New poll shows where Trump stands with Americans
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Boston Globe
15 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
California moving forward with partisan redistricting effort to counter Texas' move
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The Democrats' proposed maps still haven't been released. That's expected on Friday. Then, lawmakers plan to quickly approve them next week. Democrats hold supermajorities in both chambers. Advertisement Newsom, who is seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, urged Trump in a letter earlier this week to abandon his scheme, telling the president he is 'playing with fire' and 'risking the destabilization of our democracy.' The California map would only take effect if Texas and other states move forward with their own redistricting efforts, and they would remain through the 2030 elections. After that, Democrats say they would return mapmaking power to an independent redistricting commission approved by voters more than a decade ago. Advertisement There are 435 seats in the U.S. House and Republicans currently hold an 219-212 majority, with four vacancies. New maps are typically drawn once a decade after the census is conducted. Many states give legislators the power to draw maps but some, like California, rely on an independent commission that is supposed to be nonpartisan. The Thursday announcement marks the first time any state beyond Texas is officially wading into the mid-decade redistricting fight, kicking off a national standoff that could continue spilling into other states. California Democrats face more complex legal and logistical hurdles than Republicans do in Texas. It's not clear how voters would respond to the mid-decade effort after they voted to give the power of drawing congressional maps to an independent commission in 2010. In Texas, that power lies with the Republican-controlled Legislature. Some already said they would sue to block the effort, and influential voices including former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may campaign against it. 'Gavin Newsom's latest stunt has nothing to do with Californians and everything to do with consolidating radical Democrat power, silencing California voters, and propping up his pathetic 2028 presidential pipe dream,' National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Christian Martinez said in a statement. 'Newsom's made it clear: he'll shred California's Constitution and trample over democracy - running a cynical, self-serving playbook where Californians are an afterthought and power is the only priority.' California Democrats already hold 43 of the state's 52 House seats, and the state has some of the most competitive House seats. Advertisement Elsewhere, leaders from red Florida to blue New York are threatening to write their own new maps, bucking the standard once-a-decade redistricting process that happens after the census. But none have moved as far as Texas and, soon, California, in advancing new maps. Missouri lawmakers are waiting for Gov. Mike Kehoe to call a special session to draw more favorable Republican maps, and a document obtained by The Associated Press shows the state Senate has received a $46,000 invoice to activate six redistricting software licenses and provide training for up to 10 staff members.
American Military News
15 minutes ago
- American Military News
Trump Says Putin Ready For Deal As Zelenskyy Shores Up Support With Starmer
This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission. Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to make a deal over the war in Ukraine, US President Donald Trump said on the eve of a summit between the two world leaders in Alaska. Speaking in an interview on Fox News Radio on August 14, Trump said he believes Putin is 'convinced that he's going to make a deal' at the summit to be held at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson just outside Anchorage, Alaska. He's going to make a deal. I think he's going to, and we're going to find out,' Trump said. In Moscow, Putin praised Trump's efforts to end the war in a short video released by the Kremlin adding the White House was making 'quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities' and to 'reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved.' Hours before Trump spoke, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in London to discuss security with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. 'Under any scenario, Ukraine will maintain its strength,' Zelenskyy said following the meeting at 10 Downing Street, the prime minister's residence in central London. 'We discussed in considerable detail the security guarantees that can make peace truly durable,' he added, suggesting such a possibility could arise if the United States succeeds 'in pressuring Russia to stop the killings.' Zelenskyy's visit to London followed his visit to another European capital, Berlin, on August 13, where he attended a video conference with several major European leaders who feared being sidelined by Trump and Putin. Trump appeared to try and allay those fears by saying in the Fox News interview that 'depending on what happens' during the Putin meeting, he could call Zelenskyy to quickly set up a second meeting involving all three leaders. 'Depending on what happens with my meeting, I'm going to be calling up President Zelenskyy, and let's get him over to wherever we're going to meet,' Trump said. 'The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that's going to be a meeting where they make a deal. And I don't want to use the word 'divvy things up,' but you know, to a certain extent, it's not a bad term, OK?' he added. Zelenskyy has said he warned Trump during an August 13 call that Putin was 'bluffing' about his desire to end the war. Trump has warned Russia of 'very severe consequences' if it doesn't halt its war against Ukraine, but fears remain that the exclusion of Kyiv and Brussels in the talks could sideline their desire for the protection of fundamental European and Ukrainian security interests. He gave no details on what consequences Moscow could face if it doesn't put an end to more than 3 1/2 years of war in Ukraine, but he said the aim of the talks, to be held at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson just outside Anchorage, Alaska, is 'to end the war.' Can Trump-Putin Talks Lead To A Cease-Fire? The talks between Trump and Putin are aimed at finding a path to end the conflict, the biggest in Europe since World War II. Trump has said both sides will have to swap land to end intense fighting that has cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides and displaced millions of Ukrainians. Appearing to be on the outside looking in ahead of the talks, European leaders and Zelenskyy have been scrambling to make their voices heard. Washington appears to be preparing Kyiv and Moscow for major compromises to end the war, with US Vice President JD Vance warning any peace deal will likely leave both sides 'unhappy.' But French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump was 'very clear' in the August 13 call that he wants to achieve a cease-fire at the summit and that Trump had been clear that 'territorial issues relating to Ukraine…will only be negotiated by the Ukrainian president.' 