Tag: Secret

Why Katrina Kaif is avoiding public appearances? Secret revealed

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Mumbai: Popular actress Katrina Kaif is one of the A-listers in Bollywood and is often chased by paps. She tied the knot with Vicky Kaushal in 2021 and since then she made very few public appearances. Rumours mills suggest that the actress is not hiding from the public because of marriage or any other personal issue but for another reason.
Yes, Katrina is not pregnant but she is focusing on her work right now. She will be next seen in Tiger3 opposite Salman Khan. According to a report in Bollywood Life, Katrina Kaif is deliberately keeping a low profile because of Tiger 3. Report suggests that the makers of Tiger 3 want to create a lot of curiosity around the actresses’ character which is why Katrina has voluntarily chosen to stay away from the limelight.
To make fans and the audience more excited about her character in Tiger 3, Katrina Kaif is ditching public appearances. This might be a good strategy to make a film successful but her fans are really curious to know the exact reason.

Hope, she will come with new looks and an exciting character in Bhaijaan’s next film. Tiger3 is slated to release on November, 10. Superstar Shah Rukh Khan will also be seen in a cameo in the movie.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 3, 2023
Pope speaks of secret peace ‘mission,’ help for Ukraine kids

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Deportations of Ukrainian children have been a concern since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Francis said the Holy See had already helped mediate some prisoner exchanges and would do “all that is humanly possible” to reunite families.
“All human gestures help. Gestures of cruelty don’t help,” Francis said.
The International Criminal Court in March issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s children’s commissioner, accusing them of war crimes for abducting children from Ukraine. Russia has denied any wrongdoing, contending the children were moved for their safety.
Last week Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal met with Francis at the Vatican and asked him to help return Ukrainian children taken following the Russian invasion.
“I asked His Holiness to help us return home Ukrainians, Ukrainian children who are detained, arrested, and criminally deported to Russia,″ Shmyhal told the Foreign Press Association after the audience.
Francis recalled that the Holy See had facilitated some prisoner exchanges, working through embassies, and was open to Ukraine’s request to reunite Ukrainian children with their families.
The prisoner exchanges “went well. I think it could go well also for this. It’s important,” he said of the family reunifications. “The Holy See is available to do it because it’s the right thing,” he added. “We have to do all that is humanly possible.
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#Pope #speaks #secret #peace #mission #Ukraine #kids
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

May 1, 2023
The secret to getting more out of exercise? It’s not what you do – it’s when you do it

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Thousands of us have started 2023 with new exercise programmes promising to get us fit, muscle-bound and slim. But the latest science of chrono-exercise (sometimes called chrono-activity) suggests that what really counts isn’t what we do, or even how we do it, but when we do it.
Of course, moving at any time of the day is good. But we now know that our bodies and brains change over the course of 24 hours, with chemicals, proteins and hormones ebbing and flowing almost hour by hour. So perhaps it’s hardly surprisingly that a string of new studies suggests that timing our exercise to optimally match our body’s circadian rhythms could reap additional rewards. And that means faster results – and less time in the gym.
A new study published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology found that, for those of us wanting to fend off heart disease and stroke, the optimal time of day to move is between 8am and 11am. And preferably closer to 11am: “The late morning seemed to be the most ideal timing,” explained study author, Gali Albalak.
Albalak and her colleagues monitored 86,657 participants (aged 42-76) over a period of six years, using heart-rate data collected from wrist trackers. The data showed the same results, irrespective of personal chronobiology. In other words, owls benefited as much as larks from morning movement. Women appeared to benefit the most, reflecting earlier studies that also found morning to be a particularly effective time for females. A report from Skidmore College in the US found that women who exercised in the morning shed more abdominal fat than women who exercised later in the day. To boot, the female morning movers were also more likely to lower their blood pressure.
One study found that women who exercise in the morning shed more abdominal fat. Photograph: Robert Decelis Ltd/Getty Images
So, should we all be exercising in the morning and putting our feet up in the evening? Not so fast. When it comes to men, or those with type 2 diabetes, the data shows a different picture. The Skidmore College researchers found that men who exercised later in the day markedly reduced their blood pressure, cholesterol, body fat and feelings of fatigue.
There’s another reason women might not want to shake their booty in the morning and then loll, virtuously, on the sofa. For both sexes, the optimal time for building and preserving muscle appears to be later in the day. From the age of 30, our muscles start to atrophy, a process that accelerates after the age of 60. All of us should be lifting some weight or doing some resistance work at least once a week. Multiple studies suggest that afternoons and evenings are the best time to do this: our muscles increase in strength during the day, so that by late afternoon, they are at peak fortitude, enabling us to lift more, for longer. Which means – very simply – that we build muscle more effectively and efficiently, and with less perceived effort, towards the end of the day. Again, studies indicate that the benefits of resistance and strength training, done in the evening, are more pronounced for women, although it’s not clear why.
Thankfully, lengthy weight-training sessions are no longer necessary. The current trend for micro-dosing (10-15 minute sessions a few times a week) arose after studies showed short, frequent workouts to be as effective as hour-long sessions. Lifting hand weights or working with a resistance band during the first 10 minutes of your favourite TV programme is enough to keep withered muscles at bay. For extra efficiency, use heavier weights or movements that work multiple muscles in a single go. Sports scientists call these multi-joint exercises – squats, lunges and push-ups, for example.
Again, anyone diabetic or pre-diabetic should consider some gentle movement after dinner, when our glucose tolerance is typically lower, and when large, starchy meals can trigger hefty blood sugar spikes. Incidentally, evidence suggests – for diabetic men – afternoon exercise is best for improving blood glucose levels, while mornings are the least effective.

