PANDEMIC PROFITEERING

Over $200 billion potentially stolen from US Covid relief programs

According to a report from the US Small Business Administration's Office of inspector general, over $200 billion from the US government's Covid-19 relief programs have been stolen due to weakened controls by the SBA.


Reuters
Washington,

UPDATED: Jun 28, 2023 


By Reuters: Over $200 billion from the U.S. government's Covid-19 relief programs were potentially stolen, a federal watchdog said on Tuesday, adding that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) had weakened its controls in a rush to disburse the funds.

At least 17% of all funds related to the government's coronavirus Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) schemes were disbursed to potentially fraudulent actors, according to a report released Tuesday by the SBA's office of inspector general.

Over the course of the pandemic, the SBA disbursed about $1.2 trillion of EIDL and PPP funds.

The SBA disputed the more than $200 billion figure put forward by the watchdog and said the inspector general's approach had significantly overestimated fraud.

The agency said its experts put the potential fraud estimate at $36 billion and added that over 86% of that likely fraud took place in 2020, when the administration of former President Donald Trump was in office. President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.

The fraud estimate put forward by the inspector general for the EIDL program stood at more than $136 billion while the PPP fraud estimate was $64 billion.

The United States is probing many fraud cases pegged to U.S. government assistance programs. In May 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland launched a COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force.
ALSO READ No, ‘monkey virus DNA’ was not found in Covid vaccines

Last year, the U.S. Justice Department tapped federal prosecutor Kevin Chambers to lead its efforts to investigate alleged fraud schemes intending to bilk government pandemic assistance programs.

In September 2022, the inspector general for the U.S. Labor Department said fraudsters likely stole $45.6 billion from the United States' unemployment insurance program during the coronavirus outbreak by applying tactics like using Social Security numbers of deceased individuals.

Also in September, federal prosecutors charged dozens of defendants, who were accused of stealing $250 million from a government aid program that was supposed to feed children in need during the pandemic.

Earlier this year, a separate watchdog report said the U.S. government likely awarded about $5.4 billion in COVID-19 aid to people with questionable Social Security numbers.

Pete Buttigieg slams Ron DeSantis for ‘trying to prove his manhood’ with anti-LGBTQ+ video

Jul 03
Written by Amelia Hansford
PINK NEWS

Pete Buttigieg was just as confused at Ron DeSantis’ bizarre campaign ad as the rest of us. (Getty)

Pete Buttigieg has ridiculed presidential candidate Ron DeSantis after his campaign shared a bizarre anti-LGBTQ+ video, cementing the Florida governor’s homophobic views.

A campaign Twitter account named DeSantis War Room shared a clip published on 30 June boasting about the Florida governor’s storm of anti-LGBTQ+ policies and legislation.

The strange ad starts with a set of clips that frame former president Donald Trump as supportive of LGBTQ+ rights, followed by a clip of him saying that he would “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ+ citizens”, which Trump made shortly after the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016.



The video then cuts to a picture of Ron DeSantis edited to have lightning coming out of his eyes, while pictures of him marching are edited side-by-side with clips of the fictional serial killer from American Psycho, Patrick Bateman, who has become a twisted symbol of masculinity among far-right groups.

In response, Buttigieg made his feelings on the ad clear during a Sunday (2 July) interview on CNN’s State of the Union.

“I’m going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled-up, shirtless bodybuilders,” he said. “And just get to the bigger issue that is on my mind whenever I see this stuff in the policy space, which is, again, who are you trying to help?

“I just don’t understand the mentality of somebody who gets up in the morning, thinking that he’s going to prove his worth by competing over who can make life hardest for a hard-hit community.”

The openly gay transportation secretary added that he was puzzled by DeSantis’ campaign strategy of targeting a community that is “already so vulnerable in America”.

Since announcing his presidential candidacy in May, DeSantis’ war on ‘woke’ culture has only become more pronounced.

After a fumbled launch of his campaign on Twitter, the governor immediately began denouncing his rivals for supporting ‘woke’ LGBTQ+ rights.

During this time, the governor worked to make LGBTQ+ lives significantly harder by signing even more legislation that curtails the rights of the community.

The attack on queer Floridians has become so severe that several human rights groups, including the Human Rights Campaign, have urged LGBTQ+ Americans to stay away from the state.

A report published the same week as DeSantis’ campaign announcement warned travellers to the state to make a “clear safety plan” or reconsider travel entirely.

It also made a set of considerations if travel is unavoidable, including consulting an attorney to “assess the level of danger” in potentially being arrested.

THE FATHER OF AMERICAN MASCULINITY

Caitlyn Jenner says Ron DeSantis has 'hit a new low' with 'homophobic' and 'transphobic' video attacking Trump's LGBTQ record that features pictures of her

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis War Room account posted the video to Twitter on Friday as Pride month comes to an end

Caitlyn Jenner hit back in a tweet calling 'DeSantis 'so desperate he'll do anything to get ahead- 'that's been the theme of his campaign'

DeSantis is shown in different heroic images in the video as a man on a 'crusade'

By RUTH BASHINSKY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: , 3 July 2023

Caitlyn Jenner has hit back at Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis declaring that he has 'hit a new low' as a galling video was posted of the former Olympian and transgender activist and the ex-President Trump's years of rhetoric regarding the LGBTQ community.

