Politics

By Brad Brooks

(Reuters) – Nebraska lawmakers on Friday passed a bill that limits abortion and puts restrictions on gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth in a single piece of legislation that strikes at two highly divisive issues.

The bill, which Republican Governor Jim Pillen is expected to sign into law, bans abortions after 12 weeks of gestational age, making Nebraska the latest state to impose restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.

It includes exceptions for medical emergencies when the mother’s life is at risk, and in cases of rape or incest.

The same bill also bans “gender-altering surgery” and places restrictions on hormone therapy and puberty-blocking drugs for transgender people under 19.

Abortion and gender-affirming medical treatment for transgender youth are at the heart of the so-called culture war raging in American politics, with Republican-dominated legislatures across the country banning or putting sharp restrictions on both. Republicans have introduced more than 500 bills affecting LGBTQ people in 2023, with at least 49 passing, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ rights group.

Nebraska’s single-house legislature, dominated by Republicans, voted 33-15 to pass the bill, known as L.B. 574.

Chants from protesters opposed to the bill echoed in the capitol building’s rotunda and could be heard on the legislature floor.

Senator Machaela Cavanaugh, a Democrat, at one point took to the podium and repeatedly yelled “trans people belong here, we love trans people!”

As the debate wore on, protesters in the galleries began tossing paper and other objects onto the chamber floor. Law enforcement officers cleared the galleries of all spectators.

Supporters of the bill said it was a means of protecting unborn babies from abortion and teenagers from undergoing irreversible medical procedures they may later regret.

“This bill is simply about protecting innocent life and protecting our kids. Nothing more, nothing less,” said Senator Tom Briese, a Republican.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Deepa Babington)

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By Daniel Trotta

(Reuters) – Montana could become the fourth state to pass a law defining sex as strictly “male” or “female” and unchangeable, raising concern among LGBTQ advocates who see such legislation as the next trend in Republican bills that limit transgender rights.

Governor Greg Gianforte, who has already authorized a bill to ban gender-affirming treatments for transgender minors this year, has until Sunday to sign or veto the new legislation, Senate Bill 458, or return it to the legislature for amendments.

He could join fellow Republican governors in Tennessee and North Dakota, who signed similar laws this year. In Kansas, the Republican-dominated legislature overrode the veto of Democratic Governor Laura Kelly to enact its law.

Republican sponsors of the bills say they are not meant to discriminate against anyone, stressing that discrimination is already illegal.

“It seems 20 years ago nobody needed a definition of sex because everyone understood what it meant. But now there is a discrepancy about, ‘Is sex gender and can I change it?’ But sex you can’t change. Sex is just a fact,” said Montana state Senator Carl Glimm, who introduced SB 458.

Major medical and psychological associations endorse gender-affirming care and say transgender identities should be respected, while conservative groups claim that children are too easily allowed to transition.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in the United States, has labeled the laws as “erasure acts” aimed at forcing queer people back into the closet.

“We fear that these LGBTQ+ erasure acts could be the next type of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation to sweep the country,” HRC President Kelley Robinson told reporters this week.

These new laws define virtually everyone as either “male” or “female,” a determination made at birth based on anatomy and genetics that cannot change. The Montana law says sexes are determined “without regard to an individual’s psychological, behavioral, social, chosen, or subjective experience of gender.” The Tennessee and Kansas laws make no allowance for intersex people or individuals born with ambiguous genitalia or irregular chromosomes.

While researchers say sex generally refers to physiological characteristics and gender is more a social construct, when it comes to federal civil rights law, they are essentially the same. In the landmark 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, the U.S. Supreme Court found that discrimination protections based on “sex” also applied to sexual orientation and gender identity.

“By defining sex so narrowly, you are excluding LGBTQ people from bringing claims in state court based on discrimination on the basis of sex,” said Sarah Warbelow, HRC’s legal director.

The laws also stand to limit nontransgender people who have a discrimination claim based on sex stereotyping, Warbelow said.

