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State Dept. authorizes $100M in security assistance for Ukraine

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The State Department late Tuesday authorized an additional $100 million in security assistance for Ukraine.

The authorization will bolster President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s anti-armor systems and is the sixth drawdown of arms, equipment and supplies from Department of Defense inventories for Ukraine since August 2021, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“The world has been shocked and appalled by the atrocities committed by Russia’s forces in Bucha and across Ukraine,” he said. “Ukraine’s forces bravely continue to defend their country and their freedom, and the United States, along with our allies and partners, stand steadfast in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

All told, the U.S. has committed more than $2.4 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration and more than $1.7 billion since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded his neighbor on Feb. 24.

Mr. Blinken said 30 other countries have provided assistance.

“As we strengthen Ukraine’s position on the battlefield and at the negotiating table, we will also work with our allies and partners to gather information to document reported abuses and make it available to the appropriate bodies to hold those responsible to account,” he said.

Mr. Zelenskyy pleaded with the U.N. to oust Russia from its security council after he saw the aftermath of atrocities in Bucha, where civilians were left dead in the street.

Ukrainian forces have beaten the Russians back from Kyiv, the capital, though heavy fighting continues in the east.

Russian forces continue to pound Mariupol, a southern city that has been devastated by airstrikes.

“The humanitarian situation in the city is worsening,” the U.K. Ministry of Defence tweeted Wednesday. “Most of the 160,000 remaining residents have no light, communication, medicine, heat or water. Russian forces have prevented humanitarian access, likely to pressure defenders to surrender.”

China calls for probe into Bucha killings, assigns no blame

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BEIJING (AP) — China on Wednesday said images of civilian deaths in the Ukrainian town of Bucha are “deeply disturbing” but that no blame should be apportioned until all facts are known.

Emerging evidence of what appeared to be widespread civilian massacres in the wake of Russian withdrawals from the Kyiv areas may complicate Beijing’s attempts to guide public opinion over the conflict, in which China has refused to criticize Moscow.

China supports all initiatives and measures “conducive to alleviating the humanitarian crisis” in the country, and is “ready to continue to work together with the international community to prevent any harm to civilians,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters at a daily briefing.

“The truth and the cause of the incident must be verified,” Zhao said. “All parties should exercise restraint and avoid unfounded accusations before a conclusion of the investigation is drawn.”

Zhao’s remarks echo those of China‘s ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, who earlier called for an investigation, also describing the reports and images of civilian deaths in Bucha as “deeply disturbing.”

“The relevant circumstances and specific causes of the incident should be verified and established,” Zhang said in remarks to the Security Council on Tuesday, adding that, “before the full picture is clear, all sides should exercise restraint and avoid unfounded accusations.”

China has called for talks while refusing to criticize Russia. It opposes economic sanctions on Moscow and blames Washington and NATO for provoking the war and fueling the conflict by sending arms to Ukraine.

The entirely ruling Communist Party-controlled media have largely stuck to a pro-Moscow narrative, including repeating Russian disinformation and unfounded conspiracy theories about issues such as alleged American-Ukrainian bioweapons production.

Zhao repeated China‘s objections to sanctions, while accusing the U.S. of having manipulated the situation to “profit from the chaos and make a lot of money.”

“History and reality have proven that sanctions do not bring peace and security, but only bring lose-lose or multiple losses, adding to the already difficult world economy and impacting the existing world economic system,” Zhao said.

The hashtag “China expresses Bucha death incident must be thoroughly investigated” was a trending topic on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, with nearly 30 million views and more than 500 discussions by afternoon Wednesday

Despite the pro-Russian stance of authorities who regularly censor postings, opinions were divided between support for Moscow, demands Russia be held accountable, accusations of untrustworthiness against the West and Ukraine, and calls for an impartial investigation.

“This is merely a play acted out by the Americans and Ukrainian Nazis in an attempt to divert public opinion, but people of the world with eyes and hearts won’t ignore the facts of the U.S. and Ukraine researching bio weapons,” read one posting signed “Understands the Cold War Better Than America.”

