Montana Governor Greg Gianforte has signed into law a bill that places a complete ban on TikTok in the US state of Montana. The law which comes into effect in January imposes a US $10,000 fine on entities including app stores that permit downloading of the app, with the same fine per day continuing violation. The social media platform is owned by China's ByteDance and US senators from both major parties have jointly sponsored the Restrict Act, which would give the US the power to ban potential national-security vulnerability apps like TikTok.
Prosecutor in Ralph Yarl case says legal precedent favors keeping court records open
The Toronto Star
23-05-17 22:06
Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson in Clay County, Missouri, has asked a judge to carefully consider the public's right to information before deciding whether to seal court records in the case of Andrew Lester. Lester is a white homeowner accused of shooting a Black teenager, Ralph Yarl, who mistakenly came to his home. Thompson has not specifically opposed the request to seal the records, but he argued that a legal precedent in favor of keeping court records open has been established. Lester's attorney, Steven Salmon, has previously filed a motion to seal court records, arguing that the local and national media have created bias against his client.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed bills into law that prohibit gender-affirming care for under-18s, restrict school pronoun use and force people to use bathrooms corresponding with the sex they were assigned at birth. Drag show restrictions were also signed into law, allowing the revocation of food and drink licences of businesses hosting adult performances while admitting children. The legislation takes effect immediately. A total of at least 17 states have now passed laws prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors, despite opposition from medical groups and LGBTQ+ advocates, with judges blocking proposed laws in Alabama and Arkansas.
An exhibition at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, titled "Freedom, Equality, Humanity" and running until September 2023, is honouring the work of American dancer and civil rights activist Josephine Baker. Born in St Louis in 1906, she began her stage career at the age of 16 and first appeared in Paris in 1925, where her famous Charleston dance and "danse sauvage", in which she wore a skirt made of artificial bananas, assisted her rise to fame as a "Black Venus". A celebrated star in Europe, she faced racist hostility during a tour in the US. During World War II, she worked for the Red Cross before becoming a spy for the French resistance movement. General Charles De Gaulle awarded her the French Legion of Honour in recognition of her efforts. Post-war, Baker lived at Les Milandes, a 15th-century castle in southwestern France, where 12 children of different origins whom she adopted over the years lived. She died 12 May 1975 aged 68.
Book banning has returned to America, according to Reuters, which said battles over what children should read have reached the Legislative floor in Texas. In the current school year, nearly 40 bills have been put forward to control what get placed on library shelves, leading to some 438 books being banned in the state – more than anywhere else in America. Texas librarians have been vilified, accused of paedophilia and even threatened with violence, according to reports. PEN America, a nonprofit centred around freedom of expression, said in Texas there is a “larger, coordinated movement to ban books, ideas, and knowledge for students in schools.” The problem is spreading to the UK where a third of librarians have been asked to censor or remove books by members of the public, Cilip research showed.
Parents in the US have sued the state in some cases, while many of Texas’ lawmakers have made book bans a part of their campaign strategies, Reuters wrote. It quoted Tiffany Justice, co-founder of campaign group Moms For Liberty, which is organising petition drives and meetings with school officials across districts to censor reading lists, as saying: “Many books have been found to contain pornography and have nothing to do with education curriculum.”
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has vetoed parts of a $6bn funding plan for K-12 schools backed by state Republicans. Kelly took issue with one provision that she said would cut funds for rural public schools, setting up a potential legal battle over her office's powers. Republican leaders have strongly criticised the move. This issue has never been tested legally and confusion over how much money school districts will receive remains.
Napheesa Collier and Diamond Miller have become the leaders of the Minnesota Lynx, who are seeking a new direction after a collapse left them out of the WNBA playoffs last season. Collier, a fifth-year forward who returned to play alongside Sylvia Fowles for the final four games of last season, is a standout offensive player, while the quick, versatile Miller has fitted in easily. The duo will be supported by Tiffany Mitchell, Kayla McBride and Aerial Powers in a faster-paced offence that relies on more passing and cutting rather than dumping the ball into Fowles in the post.
