Page 2377 – Texas Weekly Online

Indiana court rules state’s ban on gender-transitioning treatments for minors is enforceable

Indiana can now enforce a law banning minors from seeking gender-transitioning treatments after a federal appeals court ruled to remove a temporary injunction issued by a judge last year, which kept the ban from going into effect last summer. A three-judge panel from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago handed down the decision on Tuesday. Two of the judges were appointed by presidents Reagan and Trump, while the third judge was appointed by President Biden. The bill, which was signed by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb on April 5, 2023, was set to become law on July 1, 2023, but was blocked by a judge a month prior following a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana. U.S. District Court Judge James Patrick Hanlon issued the injunction, which halted the parts of the law prohibiting minors from accessing hormone therapies and puberty blockers, and prohibiting Indiana doctors from communicating with out-of-state doctors about transgender-related treatments for minors. The law’s ban on gender-transitioning surgeries for minors was still allowed to take effect. INDIANA GOV. HOLCOMB GREENLIGHTS TRANS PROCEDURE BAN FOR MINORS On Tuesday, the ACLU of Indiana issued a written statement in response to the appeals court’s ruling, describing it as “heartbreaking” for transgender minors, their families and doctors. “As we and our clients consider our next steps, we want all the transgender youth of Indiana to know this fight is far from over,” the statement read. “We will continue to challenge this law until it is permanently defeated and Indiana is made a safer place to raise every family.” Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita did not share those sentiments and praised the court’s decision in a post on X, formerly Twitter, Tuesday evening. “Our commonsense state law, banning dangerous and irreversible gender-transition procedures for minors, is now enforceable following the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal’s newest order. We are proud to win this fight against the radicals who continue pushing this horrific practice on our children for ideological and financial reasons,” he wrote. OHIO BANS ‘GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE’ FOR MINORS, RESTRICTS TRANSGENDER ATHLETES DESPITE GOP GOVERNOR VETO The ACLU of Indiana filed the lawsuit last year on behalf of four minors undergoing gender-transitioning treatments and a doctor providing such care. The organization argued that the ban violates the Constitution’s equal protection guarantees and strips parents of the right to make medical decisions for their children. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, among other medical groups, claim minors can safely seek gender-transitioning treatments if they are being administered properly. Representatives from the state’s only hospital-based gender health program at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis told legislators last year that doctors do not perform or provide referrals for genital surgeries for minors, according to The Associated Press. The hospital was not involved in the lawsuit opposing the ban. Twenty-two other states have also enacted laws restricting or banning gender-transitioning treatments for minors. They are: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia. The bans are in limbo in some of those states as a federal court ruled Arkansas’ ban is unconstitutional and temporary injunctions were placed on the laws in Idaho and Montana. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Federal court rules Indiana’s ban on gender-transitioning treatments for minors is enforceable

Former paramilitary leader returned to Colombia following US jailing

Officials hope that Salvatore Mancuso will cooperate by revealing information about hundreds of murders and forced disappearances. Former Colombian paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso has been repatriated after serving a drug trafficking sentence in the United States. Salvatore Mancuso arrived at Bogota’s El Dorado airport on Tuesday. Having seen several requests to be sent to Italy, where he also has citizenship, denied, he was quickly taken into police custody, with authorities hoping he would shed light on hundreds of crimes that took place during civil unrest in the 1990s and early 2000s. Now 59, Mancuso, who arrived on a charter flight carrying dozens of Colombians deported after illegally entering the US, was formerly a leader of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. The paramilitary group, founded by cattle ranchers, fought against left-wing rebels during one of the most violent stretches of Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict. Human rights organisations and government officials hope that he will cooperate with the justice system and provide information about hundreds of crimes. Mancuso has confessed his co-responsibility for numerous massacres. He has been in prison in the US since 2008 for drug trafficking, and has indicated he is now ready to take on the role of “peace advocate”. “I come to continue with my commitments to the victims, but at the same time, I come to put myself at the service of a peace agenda that will prevent Colombia from being an eternal factory of victims and collective pain,” Mancuso said in a statement distributed to the media upon his arrival. He will remain in prison in Colombia, where courts have judged him responsible for more than 1,500 acts of murder and disappearances. He will attempt to get a reduced sentence, and possibly a release from prison, from a transitional justice system created by Colombia’s 2016 peace deal. Victims of the nation’s conflict are hoping that Mancuso helps shed light on hundreds of murders and forced disappearances carried out by paramilitary fighters, including extrajudicial executions in which victims were buried in mass graves. In multiple hearings with Colombian judges, including some by teleconference while in US custody, the former paramilitary leader has spoken of his dealings with politicians, and of the potential involvement of high-ranking officials in war crimes. But his extradition to the US in 2008 had slowed investigations. “Mancuso’s return to the country must contribute to the construction of peace, justice, truth and the non-repetition of war,” said Rodrigo Londono, also known as Timochenko, a former leader of the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel movement. He is the current chairman of the FARC political party Comunes. “I extend my hand to Mancuso to reconcile the country and bring to light all the responsibilities of the armed conflict,” he wrote on social media. “Peace will win!” Colombia suffered through nearly six decades of civil war waged between left-wing rebels, right-wing paramilitaries and the country’s military. The conflict killed more than 450,000 people and displaced millions. FARC, the largest rebel organisation, signed a peace deal with the government and laid down its arms in 2016. President Gustavo Petro, who took office in August 2022, has made pursuing “total peace” in the South American nation a key plank of his administration. He signed a landmark truce deal with The National Liberation Army (ELN) which was extended in early February. Adblock test (Why?)

