List of All Articles with Tag 'le'

J. Michael Luttig, a conservative retired federal judge and key adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, declared on Wednesday that "there is no Republican Party" and said former President Donald Trump is even more dangerous than he was in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

The next time you receive an Gmail message in a language you don't speak, you’ll

The director of Rome's Colosseum has called for an end to concerts at the nearby Circus Maximus, after a performance by US rapper Travis Scott on Monday sparked fears of an earthquake.

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Lebanon's culture minister moved to ban the film "Barbie" from the country's cinemas on Wednesday, saying it "promoted

Abortion wasn't technically on the ballot in Ohio's special election. But the overwhelming defeat of a measure that would have made it tougher to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution this fall was the latest indicator that the issue remains a powerful force at the ballot box. The election saw heavy turnout for what's typically a sleepy summer election date and sets up another battle in November, when Ohio will be the only state this year to have reproductive rights on the ballot. It also gives hope to Democrats and other abortion rights supporters who say the matter could sway voters their way again in 2024. That's when it could affect races for president, Congress and statewide offices, and when places such as the battleground of Arizona may put abortion questions on their ballots as well. Democrats described the victory in Ohio, a one-time battleground state that has shifted markedly to the right, as a “major warning sign” for the GOP. “Republicans’ deeply unpopular war on women’s rights will cost them district after district, and we will remind voters of their toxic anti-abortion agenda every day until November,” said Aidan Johnson, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The measure voters rejected Tuesday, known as Issue 1, would have required ballot questions to pass with 60% of the vote rather than a simple majority. Interest was unusually high, with millions spent on each side and voters casting more than double the number of early in-person and mail ballots ahead of the final day of voting as in a typical primary election. Early turnout was especially heavy in the Democratic-leaning counties surrounding Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Opposition to the measure, which became a kind of proxy for the November abortion vote, extended even into traditionally Republican areas. In early returns, support for the measure fell far short of Donald Trump’s performance during the 2020 election in nearly every county. The November ballot question will ask voters whether individuals should have the right to make their own reproductive health care decisions, including contraception, abortion, fertility treatment and miscarriage care. Ohio's GOP-led state government in 2019 approved a ban on abortion after cardiac activity is detected — around six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant — but the ban was not enforced because of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade, which granted a federal right to the procedure. When a new conservative majority on the high court last year overturned the nearly 50-year-old ruling, sending authority over the procedure back to the states, Ohio's ban briefly went into effect. But a state court put the ban on hold again while a challenge alleging it violates the state constitution plays out. During the time the ban was in place, an Indiana doctor came forward to say she had performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio who could not legally have the procedure in her home state. The account became a national flashpoint in the debate over abortion rights and underscored the stakes in Ohio. Ohio is one of about half of U.S. states where citizens may bypass the Legislature and put ballot questions directly to voters, making it an option that supporters of reproductive rights have increasingly turned to since Roe v. Wade fell. After abortion rights supporters said they hoped to ask voters in November to enshrine the right in the state constitution, Ohio Republicans put Issue 1 on Tuesday’s ballot. In addition to raising the threshold to pass a measure, it would have required signatures to be collected in all 88 counties, rather than 44. The 60% threshold was no accident, abortion rights supporters say, and was aimed directly at defeating the Ohio abortion measure. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, six states have had elections regarding reproductive rights. In every election — including in conservative states like Kansas — voters have supported abortion rights. In Kansas, 59% voted to preserve abortion rights protections, while in Michigan 57% favored an amendment that put protections in the state constitution. Last year, 59% of Ohio voters said abortion should generally be legal, according to AP VoteCast, a broad survey of the electorate. Last month, a poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found the majority of U.S. adults want abortion to be legal at least through the initial stages of pregnancy. The poll found that opinions on abortion remain complex, with most people believing abortion should be allowed in some circumstances and not in others. Opponents of the Ohio abortion question ran ads that suggested the measure could strip parents of their ability to make decisions about their child’s health care or to even be notified about it. Amy Natoce, spokesperson for the anti-abortion campaign Protect Women Ohio, called the ballot measure a “dangerous anti-parent amendment.” Several legal experts have said there is no language in the amendment supporting the ads’ claims. Peter Range, CEO of Ohio Right to Life, said he has been traveling across Ohio talking to people and “I’ve never seen the grassroots from the pro-life side more fired up to go and defend and protect the pre-born.” While the November question pertains strictly to Ohio, access to abortion there is pivotal to access across the Midwest, said Alison Dreith, director of strategic partnership for the abortion fund Midwest Access Coalition. Nine Midwestern states — Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Nebraska, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin — are considered restrictive, very restrictive or most restrictive of abortion rights by the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization that supports legal access to abortion. “Ohio in particular has always been a destination state for the states around it,” Dreith said. “If we don’t protect abortion access in Ohio, the options just continue to shrink for people seeking care in the Midwest.” Sri Thakkilapati, the executive director of the Cleveland-based nonprofit abortion clinic Preterm, said the effect of the Ohio vote will reverberate throughout the country. “When we restrict access in one state, other states have to take up that patient load,” she said. “That leads to longer wait times, more travel, higher costs for patients." Thakkilapati called the energy around abortion rights in last year's midterms “exciting.” But she said the media attention died down, and people quickly forgot “how tenuous abortion access is right now.” The special election and ballot measure in Ohio are “a reminder of what’s at stake," Thakkilapati said. “Other states are watching how this plays out in Ohio, and it may give anti-abortion groups in other states another strategy to threaten abortion rights elsewhere,” she said. “And for the majority who do want abortion access in their states but are seeing it threatened, the results in November could give them hope that the democratic process may give them relief.” Kimberly Inez McGuire, the executive director of Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, which focuses on young people of color under age 30, says the results of elections involving reproductive rights show that support doesn't come just from Democrats or in cities and states considered liberal bastions. “There was this idea that we couldn’t win on abortion in red states and that idea has really been smashed,” McGuire said. So, too, she said, is the “mythology” that people in the South and Midwest won't support abortion rights. “I think 2024 is going to be huge,” she said. “And I think in many ways, Ohio is a proving ground, an early fight in the lead up to 2024.” Dreith said that since abortion hasn't been on a major ballot since last year, the Ohio vote this fall is “a good reminder” for the rest of the country. “Abortion is always on the ballot — if not literally but figuratively through the politicians we elect to serve us,” she said. "It’s also a reminder that this issue isn’t going away.” Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Why Ohio's Issue 1 proposal failed, and how the AP called the race Ohio voters reject GOP plan to thwart upcoming abortion rights proposal Abortion rights advocates push for 2024 ballot initiative in Arizona

