Democratic governors launching network for better abortion access
Democratic governors in 20 states are launching a network intended to strengthen abortion access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision nixing a woman’s constitutional right to end a pregnancy and instead shifting regulatory powers over the procedure to state governments.
Led by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, organizers described the Reproductive Freedom Alliance as a way for governors and their staffs to share best practices and affirm abortion rights for the approximately 170 million Americans who live in the consortium’s footprint — and even ensuring services for the remainder of U.S. residents who live in states with more restrictive laws.
“We can all coalesce,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said ahead of a Tuesday announcement. She added that the court’s decision last June that ended a national right to abortion “horrified” and put pressure on governors to act. “This is leveraging our strengths ... to have more of a national voice.”
That includes, organizers said, sharing model statutory language and executive orders protecting abortion access, ways to protect abortion providers from prosecution, strategies to maximize federal financing for reproductive health care such as birth control, and support for manufacturers of abortion medication and contraceptives that face potential new restrictions from conservatives.
In a statement, Newsom called the effort, which he and his aides spent months organizing, “a moral obligation” and a “firewall” to protect “fundamental rights.”
The group includes executives of heavily Democratic states like California, where voters overwhelmingly approve of abortion rights, but also involves every presidential battleground state led by a Democrat, including Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Tony Evers of Wisconsin.
Jeanne Lewis, the interim CEO of Faith in Public Life, a progressive multistate faithbased organization, said having states work together to ensure abortion access is essential as states and federal lawmakers continue to consider bans and deeper restrictions.
CNN’s Lemon returning:
CNN anchor Don Lemon will return to work Wednesday and will receive “formal training” in the aftermath of his on-air comments about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, network CEO Chris Licht said in an email to employees Monday night.
The memo did not specify the training. Licht added that it was important to him that the network “balances accountability with … fostering a culture in which people can own, learn and grow from their mistakes.”
Lemon has not been on the air since Thursday, when he said the 51-yearold Haley was not “in her prime” during the broadcast of “CNN This Morning.”
Lemon and fellow hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins had been discussing Haley’s suggestion that politicians over 75 should be subject to mandatory mental competency tests.
Lemon issued a statement that same day saying he regretted his “inartful and irrelevant” comments, which were widely condemned.
According to The New York Times, Licht chastised
Lemon during an editorial call Friday, saying his remarks were “upsetting, unacceptable and unfair” and a “huge distraction.” Lemon appeared at the meeting and apologized to staffers, CNN reported.
A court in Romania’s capital agreed Tuesday to extend social media influencer Andrew Tate’s detention on suspicion of organized crime and human trafficking by another 30 days, an official said.
Tate, 36, a British-U.S. citizen known for misogynistic views who has 5.1 million Twitter followers, was arrested Dec. 29 on his property north of Bucharest. His brother, Tristan, and two Romanian women also are in custody in the same case.
None of the four has been formally charged.
Ramona Bolla, a spokesperson for Romania’s anti-organized-crime agency, DIICOT, said that the Bucharest Tribunal approved prosecutors’
Social media influencer:
request to hold the Tates for another 30 days, while the two women will be put under house arrest.
It was the third 30-day extension granted since the Tates were arrested.
Cyclone’s fury: A slightly weakened Tropical Cyclone Freddy made landfall Tuesday on the east coast of Madagascar, with schools, businesses and public transportation shut down.
The cyclone packed winds gusting to 111 mph, with waves higher than 49 feet battering the coast.
The storm was already blamed for at least one death, the National Office for Risk and Disaster Management reported.
Freddy was striking with the force of a Category 3 hurricane on an island battered in January by Tropical Storm Cheneso, which killed at least 30 people.
Winter storm: A monster winter storm took aim at the Upper Midwest on Tuesday, threatening to bring blizzard
conditions, bitterly cold temperatures and 2 feet of snow in a three-day onslaught that could affect over 40 million Americans.
The storm was to begin around midday and continue through Thursday morning in parts of the Dakotas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin, with winds gusting as high as 50 mph in some places and wind chills reaching as low as minus 50 degrees
Up to 25 inches may pile up, with the heaviest amounts falling across east-central Minnesota and west-central Wisconsin, the National Weather Service said. The Minneapolis-St. Paul area could see 2 feet of snow or more for the first since in over 30 years.
Forecasters at AccuWeather said the same storm system could result in icing across a 1,300-mile band from near Omaha, Nebraska, to New Hampshire on Wednesday and Thursday. That would create potential travel hazards in or near cities such as Milwaukee,
Peacekeepers killed: Three United Nations peacekeepers were killed and several others severely wounded by a roadside bomb Tuesday in central Mali, according to the U.N.
The bomb struck a supply convoy near the village of Songobia, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali said in a statement.
Jihadi violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group has wracked Mali for a decade and left thousands of people dead. The war-torn West African country is one of the world’s most dangerous places with a peacekeeping mission.
For the ninth consecutive year, Mali had the most peacekeepers killed while deployed there, the U.N. reported in January.
Including the peacekeepers who were slain Tuesday, 168 have been killed in the country since 2013, according to the U.N.