Biden has given no indication that he intends to exit the race, and his campaign has flatly dismissed the suggestion. But that has done little to silence critics who are openly questioning whether Biden is the right person to take on Donald Trump, a figure the president – and his party – view as a grave threat to American democracy.

In the unlikely scenario Biden decides not to run, the most obvious choice to replace him would be his 59-year-old vice president and running mate, Kamala Harris. But it would not be automatic – and other candidates would likely challenge Harris, who has suffered her own low approval ratings, for the nomination.

Already some Democrats are looking past the vice-president at other possible contenders – Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois governor JB Pritzker, California governor Gavin Newsom and Maryland governor Wes Moore.

It’s a sign that Democrats have yet to fully embrace Harris as Biden’s heir apparent.

“To even discuss Biden stepping down while COMPLETELY IGNORING THE VP … is a serious look into how we see the importance, capacity and seriousness of women of color,” writer Tanzina Vega, said on X.

Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, is the highest-ranking female elected official in US history and the first Black and first Asian American to serve as vice president.

Democrats, traumatized by Hillary Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016, rallied behind Biden in 2020 over a younger, more diverse and progressive field of candidates that included Harris. As a candidate, Biden promised to be a “bridge” to the next generation of Democratic leaders, which many interpreted as commitment to serve one-term and before passing the baton to Harris.

But when the time came to make a decision, Biden argued that he was still the Democrat best-positioned to beat Trump.

For the past three and a half years, Harris’s barrier-breaking vice-presidency has divided Democrats. Negative press, some of it self-inflicted, compounded by sexist and racist attacks, and a challenging policy portfolio weighed on public perception of the former California senator. Nearly 50% of voters have an unfavorable view of Harris, according to 538’s polling average, compared with the roughly 40% who view her favorably, figures that are comparable with Biden’s.

Despite a rocky start to her tenure, Harris has eased into the role, especially since becoming the administration’s leading voice on abortion rights. On Monday, Harris marked two years since the second anniversary of the US supreme court decision that overturned Roe v Wade with a fiery warning that Trump would not hesitate to further restrict women’s reproductive rights in a second-term.

Nodding to her background as a prosecutor, the vice president declared: “In the case of the stealing of reproductive freedom from the women of America, Donald Trump is guilty.”

Harris’s clear defense of abortion rights, by far Democrats’ strongest issue, stands in stark contrast to Biden. During Thursday’s debate, Biden fumbled an attack on Trump over Republican bans on the procedure, pivoting bizarrely to immigration and raising the case of a young woman murdered in Georgia.

Moments after Biden finished the debate, it was Harris who came to his defense first in a pair of interviews. On CNN and MSNBC, Harris spun his performance, saying voters must look at the last three-and-a-half years of accomplishments and not just at the 90-minute debate. Harris conceded that Biden had a “slow start” but insisted he finished “strong.”

“I’m talking about the choice for November,” she said on CNN. “I’m talking about one of the most important elections in our collective lifetime.”

In a sharp back-and-forth, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper pressed Harris about calls for Biden to step aside.

“I’m not going to spend all night with you talking about the last 90 minutes when I’ve been watching the last three-and-a-half years of performance,” she said, emphasizing his legislative and executive achievements he’s pulled in his first-term.

At a rally in Las Vegas the following day, Harris doubled down on her support.

“In the Oval Office, negotiating bipartisan deals, I see him in the situation room keeping our country safe,” she said, adding that the election would not be decided by “one night in June”.

The Atlanta debate was the first of the election cycle, with a second scheduled in September. The Biden campaign has agreed to a vice-presidential debate between Harris and Trump’s eventual running mate, but the terms have not yet been to confirmed.

In a hypothetical matchup against Trump, Harris performed roughly on par with Biden, trailing the former president by six points in a February Times/Siena poll. Biden trailed Trump by five points in the same poll. Meanwhile, the poll found Harris ran stronger than Biden with Black voters, though worse with Hispanic voters and men.

Biden’s age has long been an electoral challenge. But his shaky debate performance shocked even his staunchest supporters. At a rally on Friday, Biden acknowledged his stumbles, but insisted he was still the best candidate to defeat Trump.

“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” he said at a post-debate rally in North Carolina. “I know I don’t walk as easy as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth.”

