Photos show Haitian migrants swimming across into Mexico to avoid deportation by US authorities – Business Insider
Photos show Haitian migrants swimming across into Mexico to avoid deportation by US authorities – Business Insider
  • Some 14,000 mostly-Haitian migrants settled under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, on Friday.
  • The Biden administration is using Title 42 to deport the migrants and prevent the spread of COVID-19.
  • Photos show the migrants’ journey as they seek asylum.
  • See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Photos captured between Friday, September 17, and Monday, September 20 show Haitian migrants trying to navigate the humanitarian crisis at the US and Mexico border.

Some of the estimated 14,000 mainly Haitian migrants that ended up in Del Rio, Texas, seeking asylum following a massive earthquake and the assassination of the Haitian president, began heading back to Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, on Monday, to avoid being deported by the US.

Thousands of migrants had settled underneath a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, in the heat where essentials such as food, water, and restrooms were scarce.

President Joe Biden, who had discontinued some of Trump’s immigration policies, leading migrants to believe the US was more open to migrants, has begun deporting migrants back to Haiti, The New York Times reported. 

Source Article from https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-haitian-migrants-swimming-into-mexico-avoid-deported-us-authorities-2021-9

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Justice Dept. Urges Supreme Court to Uphold Roe v. Wade – The New York Times
Justice Dept. Urges Supreme Court to Uphold Roe v. Wade – The New York Times

Jackson Women’s Health sued to stop the Mississippi law, which bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, when it passed in 2018. The clinic argued that the law was unconstitutional because courts have ruled that a woman has the right to terminate a pregnancy before viability, and it has relied on medical experts who have determined that viability takes place at 23 to 24 weeks.

The Justice Department agreed, arguing that the state had been “unable to identify any medical research or data that showed a fetus had reached the ‘point of viability’ at 15 weeks.” And it noted that federal district and appeals courts had sided with Jackson Women’s Health.

The department also said that in asking the Supreme Court to overrule its precedents on abortion, including Roe v. Wade, Mississippi was asking the court to violate the doctrine of stare decisis, Latin for “to stand by things decided.” That phrase is shorthand for the longstanding principle that the court is to respect precedent.

“The United States has a substantial interest in the proper interpretation of the 14th Amendment and principles of stare decisis,” the Justice Department wrote in its brief.

The Mississippi abortion law is one of several passed in recent years by conservative state legislatures that pose a challenge to Roe, a decision that Mississippi’s attorney general, Lynn Fitch, has called “egregiously wrong.” Ms. Fitch has urged the Supreme Court to overturn the decision, which underpins the constitutional right to an abortion, and to uphold the state law.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/us/politics/justice-department-mississippi-abortion.html

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Member of CIA chief’s team reported Havana syndrome symptoms on recent trip to India – CNN
Member of CIA chief’s team reported Havana syndrome symptoms on recent trip to India – CNN

By Kylie Atwood, CNN

Updated 6:32 PM ET, Mon September 20, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/20/politics/cia-director-havana-syndrome-india-trip/index.html

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Joe Biden’s challenge at his first UN General Assembly: Convince allies he’s not another Trump – CNN
Joe Biden’s challenge at his first UN General Assembly: Convince allies he’s not another Trump – CNN
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    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/20/politics/joe-biden-united-nations-donald-trump/index.html

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    Watters: Biden might care if illegal immigrants were amassing in Delaware instead of Del Rio – Fox News
    Watters: Biden might care if illegal immigrants were amassing in Delaware instead of Del Rio – Fox News
    Video

    Biden criticized for vacationing while border spins out of control

    DHS chief Mayorkas warns illegal migrants not to come to US; ‘The Five’ reacts

    President Biden’s perceived nonchalance as he was photographed going for a leisurely bike ride in the Delaware shore town of Rehoboth Beach while illegal immigrants and asylum seekers flood across the Rio Grande into Del Rio, Texas, might have been notably different if the crisis were occurring closer to home, “The Five” discussed on Monday.

    With the crisis’ epicenter thousands of miles away from the First State, host Jesse Watters claimed the president would be acting more urgently if it were his home city of Wilmington being flooded with unvetted and unvaccinated foreign nationals.

    “Joe Biden was supposed to get a hold on this stuff and it’s exploded under his watch. Imagine we did this to Delaware. Right?” he said, remarking that Biden would act more decisively if thousands of migrants flocked to popular beach towns like Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach, Lewes or Fenwick Island.

    Video

    “Imagine we shipped thousands and thousands of migrants into Delaware and they’re fishing on the bay or they’re riding Amtrak, packed in unvaxxed, with little English and no skills,” he said, alluding to Biden’s lifelong advocacy and patronizing of the rail service.

    “Where are they going to live? In tents? Are they going to live on the beach? Are we going to put them in starter homes? You’ll have to double every classroom size of every public school district. You’re going to have to raise taxes to pay for the social services,” he said.

    Delaware is one of a few states that notably has no sales tax, among other economic incentives.

    HANNITY: BIDEN NEEDS TO END REHOBOTH BEACH VACATION AMID MOUNTING CRISES

    Watters posited that a migrant crisis in places like New Castle, Newark or Dover could cause a decline in public services and a cut in wages for the local workers:

    “They’re going to need health care, housing, welfare. This is what they’re doing. They’re going to steal jobs, lower wages and in a generation they’re going to have political power because their families will be able to vote,” Watters said of the migrants.

    “That will change the entire direction of Delaware. Do Delawareans want that? Why is Joe doing that to Texas?”

    CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    He went on to note the bipartisan calls in Texas for some substantive assistance from Biden’s administration.

    “[They] are saying slow it down, Joe [and] he sits in his beach house obsessed over masks to slap on 2nd Graders,” he said.

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/media/watters-biden-illegal-immigrants-delaware-del-rio

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    Arches park ranger warned Gabby Petito her relationship seemed ‘toxic’ – Deseret News
    Arches park ranger warned Gabby Petito her relationship seemed ‘toxic’ – Deseret News

    Melissa Hulls can still hear Gabby Petito’s voice.