There’s just one period of time when physical exertion is consistently deemed detrimental to our health: between the hours of midnight and 6am. Albalak’s study found that moving during these hours was associated with a greater risk of heart disease and stroke. During the night, our bodies shift into rest-and-repair mode, and while a gentle amble won’t hurt, your body won’t thank you for doing jumping jacks at 3am.
During the night our bodies shift into rest-and-repair mode … your body won’t thank you for doing jumping jacks at 3am
What about stretching? Again, studies indicate that evening may be the better time. Our joints and muscles increase in flexibility as the day goes by, peaking at 7pm. Some researchers speculate that the greater flexibility accompanying dusk may be the result of certain hormones peaking at this time and rendering our tendons less stiff. This means we can stretch more deeply, with a greater range of motion, and with less chance of injury. Stretching at night also appears to reduce muscle tension and tightness the following morning, as well as relaxing the body before bed.
If we want to shift our circadian clock – to wake up more easily early in the morning, or to overcome jetlag, for example – moving at specific times of the day can help. According to neuroscientist Jennifer Heisz, exercising at 7am or between 1pm and 4pm will help nudge our body clock back. If we need to shift our bodies to a later wake-up time, she suggests working out between 7pm and 10pm.
So how might a chrono-inspired day look? A brisk walk or cycle (or house clean) between 8am and 11am, then an after-dinner stroll, followed by a few multi-joint strength exercises, and finally a spot of stretching before bed. But, as Albalak reminds me, the most important thing is to move regularly during daylight hours, at times that work for our individual schedules. She suggests that retired people, or those on more flexible schedules, experiment with chrono-activity, and that the office-bound try it at the weekend. Either way, understanding the chrono-tendencies of our own bodies might just mean we can achieve more by doing less. And who doesn’t want that?
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 28, 2023
Joe Biden’s Secret Oval Office TV

