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World News

Russia might invade Ukraine ‘within the blink of a watch’: Ukrainian international minister

EU warns Russia: if you invade Ukraine, a high price will be paid

If Russia decides to invade Ukraine, as feared by Western officials and experts, it could happen very quickly, said the Ukrainian Foreign Minister.

“Putin has not yet decided whether to conduct a military operation,” Dmytro Kuleba told CNBC on Thursday. “But if he does, things will happen in no time.”

In recent months, concerns have increased that Russia is planning military action against Ukraine. It follows Russian troop movements on the border and increasingly aggressive rhetoric against Kiev from Moscow.

However, Putin pointed his finger the other way and said in late November that Russia was concerned about military exercises in Ukraine near the border that threatened Moscow.

He has insisted that Russia be free to move troops into its own territory and has denied claims that the country may be preparing to invade Ukraine, calling such notions “alarmist”.

Ukraine and its allies in the US and Europe, as well as the NATO military alliance, disagree. All have warned Russia against aggressive action against Ukraine, but there are few signs of tensions easing.

“We [still] have Russian troops on our border. We have them in our occupied areas of Crimea and Donbass, and according to our assessments and assessments by our partners, and they agree, Russia already has the capacity to conduct offensive operations in the region … and we see that they continue to build up their forces “Kuleba told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble.

Ukrainian soldiers participate in a rehearsal of an official ceremony for the handover of tanks, armored personnel carriers and military vehicles to the Ukrainian Armed Forces as the country celebrates Army Day in Kiev, Ukraine, Dec. 6, 2021.

Gleb Garanich | Reuters

He added that Ukraine “was attacked by Russia at the lowest point of our strength in 2014,” referring to Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, a move of international condemnation and far-reaching sanctions against Russian business and state officials triggered. Russia is also accused of supporting pro-Russian uprisings in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. However, it denies playing any role there.

Last week, US President Joe Biden spoke to his counterpart Vladimir Putin and warned the Russian head of state of an attack on Ukraine.

Experts say the US is running out of time to prevent further hostilities between neighboring countries, but how far the West will go to defend Ukraine is uncertain: Ukraine is not a member of NATO and not a member of the EU, despite it this strives to join both.

Russia vehemently rejects Ukraine’s possible future NATO membership and sees this as an expansion of the military alliance to its doorstep.

At his meeting with Biden, Putin was expected to ask the U.S. president for assurances that NATO – which has expanded greatly in the past 25 years to include many countries in Europe, including the former Soviet states in the Baltic States – would never expand would become Ukraine. No such assurances were given.

Kuleba said that if Ukraine had been a member of NATO in 2014 then “Putin would take care of his affairs” and there would have been “no war, no destruction” in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine and thousands of people living in the Eastern Ukraine died the conflict could have been spared.

When asked if Ukraine’s allies did enough to help, Kuleba said, “As long as Russian troops stay in Crimea and Donbass, neither of us is really doing enough. We can only judge by the bottom line. And that bottom line should be the trigger. ” Russia from Ukraine. However, it would have been much worse if we hadn’t had these relationships with our partners and our partners hadn’t changed their attitude towards Russia, “he said.

The EU is also concerned about Russia’s “aggressive” stance towards Ukraine and has warned Moscow that if invaded, it will pay a “heavy price”.

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On Wednesday, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told CNBC that “the military build-up around Ukraine is underway. So the big question is, what are they really up to?”

“Is it something you are trying or planning to attack Ukraine? Or is it just a bluff to negotiate a deal out of this situation? And we have to look very carefully at that.” She said.

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Health

Eye Drops Had been Speculated to Assist Her Imaginative and prescient. Why Did It Really feel Worse?

Eye Drops Were Supposed to Help Her Vision. Why Did It Feel Worse?

She immediately emailed Bicket informing the doctor that she would stop the medication and just take the others. Perhaps it was this drug that caused the photophobia, the dry eyes, and now the burning sensation.

