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Arizona Democrat needed to force vote on Epstein files to be sworn-in

After weeks of delay, congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva will be sworn into the US House of Representatives on Wednesday, where the Arizona Democrat is expected to force a vote on the release of the Epstein files.Democrats who have been demanding the release of investigative files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein gained Grijalva’s crucial vote when she won her seat in Arizona on September 23, but she was not sworn in before the federal government shutdown began October 1.On October 9, Grijalva accused House Speaker Mike Johnson — a close ally of US President Donald Trump — of “delaying my swearing in to avoid releasing the Epstein files,” she said in a post on X.”After seven weeks of waiting, I almost can’t believe it’s true,” Grijalva said in a video posted to X on Monday, confirming her plans to travel to DC and join Congress. Once sworn in, Grijalva has pledged to join a bipartisan effort in Congress to force a vote on ordering the US Justice Department to publicly release the investigative files related to Epstein, who died in custody before his trial on new sex trafficking charges.At a news conference Tuesday, US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Grijalva had not been sworn in sooner “because Republicans are running a pedophile protection program. They are intentionally hiding the Jeffrey Epstein files.” Jeffries added that Grijalva’s first act would be to sign a discharge petition to give Americans “the transparency they deserve.”Grijalva beat Republican Daniel Butierez with nearly 69 percent of the vote in Arizona’s 7th congressional district in a special election to fill the seat vacated after her father, congressman Raul Grijalva, died in March 2025.Earlier this year, a congressional panel investigating Epstein’s sex crimes released a lewd birthday letter that Trump allegedly sent to Epstein in 2003, which the president and White House have refuted.Epstein, a wealthy financier with powerful connections including Trump and other international leaders, was found dead in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for alleged sex trafficking of underage girls.

Trump claims ‘very big victory’ as shutdown vote nears

President Donald Trump declared victory on Tuesday as an effort to end the longest-ever US government shutdown headed to a final vote and rival Democrats tore themselves apart over the deal.The House of Representatives is set to vote on Wednesday on a spending bill to solve the six-week standoff, after eight Democrats broke ranks in the Senate on Monday to side with Trump’s Republicans.During a Veterans Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery, Trump broke off to congratulate Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.”Congratulations to you and to John and to everybody on a very big victory,” Trump said as he spotted Johnson in the audience.”We’re opening up our country — it should have never been closed,” added Trump, bucking US presidential tradition by using a ceremonial event to score political points.Trump said later he expected the Republican-controlled House to approve the bill to fund the government through January. “Only people that hate our country want to see it not open,” he told ESPN.- ‘Serious calculations’ -Top Democrats have vowed to oppose the bill to fund the government but it is likely to pass the House as it only needs a simple majority, which Republicans narrowly have.From the start, Trump had piled pressure on Democrats by letting the shutdown be as punishing as possible and refusing to negotiate on their demands on health insurance.A million federal workers went unpaid, food benefits for low-income Americans came under threat and air travelers faced thousands of cancelations and delays ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Tuesday that the chaos could get worse by the weekend if the shutdown persists, with air traffic controllers unable to be paid.”You’re going to have airlines that make serious calculations about whether they continue to fly, full stop,” Duffy told reporters at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. Polls have showed that voters increasingly blamed Trump’s party as the shutdown dragged on past its 40th day.But it was the Democrats who caved and gave Republicans the extra votes they needed under Senate rules on Monday, without securing the concessions they wanted.- Democrat rift -The deal has split Democrats, with many senior figures saying they should have held out for the extension of health insurance subsidies at the heart of the shutdown battle.”Pathetic,” California Governor Gavin Newsom, widely seen as a Democratic presidential frontrunner in 2028, posted on X.Despite opposing the bill vocally and voting against it, Democratic Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer has faced calls from some lawmakers to step down for failing to corral his senators.For Democrats, the wavering was especially galling as it came just days after election wins that put Trump on the back foot for the first time since his return to the White House.Democratic wins in New York City, New Jersey and Virginia in particular highlighted the issue of affordability, a weak spot for billionaire Trump and the Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.But Senate Republicans have promised Democrats a vote on health insurance, with millions of Americans set to see their “Obamacare” costs double without an extension of the subsidies.The healthcare issue has itself threatened to cause a rift in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” coalition.On Monday, Trump said one-time ally Marjorie Taylor Greene had “lost her way” after the lawmaker made critical comments, including that she was “disgusted” that premiums could double for her own grown-up children.

