It was a lively day in Washington with developments on several fronts this afternoon.

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• Former Vice-president, Mike Pence, will not fight a judge’s order compelling him to appear before a special grand jury hearing testimony in the justice department’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

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• King Charles invited Biden to the United Kingdom for an official state visit and the US president accepted, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. She offered no timeline for when the visit would take place.

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• Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday signed the repeal of a dormant 1931 law that the banned abortion and criminalized providers who performed them.

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• House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen in California today, becoming the most senior US figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on US soil since 1979, despite threats of retaliation from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own.

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• The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has weighed in to say he does not agree with the criminal charges brought against former president Donald Trump in the US, calling the case political, Reuters reports.

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Former Vice-president, Mike Pence, will not fight a judge’s order compelling him to appear before a special grand jury hearing testimony in the justice department’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

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“Vice-president Pence will not appeal the judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law,” a spokesman for Pence said.

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NEW: Former VP Mike Pence will not appeal order compelling to testify in criminal investigation into Jan. 6 Capitol attack, per spokesman: “Vice President Pence will not appeal the Judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law.”

— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) April 5, 2023

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“The court’s landmark and historic ruling affirmed for the first time in history that the speech or debate clause extends to the vice-president,” the spokesperson said. “Having vindicated that principle of the constitution, VP Pence will not appeal the judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena.”

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Jean-Pierre said King Charles invited Biden to the United Kingdom for an official state visit and he accepted. The king extended the invitation during a recent call with the president, which Jean Pierre described as “very friendly”. She offered no timeline for when the visit would take place.

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Biden is not planning to attend King Charles’ coronation next month in keeping with past precedent. The US delegation will be lead instead by the first lady, Jill Biden.

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Pressed repeatedly on why Biden wasn’t attending, Jean-Pierre insisted that the British people should not see the decision as a “snub.”

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“I will leave it at that,” she said. “It is not a snub.”

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On whether he would meet with the king during his visit to the UK and Ireland next week, Jean-Pierre said to stay tuned.

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is at the podium this afternoon answering reporters’ questions on a range of subjects. Here’s a quick rat-a-tat.

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• She declined to offer a timeline of when the White House would release a comprehensive strategy for combatting antisemitism, as Biden announced in a CNN op-ed this morning.

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• She would not comment on Trump’s arraignment, citing the White House’s position that it does not comment on ongoing legal cases. However, she did in general terms say that the White House and the president condemns “any type of attacks on any judge or our judicial system”.

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• Biden was briefed by senior advisers about the charges against Trump, Jean-Pierre said, insisting his focus was not on the former president. “He’s not focused on this indictment,” she said.

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• On McCarthy’s meeting with the Taiwanese president, Jean Pierre said: “There is no reason for Beijing to turn this transit into something that is used as a pretext to overreact … We just do not see, there should not be a reason, for the PCR to overreact here.”

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• She would not say whether Biden planned to take family members with him on what he views as a return to his ancestral home. She said he would use his family’s history and Irish roots to tell a broader story about Irish immigrants influence on the nation.

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Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday signed the repeal of a 1931 law that the banned abortion and criminalized providers who performed them.

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Today, we are repealing Michigan’s extreme 1931 law that bans abortion and criminalized nurses and doctors for doing their jobs. 

This is long overdue. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/PCOqJhTtb4

— Governor Gretchen Whitmer (@GovWhitmer) April 5, 2023

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A backlash to the supreme court’s to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion helped power Whitmer and a slate of Democratic candidates to victory in last year’s midterm elections.

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Voters overwhelmingly approved a citizen-led initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution, which rendered the 1931 law unconstitutional. However, if at some point in the future, voters were to gather enough signatures to amend the state’s constitution and overturn abortion right, the 1931 ban would then have been enforceable.

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Whitmer’s signature eliminated that possibility entirely, erasing the nearly-century old law completely.

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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen in California today, becoming the most senior US figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on US soil since 1979, despite threats of retaliation from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own, Reuters reports.

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The friendship between America and the people of Taiwan has never been stronger. It is my honor to welcome President @iingwen to the @Reagan_Library. pic.twitter.com/2XSIJRv7Vp

— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) April 5, 2023

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McCarthy, a Republican who through his House position is number three in the US leadership hierarchy, welcomed Tsai on Wednesday morning at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, near Los Angeles.

