A centrist U.S. Democratic lawmaker, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, is renewing his opposition to changes in the parliamentary rules in the politically divided Senate, imperiling President Joe Biden’s ambitious legislative agenda. In the Senate, now with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, members of both parties in recent years have more frequently employed a filibuster to block key legislation they did not like. Once a filibuster has begun, it requires a 60-vote super majority to end debate and move a bill to a final vote. Some progressive Democrats want to end use of the filibuster in order to approve Biden’s legislative proposals on voting rights, infrastructure spending and more on 51-50 votes, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the deciding vote in favor of the Biden agenda.FILE – Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia and chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, speaks at a hearing in Washington, Feb, 24, 2021.But Manchin, perhaps the most conservative lawmaker in the 50-member Democratic caucus, has long defended the filibuster.  In an opinion article published in Thursday’s Washington Post, Manchin ruled out a rules change to end the filibuster or repeated use of another legislative tactic known as budget reconciliation, which was employed by Democrats to secure passage of Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief deal despite unified Republican opposition.“There is no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster,” Manchin declared. “The time has come to end these political games, and to usher a new era of bipartisanship where we find common ground on the major policy debates facing our nation.” He added, “We will not solve our nation’s problems in one Congress if we seek only partisan solutions. Instead of fixating on eliminating the filibuster or shortcutting the legislative process through budget reconciliation, it is time we do our jobs.” Earlier this week, Senate Democrats won permission from the chamber’s parliamentarian to use the reconciliation process again this year. That would enable them to avoid a Republican filibuster of Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal and pass it on a party-line vote. “I simply do not believe budget reconciliation should replace regular order in the Senate,” Manchin wrote in his opinion article. “How is that good for the future of this nation? Senate Democrats must avoid the temptation to abandon our Republican colleagues on important national issues.” “Republicans, however,” he said, “have a responsibility to stop saying no, and participate in finding real compromise with Democrats.” A few weeks ago, Manchin suggested he would be amenable to making it harder to use the filibuster, such as by renewing the tradition from years past when filibustering lawmakers were required to hold the floor during Senate debates by speaking for hours without a recess. Biden, for 36 years a senator himself before serving eight years as vice president and then winning the presidency, says he favors once again making senators actually talk through a filibuster, which is not now the case. But Manchin, with his new statement, declared his opposition to weakening the filibuster, saying, “Every time the Senate voted to weaken the filibuster in the past decade, the political dysfunction and gridlock have grown more severe.” He said, “The political games playing out in the halls of Congress only fuel the hateful rhetoric and violence we see across our country right now. The truth is, my Democratic friends do not have all the answers and my Republican friends do not, either.” While simple majorities are enough to approve legislation in the House, 60 votes are often necessary in the Senate to end debate on controversial issues and move forward to a vote. If the filibuster is eliminated to thwart opponents from blocking key legislation, a Democratic majority, as is currently the case with the Harris tie-breaking vote, could pass legislation with a simple majority. 