UK cargo ship sinking in Red Sea after Houthi attack

NewsFeed A UK-registered cargo ship can be seen partially submerged in the Red Sea after it was hit in an attack by Yemen’s Houthis. Published On 28 Feb 202428 Feb 2024 Adblock test (Why?)

Lok Sabha polls: UDF finalises seat-sharing in Kerala, 16 for Congress, 2 for IUML

Like in the previous polls, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the second largest coalition partner in UDF, would contest in two seats, the LoP said while addressing a press conference here.

CBI summons Akhilesh Yadav in illegal mining cases, asks him to appear on…

CBI asked him to appear before it in connection with the case registered in 2019.

Biden says ‘fight for our freedoms’ means ‘all of us coming together’ after winning Michigan

President Biden was projected to win Michigan’s Democratic primary on Tuesday despite pushback from Arab-American voters opposed to his support for Israel’s war in Gaza, and the president said it would “take all of us coming together” to defend American freedom and democracy. His easy win in Michigan, according to a projection from The Associated Press, marked his fourth primary victory in as many states as he seeks the Democratic nomination. “I want to thank every Michigander who made their voice heard today,” Biden said in a statement. “Exercising the right to vote and participating in our democracy is what makes America great.” The landslide victory comes despite a movement among the state’s Arab-American population to “Abandon Biden” and vote “uncommitted” on primary ballots in protest of his support of Israel’s war in Gaza. The effort was backed by U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who said Tuesday she was proud to vote against Biden in the primary while calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, where Israeli forces and Hamas terrorists continue to fight following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish State. BIDEN WINS MICHIGAN DESPITE PUSHBACK FROM ARAB-AMERICAN VOTERS The president’s victory on Tuesday helped him inch closer to securing his party’s nomination and setting up a potential rematch with former President Trump, who defeated former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. “Four years ago, it was Michigan’s diverse coalition that came together to reject Donald Trump’s MAGA extremism and sent me and Kamala to the White House,” Biden said. “Because of Michiganders, we’ve been able to work hand in hand with Governor Whitmer and the incredible Democratic leaders in Michigan’s congressional delegation to deliver enormous progress.” He continued: “I was proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with UAW workers last year as they led the fight for the wages and benefits they deserve. We took on Big Pharma and are lowering the cost of prescription drugs for nearly 2 million Michigan seniors. We’re investing in our world-class auto industry and are finally making big corporations pay their fair share after Trump rigged the economy for special interests and gave handouts to his wealthy friends. And we’re fixing our crumbling bridges and roads while creating thousands of good-paying, union jobs right here in Michigan after Trump shipped them overseas.” RASHIDA TLAIB ‘PROUD’ TO NOT VOTE FOR BIDEN IN MICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY Biden said “for all of this progress, there is so much left to do” while criticizing Trump for “threatening to drag us even further into the past as he pursues revenge and retribution.” “[Trump] proudly brags that he is the reason Roe v. Wade was overturned in this country,” Biden said. “Because of Donald Trump, women’s lives are at risk, doctors face the prospect of criminal penalties for doing their jobs, and families desperately trying to have children are having access to fertility treatments ripped away. Now, Donald Trump wants to ban abortion nationwide – including here in Michigan.” “You’ve heard me say many times it’s never a good bet to bet against the United States of America,” the president said. “It’s never a good bet to bet against Michiganders either. This fight for our freedoms, for working families, and for Democracy is going to take all of us coming together. I know that we will.” Fox News’ Michael Lee contributed to this report.

