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Khalifa Haftar controls two-thirds of Libya, leaving the UN-backed government increasingly isolated in the capital. Photograph: Esam Al-Fetori/Reuters

Talks between leaders of the two largest rival factions in Libya appear to have reached an outline agreement in probably the most optimistic moment for the war-torn country in many years.

In a diplomatic breakthrough the leader of the UN-backed government, Fayez al-Sarraj, and his rival Khalifa Haftar met on Tuesday in the United Arab Emirates for two hours.

They are scheduled to hold further talks with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, next week. Sisi has been critical to the stop-start reconciliation process, along with Italy and the UAE.

Libya has been wracked by internal divisions ever since the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 led to the collapse of the economy and oil production, and to a political vacuum in which human trafficking has proliferated, resulting in mass deaths of refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Control of the country is split between the UN-backed government in Tripoli and forces loyal to the parliament in the eastern city of Tobruk, which are commanded by Haftar.

No official statement was issued after the Abu Dhabi talks but the unconfirmed reports initially mainly coming from media sources allied to Haftar suggest fresh elections will be held within six months and the UN-backed governments presidency council reduced to three from nine members.

One of the three would be the head of Libyas Tobruk-based parliament and another the head of the armed forces.

The UN has been opposed to the head of the armed forces being in full political control of the country and the proposal puts the position within a clear political framework. At the same time an agreement to hand all military appointments to politicians would be revoked.

There is also said to be an agreement on identifying terrorist groups outside the political process and a fresh call to disband militias.

Haftar controls two-thirds of the country, leaving the UN-backed government increasingly isolated in the capital and unable to deliver basic services. His supporters insists he has never sought to establish a military dictatorship.

The agreement reportedly also calls for an end to foreign interference in army and security affairs. Arms have been supplied by foreign powers across Libyas porous borders ever since the fall of the Gaddafi regime in a Nato-backed operation.

The EU has also been training the Libyan coastguard in an effort to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean, and the UN has been trying to develop a presidential guard.

In a statement welcoming the fact that Hafter and Sarraj had finally met on Tuesday, the UAE lauded the positive atmosphere of the talks and praised the determination shown by the two sides to reach a solution to the current political stalemate in Libya.

The UAE also urged the international community to find a replacement for the UN special envoy to Libya, Martin Kobler, who is due to step down. Political infighting in the international community has blocked a replacement being announced.

Many British Conservative politicians believe the UK in supporting Sarraj has backed the wrong, or ineffective side, but recognise any political agreement will be hard to secure on the ground owing to multiple sources of power in Libya.

UK and US officials are due to discuss its stance at meetings in London next week. There are signs that the US are supporting the process, even by suggesting the Libyans could come to Washington for meetings in June.

The French foreign affairs department broadly welcomed the developments in Libya saying it supports all initiatives aimed at strengthening the dialogue between all the parties in Libya.

Any decision in the agreement on fighting terrorism could however be hard to implement if, as reported, militia forces the Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries and the Benghazi Defence Brigades are to be classified as terrorists because of their ties to al-Qaida. Such a move would almost certainly be rejected by a number of groups in Misrata as well as those allied to the countrys grand mufti, Sheikh Sadik al-Ghariani.

Mattia Toaldo, Libyan expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations questioned whether the outline agreement would ever be implemented. It is significant if Haftar has agreed to a shift in his strategy and said he will stand in elections by March 2018. It is very much Egypts strategy.

If he does win those elections, he would be able to say he has a new legitimate right to get back into Triploi the capital. But it is very doubtful it would be possible to run free and fair elections, and it is not clear why Sarraj, or the Islamist militias in Benghazi that have been supporting him, would agree to this process since he is quite likely to lose, or find themseleevs designated as terrorist groups.

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Breakthrough Libya talks appear to yield deal between rival factions - The Guardian

The campaign of Rob Quist, the folk music star and Democrat running for Montanas open House seat,slammed Quists opponent,Republican Greg Gianforte, for allegedly discriminating against a disabled employee, opening up a new line of attack in an increasingly competitive special election.

Late last month, Raw Story reported that Gianforte, a tech millionaire originally from New Jersey, settled a 1991 lawsuit with a former employee who accused Gianforte of firing him for having multiple sclerosis.

The details of the suit are harrowing. The former employee at Brightwork Development, Gianfortes software company, won awards for his sales numbers after his diagnosis.Gianforte allegedly heard about the disease and summoned the employee to his office to ask probing questions about whether it was affecting his performance. A couple months later, the company fired the employee.

Now the Quist campaign is citing the suit as more evidence that Gianforte is out of touch with state residents.

No real Montanan would fire someone after discovering theyre suffering from a health condition like multiple sclerosis, Quists spokeswoman Tina Olechowski said in a statement. Every day Montanans learn more about why New Jersey multimillionaire Greg Gianforte is not one of us and doesnt share our values.

In his failed 2016 bid for Montana governor, Gianforte also faced questions about why Petra Academy, a private Christian school in Bozeman where he is board chairman, does not welcome all students with disabilities. In a tense exchange about the topic in February 2016, Gianforte told the Billings Gazette editorial boardthat the school, which is not subject to the law requiring public schools to accommodate students with special needs, does not admit students who need an extra staff person devoted to them.

One of the editorial board members interviewing Gianforte was incredulous, demanding to know why the school couldnt afford to welcome all students when he had donated millions of dollars to the school. Gianforte claimed that it was simply too costly.If Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock had not vetoed a bill creating a public fund for parents of special needs kids to use toward any school,it would be much easier for schools like Petra to accommodate students with disabilities, according to Gianforte.

Petra Academys Headmaster Craig Dunham confirmed to HuffPost that the policy remains in place.

The Gianforte campaign did not respond to a request for clarification about the accusations in the 1991 lawsuit or the reasons for Petra Academys policy.

William Campbell/Getty Images

The Quist campaigns new critique caps off a tumultuous week for Gianforte as the candidate struggles to craft a consistent message on the Republican health care bill. Gianfortes campaign has not said whether he would have voted for the bill that passed in the House of Representatives on Thursday.

In a statement to the Washington Post on Friday, Gianfortes spokesman Shane Scanlon reiterated Gianfortes claims that he will not support a bill until he knows it reduces premiums, preserves rural access and protects Montanans with preexisting conditions.

But in a private conference call with Republican-leaning lobbyists the same day, Gianforte praised the legislation, the New York Times reported.

The votes in the House are going to determine whether we get tax reform done, sounds like we just passed a health care thing, which Im thankful for, sounds like were starting to repeal and replace, Gianforte said.

The Gianforte campaign explained the discrepancy to the Times by claiming that he was merely thankful that Obamacare repeal is underway, not for the specific law, since he has not read it.

After refusing to say how he would have voted on the disastrous D.C. health care bill, it turns out Greg Gianforte was saying something different to the special-interest lobbyists bankrolling his campaign, Quist said in a statement on Friday. We need an independent voice in Congress who will stand up to the special interests, not a dishonest politician who says one thing to Montanans and another to the millionaires behind closed doors.

Democrats are eager to translate liberal anger at President Donald Trump into concrete electoral gains and special congressional elections are the first opportunity to do so at the national level.

The party has invested the most resources into a contest for an open seat in Georgias 6th congressional district, where 30-year-old filmmaker Jon Ossoff is locked in a tight runoff slated for June 20.

Democratic officials have recently begun taking a greater interest in Quist, however, apparently concluding that his chances have improved. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee more than doubled its financial commitment to Quist earlier this week with an injection of $400,000 into his campaign.

Republicans are sounding alarms about the race as well. Vice President Mike Pence will soon be coming to Montana to campaign for Gianforte, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) told donors on a Thursday call obtained by the Washington Post.

Daines and Gianforte also told donors that Gianfortes lead over Quist is down to single digits. An April poll, by contrast, had Gianforte up by 15 percentage points.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who Quist backed in the 2016 primary, will hit the campaign trail for Quist in the coming weeks. But Quist turned down an offer of in-person assistance from Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez.

