a city to ruins – could lead to something worse, Biden seems to be almost seeking to create a new chain of calculations in Putin’s mind.

Two moments in Tapper’s interview brought home the burden now borne by the man who is followed everywhere he goes by a military officer carrying the nation’s nuclear codes.

First the CNN anchor asked the President to state the US red line for the US and NATO in Ukraine and what Washington would do if Putin bombed a nuclear plant in Ukraine or set off a tactical nuclear weapon.

“It would be irresponsible for me to talk about what we would or wouldn’t do,” Biden said.

Then, Tapper prodded the President over whether the Pentagon had gamed out scenarios. Biden soberly replied: “The Pentagon didn’t have to be asked.”

Watch the full exclusive interview with President Joe Biden

Most experts and strategists estimate that there are many reasons why Putin would stop short of using a nuclear weapon – among them the possible risk of radioactive fallout crossing into Russia or the fact that the use of a tactical nuclear weapon may not actually be a sensible strategic option in the war.

But the fact he’s pushed himself into a corner, along with his obliviousness to civilian loss of life underscored again by his callous assaults on Ukrainian cities this week, suggests that a humanitarian impulse is unlikely to be part of his calculation. And Biden himself said in the interview that while he believed Putin was a “rational actor,” he had made significant miscalculations and his objectives were not rational. That leaves open the possibility of even more decisions that appear irrational to the West but may seem reasonable in Putin’s warped logic.

That is why Biden and experts who have dedicated their careers to staving off a nuclear apocalypse say the possibility that Putin may go nuclear must be taken so seriously – even if the chances remain very low and the US would likely be able to detect well ahead of time if Russia’s atomic devices were on the move.

“It’s not a probable event. It’s not even likely,” said Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear non-proliferation expert and former president of the Plowshares Fund, said on CNN’s “Newsroom” on Tuesday.

“But this is a low probability, high consequence event. If he uses even one nuclear weapon, he’s bringing us into a whole new world. He’s causing massive damage. And he’s running the risk of escalation with exchanges from the West that could lead to further exchanges, et cetera.”

Cirincione explained that even if Putin’s saber rattling represented a political threat designed to scare the West, it cannot be discounted.

“He has the means. He has the doctrine that allows him to use it. And he has the motive. He is losing this war. He has to do something to try to turn the tide of battle in desperation. He might turn to a nuclear weapon.”

While some critics have faulted the President for mentioning words like “Armageddon” and comparing his rhetoric to that of Putin, the motivations of the two men are very different. At a minimum, the Russian leader is boasting about nuclear weapons to scare the world. Biden is speaking publicly to stave off the possibility of disaster.

One reason the war in Ukraine is so dangerous is that nearly eight months in, there remains no prospect of any genuine diplomatic process that could defuse it. Ukraine’s forces, using US and allied weapons systems, are making remarkable progress on the battlefield and are determined to repel an unprovoked invasion that has caused carnage and extensive destruction. Putin has thrown so much personal prestige and Russian blood into the war he can hardly afford any outcome he cannot spin as a win, despite his autocratic grip on Russia.

Biden signaled in the Tapper interview that he saw no real rationale to meet Putin when both leaders are expected to be at the G20 summit in Indonesia next month. But he did leave one intriguing door open to the Russian leader, saying he’d sit down with Putin if he were willing to discuss the fate of US basketball star Brittney Griner, who was sentenced in August to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to drugs smuggling. The US says Griner and another American, former US Marine Paul Whelan, have been wrongfully detained. Washington has offered to swap jailed Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout for the two Americans.

“Look, I have no intention of meeting with him, but look, if he came to me at the G20 and said, ‘I want to talk about the release of Griner,’ I would meet with him, but that would depend,” Biden said.

The President also downplayed the idea that more generally there was anything to talk about.

“He’s acted brutally, I think he’s committed war crimes, and so I don’t… see any rationale to meet with him now.”

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October 12, 2022
Venezuela landslide kills at least 39 people, over 50 missing | CNN

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A landslide in Venezuela on Sunday has killed at least 39 people and left over 50 missing in the north central state of Aragua, Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro announced Tuesday.

Maduro also hinted that hopes to safely rescue the missing are fading. “We are approaching almost 100 victims, fatal victims, in this tragedy,” he said, in a video statement to state broadcaster VTV.

More than three days have passed since the catastrophic landslide came down in the Santos Michelena municipality, after days of heavy rainfall.

