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Judge invalidates FDA approval of abortion drug mifepristone
A federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary ruling declaring the FDA’s 23-year approval of the abortion drug mifepristone invalid, an unprecedented order that if it survives a court challenge, Could make it harder for patients in states where abortion is legal, not just those trying to restrict it. Less than an hour after the ruling, a judge in Washington state issued a ruling that directly contradicted that of Texas. The conflicting orders of two federal judges appear to have created a legal impasse that could escalate to the Supreme Court.
Anger at GOP could prompt fired Democrats to return to House
Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson were no longer members of the Tennessee House of Representatives after they were fired by their Republican colleagues on Friday for their protest behavior. They can’t stand up for their constituents in Nashville and Memphis, and they can’t come to power again to push gun control legislation. But rather than sidelining Democratic lawmakers, the evictions have sparked outrage within their party and galvanized national support as the two young black lawmakers prepare to return to the state legislature — as soon as next week — —their platform and popularity are far greater than they were just a few days ago.
U.S. Attorneys Face Challenge in Georgia
The Fulton County District Attorney’s investigation into former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election is nearing decision point, raising concerns for federal prosecutors considering charges against him over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. new challenges. Farney Willis’ long-running investigation in Atlanta overlaps significantly with special counsel Jack Smith’s broader investigation into Trump’s conduct in Washington. That spells trouble for two aggressive investigative teams hunting some of the same witnesses, raising the possibility of discrepancies in testimony that Trump’s lawyers could exploit.
Biden’s high-stakes sprint to an electric future
Inside government labs, engineers have been dissecting the innards of the latest all-electric vehicles with one goal: to rewrite tailpipe pollution rules to speed up the nation’s transition to electric vehicles. Ongoing work at the Environmental Protection Agency’s automotive research laboratory makes it one of the most complex balancing acts facing President Joe Biden. He has pledged to tackle climate change, where gasoline vehicles are a major source of global warming pollution. But auto manufacturing is one of the most important industries in the United States, and a rapid shift to electric vehicles has the potential to displace thousands of auto workers.
Cash App Creator’s stabbing sparks alarm, claims San Francisco is ‘lawless’
Anger erupted within hours as it emerged that the 43-year-old man stabbed to death this week in a high-rise apartment enclave near the Bay Bridge was Bob Lee, a prominent tech executive. The “lawless” San Francisco leader has “Lee’s blood on his hands,” tweeted Matt Ocko, a tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist in Palo Alto, California. The drumbeat has built up since then. While city officials agree the murder shows that San Francisco needs work on public safety, they have also clashed with powerful figures in the tech industry over the severity of the city’s crime problem.
Biden’s Transgender Title IX Protection Plan Begins On Inauguration Day
As President Joe Biden signed an executive order within his first hours in office to strengthen the ban on gender and sex discrimination, a group of Education Department officials began to assess an important question: How does the government protect transgender athletes? The issue has divided activists who see the ban on transgender athletes as necessary to protect sporting fairness, while others are keen to see the blocking of such athletes as part of a larger assault on transgender people’s civil liberties. The latest government proposal to protect transgender people, released Thursday, is seen as a compromise by those who study Title IX issues.
New batch of classified documents emerges on social media sites
A new batch of classified documents appeared on social media sites on Friday that appeared to detail U.S. national security secrets from Ukraine to the Middle East to China, alarming the Pentagon and setting the scene for an event that appeared to have caught the Biden administration off guard. The situation has added to the turmoil. U.S. officials said the scale of the leak — more than 100 documents may have been obtained — and the sensitivity of the documents themselves could cause enormous damage. A senior intelligence official called the leak a “Five Eyes nightmare,” referring to the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the so-called Five Eyes countries that share intelligence extensively.
Tensions ease in southern Lebanon, but escalate again in West Bank and Israel
The situation remained volatile across the region on Friday after a rare outbreak of violence on the Israel-Lebanon border, with two Israelis killed and at least one civilian killed in a drive-by shooting in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. died in the incident. The crash in Tel Aviv. But fears of a broader escalation on multiple fronts involving Israel, Lebanon and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip subsided, at least temporarily, as all parties said they were not seeking immediate escalation. Palestinian militias stopped firing rockets into Israel, tensions at the sensitive holy site of Jerusalem cooled and Israeli forces ended their counterattacks in Lebanon and Gaza.
Burmese Baptist pastor jailed for 6 years for opposing junta
Hkalam Samson, a Burmese Baptist pastor who has called attention to human rights abuses in Myanmar at the White House, was sentenced Friday to six years in prison on charges of terrorism, unlawful association and inciting opposition to the Burmese regime. Samson, 65, a former president of the Kachin Baptist Church in Myanmar, has denied the allegations. His supporters, including international human rights groups, say the allegations were fabricated by the military-led regime to silence him and have called for his immediate release. The junta that seized power in a coup more than two years ago is battling an increasingly well-armed coalition of ethnic troops and pro-democracy forces.
China’s ‘women in chains’ trafficking case sparks online outrage
A Chinese court on Friday jailed six people for human trafficking and abusing a woman who was found chained to a shed wall last year. The case has sparked outrage, dented the government’s credibility and reignited the debate on the status of women in China. Many questions remain about the woman and her situation, in part because the government has offered conflicting explanations and censored many who dispute the official narrative. Penalties ranging from eight to 13 years have sparked renewed public outrage. Hashtags related to the case topped the conversation charts on Chinese social media, with commenters criticizing them for being too lenient.
Taliban bans woman from UN, threatens lifeline
The Afghan government this week banned female U.N. Afghan employees from working in Afghanistan, according to U.N. officials, in a move that threatens one of the last lifelines for desperately needed aid in a country where millions are at risk of starvation and restrictions on women are holding back aid. action in recent months. This week’s decision comes more than three months after the Taliban government issued a decree banning women from working in local and international aid organizations, many of which are involved in U.N. projects in Afghanistan. The decision has led many organizations to suspend or scale back their programs across the country.
A cobra appeared mid-flight. Pilots’ quick thinking saved lives.
A South African pilot was hailed as a hero this week when he accidentally came face-to-face with a venomous snake at 11,000 feet. Pilot Rudolf Erasmus, 30, laughed about the incident in an interview on Friday, but he and his four passengers were colleagues and did not fly any “onboard plane” on Monday. “snake” joke when he noticed a cobra, one of South Africa’s most dangerous snakes, swimming around the cockpit on the plane. He estimated it was 4 to 5 feet long. It was not long before Erasmus arranged to land at the nearest airport. After landing, Erasmus was the last to leave.
via wired source
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