The increased use of social media during emergency situations is causing public information officers to rethink how they communicate. If law enforcement officials are slow to release official information, members of the public will often go online for answers, leading to the circulation of misleading information. However, public information officers have also recognised that social media channels provide an opportunity to interact with the public to get information or to provide advice and guidance. While the speed of social media means there is no escaping the immediacy of communication during an emergency situation, police forces also have to be careful to provide complete and accurate information.
The US Congress has passed a law to declassify intelligence about the origins of Covid-19; it was signed into law by President Joe Biden on 14 November. The move comes after a Wall Street Journal report claimed that US analysts believed that SARS-CoV-2 probably leaked from a research facility in Wuhan, China. The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic is also investigating the origins of Covid-19. Recently released emails between virologists and US National Institutes of Health officials reveal a concerted effort to discredit the possibility that the virus resulted from a Chinese laboratory leak.
State-based preschool programs contribute to anti-marriage and anti-family bias, which in turn discourages the enrolment of families into these programs, according to researchers from think tank, The Heritage Foundation. The 26 preschool programs in states that contain penalties discouraging marriage could act as a model for how to reform the welfare system, which “imposes substantial penalties on low-income couples”, the researchers stated. They suggest implementing a sliding-fee schedule rather than taking an all-or-nothing approach to preschool benefits to reduce the cost of preschool programs and eliminate penalties that come from all-or-nothing welfare programs, which would, in turn, promote family economic self-sufficiency and stability, the researchers argued.
The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals that the number of abortions in the US fell in 2020, after two consecutive years of increases. This decline represented the lowest rate on record since the Roe v. Wade decision. However, the abortion ratio showed a slight increase, indicating that the likelihood of women opting for abortion remained unchanged. Additionally, from 2014-2020, the abortion ratio nationally increased by 3%. The study indicates a moderate negative correlation between the number of abortion restrictions and the abortion ratio. Therefore, more abortion restrictions are associated with lower abortion ratios.
Various reasons have been suggested for why the number of abortions rose in 2018 and 2019, including a growing cultural acceptance of abortion, and privately run funds established to pay for women’s abortions. The FDA also loosened safety protocols for the abortion pill mifepristone, which likely led to an increase in overall chemical abortions. It is also unclear why the number of abortions declined in 2020 but may have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study shows that while fewer abortions occurred in 2020 compared to 2019, the likelihood of women opting for abortion remained unchanged. However, as the number of pregnancies decreased in 2020, so too did the number of abortions. The percentage of pregnancies ending in abortion also remained virtually unchanged from the estimated percentage of pregnancies that ended in abortion in 2019. The study concludes that the decline in abortions indicates the resumption of the long-term trend of declining abortions in the US, but it remains to be seen if this trend will continue in the future.
Senate Democrats in Washington state have passed a bill allowing the state to legally hide runaway children from parents if they do not consent to gender transition treatments or abortion. The law also means that children from other states travelling to Washington for such procedures will be classed as being in a “sanctuary state”. The state will have the power to allocate up to $7.5m to the Office of Homeless Youth Prevention and Protection to pay for such gender transition and abortion procedures. Although there is lip service in the bill about providing parental notification of the whereabouts of minor children, the bill states that a minor's desire to seek "protected health care services" is a compelling reason not to notify parents. This term includes gender-affirming treatments, such as psychological assessments and counseling, hormone therapy and surgical treatments, as well as reproductive health care services, such as abortion, contraception, and assisted reproduction.
Hotel chains are competing to attract the business of American pet owners, with 23 million US households acquiring a new pet since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Mars Pet Nutrition. A report shows that over half of Americans expect to take their dogs on holiday with them. Hilton claimed that "pet-friendly" was the third most popular filter on its website in 2021. However, travelling with pets can be challenging. Dogs struggle with time differences and changes to routine, and eating and elimination can also be problematic. Hotels are offering pet-friendly facilities, including experiences like "bark-uterie boards". Virgin Hotels Chicago is ranked as one of the city's most pet-friendly hotels by pet-care website, rover.com. Guests are not required to cage dogs in the rooms, nor are they banned from leaving them unattended. The Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago has weight restrictions of 25lbs on dogs. Over two-thirds of US households own pets, according to the American Pet Products Association.