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China staged war games around Taiwan last August following the visit to Taipei of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Taiwan’s defense ministry said a Chinese aircraft carrier group was in the waters off the island’s southeast coast ahead of the meeting between Tsai and McCarthy in California.

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US secretary of state Antony Blinken said there was nothing new about a Taiwanese president transiting through the United States and Beijing should not use it as an excuse to take any action or ratchet up tensions.

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Supporters waving Taiwan flags and pro-Taiwan and Hong Kong banners chanted “Jiayou Taiwan” – the equivalent of “Go Taiwan.”

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Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
A meeting in California is seen as a potentially less provocative alternative to McCarthy visiting Taiwan, something he has said he hopes to do.

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EDT”},{“id”:”642d9abc8f08547fbc6657f5″,”components”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Here’s where things stand today

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n

• Donald Trump continues to lash out at his opponents – real and perceived – the morning after his historic arraignment. In a pair of social media posts, he attacked the investigations against him, accused Democrats of “weaponizing” federal law enforcement agencies and called on Congressional Republicans to “defund” the DOJ and FBI.

n

• Janet Protasiewicz won her race for the Wisconsin’s supreme court, beating out a conservative candidate who had advised Republicans on legal efforts to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory in the state through the use of “fake electors”. Her win will flip the ideological balance of the state’s highest court, in an election which democracy observers have called the most consequential one of the year, with abortion rights, redistricting and election rules at stake.

n

• Progressive Cook county board commissioner Brandon Johnson won the election for Chicago mayor on Tuesday evening after pulling ahead of his opponent Paul Vallas on Tuesday.

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• The Justice Department on Wednesday announced that it had reached a tentative $144.5m settlement with victims and relatives of those killed in the 2017 mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

n

• Still to come: House speaker Kevin McCarthy and a bipartisan contingent of lawmakers will sit down with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen today in California, a carefully choreographed encounter that comes amid rising tensions between the US and China.

n

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The Justice Department on Wednesday announced that it had reached a tentative $144.5m settlement with victims and relatives of those killed in the 2017 mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

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Dozens of worshipers were killed or injured when gunman Devin Kelley opened fire during a Sunday service at First Baptist church of Sutherland Springs. The gunman, who died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, had served in the Air Force. Twenty-six people, including a pregnant woman, were killed and 22 others were injured.

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After the shooting, dozens of victims and their relatives sued the US air force, alleging that it failed to report the gunman’s history of violence, including an assault conviction, to the FBI’s national background check system. That conviction, they argued, should have prevented the former airman from being able to purchase the guns he used in the assault.

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A judge had previously ruled that the air force was “60% liable” for the attack as a result of its failure to report the conviction.

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“No words or amount of money can diminish the immense tragedy of the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs,” said associate attorney general Vanita Gupta in the press release. “Today’s announcement brings the litigation to a close, ending a painful chapter for the victims of this unthinkable crime.”

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The DoJ said the settlement was still subject to court approvals.

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Meanwhile, voters in Chicago elected Brandon Johnson, the progressive Cook county board commissioner, as the city’s next mayor. He beat Paul Vallas, a more conservative Democrat who made crime a central issue of his campaign. Here’s how our reporter, Leigh Giangreco, characterized the race to succeed mayor Lori Lightfoot, after voters denied her a second term in a stunning upset last month.

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n

The election had pit two Democrats from the furthest ends of their party’s spectrum against each other. Public safety has been the number one issue and Democrats across the country were watching to see if Johnson, a progressive who has previously supported the defund the police movement, could defeat Vallas, who nabbed the endorsement of Chicago’s police union and once described himself as a Republican. …

n

Johnson and Vallas had gone head-to-head after a crowded mayoral primary in February. In that race, incumbent mayor Lori Lightfoot won voters in Chicago’s majority Black wards on the south and west side communities while Congressman Jesús “Chuy” García won Latino voters on the west side. Those votes were up for grabs on Tuesday.

n

“,”elementId”:”298b6bde-8e0c-46d0-b2a4-51a5d1d564f0″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement”,”url”:”https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/04/chicago-mayoral-election-polls-brandon-johnson-paul-vallas”,”text”:”Progressive candidate Brandon Johnson elected Chicago’s new mayor”,”prefix”:”Related: “,”role”:”thumbnail”,”elementId”:”f75e409b-e980-4604-94af-92cac3e626eb”}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”abstract”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1680703749000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”10.09 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1680711570000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”12.19 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1680704165000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”10.16 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”10.16″,”title”:”Chicago voters elect progressive as subsequent mayor”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Wed 5 Apr 2023 16.52 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First printed on Wed 5 Apr 2023 06.20 EDT”},{“id”:”642d7a1b8f08156fb81e9669″,”components”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

