Americans are most likely to select concerns about immigration policy as the top important issue to them ahead of November’s midterm elections, according to a survey released Thursday.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 15 percent of registered voters said on Monday that immigration is their biggest concern, topping economic performance and healthcare.
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That number is much higher among Republicans, with 26 percent of GOP voters citing immigration as their major concern while just 7 percent of Democrats said the same.
Among Democrats, health care (16 percent) and economic worries (14 percent) top concerns over immigration, as voters stay firmly divided over President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE’s handling of the southern border.
Overall, 52 percent of registered voters polled said they disapproved of Trump’s job performance on immigration issues so far, with 81 percent of Republicans supporting and 84 percent of Democrats opposing his immigration policies.
Americans’ concerns over immigration issues has been rising since the beginning of the year, according to a Gallup poll last month, that found that the issue grew as the top concern past other issues such as gun control and race relations.
A poll released last month by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, however, reported that health care was the No. 1 issue for voters heading toward November.
Reuters/Ipsos monthly tracking poll was conducted between June 28 and July 2, and contacted 2,252 registered voters.
Republican Senate nominee Corey Stewart (Va.) was interrupted by audience laughter during a debate on Saturday after saying President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE “stands up” to Russia.
Stewart, the controversial chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, was participating in a debate against incumbent Sen. Tim KaineTimothy (Tim) Michael KaineWarren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Senate panel passes amendment to bar using troops against protesters Defense bill turns into proxy battle over Floyd protests MORE (D-Va.).
He was attempting to attack Kaine’s responses to acts of Russian aggression during the Obama administration, such as when Russians shot down an aircraft over Ukraine, or invaded Crimea.
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“We have a president who is standing up to the Russians,” Stewart said.
He was met by loud laughter from both the audience and his opponent.
Debate Audience Erupts in Laughter After Republican Corey Stewart Says Trump “is standing up to the Russians.”pic.twitter.com/vSuqxZtsiH
— PoliticsVideoChannel (@politvidchannel) July 22, 2018
Trump faced fierce backlash from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle last week following his joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.
The president was criticized for failing to denounce Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
He later walked back his comments and said he “misspoke.”
“I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place,” Trump said Tuesday, reading from a prepared statement.
“Could be other people also. A lot of people out there,” he then added.
Trump has insisted that there has been “no president ever as tough as I have been on Russia.”
Supporters of the administration’s policy toward Russia point out that Trump has armed forces in Ukraine; the administration approved an additional $200 million in defense funds for Ukraine this week to fight Russia-backed rebels there. U.S. forces have also clashed with Russian forces in Syria.
Stewart has been a vocal Trump supporter and previously worked as the co-chairman for his presidential campaign in Virginia.
Kaine was Democratic nominee Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhite House accuses Biden of pushing ‘conspiracy theories’ with Trump election claim Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton qualifies to run for county commissioner in Florida MORE’s running mate in the 2016 presidential race.
Amid Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt’s long list of personal scandals and the Trump administration’s wide-ranging war on science, a trio of lawsuits filed Wednesday charge that the administration has actively endangered farmworkers and the environment by blocking pesticide regulations at the behest of chemical corporations.
“Pesticides are meant to be poisonous.” —New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood
The three suits offer a glimpse into the fight aimed at defeating President Donald Trump’s pesticide agenda, largely enacted by Pruitt.
One case focuses on the EPA’s decision to abandon an assessment of the dangers of malathion, which is among the most harmful pesticides available. The other two cases—brought by environmental groups and three state attorneys general—target the agency’s indefinite suspension of a training mandate that’s meant to help pesticide handlers avoid being poisoned on the job.
“Pesticides are meant to be poisonous,” noted New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood. “Yet, Trump EPA is purposefully denying farmworkers the tools they need to protect themselves and their families from these dangerous chemicals.”
The Obama administration revised the Agricultural Worker Protection Standard (WPS), the federal rulebook on pesticide safety, in 2015 to require enhanced training for anyone who handles pesticides—but in December, the Trump administration announced plans to gut the WPS, and suspended the training requirement.
Underwood, who is challenging the move along with the attorneys general from Maryland and California, called the suspension “reprehensible” and “illegal.”
