<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/57793649.cms" /><keyword id="4183479" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="alexander-acosta">Alexander Acosta</keyword>, the <keyword id="4328415" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Labour-Secretary-Nominee">Labour Secretary nominee</keyword> from the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/the-trump-administration-has-started-naming-and-shaming-sanctuary-cities/articleshow/57761776.cms">Trump administration</a>, has stressed H-1B work visa doesn’t intend to replace American workers. 
 
He also acknowledged that there is a shortage of skilled workers in the US. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/elizabeth-warren-has-a-major-issuewith-trumps-new-pick-for-labor-secretary/articleshow/57756994.cms">Elizabeth Warren has a major issue with Trump's new pick for Labor Secretary</a> 
 "Some <keyword id="30790" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Americans">Americans</keyword> have seen jobs go overseas. Some Americans have seen jobs filled by foreign workers. Indeed, I've read reports that some Americans have been asked to train their foreign replacements," he told Senators during his confirmation hearing. "And some Americans see that jobs are available, but these available jobs require skills that they do not have," he added. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/indians-dont-steal-jobs-they-create-them-says-ravi-shankar-prasad-amid-h1b-visa-row/articleshow/57689276.cms">Indians don’t steal jobs, they create them, says Ravi Shankar Prasad amid H1B visa row</a> 
 
While answering Senators, he said that it's an important issue and deserved to be looked at. 
 
"Particularly, when, in those circumstances that I highlighted where Americans are being asked to train their foreign replacements. That is not the intent of the H-1B," Acosta said. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/trump-order-or-not-this-is-how-indian-it-companies-are-already-changing-their-plans-as-h1b-visa-application-process-starts-next-month/articleshow/57752481.cms">Trump order or not, this is how Indian IT companies are changing plans as H1B visa application process starts next month</a> 
 
"So one question that I would have is, how often is that happening? Is that something that we should be looking at with greater degree of care? I think we also need to work with, public-private partnerships. I know that there is a lot of discussion about an infrastructure programme. An infrastructure programme will certainly bring back a lot of jobs," he said. 
 
He also expressed concern over the skill gap that pertains in the US. 
 
"As I visited with Members of this Committee, I repeatedly heard that in your states the jobs are there, but the skills too often are not. In one of your states, for example, a community college was teaching welding techniques that employers no longer used," he said. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/amidst-visa-uncertainty-in-us-mexico-encourages-firms-to-hire-foreign-talent/articleshow/57648490.cms">Amidst visa uncertainty in US, Mexico encourages firms to hire foreign talent</a> 
 
"Not surprisingly, the students could not get a job when they graduate. We can and must work to reduce the skills gap. We need to make better efforts to align job training with the skills the market demands of its workers, especially as advancing technology changes the types of jobs available in our economy," he added. 
 
(Image source: The Daily Signal)

Some Americans lack job skills, says Labour Secretary Nominee Alexander Acosta

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Sen. JD Vance joked about the UK being the first Islamist country with nuclear weapons.</li><li>UK Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner dismissed the comments, stating that the US is a "key ally."</li></ul>Just days before <a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-trump-selected-jd-dance-running-mate-vice-president-2024-7">Sen. JD Vance was chosen as Donald Trump's vice presidential nominee, </a>the Ohio native took a dig at one of the US's closest allies.At the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, DC, last week, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/AmMomentOrg/status/1811381270074495130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1811381270074495130%7Ctwgr%5Ee53557b61e5e4d15358cb2ca63963264f2dc08f3%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lbc.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fjd-vance-uk-islamist-nuclear-weapons-labour%2F">the Republican joked</a> that the UK is now the first Islamist country that has a nuclear weapon."I was talking with a friend recently and we were talking about, you know, one of the big dangers in the world, of course, is nuclear proliferation, though, of course, the Biden administration doesn't care about it," he said."And I was talking about, you know, what is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon, and we were like, maybe it's Iran, you know, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts, and then we sort of finally decided maybe it's actually the UK since Labour just took over."It came after the left-leaning Labour Party <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uk-labour-party-back-in-power-rishi-sunak-concede-defeat-2024-7">won the UK general election earlier this month, ending 14 years of Conservative Party rule.</a>But that wasn't the only dig he took at the UK at the conference, which was also attended by former UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman.Vance said: "The Brits, UK leaders should look out for citizens of the UK or subjects or whatever you guys call yourselves," referring to the fact that the country is still a constitutional monarchy.Despite these comments, Vance is known to have an amicable relationship with David Lammy, the UK's current foreign secretary. Lammy has referred to Vance as "my friend Senator Vance" and has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.politico.eu/podcast/power-play/labours-david-lammy-on-trump-visionary-margaret-thatcher-and-his-bid-to-be-the-uks-next-foreign-secretary/">praised his book, Hillbilly Elegy</a>.When the pair were on a panel together earlier this year at a security conference in Germany, Vance referred to Lammy as "my English friend," according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/16/trump-running-mate-jd-vance-uk-first-islamist-country-nuclear-weapon">The Guardian.</a>The UK's Deputy Prime Minister <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/jul/16/angela-rayner-islamist-labour-comment-jd-vance-keir-starmer-politics-live?page=with:block-669625cc8f08938d143b8a21">Angela Rayner reacted</a> to Vance's "fruity" comments on ITV's Good Morning Britain, saying: "I think political leaders across the world all have different opinions but we govern in the interests of our countries.""And the US is a key ally of ours and if the American people decide who their president and vice president is, we will work with them, of course, we will."Andrew Bowie, the Conservative shadow veterans minister in the UK, told <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/@ListenToTimesRadio">Times Radio</a> he "absolutely" disagreed that Labour was creating an "Islamist country.""I do not agree with that view, quite frankly. I think it's actually quite offensive, frankly, to my colleagues in the Labour party," he said.On Monday, Trump picked 39-year-old Vance to be the GOP nominee for vice president of the US. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-shot-dead-if-he-did-not-tilt-head-2024-7">It came just days after Trump was shot</a> by a gunman in an assassination attempt.Vance was previously critical of Trump and has compared him to Hitler. He has since backed Trump's views on everything from free trade to immigration.

