Biden surveys Hurricane Ida damage and warns ‘climate change was here’ – live

Joe Biden is now touring a neighborhood in Queens, New York, that was severely impacted by the flooding from Hurricane Ida last week.

The president was joined on the tour by Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among others.

Biden is expected to soon deliver remarks on hurricane response efforts, so stay tuned.

The Guardian’s Emma Graham-Harrison and Akhtar Mohammad Makoii report:

The Taliban have announced an all-male caretaker government including an interior minister wanted by the FBI, on a day when at least two people were killed by violent policing of street protests against the new authorities.

The leadership unveiled on Tuesday is drawn entirely from Taliban ranks, despite promises of an inclusive cabinet, and many of its senior figures are on UN sanctions lists, which is likely to complicate the group’s search for international recognition.

Afghanistan will once more be officially known as an Islamic emirate, as it was under Taliban rule in the 1990s, and its chief, Hibatullah Akhundzada, will be supreme leader.

The Taliban have also brought back the ministry for promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, a notorious enforcement body that was one of the most hated institutions when they last controlled Afghanistan. Its main function was to police the Taliban’s extreme interpretation of Islamic law.

The prime minister will be Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, one of the founding members of the group who was close to its original leader, one-eyed Mullah Mohammed Omar.

One New Jersey family told the president that they lost all their belongings after their home burned and exploded following the flooding from Hurricane Ida.

The couple were able to escape the home with their infant daughter, but they now must rebuild from scratch.

“Thank God you’re safe,” Biden told the family.

Joe Biden toured one of the neighborhoods in Manville, New Jersey, that was severely impacted by flooding from Hurricane Ida last week.

The president was seen shaking hands and chatting with residents who had been forced to remove belongings from their homes because of flood damage.

The Biden administration is calling on Congress to appropriate more funds for disaster response and Afghan refugee resettlement in its short-term continuing resolution.

In a new statement, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young, acknowledged that Congress likely have to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government funded past the end of the month.

“At the same time, we are also calling on Congress to include additional funding in a CR to help address two other urgent needs: responding to recent and ongoing natural disasters, and meeting our commitments to our Afghan allies and partners,” Young said.

“Specifically, we urge Congress to appropriate over $14 billion as part of a CR to address the natural disasters that occurred prior to Hurricane Ida. We fully expect that Hurricane Ida will significantly increase the need for further disaster response funding, by at least $10 billion.”

Young also requested $6.4bn in funds to “meet our commitments to Afghan allies and partners,” as the US government seeks to resettle tens of thousands of Afghan refugees.

If approved, the funds would support refugee processing centers overseas and cover transportation costs as approved Afghans make their way to the US.

Young’s statement comes as Joe Biden tours neighborhoods in New Jersey and New York that were severely impacted by flooding caused by Hurricane Ida.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• Republican governor Greg Abbott signed a highly controversial voting bill in Texas. The law will prohibit 24-hour and drive-thru voting, making it even harder to access the ballot box in a state that already has some of the most burdensome voting requirements in the country. The signing of the bill ends a weeks-long standoff between Democratic and Republican state legislators over the proposal.
• Joe Biden arrived in New Jersey to tour neighborhoods impacted by Hurricane Ida, which caused widespread flooding in the Northeast last week. The president is now receiving a briefing from local leaders on hurricane response efforts, and he will later deliver a speech in Queens, New York, on how his administration is working to better prepare for extreme weather, which has become more common because of the climate crisis.
• House speaker Nancy Pelosi said she disagreed with Democratic senator Joe Manchin’s call for a “strategic pause” in negotiations over the $3.5tn spending package. “Well, obviously I don’t agree,” Pelosi said on Capitol Hill. “I’m pretty excited about where we are. Everybody’s working very hard. The committees are doing their work. We’re on a good timetable.” Manchin penned an op-ed last week expressing concern about the price tag of the budget bill, raising concerns that it will not pass the evenly divided Senate.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

The Guardian’s Sam Levine has more details on the Texas voting law:

The signing of the bill marks the end of a weeks-long standoff between Democrats and Republicans over the legislation.

In late May, Democrats walked out of the legislature, denying Republicans the necessary quorum to pass the initial version of the bill, which would have made it easier for judges to overturn elections and restricted early voting on Sundays, a day traditionally used by African American churches to encourage people to vote.

