Trump becomes a grandfather for the 11th time as Tiffany gives birth to a son
'Welcome to the world our sweet baby boy, Alexander Trump Boulos. We love you beyond words! Thank you for coming into our lives!' Tiffany Trump tweeted Thursday with a picture of her son's little foot.
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Reuters
a few seconds ago
- Reuters
California lawmakers swiftly pass Democrats' congressional redistricting plan
LOS ANGELES, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The California legislature on Thursday approved a redistricting package aimed at giving Democrats five more seats in the U.S. Congress, countering a partisan advantage President Donald Trump hoped to gain from a similar Republican plan to redraw political maps in Texas. California Democrats pushed the three bills through the state Senate and Assembly in a remarkable flurry of fast-track action, ahead of a Friday deadline set for getting the newly drawn districts on the ballot in time for a special election on November 4. Swift passage of the measures marked a decisive victory for Governor Gavin Newsom, who has led the charge in pushing back against what he and fellow Democrats nationally have decried as Trump's attempt at a power grab in the Republican-led state of Texas. Newsom, who enjoys a Democratic super-majority in both houses of the California legislature, ultimately seeks voter support for his plan. If it succeeds, it would neutralize the Trump-backed Texas bill designed to flip five Democratic seats to Republican control in the U.S. House of Representatives. Republicans, including Trump, have openly acknowledged that the Texas effort is about boosting their political clout by helping to preserve the party's slim U.S. House majority in the November 2026 midterm races. That election already is shaping up as closely fought. Democrats have characterized their bid to depart from California's usual independent, bipartisan redistricting process - adopted by voters in 2008 - as a temporary "emergency" strategy to combat what they see as extreme Republican moves to unfairly rig the system. "The decks are stacked against us, so what we need to do is fight back," California Senator Lena Gonzalez, a joint author of the redistricting plan, said as the state Senate opened floor debate on the bill. Democrats say more than 70% of their newly drawn congressional districts were adopted from maps used by the independent commission in formulating the current boundaries. Republican Senator Tony Strickland objected, saying, "These maps were drawn behind closed doors." Within six hours, however, the two houses of the legislature had approved all three measures, voting along party lines to approve each bill in succession and sending it to the other body for its concurrence. Unlike the California initiative, the newly drawn district lines in Texas would go into effect without voter approval, though Democrats have vowed to challenge the plan in court. The Texas measure cleared a major hurdle on Wednesday when the state House of Representatives in Austin adopted it on an 88-52 party-line vote. The Texas Senate is expected to pass the measure next, possibly on Thursday. The two versions of the bill may then need to be reconciled before the legislation goes to Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who has said he will sign it. "Big WIN for the Great State of Texas," Trump said on his Truth Social platform. Democrats and civil rights groups say the new Texas map further dilutes the voting power of Hispanic and Black voters, violating federal law that forbids redrawing political lines on the basis of racial or ethnic discrimination. In pursuing redistricting mid-decade, both sides are breaking with long-observed political custom of generally altering political maps once every 10 years, following the U.S. Census to adjust for population changes. Most Americans believe redrawing congressional lines to maximize political gain, known as gerrymandering, is bad for democracy, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found. Former President Barack Obama weighed in on the issue this week, supporting the Democratic effort as a necessary short-term response to Republican overreach in Texas. But he said he remained uneasy about the long-term consequences of gerrymandering. Consideration of the Texas bill was delayed for two weeks after more than 50 Democratic state House members staged a walkout that denied Republicans the legislative quorum they needed to proceed. Their collective absence sparked extraordinary efforts by Abbott and other Republican leaders to pressure the Democrats to relent, including civil arrest warrants, the imposition of fines and threats to withhold their pay. The Democrats finally returned to Austin on Monday, by which time their legislative boycott had galvanized Democratic leaders in other states, especially California, where Newsom has vowed to "fight fire with fire." "We're going to punch this bully in the mouth, and we're going to win," Newsom told reporters in a video conference call on Wednesday. "This is about the rule of Don versus the rule of law." He was joined on the call by Texas Representative Nicole Collier, one of the leaders of the Austin walkout. "These are the most segregated maps that have been presented in Texas since the 1960s," said Collier, who represents a predominantly non-white Fort Worth state district. The Texas-California clash may be just the start. Other Republican-controlled states -- including Ohio, Florida, Indiana and Missouri -- are moving forward with or considering their own redistricting efforts, as are Democratic-led states such as Maryland and Illinois.