JD Vance joked that Britain is now a nuclear-armed Islamist state because of its left-wing leaders

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="99719" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Joe-Biden">Joe Biden</keyword> triggered a row in the UK by threatening to veto a transatlantic trade deal if Prime Minister <keyword id="6380867" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="boris-johnson">Boris Johnson</keyword> breaks his <keyword id="6355333" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Brexit">Brexit</keyword> deal with the European Union.</li><li>Johnson has vowed to disapply the deal he signed with the EU over trade and border provisions with <keyword id="93500" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Northern-Ireland">Northern Ireland</keyword> — and to break <keyword id="6356001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> law in order to do so.</li><li>Senior congressional lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have told Johnson that there would be no free-trade deal with the US if he went ahead with this plan.</li><li>On Wednesday, Biden tweeted that any trade deal was "contingent upon respect for the Agreement and preventing the return of a hard border."</li><li>Johnson's supporters branded Biden a "Boris hater" and ordered him not to lecture the prime minister.</li></ul>Joe Biden enraged supporters of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday by threatening to veto a transatlantic trade deal if the UK goes ahead with its plan to break its Brexit agreement with the European Union.Johnson caused an international row this month when his government admitted that it <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brexit-brandon-lewis-uk-plans-break-international-law-northern-ireland-2020-9?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">planned to break international law</a> by overwriting its deal with the EU related to Northern Ireland.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a group of senior congressional lawmakers have said that any attempt to break the Brexit deal would wreck any hopes of a UK-US trade deal.Biden, the US Democratic presidential nominee, <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1306334039557586944?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> tweeted on Wednesday</a>: "We can't allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit. Any trade deal between the U.S. and U.K. must be contingent upon respect for the Agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period."Johnson's domestic opponents welcomed Biden's remark, with Lisa Nandy, the opposition Labour Party's shadow foreign secretary, <a href="https://twitter.com/lisanandy/status/1306354811554664448?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying that it showed</a> "the scale of the damage the Government have done to Britain's standing in the world."Conservative Party supporters of Johnson reacted furiously. Conor Burns, a former UK trade minister, <a href="https://twitter.com/ConorBurnsUK/status/1306350813489627138?utm_source=POLITICO.EU&amp;utm_campaign=b74ee9625b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_09_17_05_56&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_10959edeb5-b74ee9625b-1901217935b-190121793" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused Biden</a> of not understanding the Good Friday Agreement, while another former UK Cabinet minister <a href="https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/politico-london-playbook-joe-public-2-key-weeks-london-next/">told Politico Playbook</a> that Biden was a "Brexit and Boris hater" who "doesn't understand" the Northern Ireland issue.Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative leader, went further, telling Biden to stop lecturing the UK."We don't need lectures on the Northern Ireland peace deal from Mr. Biden," <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/do-not-lecture-britain-over-brexit-iain-duncan-smith-tells-joe-biden-zwcfx0n9w">he told The Times of London</a>. "If I were him I would worry more about the need for a peace deal in the USA to stop the killing and rioting before lecturing other sovereign nations."A spokesman for Johnson suggested on Thursday that Biden had misunderstood the government's plans."We continue to remain absolutely committed to no hard border and no border infrastructure between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and we will continue to engage with our US partners on a bipartisan basis to ensure our position is understood," the spokesman said.The UK's foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, went to Washington this week to reassure congressional lawmakers that Johnson's plan would not undermine the Good Friday Agreement and peace on the island of Ireland.However, Raab's attempts to calm fears across the Atlantic appeared to fail, as Biden warned the UK government that it risked jeopardizing any prospect of a post-Brexit free-trade agreement with the US.And following <a href="https://twitter.com/DominicRaab/status/1306362583662891008?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a meeting with Raab on Wednesday</a>, Pelosi reiterated her warning that there would be no UK-US free-trade deal if Johnson's government did not uphold the Northern Ireland protocol agreed with the EU last year.She <a href="https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/91620-2">said in a statement</a> that she told Raab that "if the U.K. violates its international agreements and Brexit undermines the Good Friday accord, there will be absolutely no chance of a U.S.-U.K. trade agreement passing the Congress."<div type="image" title="Dominic Raab Mike Pompeo" height="600" width="1200" msid="78168378" hostid="261"></div>Johnson's plan to disapply parts of the Northern Ireland protocol infuriated Brussels, with the EU threatening to take legal action against the UK unless it changed course. It also caused consternation in Westminster, with Johnson on Wednesday agreeing to give Parliament a vote on the move amid a rebellion from dozens of his own Conservative MPs.However, the interventions of several senior US politicians suggest that the move would damage the prospect of not only a UK trade deal with the EU but an agreement with the US.On Tuesday, four top US representatives — Eliot Engel, Richard Neal, William Keating, and Peter King — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brexit-four-congressmen-tell-johnson-to-abandon-brexit-plan-2020-9?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">told Johnson they were "disturbed" by the move</a>. "We therefore urge you to abandon any and all legally questionable and unfair efforts to flout the Northern Ireland protocol of the Withdrawal Agreement," they said in <a href="https://twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1305988117036445698?s=20">a letter</a>.Washington has a strong interest in how Brexit will affect Northern Ireland; the US played a key role in brokering peace in the province. There is fear that a failure to uphold the Northern Ireland protocol, designed to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, would lead to the return of physical border infrastructure between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.At a press conference on Wednesday, Raab risked further inflaming tensions with Brussels, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/dominic-raab-uk-foreign-secretary-blames-eu-for-threat-to-irish-border/">saying that any threat</a> to the Good Friday Agreement "has come from the EU's politicization of the issue" of Northern Ireland.