The downpour caused five streams near Las Tejerías to overflow, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said on Monday, adding that search efforts were ongoing.

More than 1,000 officials from the National Risk Management System and police officers are participating in the search and rescue operation, according to Carlos Pérez, deputy minister for Risk Management and Civil Protection.

Maduro also announced emergency funding had been made available to survivors, and called for patience from the local population.

It will take time to reach all the families affected by the tragedy, he said.

At least 1,300 families have been affected by the landslide, according to the Ministry of Communications, which updated the tolls of the dead and missing.

In total, 317 homes have been destroyed and 757 homes were affected by the landslide, according to Rodriguez. More than 10,000 families have experience water outages, he added.

On Sunday, Venezuela began three days of national mourning for victims of the disaster.

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October 11, 2022
Amazon plans to hire 150,000 workers ahead of holiday shopping season | CNN Business

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Amazon said Thursday it plans to hire 150,000 new employees across the United States to meet demand ahead of the busy holiday shopping season.

The openings, which include full-time, seasonal and part-time roles, range from packing and picking to sorting and shipping, the company said. The announcement comes just days before Amazon is set to hold another Prime Day shopping event.

Amazon ramps up hiring each holiday season, but this year it is doing so in a tight labor market and with rising inflation putting more pressure on companies to raise wages.

Last week, Amazon said it would raise hourly wages for warehouse and delivery workers. With the increase, Amazon employees can, on average, earn more than $19 an hour based on the position and location in the United States, up from an average of $18 previously.

On Thursday, the company said it will provide additional sign-on bonuses for the newly announced holiday positions, ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 in select locations. Some of the states with the highest number of jobs available include California, Illinois, Texas.

The hiring news also comes amid multiple high-profile unionization drives at Amazon warehouses, including at facilities in Alabama and New York. The Amazon Labor Union secured a historic victory in forming the first US labor union at a facility in Staten Island, New York earlier this year. Next week, workers at a separate facility near Albany, New York, are slated to vote to join the same grassroots worker group.

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October 11, 2022
Jimmy Carter Fast Facts | CNN Politics

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Here is a look at the life of Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States.

Birth date: October 1, 1924

Birth place: Plains, Georgia

Birth name: James Earl Carter Jr.

Father: James Earl Carter Sr., a farmer and businessman

Mother: Lillian (Gordy) Carter

Marriage: Rosalynn (Smith) Carter (July 7, 1946-present)

Children: Amy Lynn, Donnel Jeffrey “Jeff,” James Earl III “Chip” and John William “Jack”

Education: Georgia Southwestern College, 1941-1942; Georgia Institute of Technology, 1942-1943; US Naval Academy, B.S., 1946

Military: US Navy, 1946-1953, Lieutenant

Religion: Christian

Carter was the first US president to be born in a hospital.

Champion of human rights, especially regarding the governments of South Korea, Iran, Argentina, South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

The Carter Center, established by the former president and his wife in 1982, has observed 113 elections in 39 countries since 1989.

Created the Department of Energy and established a national policy to address the energy shortage.

Is the oldest living former president.

Has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards and has won three.

1953 – Works on his own farm in Plains, Georgia, and operates Carter’s Warehouse, a general-purpose seed and farm supply company.

1962 – Wins election to the Georgia state Senate.

1966 – Runs for governor and loses to Lester Maddox.

November 3, 1970 – Runs for governor a second time and wins.

January 12, 1971 – Is inaugurated as Georgia’s 76th governor.

1974 – Serves as the Democratic National Committee campaign chairman for the 1974 congressional elections.

December 12, 1974 – Officially announces his candidacy for president of the United States.

November 2, 1976 – Elected as the 39th president of the United States.

January 20, 1977 – Inaugurated.

March 26, 1979 – In a ceremony in Washington, DC, Egypt and Israel formally sign a peace treaty ending 31 years of war between them. The successful Camp David Accords are one of the highlights of Carter’s presidency.

November 4, 1979 – The US Embassy in Tehran, Iran, is stormed and diplomatic staff are taken hostage. Carter’s inability to successfully negotiate release of the hostages becomes a major political liability. The hostages are released on January 20, 1981, the day of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration.

1982 – Becomes a professor at Emory University in Atlanta.

1982 – Founds the Carter Center in Atlanta, in partnership with Emory University. Carter Center initiatives include monitoring international elections, fighting diseases in developing countries and seeking international peace. One of the key accomplishments of the Carter Center is the near eradication of Guinea worm disease from more than three million cases in 1986 to 14 cases in 2021.

