Month: June 2021

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World News

Chinese language Communist Occasion at age 100 confronts rising contradictions

Chinese Communist Party at age 100 confronts growing contradictions

It must be said bluntly: The Chinese Communist Party, which turns 100 this week, represents the most successful authoritarians in history.

So why does President Xi seem so restless?

It is a time when there are no obvious challenges to its authority, and China has never enjoyed such international reach, economic strength, or military might. Yet in a marked departure from his predecessors, Xi was in a hurry to tighten the screws on dissenting opinions, expand technological surveillance of his people, enforce new controls over the private sector, and enormously strengthen his party’s prerogatives and power.

It is this contradiction between China’s overwhelming authoritarian achievements and President Xi’s head-scratching nervousness about the future that is most worth watching as the systemic competition of our time unfolds.

In these global sweepstakes for the future, the ruthless, technology-assisted efficiency of autocratic capitalism and the permanent (albeit dangerously questioned) attractions of democratic capitalism with its magnetic stimuli of individual rights and freedoms are juxtaposed.

The question of our time is whether these two systems, as represented by China and the United States, can agree on a number of terms that will enable them to compete peacefully, and sometimes even to work together. Even if they do, one system or another will emerge as the dominant rule-maker for an evolving global order. One or the other is likely to turn out to be a more successful provider for the needs of citizens.

While the fragility of democratic societies has come to its fullest in recent years, most dramatically on January 6th during the uprising and violent attack on the US Congress, the less transparent challenges may be more crucial to President Xi’s ambitions.

The Economist cover story this weekend sets out the contradictions.

“No other dictatorship,” it says, “has been able to transform itself from a famine-ridden catastrophe like China under Mao Zedong into the world’s second largest economy, whose state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure of America’s creaky roads and railways to shame. “

At the same time, the Economist under President Xi adds: “The bureaucracy, army and police have been cleared of dissenting and corrupt officials. Big business is being reconciled. Mr. Xi has rebuilt the party at grassroots level, creating a network of neighborhood spies and cadre smuggled into private companies to monitor them. Society has not been so strictly controlled since Mao’s days. “

History suggests that if Xi steps up his domestic repression and his assertiveness abroad, something will have to give way.

Jude Blanchette writes in Foreign Affairs: “His belief that the CCP should run the economy and Beijing should curb the private sector will limit the country’s future economic growth. His demand that party cadres adhere to ideological orthodoxy and demonstrate personal loyalty to him. ”The flexibility and competence of the system of government will be undermined. Its emphasis on an expansive definition of national security will steer the country in an internal and more paranoid direction. His unleashed ‘Wolf Warrior’ nationalism will create a more aggressive and isolated China. “

However, recent history also shows that the CCP has demonstrated ruthless resilience, brutal efficiency, and ideological dexterity that has repeatedly puzzled its critics and enabled it to end Mao’s 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, with an estimated death toll of up to . 20 million to deal with, the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, the 2020 Covid-19 crisis that China spawned and then killed, and much more.

Not long after he came to power, President Xi gave up the studied patience of his immediate predecessors, who acted in the spirit of Deng Xiaoping by “biding their time and hiding their power” in dealing with world affairs. With that, the Communist Party’s power over society also waned.

President Xi’s dramatic decision to change internally and externally was the result of his own belief that the United States and Western democracies were in relative decline.

Xi’s worldview was shaped by the collapse of the Soviet Union and its communist party in 1989 and 1990, a lesson that guides almost everything he does in relation to his own communist party, as well as his own struggle for power.

As early as 2018, he reflected on how it was possible that the Soviet party with its 20 million members collapsed after it had defeated Hitler and the Third Reich with 2 million members.

“Why,” he asked. “Because his ideals and convictions were gone.” He mocked Gorbachev’s “so-called glasnost” policy, which allowed criticism of the Soviet party line. The implication was clear: there would be no such openness under Xi.

Although he has said less about the experience of his own accession to power in 2012, when the party faced the biggest political scandal in a generation, the only way to get away from it is to learn how dangerous power struggles and corruption are for the leadership of the Communist Party can be together. His consolidation of power eventually included disciplining 1.5 million civil servants.

One can now only understand his rush to smash any possibility of internal disagreement and use all opportunities of international gain as a keen reading of his own political lifeline, measured against the emergence of the Biden government and its efforts, the Western democratic decline and Allied disorder to reverse.

Xi probably only has a window of about a decade before his country’s demographic decline, structural economic downturn, and inevitable internal upheaval are the historic opportunity now presented to him by his country’s technological advancement, geopolitical achievements, and his own current stance to diminish threatening threat performance.

This haste sees a turning point, but only if it acts with quick, determined determination and possibly recklessness.

And under Xi, China is not just sprinting to seize an opportunity. Xi, writes Blanchette, has at the same time put China “in a race to see whether its many strengths can surpass the pathologies that Xi himself has brought into the system.”

In short, the test is whether authoritarianism’s most compelling success story can overcome its fundamental flaws.

Frederick Kempe is a best-selling author, award-winning journalist, and President and CEO of the Atlantic Council, one of the United States’ most influential think tanks on global affairs. He worked for the Wall Street Journal for more than 25 years as a foreign correspondent, assistant editor-in-chief and senior editor for the European edition of the newspaper. His latest book – “Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth” – was a New York Times bestseller and was published in more than a dozen languages. Follow him on Twitter @FredKempe and subscribe here to Inflection Points, his view every Saturday of the top stories and trends of the past week.

Categories
Health

Is the Compelled Contraception Alleged by Britney Spears Authorized?

Is the Forced Contraception Alleged by Britney Spears Legal?

Among the astounding claims pop star Britney Spears made this week before a probate judge in Los Angeles as she attempted to end her lengthy conservatoire stint, was one that profoundly shook experts on guardianship and reproductive rights. She said a team led by her father, who is her conservator, prevented her from having her IUD removed because the team didn’t want her to have more children.

“Forcing someone to use birth control against their will is a violation of basic human rights and physical autonomy, just as it would be to force someone to become or remain pregnant against their will,” said Ruth Dawson, Principal Policy Associate at Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports reproductive rights.

Court-approved contraception is rare in conservatories. But the specter it conjures up – forced sterilization – has a grim, long history in the United States, especially against poor women, women of color, and inmates. In the early 20th century, the state-sanctioned practice was upheld by the United States Supreme Court.

Although the court moved away from this position in the 1940s and the growing consent canon gave rise to consensus that forced sterilization was inhuman, the practice continued to be tacitly tolerated.

Finally, in the late 1970s, most states repealed sterilization authorization laws, although allegations of forced hysterectomies and tubal ligatures in women in immigrant detention remain. As recently as 2014, California formally banned the sterilization of female inmates without consent.

The sparse law on the question at the Conservatory suggests what an outlier the Spears case might be. In 1985, the California Supreme Court denied a petition from the legal guardians of a 29-year-old woman with Down syndrome who wanted her to have tubal ligation.

Usually, a restorer has temporary control over the finances and even medical care of an incapacitated person. Experts emphasized that Ms. Spears’ claim is unconfirmed. But if it’s correct, they said, the most likely rationale, even if suspicious, could be that Jamie Spears, her father, is trying to protect her finances from the father of a baby, possibly her boyfriend who is allegedly at odds with Mr. Spears is.

When a guardian is concerned that a community is making financially ill-advised decisions, “the cure is not to say they cannot reproduce,” said Sylvia Law, a health scientist at New York University School of Law. “It’s ineffable.”

According to fiduciary and inheritance experts, the few cases where a guardian, usually a parent, ordered a court to order contraception concerned severely disabled children.

“Such a child would not understand that a penis and vagina could make a baby,” said Bridget J. Crawford, an expert on guardianship law at Pace University Law School. “And that’s certainly not the case with Britney Spears.”

Eugenics was a major reason for female sterilization. In the Buck v. Bell in 1927, the Supreme Court upheld the right to sterilize a “moronic” woman who had been admitted to a state mental health facility, with Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes notoriously writing: “Three generations of morons are enough. ”

Although the opinion was never formally overturned, Judge William O. Douglas said in a unanimous court in the Skinner v. Oklahoma of 1942, in which the forced sterilization of certain convicted criminals was challenged that the right to procreation was fundamental. “Every experiment that the state carries out is irreparable to it,” he wrote. “He is forever deprived of a fundamental freedom.”

Although Ms. Spears was not sterilized, Ms. Crawford said if she was prevented from having her IUD removed it would be a proxy for sterilization, especially since she testified that she wanted to bear more children.

Melissa Murray, who teaches reproductive rights and constitutional law in NYU law school, pointed to another worrying element in the allegations made by Ms. Spears, who at 39, has been under her father’s tutelage for 13 years. Ms. Murray said Ms. Spears, an adult, appeared to have a legally constructed childhood.

“It’s unusual for her father to make the decisions we would expect parents to make in a teenager,” she added.