“I am fine with any short-term IOP dropping experiment you choose to conduct,” Bicket wrote back. But the symptoms the patient was experiencing did not match the usual side effect profile of the medications she was taking. There is another possibility, added Bicket: Maybe it’s not a single drop, but all of them. They all contain a preservative called benzalkonium chloride (BAK). “If you don’t tolerate this,” Bicket wrote, “stopping one agent against another won’t help.”

The patient decided to stop them all, she wrote to Bicket. It was a risky move because the drops were important to keep pressure down and avoid further damage. But the pain and sensitivity to light were unbearable.

The patient had her answer three days later. Her eyes felt so much better without the drops. The gloomy feeling when she blinked was gone. Likewise the photophobia. It had to be the BAK. The patient turned to PubMed for information. There was a lot. Preservatives were essential in preventing bacteria from growing in medicine bottles that contained more than a single dose, and BAK was the most commonly used preservative in both over-the-counter and prescription eye drops.

She found that the patient’s complaints were not due to an allergy to the preservative, but to the way BAK worked. This compound kills germs by dissolving the lipid layer that forms their outer protective covering. Here’s the problem: the eyes are kept from drying out by a similar protective coat – from tears. Tears consist of a thin layer of fluid from the lacrimal gland (lacrimal gland), which in turn is covered by a layer of oil formed by the meibomian glands. BAK breaks down this outer protective lipid layer and exposes the salty liquid to the air. For many people with dry eyes, the unprotected fluid evaporates and the patient’s eyes become even drier. Eye drop users who produce enough tears are not affected, but many are not. Aging also reduces this protective layer, which puts older users of BAC-containing drugs at greater risk of eye drying. Eventually, the dryness can lead to permanent damage to the cornea, the clear outermost layer of the eye.

The patient immediately switched to single-dose bottles of the drops; these do not need any preservatives at all. With this change, her eyes began to heal. It’s been five years and she still can’t see well with her left eye, and she now has glaucoma in her right eye too. But she has figured out how to work with her vision and her glaucoma is well under control.

Bicket, now at the University of Michigan, was intrigued by the difference between real-world visual acuity and the patient’s own eyesight. Research she and her colleagues recently published shows that this can lag behind the visual acuity tested by weeks or sometimes months. The first question anyone undergoing eye surgery will ask themselves, Bicket told me, is how long it will take them to recover enough to go back to work, read, or drive. “The simple answer,” she says, “is, we just don’t know.” But Billet is working hard to find out.

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Politics

With an Eye on 2024, a Hardly ever Bashful Pompeo Grows Extra Combative

With an Eye on 2024, a Rarely Bashful Pompeo Grows More Combative

WASHINGTON – As Secretary of State during the Trump administration, Mike Pompeo had little regard for the most posh diplomatic protocols of his job and routinely threw verbal blows at foreign governments, political opponents and the mass media.

Mr Pompeo has not been in office for more than two months and has not stopped beating. In a number of speeches, interviews, and Twitter posts, he appears as the most outspoken critic of President Biden among former top Trump officials. And, just as in office, he ignores the practice of current and former state secretaries avoiding the appearance of political bias.

In successive appearances in Iowa and during an interview in New Hampshire last week, Mr Pompeo questioned the Biden administration’s resolve to China. In Iowa, he accused the White House of “willy-nilly without a thought” reversing the Trump administration’s immigration policy. He mocked Mr Biden for referring to notes during his first official press conference Thursday.

“What’s great about not being a Secretary of State anymore is that I can say things that I couldn’t say as a diplomat,” Pompeo said the next morning in front of a small crowd at the Westside Conservative Club near Des Moines.

It doesn’t matter that even as the nation’s best diplomat, he was barely known for biting his tongue. It seems clear that Mr. Pompeo, a former Kansas Republican Congressman, is animated not only by freedom but also by the pursuit of high electoral office that friends and foes have long known. His appearances in two of the president’s battlefield states only seem to confirm his widespread interest in a 2024 presidential campaign.

