Q Check Politics

Jordan is set to host its biggest royal wedding in years as the country’s young Crown Prince Hussein exchanges vows with a daughter of one of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest and most influential families. With an international VIP list that includes First Lady Jill Biden and members of other royal families, the wedding is sure to provide plenty of fodder for tabloids and gossip columns. But the ceremony will reverberate across the region in other ways as well. It is a test of for Jordan’s ruling family, deepens the ties between two key countries will give the world its first glimpse of the man tapped to one day rule this strategic desert kingdom.

Despite weeks of negotiations, the White House and House Republicans were unable to reach a comprehensive agreement to overhaul environmental regulations and streamline federal permitting as part of their budget deal. Although the measure falls short of the comprehensive overhaul that the White House has been seeking, it still is expected to speed up infrastructure projects and limit reviews that have bogged down construction. President Joe Biden has sought the changes to clear the way for clean energy initiatives to help reach his climate goals. However, the legislation has frustrated some environmentalists, especially because it advances construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would carry natural gas through Appalachia.

A failed political candidate has been indicted on federal charges including election interference in connection with a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of state and local lawmakers in Albuquerque. A grand jury indictment was unsealed Wednesday that takes aim at failed former Republican candidate Solomon Peña and two alleged accomplices. The felony charges include additional conspiracy and weapons-related counts in connection with recent shootings on the homes of four Democratic officials. The attacks came amid a surge of threats and acts of intimidation against public officials after former President Donald Trump and his allies spread false claims about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

The House has approved the debt ceiling and budget cuts package, sending it to the Senate. President Joe Biden negotiated the deal with Speaker Kevin McCarthy to avert a U.S. default crisis. They worked to assemble a coalition of centrist Democrats and Republicans to push it to approval over blowback from conservatives and some progressives. The U.S. was facing a potentially disastrous default in less than a week if Congress failed to act. Despite deep disappointment from hard-right Republicans that budget cuts don't go far enough, it was approved on a bipartisan House vote with Democrats. The Senate is expected to act quickly by the end of the week.

A Moscow court has set a new date for a hearing paving the way for another trial of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny that could keep him in prison for decades. The Moscow City Court had initially scheduled a preliminary hearing on Wednesday to discuss technical issues related to the trial of the Kremlin’s arch foe, but moved it to next Tuesday without explaining the reason. Navalny has said that the new extremism charges which he rejected as “absurd” could keep him in prison for another 30 years. The accusations against Navalny come as Russian authorities are conducting a stepped-up crackdown on dissent amid Moscow's military action in Ukraine, which Navalny has harshly criticized.

There are media reports that Justice Department prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of former President Donald Trump from after he left office in which he talks about holding onto a classified document related to a potential attack on Iran. CNN first reported that Trump suggested on the recording that he wanted to share with others information from the document but that he knew there were limitations about his ability to declassify records after he left office. The comments on the recording, made in July 2021 at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, would appear to undercut his repeated claims that he declassified the documents he took with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, after leaving office.

California lawmakers voted to advance more than a dozen fentanyl bills this past week. Those are among several hundred measures lawmakers voted on ahead of a deadline for a bill to get out of its original chamber. The majority of the fentanyl bills focused on education, prevention and treatment. Lawmakers have been divided on how to best address the crisis. Progressive Democrats want to invest in prevention and treatment, but Republicans and some moderate Democrats favor harsher prison sentences for dealers. Other bills that passed this week include one that would require school districts to tell students they are required to be vaccinated against human papillomavirus, or HPV.

Ron DeSantis has made a four-stop blitz through Iowa during his first full day of presidential campaigning. He's aiming for a personal connection with voters even as he intensifies his criticism of former President Donald Trump. The Florida governor’s first appearance was the floor of Port Neal Welding in Salix, a rural town near Sioux City. DeSantis made subsequent Wednesday events in Council Bluffs, Pella and Cedar Rapids. He's packing in early stops in the state where caucuses kick off the Republican presidential primary voting. From there, he will head later in the week to New Hampshire and then South Carolina.