Tennessee state Representative Gino Bulso, who sponsored the bill that Governor Bill Lee signed on Wednesday, said arguments surrounding the Bostock decision or federal anti-discrimination laws never came up in debate.

“This just deals with sex. This bill is not going to affect the term gender, wherever it may happen to be used,” Bulso said.

So far this year, Republican legislators in statehouses across the country have introduced more than 500 bills affecting LGBTQ rights with a particular focus on transgender people. Around 50 have become law.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta)

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By Steve Holland, Moira Warburton and Caroline Valetkevitch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. House Republicans and President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration on Friday paused talks on raising the federal government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, rattling financial markets as the deadline ticked closer to avoid default.

Republicans are pushing for sharp spending cuts in exchange for the increase in the government’s self-imposed borrowing limit, a move needed regularly to cover costs of spending and tax cuts previously approved by lawmakers.

Talks at the Capitol broke up around midday, and there was no immediate word on when they would resume. The Treasury Department has warned the government could be unable to pay all its bills a soon as June 1. This would trigger a default that would shake the world economy.

“We’ve got to get movement from the White House and we don’t have any movement yet,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in Congress, told reporters after his lead negotiator walked out of talks with Biden administration officials. “We can’t be spending more money next year. We have to spend less than the year before.”

A White House official said: “There are real differences between the parties on budget issues and talks will be difficult. The President’s team is working hard towards a reasonable bipartisan solution that can pass the House and the Senate.”

U.S. stocks closed the week on a soft note after news of the stalled negotiations derailed optimism that a deal could be reached soon.

Republicans control the House by a 222-213 margin, while Biden’s Democrats have a 51-49 Senate majority, making it difficult to thread the needle with a deal that will find enough votes to pass both chambers.

Democrats have been pushing to hold spending steady at this year’s levels, while Republicans want to return to 2022 levels. A plan passed by the House last month would cut a wide swath of government spending by 8% next year.

That Republican plan does not specify what spending would be cut, but some party figures have said they would shield military and veterans programs. Democrats say that would force average cuts of 22% on domestic programs like education and law enforcement, a figure top Republicans have not disputed.

Biden is in Japan attending a meeting of the Group of Seven wealthy nations, and some Republicans criticized him for taking the trip at a key point in the talks.

Biden and McCarthy spent most of the year in an impasse with the White House insisting on a “clean” increase in the debt ceiling without conditions. Republicans said they would only vote for a deal that cut spending.

They agreed to two-way talks, with the White House represented by Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Steve Ricchetti, a senior adviser, with McCarthy was represented by Representative Garret Graves.

POSSIBLE ‘THEATRICS’

“It could be for theatrics. It could be to put more pressure on the Democratic caucus and also take advantage of the fact that Biden is overseas. But this headline on a Friday afternoon is definitely not a positive,” Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial, said in an interview.

A White House official said a deal remained possible.

“If both sides negotiate in good faith and recognize they won’t get everything they want, a deal is still possible,” the official said.

“Until people are willing to have difficult conversations about how you can actually move forward and do the right thing we’re not going to sit here and talk,” Graves told reporters as he walked out of talks on Friday.

Young and Ricchetti told reporters they were going to play it “by ear” as they departed the negotiating sessions, according to reporters for NBC News and ABC News. Biden is due to talk by phone with Shalanda and Richetti at around 9 p.m. ET (0100 GMT), according to a source familiar with the matter.

Republicans have taken a hard line. On Thursday, the House Freedom Caucus urged the Senate to vote on a previously passed House bill that would raise the limit through March in exchange for 10 years of sharp spending cuts.

House and Senate Democrats have raised concern over the inclusion in the talks of new work requirements for some federal benefit programs for low-income Americans.

The last time the nation got this close to default was in 2011, also with a Democratic president and Senate with a Republican-led House.

Congress eventually averted default, but the economy endured heavy shocks, including the first-ever downgrade of the United States’ top-tier credit rating and a major stock sell-off.

