News

US president also to seek constitutional amendment to limit immunity for presidents and various officeholders

Joe Biden will announce plans to reform the US supreme court on Monday, Politico reported, citing two people familiar with the matter, adding that the US president was likely to back term limits for justices and an enforceable code of ethics.

Biden said earlier this week during an Oval Office address that he would call for reform of the court.

He is also expected to seek a constitutional amendment to limit immunity for presidents and some other officeholders, Politico reported, in the aftermath of a July supreme court ruling that presidents have broad immunity from prosecution.

Biden will make the announcement in Texas on Monday and the specific proposals could change, the report added.

Democratic activists in Europe say voters and even non-US locals are newly energized about US Vice President Kamala Harris and her likely candidature against Republican Donald Trump in upcoming US presidential election.

An "amazing phenomenon" — that is what Amy Porter, a spokesperson for Democrats Abroad, or DA, calls what's happened in France over the last week. Since President Joe Biden's decision to pass the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris, Porter said the organization, which represents the US' Democrat party globally, has seen a surge in registration of new voters and in volunteers offering to help on the campaign.

Perhaps more remarkably, she told DW, they've had "local people, French people, non-US citizens reaching out to us and saying, 'I would like to help'" get Harris elected. In her decades volunteering with the organization, Porter said she's only seen this "once in a blue moon."

Responding to a lawsuit from video-sharing platform TikTok, the US Justice Department argued that China could order the company to manipulate TikTok's algorithm and expand Beijing's "malign influence."

The US Justice Department defended a law that aims to either ban TikTok or force it to divest its assets in the US after the social media company filed a lawsuit against the legislation.

Under the law, the social media platform will have to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the US by January 19, 2025.

The Chinese-based  TikTok is challenging the law  before a US appeals court.

Former President Donald Trump urged members of a crowd in Florida to vote and said that if he wins, they “won’t have to vote anymore.”

Speaking at a Turning Point Action event in West Palm Beach on Friday, Trump, who tried to overturn the 2020 election he lost, delivered a cryptic message.

“And again, Christians, get out and vote!” he said to a cheering audience. “Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what? It’ll be fixed! It’ll be fine! You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you, Christians! I’m a Christian. I love you. Get out. You gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again.”

The number of US cities where first-time homebuyers are faced with at least a $1 million price tag on the average entry-level home has nearly tripled in the past five years, according to new research.

A Thursday report from Zillow indicates that a typical starter home is now worth $1 million or more in 237 cities, up from 84 cities in 2019, underscoring America’s ongoing home affordability crisis.

“Affordability has been strained across the board,” Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist at Zillow, said. “We see the largest number of million-dollar starter homes in expensive coastal markets. We see them in markets with very low homeownership rates and we see them in markets with more building regulations.”

Authorities seized $7.7 million in property traced to his fraud, including a home in Yorba Linda, a 2021 BMW automobile, 57 luxury designer bags, jewelry, and high end tequila.

A former California public school district official was sentenced to over five years in prison Thursday after officials found he embezzled nearly $16.7 million from the district over the years — hiding stacks of cash in a small refrigerator. 

Jorge Armando Contreras, 53, who previously worked as the senior director of fiscal services at the Magnolia School District, a public school district that serves Anaheim and Stanton, faced his judgement Thursday in Santa Ana court.

He was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $16,694,942 in restitution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California said in a news release.

Minors can receive contraception confidentially under Title X in the state with the highest repeat teen birth rate

Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, has sued the Biden administration over a longstanding federal program that provides teenagers access to contraception without parental consent, the state’s latest attack against the federal government’s reproductive healthcare policies.

“This suit is likely a preview of where the Texas GOP – and national Republicans – stand on attacking contraception access,” says Mary Ziegler, a professor at University of California, Davis, School of Law and reproductive health expert. “While Republicans say they don’t want to take aim at contraception, this is another sign that this is actually where we’re headed.”

Title X, created in 1970, offers comprehensive family planning and preventive health care services for low-income and uninsured residents. Texas is among a handful of states that require parental consent before a teenager can get birth control – but Title X-funded contraception was the exception. Under the program, minors can receive contraception confidentially.

Texas has the highest repeat teen birth rate and one of strictest abortion bans in the US.

Coming from a district court, I think this ruling could be appealed, but it's welcome news nevertheless.

Boar’s Head Provisions Co. recalled liverwurst because it may be tainted with the listeria bacteria, the U.S. Agriculture Department said. The agency said a sample of Boar’s Head liverwurst from a Maryland store tested positive for listeria.

The company is also recalling deli-sliced meats made the same day on the same line as the contaminated liverwurst at a Virginia plant, the USDA said. The sample was from an unopened package, collected by health officials as part of an investigation into the listeria outbreak.

Billionaire Democratic donors Barry Diller and Reid Hoffman said in interviews this week they hope Kamala Harris will replace Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan if she becomes U.S. president, openly rejecting a pillar of President Joe Biden's antitrust policy.

Khan has been at the forefront of the Biden administration's push to use U.S. antitrust law to boost competition and address high prices and low wages. Khan, who oversaw the FTC's ban on noncompete agreements, has drawn the ire of corporate groups, but won fans including Donald Trump's running mate, JD Vance, for her skepticism towards big business.

Now, big money Democratic donors this week publicly said Khan should not be part of a potential Harris administration. Diller, chairman of travel site Expedia, said in a recent Bloomberg interview that he would donate the maximum allowed to Harris' campaign. He said in an interview on CNBC on Friday that he would lobby Harris to replace Khan, saying Khan was against "almost anything" business wants to do to grow efficiently.

Trump thinks mispronouncing Kamala Harris' name is a good attack route.