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Stewart Rhodes is feeling the heat.“I may go to jail soon,” the Oath Keepers founder declared at a recent Republican rally near the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas. “Not for anything I actually did, but for made-up crimes.”Rhodes’ prediction that he might land behind bars over his role in the riot Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol came after prosecutors offered fresh evidence connecting him to the bloody attack that led to five deaths, including that of a Capitol Police officer.In a March 23 filing, prosecutors revealed Rhodes had a 97-second phone call with an Oath Keeper named Kelly Meggs, nine minutes before Meggs helped lead a group of Oath Keepers in a military-style breach of the Capitol.While federal prosecutors did not disclose whether they knew the content of the call, they presented it as part of “substantial evidence” of a conspiracy by the Oath Keepers to overturn the results of the November 2020 presidential election.Federal chargesIn the three months since nearly 800 supporters of former President Donald Trump overran the Capitol, federal prosecutors have charged about half of the rioters in connection with the attack.Among them are 12 members of the Oath Keepers, one of the largest anti-government militia groups in the United States. The eight men and four women are being prosecuted together on charges that they plotted to use force to obstruct the congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.Meggs, the group’s Florida leader, is accused of coordinating the attack with members of the Proud Boys and the Three Percenters, and then leading a “stack” of more than a dozen people in paramilitary gear into the Capitol.Graydon Young, another Florida Oath Keeper, allegedly arranged for weapons and combat training for himself and others. A third key player, Ohio-based militia leader Jessica Watkins, allegedly recruited members for the operation, telling one, “I need you fighting-fit by inauguration.”‘Person One’In recent weeks, the case has taken on added significance as prosecutors have focused on identifying and charging the Capitol attack plotters and key participants from extremist groups. Yet conspicuously missing from the case is Rhodes, who has led the group since founding it in 2009.A former Army paratrooper and Yale Law School graduate, Rhodes first showed up as “Person One” in court documents in late January when the first three of the 12 Oath Keepers were indicted on conspiracy charges, and prosecutors cited a Jan. 4 call to arms issued by Rhodes on the group’s website.As investigators have continued to examine Rhodes’ role in the Capitol siege, they have made public a steady stream of previously unknown communications between the Oath Keepers leader and his subordinates. That prosecutors have not added Rhodes to conspiracy charges could mean they have determined they don’t yet have enough evidence to convict him, said Aitan Goelman, a former federal prosecutor who is now a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder law firm.“They can show that he was in the mix, that he was communicating with the people who stormed the Capitol, that he was there. (But) so far, they haven’t provided any evidence that Rhodes was part of a conspiracy, which is an agreement to storm the Capitol,” Goelman said. “Maybe they have that. Maybe that’s forthcoming. But they haven’t revealed it yet.”Jimmy Gurulé, another former federal prosecutor who is now a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said prosecutors appear to be methodically building a case against Rhodes.“They are gathering evidence piece by piece through cellphone communications, viewing probably thousands and thousands of hours of videotape, and piecing together a conspiracy case that I think eventually will include Stewart Rhodes,” he said.To charge Rhodes with conspiracy, prosecutors need evidence that he agreed with his subordinates to carry out the assault on the Capitol, Gurulé said.“Rhodes doesn’t have to be in the Capitol building participating in the siege of the Capitol building. All he has to do is agree,” he said.Rhodes has denied any wrongdoing. He did not respond to multiple email and text messages from VOA seeking comment.A Justice Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.Secret communicationsUntil recently, little was known about Rhodes’ activities on Jan. 6. But in recent court filings on the 12 indicted Oath Keepers, prosecutors have disclosed extensive communications that put him at the center of the operation.In early March, prosecutors revealed the existence of a chat group on the encrypted messaging app Signal that they said Rhodes and his followers used to conduct surreptitious communications