In an analysis of the Wisconsin senate, Sam Levine likens Protasiewicz’s victory to a “political earthquake” in the state, “one of America’s most volatile political battlegrounds” that has played a central role in recent elections. Though the race was ostensibly nonpartisan, Protasiewicz was forthcoming about her liberal views and especially her support for abortion rights, which proved decisive in the race. Her election will tilt the ideological balance of Wisconsin’s seven-member supreme court from conservative to liberal.

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Here’s more from Sam:

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Her election to the court means that the Wisconsin 1849 abortion ban will be struck down (a case is already coming through the courts). Just as they did across the country in 2022, Democrats made it a central issue in the supreme court campaign and voters turned out.

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“Wisconsin voters have made their voices heard. They’ve chosen to reject partisan extremism,” Protasiewicz said during remarks at her election night party in Milwaukee. “It means our democracy will always prevail.”

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… A challenge is expected shortly thereafter to Wisconsin’s electoral maps, which are so heavily distorted in favor of Republicans that it is virtually impossible for Democrats to ever win a majority. Protasiewicz has said the maps are “rigged” and the court is likely to strike them down, making elections much more competitive in the state.

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These two significant consequences show how Democrats may have finally been able to catch up to Republicans when it comes to focusing on so-called down-ballot races – little-known contests for offices like state legislatures and state supreme courts that can have huge policy consequences.

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In advance of Tuesday’s court hearing we knew that payments made to adult actor Stormy Daniels were at the heart of the case. But it emerged that the prosecution is also citing payments made to Karen McDougal. Joan E Greve writes:

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According to the Wall Street Journal, the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, has presented the grand jury with evidence involving the former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claims to have had an extramarital affair with Trump beginning in 2006.

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As the Journal first reported in 2016, the parent company of the National Enquirer, which endorsed Trump’s first presidential bid, agreed to pay McDougal $150,000 for her story about the alleged affair. But the tabloid ultimately did not publish McDougal’s account, effectively quashing the story in an industry tactic known as “catch and kill”.

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In her first televised look in 2018 McDougal detailed her relationship with Trump, saying that he would take her to his Manhattan dwelling in Trump Tower by means of the again entrance and level out Melania’s room. She additionally mentioned the affair came about in a number of places, together with Lake Tahoe, Trump’s non-public golf membership in New Jersey, and the Beverly Hills Resort.

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The incident bears key similarities to the dealing with of Daniels’ story about her alleged sexual encounters with Trump starting in 2006. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, gave Daniels $130,000 for her story in 2016, and that transaction was not publicly reported till 2018. Cohen has mentioned that Trump reimbursed him for the cost, however the former president denies wrongdoing within the hush cash scheme, and he has dismissed the allegations of affairs with Daniels or McDougal.

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The grand jury listening to proof concerning the McDougal cost raises the opportunity of Trump going through further costs over the incident, or prosecutors could cite the transaction to determine a sample of hush cash schemes on the previous president’s half.

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Welcome to our live US politics coverage the day after former president Donald Trump appeared in a New York courthouse, and then after pleading not guilty to 34 felony counts, returned to his base in Mar-a-Lago to give a speech condemning the prosecution. Here is what we know so far …

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• Donald Trump was charged on Tuesday with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a historic case over allegations he orchestrated hush-money payments to two women before the 2016 US election to suppress publication of their alleged sexual encounters with him.

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• Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges. The frontrunner in the race for the Republican nomination in 2024, Trump was subdued, responding briefly when the judge asked him if he understood his rights.

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• Trump flew home to Florida where he addressed family, friends and supporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, delivering a litany of grievances against investigators, prosecutors and rival politicians. He falsely described the New York prosecution as election interference.

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• The former US president attacked the judge, Justice Juan Merchan, and his family in the speech at the Mar-a-Lago ballroom, in which he also claimed the US was “going to hell”.