But mounting concerns about Biden’s mental acuity have drawn even greater scrutiny of Harris, particularly from the right. Republicans have sought to make Harris a boogyman, with Nikki Haley warning during the GOP primary a vote for Biden was a vote for “a President Harris”.

With the convention scheduled for mid-August in Chicago, and the formal nomination process to take place virtually at some point before that to meet an Ohio ballot deadline, many Democrats have said there is not enough time to replace Biden at the top of the ticket.

Former South Carolina lawmaker and Democratic commentator Bakari Sellers, who endorsed Harris in the 2020 primary, said wishing for an alternative to emerge at this stage was futile.

“You’re not nominating Gretch or Gavin or Wes over Kamala. Stop it,” he wrote on X, adding: “Choice is Trump, Biden or couch. I choose Joe.”

Posted by: Christian Fellows; Source: TheGuardian

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Nine National Football League teams have refrained from mentioning LGBT pride month on social media this year after other companies have experienced financial consequences as a result of their promotion of LGBT ideology.

Seven days into June, which LGBT activists recognize as LGBT pride month every year, slightly more than one-quarter of the NFL teams haven’t made any reference to the occasion. In the past, professional sports teams and other notable corporations have taken a lot of heat for wholeheartedly embracing it.

NFL teams whose X accounts have not brought up anything related to pride month in the past week are: Atlanta Falcons, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans.

The Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Rams, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, New York Giants, New York Jets, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers have all sent out at least one tweet acknowledging pride month.

Additionally, the Green Bay Packers sent out a tweet Tuesday declaring “Football is for everyone” but did not explicitly mention pride month, while the Jacksonville Jaguars sent out a similar post.

In addition to posting a tweet acknowledging the first day of pride month, the Los Angeles Chargers changed their profile picture on X to the team’s logo emblazoned in the rainbow colors that have come to symbolize LGBT ideology. The Philadelphia Eagles also changed the profile picture on their X account to a picture of the team’s eagle logo bathed in rainbow colors, while the Washington Commanders now have a profile picture on X of their “W” logo in rainbow colors.

The Commanders also sent out a tweet at the beginning of pride month, like most of the other teams have done. The Detroit Lions plugged the team’s “Pride Month apparel collection” in a June 1 tweet.

The handful of NFL teams opting not to promote pride month, at least so far, comes as major companies’ embrace of LGBT ideology has led to backlash among the American public. A survey from Bloomberg published last year found that “references to ‘Pride Month’ in filings, presentations and transcripts from April to June at more than 900 of the largest US companies dropped almost 40% from this time last year, the first decline in five years.”

One of the most notable examples of a company experiencing financial losses as a result of its promotion of LGBT ideology is Target, which saw its stock plummet last year after the big box store plugged an LGBT Pride collection and a “tuck-friendly” swimsuit designed to make it easier for trans-identified men to conceal their genitalia while wearing women’s swimsuits. Target lost $9.3 billion in market value and recorded a 12.6% drop in stocks as a result of backlash to its efforts to advance LGBT ideology.

Source: The Christian Post, Author:Ryan Foley

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Researchers at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with research groups from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and Fudan University, have developed a fatigue-free ferroelectric material based on sliding ferroelectricity. The study is published in Science.

Ferroelectric materials have switchable spontaneous polarization that can be reversed by an external electric field, which has been widely applied to non-volatile memory, sensing, and energy conversion devices.

Due to the inherited ionic motion of ferroelectric switching, ferroelectric polarization fatigue inevitably occurs in conventional ferroelectric materials as the number of polarization reversal cycles increases. This can lead to performance degradation and device failure, thus limiting the practical applications of ferroelectric materials.

To solve this fatigue problem, the researchers developed a fatigue-free ferroelectric system based on sliding ferroelectricity. A bilayer 3R-MoS2 dual-gate device was fabricated using the chemical vapor transport method.

After 106 switching cycles with different pulse widths ranging from 1 ms to 100 ms, the ferroelectric polarization dipoles showed no loss, indicating that the device still retained its memory performance.

Compared with commercial ferroelectric devices, this device exhibits a superior total stress time of 105 s in an electric field, demonstrating its excellent endurance.