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His Morning Routine: Exercise With a Side of Morning Joe!
Aides say the president isn’t a religious viewer of any particular cable news show. But if there’s one he watches with regularity, it’s Morning Joe. Unlike Trump, who started tweeting before most of Washington awoke, Biden typically isn’t watching that first 6 a.m. hour — or rage-tweeting about Mika — but he will often tune in while riding his exercise bike around 7 a.m. And we’re told he’s occasionally in touch with some of the hosts and has, at times, conveyed positive feedback about what they’ve said. For instance, he let Joe Scarborough know that he enjoyed his description of Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) as “having rocks in his head.”
There’s a Tiny TV in the Oval Office
When people step into the Oval Office, they might notice the five presidential portraits hung over the fireplace or the grandeur of the historic Resolute Desk — but not the little television. That’s the point. The TV monitor sits behind Biden on another desk topped with picture frames, encased in a golden frame itself so as to be inconspicuous. But when there aren’t press cameras or dignitaries in there, the 10 or 12” screen is often turned on — and tuned to CNN. While Biden isn’t spending hours in his private dining room glued to a big screen as his predecessor was, several current and former White House officials told me that the president will keep an eye on his secret screen behind his desk and react to coverage during less formal meetings with staff. Televisions outside the Oval and aboard Air Force One are also almost always on CNN during the day, not “the quad,” the four-box available in the building to staffers who want to keep an eye on all of the main cable networks simultaneously.
He Calls People He Sees on TV
The way to ingratiate yourself with Trump was simple: just say nice things about him on TV. Biden is not as insecure — and easily won over — as his predecessor, but he has been known at times to pick up the phone to personally thank people articulating helpful messages on television, be they hosts (Al Sharpton has gotten such calls) or panelists. Last summer, as Democrats’ big spending package was languishing in Congress, Biden called Jim Messina after seeing him on MSNBC defending the administration’s agenda. According to people familiar with these calls, Biden will often solicit feedback or advice from the journalists and politicos he dials up.
And He Has His Favorites
It’s safe to say Biden isn’t up late in the Lincoln bedroom chatting with Sean Hannity after his show. The president’s closest relationships with members of the media are with his contemporaries, the reporters and commentators he’s been reading and interacting with since his years in the Senate. The group includes Times columnists David Brooks and Thomas L. Friedman, both of whom have had audiences with Biden at times, and Mike Barnicle, the Morning Joe regular and longtime columnist. He has also maintained a relationship with the New Yorker’s Evan Osnos, who turned a lengthy interview with Biden during his campaign’s early, quarantined basement days into a book. He has occasionally talked foreign policy with Friedman, who got to know Biden when he was a senator on a 10-day trip to the Middle East. Earlier this year, Friedman even succeeded in getting Biden to issue him a short statement — on a Saturday! — about pro-democracy demonstrations in Israel, which he used in a column. “This is the first time I can recall a U.S. president has ever weighed in on an internal Israeli debate about the very character of the country’s democracy,” he wrote.
He Is a Print Guy
Biden has the same push alerts on his cell phone we all do, but he is a traditionalist when it comes to newspapers. When he took office in 2021, he asked aides to make sure the print editions of the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal were available to him in the White House residence and the West Wing, according to several administration officials. The papers are delivered very early in the morning to the executive residence staff and the West Wing, the officials said. No one has yet seen him autographing news clippings with a Sharpie and sending them to pals.
He Reads His Own Clips (Like Everyone Else in Washington)
Every White House compiles daily clips for the president and top aides. But we’re told Biden is particularly interested in the local news people across the country are reading. When he flies home after an event, staffers aboard Air Force One print out stories by local outlets that covered his appearances for him to read on the plane. And every day inside the West Wing, the staff secretary’s office puts together a binder of national and local news clips and front pages, including from Black, Latino and AAPI-focused outlets. Aides who have spent time around the president also said that he’ll often note an article referenced during a cable news segment and ask a staffer to print it out for him. When he was vice president, his clips also included news stories from Delaware, and we’re told he still keeps tabs on local happenings.

But He Doesn’t Love the Coverage
In his occasional comments to reporters, Biden has betrayed a frustration with the media’s coverage of him writ large, complaining that “you guys” probably won’t cover what cause or topic he’s eager to talk about at that moment. (In several instances, he has refused to respond to shouted questions on topics unrelated to the event at which he’s speaking.) Aides, concerned in part about the president’s ability to hear shouted questions beneath the whir of Marine One’s rotor blades, have tried to limit situations where the president is confronted — and perhaps enticed to engage — by a horde of shouting reporters. Unlike many of his predecessors, Biden has cultivated few relationships with reporters through off the record meetings and conversations. And the only time he has visited the press cabin aboard Air Force One, something Trump did with regularity, his off-the-record comments included complaints about his coverage. He has rarely griped publicly about any specific report, but some have gotten under his skin — including a story last summer by the New York Times’ Peter Baker about his age becoming “an uncomfortable issue,” multiple people around the president confirmed.
While the president has affirmed the importance of the press’ independence and its role in a democracy — (you’ll hear no “enemies of the people” rants from him) — he often grumbles privately that news coverage is too focused on his predecessor and other fleeting controversies and believes that the media has failed to focus on the historic nature and real world impact of his legislative accomplishments. He also complains to staffers, especially those who oversee communications, not enough people defend him on cable television, something those plotting his likely reelection campaign are hoping to remedy with a more robust surrogate operation.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 27, 2023
Was there a secret deal between royal family and Murdoch’s media empire?

