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Feud between Mace and Mills flares as the Republicans trade barbs, expulsion threats

Kraig Pakulski 0 10 Article rating: No rating

By Sarah Ferris, Ellis Kim, CNN

(CNN) — A deeply personal grudge between a pair of Republicans — Reps. Cory Mills of Florida and Nancy Mace of South Carolina — has escalated on Capitol Hill, as Mills accused his long-time foe of trying to profit off efforts to oust him.

The spat between the two firebrand conservatives is gaining traction in the halls of Congress and online among the MAGA base at a precarious time for President Donald Trump’s party. GOP leadership is already struggling to keep its razor-thin majority on track to advance key priorities — and needs every one of its Republican seats.

While Mills and Mace have traded personal barbs for years, some of their more serious threats in recent days could jeopardize the fragile GOP unity in Congress. The two have floated bringing dueling expulsion measures — the most severe consequence possible for a member of Congress — in direct defiance of GOP leaders’ pleas to keep the peace in their party.

Speaker Mike Johnson, who governs the House with just a two-vote margin, made clear to reporters Monday evening that he did not support members of his party going after each other.

“It is not something I encourage, no. Look, we have a process here,” Johnson said, adding later: “So no, I’m not in favor.”

Mills has since backed down from his threat to force an ouster vote against Mace — but Mace has only appeared to embrace the stand-off, telling CNN: “Bring it on.” If a vote takes place, it could cause ugly divisions in the narrowly divided House GOP, with significant implications for Johnson’s tiny majority.

Asked about Mace’s expulsion push on Tuesday, Mills dismissed it as “political theatrics for fundraising,” lashing out at Mace for singling him out for allegations that he said have never been proven by a court or an independent watchdog.

He went directly after the congresswoman, calling her out for “always creating drama” with the intent of raising money, but then not following through with her threats. Mace is currently threatening to force a vote to expel Mills on the floor, but she has not yet triggered it.

“If you’re going to file a resolution, why not call it a privileged motion where you can actually put it on the floor for a vote? Why just fundraise off of it?” Mills said of Mace.

CNN has reached out to Mace for comment on the fundraising allegation.

A Defiant Mills says he won’t resign

Mills told CNN on Tuesday he would not resign from Congress, despite calls from some in his own party to step down amid questions over sexual misconduct and other allegations.

“There’s absolutely no reason to resign,” he told CNN, adding that Johnson has told him in conversations not to. “He told me not to resign, and he told me that this is why we have this process.”

Johnson has told reporters he would not call for Mills’ expulsion while an active ethics probe plays out.

The House Ethics Committee is currently looking into multiple allegations made against Mills, including campaign finance violations and sexual misconduct. The Florida congressman has also been under investigation by DC police for allegedly assaulting an individual. He was also previously ordered by a judge not to have any contact with an ex-girlfriend, who accused the congressman of having threatened to release sexually explicit images and videos of her after their relationship ended.

Mills has repeatedly denied all of the allegations against him, remaining defiant amid renewed scrutiny.

“I can tell you that there’s no open criminal or civil case against me, nothing. I’ve never been arrested and/or

Gun attack at tourist site shakes Mexico weeks ahead of World Cup

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By Michael Rios, CNN

(CNN) — Footage of a gunman shooting at panicked tourists lying atop Mexico’s historic Pyramid of the Moon has renewed concerns about security in the country as it prepares to co-host millions of soccer fans for the World Cup this summer.

At least one person, a Canadian woman, was killed in the Monday attack in Mexico’s Teotihuacán archeological zone, a major tourist hotspot 30 miles north of Mexico City. Five soccer matches are expected to be played in the capital city when the global tournament kicks off in July.

Seven other foreign nationals – including two Americans – were wounded by gunshots, and another six foreigners suffered varying injuries during the chaos.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has insisted her country is safe for tourists and said authorities will reinforce security to prevent another shooting of this kind.

But the attack may have dealt a blow to the Mexican government’s assertions that the country is a safe place to visit, coming months after widespread attacks by criminal groups in response to a drug lord’s killing.

Here’s what we know about the attack, the shooter and Mexico’s security response.