“This is outrageous and immoral,” declared Richard Witt, executive director of the Rural & Migrant Ministry. Witt’s group is one of many farmworker organizations that have joined with Earthjustice to issue a second challenge to the EPA suspension.
“We are calling on the Trump administration to put people’s lives and their health over cutting corners for corporate gain.” —Mónica Ramirez, Alianza Nacional de Campesina
“This should be a no-brainer,” said Earthjustice attorney Hannah Chang about moving forward with the upgraded training materials. “But because of EPA’s refusal, thousands of farmworkers will not receive the pesticide training they need to know their rights in the workplace, and to protect themselves and their families from pesticide exposure.”
Mónica Ramirez, president of Alianza Nacional de Campesina—which has also signed on to the Earthjustice suit—pointed out that “rigorous review by scientists and others has already determined that it was necessary to provide more training and increase regulation of these dangerous chemicals to protect the health of workers and community members.”
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“We are calling on the Trump administration to put people’s lives and their health over cutting corners for corporate gain,” Ramirez said. After all, as Worker Justice Center of New York executive director Lewis Papenfuse noted, the “EPA’s mission is to protect public health.”
But as demonstrated by the malathion lawsuit (pdf), the Trump administration seems far more inclined to cater to the demands of corporate chemical giants, regardless of the dire consequences for people and the planet.
That suit, filed by a coalition of public health and conservation groups, is about the EPA and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s (FWS) decision to halt a federal review of malathion, a pesticide tied to developmental disorders in children and that the World Health Organization (WHO) has deemed a probable human carcinogen.
“EPA’s decisions must be based on sound science, not corporate politics.” —Caroline Cox, Center for Environmental Health
“Malathion is one of the most dangerous pesticides still available on the market,” warned Sarah Aird, co-director of Californians for Pesticide Reform, a plaintiff in the case.
As the Center for Biological Diversity—another plaintiff—outlined in a statement, after EPA scientists determined last year that “97 percent of federally protected species are likely harmed by malathion,” Dow requested the federal agencies “abandon years of work assessing the harms of several pesticides, including malathion.” Within months, the EPA and FWS acquiesced.
“It’s deplorable that the Trump administration is putting human health and endangered wildlife at risk to please Dow,” concluded Jonathan Evans, the Center for Biological Diversity’s environmental health legal director.
“EPA’s decisions must be based on sound science, not corporate politics,” added Caroline Cox of the Center for Environmental Health, another plaintiff in the case.
The Trump administration has a well documented cozy relationship with Dow. In March of 2017, Pruitt outraged environmentalists and public health advocates when he stuck down a ban on chlorpyrifos, a common pesticide manufactured by the company that harms children’s brains. A few months after Pruitt’s decision, reporting revealed the administrator had met with Dow’s chief executive shortly before he killed the ban.
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Hundreds of thousands gathered and marched in the streets of New York City on Sunday for the 61st annual Puerto Rican Day Parade, an event that took on even greater significance in the aftermath of last year’s unprecedented hurricane season that left much of Puerto Rico utterly devastated.
“We’re here to call an end to policies of austerity that are literally killing people.” —Natasha Lycia Bannan, LatinoJustice PRLDEF
Around eight months have passed since Hurricane Maria first slammed into Puerto Rico, and five percent of the island remains without power while studies continue to demonstrate that the actual death toll from the Category 4 storm is many, many times higher than the official count put forth by U.S. officials.
It was with these facts at the forefront that thousands of union workers, environmentalists, civil rights advocates, and ordinary Americans took to Fifth Avenue Sunday afternoon for the annual event.
“This is a very important parade and a very meaningful parade given the tragedy and the devastation of the homeland,” Louis Maldonado, National Puerto Rican Day Parade (NPRDP) Board Chair, said ahead of the march.
“We’re here calling for a public and citizen’s audit of the debt and an accounting for the thousands of Puerto Ricans who died from government neglect,” Natasha Lycia Bannan, associate counsel with the civil rights group LatinoJustice PRLDEF, wrote on Twitter. “We’re here to call an end to policies of austerity that are literally killing people.”