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Among the many extraordinary claims in Prince Harry’s legal case against News UK, one stands out: the allegation that there was a secret deal between Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper group and the monarchy to stop members of the royal family suing over phone hacking.
The prince suggests that this arrangement was known about by his late grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, Prince William and leading courtiers. Harry claims that under the terms of this supposed deal, royal victims of phone hacking would receive a settlement and an apology when all the other phone-hacking cases had concluded.
The objective, he claims, was to ensure members of the royal family were kept out of the witness box and ensure there was no need for a public falling out with a powerful newspaper group that could write negative stories about the royal family.
Harry says the existence of this deal is one of the reasons he waited until 2019 to file legal proceedings against News Group Newspapers, the parent company of the Sun and the News of the World.
The problem is that Rupert Murdoch’s media company has denied such a deal exists and claims Harry simply missed a legal deadline to file his paperwork. It wants a judge to throw out the case before it goes to trial next year on the basis that the royal should have suspected he was potentially a victim at a much earlier time.
Harry has not provided any evidence of the alleged agreement, although if such a sensitive arrangement was made then it is possible that it was verbal rather than on paper.
Even Harry is unsure who told him about the supposed deal. According to legal filings, the royal was informed of the deal’s existence alongside his brother at some point in 2012. He says this was by the royal family’s solicitor Gerrard Tyrrell, of Harbottle & Lewis, or someone else from within the institution of the monarchy.
According to his legal filings, the deal between the royal household and “senior executives” at Murdoch’s company would ensure members of the royal family could only bring phone-hacking claims at the conclusion of ongoing phone-hacking cases, and “at that stage the claims would be admitted or settled with an apology”.

Harry’s barrister, David Sherborne, said in written submissions that “discussions and authorisation” from the royal family over the agreement included the late queen and two of her private secretaries, as well as private secretaries for William and Harry.
Harry says he received the support of the queen and her aides when he attempted to push back on the supposed deal in 2017, only to struggle and be repeatedly frustrated by courtiers close to his father, Charles.
Harry claims Murdoch’s company tried to avoid keeping to its part of the supposed deal and issuing a public apology. “I suspect [Murdoch’s newspaper group] was banking on the public becoming bored of phone hacking after so many years and therefore, when it came to the end of the litigation whenever that would be, any apologies that it was forced to give wouldn’t really be newsworthy,” he said in his statement.
However, Anthony Hudson KC, for News Group Newspapers, told the court on Tuesday that there was no evidence of a secret deal and that Harry was asserting the existence of the supposed arrangement as a last-minute legal tactic.
“This delay is matched by the extreme vagueness with which the circumstances of the secret agreement are described in the Duke of Sussex’s evidence,” he said.
The barrister pointed out that Harry did not say in his evidence who had made the agreement, whom it applied to, when it was made, or a date when it was meant to expire. A list of lawyers who had worked in high-profile jobs at Murdoch’s company all insisted they had never heard of such a deal.
Yet the court did hear that at least one member of the royal family had been able to strike a secret deal with Murdoch’s company.
Harry revealed that Prince William had settled his own, not previously publicised phone-hacking claim against Murdoch’s company “for a huge sum of money” in 2020.
Harry asks how his brother’s deal was reached “without any of the public being told”. He suggests William reached a “favourable deal in return for him going ‘quietly’, so to speak”.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 25, 2023
Florida poised to make DeSantis’ travel records secret

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Republicans contend they are pushing for the bill, SB 1616, at the urging of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the agency which now manages the state plane used by the governor and which has been inundated with record requests. GOP lawmakers asserted that releasing the information would allow someone to look for “patterns” that could jeopardize DeSantis’ security.
“Everything we do is monitored,” said Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples). “Bad actors can find out a lot. … I think it’s perfectly appropriate. Here we have a young governor who has young children, a young family. God forbid something would happen because information is out there.”
Republican supporters also said there was nothing in the legislation that would alter campaign finance laws that require state political officials to disclose when they use political committees or campaigns to pay for travel.
But Democrats ripped the bill as a way to keep DeSantis’ actions out of public view while open government advocates called it one of the worst ever proposed exemptions to the state’s much-lauded Sunshine Law.
“It’s so clearly an attempt to protect this information from reporters wanting to know how taxpayer money is being spent,” said state Sen. Tina Polsky, a Boca Raton Democrat.
Barbara Petersen, the executive director of the Florida Center for Government Accountability, called the legislation “stunning” and “unbelievable.”
“It’s beyond the pale,” said Petersen, an attorney who has tracked open records laws and issues for 30 years. “It blows a hole in the public records law. … This is a governor who doesn’t want anyone to know what he’s doing.”
Under then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott — a multimillionaire who owned his own jet — the state sold off planes used by the governor and other top officials. Scott sharply criticized two of his rivals in the 2010 governor’s race by pointing to news articles that detailed how they had used the state plane at the expense of taxpayers. In one instance, a state auditor questioned whether then-Attorney General Bill McCollum had misused state resources in how he used the state plane.