“Usually former presidents and state secretaries try not to destroy their successors quickly – especially in foreign affairs,” said Michael Beschloss, a historian for the president. He said Mr Pompeo “probably believes he is demonstrating his trumpiness by scourging the performance of newly appointed President Biden.”

“This hastiness is not a sign of self-confidence,” said Decision. “Presidential aspirants who believe in their stamina are not so handy.”

Mr Pompeo’s political strategist did not respond to messages asking for comment or an interview, but people close to Mr Pompeo said that the Democratic secretaries of state standing before him including John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, President Donald J. Trump openly criticized.

But Mr Kerry largely kept his tongue out in the early months of the Trump presidency and became more openly critical – if less relentless – after Mr Trump announced in June 2017 that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. By the time Mr Trump took office earlier this year, Ms. Clinton, his opponent, had long laid off impartial diplomatic veneer.

In particular, Mr Pompeo has avoided directly criticizing Antony J. Blinken, the current Secretary of State, with whom he said he had a “productive” meeting in January prior to Mr Biden’s inauguration.

However, since then he has repeatedly denounced policies in which Mr Blinken is a key player.

Last week, Mr Pompeo tweeted that the Biden administration’s plans to resume aid to the Palestinians who were canceled under Mr Trump were “immoral” and would support terrorist activities. “Americans and Israelis should be outraged by the Biden government’s plans,” wrote Pompeo.

However, his comment goes beyond foreign policy. Mr Pompeo has also condemned Mr Biden’s “backward” open border policy. And on March 19, he simply tweeted the number 1,327 – an obvious indication of the number of days until the 2024 election.

Mr Pompeo appears to have an increased sense of hostility towards Mr Kerry, who is back in government as Mr Biden’s climate gazar. In part, that appointment is “a bad omen for American energy and affordable energy here at home,” said Pompeo in Iowa.

And on a February 22 appearance on Fox News, Mr. Pompeo discharged his predecessor over meetings Mr. Kerry had with Iranian Foreign Secretary Mohammad Javad Zarif during the Trump years, which Mr. Pompeo called an “un-American” effort on the foreign policy of Undermine Mr. Trump.

There is little evidence that Mr Pompeo’s criticism has hit a nerve with Biden officials and their allies. When asked about last month’s remarks, a State Department spokesman, Ned Price, declined to respond directly, but said the Biden and Trump administrations share the goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

“Nobody cares,” tweeted Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama, in response to a recent report of Pompeo criticism of Mr Biden’s policies.

Mr. Pompeo attracted modest crowds but a warm welcome at two events in Iowa. He was due to speak to Republicans in New Hampshire on Monday about a video fundraiser for a State House candidate.

Republicans say Mr Pompeo has a chance to unite the Trump movement with the more traditional Reaganite wing of the party where it has its roots. But he will have a steep climb.

Some polls show it lags far behind almost all of the other 2024 Republican competitors in Iowa and New Hampshire. Even Mr. Trump neglected to mention Mr. Pompeo when he named Republicans whom he expects to shape the future of the party.

“It’s going to be a very crowded field and someone like Pompeo takes time to break through, which is why he’s starting so early,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist and former advisor to Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida.

For some, Mr Pompeo is simply continuing a nod-and-wink campaign that he began as Secretary of State when he gave several speeches to audiences in swing states, to Protestant Conservatives, and at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

He was the first acting Secretary of State in modern history to address a party’s national convention, a platform where he introduced himself to a local audience during a taxpayer-funded diplomatic visit to Jerusalem in August. He also hosted about two dozen foreign policy dinners for two years at the State Department with American business leaders and political conservatives whose support would be vital to future campaigns.

Mr Conant said Mr Pompeo most likely felt he needed to take on a high-profile and combative role early on in order to gain a foothold among Republican voters.

“Pompeo is still trying to establish its brand,” said Conant. “He’s not that well known in and of itself, and the way to get attention is to be partisan and show the Republican grassroots that you are ready to take the fight to the Democrats.”

Mr Pompeo made his recent policy of support for medium-term candidates in Republican Congress.

“If we get 2022 right, 2024 will resolve itself,” said Pompeo in Iowa.