before, during and after the Capitol breach.In an undated message in a chat group called “DC OP: Jan 6 21,” Rhodes advised the group what to bring to Washington on Jan. 6: flashlights, hard gloves and helmets; and what to avoid: guns. He promised that “we will have several well-equipped (Quick Reaction Forces) outside D.C. And there are many, many others, from other groups, who will be watching and waiting on the outside in case of worst-case scenarios,” he wrote.The first group of rioters breached the Capitol shortly after 2 p.m. While Rhodes remained outside as the attack was unfolding, he was far from a passive spectator, according to prosecutors.At 2:14 p.m., a person in charge of the group’s operations wrote on Signal that “the(y) have taken ground at the capital [sic]. We need to regroup any members who are not on mission.”Rhodes allegedly reposted the message with the instruction: “Come to South Side of Capitol on steps.”Rhodes then posted a photo showing the southeast side of the building. Less than half an hour later, he posted another photo of the southeast side of the building with the caption, “South side of US Capitol. Patriots pounding on doors(.)”It was around this time that members of the stack, led by Meggs, forced their way into the Capitol complex through the east side of the building, according to court documents.Gurulé said the Signal post is “very incriminating.”“It shows not only his knowledge of the events taking place in real time at the Capitol on January 6, but that he’s directing his followers with respect to their activities at the Capitol building,” Gurulé said.Last week, prosecutors added two previously charged members of the Oath Keepers to the conspiracy case.In the March 31 superseding indictment, prosecutors disclosed that Rhodes exchanged at least 10 phone calls with three members of the Oath Keepers on Jan. 6, including Meggs, and another person that Rhodes put in charge of the Capitol operations.Rhodes continued to communicate with his followers well after the breach, according to court documents. At 5:50 p.m. he went on Signal.“Leaders, check to be sure you have all your team members. If anyone is missing, post here.”Nearly two hours later, he penned a long message.“Patriots entering their own Capitol to send a message to the traitors is NOTHING compared to what’s coming if Trump doesn’t take decisive action right now,” Rhodes wrote.DenialAt the Texas rally last month, Rhodes called the charges against the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys a “persecution campaign” and denied that they engaged in an insurrection. They were there to provide security to Trump supporters, he said.“If we actually intended to take over the Capitol, we’d have taken it. We’d have brought guns,” he said.That’s not a persuasive argument, Goelman said.“There are a lot of reasons that you can think of that even if the Oath Keepers did have a plan to storm the Capitol and to disrupt the counting of the delegates, that they wouldn’t have come armed, because that would have potentially precipitated their arrest before they even got to the Capitol,” Goelman said.The 12 Oath Keepers face five criminal counts, from conspiracy to obstruction of an official proceeding. Gurulé noted that the obstruction count carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years, a lengthy enough term that could induce some “flipping” on Rhodes and cooperate with the government.While none of the indicted Oath Keepers is known to be talking to prosecutors, “if one of them breaks ranks and agrees to cooperate and testify, then it could very well open the floodgates, and other members of the Oath Keepers could agree to do the same,” he said.
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Vote-counting is set to begin Thursday or Friday on the question of whether Amazon.com warehouse workers at a facility in the southern U.S. state of Alabama would join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU).The RWDSU said Wednesday the U.S. National Labor Relations Board had received more than 3,200 votes in the election that was open to 5,800 workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama.If the measure is approved, the warehouse would be the first Amazon facility to unionize in the United States.Those pushing for unionization say they want improved working conditions, more break time, opportunities for advancement and better pay.Amazon says opening the facility in Bessemer brought thousands of jobs to the area with starting salaries more than twice the minimum wage in Alabama along with health care and retirement benefits.This is not the first push for collective bargaining at Amazon. In 2014, machinists at a warehouse in Delaware voted more than 3-to-1 against unionization.
