ā¢ Gubernur Maine Janet Mills mengumumkan bahwa ia menghentikan pencalonannya untuk Senat AS tahun 2026, sehingga memungkinkan Demokrat Graham Platner untuk maju tanpa lawan dalam pemilihan primer.
ā¢ Keputusan Mills mengonsolidasikan upaya Partai Demokrat di negara bagian tersebut dan menghilangkan potensi pertempuran primer yang memecah belah di dalam partai.
ā¢ Langkah ini menandakan persatuan partai menjelang pemilihan tengah waktu 2026, sebuah siklus kritis untuk kontrol Senat.
ā¢ Gubernur Maine Janet Mills mengumumkan pada hari Kamis bahwa ia akan menarik diri dari rencana pencalonan Senat, mengundurkan diri dari primari Demokrat dan secara efektif membuka jalan bagi Senator negara bagian Ben Chipman untuk memasuki kontes terbuka.
ā¢ Mills menyebutkan pertimbangan keluarga dan beban dari persaingan Senat yang berprofil tinggi sebagai alasan utama, menyatakan bahwa Maine āmembutuhkan kepemimpinan yang stabilā di kantor gubernur saat ia melanjutkan masa jabatan keduanya.
ā¢ Pengunduran dirinya mengubah peta politik negara bagian tersebut, kemungkinan menghindarkan Demokrat dari persaingan primari internal partai yang sengit di negara bagian yang belakangan ini cenderung menjadi purple dalam pemilihan nasional.
Manhattan church led by Norman Vincent Peale was known for opposing presidency of JFK ā and Catholics in generalDonald Trumpās attacks this week on Pope Leo, for his criticism of the US attack on Iran and the US presidentās decision to post an image of himself as Jesus Christ on social media, make a good deal more sense considering Trump attended services as a young man at the Protestant Marble Collegiate church in Manhattan, which was led at the time by an anti-Catholic pastor.That churchās pastor in Trumpās youth, Norman Vincent Peale, who would later officiate at Trumpās first wedding, is best-known today as the author of the Christian self-help book The Power of Positive Thinking, but when Trump was 14, Peale made national headlines as the leader of a group of Protestant churchmen who loudly objected to the presidential candidacy of John F Kennedy, on the grounds that he was a Catholic. Continue reading...
ā¢ The Supreme Court issued a ruling clearing the way for the Department of Justice to erase Steve Bannon's January 6 conviction, reversing lower court obstacles to the administration's efforts.
ā¢ The decision represents a significant legal victory for the Trump administration in its effort to address convictions related to the Capitol riot.
ā¢ The ruling overturned a district judge's previous injunction that had blocked the administration's actions on the matter.
Deep divisions on Israel mean the union has failed to act over Lebanon, Gaza, or settler violence in the West BankThe human costs of Israelās attacks on Lebanon were plain to see when the Irish MEP Barry Andrews visited Beirut last month. He met people who had fled Israeli airstrikes and complied with evacuation orders in southern Lebanon.At makeshift shelters ā converted schools ā conditions were even worse than during Israelās last incursion in 2024, he was told. āThere are dirty mattresses, dirty blankets, [people] are getting infections, they are getting rashes,ā he said recalling a picture of misery compounded by swingeing aid budget cuts. Continue reading...
Storm is not likely to make a direct hit on Perth, though the city may experience heavy rainfall on Friday and SaturdayFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastTropical Cyclone Narelle was again intensifying into a severe storm off Western Australiaās Kimberley coast on Wednesday with communities in the stateās world heritage-listed Shark Bay preparing for a potential direct hit on Friday night.Narelle had made a rare trip for a cyclone system by forming in the Coral Sea off Queensland and maintaining structure all the way west to the Indian Ocean, where it was expected to build into a major category four system. Continue reading...
Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf at first dismissed talks took place, insisting Trumpās claim was āfake newsā designed to soothe markets Middle East crisis ā live updatesThe backchannel talks between Donald Trumpās special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, were not a secret in the sense that the Egyptian Foreign Ministry had tweeted that conversations were under way on Sunday, 24 hours before Donald Trumpās late Monday deadline to start blowing up Iranās energy infrastructure.But such is the chaos surrounding the process that the discussions ā thought to be well short of negotiations ā may have lasted longer than Sunday, with more than one mediator, as is often the case, jostling for the title of peacemaker in chief. Pakistanās army chief, Asim Munir, for instance, spoke with Trump on Sunday, while Pakistani prime minister, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, held talks with Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, on Monday. It is possible Pakistan could become the venue for further talks that this time would include JD Vance, the vice-president, a private sceptic about the war. Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, was right to warn not to bank on an early end to the conflict. Continue reading...
Courtās decision to eliminate Save plan and internal shuffling on who handles what when it comes to student loans presents new challenges for borrowersSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxMany Americans with student debt are again facing future upheaval after a federal appeals court recently ordered the end of a Biden-era student loan repayment program, known as the Saving on a Value Education (Save) Plan, a move that coincided with another grim revelation: new education department data shows that by the end of 2025, 7.7 million borrowers had defaulted on $181bn in federal student loans.The Save plan, which was launched in 2023, is an income-driven repayment program created with the goal of cutting undergraduate loans in half, bringing some borrowersā monthly payments to $0, and offering early forgiveness for low-balance borrowers. Shortly after the program was announced, Republican attorneys general across the country sued to get it killed, arguing that it was an overstep of executive power and imposed heavy taxpayer costs. Continue reading...
Florida's Legislature passed a bill on March 13 to license and regulate naturopathic doctors (NDs), reversing a 1959 ban on such practice. The measure now awaits governor's signature to establish oversight and training standards. This expands integrative medicine access but raises debates on evidence-based care integration. Implementation could begin by late 2026 if signed.
