Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee says she has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, announced Sunday night that she is being treated for pancreatic cancer, but assured her constituents that she will soon be back at full strength. Jackson Lee, 74, has been representing Texas’ 18th congressional district for 30 years. “My doctors have confirmed my diagnosis for pancreatic cancer,” Jackson Lee said in a statement. “I am currently undergoing treatment to battle this disease that impacts tens of thousands of Americans every year.” “I am confident that my doctors have developed the best possible plan to target my specific disease,” she continued. “The road ahead will not be easy, but I stand in faith that God will strengthen me.” HEART ATTACKS MORE LIKELY DURING PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AND OTHER STRESSFUL TIMES, STUDY SHOWS The congresswoman said she will “likely be occasionally absent from Congress” as she undergoes treatment, but emphasized that her office will continue to deliver the constituent services they “deserve and expect.” “I am committed to working with our Congressional Leadership including Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the Speaker of House to serve this nation and be present for votes on legislation that is critical for the prosperity and security of the American people,” she said. “By God’s grace, I will be back at full strength soon.” Jackson Lee previously battled breast cancer, having been diagnosed in 2011 before announcing the following year she was cancer free. The Democrat served as a judge before she was elected to an at-large Houston City Council seat in 1989. VERMONT GOV. SCOTT VETOES ‘SAFE INJECTION SITE’ PROPOSAL Last year, she ran an unsuccessful campaign for Houston mayor, losing by a wide margin to then-state Sen. John Whitmire, also a Democrat, before announcing she would seek reelection in Congress. “My adult life has been defined by my faith in God, my love for humanity and my commitment to public service,” Jackson Lee said on Sunday. “As a member of Congress, I’ve been honored to be one of the leaders in the fight for justice and equality for all; especially the disadvantaged and the dispossessed. Today, my fight is more personal, but I will approach it with the same faith and the same courage.” “Please keep me and my family in your prayers as you have always done. Know that you will remain in mine,” she concluded. “As always, God bless you and God bless the United States of America.”
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 829
As the war enters its 829th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Monday, June 3, 2024. Fighting Ukraine imposed emergency power shutdowns in all but three regions of the country a day after Russia unleashed large-scale attacks on energy facilities, which also injured 19 people. Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed that its armed forces had taken over Umanske in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. The tiny village had fewer than 180 residents before Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and lies about 25km (15 miles) to the northwest of Donetsk, which is the main city of the region and under Russian occupation. Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, said six people were injured in Ukrainian shelling of the region, just across the border from Kharkiv. A local official also died when some ammunition detonated, he said. Almost 1,000 people gathered in central Kyiv to remember Iryna Tsybukh, known as Cheka, a 25-year-old high-profile journalist and volunteer paramedic who was killed in action in the northeastern Kharkiv region last week. Politics and diplomacy Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told defence and security leaders in Singapore that the Switzerland peace summit scheduled for later this month was the best way to end the “cruel war” in Ukraine and that he was disappointed China would not be attending. He said he had not been able to meet the Chinese delegation in Singapore. China’s foreign affairs minister, Wang Yi, said on Friday that China, which claims to be neutral in the war but has deepened ties with Moscow, would not be taking part. Zelenskyy and his defence minister, Rustem Umerov, held talks with United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for more than an hour on Sunday. He also met Indonesia’s President-elect Prabowo Subianto and the president of East Timor, Jose Ramos-Horta. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said NATO’s recent move to strengthen defences in the Baltic states was aimed at deterring Russia, and a signal that the security alliance would “defend every square inch of NATO territory against attacks”. Russia’s TASS news agency said former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, who fled the country a decade ago for fear of persecution, could be targeted for allegedly violating the Kremlin’s “foreign agent” law. Moscow added Kasparov, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to its list of individuals supposedly acting as foreign agents soon after it began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Weapons White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby confirmed that US President Joe Biden had agreed to allow Ukraine to use some weapons provided by the US to strike inside Russia. Adblock test (Why?)