The video surfaced on Friday, the last day of June and end of Pride Month, that was posted to DeSantis' War Room Twitter account that garnered more than 23 million views. Alongside the video was the tweet: 'To wrap up 'Pride Month,' let's hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it.'

The video remix, shows a series of memes, rainbow flags and images of Trump at different times before and during his presidency. In one clip, he vows he will 'do everything in my power to protect the LGBTQ citizens,' that was said after the Pulse nightclub shooting that left 49 people dead.

In another Trump is seen with Jenner smiling as the pair are locked in an arm wrestle handshake. One clips shows the former President at a town hall talking about the North Carolina bathroom law, as he tells the news reporter that 'he would be comfortable with her [Jenner] using any bathroom at Trump Tower.'

Jenner, who came out as a woman in 2015, shot back in a tweet calling 'DeSantis 'so desperate he'll do anything to get ahead- 'that's been the theme of his campaign.'

Caitlyn Jenner, who came out as transgender in 2015, issued a tweet calling 'DeSantis 'so desperate he'll do anything to get ahead- 'that's been the theme of his campaign'

The video surfaced on Friday at the close of Pride Month and was posted on DeSantis' War Room Twitter account. Alongside the video was the tweet: 'To wrap up 'Pride Month,' let's hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it'

The former President Donald Trump is seen holding up a rainbow flag and smiling with the words written: 'LGBTs for Trump'

Jenner continued: 'You can't win a general, let alone 2028 by going after people that are integral parts of the conservative movement! #MAGA'

Jenner was not the only one outraged by DeSantis' latest move, many Republicans and LGBTQ groups have come forward including, Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie.

The former New Jersey governor described the antics from his running mates as two teenagers having a food fight.

While Log Cabin Republicans, the largest GOP organization representing LGBTQ individuals, is 'divisive and desperate,' and labeled the ad as 'homophobic.'

Trump is also seen in the video nodding his head and telling the late Barbara Walters 'Yes,' as she asks him if transgender woman can compete in Miss Universe.

News headlines also appear throughout slamming the former leader of the free world. One that was featured said: 'Donald Trump Sides with Disney.'

The video also show images of DeSantis composed one minute laughing in another as he is described as 'extreme,' 'draconian,' 'totalitarianism in disguise' 'unwarranted and un-American,' The Hill reported.

In the video montage, a slew of newspaper headlines call out the Florida Governor as 'public enemy No. 1' While others say: 'DeSantis is evil,' and 'The Governor doesn't care.'



The video shows a number of pictures of Jenner including the one (pictured) of Trump where the pair are seen smiling while locked in an arm wrestle handshake

This photo of a drag queen with the sash 'Lady Maga' was one of the photos that appeared in the video that DeSantis' campaign team released on Friday

At one point the footage shows actor Brad Pitt wearing a gladiator headcover wit the mantra: 'DeSantis in on a crusade... De Santis is unstoppable.'

Another shows DeSantis dressed in airforce fatigue wearing aviator glasses similar to the ones Tom Cruise wore in Top Gun with the words 'Top Gov.'

In June, DeSantis signed a number of bills that targeted the transgender community, including limiting gender-affirming care for transgender children, and banning transgender individuals from using bathrooms that match their gender identity.

Other rules include barring teachers and students from using their pronouns of choice at school.

In the interim, Trump has pivoted to a more severe stance on transgender issues including banning 'men from participating in women's sports' and calling gender-affirming surgery for transgender youth as 'child sexual mutilation.'

 

In Seoul, Pride Strikes Back

South Korean LGBTQ+ groups fight for their rights as far-right politicians and religious groups attempt to block Pride parades.

By Ashley Ahn

Volunteers carry a huge rainbow flag during a parade as part of the Seoul Queer Culture Festival in Seoul, South Korea.

Volunteers carry a huge rainbow flag during a parade as part of the Seoul Queer Culture Festival in Seoul, South Korea, on July 1. CHUNG SUNG-JUN/GETTY IMAGES

JULY 3, 2023

The Seoul queer parade drew tens of thousands of people to the streets on July 1 in an event that stood defiant against conservative officials and groups that have pulled out all the stops to prevent Pride parades from taking place across South Korea.

The battle for LGBTQ+ rights in South Korea escalated this year when Seoul city officials replaced the Seoul Queer Culture Festival—which has held the country’s largest LGBTQ+ parade at Seoul Plaza since 2015 except during two years due to COVID-19—with a Christian youth concert. In June, hundreds of Daegu city officials and protesters backed by their conservative mayor disrupted the Daegu Queer Festival, resulting in a physical clash with the police.

The struggle for LGBTQ+ rights in South Korea is emblematic of a wider global struggle for LGBTQ+ rights around the world. A 2021 study from the Multi-Donor LGBTI Global Human Rights Initiative found that in two-thirds of the 175 countries and locations analyzed, there was stasis or a decline in social acceptance of LGBTQ+ people from 1981 to 2020. According to the study, South Korea ranked 75th in acceptance, lagging behind other developed democracies in Asia, including Taiwan and Japan.

Even the United States, which ranked 23rd in that same study, continues to struggle with LGBTQ+ acceptance. The Supreme Court ruled on June 30 that a Christian graphic artist had the right to refuse services to same-sex couples. State legislatures have passed 70 laws that advocacy groups characterize as anti-LGBTQ+ in this year alone, and U.S. corporations have toned down their Pride pitches, prompting U.S. President Joe Biden to create a new federal coordinator position to combat the spike in state-level book bans that he said disproportionately target LGBTQ+ youth.

LGBTQ+ rights in South Korea remain in a state of limbo for a number of reasons. The explosive growth of Christianity in South Korea coincided with a period of conservative dictatorships after the Korean War, creating the foundation for a right-wing bloc that has the power to influence elections. The majority of Christians in South Korea, around 10 million of them, belong to Protestant denominations, more than double the number of Catholics.

And there’s little political motivation for lawmakers to prioritize LGBTQ+ rights. With one conservative administration after another reinforcing this attitude, the issue has become an endless back-and-forth tussle that leaves advocates wondering what kind of future LGBTQ+ rights have in South Korea. The country’s anti-discrimination bill, first proposed in 2007, continues to struggle to gain enough backing in parliament due to its protection for sexual minorities. Subsequent efforts to pass the bill have been squashed by conservative religious groups despite pressure from the United Nations and advocacy groups to pass the legislation.

In April, Seoul Plaza received two requests for its use on July 1—one from the Seoul Queer Culture Festival and one from Christian Television System (CTS). City officials granted CTS permission to use Seoul Plaza, saying that “events for children and teenagers get a priority.” But organizers of the parade call it an act of discrimination by city officials and an attempt by CTS—a Christian broadcasting company that was until recently placed under a disciplinary restriction for its anti-LGBTQ+ programming—to stop the parade from happening.

“In South Korean society, ‘discriminatory administration’ against the LGBTQ+ community runs rampant, casting LGBTQ+ people out of the public sphere and institutionalizing discrimination,” Seoul Queer Parade said on May 15. “Hate rooted in religion further fuels this regression.” CTS did not respond to a request for comment.

Every year, the Seoul queer parade had to fight for its place at Seoul Plaza, organizers said. And every year, the parade would be met with protesters carrying homophobic signs like “eradicate homosexuality” and “homosexuality is not human right but sin.”

Much of the opposition comes from Protestant groups that are “highly mobilized, highly resourced, and very effective through lobbying for the National Assembly and individual members of parliament,” Tom Rainey-Smith, a campaigner for Amnesty International Korea, said. South Korea has the most prominent Protestant presence in East Asia, and evangelicals are the dominant strain among them. These groups hold significant influence over elected officials, backing those who are against the anti-discrimination bill.

The fight in Korea over gay rights is right where the line between freedom of worship collides with civil rights, said Ryan Thoreson, a University of Cincinnati law professor and specialist in the LGBTQ+ rights program at Human Rights Watch.

Twitter faces lawsuit over alleged non-payment for office services in four countries

Australia-based company Facilitate seeks more than A$1m for work done at offices in London, Dublin, Sydney and Singapore

Josh Taylor
@joshgnosis

 Guardian Australia

Mon 3 Jul 2023 


Twitter is facing another lawsuit after the company was accused of failing to pay for services for offices in London, Dublin, Sydney and Singapore.

Sydney-based infrastructure company Facilitate is seeking a collective payment over A$1m ($666,000) across the three businesses in alleged owed payments dating back to October last year, when Elon Musk bought Twitter.

Facilitate provided sensor installation in London and Dublin and an office fit-out in Singapore, while in Australia, Facilitate decommissioned Twitter’s Sydney office and temporarily stored its contents, according to case documents obtained by the Guardian.

The company claims it is owed £203,115, SGD$546,596, and A$61,318, respectively.

The case, filed in the US district court of Northern California at the end of June, was first reported by NCA Newswire.

The firm says that after Musk took over Twitter, the social media company did not dispute the invoices but has simply not paid them. Facilitate is seeking damages and costs.

Twitter has not yet filed a defence.


Music publishers sue Twitter for $250m citing Elon Musk’s copyright stance

Facilitate notes in the court filings that it is not the sole company suing Twitter since Musk took over. The firm said Musk’s moderation decisions and the unbanning of far right and neo-Nazi accounts had alienated advertisers and caused a financial crisis for the company.

“Twitter responded with a campaign of extreme belt-tightening that amounted to requiring nearly everyone to whom it owes money to sue,” the firm said.

“Twitter stopped paying rent on some of its offices and stopped paying several vendors whose services it was still using. Twitter also cancelled many contracts and stopped paying people to whom it owes money.”

Twitter has already faced lawsuits over its alleged failure to pay rent on offices across the globe.

There has also been speculation that the company’s decision to limit users who weren’t paying for the service to seeing just 600 posts a day last week was a result of Twitter failing to pay the bills for services to keep the site up and running smoothly. Musk says the limit is to prevent data scraping.

As part of the massive layoffs at Twitter after Musk’s takeover late last year, the company no longer has a press department. A request for comment on the case sent to the former contact email received a poop emoji as the auto-reply.