The Montana House seat opened up when Trump named then-Rep. Ryan Zinke (R) as his Secretary of the Interior. Election Day is May 25.

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Montana Democrat Attacks Opponent Over Disability Discrimination Lawsuit - Huffington post (press release) (blog)

The top Democrat on the House Armed Services committee wants President Trump to strongly condemn the hacking of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron that resulted in tens of thousands of documents being released just before Sunday's election.

Rep. Adam Smith, of Washington, said in a statement that Trump must lead the world in condemning the attack on Macron's campaign.

"This attack on French democracy is a threat to all of us, and our way of life. If we do not meet this ongoing, intentional campaign to undermine representative democracy around the world with effective resistance, we stand to lose much of what we value and what we have sacrificed for as a nation," he said.

"I call on President Trump to respond forcefully to this attack. He must not downplay, ignore, or encourage such an assault," Smith added.

On Friday, just hours before a 44-hour, government-mandated media blackout on election news, tens of thousands of pages of emails and campaign documents related to Macron's campaign were released. The leak came through a hack that some are already blaming on the Russian government.

The French election commission has warned media outlets and citizens not to spread the information, warning that some of it could be false forgeries planted inside of legitimate communications. The government has warned it would be a criminal offense to spread misinformation.

Democrats have been up in arms about the hacking report due to Russia's influence campaign on the 2016 presidential election. According to American intelligence officials, the Russian government sponsored hackers that broke into the emails of the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman.

Clinton has blamed the leaks as one of the reasons she lost the election to Trump in November. Trump is yet to condemn that interference in the campaign and, on the trail, encouraged hackers to go after Clinton's emails.

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High-ranking Democrat Adam Smith calls on Trump to condemn hacking of French candidate - Washington Examiner

Now that the Republican health-care bill has passed the House, there's a whole other set of obstacles it will face in the Senate. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

If Senate Democrats needed a miracle not to lose a ton of seats in the 2018 midterm elections, they're pretty sure House Republicans just gave them one: Passing a bill that could kick tens of millions of people off their health insurance, then cheering about it behind a historically unpopular president.

But not so fast, say Republicans. One, we don't even know what the final version of this legislation will be. The Senate will probably change it drastically before it goes to President Trump's desk. (To avoid a Democratic filibuster, Republicans have to make sure each piece of the legislation directly deals with the budget. Also, there are parts of this House bill that are very conservative and could never pass the more moderate Senate.)

[Whats next for the Republican health-care bill]

Two, if Senate Republicans cobble together a less politically charged health-care bill, it could be Senate Democrats on the defensive. There are 10 Senate Democrats up for reelection in 2018 in states that Trump won. Are those Democrats really going to block a change to Obamacare, a law many of their constituents still want to see repealed?

It's a base third rail, said GOP strategist Josh Holmes. If you're a Democrat, you cannot even begin to entertain a discussion of repealing Obamacare, yet the vast majority of people in places like North Dakota and West Virginia and Missouri and Indiana are fundamentally on the other side of that.

Actually, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who is up for reelection in a state Trump won by 18 points, is starting to have that conversation. In an interview Thursday with Fox News, he said he'd be open to repealing and replacing Obamacare: It needs to be improved. It hasn't been improved. We can either work to improve that, or repeal it and replace it with something better. I'm open to either one.

Other potentially vulnerable Senate Democrats don't seem to be feeling the same pressure yet. Its awful what theyre doing to the working man, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W. Va.), who's running for reelection in a state Trump won by more than 40 points, told my colleague David Weigel in April.

The House health-care bill is a disaster for Hoosier families, Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), another vulnerable Democrat, said in a statement Thursday.

The fact that Trump appears to be behind this bill, full-stop We want to brag about this, a beaming president said in the Rose Garden on Thursday gives more comfort to Senate Republicans. Trump is still as popular in many of these red states as Obamacare is unpopular.