Former Vice President Mike Pence will officially launch his long-expected campaign for the Republican nomination for president in Iowa next week. That adds another candidate to the growing GOP field and puts Pence in direct competition with his former boss, Donald Trump. Pence will hold a kickoff event in Des Moines on June 7, the date of his 64th birthday, according to two people familiar with his plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to share details ahead of the official announcement. Pence’s team hopes his message will resonate with the evangelical Christian voters who make up a substantial portion of Iowa’s Republican electorate.

A spokesman for Sudan's military says it has suspended its participation in talks with a paramilitary force it has been battling for weeks. The official said Wednesday that the move is a protest against the Rapid Support Forces’ “repeated violations” of the humanitarian cease-fire, including the continued occupation of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure in the capital, Khartoum. The development is a blow to the United States and Saudi Arabia, who have for weeks been mediating the conflict between the African nation's warring sides. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia or the U.S. Sudan descended into chaos after fighting erupted in mid-April between the military and the RSF.

By all appearances, Oregon’s 2023 legislative session has crashed on the rocks amid a GOP boycott over an abortion/gender affirming bill. The governor says talks to end the walkout have failed. A ballot measure approved by Oregon voters was supposed to disqualify state lawmakers who carry out extensive walkouts from being reelected for the following term. But Senate Republicans who have been on a walkout that began on May 3 are raising questions about the measure's vague wording. The walkout has prevented Senate votes on Democratic priorities, including bills that would protect abortion rights and gender-affirming care, and another measure on guns.

Republicans in Louisiana have rejected a resolution that sought to request K-12 schools and institutions of higher education submit a report of all programs and activities related to critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion. The resolution was one of over 30 proposed legislative measures this year, introduced by GOP lawmakers in at least a dozen states, that opponents say would target DEI efforts in education. The resolution came before the House Committee of Education for consideration Wednesday before the committee voted to kill the resolution on a 6-5 vote. Two Republican lawmakers joined Democrats to defer the measure.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has named John Scott to temporarily serve as the state’s attorney general. The appointment Wednesday comes after the GOP-controlled Texas House of Representatives voted to impeach Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton over allegations of misconduct and crimes. Scott, an attorney, has previously worked in the attorney general’s office and recently served as Texas Secretary of State. Paxton weathered years of scandal and maintained his party’s support to win three statewide attorney general’s races until the House vote Saturday abruptly swept him from power. The Senate has set the trial to begin no later than Aug. 28.

Utah Republican Chris Stewart is resigning from his seat in the narrowly divided U.S. House of Representatives. He said in a statement on Wednesday that he had decided to retire due to his wife's health. His resignation gives Utah Gov. Spencer Cox seven days to schedule a special election to fill his vacancy under state law. Though Stewart’s departure means one less Republican in Congress, it is not expected to affect House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ability to steer a tight Republican majority. The district is reliably Republican and Stewart defeated a Democratic challenger by more than 30 percentage points in 2022.

A former Connecticut state representative has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for stealing more than $1.2 million from the city of West Haven, most of it federal-related coronavirus aid. Michael DiMassa used a chunk of the money to fuel his gambling addiction. He apologized Wednesday in federal court in Hartford for conspiring with others to bill the city for services never rendered. The West Haven Democrat also must repay the city nearly $866,000. Three co-defendants including DiMassa's wife also got prison time earlier. While DiMassa could have gotten more than four years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, the judge gave him credit for fully accepting responsibility and testifying at a co-defendant's trial.

Thirteen coal companies owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice are being sued over unpaid penalties for previous federal mining law violations. The U.S. Justice Department filed the lawsuit Tuesday. It says that over the past five years, the companies were cited for more than 130 violations and issued more than 50 cessation orders. It says the total amount owed by the defendants is about $7.6 million. The lawsuit does not name Justice as a defendant but lists his son, Jay Justice. The governor has tried to distance himself from his businesses, saying they are now run by his two children.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott appoints John Scott as interim attorney general after Ken Paxton’s impeachment, suspension.