 

Listen very carefully: TV sitcoms give clues to why Brits voted for Brexit

by University of Birmingham

Credit: Bloomsbury Publishing

Classic British TV comedies such as 'Allo 'Allo, Dad's Army and Fawlty Towers offer a way to understand the political cultures that led to Brexit, a new book reveals.

The British public's ambivalence towards Europe and their desire to stand apart from "the Continent" is reflected in such shows—as sitcoms' lack of seriousness frees both creators and audiences to engage with things that would otherwise not be permissible for discussion.

Contributing a chapter to the Bloomsbury book "British Humour and the Second World War: 'Keep Smiling Through," University of Birmingham historian Professor Gavin Schaffer argues that the TV shows—particularly 'Allo 'Allo—amplify some of the thinking that underpinned the decision of the British electorate to walk away from the European Union.

Professor Schaffer commented, "Many Britons took 'Allo 'Allo to their hearts as it presented a light-hearted reflection of European differences, that ultimately spoke to the core differences between Britain and her European neighbors."

"The show also tells us something about how British attitudes to Europe were changing and not changing in the late 80 and early 90s, as Britain edged closer to her European neighbors. Despite closer bonds, British voices of Euroscepticism never strayed too far from suspicions rooted in the Second World War."

Professor Schaffer argues that 'Allo 'Allo can be read both as a deliberate attempt to put to bed the Germanophobia of the War and work through European war trauma, while illustrating how different the British felt that Europeans were from themselves.

He further analyzes other sitcoms of the 60s and 70s, such as, Dad's Army, Fawlty Towers, and It Ain't Half Hot, Mum, noting among other things that:

• Fawlty Towers' most famous scene employs Britain's relationship with Europe as the 'elephant in the room.' Broadcast months after a 'yes' vote in Britain's first European referendum in 1975, Basil Fawlty tells his German guests "I didn't vote for it myself quite honestly but now that we're in I'm determined to make it work."
• Dad's Army portrayed the War as a period of national cooperation when Britain truly was "Great Britain'—the aged and incompetent characters portrayed in the show became an exemplar of British character triumphing over European foes.
• Just as Dad's Army drew its laughs from a set of character stereotypes which created a vision of Britishness across nations and classes, It Ain't Half Hot, Mum used British stereotypes to crystallize an approach to jokes about ethnicity and race which would go on to be important in the later 'Allo 'Allo.

"The argument that there was something specifically British about being able to laugh at yourself was key to much of the public affection for 'Allo 'Allo," said Professor Schaffer. "This helps to explain British-European relations in this period—illustrating the extent to which British people considered their outlook, and principles, different and exceptional.

"Continuing affection for this kind of humor points to something of a British blind spot about the legacy of the War and the barriers between Britain and the rest of Europe. What lurks in the shadows is a nation deeply ill at ease with its European neighbors and itself. Listening very carefully to 'Allo 'Allo reveals a story of a nation that remains unready for further European integration."

Provided by University of Birmingham 

 

Supreme Court lets gender dysphoria ruling stand in win for transgender rights

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday let stand a federal appeals court ruling that found people with gender dysphoria should be protected against discrimination under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

"By declining to hear this case, the Supreme Court implicitly acknowledges what those who have seriously examined the issue have concluded: the ADA protects people who experience gender dysphoria, including transgender and nonbinary people, from being discriminated against on that basis," Olivia Hunt, policy director for the National Center for Transgender Equality, told the Associated Press.

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.

"The Fourth Circuit's decision makes an important provision of a federal law inoperative, and given the broad reach of the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act, will have far-reaching and important effects across much of civil society in that Circuit," Alito wrote. "Voters in the affected States and the legislators they elect will lose the authority to decide how best to address the needs of transgender persons in single-sex facilities, dormitory housing, college sports, and the like."

The 4th Circuit was the first federal appellate court to determine that the federal disabilities law protects transgender people who experience anguish because of the disparity between their assigned sex and their gender identity, the AP reported. The decision is only binding in certain states, those covered by the 4th Circuit. They are Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Some LGBTQ advocates see the ruling as potentially helpful for challenging legislation that would restrict access to gender-affirming medical care for transgender people, the AP reported.

"The overwhelming majority of Americans support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQIA+ people, and today's decision means the ADA remains a mechanism that can help our communities secure those protections," Hunt said.

2023 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Judge overturns Arkansas law banning gender transition care for minors

Should domestic abusers have the right to be armed? The US Supreme Court could upend protections for survivors

A Texas man repeatedly violated a restraining order that forbids him from possessing a firearm under federal law. Justices will decide if judges went too far after they said it was unconstitutional, Alex Woodward reports

The US Supreme Court will hear arguments this fall in a case involving federal law that prohibits domestic violence offenders from possessing a firearm.
(AP)

In 2019, Zackey Rahimi allegedly assaulted his ex-girlfriend in a Texas parking lot and threatened to shoot her. She escaped and applied for a restraining order, and Rahimi was placed under a protective order that prevented him from possessing firearms.

But later that year, within a matter of weeks, and in flagrant violation of the order against him, he was involved in five other shootings in the state.