Joe Biden was told to stop 'lecturing' the UK after he warned Boris Johnson not to break his Brexit deal with the EU

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Long before former Vice President <keyword id="99719" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Joe-Biden">Joe Biden</keyword> became President <keyword id="6354484" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Donald-Trump">Donald Trump</keyword>'s reelection challenger — and even before Biden was VP — Trump chided him over a <keyword id="44359" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="plagiarism">plagiarism</keyword> scandal from earlier in his career.</li><li>In a 2008 CNN interview unearthed by Insider, Trump calls Biden's history of plagiarism "a very bad statement."</li><li>"You know, he's also been involved in pretty big controversy like plagiarism in college and various other things," Trump told <keyword id="859562" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Wolf-Blitzer">Wolf Blitzer</keyword> shortly after Biden was tapped as Obama's VP pick. "That's a pretty big statement."</li><li>Biden admitted to plagiarizing in an essay he submitted as a Syracuse Law student in 1965, to which Trump may have been referring.</li><li>In a forthcoming book from Mary Trump, President Trump's niece, he is accused of cheating on his SAT to get into the University of Pennsylvania by paying someone to take the test for him.</li></ul>President Donald Trump's new attack line on former Vice President Joe Biden isn't actually new.Last week, Trump <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhansen/2020/07/10/trump-accuses-biden-of-plagiarizing-his-economic-policy/#75054db65a84">accused Biden of plagiarism</a> on flimsy grounds when the former VP rolled out his "buy American" economic plan, but he has been vocal about Biden and plagiarism going back to 2008.In an interview transcript unearthed by Insider, the first thing Trump jumped to when asked to weigh in on Biden being picked as Obama's VP nominee was the Delawarean's history of plagiarism. This 2008 CNN interview sheds light on Trump's instincts when it comes to his 2020 opponent.Asked by Wolf Blitzer to offer his thoughts on Biden joining the ticket, Trump replied, "I really don't know Senator Biden but I know one thing. He's run a number of times for president. He's gotten less than 1 percent of the vote each time.""And that's a pretty tough thing," Trump continued. "You know, he's also been involved in pretty big controversy like plagiarism in college and various other things. That's a pretty big statement. So perhaps you change over a period of time. But when you plagiarize, that's a very bad statement."Leveling allegations of plagiarism may not be the sturdiest ground for Trump, given how his wife Melania was caught red-handed <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/melania-trump-plagiarism-speech-implications-2016-7">lifting lines from a Michelle Obama speech</a> in her 2016 Republican National Convention address, and now that Trump faces questions <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mary-trump-book-excerpt-sats-clown-allowance-tax-documents-2020-7">over cheating</a> on an SAT exam.There is no evidence Biden's 2020 campaign copied any verbiage or figures from Trump for it's "buy American" plan, though Biden's plan did earn begrudging <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/trump-2016-adviser-bannon-praises-bidens-buy-american-plan-i-tip-my-hat-to-them/">praise from Trump's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon</a>.<h2>'A pretty serious charge'</h2>In the 2008 sitdown with Blitzer, Trump went after Biden over plagiarism, but not the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/echoes-of-bidens-1987-plagiarism-scandal-continue-to-reverberate/2019/06/05/dbaf3716-7292-11e9-9eb4-0828f5389013_story.html">1987 plagiarism scandal</a> that has typically generated the most headlines. That involved media reports showing Biden appeared to lift passages from a British Labour Party politician, which contributed to his failed 1988 presidential bid."That hasn't been brought up yet, but I'm sure at some point it will," Trump continued. "I'm sure that Sarah Palin will bring it up in a debate or somebody's going to bring it up."Blitzer then asked if Trump was referring to the 1987 scandal. "No, I'm talking about when he was a college student as I understand it, and this was a big issue originally but he supposedly plagiarized as a college student," Trump replied. "That's a pretty serious charge."Biden did admit to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/09/18/biden-admits-plagiarizing-in-law-school/53047c90-c16d-4f3a-9317-a106be8f6102/">plagiarizing in an essay he submitted as a Syracuse Law student in 1965</a>, to which Trump may have been referring.Trump went on to paint Biden as a potentially weaker VP pick than Obama's longest standing opponent in the 2008 primary and his eventual secretary of state, Hillary Clinton."More importantly, he didn't get 1 percent of the vote," Trump said of Biden during the 2008 campaign, where he only made it to Iowa before dropping out."Hillary got more than 50 percent of the vote. So say why isn't he picking Hillary? It just doesn't make sense."A clip from Blitzer's 2008 interview with Trump made the rounds in late 2019 during the impeachment scandal — for different reasons. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JQKCF6d53Iw" frameborder="0"></iframe>Trump told Blitzer he thought House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should have moved to impeach then-President George W. Bush when the Democrats had the majority later in his presidency. Both instances point to Trump claiming to adhere to a relatively higher standard of conduct in office than he has demonstrated in his first three years in the White House. The Trump comments on Biden's plagiarism also stand out now that he has been accused of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-cheated-on-his-sat-penn-wharton-mary-trump-2020-7">cheating on his SAT</a>. Trump insisted Biden would have to answer for his plagiarism issues in his debate against Republican VP pick Sarah Palin, though the topic never came up."Maybe he has a fine answer and maybe it didn't take place," Trump told Blitzer. "I think it's pretty serious and a very serious charge."