The Russian Embassy in Beijing also made use of the platform to reject the accusations, while its Ukrainian counterpart drew attention to “Russian war crimes against civilians in Irpin,” another town where atrocities allegedly occurred.

Prior to the Feb. 24 war, China had dismissed talk of a Russian invasion as “fake news” and U.S. fearmongering. Since then, it has claimed to be holding to an independent, and often contradictory, stance, asserting the sanctity of borders and national sovereignty while refusing to condemn Russian aggression or even use the words “war” and “invasion,” in apparent deference to Moscow.

The Global Times, a nationalistic tabloid published by the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, sought to balance the competing messages with an editorial Wednesday headlined “’Bucha Incident’ not to be used as pretext for inflaming situation.”

“As long as Russia and Ukraine cannot achieve a cease-fire, humanitarian tragedies will not end,” the paper said.

“However, it is regrettable that after the exposure of the ‘Bucha incident,’ the U.S., the initiator of the Ukraine crisis, has not shown any signs of urging peace and promoting talks, but is ready to exacerbate the Russia-Ukraine tensions and create obstacles to the peace talks between the two sides,” it said.

Copyright © 2022 The Washington Times, LLC.

More Western sanctions to hit Russia after Bucha killings

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BRUSSELS (AP) — The United States, United Kingdom and the European Union were set Wednesday to impose new punishing sanctions targeting Russia, including a ban on all new investment in the country, after evidence of torture and killings emerged in recent days from a town outside of Kyiv.

The Associated Press has seen dozens of dead bodies around the town of Bucha while Ukrainian officials have said the bodies of at least 410 civilians have been found in towns around the Ukrainian capital city that were recaptured from Russian forces.

Videos and images of bodies have unleashed a wave of indignation among Western allies, who have drawn up new sanctions as a response.

After several European countries announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats, the European Commission proposed a fifth package of sanctions including a ban on coal imports that could be adopted as soon as Wednesday once unanimously approved by the 27-nation bloc’s ambassadors.

The United States and Western allies plan to impose a ban on all new investment in Russia. Among the other measures being taken against Russia are greater sanctions on its financial institutions and state-owned enterprises, and sanctions on government officials and their family members, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

Separately, the Treasury Department moved Tuesday to block any Russian government debt payments with U.S. dollars from accounts at U.S. financial institutions, making it harder for Russia to meet its financial obligations.

The European Commission’s proposed ban on coal imports would be the first EU sanctions targeting Russia’s lucrative energy industry over its war in Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the ban is worth 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) per year and that the EU has already started working on additional sanctions, including on oil imports.

She didn’t mention natural gas, with consensus among the 27 EU countries on targeting the fuel used to generate electricity and heat homes difficult to secure amid opposition from gas-dependent members like Germany, the bloc’s largest economy.

But European Council President Charles Michel said the bloc should keep up the pressure on the Kremlin, suggesting that an embargo on gas imports should also be required at some point in the future.

“The new package includes a ban on coal imports,” Michel said on Wednesday. “I think that measures on oil, and even gas, will also be needed, sooner or later.”

The new package of measures proposed by the commission also includes sanctions on more individuals and four key Russian banks, among them VTB, the second-largest Russian bank. The bloc also would ban Russian vessels and Russian-operated vessels from EU ports.

Further targeted export bans, worth 10 billion euros, in sectors covering quantum computers, advanced semiconductors, sensitive machinery and transportation equipment also were proposed.

“I appreciate the strengthening of the 5th EU sanctions package: bans on Russian coal, vessels accessing EU ports, and road transport operators,” Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter. “But it will take a gas/oil embargo and de-SWIFTing of all Russian banks to stop Putin. Difficult times require difficult decisions.”

Western allies have already cut out several Russian banks of the SWIFT financial messaging system, which daily moves countless billions of dollars around more than 11,000 banks and other financial institutions around the world.

Copyright © 2022 The Washington Times, LLC.

University of Virginia faculty blast Cavalier Daily over calls to ban Mike Pence address

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Faculty members at the University of Virginia co-signed an op-ed in the school’s student newspaper on Tuesday slamming its editorial board over calls to ban former Vice President Mike Pence from speaking on campus later this month.