When pressured, Mr Pompeo did not deny that he was considering a presidential campaign.

“I’m always ready for a good fight,” Pompeo told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a March 3 interview when asked if he would run. “I’ve been part of the conservative movement for a very long time. I want to hold on to it. “

“I may take this as strong,” replied Mr. Hannity.

“That’s perfect,” said Mr Pompeo.

In a separate Fox News appearance last month, Mr Pompeo complained that former Obama officials like Mr Kerry had tried to stay active, at least on world politics.

“They lost an election and they should have just got off the stage,” said Pompeo.

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Health

Third Covid wave hits Europe, France, Germany eye extra lockdowns

Third Covid wave hits Europe, France, Germany eye more lockdowns

Members of the medical staff are reviewing a patient’s information in the pulmonology department of the AP-HP Cochin hospital in Paris on March 18, 2021 as the number of people hospitalized with the Covid-19 increases in the French capital.

CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT | AFP | Getty Images

More than a year after the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic, Europe continues to grapple with the virus amid a third wave of infections and an increase in lockdown measures.

At the same time, the introduction of vaccinations in the block remains sluggish, which is affected by manufacturing and delivery problems, so that the heads of state and government of the European Union meet this week to again discuss the introduction of possible export bans for vaccines.

A handful of countries are reintroducing lockdowns to contain a third wave of infections. France, Poland and Ukraine are implementing stricter measures over the weekend that should last at least several weeks.

A month-long partial lockdown was reintroduced on Saturday in Paris as well as 15 other regions of France to deal with rising case numbers, largely due to new, more contagious variants of Covid.

However, the last partial lockdown is less strict than the previous ones, leading some to question the point of such a move, while others have said the new measures are confusing. There is still a curfew and interregional travel is still effectively prohibited. Around 21 million people in France are affected by the new regulations.

The country reported over 30,000 new cases a day on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to over 4.2 million. So far, over 92,000 people have died as a result of the virus in France.

In the meantime, Europe’s largest economy, Germany, could extend a national lockdown until April as the country also battles a third wave of Covid-19 cases. Several states have reportedly called for the current restrictions to be extended as the Covid incidence rate has exceeded 100 cases per 100,000 people. A level previously announced by the government would prompt them to implement an “emergency brake” – a stalling of the lifting of lockdown measures – to prevent further spread.

The move would be a blow to Germany, which had started to simplify lockdown measures, allowing schools to reopen in February and some non-essential businesses to resume customers earlier this month.

Vaccination fights

As more and more cases of coronaviruses occur in large parts of the EU, the introduction of the vaccine remains sluggish and controversial.

EU leaders will meet virtually on Thursday to discuss whether to block vaccine exports while supplies in the region remain tight and the vaccination program lags behind that in other developed nations.

Criticized for ordering coronavirus vaccines in large quantities later than the UK and US, the EU has subsequently faced supply issues despite two of the vaccines it has approved – the recordings from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-University of Oxford – were used. made in the EU.

There are reports that the EU could block exports of AstraZeneca vaccine at a Dutch plant – a move that could also jeopardize the previously successful launch of vaccines in the UK. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to reach out to his European counterparts to try to break the impasse on vaccines.

The launch of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine has been fraught with several hurdles in the past few weeks. A handful of European countries have discontinued the use of the shot due to concerns about its possible association with reports of blood clots.

The World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency carried out safety reviews of the vaccine last Thursday, the latter determining it is safe, effective, and the benefits outweigh the risks.

The conclusion resulted in a reversal of the vaccine suspension in most (but not all) European countries that had discontinued its use, but the move could damage public confidence in the vaccine, which was already shaky due to misguided questions about the vaccine’s effectiveness shot in the over 65s.

Real-world data has since proven the vaccine to be highly effective in reducing severe Covid cases, hospital stays and adult deaths. The vaccine received another boost on Monday when the results of a large U.S. study were published that found the AstraZeneca vaccine was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic illness and 100% effective against serious illness and hospitalization.