    On Aug. 12, the visitor and resource protection supervisor at Arches National Park, heard a call come over her radio of a possible domestic assault, stemming from an argument in Moab between Petito and her fiance, Brian Laundrie.

    Hulls arrived to find the couple pulled over by a Moab police officer inside the park. Knowing that in a domestic violence situation the female usually feels more comfortable talking with another female, she focused on Petito, who at that point was sitting in the back of a police cruiser.

    “I can still hear her voice,” Hulls said in an exclusive interview with the Deseret News. “She wasn’t just a face on the milk carton, she was real to me.”

    Hulls pictures the sobbing 22-year-old sitting in the back of the cruiser. She knows her mannerisms, just from the roughly hour-and-a half interaction.

    “I was probably more candid with her than I should’ve been,” Hulls recalls, warning Petito that her and Laundrie’s relationship had the markings of a “toxic” one.

    “I was imploring with her to reevaluate the relationship, asking her if she was happy in the relationship with him, and basically saying this was an opportunity for her to find another path, to make a change in her life,” she said.

    “She had a lot of anxiety about being away from him, I honestly thought if anything was going to change it would be after they got home to Florida.”

    In the end, Petito stayed with Laundrie.

    “This wasn’t a good day for anybody. We thought we were making the right decision when we left them.”

    And on Sunday, when she heard the news that the FBI recovered a body in Wyoming “consistent with the description of Gabby Petito,” the law enforcement ranger of 17 years tilted her head back and let out a sigh of someone all too familiar with a body recovery effort.

    “I honestly haven’t looked at my body camera footage for that night. It’s hard to think about now because I feel like I could’ve said more to help her,” she said. “It’s hard not to second-guess myself, and wish I said more, or wish I had found the right words to make her believe that she deserved more.”

    ‘Where is Gabby?’

    It’s a video that millions of Americans watched. Gabby Petito, sitting in the passenger seat of her van crying uncontrollably as she and Laundrie are approached by a Moab police officer.

    Petito apologizes multiple times. Laundrie, soft-spoken, nervous and also apologetic, sits in the driver’s seat as he takes the keys out of the ignition and proceeds to explain why the van hit the curb.

    “He really stresses me out. This is a rough morning,” Petito tells officers.

    “I don’t know, it’s just some days I have really bad OCD and I was just cleaning and straightening up and I was apologizing to him,” she says as the officer walks her away from the van, sitting her down on the curb before helping her into the air-conditioned cruiser.

    “I’m sorry that I’m so mean.”

    Petito then details a fight between her and Laundrie earlier that afternoon, where she says her fiance tried to lock her out of the car, telling her she “needed to calm down.”

    Their stories line up, with Laundrie telling officers, “I said, ‘Let’s just take a breather and let’s not go anywhere. Let’s just calm down for a minute.’” He then tells police that the several scratches on his face were from Petito hitting him as she tried to get back into the van.

    A striking image soon emerges — a sobbing Petito, surrounded by male officers. Then Hulls arrives.

    After consoling Petito, Hulls discusses what to do with her colleagues.

    They had several options. With the facts suggesting Petito was the aggressor, they could’ve taken her to jail. But Hulls said the situation appeared to be more of a mental health crisis than a case of domestic violence.

    What Petito did to Laundrie “was emotional,” Hulls said. “She shouldn’t have done it, but it wasn’t done maliciously.”

    “I wouldn’t have called (the relationship) unsafe. If we had any reason to think any one of them was in danger, we would’ve separated them,” she said.

    On Monday, audio of the 911 call was released, giving new insight into what led up to Hulls’ interaction with Petito.

    “A gentleman was slapping the girl,” the caller tells dispatchers. “They ran up and down the sidewalk. He proceeded to hit her, hopped in the car, and they drove off.”

    Hulls detailed the complexing, difficult — and often scrutinized — relationship between law enforcement and domestic violence situations. Sometimes the choice is clear, and knowing the victim is in imminent danger can make the responding officer’s job easier. But it’s not always black and white.

    “Sometimes you get evidence and they don’t own up to it, and they’re just lying to your face and it’s unsafe, and you know that something more is going to happen if you let them go home together. That’s a much easier decision to arrest,” she said. “With this one, I just don’t think she understood how big a deal this was.”

    So they separated the couple. Petito took the van, Laundrie was taken to a hotel, and a few days later, they were back on the road, headed north to Salt Lake City.

    Their social media presence resumed, showing every indication of a happy couple in love and living out the coveted van life. They stopped in Ogden, where Petito is pictured in front of a butterfly mural, the last thing posted to her Instagram account.

    A few days later, Petito texted her mom before the couple reportedly went camping in Wyoming. It was the last time they heard from their daughter. A week later, she was reported missing.

    On Sunday the story took a heartbreaking turn when investigators made the grim announcement from Grand Teton National Park.

    The case is still under investigation — what exactly happened to Petito and the role Laundrie played has yet to be announced. But according to the thousands, maybe millions, following the story, Laundrie is guilty.

    “Where is Gabby?” became a rallying cry, repeated ad nauseam in the thousands of comments under Laundrie’s still active Instagram account.

    Moab is pictured at dusk on Friday, Sept. 17, 2021.
    Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

    When the news broke of the incident outside Arches, Moab quickly became a focal point. Screengrabs from the body camera footage, with Utah’s iconic red rocks in the background, became the main image used by national media.

    Even now, weeks after the incident, the case is still casually mentioned all over Moab — spend a few hours at a coffee shop, bar, even the Arches National Park visitors center, and you’re bound to overhear Petito’s name.

    Sometimes they’re expressing grief. Sometimes they’re speculating on what happened. And sometimes they’re criticizing the response from Moab police.

    Why was Petito treated as the aggressor? Why was Laundrie, who towered over his fiance, treated as a victim? And why didn’t they notice, as some on Twitter suggested, the signs of a controlling and manipulative relationship?