After DeSantis took office, state legislators authorized spending millions to acquire a jet that could be used to get the governor around the large state and where commercial travel in and out of Tallahassee is not easy.
DeSantis routinely will use the state plane if he travels somewhere to hold a press conference or to deal with emergency response efforts. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has been slow to turn over record requests showing when and where the state plane has been dispatched.
Flight tracking websites show that this year, DeSantis has used private chartered planes — or planes used by prominent Floridians — on out-of-state trips such as those connected with his book promotional tours. The governor’s office has said no state dollars have been used on those trips, but DeSantis’ political operation has not answered questions about the private planes.
But the bill legislators are poised to pass would essentially shield all information related to “security and transportation services” provided to DeSantis, his family, as well as visiting governors and their families, legislative leaders, the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court and members of the Florida Cabinet.
Passidomo asserted that she was not worried about DeSantis misusing the state plane if his travel records were no longer public.
“He thinks about these things,” she told reporters.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 20, 2023
A 21-year-old with top secret access? It’s not as rare as you think

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“We entrust our members with a lot of responsibility at a very early age. Think about a young combat platoon sergeant, the responsibility and trust we put into those individuals to lead troops in combat,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters Thursday while declining to comment on the DOJ investigation. “You receive training and you will receive an understanding of the rules and requirements that come along with those responsibilities.”
The FBI on Thursday arrested Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, in connection with the major leak of dozens of pages of classified Pentagon documents, many of which were photos of slides developed by the Joint Staff to brief senior leaders about the situation in Ukraine.
No specific charges were immediately announced, but Teixeira is expected to appear in federal court in Boston on Friday.
Live video from local television stations showed law enforcement leading the young male suspect from his home in North Dighton, Massachusetts, where both Teixeira and his mother live.
The Pentagon released Teixeira’s service record after the FBI arrest, saying he was with the 102nd Intelligence Support Squadron at Otis Air National Guard Base, Massachusetts. He enlisted in 2019, and works on cyber transport systems as a network manager, according to National Guard Bureau spokesperson Nahaku McFadden.
Since news of the leak emerged last week, Pentagon leaders have been tightening the distribution of classified information. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been convening daily meetings about the breach’s effect on national security and on how to manage military secrets, Ryder said.
DoD officials are reviewing “a variety of factors” related to safeguarding classified material, and are taking steps such as updating distribution lists and assessing how and where intelligence is shared, Ryder added.
“It’s important to understand that we do have stringent guidelines in place,” Ryder said. “This was a deliberate criminal act, a violation of those guidelines.”

In a statement, Austin said he would “not hesitate to take any additional measures necessary to safeguard our nation’s secrets. He added that he has directed the department’s intelligence leaders to review “intelligence access, accountability and control procedures within the Department to inform our efforts to prevent this kind of incident from happening again.”
Across the world, potentially hundreds or even thousands of people could have had access to the classified information in question, DoD officials said. The leak is prompting questions about whether too many people have exposure to the military’s most sensitive secrets.
“Especially post-Manning and post-Snowden, one of the lessons learned across the military is the greater the number of people that have access to information at any given time, the greater the likelihood of this thing spilling,” said the first official, referring to former Army soldier Chelsea Manning — convicted in 2013 of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, and to Edward Snowden, a former contractor who leaked classified information on the National Security Agency.
In most cases, a variety of information is available to an individual with a security clearance over and above what they need to do their jobs. Like Snowden, the person who leaked the documents had access to a number of sensitive documents, but the person was required to “self-police” what they actually accessed, Zaid said.
“It is entirely possible he was tasked with creating briefing books or intel briefings for his command,” he said.
After the arrest, lawmakers were quick to condemn the leak and call for a revision of the rules. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called on the national security community to address “systematic issues,” including “protocols for how intelligence is handled, the security clearance process, and how officials can prevent intelligence leaks like this from ever happening again.”
“This was a major security breach that cannot be allowed to happen again. Leaking this trove of classified information endangered our military and intelligence professionals and undermined the security of our allies and partners,” Reed said.
“Anyone with a security clearance who betrays their country by purposefully mishandling classified documents or disclosing classified materials must be held accountable,” he added.
In an interview, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said the issue of how military members handle classified information is “obviously something we’re gonna look at.”
“But what I am more interested in is a sort of digital watermarking technology that could just make it very clear to anybody viewing intelligence that we know if you’re looking at this,” added Moulton, a former Marine. “If every one of the documents [the leaker] saw was essentially marked with his name in a decipherable way, then that would just be a huge deterrent to sharing intelligence in the future.”
Moulton also noted the age of the suspect and broader issues of giving younger people access to such sensitive information.
“Not to take anything away from the severity of this incident and the criminality of this individual, but this is in some ways related to a broader issue that the U.S. military is facing with recruiting young Americans who — through social media or whatever else — feel incredibly entitled.
“I’ve seen this problem in other aspects of the military,” he continued. “This really is an issue that sort of seems to be a Gen Z issue where you get some of our youngest members of the military who feel particularly self important and entitled and therefore the rules don’t apply to them.”
Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 14, 2023
Malaika Arora flaunts multicrore Bulgari Secret Serpenti watch, see price

