Friday morning news: March 15, 2024

Schumer calls for election in Israel » Debate is heating up in Washington over Israel. Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling for new leadership at the very top of the Israeli government.

SCHUMER: I believe a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel.

Schumer, the first Jewish majority leader in the U.S. Senate unleashed an unusually blunt attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said Netanyahu has lost his way deferred to extremists within his government and has been overly tolerant of civilian deaths in Gaza.

SCHUMER: Which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.

But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Schumer is out of line.

MCCONNELL: It is grotesque and hypocritical for Americans who hyperventilate about foreign interference in our own democracy to call for the removal of a democratically elected leader of Israel.

The White House declined to weigh in on Schumer’s remarks.

Sanders pushes 32-hour work week » Sen. Bernie Sanders says a 40-hour work week is a relic of the past. The self-proclaimed socialist says it’s time to revise the standard work week to 32 hours without any reduction in pay.

SANDERS: Many of our people are exhausted. We work the longest hours of any people in the industrialized world. I think it’s time for a shortened work week.

In a Senate hearing Thursday on that proposal, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy argued that employers are already having a hard time finding enough workers to fully staff their hours of operation.

CASSIDY: It would threaten millions of small businesses operating on a razor thin margin because they’re unable to find enough workers.

Other lawmakers argued that the cost of lost productivity would ultimately be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

TikTok » The CEO of TikTok was on Capitol Hill Thursday lobbying Senators to reject a bill passed in the House the day before. That bill would force the social media app’s Chinese parent company to sell TikTok or face a nationwide ban of the app. GOP Sen. Josh Hawley:

HAWLEY: There needs to be a firewall between TikTok and Beijing, because the deal is, all the information TikTok gets from Americans is available to the Chinese Communist Party. That’s the problem. That’s why it’s a security threat. That’s why they want to get into our phones.

And the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Sen. Mark Warner also warned of possible influence campaigns.

WARNER: A lot of young people get all their news … They could switch the algorithm a little bit, and suddenly all the TikTok videos would be promoting that Taiwan ought to be part China or that Putin’s right on getting Ukraine.

But some senators have expressed concern about running afoul of First Amendment liberties.

President Biden says he would sign the bill if it reaches his desk … despite the fact that his campaign now has its own TikTok account.

The app is already banned on federal government devices.

Harris abortion » Vice President Kamala Harris toured an abortion facility Thursday becoming the highest-ranking U.S. official ever to do so.

She toured a Minnesota Planned Parenthood as the latest stop in her “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour.

Harris later spoke at a rally arguing that legal protections for unborn children are immoral.

HARRIS: How dare these elected leaders believe they are in a better position to tell women what they need.

The Biden-Harris campaign is leaning heavily into pro-abortion messaging in their reelection push.

But Kristen Day with Democrats for Life of America noted that the Planned Parenthood facility Harris visited,

KRISTEN DAY: It doesn't provide support for motherhood.

She challenged Harris to also visit a pregnancy center that—in her words “does a lot more for women in the long term.”

SOUND: [Cheering crowd]

Trump and classified documents » Onlookers cheered as former President Trump’s motorcade arrived at a federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida, Thursday.

But inside the courtroom things did not go as his attorneys had hoped.

The judge in a case accusing Trump of illegally holding classified documents at his Florida home denied a motion to toss out the case.

His attorneys argued that the case should be scrapped, calling the government’s case vague and unconstitutional.

Trump denies any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty on all counts.

College athletes sue NCAA over men in women’s sports » Sixteen current and former female college athletes are suing the NCAA. Former college swimmer Riley Gaines:

GAINES: The NCAA’s most basic job is to protect the fairness and safety of competition in college sports.

And the plaintiffs say the organization failed to do that by allowing men who identify as transgender to compete in women’s sports.

GAINES: What we are hoping for out of this lawsuit is, one, accountability, two, responsibility, and three, for NCAA to implement Title IX by its original intent.

She said a central purpose of the Title IX civil rights law … was to ensure equal opportunities for women. And forcing female athletes to compete against men is the opposite of that.

Russia election » Voters are headed to the polls in Russia today to cast their ballots in the presidential election. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Today’s vote is all but certain to extend Vladimir Putin’s rule by six more years.

The election takes place against the backdrop of a ruthless crackdown that has crippled independent media and prominent rights groups.

And Putin’s most notable foes are in prison, in exile, or dead.

It also comes as Moscow’s war in Ukraine enters its third year.

Russia has the advantage on the battlefield, where it is making small, if slow, gains amid a shortage of weapons and ammunition in Ukraine.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with Katie McCoy. Plus, the movie One Life.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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