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Asian stocks fell for a second day as negotiations over raising the US debt ceiling remained at an

A prominent US lawmaker is urging Washington to strike back against China for its decision to bar Micron

The South Carolina Senate on Tuesday passed a six-week abortion ban despite the fact that every woman senator in the chamber, Republican and Democrat, voted against it. The abortion ban will now go to the desk of Gov Henry McMaster, a Republican. If Mr McMaster does sign the bill as expected, it will be another blow to people seeking abortion care in the southeast. Nearly every other state in the region has enacted abortion bans since the fall of Roe v Wade last year. If Mr McMaster signs the ban into law, it is likely to face a legal challenge. The South Carolina Supreme Court earlier this struck down a previous version of a six-week abortion ban as unconstitutional. But that didn’t stop Republican men in the state legislature and the male Republican governor from pushing to pass a ban anyway. Six-week bans on abortion are considered near total bans because many people don’t know they’re pregnant until more than six weeks after conception. This bill may make it hard for people to get legal abortion care in the state even if they do know they’re pregnant before six weeks are up. The bill requires people to have two in-person doctors’ visits and two ultrasounds before they can get an abortion. Many Republican-controlled states have passed severely restrictive abortion bans over the past year-plus. But the optics in South Carolina, a state Donald Trump carried by just over 11 points in the 2020 election, are striking. The five women in the South Carolina Senate all united in opposition to the bill, calling themselves the “Sister Senators.” On two previous occassions, they and several male Republican senators had united to block the Senate from passing an abortion ban sent to them by the state House. This time, however, those male Republican senators relented and voted for the bill — meaning that it passed with only men voting for it. The Republican women senators who opposed the bill, Sens Sandy Senn, Katrina Shealy, and Penry Gustafson, pushed to put the issue to voters in the form of a ballot measure or pass a 12-week ban instead. But they were rebuffed by the more conservative state House and Republican leadership. The New York Times reported that Shane Massey, the Senate majority leader, argued that the state had become “the abortion capital of the Southeast.” If that was ever the case, it likely won’t be for long — and with North Carolina passing an abortion ban of its own in recent weeks, many people in the South will likely be unable to obtain legal abortion care. Read More Mother forced to give birth to stillborn son joins lawsuit against Texas abortion ban South Carolina's only women senators to resist new abortion restrictions up for debate

Japanese stocks fell for a second day as an impasse in US debt ceiling negotiations convinced some investors

Ron DeSantis will officially enter the 2024 presidential race on Wednesday following months of speculation. The Florida governor will take part in a live Twitter event with Elon Musk on Wednesday night, NBC News reports. Afterward, the campaign will release an official launch video. On Tuesday night Casey DeSantis kicked off her husband’s campaign by posting a video of him getting ready to go on stage in front of an American flag. “America is worth the fight... Every. Single. Time,” Ms DeSantis tweeted along with the expensively produced video. On Monday, Mr DeSantis, 44, teased his 2024 bid while speaking at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando in which he outlined his vision for a conservative grip on the Supreme Court to last a quarter of a century. In what appeared to be a subtle swipe at Donald Trump he announced his plans to run for eight years – something Mr Trump cannot do. Mr DeSantis, 44, is seen as Mr Trump’s biggest rival for the Republican vote with several Republican lawmakers and right-wing media rallying behind him after the midterms. However, the latest polls show Mr DeSantis trailing Mr Trump. This comes at a time when Mr DeSantis is going to war with Disney and pushing back on the NAACP‘s advisory warning travellers that Florida is “openly hostile” towards Black people, people of colour and LGBT+ people due to his laws. Read More College student who tracked Elon Musk’s private jet is now following Ron DeSantis Who is Casey DeSantis? What we know about Florida governor Ron’s wife who could become America’s first lady DeSantis responds to NAACP call for tourists to boycott Florida