Bring it on, say Democrats. House Republicans just voted for a bill that potentially strips away coverage for people with preexisting conditions and could leave 24 million more people uninsured over the next decade 14 million over the next year alone. A number of those House Republicans could be Senate challengers to Democrats in 2018.

Hours after the House passed the bill, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee launched a six-second, non-skippable YouTube ad in Nevada and Arizona, where potentially vulnerable GOP Sens. Dean Heller and Jeff Flake are up for reelection. In April, they relaunched 30-second digital ads in 12 battleground states imaging a dystopian GOP health-care landscape: A woman pawns her wedding ring and a man sells his car to pay for their sick child's health-care costs.

After Republicans in the House passed their health-care bill on May 4, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee launched a digital ad about the personal toll of health-care costs. This is part of a targeted campaign against potential Senate Republican candidates. (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee)

The strategy is to make potential GOP Senate candidates like Reps. Todd Rokita and Luke Messer in Indiana, or Kevin Cramer in North Dakota, or Evan Jenkins in West Virginia Heller and Flake answerable to what Democrats are pretty sure will be a huge drop in coverage across the nation.

The reality of voters losing their health insurance is a much more immediate concern to red-and-purple state voters than whatever they may feel about Obamacare, said Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist: I'm licking my chops to try to message against these guys.

Sure, changing how people receive and pay for health care is always a risk, Republicans acknowledge. But they say they had to do something to make good on a seven-year campaign promise.

It's not clear to either side yet whether this moment is the Obamacare debate in reverse.

There are a tempting number of similarities to draw on from 2010, when Democrats passed Obamacare without a single Republican vote: A party is drastically changing people's health care before the first midterm of a new president. When Democrats did it, they got clobbered in the next midterm.

Republicans won six seats in the Senate and netted 63 House seats (and the majority) in the House. Democrats have yet to win the House back, and they lost the Senate in 2014 in part over voter resentment about Obamacare.

Democratic operatives in both the House and the Senate think this just might be Republicans' Obamacare moment.

History has shown that the first mover on health care faces the consequences, said Jim Kessler, a former top Senate Democratic aide now with the center-left think tank Third Way. I'd much rather be a Democrat in a red state defending Obamacare than a Republican in a purple state repealing it.

It depends on how peopleactually feel about Republicans' changes to their health care, Republicans say. And we have no idea how they'll feel, because, well, we have no idea what kind of health-care overhaul the Senate will pass, whether the House will agree to it, or whether Trump will sign.

If a year and a half from now, people feel like their health care is more affordable and accessible, that is a big win for the party in power, said Alex Conant, a GOP campaign strategist. If a year and a half from now, voters feel like health care is even more expensive, and there's even less stability in the marketplace, that will be advantageous for the opposition party.

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Vulnerable Senate Democrats think Republicans just handed them a lifeline on health care - Washington Post

posted at 8:31 pm on May 6, 2017 by John Sexton

Friday, Governor Scott Walker visited Appleton, Wisconsin at the request of the citys mayor to help promote tourism. While there, he was confronted by a former Democratic member of the Wisconsin State Assembly (and current county executive) Tom Nelson. Nelson attempted to hijack the governors appearance and create a scene over the GOPs Obamacare repeal bill. Rather then pretend Nelsons questions were in good faith, Gov. Walkerreplied, If you want to have a press conference, go ahead.

When Nelson kept pressing the point, Walker suggested hed had his chance to run for congress and that if he wanted to run for Governor he should do that rather than interrupting the event. Heres the exchange:

All of this started yesterday when Gov. Walker said he would consider applying for a waiver under the GOP Obamacare replacement plan. Within hours Walker was clarifyingthat statement. Im waiting to see what gets to the presidents desk, but were not looking to change pre-existing conditions, he told the Journal-Sentinel. Gov. Walker also addressed the issue on Twitter:

If nothing else, consider the clip above an example of just how eager Democrats are to capitalizeon the politics of the GOP bill.

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Gov. Scott Walker confronted by Democrat over Obamacare repeal - Hot Air