Egypt, the world’s largest importer of Russian and Ukrainian wheat, has been negotiating with India to import 1 million tons. Turkey and several countries in Africa, which also depend on wheat imports from the Black Sea region, had also lined up in recent weeks to buy from India. The government announced plans to send trade delegations to nine countries, including Tunisia, Morocco and Indonesia, to discuss ramping up exports.
Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/14/india-wheat-ban-ukraine/
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A former Tennessee nurse whose medication error killed a patient was sentenced to three years of probation Friday as hundreds of health care workers rallied outside the courthouse, warning that criminalizing such mistakes will lead to more deaths in hospitals.
A state judge imposed the sentence on RaDonda Vaught after she apologized to relatives of the victim, Charlene Murphey, and said she’ll be forever haunted by her mistake. Vaught was found guilty in March of criminally negligent homicide and gross neglect of an impaired adult after she accidentally administered the wrong medication.
Nashville Criminal Court Judge Jennifer Smith said Vaught would receive judicial diversion, a way for first-time offenders to have their charges dropped and their records expunged after successfully completing probation. Prosecutors had argued against diversion, although they were not opposed to probation.
The crowd of nurses outside protesting cheered, cried and hugged after hearing the sentence. The relief came after the health care workers spent hours in the sun and clung to every word of the judge’s lengthy sentencing explanation, some linked in a chain with hands locked.
The fact that Vaught, 38, faced any criminal penalties at all has become a rallying point for many nurses who were already fed up with poor working conditions exacerbated by the pandemic. The crowd outside listened to the hearing through loudspeakers and cheered when some of the victim’s relatives said they wouldn’t want jail time for Vaught.
“Knowing my mom, the way my mom was and stuff, she wouldn’t want to see her serve no jail time. That’s just Mom. Mom was a very forgiving person,” Michael Murphey told the court. Charlene Murphey’s husband, however, did want her to serve a prison sentence, relatives testified.
Vaught apologized to the family in court, saying words will never fully express her “remorse and sorrow.”
“I’ll be forever haunted by my role in her untimely passing,” she said. “She did not deserve that.”
In weighing whether to grant Vaught judicial diversion, Smith cited Vaught’s remorse as well as her honesty about the medication error.
Speaking before she was sentenced, Vaught apologized to Murphey’s family if the discussion of systemic hospital problems and the danger of criminalizing mistakes took some attention away from the death of their loved one.
“I’m sorry that this public outpouring of support for me has caused you to continue to live this over and over,” she told them. “No one has forgotten about your loved one, no one has forgotten about Ms. Murphey. We’re all horribly, horribly sorry for what happened.”
After Vaught was found guilty in March, health care workers began posting to social media that there were leaving bedside nursing for administrative positions, or even quitting the profession altogether. They said the risk of going to prison for a mistake has made nursing intolerable.
On Friday, Vaught’s supporters wore purple T-shirts reading “#IAmRaDonda” and “Seeking Justice for Nurses and Patients in a BROKEN system,” as they listened to speeches from other nurses and supporters. They also held a moment of silence to remember Charlene Murphey.
Aleece Ellison traveled from Texas to join them. An emergency room nurse for 14 years, she said she broke down crying when Vaught was found guilty.
“Never in my 14 years have I felt so helpless,” she said. “This could be me.” She came to Nashville to “let the world know that criminalizing a mistake, an honest mistake, is not a direction we want to go in.”
Janie Reed, who drove over from Memphis, said she became a nurse practitioner several years ago because “bedside was getting dangerous. … There were never enough nurses.”
“I usually don’t do things like this,” she said of the protest. “I’m just so passionate about it. Nurses are going to go to jail, and more people are going to die because they won’t report their errors.”
Vaught reported her error as soon as she realized what she had done wrong — injected the paralyzing drug vecuronium instead of the sedative Versed into 75-year-old Charlene Murphey on Dec. 26, 2017. Vaught admitted making several errors that led to the fatal injection, but her defense attorney argued that systemic problems at Vanderbilt University Medical Center were at least partly to blame.
Speaking at the Friday hearing, Michael Murphey spoke of the toll his mother’s death has had on the family.
“I was at work when all this took place, so I didn’t get to say bye to my mom. I didn’t get to give her a hug or a kiss,” he said. “My dad suffers every day from this. He goes to the graveyard one or two times a week. He goes out there and cries. He’s 83 years old.”
His wife, Chandra Murphey also testified Friday about the way things were before her mother-in-law died.
“We used to always get together for family dinners,” she said. “We did so much together as a family, and it just ended in a split second for us. We still have her Christmas presents in our attic wrapped.”
Source Article from https://nypost.com/2022/05/13/ex-nurse-radonda-vaught-gets-probation-after-injecting-patient-with-wrong-drug/
Russian forces are withdrawing from the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials have claimed, as the wives of soldiers trapped in the besieged port of Mariupol called on the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, to save them.
The general staff of Ukraine’s army said on Saturday that after a bloody battle the Russians appeared to be departing their positions around Ukraine’s second biggest city, 31 miles (50km) from the Russian border.
The remorseless shelling endured by the civilian population in the region was also said to have paused on Saturday, according to the regional governor, Oleh Sinegubov, while Ukrainian forces were launching a counteroffensive near the city of Izium, 78 miles south of Kharkiv.
Ukraine’s head of military intelligence, Maj Gen Kyrylo Budanov, told Sky News he believed Russian advances would stall completely over the summer.
He said: “The breaking point will be in the second part of August. Most of the active combat actions will have finished by the end of this year. As a result, we will renew Ukrainian power in all our territories that we have lost including Donbas and the Crimea.”
Ukraine’s success in the north-east contrasted with the situation for the remaining soldiers trapped in the Azovstal steelworks in the south-eastern city of Mariupol, whose relatives have appealed to China to persuade Vladimir Putin to allow them safe passage out via Turkey.
Speaking on Saturday at a press conference in Kyiv, Natalia Zarytska, the wife of Bogdan Sements, who is among those trapped in the sprawling steelworks, said: “Strong leaders cannot stand aside when there is evil.
“After all these negotiations, there is one person worldwide who it would be difficult for Vladimir Putin to refuse. We hope that strong and good China can make difficult decisions for the good.
“We ask the esteemed premier of China, Xi Jinping, to express love and care for global values and eastern wisdom and to join the process of rescuing the defenders of Mariupol.”
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said talks with Moscow on extracting a “large number” of wounded defenders and some medics out of the plant in Mariupol in return for the release of Russian prisoners of war were “very complex”, adding that Kyiv was using influential intermediaries.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk told local TV on Saturday that efforts were now focused on evacuating about 60 people.
Sviatoslav Palamar, the deputy commander of the Azov regiment, which makes up most of the remaining forces at the plant, said in a YouTube video that his soldiers were holding on.