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Moira Warburton, Caroline Valetkevitch, Richard Cowan, Katharine Jackson and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Scott Malone, Franklin Paul and David Gregorio)

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By Tim McLaughlin and Sarah N. Lynch

WORCESTER (Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Friday ordered the Air National Guardsman accused of leaking military secrets to remain in jail as he awaits trial on charges he violated the Espionage Act.

Magistrate Judge David Hennessy made the decision after lawyers for Jack Douglas Teixeira, 21, asked for him to be released to house arrest pending trial. No trial date has been set.

Teixeira, arrested on April 13, is the primary suspect in the disclosure of sensitive U.S. documents related to the Ukraine war and numerous other topics – an embarrassing leak that has caused U.S. government soul-searching about its failure to protect vital national security secrets.

“Who did he put at risk?” said Hennessy of U.S. federal court in Worcester, Massachusetts. “You could make a list as long as a phone book.”

Teixeira appeared at the hearing in an orange jumpsuit and a new buzz haircut.

In deciding to keep Teixeira behind bars, Hennessy said it was not “implausible at all that a foreign government would make overtures to this defendant to get information.”

The judge also cited what he said was Teixeira’s fascination with guns, which has “an unhealthy component,” and a lack of integrity. The judge said Teixeira did not keep his word on a number of occasions.

Later in the 45-minute hearing, Hennessy added, “He’s not worried about anybody but himself.”

Teixeira leaked classified documents to a group of gamers on the messaging app Discord, according to prosecutors. The leak is considered the most serious U.S. national security breach since more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2010.

Teixeira is charged with one count of violating the Espionage Act, related to the unlawful copying and transmitting of sensitive defense material, and a second charge related to the unlawful removal of defense material to an unauthorized location.

The leaked documents held highly classified information on allies and adversaries, with details ranging from Ukraine’s air defenses to Israel’s Mossad spy agency. U.S. President Joe Biden has ordered an investigation into why the alleged leaker had access to the sensitive information.

Teixeira is being held in Plymouth County jail south of Boston.

While a low-level airman, Teixeira had broad access to military secrets at the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 102nd Intelligence Wing, according to U.S. Justice Department lawyers.

In court papers filed this week, the government said Teixeira’s superiors had admonished him twice, in September and October, for his handling of classified information

    In the September incident, a superior saw him taking notes on classified information and shoving a piece of paper into his pocket, according to an Air Force memo filed in his court case. A month later, he was admonished again about taking “deep dives” into classified information after asking detailed questions at a briefing. 

    Nevertheless, his superiors offered Teixeira intelligence training even after the admonishments, and Teixeira bragged online in early January that he had broad access to top secret information.

“I have stuff for Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iran and China,” Teixeira said on social media, according to prosecutors. A month earlier, he referred to “all of the shit I’ve told you guys I’m not supposed to.”

(Reporting by Timothy McLaughlin; writing by Jasper Ward; editing by Caitlin Webber and Cynthia Osterman)

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WORCESTER (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Friday ordered the Air National Guardsman accused of leaking military secrets to remain in federal custody as he awaits trial on charges he violated the Espionage Act.

Magistrate Judge David Hennessy made the decision after lawyers for Jack Douglas Teixeira, 21, had sought for him to be released to house arrest pending trial. Teixeira, arrested on April 13, is the primary suspect in the disclosure of U.S. documents related to the Ukraine war and numerous other topics – an embarrassing leak that has caused U.S. government soul-searching about its failure to protect vital national security secrets.

(Reporting by Timothy McLaughlin; writing by Jasper Ward; editing by Caitlin Webber)

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WORCESTER (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Friday ordered the Air National Guardsman accused of leaking military secrets to remain in jail as he awaits trial on charges he violated the Espionage Act.

Magistrate Judge David Hennessy made the decision after lawyers for Jack Douglas Teixeira, 21, asked for him to be released to house arrest pending trial.

Teixeira, arrested on April 13, is the primary suspect in the disclosure of U.S. documents related to the Ukraine war and numerous other topics – an embarrassing leak that has caused U.S. government soul-searching about its failure to protect vital national security secrets.

“Who did he put at risk?” said Hennessy of U.S. federal court in Worcester, Massachusetts. “You could make a list as long as a phone book.”