By means of a novel machine-learning potential model, theoretical calculations revealed that the fatigue-free property of sliding ferroelectricity can be attributed to its immobile charged defects.

This work provides an innovative solution to the problematic performance degradation of conventional ferroelectrics.

Source: phys.org, Author: Chinese Academy of Sciences

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A popular Los Angeles YouTuber faces an explosives charge with federal prosecutors accusing him of directing a video stunt in which fireworks were blasted from an airborne helicopter and at a speeding Lamborghini.

Suk Min Choi, 24, who also goes by Alex Choi, 24, was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of causing the placement of an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft, the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced in a news release Thursday.

Choi, who has 923,000 followers on YouTube and 1.2 million followers on Instagram, posted a video titled “Destroying a Lamborghini with Fireworks” on July 4, 2023, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint.

The nearly 11-minute video, which is no longer posted on Choi’s social media pages, shows two women shooting fireworks out of the helicopter and toward the sportscar, the affidavit said.

“After shooting what appears to be a live-action version of a fictionalized video game scene, the video transitions to a behind-the-scenes look at how Choi shot the first third of the video. During this portion of the video, Choi allegedly makes various references to himself coordinating the shoot,” the US Attorney’s Office said.

Authorities believe the footage was shot in June 2023 on a federally-owned area of the El Mirage Dry Lakebed in San Bernardino County, California. The Bureau of Land Management provided photos of tire marks left behind by the sports car, according to prosecutors.

Choi is also accused of lacking the proper permits to film in the area, including Federal Aviation Administration approval for planned filming activities involving the helicopter, according to the affidavit.

Additionally, prosecutors said Choi traveled to Las Vegas to buy the fireworks because they are illegal in California.

CNN is attempting to identify Choi’s legal representation

No other people involved in the video were named in the affidavit. No injuries were reported as a result of the stunt, Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the US attorney’s office, told CNN.

Dozens of videos on Choi’s YouTube channel feature flashy luxury sports cars, though the most recent video was posted in December.

Choi made his initial appearance in court Thursday and was released on $50,000 bond, McEvoy, said. Choi did not enter a plea. His arraignment is scheduled for July 2.

He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted as charged, according to prosecutors.

Related video

Source: CNN, Author: Cindy Von Quedow

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Japan’s fertility rate, which has seen a precipitous fall for many years, has reached another record low as the government ramps up efforts to encourage young people to get married and start families — even launching its own dating app.

The nation of 123.9 million people only recorded 727,277 births last year, according to new data released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare on Friday. The fertility rate – defined as the total number of births a woman has in her lifetime – dropped from 1.26 to 1.20.

For a population to remain stable, it needs a fertility rate of 2.1. Anything above that will see a population expand, with a large proportion of children and young adults, as seen in India and many African nations.

But in Japan, the fertility rate has been well below that stable marker of 2.1 for half a century, experts say – it fell below that level after the 1973 global oil crisis pushed economies into recession, and never recovered.

The downward trend has accelerated in recent years, with the number of deaths overtaking births each year and causing the total population to shrink – with far-reaching consequences for Japan’s workforce, economy, welfare system and social fabric.

In 2023, the country recorded 1.57 million deaths, according to the Health Ministry – more than double the number of births.

And Japan’s not having much matrimonial luck, either – the number of marriages fell by 30,000 last year, while the number of divorces rose.

Experts say the decline is expected to continue for at least several decades and is to some extent irreversible due to the country’s population structure. Even if Japan were to boost its fertility rate tomorrow, its population will keep falling until the skewed ratio of young people to older adults balances out.

Still, the government is now  racing to soften the impact, launching new government agencies to focus specifically on this problem. It has launched initiatives such as expanding child care facilities, offering housing subsidies to parents, and in some towns, even paying couples to have children.

In the capital Tokyo, local officials are trying a new tack: launching a government-run dating app, which is in early testing phases and will be fully operational later this year.

“Please use it as ‘the first step’ to begin marriage hunting,” the app’s website says, adding that the AI-matchmaking system is provided by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

Users are asked to take a “values diagnostic test” but there’s also an option to put in the desired traits of a future partner.

