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Joe Biden signed legislation that includes funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and authorises other national-security measures. The $95bn package, which earlier cleared the Senate, includes $61bn for Ukraine and $26bn for Israel—$1bn of which is humanitarian aid that the president said must reach “all of the Palestinians in Gaza, without delay”. Mr Biden said that passing the legislation should have “been easier, and should have gotten there sooner”.
Arizona’s House of Representatives voted to repeal a 19th-century law that bans most abortions. Three Republicans joined Democrats to roll back the law, which the state’s Supreme Court upheld two weeks ago. The repeal now goes to Arizona’s Senate. Separately Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of neighbouring California, announced a plan to help doctors in Arizona get licensed quickly in the Golden State to provide abortions.
Donald Trump—together with Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff, and Rudy Giuliani, his ex-lawyer—was named an “unindicted co-conspirator” in an ongoing election-fraud investigation in Michigan. The state has already charged 15 Republican officials in the same alleged conspiracy: it accuses them of acting as “fake electors” and trying to illegally overturn the 2020 presidential election results. The defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House, called on Minouche Shafik, the president of Columbia University, to resign amid pro-Palestine protests on campus. Mr Johnson, who on Wednesday met Jewish students concerned about antisemitism at the university, told student protestors camping on the grounds to “go back to class and stop the nonsense”. Similar protests are under way on campuses across the country.
Tennessee’s legislature passed a bill that would allow some teachers and school staff to carry handguns on campus—without needing to notify parents or other colleagues. The bill, which looks likely to be signed into law by the state’s Republican governor, has been described by proponents as a “deterrent” to mass shootings. One Democrat in the state legislature, meanwhile, described the measure as “morally insane”.
Trump trial: a recap of day six
Judge Juan Merchan heard arguments that Donald Trump violated his gag order by making derogatory comments and posts about potential witnesses in the trial. “He is doing everything he can to undermine this process,” said Christopher Conroy, a prosecutor. “It has to stop.” The former president’s lawyers attempted to frame his comments as political speech. Mr Merchan seemed unimpressed with the defence’s attempts, telling them “you’re losing all credibility with the court.” David Pecker, a tabloid publisher, testified that he promised to be Mr Trump’s “eyes and ears” during the 2016 campaign. His testimony will resume on Thursday.
China doesn’t see America’s fentanyl crisis as its problem—but tackling it requires both countries to co-operate, wrote Josephine Ma in the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper, on April 23rd. Mexican cartels are smuggling precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl from China. As Antony Blinken, America’s secretary of state, begins a three-day visit to China on Wednesday, Ms Ma argued that both countries should find ways to work together.
Donald Trump threatened nuclear war, called neo-Nazis “very fine people”, mismanaged a pandemic and incited an insurrection. And yet, Sarah Longwell writes in a guest essay, he is still polling evenly with Joe Biden. The election’s outcome will be determined by what the conservative strategist calls “double-haters”: those who are sceptical of both Mr Trump and Mr Biden. She explains how Mr Biden should win them over.
$282bn, the value of Russian assets frozen by Western governments. On April 10th a Biden administration official declared that it wants to use their interest income to help Ukraine. Read the full story.
The race between the two candidates remains stubbornly stable. Judging from our poll tracker, which is updated daily and shows an average of the latest polls, the race between Mr Biden and Mr Trump is shaping up to be a dead heat.
Wednesday: Who designed the Statue of Liberty?
Tuesday: In which state are college students the highest proportion of the population?
See how to take part in the quiz at the bottom of this page.
If you enjoyed this week’s questions, play Dateline, The Economist’s new history game.
—Markwayne Mullin, a Republican senator from Oklahoma, explaining why he supported the aid package on April 23rd.
How to take part in the quiz: From Monday to Thursday we’ll quiz you on American politics. Email all your answers with your name and where you are from to [email protected] before 5pm New York time (10pm London time) on a Thursday. The weekly winner, chosen at random from those who give all the right answers, will be announced on this page on Fridays.
Read all of our recent coverage of the 2024 election. Confused about a term? Check out our A-Z of American politics.
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In brief
Our daily political update, featuring the stories that matter
In brief
Our daily political update, featuring the stories that matter
Our daily political update, featuring the stories that matter
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