Germany’s Economy Ministry is prepared to support Siemens Energy AG because it sees the company as a strategic

Transgender hate crimes have increased by 11% in England and Wales, according to new data. Statistics from the Home Office found transgender hate crimes increased by to 4,732 offences in the year ending March 2023. The rise could be partly down to public discussion by politicians, the Home Office said. “What we’re seeing in today’s Britain is a horrifying reality of anti-trans narratives that are spreading across media and from high profile politicians, and the Home Office themselves have admitted it is a likely cause of rising violence,” Robbie de Santos, director of external affairs at LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, told the PA news agency. “We can’t be complacent about any sort of divisive or dehumanising rhetoric, or failure to deliver on policy to protect our communities. “As a survivor of a violent attack myself, I want everyone to know you’re not in this alone. We’ve proven time and time again, that when we come together as a community we can demand and create true change.” The data comes a day after the prime minister Rishi Sunak weighed in on the debate around transgender rights at the Conservative Party Conference. “We shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t, a man is a man and a woman is a woman. That’s just common sense,” Sunak said. Health Secretary Steve Barclay used his speech at the conference to propose a ban on trans women from female NHS wards. With many members of the transgender community feeling threatened, what can you do to support anyone struggling? Ambassadors for LGBTQ+ young people’s charity Just Like Us share their advice for allies… Talk about it Your loved ones may not know anyone who is trans, or understand what it means to be transgender. “I need friends and family to keep talking and taking a stand against transphobia,” explains Charlie Hall, 25. “Talk about it with your colleagues, friends and family. Trans people are a small minority and allies need to take action, show others that trans people exist and are just trying to live their lives.” Matty Robins, 20, adds: “Personally, my friends reposting Instagram posts from transgender people in need, or anything about Trans Day of Visibility [March 31] or Trans Day of Remembrance [November 20], for example, has been one of the biggest displays of allyship to me.” Reach out Every trans person may be facing something different. “Ask us how you can support us. Every person is an individual and reacts differently to the situation and therefore needs different kinds of support,” explains 22-year-old Carden Cappi. Challenge hate and discrimination “Trans people need allies standing up for us,” explains Robins. This could include: “Correcting people when they deadname (using the name someone was assigned at birth) or misgender a trans person, whether the trans person is there or not. Fighting for trans inclusion at school, university and in the workplace.” Instead of “calling out” someone, which Robins says can be “inflammatory and cause people to turn away from transgender allyship”, he recommends talking to them about what they just said. “They may not mean it or understand how something they say is perceived as transphobic.” Be willing to learn “Friends and family can be supportive by educating themselves,” explains Charlie Middleton, 24. There are lots of resources out there to help you learn more about the trans community. Books like The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye (Penguin, £10.99) and Juno Dawson’s The Gender Games: The Problem With Men and Women, From Someone Who Has Been Both (Two Roads, £10.99) are well worth a read. You can also follow trans activists on social media – including Charlie Craggs and Munroe Bergdorf – to learn more about the community. Read More Impact of relationships with AI chatbot programmes ‘worrying’, psychologist says Pokemon’s Detective Pikachu Returns and more top games of the week How to talk to kids about cigarettes and vapes, following Rishi Sunak’s smoke-free generation plans 4 must-have denim trends for autumn, from wide-leg jeans to split skirts Doorscaping: How to create a fabulous front door display for autumn More than a quarter of middle-aged women living with ‘metabolically healthy obesity’ – study

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Players can get refunds to their Fortnite accounts by contacting Epic Games or applying for a FTC refund for purchases from January 2017 to September 2022.

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Republican lawmakers in North Carolina voted to override the governor’s veto of a bill that outlaws abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy, restricting abortion access in a state that has been a haven for abortion care in the year after the US Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v Wade. In neighbouring South Carolina, lawmakers have continued debate before voting on a more-restrictive measure that would ban nearly all abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they are pregnant, adding to a streak of abortion restrictions across the US South. More than a dozen states, mostly in the South, have outlawed most abortions or severely restricted access within the year after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which revoked a constitutional right to abortion care that was affirmed for nearly half a century. Abortion rights restrictions in North Carolina and a six-week ban in South Carolina would dramatically change the map for abortion access in the US, where abortions are banned in most cases from Texas to West Virginia and along the Gulf Coast. “In the more than a dozen states with bans, women have been turned away from emergency rooms, left with no choice but to travel hundreds of miles for the care they need, and faced complications that put their lives and health at risk. Like those laws, the North Carolina ban will harm patients and threaten doctors for providing essential care,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement on 17 May. She called the North Carolina measure a “dangerous bill that is out of touch with the majority of North Carolinians and will make it even more difficult for women to get the reproductive health care they need.” “We’ve already seen the devastating impacts that state abortion bans have had on the health and lives of Americans living under these draconian laws,” she added. Health workers joined protesters at the North Carolina Capitol in Raleigh on 17 May as lawmakers in the Republican-controlled state legislature convened to override a veto from Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, who has spent the last several days campaigning for GOP lawmakers to break from the party and drop the challenge to his veto. In a video posted online, the governor named four Republican lawmakers who he said made campaign promises to protect access to abortion. “They say this is a reasonable 12-week ban. It’s not,” he said in the video. “The fine print requirements and restrictions will shut down clinics and make abortion completely unavailable to many women at any time, causing desperation and death.” Much of the coverage surrounding the North Carolina legislation has centred around a now-Republican lawmaker who previously campaigned against abortion restrictions when she was a Democrat, up until April. State Rep Tricia Cotham joined the Republican Party last month after campaigning for her seat as a Democratic candidate and earning the endorsement of EMILY’s List, an influential abortion rights organisation. Her party switch delivered Republicans a veto-proof majority in the House. Ms Cotham has spent years campaigning against abortion restrictions, with powerful testimony about abortion rights and her own medically necessary abortion experience, saying in one widely shared 2015 speech that “my womb and my uterus is not up for your political grab.” In a statement following the vote, the governor said that “North Carolinians now understand that Republicans are unified in their assault on women’s reproductive freedom, and we are energized to fight back on this and other critical issues facing our state.” Lawmakers in the House and Senate voted on party lines to reverse the governor’s veto. The bill includes exceptions for pregnancies from rape or incest or if there is a “life-limiting anomaly” in the fetus. It also will require in-person physician visits at least 72 hours before a procedural abortion, and doctors must also make real-time views of fetuses available and allow patients to listen to embryonic cardiac activity. North Carolina lawmakers approved the anti-abortion law while lawmakers in Nebraska debated a measure that coupled a 10-week abortion ban with a bill targeting gender-affirming care for trans youth, a proposal that inspired a nearly three-month-long filibuster in an effort to block it. Republican lawmakers ultimately broke through the filibuster on Tuesday night and voted in favour of the combined bill, which will head to a final round of votes before it heads to the desk of Republican Governor Jim Pillen, who intends to sign it into law. Meanwhile, in Louisiana, lawmakers recently refused to add rape and incest exceptions to its anti-abortion law, one of the most restrictive in the country. State lawmakers also overwhelmingly rejected attempts to clarify medical exceptions in the law, including a measure that would specifically allow providers to remove an ectopic or molar pregnancy, which cannot result in a successful birth. Read More Nebraska Republicans approve combined gender-affirming care ban and anti-abortion bill after epic filibuster Anti-abortion laws harm patients facing dangerous and life-threatening complications, report finds

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Welcome to Money Diaries where we are tackling the ever-present taboo that is money. We’re asking real people how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period — and we’re tracking every last dollar.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate's top Democrat said on Tuesday that he and President Joe Biden's administration were engaging allies