Justice Department is reviewing fake Trump electors
The Justice Department is investigating the fake slates of electors that falsely declared Donald Trump the victor of the 2020 election in seven swing states that Joe Biden had, in fact, won, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Tuesday in an interview with CNN. The false certificates appear to have been part of an effort by Trump’s allies to reverse his defeat in the presidential election. Even as election officials in the contested states sent official lists of electors who had voted for Biden to the Electoral College, the fake slates claimed Trump was the winner.
Alabama redistricting ruling sparks hopes for Democrats
After years of court decisions battering the Voting Rights Act, a ruling in an Alabama redistricting case is reasserting the power of the 56-year-old law — and giving Democrats hope for beating back gerrymandered maps. The decision from three federal judges ordered state lawmakers to rework their newly drawn congressional maps. The Republican-led legislature violated the Voting Rights Act, the judges ruled, by failing to draw more than one congressional district where Black voters might elect a representative of their choice. Alabama’s Republican attorney general, Steve Marshall, quickly appealed the decision.
New York mask mandate back
in effect
New York’s indoor mask mandate will remain in effect after an appeals court judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a lower-court ruling that had struck down the policy and created confusion across schools and businesses. The decision Tuesday came one day after a ruling by Justice Thomas Rademaker, of state Supreme Court in Nassau County, who had said the rule requiring masks violated the state Constitution. His ruling had nullified part of the rule imposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul last month, amid a surge in coronavirus cases driven by the omicron variant, that required masks or proof of full vaccination at all indoor public spaces statewide.
Islamic State resurges
An attack on a prison housing thousands of former Islamic State group fighters in Syria. Strikes against military forces in Iraq. And a horrific video harking back to the grimmest days of the insurgency that showed the beheading of an Iraqi police officer. The evidence of a resurgence of the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq is mounting by the day, nearly three years after the militants lost their last patch of territory. That the Islamic State group was able to mount these recent attacks shows that what had been believed to be disparate sleeper cells are reemerging as a more serious threat.
US to bolster Europe’s fuel supply to blunt threat of Russian cutoff
The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it was working with gas and crude oil suppliers from the Middle East, North Africa and Asia to bolster supplies to Europe in the coming weeks, in an effort to blunt the threat that Russia could cut off fuel shipments in the escalating conflict over Ukraine. European allies have been cautious in public about how far they would go in placing severe sanctions on Moscow if it invades Ukraine. Germany has been especially wary; it has shuttered many of its nuclear plants, increasing its dependence on natural gas imports to generate electricity.
US Navy fighter jet accident in South China Sea injures 7
An accident aboard an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea injured seven American sailors and led to the pilot ejecting from his F-35 fighter jet Monday, the Navy said in a statement, calling it a “landing mishap.” The combat aircraft, a F-35C Lightning II, had been conducting routine flight operations before having difficulties on the deck of the carrier Carl Vinson. The cause of the accident was unclear, but the Navy said it was being investigated. In recent years, the U.S. has deployed more warships on patrols in the South China Sea, disputed waters to which Beijing is increasingly asserting claims.
US, China will
hold back global
growth, report says
Slowdowns in the world’s two biggest economies, the United States and China, are likely to be larger than expected this year, dragging down output on every continent, a new report warned Tuesday. Higher inflation, supply chain chokepoints, and COVID-related shutdowns and worker shortages continue to afflict rich and poor nations, the International Monetary Fund wrote in its latest World Economic Report. The fund reduced its estimated global growth rate to 4.4% from the 4.9% it projected just three months ago. The fund emphasized that the forecast was subject to a high level of uncertainty — about COVID, the prospects of climate-related natural disasters and political tensions.
Pelosi to seek reelection with Democratic
majority at risk
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday she will seek reelection, ending speculation that she would retire as Democrats face the threat of losing control of Congress in the 2022 midterms. By announcing she would seek a 19th term, Pelosi avoids becoming a lame duck in a year when Democrats are clinging to a fragile majority in the House and the party is under pressure to raise vast sums of money to defend control of Congress. Her decision to remain in the chamber follows announcements by 29 House Democrats that they won’t seek reelection this year.
By wire sources
© 2022 The New York Times Company
