Politics

NBC News reports: Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico said Wednesday he believes he was targeted for having a Ukraine position contrary to the European mainstream but bears no malice toward the gunman who seriously wounded him three weeks ago. The prerecorded speech posted online by Fico, who opposes military aid to Ukraine, was his first appearance since the assassination …

The Associated Press reports: Senate Republicans have blocked legislation designed to protect women’s access to contraception, arguing that the bill was just a political stunt as Democrats mount an election-year effort to put GOP senators on the record on reproductive rights issues, The test vote won a 51-39 majority, but that was well short of the 60 votes to move …

The Daily Beast reports: The former neighbor of Samuel Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann, told CNN in her first television interview Wednesday that the Supreme Court justice’s account of a dispute between her and his wife didn’t add up—and that he was “at best mistaken, but at worst he’s just outright lying.” On OutFront, Emily Baden said that a verbal …

USA Today reports: The Right to Contraception Act, introduced by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., seeks to codify people’s right to use and protect health care providers’ right to distribute contraceptives. The forced vote will require representatives in the chamber take a clear side on an issue known to mobilize to voters nationwide ahead of the November election. Two years after …

Reuters reports: A bill to safeguard access to contraceptives faces a U.S. Senate vote on Wednesday, part of a push by congressional Democrats to focus public attention on reproductive rights ahead of the November election but with little chance of passage. The Right to Contraception Act, which would protect birth control access nationwide, is unlikely to meet the 60-vote threshold …

The Washington Examiner reports: The late New Jersey Democratic Rep. Donald Payne Jr. won the primary posthumously in the 10th Congressional District on Tuesday as the only Democrat on the ballot. State and party officials are already preparing for a competitive special election to fill Payne’s seat later this summer. Payne, 65, died on April 24 from a “cardiac episode” …

The New York Times reports: Representative Andy Kim, a lawmaker who has turned New Jersey politics on its head since entering the race to unseat Senator Robert Menendez, won the Democratic nomination for Senate on Tuesday after a campaign marked by a watershed ballot-access ruling. The victory makes Mr. Kim, 41, a favorite to become New Jersey’s next senator. He …

“I don’t know that I said he should be arrested, but, I like the idea. At the end of the day, if you lie to Congress, that’s a felony. And when you look at, the clip you just showed, everyone knows that Doctor Fauci was the lead instigator in the the the spacing distance. “This is something that not only …

The Texas Tribune reports: With more than four months left before Election Day 2018, Democrat Beto O’Rourke had campaigned in all of Texas’ 254 counties in his bid to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. It was a novel strategy central to breaking through in a Republican-controlled state that national Democrats had largely written off. Six years later, U.S. Rep. …

Tom McGrath writes for Politico: If you really want to understand Trump’s appeal, you need to go back a few decades to examine the social forces that shaped his rise as a real estate developer and remade American politics in the 1980s. Specifically, you need to wind back the tape to the 1984 Democratic primary, the almost-pulled-it-off candidacy of Colorado …

Salt Lake City’s ABC affiliate reports: The State of Utah is accusing TikTok of allowing “virtual strip clubs” on its platform, leading to the sexual exploitation of minors, according to a new lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed on Monday by the Utah Division of Consumer Protection, accuses TikTok’s live-streaming feature called TikTok LIVE of letting adults give virtual currency to young …

“I think the problem right now is everybody gets their news sources in silos and they just keep getting reinforced with certain ideas. I went to a neighbor’s house the day after the 2020 election, their flag was upside down. “There’s a lot of life out there besides arguing about nothing and telling lies, and so I made a choice …

The Washington Post reports: Louisiana lawmakers on Monday approved a bill that would expand judges’ powers to sentence people convicted of certain sex crimes against children to physical castration. If passed into law, the bill would allow judges to order a surgical castration, which is more invasive than the chemical methods outlined in a 2008 law. Surgical castration orders would …

The Hill reports: A Tennessee Republican’s kindergarten graduate has won over political junkie fans and C-SPAN devotees with a tongue-filled display while his dad delivered remarks on the floor. Rep. John Rose’s son, Guy, could be seen mugging for the cameras on Monday as the congressman condemned former President Trump’s conviction last week in the New York hush money trial. …

NBC News reports: The addresses and phone numbers of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s family members were posted to a doxing website after presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in connection with a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election. Phone numbers and addresses for Cohen’s wife and children were posted early Monday morning on …

The Times Of Israel reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will reportedly give an address to a joint session of Congress on June 13. Neither Netanyahu nor Congressional leaders have immediately confirmed this date reported by the Punchbowl news site. June 13 falls on the second day of the Shavuot holiday, which is only observed for one day in Israel. US …

TechCrunch reports: The internet has been home to all kinds of content for a long time, so it was no surprise to anyone when people started tweeting porn at each other. X (formerly Twitter) has long had many active NSFW (not safe for work) communities, and though the social network unofficially allowed people to post adult content, its rules have …

The New Jersey Globe reports: The New Jersey Globe has learned that Bob Menendez will enter the race for the United States Senate today, filing nominating petitions in Trenton to seek re-election to a fourth term as an independent. Menendez will not deliver the petitions himself; he is in Lower Manhattan for the twelfth day of his federal corruption trial. …

The Guardian reports: Hunter Biden goes on trial in Delaware on Monday on gun charges in a case that could prove an embarrassment to his father, Joe Biden, and hand a political weapon to Republicans desperate for a distracting issue in the wake of Donald Trump’s 34-count conviction last week. Prosecutors allege that Biden lied about his drug use on …

Reuters reports: Claudia Sheinbaum won a landslide victory to become Mexico’s first female president, inheriting the project of her mentor and outgoing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador whose popularity among the poor helped drive her triumph. Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won the presidency with between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, according to a …