“Based on your values and the values you seek in a partner, which can be determined by taking a diagnostic test, AI will introduce you to a compatible person,” it said. “What cannot be measured by appearance or conditions alone may lead to unexpected encounters.

The app even caught the eye of billionaire Elon Musk, who wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “I’m glad the government of Japan recognizes the importance of this matter. If radical action isn’t taken, Japan (and many other countries) will disappear!”

Experts have told CNN this scenario is unlikely – the fertility rate is expected to even out at some point, and the country will adjust. Japan may look very different at that point, from its demographic makeup to its economy and domestic policies, but it won’t simply vanish.

“Marriage is a decision based on one’s own values, but the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is working to build momentum for marriage so that those who think they ‘intend to get married eventually’ can take that first step,” says the dating app’s website.

Users must be single, over 18 years old “with a desire to get married,” and be living or working in Tokyo, the website says.

It also lists the government’s other measures to support couples – such as providing information on work-life balance, child care and housing support, men’s participation in housework and child-rearing, and career counseling.

“We hope that every single one of you who wishes to get married will think about what being in a ‘couple’ means to you,” it says.

Related video

Source:CNN, Author: Jessie Yeung and Hemari Semans

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The Biden administration is quickly invoking an authority to shut off access to asylum for migrants who cross the US-Mexico border illegally,  a significant attempt by President Joe Biden to address head on one of his biggest political vulnerabilities.

Biden unveiled the sweeping executive action Tuesday afternoon at the White House, attempting to use executive action to affect the situation on the border after a bipartisan measure failed earlier this year. The action marks the administration’s most dramatic move on the US southern border as Biden tries to gain the upper hand on immigration just weeks from the first presidential debate – by using the same authority former President Donald Trump tried to use in office.

The White House announced the action would take effect at midnight.

In a speech at the White House, Biden said Republicans in Congress who blocked a bipartisan border deal left him no choice but to take executive action.

“I’m moving past Republican obstruction and using the executive authorities available to me as president to do what I can on my own to address the border,” Biden said.

The new executive action bars migrants who cross the border illegally from seeking asylum – a departure from decades-long protocol – once a daily threshold is met. Unless they meet certain exemptions, migrants will be turned away to Mexico or returned to their origin country.

Border authorities encountered around 3,500 migrants crossing the border unlawfully on Monday, according to a Homeland Security official, above the threshold needed for the executive action to take effect.

Members of the Texas National Guard stand guard near a razor wire fence to inhibit the crossing of migrants into the United States, seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on June 4. Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters

Homeland Security officials have recently been arresting just under 4,000 migrants daily at the US-Mexico border, a brief reprieve from record numbers late last year. The number of people crossing the US southern border has consistently been a challenge for the Biden administration as officials grapple with record migration across the Western Hemisphere.

The measure could be turned on and off. Senior administration officials told reporters Tuesday it would be lifted when there’s a daily average of less than 1,500 encounters in between ports of entry.

Unaccompanied children, victims of a severe form of trafficking, those who present an acute medical emergency or an imminent and extreme threat to life and safety – among select others – are exempt. Migrants can also still request an appointment through the Customs and Border Protection mobile application, known as CBP One, to present their asylum claim at a port of entry.

Biden and his administration made clear that they would have rather had bipartisan legislation to sign that addressed the crisis at the border.

“Frankly, I would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation because that’s the only way to actually get the kind of system we have now that’s broken, fixed. To hire more Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, more judges. But Republicans have left me no choice,” Biden said in the speech from the East Room of the White House.

Critics have blasted the move as akin to steps taken under Trump. As a candidate, Biden blasted the Trump administration as “inhumane” on the border. On a call with reporters Tuesday previewing the new action, one official defended the steps as separate and apart from Trump’s, while acknowledging they’re prepared for legal challenges, “frankly, from both sides of the political spectrum.”

“The Trump administration attacked almost every facet of the immigration system, and did so in a shameful and inhumane way,” one official said Tuesday. “The action will not ban people based on their religion, it will not separate kids from their mothers. There’re also narrow humanitarian exceptions to the bar on asylum, including for those facing an acute medical emergency or an imminent and extreme threat to life or safety – the Trump administration’s actions did not include these exceptions.”

The president responded to criticism from progressives and others who have likened the move as similar to steps taken under Trump.

For those who say the steps I’ve taken are too strict, I say to you that be patient and the good will of the American people is wearing thin right now. Doing nothing is not an option. We have to act. We must act consistent with both our law and our values. Our values as Americans. I take these steps today, not to walk away from who we are as Americans, to make sure we preserve who we are for future generations to come,” he said.

Biden also directly repudiated the former president.

“I will never demonize immigrants, I will never refer to immigrants as poisoning the blood of a country. And further I’ll never separate children from their families at the border. I will not ban people from this country because of their religious beliefs. I will not use the US military to go into neighborhoods all across the country to pull millions of people out of their homes and away from their families, to put detention camps while awaiting deportation, as my predecessor says he’ll do if he occupies this office again,” Biden said.

Senior administration officials acknowledged that federal resources are strained, which could pose a challenge, but they maintain that the measure will help them remove people more quickly. Migrants who don’t claim a fear may be removed within days or hours, while those that do will be screened and, if found ineligible, removed.

Homeland Security officials have been preparing for an anticipated rise in border crossings, consistent with previous years when numbers tick up in the summer, including shifting resources to meet a potential surge and getting personnel in place. Senior administration officials Tuesday cited the measure as a tool to help head off that potential increase.

The action also relies heavily on cooperation from Mexico, who previously agreed to accept up to 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela as part of an effort to cut down on illegal migration in the hemisphere and has significantly ramped up immigration enforcement as part of ongoing efforts.

Officials declined to say Tuesday if any new agreement had been reached with Mexico around Tuesday’s executive action.

Source: CNN, Author: Priscilla Alvarez and Donald Judd

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Nigeria’s government is cracking down on illegal mining, making dozens of arrests of unlicensed miners since April for allegedly stealing the country’s lithium, a critical mineral used in batteries for electric vehicles, smartphones and power systems.

The recent arrests come as Nigeria seeks to regulate its mining operations of critical minerals, curb illegal activity and better benefit from its mineral resources. The clean energy transition, a shift away from coal, oil and gas and toward renewable energy and batteries has spiked global demand for lithium, tin and other minerals. Illegal mines are rife in the country’s fledging industry as corruption among regulatory officials is common and the mineral deposits are located in remote areas with minimal government presence. Officials say profits from illicit mining practices has helped arm militia groups in the north of the county.

In the most recent arrests in mid-May, a joint team of soldiers and police conducted a raid on a remote market in Kishi, in the country’s southwestern Oyo State. Locals said the market, once known for selling farm produce, has become a center for illicit trade in lithium mined in hard-to-reach areas. The three-day operation resulted in the arrest of 32 individuals, including two Chinese nationals, local workers and mineral traders, according to the state government and locals. Loads of lithium were also seized.

Miners work at an illegal tin mining site in Jos, Nigeria, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Jimoh Bioku, a Kishi community leader, said there had been “clandestine searches” for the mineral at remote sites tucked away in the bush in the past years by Chinese nationals before “they engaged people to dig for them and turned the market into a transit point.” The community was “particularly worried about the insecurity that usually follows illegal mining and that was why we reported to the state government,” he said.

China is the dominant player in the global EV supply chain, including in Nigeria where China-owned companies employ mostly vulnerable people leaving Nigeria’s far north — ravaged by conflicts and rapid desertification — to work in mining operations throughout the country. China’s nationals and companies are frequently in the spotlight for environmentally damaging practices, exploitative labor and illicit mining. There have been at least three cases of illegal mining arrests involving Chinese nationals in two months.

President Bola Tinubu has repeatedly blamed illegal mining for the worsening conflicts in the country’s north and asked the international community for help to stop the problem, which provides armed groups with the proceeds needed to sustain and arm themselves.

Women work at an illegal tin mining site in Jos, Nigeria, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

The Chinese embassy in Abuja did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment on the arrests and claims of illegal operations. But in a statement last year following a report by The Times of London alleging Chinese miners were bribing militants for access, the embassy said it “always encouraged and urged the Chinese companies and nationals in Nigeria to abide by the laws and regulations of Nigeria.”

