Prepare. The Supreme Court docket has agreed to listen to former President Donald Trump’s presidential immunity declare that he’s shielded from prosecution for his position in plotting to overturn the 2020 election outcomes, and has set oral arguments for April. The Court docket’s time period ends in June, so listening to arguments in April means it is vitally possible a call will probably be launched earlier than the justices depart.
“The justices scheduled arguments for the week of April 22 and said proceedings in the trial court would remain frozen, handing at least an interim victory to Mr. Trump,” reported The New York Occasions. “His litigation strategy in all of the criminal prosecutions against him has consisted, in large part, of trying to slow things down.”
If he doesn’t have immunity, a legal trial will observe, most likely over the summer time—through the peak of election season.
Earlier this month, the Court docket additionally heard a case on whether or not states resembling Colorado are inside their rights to take away Trump from ballots—the 14th Modification argument. It’s anticipated to challenge a ruling quickly.
Absolutely this time will probably be totally different: If Congress cannot go appropriations payments to fund the federal government by midnight Friday, the federal authorities will enter a partial shutdown. Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R–La.) goes for one more stopgap invoice to try to maintain the federal government open, which “would extend funding for some government agencies for a week, through March 8, and the rest for another two weeks, until March 22,” per The New York Occasions.
The caveat is that Congress can be anticipated to approve six of the 12 spending payments to fund the federal government for the subsequent 12 months, whereas shopping for just a little extra time for legislators to barter and go the remainder of the spending payments. Considerably surprisingly, information broke final evening that Johnson has managed to get a good variety of colleagues on board with the plan.
Nonetheless, it is a piecemeal answer that pleases virtually no person. The far-right flank of Republicans within the Home continues to pursue deep spending cuts that neither Johnson nor Kevin McCarthy earlier than him has managed to prioritize, in addition to weaning Ukraine off U.S. authorities support. Persevering with resolutions—a.ok.a. patchwork options that briefly stave off authorities shutdowns however don’t set any type of long-term finances—had been handed in September, November, and January. And Republicans have solely a two-seat majority within the Home, with fairly just a few of them riled up concerning the disaster on the southern border—which they maintain saying have to be secured, to ensure that different points to be tackled—so there are few indicators that Congress will get its act collectively anytime quickly.
Are South Koreans having sufficient intercourse? Statistics Korea lately launched knowledge exhibiting that the fertility fee declined by 8 p.c in 2023 compared with 2022. Usually, such a drop wouldn’t be greeted as catastrophic, besides that this comes at a time when many developed international locations have fertility charges in free-fall and South Korea already had the bottom fertility fee on this planet. If present charges maintain, the nation’s inhabitants (51 million at current) is predicted to halve by 2100.
“The average number of babies a South Korean woman is expected to give birth to during her life fell to 0.72 from 0.78 in 2022, and previous projections estimate that this will fall even further, to 0.68 in 2024,” reported Al Jazeera. The substitute fee is 2.1 youngsters. For comparability, the U.S. fertility fee has been hovering round 1.7, with just a little dip in 2020 that has since recovered.
These new knowledge, coupled with a BBC article that featured girls throughout South Korea and their frustrations with their predicaments, has led to a strong debate among the many punditry as as to if South Korea’s aggressive pro-natalist insurance policies had been all for naught. (“Pro-natalist policies have a weak track record in every country where they’ve been tried,” wrote Cause‘s Elizabeth Nolan Brown again in June 2023. “South Korea spent more than $200 billion subsidizing child care and parental leave over the past 16 years, President Yoon Suk Yeol said last fall. Yet the fertility rate fell from 1.1 in 2006 to 0.81 in 2021.”)
Demographer Lyman Stone, in the meantime, called the BBC article “a demography reporting crime” and mentioned that “South Korea spends less in government money per child than the OECD average” and that “much of the spending Korea claims it does never gets to families, but is actually a morass of local government subsidies, grants, and other intermediated forms of spending.” When it does really get to households, the fertility fee is positively affected, Stone argued.
However there are different components, too: South Korea’s graying inhabitants, for one—and the way coughing up funds for retirees impacts youthful taxpayers’ skill to save lots of—in addition to cultural influences, like the truth that considered one of Korea’s greatest exports, Okay-pop stars, are usually compelled by their companies to abstain from courting (would not wish to destroy the fantasy, I suppose). There are large cultural expectation points, too, like the truth that most South Koreans—almost 80 p.c!—ship their children to costly non-public faculties, so the price of having a baby is perceived to be further excessive.
For extra on this, watch Simply Asking Questions with the Washington Examiner‘s Tim Carney (who has a brand new guide out quickly on exactly this topic): “Why aren’t people having more kids?”
Scenes from New York:
This girl used OMNY to pay for the bus. When you hit 12 fares paid inside a 7-day interval, you get free rides. Cops boarded bus & compelled riders to show they’d paid did not know easy methods to deal with this, threw her off, & hit her w a $100 ticket. Is that this metropolis a joke or what? pic.twitter.com/tD1fAvSnwL
— Liz Wolfe (@LizWolfeReason) February 28, 2024
Full article right here, courtesy of Hell Gate.
QUICK HITS
- “Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed the company’s Gemini controversy Tuesday evening, calling the AI app’s problematic responses around race unacceptable and vowing to make structural changes to fix the problem,” reported Semafor. The picture generator Gemini appeared to have a recurring challenge giving unrealistic and ahistorical interpretations of occasions—black Vikings, a girl pope, and nonwhite Founding Fathers, to call just a few.
- California is so screwed:
California politics in a nutshell ???? pic.twitter.com/XE1XRzj7eh
— Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp) February 28, 2024
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Tirana, Albania, interesting to the Balkan nations for protection help.
- “Bitcoin rallied above $60,000 on Wednesday, riding its bullish momentum to its highest levels since November 2021, as more signs emerge that cryptocurrency’s ‘winter’ has ended,” reported Axios. For extra on crypto winter, try this joint from me and Zach Weissmueller:
- “Americans’ satisfaction with personal life near record low,” reported Gallup.
- The household of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny is having a tough time discovering funeral properties and gravediggers to offer Navalny an honest burial. Since his loss of life two weeks in the past, greater than 400 individuals have reportedly been arrested for laying flowers in his reminiscence, reported the BBC.
- On one hand, sure, that is an attention-grabbing and probably good take. On the opposite, I do not suppose we should always interact in any extra elder abuse—working in authorities strikes me because the worst type of torture—and this man is 82. Let him spend the remainder of his days consuming ice cream cones!
Large loss. If Democrats hated Mitch McConnell as GOP chief, wait til they see those who come subsequent.
As for Republicans, effectively, that is excellent news provided that you want how the GOP Home capabilities & need extra of that. McConnell has been GOPs only Congress chief in many years. https://t.co/JpqPy8brjN
— Brian Riedl ???? ???????? (@Brian_Riedl) February 28, 2024
richard lewis & larry david again within the day pic.twitter.com/lxKoB0Lzzc
— Marlow Stern (@MarlowNYC) February 28, 2024