President Biden said Wednesday he «stands by» his commitment to American workers in opposing a planned acquisition of Pittsburgh-based U.S. steel by a Japanese company, a stance Mr. Biden reiterated in a press conference with Japan's prime minister.

Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain thinks his former boss, President Biden, spends too much time talking about bridges and not enough on the cost of living.

Finland and Sweden have reportedly added a big arms stockpile to NATO Read Full Article at RT.com

Moscow says it has conducted high-precision strikes on an ammunition depot and foreign mercenary base in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region Read Full Article at RT.com

The new initiative will allow the bloc to support Kiev in a “more coordinated manner,” Radoslaw Sikorski said Read Full Article at RT.com

Denis Kapustin leads an anti-Kremlin volunteer militia which is responsible for multiple attacks on Russian villages Read Full Article at RT.com

London has no national plan for defense despite renewed threats of armed conflict, the outlet said Read Full Article at RT.com

Trump shared links to posts attacking Judge Juan Merchan's daughter days after expanded gag order

The President also reached out to chef José Andrés «to convey my deepest condolences for the deaths»

How Trump’s petty vindictiveness makes the media worse

Former president says special counsel should be «sanctioned or censured» for pushing back on Trump-appointed judge

Living in this bizarre reality augments the dissonance at work in HBO's limited series starring Kate Winslet

Abbreviated Pundit Roundup is a long-running series published every morning that collects essential political discussion and analysis around the internet. We begin today with Rex Huppke of USA Today asserting that the shoe salesman cares about nothing and no one but himself. Let’s be clear about several things. Trump doesn’t care about the U.S.-Mexico border or immigrants in general. He doesn’t care about [murder victim Ruby] Garcia or her family in Michigan. And he definitely doesn’t care about you. (Yes, even you, MAGA fans. You're his marks, not his friends.) Donald Trump cares about Donald Trump, and that is all. If claiming he had spoken with a grieving family helps Trump spook voters into thinking he alone can protect them from an imagined wave of criminal immigrants, then that’s good for Trump, and quite literally nothing else matters. [...] I didn’t hear Trump, between his xenophobic rants, saying he would address the ease with which violent men can obtain firearms. I didn’t hear him mention how, according to the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety, an average of 70 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner each month. Trump was silent on the fact that, according to the Emory University School of Medicine, 5.3 million women are victims of intimate-partner violence each year. He didn’t mention those things because he doesn’t care about them, and he doesn’t care about them because those issues don’t help him.

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The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team. Subscribe to The Downballot, our weekly podcast x Embedded Content Leading Off ● NV-Sen: Republican Jeff Gunter, who served as Donald Trump's ambassador to Iceland, announced Tuesday evening that he was launching a $3.3 million advertising campaign in his quest to upset Army veteran Sam Brown in Nevada's June 11 GOP primary. The NRSC-backed Brown has been the frontrunner to take on Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen ever since launching his campaign last summer, but both Gunter and Democrats are hoping this new offensive will complicate Brown's path to the nomination. The GOP primary also includes Jim Marchant, an election conspiracy theorist who lost a tight 2022 general election for secretary of state, as well as 10 minor candidates.

As his legal woes have mounted, Donald Trump has taken to casting himself on the campaign trail as a victim of discrimination at the hands of “racist” Black prosecutors engaged in “massive election interference.” Trump has called New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg “a degenerate psychopath.” And he used the word “peekaboo,” which rhymes with a racial slur, in derogatory comments about New York Attorney General Letitia James, who won a $464 million judgment against Trump in a business fraud lawsuit. Trump is playing the victim card before his devout followers by claiming he’s facing anti-white discrimination. And the courts have let Trump get away with abuses that would have landed any other defendant, Black or white, in deep trouble for contempt. And yet, Trump and his allies keep seeking new and increasingly egregious ways to push the racist envelope. RELATED STORY: Most voters don't know the stakes of the election. That will change

As recently as two weeks ago, Donald Trump told the conservative radio show “Sid & Friends in the Morning« that he was warming up to the idea of backing a national abortion ban. “The number of weeks, now, people are agreeing on 15, and I’m thinking in terms of that,» he said on March 19, adding that he would announce the particulars of a national ban «at the appropriate time.» But apparently now isn't the appropriate time, despite two bombshell rulings by the Florida Supreme Court effectively allowing a six-week statewide ban to take effect while giving Floridians the chance to vote on an abortion rights ballot measure in November.  As soon as the whipsaw rulings came down Monday, President Joe Biden's campaign pounced, launching a new ad campaign hitting Trump for ending Roe v. Wade, holding a press call, and releasing a strategy memo to reporters on Biden's «opening in Florida.» Trump took the opposite path, one that doesn't come naturally:  He clammed up. On Tuesday, the ever-loquacious candidate, who routinely brags about terminating Roe, said only that he would release a «statement» on Florida's six-week ban next week. Amid the Republican primary race last fall, Trump called Florida’s six-week ban, signed by his rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a «terrible mistake.» Meanwhile, Trump's campaign sought to paint the November ballot measure as being perfectly in line with their candidate’s belief that states should own the issue. “President Trump supports preserving life but has also made clear that he supports states’ rights because he supports the voters’ right to make decisions for themselves,” Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, told Politico.  That message is pretty muddled, given that Trump is promising a big announcement on a national abortion ban—an idea he has reportedly been chewing over for the past several months.  But Democrats aren't just pressing the matter at the top of the ticket.