Categories
Politics

Biden reiterates assist for bipartisan infrastructure plan, didn’t threaten veto

Biden reiterates support for bipartisan infrastructure plan, did not threaten veto

President Joe Biden on Saturday said he doesn’t plan to veto a bipartisan infrastructure bill if it comes without a reconciliation package, walking back a declaration last week that he would refuse to sign it unless the two bills came in tandem.

The comment angered some Republican lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said the president was threatening to veto the bipartisan deal in remarks on the Senate floor on Thursday.

“That statement understandably upset some Republicans, who do not see the two plans as linked,” the president said in a statement.

“My comments also created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat on the very plan I had just agreed to, which was certainly not my intent,” the president said.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers closed a deal on an infrastructure initiative Thursday following weeks of negotiations to craft a package that could get through Congress with Republican and Democratic support. The framework will include $579 billion in new spending to improve the country’s roads, bridges and broadband.

The second bill would include funding for Democrat-backed issues like climate change, childcare, health care and education, issues that administration officials have called “human infrastructure.” It would be passed through a Senate process called reconciliation, which doesn’t require Republican votes.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Thursday morning said the House would not take up either piece of legislation until both are passed through the Senate. Democrats can’t lose a single vote on a reconciliation bill in the evenly split chamber.

Biden said he will ask Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to schedule the infrastructure plan and the reconciliation bill for action in the Senate and expects them both to go to the House.

“Ultimately, I am confident that Congress will get both to my desk, so I can sign each bill promptly,” Biden said.

Read the president’s full statement here:

On Thursday, I reached a historic agreement with a bipartisan group of Senators on a $1.2 trillion plan to transform our physical infrastructure. The plan would make the largest investment in infrastructure in history, the biggest investment in rail since the creation of Amtrak, and the largest investment in transit ever. It would fix roads and bridges, make critical investments in our clean energy future, and help this country compete with China and other economic rivals. It would replace lead water pipes in our schools and houses, and connect every American to high-speed internet. It would create millions of high-paying jobs that could not be outsourced.

In the days since, the primary focus in Washington has not been about the Plan’s scope, scale or provisions—but rather, how it relates to other legislation before Congress: my American Families Plan. The American Families Plan—which would make historic investments in education, health care, child care, and tax cuts for families, coupled with other investments in care for our seniors, housing, and clean energy—has broad support with the American people, but not among Republicans in Congress.

I have been clear from the start that it was my hope that the infrastructure plan could be one that Democrats and Republicans would work on together, while I would seek to pass my Families Plan and other provisions through the process known as reconciliation. There has been no doubt or ambiguity about my intention to proceed this way.

At a press conference after announcing the bipartisan agreement, I indicated that I would refuse to sign the infrastructure bill if it was sent to me without my Families Plan and other priorities, including clean energy. That statement understandably upset some Republicans, who do not see the two plans as linked; they are hoping to defeat my Families Plan—and do not want their support for the infrastructure plan to be seen as aiding passage of the Families Plan. 

My comments also created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat on the very plan I had just agreed to, which was certainly not my intent. So to be clear: our bipartisan agreement does not preclude Republicans from attempting to defeat my Families Plan; likewise, they should have no objections to my devoted efforts to pass that Families Plan and other proposals in tandem. We will let the American people—and the Congress—decide. 

The bottom line is this: I gave my word to support the Infrastructure Plan, and that’s what I intend to do. I intend to pursue the passage of that plan, which Democrats and Republicans agreed to on Thursday, with vigor. It would be good for the economy, good for our country, good for our people. I fully stand behind it without reservation or hesitation. 

Some other Democrats have said they might oppose the Infrastructure Plan because it omits items they think are important: that is a mistake, in my view. Some Republicans now say that they might oppose the infrastructure plan because I am also trying to pass the American Families Plan: that is also a mistake, in my view. I intend to work hard to get both of them passed, because our country needs both—and I ran a winning campaign for President that promised to deliver on both. No one should be surprised that that is precisely what I am doing. 

I will ask Leader Schumer to schedule both the infrastructure plan and the reconciliation bill for action in the Senate. I expect both to go to the House, where I will work with Speaker Pelosi on the path forward after Senate action. Ultimately, I am confident that Congress will get both to my desk, so I can sign each bill promptly.

Categories
Health

FDA provides warning of uncommon coronary heart irritation to Pfizer, Moderna vaccines

CDC group says there isn't enough data yet to recommend booster shots

Vials with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine labels are seen in this illustration picture taken March 19, 2021.

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday added a warning to patient and provider fact sheets for the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines to indicate a rare risk of heart inflammation.