August 9, 1999 – Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor for an American civilian.

May 14, 2002 – In a speech given in Cuba, Carter outlines his vision for improvement between the United States and Cuba regarding their trading relations. The speech is broadcast live and uncensored on Cuban state television.

October 11, 2002 – Wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

February 19, 2005 – The USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) is commissioned.

February 11, 2007 – Wins a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for the audio book of “Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis.” He shares the award with Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis.

April 17, 2008 – Meets with Hamas leaders in Cairo, Egypt. US and Israeli government officials object to Carter’s meeting, as both governments classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.

September 15, 2009 – Carter causes controversy with remarks on NBC Nightly News about President Barack Obama. Carter says, “An overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American.”

August 27, 2010 – Carter negotiates the release of US citizen Aijalon Mahli Gomes. Gomes had been imprisoned in North Korea after entering illegally in January 2010. “At the request of President Carter, and for humanitarian purposes, Mr. Gomes was granted amnesty by the chairman of the National Defense Commission, Kim Jong-Il,” the Carter Center says in a statement.

March 28, 2011 – Carter arrives in Cuba for a three-day visit, to meet with President Raul Castro.

April 26, 2011 – Visits Pyongyang, North Korea, for talks to ease tensions between North and South Korea, accompanied by former Finnish President Marti Ahtisaari, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson.

May 4, 2011 – In a Washington Post opinion piece, Carter urges the support of the Hamas-Fatah unity government.

June 24, 2012 – In a New York Times opinion piece, Carter says that the United States is no longer a champion of human rights in light of recent legislative action and drone strikes.

July 7, 2015 – His autobiography, “A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety,” is published.

August 3, 2015 – Has a “small mass” removed from his liver during surgery.

August 12, 2015 – Carter announces that “recent liver surgery revealed that [he has] cancer that now is in other parts of [his] body.” Carter says he will receive treatment at Emory University in Atlanta.

August 20, 2015 – Carter holds a press conference to announce that doctors found spots of melanoma on his brain and he will undergo treatment.

December 6, 2015 – Carter announces that according to his most recent MRI brain scan, his cancer is gone.

February 15, 2016 – Wins a Grammy Award in the Best Spoken Word Album category for the audio book version of “A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety.” It is his second Grammy win.

July 13, 2017 – Carter is admitted to a hospital in Winnipeg, Canada, after becoming dehydrated while working outdoors for Habitat for Humanity. He is released the following day.

February 10, 2019 – Wins his third Grammy Award in the Best Spoken Word Album category, this time for the audio book version of “Faith – A Journey For All.”

May 13, 2019 – The Carter Center says that the former president is recovering from surgery to repair a broken hip after falling at his home in Plains, Georgia.

June 3, 2019 – Emory University announces that Carter has become a tenured faculty member after teaching at the Atlanta-based private university for 37 years.

June 28, 2019 – Carter suggests that a full investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election would show that Donald Trump didn’t win the presidency. In response, Trump later says that Carter is a Democrat and repeating a “typical talking point,” calling him a “nice man, terrible president.”

September 17, 2019 – During a town hall at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Carter says if he were 80 years old he would not be able to handle the responsibilities of being President and jokes that he hopes there is an “age limit” on the office. The comments are especially notable as the age of the three top Democratic 2020 presidential hopefuls, who are in their 70s, has been the subject of ongoing debate.

October 6, 2019 – Carter receives 14 stitches after falling and hitting his head in his home. Hours later he travels to Nashville to speak at the Ryman Auditorium.

October 21, 2019 – Carter falls in his home and is admitted to Phoebe Sumter Medical Center for observation and treatment of a minor pelvic fracture.

November 12, 2019 – Undergoes an operation to relieve pressure on his brain caused by bleeding from his recent falls, according to the Carter Center. The center says there are no complications from the procedure. He is released from the hospital on November 27.

December 2, 2019 – In a statement, the Carter Center says that the former president has returned to the hospital over the weekend for a urinary tract infection. Carter is discharged on December 4.

September 9, 2020 – The documentary film, “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President,” is released in theaters.

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October 11, 2022
Shooting outside NY GOP governor nominee’s home sharpens debate over crime and guns | CNN Politics

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CNN
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A shooting that wounded two teenagers on the property of Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican nominee for governor of New York, was a disturbing development in a campaign that has seen him hammer Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul over public safety and a controversial bail reform law enacted more than three years ago.

