List of All Articles with Tag 'pol'

The Republican-controlled North Carolina General Assembly made several last-minute changes to the 12-week abortion ban it passed earlier this year in an effort to stave off a legal challenge. The state’s abortion ban, which is set to take effect on 1 July, is being challenged in court. That lawsuit, attorneys said, was the main factor behind the Republican majority’s decision to introduce an amendment to an unrelated Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) bill that effectively amends the abortion ban. ”The General Assembly is working to pass and enact, with or without the Governor’s signature, a technical and conforming bill to make changes to clarify and address most, if not all, aspects of Plaintiffs’ claims about the Act,” W Ellis Boyle, an attorney for House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Leader Phil Berger, wrote in a legal filing on Tuesday. The amendment to the DHHS bill, House Bill 190, directly addresses a number of the concerns outlined in the lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of the South Atlantic and a number of other organisations. For instance, the lawsuit argues that a provision of the abortion ban stating that it is illegal “after the twelfth week of a woman’s pregnancy to advise, procure, or cause a miscarriage or abortion” violates the Constitution by preventing people from legally providing information about how a person could get legal abortion care in another state. In response, the amendment to HB 190 removes the word “advise” from the text of the abortion ban. The amendment also seeks to clean up a section on the regulation of medication abortion — which is banned after 10 weeks, not 12 — by deleting language that physicians prescribing medication abortions would have to verify that a pregnancy is no more than “70 days” old. Backers of the lawsuit, who are seeking a Temporary Restraining Order to prevent the abortion ban from taking effect on 1 July, do not believe that the changes to the ban proposed amendment to HB 190 go so far as to eliminate the need for the restraining order. “If those amendments are passed, they may remedy some of the constitutional violations that Plaintiffs allege,” North Carolina attorney general Josh Stein, nominally the defendant in the suit, wrote in a court filing reported by CNN. “But unless and until the current law is repealed or significantly amended, immediate injunctive relief is necessary to avoid a due-process violation.” Mr Stein, a Democrat, has said he does not intend to defend parts of the abortion ban his office believes are unconstitutional. Mr Stein wrote that even if the amendments pass, they would still “fail to make clear that doctors in North Carolina can help their patients obtain abortions out of state.” It is not yet clear whether Gov Roy Cooper, also a Democrat, intends to sign HB 190 or not. Mr Cooper vetoed the abortion ban, but saw his veto overriden by Republican supermajorities in the legislature. The fact that North Carolina is in the position of dealing with a 12-week abortion ban at all is a surprise: when the legislative session started, the Republicans did not have the votes needed to override a veto of an abotion bill. That changed, however, when Rep Tricia Cotham — a Democrat representing a heavily Democratic seat in the Charlotte area — suddenly switched her party affiliation and gave the Republicans the final vote needed to override Mr Cooper’s veto. Read More North Carolina Republicans censure Sen Thom Tillis for backing LGBT+ rights One year after Roe v Wade fell, anti-abortion laws threaten millions. The battle for access is far from over

The Justice Department announced a sweeping enforcement effort Wednesday aimed at health care, telemedicine and illegal prescription schemes totaling of $2.5 billion in alleged fraud.

Hakeem Jeffries is staging a takeover of the New York Democratic Party. HIs future as U.S. House Speaker may depend on it; he needs five more seats to take the majority in 2024, and six of the most vulnerable seats are held by Republicans in New York.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, a devoted and very active user of Facebook — on which he has posted everything from photos of his grandchildren to threats against his political enemies — said Wednesday that he will no longer upload to the platform and will instead depend on the Telegram app to get his message across. Telegram is a popular messaging app that also has a blogging tool called “channels.” In Russia and some of the neighboring countries, it is actively used both by government officials and opposition activists for communicating with mass audiences. Telegram played an important role in coordinating unprecedented anti-government protests in Belarus in 2020, and currently serves as a major source of news about Russia’s war in Ukraine. The 70-year-old year Hun Sen is listed as having 14 million Facebook followers, though critics have suggested a large number are merely “ghost” accounts purchased in bulk from so-called “click farms,” an assertion the long-serving prime minister has repeatedly denied. The Facebook accounts of Joe Biden and Donald Trump by comparison boast 11 million and 34 million followers, respectively, though the United States has about 20 times the population of Cambodia. Hun Sen officially launched his Facebook page on Sept. 20, 2015, after his fierce political rival, opposition leader Sam Rainsy, effectively demonstrated how it could be used to mobilize support. Hun Sen is noted as a canny and sometimes ruthless politician, and has since then managed to drive his rival into exile and neutralize all his challengers, even though Cambodia is a nominally democratic state. Hun Sen said he is giving up Facebook for Telegram because he believes the latter is more effective for communicating. In a Telegram post on Wednesday he said it will be easier for him to get his message out when he is traveling in other countries that officially ban Facebook use. China, the top ally of his government, is also the biggest country with a Facebook ban. Hun Sen has 855,000 followers so far on Telegram, where he appears to have started posting in mid-May. It is also possible that Hun Sen’s social media loyalty switch has to do with controversy over remarks he posted earlier this year on Facebook that in theory could see him get at least temporarily banned from the platform. As the country’s top leader for 38 years, he has earned a reputation for heated rhetoric, and in January, speaking at a road construction ceremony, he decried opposition politicians who accused his ruling Cambodian People’s Paty of stealing votes. “There are only two options. One is to use legal means and the other is to use a stick,” the prime minister said. “Either you face legal action in court, or I rally (the Cambodian) People’s Party people for a demonstration and beat you up.” His remarks were spoken on Facebook Live and kept online as a video. Perhaps because of heightened consciousness about the power of social media to inflame and trigger violence in such countries as India and Myanmar, and because the remarks were made ahead of a general election in Cambodia this July, complaints about his words were lodged with Facebook’s parent company, Meta. Facebook’s moderators declined to recommend action against Hun Sen, judging that his position as a national leader made his remarks newsworthy and therefore not subject to punishment despite their provocative nature. However, the case was forwarded in March to Meta’s Oversight Board, a group of independent experts that is empowered to render an overriding judgment that could limit Hun Sen’s Facebook activities. They may issue a decision in the next few weeks. The case is being closely watched as an indicator of where Facebook will draw the line in countries with volatile political situations. Hun Sen said his Facebook account will remain online but he will no longer actively post to it. He urged people looking for news from him to check YouTube and his Instagram account as well as Telegram, and said he has ordered his office to establish a TikTok account to allow him to communicate with his country’s youth.. ___ Peck reported from Bangkok. Dasha Litvinova contributed from Tallinn, Estonia. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Cambodian lawmakers approve changes to election law that disqualify candidates who don't vote Trump’s latest defence in the classified documents case: ‘Bravado’ Trump gives ‘bravado’ defence for secret papers tape as he sues E Jean Carroll – live

