DUBLIN: The rival sides in Ireland’s decades-old battle over abortion made their final pitches to voters on Thursday, the eve of a referendum on liberalising one of the world’s strictest bans on terminations.
Voters in the once deeply Catholic nation will be asked on Friday if they wish to scrap a prohibition that was enshrined in the constitution by referendum 35 year ago, then partly lifted five years ago for cases where the mother’s life is in danger.
Opinion polls have put those who favor changing the law in the lead. The two most recent surveys on Sunday showed the “Yes” side pulling slightly further ahead.
“This is a once-in-a-generation decision for the Irish people,” Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told reporters.
“It is an opportunity for us to change our country. If there is a ‘Yes’ vote, Ireland will still be the same place, just a place that is a little bit more compassionate, a little kinder and a little more understanding than it has been.”
“Yes” campaigners are urging voters to repeal the eighth amendment of the constitution, which equates the right to life of the mother with her unborn child’s.
They argue that with over 3,000 women traveling to Britain each year for terminations and others ordering pills illegally online, abortion is already a reality in Ireland.
The “No” camp has seized on government plans to allow terminations with no restriction up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy if the referendum is carried, although that is not on the ballot paper.
They have suggested in recent days that if the referendum is defeated, the constitution could instead be amended again to allow for abortions in “hard” cases such as rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormality.
Varadkar and others say this is impossible — citing advice from Ireland’s Attorney General — and have accused their opponents of trying to dupe voters.
“If we ... vote ‘No’, no doubt this will come back in a year or two and then we can look at the hard cases, but not a carte blanche free-for-all for up to 12 weeks,” said Mattie McGrath, an independent lawmaker and prominent anti-abortion campaigner.
“If ‘No’ carries, the people will have spoken.”
Most polls will open at 0600 GMT on Friday, although voting was already under way on Thursday on remote west coast islands.
Some expatriate Irish were flying home from as far away as Bangkok, Los Angeles and Sydney to cast their ballots in a country that does not allow those abroad to vote via post or in embassies.
Those away for less than 18 months remain eligible to vote at their former local polling station.
The hashtag #hometovote was one of the top trending issues on Twitter on Wednesday, as it was three years ago when Ireland became the first country in the world to adopt gay marriage by popular vote.
Online comments suggested most of those heading home planned to vote “Yes.” Many posted photos of themselves wearing sweatshirts bearing the “Yes” side’s “Repeal” slogan.
“For me, I felt a moral obligation to come back,” said Ciaran Gaffney, 22, who forked out nearly 1,000 euros to return to the southwestern city of Limerick from Buenos Aires and bumped into four other returning voters on his flight home.
“As soon as the referendum was called, I just booked the flights there and then. My generation, my peers, are the ones who are going to be affected. I’m extremely excited to go into the polling booth and put that ‘X’ into the Ta (Yes) box.”
Campaigners make final pitches on eve of Ireland’s abortion referendum
Campaigners make final pitches on eve of Ireland’s abortion referendum
- Prime Minister Leo Varadkar: “If there is a ‘Yes’ vote, Ireland will still be the same place, just a place that is a little bit more compassionate, a little kinder and a little more understanding than it has been.”
- Some expatriate Irish were flying home from as far away as Bangkok, Los Angeles and Sydney to cast their ballots in a country that does not allow those abroad to vote via post or in embassies.
Trump signs executive order withdrawing from the World Health Organization
- He said the WHO had failed to act independently from the ‘inappropriate political influence of WHO member states’
NEW YORK: The United States will exit the World Health Organization, President Donald Trump said on Monday, saying the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.
Trump said the WHO had failed to act independently from the “inappropriate political influence of WHO member states” and required “unfairly onerous payments” from the US that are disproportionate to the sums provided by other, larger countries, such as China.
“World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore,” Trump said at the signing.
The move means the US will leave the United Nations health agency in 12 months’ time and stop all financial contributions to its work. The United States is by far the WHO’s biggest financial backer, contributing around 18 percent of its overall funding. WHO’s most recent two-year budget, for 2024-2025, was $6.8 billion.
Trump’s withdrawal from the WHO is not unexpected. He took steps to quit the body in 2020, during his first term as president, accusing the WHO of aiding China’s efforts to “mislead the world” about the origins of COVID.
