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Former Trump official wins tight Texas GOP primary runoff

Former Trump official wins tight Texas GOP primary runoff

A former Trump campaign official has won a tight primary fight and will now serve as the representative of a deep-red Texas House district. Republican Katrina Pierson, who served as the spokesperson for former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, defeated incumbent state Rep. Justin Holland in Tuesday’s primary runoff for Texas’ 33rd House District, and is the presumptive winner of November’s general election since no Democrat candidate is standing in the race. Pierson had the backing of Republican Texas Gov. Gregg Abott, who sought to oust incumbent Republicans opposed to some of his policy objectives. WATCH: BUSINESSMAN REVEALS PLAN TO FLIP CALIFORNIA HOUSE SEAT AS THESE TOP 2 ISSUES TAKE CENTER STAGE Holland, who was first elected in 2016, opposed key legislation supported by Abbott that would have paved the way for Texas parents to send their children to private or religious affiliated schools using public funding. A group of 21 Republicans, including Holland, joined all Democrats in opposing the measure last year. Holland has also faced scrutiny for a number of other positions he’s taken, including supporting legislation last year that would have raised the age to purchase “assault” style rifles from 18 to 21, and voting in favor of impeaching Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Pierson gained Paxton’s backing ahead of the March primary, while Abbott endorsed her ahead of the runoff. Republicans currently hold 86 of the 150 seats in the Texas state House, a majority of 11. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Haiti transitional council names Conille prime minister amid gang violence

Haiti transitional council names Conille prime minister amid gang violence

Garry Conille, who briefly served in the role from 2011 to 2012, has since worked as a regional director for UNICEF. A nine-member council in charge of overseeing Haiti’s political transition has named politician Garry Conille as the Caribbean nation’s next prime minister. Tuesday’s decision comes amid a period of turmoil for the country, which has seen gangs seize control over much of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Conille is a familiar face in the role of prime minister: He served for four months, from October 2011 to February 2012, and resigned after clashing with then-President Michel Martelly. He now takes over for interim Prime Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert, who was appointed to the role after the previous prime minister, Ariel Henry, formally resigned in late April. The process of selecting a new prime minister was a rocky one, complete with false starts and controversy. Since the assassination of then-President Jovenel Moise in July 2021, Haiti has not held a federal election. Henry, an unelected official chosen days before the assassination, served as acting president in Moise’s stead after his shooting death. But Henry’s failure to call a vote to replace Moise has heightened tensions in the country. In January 2023, the last elected federal officials – 10 senators – saw their terms expire. In the meantime, the country’s gangs sought to fill the power vacuum, asserting power over upwards of 80 percent of Port-au-Prince, including roadways in and out of the city. The United Nations estimates more than 362,000 Haitians have been displaced by the ensuing bloodshed. During the first three months of 2024 alone, gang violence has killed more than 1,500 people and injured hundreds more. In March, Henry announced his decision to step down as prime minister, amid international and domestic pressure to do so. He had recently travelled to Kenya to shore up support for an international security mission to help bolster Haiti’s police. But while Henry was abroad, gangs attacked key prisons and police stations, as well as the capital’s airport, leaving him stranded outside of the country. In the aftermath, a regional cooperation bloc known as the Caribbean Community or CARICOM negotiated the creation of a transitional council to restore Haiti’s democracy. Nine members were chosen, seven of whom would have voting powers. The council is set to be dissolved in 2026, after a new presidential election is held. Conille’s appointment as prime minister came as the result of a six-to-one vote. Since 2023, he has served as a Latin America regional director for UNICEF, a UN agency that offers humanitarian aid to children. But confusion has accompanied the process of choosing a new prime minister. Last month, four of the transitional council’s seven voting members chose a former sport minister, Fritz Belizaire, to fill the post, only to walk back the announcement after critics said the proper protocols had not been followed. Even Tuesday’s announcement was received with scepticism. Line Balthazar, the president of the Tet Kale party, told a local radio station on Monday that the selection process had thus far appeared to be improvised. The Montana Accord, a Haitian civil society group, also questioned the transitional council’s commitment to transparency, noting it had not shared how it came to its decision. “The suffering of the people is getting worse, while the gangs are taking control of more territory and committing more crimes,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday, urging “consequential measures” to restore stability in Haiti. Meanwhile, gang leaders have warned they will not necessarily accept the transitional council or its choices. “We’re not going to recognise the decisions that CARICOM takes,” Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, the leader of the G9 Family and Allies gang, told Al Jazeera in March. Adblock test (Why?)