‘Trump is temporary’: California governor Newsom seizes COP30 spotlight

With US President Donald Trump skipping the UN’s climate summit in the Amazon, California Governor Gavin Newsom grabbed the spotlight Tuesday and unleashed a barrage of attacks on the fossil fuel agenda of his political nemesis.The well-coiffed Democrat — seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate — blasted Trump for twice leaving the Paris climate accord and for “doubling down on stupid” through his support of Big Oil.Newsom said a future Democratic administration would rejoin the Paris Agreement “without hesitation.””It’s a moral commitment, it’s an economic imperative,” Newsom said in response to a question by AFP in Belem, the Brazilian Amazon city in northern Para state hosting the climate summit known as COP30.It is “an abomination that he has twice, not once, pulled away from the accords.”After returning to office in January, Trump withdrew the United States from the landmark Paris deal for a second time — the first was during his first term — and he has sneered at the idea of human-caused planetary warming, calling it a “con job.”Newsom’s first appearance of the day came alongside Helder Barbalho, governor of Para, where he touted California’s green credentials between bites of tropical fruit and sips of acai juice — noting that the Golden State, the world’s fourth-largest economy, is now two-thirds powered by renewables.He then launched into a whirlwind of meetings and press events with officials from Germany’s Baden-Wurttemberg state, Brazil’s minister for Indigenous Peoples and the Brazilian president of COP30 — all the while trailed by large media scrums normally reserved for national leaders. – Not part of negotiations -Still, there are limits. Regional leaders have no part of official negotiations at COP30, which opened Monday with urgent calls to stay the course on climate action.New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, who also attended events Tuesday, acknowledged these constraints.”Certainly our meetings with leaders at the UN and others was to demonstrate that we’re interested in any possibility that does more about that direct negotiation and representation,” she said. Her aim in coming, she added, was to show that “when the federal government leans in, we do more, and when they lean out, we do more. It’s both.”But Christiana Figueres, an architect of the Paris agreement, said the summit was better off without Trump’s government showing up.”I actually think it is a good thing,” she said, suggesting that while the United States may work behind the scenes with petrostates including Saudi Arabia, “they can not take the floor” and directly bully other nations.  – ‘Trump is temporary’ -Even without a seat at the table, US states and cities have concrete power.A recent analysis by the University of Maryland found that if these governments ramp up their efforts — and a climate-friendly president is elected in 2028 — US emissions could fall by well over 50 percent by 2035, approaching the 61-66 percent reduction targeted by Biden’s administration.”The president can’t throw a switch and turn everything off — that’s not how our system works,” Nate Hultman, who led the report, told AFP.The market-driven green shift remains a strong factor including in US states with climate-hostile leadership, like Texas, the country’s renewable energy generation leader last year, added Hultman, who previously worked for Democratic presidents.Even so there are questions over how far state-level action can go without federal support. Trump’s Republicans recently passed a law bringing an early end to clean energy tax credits, seen as a potentially crippling blow to the renewable sector.  Beyond pushing for more drilling at home and declaring war on green energy, Trump’s administration recently torpedoed international efforts to impose a carbon tax on shipping by vowing reprisals against countries that backed the plan.Newsom urged nations to hold firm against further intimidation efforts, saying it was vital to remember “Trump is temporary” and that “you stand up to a bully.”