China lauds Russia relations and calls for strengthened Asia-Pacific role

Beijing official said relations with Moscow are at an historic high. China has heralded historically strong relations with Russia as it called for the pair to coordinate on security, stability and development in the Asia-Pacific region. China and Russia should play a “better role as an anchor of stability in the changing circumstances of the century,” the foreign ministry in Beijing said in a statement issued on Wednesday following a visit to Moscow by Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong. Although wary of damaging ties with the West, Beijing has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and relations between the two BRICS states have remained warm amid the war. Sun said in the statement that “under the strategic guidance of President Xi Jinping and President Putin … relations between the two countries are at the best period in history”. Suspicion Such statements will do little to quell suspicion in the West, which has viewed Moscow and Beijing with increased anxiety over the past two years as they ramp up ties in trade and defence. Beijing has responded with anger as Chinese companies have been blacklisted by the United States and European Union for their role in helping Russia evade trade sanctions. Moscow has looked to Beijing as a crucial economic lifeline amid the sanctions, while China has benefitted from cheap energy imports and access to vast natural resources. At the same time, China’s interest in Russia’s sparsely populated, resource-rich, far-eastern region has long been viewed with some concern in Moscow, which sits 11 time zones westwards. Sun stressed Chinese hopes of deepening “coordination” in the Asia-Pacific region, extolling the role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a Eurasian political, economic, international security and defence organisation established in 2001. “Both sides should promote the SCO to better play its role as a ‘stabilizing anchor’ in the century-old changes, strengthen communication and coordination in Asia-Pacific regional affairs, and jointly safeguard regional security, stability and development,” he said. During his trip to the Russian capital, the Chinese official also exchanged views with Moscow’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on the Ukraine crisis, the situation on the Korean peninsula, and other international and regional matters, the statement noted, without offering details. Separately, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday that its special representative for Eurasian affairs will tour Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Germany and France in early March to promote a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis. Adblock test (Why?)

Apple parks electric car project

As enthusiasm for the tech wanes, markets approve of company’s decision to shift employees to burgeoning AI sector. US tech giant Apple has reportedly pulled the plug on its electric car project after a decade of investment into the technology, devoting more resources to artificial intelligence (AI). The halt on the decade-old project, which was reported on Tuesday and will see employees shifted to the firm’s AI division, was welcomed by markets. Apple kicked off Project Titan 10 years ago, at a time when the promise of self-driving vehicles was all the rage in Silicon Valley. It originally said it hoped to release a self-driving vehicle as early as 2024. But the project got stuck in the slow lane, hampered by factors including the COVID-19 pandemic. Billions were reportedly sunk into research and development but plans to create a radical, autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel were scaled down to focus on a more conventional car with advanced driver-assistance features. The company laid off 190 workers from the group in 2019. Apple is not alone. Several leading automakers, including electric vehicle (EV) market leader Tesla, have decided to pull back on investments, with some shifting plans to focus on hybrids instead of fully battery-powered cars. Tesla has projected slumping sales this year. Billionaire Elon Musk, who leads Tesla, greeted the news of Project Titan’s demise with a tweet featuring emojis of a salute and a cigarette. 🫡 🚬 https://t.co/f5wn0y95gx — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 27, 2024 The sector has struggled to flourish in a sluggish global economy. High interest rates have increased the cost of borrowing, leading to a slowdown in demand for usually pricier electric vehicles, prompting the industry as a whole to cut jobs and reduce production. Adblock test (Why?)

