List of All Articles with Tag 'us politics'

CNN's ratings appear to have taken a hit in the wake of its much-maligned town hall featuring former President Donald Trump. More than a week after the controversial television spectacle, the network weathered its lowest-rated week since June 2015, according to The Daily Beast. The network averaged approximately 429,000 total daily viewers between Monday and Friday of last week. The network's viewership was also down by double digits when compared to the same week last year. Those numbers remained consistent for its primary advertising demographic of 25-54 year-olds. CNN's cable news rivals had far better viewership during the same time period; MSNBC had more than double CNN's daily audience, with 976,000 total viewers, while Fox News went beyond that with 1.4m. In a statement to The Independnet, CNN defended its ratings, noting that it outpaced Fox News for the month of May up through the 20th. “CNN is reaching the most P2+ and P25-54 viewers in cable news (39.173 million P2+ and 10.529 million P25-54), outpacing Fox News (35.422 million P2+ and 7.950 million P25-54),” a CNN spokesperson told The Independnet. Despite those numbers, Fox News is weathering its own storms with the abrupt firing of Tucker Carlson. Its numbers are down 41 per cent in its key demographics year-to-year, and down 24 per cent in total viewership. Its weekday demographic audience immediately after Carlson's departure was the lowest it has been since the first week of September 2001. Both Fox and CNN are suffering in their primetime time slots. Several of their weeknight primetime offerings have been beaten in the ratings by Newsmax, a far-right media channel that has served as a landing spot for conservative viewers fleeing Fox News in the wake of Carlson's departure. Newsmax saw a similar boost immediately after the 2020 election after Fox News accurately called Arizona for Joe Biden before any other news outlet. Chris Wallace's Friday night interview show on CNN scored only 224,000 total viewers in its 10pm slot; 60,000 more people were watching Newsmax during the same time slot. CNN noted to The Independent that Wallace’s show is available on Max before it airs on CNN, calling it “inaccurate” to portray the CNN viewership as the show’s only audience numbers. The only network actively gaining viewers is MSNBC, which saw its audience numbers increase 44 per cent — likely a result of the CNN exodus. CNN's town hall with Mr Trump and moderated by Kaitlan Collins included the former president further maligning E Jean Carroll — whom he was found by a court to have sexually assaulted and defamed — calling 6 January 2021 a "beautiful day," and promising to pardon Capitol rioters who attempted to thwart the nation's democratic transfer of power after his 2020 election loss. He also continued to push the idea that the 2020 election was stolen. Blowback to the town hall was so severe that CNN star anchor Anderson Cooper made a statement on-air about the debacle, ultimately asking them to view the event as a warning about Mr Trump's political aspirations. Read More Trump defames E Jean Carroll yet again after she sues him over CNN town hall insults Trump Media files $3.78bn defamation lawsuit against Washington Post over Truth Social reporting Trump slams Fox News’ Laura Ingraham over ‘hit piece’ saying DeSantis would do better against Biden than him

The college student who tracked Elon Musk’s private jet on Twitter has now turned his focus on Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Jack Sweeney, a student at the University of Central Florida, created a Twitter account called “@DeSantisJet", which tracks the whereabouts of the aircraft that Mr DeSantis uses. The automated feed tracks the governor's 10-seat Textron jet with tail number N943FL, which is owned by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The data is shared 24 hours later to “comply” with Twitter's anti-doxxing rules. His account has already garnered over 15,800 followers. It was set up to track Mr DeSantis because of the "rising interest" in the governor amid speculations of him running for the 2024 presidential election, Mr Sweeney told Insider. “Well, you know Ron DeSantis is becoming more and more of a public figure in that he might run for the White House,” he added. Mr DeSantis on 11 May signed a bill into law that will redact details about trips he makes on both state planes and private, chartered flights, including names of staff and family members travelling with him. However, his movements can be still monitored using publicly available data from ADS-B Exchange, a flight-tracking platform. Mr Sweeney on Monday tweeted that the account tracks the Textron jet which the governor uses for state-related matters. Flights of the aircraft do not guarantee that Mr DeSantis is onboard, he said. "As others have noted, DeSantis also gets rides on political donors’ planes for personal matters. If we become aware of these flights, it will also be shared here.” The student shared the first tweet about the governor’s travels on 19 May when he flew from Tallahassee to Tampa and back. Mr Sweeney gained popularity after Mr Musk tried to purchase the @ElonJet account, which tracked the billionaire's jet, for $5,000. The student refused the offer and when Mr Musk took over Twitter, he suspended the account. Mr Sweeney got around the ban by creating a new account @ElonJetNextDay, where tracking data of Mr Musk's jets are shared with a 24-hour delay. The student told News Channel 8 he is not motivated by a political agenda. “People can do what they want,” he said. “There can be supporters that are interested in where he goes and want to follow them or people who are more criticizing for what flights they’re going where.” Read More Teen who tracked Elon Musk’s jet is now following Russian billionaires Elon Musk’s private jet made over 130 flights in 2022 with shortest lasting 6 minutes, tracker data shows Trump bashes DeSantis as he shares surprisingly positive response to another 2024 challenger: ‘Good luck Tim!’ College student who tracked Elon Musk’s private jet is now following Ron DeSantis Everything Elon Musk has said about the 2024 election so far Who is David Sacks: the controversial entrepreneur hosting DeSantis 2024 event