In a piece published last month in the Cavalier Daily, the student-led editorial board decried Mr. Pence’s “dangerous rhetoric,” which they said “threatens the well-being and safety of students,” and “is not entitled to a platform.”

Seventeen members of the faculty responded Tuesday with an op-ed in the same paper haranguing the students for assuming that “the editors should enjoy the freedom to say what they want but others with whom they disagree should not.”

“The First Amendment protects not just those whose views the editors deem harmless,” the faculty wrote.

“Those of us who support free speech do so, in part,” the professors explained, “because, in a democratic society, none of us can see the whole truth, and all of us benefit from being exposed to perspectives that may comprehend some aspect of the truth better than we do.”

The authors also dug in on the students’ “speech-is-violence argument” which they said was not only wrong “but also contradicts the letter and the spirit of the First Amendment.”

The “concerned faculty” behind Tuesday’s op-ed said while they are “not interested in either defending or attacking Pence and whatever he might say,” they are putting their foot down on attempts by students to ban speech.

“It is also a disservice to those who are the victims of actual physical violence — whether those injured and killed during the many civil rights struggles in American history, those who fought and died for our constitutional rights as members of our armed services, or the brave people of Ukraine who are fighting and dying for their freedoms, including free speech,” they wrote.

Mr. Pence’s address on campus was announced last month by Young America’s Foundation, an organization of young conservatives.

Young America’s Foundation Chairman Nick Cabrera said the aim behind inviting Mr. Pence to address students was to “allow for a reinvigorated sense of intellectual diversity across Jefferson’s campus.”

“The political climate at the University of Virginia has grown to become nearly inhospitable towards conservatives,” he said.
Soon after the address was announced, the editorial board went on the offensive.

“For Pence, gay couples signify a ‘societal collapse,’ Black lives do not matter, transgender individuals and immigrants do not deserve protection, and the pandemic should not be taken seriously,” they wrote.

“So-called ‘perspectives’ should not be welcomed when they spread rhetoric that directly threatens the presence and lives of our community members,” the Cavalier Daily argued.

“To be silent in the face of those like Pence is a choice — in this case, a choice to fail to protect the lives of those on [the campus] who Pence blatantly threatens through his rhetoric and policies,” the students added.

The tussle emerged amid a series of dustups between groups of students trying to shout down or ban conservative speakers at universities across the country.

Last month a group of Yale University law students loudly protested a forum featuring Kristen Waggoner, a member of a conservative group that promotes religious liberty, the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Mr. Pence himself was met by protesters during a February visit to Stanford where he addressed the Stanford College Republicans on “How to Save America from the Woke Left.”

The 17 members who signed the letter and their departments are: Monika Abramenko, engineering; Peter Abramenko, mathematics; Gerard Alexander, politics; Colin Bird, politics; James Ceaser, politics; Lee Coppock, economics; Kenneth Elzinga, economics; Christian Gromoll, mathematics; Jason Johnston, law; Julia Mahoney, law; Paul Mahoney, law; John Owen, politics; Larry Sabato, politics; Allan Stam, public policy; Paul Wagner, drama; June West, business; and Brad Wilcox, sociology.

Elon Musk Joins Twitter Board

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Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, reached out to Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief executive, a few weeks ago with a friendly heads-up. He was buying shares of the social media company, Mr. Musk confided, and wanted to discuss how to make Twitter better.

Mr. Musk had ideas for reshaping social networks that dovetailed with those of Mr. Agrawal and Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder, according to their public exchanges. All three have floated the notion of radically shifting the power in social networking to users and away from behemoth companies, by using an approach to technology that would give people control over what they see in their social media feeds.

In the ensuing weeks, Mr. Agrawal discussed having Mr. Musk become a more active participant in Twitter’s future, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations who were not authorized to speak publicly. Mr. Agrawal also welcomed having Mr. Musk — who has more than 80 million Twitter followers and sometimes tweets a dozen or more times a day — join the company’s board, one of the people said.

On Tuesday, Twitter announced that Mr. Musk, 50, would be appointed to its 11-person board in a term that expires in 2024. That followed the revelation on Monday that Mr. Musk had accumulated a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, making him its biggest shareholder. Mr. Musk has agreed not to own more than 14.9 percent of Twitter’s stock or take over the company, which is based in San Francisco, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our board,” Mr. Agrawal tweeted on Tuesday.