Nigeria is emerging as a new source of lithium in Africa as the world’s largest producers, like Australia and Chile, are unable to fulfill the growing demand worldwide. But illegal activities thrive in Nigeria’s extractive sector, denying the government due revenues, said Emeka Okoro, whose Lagos-based SBM Intelligence firm has researched illicit mining and terrorism financing in northern Nigeria.

And the combination of conflict and climate change effects, such as once fertile land rapidly turning into useless arid sand in northern Nigeria, has produced a cheap workforce for mining sites.

The arrests of “both Chinese nationals and young Hausa boys from conflict-affected regions underscore a troubling pattern,” Okoro told the AP. “The socioeconomic strain stemming from conflict and the repercussions of climate change has given rise to a vulnerable demographic desperate for survival.”

To fight resource theft that causes losses of $9 billion to the government annually, according to the country’s extractive industry transparency watchdog, the West African nation has set up a 2,200-strong “corps of mining marshals” earlier in the year.

A woman works at an Illegal tin mining site in Jos, Nigeria, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)Read More

While existing law enforcement agencies are still combating the problem, the new corps is geared at curbing “the nefarious activities of illegal miners,” said Segun Tomori, spokesperson for the solid minerals ministry.

Before the Kishi raid, the mining corps arrested two trucks laden with lithium on the outskirts of the capital Abuja in April. Later that month, the corps raided a location in Karu, Nasarawa State, near Abuja, leading to the arrest of four Chinese nationals and the seizure of tons of lithium. Tomori said the cases are now in court.

On April 22, a federal court in Ilorin, in the north-central region, convicted two Chinese nationals for illegal mining and sentenced them to a one-year jail term, although with an option of a fine.

Nigeria has long neglected the solid minerals sector, which allows some communities like the northern-central town of Jos — which is tin-abundant — to depend on subsistence mining for their livelihood.

For those communities where livelihood is tied to mining, Tomori said the government is encouraging artisanal miners there to form cooperatives and operate legally.

Source: Apnews.com, Author: Taiwo Adebayo

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In January 2025, Donald Trump may be sworn into office as the 47th President of the United States.

Despite his ongoing legal troubles, plenty of national polling shows the former president being either tied or leading President Joe Biden,

A second term for Biden could mean either more of the same or a flurry of new progressive policies, if Democrats gain control of both chambers of Congress.

Another Trump term, on the other hand, would likely entail a radical reversal from not just the previous four years, but even from Trump’s first term in office.

That becomes clear after examining the former president’s campaign proposals, reading his April interview with TIME, reviewing reporting from The New York Times, and perusing proposals made by the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.

Some of these proposals may depend on Republicans gaining control of both the House and Senate, a likely possibility — though not guaranteed — if Trump wins the presidency.

While not exhaustive, here’s just some of what to expect in a second Trump administration.

Radically reshaping the federal bureaucracy

Perhaps the most unorthodox — and to some, frightening — aspects of Trump’s planning for a second term involve restructuring the executive branch in a manner that would drastically increase presidential power.

That includes exercising more direct control over the hundreds of thousands of civilian servants who populate federal agencies — many of whom are apolitical, and often remain in their jobs across presidential administrations.

Trump has  pledged to bring back “Schedule F,” a classification for civil servants that was created — but never used — in October 2020. Biden later rescinded it after taking office. That classification was designed to skirt the typical job protections afforded to career civil servants.

Trump’s plans also include bringing independent agencies — such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission — under direct presidential control, a departure from decades of precedent. That could also include the Federal Reserve, the country’s central banking system, though that’s less clear.

Lastly, he has pledged to bring back “impoundment,” in which the executive branch refuses to spend money provided by Congress. That’s been illegal since 1974, but Trump is pledging to challenge it.

One of the hallmarks of Trump’s first term was that he was significantly constrained, both by his advisors and aspects of the federal bureaucracy. Taken together, these proposals show how that could change.

A murky stance on abortion

In April, Trump declared that he believed abortion should be decided at the state level, seemingly rejecting the idea of enacting nationwide restrictions on the procedure.

“The states are going to say. It’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not,” Trump told TIME. “It’s totally irrelevant, because the states are going to make those decisions.”

But that doesn’t fully address the complexity of the issue — and it’s unclear how far other Republicans may go.