Trump was interested in Joe Biden's 'very serious' plagiarism issues going back to a 2008 CNN interview

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5770b886dd0895db5f8b4a5c-1333/nypd police officer new york pride parade.jpg" alt="NYPD Police Officer New York Pride Parade" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Brendan McDermid" data-mce-caption="A New York City Police officer (NYPD) marches in the annual NYC Pride parade in New York City, New York, U.S., June 26, 2016." />REUTERS/Brendan McDermidA New York City Police officer (NYPD) marches in the annual NYC Pride parade in New York City, New York, U.S., June 26, 2016.</div></div></div>Hello! Here's what you need to know on Monday.1. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/labour-mutiny-2016-6">UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he won't resign from the leadership despite a full-scale coup against him</a>. Twelve members of the shadow cabinet have exited their positions.2. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/markets-had-their-worst-day-ever-hemorrhaging-2-trillion-the-day-after-the-brexit-2016-6">Markets had their worst day ever on Friday</a>, hemorrhaging $2 trillion the day after the Brexit vote.3. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/multiple-people-were-stabbed-at-a-brutal-anti-facist-rally-at-the-california-state-capitol-2016-6">Multiple people were stabbed after a brutal clash between a white supremacist group and counter-protestors in California</a>. Eight people were transported to a local hospital.4. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-spains-rajoy-claims-right-to-form-govt-after-poll-win-2016-6">Spain's acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy claimed the right to form a government</a>, after his conservative Popular Party won more seats in parliament.5. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-japan-pm-campaigns-on-stability-ticket-as-brexit-rocks-markets-2016-6">Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is campaigning on a "stability" ticket</a>. Abe is warning voters against casting their ballots for the opposition at a time when world financial markets are in turmoil.6. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/polls-donald-trump-hillary-2016-6">Presumptive US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is taking a nosedive in the polls</a>. A new poll found Trump trailing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by double digits.7. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-pope-says-church-should-ask-forgiveness-from-gays-for-past-treatment-2016-6">Pope Francis said the Catholic Church should ask for "forgiveness" from gays for past treatment</a>. He also said the Church should ask forgiveness for the way it has treated women, for turning a blind eye to child labor, and for "blessing so many weapons."8. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-cia-weapons-for-syrian-rebels-sold-to-arms-black-market-nyt-2016-6">CIA weapons meant for Syrian rebels were sold to arms merchants on the black market</a>, The New York Times reported.9. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-brexit-may-not-even-ever-happen-2016-6">The Brexit may not even ever happen</a>, as the "Leave" crowd is no longer riding high after their win.10. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chile-wins-copa-america-lionel-messi-pk-miss-2016-6">Chile won the Copa America</a>, thanks to one amazing save and one brutal miss by Argentina's Lionel Messi.And finally ...<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/best-business-books-to-read-this-summer-2016-6">The 23 best business books to read this summer</a>. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/best-time-rent-apartment-us-cities-renthop-2016-6">The best and worst months to rent an apartment in major US cities</a></h3> <div> <div> <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="43ankyNDE66UsoZpyT_zFFRF7ttuSOdY" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> <script> if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; } RunFunctions.push(function() { var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', '43ankyNDE66UsoZpyT_zFFRF7ttuSOdY',{ autoplay: 'false' }); }); </script> <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div> </div> <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script> </div>