The addition of one of Twitter’s most powerful users to its board has implications for a social network where world leaders, lawmakers, celebrities and more than 217 million users conduct their daily public discourse. Unlike some other Twitter board members, Mr. Musk did not sign an agreement that forbade him from influencing the company’s policies. That could allow him to work with Mr. Agrawal on a futuristic vision for “decentralized” social networking.

That vision challenges the way that platforms are created. Core technologies would be built publicly and transparently, with oversight and input from coders around the world. Users could then customize their social media feeds and establish their own rules about what kinds of speech are acceptable. That’s very different from how social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are now set up, with the companies dictating what posts can stay up and what should be removed.

The plan jibes with Mr. Musk’s, Mr. Dorsey’s and Mr. Agrawal’s beliefs in unfettered free speech. Mr. Musk has criticized Twitter for moderating its platform too restrictively and has said more speech should be allowed. Mr. Dorsey, too, grappled with the decision to boot former President Donald J. Trump off the service last year, saying he did not “celebrate or feel pride” in the move. Mr. Agrawal has said that public conversation provides an inherent good for society.

Their positions have increasingly become outliers in a global debate over free speech online, as more people have questioned whether too much free speech has enabled the spread of misinformation and divisive content.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Mr. Musk, who leads the companies Tesla and SpaceX, said he hoped to “make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months.” He did not elaborate and did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Agrawal and Mr. Dorsey also did not respond to requests for comment.

A Twitter spokesman said Mr. Musk would not have a hand in policymaking at the company. Day-to-day policy decisions would still be made by Twitter employees, he said, and the company would be impartial in developing and enforcing its rules.

Mr. Musk could bring turbulence to Twitter. He has long used the service as a cudgel, trolling short-sellers of Tesla and insulting critics. He has also spread inaccurate information about the pandemic. After he mused about taking Tesla private in a tweet in 2018 and inaccurately claimed he had secured funding for the transaction, he was fined $40 million by the S.E.C.

His appointment to Twitter’s board was celebrated on Tuesday by some Republicans, who have accused the company of political bias and censoring right-wing voices. “Musk. Free speech,” said Representative Jim Jordan, a Republican of Ohio.

(Democrats, whom Mr. Musk has tangled with online over the party’s proposed wealth tax, were not vocal.)

David Kaye, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, who formerly worked with the United Nations on speech issues, warned that Mr. Musk’s vision for free speech could conflict with Twitter’s policies, which are intended to govern conversations around the globe.

“The risk is that his individual and personal business preferences, which are sometimes idiosyncratic, are going to influence rule-making and enforcement in a way that is inappropriate for a company that, in his words, is a version of a public square,” he said.

Twitter’s move toward a “decentralized” social network is rooted in some of its top leaders’ unhappiness with how the platform has become an arbiter of what speech is allowed online and what is not. While Twitter’s users exercise some control over their social media feeds — such as by choosing the people they follow — the service’s algorithm picks what posts are seen at the top of their feeds and the company can decide whether to ban accounts based on whether posts have violated its policies.

Mr. Dorsey, who stepped down as Twitter’s chief executive in November, has said that users should have more power over which posts they see so they can make their own moderation choices. Last week, he lamented in a tweet that the centralization of the internet by corporations had damaged the web.

“I realize I’m partially to blame, and regret it,” he wrote.

In 2019, Mr. Dorsey financed a project called Bluesky, an effort to develop new infrastructure for social media that would give users control over their data, curating top tweets with their own algorithms and allowing them to move their data to other platforms.

“We believe that people should have choices about the key algorithms that affect their experience online,” Mr. Dorsey testified in Congress in 2020, calling the concept “an exciting, market-driven approach where people can choose what algorithms filter their content so they can have the experience they want.”

At the same time, Mr. Musk has dabbled in technologies for decentralizing control. In 2015, alongside the Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sam Altman and others, Mr. Musk founded an artificial intelligence lab called OpenAI, saying the company would openly share its research with the world at large. Mr. Musk later parted ways with the company.