He was charged with violating federal law that prohibits people subject to domestic violence protection orders from possessing them, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to six years in prison.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision, rejecting his argument that the law infringed on his Second Amendment rights.

Then, after the US Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in a Second Amendment case last year, the appeals court reversed its decision, vacated his conviction, and opened a pathway for another major Supreme Court case that could radically reshape the nation’s gun laws during a growing crisis for gun violence.

On the last day of its latest term, the Supreme Court announced plans to hear arguments in a case that asks whether the government can prohibit domestic violence offenders from owning firearms, setting up another major Second Amendment test before the nation’s highest court.

Oral arguments in United States v Rahimi will begin later this year.

It will be one of only a handful of Second Amendment cases before the nine-member panel in recent years, after the court’s conservative supermajority ruling last year struck down a New York law that placed limits on gun owners’ abilities to carry their firearms outside of their home.

If the Supreme Court upholds the lower court’s decision, it will upend decades of protections for domestic violence survivors and open the door for people convicted of abusing their partners or their children to have a protected Second Amendment right to own a gun, even if a court finds that they are a credible threat.

“The Fifth Circuit’s extreme and reckless decision is a death sentence for women and families,” according to Janet Carter, senior director of issues and appeals at gun reform advocacy group Everytown Law. “The Supreme Court must reverse this dangerous ruling. Domestic abusers do not have – and should not have – the constitutional right to possess a firearm.”

The new constitutional test for gun laws

Last June, the ​​Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled 6-3 to overturn New York state law that only allowed residents who could prove a “special need” to possess concealed-carry licences to receive them.

The decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc v Bruen – authored by Justice Clarence Thomas – also established a new test for gun laws against the Second Amendment, ruling that such restrictions should be “consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
(AP)

Justice Stephen Breyer, who retired at the end of that year’s chaotic term, warned in his dissent that broadly throwing restrictions against gun ownership into doubt would jeopardize protections for domestic violence survivors.

He emphasized the prevalence of guns in both domestic disputes, noting one study that found that a woman is five times more likely to be killed by an abusive partner if that partner has access to a gun, and that “the consequences of gun violence are borne disproportionately by communities of color, and Black communities.”

“Many states have tried to address some of the dangers of gun violence just described by passing laws that limit, in various ways, who may purchase, carry, or use firearms of different kinds,” he wrote. “The court today severely burdens states’ efforts to do so.”

He argued that it is both “constitutionally proper” and “necessary” for courts to consider the “serious dangers and consequences of gun violence” that compels states to regulate firearms.

Federal restrictions on gun ownership for domestic violence offenders have been in place for nearly 30 years. Nearly half of US states extend similar protections for dating partners, and 12 states include similar protections under temporary restraining orders.

Every year, more than 600 American women are fatally shot by intimate partners, a rate of roughly one every 14 hours, according to FBI reporting. Firearms are used to commit more than half of all intimate partner homicides in the US.

Federal law prohibits anyone convicted of a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” or who is subject to protection orders resulting from a domestic violence incident from possessing a firearm.

‘Hardly a model citizen’: The case of Zackey Rahimi

Rahimi was subject to a domestic violence order in February 2020. Between December 2020 and January 2021, he was allegedly involved with five more shootings.

First, after someone who bought drugs from him “started talking trash” on social media, he fired into that person’s home with an AR-15 rifle, according to prosecutors.

Zackey Rahimi is at the centre of a forthcoming case at the US Supreme Court that could determine the fate of federal law that protects domestic violence survivors from gun violence
(Tarrant County Corrections Center)

The very next day, after colliding with another car, he allegedly shot at the driver, fled, and came back to the scene to fire more shots. Three days later, he fired several rounds into the air. A few weeks after that, in an apparent road rage incident, he slammed his brakes on a highway, followed a truck off an exit, then fired several shots at another car traveling behind it. Days later, after a friend’s credit card was declined at a fast food restaurant, he pulled out a gun and fired several shots in the air.

Rahimi was indicted by a federal grand jury, finding that he violated a federal ban on the possession of a firearm by anyone who is the subject of a domestic violence restraining order. He pleaded guilty.

But in February, less than one year after the Bruen ruling, three Republican-appointed judges on a federal appeals court unanimously took the side of the domestic violence offender, whose attorneys argued that the new standard from the Supreme Court would effectively strike down federal law that prohibits people like him from owning a gun.

“Rahimi, while hardly a model citizen, is nonetheless part of the political community entitled to the Second Amendment’s guarantees, all other things equal,” Donald Trump-appointed judge Cory T Wilson wrote.

The test in Justice Thomas’s opinion in the Bruen case suggested that any restrictions on gun ownership should pass a historical analogue. The appeals court argued that there was no such thing in federal law that blocks domestic violence offenders from owning firearms.

“Our ancestors would never have accepted” such a policy, according to Judge Wilson.

The decision was widely derided by law enforcement agencies, civil rights group and gun reform advocates, warning that the loss of such basic protections imperil families across the country.

A group of 25 state attorneys general and a separate coalition of public health experts filed briefs in support of the government’s appeal to the Supreme Court urging that the justices swiftly reject the lower-court ruling.

“It is common sense that people who are under active restraining orders for domestic violence should not be able to get guns,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement that the time.