Trump claims ‘big victory’ on US shutdown

President Donald Trump claimed victory Tuesday over rival Democrats on the longest-ever US government shutdown, in a speech at an annual ceremony honoring America’s military veterans.Trump seized on the fact that several Democratic senators broke ranks on Monday to vote with Republicans for a compromise deal that paves the way for an end to the congressional standoff.”Congratulations… on a very big victory,” Trump said to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson when he spotted him in the audience at the Veterans Day ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery.”We’re opening up our country — it should have never been closed,” added Trump.The shutdown has seen a million federal workers go unpaid, disrupted air travel ahead of the holiday season and threatened food benefits to low income households.Eight Senate Democrats broke with their party to back a bill that would fund the government through January. It will now go to the House of Representatives on Wednesday, meaning the shutdown could end by Friday.But the move has split Democrats, with many senior figures saying they should have held out for the extension of health insurance subsidies that was at the heart of the shutdown battle.The rift comes just days after Democrats were celebrating victory in elections in three states that put Trump’s administration under the pressure on the issue of the cost of living.Trump said on Monday that he would abide by terms of the deal that would reverse the sacking of federal workers during the shutdown, which Democrats had insisted on.The 79-year-old Republican’s comments meanwhile showed him once again bucking a trend of US presidents historically avoiding politically partisan messages when addressing service members or commemorative events.He went on to note that he plans to rename the November 11 Veterans Day holiday as “Victory Day” for World War I, and to do the same for May 8th in respect to World War II.Wearing a dark overcoat, burgundy scarf and gloves, Trump earlier laid a wreath in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington, the resting place of America’s war dead.

California governor Newsom slams Trump at COP30

With US President Donald Trump skipping the UN’s climate summit in the Amazon, California Governor Gavin Newsom grabbed the spotlight on Tuesday and took a swipe at the fossil fuel agenda of his political nemesis.The well-coiffed Democrat — seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate — slammed Trump for leaving the Paris climate accord and for “doubling down on stupid” through his pro-oil stance.Newsom said a Democratic administration would rejoin the Paris Agreement “without hesitation.””It’s a moral commitment, it’s an economic imperative, it’s both — and it’s an abomination that he has twice, not once, pulled away from the accords,” Newsom said in response to a question by AFP in Belem, the Brazilian Amazon city hosting the climate summit known as COP30.Newsom appeared alongside Helder Barbalho, the governor of Para state, of which Belem is the capital, at an event on the city’s docks. Between bites of cupuacu fruit and sips of acai juice, he touted California’s green credentials, noting that the state now gets two-thirds of its electricity from renewable sources.It was the first stop for the leader of the world’s fourth largest economy, followed by a signing ceremony with the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg, and a press conference with the Brazilian’s summit leadership among events to follow.Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord — for the second time, after doing so in his first term, too — upon returning to office in January and has sneered at the idea of human-caused planetary warming, calling it a “con job”.But Champa Patel, executive director for governments and policy at Climate Group, which runs the Under2 Coalition of global states and regions, said US states could still pursue the climate blueprints left by former president Joe Biden’s administration. “The states have that roadmap, they can still follow it and keep to the spirit of Paris,” Patel told AFP, adding it was important to signal solidarity.”Even if national governments backslide, or if they undermine their own commitments, subnational governments, cities, states, regions, are really at the vanguard of implementation.”Still, their influence has limits: subnational regions have no seat at the negotiating table at COP30, which opened Monday with urgent calls to stay the course on climate action.”The absence of the United States of America does not compromise the COP,” Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro told reporters last week, adding Portugal would like for “the United States of America to return to these objectives.”  – State power -“The president can’t throw a switch and turn everything off — that’s not how our system works,” added Nate Hultman, a former official in the Barack Obama and Biden administrations who now works as a researcher at the University of Maryland’s Center for Global Sustainability.A recent analysis by the group found that if leading states and cities enhance action — and if a climate-friendly president is elected in 2028 — US emissions could fall by well over 50 percent by 2035, approaching the 61-66 percent targeted by Biden’s government.Much of that stems from states’ authority over energy and building policy, and cities’ control of waste management, methane reduction, public transport, and more, Hultman told AFP.The market-driven green shift remains a strong factor including in US states with climate-hostile leadership, including Texas, the country’s renewable energy generation leader last year.New Mexico’s Michelle Lujan Grisham, another Democratic governor, is also at COP30. She governs a major fossil fuel-producing state but has pushed to expand renewables and curb methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.Reflecting America’s divided politics on climate, pro-oil and gas group Power the Future slammed the New Mexico leader for “packing her bags for another international climate junket.”Still, questions linger over the limits of state-level action. Trump’s Republicans recently passed a law bringing an early end to clean energy tax credits enacted under Biden. This is seen as a potentially crippling blow to the renewable sector.His administration also torpedoed international efforts to impose a carbon tax on shipping, vowing reprisals against countries that backed the plan.Newsom urged nations to hold firm, saying it was vital to remember “Trump is temporary” and that “you stand up to a bully.”

