 |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| Hello hello, OnPolitics readers! |
| House Speaker Nancy Pelosi touched down in Taiwan today amid increasingly harsh warnings of Chinese retaliation and worsening tensions between Washington and Beijing. |
| When she stepped off the plane, around 10:50 p.m. local time, Pelosi posed for a photo with a contingent of Taiwanese officials on the tarmac. |
| Minutes after Pelosi landed, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement condemning the visit as a "serious violation" of the one-China principle that maintains Taiwan is part of China, not its own nation, and accusing the United States of emboldening "separatist forces." |
| In her own statement, Pelosi described the visit as honoring America's "unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan's vibrant democracy." |
| "America's solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy," she said in the statement. |
| It's Ella with today's top stories out of Washington. |
DOJ challenges Idaho abortion law |
| The Justice Department sued the state of Idaho Tuesday looking to void their restrictive abortion law. It's the Biden administration's first such challenge since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. |
| "We will use every tool at our disposal to ensure that pregnant women get the emergency medical treatment to which they are entitled under federal law," Attorney General Merrick Garland said. "And we will closely scrutinize state abortion laws to ensure that they comply with federal law." |
| The Idaho law, which is set to take effect on Aug. 25, criminalizes all abortions. Anyone who performs an abortion could face two to five years imprisonment. According to the Justice Department, the Idaho near-total abortion ban violates federal law, which allows for the procedure when emergency care is necessary to stabilize patients. As it stands, the state's law would only allow abortions if the mother's life is at risk, or in cases of rape or incest if the assaults were previously reported to law enforcement and the records given to the abortion providers. |
| Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said the federal law is "clear." |
| "Patients have the right to stabilizing hospital emergency room care no matter where they live," Becerra said. "Women should not have to be near death to get care." |
| Idaho officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Justice action. |
Real quick: Stories you'll want to read |
| |
| Want this news roundup in your inbox every night? Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter here. |
Texas militia member receives harshest punishment yet for Capitol rioters |
| The most severe punishment in a case related to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack was handed down Monday to a Texas militia member. |
| Guy Wesley Reffitt was sentenced to just over seven years in prison, after a federal court jury in March found him guilty on five criminal counts. It was the first jury trial to emerge from the government's far-reaching investigation of the attack. |
| U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich imposed a sentence that added two years to the longest previous term. |
| Just before his sentencing, Reffitt offered a last-minute apology, telling Friedrich that "I really do hate what I did." Friedrich described the former oil field worker's eleventh-hour expression of remorse as "awfully late." |
| Reffitt's son, Jackson, told CNN he is not happy about the sentence and that no one in his family is. |
| "He is his own person, and he has made his own choices, but he's also been pretty much manipulated into making those choices. And it pains me that he is still responsible for his actions," Reffitt said Tuesday. |
| Why are comedians making intimate comedy specials? While some comedians punch down, what about the need to punch up? Read USA TODAY's series on the evolution of comedy and what the industry's future looks like in a changing world here. --Ella & Amy |
| |
| |
| |
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment