Latest news with #CouncilofState
Euronews
30-05-2025
- Health
- Euronews
France to enact smoking ban in public spaces with children from 1 July
French Health Minister Catherine Vautrin announced on Thursday that a new smoking ban in outdoor public spaces where children are present will come into force from 1 July. Speaking to French newspaper Ouest France, Vautin said, "wherever there are children, smoking must disappear", adding that "a smoke-free generation is possible, and it starts now." A breach of the ban — which is part of France's wider National Tobacco Control Programme, announced in November 2023 — could be punishable with a €135 fine. In practice, smoking cigarettes will be outlawed in a range of public places — including beaches, parks, gardens, sports facilities, but also bus shelters and areas surrounding schools. Although the ban will not apply to the terraces of cafes and bars, France's health minister refused to rule out future similar bans in these spaces. Under the plan, electronic cigarettes will still be permitted in these spaces, but Vautrin emphasised that the government wanted to "lower the permitted nicotine content" in these devices, as well as reduce the variety of flavours available on the market by mid-2026. The detailed remit of the ban, which is being decided upon with France's Council of State (Conseil d'État) — the French advisory body tasked with advising the government on prospective bills and decrees — has not yet been revealed. The French Health Minister said the government was counting on"elected representatives to implement (the ban) pragmatically." The French government has made tackling the number of deaths caused by smoking one of its key missions. Every year, 75,000 people are estimated to die from tobacco-related complications in France. In 2023, France's National Tobacco Control Programme set out to develop 26 measures — which included raising the price of tobacco, introducing plain packaging and banning the sale of vaping products — in a bid to reduce smoking-related deaths. According to a survey conducted by NGO "La Ligue contre le cancer", nearly eight out of 10 of those questioned were in favour of a ban, while 83% backed similar legislation for electronic cigarettes. The measures unveiled by France follow Thursday's announcement from the Spanish government, revealing its plans to ban smoking in a wide range of places — including bar and restaurant terraces, university campuses, vehicles used for work purposes and outdoor sporting events. French President Emmanuel Macron said France's newly signed partnership with Singapore will serve as a "tangible roadmap to innovate together" in fields ranging from artificial intelligence and technology to nuclear energy and defence. "Our defence cooperation, shared support of multilateralism, and joint investment in breakthrough technologies are all paving the way for future generations," Macron said during a state lunch with Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Speaking to journalists at a joint presser with Macron, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said both countries strongly believe in multilateralism and a rules-based global order. "We know that this global order is shifting. What we have seen before in the decades past is starting to change. No one knows what the new order will be in the coming years. So we are in a period of transition," Wong noted, emphasising the importance of cooperation between "like-minded countries" during this transitional period. Macron's state visit to Singapore is part of his week-long tour of Southeast Asia, where he focused on strengthening regional ties. On Wednesday, the French president met with his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto to discuss boosting defence and trade cooperation between the two nations. The French leader is expected to deliver the keynote speech at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's top security conference, later on Friday. The summit will focus on China's growing assertiveness, the global impact of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the flare-ups of conflicts in Asia. The French leader is expected to touch on all those issues, as well as the sweeping tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump's administration that are looming over its Asian allies. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth will also be present this weekend among the world leaders, diplomats and top defence officials attending the Asian security summit, which is hosted by the International Institute for Security Studies. Hegseth, who is attending the forum for the first time, will give a speech on Saturday, where he is likely to discuss how the Trump administration plans to tackle security challenges in Asia and attempt to convince Asian leaders that the US is a more reliable partner than China. The defence secretary met with Singapore's Prime Minister Lawrence Wong prior to the conference, where he described the extent of the two nations' military cooperation as "unprecedented". "The amount of, the hospitality that you show to our troops, the rotational forces, our ships that are here, but then also the over a thousand members of your military over in the United States," Hegseth told Wong. The summit is taking place against the backdrop of escalating tensions between Beijing and Washington, triggered by the Trump administration's threat to impose triple-digit tariffs on China. There is also uncertainty regarding the United States' commitment to defending Taiwan, which it has also threatened with tariffs of 32%. Before boarding his plane for Singapore, Hegseth reiterated his administration's stance on Taiwan's defence. 'We seek no conflict with anybody, including the communist Chinese,' he said. "We will stay strong for our interests. And that's a big part of what this trip is all about.'