US aircraft carrier in Latin America fuels Venezuelan fears of attack

A US aircraft carrier strike group arrived in Latin America on Tuesday, escalating a military buildup that Venezuela has warned could trigger a full-blown conflict as it announced its own deployment.The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, entered the US Naval Forces Southern Command’s area of responsibility, which encompasses Latin America and the Caribbean, the command said in a statement.The vessel’s deployment was ordered nearly three weeks ago to help counter drug trafficking in the region.Its presence “will bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said.President Donald Trump’s administration is conducting a military campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, deploying naval and air forces for an anti-drugs offensive.Caracas fears the deployment, which also includes F-35 stealth warplanes deployed to Puerto Rico and six US Navy ships in the Caribbean, is a regime change plot in disguise.President Nicolas Maduro, whose last two reelections were dismissed as fraudulent by Washington and dozens of other countries, has accused the Trump administration of “fabricating a war.”On November 2, Trump played down the prospect of going to war with Venezuela but said Maduro’s days were numbered. US forces have carried out strikes on at least 20 vessels in international waters in the region since early September, killing at least 76 people, according to US figures.The Trump administration has said in a notice to Congress that the United States is engaged in “armed conflict” with Latin American drug cartels, describing them as terrorist groups.Washington has not provided any evidence the vessels were used to smuggle drugs, and human rights experts say the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings even if they target traffickers.- ‘Unacceptable’ -Venezuela announced Tuesday what it called a major, nationwide military deployment to counter the US naval presence off its coast.The defense ministry in Caracas spoke in a statement of a “massive deployment” of land, sea, air, river and missile forces as well as civilian militia to counter “imperial threats.” VTV, the state TV channel, broadcast footage of military leaders giving speeches in several states.Such announcements are common in Venezuela these days, but have not always led to visible military deployments.Experts have told AFP that Venezuela would be at a serious disadvantage in a military standoff with the United States, with an ill-disciplined fighting force and outdated arsenal.On Tuesday, Russia denounced US strikes on boats from Venezuela — an ally of Moscow — as illegal and “unacceptable”.”This is how, in general, lawless countries act, as well as those who consider themselves above the law,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in televised remarks, questioning what he described as a “pretext of fighting drugs”. Maduro relies heavily on the Kremlin for political and economic support. US-Russia relations have soured in recent weeks as Trump has voiced frustration with Moscow over the lack of a resolution to the Ukraine war.The United Kingdom, meanwhile, would not comment Tuesday on a CNN report that it had stopped sharing intelligence with the United States about suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean as it did not want to be complicit in any strikes.A spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters in London: “We don’t comment on security or intelligence matters.”He underlined that “the US is our closest partner on defense, security, intelligence,” and would not be drawn on UK concerns about the US strikes.”Decisions on this are a matter for the US,” the spokesman said.burs-mlr/iv