Whether a decentralized Twitter could come together is unclear. It could take years to emerge because it would involve a complicated process of revamping the entire platform.

By March 14, Mr. Musk, who has a net worth of $270 billion-plus, had accumulated a more than 5 percent stake in Twitter, according to a company filing. After that, he began voicing more of his thoughts about Twitter and free speech on the service, including in exchanges with Mr. Dorsey.

“Twitter algorithm should be open source,” Mr. Musk tweeted on March 24, asking his followers to vote “yes” or “no” on the idea of making the code powering Twitter’s algorithm publicly available. Such “open” algorithms could give people more options for arranging their feeds as they wish and prioritizing different kinds of content.

Mr. Dorsey immediately agreed. “The choice of which algorithm to use (or not) should be open to everyone,” he tweeted in response.

On March 25, Mr. Musk asked his followers if Twitter was failing to adhere to free speech principles. “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” he asked.

A day later, after more than two million users responded, Mr. Musk wrote, “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.”

“Is a new platform needed?” he added.

On Monday, in one of his first tweets after his stake was disclosed, Mr. Musk posted another Twitter poll asking people whether they wanted to be able to edit tweets, a feature that many have fruitlessly requested.

Mr. Agrawal jumped in, tweeting, “The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.” The company later said it had been working on an edit feature since last year and would soon test it.

Mr. Dorsey weighed in on Tuesday after Mr. Musk’s appointment to Twitter’s board was official. The development made him “really happy,” he tweeted.

Cade Metz contributed reporting.

Roy P. Disney reveals ‘our child is transgender’ in Human Rights Campaign fundraiser

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Roy P. Disney, the grand-nephew of Disneyland founder Walt Disney, jumped Tuesday into the feud between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Disney empire with a fundraising plea in which he disclosed that he has a transgender child.

Mr. Disney, whose grandfather Roy O. Disney founded the company with his brother Walt, said in a fundraising pitch for the Human Rights Campaign that he was “heartbroken” over the Florida bill barring schools from discussing gender identity and sexual orientation with students in grades K-3.

“My wife, Sheri, and I have been members of HRC for over 20 years,” said Mr. Disney in the email. “Equality matters deeply to us, especially because our child, Charlee, is transgender and a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community.”

He offered to match gifts of up to $500,000 or more as part of a campaign to help raise $1 million for the HRC, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, which reported on its tax forms contributions of $44.7 million in 2020.

“We were heartbroken when Ron DeSantis signed the ‘Don’t Say Gay or Trans’ law in Florida,” Mr. Disney said. “The fight isn’t over, and we are determined to do everything we can to stop this from happening in other places.”

House Bill 1557, the bill signed March 28 by Mr. DeSantis, does not include the words “gay” or “transgender.”

“Parents have every right to be informed about services offered to their child at school, and should be protected from schools using classroom instruction to sexualize their kids as young as 5 years old,” Mr. DeSantis said.

The governor has sparred with the Walt Disney Co. over its opposition to the Parental Rights in Education Bill, suggesting that the state could revisit the special self-governing status created in 1967 around the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando.

“What I would say as a matter of first principle is I don’t support special privileges in law just because a company is powerful and they’ve been able to wield a lot of power,” Mr. DeSantis said last week at a press conference in West Palm Beach.

Mr. Disney said it was “simply despicable that state legislators and governors are using fear and lies to rally their base … trying to erase LGBTQ+ youth from school and sports, flat-out telling transgender and non-binary youth that they don’t belong, and revoking the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.”

He referred to bills passed in 13 states, including Florida, barring male-born athletes from competing in female sports.

It’s unclear how much clout Mr. Disney wields with the Walt Disney Co. He is not a member of the board of directors. His father, Roy E. Disney, was a longtime senior executive with the company who died in 2009.

HB 1557, which forbids schools from discussing sexuality and gender issues “in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students,” takes effect July 1.

In a March 28 statement, the Walt Disney Co. said that its goal was to have the law “repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts.”

“We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ members of the Disney family, as well as the LGBTQ+ community in Florida and across the country,” the statement said.