A Newsmax host put up a bizarre defence of former President Donald Trump over the leaked audio in which he speaks about classified documents with guests at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club two years ago. On the tape, obtained by CNN on Monday, Mr Trump says that the document, reportedly outlining plans of attack against Iran, was “highly confidential” and “secret information”. “See, as president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t,” Mr Trump said. The recording lines up with a previously reported transcript of the conversation with biographers working on a book about Mr Trump’s last White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Newsmax host Lidia Curanaj argued on Tuesday that Mr Trump could have been lying at the time. Mr Trump was indicted in Miami, Florida earlier in June on 37 counts for willful retention of national defence information, in addition to six other federal violations. “So you know you have some people that say, ‘You know what? We don’t know one hundred per cent for sure that what Trump was holding up was actually a classified document. Was he just kind of being hyperbolic?’” Ms Curanaj said. She later held up a document on the programme American Agenda, adding, “I could say, ‘This is a classified document’—doesn’t make it true”. “You know how Trump is. We don’t know,” she said. Last week, Mr Trump appeared on Fox News for an interview with host Brett Baier, claiming that he had simply been discussing “newspaper stories, magazine stories, and articles”. “There was no document. That was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things,” Mr Trump told Mr Baier. “And it may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document. I didn’t have a document, per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories, and articles.” On Tuesday while campaigning in New Hampshire, Mr Trump was asked about the tape on Fox News. “I said it very clearly, I had a whole desk full of lots of papers, mostly newspaper articles, copies of magazines, copies of different plans, copies of stories, having to do with many, many subjects, and what was said was absolutely fine,” Mr Trump said. “We did nothing wrong. This is a whole hoax.” “My voice was fine. What did I say wrong on those recordings? I didn’t even see the recording. All I know is I did nothing wrong,” he added. “We had a lot of papers, a lot of papers stacked up,” he said. “In fact, you hear the rustle of the paper. And nobody said that I did anything wrong other than the fake news, which is Fox, too.” On Monday, Mr Trump appeared on Newsmax, complaining about the Baier interview. “When I did the interview with Bret, I thought it was fine. I thought it was okay,” he said. “But there was nothing friendly about it. You know, it was nasty, and I thought I did a good job. I’ve been getting credit for doing a good job.” “Everything was unfriendly,” he said, adding that there was “no smiling”. Read More Trump news – live: Trump gives ‘bravado’ defence for classified documents tape as he sues E Jean Carroll Chris Christie attacks Trump for diverting campaign funds to legal battles: ‘Cheapest SOB I’ve ever met’ Kevin McCarthy walks back Trump criticism following backlash from Magaworld

All eyes are on the Supreme Court for its final days of the term, as the justices will release cases on issues such as affirmative action, student loan payments and LGBTQ rights.

MEXICO CITY Chile assumed the pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance on Wednesday, according to a statement

An official investigation has been launched by US Central Command into the May 3 drone strike in Syria that reportedly killed a civilian instead of the intended senior al-Qaeda target.

An exonerated member of the Central Park Five, Yusef Salaam, is poised to win a Democratic primary race for a New York City council seat in Harlem.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy has scrambled to contain the fallout after he questioned whether former President Donald Trump is the strongest candidate in the 2024 presidential race -- comments that outraged Trump allies.

President Joe Biden told CNN on Wednesday his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has "absolutely" been weakened by the short-lived mutiny over the weekend.

The Tories have been roasted for revealing their levels of delusion via a graphic attacking the Labour Party. Responding to a story about a Labour u-turn on a policy to introduce rent controls in the housing sector, the Tories implied that Labour were in a state of chaos - ironically. They wrote: "Labour flip flopped on housing no less than a few hours ago…. How Sir flip flop can preach about housing is a joke," before adding a graphic which said "0 days since last incident". The issue they were responding to was the opposition party ditching a pledge to control surging rents if it wins the next general election – nine months after endorsing the policy. At a conference, Lisa Nandy called the approach as a "sticking plaster" and claimed it would increase homelessness. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter But people thought it was pretty ridiculous for the Tories to be the one to criticise Labour about it given the Tories are never far away from a scandal, with allegations about Tory London mayoral hopeful Daniel Korski groping a TV producer coming as the latest threat to the party's credibility. You know what they say. Those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones... Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.