LeMonde
30-05-2025
- Health
- LeMonde
Smoking to be banned on French beaches, public gardens and near schools starting July 1
French Health Minister Catherine Vautrin announced a ban on smoking in many outdoor public spaces, meeting a demand by anti-tobacco organizations. Starting July 1, smoking in parks, public gardens, beaches, bus shelters, sports facilities and around schools will be prohibited, the minister said in an interview with the newspaper Ouest-France on Thursday, May 29. "Tobacco must disappear where there are children," Vautrin said, ahead of World No Tobacco Day, which takes place on Saturday, May 31. The goal is clear: to protect young people from exposure to tobacco. Failure to comply with the ban may result in a fine of €135, said Vautrin, who emphasized that the freedom to smoke "ends where children's right to breathe clean air begins." The decree, developed in collaboration with the French Mayors Association, "is being finalized with the Council of State," which advises the government on drafting policy. Middle and high schools will also be affected by the ban, particularly to prevent "students from smoking in front of their schools," she said.
Ya Biladi
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Ya Biladi
Moroccan single mother granted right to asylum in the Netherlands in landmark ruling
Issued by the Council of State in The Hague on May 20, 2025, and published on the 26th of the same month, a landmark ruling now allows Moroccan single mothers to apply for asylum in the Netherlands—provided they can demonstrate a genuine risk of criminal prosecution. The decision was handed down in favor of a woman who had appealed after facing deportation alongside her three children, following an administrative rejection in 2023. The initial decision had sided with the Ministry of Asylum and Migration, which argued that Morocco is considered a safe country of origin. However, the Council clarified that this presumption does not apply in cases where individuals can «specifically demonstrate that legal safeguards in Morocco against violations of rights and freedoms are not guaranteed in their individual case». In its appeal, the ministry argued that «there must be concrete and individualized indications that criminal proceedings will actually be initiated». The Council of State, however, found the applicant's claims admissible, stating that she had shown «a clear risk of facing criminal prosecution upon return to Morocco, and that legal protections for her rights and freedoms are not assured in her specific case». Risk of Prosecution and Far-Reaching Consequences The woman's appeal was based on Morocco's Penal Code Articles 490 and 491, which criminalize extramarital relationships and adultery, as well as Family Code provisions regarding the annulment of guardianship and child custody. Her case also referenced the 2022 report by Protection Not Prison: How the criminalization of sexual relations outside of marriage promotes violence against women. According to the report, over 10,000 prosecutions for similar cases were recorded annually in Morocco during the study period. The report contrasts this with the country's response to gender-based violence, highlighting that in 2020, only 46 people were prosecuted for femicide, 756 for rape, 2,034 for violence against women resulting in incapacitation of more than 20 days, and 505 for sexual harassment in public spaces. In the workplace, 20 cases of sexual harassment were prosecuted, while only 2 cases were pursued for breaching restraining orders. In total, there were 3,363 prosecutions for gender-based violence, compared to 13,018 prosecutions for extramarital sexual relations that same year. The applicant also referenced an article titled Response to Morocco : Convictions for Extramarital Sexual Relations by the Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation, as well as the Brief Thematic Official Report on the Principle of ne bis in idem, Foreign Criminal Convictions, and Privacy Legislation in Morocco (2023). A Debate on Legal Reforms and the Duty of Protection A letter from MRA, dated December 14, 2023, was also included in the case file. In her application, the mother explained that she «must contact the Moroccan authorities to obtain official identity documents for her youngest child». The Council of State noted in its ruling that this process requires presenting the Dutch birth certificate, which does not list a father, allowing Moroccan authorities to infer that the child was born out of wedlock. An email from MRA confirmed that «when a single mother requests official identity documents for a child born outside marriage, the authorities are alerted to a criminal violation of laws against extramarital sexual relations and proceed with prosecution». While some Moroccan cities allow single mothers to give their child their own surname or choose from a list of approved names, these practices largely depend on individual efforts within local administrations and NGOs, as there is no legal framework to protect such cases. Morocco's reluctance to use DNA testing for establishing paternity in children born out of wedlock also remains a major issue. Without legal recognition of paternal lineage, these children face second-class citizenship. For mothers, the consequences can be severe: in addition to the loss of legal guardianship, they risk imprisonment, economic hardship, and difficulties reentering the workforce after serving a sentence. All these factors contribute to greater insecurity for the children's well-being and future. When contacted by Yabiladi on Wednesday, the MRA association welcomed the ruling as a step forward for the protection of children's rights. «Given the risk of criminal prosecution and the precarious legal status of children born out of wedlock, these children could have been deprived of a normal education like their peers if they had returned to Morocco», the NGO told us. «They would have been separated from their mother if she had been convicted. The priority was to ensure the children could stay with their mother and that their rights were protected, in line with the obligation of international protection under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)». Beyond this individual case, MRA expressed hope to Yabiladi that this legal precedent will help advance discussions around the status of children born out of wedlock and single mothers in Morocco, particularly in light of the ongoing Family Code reform and the provisions of the Penal Code.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Republican lawmakers and judges thumb their noses at voters with election board transfer
