Sinema endorses bill, Griner prisoner swap talks, Alex Jones verdict in

Top Headlines August 5th, 2022:

Sen. Sinema to vote yes on spending bill – Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) announced Thursday night she is on board with Senate democrats’ $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act after securing some minor changes to the legislation.

“We have agreed to remove the carried interest tax provision, protect advanced manufacturing, and boost our clean energy economy in the Senate’s budget reconciliation legislation,” Sen. Sinema said, according to this tweet from Voice of America News Chief National Correspondent Steve Herman. “Subject to the Parliamentarian’s review, I’ll move forward.”

Sinema was seen as the key holdout after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced his support for the bill last month. Sinema and Sen. Manchin are widely seen as the two moderate democrats in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the Senate would convene Saturday to begin debate on the bill.

Prisoner swap discussions follow Griner sentence – Now that American basketball star Brittney Griner has been sentenced in Russia for drug trafficking, the country said it’s ready to discuss a prisoner swap with the United States.

“We are ready to discuss this topic, but within the framework of the channel that was agreed upon by presidents Putin and Biden,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a visit to Cambodia. “If the Americans decide to once again resort to public diplomacy… that is their business and I would even say that it is their problem.”

The U.S. has already reportedly offered to trade Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for Griner and former marine Paul Whelan. Sources familiar to the talks told Reuters Russia had tried to add convicted murderer Vadim Krasikov to the proposed swap.

Alex Jones owes Sandy Hook family 4 million dollars – A jury ordered right wing commentator Alex Jones to pay more than $4 million in compensatory damages to the parents of a 6-year-old boy killed in 2012’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. That is far below the 150 million dollars the family had sought although punitive damages have not been awarded yet.

“I admitted I was wrong. I admitted it was a mistake. I admitted that I followed disinformation but not on purpose. I apologized to the families. And the jury understood that,” Jones said Thursday night. What I did to those families was wrong. But I didn’t do it on purpose.”

Jones still faces more defamation trials over his claims that the shooting was a hoax.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.