Olympic gold medalist Sunisa Lee banking more NCAA success

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AUBURN, Ala. — Sunisa Lee needed a respite from the exhausting, all-consuming world of elite gymnastics.

She wanted to go to school, and the ability now for college athletes to make money off name, image and likeness deals made it an easy call.

The Olympic all-around champion who has her sights set on defending her title in Paris in 2024 has capitalized on her still-newfound fame with appearances on “Dancing with the Stars” among other endeavors. The 19-year-old is hardly a normal college freshman.

“Even without the NIL, I knew I wanted to go to college anyway just because I had to come find my love for the sport again,” Lee said. “I had to get out of the elite world just because it is so different. This is so much more fun, and having the team be so supportive.”

The new NIL rules allowed her to parlay her success in Tokyo last summer into financial security without sacrificing the college experience and education. And without spending all day holed up in the gym.

Lee has helped lead the Tigers to the NCAA championships, from April 14-16 in Fort Worth, Texas, for the first time since 2016. She scored her fifth 10 of the season in the regional at Neville Arena, this one on the balance beam to help Auburn edge Kentucky.

The All-American came in ranked first nationally in the uneven bars — where she won bronze in Tokyo — tied for first on the balance beam and second in the all-around.

“I think if the Olympics were a year earlier and this happened, she couldn’t make that decision” to attend college, said Auburn coach Jeff Graba, whose twin brother Jess has been Lee’s longtime personal coach.

While Lee is competing for NCAA titles, she also feels she has much to prove. Lee’s all-around gold came after favorite Simone Biles withdrew from the competition citing mental health concerns. Lee said she doesn’t think she’s reached her full potential yet and that is indeed gold medal-worthy.

“I think it’s something I just want to prove to myself, because I think I have a lot of doubters,” said Lee, a Hmong American who is from Minnesota. “And prove it to everybody else but more importantly to myself.

“I don’t want to look back and be like, I could have done so much more. I want to look back and know I gave it everything I had and if I didn’t succeed, I didn’t. But I gave it my all.”

Lee has a leotard line with GK Elite and a clothing line with Pretty Little Thing., which she tracks while living in a dormitory like other Auburn freshmen with roommate/teammate Sara Hubbard. She has splurged on a car and her first designer bag but mostly fears spending too much now and not having enough later.

“I’m so scared to actually use my money,” Lee said. “I’m so cautious with it because I have to be.”

She is still taking online courses and spent the fall in Los Angeles for the dancing competition show before officially joining the team in Auburn in December. Lee feels like appearing on “Dancing With the Stars” — she made the semifinals with partner Sasha Farber — makes her “more of an exciting person.”

“It just makes it interesting,” Lee said. “It’s really cool that I’m getting to do all this at such a young age. But then I’m scared. When I get older, what am I going to do then? Because if I do everything now, what am I going to do in the future?

“But I don’t know, it’s really exciting.”

Lee has also dealt with the sudden fame that comes with being an Olympic champion. She can’t just pop into the grocery store or have a quiet dinner out. She even stopped going to Auburn basketball games. It’s all a part of the new normal for a teenager who isn’t yet fully accustomed to the spotlight but is eager not to ever come off as standoffish.

“It’s really hard, because even grabbing food, people come up to her and are just like, ‘Hold my baby. Take my picture. Sign my shoes,’” Hubbard said of her roommate. “I think it’s just overwhelming. It’s kind of scary when a bunch of random people are just all in your business.”

But Graba and Lee’s teammates said in the practice gym and around them she’s just another Auburn gymnast. Dealing with high expectations is part of the challenge.

“She’s probably the one who puts the most pressure on herself,” teammate Cassie Stevens said. “But I think she’s doing a lot better job handling it, listening to what we have to say. Like, just being you is good enough. It’s great actually.”

But, added Graba: “You don’t win an Olympic gold medal without having that tough-as-nails mentality.”

Copyright © 2022 The Washington Times, LLC.

Republicans block $10 billion COVID-19 aid deal over pandemic border policy

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Republicans on Tuesday blocked consideration of spending another $10 billion to fight COVID-19 because Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer refused to allow a vote on reinstating a pandemic emergency order that helped block illegal aliens from entering the U.S. 