    Hindsight is 2020, Hulls said of the criticism, noting that “it’s easy to say that when you can break down a video, minute by minute, and judge it, versus being in the moment where we saw minor injuries and two people that were apologetic.”

    “It’s not that we didn’t think he was manipulative, but we have to worry about the safety, and not the psychology of it,” she said. “We have to go by the facts that we were faced with at the time, and not let our emotions drive the decision.”

    And while Hulls doesn’t fault the actions taken by her colleagues that day, she admits it can be hard not to fixate on what else she could have said to Petito.

    “It’s hard not to think that I could’ve done something more, or found the exact words to make her change her life right then,” she said. “There are so many circumstances where you wish it had gone a certain way, and if you get stuck with the ‘would have, could have, should have,’ you can’t do this job. You got to learn from it and keep going, otherwise you’re not going to be help for the next Gabby.”

    National Park Service ranger Melissa Hulls, the visitor and resource protection supervisor for Arches National Park, listens to a call on her radio outside of the park’s visitors center on Sunday, Sept. 19, 2021.
    Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

    Source Article from https://www.deseret.com/utah/2021/9/20/22684359/i-can-still-hear-her-voice-arches-park-ranger-warned-gabby-petito-relationship-seemed-toxic-brian

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    Homeland Security Investigating After Images of Haitian Migrants at Border – The New York Times
    Homeland Security Investigating After Images of Haitian Migrants at Border – The New York Times

    Images and video of U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback grabbing and chasing down Haitian migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border have prompted the Department of Homeland Security to launch an investigation into the matter, the agency said on Twitter.

    On Monday, D.H.S. said in a tweet that it has reviewed footage emerging from the border and takes the allegations of abuse against migrants “very seriously.”

    “The footage is extremely troubling, and the facts learned from the full investigation, which will be conducted swiftly, will define the appropriate disciplinary actions to be taken,” D.H.S. said.

    The Office of Professional Responsibility will lead the probe, and it will also deploy personnel to the border, where thousands of Haitians have poured into the town of Del Rio, Texas, in recent days, living in a temporary camp and hoping to seek asylum in the United States.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/us/politics/haiti-migrants-border-investigation.html

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    Justin Trudeau will form next government, Canadian news outlets project – CNN
    Justin Trudeau will form next government, Canadian news outlets project – CNN

    By Affan Chowdhry and Paula Newton, CNN

    Updated 11:45 PM ET, Mon September 20, 2021

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/20/americas/canada-election-results-trudeau-o-toole-intl/index.html

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    Dems ready an immigration reform backup plan despite long odds – POLITICO
    Dems ready an immigration reform backup plan despite long odds – POLITICO

    “While I understand the passion and I understand the sentiment behind it, I think it’s not necessarily constructive at this point,” Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) told reporters Monday. He reiterated that Democrats will present alternatives with the hope of achieving a ”positive result.”

    Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus were similarly quick to pivot to next steps when they returned to Washington on Monday, less than 24 hours after the Senate referee’s verdict. While they offered few details about how they’d tweak their strategy, those Democrats insisted they could find a way to steer immigration past the Senate’s byzantine rules.

    Privately, though, Democrats acknowledge that the parliamentarian has likely closed their path to expanding legal status without GOP votes in their $3.5 trillion social spending plan.

    The parliamentarian’s ruling is the latest thorn in Democrats’ sides as they seek to push top progressive priorities into law through the so-called budget reconciliation process, which allows them to sidestep a Senate GOP filibuster. Many in Biden’s party viewed the reconciliation package as their best chance to deliver on their promise to enact immigration reform this Congress, after years of stalled bipartisan talks.

    Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Monday that Democrats “have a Plan B, C and D” and that they’d be meeting with the parliamentarian again soon. Asked whether he’d support trying to overrule her if Democrats’ back-up plans are rejected, Durbin replied: “I don’t think that’s realistic.”

    One alternate policy that Democrats and advocates are floating is narrowing their horizons on immigration by making a simple change to a decades-old “registry” law, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions. That law allows immigrants to apply for a green card if they arrived in the U.S. before a certain year, and that date was last altered in 1986 to let undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. before 1972 apply for legal status.

    Some Democrats say simply updating that law with a more recent year, greatly increasing the number of immigrants eligible to apply for legal status, could pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian.

    “The registry is one possibility,” said Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), noting that the law hasn’t been updated since the Reagan era. “We’re looking at all different alternatives. We’re not giving up.”

    Menendez confimed his interest in that approach: “We’re not changing the law which was the essence of her arguments that I read in her opinion,” he said. “We are just updating a date.”

    Including some kind of immigration reform in the party’s social spending package is a major priority for both the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the far bigger Congressional Progressive Caucus. That roughly 100-member bloc in the House has outlined immigration as one of five priorities that must be in their package to win support on the left.

    In the House, at least two Latino Democrats have vowed to oppose the entire package if immigration reform isn’t included. Still, other lawmakers and aides speculated that those Democrats would be forced to soften their threat if the parliamentarian fully rejects the strategy.

    One of those Democrats, Rep. Chuy Garcia, reiterated Monday that “immigration reform needs to be a part of reconciliation.”

    The Illinois Democrat also suggested that there could be another option — overruling the parliamentarian, something that Senate Democrats have little appetite for.

    “We’d like to exhaust all the avenues before we get to something like that. But we should remember her role is to interpret rules. In the past, the body has overridden the parliamentarian’s recommendations,” Garcia said.

    Democrats had argued to the parliamentarian that the budgetary effect of providing permanent legal status to Dreamers, farmworkers, essential workers during the pandemic and those with Temporary Protected Status would be significant enough to include in reconciliation because more people would become eligible for federal benefits. But the parliamentarian concluded that their proposal is “a broad, new immigration policy,” ushering in a societal change that “substantially outweighs the budgetary impact.”