In addition to denouncing the “disaster capitalism” of private equity vultures looking to profit off of Puerto Rico’s devastation, demonstrators also took aim specifically at President Donald Trump for continuing to ignore the plight of Puerto Rico, leaving thousands without basic necessities.
“We need to rebuild PR and push for a just recovery that puts people before debt,” LatinoJustice PRLDEF declared.
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In a New York Times op-ed, several current and former NFL players rejected President Donald Trump’s request for a list of people they would like to see him pardon, demanding instead that he enact far-reaching reforms to end the crisis of mass incarceration, which has seen black Americans sent to prison at more than five times the rate of white Americans.
Trump has displayed a strong reliance on his executive pardon power, granting clemency to racially-profiling sheriff Joe Arpaio and right-wing propagandist Dinesh D’Souza, and saying numerous times that he believes he has the power to pardon himself should he be found guilty of wrongdoing.
But pardoning a handful of victims of racial injustice at the hands of the U.S. criminal justice system will not undo the damage the system continues to inflict on communities of color throughout the country, argued the players.
“President Trump, please note: Our being professional athletes has nothing to do with our commitment to fighting injustice. We are citizens who embrace the values of empathy, integrity, and justice, and we will fight for what we believe is right.” —NFL Players Coalition members”These are problems that our government has created, many of which occur at the local level. If President Trump thinks he can end these injustices if we deliver him a few names, he hasn’t been listening to us,” wrote Doug Baldwin, Anquan Boldin, Malcolm Jenkins, and Benjamin Watson of the Players Coalition.
The players expressed appreciation for Trump’s decision, made at the request of TV star Kim Kardashian West, to release Alice Marie Johnson from prison earlier this month. Johnson served more than 20 years of a life sentence for a non-violent drug offense, similar to those that have landed more than 450,000 Americans behind bars, including 79,000 who are in federal prisons—tearing them away from their families and communities.
“People like Alice Johnson, for example, should not be given de facto life sentences for nonviolent drug crimes in the first place,” wrote the players. “The president could stop that from happening by issuing a blanket pardon for people in that situation who have already served long sentences. …Imagine how many more Alice Johnsons the president could pardon if he treated the issue like the systemic problem it is, rather than asking professional football players for a few cases.”
The players also urged Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to eliminate life sentences without parole for non-violent offenses.
Before meeting Kardashian West at the White House this month, Trump had been openly hostile and derogatory toward NFL players who have used their platform to call attention to racial injustice by kneeling while the national anthem plays before football games. The players strongly pushed back on the notion that celebrities should keep quiet about matters of politics and social justice.
“President Trump, please note: Our being professional athletes has nothing to do with our commitment to fighting injustice,” the players wrote. “We are citizens who embrace the values of empathy, integrity, and justice, and we will fight for what we believe is right. We weren’t elected to do this. We do it because we love this country, our communities, and the people in them. This is our America, our right.”
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Best Friends defeated Santana & Ortiz in a brutal parking lot fight in the main event of last night’s AEW Dynamite.
After the win, Trent’s mom Sue showed up in her van to take Trent, Chuck Taylor, and Orange Cassidy home.
FTR defeated Jurassic Express in the show opener. FTR relied on an assist from manager Tully Blanchard to score the pinfall win over Jungle Boy.
Hangman Page defeated Frankie Kazarian in singles action. Kenny Omega joined the commentary desk for the match. Omega teased a singles run rather than teaming with Page again.
Dynamite featured a bunch of promos from some of the best talkers in the game as MJF, Eddie Kingston, Jake Roberts, Taz, and Jon Moxley all worked the microphone.
Taz’s clients, Brian Cage and Ricky Starks, attacked Moxley before Will Hobbs made the save.
For more of what you missed, including Private Party vs. Chris Jericho & Jake Hager, scroll down.