However, a YouGov poll published on Monday found that the decision of some European nations to suspend use of the AstraZeneca vaccine “severely damaged the public perception of the safety of the vaccine in Europe”.

The survey, which was conducted between March 15 and 18 in seven European countries (UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Denmark and Sweden) found that the vaccine was more likely than not in France, Germany, Spain and the US Italy is classified as unsafe as safe. It should be noted that the survey was conducted the week that the vaccine’s safety data was questioned, and especially before the EMA published its safety decision on the shot.

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World News

Buyers control Fed assembly, greenback strikes

Investors keep an eye on Fed meeting, dollar moves

Signage for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) operated by Japan Exchange Group Inc. (JPX) will be displayed outside the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo, Japan on Friday, October 2, 2020.

Akio Kon | Bloomberg via Getty Images

SINGAPORE – Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on the Monday leading up to this week’s Fed meeting.

Australian stocks reversed previous losses as the benchmark ASX 200 index rose 0.31%. The energy sector gained 1.18% while the materials sector made up some of its losses but was still down 0.36%. The heavily weighted sub-index for financial stocks rose by 0.68%.

Japanese markets rose, with the Nikkei 225 gaining 0.36% while the Topix index gaining 0.69%.

Tech giant Rakuten rose 18% after the company announced on Friday that it would issue new shares to raise $ 2.2 billion in capital and compete with its U.S. competitors. Japan Post is expected to take an 8.3% stake in Rakuten, while China’s Tencent will take a 3.6% stake and US retail giant Walmart will take a 0.9% stake.

In South Korea, the Kospi fluctuated between gains and losses – the reference index gained 0.09%. Elsewhere, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong rose 0.94%.

Mainland Chinese stocks battled for gains: the Shanghai Composite fell 0.21% while the Shenzhen Component fell 1.51%.

Fed meeting

The Federal Open Market Committee will meet on March 16-17. Some analysts believe the Federal Reserve will revise its GDP forecast after a $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package that will send direct payments of up to $ 1,400 to most Americans.

“Some FOMC members may believe that rates must rise sooner than they expected last December,” ANZ Research analysts wrote in a morning note.

“For the Fed, the robust rebound and any shift in momentum in the scatter chart profile will create communication problems about how long rates will stay low,” the analysts said.

The members of the FOMC forecast quarterly where interest rates will go in the short, medium and long term. These projections are graphed visually and are known as a scatter plot.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell “is likely to combine the interest rate path with broad economic improvement while stressing tolerance for modest inflationary overshoot,” added ANZ analysts.

Currencies and oil

In the forex market, the US dollar was slightly lower at 91.615 against a basket of its peers, falling from a level above 92.00 last week.

The Japanese yen weakened to the 109 level, trading at 109.10 versus the greenback, compared to an earlier high at 108.90. Meanwhile, the Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7750, sliding $ 0.7775 from previous levels.

Oil prices rose during Asian trading hours on Monday amid growing optimism about the recovery in demand. On the supply side, OPEC and its oil-producing allies said this month it would keep production broadly stable through April.

US crude rose 0.9% to $ 66.20 a barrel, while the global benchmark Brent climbed 0.79% to $ 69.77.

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Business

Virginia will get near legalizing leisure weed as different states eye hashish tax windfalls

Virginia gets close to legalizing recreational weed as other states eye cannabis tax windfalls

A customer sets fire to a shop in Lowell Farms, America’s first official cannabis cafe serving farm-to-table dining and smoking cannabis on October 1, 2019 in West Hollywood, California.

Mike Blake | Reuters

Virginia is on the verge of becoming the first southern state to generate high tax revenues when it comes to legalizing recreational herbs.

A bill passed on Sunday Democratic Governor Ralph Northam’s signature awaits in both the State House of Representatives and the Senate.

Once signed, the Old Dominion would officially join 15 other states and the District of Columbia that have legalized marijuana for recreational adult use. Under Virginia law, legal sales and ownership would not take effect until 2024.