The 20 home kits for the 2023/24 Premier League season, ranked.

UNC football is dealing with the fallout of the NCAA's questionable ruling on wideout Tez Walker's eligibility for the 2023 season.Drake Maye's top rumored target in 2023, Devontez "Tez" Walker, may not actually see the field at all.Wide receiver Tez Walker transferr...

Singer and songwriter Sixto Rodriguez, who became the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary “Searching for Sugarman,” has died in Detroit

Mike Norvell wants you on your toes.

A pianist has become an overnight sensation after his performance at a cafe took an unexpected twist. Emil Reinert was at the Dritan Alsela coffee shop in Dusseldorf, Germany, earlier this week when he launched into a piece from the opera ‘La Traviata’. The surrounding diners looked bewildered at the musical outburst as they sat casually sipping their drinks. However, Reinert himself was left with “goosebumps” when a man sitting across the room suddenly erupted into song. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The stranger with the Royal Albert Hall-worthy voice accompanied the piano player until the end of the verse, at which point a second surprise performer piped in. The man’s friend, who was sitting opposite him, also turned out to be an opera singer and, together, the trio wrapped up the impromptu rendition to rapturous applause. @emiliopiano I met 2 SINGERS in a CAFÉ!! ? @Dritan Alsela Song: Libiamo ne' lieti calici Opera: La Traviata #piano #singing #verdi #traviata #libiamo #publicpiano #classicaltok #classicalmusic #opera #dritanalsela Reinert, who goes by the username emiliopiano on TikTok, posted a video of the spontaneous show, with the caption: “I met 2 SINGERS in a CAFÉ!!” In the overlay text to the two-minute clip, he wrote: “This is what happens when you play Italian music in a café.” He then wrote that he was “so happy” when the man joined him and noted that everyone in the room “soon became silent” and started filming on their phones. The Franco-German musician concluded his video by hailing the experience as proof of the unifying power of music. The recording racked up a staggering 53.9 million views in just two days, as fellow TikTokers shared their delight at the heartwarming display. “These people just got free tickets to a very expensive show,” one commented. “It’s fun cause they probably get paid to sing [...] so this was just for the moment,” wrote another. “As a former dancer I can tell you some people just love their art and share it anywhere anytime,” pointed out a third. “Music is a universal language even if you don’t understand the lyrics you can find beauty in the song,” said a fourth. And a fifth said: “I would love to be somewhere when this happens. It makes me so happy to see spontaneous joyful music.” Meanwhile, a number of killjoys were quick to flag that the whole thing was most probably “staged”. Reinert has amassed 2.2 million followers on TikTok thanks to his videos which have been shot in unlikely settings around Europe, from airports to beaches. Each one sees him happily tickling the ivories on his own before he’s joined by a “surprise” bystander who happens to have brought along an instrument or an exceptional singing voice. @emiliopiano I met a VIOLINIST at the Airport ?! ❤️ #piano #pianogare #mentalhealthawarenessweek #tohelpmyanxiety #pianoengare #pianoairport #violin #violinist #pianoduo #pianoduet #pianoduetchallenge #pianotutorial #pianomusic #pianolesson #pianoplayer #pianist #pianocover #pianotok @RIOPY And yet, as many fans point out, it doesn’t matter that the whole thing is pre-planned. “I know these are staged,” one viewer wrote. “But they still make me cry the happy tears.” 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.