The random incident Sunday afternoon outside his Long Island house – his two 16-year-old daughters were inside, terrified but uninjured – provided Zeldin with an opportunity, however personally unwelcome, to sharpen his message on an issue for which concerns cross party lines and potential solutions have often defied typical partisan divides.

“This is day after day after day,” Zeldin told Fox News on Monday. “And there are a lot of parents, there are a lot of families, dealing with this reality of rising crime in New York. For us, fortunately, my daughters knew exactly how to respond. But listen, they were just sitting there at the kitchen table doing homework and bullets started going off all around them.”

An ally of former President Donald Trump, Zeldin has mostly run a one-issue campaign focused on crime and his criticism of the 2019 Democratic-led enactment of a bail reform law that made it more difficult for judges to keep some suspects behind bars. The law has been amended twice, but Republicans and some Democrats have pushed for more substantial revisions. While the backlash is real, Zeldin’s ability to parlay it into a winning message remains in doubt. He has struggled to break through with voters in deep-blue New York and Hochul has used his opposition to new gun restrictions to undermine his “soft on crime” attacks.

Zeldin entered the general election at a clear disadvantage. There are more than twice as many registered Democrats in New York as Republicans, whose party has been hollowed out by a generation of cascading defeats. The last GOP victory in a statewide election came in 2002, when Gov. George Pataki won his third term in office. Hochul, nominally an incumbent after replacing disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo following his resignation last year amid a sexual harassment scandal, has distanced herself from her predecessor, but not the state’s Democratic donor apparatus, and has trounced Zeldin in fundraising.

Zeldin has employed familiar GOP attacks against Hochul over the economy and inflation, but like other Republicans around the country, he sees an opening on the criminal justice front. Last November, months after he entered the GOP primary, Republicans won a pair of district attorney races in the New York City suburbs. In Nassau County, the incumbent Democratic executive was also unseated by a Republican. The backlash to bail reform played a central role in GOP messaging in those races.

Zeldin has followed that roadmap. Perhaps, some critics suggest, too closely for a candidate whose path to an upset win requires a strong performance in the suburbs and upstate, but also a significant dent in the blue wall of New York City.

For her part, Hochul has largely focused her broadsides against Zeldin on his ties to Trump and his opposition to abortion rights. (Zeldin has said he would not seek to change state law guaranteeing access to the procedure.) When pressed on the bail reform law, Hochul has pointed to the amendments passed by the legislature.

Zeldin’s efforts to make hay over the controversy has been hamstrung by cash woes. Short on money, he turned to Trump for a fundraiser in early September. The event netted Zeldin’s campaign a reported $1.5 million but underscored a fundamental conundrum – Trump, and his wing of the Republican Party, are crucial drivers of campaign funds, but close public ties to them can be self-defeating in a state the former President lost by 23 points in 2020.

“I don’t think Zeldin is in an impossible situation. In fact, I think he’s going to do better than expected,” said Kenneth Sherrill, a professor emeritus of political science at Hunter College. “But the campaign has been totally negative, hasn’t presented any positive reasons for supporting him. He says nothing about his record in prior offices. He says nothing about issues other than to attack. At some point, he has to explain why he’s a desirable alternative to Hochul.”

Zeldin has found an unwilling ally of sorts in New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who, though he endorsed Hochul, has pilloried the state’s bail reform law and demanded lawmakers hold a special session in Albany to further restrict rules over pretrial detention. His ask was rejected.

But Zeldin and Adams break sharply on gun violence, with the mayor – along with Hochul – pushing for stricter regulations on firearms. Zeldin criticized a new round of gun control measures passed in Albany and signed by Hochul this past summer that sought to circumvent a recent Supreme Court decision striking down some restrictions on concealed carry outside the home.

“I think we need to separate a law-abiding New Yorker who wants to safely and securely carry a firearm for, solely, their self-defense and the criminals who want to carry firearms illegally and commit offense after offense after offense, harming others, and then because of the system in New York, they end up back on the street,” Zeldin told Fox News in an interview from early July.

A federal court last week blocked enforcement of large chunks of the law. The ruling is being appealed by the state attorney general’s office.

Early Sunday evening, Hochul tweeted a conciliatory note in response to the incident involving Zeldin’s family.

“I’ve been briefed on the shooting outside of Congressman Zeldin’s home. As we await more details, I’m relieved to hear the Zeldin family is safe and grateful for law enforcement’s quick response,” Hochul said from her campaign’s Twitter account.