More coverage from last night —
WOR: AEW and NXT, Jerry Brown, RAW ratings, UFC and G-1, more! 9/17
Tommaso Ciampa to face Jake Atlas on WWE NXT next week
Brodie Lee-Orange Cassidy TNT title match set for AEW Dynamite
Gauntlet eliminator match to decide Balor’s NXT TakeOver challenger
AEW announces three matches for Tuesday ‘Late Night Dynamite’
Number one contender’s battle royal set for next week’s WWE NXT
Daniel Cormier discusses ‘very, very early conversations’ with WWE
AEW Dynamite live results: Parking lot fight
WWE NXT live results: Two title matches
AEW Dynamite video highlights —
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has just become the richest man in recorded history—surpassing $150 billion in net worth—thanks to his business model of subjecting employees to low wages, brutal working conditions, and scant benefits, and on Tuesday Amazon workers throughout Europe are marking “Prime Day” by walking off the job in massive numbers to call attention to their plight.
“Jeff Bezos’ newly renovated home in Washington DC will have 25 bathrooms. Meanwhile, Amazon workers skip bathroom breaks in order to meet their grueling work targets.” —Sen. Bernie Sanders
In addition to walkouts by an estimated 80 percent of the workers at Amazon’s largest distribution center in Spain—nearly 1,800 workers—employees of the retailer are also reportedly launching strikes in Germany, France, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom to demand higher wages and denounce Amazon’s union-busting efforts.
“The message is clear—while the online giant gets rich, it is saving money on the health of its workers,” Stefanie Nutzenberger, spokesperson for the German services union Verdi, said in a statement.
Strikes against Amazon’s notoriously appalling working conditions—which include forcing warehouse employees to skip bathroom breaks and urinate in bottles to meet the company’s unrealistic performance expectations—come as Bezos is coming under growing pressure to address his treatment of employees.
As Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pointed out in his “CEOs vs. Workers” town hall Monday night—which Bezos declined to attend—the Amazon chief earns around $275 million each day while refusing to pay his workers enough to get by without food stamps.
Seth King, a former Amazon employee who participated in the town hall, described Amazon’s business model as “a revolving door of bodies” and said workers are “not allowed to sit down” or “talk to other people” on the job.
In solidarity with striking workers throughout Europe, many in the U.S. and throughout the world are calling for boycotts of “Prime Day,” which lasts 36 hours.
Digital rights activists on Thursday applauded the European Parliament’s rejection of a broad new copyright law proposal which critics warned would threaten the open internet and result in widespread censorship and control of users.
“Great success: Your protests have worked!” wrote German Member of European Parliament (MEP) Julia Reda, a member of the Pirate Party Germany, told supporters on Twitter. “The European Parliament has sent the copyright law back to the drawing board. All MEPs will get to vote on upload filters and the link tax September 10–13. Now let’s keep up the pressure to make sure we Save Your Internet!”
The Copyright Directive was voted down by lawmakers, with 318 opposing the measure and 278 supporting it. The proposal contained two rules that were especially worrisome to internet companies and open internet defenders—Article 11 and Article 13.
The former sought to require websites like Facebook and Google—as well as smaller, far less wealthy and powerful websites—to pay news organizations in order to link to their content, a rule critics have derided as a “link tax.”
Article 13 would implement a so-called “upload filter”—or what opponents have called a censorship machine—to screen all material uploaded to the internet for copyright infringement.
Article 13 would have dire implications for all internet users, argue critics—from people who create and share viral memes to start-ups which rely on user-generated content and aim to compete with large platforms like YouTube, to websites like Wikipedia which rely on community members uploading content.
“This [law] will lead to excessive filtering and deletion of content and limit the freedom to impart information on the one hand, and the freedom to receive information on the other,” wrote 57 rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders, last year in an open letter to EU legislators.
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Wikipedia founder Jimmy Whales has called the Copyright Directive “disastrous,” while the website’s Italian platform shut down on Tuesday in protest of the proposal.
“Wikipedia itself would be at risk of closing,” should the directive pass, wrote the site’s editors. “If the proposal is approved, it may be impossible to share a newspaper article on social networks or find it on a search engine.”
“The broad scope of Article 13 could have covered any copyrightable material, including images, audio, video, compiled software, code and the written word,” wrote James Temperton at Wired after the measure was voted down.
The European Parliament will take up debate on the directive again in September.
“MEPs will now soon go on ‘summer break’ until the end of August. We will need to continue to encourage them do the right thing and to push back against an Article 13,” wrote the #SaveYourInternet campaign.
Reda posted a video on social media urging supporters to continue pressuring their representatives to oppose the Articles 11 and 13.