State Auditor Dave Boliek has appointed (left to right) Stacy Clyde Eggers IV, Francis DeLuca, and former state Senator Bob Rucho to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. (File photos) There is a good case to be made that North Carolina's constitution provides for the election of too many statewide offices. This is especially true given that elections for the 10 'Council of State' offices take place during presidential election years when the ballot is long, and many voters know little-to-nothing about most candidates. What purpose it serves for the state to hold partisan elections to fill mostly bureaucratic positions like those held by the commissioners of labor, insurance and agriculture – other than perhaps to provide platforms for politicians to run for other, more desirable offices, or to secure lifetime employment – is hard to articulate. Likewise, secretary of state – an office that just two individuals have occupied for 81 of the last 89 years – is another strong candidate to become an appointed office. The argument in favor of partisan elections for five slots – governor, lt. governor, attorney general, treasurer, and superintendent of public instruction – is more obvious. And that leaves one other office: the historically obscure position of auditor. The idea of providing the auditor – the state's accountant – with a mandate from voters and some independent authority arguably makes some sense. The national website Ballotpedia describes the position this way: 'The auditor is a state-level position in 48 states that supervises and has administrative rights over the accounting and financial functions of the state. Additionally, auditors act as watchdogs over other state agencies, performing internal government audits and investigating fraud allegations.' Most states have an auditor. A little less than half fill the office with a partisan election. Several other states elect (and vest similar authority in) an office known as the controller. All that said, if you're like the vast majority of North Carolina voters, the choice you made last November in the auditor's race was pretty low on your list of election priorities. Indeed, if Beth Wood — the Democratic CPA who was elected in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 — had not been forced to resign in 2023 in the aftermath of a post-holiday party car wreck, it seems likely that she would have prevailed in a fifth consecutive snooze of an election. Wood's resignation, however, provided Republicans with an opening and they seized upon it by nominating Dave Boliek, an ambitious lawyer and former Democrat with a familiar name (his father was a Triangle area TV news reporter for many years). During the 2024 campaign, Boliek ran on a typical platform – promising to be a nonpartisan watchdog who would 'leave the political party affiliation at the door.' But, as the saying goes, that was then, and this is now. And as it turned out, for Republican lawmakers looking for ways to seize more powers from Gov. Josh Stein, Boliek's victory in the contest turned out to be a convenient tool. Thanks to a bill rammed through during last fall's post-election lame duck session, during which the GOP still maintained veto-proof supermajorities, Boliek was gifted with new powers that have absolutely nothing to do with the auditor's traditional role – including bizarrely enough, appointing the state Board of Elections. And last week, following an unsigned ruling from the overwhelmingly Republican state Court of Appeals blessing the transfer, the man who promised to be a nonpartisan watchdog did an about-face. In addition to reappointing current Republican election board member Stacy 'Four' Eggers, Boliek tabbed two of the most partisan right-wing ideologues imaginable from the state's firmament of conservative politicos: Robert Rucho and Francis X. Deluca. Rucho is a Matthews dentist and former state senator who, among other things, oversaw partisan gerrymandering as the chair of the Senate Elections Committee and helped shepherd the infamous 2013 'Monster Voting Law' through the Senate – a law whose voter ID provision, according to a federal court, sought to suppress the participation by Black voters with 'surgical precision.' Meanwhile, DeLuca is a one-time congressional candidate and former boss of the right-wing Pope-Civitas Institute – a group that long and passionately championed dozens of extreme (and sometimes downright strange) causes, including most relevantly, making it much harder for North Carolinians to vote. All in all, it's an amazing and absurd situation. A regulatory agency long and logically overseen by the state's chief executive has been turned over to the state's accountant for no reason other than blatant partisanship. No other state grants its auditor such power. One shudders to think of the staffing and policy changes that are in the offing. Senate GOP leader Phil Berger's minions will no doubt be conveying a long list in short order. Republican defenders claim that enacting such a shift is well within the legislature's lawmaking authority, but ultimately, it makes no more sense, logically or legally, to place the auditor in charge of elections than it would to hand the duty to the agriculture commissioner – especially when voters had no inkling of the shift when they cast their ballots. Unfortunately, for Republican lawmakers bent on shamelessly seizing power at every turn, logic and the will of voters is rarely of much interest these days.