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• Merchan, the judge assigned to Trump’s case, did not impose a gag order but warned Trump to avoid making comments that were inflammatory or could cause civil unrest. Prosecutors said Trump made a series of social media posts, including one threatening “death and destruction” if he was charged. If convicted of any one of the 34 felony charges, Trump could face a maximum of four years in prison.

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• The judge set the next hearing for 4 December. Legal experts said a trial may not even get under way for a year. An indictment or conviction will not legally prevent Trump from running for president.

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• Trump’s mugshot was not taken, according to two law enforcement officials, though the Trump camp did create their own one to put on a T-shirt as part of a fundraising effort.

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Finish of day abstract

It was a full of life day in Washington with developments on a number of fronts this afternoon.

• Former Vice-president, Mike Pence, won’t struggle a choose’s order compelling him to look earlier than a particular grand jury listening to testimony within the justice division’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election.

• King Charles invited Biden to the UK for an official state go to and the US president accepted, White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre advised reporters. She supplied no timeline for when the go to would happen.

• Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday signed the repeal of a dormant 1931 regulation that the banned abortion and criminalized suppliers who carried out them.

• Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen in California as we speak, changing into probably the most senior US determine to fulfill a Taiwanese chief on US soil since 1979, regardless of threats of retaliation from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its personal.

• The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has weighed in to say he doesn’t agree with the felony costs introduced towards former president Donald Trump within the US, calling the case political, Reuters stories.

Reflecting on his day in courtroom, Trump mentioned he sees a silver lining.

“As a lot as I can take pleasure in a day like Tuesday,” the previous president wrote, denouncing liberals as “Radical Left Lunatics” and insisting there was “no crime” dedicated, “it was an unbelievable expertise, maybe the Greatest Day in Historical past for anyone who had simply suffered Unjustifiable Indictment!”

In a burst of posts on his social media platform, Fact Social, Trump shared polling, promoted by conservative shops, that confirmed him stretching his lead over the nominal Republican presidential area.

Whereas Trump’s arraignment have appeared to rally Republican voters to his facet, polling additionally exhibits {that a} majority of Individuals agree with indictment, suggesting his authorized woes might hinder him with the broader voters.

He added: “My Ballot Numbers have by no means been higher, virtually $10 Million was raised for the Marketing campaign and, the day was capped off with a vital Speech. If we don’t cease the Radical Left, America is DEAD!”

Nevada senator Jacky Rosen, a Democrat, will search re-election, an anticipated however nonetheless welcome announcement for the social gathering going through a troublesome electoral map in 2024.

I ran for workplace to resolve issues, struggle for hardworking Nevada households, and make an actual distinction in individuals’s lives.

Our work within the U.S. Senate is simply getting began — that’s why I’m formally launching my re-election marketing campaign as we speak! pic.twitter.com/rKv62KfqqQ

— Jacky Rosen (@RosenforNevada) April 5, 2023

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I ran for workplace to resolve issues, struggle for hardworking Nevada households, and make an actual distinction in individuals’s lives.

Our work within the U.S. Senate is simply getting began — that’s why I’m formally launching my re-election marketing campaign as we speak! pic.twitter.com/rKv62KfqqQ

— Jacky Rosen (@RosenforNevada) April 5, 2023

The Silver State has proved to be one of many nation’s best battlegrounds. In 2022, Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto narrowly eked out a victory towards her Republican opponent, whereas the state’s Democratic governor misplaced re-election to the Trump-backed Joe Lombardo.

Subsequent 12 months Senate Democrats are defending seats in a handful of states Trump gained in addition to a variety of swing states. This comes after they expanded their slender majority to 51 in 2022 by flipping a seat Pennsylvania.

Rosen’s launch video emphasizes her biography, her assist for the infrastructure regulation and laws decreasing the price of prescription drug costs, and her give attention to points like abortion entry and local weather change.

Republican-led legislatures across the nation are contemplating – and passing – new legal guidelines to regulate the lives of trans youth – from the care they will search, to the sports activities’ crew they will play on and the varsity loos they will use.

On Wednesday, Indiana’s Republican governor, Eric Holcomb, signed into law a measure banning all gender-affirming look after minors, after telling reporters the invoice despatched to his desk was “clear as mud”. Along with his signature, Indiana joins at the very least 12 different states which have enacted related bans or restrictions on such care.

Opponents of such laws say the care, which incorporates hormone remedy and puberty blockers endorsed by prime medical associations, are protected, largely reversible and could be life-saving for trans youth.

Republican lawmakers in Kansas, in the meantime, overrode the Democratic governor, Laura Kelly’s veto of a invoice banning transgender athletes from taking part in lady’s and girls’s sports activities from kindergarten by means of faculty, per the Related Press.

It follows a measure accredited by Kansas lawmakers on Tuesday that critics say is among the many most restrictive within the nation. The invoice, which Kelly is predicted to veto, would stop trans individuals from utilizing public restrooms, locker rooms and different amenities that don’t align with the gender on their delivery certificates. It will additionally stop them from altering their identify or gender on their driver’s license.

Pence gained’t struggle order compelling grand jury testimony

Former Vice-president, Mike Pence, won’t struggle a choose’s order compelling him to look earlier than a particular grand jury listening to testimony within the justice division’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election.

“Vice-president Pence won’t attraction the choose’s ruling and can adjust to the subpoena as required by regulation,” a spokesman for Pence mentioned.

NEW: Former VP Mike Pence won’t attraction order compelling to testify in felony investigation into Jan. 6 Capitol assault, per spokesman: “Vice President Pence won’t attraction the Choose’s ruling and can adjust to the subpoena as required by regulation.”

— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) April 5, 2023

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NEW: Former VP Mike Pence won’t attraction order compelling to testify in felony investigation into Jan. 6 Capitol assault, per spokesman: “Vice President Pence won’t attraction the Choose’s ruling and can adjust to the subpoena as required by regulation.”

— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) April 5, 2023

“The courtroom’s landmark and historic ruling affirmed for the primary time in historical past that the speech or debate clause extends to the vice-president,” the spokesperson mentioned. “Having vindicated that precept of the structure, VP Pence won’t attraction the choose’s ruling and can adjust to the subpoena.”

The president and the primary woman are “very a lot trying ahead” to welcoming LSU Tigers basketball crew to the White Home after they defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes to win their first NCAA championship, Jean-Pierre mentioned.

But it surely seems unclear whether or not the crew, or its star participant, Angel Reese, is planning to attend after a verbal flap by the primary woman, who attended the championship sport, recommended each groups be invited to the White Home.

Historically, solely the champions are invited. Reese known as the comment a “JOKE” on Twitter. The White Home tried to stroll again the remark, saying Jill Biden’s feedback have been “supposed to applaud the historic sport and all ladies athletes”.

“She seems ahead to celebrating the LSU Tigers on their championship win on the White Home.”

However in a podcast interview, according to CNN, Reese advised the hosts that she didn’t settle for Biden’s “apology”. “You possibly can’t return on sure issues that you just say … They’ll have that highlight. We’ll go to the Obamas.’ We’ll go see Michelle. We’ll see Barack,” the star mentioned.

Biden accepted King Charles’ invitation for an official state go to

Jean-Pierre mentioned King Charles invited Biden to the UK for an official state go to and he accepted. The king prolonged the invitation throughout a latest name with the president, which Jean Pierre described as “very pleasant”. She supplied no timeline for when the go to would happen.

Biden shouldn’t be planning to attend King Charles’ coronation subsequent month in line with previous precedent. The US delegation might be lead as an alternative by the primary woman, Jill Biden.

Pressed repeatedly on why Biden wasn’t attending, Jean-Pierre insisted that the British individuals shouldn’t see the choice as a “snub.”

“I’ll depart it at that,” she mentioned. “It’s not a snub.”

On whether or not he would meet with the king throughout his go to to the UK and Eire subsequent week, Jean-Pierre mentioned to remain tuned.

White Home press briefing begins

White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is on the podium this afternoon answering reporters’ questions on a spread of topics. Right here’s a fast rat-a-tat.

• She declined to supply a timeline of when the White Home would launch a complete technique for combatting antisemitism, as Biden introduced in a CNN op-ed this morning.

• She wouldn’t touch upon Trump’s arraignment, citing the White Home’s place that it doesn’t touch upon ongoing authorized circumstances. Nonetheless, she did usually phrases say that the White Home and the president condemns “any kind of assaults on any choose or our judicial system”.

• Biden was briefed by senior advisers concerning the costs towards Trump, Jean-Pierre mentioned, insisting his focus was not on the previous president. “He’s not targeted on this indictment,” she mentioned.

