Far-right Le Pen launches European elections campaign Judge blocks Trump’s birth control coverage rules in 13 states

PARIS: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Sunday

launched her party’s campaign for the European Parliament elections, pledging to beat President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party in the vote.

Le Pen, leader of the National Rally (RN), formerly the National Front, presented the first 12 candidates on her list before a crowd of some 2,000 supporters in Paris.

“If Emmanuel Macron does not have the wisdom to change policies, if he does not have the wisdom to return to the people” by dissolving parliament for fresh elections, voters will express their discontent at the European elections, Le Pen said.

The European Parliament elections will be held May 23 to 26. At the campaign launch, Le Pen slammed Macron over the “yellow vests” demonstrations, which have seen hundreds of thousands of people protest since November against the president’s policies and

leadership.

She accused Macron of “blindness” and “intransigence”. Macron scored an easy victory over Le Pen in the second round of France’s May 2017 presidential election.

However, the “yellow vest” movement, which began as protests over high fuel taxes, has snowballed into a wholesale rejection of Macron and his policies, which are seen as favouring the wealthy at the expense of rural and small-town France.

The campaign launch comes as French prosecutors continue to investigate Le Pen over the alleged misuse of public funds at the European Parliament. RN members are being probed over allegations that they defrauded the EU out of 6.8 million euros in funding between 2009 and 2017.

Le Pen has insisted she and the party are “completely innocent” and portrayed the case and others against her as politically motivated.

Responding on Twitter to Le Pen’s speech, European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau mentioned the financing scandal, referring to the “embezzlement of public funds and fictitious jobs”.

“Le Pen invokes Christian values but violates the values of humanism. Let’s make sure next May is without them,” she wrote. OAKLAND (US): A U.S. judge in California on Sunday blocked Trump administration rules, which would allow more employers to opt out of providing women with no-cost birth control, from taking effect in 13 states and Washington, D.C.

Judge Haywood Gilliam granted a request for a preliminary injunction by California, 12 other states and Washington, D.C.

The plaintiffs sought to prevent the rules from taking effect as scheduled on Monday while a lawsuit against them moved forward.

But Gilliam limited the scope of the ruling to the plaintiffs, rejecting their request that he block the rules nationwide.

The changes would allow more employers, including publicly traded companies, to opt out of providing nocost contraceptive coverage to women by claiming religious objections. Some private employers could also object on moral grounds.

California and the other states argue that women would be forced to turn to statefunded programs for birth control and experience unintended pregnancies.

“The law couldn’t be more clear employers have no business interfering in women’s healthcare decisions,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement Sunday. “Today’s court ruling stops another attempt by the Trump Administration to trample on women’s access to basic reproductive care.

Macron scored an easy victory over Le Pen in the second round of France’s May 2017 presidential election