Trump, forced to the sidelines, still raised $56M online in 2021
Despite departing from office and being barred from the leading social media platforms, former President Donald Trump was the Republican Party’s most dominant fundraiser in the early months of 2021, as committees affiliated with him collected more than $56 million online, according to campaign filings made late Friday.
Trump raised far more money than any other Republican via WinRed, the party’s main processing site for online donations, federal records show, and more than each of the three main fundraising arms of the Republican Party itself.
The next strongest online fundraiser among Republican politicians was Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who delivered the GOP response to President Joe Biden’s first address to Congress in the spring. Scott raised $7.8 million online.
All told, Trump collected $34.3 million through a shared account with the Republican National Committee, which is known as the Trump Make America Great Again Committee; Trump’s political action committee is set to receive 75% of what went into the shared account, and the party received 25%.
In addition, Trump raised more than $21 million directly into two new PACs that he controls.
The new online fundraising data comes from the federal filings of WinRed. The full federal reports for Trump’s accounts in the first six months of 2021 are due Saturday.
Trump raised by far the most online money among any Republican, even though he had paused much of his online solicitations starting
Jan. 6, the day of the Capitol insurrection, through the end of February.
Afghanistan hospital bombed:
The owner of a private hospital in Afghanistan said the Afghan air force bombed the facility on Saturday, killing one person and injuring three others. He said the hospital was targeted because the military erroneously believed Taliban fighters were being treated there.
Dr Mohammad Din Narewal, the owner of the 20-bed Afghan Ariana Specialty Hospital, told The Associated Press that provincial government officials informed him his hospital in Lashkar Gah was targeted based on the information from the defense ministry.
“But there were no Taliban in the hospital,” said Narewal. The defense ministry did not immediately respond to multiple attempts by the AP to contact them.
Provincial council chief Attaullah Afghan confirmed that the hospital was struck by the Afghan air force, and that one person was killed.
The air strike came as the Taliban made a push for the southwestern city, waging fierce battles with the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces. Residents reported seesaw battles in several neighborhoods.
Narewal said doctors had performed two surgeries a day earlier, but as fighting intensified the hospital had reduced their staff to a minimum. Currently two patients are still in the hospital along with several nurses and attendants for the patients.
China, India miss emissions deadline:
China and India have missed a U.N. deadline to submit fresh plans for cutting their greenhouse
gas emissions in time for the global body to include their pledges in a report for governments at this year’s global climate summit, officials said Saturday.
The world’s two most populous countries are among dozens that failed to provide an update on their targets for curbing the release of planet-warming gases to the U.N. climate change agency by July 31.
China is the country with the world’s highest emissions, while India is third. The United States, which submitted its new target in April, is the second-biggest global emitter.
U.N. climate chief Patricia Espinosa welcomed that 110 signatories of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change had met the cutoff date, which was extended from the end of 2020 due to the pandemic. But she said it was “far from satisfactory” that only 58% had submitted their new targets in time.
Police could get power to sue protesters: Lawmakers in a suburban New York county are set to vote Monday on a proposal that would allow police officers to sue protesters and collect financial damages — a move civil rights activists say is payback for demonstrations after the police killing of George Floyd last year in Minneapolis.
Newsday reports that the bill being considered by the Nassau County Legislature would make police officers and other first responders a protected class under the county’s Human Rights Law, which currently bars discrimination based on race, religion, gender and sexual orientation. No other professions are protected under the Human Rights Law.
The bill would allow a lawyer for the Long Island county to sue protesters on behalf of officers and calls for fines of up to $25,000 for anyone who harasses,
menaces or injures an officer.
The fine amount would be doubled if the offending behavior happened “in the course of participating in a riot,” the bill says.
Civil rights lawyer Frederick Brewington told reporters Friday that the bill violates free speech rights and, if passed, will have a chilling effect on protesters. The NAACP said it will bring members to Monday’s vote.
UK’s PM, wife expecting 2nd child:
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s wife, Carrie, said Saturday that she is expecting the couple’s second child.
Carrie Johnson announced her pregnancy in a post on Instagram in which she also revealed that she suffered a miscarriage earlier this year.
“At the beginning of the year, I had a miscarriage which left me heartbroken,’’ she wrote. “I feel incredibly blessed to be pregnant again,
but I’ve also felt like a bag of nerves.”
Johnson said she hoped to welcome her “rainbow baby” around Christmas. Rainbow baby is a term used to describe a child born after a miscarriage, still birth or the death of an infant.
Colorado mudslide strands 100:
More than 100 people had to spend the night on a highway, including nearly 30 who took refuge in a tunnel, after rain over an area burned by a wildfire once again triggered mudslides in western Colorado, authorities said Friday.
The people were caught with their vehicles on Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon on Thursday night. Those in the tunnel were stuck for about nine hours until crews could carve out a path through the mud to reach them at about 6:30 a.m. Friday, Garfield County Sheriff ’s Office spokesman Walt Stowe said.
No injuries were reported.