In an April interview with TIME, Trump refused to say whether he would veto abortion restrictions passed by a Republican-controlled Congress, insisting there “will never be that chance because it won’t happen.”

He has also refused to state his position on whether mifepristone — a medication that enabled an estimated  63% of abortions in the US in 2023 — should remain legal.

Some of his allies have called for the enforcement of a 19th-century law called the Comstock Act that could be used to outlaw the mailing of the pill, a move that would affect women in a variety of states.

The potential of mass deportations and ending some birthright citizenship

Trump is expected to take a far more harsh approach toward illegal immigration and border security if elected — including pledging to carry out a massive deportation operation that could include the use of the National Guard.

That could include new detention camps, according to Stephen Miller, the architect of much of Trump’s immigration policy.

Miller told The New York Times that a second Trump administration would build “vast holding facilities that would function as staging centers” on “open land in Texas near the border.”

Trump has also pledged to end so-called “birthright citizenship” for the children of people who entered the country illegally and are not citizens. But it could be tricky.

The US Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship via the 14th Amendment, which states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Trump has pledged to sign an executive order making clear that those children are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States — a move likely to be challenged in court.

Retribution against political opponents

Trump has pledged to appoint a special prosecutor to go after the Biden family, arguing that it’s only fair given that he has faced criminal charges across a variety of jurisdictions for his “hush money” payments, his mishandling of classified documents, and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

It’s part of a broader effort by Trump and his allies to curtail the independence of the Department of Justice, the nation’s top law enforcement agency. Since the Nixon era, there have been strong norms around keeping the department at arm’s length from the president, but some argue that shouldn’t be the case — and that the present-day norms are a facade anyway.

Pardoning January 6 rioters

Trump has also promised to issue pardons for those who’ve faced federal convictions in connection to the January 6 assault on the US Capitol.

He has described jailed or imprisoned rioters as “hostages” and “political prisoners” and his campaign rallies have at times begun with a version of the national anthem sung by January 6 defendants.

In a recent interview with TIME, he said that he would not pardon those who were “evil and bad,” but claimed that many of the rioters were “ushered in” by Capitol Police.

Tariffs on all imported goods

If re-elected, the former president has proposed many protectionist policies, including universal 10% tariffs on all imported goods.

“I call it a ring around the country,” Trump told TIME.

Experts have warned that such a policy would simply increase consumer costs  while doing little to boost domestic manufacturing and jobs.

He has also pledged to work with Congress to pass a bill enacting “reciprocal” tariffs on goods from other countries: For example, if China were to enact a 100% tariff on products from the US, the US would enact a 100% tariffs on Chinese-made goods in return.

Less willingness to protect allies abroad

Trump’s positioning on the present-day wars has been somewhat murky — he’s  not as opposed to Ukraine aid as much of his party, and he’s been far more willing to criticize Israel’s war in Gaza.

“I think that Israel has done one thing very badly: public relations,” Trump told TIME, blaming Israel in part for the lack of progress on a two-state solution

But if there’s been one consistent throughline of the former president’s foreign policy thinking, it’s a suspicion of long-standing arrangements designed to underpin the global world order.

Perhaps the most significant change Trump wants to see is a “reevaluation” of the purpose of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an alliance between the US and Europe that dates back to the Cold War. Trump has long argued that the US is spending too much to defend the continent.

Trump has also argued that much of the existing foreign policy establishment in Washington, DC needs to be overhauled, deriding officials at the State Department and Pentagon as “warmongers” and members of the “deep state.”

Tax policy

As president, Trump and the Republican-led Congress passed the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a significant overhaul of the tax code that included cuts to individual and estate taxes and a significant lowering of the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.

Much of those cuts, aside from the corporate tax cut, are set to expire in 2025. According to Bloomberg, Trump wants to extend those cuts in a second term.

More vaguely, Trump has also proposed taxing private university endowments to fund a new federally-operated university called the “American Academy.”

Social Security and Medicare

It remains unclear whether Trump would seek cuts to Social Security and Medicare in a second term — he’s historically said a variety of contradictory things on the matter.

In March, Trump said in a CNBC interview that there’s “a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting,” seemingly suggesting that he would pursue cuts to entitlement programs. His campaign later backtracked on those remarks, saying he simply wanted to “get rid of waste and fraud.”