Fishy business: After Russia invaded Ukraine, its seafood industry thrived

After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the West’s reaction was swift and decisive, with unanimous decisions by the European Union and the United States to support Ukraine and punish Russia with economic sanctions. Two years on, the war continues while Russia’s economy remains resilient. “Sanctions work. And there is hardly any alternative that would work more effectively. But they are not working at full capacity,” Agiya Zagrebelska, a department manager at the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention, told Al Jazeera. While parts of the Russian industry were sanctioned immediately, some important industries were not. The Russian fishing industry was only partially blocked by Washington and marginally by the European bloc, which continues to import about $1bn worth of seafood from its aggressive neighbour. “Are the lives of a few hundred Ukrainians worth a crab or salmon?” said Zagrebelska. Since February 2022, when the invasion started, the EU has passed 13 sanction packages on Russia targeting President Vladimir Putin and people close to him, Russian banks, media companies, political parties and paramilitary groups. However, the European sanctions excluded most food products from Russia. The bulk of Russia’s billion-dollar seafood business, such as Alaskan pollock or cod, kept flooding EU and US fish markets and restaurants. The US included Russian seafood in sanctions in March 2022. And late last year, the government issued an executive order, taking additional steps by banning any Russian-origin seafood that had been incorporated or substantially transformed into another product in a third country. The new sanctions aimed at closing loopholes. With Russia was unable to export its seafood directly to the US, it sent ships to South Korea or China for processing. According to Stephanie Madsen, the head of the US-based At-Sea Processors Association, Russian fish made it through EU and US borders ultimately in disguise, under another country’s label. Madsen testified in front of the US Congress that Russian fish exports also directly funded Moscow’s war in Ukraine. In 2023, newly-added Russian fish export duties and $3.97bn from auctions distributing pollock and crab fishing quota reportedly went to support Putin’s warfare. “The majority of American consumers do not support the war in Ukraine,” said Sally Yozell, the director of the environmental security programme at the Stimson Center, a think tank. “I think they would feel very uncomfortable if they thought that their fish sticks that they’re eating at home or the [fish] sandwich that they’re eating at lunch was made up of Russian pollock that was supporting the Russian regime in its war against Ukraine.” Fish laundering Even if fish sanctions are in place, ensuring the fish does not enter European or US markets can be difficult because seafood is not always easily traceable. One representative from the Environmental Justice Foundation, a United Kingdom NGO, said that “many EU member states do very little verification of seafood imports, providing opportunities for the products of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing to enter the EU market”. Yozell said, regarding the US system, that mandatory catch licenses showing where the fish is coming from are easily manipulable PDF files. She added that while the US has been monitoring illegally-harvested seafood that enters the US market through the Seafood Import Monitoring Program since 2018, the scheme only focuses on 13 species and does not include some of the Russian seafood that enters the US market like pollock and halibut. That means that even in the US, where Russian seafood is directly banned, the fish served in restaurants or sold in supermarkets might be supporting the Russian economy. The result is that the EU imports about 740,000 tonnes of Alaskan pollock, a third of which comes directly from Russia, while another third gets it from China, of which 95 percent is of Russian origin, said Guus Pastoor, the president of the EU Fish Processors and Traders Association (AIPCE). In 2022, Russia ramped up its fish exports to the EU – despite tensions over the war in Ukraine, Russia’s Kommersant daily reported, citing trade data. Volumes increased by 18 percent that year, and by another 13 percent in 2023, reaching an all-time high. Before reaching Western markets, many Russian catches make a pit stop at the Busan harbour in South Korea, one of the world’s biggest shipping ports. Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the port has seen significant increases in Russian seafood. Data obtained for this investigation, in part from the Environmental Justice Foundation, shows that the Russian side of the harbour has been busier than ever. The numbers are staggering. For example, in 2021, no halibut – a highly-priced white-fleshed fish often caught in the Russian/Norwegian Barents Sea – was brought into the Busan harbour by Russian vessels. But in 2023, after the war started, the harbour imported more than 11,000 tonnes. While some of that fish might end up in the South Korean market, halibut exports from Korea to the US and China increased significantly in the same year. In 2023, South Korea imported 213,000 tonnes of seafood from Russia, compared with 439,000 in 2022 and 185,000 in 2020. Korean exports of fish to Europe and the US surged. From 2021 to 2022, exports of frozen herring to the US increased by 99 percent, while fillet exports to Germany skyrocketed by 541 percent. For most of the war, as well as being exempt from sanctions, Russian seafood producers enjoyed some privileges. Some fish arrived in the EU free of duties or at a reduced tariff. In January 2024, the Council of the European Union ended these perks. But not everyone was happy about the increased tariffs on Russian fish. “This, of course, will mean that the price [of fish] will go up because these tariffs are calculated into the final price for the consumer,” said Guus Pastoor, the president of the EU Fish Processors and Traders Association. “We understand the political reasons behind this but we think it sets a dangerous precedent.” Back in Ukraine, Zagrebelska is working around the clock to campaign for stricter sanctions.

Author: