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Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, will travel to Mar-a-Lago—Donald Trump’s estate in Florida—on Friday to deliver what he enigmatically called a “major announcement on election integrity” alongside the former president. The appearance with Mr Trump, America’s most powerful Republican, comes as Mr Johnson faces pushback from some right-wingers in his party, who on Wednesday blocked a bill on surveillance by the intelligence services. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a hard-right congresswoman from Georgia, has threatened to oust him.
Orenthal James (“OJ”) Simpson, a former American-football player famously acquitted of murder, died aged 76. Mr Simpson, who was black, was accused of killing his ex-wife and her friend, who were both white. Some 150m people watched the verdict of the “trial of the century”, televised live in 1995. The result left Americans “screeching with anger or squealing with delight”, The Economist wrote at the time. Mr Simpson was later found liable for the deaths in a civil trial.
Joe Biden will deliver the keynote address at Reverend Al Sharpton’s annual racial-justice conference in New York on Friday. Mr Biden is seeking to woo and retain black voters. Black voters are mostly Democratic, but worryingly for him, younger ones are “Trump curious”. Of young black people, a fifth of women and a third of men say they plan to vote for the Republican.
Burt Jones, Georgia’s lieutenant-governor, faces an investigation for allegedly acting as a fake elector for Mr Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Fani Willis, the district attorney prosecuting 19 others for election interference, was barred from investigating Mr Jones because she had supported his political opponent. Instead Pete Skandalakis, head of Georgia’s Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council and responsible for finding her replacement, appointed himself.
Harvard became the latest Ivy League university to reinstate a standardised-testing requirement for admission. The college cited a study claiming that SAT and ACT scores, which became optional to submit during the pandemic, were predictive of academic success. Re-introducing them, said Raj Chetty, an economist who led the study, would make the school’s admissions “more meritocratic while increasing socioeconomic diversity”.
Mr Biden’s meeting with Kishida Fumio, Japan’s prime minister, is all about containing China, wrote Global Times, a tabloid mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, on April 9th. In fact the strengthening US-Japan alliance merely serves to further Japan’s role as a “tool” in America’s strategy to “suppress” China. That could lead to “greater instability and confrontation” in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, it claimed.
California and Texas, calling themselves the Western Forces, have seceded from the Union. The president, installed for an unconstitutional third term, vows that the uprising will be quashed quickly. He harnesses the full strength of America’s army. The Western Forces march on, determined to take the White House. “Civil War” arrives in cinemas on Friday. As our story explains, the film joins a burgeoning genre: writers are gripped by the idea of a second American civil war.
The race between the two candidates remains stubbornly stable. Judging from our poll tracker, which is updated daily and shows an average of the latest polls, the race between Mr Biden and Mr Trump is shaping up to be a dead heat.
38%, the average boost that a preferential spot on ballots—gained through endorsements from county party chairs—gave to candidates in New Jersey, according to one study. Read our story about how New Jersey’s electoral process got upended.
From Monday to Thursday we’ll quiz you on American politics. This week’s winner is Christiaan Mennes from Berlin, Germany. The answers were:
Monday: Tennessee and Missouri each border eight other states.
Tuesday: 1912 was the last time an incumbent president faced one of his predecessors in an election: William Taft, a Republican, faced Theodore Roosevelt of the Bull Moose party. Neither won; Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, was elected.
Wednesday: After the vice-president and speaker of the House, the president pro tempore of the Senate is next in line to the presidency. Patty Murray of Washington state holds the position.
Thursday: Texas has the longest land border with Mexico, at 1,241 miles (2018 km).
You can find the instructions on how to participate in the quiz at the bottom of the page.
—Newt Gingrich, the Republican House speaker from 1995 to 1999, to the New York Times on April 11th.
Read all of our recent coverage of the 2024 election. Confused about a term? Check out our A-Z of American politics.
How to take part in the quiz: From Monday to Thursday we’ll quiz you on American politics. Email all your answers with your name and where you are from to [email protected] before 5pm New York time (10pm London time) on a Thursday. The weekly winner, chosen at random from those who give all the right answers, will be announced on this page on Fridays.
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In brief
Our daily political update, featuring the stories that matter
In brief
Our daily political update, featuring the stories that matter
In brief
Our daily political update, featuring the stories that matter
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