All 50 GOP senators voted against the motion, which fell 10 votes short of the 60 needed to survive.

“The bottom line is this is a bipartisan agreement that does a whole lot of good for the American people,” said Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat. “It should not be held hostage for an extraneous issue.”

While Republicans originally agreed to the extra pandemic spending, they demanded Mr. Schumer allow an amendment to block the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from rescinding Title 42. The order, which was first implemented at the height of the pandemic, gives the federal government the power to immediately expel illegal immigrants to prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

The Biden administration announced plans earlier this month to rescind the order because the coronavirus was receding. Republicans, however, contend that if the pandemic is receding enough to allow illegal immigrants to flood then there is no need for the $10 billion aid package.

“Since Title 42 is being terminated because COVID is over, why do we need to spend another $10 billion on COVID relief or wear masks on airplanes,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennesse Republican. 

Mr. Schumer would not bow to such pressure. The reason was mainly political given that an amendment restoring Titel 42, which would only need a simple majority to pass, would likely receive bipartisan support. 

Nearly half a dozen Democratic senators have pushed back on the CDC’s decision to rescind the order. 

“Until we have comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform that commits to securing our borders and providing a pathway to citizenship for qualified immigrants, Title 42 must stay in place,” said Sen. Joe Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat. 

Although some Senate Democrats are in support of restoring the border prohibition, most members of the party within the House are backing Mr. Biden. Complicating matters is that the House Democrats are already undecided about the coronavirus package after senate negotiators gutted $5 billion for global vaccine distribution. 

“A lot of the success that we can have in crushing COVID-19 is making sure we understand that this is a global issue, just like the climate,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat. 

Given the Democratic divisions, administration officials are pushing Mr. Schumer to stand firm. 

“This should not be included on any funding bill,” said Jeff Zients, the White House’s coronavirus czar. “The decision should be made by the CDC, which it has been and that’s where it belongs.”

After days of wrangling, bipartisan negotiators struck the deal for more COVID-19 spending late Monday. Republican negotiators said they could not approve new spending after the U.S. lavished $6 trillion on pandemic relief. 

The $10 billion deal is less than half the amount that President Biden demanded. The deal also faces an uncertain path in the House, where some Democrats signaled they would reject a package that doesn’t include spending to fight the virus in foreign countries.

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S.C. Democrats try to stall transgender sports bill with 1,000 amendments

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COLUMBIA, S.C. — Democrats lined up more than 1,000 amendments in an attempt to delay a vote on a bill that would have South Carolina follow a number of other conservative states in banning transgender students from playing girls’ or women’s sports in public schools and colleges.

Republicans used a special maneuver to get the bill onto the House floor Tuesday with a key legislative deadline looming at the end of the week.

Democrats countered by filing four boxes full of amendments – an estimated 1,000 in all – to change the bill. Republicans immediately invoked a rule limiting debate to just three minutes per amendment. But if Democratic members keep taking their full time, it would still take more than 50 hours to go through each proposed change.

Democrats also requested the House take full two-minute roll calls on each amendment, meaning if everyone of them is taken up, the debate could theoretically last until around early morning Saturday if not well beyond.

State Rep. John King, a ream size box of paper on his desk and a thick binder of papers by him at the House podium, warned his colleagues “we’re going to be here a long time today.”

“I don’t believe we need to be debating something that is so frivolous,” the Democrat from Rock Hill said.

The legislation would require athletes to compete with the gender listed on their birth certificates. About a dozen states have already passed similar legislation, and transgender athletes have become an issue in midterm campaigns in such states as Pennsylvania. But Republicans aren’t in lockstep, with GOP governors in Indiana and Utah vetoing bans in their states.

Supporters of the bill were mostly staying quiet Tuesday to not prolong the debate. One amendment did pass creating girls’ wrestling teams in high schools.

The South Carolina High School League said it takes up what teams a transgender athlete can play for on a case-by-case basis and has heard fewer than five requests. Elected Republican Education Superintendent Molly Spearman is also against the proposal. The bill failed to get to the floor of the House last year.