San Francisco's polarizing former top prosecutor has announced he will not run for his old job in 2024. Chesa Boudin said Wednesday he starts a new job as executive director of a new criminal law research and advocacy center at the University of California, Berkeley's law school. Boudin was ousted as district attorney in a divisive recall election last year. His critics said his progressive attitude toward crime was making the city less safe. Boudin's parents were leftist radicals who spent decades in prison for their role in a botched 1981 heist of a Brink’s armored truck. Boudin was replaced by Brooke Jenkins.

Former Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos has died at age 84. Pangalos was known for his undiplomatic outbursts and on whose watch Greece suffered one of its most embarrassing foreign policy debacles in 1999. Pangalos’ family said on Twitter that he died peacefully at home Wednesday. Caretaker Prime Minister Ioannis Sarmas’ office expressed condolences as did other leading Greek politicians. Pangalos was born in 1938 and was the grandson of a former military dictator. He became a senior official in the Socialist Pasok party founded by Andreas Papandreou. The party dominated the political scene in most of the 1980s and 1990s. Pangalos was widely reviled during Greece’s financial crisis for claiming that all Greeks were to an extent to blame for the country's problems.

Latvian lawmakers have picked the Baltic country’s long-serving and popular foreign minister as its new head of state in a tight vote. The 100-seat Saeima legislature elected Edgars Rinkevics as president to serve for a four-year term. He received 52 votes. That's one vote more than required to win the race. He served as Latvia's top diplomat since 2011. Egils Levits has been Latvia’s head of state since 2019. But he didn’t seek reelection. Rinkevics is the first openly gay president in the Baltic nations.

The United States and Europe are drawing up a voluntary code of conduct for artificial intelligence, with a draft expected in weeks. The voluntary code would bridge the gap while the 27-nation EU works on groundbreaking rules for artificial intelligence that won’t take effect for up to three years. That's according to a top EU official who spoke Wednesday after a meeting of the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council in Sweden. The breathtaking rise of generative AI systems such as ChatGPT have dazzled users with capabilities that mimic human responses while stirring fears about the risks they pose. That's set off a global debate about how to design guardrails for the technology.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to launch his second campaign for the Republican nomination for president next week in New Hampshire. Christie is planning to make the announcement at a town hall Tuesday evening at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics. That word comes from a person familiar with Christie's thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm Christie's plans. The Associated Press had previously reported that Christie was expected to enter the race “imminently.” Christie also sought the GOP nomination in 2016. Christie dropped out of that race a day after finishing sixth in New Hampshire’s primary.

Final preparations for a major summit of European leaders are being made in Moldova, a sign of the Eastern European country’s ambitions to draw closer to the West. The nation of 2.6 million is putting its best foot forward for the second meeting of the European Political Community on Thursday. The gathering will bring together around 50 leaders from 47 countries in what organizers are calling the largest international event in the country’s history. Moldova is seeking to break with its Russian-dominated past amid the war in neighboring Ukraine, and hopes to join the European Union. The EU says holding the summit in Moldova is a signal to Moscow that it will stand by the region.

Israel’s intelligence agency says a retired agent was among four people killed in northern Italy when a sudden storm sank a houseboat hired for a weekend pleasure cruise on a lake. The Israeli prime minister’s office issued a statement Wednesday on behalf of the Mossad saying the unnamed former agent’s remains had been returned to Israel for burial. The Foreign Ministry had previously said a retiree from the Israeli security forces was killed but didn’t provide a name or age or give details on what he had done professionally. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that because of the agent’s work in the agency, further details would not be disclosed and Netanyahu extended condolences to his family.

Germany says it has told Russia to close four out of five consulates in Germany in a tit-for-tat move after Moscow set a limit for the number of German embassy staff and related bodies that can operate in Russia. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Christofer Burger told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday that the measure is intended to create a “parity of personnel and structures” between the two countries. The Russian government recently said that an upper limit of 350 German government officials, including those working in cultural bodies and schools, can remain in Russia. Burger said this means Germany will have to shut three consulates in Russia by November.