“This is a basic protection that states and the federal government have long imposed, and the efforts to undo this law will have grave consequences for survivors of domestic abuse, law enforcement, and the general public,” she added. “States must have the ability to protect our communities from gun violence and prevent dangerous people from getting guns.”

Typically, the Supreme Court will not immediately hear a case within a year after a related ruling so that the issue can work its way through lower courts before reaching the nine justices.

But US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the court that the appeals court decision “threatens grave harms for victims of domestic violence.”

Lawyers for Rahimi have asked the justices to uphold the lower-court ruling.

“Bruen is less than a year old,” J Matthew Wright wrote in court filings. Lower courts are “just beginning to grapple” with the impacts of that case, he added.

U$A
Black and Native women had highest risk of maternal death in past 2 decades: Study

Researchers estimated maternal mortality rates from 1999 to 2019.

ByYouri Benadjaoud and Nicole Wetsman
July 3, 2023
World News Tonight Prime with David Muir

Maternal mortality rates doubled for every race and ethnicity in the past two decades, according to a new modeling study.

Researchers estimated maternal mortality rates — which includes the death of women occurring up to one year after the end of pregnancy per 100,000 live births — from 1999 to 2019.

The current study estimated that Black women experienced more than double the rate of maternal death compared to their white counterparts, and almost triple the rate compared to Hispanics.

American Indian and Alaska Native women were also at some of the highest risk and experienced the greatest increase over the 20-year study.

“Maternal mortality persists as a source of worsening disparities in many U.S. states and prevention efforts during this study period appear to have had a limited impact in addressing this health crisis,” the authors wrote in the new analysis.

The findings largely support those seen from other data, that pregnancy-related death rates are increasing in the United States, with the highest burden on Black women. In 2021, the maternal mortality rate in the U.S. was 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. However, the rate for Black women was 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births.

The majority of pregnancy-related deaths take place between a week and a year after delivery, CDC data shows. Most pregnancy-related deaths are preventable, according to the CDC.

Experts aren’t entirely sure why maternal mortality rates have risen so dramatically.

“That is the million-dollar question…why in a country that spends so much money on health care, do we still see these devastating outcomes, particularly when we compare our outcomes to similarly wealthy nations?” Dr. Elizabeth Langen, associate clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan, told ABC News.

A myriad of issues could contribute to the alarming rates, including underlying health conditions people have going into pregnancy.

“It's a form of structural racism. But when we look specifically at why this happened, there are multiple layers to it,” Dr. Jessica Shepherd, chief medical officer at Verywell Health, told ABC News.

“If you just look at health outcomes in America, you know that most chronic diseases are seen in African American communities and so when you have some of these diseases, namely hypertension, diabetes and obesity, that are present before pregnancy, those are also going to be, what we would say comorbidities, that are going to impact the maternal mortality rate,” she added.

There also isn’t enough structural support given to people during and after pregnancy.

“We are often struggling with helping people have appropriate time off work for health care, appropriate considerations for pregnancy, so that people can either see their doctor or take breaks when needed,” Langen said.

Providers and hospital systems as a whole may also need to adapt in order to enforce a change. The "Hear Her" campaign launched by the CDC aims to increase awareness of pregnancy-related complications for patients and to encourage people who are pregnant to advocate for themselves in health care settings. It’s important for providers to take concerns seriously, especially from Black women.

MORE: Majority of OB-GYNs believe overturning Roe led to more maternal deaths: Survey

“We have implicit bias that's going to impact a patient to provider interaction,” Shepherd said.

“And that is going to cause maybe mistrust or people missing appointments or not going to their appointments or maybe even the messaging and what's going on with management,” she adds.

Expectant mothers may benefit from maintaining a healthy diet and weight, being physically active, quitting substance use and preventing injuries, according to the CDC. Staying in contact with a health care provider may also reduce the risk of complications.

“I think optimizing your personal health, if you have the privilege to be able to do that, is a great first step. If pregnant people start a pregnancy healthy, that certainly gives them the best chance for having a healthy pregnancy outcome,“ Langen said.

A scientist’s 4-decade quest to save the biggest monkey in the Americas

American biological anthropologist Karen Strier observes northern muriqui monkeys at the Feliciano Miguel Abdala Private Natural Heritage Reserve, in Caratinga, 

by: DIARLEI RODRIGUES and DIANE JEANTET, Associated Press

Updated: Jun 27, 2023 /

CARATINGA, Brazil (AP) — The emerald-green canopy shifts and rustles as a troop of willowy, golden-gray monkeys slides through a tropical ecosystem more threatened than the Amazon.

Karen Strier started studying the biggest monkey in the Americas four decades ago, when there were just 50 of the animals left in this swath of the Atlantic forest, in southeastern Brazil’s Minas Gerais state.

Strier immediately fell in love with the northern muriqui, dedicating her life to saving it and launching one of the world’s longest-running primate studies.

“I love everything about them; they’re beautiful animals, they’re graceful, they even smell good, like cinnamon,” the American primatologist told The Associated Press on a recent field trip. “It was a complete and total sensory experience that appealed to my mind as a scientist, and to my mind as a person.”