• On McCarthy’s assembly with the Taiwanese president, Jean Pierre mentioned: “There isn’t any motive for Beijing to show this transit into one thing that’s used as a pretext to overreact … We simply don’t see, there shouldn’t be a motive, for the PCR to overreact right here.”

• She wouldn’t say whether or not Biden deliberate to take relations with him on what he views as a return to his ancestral dwelling. She mentioned he would use his household’s historical past and Irish roots to inform a broader story about Irish immigrants affect on the nation.

Michigan governor repeals state’s 1931 abortion ban

Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday signed the repeal of a 1931 regulation that the banned abortion and criminalized suppliers who carried out them.

Right now, we’re repealing Michigan’s excessive 1931 regulation that bans abortion and criminalized nurses and docs for doing their jobs. 

That is lengthy overdue. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/PCOqJhTtb4

— Governor Gretchen Whitmer (@GovWhitmer) April 5, 2023

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Right now, we’re repealing Michigan’s excessive 1931 regulation that bans abortion and criminalized nurses and docs for doing their jobs. 

That is lengthy overdue. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/PCOqJhTtb4

— Governor Gretchen Whitmer (@GovWhitmer) April 5, 2023

A backlash to the supreme courtroom’s to overturn the constitutional proper to an abortion helped energy Whitmer and a slate of Democratic candidates to victory in final 12 months’s midterm elections.

Voters overwhelmingly accredited a citizen-led initiative to enshrine abortion rights within the state’s structure, which rendered the 1931 regulation unconstitutional. Nonetheless, if sooner or later sooner or later, voters have been to collect sufficient signatures to amend the state’s structure and overturn abortion proper, the 1931 ban would then have been enforceable.

Whitmer’s signature eradicated that risk completely, erasing the nearly-century previous regulation fully.

Testifying earlier than a federal grand jury, former prime Trump administration officers Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli mentioned they repeatedly knowledgeable the then-president that he couldn’t seize voting machines as a part of his efforts to cling to energy within the wake of his defeat in 2020, according to new reporting by CNN.

Citing three individuals conversant in the proceedings, CNN reported that Wolf and Cuccinelli have been to explain discussions throughout the administration associated to seizing voting machines once they appeared earlier than the grand jury earlier this 12 months.

One of many sources advised CNN that Cuccinelli testified to the grand jury that he “made clear always” that the Division of Homeland Safety didn’t have the authority to grab voting machines.

That line of questioning goes to the guts of [special counsel Jack] Smith’s problem in any felony case he would possibly convey — to show that Trump and his allies pursued their efforts regardless of figuring out their fraud claims have been false or their gambits weren’t lawful. To convey any potential felony costs, prosecutors must overcome Trump’s public declare that he believed then and now that fraud actually did value him the election, per CNN.

Home speaker meets president of Taiwan in historic US go to

Joanna Walters

Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen in California as we speak, changing into probably the most senior US determine to fulfill a Taiwanese chief on US soil since 1979, regardless of threats of retaliation from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its personal, Reuters stories.

The friendship between America and the individuals of Taiwan has by no means been stronger. It’s my honor to welcome President @iingwen to the @Reagan_Library. pic.twitter.com/2XSIJRv7Vp

— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) April 5, 2023

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McCarthy, a Republican who by means of his Home place is quantity three within the US management hierarchy, welcomed Tsai on Wednesday morning on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, close to Los Angeles.

China staged conflict video games round Taiwan final August following the go to to Taipei of then-Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Taiwan’s protection ministry mentioned a Chinese language plane service group was within the waters off the island’s southeast coast forward of the assembly between Tsai and McCarthy in California.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken mentioned there was nothing new a couple of Taiwanese president transiting by means of america and Beijing shouldn’t use it as an excuse to take any motion or ratchet up tensions.

Supporters waving Taiwan flags and pro-Taiwan and Hong Kong banners chanted “Jiayou Taiwan” – the equal of “Go Taiwan.”

Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
A gathering in California is seen as a probably much less provocative different to McCarthy visiting Taiwan, one thing he has mentioned he hopes to do.

Joanna Walters

Even the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has now weighed in to say he doesn’t agree with the felony costs introduced towards former president Donald Trump within the US, calling the case political, Reuters stories.

Supposedly authorized points shouldn’t be used for electoral, political functions. That’s why I don’t agree with what they’re doing to ex-president Trump,” Lopez Obrador mentioned at a information convention this morning.

