Trump ‘wants to take America back to 1800s’ on abortion: VP Harris

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US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at an event in Tucson, Arizona, on April 12, 2024, following Tuesday's ruling from Arizona's high court upholding a 160-year-old abortion ban. (REUTERS)
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Updated 13 April 2024
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Trump ‘wants to take America back to 1800s’ on abortion: VP Harris

  • Harris spoke after an Arizona supreme court ruling rendered all pregnancy terminations illegal with no exceptions for rape or incest
  • “Donald Trump is the architect of this health care crisis,” Harris told supporters, warning that the worse was to come if he is back in power

TUCSON, Ariozona: Democrats came out swinging at Donald Trump on the divisive issue of abortion on Friday, blaming him for unpopular restrictions they said are turning back the clock on women’s rights ahead of November’s presidential election.

Days after Arizona became the latest state to declare almost all abortions illegal, Vice President Kamala Harris told a rally the populist former president was the architect of the ban, and warned worse was to come if he wins the White House.
“Here’s what a second Trump term looks like: More bans, more suffering and less freedom,” Harris told supporters in Tucson.
“Just like he did in Arizona, he basically wants to take America back to the 1800s.
“But we are not going to let that happen because here’s the deal: This is 2024, not the 1800s. And we’re not going back.”

Harris was in the battleground southwestern state just days after its conservative supreme court rolled back reproductive rights to the Civil War era, saying an 1864 ban on abortion was valid.
The ruling, which rendered almost all pregnancy terminations illegal with no exceptions for rape or incest, made Arizona the latest state to severely limit the procedure.
It came after the US Supreme Court — with a conservative majority thanks to three Trump appointments — in 2022 overturned Roe v Wade, the decades-old federal guarantee of abortion rights.
While state-level bans are popular with the evangelical wing of the Republican Party and with some of their elected representatives, a majority of the electorate disapproves and has voted to enshrine rights even in conservative states like Kansas.
Harris’s speech was part of a Democrat strategy to pin the bans on Trump, as they seek to drive support for his November opponent Joe Biden.
In the wake of the Arizona court ruling this week, the party is splashing a huge sum of money on an advertising campaign in the must-win state — aimed at key Democratic target groups: young people, women and Latino voters.
They hope that this will help drive turnout and support for Biden, even as many polls show the 81-year-old trailing his populist predecessor.
“Overturning Roe was just the opening act of a larger strategy to take women’s rights and freedoms,” said Harris.
“Donald Trump hand-picked three members of the United States Supreme Court because he intended for them to overturn Roe, and as he intended they did.
“And now because of Donald Trump, more than 20 states in our nation have bans.
“Donald Trump is the architect of this health care crisis.”
Trump is on the back foot over the issue, stuck between crowing about his role in removing the nationwide right to abortion and urging states not to implement the kind of bans that are the obvious natural result.
On Friday he again proudly boasted of his achievement, and insisted state-level laws were working.
“We don’t need it any longer because we broke Roe v Wade,” he told reporters when asked if he would sign a national ban on abortion.
“We gave it back to the states and...(it’s) working the way it’s supposed to.”
But writing on his website earlier in the day, he urged Arizona to change its 160-year-old law.
“The Governor and the Arizona Legislature must use HEART, COMMON SENSE, and ACT IMMEDIATELY, to remedy what has happened,” he wrote.
“Remember, it is now up to the States and the Good Will of those that represent THE PEOPLE. We must ideally have the three Exceptions for Rape, Incest, and Life of the Mother.”
The message, which gave no indication of his preferred time limit on abortion, repeated untrue claims that his Democratic opponents support the execution of babies after birth.
 