Texas would expand what can be defined as sexually explicit material or potentially harmful to children in order to ban books from public and charter school libraries, under a bill given final passage by the state Senate late Tuesday night and sent to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The Texas move is the latest attempt to ban or regulate reading material in conservative states around the country. Critics say the standards set in the Texas bill are too vague, will snag books that are not inappropriate, and that materials dealing with LGBTQ+ subject matter are more likely to be targeted for bans. The bill passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature defines “sexually explicit material” as anything that includes descriptions, illustrations or audio depicting sexual conduct not relevant to required school curriculum, and prohibits it from school libraries. The bill requires the state’s Library and Archives Commission to adopt standards that schools must follow when purchasing books, and a rating system that would be used to restrict or ban some material. “What we’re talking about is sexually explicit material ... that doesn’t belong in front of the eyes of kids,” said the bill sponsor, Sen. Angela Paxton, a Republican. “They shouldn’t be finding it in their school library.” Abbott, a Republican, previously joined a former GOP lawmaker’s campaign to investigate the use of books in schools covering topics of race, gender identity and sexual orientation. That inquiry included a list of more than 800 books. In April, leaders of a rural central Texas county considered closing their public library system rather than follow a federal judge’s order to return books to the shelves on themes ranging from teen sexuality and gender to bigotry and race. Under the measure passed Tuesday night, book vendors would have to rate books based on depictions or references to sex. "Sexually relevant” material that describes or portrays sex but is part of the required school curriculum could be checked out with a parent's permission. A book would be rated “sexually explicit” if the material is deemed offensive and not part of the required curriculum. Those books would be removed from school bookshelves. State officials will review vendors’ ratings and can request a rating change if they consider it incorrect. School districts and open-enrollment charter schools will be banned from contracting with book sellers who refuse to comply. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

Ron DeSantis will officially enter the 2024 presidential race on Wednesday following months of speculation. The Florida governor will take part in a live Twitter event with Elon Musk on Wednesday night, NBC News reports. Afterward, the campaign will release an official launch video. On Tuesday night Casey DeSantis kicked off her husband’s campaign by posting a video of him getting ready to go on stage in front of an American flag. “America is worth the fight... Every. Single. Time,” Ms DeSantis tweeted along with the expensively produced video. On Monday, Mr DeSantis, 44, teased his 2024 bid while speaking at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando in which he outlined his vision for a conservative grip on the Supreme Court to last a quarter of a century. In what appeared to be a subtle swipe at Donald Trump he announced his plans to run for eight years – something Mr Trump cannot do. Mr DeSantis, 44, is seen as Mr Trump’s biggest rival for the Republican vote with several Republican lawmakers and right-wing media rallying behind him after the midterms. However, the latest polls show Mr DeSantis trailing Mr Trump. This comes at a time when Mr DeSantis is going to war with Disney and pushing back on the NAACP‘s advisory warning travellers that Florida is “openly hostile” towards Black people, people of colour and LGBT+ people due to his laws. Read More DeSantis’s wife launches his presidential campaign with first 2024 video: ‘America is worth the fight’ Everything Elon Musk has said about the 2024 election so far David Sacks: The controversial entrepreneur hosting Ron DeSantis 2024 event with Elon Musk

Ecuador's National Electoral Council announced on Tuesday that early presidential elections would be held on Aug. 20 after President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the National Assembly by decree last week and brought forward the vote scheduled for 2025. Lasso's decision to dissolve the opposition-led legislature came as lawmakers tried to impeach him for not stopping a deal between the state-owned oil transport company and a private tanker company, accusations he denies. In disbanding the assembly, the president made first use of an option available to him under the constitution in conflicts with the legislative branch. Elections had to be called within three months, for both the assembly and presidency, and the winners will serve out what would otherwise have been the remainder of the terms of those elected officials. If there is no outright winner a runoff vote will be held in October. Lasso can choose to run in the presidential election. In the meantime, he can rule by decree for up to six months. Ecuador’s Constitutional Court on Thursday rejected multiple challenges that sought to invalidate Lasso’s decree dissolving the National Assembly. Lasso, a 67-year-old former right-wing banker, took power in May 2021 for a four-year term after winning the general election. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

Throughout this year's session, the Republican-controlled Florida legislature has pushed through several pieces of legislation that are considered big policy wins for GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Chief Justice John Roberts said Tuesday night that he wants to assure the public that the Supreme Court is committed to adhering to the "highest standards of conduct," appearing to direct his remarks at critics of the high court amid recent ethics controversies.