He said: “Our enemy, supported by planes and artillery, continues to attack. They continue their assault on our positions but we continue to repel them.”
The developments came as foreign ministers from the G7 – the world’s seven biggest economies – issued a joint statement saying they would not recognise the borders Russia is trying to redraw.
After three days of talks in northern Germany, the ministers from the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US warned they would expand sanctions on Russia that would cripple its economy.
They said: “We will never recognise borders Russia has attempted to change by military aggression, and will uphold our engagement in the support of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea, and all states.
“We reaffirm our determination to further increase economic and political pressure on Russia, continuing to act in unity.”
They warned that the war in Ukraine was stoking a global food crisis and called for Moscow to unlock key ports and allow Ukrainian grain exports.
They said: “Up to 50 million people, particularly in the countries of Africa and the Middle East, will die in the next few months … Russia’s war of aggression has generated one of the most severe food and energy crises in recent history, which now threatens those most vulnerable across the globe.”
The G7 also called on China not to aid Putin and “to desist from engaging in information manipulation, disinformation and other means to legitimise Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine”.
Three weeks before Putin launched his war in Ukraine, the Russian president signed a pact with his Chinese counterpart that said there would be “no limits” to the two countries’ cooperation.
Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/14/ukraine-says-russian-forces-withdrawing-kharkiv
ISTANBUL, May 14 (Reuters) – Turkey has not shut the door to Sweden and Finland joining NATO but wants negotiations with the Nordic countries and a clampdown on what it sees as terrorist activities especially in Stockholm, President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said on Saturday.
“We are not closing the door. But we are basically raising this issue as a matter of national security for Turkey,” Ibrahim Kalin, who is also the president’s top foreign policy advisor, told Reuters in an interview in Istanbul.
Erdogan surprised NATO members and the two Nordic countries seeking membership by saying on Friday it was not possible for Turkey to support enlarging the alliance because Finland and Sweden were “home to many terrorist organisations”.
Any country seeking to join the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance needs the unanimous support of the members of the military alliance. The United States and other member states have been trying to clarify Ankara’s position. read more
Sweden and its closest military partner, Finland, have until now remained outside NATO, which was founded in 1949 to counter the Soviet Union in the Cold War. The two countries are wary of antagonising their large neighbour but their security concerns have increased since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. read more
Stockholm is widely expected to follow Helsinki’s lead and could apply for entry to the 30-nation military alliance as early as Monday. read more
Kalin said the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) – designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union – was fund-raising and recruiting in Europe and its presence is “strong and open and acknowledged” in Sweden in particular.
“What needs to be done is clear: they have to stop allowing PKK outlets, activities, organisations, individuals and other types of presence to…exist in those countries,” Kalin said.
“NATO membership is always a process. We will see how things go. But this is the first point that we want to bring to the attention of all the allies as well as to Swedish authorities,” he added. “Of course we want to have a discussion, a negotiation with Swedish counterparts.”
‘MUTUAL POINT OF VIEW’
Turkey, the second-largest military in NATO, has officially supported enlargement since it joined the U.S.-led alliance 70 years ago.
For years it has criticised Sweden and other European countries for their handling of organisations deemed terrorists by Turkey, including the followers of U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty says an attack on any NATO country should be seen as an attack on all. While Sweden and Finland have long had close relations with NATO, they are not covered by its security guarantee.
Turkey has criticised Russia’s invasion, helped arm Ukraine – which is not in NATO – and tried to facilitate talks between the sides but opposes sanctions on Moscow. It wants NATO “to address the concerns of all members, not just some,” Kalin said.
Asked whether Turkey risked being too transactional at a time of war, and when Finnish and Swedish public opinion favours NATO membership, he said: “One hundred percent of our population is very upset with the PKK and FETO (Gulenist) presence in Europe.”
“If they (Finland and Sweden) have a public concerned about their own national security, we have a public that is equally concerned about our own security,” he said. “We have to see this from a mutual point of view.”
Kalin said Russia’s sharp criticism of Finland and Sweden over their plans was not a factor in Turkey’s position.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/exclusive-turkey-not-closing-door-sweden-finland-nato-entry-erdogan-advisor-says-2022-05-14/
WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) – Abortion rights supporters will protest in cities across the United States on Saturday, kicking off what organizers said would be “a summer of rage” if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide.
Planned Parenthood, Women’s March and other abortion rights groups organized more than 300 “Bans Off Our Bodies” marches for Saturday, with the largest turnouts expected in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Chicago.
The demonstrations are in response to the May 2 leak of a draft opinion showing the court’s conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 landmark decision that established a federal constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.
The court’s final ruling, which could give states the power to ban abortion, is expected in June. About half of U.S. states could ban or severely restrict abortion soon after a ruling vacating Roe. read more
Organizers said they anticipated hundreds of thousands of people to participate in Saturday’s events, which they said would be the first of many coordinated protests around the Supreme Court’s decision.
“For the women of this country, this will be a summer of rage,” said Rachel Carmona, president of Women’s March. “We will be ungovernable until this government starts working for us, until the attacks on our bodies let up, until the right to an abortion is codified into law.”
Democrats, who currently hold the White House and both chambers of Congress, hope that backlash to the Supreme Court decision will carry their party’s candidates to victory in the November midterm elections. read more
But voters will be weighing abortion rights against other issues such as the soaring prices of food and gas, and they may be skeptical of Democrats’ ability to protect abortion access after efforts to pass legislation that would enshrine abortion rights in federal law failed. read more
On Saturday, demonstrators in New York City plan to march across the Brooklyn Bridge, while protesters in Washington will meet at the Washington Monument and then head to the Supreme Court. Los Angeles protesters planned to meet at City Hall, and a group in Austin was to convene at Texas’ state capitol.
In the past week, protesters have gathered outside the homes of Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh, who have voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to the leaked opinion.
Students for Life of America, an anti-abortion advocacy group with campus chapters across the country, said it was holding counter protests on Saturday in nine U.S. cities, including in Washington.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-abortion-rights-activists-start-summer-rage-with-saturday-protests-2022-05-14/
Justice Thomas said the left had adopted tactics that conservatives would not employ.
“You would never visit Supreme Court justices’ houses when things didn’t go our way,” he said. “We didn’t throw temper tantrums. It is incumbent on us to always act appropriately, and not to repay tit for tat.”
He added that conservatives had “never trashed a Supreme Court nominee.” He acknowledged that Merrick B. Garland, President Barack Obama’s third Supreme Court nominee, “did not get a hearing, but he was not trashed.”
“You will not see the utter destruction of a single nominee,” Justice Thomas said. “You will also not see people going to other people’s houses, attacking them at dinner at a restaurant, throwing things on them.”