The shooting marked the second time Zeldin has been thrust into the headlines by an act of violence. The first came over the summer, when a man wielding a sharp object accosted him onstage at a campaign event near Rochester. Zeldin was not hurt, and the alleged attacker was promptly subdued and arrested.

Asked about the shooting on Monday, Hochul reiterated to reporters that her office had “sent our message right away” that the state police would be made available if desired to aid in the investigation.

“It’s a reminder, we all have to work together to get guns off the streets,” she added. “And so I will continue, as I’ve been on this journey as governor, to do everything we can to ensure that our streets are safe. That is one of my highest priorities.”

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October 11, 2022
Amazon suspends 50 workers who refused to work after warehouse fire | CNN Business

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CNN
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Amazon suspended dozens of workers at its only unionized warehouse on Tuesday, one day after they organized a work stoppage following a fire at the facility.

About 50 workers at the facility in Staten Island, New York were suspended with pay, according to Connor Spence, one of the suspended workers. Spence is a picker at the warehouse, known as JFK8, and the secretary treasurer for the Amazon Labor Union, the grassroots workers group behind the successful union push.

Spence told CNN that a fire broke out at the warehouse on Monday, causing the entire building to be evacuated and all the day shift workers to be sent home. When night shift workers arrived, they were “not really told what was going on,” Spence said. Eventually, he said, managers began telling the employees to get back to their work.

“The issue that people had was the building still reeked with smoke, it was difficult to breathe at some workstations,” Spence said. “We wanted to be sent home with pay because it was unsafe.”

Spence, who works the day shift but stayed late with the night shift workers to offer support, said they organized a work stoppage and demanded that the workers be sent home with pay. He estimates “more than 100 people” participated in the stoppage. “After a while it was clear that they weren’t going to cooperate with us, that they weren’t going to hear our demands, so we decided to walk out,” he said.

Paul Flaningan, an Amazon spokesperson, confirmed the fire and that roughly 50 workers had been suspended in a statement to CNN on Wednesday.

“Late Monday afternoon there was a small fire in a cardboard compactor outside of JFK8, one of our facilities in Staten Island, New York. All employees were safely evacuated, and day shift employees were sent home with pay,” Flaningan said. “The FDNY certified the building is safe and at that point we asked all night shift employees to report to their regularly scheduled shift.”

“While the vast majority of employees reported to their workstations, a small group refused to return to work and remained in the building without permission,” Flaningan said.

The moves may only add to tension between Amazon and some of the workers at the facility.

Amazon has yet to formally recognize or bargain with the Amazon Labor Union at JFK8, despite losing the first round of its efforts with the National Labor Relations Board to overturn the union’s victory. The incident in Staten Island also comes about a week ahead of a separate union election – also organized by the Amazon Labor Union – at an Amazon facility near Albany, New York.

According to Spence, the roughly 50 workers at JFK8 have been suspended with pay until Amazon conducts an investigation into what happened.

“Nobody is sure how long that will take,” he said.

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October 11, 2022
First on CNN: Former White House aide cooperating with investigation of Trump effort to overturn election results | CNN Politics

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CNN
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An Atlanta-area prosecutor investigating Donald Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn the 2020 election has secured cooperation from former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

Hutchinson, whose cooperation has not previously been reported, became a prominent witness during a summer hearing for the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill insurrection.

Ex-aide was told Trump became irate when stopped from going to Capitol

The former top aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows could offer Georgia prosecutors insights about what she witnessed in the West Wing, as well as steps her former boss took specifically when it came to Georgia.

Prosecutors have called for Meadows to testify before the special grand jury, but they are still working to secure his testimony. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for late October.

Meadows was among the participants on the January 2021 call between Trump and Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, and Meadows also made a surprise visit to a Cobb County location in December 2020, where officials were conducting an absentee ballot signature audit.

Hutchinson has also been cooperating with the Justice Department, which also faces a pre-election quiet period, in its criminal investigation into efforts to subvert the 2020 election.

An attorney for Hutchinson did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said the Georgia probe is shifting into a quieter mode to avoid any appearance of influencing the upcoming midterm election. Legal experts told CNN she could still use that time to have the special grand jury pore over information it has already obtained and work on the final report it will issue when its investigation is complete.

CNN previously reported that Willis is aiming to swiftly wrap up her probe after the midterms and could begin issuing indictments as soon as December.

A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office declined to comment.

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October 10, 2022