Mexico election live results 2024: By the numbers
Mexico has begun to count votes after a Sunday election that will almost certainly result in the country’s first female president. The two frontrunners are Claudia Sheinbaum of the ruling Morena party, supported by the governing coalition Let’s Keep Making History (Sigamos Haciendo Historia), and Xochitl Galvez, supported by a coalition of opposition parties. Jorge Alvarez Maynez, a third candidate, is running on behalf of the Citizens’ Movement. As the first few votes started trickling in, Sheinbaum grabbed an early lead, followed by Galvez, in keeping with opinion polls that placed the Morena candidate as the firm favourite to win the presidency. Mexico has about 100 million registered voters, and around 58 percent voted. In addition to the presidency, voters also cast their ballots for about 20,000 positions in what is the country’s largest-ever election. According to Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE), these positions include 128 Senate seats, 500 deputy seats, the governorship of Mexico City, and governorships in eight states including Chiapas, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos, Puebla, Tabasco, Veracruz and the Yucatan. Here is how the three parties are performing in the presidential vote, according to the latest updates from the INE: When will we know the final results? The results will likely be finalised only by June 8. However, on June 2, Mexicans will have access to the quick count, a statistical projection estimating voting trends from a random sample of 7,500 polling stations. Between 10pm and 11pm (starting at 03:00-04:00 GMT) on June 2, the INE will announce the quick count results of the presidential election. This announcement will be delivered in a televised message broadcast nationwide. Starting at 8pm (02:00 GMT) on Sunday, the INE will also launch the Preliminary Electoral Results Program (PREP), a system that gathers and publishes data recorded by polling station officials. Al Jazeera will be relying on this data for its vote count tracker, while also sharing the quick count when it is announced by election officials. When will the new president take charge of Mexico? Mexico’s newly-elected president will be inaugurated on October 1, 2024, four months after election day. This marks the first time the inauguration will occur on October 1 instead of December 1, following a change in the electoral law in 2014. Besides the presidency, what other races are closely watched? Other than who will be the next leader of the country, the race for Congress remains key. The ruling party Morena aims to achieve a two-thirds majority in Congress, important for revising the constitution and eliminating what it perceives as cumbersome and wasteful oversight agencies. The opposition, united in a loose coalition, says this action would pose a threat to Mexico’s democratic institutions. This could also affect the peso and how investors react to the election. “If [Morena] wins two-thirds of the Congress, or gets eerily close, that becomes a tougher decision for investors because that becomes a very different scenario, in which there’s less constraints to power,” Miguel Angel Toro Rios, the dean of the School of Social Sciences and Government at Tecnologico de Monterrey, told Al Jazeera. In Mexico City, the competition is fierce, with Clara Brugada of the ruling party, Santiago Taboada of the largest opposition coalition and Salomon Chertorivski of the Citizens’ Movement all locked in a tight race. Governorships in large, populous states such as Veracruz and Jalisco are also drawing interest. Adblock test (Why?)
Rupert Murdoch marries for the fifth time
Media magnate weds Russian-born retired molecular biologist at a ceremony in California. Media magnate Rupert Murdoch has married for the fifth time, tying the knot with a Russian-born retired molecular biologist. Murdoch, 93, and Elena Zhukova, 67, exchanged vows in a ceremony at his vineyard estate in Bel Air, California on Saturday, less than three months after the couple announced they were engaged. Murdoch’s The Sun tabloid published photographs of the groom wearing a black suit and yellow tie and the bride dressed in an off-the-shoulder white gown. Guests at the ceremony included Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots US football team, and News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson. Murdoch’s fourth marriage to model and actor Jerry Hall ended in divorce in 2022. The billionaire was previously married to Chinese-born television executive Wendi Deng, Scottish-Australian journalist Anna Torv, and Australian flight attendant Patricia Booker. Murdoch, who has six children, last year announced his engagement to dental hygienist-turned-conservative-radio host Ann Lesley Smith before calling off the wedding several weeks later. Zhukova was previously married to billionaire energy investor and Russian politician Alexander Zhukov. Murdoch, who built a global media empire after inheriting the Adelaide-based The News newspaper in the 1950s, in November stepped down as the head of both Fox News’s parent company and his News Corp media holdings. Murdoch’s surprise resignation handed control of the media stable, which includes Fox News, The Times of London and The Wall Street Journal, to his son, Lachlan. Adblock test (Why?)
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee says she’s being treated for pancreatic cancer
Lee, a Houston Democrat, said she plans to continue serving but could have some occasional absences from Congress.
Weather Update: When will there be respite from heatwave? This is what IMD has to say
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said heat wave conditions over northwest, central and east India were likely to continue with reduced intensity during the next three days.
SC to hear today Delhi govt plea seeking direction to Haryana to release surplus water
The national capital has been facing a severe water shortage and Minister Atishi has accused Haryana of not releasing Delhi’s share of water.