He said Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh had been subjected to particular abuse, but he referred only glancingly to his own brutal confirmation hearings, during which he angrily denied accusations of sexual harassment.
Taking sides on a contested point, Justice Thomas said the Senate Republicans who blockaded Mr. Garland’s nomination were following a rule that President Biden, then a senator, had proposed, “which is you get no hearing in the last year of an administration.”
Justice Thomas, the longest-serving member of the current court, has been a fierce opponent of Roe.
On Friday, he said opposition to his nomination in 1991 was “by those people who were trying to keep me off the court over abortion.”
At his confirmation hearings, however, he said, to the astonishment of many, that he had never discussed Roe, even though it was issued while he was a student at Yale Law School.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/14/us/politics/supreme-court-clarence-thomas.html
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Clarence Thomas says the Supreme Court has been changed by the shocking leak of a draft opinion earlier this month. The opinion suggests the court is poised to overturn the right to an abortion recognized nearly 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade.
The conservative Thomas, who joined the court in 1991 and has long called for Roe v. Wade to be overturned, described the leak as an unthinkable breach of trust.
“When you lose that trust, especially in the institution that I’m in, it changes the institution fundamentally. You begin to look over your shoulder. It’s like kind of an infidelity that you can explain it, but you can’t undo it,” he said while speaking at a conference Friday evening in Dallas.
The court has said the draft does not represent the final position of any of the court’s members, and Chief Justice John Roberts has ordered an investigation into the leak.
Thomas, a nominee of President George H.W. Bush, said it was beyond “anyone’s imagination” before the May 2 leak of the opinion to Politico that even a line of a draft opinion would be released in advance, much less an entire draft that runs nearly 100 pages. Politico has also reported that in addition to Thomas, conservative justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett had voted with the draft opinion’s author, Samuel Alito, to overrule Roe v. Wade and a 1992 decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, that affirmed Roe’s finding of a constitutional right to abortion.
Thomas said that previously, “if someone said that one line of one opinion” would be leaked, the response would have been: “Oh, that’s impossible. No one would ever do that.”
“Now that trust or that belief is gone forever,” Thomas said at the Old Parkland Conference, which describes itself as a conference “to discuss alternative proven approaches to tackling the challenges facing Black Americans today.”
Thomas also said at one point: “I do think that what happened at the court is tremendously bad…I wonder how long we’re going to have these institutions at the rate we’re undermining them.”
Thomas also touched in passing on the protests by liberals at conservative justices’ homes in Maryland and Virginia that followed the draft opinion’s release. Thomas argued that conservatives have never acted that way.
“You would never visit Supreme Court justices’ houses when things didn’t go our way. We didn’t throw temper tantrums. I think it is … incumbent on us to always act appropriately and not to repay tit for tat,” he said.
Protests at the Supreme Court and around the nation are also expected Saturday.
Thomas was speaking before an audience as part of a conversation with John Yoo, who is now a Berkeley Law professor but worked for Thomas for a year in the early 1990s as a law clerk.
Each justice generally has four law clerks every year and the current group of law clerks has been a focus of speculation as a possible source of the draft opinion’s leak. They are one of a few groups along with the justices and some administrative staff that has access to draft opinions.
Thomas also answered a few questions from the audience, including one from a man who asked about the friendships between liberal and conservative justices on the court, such as a well-known friendship between the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. “How can we foster that same type of relationship within Congress and within the general population?” the man asked.
“Well, I’m just worried about keeping it at the court now,” Thomas responded. He went on to speak in glowing terms about former colleagues. “This is not the court of that era,” he said.
Despite his comments, Thomas seemed in good spirits — laughing heartily at times. Yoo, who is known for writing the so-called “torture memos” that the George W. Bush administration used to justify using “enhanced interrogation” techniques after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, said at one point that he had taken pictures of notes Thomas had taken during the conference.
“You’re going to leak them?” Thomas asked, laughing.
Yoo responded: “Well, I know where to go…Politico will publish anything I give them now.”
Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-clarence-thomas-e08bbdfbe48d33171fa6f2a17931da63
KYIV, May 14 (Reuters) – Very complex talks are underway to evacuate a large number of wounded soldiers from a besieged steelworks in the strategic southeastern port of Mariupol in return for the release of Russian prisoners of war, Ukraine’s president said.
Mariupol, which has seen the heaviest fighting in nearly three months of war, is now in Russian hands but hundreds of Ukrainian defenders are still holding out at the Azovstal steelworks despite weeks of heavy Russian bombardment.
Fierce Ukrainian resistance, which analysts say Russian President Vladimir Putin and his generals failed to anticipate when they launched the invasion on Feb. 24, has slowed and in some places reversed Russian advances elsewhere in Ukraine too.
As well as losing large numbers of men and much military equipment, Russia is also reeling from economic sanctions. The Group of Seven leading Western economies pledged in a statement on Saturday to “further increase economic and political pressure on Russia” and to supply more weapons to Ukraine. read more
In a late night address, Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed the plight of people trapped at the Azovstal site.
“At the moment very complex negotiations are under way on the next phase of the evacuation mission – the removal of the badly wounded, medics,” he said, adding that “influential” international intermediaries were involved in the talks.
Russia, which initially insisted the defenders in the sprawling Soviet-era bunkers beneath the steel works give themselves up, has said little publicly about the talks.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told local TV on Saturday that efforts were now focused on evacuating about 60 people, comprising the most seriously wounded as well as medical personnel.
The wife of one of the steel works defenders, Natalka Zarytska, appealed to Chinese President Xi Jinping at a briefing in Kyiv on Saturday to “show … great concern for world values and great Eastern wisdom” and help end the siege of Azovstal.
Xi has aligned China with Russia, blaming the West for the war while calling for a diplomatic resolution of the crisis.
Many of those still in the plant are members of the Azov Regiment. Deputy commander Sviatoslav Palamar said his forces would continue to resist as long as they could.
“Our enemy, supported by planes and artillery … continue their assault on our positions but we continue to repel them,” he told an online forum on Friday streamed on YouTube.
DIPLOMATIC TREMORS
Moscow’s invasion, which it calls a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists, has jolted European security, prompting Finland – which shares a long border with Russia – and most likely Sweden to abandon their long-cherished military neutrality and seek NATO membership.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko, quoted by Russian news agencies on Saturday, said Moscow had no hostile intentions towards the two Nordic countries but that it would take “adequate precautionary measures” if NATO deployed nuclear forces and infrastructure closer to Russia’s border.
Russian Su-27 fighter jets have taken part in drills to repel a mock air strike on Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic Sea that borders Poland and Lithuania, Interfax news agency reported on Saturday, citing the Baltic Sea fleet.
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Ukrainian servicemen carry bodies of Russian soldiers killed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, before putting them in a refrigerated rail car, in Kyiv, Ukraine May 13, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who spoke to Putin by phone on Friday, said he detected no sign of any change in the Russian leaders’s thinking on the conflict.
In an interview for the t-online news website published on Saturday, Scholz also said Western sanctions on Russia would remain in place until it reached an agreement with Ukraine, adding: “Our aim is for this invasion to fail.”
Meeting in Germany, foreign ministers from the G7 group of rich nations on Friday backed giving Ukraine more aid and arms.
In their statement on Saturday, the G7 ministers – from the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada – also pledged to “expedite our efforts to reduce and end reliance on Russian energy supplies”. read more
BODIES PILED UP
Despite Ukrainian resistance, Russian forces have made steady gains in southern Ukraine and the eastern Donbas region.
“We are entering a new, long phase of the war,” Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a Facebook post, predicting extremely tough weeks when Ukraine would largely be alone against an “enraged aggressor”.
In its latest bulletin, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had hit Ukrainian command posts, ammunition depots and other military equipment in several regions, including the Donbas, killing at least 100 Ukrainian “nationalists”.
Reuters could not independently verify the report.
In a grim illustration of the toll on Russia’s own forces, Reuters footage on Friday showed the bodies of Russian soldiers being brought to a rail yard outside Kyiv and stacked with hundreds of others in a refrigerated train, waiting for the time when they can be sent back to their families.
“Most of them were brought from the Kyiv region, there are some from Chernihiv region and from some other regions too,” Volodymyr Lyamzin, the chief civil-military liaison officer, told Reuters as stretcher-bearers in white, head-to-toe protective suits lifted body bags into the box cars. read more
He said refrigerated trains stationed in other regions across Ukraine were being used for the same grim purpose.
Moscow has imposed a military-civilian administration in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region and plans to hold a referendum there on whether it wishes to join the Russian Federation, mirroring similar votes held in the adjacent Crimea peninsula in 2014 and in two Donbas regions.
Russia would almost certainly manipulate the results of such a vote, Britain’s defence ministry said.
Ukrainian forces have driven their enemies away from the second largest city, Kharkiv, near the Russian border, but Moscow was still bombarding nearby villages, including Dergachi, some 10 km (six miles) north of Kharkiv.
“I can’t call it anything but a terrorist act,” Dergachi Mayor Vyacheslav Zadorenko told Reuters after missiles struck a building used to distribute aid. read more
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-collects-russian-dead-war-rages-multiple-fronts-2022-05-14/
California is entering the next budget year with a record-smashing surplus of nearly $100 billion, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday.
Newsom unveiled a revised budget plan of just over $300 billion for the next fiscal year, the highest in state history and fueled by surging tax revenues. The state has collected $55 billion more in taxes than officials expected in January, leaving it with an estimated $97.5 billion surplus.
That means Newsom, a Democrat, has tens of billions of dollars more to spend on new and existing initiatives as he seeks re-election in the fall. He plans additional spending to tackle the ongoing drought, to help more women get abortions in California and to offset rising costs of food, gas and other goods due to inflation.
He’ll have to reach agreement with the Democratic-led legislature on all of his proposals. They have until the end of June to finalize the budget, which takes effect July 1.
Newsom said one of his top budget priorities is providing Californians relief from inflation.
“People are feeling deep stress, deep anxiety,” he said.
He’s proposed giving $400 checks to registered car owners in the state, with up to two checks per person. That would cost the state about $11.5 billion, he said. Though the money would only go to car owners, Newsom said it should be considered “inflation refund and relief.”
“For you, it could be a rebate to address the issue of groceries, it could be a rebate to address the other cost burdens that are placed on you,” he said.
Democratic lawmakers, though, have a different idea on how to provide relief. They want to give $200 checks only to those below a certain income level.
Republicans, meanwhile, say rather than a check Newsom should suspend the state’s highest-in-the nation gas tax for one year. They’ve also asked him to increase a tax credit for renters and offer new tax credits to students.
“Senate Republicans believe there is a better way to invest in the state,” said Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh of Yucaipa.
Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/13/california-gov-newsom-unveils-historic-97point5-billion-budget-surplus.html
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to the media after Friday prayers in Istanbul, Turkey on Friday.
Turkish presidency via AP
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Turkish presidency via AP
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to the media after Friday prayers in Istanbul, Turkey on Friday.
Turkish presidency via AP
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that his country is “not favorable” toward Finland and Sweden joining NATO, indicating Turkey could use its membership in the Western military alliance to veto moves to admit the two countries.
“We are following developments concerning Sweden and Finland, but we are not of a favorable opinion,” Erdogan told reporters.
The Turkish leader explained his opposition by citing Sweden and other Scandinavian countries’ alleged support for Kurdish militants and others whom Turkey considers to be terrorists.
He said he also did not want to repeat Turkey’s past “mistake” from when it agreed to readmit Greece into NATO’s military wing in 1980. He claimed the action had allowed Greece “to take an attitude against Turkey” with NATO’s backing.
Erdogan did not say outright that he would block any accession attempts by the two Nordic nations. However, NATO makes all its decisions by consensus, meaning that each of the 30 member countries has a potential veto over who can join.
Russia’s aggression in Ukraine prompted Finland and Sweden to reconsider their traditions of military nonalignment. Public opinion in the two countries quickly started to shift toward favoring NATO membership after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Should the two countries proceed on that path, it would represent a blow to Russia since President Vladimir Putin cited NATO’s expansion near Russian territory as one of his justifications for invading Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden held a call Friday with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and President Sauli Niinistö of Finland.
The White House said in a statement that Biden “underscored his support for NATO’s Open Door policy and for the right of Finland and Sweden to decide their own future, foreign policy and security arrangements.”
Finnish soldiers take part in an exercise at the Niinisalo garrison in Finland on May 4.
Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva via AP
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Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva via AP
Finnish soldiers take part in an exercise at the Niinisalo garrison in Finland on May 4.
Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva via AP
Niinistö’s office said the three leaders “shared a deep concern over Russia’s war on Ukraine.”
“President Niinistö went through Finland’s next steps toward NATO membership. President Niinistö told (Biden) that Finland deeply appreciates all the necessary support from the U.S.,” the office said in a brief statement.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that Washington is “working to clarify Turkey’s position” and believes there is “broad support” among NATO members for Finland and Sweden to join the alliance.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to meet his NATO counterparts, including the Turkish foreign minister, this weekend in Germany.
The top American diplomat for Europe, Karen Donfried, told reporters ahead of Blinken’s trip that the United States remains supportive of Finland and Sweden’s prospective NATO membership bids. She said the U.S. remains convinced the alliance is more united than ever before because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Finland’s president and prime minister said Thursday that they were in favor of rapidly seeking NATO membership, paving the way for the country to announce a decision in the coming days. Sweden’s governing Social Democratic Party, led by Andersson, is expected to reveal its decision Sunday.
Asked about Erdogan’s comments during a press conference in Helsinki, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said: “We need some patience in this type of process. It’s not happening in one day. This is all what I can say at the moment. Let’s take issues step by step.”
The Finnish minister said he was likely to hold discussions with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, at the NATO meeting in Berlin over the weekend. Cavusoglu spoke Friday with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, but Turkey’s Foreign Ministry did not provide details.
Stoltenberg has said that Finland and Sweden, should they formally apply to join the world’s biggest security organization, would be welcomed with open arms.
The accession procedure could be done in “a couple of weeks,” several NATO officials have said, although it could take around six months for member countries to ratify the accession protocol.
Meanwhile, a report by the Swedish government on the changed security environment facing the Nordic country after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine says Moscow would react negatively to Sweden joining NATO and launch several counter-measures.
The Swedish government’s security policy analysis, which will be used as a basis for Andersson’s Cabinet to decide whether to seek membership in the Western military alliance, was presented to Swedish lawmakers Friday.
The report did not include a recommendation on whether or not Sweden should try to join NATO. But it pointed to NATO membership carrying a number of advantages for Sweden – above all the collective security provided by the 30-member military alliance.
At the same time, it lists numerous tactics Russia is likely to take in retaliation, including cyber-attacks, violations of Swedish airspace and threatening to use nuclear weapons.
Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/05/13/1098859684/turkeys-president-opposes-finland-sweden-join-nato
War in Ukraine: What you need to know
The latest: Ukrainian forces said Wednesday that they pushed back Russian advances in the country’s second-most-populous city and regained control of Pytomnyk, a village to the north of Kharkiv. Finland’s leaders said they support a NATO membership bid as soon as possible, an extraordinary move that demonstrates the far-ranging effects of Russia’s invasion.
The fight: Russian forces continue to mount sporadic attacks on civilian targets in a number of Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian prosecutors have been taking detailed testimony from victims to investigate Russian war crimes.
The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. Russia has used an array of weapons against Ukraine, some of which have drawn the attention and concern of analysts.
Photos: Post photographers have been on the ground from the very beginning of the war — here’s some of their most powerful work.
How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.
Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for updates and exclusive video.
Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/13/ukraine-russia-war-crimes-trial/
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to the media after Friday prayers in Istanbul, Turkey on Friday.
Turkish presidency via AP
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Turkish presidency via AP
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to the media after Friday prayers in Istanbul, Turkey on Friday.
Turkish presidency via AP
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that his country is “not favorable” toward Finland and Sweden joining NATO, indicating Turkey could use its membership in the Western military alliance to veto moves to admit the two countries.
“We are following developments concerning Sweden and Finland, but we are not of a favorable opinion,” Erdogan told reporters.
The Turkish leader explained his opposition by citing Sweden and other Scandinavian countries’ alleged support for Kurdish militants and others whom Turkey considers to be terrorists.
He said he also did not want to repeat Turkey’s past “mistake” from when it agreed to readmit Greece into NATO’s military wing in 1980. He claimed the action had allowed Greece “to take an attitude against Turkey” with NATO’s backing.
Erdogan did not say outright that he would block any accession attempts by the two Nordic nations. However, NATO makes all its decisions by consensus, meaning that each of the 30 member countries has a potential veto over who can join.
Russia’s aggression in Ukraine prompted Finland and Sweden to reconsider their traditions of military nonalignment. Public opinion in the two countries quickly started to shift toward favoring NATO membership after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Should the two countries proceed on that path, it would represent a blow to Russia since President Vladimir Putin cited NATO’s expansion near Russian territory as one of his justifications for invading Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden held a call Friday with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and President Sauli Niinistö of Finland.
The White House said in a statement that Biden “underscored his support for NATO’s Open Door policy and for the right of Finland and Sweden to decide their own future, foreign policy and security arrangements.”
Finnish soldiers take part in an exercise at the Niinisalo garrison in Finland on May 4.
Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva via AP
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Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva via AP
Finnish soldiers take part in an exercise at the Niinisalo garrison in Finland on May 4.
Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva via AP
Niinistö’s office said the three leaders “shared a deep concern over Russia’s war on Ukraine.”
“President Niinistö went through Finland’s next steps toward NATO membership. President Niinistö told (Biden) that Finland deeply appreciates all the necessary support from the U.S.,” the office said in a brief statement.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that Washington is “working to clarify Turkey’s position” and believes there is “broad support” among NATO members for Finland and Sweden to join the alliance.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to meet his NATO counterparts, including the Turkish foreign minister, this weekend in Germany.
The top American diplomat for Europe, Karen Donfried, told reporters ahead of Blinken’s trip that the United States remains supportive of Finland and Sweden’s prospective NATO membership bids. She said the U.S. remains convinced the alliance is more united than ever before because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Finland’s president and prime minister said Thursday that they were in favor of rapidly seeking NATO membership, paving the way for the country to announce a decision in the coming days. Sweden’s governing Social Democratic Party, led by Andersson, is expected to reveal its decision Sunday.
Asked about Erdogan’s comments during a press conference in Helsinki, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said: “We need some patience in this type of process. It’s not happening in one day. This is all what I can say at the moment. Let’s take issues step by step.”
The Finnish minister said he was likely to hold discussions with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, at the NATO meeting in Berlin over the weekend. Cavusoglu spoke Friday with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, but Turkey’s Foreign Ministry did not provide details.
Stoltenberg has said that Finland and Sweden, should they formally apply to join the world’s biggest security organization, would be welcomed with open arms.
The accession procedure could be done in “a couple of weeks,” several NATO officials have said, although it could take around six months for member countries to ratify the accession protocol.
Meanwhile, a report by the Swedish government on the changed security environment facing the Nordic country after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine says Moscow would react negatively to Sweden joining NATO and launch several counter-measures.
The Swedish government’s security policy analysis, which will be used as a basis for Andersson’s Cabinet to decide whether to seek membership in the Western military alliance, was presented to Swedish lawmakers Friday.
The report did not include a recommendation on whether or not Sweden should try to join NATO. But it pointed to NATO membership carrying a number of advantages for Sweden – above all the collective security provided by the 30-member military alliance.
At the same time, it lists numerous tactics Russia is likely to take in retaliation, including cyber-attacks, violations of Swedish airspace and threatening to use nuclear weapons.
Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/05/13/1098859684/turkeys-president-opposes-finland-sweden-join-nato
RaDonda Vaught, a former Tennessee nurse convicted of two felonies for a fatal drug error, whose trial became a rallying cry for nurses fearful of the criminalization of medical mistakes, was sentenced Friday.
