'Strong step': Nancy Pelosi on Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act

 After Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into law, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that it is a strong step to combat the exploitation of forced labor in Xinjiang

After US President Joe Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) into law today, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday (local time) said that it is a strong step to combat the exploitation of forced labor in China’s Xinjiang province. The bill received unanimous bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress. “President Biden and the Congress, on a bipartisan and bicameral basis, have taken a strong step to combat the exploitation of forced labor in Xinjiang with the enactment of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act,” Pelosi said in a statement.

US President Joe Biden on Thursday signed the “Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act” that bans importing of goods into the US made with forced labor in China’s Xinjiang province. “The ongoing genocide perpetrated by the Chinese government against the Uyghur people and other Muslim minorities is a challenge to the conscience of the entire world, which is why the House twice passed legislation to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its exploitation of forced labor and put an end to this horrific practice,” the statement said.

Trump acquitted in historic impeachment vote as re-election campaign looms

Trump was acquitted largely along party lines on two articles of impeachment approved by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on Dec. 18

President Donald Trump was acquitted on Wednesday in his U.S. Senate impeachment trial, saved by fellow Republicans who rallied to protect him nine months before he asks voters in a deeply divided America to give him a second White House term.

The businessman-turned-politician, 73, survived only the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history – just like the two other impeached presidents – in his turbulent presidency’s darkest chapter. Trump now plunges into an election season that promises to further polarize the country. Trump was acquitted largely along party lines on two articles of Donald Trump impeachment approved by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on Dec. 18. The votes to convict Trump fell far short of the two-thirds majority required in the 100-seat Senate to remove him from office under the U.S. Constitution.

The Senate voted 52-48 to acquit Trump of abuse of power stemming from his request that Ukraine investigate political rival Joe Biden, a contender for the Democratic nomination to face him in the Nov. 3 election. Republican Senator Mitt Romney joined the Democrats in voting to convict. No Democrat voted to acquit. The Senate then voted 53-47 to acquit him of obstruction of Congress by blocking witnesses and documents sought by the House. Romney joined the rest of the Republican senators in voting to acquit on the obstruction charge. No Democrat voted to acquit…

Donald Trump pushes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold impeachment vote

Many constitutional law experts disputed the White House legal analysis, and it’s not clear that Trump would be any more cooperative if the House did vote

International News: President Donald Trump is pushing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold a formal vote on impeachment, a move that would change the politics of the probe more than its legal standing.

Trump this week escalated his fight against the Democratic-led investigation of his dealings with Ukraine with a letter from the White House counsel that contends the administration cannot cooperate with an inquiry that is “invalid” in part because the full House hasn’t voted to investigate. Many constitutional law experts disputed the White House legal analysis, and it’s not clear that Trump would be any more cooperative if the House did vote.

A decision whether to call the president’s bluff is likely to be a main topic when Pelosi convenes a conference call with House Democrats at the end of the week. Representative Dan Kildee of Michigan, one of the leadership’s vote counters, said Democrats could easily pass a resolution authorizing the impeachment inquiry with as many as 230 votes.

But Gerald Connolly of Virginia, a senior Democrat and a member of a committee leading the inquiry, said there are plenty of reasons not to hold that vote. “Caving to their phony demands could — in an odd way — have unintended consequences of actually empowering their various arguments,” he said of the White House and Republicans. Connolly also pointed to shifting public opinion, as evidenced in polls, in favor of the inquiry even without a House vote….

Transcipt shows Trump prodded Ukraine leader to help in Joe Biden probe

In the call, Trump raised unsubstantiated allegations that Biden sought to interfere with a Ukrainian prosecutor’s investigation of the former vice president’s son Hunter

President Donald Trump repeatedly prodded Ukraine’s new leader to work with the US attorney general and lawyer Rudy Giuliani to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden, according to a rough transcript summarizing the call released Wednesday.

In the call, Donald Trump raised allegations, without citing any evidence, that the former vice president sought to interfere with a Ukrainian prosecutor’s investigation of his son Hunter. “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that,” Trump said to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The conversation between the two leaders is one piece of a whistleblower’s complaint, which followed the July 25 call. The complaint is central to the formal impeachment inquiry launched Tuesday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The White House account of the call reveals that Trump was willing to engage a foreign leader to dig up dirt on a political foe and he goes so far as to volunteer his attorney general to help. But Trump appears to stop short in the call of any explicit quid pro quo, such as linking Ukraine’s help to American military aid or other assistance…