Loyalists cheer as ex-PM Zia returns home to Bangladesh

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Loyalists cheer as ex-PM Zia returns home to Bangladesh

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia, chair of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), returned home to cheering crowds on Tuesday after months abroad for medical treatment.
Zia, 79, led the South Asian nation twice but was jailed for corruption in 2018 during the tenure of Sheikh Hasina, her successor and lifelong rival who barred her from traveling abroad for medical care.
The 79-year-old was released from house arrest after a student-led mass uprising ousted Hasina in August 2024.
She flew to Britain in January and returned on Tuesday, BNP spokesperson Shairul Kabir said.
Thousands of party activists welcomed her, gathering on either side of the road leading to the airport, carrying photographs of Zia and waving party flags and placards with welcome messages.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, 84, who has led an interim government since Hasina fled into exile as crowds stormed her palace, has said elections will be held as early as December, and by June 2026 at the latest.
“This is a significant day for the country and the people of Bangladesh,” Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the BNP’s secretary general, told reporters.
“The celebration we are witnessing is not only an outpouring of emotion but also a demonstration of our strength.”
Zia’s rival Hasina remains in self-imposed exile in India and has defied an arrest warrant from Dhaka over charges of crimes against humanity.

What name the new pope chooses can signal what’s ahead

Updated 56 min 17 sec ago
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What name the new pope chooses can signal what’s ahead

ROME: The first clue of the next pope’s direction will be the name the winner chooses.
The announcement “Habemus Papam” — “We have a pope” — from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica is followed first by the revelation of the new pontiff’s baptismal name, in Latin, followed by his papal name, wrought with meaning.
A Pope Francis II would signify continuity with the late pontiff’s pastoral legacy and his prioritizing of the marginalized. Francis himself quipped that his successor would be John XXIV, after the progressive Vatican II-era pope. The most popular papal name of the 20th century, Pius, would be a clear signal that a traditionalist is taking back the throne of St. Peter.
“In the deepest recesses of their mind, when they start the conclave, everyone will walk in there with a name in their head,” said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, chair of religious studies at Manhattan University.

History of papal names
For most of the Catholic Church’s first millennium, popes used their given names. The first exception was the 6th century Roman Mercurius, who had been named for a pagan god and chose the more appropriate name of John II.
The practice of adopting a new name became ingrained during the 11th century, a period of German popes who chose names of early church bishops out of “a desire to signify continuity,” said the Rev. Roberto Regoli, a historian at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University.
For many centuries, new popes tended to choose the name of the pope who had elevated them to cardinal. John was the most popular, chosen by 23 popes, followed by Benedict and Gregory, each with 16.
Only starting in the mid-20th century did new popes begin to choose names signaling the aim of their papacy, Regoli said.
“Even now, as we are waiting for the new pope, the name with which he will present himself will help us to understand the horizon toward which he wants to proceed,” Regoli said.
Some names have been out of use for centuries, like Urban or Innocent.
“I don’t think anyone will pick Innocent,″ Imperatori-Lee said, given the abuse and other scandals that have rocked the church. ”I don’t think that would be the right choice.”

Recent names
FRANCIS:
Pope Francis, elected in 2013, took the name of St. Francis of Assisi, known for his humility, life of poverty and love of all creatures. With it, Francis signaled a papacy focused on those who are often seen as outsiders, including the poor, prisoners and the LGBTQ+ community, while promoting peace, brotherhood and care of the environment.
BENEDICT: Last chosen by German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, elected in 2005. Pope Benedict XVI said he wanted to pay homage to Benedict XV, who led the church during World War I and dedicated himself to healing the rifts of war, and to the 6th century St. Benedict, founder of Western monasticism, who helped spread Christianity throughout Europe. One of Benedict XVI’s priorities was trying to revive the faith in Europe. “If we get a Benedict, then we will know that the cardinals chose to see Francis as an anomaly,” Imperatori-Lee said.
JOHN PAUL: The papacy’s first composite name was chosen by Cardinal Albino Luciani in 1978 to honor Pope John XXIII, who opened the Vatican Council II process that reformed the Catholic Church, and Paul VI, who closed it. The name signaled a commitment to reforms, including sidelining the Latin Mass in favor of local languages and opening to other faiths, most significantly Judaism. John Paul I’s papacy lasted just 33 days. Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who succeeded him, chose the name John Paul II.
JOHN: Chosen 23 times by popes, most recently in 1958 by Pope John XXIII. John can refer to St. John the Apostle, one of Jesus’ 12 apostles and the author of one of the Gospels, or St. John the Baptist, the prophet who baptized Jesus. “John the XXIII was a pope that no one expected a lot from, but had a colossal impact on the church,” Imperatori-Lee said. ”So that could be a sign of what they want their pontificate to be like.”
PAUL: Chosen six times, most recently in 1963 by Paul VI. St. Paul the Apostle spread the teachings of Jesus in the 1st century.
PIUS: It is associated with popes known for their traditionalist, anti-reform bent. Pius IX ordered the kidnapping of the Jewish boy Edgardo Mortara in 1858 and raised him Catholic in the Vatican after learning he had been secretly baptized by a housekeeper; Pius X was the early 20th century anti-modernizt who inspired the anti-Vatican II schismatic group, the Society of St. Pius X; Pius XII was the World War II-era pope criticized for not speaking out sufficiently about the Holocaust. “It is now a name that is hostage to some Catholic groups that can be considered traditionalists,” Regoli said.