Davidson County criminal court Judge Jennifer Smith on Friday granted Vaught a judicial diversion, which means her conviction will be expunged if she completes a three-year probation. She will not be required to spend any time in prison.
Vaught admitted her error after her medication mix-up was discovered, and her defense largely focused on arguments that an honest mistake should not constitute a crime. Nurses across the country protested she should not be prosecuted.
Smith said that the family of the patient who died as a result of Vaught’s mistake suffered a “terrible loss” and “nothing that happens here today can ease that loss.”
“Miss Vaught is well aware of the seriousness of the offense,” Smith said. “She credibly expressed remorse in this courtroom.”
The judge noted that Vaught had no criminal record, has been removed from the health care setting, and will never practice nursing again. The judge also said, “This was a terrible, terrible mistake and there have been consequences to the defendant.”
As the sentence was read, cheers erupted from a crowd of hundreds of purple-clad protesters who gathered outside the courthouse in opposition to Vaught’s prosecution.
Vaught, 38, a former nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, faced up to eight years in prison. In March she was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and gross neglect of an impaired adult for the 2017 death of 75-year-old patient Charlene Murphey. Murphey was prescribed Versed, a sedative, but Vaught inadvertently gave her a fatal dose of vecuronium, a powerful paralyzer.
Charlene Murphey’s son, Michael Murphey, testified at Friday’s sentencing hearing that his family remains devastated by the sudden death of their matriarch. She was “a very forgiving person” who would not want Vaught to serve any prison time, he said, but his widower father wanted Murphey to receive “the maximum sentence.”
“My dad suffers every day from this,” Michael Murphey said. “He goes out to the graveyard three to four times a week and just sits out there and cries.”
Vaught’s case stands out because medical errors ― even deadly ones ― are generally within the purview of state medical boards, and lawsuits are almost never prosecuted in criminal court.
The Davidson County district attorney’s office, which did not advocate for any particular sentence or oppose probation, has described Vaught’s case as an indictment of one careless nurse, not the entire nursing profession. Prosecutors argued in trial that Vaught overlooked multiple warning signs when she grabbed the wrong drug, including failing to notice Versed is a liquid and vecuronium is a powder.
During the hearing on Friday, Vaught said she was forever changed by Murphey’s death and was “open and honest” about her error in an effort to prevent future mistakes by other nurses. Vaught also said there was no public interest in sentencing her to prison because she could not possibly re-offend after her nursing license was revoked.
“I have lost far more than just my nursing license and my career. I will never be the same person,” Vaught said, her voice quivering as she began to cry. “When Ms. Murphey died, a part of me died with her.”
At one point during her statement, Vaught turned to face Murphey’s family, apologizing for both the fatal error and how the public campaign against her prosecution may have forced the family to relive their loss.
“You don’t deserve this,” Vaught said. “I hope it does not come across as people forgetting your loved one. … I think we are just in the middle of systems that don’t understand one another.”
Prosecutors also argued at trial that Vaught circumvented safeguards by switching the hospital’s computerized medication cabinet into “override” mode, which made it possible to withdraw medications not prescribed to Murphey, including vecuronium. Other nurses and nursing experts have told KHN that overrides are routinely used in many hospitals to access medication quickly.
Theresa Collins, a travel nurse from Georgia who closely followed the trial, said she will no longer use the feature, even if it delays patients’ care, after prosecutors argued it proved Vaught’s recklessness.
“I’m not going to override anything beyond basic saline. I just don’t feel comfortable doing it anymore,” Collins said. “When you criminalize what health care workers do, it changes the whole ballgame.”
Vaught’s prosecution drew condemnation from nursing and medical organizations that said the case’s dangerous precedent would worsen the nursing shortage and make nurses less forthcoming about mistakes.
The case also spurred considerable backlash on social media as nurses streamed the trial through Facebook and rallied behind Vaught on TikTok. That outrage inspired Friday’s protest in Nashville, which drew supporters from as far as Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Nevada.
Among those protesters was David Peterson, a nurse who marched Thursday in Washington, D.C., to demand health care reforms and safer nurse-patient staffing ratios, then drove through the night to Nashville and slept in his car so he could protest Vaught’s sentencing. The events were inherently intertwined, he said.
“The things being protested in Washington, practices in place because of poor staffing in hospitals, that’s exactly what happened to RaDonda. And it puts every nurse at risk every day,” Peterson said. “It’s cause and effect.”
Tina Vinsant, a Knoxville nurse and podcaster who organized the Nashville protest, said the group had spoken with Tennessee lawmakers about legislation to protect nurses from criminal prosecution for medical errors and would pursue similar bills “in every state.”
Vinsant said they would pursue this campaign even though Vaught was not sent to prison.
“She shouldn’t have been charged in the first place,” Vinsant said. “I want her not to serve jail time, of course, but the sentence doesn’t really affect where we go from here.”
Janis Peterson, a recently retired ICU nurse from Massachusetts, said she attended the protest after recognizing in Vaught’s case the all-too-familiar challenges from her own nursing career. Peterson’s fear was a common refrain among nurses: ” It could have been me.”
“And if it was me, and I looked out that window and saw 1,000 people who supported me, I’d feel better,” she said. “Because for every one of those 1,000, there are probably 10 more who support her but couldn’t come.”
Nashville Public Radio’s Blake Farmer contributed to this report.
Source Article from https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2022/05/nurse-convicted-of-felonies-for-fatal-medication-error-receives-sentence.html
JERUSALEM, May 13 (Reuters) – Israeli police officers charged at Palestinian mourners carrying the coffin of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on Friday, before thousands led her casket through Jerusalem’s Old City in an outpouring of grief and anger over her killing.
Packed around Abu Akleh’s coffin, dozens of Palestinians, some waving Palestinian flags and chanting, “with our soul and blood we will redeem you Shireen,” began walking toward the gates of St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Israeli police officers, in an apparent bid to stop them proceeding by foot rather than taking the coffin by car, burst through the courtyard gates and charged at the crowd, some beating pallbearers with batons and kicking them.
At one point the group carrying her coffin backed against a wall and almost dropped the casket, recovering it just before one end hit the ground as stun grenades detonated.
The violent scenes, which lasted only minutes, added to Palestinian outrage over Abu Akleh’s killing, which has threatened to fuel violence that has surged since March.
Abu Akleh, who had covered Palestinian affairs and the Middle East for more than two decades, was shot while reporting on an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday. read more
Palestinian authorities have described Abu Akleh’s killing as an assassination by Israeli forces. Israel’s government initially suggested Palestinian fire might have been to blame, but officials have also said they could not rule out it was Israeli gunfire that killed her.
Israeli police said a group of Palestinians outside the hospital, whom they described as rioters, had begun throwing stones at officers.
“The policemen were forced to act,” they added.
The White House found the images disturbing, press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters, and U.S. officials will remain in close contact with Israeli and Palestinian authorities in the aftermath of Akleh’s funeral.
“Every family deserves to be able to lay their loved ones to rest in a dignified and unimpeded manner,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Egypt, Qatar and Al Jazeera condemned the police’s conduct. Deputy U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq said the scenes were “very shocking” and the EU said it was appalled.
A few minutes after police intervened, Abu Akleh’s coffin was placed in a vehicle that headed toward the Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Virgin in Jerusalem’s Walled Old City, where the funeral ceremony proceeded peacefully.
Crowds of Palestinians lined the narrow alleyways of the Old City as the coffin was carried to the Mount Zion Cemetery nearby.
Her grave was covered in wreaths and the Palestinian flag draped over the grave cross as mourners surrounded it solemnly, paying tribute to Abu Akleh.
“We’re here because we are screaming for justice. Justice for Shireen Abu Akleh and justice for Palestine,” said one mourner, who did not want to be identified by name.
INVESTIGATIONS AND RAIDS
The Israeli military said on Friday that its initial investigation “concluded that it is not possible to unequivocally determine the source of the gunfire which hit and killed Ms. Abu Akleh.”
She may have been killed by shots fired by Palestinian militants shooting at Israeli military vehicles or been hit inadvertently by an Israeli soldier returning fire, it said.
The Palestinian Attorney General’s office issued a statement on Friday in which it said initial investigations have found that the sole source of gunfire in the area where Abu Akleh was hurt was Israeli.
In a statement, agreed by consensus on Friday, the 15-member U.N. Security Council strongly condemned the killing and called for an “immediate, thorough, transparent, and fair and impartial investigation.”
Israeli forces on Friday resumed raids on the outskirts of Jenin, where Abu Akleh was killed, and the Palestinian Health Ministry said 13 Palestinians had been wounded.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group meanwhile claimed responsibility for the death of an Israeli police officer in an exchange of gunfire in Jenin.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said events in Jerusalem and Jenin could push the sides into serious escalation.
Abu Akleh’s death has drawn widespread condemnation. Video footage from the moments after she was shot showed Abu Akleh, 51, wearing a blue vest marked “Press”.
At least two of her colleagues who were with her said that they had come under Israeli sniper fire and that they were not close to militants.
Israel, which has voiced regret at Abu Akleh’s death, has proposed a joint investigation with the Palestinians, asking them to provide the bullet for examination.
The Palestinians have rejected the Israeli request and have called for an international investigation.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-resumes-raids-west-bank-area-where-journalist-was-killed-2022-05-13/
Trump and his fellow Republicans’ embrace of “ultra MAGA” reflects the former president’s skill at co-opting would-be insults or even random phrases. In 2016, for instance, when Hillary Clinton, then the Democratic nominee for president, said that half of Trump supporters belonged in what she termed a “basket of deplorables,” Trump and his base quickly embraced the term, turning it into a rallying cry.
Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/13/biden-ultra-maga/
Top Ukrainian government officials blasted Sen. Rand Paul on Friday after he objected to a bill that would send $40 billion in additional military and humanitarian aid to the Eastern European country.
The Kentucky Republican denied leaders of both parties the unanimous consent needed for the Senate to quickly debate and vote on the package, which had already been passed by the House Tuesday evening.
“We all saw a @CNN video where [Russian] soldiers shot civilians in the back just for fun,” tweeted Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office. “How many such crimes are happening at the moment in the east and south of [Ukraine]? Price of delay per day – hundreds killed and raped. Price per week – thousands. Have a nice morning coffee, @RandPaul.”
“We could have already started using the new U.S. assistance package to more effectively save lives of Ukrainians who defend the democratic world. @POTUS, @SecBlinken, @SenateGOP, @SenateDems and American people were in strong support, and @RandPaul delayed so much needed support,” wrote Dymtro Kulbea, Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs.
The bill is almost certain to pass the Senate and be signed by President Biden next week, but Republicans and Democrats alike expressed exasperation at Paul over his block on legislation that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) insisted Thursday should be approved at once.
“Ukraine is not asking us to fight this war,” Paul’s fellow Kentuckian said. “They’re only asking for the resources they need to defend themselves against this deranged invasion, and they need help right now.”
“The package is ready to go. The vast majority of senators on both sides of the aisle want it,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “There is now only one thing holding us back. The junior senator from Kentucky is preventing the swift passage of Ukraine aid because he wants to add at the last minute his own changes directly into the bill.”
“His change is strongly opposed by many members of both parties,” Schumer added. “He is not even asking for an amendment [vote]. He is simply saying my way or the highway.”
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) told MSNBC’S “Morning Joe” Friday that Paul’s actions were “completely inexcusable.”
“The truth is, this honestly could have been done Wednesday night,” Tester said. “I mean, everything was ready to go. It’s one of the problems with the US Senate when you have one person that can obstruct everything.
“And you know, we had this debate back in January that we shouldn’t be allowing this,” the lawmaker went on, referring to the Senate filibuster. “If you want to hold the floor, hold the floor, but at some point in time that has to end.”
Paul has insisted on adding language to the bill that would create a special inspector general position to oversee the distribution of the funds.
“My oath of office is to the U.S. Constitution, not to any foreign nation. Congress is trying yet again to ram through a spending bill – one that I doubt anyone has actually read – and there’s no oversight included into how the money is being spent,” Paul explained in a Twitter thread Thursday night.
“All I requested is an amendment to be included in the final bill that allows for the Inspector General to oversee how funds are spent. Anyone who is opposed to this is irresponsible,” he continued.
Paul insisted that he sympathizes with Ukraine and “their fight against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin” but said the US “cannot continue to spend money we don’t have.”
“Passing this bill brings the total we’ve sent to Ukraine to nearly $54 billion over the course of two months,” he wrote. “It’s threatening our own national security, and it’s frankly a slap in the face to millions of taxpayers who are struggling to buy gas, groceries, and find baby formula.”
In an attempt to move forward on the aid, McConnell and Schumer offered a deal to Paul that would have allowed a vote on his amendment, but would also have required it to receive 60 votes to be added to the bill.
Paul still refused to budge.
“I think they’re going to have to go through the long way,” he told The Hill.
Biden administration officials have said they expect the latest Ukraine aid measure to suffice through September, which would be seven months after Russia’s initial invasion.
With Post wires
Source Article from https://nypost.com/2022/05/13/ukraine-us-politicians-rip-rand-paul-over-aid-bill-holdup/
SACRAMENTO —
California’s government surplus is expected to balloon to $97.5-billion by next summer under the budget plan unveiled Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, an estimate that vastly exceeds previous projections and comes amid concerns that rising inflation and arcane spending rules could throw the state’s finances into disarray in the near future.