WHO vigorously denies the allegation and says it continues to press Beijing to share data to determine whether COVID emerged from human contact with infected animals or due to research into similar viruses in a domestic laboratory.
Musk’s hand gesture during Trump inauguration festivities draws scrutiny
- Biting his bottom lip, he thumped his right hand over his heart, fingers spread wide, then extended his right arm out, emphatically, at an upward angle, palm down and fingers together
WASHINGTON: Billionaire Elon Musk’s hand gesture while he spoke during a celebration of President Donald Trump’s inauguration drew online comparisons to a Nazi salute on Monday, but a leading tracker of antisemitism said it appeared to represent a moment of enthusiasm instead.
Musk took the Capital One Arena stage in Washington to huge cheers, pumping his arms and shouting, “Yesssss.”
“This was no ordinary victory. This was a fork in the road of human civilization,” he said. “This one really mattered. Thank you for making it happen! Thank you,” he said.
Biting his bottom lip, he thumped his right hand over his heart, fingers spread wide, then extended his right arm out, emphatically, at an upward angle, palm down and fingers together. Then he turned and made the same hand gesture to the crowd behind him.
“My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured,” he said as he finished the gesture.
The gestures were quickly scrutinized online.
“Did Elon Musk Sieg Heil at Trump’s inauguration?” asked the Jerusalem Post.
The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks antisemitism disagreed. “It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge,” it posted on Monday.
Spokespeople for Musk and Trump did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Soon after his speech, Musk posted a Fox video clip of portions of his speech on his social media network X, that cut away from the podium when he made the first gesture while facing the cameras. “The future is so exciting,” he wrote above it.
Some X users came to Musk’s defense, claiming that Musk was expressing “my heart goes out to you” and criticizing posts that suggested otherwise.
Musk has backed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), an anti-immigration, anti-Islamic party labeled as right-wing-extremist by German security services, in an upcoming national election. He hosted a broadcast with the party’s leader on his social media platform earlier this month.
Trump withdraws from Paris climate agreement, again
- “The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity,” Trump said
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump once again withdrew the United States from the Paris climate deal on Monday, removing the world’s biggest historic emitter from global efforts to fight climate change for the second time in a decade.
The move places the United States alongside Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries in the world outside the 2015 pact, in which governments agreed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
It reflects Trump’s skepticism about global warming, which he has called a hoax, and fits in with his broader agenda to unfetter US oil and gas drillers from regulation so they can maximize output.
Trump signed the executive order withdrawing from the pact in front of supporters gathered at the Capital One Arena in Washington.
“I’m immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord rip-off,” he said before signing the order.
“The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity,” Trump said.
Despite the withdrawal, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is confident that US cities, states and businesses “will continue to demonstrate vision and leadership by working for the low-carbon, resilient economic growth that will create quality jobs,” said associate UN spokesperson Florencia Soto Nino, in a written statement.
“It is crucial that the United States remains a leader on environmental issues,” she said. “The collective efforts under the Paris Agreement have made a difference but we need to go much further and faster together.”
The United States has to formally notify UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres of its withdrawal, which — under the terms of the deal — will take effect one year later.
The United States is already the world’s top producer of oil and natural gas thanks to a years-long drilling boom in Texas, New Mexico and elsewhere, fueled by fracking technology and strong global prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
SECOND US WITHDRAWAL
Trump also withdrew the US from the Paris deal during his first term in office, though the process took years and was immediately reversed by the Biden presidency in 2021. The withdrawal this time around is likely to take less time – as little as a year — because Trump will not be bound by the deal’s initial three-year commitment.
This time could also be more damaging to global climate efforts, said Paul Watkinson, a former climate negotiator and senior policy adviser for France.
The US is currently the world’s second-biggest greenhouse gas emitter behind China and its departure undermines global ambition to slash those emissions.
“It will be harder this time because we are in the thick of implementation, up against real choices,” Watkinson said.
The world is now on pace for global warming of more than 3 C by the end of the century, according to a recent United Nations report, a level scientists warn would trigger cascading impacts such as sea level rise, heat waves, and devastating storms.