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Mumbai: Malaika Arora, the Bollywood diva, is known for her impeccable fashion sense, and her recent photoshoot for a magazine was no exception. She chose stunning accessories from the luxury label Bulgari, and her watch, the Bulgari Secret Serpenti, drew everyone’s attention.
Not only does this watch have an exquisite design, but it also has a staggering price tag. The Bulgari secret Serpenti watch worn by Malaika Arora during the photoshoot is said to be worth around 5 crores! Yes, you read that correctly – 5 crore!
But what makes this watch so costly? The answer can be found in its luxurious features. The watch is made of 18-karat white gold and features a stunning diamond-encrusted bracelet that is a work of art in and of itself. The watch also has a one-of-a-kind mechanism that allows the watch’s face to be hidden behind a diamond-encrusted serpent’s head, adding mystery and intrigue to the already stunning design.

It’s no surprise that a watch of this calibre costs so much money. The Bulgari Secret Serpenti watch, on the other hand, is a true statement piece that exudes luxury and sophistication for those who can afford it. Malaika Arora’s decision to wear this watch for her photoshoot was a wise one, as it complemented her stylish and glamorous look perfectly.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 8, 2023
Centrist Democrats hatch secret plan to head off debt ceiling calamity

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But Biden officials and party leaders, however, see it far differently and are bristling at the attempts at a compromise, according to four lawmakers familiar with the discussions. Their party’s message to those plotting centrists: Your efforts are unlikely to succeed and risk hurting our goal of a clean debt ceiling increase.
The intraparty friction is growing as Washington’s debt crisis gets less theoretical and more urgent with each passing week. And the freelancing Democratic centrists may not have helped their cause by getting involved just as party leaders began seeing a political advantage in the fiscal fight — as long as they can keep the onus on Speaker Kevin McCarthy to unveil a plan that might pass the GOP-controlled House, with unpopular spending cuts likely to be attached.
“We’re gaining ground because of [House Republicans’] inability to put together a plan,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a brief interview. “I’m certainly willing to entertain a mix of things on the budget. Not on the debt ceiling.”
A White House official said the administration has “not spoken to the Problem Solvers about this.” Centrist Democrats, however, say they’ve been made well aware the effort isn’t likely to win any endorsements from party leaders — and have decided to forge ahead anyway as the debt impasse sparks high anxiety, with Congress gone until April 17.
Biden and McCarthy have had zero recent contact on the debt other than jabs exchanged through the press, despite the jittery U.S. banking sector further rattling the situation. Democratic leaders say they’ll accept only a clean debt limit bill, but emboldened House Republicans insist that would never pass their chamber.
Complicating it all: Republican leaders won’t yet describe precisely what they want in exchange for their votes to raise the nation’s borrowing ceiling. Schumer, in response, has taken up the chant “show us your plan” for more than two months and counting.
Enter that group of moderate Democrats, who have privately met with GOP centrists since February, in defiance of their leadership. Their talks remain in the early stages, and two lawmakers familiar with the discussions said they have not honed specific details yet.
One centrist Democrat, who along with others addressed the talks on condition of anonymity, observed that “you’ve got party leaders in both houses that don’t want us to talk to one another.”