Reuters
32 minutes ago
- Reuters
US Defense Department to buy cobalt for up to $500 million
Aug 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. is seeking to procure cobalt worth up to $500 million for defense stockpiles amid the country's move to boost its critical mineral supplies. Companies have been scrambling to source rare earths after China imposed restrictions, leading to a 75% drop in rare earth magnet exports from the country in June and causing some auto companies to suspend production. U.S. President Donald Trump in March invoked emergency powers to boost domestic production of critical minerals as part of a broad effort to offset China's near-total control of the sector. In July, Reuters reported that the White House tapped a former mining executive, David Copley, to head an office at the National Security Council focused on strengthening supply chains. According to the tender document published by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) on Wednesday, they are looking for offers for alloy-grade cobalt of about 7,480 tonnes over the next five years. Cobalt, mostly imported by the U.S., is used in batteries, a component in nickel superalloys for high temperature sections of jet engines and industrial gas turbines, among others. However, the defense department was seeking offers from only three companies - units of Vale SA in Canada, Japan's Sumitomo Metal Mining and Norway's Glencore Nikkelverk. The document also said the purchase amount can range from between $2 million and $500 million in the five-year period.
Telegraph
32 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Amy Hamm was a hard-working nurse. Now she's a case study in Canada's descent into tyranny
Canada used to be known as a bastion of free speech. It's even supposed to be protected as a 'fundamental freedom' under Canadian law. Unfortunately, the reality today is rather different – as the case of nurse Amy Hamm starkly demonstrates. Hamm has been a nurse in British Columbia for 13 years and, as she wrote in an essay for the online magazine Quillette in April 2022, she had 'never had a patient complaint, or otherwise received any type of workplace discipline'. Nevertheless, the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives placed her under investigation. Her supposed offence? Her 'off-duty statements' – specifically social media posts and articles that expressed her perfectly legitimate view that there are only two biological sexes. The fact that she had placed a billboard in September 2020 that contained the simple message 'I [HEART] JK Rowling' also came under scrutiny. Hamm wrote in Quillette that two people had complained to BCCNM that her views made her incapable of 'provid[ing] safe, non-judgemental care to transgender and gender diverse patients'. She was flabbergasted. 'I have worked with countless transgender patients. I am not transphobic by any reasonable or defensible definition of that word. Yet I now could lose my job because activists claim that I am a bigot.' An investigation into Hamm commenced. BCCNM wrote a lengthy report that examined her social media posts, freelance writing and more. Did they find anything egregious? Some might have found some of her posts offensive, but most will have considered them mainstream expressions of gender-critical opinions. But that didn't stop the college from making bizarre interpretations of what she said and wrote. One remark, 'trans activists determined to infiltrate or destroy women-only spaces,' was found to be discriminatory because the disciplinary panel felt it had a 'negative connotation of improper, illegal, aggressive, and destructive conduct'. Another post – is 'there anything more embarrassing than straight people going by they/them, getting a dumb haircut, and calling themselves trans and queer?' – was cited because it 'indirectly disparages transgender people '. Hamm, a single mother of two, wrote in the National Post – where she is a fellow columnist – that some colleagues 'created a public campaign' last year 'to get me fired over my political views – which I only ever expressed outside of work – and shared my exact work location'. She said someone threatened to find her at the hospital and 'beat me to a pulp with a baseball bat'. Many people mobilised to help Hamm. She was aided in her lengthy legal battle by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. JK Rowling gave moral support, tweeting '#IStandWithAmyHamm,' and sent Hamm a handbag last Christmas with a follow-up post: 'fabulous women deserve fabulous bags'. The academic Kathleen Stock testified in Hamm's defence. It was all for naught. The disciplinary panel ruled that Hamm had made 'discriminatory and derogatory statements' about transgender people and that her comments were designed in part to 'elicit fear, contempt and outrage against members of the transgender community'. Hamm was ordered to pay close to 94,000 Canadian dollars in costs and disbursements within two years, and was suspended for one month. What a ridiculous decision. It doesn't matter what you think about Hamm's views on gender identity, or the billboard that praised Rowling. She has the right to express these opinions in a free society, particularly when she is outside work. Free speech isn't a one-way street: it's the defence of ideas that are either objective or objectionable. Intellectual discourse will be severely limited if those who disagree with Hamm believe the right approach is to punish and silence her, rather than debate her. It is shocking that Hamm has been denied her basic right. It is positive, at least, that Hamm's case has drawn attention to the reality of free speech in Canada today. The Conservative Party leader, Pierre Poilievre, has written on social media this week that 'this is authoritarian censorship. We must restore free speech and free thinking in a free country.' Let's hope that's possible, because if an intelligent, thoughtful nurse like Hamm can't express her non-violent, non-hateful opinions outside the workplace, the chill that has descended on Canadian free speech may soon turn into an Ice Age.
