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The 117th Congress, being sworn in Sunday, is historically diverse, with record-setting numbers of women, Black and Latino members and members who identify as LGBTQ.

There will be two vacancies in the House: New York's 22nd District will not have representation as legal challenges in the race continue, and Louisiana's 5th District will not have representation due to the death of Republican Rep.-elect Luke Letlow. I

Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler is also running in Georgia's dual runoff elections Tuesday. Perdue's term finished at the end of the 116th Congress, so he is not included in the new Congress' numbers. Loeffler's term will continue unless she is defeated Tuesday, so she is counted.

There are five weeks to go until Election Day, but almost a million ballots have already been cast in this election, according to Michael McDonald, a turnout expert at the University of Florida who runs the U.S. Election Project, which tracks voting. That’s up from less than 10,000 early votes cast at this time four years ago.

Biden’s 2019 tax return shows taxable income of $944,737 and a federal tax bill of $299,346. Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, reported $3,018,127 in taxable income and paid $1,185,628 in taxes.

There are five weeks to go until Election Day, but almost a million ballots have already been cast in this election, according to Michael McDonald, a turnout expert at the University of Florida who runs the U.S. Election Project, which tracks voting. That’s up from less than 10,000 early votes cast at this time four years ago.

Chinese who are oppressed by local officials have sighed, by way of explanation: “The heavens are high, and the emperor far away.”

They want the masses to believe that, even in the remotest villages, their welfare is the concern of an all-knowing leader, Xi Jinping, served by officials striving to follow his stern but wise example.

A central task of the Xi era is to transform morale among the country’s 90m party members, including millions of bureaucrats.

OBARA HIROYUKI, a 33-year-old office worker in Tokyo, considered voting for the first time this year. But he overslept on October 31st—election day—and had other plans in the afternoon. When it comes to politics, “nothing grabs my attention,” he says. “Nobody around me votes—at work, there's a sense that you shouldn't talk about politics.”

news was even worse for Japan’s embattled opposition, which failed to make use of the political tailwinds. It could not motivate independent voters. And memories of its messy rule from 2009 to 2012 remain potent.

Along with its coalition partner, Komeito, the LDP kept control of the country's lower house despite posting its worst results since it briefly lost power in 2009:

according to an early analysis by the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), the physical damage already exceeded $68bn as of April 1st, equivalent to more than a third of Ukraine’s GDP in 2021.

$28bn worth of damage to roads

damage to bridges, ports and railways, and the infrastructure bill exceeds $58bn

On November 29th diplomats gathered for yet more negotiations meant to salvage the nuclear deal that Iran signed with six world powers in 2015, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The JCPOA set limits on Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of many international economic sanctions.

dirtiest companies for more than a century; now rwe is aiming to be among the cleanest

On October 1st it agreed to buy the renewable-energy business of Consolidated Edison (ConEd), an American utility, for $6.8bn. Three days later it signed an agreement with Germany’s regional and federal governments to bring forward plans to stop generating electricity with lignite, an especially filthy sort of coal, by eight years to 2030

The recent announcements are part of a much bigger realignment. In November last year it unveiled plans to invest €50bn ($50bn) to increase renewable-power capacity from 25 to 50 gigawatts (gw) within eight years, about a third of its current total.

On a day where, nationally, federal officials unveiled an initiative to address the affordable housing shortage, efforts to provide such opportunities in Wilmington were highlighted as an example of what was achievable when all levels of government and community worked together for the greater good. While U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Regional Administrator Matthew Heckle noted June is a month where homeownership is celebrated, he called June 1st a "national day of action" to answer President Joe Biden's call to "solve the housing supply deficit that our nation faces, and makes it so difficult for so many families to find, afford and keep a roof over their heads."

From the front yards of the Habitat For Humanity-built Amara Way II townhomes along Bennett Street in Wilmington--and across from the Amala Way I homes previously completed--HUD Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman said everywhere she travels across the country, she's heard from someone who's had trouble accessing home ownership.Luckily, she said, the problem is one that can be addressed, and through the Our Way Home initiative, HUD's "answer to the president's call to solve the housing supply deficit that our nation faces," the steps to do so are ones being accomplished in Wilmington already. 

"One of the reasons I love coming to events like this is that I pick up something, I learn something that I then talk about throughout the rest of the country," Todman said. "What you're doing here, I will be talking about in Nevada, in Idaho, in Florida, in Wyoming, because it's going to take this level of intentionality...for us to be moving forward as a country, as we should."Addressing housing issues should be everyone's focus, said U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, because it's the number one priority to be fixed that can impact all the other issues that drag a community down. Ensuring access to safe, affordable, quality housing trickles down to ultimately impacting issues in education, public health, public safety, and challenges with families, children, and seniors.