Sen Rick Scott of Florida announced on Tuesday that he was issuing a “formal travel advisory” for “socialists” visiting the state of Florida. Mr Scott’s so-called travel advisory comes after the NAACP issued its own travel advisory warning Black people about the perils of visiting a state that has become a bastion of far right policy in the last several years under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis. “Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals,” the NAACP advisory read. “Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.” The NAACP warning comes just more than a month after Equality Florida, one of the state’s leading LGBTQ+ organisations, issued a travel advisory for LGBTQ+ visitors. Mr Scott, a former governor of Florida whose personal worth is well over $200m, mocked the language used by the NAACP in his press release. “Florida is openly hostile toward Socialists, Communists, and those that enable them,” Mr Scott said. “Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by Socialists and others who work in the Biden Administration. Mr Scott also claimed that he was issuing the press release in response to “Biden Administration attempts to erase capitalism,” though he offered no evidence to substantiate his claim. Mr Scott has long been considered one of the most ambitious members of the Republican Senate caucus. Last year, he led the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NSRC) as the Republicans failed to retake the chamber, then challenged Sen Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for the position of minority leader. He was soundly defeated. The travel advisories issued by the NAACP, Equality Florida, and the Florida Immigrant Coalition highlight the extent to which those and other civil rights groups are alarmed by Florida’s political trajectory. In the last year-plus, the state has banned gender affirming care for minors, limited or banned discussions of race, gender, and sexuality in public schools, banned abortion after six weeks, and more. Mr DeSantis, the governor driving much of that legislation, is expected to announce that he’s running for president on Wednesday in a conversation with Twitter’s Elon Musk. Mr Scott, who at one point was considering a presidential campaign of his own, will instead run for re-election to the Senate. Read More DeSantis’s wife launches his presidential campaign with first 2024 video Montana first to ban people dressed in drag from reading to children in schools, libraries Florida school bans poem recited by Amanda Gorman at Biden inauguration NAACP advises against traveling to Florida: ‘Openly hostile toward African Americans’

The Texas Legislature meets for just five months every other year to pass a budget and get through

David Sacks, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, will host Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in an audio chat on Twitter Spaces on Wednesday (24 May) where Mr DeSantis is expected to announce his campaign for 2024 president. Mr Sacks, 50, is a longtime friend of Mr Musk and supporter of Mr DeSantis. Though Mr Sacks’ name is not as prominent as other tech-industry giants, the entrepreneur has a long history of leading and investing in major companies like PayPal, Yammer, Facebook, Airbnb and more. In more recent years, Mr Sacks has become a major donor to political campaigns for individual Republicans like JD Vance and Mr DeSantis. What experience does Mr Sacks have? Mr Sacks – who was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1972 and moved to Tennessee with his family as a child – was the Chief Operations Officer (COO) and head of product for PayPal from 1999 until 2002. He has been dubbed part of the “Paypal Mafia”, a group of former PayPal employees who went on to have successful tech companies- like Mr Musk. In 2008, he founded Yammer which became one of the fastest-growing software-as-a-service companies to exist. In 2012, Yammer was acquired by Microsft for $1.2 bn. Mr Sacks co-founded the venture capital firm Craft Ventures in 2017, where he remains a partner. He also has the podcast All-In alongside fellow entrepreneurs Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis and David Friedberg. Last year, Mr Sacks was widely reported to be helping out his longtime friend, Mr Musk, behind-the-scenes when his fellow South African-born friend acquired Twitter. What does Mr Sacks believe in? Like Mr Musk, Mr Sacks says he is a proponent of free speech. In a blog post on Medium in 2021, Mr Sacks criticised big tech social media platforms for permanently banning politicians. His belief in free-speech was echoed more recently in an interview with conservative personality Benny Johnson. Mr Sacks accused the media of not allowing anti-vaccine activists and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr to speak freely and questioned critics’ justification of saying Mr Kennedy was spreading misinformation. The entrepreneur also expressed support for Tucker Carlson after he was unexpectedly fired from Fox News. Mr Sacks has also been an outspoken critic of US policy towards Ukraine following the Russian invasion that began in February 2022. In a piece for The American Conservative last year, Mr Sacks proposed a peaceful end to the war which included holding referendums on the future of Donbas and Crimea, both of which were illegally occupied by Russian forces in 2014. On Twitter, Mr Sacks is vocal in criticising the US for its involvement in the Ukraine-Russia conflict and has repeatedly clashed with critics of Vladimir Putin, including former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. In October Mr Musk retweeted an article Mr Sacks wrote for Newsweek in which he argued that continued military support for Ukraine could lead to “Woke War III”. The article itself was a response to the backlash Mr Musk received over a Twitter poll suggesting a peace deal which would strongly favour Russian interests. In his Newsweek article, Mr Sacks wrote: “There will be no peaceful resolution to this conflict that America doesn’t at least have a hand in negotiating, and we should be leading the effort. Instead, we’ve been deferring to the Ukrainians and their maximalist demands, upping the sanctions on Russia as Putin ups his rhetoric against the West.” While he has been criticised for his outspoken views despite lacking a foreign policy background, he has argued that his lack of expertise is actually an advantage: “Not being a member of the MIC [military industrial complex] is clearly an advantage in understanding the conflict.” What political candidates has Mr Sacks supported? Since the 1990s, Mr Sacks has supported both Republican and Democratic candidates according to OpenSecrets. His largest donations have gone toward the PAC supporting GOP Ohio Senator JD Vance, the conservative Purple Good Government PAC, Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom and the Republican National Committee. Over the last two years, Mr Sacks has expressed vocal support for Mr DeSantis on Fox News and Twitter as well as donated to his political campaign. Read More Ron DeSantis to launch 2024 presidential bid on Twitter with Elon Musk Can the chaos from Silicon Valley Bank's fall be contained? Casey DeSantis gives cheeky response to reports husband is launching 2024 campaign The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

Canada should hold hearings on foreign meddling in elections but shouldn’t launch a formal public inquiry into allegations

Donald Trump appeared virtually in Manhattan criminal court on 23 May for the first time since he was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Judge Juan Merchan disclosed the terms of a protective order that prohibits the former president from publicly discussing evidence in the case after prosecutors with the New York District Attorney’s office share information with Mr Trump’s legal team in a case stemming from hush money payments during his 2016 campaign. A trial is set to begin on 25 March 2024, days after voting begins in Republican presidential primaries as Mr Trump once again seeks the GOP nomination. He has pleaded not guilty. Mr Trump grew agitated with the announcement of the trial date, waved his hands and shook his head in disapproval, then folded his arms in frustration as he begins to stare down what could be a weeks-long trial in a critical period in the middle of his 2024 campaign. Prosecutors have argued that a protective order was necessary to keep Mr Trump – who already has repeatedly lashed out against Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Merchan – from broadcasting information about the case before a jury has been selected and a trial begins. Mr Trump will be allowed to publicly discuss the case and defend himself in the public sphere, as he continues to adamantly reject the charges as a “witch hunt” against him, but he risks being held in contempt of court if he uses any evidence handed to his team in an attempt to target witnesses, court staff or others involved with the case. On Tuesday, the former president appeared on a video screen in front of two American flags with golden fringes, seated next to his attorney Todd Blanche. A six-page order on 8 May prohibits the presumptive frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president, who has used his online bully pulpit with an audience of obedient followers to broadcast veiled threats and insults at his perceived enemies, from disseminating “covered materials” on social media platforms “including, but not limited, to Truth Social, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, Snapchat, or YouTube, without prior approval from the court.” Mr Trump also cannot disclose the names and identifying information of any personnel from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, “other than sworn members of law enforcement, assistant district attorneys, and expert or fact witnesses (other than summary witnesses)” until a jury has been selected, according to the order. Mr Bagg’s office can also redact identifying information from discovery materials, the judge has said. The former president is “very concerned that his First Amendment rights are being violated by this protective order,” Mr Blanche told the judge on Tuesday. “It’s certainly not a gag order,” Judge Merchan said. “It’s certainly not my intention in any way to impede Mr Trump’s ability to campaign ... He’s certainly free to deny the charges,” he added. “He’s free to do just about anything that doesn’t violate the specific terms of this protective order.” Mr Trump, his former attorney Michael Cohen and the former owner of the National Enquirer David Pecker allegedly worked in concert to“identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects” leading up to the 2016 presidential election, according to prosecutors. The alleged payments were used to cover up sex scandals as part of a “conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election,” according to prosecutors. Hours after he first appeared in criminal court on 4 April, after the judge warned him against making any incendiary remarks or personal attacks, Mr Trump immediately flew back to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he went on to do just that. “I have a Trump-hating judge, with a Trump-hating wife and family,” he said that night. He called Mr Bragg “a local failed district attorney” and a “criminal” who should resign. The former president is at the centre of several other civil and criminal investigations, including a $250m lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James, special counsel probes from the US Department of Justice into January 6 and mishandling of classified White House documents at Mar-a-Lago, and a criminal case in Georgia stemming from his attempts to pressure officials to overturn that state’s election results in 2020. Earlier this month, a federal jury found Mr Trump liable for for battery and defamation in a lawsuit from the writer E Jean Carroll, who said the former president raped her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. Jurors agreed that Mr Trump “sexually abused” her and then defamed her when he denied her allegations. She was awarded $5m in damages for both claims. Read More Trump news - live: Trump jealously complains about Dominion payout ahead of hush money court appearance