Democrats have been eager to highlight the possibility of Republican-led cuts to the programs, which primarily benefit older Americans, while Republicans have often insisted that they are not interested in making changes to those programs.

During the final year of Trump’s presidency, his White House  released a budget for Fiscal Year 2021 that included some cuts to Social Security benefits, though the document never became law.

Related videos

Source: Businessinsider.com, Author: Bryan Metzger

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It looks like something out of the dystopian show “Black Mirror,” but it’s just the latest adaptation of robotics for the modern battlefield.

During recent military drills with Cambodia, China’s military showed off a robot dog with an automatic rifle mounted on its back, essentially turning man’s best (electronic) friend into a killing machine.

“It can serve as a new member in our urban combat operations, replacing our (human) members to conduct reconnaissance and identify (the) enemy and strike the target,” a soldier identified as Chen Wei says in a video from state broadcaster CCTV.

The two-minute video made during the China-Cambodia “Golden Dragon 2024” exercise also shows the robot dog walking, hopping, lying down and moving backwards under the control of a remote operator.

In one drill, the rifle-firing robot leads an infantry unit into a simulated building.

The latter part of the video also shows an automatic rifle mounted under a six-rotor aerial drone, illustrating what the video says is China’s “variety of intelligent unmanned equipment.”

Military use of robot dogs – and of course small aerial drones – is nothing new. A CCTV video from last year also highlighted China’s rifle-armed electronic canines in a joint exercise involving the Chinese, Cambodian, Lao, Malaysian, Thai and Vietnamese militaries held in China last November.

China’s military displayed a machine gun equipped robot battle “dog” during joint drills with Cambodia CCTV

In 2020, the US Air Force demonstrated how it used robotic dogs as one link in its Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), which uses artificial intelligence and rapid data analytics to detect and counter threats to US military assets.

And since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, drones have become commonplace on the battlefield, on the land, sea and air, with cheap remotely controlled vehicles able to knock out sophisticated military machines like tanks and even warships.

The lethal abilities of drones seen on the Ukraine battlefields has shown them to be great equalizers, enabling military forces with small defense budgets to compete with substantially better armed and funded enemies.

China is one of the world’s leading drone exporters, but last year its Commerce Ministry placed export controls on drone technology, citing the need to “safeguard national security and interests.”

Nevertheless, the robotic dogs seem to be getting plenty of publicity for the People’s Liberation Army.

And the dogs have been popping up on China’s heavily regulated social media for at least a year.

According to the state-run Global Times, the presence of the robotic dogs at exercises with foreign militaries indicates an advanced stage of development.

“Usually, a new equipment will not be brought into a joint exercise with another country, so the robot dogs must have reached a certain level of technical maturity,” Global Times quoted an unnamed expert as saying.

Related video:

Source: CNN, Author: Brad Lendon and Nectar Gan

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Neuralink, the pioneering neurotechnology company, has received FDA approval to proceed with its second human trial. This marks a significant step forward in their ambitious quest to create brain-computer interfaces that could transform the treatment of neurological disorders.

Our sources reveal that the first patient, who has chosen to remain anonymous, has shared his emotional journey through the trial. After undergoing a procedure to implant Neuralink’s advanced device, he described feeling a mix of excitement and apprehension. The operation was carried out using Neuralink’s state-of-the-art surgical robot, designed for precision and safety.

Post-surgery, the patient experienced a range of emotions from hope to fear but was reassured by the diligent support from the Neuralink team. While it’s still early in the trial phase, initial results appear promising, bringing a glimmer of hope to many suffering from severe neurological conditions.

This development comes amidst ongoing debate. Critics have raised ethical and safety concerns about the long-term implications of such technology, while advocates argue the potential benefits, including restoring mobility and communication for those with paralysis, are too significant to ignore.

With the FDA’s green light for a second patient, Neuralink continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in neurotechnology. This approval not only reflects the FDA’s confidence in the safety and potential efficacy of Neuralink’s approach but also paves the way for further advancements that could revolutionize medical treatments for neurological disorders.

As Neuralink moves forward, the world watches closely, hopeful that these trials could usher in a new era of medical innovation. We’ll continue to follow this story and bring you the latest updates.

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