FRANKFORT, Kentucky: The son of a tobacco farmer running for governor in Kentucky endorsed a statewide smoking ban in most workplaces on Tuesday, a sign of the evolving tobacco politics in a state once dominated by the cancer-causing cash crop.
Adam Edelen grew up on a tobacco farm in Meade County and said he was raised to believe “Santa Claus lived in the tobacco patch.” But in a state with one of the highest adult and youth smoking rates in the country, Edelen said he felt compelled to endorse a plan that would ban smoking at enclosed workplaces, including bars and restaurants with three or more employees. Facilities that specialize in tobacco products and services would be exempt, he said.
“I also understand, I think better than anybody, the cultural hold that tobacco has had on Kentucky,” Edelen said. “But Kentuckians have got to stop being victims of our history. We’ve got to start building a better future.”
For decades, tobacco was an important cash crop that formed a pillar of this rural state’s economy. But like the coal industry, tobacco has faltered recently because of a mix of market and political forces. Now, state regulators have painted anti-smoking murals on former tobacco barns that once filled the countryside.
Kentucky’s major cities have had public smoking bans in place for years. And most workplaces already ban smoking. But many rural areas of the state don’t have smoking bans, and it’s still OK to light a cigarette in some rural manufacturing plans and bars and restaurants, including bingo halls, according to Bonnie Hackbarth, spokeswoman for the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. Out of Kentucky’s 173 school districts, 99 do not ban tobacco products on school property or at school-sponsored events.
Legislative efforts to pass a statewide workplace smoking ban in Kentucky have stalled in recent years. Tobacco companies have spent millions of dollars lobbying the state legislature and are often among the top spenders for each session.
But public support for a statewide smoking ban has been growing. A 2017 poll by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky found more than seven in 10 people in Kentucky supported a statewide smoking ban, according to a telephone survey of 1,580 adults that had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percent.
“I think one of the reasons that we’ve not been successful in getting this passed is we haven’t had governors lead form the front on this issue,” Edelen said.
At least 25 states have enacted workplace smoking bans, and another five states have banned smoking in bars and restaurants, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, who is running for re-election, has said smoking bans should be a local issue. But he has chosen for his running mate Republican state Sen. Ralph Alvarado, a medical doctor who has led the fight for a statewide smoking ban.
Recently, Alvarado and other lawmakers have shifted their focus to ban all tobacco products at Kentucky’s public schools and school-sponsored events, a proposal that is gaining traction in the state legislature this year.
“It isn’t as simple as a governor saying, ‘I want it,’ or not. You have to have the buy-in of the legislature,” Alvarado said.
Kentucky’s Republican-controlled legislature raised cigarette taxes by 50 cents last year, bringing total taxes to $1.10 a pack. Lawmakers used the extra money to balance the budget, which included an increase in public education spending.
Tuesday, Edelen proposed increasing the cigarette tax to the national average of $1.70 a pack. He said he would use some of the extra money on smoking cessation programs. Edelen said he is a former smoker who quit “cold turkey” when his sons were born.
“I am not a nanny state candidate. I believe If you want to smoke you should be able to,” he said. “But I also believe those who choose not to smoke, those who choose to protect their health in the workplace or the health of their children have a right to a law that protects them.”
Edelen is one of four Democrats running for governor this year. The others are state Attorney General Andy Beshear, state House Minority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins and former state employee Geoff Young.
On the Republican side, Bevin is seeking re-election but faces challenges from William Woods, Ike Lawrence and state Rep. Robert Goforth.
The Republican and Democratic primaries are May 21.
Tobacco farmer’s son endorses smoking ban in most workplaces
Tobacco farmer’s son endorses smoking ban in most workplaces
- Kentucky’s Republican-controlled legislature raised cigarette taxes by 50 cents last year, bringing total taxes to $1.10 a pack
Mike Johnson reelected House speaker in dramatic floor vote, overcoming hard-right Republican holdouts after a tense standoff
- A small collection of hard-line Republicans convened in the back of the House chamber, one by one declining to vote or choosing another lawmaker
- But Johnson was able to flip two remaining holdouts who switched to support him, drawing applause from Republicans. The tally was 218-215
WASHINGTON: Republican Mike Johnson narrowly won reelection Friday to the House speakership on a first ballot, overcoming hard-right GOP holdouts after a tense standoff and buoyed by a nod of support from President-elect Donald Trump.