But bill sponsor Rep. Ashley Trantham has said in the past that the bill is meant to keep girls’ and women’s sports fair in the future.

“The next generation of female athletes in South Carolina may not have the chance to excel in those same sports,” the Republican from Pelzer said at a committee meeting last year.

A similar bill has made it to the Senate floor but hasn’t been debated. The bill is facing a Sunday deadline to pass at least one chamber or it would need a two-thirds vote to be considered. That is a tough hurdle for a bill some Republicans have struggled to support.

Some amendments by Democrats would make substantial changes to the bill like allowing a public high school to opt out of the requirements. Others would do things like rename the proposal the “Discrimination Capital of the United States Act” or name individual schools or allow school bands to only play at women’s sporting events.

Occasionally, a Democrat would argue against an amendment, taking up another three minutes.

At least a dozen of the House’s 43 Democrats took turns speaking on the amendments. Republican House Speaker Jay Lucas abruptly interrupted them when their time was up.

Rep. Annie McDaniel was talking about statistics about mental health problems and suicide rates among transgender youth when Lucas unceremoniously told her ““Ms. McDaniel, your time on the amendment has expired.”

“All right,” the Democrat from Winnsboro said. “I’ll be back to finish telling you about this.”

Copyright © 2022 The Washington Times, LLC.

White House calls on Congress to pass COVID-19 deal immediately

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The White House said Tuesday it wants Congress to pass a $10 billion deal for domestic COVID-19 needs “immediately” and warned lawmakers not to tie the funding bill to the administration’s decision to lift a pandemic-era rule that blocked many illegal immigrants from entering the U.S.

Republican leaders might push for an amendment to the virus deal that targets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s plans to lift Title 42 on May 23, according to The Hill.

Some centrist Democrats, including Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, are concerned that lifting the border policy will result in a migrant surge ahead of the mid-term contests.

White House COVID-19 Coordinator Jeff Zients said he’d rather not see the virus funding entangled in the CDC’s decision on the border.

“It should remain independent of the urgently needed funding that we talked about today to sustain our COVID-19 response here domestically and our global response,” he said. “This should not be included on any funding bill. The decision should be made by the CDC, which it has been and that’s where it belongs.”

Mr. Zients said the bipartisan virus package needs to pass this week but he scolded lawmakers for leaving out $5 billion in requested global aid.

He said the U.S. had positioned itself as a leader in the global vaccination effort, and the lack of funding will make it harder to stiff-arm new strains that could boomerang back on the U.S.

“It is a real disappointment that there is no global funding in this bill,” Mr. Zients said. “This virus knows no borders and it’s in our national interest to vaccinate the world to protect against possible new variants.”

Bipartisan negotiators struck the Senate deal late Monday after days of wrangling over funding offsets. Republican negotiators said they could not approve new spending after the U.S. lavished $6 trillion on pandemic relief.

The $10 billion deal is less than half the amount that President Biden demanded last month. The deal also faces an uncertain path in the House, where some Democrats signaled they would reject a package that doesn’t include global funding.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress should pass the deal immediately and then “continue fighting for more funding to vaccinate the world.”

Mr. Biden said he would sign the bill if it makes it to his desk, underscoring his desperation to refill coffers that will pay for testing, treatments and booster doses later this year.

“We urge Congress to move promptly on the $10 billion,” Mr. Zients said. “The bill is a start, it should pass immediately, but it’s exactly that — just a start.”

Mr. Zients declined to say which domestic needs would be on the chopping block, given that Mr. Biden sought $22.5 billion. The coordinator said the Department of Health and Human Services will take what it can get and determine its most urgent needs before asking lawmakers for additional funds.

“We need Congress to pass the $10 billion and then get immediately back to work,” Mr. Zients said.

The administration says it has enough money for the additional booster shots that Food and Drug Administration regulators authorized for persons over 50. However, officials said they need new funding to secure booster doses for the general population later this year, assuming regulators decide they are necessary.

A panel of FDA advisers is scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss the way forward on boosters and whether a variant-specific booster will be needed, or if the U.S. should stick with the vaccines that appear to be holding up against severe outcomes from known strains.

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.

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