New directions
A new pope is free to choose a name never used before, as Francis did.
“This would open a new season and could mean that his program is not in line with any of his predecessors, so an even more personalized program,” Regoli said.
Imperatori-Lee suggested another name that might signal a continuation of Francis’ legacy: Ignatius, for the founder of Francis’ Jesuit order.
“It would be interesting,” she said. “We’ve never had one of those.”


‘I have to pray’: fear, danger for paramedics in South Africa’s crime hotspots

Updated 06 May 2025
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‘I have to pray’: fear, danger for paramedics in South Africa’s crime hotspots

  • The call came in just after 7:00 p.m. as the paramedics began the night shift: a man had been stabbed in the head with a glass bottle and was bleeding heavily

CAPE TOWN: The call came in just after 7:00 p.m. as the paramedics began the night shift: a man had been stabbed in the head with a glass bottle and was bleeding heavily.
The medical crew and their ambulance from Cape Town’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) were only minutes away. But they could not respond until they had an armed police escort.
The Cape Flats, low-lying townships outside Cape Town, are hotspots for murder and gang violence in a country already plagued by one of the highest crime rates in the world.
The sprawling area of Philippi, where the wounded man lay bleeding in a shack, is among the most dangerous.
It is one of nine Red Zones in Cape Town where the EMS refuses to allow its medical crews to move without security cover.
“If it was up to me, I would go straight there,” said paramedic Mawethu Ntintini, 52, pacing the sidewalk outside the Philippi police station in his green reflective uniform.
“But we have to go through the police.”
Waiting inside the ambulance was Ntintini’s partner, Ntombikayisi Joko, who has narrowly escaped ambush while on duty and was robbed in 2021 while waiting for directions to a call-out.
“Every time I’m going out, I have to pray,” the 42-year-old mother told AFP.
“If we were going there by ourselves, we would be robbed,” Ntintini admitted.
They waited another 30 minutes before a police patrol car emerged to escort the ambulance 10 minutes down the road to a small shack of corrugated iron.

Anguished family members crowded at the wounded man’s bed were relieved to see the paramedics. “Sometimes we have to wait until the morning just because we live in a wrong place,” one said.
As the team worked, the police car’s flashing lights cast a blue glow on the dark street.
The man’s injuries, a deep cut to the arm and a bump on the head, were less severe than feared. Loaded into the ambulance, he arrived at the hospital at 8:45 pm, almost two hours after the call for help.
Joko recalled a time the police, overstretched and overburdened, could only free up an escort more than an hour after an emergency was issued for a woman in labor.
It was too late.
“It was a baby boy, he was so cute. The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck,” she said.
“I was crying, because I knew that if I was there before, I would have helped that baby.”
Four of South Africa’s top five homicide hotspots last year were in the Cape Flats, according to police figures.
The Western Cape — one of nine provinces — recorded more than 12 people murdered every day, with the national average hovering around 75 a day.
The EMS demanded security escorts in 2015 when there was more than one assault a week on paramedics operating in the Cape Flats.
Incidents peaked in 2017 when nearly 90 attacks were recorded, ranging from verbal abuse and theft to hijackings and stabbings. In 2023, the latest available figure, there were 44 incidents.