Republicans subsequently cut both provisions from the bill. But before a new version could be considered in a July special session, Democrats in the state house left the state and flew to Washington DC, again denying Republicans a quorum to proceed with legislation.

While the Democrats in Washington lobbied federal lawmakers to pass federal voting restrictions, state senator Carol Alvarado undertook a 15-hour filibuster on the senate floor to try and block the measure.

Earlier this month, after Abbott called a second special session to consider the measure, the house speaker, Dade Phelan, signed civil arrest warrants for the Democrats who refused to show up at the capitol (no one was ultimately arrested). But slowly, a trickle of Democrats began to return to the capitol, giving Republicans a majority, and enraging Democrats who wanted to continue to stay away.

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:

The voting restrictions will only add to those already in place in Texas, which has some of the most burdensome voting requirements in the US and was among the states with the lowest voter turnout in 2020.

The Texas house of representatives gave its approval to a final form of the measure on Tuesday, 80-41. The senate quickly followed with an 18-13 vote Tuesday afternoon.

The bill, nearly identical to a measure that passed the legislature last week, would prohibit 24-hour and drive-thru voting – two things officials in Harris county, home of Houston, used for the first time in 2020.

It would also prohibit election officials from sending out unsolicited applications to vote by mail, give poll watchers more power in the polling place and provide new regulations on those who assist voters.

Here is the Guardian’s report from last week:

Republican governor Greg Abbott as just signed a highly controversial bill to place new restrictions on voting access in Texas.

“Election integrity is now law in the state of Texas,” Abbott said after signing the bill, which voting right advocates have said unfairly targets people of color.

The Texas legislature gave its final approval to the bill last Tuesday, after Democrats delayed the passage of the proposal for weeks by fleeing the state.

The law will prohibit 24-hour and drive-thru voting and place new restrictions on who can assist people as they seek to cast their ballots, making Texas one of the hardest places to vote in the country.

Jason Miller, a former senior adviser to Donald Trump, has released a statement in response to reports that he was detained by authorities in Brazil.

“This afternoon my traveling party was questioned for three hours at the airport in Brasilia, after having attended this weekend’s CPAC Brasil Conference. We were not accused of any wrongdoing, and told only that they ‘wanted to talk,’” said Miller.

“We informed them that we had nothing to say and were eventually released to fly back to the United States. Our goal of sharing free speech around the world continues!”

Miller previously served as Trump’s spokesperson, but he now runs the company Gettr, a social media platform designed for conservatives.

According to earlier reports, Miller was detained by Brazilian authorities to answer questions over his alleged anti-democratic activities in the country.

Joe Biden has arrived at Central Jersey Regional Airport in Hillsborough Township for a briefing and a tour of neighborhoods impacted by Hurricane Ida.

The president was greeted by New Jersey governor Phil Murphy and his wife, Tammy Murphy, as well as three Democratic House members from the state — Tom Malinowski, Frank Pallone and Bonnie Watson Coleman.

Biden will soon receive a briefing on hurricane response at the Somerset County Emergency Management Training Center before touring a neighborhood in Manville, New Jersey.

The president will then travel on to Queens, New York, to deliver remarks on his administration’s efforts to better prepare for and respond to hurricanes, which have become more frequent and more intense due to the climate crisis.

Joe Manchin wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week calling for a “strategic pause” in advancing the spending package.

“While some have suggested this reconciliation legislation must be passed now, I believe that making budgetary decisions under artificial political deadlines never leads to good policy or sound decisions,” Manchin said in the op-ed.

“I, for one, won’t support a $3.5tn bill, or anywhere near that level of additional spending, without greater clarity about why Congress chooses to ignore the serious effects inflation and debt have on existing government programs.”

Bernie Sanders, the leftwing chairman of the Senate budget committee, responded to Manchin’s warning in kind, threatening to torpedo the bipartisan infrastructure bill if the spending package is not approved.

“Rebuilding our crumbling physical infrastructure – roads, bridges, water systems – is important,” Sanders said on Twitter. “Rebuilding our crumbling human infrastructure – healthcare, education, climate change – is more important. No infrastructure bill without the $3.5tn reconciliation bill.”

As Congress prepares to return from its August recess, Democratic leaders are scrambling to figure out how to advance both bills, which encompass much of Joe Biden’s economic agenda. If centrists and progressives don’t reach an agreement, both proposals may fail.