Senate Passes $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill – The Senate on Tuesday passed a roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal, a significant win for President Biden and the first step on his top legislative priority. The bill is now heading to the House, where it faces an uncertain future and skepticism from progressives. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has vowed she won’t take it up until the Senate passes the second part of its infrastructure two step, a sweeping $3.5 trillion spending package that includes Democrats’ top priorities. But the Senate’s passage of the bipartisan measure on Tuesday gives a victory for Biden and the centrist-minded group that led the legislation, and placed big bets and months of time on the ability to get a bipartisan deal on infrastructure, one of Washington’s long-running legislative white whales. The bipartisan deal includes roughly $550 bill in new funding, making it substantially smaller than the $2.6 trillion proposed by Biden earlier this year.
NY Gov Cuomo Resigns – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced he is “stepping aside” from his office. A New York state investigation released last week found Cuomo “harassed multiple women and violated state law.” Cuomo has repeatedly denied the allegations, but today said he has “been too familiar with people.” After a news conference by his lawyer addressing sexual assault allegations, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that he takes “full responsibility for my actions,” adding that he has “been too familiar with people.” Cuomo said that his sense of humor can be “insensitive and off-putting.” He acknowledged that he touches people “casually,” both men and women.
US Sending More Troops to Afghanistan as Taliban Advance – The Biden administration will temporarily send thousands of additional military personnel to Afghanistan to provide security as the United States airlifts American civilians from the U.S. embassy there, the State Department said Thursday. The departures take place as the Taliban continues a dramatic advance, seizing major cities across the country and moving to isolate Kabul, the Afghan capital. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the new military deployment, which comes just weeks before the Pentagon is scheduled to conclude its withdrawal under a timeline established by President Biden, would facilitate the departure of civilian staff. Price said a “core” diplomatic staff would remain at the heavily fortified U.S. embassy to continue their diplomatic and consular work, but declined to say how many that would include. The United States will also accelerate departure of Afghans who have previously worked with the U.S. government and have applied for asylum in the United States.
CIA Chief Visits Israel to Discuss Iran – Central Intelligence Agency chief William Burns was due in Israel Tuesday for talks on common foe Iran, as rising tensions overshadow talks on restoring a landmark nuclear deal. A spokesman for Prime Minister Naftali Bennett gave no details of the agenda for the CIA chief’s talks in Israel. But the Walla News website said he would discuss Iran’s nuclear programme and its activities in the region with both Bennett and his Israeli counterpart David Barnea. Burns will also travel to Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank for talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, a Palestinian official said. His visit comes amid what analysts have called a “shadow war,” that has seen a spate of attacks on vessels linked to Iran and Israel.
Wildfires Tear Through Western US – Wildfires in Montana threatened rural towns and ranchland and victims of a California blaze returned to their incinerated town even as the region faced another round of dangerous weather. Firefighters and residents scrambled to save hundreds of homes as flames continued to advance on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana. Since Sunday, the fire has carved its way through some 260 square miles and prompted evacuation orders for thousands of people. As the fire raged across rugged hills and narrow ravines, tribal member Darlene Small helped her grandson move about 100 head of cattle to a new pasture, only to relocate them twice more as the flames from the Richard Spring fire bore down, she said Thursday. An extreme drought that’s blanketing the West has made matters worse by stunting vegetation untouched by fire.
Illegal Border Crossings at 21-Year High – Border agents encountered 212,672 people attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in July, the most in more than 21 years and three times the number in January, when President Joe Biden first took office, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters on Thursday. “We are encountering an unprecedented number of migrants in between the ports of entry at our southern border,” Mayorkas said at a press conference in Brownsville, Texas, the Washington Examiner reported. But Mayorkas seemed to downplay the continued rise in numbers, adding: “We have seen the surges in migration before. We’ve seen them in the past, and migration surges are not new.” The 212,672 people stopped in July included those who were denied entry at border crossings and those who attempted to enter between land crossings, Customs and Border Protection said. About half of the encounters were with single adults. Though the numbers have been rising for about 16 months, the rate has increased in the past six months after Biden and Mayorkas reversed several Trump administration border policies.
FDA Approved 3rd Covid Shot for Some – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc for people with compromised immune systems. A few other countries, such as Israel and Germany, plan to or have already administered the third shot to avoid another crisis due to the contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus. Scientists are still divided over the broad use of COVID-19 vaccine boosters among those without underlying problems as benefits of the boosters remain undetermined.