The 10 most important things in the world right now

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Vice President <keyword id="264959" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mike-Pence">Mike Pence</keyword> and Democratic vice-presidential nominee <keyword id="180909" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Kamala-Harris">Kamala Harris</keyword> faced off Wednesday in their first and only debate of the 2020 campaign season.</li><li>The debate focused heavily on the Trump administration's handling of the <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword>, which has infected more than 7 million Americans and killed over 210,000.</li><li>This month the virus made its way to the highest levels of the US government, infecting more than two dozen people in President <keyword id="6354484" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Donald-Trump">Donald Trump</keyword>'s orbit, including him and first lady Melania Trump.</li><li>Other debate topics included the economy, climate change, healthcare, racial justice, and Trump's and Joe Biden's records.</li></ul>Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Wednesday faced off in the first and only vice-presidential debate of the <keyword id="7600569" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="2020-election">2020 election</keyword>.The debate came as the Trump administration is mired in the most serious public-health crisis of President Donald Trump's presidency. More than two dozen people in and around Trump's orbit have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.That includes the president and first lady Melania Trump, multiple current and former Republican lawmakers, the White House press secretary, Trump counselor Hope Hicks, head of the White House security office Crede Bailey, and others.The second-highest-ranking official in the Marine Corps and a senior Coast Guard admiral have also tested positive, and top military officials including the joint chiefs of staff have had to go into quarantine as a result.Pence had tested negative as of Wednesday, but the Biden campaign insisted that debate staff erect a plexiglass wall between Harris and the vice president and keep them more than 6 feet apart as a precautionary measure.Harris also tested negative on Wednesday.The debate focused heavily on the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. USA Today's Susan Page, who moderated the debate, also asked about key policies the two campaigns have put forward on issues like healthcare, climate change, the economy, the Supreme Court, and Trump's and Biden's respective governing records.<h3>Follow Business Insider's fact-check below:</h3>What they said: Pence said at the start of the debate that "from the very first day, President Donald Trump has put the health of Americans first" and that "he suspended all travel from China, the second-largest economy in the world. Joe Biden opposed that position — he said it was xenophobic and hysterical."Fact-check: Trump did not ban all travel from China. He restricted certain types of travel, and far from denigrating the president's decision as xenophobic, Biden's campaign expressed support for the move in April.What they said: Pence accused the Biden campaign of drawing from the Trump administration's COVID-19 policies, saying: "When you read the Biden plan, it looks an awful lot what President Trump, the task force, and I have been doing. It looks a little bit like plagiarism, something Joe Biden knows a little bit about."Fact-check: Pence was likely referring to the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/plagiarism-scandal-joe-biden-first-presidential-run-1988-2019-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plagiarism controversy</a> that doomed Biden's 1988 presidential run. Specifically, as Business Insider previously reported, Biden lifted portions of a speech by Neil Kinnock, a UK Labour MP and Margaret Thatcher challenger. And, according to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/18/us/biden-admits-plagiarism-in-school-but-says-it-was-not-malevolent.html">1987 article in The New York Times</a>, Biden acknowledged plagiarizing a law-review journal for a paper during law school, and asked school administrators not to be expelled. Biden later said he had made a mistake in the citation process.What they said: Harris accused Trump of calling the COVID-19 pandemic a "hoax."Fact-check: This was a misleading statement. Trump was not referring to the pandemic specifically as a hoax but rather to Democratic lawmakers' criticism of his administration's handling of the virus."Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus," the president said in February at a campaign rally. "You know that, right? Coronavirus. They're politicizing it. We did one of the great jobs. You say, 'How's President Trump doing?' They go, 'Oh, not good, not good.' They have no clue. They don't have any clue. They tried anything, they tried it over and over, they've been doing it since you got in. It's all turning, they lost, it's all turning. Think of it. Think of it. And this is their new hoax."What they said: "We're going to have a vaccine in less than a year, in unheard of time, we're producing tens of millions of doses," Pence said.Fact-check: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US's top infectious-disease expert, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-fauci-vaccine-inte/fauci-expects-tens-of-millions-of-coronavirus-vaccine-doses-at-start-of-2021-idUSKCN2512Z4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Reuters</a> in an interview that pharmaceutical companies would likely have tens of millions of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine available by early 2021 and as many as a billion doses available by the end of the same year.Fauci also told a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing in September that by November there would "probably be maybe 50 million doses available. By December maybe another 100-plus million. And then you get into January and February. By the time you get to April, it'll be a total of about 700 million."He added: "They will be rolling in as the months go by and by the time you get to maybe the third or fourth month of 2021, then you'll have doses for everyone."What they said: Pence accused Biden of wanting to raise taxes across the board, seeking to "bury our economy in a $2 trillion Green New Deal," and attempting to "abolish fossil fuels and ban fracking."Fact-check: Biden's <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/joe-biden-tax-plan-2020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tax plan</a> would raise taxes only on Americans making more than $400,000 a year. He also explicitly said that he <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/19/fact-check-joe-biden-doesnt-want-ban-all-fracking-only-new-permits/3215253001/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">would not ban fracking</a> and that he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/30/politics/joe-biden-green-new-deal-fact-check/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">did not support the Green New Deal</a>, though his climate plan did feature some similarities to the plan. In fact, Biden's lack of support for the Green New Deal was one of the