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Carolina's most powerful politician now has something to prove
One after another, state Sen. Phil Berger has started rolling out endorsements from allies old and new. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. State Auditor Dave Boliek. The sheriff from Alamance County. Even former legislators. All standard fare — in campaign season. But it's May of an odd-numbered year. The next General Assembly election is still 10 months away. Ordinarily, this is the time for legislation and budget negotiations, not public campaigning. But Berger isn't treating this like a typical off-year. He's not acting like the politician who has coasted through reelection after reelection without breaking a sweat. He's acting like someone with something to prove. And that's because, for the first time in a long time, Phil Berger has a real race on his hands. Since first winning his Senate seat in 2000, Berger has rarely faced serious opposition. That freedom has given him space not just to legislate, but to build. Today, he doesn't just lead the Senate. He sets the agenda for the legislature, controls the campaign dollars that power swing-seat Republicans and directs a political machine that touches nearly every major decision in state government. When a bill gets written, a judge gets picked, or a Council of State seat opens up, Berger is involved — often decisively. But that long stretch without competition may have come at a cost. While Berger was shaping the state to his liking, his ties to his home turf in Rockingham County began to fray. Now, for the first time in more than a decade, he's being forced to look back. This year's challenge comes from Sheriff Sam Page — a fellow Republican with deep local roots and a sizable following among conservatives. Page has served as Rockingham County sheriff since 1998, cultivating a reputation as a tough-on-crime, pro-Trump lawman who's never shied away from a fight. He considered challenging Berger in 2024, but stepped aside and instead launched a run for lieutenant governor. He didn't come close statewide — but in Rockingham County, he dominated. That's not new. In 2014, Berger won 59% of the county vote. Page, on the same ballot, earned 76%. A flawed but telling 2023 poll showed Page starting a primary race with a lead. The warning signs haven't stopped. Last year, Berger's son Kevin, a county commissioner and close political ally, barely survived a primary challenge, winning by just three votes. Voters in Rockingham know both men well. And in a political climate growing more hostile to entrenched power, Page may offer the contrast local Republicans didn't know they wanted, until now. Over the years, Berger's influence has become more than legislative. Through appointments, budgets, and legal power, the Berger family has embedded itself in nearly every layer of government — all anchored in a single rural district. But that level of reach creates distance. And in 2023, the cracks started to show. Berger backed a plan to bring casino gambling to four locations across North Carolina, including a site in Rockingham County. The response was immediate. Residents packed public meetings. Lawsuits followed. Political allies became critics. Page emerged as one of the plan's most vocal opponents. Even supporters of the idea expressed frustration with the process: opaque, rushed, and largely detached from local input. It was a rare public misstep for a politician known for always being two moves ahead. And it deepened a perception that had been building for years: Berger was no longer the small-town lawyer from Eden, but a Raleigh power broker who'd lost touch with the voters who sent him there. Berger isn't behaving like someone expecting a sleepy primary. The early endorsements. New email newsletters. A spike in sponsored legislation. It's the kind of retail politics he hasn't needed in years — maybe decades. And when Page suggested Berger might try to revive the gambling bill this session, the pushback came swiftly. 'Unlike Sam Page, Senator Berger is neither a liar nor a political opportunist,' Berger's campaign spokesman told The News & Observer in February. 'And unlike Sam Page, when Senator Berger says something, voters can believe it.' That's not a quote you give when you're feeling confident. The old rule in politics still holds: If you're not worried, you ignore the criticism. If you are, you punch back. Berger still holds every advantage that matters: the fundraising network, institutional loyalty and the tools of legislative power. But this time, that may not be enough. To keep his seat, he'll have to campaign like he means it — and like he remembers what it feels like to fight for votes. Because this time, the outcome isn't guaranteed. Andrew Dunn is a contributing columnist to The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer. of Raleigh. He is a conservative political analyst and the publisher of Longleaf Politics , a newsletter dedicated to weighing in on the big issues in North Carolina government and politics.