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Improved performance by Iraqi military forces is allowing the United States and Iraq to look ahead to the day when U.S. forces will no longer be needed to help Baghdad stave off the threat from the Islamic State terror group and its remnants.In a communique issued Wednesday following virtual talks between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, the two countries agreed to embark on technical talks aimed at establishing a timeline for U.S. combat troops to leave.“The mission of U.S. and Coalition forces has now transitioned to one focused on training and advisory tasks, thereby allowing for the redeployment of any remaining combat forces from Iraq,” the communique stated, pointing to the “increasing capacity” of the Iraqi security forces.In a tweet late Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi described the talks with Washington as a “gateway to restore the normal situation in Iraq” and said the Iraqi people deserve to live without fear of conflict.نتائج الجولة الثالثة من الحوار الإستراتيجي بوابة لاستعادة الوضع الطبيعي في العراق، وبما يستحق العراق، وهو إنجاز جدير أن نهنىء به شعبنا المحب للسلام.الحوار هو الطريق السليم لحل الأزمات، شعبنا يستحق أن يعيش السلم والأمن والازدهار، لا الصراعات والحروب والسلاح المنفلت والمغامرات.— Mustafa Al-Kadhimi مصطفى الكاظمي (@MAKadhimi) April 7, 2021The U.S. currently has about 2,500 troops in Iraq and just under another 1,000 troops in neighboring Syria. They have been tasked with supporting Iraqi forces and the coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to keep pressure on Islamic State, as it has sought to resurrect its fortunes just over two years after the last remnant of its self-declared caliphate fell to U.S.-backed forces in Syria.U.S. forces also conduct aerial surveillance missions and airstrikes in support of the Iraqi forces and the SDF, though Iraq’s military has carried out a growing number of airstrikes itself in recent months.U.S. officials, speaking after the virtual talks, emphasized that for now, Islamic State, also known as IS, ISIS or by its Arabic acronym, Daesh, remains a threat and that there is no plan to begin pulling U.S. troops from Iraq in the near term.”We’ve all been working towards the eventual redeployment when we both agree, and the Iraqis believe that there’s a need for that mission to end, and there’s no need for American support on the ground,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters during a briefing Wednesday.“We didn’t go in there with the idea of being a permanent presence,” he said. “The idea was to defeat ISIS. And that’s still the goal.”U.S. officials, of late, have described the threat from IS as “diminished,” and intelligence estimates indicate the terror group’s ranks have thinned to perhaps as few as 8,000 fighters across Iraq and Syria, a fraction of the 34,000 to 100,000 fighters who roamed the region during the caliphate’s brief heyday.U.S. military officials have also been quick to praise Iraqi forces, especially the elite Counterterrorism Service (CTS), for eroding the terror organization’s capabilities.In the first three months of 2021, Iraq’s CTS carried out more than 100 operations against IS, killing 34 fighters and arresting another 99.Iraqi forces, and the Iraqi air force, were also credited with playing a major role in a massive air campaign last month that destroyed 120 hideouts being used by IS in Iraq’s Makhmour Mountains.Massive air operation in support of #Iraq|i offensive vs #ISIS in the Makhmour Mountains312 airstrikes by coalition & Iraqi military to help destroy 120 hideouts & 27 ISIS fighters, per @OIRSpox & @IraqiSpoxMODhttps://t.co/S3JQH7qvjp— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) March 24, 2021“They are a much better force now than they were before,” the Pentagon’s Kirby said, assessing the progress Iraq’s military has made since U.S. and coalition forces were first sent to Iraq to push back IS.“They have improved their capability and responded to the training and the assistance that they’ve been getting,” he added.Despite that improvement, U.S. and coalition officials have been quick to argue that it would be dangerous to ease up on IS cells and remnants.”The threat remains,” foreign ministers with the Global Coalition to Defeat IS said in a statement following a virtual meeting last week.Defeat IS Coalition Worries About Resurgence  Ministers, who met virtually Tuesday, ‘took note’ of increased Islamic State activity across Iraq and Syria Of particular concern has been the group’s ability to hide and gain strength in areas where Iraqi, SDF, and U.S. and coalition forces are unable to operate, including parts of Syria nominally under the control of the Syrian government or its Russian and Iranian allies.There are also concerns that IS operatives, working with criminal networks, are still finding ways to flow to areas with the least security and counterterror pressure, often exploiting the porous border between Iraq and Syria to move people, cash and weapons.Islamic State Exploiting Security Gaps to Step Up Violence, US Partners WarnIS operatives appear to be to shaping environment in Syria, Iraq to terror group’s advantage Nike Ching contributed to this report.
