WASHINGTON (AP) — Stinging from the disappointment of Bernie Sanders’ loss in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, supporters pumped millions into the powerful advocacy group Our Revolution to keep the progressive fight alive and prepare for another swing at the White House.

But after another defeat in 2020, the 79-year-old Vermont senator is unlikely to run for president a third time. And the organization centered on his fiery brand of politics is undergoing a rebranding.

Rather than insisting on “Medicare for All” — Sanders’ trademark universal, government-funded health care plan — or the climate-change-fighting Green New Deal, Our Revolution is focusing on the more modest alternatives endorsed by President Joe Biden. Those include expanding eligibility for the existing Medicare program and curtailing federal subsidies for fossil fuel companies.

The shift reflects a progressive movement that is at a crossroads. Biden won the Democratic nomination last year by offering more centrist alternatives to much of Sanders’ agenda. Since then, progressive candidates have faced a series of electoral disappointments and are contending with anxiety from moderate Democrats worried that the party’s leftward shift could cost them control of Congress during next year’s midterm elections.

HUNT VALLEY, Md. (SBG) — The Arizona Senate liaison for the GOP-led audit into Maricopa County's 2020 presidential election results says he's resigning after getting banned from the audit building last week.

The state Senate audit has so far shown no evidence of widespread voter fraud, an unsubstantiated claim made by former President Donald Trump. Trump's statement earlier this year on Arizona's audit was criticized on Twitter by Republican Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer as "unhinged."

Ken Bennett, Arizona’s former secretary of state, said during an interview with conservative radio host James Harris that getting banned from the building makes him the "liaison in name only." He said in interviews earlier this week that he doesn't want to sign off on the audit's final product without being present throughout the process.

I’ve always tried to act as a man of integrity and honesty and I’m sure I don’t accomplish that all the time, but I cannot put a rubber stamp on a product I am being locked out of its development," Bennett told Harris on Wednesday. "I’m going to step down today.

Earlier this month, former President Donald Trump scrawled a celebratory note on a polling memo that appeared to point to a big win for a new ally.

“David – Good! I’m all in,” Trump wrote across the top of the document to David McIntosh, the influential head of the anti-tax Club for Growth. The memo summarized a May survey showing Texas Republican Susan Wright, who Trump had endorsed at McIntosh’s recommendation during a meeting at his Mar-a-Lago resort, with a big 17-point lead over her Republican opponent in a House special election.

Now, Trump and his advisers are trying to figure out what Wright’s defeat means for them — and how to contain any damage. Her loss Tuesday night sent shockwaves through the former president’s inner circle. Many privately concede the pressure is on them to win another special election next week in Ohio, where a Trump-backed candidate is locked in a close primary.

Advisers worry that a second embarrassing loss would raise questions about the power of Trump’s endorsement — his most prized political commodity, which candidates from Ohio to Wyoming are scrambling to earn before next year’s midterms. More broadly, losses could undermine his standing in the Republican Party, where his popularity and influence has protected Trump’s relevance even as a former president barred from his social media megaphones.

Some in the former president’s orbit worry that he’s been too prolific in endorsing candidates running in contested primaries, potentially diminishing their overall power. Trump — who as president frequently bragged about his near-perfect record in endorsing in Republican primaries — rarely endorsed during 2020 nomination contests, and he occasionally got burned when he did, lashing out at those who urged him to back a losing candidate in a North Carolina primary. This time, Trump is getting involved early in an array of primaries, including those for Alabama and North Carolina Senate.

This Friday evening, the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, held a meeting with representatives of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the largest left-leaning political organization in the United States.

In this sense, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela strengthens ties of cooperation, brotherhood and solidarity with activists and the people of the United States who fight for democracy and values such as peace and sovereignty of the peoples of the world, to strengthen the fight against the blockade and the coercive and unilateral measures imposed by the government of the United States.

Participating in this meeting were the chairperson of the National Political Committee of the DSA, members of the International Committee, and members of the organization's Political Formation, Foreign Policy and Bilateral Relations sections.

The Democratic Socialists of America is a political organization of progressive and socialist activists, founded in the United States in 1982.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/President-Maduro-Meets-with-Democratic-Socialists-of-America-20210702-0022.html

The list of sports slated to be included at the 2024 Paris Olympics — which will include 50 percent female athletes, a first for the Games — has already been approved, meaning that the 2028 Los Angeles Games are the earliest that cheerleading could make its Olympic debut, according to Jeff Webb, president of the ICU, which represents national cheerleading federations in 114 countries.

“We’re hoping that [the IOC and the Olympic organizing committee] will recognize this as a new, modern sport that they’ll want to add to the Olympics,” Webb said. “It’ll be up to us to make our case that our inclusion will be good for everybody.”

Cheerleading’s inclusion in a future Olympic Games would require a majority vote of the IOC’s 102 international members, according to the Olympic Charter. Prospective events are judged for inclusion based on factors including international participation, popularity and “value added to the Olympic Movement.” Members meet annually, and they must finalize the sports slated to be included in the Games no later than three years in advance of the Games, the Charter notes.

At the Tokyo Games, five new sports made their Olympic debuts: baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding, climbing and surfing.

President Donald Trump called his acting attorney general nearly every day at the end of last year to alert him to claims of voter fraud or alleged improper vote counts in the 2020 election, according to two people familiar with the conversations.


The personal pressure campaign, which has not been previously reported, involved repeated phone calls to acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen in which Trump raised various allegations he had heard about and asked what the Justice Department was doing about the issue.

The people familiar with the conversations spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive legal and political issues that are not yet public.


Rosen told few people about the phone calls, even in his inner circle. But there are notes of some of the calls that were written by a top aide to Rosen, Richard Donoghue, who was present for some of the conversations, these people said.

Astronomers have detected light behind a black hole deep in space for the first time.

Bright flares of X-rays were spotted bursting from a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy 800m light years away, which is relatively normal.

Researchers were studying a feature known as the corona, but telescopes also picked up unexpected “luminous echoes”. These additional flashes were smaller, later and of different colours than the bright flares.

The discovery confirms Albert Einstein’s theory on general relativity. The gravitational pull from black holes essentially bends light rays around themselves, giving scientists their first glimpse of what lies behind.