main reasons progressive lawmakers including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were hesitant to throw their support behind the former vice president.What they said: Pence, responding to a question about the Trump and Biden campaigns' approach to climate change, said that "our air and land is cleaner than ever recorded."Fact-check: This is not true. As <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/does-the-us-have-the-cleanest-air-in-the-world-2018-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Business Insider reported</a>, "the <a href="https://epi.envirocenter.yale.edu/epi-indicator-report/AIR">Environmental Performance Index</a>, a metric from environmental scientists at Yale and Columbia that ranks 180 countries around the world, puts the US in 10th place when it comes to overall air quality (Australia is first)."Moreover, contrary to Trump's and Pence's claims, "air in the country is actually getting dirtier and more dangerous to breathe under his administration," the report said.What they said: "When we look at where this administration has been, there are estimates that by the end of the term of this administration, they will have lost more jobs than almost any other presidential administration," Harris said.Fact-check: President George W. Bush "inherited 4.2% unemployment in January 2001," a rate that had "grown to 7.8% when he left office eight years later," <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/11/7/9684780/unemployment-rate-obama" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vox reported</a>. When Trump took office, he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/09/05/trump-obama-economy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inherited a 4.2% unemployment rate</a> from Obama. The current unemployment rate is 8.4%.CNN also <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/04/economy/august-jobs-report-trump-jobs-record/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that job losses during Trump's first term were the worst of any president in recorded American history, though there were fewer jobs when President Herbert Hoover left the White House than when he took office.What they said: Pence said that Iran's top military general, Qassem Soleimani, was traveling to Baghdad to harm Americans when Trump ordered the drone strike that killed him.Fact-check: The Trump administration has repeatedly said this but never provided evidence of an imminent threat to American lives at the time of Soleimani's assassination.What they said: Pence claimed Biden opposed the raid against Osama bin Laden.Fact-check: Biden <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/23/joe-biden-claim-he-opposed-taking-out-osama-bin-laden/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">urged caution</a> and said then-President Barack Obama should gather more intelligence before the raid, but he did not oppose the measure.What they said: Pence said that Biden and Harris "support taxpayer-funded abortion all the way up to the moment of birth — late-term abortion."Fact-check: This is one of the most common false claims Republicans amplify about Democrats' position on access to abortion. Biden and Harris do not support requiring taxpayer-funded abortions for all. Biden's campaign platform includes codifying the protections of Roe v. Wade into federal law with legislation, funding Planned Parenthood, eliminating the "global gag rule," which limits funding for NGOs working abroad that provide information on abortion, and reinstating the Affordable Care Act's mandate for contraceptive coverage.What they said: Harris accused Trump of refusing to condemn white supremacists at the first presidential debate, of saying that there were "very fine people" on both sides of a racist, neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 that resulted in the death of a counterprotester.Fact-check: Trump was asked to explicitly denounce white supremacists and the Proud Boys, a racist far-right group, at last week's debate and refused to do so, saying instead that the Proud Boys should "stand back and stand by."The group <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/proud-boys-are-use-trump-remark-to-rebrand-recruit-2020-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">celebrated Trump's comments</a> afterward as an endorsement of their ideology and used it to recruit new members. Trump also refused to condemn neo-Nazis after the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville and said there was violence "on many sides."Shortly after, several prominent white nationalists and neo-Nazis <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/neo-nazis-celebrate-trumps-remarks-about-charlottesville-riots-2017-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">praised</a> Trump's comments.What they said: Pence said that Biden "spent the last three and a half years trying to overturn the results of the last election." He added: "When Joe Biden was vice president of the United States, the FBI actually spied on President Trump and my campaign. I mean, there were documents released this week that the CIA actually made a referral to the FBI documenting that those allegations were actually coming from the [Hillary Clinton] campaign."Pence also said that the FBI's investigation into Russia's election interference and whether the Trump campaign conspired with Moscow found that there was "no obstruction, no collusion, case closed."Fact-check: The Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz determined after an internal investigation that the FBI had an "authorized purpose" to launch the investigation and that it was not motivated by political bias. He faulted the bureau for violating protocol when applying for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to monitor the communications of Trump campaign advisor, Carter Page. But he did not uncover evidence that the FBI improperly or illegally "spied" on the Trump campaign, as Pence and Trump have repeatedly alleged.The "documents" Pence was referring to were notes that the director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, declassified and released to the public this week. The notes were written by then-CIA Director John Brennan and described narratives that Russian intelligence operatives were pushing about the 2016 election. Specifically, Brennan wrote that Russian intelligence was promoting an allegation that a foreign policy advisor to Clinton cooked up a plan "to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service."The special counsel Robert Mueller also did not conclude that there was "no obstruction" and "no collusion" related to the Russia investigation. Instead, his team said it did not find sufficient evidence to charge anyone on the Trump campaign for conspiring with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 race. Mueller also declined to make a "traditional prosecutorial judgment" on whether Trump obstructed justice, citing a longstanding DOJ policy that says a sitting president cannot be indicted.Moreover, Mueller's team specified that the remedy to hold a president accountable for wrongdoing lay with Congress, and that if prosecutors had confidence Trump did not commit a crime, they would have said so.Joe Perticone and Grace Panetta contributed reporting.

