Former Astronaut Launches Texas Senate Run by Hitting Both Parties
Mr. Virts' official announcement video was revealing in two ways. It reflected the growing hunger among Democratic outsiders to take on President Trump. And it underscored how such outsiders believe the best way to do that is to also take on the Democratic leaders in Washington.
'Trump's chaos must be stopped,' Mr. Virts said in the video. 'But leadership is M.I.A.,' he added over an image of the Senate's Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer of New York.
Mr. Virts, who describes himself as a 'common sense Democrat,' emphasized the point in a telephone interview on Monday. 'The Texas senator should not work for the senator from New York,' he said. 'I'm going to work for Texas voters.'
He said he was willing to break with the national party on issues such as immigration, which he says he supports only if it is legal. 'The Democratic Party, for some inexplicable reason, gaslit us and told everybody that, 'Hey, this illegal immigration is OK,' and voters knew that it wasn't,' he said.
Democrats in Texas, who have not won statewide office since the 1990s, have become hopeful about their chances in 2026, particularly if Mr. Cornyn is defeated in the Republican primary next year by the state's hard-right attorney general, Ken Paxton.
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CNN
28 minutes ago
- CNN
‘How's Imelda?': Trump's connection to Philippine leader may be through his mother
Like most foreign leaders coming to visit President Donald Trump, the Philippines' Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will look to make a personal connection with his American counterpart on Tuesday as he seeks a new trade deal. For Marcos, the connection may be his mother. 'How's Imelda?' Trump asked the Philippine leader when they first spoke in November, according to an official familiar with the call, sending his regards to the onetime first lady of the Philippines and a fellow cultural figurehead of the 1980s and 90s. Trump has long placed a premium on family ties and genetics as a measure of people's value, including for foreign leaders and members of his staff. He appeared to be impressed in the lead-up to Tuesday's meeting with Marcos Jr.'s connections to an infamous period in Philippine history, according to a person familiar with the matter. Trump and Imelda Marcos first crossed paths decades ago as members of the international jet set — he as a New York businessman and she as the wife of strongman leader Ferdinand Marcos, famous for her extravagant taste financed by public funds and amassing a massive collection of shoes while her husband imposed martial law. The two attended parties together in New York, including during the period when Imelda Marcos and her husband were forced into exile in Hawaii after being unseated by a popular uprising. They fled the country with crates of gold and pesos. Images show Trump seated alongside his second wife Marla Maples and the glamorous Imelda Marcos at a birthday party in New York in 1991 — ten months before she returned to the Philippines after six years to face graft charges. She went on to have a successful political career herself, elected four times to the House of Representatives for the Philippines, and saw her family name restored to power when her son — known universally by his nickname Bongbong — was elected president in 2022. It wasn't until 2018 that Imelda Marcos was finally convicted on graft charges and sentenced to 42 years in prison; she has remained free in her advanced age (she is 96). For her son, the familial connection may prove useful as he seeks to avoid tariffs and deepen longstanding US-Philippines defense agreements. He will be the first southeast Asian leader to meet Trump since his second term began. Marcos hopes to leverage deep historic ties with the Philippines — the oldest US alliance in the Pacific and a key counterweight to China — for an advantageous trade deal that would avoid the 20% tariff Trump has threatened. Ahead of Tuesday's visit, Philippine officials voiced hope the family ties would translate into a positive meeting. 'That connection, that personal connection obviously is significant in the sense that we all know President Trump is very personal in his relationships with world leaders. And I think that that connection tells you how he values friendship and it is an advantage obviously for the Philippines that President Marcos has that personal connection with President Trump,' Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel 'Babe' Romualdez said. The White House said Trump is looking forward to Marcos' visit, 'where they will discuss cooperation in various areas such as our shared commitment to upholding a free, open, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific and advancing shared economic prosperity,' according to a White House official. 'The friendship between the United States and the Philippines is rooted in our long history, marked this year by the 80th anniversary of the shared sacrifice that led to victory in World War II.' Marcos' accommodation for his stay in Washington will be the presidential guest quarters at Blair House, where his father and mother stayed during a visit to Ronald Reagan decades ago.