They’re not listening to those nudges to stop talking: “None of us work for the White House. We work for our constituents. And they should start talking and negotiating,” said Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), who co-leads the centrist Blue Dog Coalition.
Centrist Republicans involved in the discussions call them a recognition of what Biden and most Hill Democrats have denied — McCarthy’s GOP simply won’t accept a clean debt hike. And as two months have passed since McCarthy’s last sitdown with Biden, moderate Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said he’s one of those working within the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus because “we’ve got to have a plan B.”
With debt limit talks stuck in a mud puddle, House Republicans have seemingly abandoned plans to introduce a budget this spring, which could springboard the talks. That’s because GOP leaders are struggling to coalesce around a viable blueprint thanks to their members’ ever-expanding wish list and the realization that, for some hardline conservatives, there may be no level of austerity that would cut deep enough.
McCarthy and his team still want to draft their own package of deficit-reducing proposals, which his advisers say would mix ideas such as social program cuts with policies to increase U.S. energy production or tighten border security. Even so, the House GOP may not be able to unify behind such a plan.
“They don’t have a working majority,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said.
Those dynamics have convinced Schumer and Biden administration officials that they’re winning the public messaging battle over the debt ceiling. And so they’re increasingly content to hold the line on their demand for a clean increase to the borrowing limit.
The White House has jumped at opportunities to hammer Republicans over their proposed spending cuts, terming one set of demands from the House Freedom Caucus a “five-alarm fire.”
While most lawmakers expect the standoff will drag into the summer, Biden allies have circulated recent remarks from centrist members like Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) expressing concern over the prospect of a debt ceiling crisis — hopeful that more Republicans are deciding it’s not worth the fight.
“There’s starting to be more appreciation that the full faith and credit of the United States is not a source of leverage,” a White House official said.
But Senate Republicans across the Capitol aren’t fleeing McCarthy’s foxhole yet. The most active deal-cutting senators are either sitting out or in the dark.
“The only hints of an idea I hear is an effort among [House] Republicans to come up with something they can vote for and send it over here,” said Romney. “I don’t know of any bipartisan [effort] here. Not with me.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) also said she’d heard nothing of the Problem Solvers’ work.
“I don’t think you can expect a lot of movement on an issue like that until you start getting a little bit closer,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said, adding that Democrats “want to run out the clock” but the strategy might not work: “I don’t think that they have that option.”
The Biden administration insists it won’t shift course. In a sign of the White House’s growing confidence, aides quickly brushed off McCarthy’s demand for a second meeting, arguing that there’s little point in the two men sitting down until Republicans decide among themselves what they want.
While Biden has not completely ruled out talking with McCarthy before Republicans publish their own budget, there’s little desire among aides to do anything that might help the speaker unite his fractious conference.
“How does he win here?” one economic adviser to the White House said of McCarthy. “They don’t really have a strategic plan.”
The White House has yet to weigh in formally on the ongoing centrist discussions about a backup approach. But there’s little doubt that it’s at odds with Biden’s preferred strategy. If anything, one adviser suggested, the likelihood that the moderates’ effort implodes or fails to win over either party’s leadership may only end up illustrating how far apart the two sides are.
Back in the Capitol, several Democrats said it’s worthwhile to discuss alternatives and broadly urged Biden to restart talks with the GOP.
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), another member of the Problem Solvers, said it’s on both Biden and McCarthy to come up with a plan. ”Otherwise, it’s going to be a disaster. It already is, right?”
Jennifer Scholtes and Caitlin Emma contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 3, 2023
Secret Pence ruling breaks new ground for vice presidency

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The vice president’s role as Senate president has become almost entirely ceremonial, with the occasional exception of casting tie-breaking votes and — every four years — presiding over the count of electoral votes after a presidential election. Vice presidents have long suggested they should enjoy the legal protections afforded to Congress, but Boasberg’s ruling is the first time a court has extended so-called speech-or-debate immunity to the vice presidency.
Experts say the ruling — which remains under seal but was described to POLITICO by a person familiar with its contours — is an important foray into thorny, unresolved questions about vice presidential power.
“Any such movement is significant, as it sets a precedent that potentially can expand at a later time, in a different circumstance,” said Mark Rozell, a George Mason University political scientist who specializes in executive power. “The vice president is now acknowledged to possess a form of privilege by virtue of his or her legislative role, something that a president cannot claim.”
The ruling is the latest example of how Trump’s multi-year stress test on the norms and mechanics of the federal government has forced courts to answer long-dormant questions about the separation of powers.
The immunity question arose from special counsel Jack Smith’s bid to force Pence to testify before a Washington D.C. grand jury investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Trump opposed the subpoena on executive-privilege grounds, a position Boasberg rejected.
Pence did not join Trump’s fight but mounted his own, claiming that his role presiding over Congress on Jan. 6 should afford him speech-or-debate immunity.
Boasberg, the chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, agreed with Pence, at least to a limited extent: Pence must testify, he ruled, but the speech-or-debate immunity may allow him to avoid answering questions about his legislative role on Jan. 6.
Pence praised the ruling on Wednesday, even as he is considering whether to appeal it for not going far enough.

