Joe Biden, former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful, said Friday he would bring back the individual mandate, the penalty for not having health insurance, which was a pillar of the Affordable Care Act.
"Yes, I'd bring back the individual mandate," Biden said in an interview on CNN. The individual mandate would be popular now, "compared to what's being offered," he added.

TUNIS, Tunisia — Prime Minister Youssef Chahed of Tunisia on Friday prohibited anyone wearing the niqab, a religious covering for the face with only an opening for the eyes, from entering public institutions and government offices, citing security reasons.

After Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, which started the Arab Spring, an Islamist political party came to power and Tunisians were divided over use of the niqab in public spaces. There was broad public debate over women’s rights and religious freedom.

But since then, terrorist attacks and a concentrated effort to fight them mean that for much of the population, safety, and the need to clearly identify faces, have taken precedence, making Tunisia’s ban “not so surprising,” according to Amel Grami, a professor at Manouba University who studies Islam and is the author of a book about women and jihad.

“Society is aware of the necessity of security,” she said. “We have been through several heavy terrorist attacks.”

After a strong performance in her first Democratic presidential debate, Senator Kamala Harris of California saw a significant increase in support in three polls released this week, as she and the rest of the Democratic primary field cut into the lead that former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has enjoyed since entering the 2020 race.

The three polls of likely Democratic voters — two were national surveys, and one polled Iowa caucusgoers — all showed Ms. Harris leaping into second place in the days after last week’s debates. They also showed a dip in support for Mr. Biden, though more than one in five respondents still said he was their first choice to become the Democratic presidential nominee.

Taken together, the polls also continued a broader trend in which Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has gained ground as Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has fallen back. Ms. Warren remained solidly in the top tier, finishing third in all three polls; Mr. Sanders, who led several polls before Mr. Biden entered the race, finished fourth in each of them. The differences between the two were within the margins of error and thus statistically insignificant.

All three polls were conducted by phone within four days of the first round of Democratic debates last week. While Ms. Harris appeared to benefit the most from her performance, gains in polling for particular candidates immediately after debates are often temporary.

Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday lashed out at his Democratic rivals who had condemned his fond recollections of working relationships with segregationists in the Senate, declining to apologize and defending his record on civil rights. The angry exchange shattered, at least for now, the relative comity that had marked the Democratic presidential primary.

Until Wednesday, many of the Democratic candidates had largely taken oblique swipes at Mr. Biden, while the former vice president sought to stay above the fray, training his sights on President Trump instead.

But a day after he invoked the 1970s, an era when he said he could find common ground with other senators — even virulent segregationists — his opponents offered their sharpest criticism yet.

Senator Kamala Harris of California said the former vice president “doesn’t understand the history of our country and the dark history of our country,” and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey said Mr. Biden should immediately apologize for using segregationists to make a point about civility in the Senate.

Joseph R. Biden Jr., defending himself on Tuesday night against suggestions that he is too “old fashioned” for today’s Democratic Party, invoked two Southern segregationist senators by name as he fondly recalled the “civility” of the Senate in the 1970s and 1980s.

Speaking at a fund-raiser at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City, Mr. Biden, 76, stressed the need to “be able to reach consensus under our system,” and cast his decades in the Senate as a time of relative comity. His remarks come as some in his party say that Mr. Biden is too focused on overtures to the right as he seeks the Democratic presidential nomination.

At the event, Mr. Biden noted that he served with the late Senators James O. Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia, both Democrats who were staunch opponents of desegregation. Mr. Eastland was the powerful chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Mr. Biden entered the chamber in 1973.

“I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland,” Mr. Biden said, slipping briefly into a Southern accent, according to a pool report from the fund-raiser. “He never called me ‘boy,’ he always called me ‘son.’”

For Immediate Release

June 5, 2019

EMILY's List Statement on Biden's Support for Hyde Amendment

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to an NBC news story confirming Vice President Biden's support for the Hyde Amendment, EMILY's List President Stephanie Schriock released the following statement:

“At a time when reproductive rights are under consistent attack, it’s unacceptable that a major Democratic nominee supports the Hyde Amendment. This amendment, which blocks federal funding for abortion services with few exceptions and effectively bans abortion for women on Medicaid, which has a disproportionate impact on young women and women of color. Americans overwhelmingly support women’s rights to make their own health care choices and Democrats made repealing the Hyde Amendment part of our 2016 platform. We hope that Vice President Biden will reconsider this position and what it means to millions of women. There’s simply too much at risk.”