The uneasy scene brought an ominous start to the first day of the new Congress. A small collection of hard-line Republicans convened in the back of the House chamber, one by one declining to vote or choosing another lawmaker. Johnson’s face turned grim, acknowledging fresh turmoil and signaling trouble ahead under unified GOP control of Washington.
In the end, however, Johnson was able to flip two remaining holdouts who switched to support him, drawing applause from Republicans. The tally was 218-215.
Johnson in his first speech vowed to “reject business as usual” as Republicans take charge.
“We’re going to drastically cut back the size and scope of government,” he promised.
Johnson’s weak grip on the gavel has threatened not only his own survival but President-elect Trump’s ambitious agenda of tax cuts and mass deportations as Republicans sweep to power. Even his close alliance and backing from Trump himself, usually a sure bet for Republicans, was no guarantee Johnson will stay in power.
The House Democratic leader Hakeem Jefferies attempted to push past the Republican tumult of the past two years, saying it was time to come together, put party politics aside “to get things done” for Americans.
What was once a ceremonial day with newly elected lawmakers arriving to be sworn into office, often with family, friends and children in tow, has evolved into a high-stakes vote for the office of House speaker, among the most powerful elected positions in Washington. Vice President Kamala Harris was swearing in the senators.
While the Senate is able to convene on its own and has already elected party leaders — Sen. John Thune as the Republican majority leader and Sen. Chuck Schumer for the Democratic minority — the House must first elect its speaker, a role required by the Constitution, second in the line of succession to the president.
With opposition from his own GOP colleagues, Johnson arrived at the Capitol with outward confidence after working into the night to sway hard-line holdouts. A flop by Johnson could have throw Monday’s congressional certification of Trump’s 2024 election victory into turmoil without a House speaker.
“A win for Mike today will be a big win for the Republican Party,” Trump posted ahead of the vote on social media.
Congress has been here before, when it took Republicans nearly a week and 15 rounds of voting to elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker in 2023, a spectacle otherwise unseen in modern times. McCarthy was then dumped by his party, a historic first, but he was also part of a long list of GOP speakers chased to early exits.
The stakes are higher this year as Trump prepares to return to the White House with the House and Senate in GOP control and promising to deliver big on a 100-day agenda.
Johnson worked diligently to prevent losing his post, up to the final moments, spending New Year’s Day at Mar-a-Lago as he positioned himself alongside Trump. The speaker often portrays himself as the “quarterback” who will be executing the political plays called by the “coach,” the president-elect.
During the dramatic roll call, the strain on Johnson was clear as more than a half-dozen Republicans refused to vote for him, many from the conservative Freedom Caucus. He was falling short.
As the chamber stood still, a few Republican holdouts announced their support, but it was still not enough for Johnson to keep the gavel. One hard “no” was Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, who voted for a different GOP Leader, as did two other Republicans.
Johnson’s allies huddled with some lawmakers, and others took calls passing their phones to the other holdouts.
But Johnson also had warned that without a House speaker there would be a “constitutional crisis” heading into Jan. 6, when Congress by law is required to count the electoral votes for president, weeks before Trump is set to be inaugurated Jan. 20.
“We don’t have any time to waste, and I think that everybody recognizes that,” he said.
Johnson commands one of the slimmest majorities in modern times, having lost seats in the November election. With the sudden resignation of Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., the tally dropped to 219-215. That leaves Johnson relying on almost every Republican for support in the face of Democratic opposition.
Heading into Friday he did not have the full support needed.
Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy was among the most notable holdouts, an unflinching member of the Freedom Caucus who lashed into Republican leadership’s handling of the year-end spending bill for failing to cut spending and adhere to House rules.
“Something MUST change,” Roy posted on social media. He eventually voted for Johnson.
What’s unclear is what other concessions Johnson can make to win support. Two years ago, McCarthy handed out prime favors that appeared to only weaken his hold on power.
Already, Johnson has clawed back one of those changes, with a new House rule pushed by centrist conservatives that would require at least nine members of the majority party on any resolution to oust the speaker — raising the threshold McCarthy had lowered to just one.
“I think the holdouts are going to have to realize that, listen, Trump is right all the time,” said Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, exiting the speaker’s office late Thursday. “Just know that Trump is right all the time, it’ll help you make a decision real simple.”
In many ways, Johnson has no choice but to endure political hazing by his colleagues, as they remind him who has leverage in their lopsided relationship. He was a last-ditch choice for the office, rising from the back bench once other leaders failed in the aftermath of McCarthy’s ouster.
The speaker’s election is set to dominate the opening of the new Congress, which also brings a roster of history-making members, as the Senate expects to quickly begin hearings on Trump’s nominees for top Cabinet and administrative positions.
In the Senate, two Black women — Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland — were being sworn in, both wearing suits in the white of the suffragettes, the first time in the nation’s history two Black women senators will serve at the same time.
Senator-elect Andy Kim of New Jersey also is making history as the first Korean American to join the chamber.
In the House, Sarah McBride is the first openly transgender person in the Congress.
And Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who recently suffered a fall overseas and underwent hip replacement surgery, will make her own return to Washington, a reminder of the power she wielded when Democrats last held the majority.
Canary Islands received record 46,843 migrants in 2024
- Sanchez government ‘maintains a transversal policy that prioritizes human rights’
MADRID: A record 46,843 migrants reached Spain’s Canary Islands illegally in 2024 via the increasingly deadly Atlantic route, the second consecutive year of unprecedented arrival numbers, official data showed.
The landmark came as the European country received 63,970 irregular migrants last year, the vast majority in the Atlantic archipelago, up from 56,852 in 2023, the Interior Ministry said.
Spain has moved to the forefront of the EU’s migration crisis as tighter controls in the Mediterranean push more migrants to attempt the perilous trip from West Africa to the Canaries.
BACKGROUND
Spain, a major gateway to Europe along with Italy and Greece, has emerged as an outlier in European migration policy.
EU border agency Frontex has said irregular crossings into the bloc from January to November 2024 fell 40 percent overall.
However, they grew 19 percent on the Atlantic route, with Mali, Senegal, and Morocco being the most common nationalities.
The latest figures confirmed data published in December that showed the record for annual migrant arrivals by boat in the Canaries had been broken for the second year running by November.
Last year’s arrivals surpassed the 39,910 migrants who reached the islands off northwestern Africa by sea in 2023, a level that had smashed the previous record from 2006.
The national figure for 2024 fell short of the record of 64,298 arrivals set in 2018 but exceeded the 56,852 migrants who reached Spain illegally in 2023.
A report last week by NGO Caminando Fronteras said at least 10,457 migrants died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain by sea from Jan. 1 to Dec. 5, 2024.
Caminando Fronteras said it was a 50-percent increase on 2023.
The highest toll since its tallies began in 2007, attributing it to the use of ramshackle boats, dangerous waters and a lack of resources for rescues.
“The loss of a single life is a cause for sadness, and we regret every one of them,” the Migration Ministry said in reaction to the report.
“This government maintains a transversal policy that prioritizes human rights and works in collaboration with other ministries and countries of origin and transit to promote regular and safe migration.”
Local authorities in the Canaries say they are overwhelmed by the waves of arrivals.
Spain’s political parties, however, have failed to agree on a plan to distribute thousands of unaccompanied minors nationwide to ease the burden.
Government minister Angel Victor Torres criticized the conservative opposition Popular Party, or PP, for the impasse.
The children would go to school, “learning our language and integrating into our society” if the PP adopted an attitude of “true solidarity,” Torres told Cadena SER radio.
Despite the crisis, Spain, a major gateway to Europe along with Italy and Greece, has emerged as an outlier in European migration policy.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez defends the necessity of migration to support the welfare state and workforce needs as Europe’s population ages.
His successive leftist governments since 2018 have eased regularization rules for illegal migrants in Spain, even as far-right parties with anti-immigration platforms have surged in Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and beyond.
Sanchez last year embarked on a tour of Senegal, Mauritania, and The Gambia, the main departure points for Spain-bound boats, to promote local efforts to curb illegal migration.
PP spokesman Borja Semper slammed the government for presiding over rising immigration numbers while levels fell in other frontline countries such as Italy.
The government uses immigration “frivolously because there is no policy, and when it puts forward something, it’s behind a banner,” he said.
Judge says Trump must be sentenced in criminal case, but signals no jail term
- Judge Juan Merchan denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the criminal case due to his presidential election victory
- Says a sentence of “unconditional discharge” — meaning no custody, monetary fine, or probation — would be “the most viable solution”
- Trump's spokesman Steven Cheung said the sentencing is a “violation” of presidential immunity
NEW YORK: Donald Trump must be sentenced on Jan. 10 in the criminal case in which he was convicted on charges involving hush money paid to a porn star, a judge ruled on Friday, adding that he is not inclined to impose a jail sentence.
Justice Juan Merchan said he denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the case due to his presidential election victory. The judge said the Republican president-elect may appear for the sentencing, which will take place just 10 days before his inauguration, either in-person or virtually.
Merchan wrote that a sentence of “unconditional discharge” — meaning no custody, monetary fine, or probation — would be “the most viable solution.”
Trump's spokesman said the sentencing is a “violation” of presidential immunity.
“Today’s order by the deeply conflicted, Acting Justice Merchan in the Manhattan DA Witch Hunt is a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s Immunity decision and other longstanding jurisprudence,” Steven Cheung, Trump’s incoming communications director, said in a statement.
Trump was convicted in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election to stop her from revealing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter.
Trump’s attorneys had sought to have the case dismissed on various grounds, including the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling last year that former US presidents have sweeping immunity from prosecution for a range of official acts committed while in office.
Judge Juan Merchan rejected that argument but he noted that Trump will be immune from prosecution once he is sworn in as president.
In Trump’s second motion to dismiss the case filed since his May conviction, his defense lawyers argued that having the case hang over him during his presidency would impede his ability to govern.
Merchan rejected that argument, writing that setting aside the jury’s verdict would “undermine the Rule of Law in immeasurable ways.”
“Defendant’s status as President-elect does not require the drastic and ‘rare’ application of (the court’s) authority to grant the (dismissal) motion,” Merchan wrote in the decision.
Trump was initially scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 26, but Merchan pushed that back indefinitely after Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election.
Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which brought the case, said there were measures short of the “extreme remedy” of overturning the jury’s verdict that could assuage Trump’s concerns about being distracted by a criminal case while serving as president.
They suggested several options for Merchan, including delaying the sentencing until Trump, 78, leaves the White House in 2029, or guaranteeing a sentence that would not involve prison time.
The prosecutors also said the judge could simply terminate the case with a notation that Trump was never sentenced and that his conviction was neither affirmed nor reversed on appeal. They said a similar approach was used in cases where a defendant dies after being convicted but before being sentenced.
The case stemmed from a $130,000 payment that Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. The payment was for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she has said she had a decade earlier with Trump, who denies it.
A Manhattan jury in May found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the payment. It was the first time a US president — former or sitting — had been convicted of or charged with a criminal offense.
Trump pleaded not guilty and called the case an attempt by Bragg, a Democrat, to harm his 2024 campaign.
Trump on Dec. 16 lost a separate bid to toss the conviction in light of the US Supreme Court’s July 1 decision that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted over their official actions, and that evidence of their official actions cannot be presented in criminal cases over personal conduct.
In denying Trump’s motion to dismiss, Merchan said the prosecution over “decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch.”
Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years in prison, but incarceration is not required. Before his election victory, legal experts said it was unlikely Trump would be locked up due to his lack of a criminal history and advanced age.
Trump was charged in three other state and federal criminal cases in 2023: one involving classified documents he kept after leaving office and two others involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
He pleaded not guilty in all three cases. The Justice Department moved to dismiss the two federal cases after Trump’s election victory.
Trump’s state criminal case in Georgia over charges stemming from his effort to overturn his 2020 election loss in that state is in limbo.
Trump's spokesman Cheung — whose legal opinion is disputed by experts — called the case “lawless” and said the constitution demands that it be dismissed.
“President Trump must be allowed to continue the Presidential Transition process and to execute the vital duties of the presidency, unobstructed by the remains of this or any remnants of the Witch Hunts,” he added.
“There should be no sentencing, and President Trump will continue fighting against these hoaxes until they are all dead.”
Father of murdered 10-year-old Sara Sharif attacked in UK prison — report
- Urfan Sharif suffered slashes to his face and body which are ‘non-life threatening,’ police say
- Sharif, Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool were jailed for 40 and 33 years for killing 10-year-old
ISLAMABAD: Incarcerated Urfan Sharif, who was jailed last month for the murder of his 10-year-old daughter Sara Sharif in the United Kingdom, has been attacked at Belmarsh prison in southeast London, British media reported on Friday.
Sara was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking, a town southwest of London, after what prosecutors said was a campaign of “serious and repeated violence.” She suffered injuries including burns, multiple broken bones and bite marks.
Sharif and Sara’s stepmother fled to Pakistan immediately after the 10-year-old’s murder, before being arrested in September 2023 at London’s Gatwick airport after flying in from Dubai.
The 43-year-old father is understood to have suffered slashes to his face and body that require stitches, British broadcaster Sky News reported.
“Police are investigating an assault on a prisoner at HMP (His Majesty’s Prison) Belmarsh on 1 January,” Sky News quoted a prison service spokesperson as saying.
“It would be inappropriate to comment further while they investigate.”
The 43-year-old suffered “non-life-threatening injuries,” a Metropolitan Police spokesman told the broadcaster.
Sharif, his 30-year-old wife, Beinash Batool, who was Sara’s stepmother, were respectively jailed in Dec. for 40 and 33 years for years of horrific “torture” and “despicable” abuse that culminated in the 10-year-old’s murder.
Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of causing or allowing her death and awarded 16 years in prison.
India conveys concerns to China over hydropower dam in Tibet
- China is set to begin construction of the hydropower dam in Tibet on the Yarlung Zangbo river which flows into India
- Chinese officials say that hydropower projects in Tibet will not have a major impact on the environment or on downstream water supplies
NEW DELHI: India’s foreign ministry said on Friday that New Delhi has conveyed its concerns to Beijing about China’s plan to build a hydropower dam in Tibet on the Yarlung Zangbo river which flows into India.
Chinese officials say that hydropower projects in Tibet will not have a major impact on the environment or on downstream water supplies but India and Bangladesh have nevertheless raised concerns about the dam.
The Yarlung Zangbo becomes the Brahmaputra river as it leaves Tibet and flows south into India’s Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states and finally into Bangladesh.
“The Chinese side has been urged to ensure that the interests of downstream states of the Brahmaputra are not harmed by activities in upstream areas,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a weekly media briefing.
“We will continue to monitor and take necessary measures to protect our interests,” he said.
The construction of the dam, which will be the largest of its kind in the world with an estimated capacity of 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, was approved last month.
Jaiswal said that New Delhi had also lodged a “solemn protest” with Beijing against its creation of two new counties — one of which includes a disputed area also claimed by India — last month.
“Creation of new counties will neither have a bearing on India’s longstanding and consistent position regarding our sovereignty over the area nor lend legitimacy to China’s illegal and forcible occupation of the same,” he said.
Relations between Asian giants India and China, that were strained after a deadly military clash on their disputed border in 2020, have been on the mend since they reached
an agreement in October to pull back troops from their last two stand-off points in the western Himalayas.
The two armies have stepped back following the agreement and senior officials held formal talks for the first time in five years last month where they agreed to take small steps to improve relations.