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Republican Mitch McConnell, the U.S. Senate minority leader, has taken a novel stance on freedom of expression, saying major corporations should continue writing hefty checks for political campaigns but at the same time keep quiet on controversial issues of the day.   McConnell, a longtime lawmaker from the mid-South state of Kentucky, assailed Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines in recent days after they came out against a new law in the Southern state of Georgia that tightens voting restrictions. Democratic critics say the law will make it more difficult for Black voters to cast ballots in future elections.  But McConnell’s stance could reverberate far beyond Georgia’s borders. Prominent national and regional companies, already significant funders of U.S. political campaigns, are trying to figure out their role in the public debate as Republican state lawmakers throughout the country look to change election laws they believe led to former President Donald Trump’s loss in the November election to Democrat Joe Biden, now the country’s 46th president. Any response by business leaders could prove perilous for their financial interests, with some customers threatening to stop buying their products if they don’t take a stand and others threatening boycotts if they do.  The soft drink maker Coca-Cola and Delta, a major airline, are both headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia’s biggest city, while Major League Baseball pulled its annual All-Star Game from the city in protest of the new voting law.McConnell has long championed expansive rights for corporations to make whatever donations they want to political campaigns, defending the largess as a form of free speech protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. But when the companies castigated the voting law, McConnell rebuked them, accusing them of “bullying” politicians.  “My warning, if you will, to corporate America is to stay out of politics,” McConnell said Tuesday. He also stressed that he was “not talking about political contributions,” which corporations make to both Republicans and Democrats.Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell turns to an aide as the Senate Rules Committee holds a hearing on the For the People Act, which would expand access to voting and other voting reforms, at the Capitol in Washington, March 24, 2021. “It’s not what you’re designed for,” McConnell told business leaders, referring to complaints about the Georgia law. “And don’t be intimidated by the left into taking up causes that put you right in the middle of America’s greatest political debates.” “Most of them contribute to both sides,” McConnell said of corporations. “They have political action committees. That’s fine. It’s legal. It’s appropriate. I support that. I’m talking about taking a position on a highly incendiary issue like (Georgia’s) and punishing a community or state because you don’t like a particular law they passed. I just think it’s stupid.” Meanwhile, some Democrats applauded corporate complaints about the Georgia law, with Biden saying he thought baseball’s decision to move the All-Star Game out of the state was appropriate.  “I think today’s professional athletes are acting incredibly responsibly,” Biden said in an interview with sports channel ESPN. “I would strongly support them doing that. People look to them. They’re leaders.” Chief executives from more than 100 prominent companies recently issued a public statement strongly opposing any legislative measures designed to deny eligible voters the right to cast a ballot. The companies — part of a coalition called Civic Alliance, said, “We believe every American should have a voice in our democracy and that voting should be safe and accessible to all voters.” In a statement, McConnell said, “From election law to environmentalism to radical social agendas to the Second Amendment (protecting gun ownership), parts of the private sector keep dabbling in behaving like a woke parallel government. Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order.” On Wednesday, McConnell retreated somewhat from his complaint about corporate opposition to the Georgia law.  “I didn’t say that very artfully yesterday,” McConnell said. “They certainly are entitled to be in politics. … My complaint about the CEOs is they ought to read the damn bill,” referring to the Georgia law. When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that companies could finance election spending, McConnell applauded the decision, saying, “For too long, some in this country have been deprived of full participation in the political process.” He said the ruling was “an important step” in “restoring the First Amendment rights of these groups.” Republican lawmakers in at least 40 states are considering laws that opposition Democrats say will make it more difficult for people of color to vote. Black voters especially helped Biden defeat Trump. American Airlines is criticizing a proposal in the southwestern state of Texas that would prohibit extended voting hours and ban drive-through voting. Republican state legislators are arguing that by limiting early voting and absentee balloting and requiring more secure identification to vote, election fraud will be curbed, although there were only minor irregularities reported in the 2020 voting. The Republican state lawmakers have taken their cue from Trump, who continues to falsely state he was cheated out of reelection despite lack of evidence for his claims and even though judges across the country dismissed his legal challenges to the election outcome.  
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NATO is marking the 72nd anniversary of its founding this week. Henry Ridgwell reports the military alliance faces new challenges – and enduring threats.Producer: Henry Hernandez
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