Biden leads Trump, 45 percent to 37 percent, among people ages 18 to 29 in a Harvard Youth Poll released Thursday, with 16 percent undecided. That 8 percentage point margin is much smaller than at this point in the 2020 election. At that time, Biden was leading Trump by 23 percentage points among young people.

Biden’s margins widen when the pool is restricted to registered and likely voters. But, still, his 19-point lead over Trump among the voters under 30 who are considered likely to turn out is significantly smaller than his 30-point advantage this time four years ago.

Biden holds wide leads among likely voters who are non-white and women — up by 43 points and 33 points over Trump, respectively. He trounces Trump among the higher-educated set, leading the presumptive Republican nominee by 47 points among likely voters who are college graduates and 23 points among college students.

But Biden’s margins are far slimmer — or nonexistent — among other key demographics. He’s just 6 percentage points ahead of Trump among likely voters who are young men, according to the poll, and just 3 points ahead among white voters. When it comes to young people without college degrees, Biden and Trump are in a dead heat.

Rep. Mike Levin — one of California’s few vulnerable Democratic House members — called for a change in Israeli leadership on Thursday.

“It appears to me that new leaders are needed,” Levin said to a small group of reporters, adding that he thinks the current leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are not “ultimately leading to a more peaceful outcome” in the region.

Levin is endorsed by the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, an influential pro-Israel group that has launched campaigns across the country to unseat elected officials calling for a permanent cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. Levin is also the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s only listed vulnerable “frontliner” from California.

AIPAC declined to comment on Levin’s remarks.

As Speaker of the House Mike Johnson fends off another conservative rebellion over his four-part foreign aid plan, he’s garnering support from former speaker — and infamous conservative pugilist — Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich, who claimed the gavel in 1995 after leading Republicans to their first majority in the House in nearly 40 years, is a somewhat surprising ally for Johnson. As a junior member of the House, Gingrich pioneered the style of confrontational conservatism and bare-knuckle partisan brawling that today’s Republican hard-liners — led by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz — have seemingly made their signature.

But times have changed, Gingrich said this week when I called him to ask whether he had any advice for Johnson. With a conservative like Johnson in the speaker’s chair, Gingrich told me, it’s time for Republicans to shut up and fall in line. “The truth is, I would blame head-on the people who are acting like selfish idiots,” Gingrich said, name-checking Gaetz.

Having faced down his own Republican-led coup attempt in 1997, Gingrich urged Johnson to hold his ground and pass the foreign aid packages — even if it ultimately costs him the speakership.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/19/newt-gingrich-mike-johnson-speakership-qa-00153117

A woman was arrested, and her uncle was sent to the morgue after she wheeled his corpse into a bank in Brazil and tried to obtain a loan with his signature.

He couldn’t give it, of course, being dead.

Security video showed Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes, 42, wheeling the late Paulo Roberto Braga, 68, into a Rio de Janeiro bank on Tuesday and requesting a $3,250 loan on his behalf.

The loan was already approved but needed his signature, CNN reported. He was silent.

https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/04/18/woman-dead-uncle-brazil-bank-loan/

Shamsuddin Riza pleaded guilty Thursday to helping orchestrate a straw donor scheme that pumped illegal cash into Mayor Adams’ 2021 campaign in what prosecutors say was a scheme aimed at currying political favor in the hopes of landing city contracts.

Riza is the fourth defendant to plead guilty after being charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office with facilitating the straw donor scheme.

A construction company owner, Riza entered his plea during a Thursday morning court hearing in Manhattan to one felony count of attempted grand larceny. Prosecutors said Riza facilitated the donations in hopes it would put his firm in line for lucrative city contracts once Adams became mayor.

Neither the mayor nor his campaign are implicated in or accused of having known about the scheme.

https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/04/18/key-player-in-adams-campaign-straw-donor-scheme-pleads-guilty/

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Polish man has been arrested on allegations of being ready to help Russia’s military intelligence in an alleged plot to assassinate Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Polish prosecutors said Thursday.

The office of Poland’s National Prosecutor said in a statement that the man, identified only as Pawel K., was accused of being prepared to pass airport security information to Russian agents and that he was arrested Wednesday.

If convicted, the man could face up to eight years in prison, the statement said.

European Union member Poland has been a staunch supporter of neighboring Ukraine and Zelenskyy in fending off Russia’s aggression of more than two years.

On Monday, March 11, President Biden released his proposed budget for 2025, articulating the administration's priorities and detailing where they would seek to generate the revenue to pay for them. This year's budget largely resembles what the administration proposed last year, for 2024, and like that budget, this proposal is unlikely to become law, given that control of Congress is divided between Democrats and Republicans. However, elements of the budget proposal will likely become topics of debate during the 2024 presidential election.

The budget proposal seeks to generate revenue by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans to fund expansions of the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, and Premium Tax Credit, among other spending priorities. Generally speaking, the income tax changes laid out in the budget would impact a very small number of taxpayers if they were implemented—specifically, those who earn more than $400,000 in annual income.

* The top individual income tax rate would rise to 39.6% from 37% for income above $400,000 (single filers) or $450,000 (married filing jointly).
* The net investment income tax rate would rise to 5% from 3.8% for those earning more than $400,000 in regular income, capital gains, and pass-through business income combined. The additional Medicare tax rate for those earning more than $400,000 would also increase to 5% from 3.8%.
*Qualified dividends and long-term capital gains would be taxed as ordinary income, plus the net investment income tax, for income that exceeds $1 million.
*Transfers of property by gift or death would trigger a tax on the asset's appreciated value if in excess of the applicable exclusion.
* Roth IRA conversions would be prohibited for high-income taxpayers, and "backdoor" Roth contributions, where after-tax traditional IRA contributions can be rolled into a Roth IRA despite income limits, would be eliminated.
* For taxpayers with a net worth greater than $100 million, a 25% minimum tax would be imposed on total income, including unrealized gains.

The budget would also eliminate the ability to defer gains on the like-kind exchange of real property and impose limits on the duration of generation-skipping trusts. "These would be meaningful changes," says David Peterson, head of Advanced Wealth Solutions at Fidelity. "More family wealth would be taxed, and fewer assets would be transferred to the next generation."