Donald Trump's attorneys are requesting a meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland regarding the investigation by the special counsel's office.

The House Ethics Committee announced it has ended its investigation into Rep. Eric Swalwell, according to a new letter obtained by CNN.

The South Carolina Senate on Tuesday passed a six-week abortion ban despite the fact that every woman senator in the chamber, Republican and Democrat, voted against it. The abortion ban will now go to the desk of Gov Henry McMaster, a Republican. If Mr McMaster does sign the bill as expected, it will be another blow to people seeking abortion care in the southeast. Nearly every other state in the region has enacted abortion bans since the fall of Roe v Wade last year. If Mr McMaster signs the ban into law, it is likely to face a legal challenge. The South Carolina Supreme Court earlier this struck down a previous version of a six-week abortion ban as unconstitutional. But that didn’t stop Republican men in the state legislature and the male Republican governor from pushing to pass a ban anyway. Six-week bans on abortion are considered near total bans because many people don’t know they’re pregnant until more than six weeks after conception. This bill may make it hard for people to get legal abortion care in the state even if they do know they’re pregnant before six weeks are up. The bill requires people to have two in-person doctors’ visits and two ultrasounds before they can get an abortion. Many Republican-controlled states have passed severely restrictive abortion bans over the past year-plus. But the optics in South Carolina, a state Donald Trump carried by just over 11 points in the 2020 election, are striking. The five women in the South Carolina Senate all united in opposition to the bill, calling themselves the “Sister Senators.” On two previous occassions, they and several male Republican senators had united to block the Senate from passing an abortion ban sent to them by the state House. This time, however, those male Republican senators relented and voted for the bill — meaning that it passed with only men voting for it. The Republican women senators who opposed the bill, Sens Sandy Senn, Katrina Shealy, and Penry Gustafson, pushed to put the issue to voters in the form of a ballot measure or pass a 12-week ban instead. But they were rebuffed by the more conservative state House and Republican leadership. The New York Times reported that Shane Massey, the Senate majority leader, argued that the state had become “the abortion capital of the Southeast.” If that was ever the case, it likely won’t be for long — and with North Carolina passing an abortion ban of its own in recent weeks, many people in the South will likely be unable to obtain legal abortion care. Read More Mother forced to give birth to stillborn son joins lawsuit against Texas abortion ban South Carolina's only women senators to resist new abortion restrictions up for debate

The senior general in charge of US forces in the Middle East ordered that his command announce on Twitter that a senior al Qaeda leader had been targeted by an American drone strike in Syria earlier this month -- despite not yet having confirmation of who was actually killed in the strike, according to multiple defense officials.

Sen Rick Scott of Florida announced on Tuesday that he was issuing a “formal travel advisory” for “socialists” visiting the state of Florida. Mr Scott’s so-called travel advisory comes after the NAACP issued its own travel advisory warning Black people about the perils of visiting a state that has become a bastion of far right policy in the last several years under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis. “Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals,” the NAACP advisory read. “Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.” The NAACP warning comes just more than a month after Equality Florida, one of the state’s leading LGBTQ+ organisations, issued a travel advisory for LGBTQ+ visitors. Mr Scott, a former governor of Florida whose personal worth is well over $200m, mocked the language used by the NAACP in his press release. “Florida is openly hostile toward Socialists, Communists, and those that enable them,” Mr Scott said. “Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by Socialists and others who work in the Biden Administration. Mr Scott also claimed that he was issuing the press release in response to “Biden Administration attempts to erase capitalism,” though he offered no evidence to substantiate his claim. Mr Scott has long been considered one of the most ambitious members of the Republican Senate caucus. Last year, he led the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NSRC) as the Republicans failed to retake the chamber, then challenged Sen Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for the position of minority leader. He was soundly defeated. The travel advisories issued by the NAACP, Equality Florida, and the Florida Immigrant Coalition highlight the extent to which those and other civil rights groups are alarmed by Florida’s political trajectory. In the last year-plus, the state has banned gender affirming care for minors, limited or banned discussions of race, gender, and sexuality in public schools, banned abortion after six weeks, and more. Mr DeSantis, the governor driving much of that legislation, is expected to announce that he’s running for president on Wednesday in a conversation with Twitter’s Elon Musk. Mr Scott, who at one point was considering a presidential campaign of his own, will instead run for re-election to the Senate. Read More DeSantis’s wife launches his presidential campaign with first 2024 video Montana first to ban people dressed in drag from reading to children in schools, libraries Florida school bans poem recited by Amanda Gorman at Biden inauguration NAACP advises against traveling to Florida: ‘Openly hostile toward African Americans’