US Business

The only clinic performing abortions in Mississippi, the state at the heart of the US Supreme Court’s historic about-face on women’s reproductive rights, closed its doors Wednesday for the final time.

The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, nicknamed the Pink House because of the building’s colorful walls, performed its last pregnancy-ending procedures before a law banning all abortions goes into effect in the conservative, impoverished state in the US South.

“Today is a hard day for all of us @ the last abortion provider in Mississippi, The Pink House Fund, which raised donations to keep the institution running, posted on Twitter. 

“It is our last day fighting against all the odds — of being there when no other providers would or could. We are proud of the work we have done here.”

Jackson Women’s Health gained international notoriety for having triggered the legal process that eventually led to the US Supreme Court’s June 24 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that had enshrined the nationwide right to abortion in the United States.

The clinic had filed a lawsuit against a Mississippi law that would restrict abortion to 15 weeks.

With the case, the high court — which has shifted to the right with the appointment of three conservative justices by president Donald Trump — gave each state the freedom to ban or maintain the legality of abortions within their borders.

Thirteen states, anticipating the seismic shift by the court, passed trigger laws designed to take effect immediately after the overturning of Roe.

Mississippi’s law, passed in 2007, carries penalties of up to 10 years in prison for violations, and provides exceptions only in cases of danger to the life of the mother — but not for rape or incest.

The Pink House had asked local courts to block the law, but they refused, leaving the clinic with no choice but to close.

With most neighboring states equally hostile to abortion, women in Mississippi who wish to end a pregnancy will have to resort to using abortion-inducing pills or traveling in some cases hundreds of miles (kilometers) to have an abortion in states like Illinois.

Elsewhere in the country, several other facilities have gone out of business.

Whole Woman’s Health announced Wednesday it was shuttering its four Texas clinics and opening a new one in neighboring New Mexico.

Missouri’s only clinic performing abortions, operated by Planned Parenthood in St. Louis, also stopped all such procedures as of June 23.

Legal battles have delayed the end date in Louisiana, for example, but ultimately abortion access is expected to disappear in about half of the country’s 50 states.

The man who shot dead Grammy-winning rapper Nipsey Hussle in broad daylight on a Los Angeles street in 2019 was convicted of first-degree murder Wednesday.

Eric Holder did not deny killing Hussle — a fast-rising star whose death sent shockwaves through the music community — but his lawyers had argued it was an impulsive crime that took place in the “heat of passion.”

Instead, a jury found Holder had acted with premeditation as he fired at Hussle at least 10 times following a dispute between the two men over claims the assailant was “snitching.”

Holder will be sentenced September 15, and could face life in prison.

The violent killing of Hussle, a former gang member, in front of a clothing store he owned triggered widespread grief in his native Los Angeles and among his superstar peers, who hailed his musical talents and community activism.

Raised in the city’s Crenshaw district, Hussle, who was 33 when he died, had transformed the block he used to hustle on into a retail, job-creating hub for his Marathon Clothing company.

But he remained linked to the gang-ridden world he grew up in.

Holder, a 32-year-old gang member, and Hussle were both avowed members of the same “Rollin 60s” Crips faction.

During opening statements in the trial, prosecutor John McKinney said Hussle had told Holder there were rumors Holder had been “snitching,” before Holder left the parking lot where the two were talking.

When he returned a short time later, Holder “pulls out not one but two guns and starts shooting” in an “explosion of violence.”

In his closing argument, McKinney called the killing “cold-blooded” and “calculated,” saying Holder had “quite a bit of time for premeditation and deliberation.”

But Holder’s attorney told jurors the killing was “an act of impulse and rashness” which should have been charged as manslaughter.

Holder was also convicted on counts of attempted manslaughter and assault with a firearm over two bystanders who were wounded in the shooting.

The month after his 2019 killing, thousands of people gathered for a service in Hussle’s honor, with Stevie Wonder and Snoop Dogg among those paying tribute, and former president Barack Obama penning a letter that was read during the service. 

“While most folks look at the Crenshaw neighborhood where he grew up and see only gangs, bullets and despair, Nipsey saw potential,” wrote Obama. 

“He saw hope. He saw a community that, even through its flaws, taught him to always keep going.”

Hussle — real name Ermias Asghedom — was posthumously honored with two Grammy Awards in 2020 for best rap performance for “Racks in the Middle” and best rap/sung performance for “Higher.”

The evacuation of desperate civilians from Sloviansk pressed on Wednesday as Russian troops pushed towards the eastern Ukrainian city in their campaign to control the Donbas region.

Sloviansk has been hit by heavy bombardment as Russian forces advance westwards on day 133 of the invasion.

“Twenty years of work; everything is lost. No more income, no more wealth,” Yevgen Oleksandrovych, 66, told AFP as he surveyed the site of his car parts shop, destroyed in strikes on Tuesday.

AFP journalists saw rockets slam into Sloviansk’s marketplace and surrounding streets, with firefighters scrambling to put out blazes.

Around a third of the market appeared to have been destroyed, with locals inspecting what was left among the charred ruins.

The remaining part of the market was functioning, with a trickle of shoppers buying fruit and vegetables.

– Sloviansk mayor defiant –

“I will sell it out and that’s it, and we will stay home. We have basements, we will hide there,” said 72-year-old greengrocer Galyna Vasyliivna.

“What we can do? We have nowhere to go, nobody needs us.”

Mayor Vadym Lyakh said around 23,000 people out of a population of 110,000 were still in Sloviansk but claimed Russia had been unable to surround the city.

“Since the beginning of hostilities, 17 residents of the community have died, 67 have been injured,” he said.

“Evacuation is ongoing. We take people out every day.” Many of the evacuees were taken by bus to the city of Dnipro, further west.

“The city is well fortified. Russia does not manage to advance to the city,” the mayor said.

Vitaliy, a plumber, said his wife and their daughter, who is six months pregnant, were evacuated from Sloviansk on Wednesday.

“I am afraid for my wife,” he told AFP. “Here, after what happened yesterday, they hit the city centre.

“I sent my wife (away), and I have no more choice: tomorrow I will join the army.”

The eastern Donbas is mainly comprised of the Lugansk region, which Russian forces have almost entirely captured, and the Donetsk region to its southwest — the focus of Moscow’s attack and the location of Sloviansk.

The fall of Lysychansk in Lugansk on Sunday, a week after the Ukrainian army also retreated from the neighbouring city of Severodonetsk, has freed up Russian troops.

Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russian forces killed five civilians and injured 21 in the region on Tuesday.

The governor of Lugansk, Sergiy Gayday, insisted Russia did not control the entire Lugansk region, saying: “Fighting still keeps going in two villages.”

– Irish PM sees ‘evil’ –

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin was in Ukraine Wednesday to voice Dublin’s solidarity. He visited Borodyanka and Bucha outside Kyiv, two towns that have become symbols of the alleged war crimes committed by Russian soldiers.

“In the 21st century, to see such evil — very, very difficult to comprehend,” he said before talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

In his evening address Zelensky hailed new heavy Western artillery for boosting Ukraine’s firepower.

“The weapons we have received from our partners have started working very powerfully. Their accuracy is exactly as it should be,” he said.

“Our defenders inflict notable blows on warehouses and other points which are important for the logistics of the occupiers. And this significantly reduces the offensive potential of the Russian army.”

– Russia toughens laws –

The EU on Wednesday set out a harder focus on energy given Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“We need to prepare for further disruptions of gas supply, even a complete cut-off from Russia,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament.

The EU has launched a 300-billion-euro ($310-billion) plan to wean itself off Russian fossil fuel supplies.

Russia’s parliament on Wednesday introduced harsh prison terms for acting against national security, and for “confidential” cooperation with foreigners and helping them to act against Russia’s interests.

Rights activists fear the new legislation will be used to snuff out any last vestiges of dissent.

Lawmakers also approved legislation to create a patriotic youth movement, in a move reminiscent of Soviet-era youth organisations.

Meanwhile former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev invoked the possibility of nuclear war if the International Criminal Court moves to punish Moscow for alleged crimes in Ukraine.

“The idea to punish a country that has the largest nuclear arsenal is absurd,” said Medvedev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.

“And potentially creates a threat to the existence of mankind.”

burs-rjm/bgs/mlm

Water in Utah’s Great Salt Lake has fallen to its lowest level ever recorded, authorities announced this week, a result of the ongoing drought impacting the western United States which scientists warn has been exacerbated by climate change.

