US condemns attack in Moscow calling ISIS ‘a common terrorist enemy’: Latest updates

White House statement offers deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones

Biden launches ad answering Trump’s question: ‘Were you better off four years ago?’

The US has condemned Friday’s terror attack on a concert in Moscow. A statement from the White House called perpetrators ISIS “a common terrorist enemy that must be defeated everywhere”.

Meanwhile, a US government shutdown has been averted after the Senate passed a $1.2trn spending package in a 2am vote 74-24. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on Saturday. It will keep the federal government open until the end of fiscal year 2024 on 30 September.

The House of Representatives passed the spending package 286 to 134, surpassing the two-thirds majority needed. Calling it a “betrayal of Republican voters”, a furious Marjorie Taylor Greene initiated the process to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson.

In 2024 election news, the Biden campaign is mocking Donald Trump as “Broke Don” after the latest Federal Election Commission filings revealed the president’s fundraising is far outstripping his Republican rival and he faces hundreds of millions of dollars in civil judgments in New York.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris toured the blood-stained classroom building where the 2018 Parkland high school massacre occurred. Accompanied by some victims’ family members, she spoke about gun violence prevention efforts.

Key Points

• US condemns attack in Moscow calling ISIS ‘a common terrorist enemy’
• Biden signs bipartisan government funding bill
• Congress passes $1.2trn spending package as Rep Greene files motion to oust Mike Johnson
• Biden taunts ‘Broke Don’ over fundraising woes
• President extends donations lead over Trump but poll sees him losing key swing states
• Parnas dishes dirt on Giuliani and escaping the ‘Trump cult’ in madcap Biden impeachment hearing

[26 March 2024 20:00 · Oliver O'Connell]

Abortion rights: Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dust off 150-year-old Comstock Act

Alex Woodward reports:

The US Supreme Court appears unlikely to agree with anti-abortion activists who want to overturn the federal government’s approval of a widely used abortion drug, a proposal that could have profound and far-reaching consequences for millions of Americans’ healthcare.

A majority of justices on the nine-member court on Tuesday were sceptical that a group of anti-abortion doctors have sufficient legal grounds to bring the case against the US Food and Drug Administration, which first approved the drug mifepristone in the year 2000.

But during Tuesday’s oral arguments in a case targeting the drug, at least two conservative justices floated the idea of dusting off a 151-year-old law that abortion rights advocates fear could be used to further strip access in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to revoke Americans’ constitutional right to abortion care.

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[26 March 2024 20:30 · Oliver O'Connell]

Biden gaining ground on Trump in swing states, new poll shows

President Joe Biden is erasing his polling deficit with his likely Republican election opponent in a number of key states that will decide the outcome of this year’s presidential contest, according to a new survey by Bloomberg and Morning Consult.

The survey of 4,392 registered voters, which took place from 8 March to 15 March, found that Biden either tightened his margin against Donald Trump or overtook the ex-president in six of seven states, with the largest polling shift coming in Wisconsin, where Badger State respondents gave the 46th president a one-point lead, 46 per cent to Trump’s 45 per cent.

The president’s slim advantage over the man he defeated four years ago comes just one month after a similar survey showed Mr Trump leading Biden by four per cent.

Andrew Feinberg has more.