Fact-checking the vice-presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/588fb86447575224008b5809-2400/undefined" alt="donald trump playing golf" data-mce-source="REUTERS/David Moir" data-mce-caption="Real estate magnate Donald Trump (R) plays golf during the opening of his Trump International Golf Links golf course near Aberdeen, northeast Scotland July 10, 2012. " />REUTERS/David MoirReal estate magnate Donald Trump (R) plays golf during the opening of his Trump International Golf Links golf course near Aberdeen, northeast Scotland July 10, 2012. </div></div></div>For weeks, Wall Street has been celebrating President Donald Trump's promises of deregulation and tax cuts, heralding his administration as a new era of good feelings for business.The words have become as ubiquitous as the word 'disruption' is in Silicon Valley. They're used to explain everything from coming GDP growth, to corporate earnings strength, to a potential flurry of M&amp;A deals and more - really, whatever Wall Street wants. Here's Deutsche Bank's "House View" of 2017 towing the party line in a recent note:The defining feature of Trump's economic approach is likely to be a rebalancing of the policy mix away from the exclusive reliance on easy monetary policy towards a more balanced reliance on deregulation of economic activity, supported by an expansionary fiscal policy as a means to jump-start the US economy... This policy will be successful in moving the US economy away from low-growth secular stagnation towards significantly more buoyant performance...The business background of many of the key members of President-elect Trump's new cabinet makes it highly likely that there will be a strong and concerted emphasis on lifting the heavy regulatory burdens imposed on the US business sector by the outgoing administration. We expect quick progress in reforming the corporate tax system and in rationalizing the regulation of energy, finance, environment, healthcare, labour markets and the welfare system. These policies should help raise productivity enough to make higher growth rates sustainable in the long-term after the initial stimulus wears off.Now if you believe all of this, then the coming years should be great for Wall Street. Tax reform and deregulation efforts should go swiftly, and that, as Trump's nominee for Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in his Senate testimony should combine with a more independent energy policy to get the US to 4% GDP growth. He wasn't clear on where he's getting those numbers. And worse than that, some of the more free market things he said during his testimony didn't jibe with what Trump or his surrogates said on the campaign trail, or what's written in his policy notes.That's because a lot of the details of Trump's policies aren't actually business-guy speak at all.<h1>On trade</h1>So far Deutche Bank has been horribly wrong about the "defining feature of Trump's economic approach." It hasn't been deregulation and an "expansionary fiscal policy" (fancy words for stimulus), it's been trade.And, everything Trump said about trade on the campaign trail - which he is now forcing us all to take quite literally - happens to be terrible for business. Deutsche Bank gave this a passing acknowledgement in its note saying simply: "uncertainty about the Trump administration's policies is still large, as is the reaction of those impacted by these policies."Well now we know more about the policies and we know more about the reactions. Neither has been great. Trump wants to rip up bilateral trade deals and renegotiate them one by one. In an interview with Business Insider, trade policy expert and Carnegie Mellon economics professor Lee Branstetter told us that this might not be the best idea."That is an incredibly expensive time consuming way to recreate what you already have," he said.Last week Trump described how he'd be doing that - basically handing countries a list of demands, giving them 30 days to respond, and then - if they do not comply, he'd hit them with tariffs. Making demands is an excellent way to upset a country, as we learned last week when Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto canceled a meeting with Trump after he demanded Mexico pay for the border wall in badly timed a Tweet.This is the kind of manic communication that insults nations and starts trade wars. If Trump keeps insulting countries like Mexico and China, they can retaliate and put thousands of American jobs at risk.Branstetter told us that, if you know anything about the Chinese, you should know they're already ready to retaliate if they feel they've been hit first. Hit doesn't even mean economically either. In an interview with NBC, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the One China policy - the recognition that Taiwan is a part of China - is not up for debate. Violating that would be grounds for retaliation, and Trump has already tested it by calling the President of Taiwan.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/588fb8c2713ba1632e8b542f-1333/undefined" alt="Xi Jinping" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Denis Balibouse" data-mce-caption="Chinese President Xi Jinping attends a meeting at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, January 18, 2017." />REUTERS/Denis BalibouseChinese President Xi Jinping attends a meeting at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, January 18, 2017.