German court rules against OpenAI in copyright case

A German court ruled Tuesday that OpenAI has infringed copyright law by using song lyrics to feed its chat models in a case that could have wide implications for European artists.The Munich court found that the maker of ChatGPT was not entitled to use song lyrics to train its artificial intelligence without licences, and that the artists who wrote them are entitled to compensation.”Both the memorisation in the language models and the reproduction of the song lyrics in the chatbot’s outputs constitute infringements of copyright law,” the court ruled.The case was filed in November 2024 by German music rights body GEMA on behalf of the artists behind nine German songs.GEMA, which represents more than 100,000 composers, songwriters and publishers, accused OpenAI of reproducing protected song lyrics without having purchased licences or paid the creators. San Francisco-based OpenAI argued it had not broken the law because its language models do not store or copy specific data but rather reflect in their settings what they have learnt, according to the court.With regard to the AI chatbot, it is users who are the producers of its output and are responsible for it, OpenAI argued.But the court on Tuesday ruled that the plaintiffs were entitled to compensation “both on the basis of the reproduction of the texts in the language models and their reproduction in the outputs”.In a statement on Tuesday, OpenAI said that “we disagree” with the ruling and that the company was “considering next steps”. “The decision is for a limited set of lyrics and does not impact the millions of people, businesses and developers in Germany that use our technology every day,” it said.”We respect the rights of creators and content owners and are having productive conversations with many organisations around the world, so that they can also benefit from the opportunities of this technology.”- ‘Milestone victory’ -OpenAI has faced several court cases in the United States, with media groups and authors among those claiming that the company’s ChatGPT chatbot has been trained on their work without permission.But GEMA’s challenge is the first major case of its kind in Europe, the music rights group said.Law firm Raue, which represented GEMA in the case, said the ruling “sets an important precedent for the protection of creative works and sends a clear signal to the global tech industry”.The ruling has provided “legal certainty for creative artists, music publishers and platforms throughout Europe and is likely to have an impact far beyond Germany”, it said in a statement.Kai Welp, the head of GEMA’s legal department, said it was “crucial for authors receive remuneration for the commercial exploitation of their works so that they can make a living”.”It is to be hoped that today’s decision will increase the willingness of AI companies to negotiate and that, in this way, fair remuneration for our members can be agreed,” Welp said.The verdict could also have implications for other types of creative content, according to GEMA.The German Journalists’ Association also welcomed the ruling, hailing it as “a milestone victory for copyright law”.

Trump says ‘we’ve had a lot of problems’ with France

President Donald Trump took a sudden swipe at France on Monday during an interview with US broadcaster Fox News, saying “we’ve had a lot of problems with the French.”Fox News presenter Laura Ingraham questioned the US president on the enrolment of Chinese students at US universities, saying, “they’re not the French, they’re the Chinese. They spy on us. They steal our intellectual property.”But Trump abruptly cut in to respond, saying: “Do you think the French are better, really? I will tell you, I’m not so sure.”Trump, who has been locked in a trade war with Beijing, has had a well-catalogued hands-on relationship with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, full of muscular handshakes, mutual backslapping and knee-touching for the cameras.Macron in September even rang the US leader directly to tell him he was being blocked on the street by the presidential convoy in New York as he rushed to a meeting from the UN headquarters.But the pair’s bromance has occasionally been tetchy, with Trump notably opposed to Macron’s recognition of a Palestinian state and climate policy.The US leader has also pushed Europe to step up funding of its own defence through NATO, with Macron part of the continent’s multi-pronged charm offensive to keep Trump onside with military support of Ukraine against Russia.In the Fox interview, Trump switched focus from China to France’s taxation policies, which he said were an issue for the United States.”We’ve had a lot of problems with the French where we get taxed unfairly on our technology,” Trump said. Trump has previously said he would impose “substantial” extra tariffs on countries that introduced “discriminatory” digital taxes. The comments were sparked by Ingraham grilling Trump on his administration’s back and forth on foreign students. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in May that Washington would “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students”.However, just a few months later, Trump said the country was going to allow 600,000 Chinese students to “come in”.