“The fight is far from over,” Reda said. “What we have achieved today as that the entire Parliament will have a debate in September and will vote on changes to this copyright reform. So we must be vigilant. We cannot stop the public pressure now.”
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A stunning series of revelations on Tuesday that could see some of President Donald Trump’s top associates and supporters behind bars—including a guilty plea from his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen, who implicated Trump in a federal crime—is fueling support for a nationwide day of action planned for Sunday to protest Brett Kavanaugh, the president’s wildly unpopular U.S. Supreme Court nominee.
The Unite for Justice protests scheduled for Aug. 26 are being organized by a coalition of progressive advocacy organizations that warn if Kavanaugh received a lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court, he “would rule to gut Roe and criminalize abortion, gut healthcare, attack voting rights and LGBTQ rights, slash environmental protections, and further damage workers’ and immigrant rights.”
Although the protests were planned in response to Kavanaugh’s own alarming record, they will now come amid mounting speculation that Congress may soon move to impeach Trump in light of Cohen’s admissions under oath on Tuesday, which spurred a flurry urgent demands that the Senate postpone Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings that are scheduled to begin Sept. 4.
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As Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday, “It is unseemly for the president of the United States to be picking a Supreme Court justice who could soon be effectively a juror in a case involving the president himself.” Schumer is under enormous pressure to keep Democrats united against Kavanaugh, though blocking his confirmation will still require at least couple “no” votes from Republicans.
While GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) are among the top targets of Kavanaugh opponents, the organizers of Sunday’s demonstrations emphasize that “senators in all 50 states must listen to their constituents, do their jobs to uphold the will of the people, protect the soul of our country and Constitution, and block this nomination.”
Already, more than 150 events across the country are planned for Sunday and have been compiled into a database searchable by zip code, but those who wish to host an event—which, according to the groups, “can be a rally, a press conference, a march, a petition delivery, a potluck, or something else”—can register it here. The flagship event in New York City begins at noon in Foley Square.
NARAL Pro-Choice America, a lead organizer of the day of action, is also co-hosting the Rise Up For Roe national tour as part of the group’s #StopKavanaugh efforts. The tour is slated to conclude in Des Moines, Iowa on Friday after a stop in Denver on Wednesday. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, another coalition of groups rallied outside the U.S. Supreme Court Building to raise alarm about Kavanaugh’s threat to working women.
“Time and again, Kavanaugh has ruled against working people, especially those pursuing employment discrimination claims and trying to join together in a union,” declares the rally’s Facebook event. “So much is on the line with Kavanaugh’s nomination, including our ability to hold our harassers accountable, to achieve equal pay, to fight pregnancy discrimination, and to organize for our rights at work.”
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Former Libertarian presidential candidate Gary JohnsonGary Earl JohnsonWhere Biden, Trump stand in key swing states Amash decides against Libertarian campaign for president The Hill’s Campaign Report: Amash moves toward Libertarian presidential bid MORE is considering mounting a bid for the Senate in New Mexico, a consultant for the former governor told The Associated Press.
Consultant Ron Nielson said that Johnson is “strongly considering” a run for the Senate on the Libertarian ticket if party’s current candidate, Aubrey Dunn, drops out of the race.
“He is weighing it over right now,” he said. “He doesn’t want to get into a race he can’t win.”
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Dunn’s son, Blair Dunn, told the AP that his father was planning to exit the Senate race in New Mexico, and that more details on the decision would come on Monday.
Sen. Martin HeinrichMartin Trevor HeinrichWarren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk Democratic senators kneel during moment of silence for George Floyd MORE (D-N.M.) is seeking reelection for another six-year term. He is facing a challenge from Republican Mick Rich.
Heinrich is widely expected to hold on to his seat. Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhite House accuses Biden of pushing ‘conspiracy theories’ with Trump election claim Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton qualifies to run for county commissioner in Florida MORE beat President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE by an 8-point margin there in 2016, and the Cook Political Report currently ranks the Senate race as a solid Democratic win.
But a challenge from Johnson could make the race more competitive. He served as New Mexico governor from 1995 until 2003. In 2016, he captured just over 9 percent of the vote in the state.