States from Wisconsin to Kansas – many of them strapped for money amid the Covid pandemic – are calling for similar measures as they struggle to balance their budgets. The governors also cite racial justice as a reason for legalizing marijuana. Black and Latin American men across the country are more likely to be incarcerated than their white counterparts for the same offenses.

Support for marijuana legalization has grown steadily over the years. Recent Gallup polls found that 68% of adults in the US think marijuana should be legalized for recreational use, up from 66% last year. With Democratic President Joe Biden in the White House and the party currently holding a majority in both the House of Representatives and Senate, federal marijuana legalization could be closer than ever.

For now, however, it remains a state-to-state decision.

New Jersey is the youngest to join the party. Democratic Governor Phil Murphy signed a reform bill in late February after voters approved the measure in November. A report by the bipartisan think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective estimates the state could generate at least $ 300 million in tax revenue annually.

For Virginia, legalizing pots could bring in $ 698 million to $ 1.2 billion annually in economic activity and up to $ 274 million in tax revenue annually, according to a study by the governors’ office.

Northam also acknowledged racial differences in drug abuse convictions in his most recent State of the Commonwealth address. “Reforming our marijuana laws is one way to ensure Virginia is a fairer state that works better for everyone,” he said.

Not all constituents are happy with the pace of change. The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia said the legislation paid “lip service” but “does nothing to address the persistent racial gaps we see decriminalizing through 2024,” reported WWBT, an NBC partner in television Richmond, Virginia.

A governor’s spokesman told CNBC: “We have a lot of work to do, but this bill will help reinvest in our communities and reduce inequalities in our criminal justice system.” The spokesman said the governor’s top priority is making sure Virginia legalizes marijuana fairly.

Other governors are calling for legalization

In Pennsylvania, Governor Tom Wolf again called for marijuana legalization in his state budget address, highlighting it as a priority for this year after neighboring states either approve or are considering legalization.

“I urge lawmakers to work with me to build a foundation to strengthen the Pennsylvania economy by legalizing adult cannabis,” the Democratic governor said in a message to lawmakers in September.

The governor also highlighted racial justice as a priority for legalization. “These are proceeds that can help criminal justice-affected Pennsylvanians gain access to restorative justice programs.”

Pennsylvania blacks are three times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites, according to the state’s ACLU chapter. Wolf’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Highlight the cons

Washington, which was one of the first states to legalize recreational herbs in 2012, made a total of $ 395.5 million in legal marijuana tax revenue and royalties in fiscal 2019, according to the state’s annual report. The legal marijuana market in the state supports more than 18,500 jobs, according to a recent study by Washington State University.

But as with many good things, there are often downsides. A University of Washington study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine showed that the legalization of cannabis in the state and a general change in attitudes towards the plant began to slow the downward trend in cannabis use among teenagers.

Study lead author Jennifer Bailey said, “We really don’t want teenage consumption to increase,” but added that it will be several decades before the effects of legalization are fully understood, as is the case with post-alcohol alcohol Prohibition was the case. She also highlighted racial justice, tax issues, and cannabis research as important benefits of legalization.

Many states are incorporating the language into cannabis legislation, according to which communities affected by racial inequalities in criminal justice will benefit most from legalization. But even guidelines developed for the benefit of color communities sometimes fail.

In Illinois, for example, a year after the state legalized the plant, there are still no minority-owned cannabis stores, even though the legislation includes language to limit pharmacies to give minority communities an advantage. The Illinois governor’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.

“There is a small fraction of the people who have cash and control over the money. If you have an industry and an emerging market and you can only join when you have cash, you’ve already eliminated the blacks,” said the Democratic La Shawn Ford, a member of the state legislature’s Black Caucus, told Politico.

Government shared roadblocks

States that have split government like Wisconsin may find it more difficult to pass comprehensive cannabis reform. Democratic Governor Tony Evers recently said he would propose legalizing recreational marijuana in Wisconsin, citing potential tax revenues of more than $ 165 million a year for the state.