Fast Company
29 minutes ago
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AstraZeneca announces $50 billion investment in U.S. as Trump's tariffs loom
AstraZeneca plans to spend $50 billion to expand manufacturing and research capabilities in the U.S. by 2030, it said on Monday, the latest big investment by a pharmaceutical company reacting to President Donald Trump's tariff policy. The investment will fund a new drug manufacturing facility in Virginia and expand research and development (R&D) and cell therapy manufacturing in Maryland, Massachusetts, California, Indiana and Texas, it said in a statement. It will also upgrade the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker's U.S. clinical trial supply network and support ongoing investment in novel medicines. On Monday, AstraZeneca said the expansion supports its ambition to reach $80 billion in annual revenue by 2030, with half coming from the U.S. The U.S. accounted for more than 40% of AstraZeneca's annual revenue in 2024, and the company had been prioritising the market — the world's largest, worth $635 billion — before Trump's return to office. The move to scale up its U.S. footprint is the latest by a drugmaker as Trump threatens to impose import tariffs on the industry and seeks to boost domestic manufacturing. The sector has historically been spared from trade disputes. Trump has called on pharma companies to make more of the medicines they sell in the U.S. within the country, rather than importing active ingredients or finished medicines. He is also pushing for prices in the U.S. to fall to what other countries pay. CEO Pascal Soriot announced the plans in Washington, saying he believes that drug prices need to rise elsewhere and 'equalize' with other countries effectively contributing more to research and development costs. 'The United States cannot build or carry the cost of R&D for the entire world,' he said. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's department is leading a probe into pharmaceutical imports that could pave the way for new tariffs. 'For decades Americans have been reliant on foreign supply of key pharmaceutical products. President Trump and our nation's new tariff policies are focused on ending this structural weakness,' said Lutnick in a statement issued by AstraZeneca. While Trump has repeatedly threatened tariffs on the sector, he signalled earlier this month that companies would be given a year to 18 months to 'get their act together' before any levies take effect. The company said that the timing and location of the announcement was linked to the U.S. policy environment, though some of the spending would have occurred regardless so that the infrastructure for future medicines was in place. The pledge is in addition to the $3.5 billion in investments the company announced in November 2024, the statement said. PLEDGES The $50 billion pledge matches the commitment announced by Swiss rival Roche in April and follows new spending plans unveiled this year by Eli Lilly & Co, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, and Sanofi. Also present at the announcement was Virginia State Governor Glenn Youngkin, a vocal Trump ally who has defended the administration's tariff policies. The new Virginia facility — the company's largest single manufacturing investment — will produce active ingredients for AstraZeneca's experimental weight-loss medicines, including its oral GLP-1 candidate and an oral PCSK9 inhibitor for cholesterol management, it said. The company said the investment could create tens of thousands of new jobs, but declined to give specifics. It employs about 18,000 people in the U.S. and has a global workforce of about 90,000. In January it scrapped plans to invest 450 million pounds ($607.1 million) in its vaccine manufacturing plant in northern England, citing a cut in government support. Earlier this month, The Times reported the company was considering moving its stock market listing from London, where it is the exchange's most valuable company worth 159 billion pounds, to the U.S. The company declined to comment.
CNN
30 minutes ago
- CNN
‘How's Imelda?': Trump's connection to Philippine leader may be through his mother
Like most foreign leaders coming to visit President Donald Trump, the Philippines' Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will look to make a personal connection with his American counterpart on Tuesday as he seeks a new trade deal. For Marcos, the connection may be his mother. 'How's Imelda?' Trump asked the Philippine leader when they first spoke in November, according to an official familiar with the call, sending his regards to the onetime first lady of the Philippines and a fellow cultural figurehead of the 1980s and 90s. Trump has long placed a premium on family ties and genetics as a measure of people's value, including for foreign leaders and members of his staff. He appeared to be impressed in the lead-up to Tuesday's meeting with Marcos Jr.'s connections to an infamous period in Philippine history, according to a person familiar with the matter. Trump and Imelda Marcos first crossed paths decades ago as members of the international jet set — he as a New York businessman and she as the wife of strongman leader Ferdinand Marcos, famous for her extravagant taste financed by public funds and amassing a massive collection of shoes while her husband imposed martial law. The two attended parties together in New York, including during the period when Imelda Marcos and her husband were forced into exile in Hawaii after being unseated by a popular uprising. They fled the country with crates of gold and pesos. Images show Trump seated alongside his second wife Marla Maples and the glamorous Imelda Marcos at a birthday party in New York in 1991 — ten months before she returned to the Philippines after six years to face graft charges. She went on to have a successful political career herself, elected four times to the House of Representatives for the Philippines, and saw her family name restored to power when her son — known universally by his nickname Bongbong — was elected president in 2022. It wasn't until 2018 that Imelda Marcos was finally convicted on graft charges and sentenced to 42 years in prison; she has remained free in her advanced age (she is 96). For her son, the familial connection may prove useful as he seeks to avoid tariffs and deepen longstanding US-Philippines defense agreements. He will be the first southeast Asian leader to meet Trump since his second term began. Marcos hopes to leverage deep historic ties with the Philippines — the oldest US alliance in the Pacific and a key counterweight to China — for an advantageous trade deal that would avoid the 20% tariff Trump has threatened. Ahead of Tuesday's visit, Philippine officials voiced hope the family ties would translate into a positive meeting. 'That connection, that personal connection obviously is significant in the sense that we all know President Trump is very personal in his relationships with world leaders. And I think that that connection tells you how he values friendship and it is an advantage obviously for the Philippines that President Marcos has that personal connection with President Trump,' Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel 'Babe' Romualdez said. The White House said Trump is looking forward to Marcos' visit, 'where they will discuss cooperation in various areas such as our shared commitment to upholding a free, open, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific and advancing shared economic prosperity,' according to a White House official. 'The friendship between the United States and the Philippines is rooted in our long history, marked this year by the 80th anniversary of the shared sacrifice that led to victory in World War II.' Marcos' accommodation for his stay in Washington will be the presidential guest quarters at Blair House, where his father and mother stayed during a visit to Ronald Reagan decades ago.