Many of the governor’s ideas on how to use the extra cash — including rebates, new debt repayments and additional funding for public schools — are contained in a $300.6-billion budget blueprint for the fiscal year that begins in July. Other portions of the surplus would be set aside in the state’s cash reserves.
“No other state in American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this,” Newsom said at a news conference in Sacramento.
The revised budget Newsom will send to the Legislature reflects $14 billion in additional spending for the fiscal year that begins in July, most of it for K-12 education. It also ratchets up total spending for the current fiscal year, as the surplus is spread across both time frames. While other estimates have been floated in recent weeks, Friday’s proposal reflects the first full accounting of tax receipts collected in April.
The governor’s budget asks lawmakers to devote billions of dollars to a raft of new items: an inflation relief package for Californians, more money to address dangerous drought and wildfire conditions, subsidies for low- and middle-income healthcare plans and the highest per-pupil school funding levels in the state’s history.
Government spending of the magnitude envisioned by Newsom would be made possible, in large part, by the remarkable investment earnings of California’s wealthiest taxpayers.
“It’s a sign of what’s happening, in some respect across this nation and around the world, a concentration of wealth and success in the hands of a few that are enjoying abundance in historic and unprecedented ways,” Newsom said.
The new budget, a revision to the plan Newsom offered in January, points to the outsized role that taxes paid on capital gains have on the state’s finances. Those dollars now make up a higher percentage of personal income taxes collected than at any point since 1999 — which Newsom pointed out occurred just before the collapse of the state’s dot-com industry, an implosion that helped trigger massive state budget deficits for much of the decade that followed.
“For those that are concerned about that, they are right to be concerned about that. We are deeply mindful of that,” Newsom said in offering what he insisted is a cautious plan focused on short-term spending proposals.
Compared to Newsom’s January plan, the most notable change reflects new worries about the effect of rising inflation. The governor’s budget earmarks $18.1 billion in short-term relief, with more than 60% of the money to be distributed through $400 cash payments to Californians who own a vehicle.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers have made little progress toward resolving their differences over how much money Californians should receive to blunt the burden of rising costs at the pump.
But that effort has found little support in the Legislature since it was announced by Newsom in March. Democratic legislative leaders have instead urged the adoption of a plan to distribute relief funds based on adjusted gross income, not whether someone owns a car. Resolving the disagreement over who gets the money is likely to be a key part of private negotiations between Newsom and the Legislature in the coming weeks.
“I have confidence we’ll land very, very quickly on an agreement,” Newsom said on Friday.
The governor’s inflation relief plan also includes money to provide help to struggling renters who applied for a state rental assistance program by March 31. Some low-income residents would also be eligible for help paying utility bills and for free public transit rides under Newsom’s budget plan.
Californians who work in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities could receive cash stipends of $1,500 per person under the budget’s inflation relief package — or, if the employer provides matching funds, up to $2,000 per worker.
Newsom’s budget overview did not explicitly lay out the chances of a sharp reversal of fortunes in the coming years — even though the financial warning signs have been visible for months. In the spring, the independent Legislative Analyst’s Office reported that a simulation of 10,000 possible state revenue scenarios resulted in shortfalls 95% of the time.
No problem looms larger, the analysts said, than the confusing outcome of how new tax revenue must be treated under a spending limit enshrined in the California Constitution — a 1979 voter-approved amendment that triggers mandatory education spending and tax rebates when cash receipts breach a predetermined cap.
Anti-tax activist Paul Gann’s 1979 ballot measure to limit state spending, a follow-up to Proposition 13, may be more relevant now than ever.
Newsom’s latest budget plan essentially erases the concerns his staff laid out in January about the constitutional spending limit.
Keely Martin Bosler, the governor’s finance director, said that three new, large spending proposals — the inflation relief package, additional spending on infrastructure and more funding for COVID-19 and drought response efforts — are excluded from calculations of the spending limit.
Legislators have pitched their own one-time workaround for this year. But there is growing agreement in the state Capitol that the 1979 law needs to be formally modified through a ballot measure sent to voters in 2024.
The governor embraced that idea Friday, but with a twist: He would also ask voters to allow the state to expand the size of the budget’s “rainy day fund,” potentially attaching a politically popular reform idea with one that could allow large growth in long-term government spending.
The new state budget blueprint also reflects changes in the political climate. Newsom is asking lawmakers to set aside $125 million for expanded access to abortion services, an effort that kicked into high gear almost two weeks ago after the unauthorized leak of a draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion to overturn the ruling in Roe vs. Wade. The revised budget calls for spending $40 million in taxpayer funds to subsidize abortion-related resources for low-income women, including those who may travel to California from other states.
Not all spending decisions envisioned by Newsom’s budget are fully fleshed out.
The revised plan includes scant details on how much it will cost to fully implement the governor’s sweeping proposal to provide court-ordered treatment for homeless individuals with severe mental illness and behavioral health needs. The so-called Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment Court would create a new civil justice treatment program for some 7,000 to 12,000 Californians experiencing psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, and who need treatment and shelter to stabilize.
For up to two years, a CARE plan would help connect participants to medication and a variety of mental health services, along with a housing plan, a public defender and a personal advocate.
Newsom proposed new funding for the state Department of Aging and $39.5 million for the judicial branch to conduct CARE Court hearings and provide other related services. But there is no clear sense of what the state might need to pay for the services that would be provided by county governments.
Some elements of Newsom’s budget are unlikely to change as lawmakers begin to consider their own priorities. Funding for public schools, largely controlled by formulas in the California Constitution, would grow to $128.3 billion, an amount that’s larger than the entire state budget in 2005.
When gathering both state and federal funds, California would spend $22,850 per student in the upcoming academic year, with substantial funding for the new commitment to transitional kindergarten and larger subsidies for low-income families to access child care.
Critics said the governor could have done more. Advocates for low-income families said Friday that the governor’s proposal does not do enough to assist the state’s most vulnerable. They are pushing for health benefits for child-care workers, food benefits for all eligible Californians regardless of immigration status, the elimination of some court fees, and even more funding for schools.
Republican lawmakers, whose votes are not needed to enact a budget in a Legislature dominated by Democrats, say the largesse in tax revenue merits a permanent cut in taxes and investments in large water storage projects.
Although lawmakers have passed on-time budgets for the past decade, the process in recent years has dragged on far beyond the June 15 constitutional deadline. The governor and Democratic leaders in those instances have quickly settled on a broad framework — meeting the official finishing date and ensuring legislative salaries aren’t forfeited.
But officials have then spent days or even weeks haggling over the fine print, ultimately laying out the details in supplemental budget bills approved by the Legislature through votes taken into early summer.
Times staff writers Hannah Wiley and Mackenzie Mays contributed to this report.
Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-05-13/california-budget-surplus-swells-to-97-billion-under-newsom-new-plan