</div></div></div><h1>On tax reform</h1>There are two important caveats to the Wall Street's joy over tax reform that must be acknowledged. First, it may not happen the way Wall Street thinks it will. Secondly, if it does happen they way it's written right now, it won't be as fun for business as Wall Street has claimed.There's one Wall Street analyst who has been awake to this complexity. Shout out to Michael Zezas over at Morgan Stanley. He thinks the passing the legislation might be more difficult than most of Wall Street is anticipating, especially if it's not going to add to the deficit. Here's what he said in a recent note called "Reality Bites":Execution risks around the policy agenda mean a wider range of outcomes: positive stimulus possibilities are now accompanied by greater risk of gridlock For example, we think Republicans will ultimately achieve tax reform by forgoing permanence to allow some near-term deficit expansion. This moderates some of their more controversial proposals while preserving tax-rate-cut targets. We concede that risks to this view have risen as internal party disagreements could bog down the legislative agenda. In short, Zezas is saying that there may be a fight between the deficit hawks and Trump's stimulus backers, and that that fight could turn (what are ostensibly) Paul Ryan's bold tax reform plans into something more watered down.That's one part. The other is the actual details of the plan, which are so dramatic they have the ability to make or break businesses.This is why some in the business world are already protesting. The Koch Network, the foundation funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, put out a statement this weekend on its opposition to border adjustment. It's a part of Paul Ryan's proposed tax plan that would basically put a tariff on all imports. The point of it is to raise revenue to offset tax cuts, and to encourage businesses to stay in the country.Mark Holden, the co-chairman of the Koch Seminar Network, called it a <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/444375/koch-network-ready-fight-border-adjustment-tax">"tax on people that shouldn't be taxed."</a> This policy, Holden said, would be one of the first things the foundation would be thinking about when it decides which politicians to support in 2018 and 2020 elections.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/588fb91d475752f76d8b477d-2400/ap646176773153.jpg" alt="David Koch" data-mce-source="AP Photo/FIle" data-mce-caption="David Koch." />AP Photo/FIleDavid Koch.</div></div></div>In other words, if you're a politician and you want Koch money, you better be ready to fight this.This won't be the only part of the reform package that big business will hate either. The plan eliminates the deduction for net interest on future loans. Tell that to a real estate executive and watch them tear their hair out.And let's not even talk about companies that have moved their businesses abroad, and then used this deduction to pay almost nothing on earnings made in the U.S. As we've written before, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-tax-plan-could-knee-cap-a-bunch-of-huge-companies-2016-12">they're about to get knee-capped.</a> So this is not a business Bonanza for everyone across the board. There are levels to this stuff.<h1>On deregulation</h1>We only really know two specific(ish) things about Trump's stance on deregulation.We know that Trump said he would be doing a "big number" on Dodd-Frank, the post-financial crisis regulation meant to rein in Wall Street. This could be good, to be fair, analysts have been arguing for years that community and regional banks have been treated too harshly by these rules, and would lend more if they were less regulated. So perhaps - and hopefully - that's what he's talking about.But it also could mean Wall Street becomes reckless again and trades us into another disaster.The other thing we know is that on Monday President Trump signed an executive order saying that if a piece of regulation is added to a law, two pieces of regulation must be revoked. That means anyone writing a regulation has to do the extra work of proposing two regulations to drop. If you're looking for a speedy way to write laws, this isn't it.It's also, according to Columbia University political science professor Gregory Wawro "not a legitimate use of presidential authority."<a href="https://qz.com/898223/trumps-latest-executive-order-forces-government-agencies-to-revoke-two-regulations-for-every-new-one-made/">From Quartz:</a> "The president cannot repeal statutes," Wawro said. "If the law gives agencies authority to make regulations, in order to remove that authority, then you have to pass a new statute revoking that authority. You'd have to go through Congress." Now, I understand why CEOs are going to Trump to kiss the ring and make positive statements about his policies - they have businesses to run and employees to think of. But Wall Street, which is supposed to be churning out thoughtful analysis of what's to come, should be ashamed of itself.For months Trump's surrogates have been telling us not to take him literally, but he's been following through with the things he's said. Based on the things he's said, he's hardly a capitslist, he's a populist who is willing to use the state to refashion the economy the way it sees fit.That isn't pro-business and it isn't pro-Wall Street. The sooner analysts stop being cheerleaders and wake up to that fact, the better they'll do. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/red-flags-goldman-sachs-bank-interviews-jobs-2017-1">This behavior could kill your chances in a Goldman Sachs interview</a></h3> <div> <div> <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="wxbjFnMzE6KLizh2hBTQSDvLOgNQGzpH" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> <script> if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; } RunFunctions.push(function() { var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'wxbjFnMzE6KLizh2hBTQSDvLOgNQGzpH',{ autoplay: 'false' }); }); </script> <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div> </div> <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script> </div>

You Searched For "Labour Secretary Nominee" and got 7 results

Some Americans lack job skills, says Labour Secretary Nominee Alexander Acosta

BI India Bureau

JD Vance joked that Britain is now a nuclear-armed Islamist state because of its left-wing leaders

Hannah Abraham

Joe Biden was told to stop 'lecturing' the UK after he warned Boris Johnson not to break his Brexit deal with the EU

Adam Payne,Adam Bienkov

Trump was interested in Joe Biden's 'very serious' plagiarism issues going back to a 2008 CNN interview

Jake Lahut,Kayla Epstein,Darren Samuelsohn

The 10 most important things in the world right now

Peter Jacobs

Fact-checking the vice-presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris

Sonam Sheth,John Haltiwanger

Wall Street is going to regret how lazy it's work on Trumpenomics has been

Linette Lopez