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National

President Trump condemned Venezuelan socialist President Nicolás Maduro for blocking humanitarian aid from entering the country, urging the country's military in a speech in Miami Monday not to help the embattled leader, who he called a "Cuban puppet," to stay in power. 

"Incredibly, there are members of the Venezuelan military still barely supporting this failed dictatorship. They are risking their future. They are risking their lives, and Venezuela's future, for a man controlled by the Cuban military and protected by a private army of Cuban soldiers. Maduro is not a Venezuelan patriot. He's a Cuban puppet." 

Trump said during a rally at Florida International University.

The details: Trump reiterated his support for self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaidó, whom the U.S. and dozens of others have recognized as the country's legitimate leader. 

The president used his speech to America's largest Venezuelan community to rally support for Guaidó, signaled the possibility of U.S. military intervention and warned of financial repercussions. 

And like he has done before, Trump used the country as an example of the dangers of socialism, vowing that the U.S. will "never be a socialist country."

Trump urges Venezuelan military to abandon "Cuban puppet" Maduro

"There are members of the Venezuelan military still barely supporting this failed dictatorship."

President Trump speaks about the ongoing crisis in Venezuela at a rally Monday at Florida International University. 

Trump at a rally Monday at Florida International University. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Politics

Venezuela

World

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

In her next big move as a presidential candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren plans to release a proposal for universal child care on Tuesday, HuffPost first reported and Axios has confirmed with a source familiar with this plan.

Why it matters: This could make child care a more prominent issue in the 2020 presidential election, especially as health care in general will be a dominant topic. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders proposed significant changes to the current child care system during the 2016 election. 

Details: A source familiar with Warren's proposal told Axios that access to child care would be free for any family living under 200% of the poverty line.

But no family, regardless of income, would ever pay more than 7% of their income for access to child care among the providers included in this proposal.

The plan would cost nearly $700 billion, per HuffPost. A source familiar with the proposal told Axios that Warren would plan to pay for this using part of the revenue generated from her wealth tax proposal.

Go deeper: Read an analysis of the proposal below...

Elizabeth Warren set to release a universal child care plan

It could make child care a more prominent issue in the 2020 race.

Elizabeth Warren. Photo: Scott Eisen/Getty Images

2020 presidential election

2020 election

An investigation into North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District 2018 election has found a "coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme" in two counties carried out by a political operative hired by the Republican candidate, the state’s elections board executive director revealed Monday at a hearing. 

Why it matters: The evidentiary hearing may last for two days and it could prompt the five-member election board to certify the November results or order a new election in the district if there’s strong evidence that ballot-tampering was widespread enough to affect the outcome of the race. Meanwhile, House Democratic leaders in Washington had signaled that they could launch their own inquiry, depending on the outcome of  hearing.

The backstory: Fraud allegations have roiled the country’s last unresolved midterm House race after the election board in late November declined to certify Republican candidate Mark Harris, who holds an unofficial 905-vote lead over his Democratic opponent Dan McCready, as the winner. The board cited claims of "numerous irregularities and concerted fraudulent activities" with the collection of absentee ballots in breach of state election law.

What we've learned from Monday's hearing: 

After a months-long probe into election irregularities, elections board director Kim Strach said the Republican operative, Leslie McCrae Dowless, hired workers and paid each $150.00 per 50 absentee ballot request forms, and another $125.00 for every 50 absentee ballots collected.  

There’s evidence that workers directly provided Dowless with ballots from Bladen and Robeson counties in order to get paid, and instructed them to falsely sign as witnesses. [It’s illegal in the state for anyone other than close relative to handle a voter’s absentee ballot.] 

More than 1,000 ballots from both counties were affected.

Investigators found that Dowless completed and mailed in incomplete or blank ballots from his office and home, and he took several steps to conceal the fraud. These include using the same color ink as voters to forged witness signatures and instructed workers to deliver ballots in small batches to the post office closest to the voter. 

Lisa Britt, who said she was hired by Dowless, testified that she collected unsealed ballots, and in some cases, filled them out in favor of Republicans in down-ballot local races. 

The big picture: The allegations against Harris campaign run counter to the baseless claims of rampant voter fraud by Democrats often trumpeted by President Trump and other Republican officials. National Republicans have been silent on the case — undercutting their own purported hardline stance on election fraud — while Harris and his allies are urging the state to certify him as the winner. 

North Carolina House race in doubt over claims of electoral fraud

North Carolina flagged illegal voting activity to the feds last year

North Carolina investigators find evidence of significant fraud in House election

A "coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme."

North Carolina’s 9th district Republican candidate at a campaign rally last year. 

North Carolina’s 9th district Republican candidate at a campaign rally last year. Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Electoral fraud

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Amazon will publish its carbon footprint later this year, the company announced Monday, as part of an effort to radically reduce the global shipping giant's greenhouse gas emissions, the AP reports.

The big picture: Global corporations will have to play a major part in reducing GHG emissions if carbon reduction targets are to be met.

Amazon claims half its shipments will be carbon neutral by 2030

Global corporations will have to play a major part in reducing GHG emissions.

Business

Amazon

Energy

Big Tech

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Technology

China accused the U.S. government Monday of trying to block its tech development with its claims that Chinese tech companies, including Huawei Technologies, might be used for espionage, per AP. 