Previewing Luton Town's first season as a Premier League club following their promotion via the play-offs.

Grimes has recently opened up about her relationship with ex-boyfriend Elon Musk, who is the father of her three-year-old son X Æ A-XII and one-year-old daughter Exa Dark Sideræl also known as "Y". During the in-depth interview with WIRED, the Canadian musician - whose real name is Claire Elise Boucher - told the interviewer "You get one Elon question," when the Space X, and Tesla CEO and Twitter owner and CTO was mentioned. However, the Oblivion singer covered everything from what she and Musk have learned from each other to her thoughts on the alleged cage fight anticipated to take place between Musk and Meta found Mark Zuckerberg. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Here are some of the biggest talking points from the WIRED interview: What she and Musk learned from each other Grimes described her time with Musk as "the best internship ever," and how "incredible" it was to witness everything he's doing with Space X. "That’s a master class in leadership and engineering and makes you understand how rare it is to have a leader of that quality," she said. She also said she believes she helped Musk to "have more fun," "soften him up" and "build family culture". She added: "And he steals a lot of my memes." On Musk and Twitter Recently, Musk has made headlines with the different choices he's made since he acquired Twitter. The company has consequently gone under some changes, from firing 80 per cent of the entire workforce to changing the name of the social media platform to 'X'. "He didn’t build the culture there. And the cultural fit has obviously been very intense," Grimes said. She noted how Musk has really high standards and the difficulty of his role "to be a great general and do something of that magnitude". The musician went on to say: "Elon has an old-world kind of discipline I really respect. And I think it rubs a lot of people the wrong way. They don’t want to be in that hardcore zone. If you’re not consenting to being in that hardcore zone, I get it." Grimes thinks Musk and Zuckerberg's cage fight will go ahead Grimes was asked for her take on the ongoing beef between Musk and Meta founder Zuckerberg which saw the pair agree via Twitter earlier this year to go head-to-head in a cage fight. She believes the fight will go ahead and commented: "Elon is very strong, but Zuck seems like he’s been training a ton." However she did add that she “would prefer that it didn’t happen”, but she believes it might be a good outlet for “trad masculinity". In one of their Twitter exchanges, Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a “literal d***-measuring contest," a tweet in which Grimes said she would "take credit" for. She further clarified that she didn't tell Musk to write the post, and said: “No, I was like, ‘Why don’t you cut to the chase and get out a ruler.’ I didn’t think he was going to tweet it.” Her children are "little engineers" When asked about Musk bringing their son X into business meetings, Grimes expressed her support given the youngster's interest in rockets. "He knows more about rockets than me," she said, calling him a "little engineer". So much so, Grimes gave an example of her son's "obsession with space," recalling the time he had a "three-day PTSD meltdown," when Starship blew up back in April. Grimes also described her daughter Y as a "little engineer". "She likes industrial shipping. She’s very strange," she added. On Musk's differing views Previously, Grimes and Musk have shared disagreements on Twitter, most notably their different positions on gender with Musk tweeting "'pronouns suck," back in 2020, with people online calling his comment “disgusting” and “transphobic". "I love you but please turn off ur phone or give me a call. I cannot support hate. Please stop this. I know this isn’t your heart," Grimes replied at the time in a since-deleted tweet. Recently, Musk tweeted in June that the words “cis” and “cisgender” are now considered slurs on Twitter. "I don’t want to talk about this too much. But take the trans thing. After that, we had a big, long conversation. I was like, 'I want to dissect why you’re so stressed about this.' "I was like, OK, you don’t hate trans people, you hate woke culture. I get that it can be annoying, and you have concerns about the fertility thing." "He’s just on Twitter, and he’s unhappy with woke people, and the arguments happened," the artist added. 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.