Robert Moran writes for the Sydney Morning Herald about the sad reality of losing a friendship of 25 years because of a trivial argument through social media. The ending of this long-standing friendship was particularly devastating because these two people used to communicate through the dial-up ether of Internet Relay Chat in the 90s, before meeting up in person. They had reunited in the US in 2001, around the same time as 9/11. The author’s Facebook friend, Stu, was someone that he had admired and respected as a musician and therefore to lose him entirely from his life is painful. Moran believes that the terrible finality of ending a friendship should never be done from a position of pique, because neither party gets the chance to explain their feelings. A little pause could have done instead of a full stop to the relationship. In a world where most of us are content to let old friendships simply shrivel and wither on the vine, it is important to cherish and value the people that are in our lives, because we don’t know if one day they will vanish completely from it.
The United States' debt limit standoff is weighing heavily on its allies across the globe, with concerns expressed in a meeting between top finance ministers in Japan last weekend. Speaking to The Washington Post, Richard Haass, Council on Foreign Relations president and former George W. Bush administration official, said the looming standoff undermined American politics and thus America's "ability to lead" and make an impact globally. Some in China, said Haass, would take it as evidence the US was "on a trajectory where we are less competitive than we used to be". While intermingling with the leaders of G-7 countries in Japan, President Joe Biden remains confident progress will be made to hammer out a deal on the debt limit, with talk continuing today.
Legislation has been introduced in a number of US states targeting transgender people, with many looking to restrict gender-affirming care for minors and enforcing bathroom use based on sex assigned at birth. Advocates have warned of the further marginalisation of this community and the potential threats to their health. The issue is seen as a Republican priority and a key driver of debate in the 2024 US elections, with the party looking to gain votes from the far right by portraying Democrats as out of touch with the wider population. Numbers of Republican legislation on the issue have increased significantly over the last two years.
A growing number of Republicans in Congress are opposing US aid to Ukraine, which they argue is a poor use of taxpayers' money and that Kiev should battle Russia alone. However, Ukraine remains geopolitically significant, and President Joe Biden has increased military aid to the country by a further $1.2bn. Still, the stance of many Republicans suggesting the US should not be involved in helping an ally may be viewed askance by Europeans, depending on how far such signals are pursued. One particularly vocal critic of Ukraine assistance is Republican congressman, JD Vance. Nonetheless, so far, support for Kiev has remained largely strong on Capitol Hill, even if oversight of the spending has increased.
Do No Harm, a nonprofit organisation that seeks to oppose diversity initiatives in medicine, has become a leading force in the US in seeking to ban gender-affirming care for transgender teenagers, according to an investigation by the Associated Press. The group, founded by Dr Stanley Goldfarb, a retired kidney specialist and former associate dean at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school, has produced model legislation that has been used in at least three states. An AP analysis of statehouse bills revealed that identical or near-identical passages to Do No Harm's legislation could be found in Montana, Arkansas and Iowa. A number of Republican opponents of gender-affirming care have cited the testimony of Chloe Cole, a transgender teenager who has spoken to lawmakers about reversing her gender transition. The investigation also found that Do No Harm has lobbied several US state legislatures. The group won the $250,000 Gregor Peterson Prize last year, whose previous recipients include the Centre for American Liberty, led by former Trump campaign adviser Harmeet Dhillon.
The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-0, with Mookie Betts hitting a three-run homer, and Tony Gonsolin combining with four relievers on a two-hitter. Gonsolin, who is continuing his comeback from a spring training ankle injury, allowed just one hit and two walks in five innings. The win leaves the Dodgers with 75 home runs in the season, tied with Atlanta for most in the NL. Will Smith later added a run-scoring single after Freddie Freeman had doubled for a 5-0 lead.
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a strained hamstring, retroactive to Thursday. Urías was pulled from Thursday's game against St. Louis after conceding six runs from home runs in the third inning. Despite earlier expectations that Urías would be fit to start against Atlanta on Tuesday, his hamstring has worsened. The 24-year-old has a 5-4 record with a 4.39 ERA in 10 starts this season, compared to his 17-7 record last year, in which he had a National League-leading 2.31 ERA. The Dodgers have called up Wander Suero from Triple-A Oklahoma City to replace Urías. Suero has a 0-0 record with a 5.79 ERA in three appearances this season for the Dodgers, but has been more successful for Oklahoma City, with a 3.00 record and a 1.32 ERA in 11 appearances.