A premeditated attack

Authorities received the first report of the attack around 11:20 a.m. local time, indicating that an armed man was threatening civilians at the archeological site, according to Cristóbal Castañeda Camarillo, secretary of security for the State of Mexico.

Videos from the scene showed the gunman pacing atop the Pyramid of the Moon, where a crowd of tourists lay on the floor next to him.

After members of the National Guard arrived around 11:30 a.m., the attacker fired shots in their direction, Castañeda Camarillo said. The guardsmen returned fire, wounding the shooter in the leg before he took his life.

The shooter was identified as 27-year-old Mexican citizen Julio César Jasso Ramírez, who acted alone and had no ties to criminal groups or drug cartels, which are usually behind Mexico’s most violent attacks.

Officials said the attack appeared to be premediated, with the gunman visiting the archaeological zone several times, staying in nearby hotels before the deadly incident.

“Based on the investigative steps taken, it appears this act was not spontaneous. The attacker planned and carried out his action alone,” José Luis Cervantes Martínez, the attorney general of the State of Mexico, told a press conference.

Attacks of this kind are rare in Mexico, said Sheinbaum on Tuesday. “We have never witnessed anything like this in Mexico before; it is the first time such an event has occurred.”

She said the attacker showed signs of “psychological issues and was influenced by incidents that had taken place abroad.”

The incident also occurred on the 27th anniversary of the Columbine attack, in which two students at a Colorado high school carried out a mass shooting, killing 14 people.

While Sheinbaum didn’t specify if she was referring to the Columbine massacre, Cervantes Martínez noted that the attacker was carrying a backpack containing handwritten notes related to violent events that occurred in the United States in April 1999.

‘World Cup security is guaranteed’

Mexico has successfully hosted big events, including a recent Shakira concert in March attended by 400,000 people.

But those successes have been clouded by days of violence unleashed following the February killing of Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, the head of the Jalisco New Genera

$12.5 billion ‘down payment’ brings air traffic control out of 1990s. Now, more money is needed for new software and AI

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Paper flight strips are seen during a news briefing at the Department of Transportation on April 21.

By Alexandra Skores, CNN

Washington (CNN) — The Department of Transportation is eliminating antiquated paper strips, copper communications wiring and computer floppy discs, but it says more money is needed to keep upgrading the decades-old air traffic control system, and integrate new technologies like artificial intelligence and software to streamline US flights.

At a news conference at the DOT headquarters on Tuesday, the agency showed the progress it has made in almost a year since it announced plans to build a new air traffic control system.

Congress allocated $12.5 billion in President Donald Trump’s spending bill – which the administration calls a “down payment” – but there’s still more to be done, said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

“We are going to need more money for the software side of this build,” Duffy told a room full of reporters and officials. “(Congress is) going to have to find a pathway to get us the rest of that money. It’s going to take us time to develop it, deploy it, debug it, train on it.”

The decades-old system has been under scrutiny by lawmakers, aviation officials and the public after a series of crashes and other high-profile incidents, spotlighting the stress controllers are under.

A fatal collision last month killed two pilots when their Air Canada regional jet hit a fire truck on a runway while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. The cause of that crash is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Last year, 67 people were killed when a military helicopter collided with a plane landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The NTSB found in that accident the controllers had “degraded performance due to the high workload.”

What that $12.5 billion bought

Since the approval of Trump’s spending bill, almost 50% of all copper wires in the air traffic control system have been replaced, approximately 270 radio sites were converted and 17 towers started using electronic flight strips, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Over 4,500 FAA sites are also receiving new radars, digital voice switches and training simulators.

“We were given $12.5 billion, but the $12.5 billion, the Congress was very specific on how we had to use it,” Duffy said.

The company Peraton was awarded a contract to upgrade the system and is focusing on four areas: wires, communication, radars and electronic flight strips.

Copper wiring, which was used for communications for decades, is one of the first things being replaced.

In May, a new fiberoptic cable went online between Philadelphia and New York to improve telecommunications at the air traffic control facility that handles flights arriving and departing Newark Liberty International Airport, after a series of outages last year led to major delays.

“We fixed Newark, and we are fixing the rest of the country and replacing the old, outdated copper with high-speed fiber, wireless and satellites,” said Rebecca Guy, acting chief technology officer at the FAA. “Thi

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