The average depth of the massive saltwater lake, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, fluctuates naturally with the seasons and local precipitation.

But the economically and environmentally important basin has never been this low since records began in 1847, when Mormons first arrived to establish Salt Lake City.

The previous record-low was set in October 2021, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said in a press release Tuesday.

“This is not the type of record we like to break,” Joel Ferry, executive director of Utah’s Department of Natural Resources, said in the joint statement.

“Urgent action is needed to help protect and preserve this critical resource. It’s clear the lake is in trouble,” he added.

Based on trends from prior years, “lake levels will likely continue to decrease until fall or early winter when the amount of incoming water to the lake equals or exceeds evaporative losses,” the USGS said.

According to estimates published by Utah state government, the Great Salt Lake contributes up to $1.3 billion annually to the local economy, through a wide range of industries including mining, fish farming and tourism.

The lake’s depletion could also threaten the large number of migratory birds which stop there every year, and could have serious health repercussions for the local population.

Scientists warned recently that dangerous arsenic-rich sediment lies along the lake bottom and could be spread by the wind if exposed to the air.

Almost the entire American west is in the grip of a major drought, which has resulted in reduced water flow to rivers and dramatically lowered the levels of key reservoirs including Lake Mead and Lake Powell.

Climatologists note that there is historical precedent for droughts lasting longer than 20 years in the region, but that their severity has increased because of rising global temperatures due to human activity.

US President Joe Biden’s communications director is quitting, the White House said Wednesday, the latest in a number of departures of high-ranking officials ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The administration said in a statement confirming Kate Bedingfield’s exit later this month that she wanted to spend more time with her husband and young children after three years leading Biden’s White House and campaign messaging. 

“She has played a huge role in everything the president has achieved — from his second term as vice president, through the campaign, and since coming to the White House,” said White House chief of staff Ron Klain.

“Her strategic acumen, intense devotion to the president’s agenda, and fierce work on his behalf are unmatched.”

Bedingfield’s announcement comes amid a number of recent departures including Biden’s rapid response director Mike Gwin and press secretary Jen Psaki, who left the White House in May for a cable news role.

Democrats in Congress have begun to voice frustrations over Biden’s messaging strategy amid a series of setbacks in his domestic agenda, from the gutting of abortion rights by the Supreme Court to soaring inflation.

Several lower-level aides have also left the communications team in recent weeks, marking a period of upheaval in the White House that has also seen the return of senior advisor Anita Dunn after an absence of less than a year.

“From long before we launched the campaign, Kate Bedingfield was a fierce defender of the president and ensured that our message in 2020 and in the White House was consistent with his voice and principles,” said Dunn, who is taking charge of planning for Biden’s re-election campaign.

“Her leadership helped us tell the story about the fight Joe Biden is making for the working families of America. She’ll always be a core member of this family, even as she takes a little time to put her own family first.”

A young American woman will be allowed to plead not guilty to murder on the grounds her victim sexually abused her, according to a decision issued by a US judge Wednesday in a closely watched case. 

In June 2018, then-17-year-old Chrystul Kizer allegedly killed 34-year-old Randall Volar at his home in Kenosha, Wisconsin before setting his house on fire and driving away in his car.

Kizer told detectives she “had gotten upset and she was tired of (him) touching her,” and told the Washington Post that Volar had paid her for sexual acts, a crime which is considered sex trafficking of a minor in the northern state. 

After much legal back and forth, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin on Wednesday finally ruled that Kizer’s legal team could claim self-defense from sexual abuse in her murder defense.

“Even an offense that is unforeseeable or that does not occur immediately after a trafficking offense is committed can be a direct result of the trafficking offense, so long as there is still the necessary logical connection between the offense and the trafficking.”

Before his death, Volar had already been the subject of an investigation into the sexual abuse of minors — pornographic videos had been found at his home, including ones showing Kizer herself.

After his death, Kizer was charged with murder and, if convicted, would have faced a sentence of automatic life in prison, as required by Wisconsin law. 

But Kizer’s lawyer invoked a Wisconsin law allowing minor sex trafficking victims to be absolved from crimes committed as a “direct” cause of the abuse.

Prosecutors pushed back — they claimed Volar’s murder was not the “direct result” of the abuse Kizer suffered, but that it had been planned as part of Kizer’s efforts to steal his car.

