Trump Signs Order to Ease Federal Marijuana Rules, Signaling Major Policy Shift 
U.S. Initiates $11.1 Billion Arms Sale to Taiwan Amid Rising China Tensions 
Trump Expands U.S. Travel Ban to Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Sparking Economic Fears in the Caribbean 
Italy Supreme Court Upholds Salvini Acquittal in Migrant Kidnapping Case 
Trump Administration Plans Major Increase in Denaturalization Cases for Naturalized U.S. Citizens 
Venezuela Seeks UN Security Council Meeting Over U.S. Oil Tanker Blockade 
Trump Administration Proposes Sweeping Limits on Gender-Affirming Care for Children 
Republicans Raise National Security Concerns Over Intel’s Testing of China-Linked Chipmaking Tools 
Federal Appeals Court Allows Trump’s National Guard Deployment in Washington, D.C. to Continue 
Fernando Haddad Confirms He Will Not Run for Office in 2025, Signals Possible Exit as Brazil’s Finance Minister 
Barham Salih Elected as Next UN High Commissioner for Refugees 
Jared Isaacman Confirmed as NASA Administrator, Becomes 15th Leader of U.S. Space Agency 
Syria, Kurds and U.S. Race to Show Progress on SDF Integration Deal 
U.S. Senators Move Toward Deal to Strengthen Military Helicopter Safety Rules 
Kennedy Center Reportedly Renamed Trump-Kennedy Center After Board Vote 
Union-Aligned Investors Question Amazon, Walmart and Alphabet on Trump Immigration Policies 
Trump Signals Progress in Ukraine Peace Talks Ahead of U.S.–Russia Meeting 
US President Joe Biden is set to fulfill a campaign promise by nominating who would become the first Black woman in the Supreme Court. Following a discussion with two Senate Judiciary Committee members, Biden hopes to get his nominee confirmed in a 40-day timeline.
Biden met with Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Durbin and its ranking minority member Chuck Grassley at the White House this week to talk about his potential Supreme Court nominees. The US leader said that once he announces his nominee for the high court, he hopes that they would be confirmed by the Senate in a 40-day timeline, similar to the previous nominees. Biden is set to announce his nominee – who will succeed retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer – at the end of the month.
“The Constitution says ‘advice and consent, advice and consent,’ and I’m serious when I say that I want the advice of the Senate as well as the consent to arrive on who the nominee should be,” Biden told reporters.
If the 40-day timeline is adhered to, the final Senate vote would be around the spring.
Grassley told reporters that he made it clear to Biden that he wants someone to “interpret the law, not make law” during the meeting.
To note, the previous Supreme Court Justice, Amy Coney Barrett, took 27 days to be confirmed by the GOP-controlled Senate in 2020.
“The president’s view is that after 230 years of the Supreme Court being in existence, the fact that not a single Black woman has served on the Supreme Court is a failure in the process, not a failure or a lack of qualified Black women to serve as Supreme Court Justices,” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki during a briefing Tuesday.
In other related news, Biden has relaunched the cancer “Moonshot” initiative during a White House ceremony this week, with the goal of cutting deaths by cancer in the US by half. The effort was launched in 2016 with $1.8 billion in federal funds spaced out over seven years. As of this year and 2023, only $400 million in funds remain for the initiative.