For each vaccine, the fact sheets were revised to include a warning about myocarditis and pericarditis after the second dose and with the onset of symptoms within a few days after receiving the shot.

Myocarditis is the inflammation of the heart muscle and pericarditis is the inflammation of the tissue surrounding the heart. Health officials said the benefits of receiving the vaccine still outweigh any risk.

“The risk of myocarditis and pericarditis appears to be very low given the number of vaccine doses that have been administered,” Janet Woodcock, acting FDA commissioner, said in a statement.

“The benefits of Covid-19 vaccination continue to outweigh the risks, given the risk of Covid-19 diseases and related, potentially severe, complications,” she said.

The FDA update follows a review and discussion by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting on Wednesday. 

There have been more than 1,200 cases of a myocarditis or pericarditis mostly in people 30 and under who received the shots, according to presentation slides from the CDC meeting.

About 300 million shots had been administered as of June 11, according to the CDC. There have been just 12.6 heart inflammation cases per million doses for both vaccines combined.

— CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr. contributed reporting

Categories
Entertainment

A Sleek Place The place Bhangra and Bollywood Meet

A Graceful Place Where Bhangra and Bollywood Meet

Growing up in California, Manpreet Toor recalls being exposed in her parents’ garage to bhangra – a lively Punjabi dance genre that is widespread in the Indian diaspora. “In Punjabi households, we used to have garage parties all the time,” Toor said. She heard music sounds like folk and pop artist Sardool Sikander, one of India’s most popular singers, who died of Covid-19 in February.

In March, Toor, a leading figure in the Bay Area’s vibrant South Asian dance scene, and her choreographer paid tribute to Preet Chahal Sikander. In a retro home movie-style YouTube video, Chahal leads a group of men freestyle bhangra moves to a mash-up of Sikander’s music in a garage that has been repurposed. Toor swirls into the scene in a festive lehenga (an elegant floor-length skirt) and rejects her male admirers with mock irritation – a recurring motif in her choreography – before leading the partygoers to dance.

“We wanted to bring the genre back to Sardool Sikander,” said Toor and the joy of Garage parties of their parents’ generation.

Toor and Chahal’s video reflects a new wave of Indian diaspora dance, a wave made possible by platforms like YouTube and TikTok and intensified with live performances during breaks during the pandemic. With her graceful, unique style – a mix of Bhangra, Bollywood, hip-hop and Giddha, another Punjabi folk dance – Toor embodies a meeting of genres that has found an enthusiastic global audience.

If you searched for bhangra on YouTube ten years ago, you found videos of rows of brightly costumed, neatly coordinated dancers lined up on the stages of colleges and national bhangra competitions. These young dancers, many of them first and second generation South Asians performing on competitive university teams, popularized the dance form and introduced bhangra to some of their American compatriots.

Today, artists like Toor, 31, are changing the way Bhangra and other Indian dance genres are viewed, creating dances to be consumed online in productions that are similar to professional music videos. While team-based performances emphasize the beauty of group syncing, videos created for YouTube can highlight an individual artist’s skills, facial expressions, fashion and makeup choices.

Toor has long helped define what it means to dance bhangra online. Her YouTube subscribers recently hit 1.25 million, and her videos consistently generate hundreds of thousands (and sometimes millions) of views with fans in North America, India, and beyond. “It’s my stage,” she said, and her potential reach is unlimited.

“Her nakhra is probably one of the best nakhras I’ve seen in a dancer – it’s so flawless,” said Chahal, using the Punjabi word to describe a dancer’s individual flair, joy and connection with a dancer’s audience.

Traditionally a male dance performed by dancers of all genders today, Bhangra is characterized by fast, ecstatic movements. Arms and legs are thrown high in the air and make the dancers appear tall and lively.

“It’s a very direct dance,” said Omer Mirza, a founder of the acclaimed Bhangra Empire bhangra team from the Bay Area. “It’s a kind of non-stop high energy, and that’s what makes it so attractive to everyone.”

Yet “there is an element of grace at the same time,” added Puneet Mirza, also a founder of the Bhangra empire and Omer Mirza’s wife.

“Bhangra is life,” continued Puneet Mirza. Punjab people “always do bhangra for every festival, every happy occasion”. It can also be a medium for political disagreement: bhangra dancers and musicians around the world have openly campaigned for the support of millions of Indian farmers and workers, including many Punjabi, who are protesting against the country’s agrarian reforms begun last year.

