Closing summary
It’s time to close the blog on an eventful day in US politics. Joe Biden says he’s “all in” on Africa’s future after unveiling a package of investments and supports at a summit with the continent’s business leaders in Washington DC.
The president says infrastructure and the climate emergency are among his top priorities for Africa, as he seeks to build closer ties and limit Russian and Chinese influence in the region.
Here’s what else we’ve been watching:
Survivors from mass shootings at gay nightclubs in Florida and Colorado gave harrowing testimony at a hearing of the House oversight committee looking into surging violence against the LGBTQ+ community. Democrats say Republicans have “stoked the flames of bigotry” with hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ laws nationwide.
A new poll shows voters have little appetite for a presidential election rematch in 2024 between Biden and Donald Trump. Almost two thirds of registered Democrats and Republicans say they don’t want their 2020 nominees to run again.
Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said it was time to drop the general election runoff system that forced Democrat Raphael Warnock to beat Republican challenger Herschel Walker twice within weeks to retain his Senate seat.
In a statement marking the 10th anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting that killed 20 children and six adults, Biden said the US should have “societal guilt” at taking so long to address the problem of gun crime.
Thanks for being with us! Please join us again tomorrow.
North Dakota has become the latest state to ban the popular social media app TikTok from devices owned by the state government’s executive branch, the Associated Press reports.
Governor Doug Burgum signed an executive order Wednesday afternoon, joining Republican colleagues from other states, including South Dakota and Texas, to have previously done so over concerns about the platform’s Chinese ownership and perceived data sharing and national security worries.
In addition to prohibiting downloads of TikTok on government-issued equipment or while connected to the state’s network, it bars visiting the TikTok website.
“TikTok raises multiple flags in terms of the amount of data it collects and how that data may be shared with and used by the Chinese government,” Burgum said in a statement, according to the AP.
In its own statement Wednesday, TikTok said it was “disappointed that so many states are jumping on the bandwagon to enact policies based on unfounded, politically charged falsehoods”.
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