    The parliamentarian’s Sunday decision is also likely to renew calls from the left for the Senate to scrap the legislative filibuster, which Senate Democrats don’t currently have the votes to do.

    “We anticipated that this would be very difficult,” said Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas).

    Asked if there would be calls within the Hispanic Caucus to override the Senate rule official, Escobar said that “we’re not there yet.”

    Senate Republicans, meanwhile, praised the parliamentarian. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is part of a bipartisan working group focused on immigration reform, said Sunday’s decision “dismisses the notion that either party could go it alone” and could motivate Republicans and Democrats to return to the negotiating table on the topic.

    The bipartisan working group has met several times, including earlier this summer, but there’s so far little evidence of progress. Senate Republicans have said that they don’t want to address a pathway to citizenship without changes to Biden’s border policy.

    When asked whether bipartisan immigration reform was possible this Congress, Tillis offered a wry dose of reality.

    “Sure,” he said. “Every bit as the last 20.”

    Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/20/dems-immigration-plan-513206

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    Washington gridlock and a debt ceiling showdown are weighing on the market – CNBC
    Washington gridlock and a debt ceiling showdown are weighing on the market – CNBC

    “Default could trigger a spike in interest rates, a steep drop in stock prices and other financial turmoil,” she added. “Our current economic recovery would reverse into recession, with billions of dollars of growth and millions of jobs lost.”

    Even if lawmakers ultimately avoid a technical default, a lengthy last-minute fight over the debt limit could lead to another downgrade of the U.S. debt rating, akin to what happened in 2011. The mere specter of default led Standard & Poor to downgrade U.S. sovereign credit, which in turned whacked demand for Treasurys and pushed yields up.

    But investors fears aren’t exclusive to the borrowing limit.

    Instead, the added angst over the debt ceiling adds to growing fears about the delta variant of Covid-19, pesky inflation and the end of easy Federal Reserve policies, according to Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities.

    Hogan explained that markets are keeping a close eye on the bipartisan effort to pass $1 trillion in infrastructure spending and Democrats’ effort to add on another $3.5 trillion to revolutionize the country’s social safety net.

    But, he said, it’s not necessarily surprising to see the $3.5 trillion bill curtailed as it makes its way through Congress.

    “It feels like consensus is that we will get some but not all of the spending proposals passed,” Hogan wrote in an email. It’s likely we see some “increased taxes but certainly not in an order of magnitude that is currently being discussed.”

    September is often a choppy month for markets, Hogan added, and 2021 is proving no exception.

    “When we think about things that are driving markets, it certainly feels like we have turned from complacent to concerned about a plethora of potential headwinds,” he wrote. “None of the concerns that market participants have in the here and now are necessarily new, but are being viewed through the lens of what historically has been a rough month for markets in general, as such they seem to be hitting a crescendo.”

    The Dow and S&P 500 have each lost more than 3.5% in September.

    Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/20/washington-gridlock-and-a-debt-ceiling-showdown-are-weighing-on-the-market.html

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    A Texas Doctor Says He Broke Texas’ Abortion Ban. Now He’s Being Sued – NPR
    A Texas Doctor Says He Broke Texas’ Abortion Ban. Now He’s Being Sued – NPR

    Demonstrators in Austin protest on Sept. 1 against the Texas law that blocks abortions about six weeks into gestation.

    Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP


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    Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP

    Demonstrators in Austin protest on Sept. 1 against the Texas law that blocks abortions about six weeks into gestation.

    Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP

    DALLAS — A San Antonio doctor who said he performed an abortion in defiance of a new Texas law has been sued by two people seeking to test the legality of the state’s near-total ban on the procedure.

    Former attorneys in Arkansas and Illinois filed lawsuits Monday against Dr. Alan Braid, who in a weekend Washington Post opinion column became the first Texas abortion provider to publicly reveal he violated the law that took effect on Sept. 1.

    Under the law, the restriction can only be enforced through private lawsuits.

    Oscar Stilley, who described himself as a former lawyer who lost his law license after being convicted of tax fraud in 2010, said he is not opposed to abortion but sued to force a court review of Texas’ anti-abortion law, which he called an “end-run.”

    “I don’t want doctors out there nervous and sitting there and quaking in their boots and saying, ‘I can’t do this because if this thing works out, then I’m going to be bankrupt,'” Stilley, of Cedarville, Arkansas, told The Associated Press.

    Felipe N. Gomez, of Chicago, asked a court in San Antonio in his lawsuit to declare the new law unconstitutional. In his view, the law is a form of government overreach. He said his lawsuit is a way to hold the Republicans who run Texas accountable, adding that their lax response to public health during the COVID-19 pandemic conflicts with their crack down on abortion rights.

    “If Republicans are going to say nobody can tell you to get a shot they shouldn’t tell women what to do with their bodies either,” Gomez said. “I think they should be consistent.”

    Gomez said he wasn’t aware he could claim up to $10,000 in damages if he won his lawsuit. If he received money, Gomez said, he would likely donate it to an abortion rights group or to the patients of the doctor he sued.

    How the law works

    The law prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, which is usually around six weeks and before some women even know they are pregnant. Prosecutors cannot take criminal action against Braid, because the law explicitly forbids that. The only way the ban can be enforced is through lawsuits brought by private citizens, who are entitled to claim at least $10,000 in damages if successful.

    Legal experts say Braid’s admission is likely to set up another test of whether the law can stand after the Supreme Court allowed it to take effect.

    “Being sued puts him in a position … that he will be able to defend the action against him by saying the law is unconstitutional,” said Carol Sanger, a law professor at Columbia University in New York City.

    Why the doctor said he defied the law

    Braid wrote that on Sept. 6, he provided an abortion to a woman who was still in her first trimester but beyond the state’s new limit.

    “I fully understood that there could be legal consequences — but I wanted to make sure that Texas didn’t get away with its bid to prevent this blatantly unconstitutional law from being tested,” Braid wrote.

