U.S. and world news for July 29

Supreme Court: President Biden, writing an op-ed column in the Washington Post, is calling for Supreme Court reforms. First, he calls for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision granting presidents immunity from prosecution for crimes committed in office. Second, he calls for term limits instead of lifetime terms for justices. “We have had term limits for presidents for nearly 75 years. We should have the same for Supreme Court justices,” Biden writes. Third, he is calling for a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court. He describes the voluntary ethics code adopted by the court as being weak.  

Olympics sabotage: There’s been another sabotage attack in France following the attack on Friday on French high-speed trains. Friday’s attack interfered with travel to the opening day of the Olympics. In the new attack, the French internet broadband network was knocked out when five cables were cut. Several internet service providers were affected. Traffic was shifted to backup cables. The Olympic games themselves were not affected by the internet blackouts.  

Venezuela election: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the U.S. has serious concerns about the legitimacy of the result of Venezuela’s presidential election. Strongman Nicolas Maduro claims that he was overwhelmingly reelected while the opposition claims that its candidate received 70% of the vote. Maduro wants to remain in power for a third six-year term. The opposition said the government counted the ballots in secret and did not allow impartial observers to see what was going on.

Harris vs. Trump: The Kamala Harris campaign reports that it raised $200 million, mostly in small contributions, during its first week. An ABC/Ipsos poll released yesterday shows that 43% of voters view her favorably while 36% view Donald Trump favorably. ABC News says it is going ahead with plans for a September 10 debate between Trump and Harris even though Trump says he only agreed to debate President Biden and doesn’t intend to debate Harris.

Future elections: Congressmen Daniel Goldman of New York and Adam Schiff of California are among those ringing alarm bells following Donald Trump’s speech to the Turning Point Action Believers’ Summit in Florida over the weekend. Trump told those attending the Christian event that if they vote for him this time they won’t have to vote anymore. Spokesperson James Singer of the Harris campaign pointed out that what Trump said fits with previous statements from Trump that he would do away with the Constitution and become a dictator, ending elections in the U.S.

Fake video: Billionaire Elon Musk, who owns the internet site X, formerly known as Twitter, has posted a fake video of Vice President Harris that was made by someone else and urged users of X to watch the video without prominently disclosing that the video is a fake. Musk’s posting of the fake video has been viewed about 123-million times. The video has Harris saying things she never said that denigrate President Biden. Musk is supporting Donald Trump for president.