China's new ambassador arrived in the United States on Tuesday as both the US and Chinese governments have indicated that they want to put relations between their two nations back on track.

Donald Trump appeared virtually in Manhattan criminal court on 23 May for the first time since he was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Judge Juan Merchan is disclosing the terms of a protective order that prohibits the former president from publicly discussing evidence in the case after prosecutors with the New York District Attorney’s office share information with Mr Trump’s legal team in a case stemming from hush money payments during his 2016 campaign. A trial is set to begin on 25 March, 2024, days after voting begins in Republican presidential primaries as Mr Trump once again seeks the GOP nomination. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors have argued that the order was necessary to keep Mr Trump – who already has repeatedly lashed out against Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Merchan – from broadcasting information about the case before a jury has been selected and a trial begins. Mr Trump will be allowed to publicly discuss the case and defend himself in the public sphere, as he continues to adamantly reject the charges as a “witch hunt” against him, but he risks being held in contempt of court if he uses any evidence handed to his team in an attempt to target witnesses, court staff or others involved with the case. On Tuesday, the former president appeared on a video screen in front of two American flags with golden fringes, seated next to his attorney Todd Blanche. A six-page order prohibits the presumptive frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president, who has used his online bully pulpit with an audience of obedient followers to broadcast veiled threats and insults at his perceived enemies, from disseminating “covered materials” on social media platforms “including, but not limited, to Truth Social, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, Snapchat, or YouTube, without prior approval from the court.” Mr Trump also cannot disclose the names and identifying information of any personnel from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, “other than sworn members of law enforcement, assistant district attorneys, and expert or fact witnesses (other than summary witnesses)” until a jury has been selected, according to the order. Mr Bagg’s office can also redact identifying information from discovery materials, the judge has said. The former president is “very concerned that his First Amendment rights are being violated by this protective order,” Mr Blanche told the judge on Tuesday. “It’s certainly not a gag order,” Judge Merchan said. “It’s certainly not my intention in any way to impede Mr Trump’s ability to campain ... He’s certainly free to deny the charges,” he added. “He’s free to do just about anything that doesn’t violate the specific terms of this protective order.” Mr Trump, his former attorney Michael Cohen and the former owner of the National Enquirer David Pecker allegedly worked in concert to“identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects” leading up to the 2016 presidential election, according to prosecutors. This is a developing story Read More Trump news - live: Trump jealously complains about Dominion payout ahead of hush money court appearance