    Two federal lawsuits are making their way through the courts over the law, known as Senate Bill 8. In one, filed by abortion providers and others, the Supreme Court declined to block the law from taking effect while the case makes its way through the legal system. It’s still proceeding in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In the second case, the Justice Department is asking a federal judge to declare the law invalid, arguing it was enacted “in open defiance of the Constitution.”

    The Center for Reproductive Rights, one of the plaintiffs in the first federal lawsuit, is representing Braid.

    Nancy Northup, the center’s president and CEO, said they “stand ready to defend him against the vigilante lawsuits that S.B. 8 threatens to unleash against those providing or supporting access to constitutionally protected abortion care.”

    Braid could not immediately be reached for comment Monday. His clinic referred interview inquiries to the center.

    Abortion rights opponents were on standby to sue

    Texas Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group, said it had attorneys ready to bring lawsuits, and launched a website to receive tips about suspected violations, though it is currently redirecting to the group’s homepage. A spokeswoman for the group has noted that the website is mostly symbolic because anyone can report a violation and because abortion providers appeared to be complying with the law.

    The governor’s office did not immediately return a message seeking comment Monday.

    Joanna Grossman, a law professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said that if a lawsuit is filed against Braid and it reaches the Texas Supreme Court, that court could decide whether the Legislature exceeded its power by allowing anyone to sue.

    “The Texas Supreme Court will have the opportunity/obligation to say whether this approach — which would not be limited to abortion — is an acceptable way for the Legislature to pursue its goals,” Grossman said.

    Seth Chandler, a law professor at the University of Houston, said anyone suing would “have to persuade a Texas court that they have standing” despite not having personally suffered monetary or property damages.

    “The only thing that might have happened is that they’re offended by the fact that the abortion has been performed,” he said. “But there are a lot of Supreme Court decisions saying that merely being offended is not a basis for a lawsuit, and there are Texas Supreme Court decisions saying we follow federal law on what’s called standing.”

    The doctor said his life experiences led him to defy the law

    Braid said in the Post column that he started his obstetrics and gynecology residency at a San Antonio hospital on July 1, 1972, when abortion was “effectively illegal in Texas.” That year, he saw three teens die from illegal abortions, he wrote.

    In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade ruling, which established a nationwide right to abortion at any point before a fetus can survive outside the womb, generally around 24 weeks.

    “I have daughters, granddaughters and nieces,” Braid wrote. “I believe abortion is an essential part of health care. I have spent the past 50 years treating and helping patients. I can’t just sit back and watch us return to 1972.”

    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/09/20/1039122713/doctor-texas-abortion-sued

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    Biden will drop travel ban for Europeans who are vaccinated – New York Post
    Biden will drop travel ban for Europeans who are vaccinated – New York Post

    The White House on Monday said President Biden will allow vaccinated Europeans to enter the US in early November — ending a nearly two-year travel ban.

    The policy will allow vaccinated travelers to enter the US from the 26-country Schengen Zone and from other countries that were early COVID-19 hotspots, including Brazil, China, Iran, Ireland, South Africa and the UK.

    The ban on European travelers was a particular diplomatic sore point because infection rates in Europe are far lower than in the US. And most European countries already reopened to US visitors.

    “We have developed a new international air travel system that both enhances the safety of Americans here at home and enhances the safety of international air travel,” said White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients.

    The ban, initially put into place by President Donald Trump, was enacted to stop the spread of COVID-19 to the US from hotspots in Europe.
    Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images

    “Most importantly, foreign nationals flying to the U.S. will be required to be fully vaccinated.”

    White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said there’s no link between the timing and Biden’s Monday evening trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. She said it was a coincidence that an “interagency” review concluded at the same time.

    Biden’s UN visit comes amid outrage from America’s oldest ally, France, over Biden’s decision to exclude France from a new security pact with the UK and Australia — and shortly after last month’s chaotic pullout from Afghanistan, which left US allies scrambling to evacuate their citizens.

    Psaki said it’s not yet clear which vaccines would qualify a foreign citizen for entry. The US has only three approved vaccines and doesn’t use the AstraZeneca vaccine that’s also common in Europe, or vaccines produced by China and Russia.

    The decision to end the ban comes following the European Union removing the US from its “safe list” of places with low COVID-19 rates.
    PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images

    US citizens — as well as foreigners — will still have to present a negative COVID-19 test before boarding a flight. And all passengers will now have to give contact-tracing information to airlines.

    The relaxed US entry standards come after the European Union last month took the US off its “safe list” of countries as the Delta variant of COVID-19 fueled a US case surge — resulting in a tightening of travel restrictions on Americans.

    The EU and UK had previously moved to allow vaccinated US travelers into their territories without quarantines, in an effort to boost business and tourism travel. 

    Zients said there would be no immediate changes to the US land border policies, which continue to restrict much cross-border travel with Mexico and Canada.

    Britain welcomed the US announcement that it is lifting quarantine requirements for vaccinated international travelers.

    Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that he was “delighted” by the news. He said: “It’s a fantastic boost for business and trade, and great that family and friends on both sides of the pond can be reunited once again.”

    Foreign Secretary Liz Truss tweeted that the move was “excellent news for travelers from the UK to the US. Important for our economic recovery, families and trade.”

    Britain scrapped quarantines for fully vaccinated travelers from the US and the European Union in early August, and has been pushing for Washington to ease its rules. But Johnson said Sunday he did not expect the change to come this week.

    Airlines hailed the US decision as a lifeline for the struggling industry. Tim Alderslade, chief executive of industry body Airlines U.K., said it was “a major breakthrough.”

    Shai Weiss, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, said it was “a major milestone to the reopening of travel at scale, allowing consumers and businesses to book travel to the U.S. with confidence.”

    “The U.K. will now be able to strengthen ties with our most important economic partner, the U.S., boosting trade and tourism as well as reuniting friends, families and business colleagues,” Weiss said.