Nations have already been struggling to make steep cuts to emissions required to lower the projected temperature increase, as wars, political tensions and tight government budgets push climate change down the list of priorities.
Trump’s approach cuts a stark contrast to that of former President Joe Biden, who wanted the United States to lead global climate efforts and sought to encourage a transition away from oil and gas using subsidies and regulations.
Trump has said he intends to unwind those subsidies and regulations to shore up the nation’s budget and grow the economy, but has said he can do that while ensuring clean air and water in the United States.
Li Shuo, an expert in climate diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said the US withdrawal risks undermining the United States’ ability to compete with China in clean energy markets such as solar power and electric vehicles.
“China stands to win, and the US risks lagging further behind,” he said.
Trump says he will pardon ‘a lot’ of people charged in Jan. 6 attack
- More than 1,580 people have been criminally charged with participating in the riot, a failed attempt by Trump supporters to block the congressional certification of the 2020 election
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Monday he will pardon “a lot” of people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, moving to deliver on a promise often voiced on the campaign trail.
Speaking to supporters at Washington’s Capital One Arena, Trump did not specify how many people he planned to pardon.
A source familiar with his plans said earlier on Monday that Trump intends to cut short sentences for some people who attacked police and issue full pardons to people who did not commit violence.
More than 1,580 people have been criminally charged with participating in the riot, a failed attempt by Trump supporters to block the congressional certification of the 2020 election.
Leaders of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers organizations are among those serving time in federal prison for their roles in the violence. More than 600 people have been charged with assaulting or obstructing police during the riot, according to US Justice Department figures.
Trump vowed during his 2024 campaign to pardon many of those charged, arguing they had been treated unfairly by the legal system.
‘Extremely critical’ risk as winds whip fire-weary Los Angeles
Firefighters continued to make progress snuffing out fires that ravaged 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares) in the Los Angeles area, after erupting on January 7 and killing at least 27 people.
But a return of the hurricane-force winds responsible for spreading those initial fires threatened more danger.
Winds gusting up to 88 miles (142 kilometers) an hour have been recorded in some spots, where forecasters said they could combine with exceedingly dry conditions to create the potential for a fast-spreading fire.
“We’re expecting this to continue to create extremely critical fire weather conditions across the region,” Ariel Cohen, of the National Weather Service, (NWS) told AFP.
“Any fires that form could grow explosively. And so this is a particularly dangerous situation.”
Officials said they had pre-deployed engines and firefighters to areas at risk, after facing criticism that they were unprepared earlier this month.
“I believe that we will be very, very prepared for what the worst possible case scenario (could be) over the next couple of days, and then hopefully we don’t get there at all,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told reporters.
The largest conflagration, the Palisades Fire, was 59 percent contained by Monday, and the area affected by evacuation orders has now shrunk to effectively match the fire’s footprint.
The Eaton Fire, which wrecked a large part of the Altadena area, was 87 percent surrounded.
As Los Angeles grapples with the scale of the devastation, political bickering has intensified.
Donald Trump, who was sworn in as US president on Monday, has said he will be visiting the fire-ravaged areas at the end of the week.
That trip could include an awkward encounter with California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has been the target of Trump’s barbs over his handling of the disaster.
He has falsely claimed that Newsom had blocked the diversion of “excess rain and snow melt from the North.”
In reality, Los Angeles’s water supplies are mainly fed via aqueducts and canals originating from entirely separate river basins further east.
Newsom — a longtime Trump foe, who some believe may have White House ambitions of his own — told US media over the weekend that sniping was detrimental to recovery efforts.
“What’s not helpful or beneficial... is these wild-eyed fantasies... that somehow there’s a magical spigot in northern California that just can be turned on, all of a sudden there will be rain or water flowing everywhere,” said Newsom.
The governor blamed Elon Musk — the Tesla and SpaceX owner poised to play a key role advising the incoming administration — “and others” for “hurricane-force winds of mis- and dis-information that can divide a country.”
Southern California has had no significant rain for around eight months, even though it is well into what is usually the rainy season.
Officials have cautioned that if that rain does materialize, it could create dangerous debris flows in the disaster zone, and spark mudflows and hill collapses.