US state leaders take stage at UN climate summit — without Trump

The Americans are coming.President Donald Trump’s administration may have steered clear of this year’s UN climate summit in the Brazilian Amazon, but the conference’s second day on Tuesday is nonetheless set to be dominated by the governors of California and New Mexico.Anticipation is building particularly around California’s telegenic leader Gavin Newsom, who governs the world’s fourth-largest economy and has sought to cast himself as the Anti-Trump — with murmurs of a 2028 presidential run in the air.”We are doubling down on stupid in the United States of America,” the Democrat told an audience at a Milken Institute event in Sao Paulo on Monday, giving a taste of the sharp anti-Republican rhetoric for which he has become known. “Not in my state of California.”Newsom’s agenda in Brazil includes a meeting with Helder Barbalho, governor of Para state, of which the COP30 host city Belem is the capital, and another with New Mexico’s Michelle Lujan Grisham.Trump, who has made an aggressive fossil fuel expansion central to his second term, withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord upon returning to office in January.But according to Champa Patel, executive director for governments and policy at Climate Group, which runs the Under2 Coalition of global states and regions, US states can still pursue the climate blueprints left by former president Joe Biden’s administration.”The states have that roadmap, they can still follow it and keep to the spirit of Paris,” Patel told AFP. “Ultimately, it’s state-level actors that are going to implement, and the real economy is shifting,” Patel said, pointing to wind and solar growth even in Republican-led states driven by market forces.Newsom is expected to tout California’s green credentials, including a $4.1 trillion economy that is now two-thirds powered by clean energy, and the state’s successful Cap-and-Invest program, a carbon market recently extended by law until 2045.New Mexico’s Lujan Grisham governs a major fossil fuel-producing state but has pushed to expand renewables and curb methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.Still, questions linger over the limits of state-level action. Trump’s Republicans recently passed a law bringing an early end to clean energy tax credits enacted under Biden that is seen as a potentially crippling blow to the renewable sector.And while state and regional coalitions can exert political pressure at climate summits they remain, for now, outside the official text-drafting process.

End to US government shutdown in sight as stopgap bill advances to House

The longest-ever US government shutdown moved forward Monday toward an eventual resolution, after several Democratic senators broke ranks to join Republicans in a 60-40 vote passing a compromise deal — sparking intra-party backlash.Since October 1, the first day of the shutdown, more than a million federal workers have been unpaid, while government benefits and services have been increasingly disrupted.Severe impacts on air traffic have begun to mount in recent days, with more than 1,000 flights canceled daily, raising the political pressure to end the stalemate.”We’ll be opening up our country very quickly,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding: “the deal is very good.”After the vote, Senate Republican Leader John Thune wrote on X that he was glad to support the “clear path to ending this unnecessary shutdown in a responsible way that quickly pays federal workers and reopens the federal government.”Democratic Senator John Fetterman, who voted to support the Republican measure, posted to X Monday night about his decision.”Feed everyone. Pay our military, government workers, and Capitol Police. End the chaos in airports. Country over party,” Fetterman said.With the stopgap funding bill passed through the Senate, the legislation moves to the House of Representatives for a vote, which like the Senate is controlled by Republicans. The chamber is expected to reconvene as early as Wednesday, as Tuesday is a national holiday.”It appears to us this morning that our long national nightmare is finally coming to an end, and we’re grateful for that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday. “At least some Democrats now finally appear ready to do what Republicans and President Trump and millions of hardworking American people have been asking them to do for weeks.”The House — which Johnson has kept out of session throughout the standoff — would be called back this week, he said.- Obamacare – At the heart of the Senate standoff was Democrats’ demand to extend health insurance subsidies expiring at the end of the year. Republicans insisted any negotiation occur after the government is re-opened.Millions of Americans who have purchased health insurance through the “Obamacare” program would see their costs double if the subsidies are not extended.Sunday’s breakthrough agreement would re-open the government through January, with some programs funded for the full fiscal year, and reverse some of the Trump administration’s firings of federal workers.The bill notably would restore funding for the SNAP food aid program, which helps more than 42 million lower-income Americans pay for groceries.While the Senate’s Republican leadership has agreed to hold an eventual vote on health care, it does not ensure the insurance subsidies will be extended.”After 40 days of uncertainty, I’m profoundly glad to be able to announce that nutrition programs, our veterans, and other critical priorities will have their full-year funding,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said late Sunday.- Divided Democrats -Senator Jeanne Shaheen, one of eight Democratic caucus members who backed the measure, said the Senate “took a big step forward towards protecting the health care of tens of millions of Americans.”She said the agreement would grant Democrats, despite being in the minority, the power to call a vote on health care legislation.However, with the extension of the subsidies not guaranteed, the move has angered party members who preferred to keep holding out.”Pathetic,” California Governor Gavin Newsom posted on X in reaction to the announced agreement.Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer voted no, saying he could “not in good faith” support a measure “that fails to address the health care crisis.””This fight will and must continue,” he vowed.Some lawmakers criticized Schumer himself for failing to keep the Democrats united.”Tonight is another example of why we need new leadership,” Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton said Sunday.