List of All Articles with Tag 'world'

As a young child in the 1980s, Anthony Constantinou lost his father, Aristos, a fashion tycoon who was

Republican state legislators in Nebraska rammed through a contentious bill restricting abortion and transgender healthcare last week with the help of a sick colleague who had just gotten out of hospital. Julie Slama, a state GOP senator, confirmed on Friday that she had been receiving treatment for hyperemesis gravidarium, a serious complication of pregnancy, but made it to the statehouse in time to cast a decisive vote. Earlier that day, Nebraska Examiner reporter Paul Hammel had posted a picture of her looking “clearly ill” as colleagues from both sides of the debate stood around her to shield her from TV cameras. According to Hammel, Ms Slama cast the crucial 33rd vote that allowed the bill to overcome a months-long filibuster by progressive senators that had brought Nebraska’s unicameral legislature practically to a standstill. The bill, signed into law by governor Jim Pillen on Monday, bans abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy, starting immediately, and all gender transition healthcare for trans people under the age of 19, starting in October. “I was hospitalised today with hyperemesis gravidarum,” Ms Slama tweeted on Friday evening. “Made it back in time to vote, and on the most divisive bill of the entire session. “Everyone put their differences aside and joined in a wall to keep my illness from the cameras. ‘Gratitude’ doesn’t even begin to cover it,” she said. In another tweet on Saturday morning, she said: “Do I like that [the photo] is out there? No. But sometimes in government, private battles end up public. I shared to address questions about my health, but also to give my colleagues credit for their kindness, especially Machaela Cavanaugh.” That last name was notable because Ms Cavanaugh, along with her progressive colleague Megan Hunt, has been one of the public faces of the 12-week filibuster that had blocked almost all legislation in this session so far. Ms Cavanaugh has described the trans healthcare ban as a stepping stone to “genocide”, telling The Independent earlier this month that it was aimed at “exterminating ‘transgender’ from existence”. Nevertheless, she was among the senators who stood in front of Ms Slama to block her from view, and later tweeted at Hammel to “delete this please”. Another Republican senator, Lou Ann Linehan, had complained that she had to miss her grandson’s preschool graduation ceremony because of the filibuster and the prolonged debate it created. Ms Hunt, who has a trans child, shot back: “If you want to see your grandson graduate from preschool, you should do that. Instead, you are here to drag out this session because you won’t come off this bill that hurts my son. You hate him more than you love your own family.” Hammel defended his decision to tweet the photo, saying: “No more public place than floor of [the] Nebraska legislature.”

Pride organisers in Florida have called off events that were to take place during the Pride Month in the wake of the latest anti-LGBT+ laws signed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Organisers based in the town of St Cloud outside Orlando announced on Thursday that they have cancelled the upcoming 10 June event, saying they are aware that it is “unsafe to hold the event”. “As you know, Florida has recently passed a number of laws that target the LGBTQIA+ community. These laws have created a climate of fear and hostility for LGBTQIA+ people in Florida,” the organisers said. “We believe that holding an LGBTQIA+ event in this environment would put our community at risk.” Officials and organisers in Port St Lucie city announced the cancellation of Pride parades last month and limitation of other activities for those who are 21 years or older. Mr DeSantis, a 2024 presidential hopeful, has signed several bills last week that banned gender-affirming care for minors, restricted pronoun use in schools and forced individuals to use restrooms corresponding with their biological sex – an expansion of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill enacted into law last year. The laws have been dubbed as a “slate of hate” by activists and opponents. The new laws will target drag shows in the state, limit the use of preferred pronouns for pupils in schools, and ban trans people from using public bathrooms that do not match with their gender assigned at birth. NAACP, a civil rights group, issued a formal travel advisory for Florida, stating that the state has become “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of colour and LGBTQ+ individuals”. It denounced the state’s "aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programmes in Florida schools”. LGBT+ advocacy group Equality Florida also issued a similar advisory after Mr DeSantis signed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law. "That law, along with additional proposals being considered, has turned the state’s classrooms into political battlefields and is telegraphing to LGBTQ families and students that they are not welcome in Florida," the group said. Florida’s Lake County Pride, however, pushed back against the laws, saying: “No unconstitutional law will keep us from celebrating our PRIDE event”. “Lake County Pride will never back down, and we stood firm and united in fighting against the "Drag Ban,” it said. Read More E Jean Carroll targets Trump again after his derogatory CNN town hall smears MLK’s daughter backs call for tourists to boycott ‘racist’ Florida and blasts Cruz Founder of student aid startup Frank pleads not guilty to fraud Haley vs. Scott: From South Carolina allies to 2024 rivals Who is Tim Scott? 5 things to know about the newest 2024 GOP presidential candidate Two fishermen bitten by sharks just hours apart in the Florida Keys