Why it matters: The charge comes at a time when the Trump administration has been urging its allies not to use Huawei for next-generation 5G wireless networks. But AP reports there's also a new twist: Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre now says it's possible to manage the risk of using Chinese equipment in the networks.

The Huawei charges are tangled up with U.S.-China trade talks

Special report: The next tech wave rides on 5G

China lashes out at U.S. over Huawei charges

It says the U.S. government is trying to block its tech development.

The Trump administration has been warning allies of security risks with Chinese tech companies. Photo: Chesnot/Getty Images

China

Conflicts, policies and powers are intersecting and shaping the world. Breaking news and analysis of national security, foreign policy and global crises.

"A new kind of left-wing doctrine is emerging," The Economist writes in its lead article, with "socialism [back] in fashion" 28 years after the end of the Cold War.

What they're saying: "In America Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a newly elected congresswoman who calls herself a democratic socialist, has become a sensation even as the growing field of Democratic presidential candidates for 2020 veers left. In Britain Jeremy Corbyn, the hardline leader of the Labour Party, could yet win the keys to 10 Downing Street."

Why it matters: "Socialism is storming back because it has formed an incisive critique of what has gone wrong in Western societies."

"Whereas politicians on the right have all too often given up the battle of ideas and retreated towards chauvinism and nostalgia, the left has focused on inequality, the environment, and how to vest power in citizens rather than elites."

The Economist compares Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Jeremy Corbyn

"A new kind of left-wing doctrine is emerging."

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez smiling, opposite Jeremy Corbyn who is giving a thumbs up

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jeremy Corbyn. Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images, Liam McBurney/Pool/Getty Images

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; Chart: Naema Ahmed/Axios

American women are more educated than ever, but in a surprising twist, the workforce participation rate for women has plateaued and even fallen over the past few years, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Why it matters: If more women joined the workforce, that would help promote economic growth and help pay for the Social Security and Medicare needs of the large, retiring Boomer generation.

It could be a result of generational shifts: Women are beginning their careers later. And older people are retiring earlier in the U.S. than in places like Canada, economist Diane Schanzenbach, director of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, told Axios.

Some economists and researchers point to a lack of generous family leave or child care assistance policies as a reason the rate of working women has fallen behind other nations, said Lisa Barrow, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve in Chicago. Ivanka Trump has made this her signature issue.

By the numbers: Women with a bachelor's, master's or professional degree are still less likely to be working than men with the same education level, according to BLS.

Less educated women are worst off: Workforce participation rates have fallen the most and wages have risen the least among women with only a high school diploma or less, Schanzenbach said.

The big picture: The U.S. used to be a global leader for female workforce participation. But the U.K., Canada and even Japan are now ahead, according to World Bank data.

The bottom line: The gender gap in the U.S. workforce is still a big problem — and it will be harder to maintain economic growth and sustain a large, retired generation if it isn't closed.

Women now more educated than men, but lag in workforce

Some researchers point to a lack of generous family leave or child care assistance policies.

Women in business

Education

Top stories & latest news on the Federal Reserve, real-time data, plus the biggest shifts happening in the U.S. and global economy.

Economy

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

A majority of Americans in every state except Vermont would fail a test based on the questions in the U.S. citizenship test, according to a survey by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. 

Data: Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation; Map: Chris Canipe/Axios

Why it matters: It suggests most Americans can't live up to the standards we set for people applying to be U.S. citizens — and we set those standards because we expect Americans to be informed and engaged. Only four out of 10 Americans would have passed the test, and just 27% of those under age 45.

By the numbers: A few highlights from the survey, conducted for the foundation by Lincoln Park Strategies:

People did relatively well on the most basic questions. Seven out of 10 knew that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and that Franklin Roosevelt was president during World War II.

But only 43% knew that Woodrow Wilson was president during World War I (nearly one out of four thought it was Roosevelt), and only 56% knew which countries we fought in World War II.

Fewer than a third could correctly name three of the original states.

More than six out of 10 incorrectly thought the Constitution was written in 1776. (It wasn't written until 1787.)

Nearly four out of 10 thought Benjamin Franklin invented the light bulb.

Methodology: The survey was conducted Nov. 14, 2018-Jan. 3, 2019 among 41,000 adults, using 20 history-specific questions from the practice tests for people taking the citizenship exam. The margin of error was 1 percentage point.

A majority in every state but Vermont would fail a test of U.S. citizenship questions

The survey suggests most people can't live up to the standards we set for new citizens.

History

The U.K. Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which has been investigating online disinformation, said in its final report issued on Sunday that Facebook "knowingly" violated the law and called for increased regulation of the tech giant.

What they're saying: "The big tech companies must not be allowed to expand exponentially, without constraint or proper regulatory oversight," the committee said. "But only governments and the law are powerful enough to contain them."

The panel found that "it is evident that Facebook intentionally and knowingly violated both data privacy and anti-competition laws" and called for a government watchdog to conduct an additional investigation into the social platform.

It also said there should be new regulations of tech companies that increase their liability for content they host.

U.K. Parliament report calls for Facebook regulation

"Only governments and the law are powerful enough to contain them."

Axios

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