The genre is derived from folk dance forms in Punjab, a region in northern India and Pakistan. “These dances were mostly, but not exclusively, created by farmers,” says Rajinder Dudrah, professor of cultural studies and creative industries at Birmingham City University in England. “To chat and sometimes to break the monotony of the day, they sang songs or couplets together, clapped along and then did some of the movements, such as spreading seeds on the land with one hand and lifting the sickle in the other “- movements that underpin today’s Bhangra choreography. During Faslaan (“grain”) the dancers sway gently like wheat blowing in the wind. During the morchaal (“peacock walk”) they spread their arms like a peacock showing its feathers.

Toor mainly danced bhangra, a genre she describes as “very masculine” and not very lyrical. Her performances are characterized by their lightness: With her a move like Morchaal seems a bit more fluid, a bit less choppy than with other dancers.

Contemporary bhangra originated in the diaspora. “Britain was the cultural hub for bhangra, especially in the 1980s and 1990s,” said Dudrah. “It became fusion-based music that then began to draw on the experiences, stories and identities of South Asians in North America, the UK and elsewhere. Artists combined Punjabi texts and South Asian instruments, especially the dhol drum and the single-stringed tumbi, with pop, hip-hop, reggae and other genres.

The new bhangra music expressed a sense of Punjabi’s cultural pride and at the same time created a dialogue with broader culture – Jay-Z remixed the track “Mundian to Bach Ke” or “Beware of the Boys” by British-Indian artist Panjabi MC . It also changed the Indian music industry: “This music then caught the attention of people in India, not only in Punjab but also in Bollywood,” said Dudrah. “They also designed and created their own Native American Indian contemporary bhangra.”

The cross-fertilization of bhangra and “filmi” Bollywood dance – not a single genre, but an amalgamation of many – is evident in Toor’s choreography. She has always been drawn to gentle, expressive movements and grew up imitating the dances of Madhuri Dixit, 54, a Bollywood film star trained in the classic north Indian dance genre Kathak.

Toor took informal dance lessons as a child – “we used to go into a garage,” she said, “a mother taught us that” – but she is mostly self-taught. She became popular on the internet in the early 2010s when she performed with partner Naina Batra (now a successful YouTuber). The couple wowed audiences in person and online with their inventive Bollywood routines shown in competitions otherwise dominated by bhangra.

With the success of her YouTube channel, Toor decided in 2016 to drop out of college where she was studying nursing to study dance. “That was a pretty quick decision,” she says. At that time she fought her way to the song “Wonderland” in the viral hit “Bhangra vs. Bollywood”.

Toor is known for its versatility. She can switch from a vigorous bhangra routine to a delicate, romantic Bollywood oldies mash-up with echoes of Kathak. “She’s like a sponge,” said dancer and choreographer Saffatt Al-Mansoor, who recently collaborated with her on a hip-hop routine for the English-Punjabi R&B track “Hor Labna” (or “To Find Someone Else”) Has. “Everything looks good with her. It is every choreographer’s dream. “

An integral part of Toors’ channel is the comparison video, in which she compares different styles and shows her range. In the flirtatious “Aankh Marey” (“wink”) she slips and shakes her way through the new and old versions of a popular Bollywood song: faux leather leggings and crop top in one, lehenga and 90s dance moves in the other. In “Track Suit” Toor presents a modern variant of Giddha, traditionally a woman’s dance, which, as Dudrah said, “is the female counterpart to Bhangra”. She and her backup dancers perform Giddha’s signature clapping and foot-stamping, lighter and more reserved than those of Bhangra, but no less energetic. Preet Chahal and two male dancers in tracksuits conquer the scene with a competitive demeanor and rush through a carefree bhangra routine to the same song.

“When you think of Giddha through the body of someone like Manpreet Toor who is in a North American area, you can see that it’s not just the clapping and dancing of the female body in the traditional, traditional sense,” said Dudrah. “It’s also layered through new choreographies.”

Since their dances are part of music owned by record companies, YouTubers like Toor usually can’t make money from their videos. “If it’s from a big label, which is mostly like Sony or T-Series, we have to give up the rights so we don’t monetize,” she said. Dancers need to find other ways to make a living. Unlike a genre like ballet, Puneet Mirza said, where dancers can seek professional appearances, Bhangra doesn’t have a clear career path. “When you learn Bhangra, where are you going?”

For many dancers, including Toor, the answer is teaching classes. Toor has often recruited her students as backup dancers for her YouTube channel, including her most popular video, “Laung Laachi” (“Carnations and Cardamom”)., with more than 32 million views (the girls in this dance “look up to her since they were little children,” Chahal said).