Scientists then knew almost nothing of the species, except that it was on the verge of extinction. Rampant deforestation had dramatically reduced and fragmented its habitat, creating isolated pockets of muriquis.

To Strier’s surprise, the northern muriqui turned out to be radically different from large primates studied by Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, the primatologists who made chimpanzees and mountain gorillas, respectively, globally famous emblems of conservation.

Research was focusing on primates from Africa and Asia, where dominant males frequently fought one another to impose or maintain their power in highly hierarchical societies. Strier herself had spent six months studying baboons in Kenya.

“Muriquis are at the far other extreme of peacefulness,” she said.

In 1983, her first year of research, the biologist spent 14 months in the rainforest observing muriquis. This slender vegetarian can measure up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) from head to tail, and weigh up to 33 pounds (15 kilograms). While muriquis can live as long as 45 years, females can only give birth every three years, slowing down efforts to repopulate the species.

She noticed that males spent a lot of time in peaceful proximity — often within arm’s reach. And when there’s a contest for food, water or a female, males don’t fight like most other primates, but wait, avoid one another, or hug.

This unusually friendly behavior has earned them the nickname “hippie monkey” among both ordinary people in the area, and scientists.

Some also refer to them as “forest gardeners,” for their role as seed dispersers. They eat fruits from high trees that many other animals cannot reach, and defecate the seeds on the forest floor.

Gender roles among muriquis also were unusual among large primates, Strier’s initial research found. Much like bonobos, muriqui females are the same size as males, meaning they have a lot of autonomy, and in muriqui societies, females break off from the group to seek partners.

“We now see a lot more variations among primates, and I think the muriquis helped open that door to understanding better some of this diversity,” Strier said.


Inside the 2,300-acre (950-hectare) Feliciano Miguel Abdala reserve, a privately protected area where Strier has based her research program, the northern muriqui population has grown nearly fivefold, to 232. That’s about one-fifth of the critically endangered species’ overall population.

“There are very few (primate projects) that have run that long, continuously, and of that kind of quality in the world,” said American primatologist Russell Mittermeier, chief conservation officer at Re:wild, who introduced Strier to the muriquis.

Strier and her team know each of the reserve’s 232 muriquis by name, and which monkey they are related to, not by tagging or marking them, but based on detailed illustrations of their facial pigments and other physical traits.

After drought and a yellow fever outbreak killed 100 muriquis — about a third of the reserve’s population — in just five years, Strier has strongly advocated for the creation of forest corridors and supporting species reintroduction projects.

In 2016, Fernanda Pedreira Tabacow, a former student and right arm of Strier’s, heard that there were only two muriqui males left in a patch of forest in Ibitipoca, southwest of the Feliciano Miguel Abdala reserve. She knew that, without any intervention, they were doomed.

“I thought that was the last breath of the species here,” Tabacow said.

To give them a chance to survive, Tabacow relocated a female into the area, but she disappeared before the animals could mate. With that experiment having failed, it was time for more drastic measures. They placed both males in a nearly 15-acre (6-hectare) enclosed area in their native forest along with three females that got lost in their searches for a partner, plus two young orphans.

A year later, in 2020, the experiment bore its first fruit, with the birth of an infant muriqui. The final objective, once there are at least a dozen members in the group, is to release them into the wilderness, Tabacow says.


“The information we had (from Strier’s research) facilitated everything, we avoided many mistakes that could have been made,” said Tabacow, who also works with Strier in the reserve. “As this project is unprecedented, we have no models to follow, but we have great knowledge about how the species behaves.”

Earlier this month, primatologists, environmentalists and other muriqui enthusiasts from Brazil and abroad converged on the small city of Caratinga to celebrate Strier’s 40th year of uninterrupted study. She started by thanking peers and the many students who are carrying forward her work.

She also used her stage to advocate for the creation of a forest corridor linking the Feliciano Miguel Abdala reserve to another area 25 miles (40 kilometers) away, urging the Environment Ministry representative to follow suit. Underscoring the need for the northern muriqui to have a greater range, she spoke of the “terrifying” yellow fever outbreak several years back.

“We couldn’t find the muriquis, and the howler (monkeys) were almost all gone, and the sense of being in a silent forest….” Strier recalled. “We had had such success, and it could all disappear in a few months. The fragility of the muriquis, still, made me realize it was super important to not let our guard down. I just got even more committed. We’re not done.”

Europe’s hard right seeks to capitalize on unrest in France

Nationalist groups across the bloc seized on the riots in French cities to score political points at home.

Anti-immigrant populist Viktor Orbán has been in office in Hungary since 2010, while Morawiecki’s Law and Justice has governed Poland since 2015

 | Omar Marques/Getty Images

BY AITOR HERNÁNDEZ-MORALES
JULY 3, 2023 

Far-right politicians across Europe have seized upon civil unrest in France to demand the EU toughen its migration policy.

In Poland, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki used the events in France as an opportunity to justify Warsaw’s rejection of the EU’s proposed migration pact, which a majority of member countries endorsed last month but Hungary and Poland blocked at last week’s European Council summit.

“Shops looted, police cars set on fire, barricades in the streets — this is now happening in the center of Paris and many other French cities,” Morawiecki tweeted during the summit. “We don’t want such scenes on Polish streets. We don’t want scenes like this in any city in Europe.”