‘It’s not a good deal but…’: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s aide on Biden’s cease-fire plan for Gaza
The first phase entails a truce and the return of some hostages held by Hamas, after which the sides would negotiate on an open-ended cessation of hostilities for a second phase in which remaining live captives would go free, Biden said
Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Live: EC orders repolling at Barasat, Mathurapur in West Bengal today
Clashes broke out between supporters of Trinamool Congress (TMC), Indian Secular Front (ISF) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in various areas of the state in the seventh and final phase of Lok Sabha polls on June 1
Trump verdict has started ‘war of weaponization of the criminal justice system,’ legal experts warn
The unprecedented criminal conviction of former President Trump has opened a dark chapter in the history of America’s criminal justice system, according to several legal experts. A New York jury on Thursday pronounced Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in what prosecutors called a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election. Trump is now the first former president to ever be convicted of a crime. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11 and may be sent to prison. Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz is among those who have called the facts of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump an “absolute joke.” He warned on Friday that if Trump can’t get justice in New York through the appeal process, it’ll be open season for Republican prosecutors to target Democrats in deep-red districts. “This is the beginning of a war of weaponization of the criminal justice system,” Dershowtz said on “Mornings with Maria” on FOX Business. “The legal system failed. Our system of checks and balances, which is the great contribution that the American Constitution made, failed yesterday.” TRUMP NY SENTENCING TO BE 4 DAYS BEFORE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION Trump’s critics would call that dire warning hyperbole, at best, or at worst, dangerous. They argue that Trump’s historic conviction, however irregular the charges, was delivered by a jury of his peers in a court of law where Trump was presumed innocent until proven guilty. “This was a conviction by a jury of Americans who listened to the evidence and made their decision,” said Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in comments to the New York Times. “When you undermine courts the way that elections have already been undermined, there is no peaceful way to settle differences.” Trump and many of his supporters say otherwise: That this was the product of a blatantly political prosecution brought by Bragg, a Democrat who campaigned on a pledge to “get Trump,” presided over by Judge Juan Merchan — who previously donated $35 to an anti-Trump political committee — and located in a county where only 12% of residents eligible to be jurors voted for Trump in 2020. “The whole thing was rigged from day one — from the venue to the judge,” Trump told Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman in an exclusive interview after the verdict came down. He maintains his innocence and has accused President Biden and the Democratic Party of attempting to harm his presidential campaign through the legal system. TRUMP GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS IN NEW YORK CRIMINAL TRIAL “We couldn’t get a fair trial,” he said. “It’s a sad day for New York and a sad day for the country.” Bragg has denied any political motives in his successful prosecution of Trump and said his office “did our job,” which was “to follow the facts and the law without fear or favor.” “The only voice that matters is the voice of the jury. And the jury has spoken,” Bragg said Thursday evening. But Staten Island criminal defense attorney Louis Gelmorino said Bragg and other Democratic officials who made campaign promises to prosecute Trump should never have been allowed to move their cases forward. “Letitia James, Fani Willis and Alvin Bragg all campaigned on the fact that they were going to get Trump. They all got elected and they all went right after Trump. And they all should’ve been recused, everyone in their offices, should’ve been recused because of the statements they made on the campaign trail,” said Gelormino, referencing New York Attorney General Letitia James and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Atlanta. I WAS INSIDE THE COURT WHEN THE JUDGE CLOSED THE TRUMP TRIAL, WHAT I SAW SHOCKED ME: ALAN DERSHOWITZ James had called Trump a “con man” and “carnival barker” and promised to shine a “bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings” before she was elected in 2018. She led a successful prosecution of the Trump Organization for fraud by falsely inflating the value of its assets. Trump and his lawyers argued that he never told anyone to inflate the value of his assets and that, if there were discrepancies, no one was harmed. Willis brought charges against Trump and 14 co-defendants in an alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. After winning the Democratic primary for her office in March, she said “the train is coming” for Trump and his co-defendants. “It’s quite obvious they are using the law to prevent Trump from running for office,” said Gelormino. He criticized Bragg’s prosecutorial decisions in New York, noting the district attorney has taken a soft approach towards violent crime while ferociously pursuing Trump. “In Manhattan, you can deal a house full of drugs, and they’ll try, at best, not to prosecute or put you in a program. You can get arrested for all kinds of crimes in Manhattan, and they’ll try to reduce the sentence. But Bragg is really cracking down on white collar crime, and we see it every day while street crime, violent crime and drugs are let go. And he’s doing it because that’s not his constituency,” he said. BIDEN URGES RESPECT FOR LEGAL SYSTEM AFTER TRUMP CONVICTION WHILE PUBLICLY FLOUTING SCOTUS RULINGS David Gelman, a New Jersey-based a criminal defense attorney and a former deputy district attorney, said anyone who looks at how the Trump case was handled in New York and doesn’t think it was “weaponized” against Trump is “lying to themselves.” “This is the first time in New York an individual has ever been tried for this type of crime. Is it a coincidence that it happened to President Trump smack-dab in the middle of a presidential campaign where he is the front-runner?” he asked. “I think not.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP He noted that the Federal Elections Commission, Department of Justice, Southern District of New York and Bragg’s predecessor each