    The new air travel policy will take effect in “early November,” Zients said, to allow airlines and travel partners time to prepare to implement the new protocols.

    With Associated Press

    Source Article from https://nypost.com/2021/09/20/joe-biden-to-end-covid-19-european-travel-ban-in-november/

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    White House says it’s seeking more information on ‘horrific’ footage of Border Patrol agents confronting Haitian immigrants – CNN
    White House says it’s seeking more information on ‘horrific’ footage of Border Patrol agents confronting Haitian immigrants – CNN

    By Jason Hoffman, Priscilla Alvarez, Geneva Sands and Paul LeBlanc, CNN

    Updated 8:29 PM ET, Mon September 20, 2021

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/20/politics/border-patrol-haitian-immigrants-viral-video/index.html

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    Mitch McConnell says the GOP will vote for US to default on its debt – Business Insider
    Mitch McConnell says the GOP will vote for US to default on its debt – Business Insider
    • Pelosi and Schumer said they would attach a debt-ceiling suspension to the government-funding bill.
    • McConnell quickly struck down the idea, saying the GOP would not vote for the legislation.
    • They effectively dared him to vote for the US to default on its debt, and he met their dare.

    As the White House stressed the urgency of raising the debt ceiling to avoid a government default, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday that the House would pass legislation to fund the government that includes a debt-limit suspension through the end of next year.

    It was a dare to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who would need to lend ten Republican votes for it to avert the filibuster and clear the Senate. The Kentucky Republican was unfazed.

    “We will not support legislation that raises the debt limit,” McConnell said after Pelosi and Schumer’s announcement. “Democrats do not need our help.”

    Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress earlier this month that the government’s money would likely run out in October because of financial uncertainty caused by the pandemic.

    Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement on Monday that the House would pass legislation before October to fund the government through the end of the year and tack on a debt-ceiling suspension through December “to once again meet our obligations and protect the full faith and credit of the United States.”

    “Addressing the debt limit is about meeting obligations the government has already made, like the bipartisan emergency COVID relief legislation from December as well as vital payments to Social Security recipients and our veterans,” the lawmakers wrote. “Furthermore, as the Administration warned last week, a reckless Republican-forced default could plunge the country into a

    recession
    .”

    Republican lawmakers have said they won’t get involved with raising the debt limit and want Democrats to go at it alone, citing their “irresponsible spending” on a $3.5 trillion social-spending bill. Yet renewing the nation’s ability to borrow and pay its bills — known as the debt ceiling — also deals with covering spending obligations that Congress already approved.

    Democrats are assailing what they view as Republican hypocrisy, noting the national debt grew nearly $8 trillion under President Donald Trump — chiefly on the back of GOP tax cuts and bipartisan emergency spending packages during the pandemic. Republicans supported raising the debt ceiling three times during the Trump administration.

    By tacking on the debt ceiling to the government-funding legislation, Pelosi and Schumer are daring the GOP to vote for a default. “The American people expect our Republican colleagues to live up to their responsibilities and make good on the debts they proudly helped incur in the December 2020 ‘908’ COVID package that helped American families and small businesses reeling from the COVID crisis,” Pelosi and Schumer wrote, referring to the December stimulus package passed under President Donald Trump.

    On Sunday, Pelosi wrote in a letter that every time the debt limit has needed to be raised, “Congress has addressed it in a bipartisan basis.” On the same day, Yellen urged Congress to come together to raise the limit, citing the “economic catastrophe” that could result with the failure to do so. 

    A large majority of Senate Republicans are retrenching and following McConnell’s lead, saying they’ll cast a vote against the measure. They’re also insisting that Democrats can employ reconciliation, the same party-line process that’s being used to muscle through a $3.5 trillion social spending package.

    “[Democrats] got the votes to keep us from defaulting, let’s see what they do,” Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the ranking member in the Appropriations Committee, told Insider.

    Shelby was among a handful of GOP senators who didn’t sign onto a pledge in August to oppose lifting the debt ceiling. That roster included Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who was pressed by reporters on whether she supported raising the borrowing cap. “I’m not answering that,” she said.

    Source Article from https://www.businessinsider.com/mcconnell-vote-default-debt-ceiling-government-funding-shutdown-pelosi-schumer-2021-9

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    Alan Braid, Texas abortion doctor, sued over ban – The Washington Post
    Alan Braid, Texas abortion doctor, sued over ban – The Washington Post

    “S.B. 8 says that ‘any person’ can sue over a violation, and we are starting to see that happen, including by out-of-state claimants,” Marc Hearron, the group’s senior counsel, said in a statement.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-doctor-sued/2021/09/20/f5ab5c56-1a1c-11ec-bcb8-0cb135811007_story.html

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    U.S. to Lift Travel Ban on Vaccinated Visitors – The New York Times
    U.S. to Lift Travel Ban on Vaccinated Visitors – The New York Times

    With Pfizer-BioNTech’s announcement on Monday that its Covid-19 vaccine had been shown to be safe and effective in low doses in children ages 5 to 11, a major question looms: How many parents will have it given to their children?

    If authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, the vaccine could be a game changer for millions of American families with young children and could help bolster the country’s response as the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus spreads. There are about 28 million children ages 5 to 11 in the United States, far more than the 17 million adolescents ages 12 to 15 who became eligible when the Pfizer vaccine rolled out to that age group in May.

    But it remains to be seen how widely the vaccine will be accepted for the younger group. Uptake among older children has lagged, and polling indicates reservations among a significant chunk of parents.

    Lorena Tule-Romain was up early Monday morning, getting ready to ferry her 7-year-old son to school in Dallas, when she turned on the television and heard the news.

    “I was like, ‘oh my gosh, this is exciting,’” said Ms. Tule-Romain, 32, who felt an initial surge of hopefulness and relief. She has spent months living in limbo, declining birthday party invitations, holding off registering her son for orchestra in school and even canceling a recent trip to see her son’s grandparents in Atlanta.