Morawiecki also blasted Brussels at a press conference on Saturday for “trying to force Poland” to accept the migration pact, which would introduce mandatory admission quotas for asylum seekers and require EU members who refuse to recieve them to pay into an EU fund to accommodate them elsewhere.

“These are the consequences of the policies of uncontrolled migration which we are being forced to adopt,” he said after tweeting a video with apocalyptic scenes from France juxtaposed with bucolic images filmed in Poland.

The Polish prime minister was not alone in using the unrest in France — which took place after a police officer shot and killed a French teenager of North African descent during a police stop in Nanterre last Tuesday — to make points domestically.

Italian Undersecretary for the Interior Nicola Molteni, a member of the right-wing League party, said the riots in France were “a certification of the failure of uncontrolled migration and a warning for the rest of Europe.”

Molteni said it was necessary for Europe to do more to “manage, plan, guide the migratory wave,” and cited his country’s tough stance on migration as a model.

“We must focus on work and on the balance between rights and duties,” Molteni said. “You cannot come to Italy and do as you please: There is an identity to be respected.”

Hans Kundnani, a Europe analyst at Chatham House, said Morawiecki and Molteni’s reactions to the unrest in France were “exactly what you’d expect” from a far right that has been steadily gaining traction among voters and consolidating power in recent years.

Anti-immigrant populist Viktor Orbán has been in office in Hungary since 2010, while Morawiecki’s Law and Justice has governed Poland since 2015. In France, the National Rally’s Marine Le Pen enjoyed enough support to qualify for the second round of the country’s presidential elections in 2017 and 2022, and in Italy far-right firebrand Georgia Meloni has been prime minister since last year.

Kundnani said the far-right had been especially effective at getting the center-right to change its stance on migration policy.

Spanish far-right leader Santiago Abascal delivers a speech during an electoral meeting in Madrid on June 24th | Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images

“Since the 2015 refugee crisis the far-right has seized on these episodes to demand tougher measures,” Kundnani said. “And they’ve been quite successful at getting support from the center-right in many parts of Europe: For the past decade they’ve gone much further in tightening migration laws and asylum policy.”
Campaigning on French riots

Chatham House’s Kundnani said it was likely that far-right parties would use the latest unrest in France to drum up popular discontent and push center-right parties to adopt more extreme positions.

“The reason the center-right has been seeking to tighten immigration policies since 2015 is precisely because it sees that far-right arguments around identity, immigration and Islam have had traction among the public,” said Kundnani.

“This is the lesson they have learned from the rise of ‘populism’: That they need to be ‘tougher’ on immigration,” he said. “And that shift is also the basis of their increasing cooperation with the far right, particularly in coalition governments.”

Far-right parties are already part of coalition governments in countries such as Finland and provide external support for governments like Sweden‘s.

In Spain, where the far-right could potentially govern with the center-right Popular Party after national elections later this month, the leader of the far-right Vox party used the riots to call for tougher immigration policies.

“Europe is threatened by mobs of anti-Europeans who smash police stations, burn libraries and stab to steal a mobile phone, who are unwilling to adapt to our way of life and our laws,” said party leader Santiago Abascal. “They think that we are the ones who have to adapt.”

Abascal denied the idea that poverty or police brutality could be root causes of the riots, arguing similarly marginalized Christians never committed acts of violence and accusing “radical Muslims” of being behind the disturbances that could lead “an actual civil war” to break out in France.

He added minority groups such as the LGBTQ+ community were better off with homophobic far-right parties than with centrist political forces that chose to ignore “what is happening in France.”

“Homosexuals feel more protected by my party … than by Mr. Macron: The people France has imported make it difficult for them to be able to walk down the street,” Abascal said. “In contrast, in Hungary and Poland [members of the LGBTQ+ community] can go for peaceful strolls because in those countries they actually monitor who comes in.”

“Europe cannot continue to accept immigrants from Muslim countries,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, in Belgium, which will hold regional and national elections next year, Tom van Grieken, president of the ultranationalist Vlaams Belang party, spoke about the riots in France and copycat incidents in Belgium this weekend.

Vlaams Belang chairman Tom Van Grieken delivers a speech at a protest meeting of the Flemish far-right party in Brussels on May 29th | Nicolas Maeterlinck/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images

The far-right leader said the unrest reflected “the left’s multicultural dream is a multicultural nightmare for citizens.”

“These are areas where our society has been pulled away by mass immigration and the government has little control,” he argued, adding that Belgian authorities “don’t have the guts” to deal with the problem. “Real change can only be guaranteed with Vlaams Belang at the wheel.”

Chatham House’s Kundnani said that, in addition to influencing domestic politics, the far-right was already shaping the EU.

“The fact that Ursula von der Leyen’s centrist Commission has a European Commissioner for Promoting our European way of life says it all,” Kundnani observed. “That commissioner’s job is basically to keep migrants out and the existence of that post highlights that migration is no longer being treated as a difficult policy issue, but rather as a direct threat to the EU.”

Barbara Moens, Jacopo Barigazzi and Jan Cienski contributed reporting to this article.