Bhangra Empire, true to its name, has built a dance class business that Puneet and Omer Mirza estimate has reached 5,000 students in the Bay Area and other cities. “When we started we saw ourselves as actors, but now we see ourselves more as teachers trying to teach the next generation,” said Omer Mirza.

Toor also has bigger ambitions: she has headlined music videos for artists such as Punjabi singer Garry Sandhu and British PBN (Punjabi by Nature). She recently traveled to Mexico to make a music video with Harshdeep Kaur, a well-known Bollywood singer, and British artist Ezu.

Her YouTube career has earned her a place in the Punjabi entertainment industry, even from halfway across the world. After all, she wants to choreograph for Punjabi films. “Slowly but surely I’ll get there,” she said.

Categories
World News

T.S.A. to Resume Self-Protection Lessons for Flight Crews

T.S.A. to Resume Self-Defense Classes for Flight Crews

The Transportation Security Administration will once again offer self-defense classes to flight attendants and pilots as the airline industry deals with a surge in cases of unruly passengers and sometimes violent behavior on flights.

The return of the classes comes after the coronavirus pandemic prevented crew members from receiving the training for more than a year.

The Federal Aviation Administration has documented more than 3,000 reports of unruly passengers on flights so far this year, and 2,350 of those cases have been tied to mask-wearing disputes. It has initiated investigations into 487 of those cases, more than triple the 146 cases that were investigated in all of 2019.

“With unruly passenger incidents on the rise, T.S.A. remains committed to equip flight crews with another tool to keep our skies safe,” the agency said in a statement.

An agency training video from 2017 shows crew members learning how to physically restrain people and defend themselves, using dummies to practice eye pokes, elbow jabs and kicks to the groin.

The training is designed to help crew members handle tense and violent situations with passengers. Crew members learn how to “identify and deter potential threats, and if needed, apply the self-defense techniques against attackers,” the agency said.

A widely watched video recorded in May showed a woman punching a flight attendant in the face on a Southwest Airlines flight from Sacramento to San Diego. This month, an off-duty flight attendant took control of the public address system and then fought crew members while on a Delta Air Lines flight.

In May, four people faced $70,000 in civil fines for clashing with airline crews over mask requirements and other safety instructions, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

“We will not tolerate interfering with a flight crew and the performance of their safety duties,” Steve Dickson, the agency’s administrator, said on Twitter.

The F.A.A. said this week that eight passengers who recently displayed unruly and dangerous behavior faced fines from $9,000 to $22,000. Most of the fined passengers refused to wear a mask, with some assaulting crew members and other passengers.

As of June 22, the F.A.A. said it has proposed $563,800 in fines against unruly passengers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that wearing masks is still required while traveling on planes, buses, trains and other forms of public transportation.

Darby LaJoye, the senior official performing the duties of the T.S.A. administrator, said in a statement that while crew members hope that self-defense tactics are never needed, “it is critical to everyone’s safety that they be well-prepared to handle situations as they arise.”

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress mandated the self-defense training, said Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.

“Some airlines complained of the cost, and before the program could be implemented, it was changed to be voluntary training conducted by air marshals,” Ms. Nelson said in a statement.

The training is free for crew members, lasts four hours and is voluntary, the T.S.A. said.

Ms. Nelson, who has taken the class, said it should be mandatory for all crew members, especially as cases of unruly passengers are on the rise.

“This should send a message to the public as well that these events are serious and flight attendants are there to ensure and direct the safety and security of everyone in the plane,” she said.

Categories
Health

Gibraltar Votes to Ease Abortion Restrictions

Gibraltar Votes to Ease Abortion Restrictions

Gibraltar residents voted by a large majority on Thursday to relax one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe after an emotional campaign to lift a near-ban on the procedure and bring tiny British territory closer to British law.

In a referendum, about 62 percent of voters approved a change in the law to allow abortions within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy if a woman’s mental or physical health is judged to be at risk by a doctor, or later if a woman has severe fetal abnormalities.

Previously, Gibraltar law had only allowed abortions to save a mother’s life. The law provided for a potential criminal sentence of life imprisonment, although no such sentence has been imposed in recent history.

In contrast, UK law allows abortion in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Parliament set the stage for the vote on Thursday in 2019 when it adopted language to relax abortion restrictions, which it passed to voters for approval. A referendum was originally planned for March 2020 but was postponed to Thursday due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Gibraltar, a territory of 34,000 at the tip of southern Spain, has retained some significant legal differences from the UK. But the Gibraltar Parliament kicked off the changes after the UK Supreme Court warned in 2018 that Northern Ireland’s ban on abortion was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

Keith Azopardi, an opposition politician who was against a relaxation of abortion restrictions, described the referendum campaign as “emotional and divisive”. The majority of Gibraltar’s residents are Catholics, and the Bishop of Gibraltar had spoken out against any relaxation of the abortion law.