“The legalization and taxation of marijuana in Wisconsin – just like we already do with alcohol – ensures that a controlled market and a safe product are available for both recreational and medical users, and can open up myriad opportunities for us to be in our communities to invest and create more just state, “he said in a recent statement.

With Republican lawmakers currently controlling the Wisconsin legislature, it is unlikely to pass.

Many southern states share a similar fate. Legislators in the Mississippi House and Senate are currently fighting over the language for a medical marijuana bill after a measure mandating a state medical marijuana program was approved by Mississippi voters.

In Minnesota, HF 600 was recently the first adult recreational use bill to stand out of the state’s committee. Minnesota’s Senate is controlled by Republicans and the House is controlled by Democrats, diminishing the likelihood of the bill being passed. Democratic Governor Tim Walz recently urged lawmakers to consider legalizing marijuana to boost the state’s economy in a briefing focused on his budget proposal. Comments from Walz’s office were not immediately returned.

Even election initiatives approved by voters can go up in smoke. A Circuit Court judge appointed by Republican Governor Kristi Noem recently ruled that a constitutional amendment approved by South Dakota voters to legalize recreational marijuana was unconstitutional. The ruling said the change would have “far-reaching implications for the fundamental nature” of the state government.

Recently, Democrat Laura Kelly, Kansas governor, announced a proposal to legalize medical marijuana in the deep red state to increase the revenue needed to expand Kansas’s Medicaid program to nearly 200,000 residents, who currently lack coverage. The Republican-controlled legislature is expected to reject the proposal, but Majority Leader Dan Hawkins did not take medical marijuana off the table. In a statement to Politico, he acknowledged growing support for drug reform but said it was too early to predict how the debate would develop.

In total, around 12 countries are currently considering some kind of cannabis reform legislation. States like New York, Connecticut, New Mexico, and Hawaii could soon see laws covering governors’ desks.

“It’s not about whether a deal comes about,” New York State Senate Democratic Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins ​​told the New York Times in January. “It’s about how and when.”

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect the University of Washington study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. In a previous version, the name of the university was incorrectly entered.

Categories
Politics

Trump Allies Eye Lengthy-Shot Election Reversal in Congress

Trump Allies Eye Long-Shot Election Reversal in Congress

Mr. Brooks tried to get support. He met with about half a dozen senators, including Utah’s Mike Lee, and separately with the conservative House Freedom Caucus last week.

“My # 1 goal is to fix a badly flawed American electoral system that is too easy to fraud and steal,” said Brooks. “A possible bonus for achieving this goal is that if you only count legitimate votes from legitimate American citizens and exclude all illegal votes, Donald Trump would officially win the electoral college, as I believe he actually did.”

It remains unclear how broad a coalition could be. More than 60 percent of Republicans in the House of Representatives, including the two top party leaders, joined a legal letter backing the unsuccessful Texas lawsuit and asking the Supreme Court to overturn the election results. But it is one thing to sign a legal mandate and another to officially challenge the outcome on the floor of the house.

Some Republicans, including Representative Scott Perry from Pennsylvania and Representative Matt Gaetz from Florida, have also signaled that they could support an appeal. Mr. Brooks said he had spoken to other interested parties. But prominent allies of the president who have plunged headlong into previous fights, such as representative Jim Jordan from Ohio or even the minority leader of the House of Representatives, representative Kevin McCarthy from California, have so far been publicly noncommittal.

“All eyes are on January 6,” Gaetz said Friday night on Fox News after the Supreme Court dismissed the Texas lawsuit. “I suspect there will be some debate and discourse in Congress as we go through the voter certification process. We still believe there is evidence that needs to be considered. “

Kentucky Republican Mr Paul said he would “wait and see how all legal cases play out” before deciding what to do.

Mr Johnson plans to hold a hearing this week “investigating the irregularities in the 2020 election,” and Ken Starr, the former independent attorney who is a right-wing favorite, and at least two attorneys who stand up for Mr Trump have pronounced introduces. Whether he will question the results on Jan. 6, he told reporters last week, “depends on what we find out.”

Maggie Haberman contributed to the coverage.