US Business

The surprise vote in Republican-heavy Kansas to repudiate a push for abortion bans fired shockwaves through the US political landscape ahead of November’s midterm elections, with President Joe Biden’s Democrats now seeing a glimmer of hope that they may avoid their predicted drubbing.

Ever since the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to terminate a pregnancy in June, US conservatives have been nervously asking whether their triumphant push to severely restrict access to the procedure — a decades-long dream — has gone too far in the run-up to the midterms.

In Kansas, they got an answer.

The state is a Republican stronghold, but in Tuesday’s referendum, a bid to remove abortion rights from the Kansas constitution was rejected by 59 to 41 percent, with unusually heavy turnout.

Given this was the first time Americans had an opportunity to vote on the issue since the conservative-dominated Supreme Court ruled to overturn the half-century-old Roe v. Wade decision enshrining abortion rights, Democrats are celebrating the result — and say a major backlash is only beginning.

“The court practically dared women in this country to go to the ballot box and restore the right to choose that the court had just ripped away after 50 years,” Biden said at the White House where he signed an executive order that aims to help Americans who travel to get an abortion when their own state makes it impossible.

“They don’t have a clue about the power of American women. Last night in Kansas, they found out.”

Later, he predicted that outrage over the issue would drive “record numbers” of voters.

Planned Parenthood, which lobbies for abortion access, called the Kansas vote “a clear warning to anti-abortion politicians.” The organization’s president, Alexis McGill Johnson, also called on voters to keep up the momentum into the midterms.

“We have the opportunity to protect abortion access at the ballot box in November. We know that Kansas will not be our last fight or our last victory.”

– Trump card –

The November midterms, which will decide which party controls Congress for the last two years of Biden’s first term, are shaping up as rough for Democrats who even now only control the legislature by a few votes.

Blamed by voters for soaring inflation — at a four-decade high — and widespread pessimism in the messy aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, Democrats are forecast to lose at least the House of Representatives and maybe the Senate. 

This would likely make Biden a lame duck, turning Washington into an even uglier political battlefield than it is today.

And abortion is not the only reason the midterms campaign will bring ideological tensions to a boil.

Donald Trump is pushing hardline right-wing candidates to boost his brand and possibly set the stage for his own attempted White House comeback in 2024.

Several candidates endorsed by Trump won primary votes held around the United States on Tuesday at the same time as the Kansas referendum, signaling that the disgraced ex-president remains a force.

In Michigan, one of the handful of House Republicans who dared join Democrats in impeaching Trump as president was tossed out, replaced by a former Trump administration official.

Trump’s candidate for the Senate, Blake Masters, won the Republican primary in the swing state of Arizona.

And Trump’s candidate for the sensitive post of Arizona secretary of state, a key figure in running elections, also won. Mark Finchem, a supporter of Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, has ties to a far-right militia.

– ‘Extremists’ –

Increasingly, Democrats are seeking to link that Trump surge and the abortion dispute, arguing that the midterms will be a battle not just between two parties but generally between political moderates and growing extremism.

Across the country, Democrats have even gone so far as to pay for advertising boosting Trump’s primary candidates — the theory being that they will be easier to beat in November than more moderate Republicans.

For example, according to The New York Times, the Democratic side spent about $627,000 on advertising in Maryland to help Trump-endorsed candidate Dan Cox — another 2020 election lie supporter — win his Republican gubernatorial primary.

In a speech to the Democratic National Committee late Wednesday, Biden homed in on the emerging campaign message.

Referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, Biden told Democratic organizers that democracy itself is “at risk from extremists in the MAGA Republican Party.”

“We need to make clear to this country this year just how critical and fundamental choices between us and the MAGA Republicans (are),” he said.

A California court on Wednesday sentenced one of three men charged in the armed robbery of Lady Gaga’s dog walker, in which the singer’s French bulldogs were stolen, to four years in prison.

Jaylin Keyshawn White admitted to being part of a gang that shot Ryan Fischer as he exercised the three prize pets in Hollywood in February 2021.

At a court hearing in Los Angeles on Wednesday, White, now 20, pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery, and received a four-year prison sentence.

Surveillance footage from the scene of the attack shows a car stopping near Fischer and two people jumping out.

One demands that Fischer “give it up” before a struggle, in which a gunshot is heard, and the dog walker falls to the ground, screaming.

The attackers each grab one dog — Koji and Gustav — and leave Fischer shouting for help.

The third dog — Miss Asia — ran back to the dog walker after the robbers drove away.

The robbery led the “Poker face” singer to offer a $500,000 reward for the return of the animals, whose theft highlighted a growing trend targeting the valuable breed.

White had been charged in April 2021 along with James Howard Jackson, now 19, and Lafayette Shon Whaley, now 28.

The woman who police said handed in the dogs in response to the reward, has been charged with being an accessory after the fact and with receiving stolen goods.