The turnout among the 23,000 eligible voters in Gibraltar was 53 percent.

Fabian Picardo, the leader of the Gibraltar government, had supported the abortion changes. After casting his own vote Thursday, he retweeted a message from the London-based Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists saying that “restrictive abortion laws endanger women’s lives by forcing them to either leave the country or to access unsafe and illegal supplies ”. . “

Early on Friday morning, Mr. Picardo tweeted a “We did it!” Message and wrote that the government “will work on introducing the new services we need to provide counseling and safe and legal abortions”.

The changes will take effect in 28 days. Previously, the law in Gibraltar had resulted in women seeking an abortion usually traveling elsewhere, often to the UK and sometimes across the land border to neighboring Spain, where abortions were legalized under certain circumstances more than 30 years ago.

Great Britain secured control of Gibraltar in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, although Spain has long denied British sovereignty. In December negotiators struck a last-minute deal to prevent travelers and goods from being stranded on Gibraltar’s land border with Spain after the UK completed its exit from the European Union.

While British voters supported leaving the EU in a referendum in 2016, an overwhelming majority of voters in Gibraltar voted against the decision known as Brexit.

Categories
Politics

Biden Walks Again Impromptu Feedback That Imperiled Bipartisan Deal

Biden Walks Back Impromptu Comments That Imperiled Bipartisan Deal

WASHINGTON – President Biden on Saturday stepped back from comments jeopardizing a bipartisan deal for $ 579 billion in new infrastructure spending, and said in a statement that he “left the impression that I was against the very plan I was about.” had agreed to have issued a threat of veto ”. . “

He added that that was “certainly not my intention”.

The admission was an attempt by the White House to save what for a fleeting moment was one of the signature successes for a president hoping to cement a legacy as a bipartisan deal maker. On Thursday, Mr Biden proudly announced the infrastructure deal in front of the west wing, flanked by an equal number of legislators from both parties.

But in an isolated comment at the end of a press conference an hour later, the president deviated from the script, saying that he would not sign the compromise law that had just been announced unless Congress also passed a larger measure, only for Democrats, by much to enact the remainder of Mr. Biden’s $ 4 trillion economic agenda.

“If this is the only thing I can think of, I won’t sign it,” said Mr Biden, answering a reporter’s question at the time of his legislative agenda. “I’m not just signing the bipartisan law and forgetting the rest.”

In essence, Mr Biden was saying aloud what the Liberals in his party wanted to hear. But in the process, the president detonated a political hand grenade in the middle of his own short-lived victory. His Republican opponents took up his statements to suggest that he had negotiated with bad faith. And moderates – who had just left the White House ceremony – were furious at his suggestion that weeks of work be at the mercy of a Democratic wish list.

“No blackmail deal!” South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Twitter after approving an initial framework this month. “It was never suggested to me during these negotiations that President Biden hold the bipartisan infrastructure proposal hostage unless a liberal reconciliation package was also passed.”

In his statement, Mr Biden accused Republicans of trying to thwart the infrastructure measure in order to build opposition to the larger spending plan. He blamed Republicans for rejecting the bipartisan infrastructure plan for supporting the other bill called the American Families Plan.

Updated

June 25, 2021, 7:09 p.m. ET

“Our bipartisan agreement doesn’t stop Republicans from trying to thwart my family plan,” Biden said, adding, “We’ll let the American people – and Congress – decide.”

But the president also tried to allay concerns among moderate lawmakers who had negotiated the bipartisan measure that he still supports it.

“The bottom line is, I’ve given my word to support the infrastructure plan, and that’s exactly what I intend to do,” wrote Biden. “I intend to vigorously pursue the adoption of this plan, which the Democrats and Republicans agreed on Thursday. It would be good for the economy, good for our country, good for our people. I stand behind it wholeheartedly, without reservation or hesitation. “

On Saturday it was unclear whether Mr Biden had done enough. But the drama doesn’t seem to have failed the deal just yet. Key senators and aides said Saturday they would go ahead, work out details and legislation, and lobby for the 60 votes required to clear the Senate’s filibuster.

Mr Biden will be publicly promoting it with an event in Wisconsin on Tuesday, officials said.

