Unionist leader says Brexit deal could sink N. Ireland government
LONDON — The leader of Northern Ireland’s largest British unionist party heightened post-brexit political tensions on Thursday, saying the U.K.’S divorce deal with the European Union could collapse the Belfast government and trigger a new era of violence and instability.
Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson threatened to pull his party out of the power-sharing administration if the rules for Northern Ireland trade agreed by the U.K. and the EU last year are not fundamentally changed within weeks.
In a speech in Belfast, he said the agreement known as the Northern Ireland Protocol “fundamentally undermines … the economic integrity of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland’s position in it.”
He said that the problems must be resolved “in weeks and not months or years,” and said DUP ministers would quit Northern Ireland’s Protestant-catholic power-sharing administration rather than implement the deal in its present form. That would effectively collapse the government, which is run by the DUP and Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein.
He also said DUP ministers would boycott regular meetings with politicians in Ireland as a protest against the new rules.
“I say not as a threat, but as a matter of political reality that our political institutions will not survive a failure to resolve the problems that the protocol has created,” said Donaldson, who was elected DUP leader two months ago.
The crisis straining U.K.-EU relations stems from trade arrangements for Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that has a land border with the 27-nation bloc. The divorce deal the two sides struck before Britain’s departure means customs and border checks must be conducted on some goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.
Climate Corps: Democrats aim to pour tens of billions of dollars into a New Deal-style program that would hire young people to work on projects to protect communities and the environment from disasters that are growing more destructive due to climate change.
Momentum for a Civilian Climate Corps has been steadily building since President Joe Biden called for its creation in March. Although the program will not directly reduce the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet, it is a top priority for environmentalists as part of a $3.5 trillion spending bill Democrats hope to pass this fall.
Republicans have denounced the program as a boondoggle that would create eco-vigilantes who, as one lawmaker recently warned, will “report who is watering their lawn, whose fireplace is smoking.”
But the biggest hurdle may be Democrats themselves, who have yet to agree on how to design a climate corps.
Los Angeles outbreak: The Los Angeles board of education has voted to require students 12 and older to be vaccinated against the coronavirus if they attend in-person classes in the nation’s second-largest school district.
The board’s vote Thursday makes Los Angeles by far the largest of a very small number of districts
with a vaccine requirement. Nearby Culver City imposed a similar policy last month for its 7,000 students. Los Angeles has about 630,000 students. Under the plan for Los Angeles, students 12 and older who participate in sports and other extracurricular activities need to be fully vaccinated by the end of October. Others would have until Dec. 19.
The Los Angeles Unified School District was among the last of the nation’s largest districts to reopen to classroom instruction last spring. The teachers union opposed the move for months, citing health concerns.
Klobuchar breast cancer:
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar announced Thursday that she has been treated for breast cancer that was found in February and the treatment “went well.”
Klobuchar, 61, tweeted that the cancer was detected during a routine mammogram, and eventually she had a lumpectomy to remove it. She said she completed radiation therapy
in May amid a busy hearing schedule, including one treatment two days after her father died. A checkup in August found she was doing well. She told ABC’S “Good Morning America” that she’s “feeling much better” now.
Klobuchar said her cancer was stage 1A, meaning it had not spread beyond the breast. She said she felt fortunate to have caught it early because she had delayed her mammogram because of the pandemic.
Idaho woman still unfit for trial:
A judge has decided an Idaho woman charged with conspiring with her new husband to kill her two children is still not fit to participate in her own court proceedings.
District Judge Steven Boyce made the decision Wednesday to extend Lori Vallow Daybell’s time in a state mental hospital by at least 180 days.
The East Idaho News reports Daybell was committed to the Idaho Department of Health and
Welfare on June 8 after a mental health professional said she was not competent to stand trial. Last month, Boyce asked for a progress report on her condition after getting letters asking for her commitment to be extended.
Daybell and her husband Chad Daybell are charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder, among other crimes. The charges are in relation to the deaths of 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan — two of Lori’s kids — and Chad’s first wife, Tammy Daybell.
The children’s bodies were found in Chad Daybell’s backyard in Idaho in 2020.
Hurricane Olaf: Hurricane Olaf was heading toward a strike on the Los Cabos resort region at the tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula on Thursday. As the storm approached, authorities closed ports in the area, prepared temporary
shelters and urged people to monitor public announcements.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the area could see hurricane-force winds and very heavy rain on Thursday afternoon and into the night.
The ports of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo closed to vessel traffic as tourism operators moved boats at Cabo San Lucas to safer moorings.
The hurricane was centered about 115 miles southeast of Cabo San Lucas early Thursday afternoon with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph. It was advancing to the north-northwest at 9 mph.
Hurricane-force winds extended as far as 35 miles from the center and tropical storm-force winds as far as 115 miles.
The hurricane was expected to bring 3 to 6 inches of rain to the southern part of the peninsula, with up to 10 inches in isolated spots, creating the danger of flash floods and mudslides.