But, the state’s high court ruled, “unlike many crimes, which occur at discrete points in time, human trafficking can trap victims in a cycle of seemingly inescapable abuse that can continue for months or even years,” a situation which Kizer can point to as part of her criminal defense.

Despite the ongoing legal delays, Kizer has been met with strong public support, including from celebrities such as actress Alyssa Milano, while supporters raised $400,000 for the then-teen’s bail fund in June 2020.

And an online petition calling for the murder charges against Kizer to be dropped on self-defense grounds received 1.5 million signatures.

The 21-year-old man arrested for a deadly mass shooting at a July 4 parade in an affluent Chicago suburb has confessed and admitted he considered a second attack while on the run, officials said Wednesday.

Illinois State Police also addressed mounting questions about how Robert Crimo, who had a history of mental health issues and threatening behavior, was able to legally purchase at least five firearms.

After fleeing the parade shooting scene in Highland Park, Illinois, Crimo drove to Madison, Wisconsin where he thought about attacking another July 4 event, police said.

“He seriously contemplated using the firearm he had in his vehicle to commit another shooting,” police spokesman Christopher Covelli said.

Prosecutor Ben Dillon said during a bond hearing for Crimo that the suspect had confessed to carrying out the shooting in Highland Park, which left seven people dead and at least three dozen injured.

Among those killed were the parents of a two-year-old boy, Aiden McCarthy. A GoFundMe donation page set up for the child had raised over $2.5 million as of Wednesday.

Judge Theodore Potkonjak ordered Crimo, who has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder, to be held without bail and to appear on July 28 for a preliminary hearing.

Crimo, dressed in a black shirt, attended by video and listened impassively as prosecutors recounted details of the shooting.

He was asked by the judge if he had a lawyer and responded that he did not. The judge appointed a public defender.

Dillon, the prosecutor, said Crimo had “provided a voluntary statement confessing to his actions.”

Crimo climbed on to a rooftop overlooking the parade route armed with a semi-automatic rifle, he said.

“(He) dressed up as a girl and covered his tattoos with makeup” to conceal his identity, Dillon added.

Crimo has several distinctive facial tattoos including the word “Awake” above his left eyebrow and the number “47” on his temple.

– History of mental health issues –

Dillon said Crimo fired three 30-round magazines from his rifle into the parade crowd before fleeing.

He dropped his weapon in an alley and then drove to Madison armed with another gun in his car.

He considered attacking a celebration there but “indications (are) that he didn’t put enough planning forward to commit another attack,” Covelli said.

Crimo returned to the Chicago area and was captured about eight hours after the initial attack following a brief car chase.

According to police, Crimo has a history of mental health problems and threatening behavior, but his firearms were purchased legally.

Police were called to Crimo’s home twice in 2019: once in April to investigate a suicide attempt and again in September because a relative said he had threatened to “kill everyone” in the family.

Police removed a collection of knives from the home but did not make any arrests. The knives were returned later after Crimo’s father said they were his.

In December 2019, Crimo, who was then 19, applied for a firearms permit which was sponsored by his father because he was under 21, police said.

Because no formal complaints had been lodged in connection with the earlier incidents, there were no grounds to deny the permit, police said.

Crimo subsequently purchased several other guns.

– Foiled attack in Richmond –

Crimo, whose father owns a deli in Highland Park, was an amateur musician billing himself as “Awake the Rapper.”

The authorities are investigating online posts and videos made by Crimo which include violent content alluding to guns and shootings.

One YouTube video featured cartoons of a gunman and people being shot.

“I need to just do it,” a voice-over says. “It is my destiny. Everything has led up to this. Nothing can stop me, not even myself.”

The July 4 shooting was the latest in a wave of gun violence plaguing the United States, where about 40,000 deaths a year are caused by firearms, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The divisive debate over gun control was reignited by two massacres in May that saw 10 Black people gunned down at an upstate New York supermarket, and 19 children and two teachers slain at an elementary school in Texas.

Police in Richmond, Virginia, said Wednesday they had foiled a potential mass shooting during the city’s Independence Day celebrations after receiving a tip from a member of the public.

The call led police to a residence on July 1 where they found two assault rifles, a handgun, and 223 rounds of ammunition.

Julio Alvardo-Dubon, 52, and Rolman Balacarcel, 38, were arrested on firearms charges.