The alleged gunman, Jackson, was mistakenly released from custody earlier this year after what the US Marshals Service described as a “clerical error”.

They have offered a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to his arrest, saying that he should be considered “armed and dangerous.”

Fischer sustained chest injuries in the attack, and said on Instagram a month later he had suffered a collapsed lung.

Los Angeles police said at the time of the robbery they did not believe the dogs had been targeted because of their owner, but because of the value of the breed on the black market.

Small and friendly — and thus easy to grab — French bulldogs do not have large litters.

Their relative scarcity, and their association with stars such as Lady Gaga, Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Jackman, Chrissy Teigen, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Madonna gives them added cache, and means they can change hands for thousands of dollars.

A Texas jury on Wednesday began weighing how much in damages a prominent far-right US conspiracy theorist should pay for claiming that the massacre of 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a “hoax.”

Alex Jones, founder of the website InfoWars and host of a popular radio show, has been found liable in multiple defamation lawsuits brought by parents of the victims of the 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

The 48-year-old Jones claimed for years on his show that the Sandy Hook shooting was “staged” by gun control activists and the parents were “crisis actors,” but has since acknowledged it was “100 percent real.”

A 12-person jury in Austin, Texas, heard closing arguments on Tuesday in the first of the multiple defamation cases against Jones to reach the damages phase.

The case was brought by Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of six-year-old Jesse Lewis, who was among the children slain by a 20-year-old gunman in the worst-ever school shooting in the United States.

Heslin and Lewis delivered emotional testimony about the impact of Jones’ false claims on their lives, including harassment, online abuse and death threats.

They are seeking compensatory damages of at least $150 million from Jones, an ally and supporter of former president Donald Trump, who appeared frequently on his radio show during his 2016 presidential campaign.

“We’re here to make sure Alex Jones and his company pays for the reckless lies that they told,” Kyle Farrar, an attorney for the parents, said in his closing argument.

Jesse’s parents have been the victims of a “continuous year after year campaign of defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress,” Farrar said.

Jones spread misinformation and was “profiting off of their pain,” the lawyer said, reaping tens of millions of dollars from online traffic and sales of InfoWars-branded products.

“He spews hate, that’s what gets people riled up,” Farrar said.

F. Andino Reynal, a lawyer for Jones, told the jury that the InfoWars founder should not be held responsible for any of the actions of his listeners.

“Alex ran with a story and he made a mistake,” Reynal said. “He trusted the wrong people. And he ran with a story that ended up being false.”

InfoWars declared bankruptcy in April and another company owned by Jones, Free Speech Systems, filed for bankruptcy last week.

A man in New York has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly shooting a McDonald’s worker for serving his mother cold french fries, police and reports said.

Multiple gunshot incidents occur daily in the Big Apple.

In this latest case, Michael Morgan, 20, shot the 23-year-old McDonald’s employee in Brooklyn on Monday evening, according to police and the New York Post.

The victim is in critical condition in hospital.

The incident started as an argument between a 40-year-old woman and the victim, whom she accused of having given her cold fries, the tabloid said.

The woman made a video call to her son Morgan, who burst into the fast-food chain and argued with the employee before the two of them went outside.

Morgan then shot the employee, according to a police source cited by the Post. 

The accused has been arrested several times for various crimes, the tabloid said.

Morgan was also slapped with a charge of criminal possession of a loaded firearm, a New York Police Department spokesperson told AFP.

The number of shooting victims in New York is down almost nine percent compared to last year, falling to 988 from 1,051, according to weekly statistics from the NYPD.

There are almost 120 guns for every 100 people in the United States, according to the Small Arms Survey group.

More than 45,000 people were killed in 2020 by firearms, half of them by suicide, according to the Gun Violence Archive. 

The chance to earn an annual salary of Can$100,000 (US$78,000) by tasting more than 3,500 candies, all from the comfort of your couch, sounds like a pretty sweet deal.

Candy Funhouse, a Canadian online candy shop, is looking for a “Chief Candy Officer” to lead a team of product taste testers.

“Early last year we were looking for Candyologists, our original taste testers and we currently have three on board,” Funhouse spokeswoman Vanessa Janakijevski-Rebelo told AFP.

“Now we are on the hunt for our Chief Candy Officer who will guide our Candyologists down the sweetest path possible!”

Responsibilities range from approving new products to organizing staff meetings or acting as chief taster, as well as “all things fun.”

The offer is open to anyone aged five and up living in North America.

The main requirements include having “golden taste buds” and an “obvious sweet tooth,” according to the job listing on LinkedIn.

Candy Funhouse said it has received more than 100,000 candidates in two weeks.

On social media, the posting is a big hit with adults and children alike. One Twitter user said that his eight-year-old daughter had made a LinkedIn profile just to apply.

“It’s official @candyfunhouseca, she has applied. Thank you for helping her learn about hard work and the importance of a strong resume, even if she’s only 8,” Matthew Crooks wrote on his account.