    Ms. Tule-Romain will be among those eagerly waiting to learn whether federal officials authorize the vaccine for the younger age group, a step that is expected to come first on an emergency-use basis, perhaps as soon as around Halloween.

    However the F.D.A. rules, Michelle Goebel, 36, of Carlsbad, Calif., said she is nowhere near ready to vaccinate her children, who are 8, 6 and 3, against Covid-19.

    Though Ms. Goebel said she had been vaccinated herself, she expressed worry about the risks for her children, in part because of the relatively small size of trials in children and the lack of long-term safety data so far. She said the potential risk from a new vaccine seemed to her to outweigh the benefit, because young children have been far less likely to become seriously sick from the virus than adults.

    Only about 40 percent of children ages 12 to 15 have been fully vaccinated so far, compared with 66 percent of adults 18 and over, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Polling indicates that parental openness to the vaccine for their children decreases with the child’s age.

    If authorized by the F.D.A., the vaccine could be a game changer for millions of American families with young children.Credit…Allison Zaucha for The New York Times

    About 20 percent of parents of 12- to 17-year-olds said they definitely did not plan to get their child vaccinated, according to polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation published last month. The “definitely not” group grew to about 25 percent in parents of children ages 5 to 11, and 30 percent among parents of children under 5.

    René LaBerge, 53, of Katy, Texas, greeted the Pfizer news with cautious optimism.

    “I’m hopeful,” said Ms. LaBerge, who plans to vaccinate her 11-year-old son when he becomes eligible. “But I’m not impatient. I want them to do the work.”

    She said she had heard about some rare, but serious, side effects in children, and she was eager for federal officials to thoroughly review the data before she makes her decision.

    “I don’t want my son to take something that is unsafe,” she said, but she added, “I believe Covid is dangerous. There aren’t any good easy answers here.”

    Among the side effects scientists have been studying is myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart. In rare cases, the vaccine has led to myocarditis in young people. But a large Israeli study, based on electronic health records of two million people aged 16 and older, also found that Covid is far more likely to cause these heart problems.

    The Pfizer trial results were greeted enthusiastically by many school administrators and teachers’ organizations, but are unlikely to lead to immediate policy changes.

    “This is one huge step toward beating Covid and returning to normalcy. I don’t think it changes the conversation around vaccine requirements for kids,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a national union.

    Ms. Weingarten predicted that there would not be widespread student vaccine mandates until the 2022-2023 school year. She noted that parents and educators were still awaiting full F.D.A. approval of vaccines for children aged 12 to 15, and that mandates for adults did not come until months after the shots first became available.

    A significant barrier to child vaccination, she said, were widespread conspiracy theories about the shots impacting fertility.

    “When people have these conversations prematurely about requirements, it adds to the distrust,” she said.

    Only a single large school district — Los Angeles Unified — has mandated vaccination for those students already eligible for a shot, those 12 and older. On Monday, the district said it was not ready to respond to news about the Pfizer trial results for children under 12.

    Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City said Monday that the promising results from Pfizer did not change his conviction that student vaccine mandates are the wrong approach. Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago said last month that student mandates would be “premature.”

    Historically, it is states, not individual school systems, that determine which vaccines are necessary for school attendance. All 50 states currently mandate vaccination against diseases such as polio, measles and chickenpox.

    Given the entrenched politicization of the coronavirus vaccine — with Republican parents much less likely to support vaccination — and the existence of widespread misinformation about the shots, many school leaders are hesitant to step out in front of the issue, and are likely to await guidance from their states on how to handle student vaccination.

    No state has mandated that children or adolescents be vaccinated against the coronavirus, and five states are currently banning such mandates, according to the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/us/politics/us-travel-ban.html

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    Democrats will put a debt limit suspension in bill that aims to prevent a government shutdown – CNBC
    Democrats will put a debt limit suspension in bill that aims to prevent a government shutdown – CNBC

    Democratic congressional leaders on Monday said they will try to pass a bill that both prevents a government shutdown and suspends the U.S. debt limit as they try to dodge two possible crises in one swoop.

    Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to fund the federal government. Separately, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has told lawmakers that the U.S. will likely not be able to pay its bills sometime in October if Congress does not suspend or raise the debt ceiling.

    The House plans to vote this week on legislation that addresses both issues. The bill would fund the government through December and suspend the debt ceiling through the end of 2022, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a joint statement.

    The bill’s fate is uncertain. Republicans have said they will not join Democrats in voting to suspend the debt ceiling, raising the prospect of a default that could devastate the global economy.

    Pelosi and Schumer on Monday said the GOP has an obligation to address the debt limit because the party helped to pass sprawling coronavirus aid plans last year.

    “Addressing the debt limit is about meeting obligations the government has already made, like the bipartisan emergency COVID relief legislation from December as well as vital payments to Social Security recipients and our veterans,” they said, adding that a default “could plunge the country into a recession.”

    Democrats also noted that the funding bill will include relief money for a recent string of natural disasters — which could make it more appealing to GOP lawmakers who represent states hit by storms. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told NBC News he is inclined to back a funding bill that includes a debt ceiling suspension because it would include “critical” relief funding for his state, which was recently battered by Hurricane Ida.

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has tried to force Democrats to suspend the debt ceiling as part of their up to $3.5 trillion bill to invest in the social safety net and climate policy. He did not back down from his position on Monday.

    “They have every tool to address the debt limit on their own,” he said.

    McConnell said his party would vote for a short-term government funding bill that does not include a debt limit suspension.

    Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

    Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/20/government-shutdown-democrats-to-put-debt-limit-suspension-in-funding-bill.html

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    Gabby Petito investigation: North Port police search warrant provides new details – WFLA
    Gabby Petito investigation: North Port police search warrant provides new details – WFLA

    TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A publicized North Port Police Department search warrant from Sept. 15 gives new details about the timeline of events surrounding the missing persons case of Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old woman not seen since the end of August.

