List of All Articles with Tag 'politics'

New rules passed by El Salvador’s congress Wednesday will allow courts to try accused gang members in mass trials, in an effort to expedite tens of thousands of cases for those detained under the country’s crackdown on street gangs. The changes to the country’s criminal code are just the latest in President Nayib Bukele’s war on the Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gangs, which began last year when the leader declared a “state of emergency” in response to a wave of violence. His government suspended constitutional rights and has detained 71,976 people accused of being in gangs, or 1% of the country’s population. They have been jammed into prisons, fueling waves of accusations of human rights violations. As little as 30% of those detained have clear ties to organized crime, the human rights group Cristosal estimates. The new rules allow trials to be held for groups of defendants based on what area they lived in and what “clique” — a smaller group within a gang — controlled that territory. The legislation also increases prison time for those found to be gang leaders from 45 years to 60. The government has used similar strategies in other parts of the crackdown, rounding up large groups of people often based on how they looked and where they lived. It also carried out mass arraignments, at which judges faced anywhere from 50 to 500 detainees at once, often not considering documents and other evidence that speak to the character of those facing charges. The new trial rules, which were proposed weeks before, were pushed through by the Bukele-supporting majority in congress, while a smaller set of opposition politicians voted against the change. Johnny Wright Sol, from the conservative Nuestro Tiempo party, called the changes “a scheme designed to carry out the government’s plan to keep all those detained without a firm conviction.” “Doing these kinds of mass convictions just as they’ve done with captures is violating due process and violating the individual rights of all those accused,” he said. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) delivered an emotional speech about his disability to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Mr Fetterman spoke via video message in his signature Carhartt shirt at the American Association of People with Disabilities’ celebration of the landmark law that passed in 1990 with overwhelming bipartisan support. During his campaign for Senate last year, Mr Fetterman suffered a stroke which affected his auditory processing. As a result, he now uses speech-to-text technology. “The reality is that all Americans should be able to get access to the support that they need,” he said. “The Americans with Disabilities Act makes this possible.” In February, Mr Fetterman checked into Walter Reed Medical Center to undergo treatment for depression. He checked out at the end of March and has since returned to the United States Senate. “I want to thank your community for the work that you have done to make sure people with disabilities can run for and win office,” he said. Mr Fetterman appeared at the celebration with other elected officials including Sen Tammy Duckworth (D-IL); Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the former House majority whip; and Rep Debbie Dingell (D-MI). Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also attended. “Now that I’m a senator, I’m going to continue to fight for disability rights in DC,” Mr Fetterman said. But many of the people at the event also highlighted the work that needed to be done to make places more accessible. Ms Duckworth, who lost both of her legs serving in the Iraq War, talked about how she took her two daughters to see the Barbie movie but could not go because the elevator did not work. “And so my two girls watched a movie with their nanny with me sitting outside for two and a half hours waiting for them to be done,” Ms Duckworth said, noting how nobody had informed her that the elevator was broken until after she bought a ticket. “It is 2023 folks we can and will and should do better.” She also pointed out how it is still legal to pay people with disabilities below the minimum wage and that medical equipment continues to get broken when people with disabilities travel by air. As a result, she said she is pushing for wheelchairs to be considered complex medical devices so they could not be destroyed. Similarly, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appeared over the video to discuss how the Transportation Department had begun preliminary work to stay in their wheelchairs as they fly. “And today we’re pleased to officially announce the rule that will increase the size of accessibility of airplane bathrooms to better accommodate access on board,” he said. The anniversary comes after many people who helped pass the ADA such as disability rights Judith Heumann and the late Sen Lowell Weicker, a Republican from Connecticut, and C Boyden Gray, an adviser to former president George HW Bush, passed away earlier this year. Ms Duckworth spoke about how eventually, plenty of people will need to use the accommodations that the ADA guarantees. “I hope one day you develop one because that will mean that you've lived a long life and maybe that you'll care about disabled access,” she said. Read More Back in hoodies and gym shorts, Fetterman tackles Senate life after depression treatment Hunter Biden’s plea deal appears at risk of falling apart. What happens next? Trump wants to see Biden impeached, and other Republicans are quick to pile on House UFO hearing probes claims of physics defying technology

The US and its allies are grappling with how to avert a global food crisis following Moscow's withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal and its subsequent attacks on Ukraine's ports and storage facilities.

Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday released an economic proposal to tackle high inflation that includes cutting government programs, the Environmental Protection Agency and President Joe Biden's incentives aimed at curbing impacts of climate change.

President Joe Biden has decided to allow the US to cooperate with the International Criminal Court's investigation of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, two US officials and a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

The Justice Department is seeking a preliminary injunction in its case against Texas over its use of floating barriers in the Rio Grande, according to a Wednesday court filing, in an attempt to put the case on a fast track.

Republican leadership is bracing for yet another week where they'll need to unite a splintered conference -- this time on a series of spending bills that will set the tone for an autumn showdown with the United States Senate.

Wednesday did not go how Hunter Biden probably hoped. The president's son was supposed to finalize a plea deal, admitting he broke the law but avoiding jail time for misdemeanor tax crimes and agreeing to a diversion program on a gun charge. Instead, a federal judge questioned the scope of the plea deal.

Wednesday's hearing for Hunter Biden was already poised to be a historic event, as the son of a sitting US president appeared in court to plead guilty to federal tax crimes, bringing a controversial investigation to a near close.

Pentagon whistleblowers shared explosive claims of alien technology defying laws of physics and pushback from military leadership against those reporting such sightings. The House Oversight Committee held a hearing titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency” on Wednesday. Three witnesses took part in the hearing – David Grusch, a former intelligence official and whistleblower who said last month that the US has “intact and partially intact” alien vehicles, David Fravor, an ex-Navy commander who reported spotting seeing an object flying across the sky during a 2004 training mission, and Ryan Graves, a retired Navy pilot who appeared on CBS’s 60 Minutes in 2021 saying that he had spotted unidentified aerial phenomena off the Atlantic coast “every day for at least a couple years”. Mr Grousch claimed that individuals have been injured while working on reverse engineering UFOs, but he said he couldn’t get into specifics of how that happened, adding that that “non-human biologics” were found along with recovered crafts. Mr Graves said that he estimates that 95 per cent of UFO sightings by pilots go unreported, citing fear of repercussions. Read More Republican lawmaker claims US is ‘hiding evidence’ of UFOs which ‘defy physics as we know it’ Why a Harvard professor thinks he may have found fragments of an alien spacecraft An Area 51 blogger was raided at gunpoint by federal agents. He says the US Government is trying to silence him Congressman asks UFO whistleblower if anyone has been ‘murdered’ to maintain alleged coverup Whistleblower tells Congress the US is concealing 'multi-decade' program that captures UFOs

Three retired military veterans are testifying Wednesday at a House hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena -- commonly known as UFOs -- warning that the sightings are a national security problem and that the government has been too secretive about them.

Former US Marine Trevor Reed is expected to make a full recovery after being wounded in battle approximately two weeks ago serving alongside Ukrainian forces fighting Russia, a source close to Reed told CNN.