Record heat, hurricanes, wildfires all have been making news in recent years. And while not everyone agrees events like these are the direct result of climate change, they do connect to peoples' opinions about it: a big majority of Americans feel the U.S. needs to address climate change, with those who report experiencing extreme weather more likely to say we should do so right now.

Views on climate change have long been associated with partisanship, and they still are, but age is a factor, too. Younger Americans, including younger Republicans, are even more likely to say the U.S. needs to take steps to at least try to slow it.

There's a sense of urgency from many in the public, too. A large majority think it needs to be addressed at least in the next few years, including half who think it needs to be addressed right now.

There's the sense that we should address climate change, and there's also some belief that we can.

Tax cuts for the wealthy have long drawn support from conservative lawmakers and economists who argue that such measures will "trickle down" and eventually boost jobs and incomes for everyone else. But a new study from the London School of Economics says 50 years of such tax cuts have only helped one group — the rich.

The new paper, by David Hope of the London School of Economics and Julian Limberg of King's College London, examines 18 developed countries — from Australia to the United States — over a 50-year period from 1965 to 2015. The study compared countries that passed tax cuts in a specific year, such as the U.S. in 1982 when President Ronald Reagan slashed taxes on the wealthy, with those that didn't, and then examined their economic outcomes.

Per capita gross domestic product and unemployment rates were nearly identical after five years in countries that slashed taxes on the rich and in those that didn't, the study found.

But the analysis discovered one major change: The incomes of the rich grew much faster in countries where tax rates were lowered. Instead of trickling down to the middle class, tax cuts for the rich may not accomplish much more than help the rich keep more of their riches and exacerbate income inequality, the research indicates.

Kevin McCarthy is having a grand old time.

He’s traveling the country giving six-figure speeches, playing pundit and elder statesman on TV, holding forth at high-brow political forums and, not least, plotting vengeance against those behind his unceremonious ouster as House speaker.

Eight Republican lawmakers joined 208 Democrats in toppling the former Bakersfield congressman, the first time in history a House leader has been voted out. Rather than hang on, McCarthy left office at the end of 2023.

Two of the eight Republicans are joining him in retirement. Three others — Bob Good of Virginia, Eli Crane of Arizona and Nancy Mace of South Carolina — face strong primary challenges. McCarthy has been working behind the scenes to end their congressional careers, strategizing and directing money and other resources to their opponents.

“He wants to hold to account those who pushed him out,” said a Central Valley political operative, who has a decades-long relationship with McCarthy.

Days after President Donald Trump clinched a surprise victory in the 2016 presidential election, Mark Zuckerberg touted his company’s influence in politics. The CEO proclaimed he was “proud” Facebook had given many “a voice in this election.”

“We helped millions of people connect with candidates so they could hear from them directly and be better informed,” Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook.

Now, on the eve of a matchup between Trump and President Biden, Meta is changing course.

After years of pitching its suite of social media apps as the lifeblood of campaigns, Meta is breaking up with politics. The company has decreased the visibility of politics-focused posts and accounts on Facebook and Instagram as well as imposed new rules on political advertisers, kneecapping the targeting system long used by politicians to reach potential voters.

GREENBELT, Md. (WKRC) — As if the recent total solar eclipse wasn't enough, stargazers will now have another massive space event to look forward to.

According to astronomers, the stars of T Coronae Borealis (T CrB), which is a binary system roughly 3,000 light years away, will be visible during an extremely rare cosmic event later in 2024, according to Space.

A rare nova explosion is expected to be visible for an entire week. NASA currently says that the event could happen anytime between now and September. Astronomers looking into the event said they will release a more "precise timing" once they've accurately figure out when it will happen.

It's believed that nova explosions, such as the one that's expected to happen to T CrB later this year, only happen about once a century. For a large majority of people, this will make it a once-in-a-lifetime event.

https://fox17.com/news/offbeat/extremely-rare-stellar-explosion-visible-naked-eye-last-a-week-space-stars-sun-galaxy-lightyears-nasa-astronomers-research-once-in-a-lifetime-cosmic-universe-stargazers-total-solar-eclipse-white-dwarf-century-hecules-constellation

The share of voters who say they have high interest in the 2024 election has hit a nearly 20-year low at this point in a presidential race, according to the latest national NBC News poll, with majorities holding negative views of both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The poll also shows Biden trimming Trump’s previous lead to just 2 points in a head-to-head contest, an improvement within the margin of error compared to the previous survey, as the president bests Trump on the issues of abortion and uniting the country, while the former Republican president is ahead on competency and dealing with inflation.

And it finds inflation and immigration topping the list of most important issues facing the country, as just one-third of voters give Biden credit for an improving economy.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/poll-biden-trump-tight-race-election-interest-low-rcna148170

Former Vice President Mike Pence argued that his ex-boss, former President Trump, has betrayed the Republican Party with an aversion to signing a national abortion ban if elected in 2024.

Pence said his proudest accomplishment while serving as Trump’s VP was the overturning of Roe v. Wade, adding that it is now “disheartening” for him to see the former president “retreat from the pro-life cause.”

“Like so many other advocates for life, I was deeply disappointed when Mr. Trump stated that he considered abortion to be a state-only issue and would not sign a bill prohibiting late-term abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, even if it came to his desk,” Pence wrote in an op-ed published Saturday in The New York Times.

“No,” Trump said when asked by reporters two weeks ago in Georgia if he would sign a national abortion ban if it passed Congress and came to his desk if he’s reelected.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) blasted the House for passing foreign aid bills, arguing Congress is spending money that “we don’t have” and that the U.S. should be focusing on securing its own borders instead.

“We’re gonna further mortgage and plunder our children’s future, over $100 billion,” Johnson said during his Saturday morning appearance on NewsNation. “We spend close to $900 billion on defense, but every time there’s some kind of defense action seems like we need to do a supplemental.

“I think the point that most of us have been making, most Americans believe that we ought to secure our own border before we spend over $100 billion that we don’t have under our children’s future on helping other people secure their borders,” he said.

Johnson’s remarks on “NewsNation Live” came just hours before the lower chamber officially approved a $95 billion foreign aid package after months of intense debate. The foreign aid package includes around $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel, humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza and other war-torn zones and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific region. It also includes other national security measures, including a potential ban on TikTok.

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the conviction of veteran Republican campaign operative Jesse Benton for steering an illegal Russian contribution to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Benton, who played leading roles in the presidential campaigns of Ron and Rand Paul and worked briefly as Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager, helped facilitate an improper $25,000 payment to the Trump camp and the Republican National Committee on behalf of Roman Vasilenko, a Russian national who had approached another GOP operative, Doug Wead, about his interest in meeting an American celebrity. When he was unable to get an audience with Oprah Winfrey, Steven Seagal or Jimmy Carter, the operative suggested Trump.

Benton then arranged for Vasilenko to attend a join Trump-RNC fundraiser in Philadelphia, where the Russian took a picture with the soon-to-be president. Vasilenko used the photos to burnish his reputation in Russia “including speaking on Russian TV about President-elect Trump and his attitudes toward Russia.”

Benton — who was pardoned by Trump in 2020 for other campaign finance crimes in the final weeks of Trump’s term — was convicted by a jury in late 2022 of six felonies related to the contribution and falsified campaign finance records. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, sentenced Benton to 18 months in prison, and records indicate he is due for release in June. Both Ron and Rand Paul — the former Texas representative and current Kentucky senator, respectively — wrote letters on Benton’s behalf at sentencing, decrying the impact that a jail sentence would have on his family.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/19/trump-russian-money-appeals-court-00153339