US Domestic News Roundup: Trump to tell judge that keeping classified records was legal; US House passes bill to force ByteDance to divest TikTok or face ban and more

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Trump to tell judge that keeping classified records was legal

Donald Trump's lawyers are set to ask a federal judge on Thursday to dismiss the federal criminal case that accuses him of illegally holding onto classified documents, arguing that he is allowed to keep the records after leaving the presidency. The hearing in Fort Pierce, Florida is the latest legal gambit by Trump to try to derail the four criminal cases he faces while he campaigns as the Republican candidate challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.

Trump Georgia election subversion judge dismisses some charges

The judge in Donald Trump's Georgia election subversion trial on Wednesday dismissed three criminal counts against the former U.S. president and three others against co-defendants, a court filing showed on Wednesday, while letting the overall case proceed. Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee decided that allegations by state prosecutors that Trump and his co-defendants tried to get Georgia officials to violate their oaths of office were not detailed enough to sustain those six counts, according to the court filing.

Exclusive-Trump launched CIA covert influence operation against China

Two years into office, President Donald Trump authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to launch a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media aimed at turning public opinion in China against its government, according to former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the highly classified operation. Three former officials told Reuters that the CIA created a small team of operatives who used bogus internet identities to spread negative narratives about Xi Jinping’s government while leaking disparaging intelligence to overseas news outlets. The effort, which began in 2019, has not been previously reported.

US House passes bill to force ByteDance to divest TikTok or face ban

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill on Wednesday that would give TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the U.S. assets of the short-video app, or face a ban, in the greatest threat to the app since the Trump administration. The bill passed 352-65 in a bipartisan vote, but it faces a more uncertain path in the Senate where some favor a different approach to regulating foreign-owned apps posing security concerns. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate will review the legislation.

California needs to triple pace of emissions cuts to meet 2030 goal, report says

California needs to triple its annual carbon emissions reductions to meet its 2030 target, a report by consulting firm Beacon Economics and San Francisco-based think tank Next 10 said on Thursday. The state's greenhouse gas emissions increased in 2021 to 381.3 million metric tons, up 3.4% from a year earlier.

Biden looks to shore up support in Midwest after clinching Democratic nomination

U.S. President Joe Biden visited the political battleground state of Wisconsin on Wednesday after clinching the Democratic Party's nomination, and focused on hunting for votes among suburban women, Black voters and Latinos across the Midwest. Biden announced over $3 billion in infrastructure investments in disadvantaged communities across 40 states, which will be funded through the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act

Biden has a marginal 1 point lead over Trump, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows

U.S. President Joe Biden had a marginal 1 percentage point lead over Donald Trump ahead of the November presidential election as each candidate secured enough support from their parties to appear on the ballot, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

Some 39% of registered voters in the one-week poll, which closed on Wednesday, said they would vote for Biden, a Democrat, if the election were held today, compared with 38% who picked Republican former President Trump. Biden's lead was within the survey's 1.8 percentage point margin of error.

US ban on TikTok would rob Biden, Democrats of 2024 election tool

If President Joe Biden keeps his promise to sign a ban on TikTok over its ties to the Chinese government, the 81-year-old may rob his reelection campaign of a platform that he and fellow Democrats rely on to reach younger voters. Biden's campaign got thousands of "likes" on Tuesday for a TikTok video skewering Republican rival Donald Trump about cutting Social Security spending. But the comments were focused on another issue altogether: the proposed ban.

Death of beaten Oklahoma nonbinary teen ruled a suicide

Oklahoma's medical examiner on Wednesday ruled that nonbinary teenager Nex Benedict died by suicide in a death that friends and family said came one day after a beating at school that culminated a pattern of bullying due to their gender identity. The case of Benedict, 16, has drawn scrutiny from LGBTQ advocates who believe school officials may have overlooked abuse and has led to a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Education to determine if any laws were broken or whether the school district failed to respond to harassment.

Democratic ETF outpaces Republican peer on Big Tech bets

An exchange-traded fund that follows the stock trades of Democratic lawmakers has seen sharp gains since its launch last year, outperforming a Republican-oriented fund, on the back of big bets on megacap technology companies. The $49 million Subversive Unusual Whales Democratic ETF, the ticker of which is a play on the name of former Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has surged nearly 35% since its launch on Feb. 7 last year.

(With inputs from agencies.)