    The search warrant was signed to allow detectives from the North Port Police Department to examine an external hard drive currently located at the North Port Police Department’s evidence locker. On Sept. 17, Brian Laundrie, Petito’s fiancé, was reported missing and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation removed items from the home to help search for him.

    In the warrant, police were given authority to search “any and all external storage device(s), commercial software and hardware, computer disks, disk drives, tape drives, disk application programs, data disks, system disk operating systems, electronic mail, system storage devices, tape systems and hard drive and other computer-related operation equipment, in addition to computer photographs, graphic interchange formats and/or photographs, or other visual depictions.”

    Additionally, the warrant gives police access to any digital documents, notes, passwords, encryptions or data security devices which might keep them from accessing the hardware, software, or data on the devices, as well as all data and files associated with the external device.

    This includes data files, password-protected files, images, texts, files that show emails, text messages, and internet browsing history as well as computer files showing who owned, possessed or used the computers, and storage devices to include but not limited to email associated files.

    The warrant said that there was probable cause for issuance as a result of the item potentially containing evidence that a felony had been committed. In the affidavit submitted by North Port detectives, a timeline of Petito and Laundrie’s trip and the video journey they had taken together across social media platforms were detailed.

    The timeline written by detectives for the search warrant covers a series of messages between Petito and her family, including “odd” messages to her mother received on Aug. 27, and a report that the van was detected by a license plate reader on the Sumter Boulevard exit of I-75. The timeline states that “a white Ford Transit, bearing Florida tag QFTG03…entered the City of North Port” on Sept. 1 at 10:26 a.m.

    Petito was officially declared a missing person by Suffolk County Police in New York on Sept. 11, following reports from Moab City Police after a domestic issue between Petito and Laundrie while in Moab, Utah. That incident occurred on Aug. 12.

    The reports from Moab Police remarked on concerns about Petito’s and Laundrie’s mental health at the time, particularly Petito’s. Body camera footage released during the search for Petito showed a high level of anxiety, noted in the report by Moab Police.

    Those concerns prompted Suffolk County PD to note that based on the Moab Police report, Petito appeared “endangered, due to mental health concerns.”

    The timeline also stated that due to the circumstances related to Petito’s mental health, North Port Police believe there is probable cause that she is not able to care for herself due to “her increased anxiety” and concerns for her welfare had increased to an “exigent level.”

    Petito’s cellphone was turned off for about 15 days, and was last on around Aug. 31 or Sept. 1. Petito had not been seen since Aug. 27.

    According to the search warrant timeline, Petito’s mother, Nichole Schmidt, had received a text message from her on Aug. 27, that read “Can you help Stan, I just keep getting his voicemeails and missed calls.” Stan is reportedly Petito’s grandfather. According to Schmidt, Petito never calls him Stan, and the strange message made her “concerned that someone was wrong with her daughter,” according to the warrant. It was the last message that Schmidt got from her daughter.

    On Sept. 14, police executed a search warrant for the van that she and Laundrie had traveled in.

    Inside the vehicle, crime scene technicians found the external hard drive at the center of the Sept. 15 search warrant. Police believe the storage device might have “viable digital forensic data” on it that could help them in their investigation.

    On Sept. 19, a body was found near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming that matched Petito’s description. At a news conference, FBI officials announced the find, and expressed condolences for the Petito and Schmidt family. North Port police also put out a message on Twitter that they were “saddened and heartbroken to learn that Gabby has been found deceased.”

    Today, FBI agents were again at the Laundrie home to execute a search warrant related to the Petito investigation.

    Source Article from https://www.wfla.com/news/local-news/gabby-petito-investigation-north-port-police-search-warrant-provides-new-details/

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    White House: ‘Horrific’ to see border agents on horses chasing Haitian migrants, should ‘never’ happen – USA TODAY
    White House: ‘Horrific’ to see border agents on horses chasing Haitian migrants, should ‘never’ happen – USA TODAY

    Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/09/20/white-house-horrific-see-horseback-cpb-agents-chasing-haitians/5785870001/

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    Supreme Court to hear Mississippi abortion case in early December – NBC News
    Supreme Court to hear Mississippi abortion case in early December – NBC News
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    At least 2 wounded in shooting at Heritage High School in Virginia, gunman remains on the loose – New York Post
    At least 2 wounded in shooting at Heritage High School in Virginia, gunman remains on the loose – New York Post

    Police have taken a juvenile male into custody after two students were shot at a Virginia high school Monday following an “altercation.”

    The alleged gunman was arrested Monday afternoon – hours after going on the run following the shooting at Heritage High School in Newport News.

    It was not immediately clear where he was arrested. Police also haven’t disclosed his age, his identity or whether he was a student at the school.

    A male and female, both 17, were wounded — he was shot in the side of the face and she suffered a gunshot wound to the leg — when gunfire broke out at the school at about 11.30 a.m.

    Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said the gunman is believed to have known the two shooting victims.

    At least two people were injured during a shooting at Heritage High School in Newport, Virginia on September 20, 2021.
    @EvanWatsonNews

    Police reviewed surveillance video from inside the school before tracking down the shooter. Drew said some evidence had been recovered at the scene and other parts of the school grounds but would not elaborate.

    The two teens who were shot were rushed to the hospital, but their injuries are non-life-threatening.

    Three other students were injured in the aftermath of the shooting, including one who broke or sprained their arm and another who had breathing issues because of asthma.

    Two students were injured in a shooting at Heritage High School in Newport News, Va.
    Peter Casey-USA TODAY/Sipa USA
    People embrace outside Heritage High School as Newport News Police are on scene responding to a shooting incident Monday, Sept. 20, 2021.
    AP
    Police outside Heritage High School in Newport News, Va.
    AP

    Students were evacuated from the school and directed to the tennis courts on campus where they could be met by their parents, police said.

    Cops said reports that there are active shooters at other schools in the city are false.

    Source Article from https://nypost.com/2021/09/20/shooting-reported-at-heritage-high-school-in-virginia/

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