Ambulance crews are soft targets for criminals looking to steal phones, money or medical equipment, said Pastor Craven Engel, who runs a gang violence prevention organization called Ceasefire.
He linked the violence to hardships imposed under apartheid, the previous government that espoused racial segregation and forced non-whites into bleak areas like Philippi, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the city center.
“It started with the urban displacement, uprooting people, putting them into areas where there’s no economic development, no recreation, no sustainable livelihood,” Engel said.
With high unemployment and rampant poverty, “the resources are so depleted that people are now targeting the good guys,” he told AFP at his offices in Hanover Park, another Red Zone.
Medical crews working to save lives sometimes know the criminals who threaten them and might also, one day, need their assistance, said 32-year-old paramedic Inathi Jacob.
“You get angry,” she said. “But we don’t let them get us to the core. There are a lot of people who really need the services of EMS.”
Ntintini and Joko had just dropped the bleeding man at a hospital when the second “priority one” call of their night shift came in: an elderly man, recently recovered from a stroke, was unresponsive.
Driving to his house would take only five minutes but the ambulance could only leave 40 minutes later, sirens blaring as a police car escorted them down narrow, dark alleyways.


France, China condemn Israel’s Gaza conquest plan

Updated 45 min 47 sec ago
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France, China condemn Israel’s Gaza conquest plan

  • France’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that Paris “very strongly” condemns Israel’s new military campaign in the Gaza Strip

PARIS: France’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that Paris “very strongly” condemns Israel’s new military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
“It’s unacceptable,” Jean-Noel Barrot said in a radio interview, saying the Israeli government was “in violation of humanitarian law,” after its security cabinet approved a plan that an Israeli official said will entail “the conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of the territories.

China also said it opposed Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

“China is highly concerned about the current Palestine-Israel situation,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said, adding: “We oppose Israel’s ongoing military actions in Gaza, and hopes all parties continuously and effectively implement the ceasefire agreement.”


Bangladesh’s ex-premier Khaleda Zia returns, adding pressure for elections

Updated 06 May 2025
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Bangladesh’s ex-premier Khaleda Zia returns, adding pressure for elections

  • Zia has been pressuring Bangladesh’s interim government to hold national election in December this year
  • Her physical presence in country has huge symbolic value for her party as ex-PM Hasina remains in exile

DHAKA, Bangladesh: Bangladesh’s ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia returned to the country from London on Tuesday morning after four months of medical treatment, adding to pressure for its interim leaders to hold elections.

The South Asian country has been under a government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus since former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in a students-led mass uprising in August last year.

Zia, Hasina’s archrival, and her Bangladesh Nationalist Party have been pushing Yunus’ government to hold a national election in December to return the country to democratic rule.

Many welcomed Hasina’s overthrow as a chance to return to democratic elections, but suspicion and uncertainty have surfaced in recent months about the new government’s commitment to hold elections soon. It has said the next election will be held in either December or by June next year, depending on the extent of reforms in various sectors
Crowds gathered outside Dhaka’s main airport to welcome Zia.

Accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, Zia arrived on a special air ambulance arranged by Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who also arranged her transport to London in January. Zia suffers from various serious health conditions and she has not attended any public gatherings for many years. Her elder son, Tarique Rahman, leads the party as acting chief from exile in London.

Zia’s physical presence in the country has huge symbolic value for her party while Hasina is in exile in India.

Zia and Hasina have alternately ruled the country as prime ministers since 1991 when the country returned to a democracy after the ouster of authoritarian President H.M. Ershad.

Zia served the country as prime minister three times, twice for full five-year terms and once for just a few months.

Zia is the widow of former military chief-turned-president Ziaur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1981. Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh’s independence struggle against Pakistan in 1971.