International
Biden believes that Florida voters will vote in favor of protecting access to abortion
U.S. President Democrat Joe Biden defended women’s reproductive rights in Florida and expressed his confidence that voters in this state will vote in favor of protecting access to abortion in a referendum next November.
During a speech he gave to some 200 guests at an event at Hillsborough Community College, in Tampa, Biden alluded to a new state law that will enter into force on May 1 and that will prohibit abortion from the sixth week of pregnancy, when, he said, many women still do not know that they are in pregnancy.
“This extreme law will affect 4 million Florida women,” lamented the president, who added that access to the termination of pregnancy should not depend on the state in which a person lives.
“It’s about women’s rights,” she said, which should be protected at the federal level. To then warn that a new mandate from Donald Trump will bring with it a national ban on abortion.
With the restrictions of Florida, where a ban is in force from the fifteenth week, there are 21 states, or one in three women, who are under some kind of restriction on access to abortion, as Biden’s campaign team highlighted on Monday.
“It is not inevitable, we can stop it when they vote,” said the Democrat, who in the elections next November aspires to re-election.
He warned that a new mandate of Trump (2017-2021), the virtual Republican candidate, carries the risk of a ban on this practice of national scope. He added that if he maintains power, he will veto any initiative sent to him by Congress in this regard.
Biden insisted on the cases of women who are forced to travel “thousands of miles” in order to have access to “basic care.” Or doctors threatened with their prosecution if they go against state anti-abortion laws. As is the case in Arizona, where a law of 1864 was re-established that does not allow abortion in almost any circumstances.
In June 2022, the Conservative-majority Supreme Court of the United States ended the federal protections established by the Roe vs. Wade case and that prevented states from legislating on the matter, from which a cascading effect was generated in conservative states.
Since then, abortion has become a protagonist of the current electoral campaign, in which Democrats hope to attract voters to the polls of key states such as Florida, where voters will have to decide whether to approve a constitutional amendment that protects access to this practice.
In Florida, the inclusion of a referendum on the voting card issued in the state Supreme Court, after the campaign against the state governor, Republican and former presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, and prosecutor Ashley Moody, with a result in favor of the civil organizations promoting the amendment.
Florida media have echoed different polls about this referendum. Which reflect that the percentages of undecided about the question are not scarce, and that it could explain the presence of the president in this southern state.
After the event, held on the Dale Mabry campus of Hillsborough Community College, the president was part of a more informal event with Nikki Fried, the head of the Florida Democratic Party, and 50 other people, in which he said that Florida is still “at stake” in the November elections.
“These are basic and old-fashioned choices,” where the key is to get people to go out to vote, he said.
In the last electoral cycles, Republicans have won in Florida, a state that was considered “hinge” or ambivalent.
International
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump criticized what he described as unfair fees imposed on American ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand that Washington take back control of the strategic waterway.
“Our Navy and commerce have been threatened in a very unjust and reckless way. The rates that Panama charges are ridiculous,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The president-elect also denounced the growing influence of China in the canal, a situation he called concerning as U.S. businesses depend on the waterway to transport goods between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
“This complete scam against our country will end immediately,” he stated.
The Panama Canal, completed by the United States in 1914, was handed over to Panama under the 1977 treaty signed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Panama took full control of the commercial passage in 1999.
“It was exclusively for Panama to manage, not China or anyone else,” Trump said. “We would never allow it to fall into the wrong hands!”
“If Panama cannot guarantee a ‘safe, efficient, and reliable’ operation of the canal, we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in its entirety, without a doubt,” the Republican added.
Panamanian authorities did not immediately respond to Trump’s statements. While he will assume office on January 20, Trump has been exerting his political influence in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Five percent of global maritime trade passes through the Panama Canal, which allows vessels traveling from Asia to the U.S. East Coast to avoid the long and dangerous route around the southern tip of South America.
The countries that use the Panama Canal the most are the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea.
In October, the Panama Canal Authority reported earnings of nearly $5 billion in the last fiscal year.
International
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised more “destruction” in Ukraine on Sunday, in response to a drone strike that hit a residential building in the city of Kazan, located in central Russia, on Saturday.
Russia accused Ukraine of launching a “massive” drone attack, which struck a luxury apartment block in Kazan, about 1,000 kilometers from the border.
Videos shared on Russian social media show drones hitting a high-rise glass building. No casualties have been reported as a result of the attack.
In his statements, Putin addressed the local leader of Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is located, during a virtual ceremony marking the opening of a road.
The attack in Kazan is the latest in a series of increasingly frequent bombings in this nearly three-year-old conflict. Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
Putin had previously threatened to strike the center of Kyiv with a hypersonic ballistic missile in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the recent Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities were retaliation for Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied missiles to target Russian territory.
International
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
At least nine people were killed on Sunday after a small aircraft crashed in a commercial area of the tourist city of Gramado, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities confirmed.
“There are nine confirmed deaths according to Civil Defense services, and there are no survivors from the plane,” said Cléber dos Santos Lima, director of the Interior Police Department of the Civil Police of the state, in a statement to AFP.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the exact number of passengers and crew aboard the aircraft, a turbo-prop Piper Cheyenne 400. However, Civil Defense had previously stated that “preliminarily, the plane was carrying ten people.”
The plane crashed on Sunday morning “into the chimney of a building, then onto the second floor of a house, and finally fell onto a furniture store,” according to a statement from the Rio Grande do Sul Public Security Secretariat.
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