“People are very committed to what we’ve done,” said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire and one of the negotiators. “I didn’t understand that the president was in that position, so I’ll keep working and try to build support for the infrastructure package.”

Legislative text for the bipartisan agreement has yet to be written as Democrats are also working on the second, potentially multi-trillion dollar package that is a priority for liberal lawmakers. But this second package, which is expected to be adopted as part of the reconciliation process, may not be ready for voting until the autumn, given the tough budgetary hurdles it has to overcome.

“There’s no question that there’s still work to be done and he’s ready to roll up his sleeves and work like hell,” said Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, at a briefing Friday.

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Health

J&J commits to finish sale of opioids nationwide in $230 million New York settlement

J&J commits to end sale of opioids nationwide in $230 million New York settlement

New York State Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a press conference to announce criminal justice reform on May 21, 2021 in New York City, United States.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Johnson & Johnson has reached a $ 230 million settlement with New York State that prevents the company from promoting opioids and has confirmed that sales of such products have ceased in the United States.

New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office said in a statement Saturday the agreement prohibits J&J from promoting opioids by any means and prohibits lobbying for such products at the federal, state or local levels.

Johnson & Johnson has not marketed any opioids in the US since 2015 and completely ceased business in 2020.

As part of the settlement, the company will settle opioid-related claims and spread payments over nine years. It could also pay $ 30 million more in the first year if the state executive board signs a new law creating an opioid settlement fund, according to the press release from James’ office.

The settlement follows years of lawsuits filed by states, cities, and counties against large pharmaceutical companies over the opioid crisis that killed nearly 500,000 people in the United States over the past few decades.

Governments have argued that companies have prescribed the medication too often, causing people to become addicted and abuse other illegal forms of opioids, while companies have stated that they have distributed the required amount of the product to people with medical problems help.

“The opioid epidemic has wreaked havoc in countless communities in New York state and the rest of the nation, and millions are still addicted to dangerous and deadly opioids,” James said in a statement.

“Johnson & Johnson helped start that fire, but today they are pledging to leave the opioid business – not just in New York but across the country,” she said. “J&J no longer makes or sells opioids in the United States.”

The New York opioid lawsuit against the rest of the defendants will begin this week, according to the announcement. Other defendants in the New York lawsuit include Purdue Pharma; Mallinckrodt LLC; Endo health solutions; Teva Pharmaceuticals USA; and Allergan Finance LLC.

In a statement on Saturday, Johnson & Johnson said the settlement was “not an admission of liability or wrongdoing by the company” and “in line with the terms of the previously announced $ 5 billion settlement agreement in principle for opioid settlement “. and claims from states, cities, counties, and tribal governments. “

The company also said it will continue to defend itself against lawsuits that the definitive deal won’t resolve.

James said the state will focus on funding opioid prevention, treatment and education efforts to “prevent any future devastation”.

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As Mother and father Forbid Covid Photographs, Defiant Youngsters Search Methods to Get Them

As Parents Forbid Covid Shots, Defiant Teenagers Seek Ways to Get Them

She showed up anyway. At worst, she figured, the school would just turn her away.

Apparently, they took note only of her mother’s consent. Saying nothing, Elizabeth stuck out her arm.

Now she is in a pickle. The school is requiring students to be vaccinated for the fall semester and she says her father has begun warring with the administration over the issue. Elizabeth is afraid that if he learns how she was vaccinated, he will be furious and tell the school, which will discipline her for having deceived vaccinators, a stain on her record just as she is applying to college.

Gregory D. Zimet, a psychologist and professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, pointed out the irony of an adolescent being legally prevented from making a choice that was strenuously urged by public health officials.Developmentally, he said, adolescents at 14 and even younger are at least as good as adults at weighing the risks of a vaccine. “Which isn’t to say that adults are necessarily great at it,” he added.

In many states, young teenagers can make decisions around contraception and sexually transmitted infections, which are, he noted, “in many ways more complex and fraught than getting a vaccine.”

Pediatricians say that even parents who have themselves been vaccinated are wary for their children. Dr. Jay Lee, a family physician and chief medical officer of Share Our Selves, a community health network in Orange County, Calif., said parents say they would rather risk their child having Covid than get the new vaccine.

“I will validate their concerns,” Dr. Lee said, “but I point out that waiting to see if your child gets sick is not a good strategy. And that no, Covid is not just like the flu.”

Elise Yarnell, a senior clinic operations manager for the Portland, Ore., area at Providence, a large health care system, recalled a 16-year-old girl who showed up at a Covid vaccine clinic at her school in Yamhill County.