Bain Capital is targeting November to relist Virgin Australia Airlines Pty Ltd. through an initial public offering that

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Finance Minister Christian Lindner are thrashing out a plan to close a €20

Dual listings between the Middle East and Asia are expected to become a new trend as investment flows

Vedanta Ltd. will award a dividend of 68.8 billion rupee ($830 million), the first payout in the fiscal

Activity in Japan’s service and factory sectors expanded in May, signaling a stronger post-pandemic economic recovery. The au

Chinese energy giant State Power Investment Corp. is in advanced talks to buy Latin American power producer Inkia

Joe Biden has again been criticised for saying that his late son Beau “lost his life in Iraq” – a reference to the president’s long-held belief that toxic burn pits led to the younger Biden passing away from brain cancer at the age of 46. The president made his latest remarks to US troops stationed in Japan during his trip to the country, after making similar remarks at least twice last year. “My son was a major in the US Army. We lost him in Iraq,” said Mr Biden during an informal visit with troops at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni last Thursday in a video obtained by The New York Post. Right-wing media outlets have attempted to use Mr Biden’s comments on Beau’s death as a sign that the 80-year-old Democrat has memory issues ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Mr Biden’s son died of brain cancer in 2015 at the Walter Reed military hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. Last October Mr Biden made similar comments while speaking close to Vail, Colorado, as he designated Camp Hail as a national monument. The area, covering 436 square miles, was the training site of the 10th Mountain Division during the Second World War. Mr Biden spoke of the bravery of the division as they fought in Italy, before stating that he lost his son in Iraq. “Just imagine, I mean it sincerely, I say this as a father of a man who won the Bronze Star, the conspicuous service medal, and lost his life in Iraq. Imagine the courage, the daring, and the genuine sacrifice they all made,” the president said. A clip of the moment shared by the conservative Washington Examiner on Twitter has been viewed more than a million times. Beau Biden served in Iraq between 2008 and 2009 as a member of the Delaware Army National Guard. He was the Delaware Attorney General between 2007 and 2015. Just months after leaving the post, he passed away at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland on 30 May 2015. After his passing, he was given the Delaware Conspicuous Service Cross for “heroism, meritorious service and outstanding achievement”. “Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015, more than five years after he returned from a year serving in Iraq. Joe Biden has attributed the cancer to Beau Biden’s proximity to burn pits in Iraq, though sometimes conceded he isn’t sure,” CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale tweeted. In 2016, then-Vice President Biden said his son’s cancer could have been caused by the toxic burn pits that he was exposed to during his service in the Middle East. The New York Times reported that Mr Biden said he was “stunned” when he read a chapter concerning the death of his son in the book The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers by Joseph Hickman. “Guys, I’m going to be the biggest pain in your neck as long as I live, until we figure out about these burn pits,” he said in a conference room in the congressional complex. Burn pits were used to get rid of waste, such as plastics, rubber, and batteries, in both Afghanistan and Iraq. The smoke from the pits could be toxic, Newsweek noted. The Department of Defence has stated that almost 3.5 million service members could have been exposed to toxins at harmful levels because of the practice. “I’ve always believed that we have a sacred obligation to equip those we send to war, and care for those and their families when they come home,” Mr Biden said during his State of the Union speech earlier this year. “And they come home, many of the world’s fittest and best-trained warriors in the world, never the same. Headaches. Numbness. Dizziness. A cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin.” While Mr Biden said he couldn’t be entirely sure that his son’s cancer was caused by the burn pits, he said his administration would be “finding out everything we can”. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) states on its website that it “understands that many Veterans are especially concerned about exposure to the smoke and fumes generated by open burn pits”. “In Iraq, Afghanistan, and other areas of the Southwest Asia theater of military operations, open-air combustion of trash and other waste in burn pits was a common practice. The Department of Defense has now closed out most burn pits and is planning to close the remainder,” the agency adds. “Researchers, including experts at VA, are actively studying airborne hazards like burn pits and other military environmental exposures. Ongoing research will help us better understand potential long-term health effects and provide you with better care and services,” the site states. 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The Corniche was supposed to generate HK$30 billion ($3.8 billion) in sales after the developers bought the land

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he and President Joe Biden had a productive talk but have not yet