'There are currently no serious territorial exchange schemes on the table…. I think that's a very important point in this regard. And we hope that it can be held in Europe, in a neutral country that is acceptable to all parties,' he added. If Trump's insistence on involving Ukraine is confirmed, it would help ease fears among Ukraine and its allies that leaders of the two superpowers could reach an accord that sells out Europe's and Ukraine's security interests and proposes giving Ukrainian territory to Moscow. 'Trump's thinking is apparently closer aligned with that of the Europeans than first feared by some,' one European official told RFE/RL after the call. Russia has consistently given the idea of a meeting with Zelenskyy the cold shoulder, suggesting it should only happen once the sides are close to signing a peace deal, not just a cease-fire agreement. That moment seems far off given the huge gap between the Russian and Ukrainian positions that persists on several major issues, including territory and security, despite three rounds of direct talks in Turkey since mid-May. The talks come at a pivotal moment, with Trump increasingly frustrated with Putin and the Russian president showing no signs of bending on the Kremlin's maximalist demands. Trump and Putin have held six phone calls, and the White House's lead envoy has traveled to Moscow at least three times. The decision to meet Putin face-to-face — something Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, refused to do following the invasion — reflects Trump's belief that his relationship with the Russian leader will yield a durable peace agreement.
The Hill
15 minutes ago
- The Hill
Our immigration laws let employers feign innocence
Earlier this summer, President Trump's secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, pledged a ' 100 percent American workforce.' The president really does intend to deport every single person here illegally, she claimed. In the meantime, however, if you want to hire someone without the Department of Homeland Security arresting you for it, it's easy. Just attest, on its one page ' Employment Eligibility Verification' form, that you have examined the worker's documentation, that it looks to you genuine, and that, to the best of your knowledge, this person can legally work in the U.S. Sign that, put it in a drawer, and leave it there forever — or, if you're unlucky, until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids your workplace. If that happens, then after your employee has been whisked away by ICE, just hire someone new using the same form, and put it in the same drawer. That's a nice system — if you're an employer. OK, sometimes employers suffer consequences for such practices. It is rare, however. In fact, since 1986, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has never criminally prosecuted more than 25 employers in any given year. And of those, only a few have been convicted or served prison time. In fact, knowingly hiring ineligible workers is not even considered a crime until, as Homeland Security puts it in a handbook for employers, there's 'a pattern or practice' of it. In 2008, ICE raided a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa that ended with nearly 400 workers being arrested. Its owner — charged with conspiracy to harbor the undocumented for profit, aiding and abetting document fraud and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft — was released wearing a GPS ankle bracelet and told not to leave northern Iowa. The immigration charges against him were eventually dropped. That's anecdotal, but indeed, that's the pattern or practice of enforcement. Which is not to say no wrists get slapped. When Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided another meatpacking plant in Bean Station, Tenn., in 2018 (97 workers detained, 54 held for immigration proceedings, 10 arrested on federal criminal charges), the company's owner — charged with wire fraud, tax evasion, conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants and violating labor and environmental laws — was sentenced to 18 months in the same minimum-security prison camp where Jared Kushner's father and the former CEO of Enron whiled away their time. And bear in mind, his punishment is widely viewed as among the most severe ever for an employer after an ICE raid. Under Trump, ICE still likes meatpacking plants. It raided one in Omaha earlier this year and detained 100 workers. 'I don't understand why in the hell they were using false ID when they can get a visa,' its owner claimed, referring to people he'd hired. 'I was dumbfounded.' He didn't know they were using false ID? The phrase 'knowingly hiring ineligible workers' means two things in the legal sense. While it obviously includes a direct awareness that a person isn't eligible to work, it can also mean constructive knowledge of the same. Black's Law Dictionary defines 'constructive knowledge' as knowledge 'that one using reasonable care or diligence should have,' while the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services defines it as 'knowledge which may fairly be inferred through notice of certain facts and circumstances which would lead a person, through the exercise of reasonable care, to know about a certain condition.' Then there's this federal court description of it: 'a mental state in which the defendant is aware that the fact in question is highly probable but consciously avoids enlightenment.' According to the Pew Research Center, there are as many as 8.3 million undocumented people working in the U.S. This gives employers ample opportunity to consciously avoid enlightenment regarding their legal status. Such avoidance, in fact, is standard practice — aided and abetted by the Department of Homeland Security and its one-page form. Who loses in this state of affairs? About 8.3 million people, who are compelled by it into fear and limbo — and, for some, arrest, prison sentences, upheaval and deportation — while their employers feign innocence. Either employers and employees should both pay a price, or no one should. Any other practice is unjust.