“Their intent was to conduct a mass shooting at our 4th of July celebrations,” Richmond police chief Gerald Smith said.

A GoFundMe donation drive for a two-year-old boy who lost both his parents in the July 4 parade shooting in Illinois has raised more than $2.5 million.

Kevin McCarthy, 37, and his wife, Irina McCarthy, 35, were among the seven people who died on Monday when a gunman opened fire on the parade crowd from a rooftop in a Chicago suburb.

Their son, Aiden, was found wandering alone near the parade route after the shooting and was later returned to family members, according to the GoFundMe page set up for the child.

“At two years old, Aiden is left in the unthinkable position; to grow up without his parents,” said Irina Colon, the woman who set up the donation page.

“Aiden will be cared for by his loving family and he will have a long road ahead to heal, find stability, and ultimately navigate life as an orphan,” Colon said.

“On behalf of his family, and with their permission, I am establishing this fundraiser to support him and the caregivers who will be tasked with raising, caring for, and supporting Aiden,” she added.

As of Wednesday afternoon, donations had topped $2.52 million, including $18,000 from billionaire investor Bill Ackman.

Robert Crimo, a 21-year-old man with a history of mental issues and threatening behavior, has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder in connection with the parade shooting.

President Joe Biden placed organized labor at the heart of his economic vision Wednesday, as he sought to counter months of bad news on inflation and a stalled domestic agenda with a pledge of commitment to the American worker.

The Democratic leader’s trip to Cleveland, in the industrial heartland state of Ohio, came amid steady job growth — but with sky-high living costs threatening his party’s prospects in November’s midterm elections.

Meanwhile, a program of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve has sparked ominous warnings that the world’s largest economy is headed for a significant slowdown or recession.

Biden told a crowd including plant workers and union organizers in the Midwestern battleground state that a fairly-paid working class was the key to see the country through economic headwinds. 

“I campaigned to restore the backbone of this country, the middle class and unions. Because I know this: the middle class built America (and) unions built the middle class,” he said.

He spent much of his speech criticizing his predecessor Donald Trump, saying the former president had handed off an economy with “no real plan” for post-pandemic recovery, with millions out of work and families joining long lines in their cars at food banks.

“The previous administration lost more jobs on its watch than any administration since Herbert Hoover… based on failed trickle-down economics that benefit the wealthiest Americans and hit the middle class, the working people, the hardest,” Biden said.

“We came in with a fundamentally different economic vision, an economy that grows from the bottom up and the middle out, for everyone.”

Biden credited the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, a coronavirus relief package passed in March last year, for record job growth and restoring “basic dignity” to workers.

The 46th US president has made inflation his top priority, though lawmakers among his own Democratic ranks are increasingly voicing frustration over the White House’s struggle for a coherent action plan.

Some strategists have criticized what they see as Biden’s lack of leadership on a host of progressive touchstones, including climate change, abortion rights and gun violence.

The president was rewarded with cheers however as he announced a lifeline for troubled pensions that will help up to three million workers and retirees avoid benefit cuts as steep as 70 percent.

The visit was the sixth of Biden’s presidency to Ohio, a key midterm target won easily by Trump in the last two elections.

– ‘Biden failure tour’ –

Democrat Tim Ryan is running neck and neck in the Buckeye State with Republican J.D. Vance, the author of the memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” for an open seat that could determine control of the evenly-divided Senate.  

Biden’s efforts to appeal to the working class in America’s “Rust Belt” took a hit recently as Intel postponed the groundbreaking for a computer chip plant near the state capital of Columbus. 

The decision came with planned investment of more than $50 billion in the semiconductor industry stalled in Congress, undermining Biden’s efforts to showcase his commitment to US manufacturing.

Biden has been buffeted by recent setbacks, including the Supreme Court’s evisceration of abortion rights and several recent mass shootings that shocked and angered the country.

A Gallup survey published this week found just 23 percent of Americans have confidence in the presidency, compared with 38 percent 12 months ago.

“Gas prices and inflation are up, paychecks and real wages are down, and another Biden failure tour stop will not help struggling families and small businesses,” Ronna McDaniel, head of the Republican National Committee said.

“Joe Biden is a burden to every Buckeye Democrat, as Ohioans know that the left’s agenda has made it more difficult for Americans to get by.”