That’s a heck of much more than present US president Joe Biden has mentioned on the matter, as he and White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre proceed to rebuff requests for remark by political journalists on Trump’s authorized disaster.

Trump is the primary sitting or former US president to face felony costs, as he pleaded not responsible to 34 felony counts associated to enterprise fraud, allegedly to cowl up election finance fraud, in New York on Tuesday afternoon.

Leftist populist “Amlo” in contrast Trump’s case to the December ousting of former Peruvian president Pedro Castillo, who was faraway from workplace and arrested after making an attempt to dissolve congress.

It must be the individuals who determine,” mentioned López Obrador, who added that he couldn’t say whether or not Trump was responsible or not.

Noon abstract

Right here’s the place issues stand as we speak

• Donald Trump continues to lash out at his opponents – actual and perceived – the morning after his historic arraignment. In a pair of social media posts, he attacked the investigations towards him, accused Democrats of “weaponizing” federal regulation enforcement businesses and known as on Congressional Republicans to “defund” the DOJ and FBI.

• Janet Protasiewicz gained her race for the Wisconsin’s supreme courtroom, beating out a conservative candidate who had suggested Republicans on authorized efforts to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory within the state by means of the usage of “faux electors”. Her win will flip the ideological stability of the state’s highest courtroom, in an election which democracy observers have known as probably the most consequential one of many 12 months, with abortion rights, redistricting and election guidelines at stake.

• Progressive Prepare dinner county board commissioner Brandon Johnson gained the election for Chicago mayor on Tuesday night after pulling forward of his opponent Paul Vallas on Tuesday.

• The Justice Division on Wednesday introduced that it had reached a tentative $144.5m settlement with victims and family members of these killed within the 2017 mass capturing at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

• Nonetheless to come back: Home speaker Kevin McCarthy and a bipartisan contingent of lawmakers will sit down with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen as we speak in California, a fastidiously choreographed encounter that comes amid rising tensions between the US and China.

DoJ reaches tentative settlement over Sutherland Springs capturing

The Justice Division on Wednesday introduced that it had reached a tentative $144.5m settlement with victims and family members of these killed within the 2017 mass capturing at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

Dozens of worshipers have been killed or injured when gunman Devin Kelley opened fireplace throughout a Sunday service at First Baptist church of Sutherland Springs. The gunman, who died of an obvious self-inflicted gunshot wound, had served within the Air Drive. Twenty-six individuals, together with a pregnant lady, have been killed and 22 others have been injured.

After the capturing, dozens of victims and their family members sued the US air power, alleging that it did not report the gunman’s historical past of violence, together with an assault conviction, to the FBI’s nationwide background examine system. That conviction, they argued, ought to have prevented the previous airman from with the ability to buy the weapons he used within the assault.

A choose had beforehand dominated that the air power was “60% liable” for the assault on account of its failure to report the conviction.

“No phrases or amount of cash can diminish the immense tragedy of the mass capturing in Sutherland Springs,” mentioned affiliate lawyer basic Vanita Gupta within the press launch. “Right now’s announcement brings the litigation to a detailed, ending a painful chapter for the victims of this unthinkable crime.”

The DoJ mentioned the settlement was nonetheless topic to courtroom approvals.

In an op-ed published by CNN, Joe Biden marked the beginning of Passover by imploring Individuals and democratic residents all over the world to talk out towards rising antisemitism.

He mentioned the White Home would quickly launch the “first-ever nationwide technique to counter antisemitism”, which he mentioned would define actions the federal authorities will take primarily based on outreach to greater than a thousand “Jewish group stakeholders, religion and civil rights leaders, state and native officers and extra.”

Throughout his time in workplace, the president famous, the White Home hosted the primary Excessive Vacation reception and lit the primary everlasting White Home Hanukah menorah in our nation’s historical past.

Right here’s a bit extra of Biden’s passover message:

To the Jewish group, I need you to know that I see your worry, your harm and your concern that this venom is being normalized. I made a decision to run for President after I noticed it in Charlottesville, when neo-Nazis marched from the shadows spewing the identical antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany within the Nineteen Thirties,” Biden wrote.

“Relaxation assured that I’m dedicated to the protection of the Jewish individuals. I stand with you. America stands with you. Beneath my presidency, we proceed to sentence antisemitism at each flip. Failure to name out hate is complicity. Silence is complicity. And we won’t be silent.”