Once chosen, the lucky new hire will undergo “extensive palate training.”

Job benefits include, naturally, “an extensive dental plan.”

Taiwan struck a defiant tone Wednesday as a furious China geared up for military exercises encircling the island in retaliation for Nancy Pelosi’s visit, hours after the senior US politician left.

Group of Seven leaders urged Beijing to show restraint, saying there was “no justification” for “aggressive” military drills in the Taiwan Strait.

US House Speaker Pelosi left Taiwan Wednesday morning, having defied a series of increasingly stark threats from Beijing, which views the island as its territory and warned it would consider the visit a major provocation.

China later announced what it said were “necessary and just” military drills in the seas just off Taiwan’s coast — some of the world’s busiest waterways.

“In the current struggle surrounding Pelosi’s Taiwan visit, the United States are the provocateurs, China is the victim,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said.

But Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said the island of 23 million would not be cowed. 

“Facing deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan will not back down. We will… continue to hold the line of defence for democracy,” Tsai said at an event with Pelosi in Taipei.

She also thanked the 82-year-old US lawmaker for “taking concrete actions to show your staunch support for Taiwan at this critical moment”.

China tries to keep Taiwan isolated on the world stage and opposes countries having official exchanges with Taipei.

Pelosi, second in line to the presidency, is the highest-profile elected US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years.

“Today, our delegation… came to Taiwan to make unequivocally clear we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan,” she said at the event with Tsai.

Before leaving Taiwan, Pelosi also met with several dissidents who have previously been in the crosshairs of China’s wrath — including Tiananmen protest student leader Wu’er Kaixi. 

“Both the United States and Taiwan governments need to… conduct more in defending human rights,” Wu’er said.

Pelosi’s delegation is headed to South Korea, her next stop in an Asia tour that has included visits to Singapore and Malaysia. She will wrap up her trip in Japan.

After her departure, Taiwan’s defence ministry announced late Wednesday that 27 Chinese warplanes had entered the island’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ).

Over the last two years, Beijing has ramped up military incursions into Taiwan’s ADIZ — which is not the same as the island’s territorial airspace, but includes a far greater area — but that is still a relatively rare occurrence.

The ministry published a map that showed 16 Su-30s and 6 J-11s had crossed the so-called “median line” of the Taiwan Strait — an unofficial boundary in the narrow waterway, which separates the island from the mainland and straddles vital shipping lanes.

– ‘High alert’ –

President Joe Biden’s administration said in the run-up to Pelosi’s visit that US policy towards Taiwan remained unchanged.

This means support for its government while diplomatically recognising Beijing over Taipei, and opposing a formal independence declaration by Taiwan or a forceful takeover by China.

Beijing summoned US Ambassador Nicholas Burns over Pelosi’s visit, while the Chinese military declared it was on “high alert” and would “launch a series of targeted military actions in response” to the visit.

The drills will include “long-range live ammunition shooting” in the Taiwan Strait.

The zone of Chinese exercises will be within 20 kilometres (12 miles) of Taiwan’s shoreline at some points, according to coordinates released by the Chinese military.

Taiwan’s defence ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang said Wednesday that some of the areas of China’s drills “breach into… (Taiwan’s) territorial waters”. 

“This is an irrational move to challenge the international order.”

But a source with the Chinese military told AFP that the exercises would be staged “in preparation for actual combat”. 

“If the Taiwanese forces come into contact with the PLA on purpose and accidentally fire a gun, the PLA will take stern countermeasures, and all the consequences will be borne by the Taiwanese side,” the source warned. 

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which sets the government’s China policies, accused Beijing of “vicious intimidation” and called for democratic countries to “unite and take a solemn stand to punish and deter” Beijing.

The G7 condemned the planned drills, saying in a statement there is “no justification to use a visit as pretext for aggressive military activity in the Taiwan Strait”, and Beijing’s “escalatory response risks increasing tensions and destabilising the region”.

– ‘We shouldn’t be too worried’ –

Beijing has long used diplomatic, military and economic pressure on Taiwan.

China has announced curbs on the import of fruit and fish from Taiwan, citing the detection of pesticide residue and the coronavirus. It also halted shipments of sand to the island.

Outside the Taiwanese parliament, 31-year-old computer programmer Frank Chen shrugged off the Chinese warnings over Pelosi’s visit.

“I think China will take more threatening actions and ban more Taiwanese products, but we shouldn’t be too worried,” he told AFP.

There was a small group of pro-China demonstrators outside parliament as well.

“The United States uses Taiwan as a pawn in its confrontation with China,” Lee Kai-dee, a 71-year-old retired researcher, told AFP.

“If the United States continues to act this way, Taiwan will end up like Ukraine.”

China has vowed to annex self-ruled, democratic Taiwan one day, by force if necessary.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February heightened fears in Taiwan that China may similarly follow through on its threats to annex the island.