South Korea's president met the leader of thousands of striking junior doctors on Thursday and promised to respect their position during future talks over the government's contentious push to sharply increase medical school admissions.

Myanmar's main pro-democracy resistance group said Thursday its armed wing launched drone attacks on the airport and a military headquarters in the capital, Naypyitaw, but the country's ruling military said it destroyed the drones as they attacked.

More than 600 British jurists, including three retired judges from the U.K. Supreme Court, are calling on the government to suspend arms sales to Israel, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after the deaths of three U.K. aid workers in an Israeli strike.

A new diplomatic crisis between Poland and Israel has erupted following the death of a Polish aid worker in Gaza, with the Polish president on Thursday denouncing a comment by the Israeli ambassador as «outrageous» and the Foreign Ministry in Warsaw saying it was summoning him for a meeting.

Lebanon's billionaire caretaker prime minister has denied allegations of money laundering after a complaint was filed in France by two anti-corruption groups this week.

Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, facing a tough reelection against Republican and former hedge fund manager David McCormick, is signaling to voters that he's on their side in the fight against inflation. Casey's first ad of the cycle centers on «greedlfation,» the concept that the rise in prices squeezing consumers is mainly driven by corporate greed for excessive profits. «I’m taking on big corporations because I’ve had enough of their price gouging. I call it greedflation, and I’m fighting back,» Casey wrote Thursday in a tweet featuring the ad. x x YouTube Video «My plan gives the Federal Trade Commission the power to punish corporate price-gouging. And let’s roll back their huge corporate tax breaks, putting money in your pocket instead,» Casey explains after the spot ticks through a list of reasons the price of common goods have spiraled. Recent Navigator Research polling found that 85% of voters believe corporate greed has contributed to inflation, with 59% calling it a «major» cause factor. Democrats seem keen to make it a part of the 2024 pitch.  President Joe Biden even gave Casey's initiative a shout out during his recent State of the Union address. “Pass Bobby Casey’s bill and stop this,” he said. “I really mean it.” RELATED:  New poll shows it's the greedflation, stupid Campaign Action

If Donald Trump knows how to do anything, it’s destroy a business. And while the Republican National Committee might not be a “business” in the conventional sense, Trump and his family are doing their level best to bring their special magic to the operation. Yup, they’re gonna burn the whole place down. On Tuesday night, The Washington Post broke the news that prospective new RNC hires were being given a new loyalty test. In recent days, Trump advisers have quizzed multiple employees who had worked in key 2024 states—and who are reapplying for jobs—about their views on the last presidential election, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private interviews and discussions. The interviews have been conducted mostly virtually, as the applicants are based in key swing states. “Was the 2020 election stolen?” one prospective employee recalled being asked in a room with two top Trump advisers. The 2020 election was not stolen, of course. This lie was propagated by Donald Trump, a collection of now-indicted lawyers, aides, and hangers-on, as well as dozens of Republican members of Congress to delegitimize or even invalidate the election’s results. Through investigations and numerous court filings, we now know who constructed the lies, who spread them, what they were meant to achieve, and how the key players knew there was no damn evidence for any of it. So prospective RNC hires were given this litmus test, according to the Post. It suggests that if the hires won’t parrot pro-sedition propaganda on Dear Leader's behalf, there's no room for them in Republicanism. And despite a bit of generic bluster from an RNC spokesperson, nobody's much denying that.

For the most part, political fundraising pitches skew alarmist, bordering on histrionic. That's true of both major U.S. parties, of course. But only one of those parties is currently led by a black hole of iniquity who, when it comes to donor cash, is like a little kid who licks every kolache in the kitchen so no one else can have any. Coincidentally, that’s the same party whose policies are so deeply unpopular they have to frighten people with imaginary crises and, when that fails, outright attempt to steal elections. So what’s their latest tack? Ah, yes. Acknowledging that you don’t want to come to their kegger because they’re super unpopular now—but could you find it in your heart to show up anyway? And, oh, please bring 16 bottles of margarita mix. The Kirkland stuff should be fine.