Harris to announce Biden administration’s first meeting of the National Space Council
By Kristin Fisher, Six months after being tapped to lead the White House’s National Space Council, Vice President Kamala Harris will announce the council’s first meeting of the Biden administration during a visit Friday to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The meeting will be held on December 1, according to a White House official, a full year after the council’s final meeting of the Trump administration. Friday’s event will mark the first time the vice president has delivered a speech centered entirely around space. Harris’ primary objective, according to a White House official, will be to “underscore how the
House expected to hold Build Back Better and infrastructure votes Friday
By Clare Foran and Daniella Diaz, The House will vote on both President Joe Biden’s sweeping social safety net plan and the bipartisan infrastructure bill today. House Democratic leaders had been hoping for a vote on the economic package on Thursday evening, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the Rules Committee would be meeting to handle an amendment to the social spending bill. Earlier in the day, in a closed-door meeting with Democrats, she had said her plan was to vote on it that night and then hold a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill Friday morning, according to two sources. It was
Harris looks to strengthen US-France ties in ‘concrete ways’ on Paris trip
By Jeremy Diamond, Vice President Kamala Harris will pursue US efforts to strengthen a recently mended French-American relationship during a trip to Paris next week, where she will also attend a pair of international conferences. Harris will sit down for a bilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace next Wednesday before delivering remarks at the Macron-hosted Paris Peace Forum and participating in a multilateral conference on Libya. Harris’ trip comes less than two months after France temporarily recalled its ambassador to the US to protest a US nuclear submarine deal with Australia, which sank a separate French contract to build conventional
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown declares victory over socialist challenger
By Gregory Krieg, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown declared victory Tuesday night in his write-in campaign for a fifth term. Brown lost the Democratic primary earlier this year to Democratic Socialist India Walton. As of 12:30 a.m. ET, about 59% of votes had been cast for write-in candidates, and 41% had gone for Walton. Brown’s campaign likely accounts for the strong showing for write-in candidates on the ballot, but Erie County won’t begin to tabulate the write-in votes until November 17. That makes it impossible to say definitively who voters wrote in, despite Brown’s victory declaration. After effectively sitting out the nominating
Eric Adams elected as New York City’s second Black mayor
By Gregory Krieg, Democrat Eric Adams has been elected the 110th mayor of New York City, defeating Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. Adams, a retired New York Police Department captain who embraced a public safety message, will be the second Black mayor in the city’s history, after the late David Dinkins. “I wanted people to know my story, being a dishwasher, having a learning disability, being arrested as a child, going to school at night, working in a mail room. That was the story I wanted to send New Yorkers, and they felt me. And because of that, I’m now going to be
Shontel Brown will win Ohio seat once held by Marcia Fudge
By Chandelis Duster, Democrat Shontel Brown, a Cuyahoga County Council member, will win Ohio’s 11th Congressional District, CNN projected Tuesday. The seat was vacated by former Rep. Marcia Fudge, who became President Joe Biden’s secretary of housing and urban development earlier this year. CNN projected Brown’s win over Republican candidate Laverne Gore. Brown’s victory is not expected to impact the balance of power for the US House of Representatives, where Democrats hold a slim three-seat majority. That’s because Ohio is having another special election in the 15th Congressional District to fill the seat of GOP Rep. Steve Stivers, who resigned earlier this year.
Winsome Sears will become Virginia lieutenant governor, becoming first female and woman of color in the office
By Chandelis Duster, Winsome Sears, a conservative Republican, will be Virginia’s next lieutenant governor, breaking barriers as the first female and the first woman of color in the office in the commonwealth’s 400-year legislative history. CNN projected Sears’ win over Democrat Del. Hala Ayala, also a woman of color, on Wednesday. Sears will serve alongside Republican Glenn Youngkin, whom CNN projected would win the Virginia gubernatorial race. Sears, who was born in Jamaica, is the first Black Republican woman to be elected to the Virginia General Assembly, representing the 90th district from 2002 for one term. In 2004, she launched an unsuccessful bid
Biden finds wins abroad easier to come by than at home
By Kevin Liptak, Meeting his foreign counterparts behind closed doors in Rome this weekend, President Joe Biden repeatedly recited for them a key figure: $555 billion. That is the massive sum of money set aside to combat climate change in the sweeping social spending plan he’s been trying to get through Congress. In conference rooms and in hallways, Biden wielded the number — by far the largest amount ever for climate — to prove to his fellow leaders that America is finally ready to tackle the world’s existential problem. He’d once hoped the money would be approved by the time he arrived in Europe last week for
11 Democrats vie to fill the late Alcee Hastings’ US House seat in Florida primary
By Alex Rogers, The primary election Tuesday to replace the late Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings has been marked by two things: the massive number of candidates and a lack of voter interest in them. “I think most people don’t even know there’s an election, unfortunately,” said Florida Rep. Lois Frankel. But the off-year special election featuring 11 Democrats presents a candidate with the opportunity to represent a safe seat for decades. Hastings represented the majority-Black area encompassing parts of Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach in Congress for 28 years, and became the dean of the Florida delegation. The candidates are: health care executive Sheila
Biden says international support for him is strong despite domestic struggles
By Maegan Vazquez, Kate Sullivan and Kevin Liptak, President Joe Biden told reporters during his first news conference in months that he was encouraged by how he was received at this weekend’s Group of 20 Leadership Summit in Rome, dismissing concerns that allies might not take solace in his pledge to turn the page from his predecessor, former President Donald Trump. “They listened. Everyone sought me out. They wanted to know what our views were, and we helped lead what happened here,” Biden said of other world leaders Sunday evening. “We got significant support here. … The United States of