”For the first time ever, a federal court has recognized that these protections extend to a vice president,” Pence told supporters in Iowa, acknowledging the sealed ruling but saying he was “limited” in how much he could say about it. “I am pleased that the judge recognized the Constitution’s speech and debate protection applies to my work as vice president.”
The drafters of the Constitution included the speech-or-debate clause to guard against executive-branch efforts to coerce lawmakers with the threat of investigation or compelled testimony. But until this week, a court had never decided whether vice presidents — who are not members of the Senate but are officers like the parliamentarian — are covered by the protection.
The Supreme Court has said that immunity under the speech-or-debate clause covers “legislative” activities, such as voting on bills and giving speeches on the floor of Congress. For decades, the courts — particularly in Washington D.C. — have interpreted the clause to cover a broad range of activities connected to those duties, including the actions of congressional aides and officers who help facilitate the work of lawmakers.
The immunity, however, does not extend to purely “political” activities. So while Boasberg’s ruling may allow Pence to avoid testifying about his presiding role on Jan. 6, he might still have to testify about conversations he had with Trump leading up to that day, and he has indicated he is willing to do so.
Before Jan. 6, Trump pressed Pence to use his perch as president of the Senate to refuse to count Joe Biden’s electoral votes, either declaring Trump the victor or sending the election back to the states — an action Pence viewed as unconstitutional and refused to abide. He later returned to the chamber to complete the count of electors, all but sealing the Biden presidency. Trump famously attacked Pence on Twitter amid the chaos at the Capitol, an escalation that Jan. 6 committee investigators cited as a dangerous turning point in the day’s violence.
Two of Pence’s top White House aides — chief of staff Marc Short and counsel Greg Jacob — testified to the grand jury in October after then-Chief District Court Judge Beryl Howell rejected Trump’s similar bid to block their testimony via executive privilege.
Although Boasberg’s precise reasoning remains a mystery because of the secrecy surrounding the grand jury proceedings, legal experts called it a precedent-setting decision that could reshape the understanding of the vice presidency.
“Without seeing the opinion, hard to say much about it beyond the fact that it is clearly in my view correct that the VP enjoys speech-or-debate clause immunity when acting in her capacity as president of the Senate,” said Josh Chafetz, a Georgetown University constitutional law professor. “It’s also the case that the courts have consistently taken far too narrow a view, in my judgment, of what activities by members are protected under the clause, so I suspect that Boasberg ruled that Pence has to testify about some stuff that I would think ought to be privileged.”
Stan Brand, who helmed the House counsel’s office for Tip O’Neill and today represents top Trump aide Dan Scavino, said applying the speech-or-debate clause to a vice president for the first time is “a victory for the independence of Congress against an overreaching DOJ.”
The Justice Department has at least three times argued that vice presidents should enjoy speech-or-debate protection for their role presiding over the Senate — including in the context of Jan. 6, 2021, when the department adopted the position to fend off a lawsuit from then-Rep. Louie Gohmert and a separate Utah-based lawsuit filed in 2021.
The precise contours of the department’s position in the secret proceedings with Boasberg were not immediately clear.
The Pence immunity decision underscores the extraordinary volume of precedent-setting rulings that are being issued in secret — the result of the typical confidentiality afforded to the grand jury process in criminal investigations. Howell, whose seven-year term as chief judge expired on March 17, issued dozens of secret rulings in Trump-related matters that may have sweeping implications for the separation of powers.
Brand noted that some of the most significant rulings that have shaped the boundaries of the presidency, vice presidency and Congress have emerged in these sorts of proceedings as a result of national crises — from Watergate to Whitewater to the Vietnam War to Abscam.
“We are in the midst of another such episode,” he said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 30, 2023