The art project aiming to keep Australia’s Indigenous people out of jail

The art project aiming to keep Australia’s Indigenous people out of jail

Melbourne, Australia – More Indigenous people are behind bars in Australia than ever before, making them the world’s most imprisoned people. Despite making up 3.8 percent of the national population, Indigenous Australians make up 33 percent of the prison population and are 17 times more likely to be jailed than non-Indigenous people. In Australia’s southeastern state of Victoria, a group of artists is working to break the cycle. The Torch is a community-led organisation that works with Indigenous inmates to teach artistic skills and reconnect prisoners with their cultural heritage. Inmates also generate income selling their work in galleries and to private collectors nationwide, with the money being saved in a trust, ready for their release. The results have been startling – inmates engaged with the programme have a return-to-prison (recidivism) rate of 17 percent for First Nations prisoners compared with the national average of more than 70 percent, according to The Torch. “Before I went to prison, I was in domestic violence and I was on the verge of being homeless,” Stacey Edwards, a former inmate, told Al Jazeera. “My Torch fund helped me put a deposit on a house and now I’ve got a routine and a structure. I’m OK with who I am and my place in the world.” What experts call the “hyper-incarceration” of Indigenous people in Australia is a legacy of colonisation and its racism, as well as successive governments’ focus on law and order. In particular, the trauma of the Stolen Generations – the forced removal of Indigenous children from their families – continues to reverberate. In the state of Victoria, where the Torch programme operates, about half of all Indigenous people have been directly affected by the assimilation policies, which only ended in the 1970’s. Protests have continued to raise awareness of the mass incarceration and deaths in custody of Indigenous Australians [Ali MC/AL Jazeera] Edwards, of the Taungurung and Boonwurrung nations, is one of them, telling Al Jazeera that the legacy of trauma underscored her descent into drug use and eventually, jail. Stacey, now 43, grew up in a poorer neighbourhood. She told Al Jazeera her grandfather had been forcibly taken away and placed in white-run institutions, a separation that scarred her mother’s life. “My mum’s ability to parent was impacted, she had her own addiction problems too,” she said. As a child, Stacey also felt the intergenerational trauma. “I didn’t have the emotional tools to self-regulate and get myself together,” she said. “I think that’s all pain, all the challenges and struggles and the hurt and pain being passed down over generations.” Colonial legacy Indigenous women – many of them mothers – are the fastest growing group of prisoners in Australia, largely due to domestic violence and experiences of homelessness. But the economic benefit of the Torch – which ensures inmates have a source of funds on their release – helps break that cycle. Indigenous Australians come from more than 500 nations in what is now known as Australia, which was colonised by the British in 1788. Genocidal practices, historical discrimination and ongoing racism have fuelled inequality across all social indicators, including homelessness, unemployment and poverty, which are also factors that underscore imprisonment. Kent Morris, of the Barkindji nation, was one of the founding organisers of the Torch in 2011. He told Al Jazeera that the economic model was crucial to the programme’s success and that one of the big questions, when it began, was how artists could earn income from their work while stuck inside prison. “How can the skills and talents of a mob in prison who are creating art and exploring culture – how can that translate into some economic support, so they’re not facing the same circumstances that leads them back to prison? This is what the programme was built around,” he said. In Australia, inmates can earn some income while participating in prison programmes and training, but since the Torch model allows them to sell their work in galleries outside of the prison walls, it is unique. In 2023, more than 1 million Australian dollars ($665,785) was returned to 494 participants through the sale and licensing of their artwork, with the earnings either saved or used to assist inmates’ families, such as ensuring their children go to school. Roey, a former prisoner and from the Warumungu and Yawuru Nations, told Al Jazeera that the Torch programme meant he could continue to support his children despite being jailed. “To be able to support my kids whilst being in prison was probably one of my biggest achievements,” he said. “Supporting my kids and being able to practise my culture in that process and feeling good about myself.” ‘Perfect storm’ Along with the economic benefit, the Torch programme also reconnects artists with their Indigenous culture, language and heritage, a link that was often broken due to colonisation. Sean Miller, of the Gamileroi nation, told Al Jazeera that the Torch helped him find a sense of identity. “I really wanted to learn more about my culture,” he said. “It’s something that’s built into you; you strive to find out where you come from, what your people are about, what our culture, and our language is. Because of colonisation that was taken from us. To be able to have the opportunity to learn all that, I’m so proud of that.” Miller has exhibited his works nationally and is one of seven former inmates now working on the Torch programme. In 2018, he returned to prison to deliver the programme to other inmates. “It gave the brothers and sisters inside prison a little bit more comfort to know that I was an ex-prisoner,” he told Al Jazeera. “They can relate to me and they can also see that they too can be successful with their art as well.” Sean Miller, of the Gamileroi nation, was once on the Torch programme and now goes back into jail to work with other inmates [Ali MC/Al Jazeera] Ash Thomas said that without the Torch

Melinda French Gates says she’s donating $1bn in support of women, families

Melinda French Gates says she’s donating bn in support of women, families

Philanthropist says it is ‘frustrating’ that some believe it is not the right time to discus gender equality. Melinda French Gates has announced that she will donate $1bn over the next two years to people and organisations working on behalf of women and families, including on reproductive rights. In an op-ed published in the New York Times on Tuesday, French Gates said she felt “compelled” to support abortion rights in the United States after the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade. “For too long, a lack of money has forced organisations fighting for women’s rights into a defensive posture while the enemies of progress play offence. I want to help even the match,” French Gates wrote. French Gates said the US continues to have “unconscionable” rates of maternal mortality, particular among Black and Native American women, while the number of teenage girls experiencing suicidal thoughts and persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness is at a decade-high. “Despite the pressing need, only about 2 percent of charitable giving in the United States goes to organisations focused on women and girls, and only about half a percentage point goes to organisations focused on women of colour specifically,” she wrote. French Gates also expressed dismay with those who say it is “not the right time” to talk about gender equality. “It’s frustrating and shortsighted. Decades of research on economics, well-being and governance make it clear that investing in women and girls benefits everyone,” she wrote. “We know that economies with women’s full participation have more room to grow. That women’s political participation is associated with decreased corruption.” French Gates said she has begun distributing $200m in grants through her organisation, Pivotal Ventures, to US-based organisations, including the National Women’s Law Center, the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Center for Reproductive Rights. French Gates said she has also selected a dozen people, including former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Afghan women’s education advocate Shabana Basij-Rasikh, to receive a $20m grant that they can distribute as they wish. French Gates made the announcement two weeks after she said she would step down from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the philanthropic organisation she co-founded with her ex-husband, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, in 2000. As part of her divorce agreement finalised in 2021, French Gates received $12.5bn from Bill Gates to support her philanthropic efforts upon stepping down from the foundation. Adblock test (Why?)