Who is Cory Booker, the Democrat from New Jersey holding the Senate floor?

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Who is Cory Booker, the Democrat from New Jersey holding the Senate floor?

2025-04-01 23:43 Last Updated At：23:51

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Sen. Cory Booker, who took hold of the Senate floor Monday night and held onto it Tuesday as he railed against President Donald Trump's Republican agenda, once found common ground with the president during his first term.

Booker, a New Jersey Democrat who ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2020, expressed frustration bordering on exasperation at a host of Trump issues in his long Senate speech — from the possibility of annexing Greenland and Canada to slashing social programs and cutting taxes.

Booker's speech, occasionally interrupted by Democratic colleagues to whom he yielded for questions while catching his breath, came as Democrats are in the minority in the Senate and the House. It's unclear what effect Booker's speech could have, but it reflects one of the levers available to out-of-power parties.

Here's a closer look at who Booker is and what he's been saying:

Booker, 55, was born in Washington, D.C., and moved to northern New Jersey when he was a boy. He's spoken about growing up in a Black family in a predominantly white neighborhood and how his parents faced opposition when they tried to buy a house.

He played football in college at Stanford University before attending Yale Law School and then worked as an attorney in nonprofits, giving legal aid to poorer families. Elected to the Newark City Council and then as mayor of the state's biggest city, he served there until 2013.

His time in office coincided with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million donation to the city's public schools, a boon that burnished his status as a Democratic rising star at the time.

In 2013, he was elected in a special election to the U.S. Senate after the death of incumbent Frank Lautenberg. He then won his first full-term in 2014 and was reelected in 2020.

He launched an upbeat but ultimately doomed 2020 bid for president in a crowded Democratic field. Standing in the front yard of his Newark house, Booker declared “love ain't easy.”

Booker's Senate speech started about 7 p.m. Monday and carried through the night.

By Tuesday morning, his voice occasionally wavered with emotion as he recognized his colleagues who asked him questions, giving him a chance to take a break from speaking.

He read letters from constituents, cited authors like Langston Hughes and leaned into foreign policy and potential social safety net cuts.

He said Republicans' budget language aimed to cut health care for Americans “to give tax cuts disproportionately to the wealthy” and would drive up deficits.

He said the U.S. was giving up leading the planet and cited Trump's proposals to take over Greenland and Canada while feuding with longtime allies.

Reflecting his inclination toward uplifting rhetoric, Booker lamented a lack of unity.

“We are a union in trouble compared to our global peers,” he said. "Yet we are a nation of utter abundance, and we've proven in the past to be a nation of incredible vision."

He also occasionally took aim at Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, who's advising Trump and leading the Department of Government Efficiency. He criticized the president's agenda to renew tax cuts that would benefit wealthy Americans, like Musk.

“I wish he would say the truth — I don't need a tax cut,” Booker said.

Booker played part in a 2018 bipartisan measure to overhaul federal sentencing laws passed after a few Black ministers, leaders and lawmakers forged an alliance with Trump, whom some had condemned as racist for the previous two years. The reforms aimed to create a path to freedom for hundreds of Black and Latino prisoners.

Among the bills he’s sponsored that became law was a 2019 measure that permitted states to transfer money from clean water revolving funds to drinking water revolving funds to address public health.

He chairs the Democratic Strategic Communications Committee and touts in his Senate biography that he sought to protect the Affordable Care Act from repeal.

A week after catastrophic earthquake, focus turns to a growing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar

2025-04-04 21:59 Last Updated At：22:01

BANGKOK (AP) — Search teams in Myanmar recovered more bodies from the ruins of buildings on Friday, a week after a massive earthquake killed more than 3,300 people, as the focus turns toward the urgent humanitarian needs in a country already devastated by a continuing civil war.

United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who is also the emergency relief coordinator, arrived Friday in Myanmar in an effort to spur action following the March 28 quake. Ahead of the visit, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the international community to immediately step up funding for quake victims “to match the scale of this crisis,” and he urged unimpeded access to reach those in need.

“The earthquake has supercharged the suffering with the monsoon season just around the corner,” he said.

Myanmar's military and several key armed resistance groups have all declared ceasefires in the wake of the earthquake to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid.

But the U.N.'s Human Rights Office on Friday accused the military of continuing attacks, claiming there were more than 60 attacks after the earthquake, including 16 since the military announced a temporary ceasefire on Wednesday.

“I urge a halt to all military operations, and for the focus to be on assisting those impacted by the quake, as well as ensuring unhindered access to humanitarian organizations that are ready to support,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said. “I hope this terrible tragedy can be a turning point for the country towards an inclusive political solution.”

Announcing its ceasefire, the military also said it would still take “necessary” measures against resistance groups, if they use the ceasefire to regroup, train or launch attacks, and the groups have said they reserved the right to defend themselves.

Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking what has turned into a civil war.

The quake worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis, with more than 3 million people displaced from their homes and nearly 20 million in need even before it hit, according to the United Nations.

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, head of the military government, said the quake's death toll has reached 3,301, with 4,792 injured and about 221 missing, according to a report on state television MRTV. He is in Bangkok attending a summit meeting of leaders from the Bay of Bengal region.

It is a rare visit for the general, who usually restricts his few foreign trips to allies Russia and China. He and his government are shunned and sanctioned by Western nations for usurping power and their alleged human rights violations in repressing opposition and carrying out a brutal war.

Britain, which had already given $13 million to purchase emergency items like food, water and shelter, pledged an additional $6.5 million in funds to match an appeal from Myanmar's Disasters Emergency Committee, according to the U.K. Embassy in Yangon.

The World Food Program said so far it has reached 24,000 survivors, but was scaling up its efforts to assist 850,000 with food and cash assistance for one month.

Many international search and rescue teams are now on the scene, and eight medical crews from China, Thailand, Japan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Russia were operating in Naypyitaw, according to Myanmar's military-run government. Another five teams from India, Russia, Laos and Nepal and Singapore were helping in the Mandalay region, while teams from Russia, Malaysia and the ASEAN bloc of nations were assisting in the Sagaing region.

The Trump administration has pledged $2 million in emergency aid and sent a three-person team to assess how best to respond given drastic cuts to U.S. foreign assistance.

On Friday, five bodies were recovered from the rubble in the capital Naypyitaw and the second-largest city of Mandalay, near the epicenter of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake March 28, authorities said. The last reported rescue came Wednesday, some 125 hours after the quake struck, when a man was saved from the wreckage of a hotel in Mandalay.

The quake also shook neighboring Thailand, bringing down a high-rise under construction in Bangkok, where recovery work continued Friday. Overall, 22 people have been found dead and 35 injured in Bangkok, primarily from the construction site.

Associated Press Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.