Thousands of students have rallied for Palestine, after hundreds of thousands of Democrats declined to vote for Biden in the primary

The policies of Joe Biden and Democrats towards Israel, which have prompted thousands of students across the country to protest, could affect the youth vote for Biden and hurt his re-election chances, experts have warned, in what is already expected to be a tight election.

Thousands of students at universities across the US have joined with pro-Palestine rallies and, most recently, encampments, as Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 people.

Far-right Republican congresswoman says she is ‘absolutely’ calling vote on motion next week and thinks vulnerable Democrats could be hurt by supporting Mike Johnson

A reporter asked Greene why she wanted to wait until next week to vote on the motion to vacate.

“ Everybody needs the weekend to prepare,” Greene replied. “I’m not irresponsible. I care about my conference. I have been measured, I have given this time. I have given warning after warning after warning. And that’s why we don’t have to rush. We can do it next week.”

I’m actually not going to concede that the vote will fail.

Now, you may say … congressman Massie, Hakeem Jeffries just told you, he’s gonna save Mike Johnson’s bacon. So why go through with it? It’s a futile exercise … Why would you go through with this? Look, we didn’t get elected to make excuses. We didn’t get elected to say we shouldn’t even try. We got elected to come here and give it our best and also to impose transparency. What we’ve seen here is the coming out of the uniparty, and it will be consolidated and it will be transparent and apparent next week to all Americans when this vote happens. Too many of our colleagues have thrown up their hands in frustration and apathy. ‘Oh, we shouldn’t even try. Let’s just coast this one out’. I tell you what, it’s too dangerous to coast this one out. We cannot coast this one out. Hakeem Jeffries knows if we coast this one out, we lose the majority.

Riyadh seeks more modest agreement with Washington in absence of Gaza ceasefire and Netanyahu resistance to Palestinian state

The US and Saudi Arabia have drafted a set of agreements on security and technology-sharing which were intended to be linked to a broader Middle East settlement involving Israel and the Palestinians.

However, in the absence of a ceasefire in Gaza and in the face of adamant resistance from Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government to the creation of a Palestinian state – and its apparent determination to launch an offensive on Rafah – the Saudis are pushing for a more modest plan B, which excludes the Israelis.

Time magazine called the ex-president’s plans ‘an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world’

Donald Trump has warned that Joe Biden and his family could face multiple criminal prosecutions once he leaves office unless the US supreme court awards Trump immunity in his own legal battles with the criminal justice system.

In a sweeping interview with Time magazine , Trump painted a startling picture of his second term, from how he would wield the justice department to hinting he may let states monitor pregnant women to enforce abortion laws.

House speaker to announce ‘crackdown on the virus of antisemitism’ he claims is spreading on college campuses amid pro-Palestinian protests

• Pro-Palestinian protesters take over Columbia University building

Republican House speaker Mike Johnson continues to direct his ire at the students and leadership of Columbia University, accusing them of antisemitism for their protests against Israel’s invasion of Gaza:

The protesters at Columbia say they’re outraged by Israel’s invasion of Gaza, and are sparring with university administrators, including president Minouche Shafik . Columbia’s leaders yesterday began suspending students who remained at a protest encampment after an afternoon deadline to disperse, and hours later, dozens of protesters took over a university building on Columbia’s Manhattan campus.

Nothing screams ‘covering up war crimes’ like insisting that there should absolutely not be an independent investigation

Did you know that the Palestinians are the very first people in the world to ethnically cleanse and mass murder themselves? I know it sounds weird, but – as American and Israeli politicians keep reminding us – these are “ savages ” that we are talking about here. Normal rules don’t apply, you’ve got to follow the Palestine Rules.

The Palestine Rules dictate you do the following: ignore every international agency if that agency says anything remotely critical about Israel. Certainly don’t listen to international aid agencies like Oxfam when they argue that the government of Israel is “deliberately blocking and/or undermining the international humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip”. Nope, the fact that babies in Gaza are dying of malnutrition is all their fault. The fact that children in Gaza are starving at the fastest rate the world has ever known is nothing to do with Israel, it’s the fault of those pesky Palestinians.

Enlarge (credit: Benj Edwards | Getty Images )

On Friday, the US Department of Homeland Security announced the formation of an Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board that consists of 22 members pulled from the tech industry, government, academia, and civil rights organizations. But given the nebulous nature of the term "AI," which can apply to a broad spectrum of computer technology, it's unclear if this group will even be able to agree on what exactly they are safeguarding us from.

President Biden directed DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to establish the board, which will meet for the first time in early May and subsequently on a quarterly basis.

The fundamental assumption posed by the board's existence, and reflected in Biden's AI executive order from October , is that AI is an inherently risky technology and that American citizens and businesses need to be protected from its misuse. Along those lines, the goal of the group is to help guard against foreign adversaries using AI to disrupt US infrastructure; develop recommendations to ensure the safe adoption of AI tech into transportation, energy, and Internet services; foster cross-sector collaboration between government and businesses; and create a forum where AI leaders to share information on AI security risks with the DHS.

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Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries sends letter to speaker Mike Johnson requesting consideration of a bipartisan bill to counter antisemitism

Last week, Joe Biden vowed to take another stab at convincing Congress to pass legislation that would allow him to tighten immigration policy and deter new migrants from entering the United States.

But Politico reports that nothing significant appears to be in the works – a consequences of the opposition from Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress that would likely kill any compromise reached on the highly divisive issue:

Talks around resuscitating the bipartisan border compromise that senators struck in February have been nonexistent in Washington. And despite the president’s proclamation, administration officials and immigration policy experts both say it’s highly unlikely any legislative momentum for border security materializes between now and November.

“They pulled a rabbit out of a hat on Ukraine, but there’s no chance they’re getting anything out of Mike Johnson’s House on border security,” said an immigration advocate familiar with the White House’s thinking, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations with administration officials. “They’ve known that since December, when they realized they had to count votes in the House. There’s no chance of legislation on this, and they know that. It’s rhetorical posturing.”

In the short term, the two leaders ordered their national security teams to work together to immediately implement concrete measures to significantly reduce irregular border crossings while protecting human rights. President Biden and President López Obrador also pledged to advance initiatives to address the root causes of migration throughout the Western Hemisphere, noting that increasing shared prosperity and security will be of critical importance in effectively addressing the migration challenge over the longer term.

US president made fun of Republican frontrunner’s legal woes while critics of his handling of Gaza war protested outside

Joe Biden has shown no mercy to Donald Trump with a series of barbed jokes about his election rival, telling a gathering of Washington’s political and media elites: “I’m a grown man running against a six-year-old.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner on Saturday night provided the ideal platform for Biden to continue a recent run of taking the fight to Trump with more aggressive rhetoric, cutting humour and personal insults.