Teixeira appeared at the hearing in an orange jumpsuit and a new buzz haircut.

Teixeira leaked classified documents to a group of gamers on the messaging app Discord, according to prosecutors. The leak is considered the most serious U.S. national security breach since more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2010.

Teixeira is charged with one count of violating the Espionage Act, related to the unlawful copying and transmitting of sensitive defense material, and a second charge related to the unlawful removal of defense material to an unauthorized location.

The leaked classified documents held highly classified information on allies and adversaries, with details ranging from Ukraine’s air defenses to Israel’s Mossad spy agency. U.S. President Joe Biden has ordered an investigation into why the alleged leaker had access to the sensitive information.

Teixeira is being held in Plymouth County jail south of Boston.

(Reporting by Timothy McLaughlin; writing by Jasper Ward; editing by Caitlin Webber and Cynthia Osterman)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A group of U.S. Senate Democrats called on President Joe Biden to prepare to invoke the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment to avoid a debt default if negotiations with Republicans fail, according to a letter released on Thursday.

Led by independent Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats, the 11 lawmakers said while they appreciated Biden’s efforts to find a bipartisan deal to lift the debt ceiling, Republicans in Congress were “not acting in good faith.”

“We write to urgently request that you prepare to exercise your authority under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which clearly states: ‘the validity of the public debt of the United States…shall not be questioned,’” they wrote Biden, a fellow Democrat.

“Using this authority would allow the United States to continue to pay its bills on-time, without delay, preventing a global catastrophe,” they said.

Biden is continuing negotiations with House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy during his trip to the G7 Summit in Japan this week, ahead of the June 1 date when the U.S. Treasury has said the government could start running out of funds if the debt ceiling is not lifted.

The periodic lifting of the federal government’s borrowing limit allows the government to pay for spending Congress has already authorized.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward, Paul and Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Leslie Adler)

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HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden held a call with his debt ceiling negotiation team on Friday while he was traveling in Japan for the Group of Seven (G7) summit, according to White House officials.

“The President’s team informed him that steady progress is being made,” one of the officials said, adding that Biden remained confident that Congress would take action to prevent a default.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

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By Costas Pitas

(Reuters) -U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who returned to Washington last week after a months-long absence due to shingles, is continuing to suffer from a medical complication known as Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a spokesperson said on Thursday.

Feinstein had also previously suffered encephalitis, her office said, after the New York Times reported on medical conditions that had not been publicly disclosed.

“While the encephalitis resolved itself shortly after she was released from the hospital in March, she continues to have complications from Ramsay Hunt syndrome,” a spokesperson for the 89-year-old Democrat said.

Ramsay Hunt Syndrome affects the facial nerve and can cause partial facial paralysis or weakness.

Feinstein said earlier on Thursday that she did not have encephalitis, saying it “really has never been diagnosed,” CNN reported.

First elected to the Senate in 1992, Feinstein had been sidelined since February as she recovered from shingles. Her absence led to calls from some fellow Democrats that she step aside and allow someone else to take her place.

The Senate Judiciary Committee that she sits on was deadlocked with her away, slowing Democrats’ drive to approve some of President Joe Biden’s most controversial nominees to vacant court positions.

Feinstein, who will not seek re-election in 2024, said on May 10 after her return to Washington that she would work a lighter schedule and that she was experiencing some side effects of her illness, which included vision and balance impairments.

“I’m back in Washington, voting and attending committee meetings while I recover from complications related to a shingles diagnosis,” Feinstein said in a statement provided earlier on Thursday to the New York Times. “I continue to work and get results for California.”

(Reporting by Costas Pitas in Los Angeles; Editing by Alistair Bell and Tim Ahmann)

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By Andrew Chung

(Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a case in which Republicans sought to keep in place a policy introduced under former President Donald Trump that had let American officials quickly expel hundreds of thousands of migrants at the U.S.-Mexican border.

The policy, known as Title 42, was implemented by Trump’s administration in March 2020 – early in the COVID-19 pandemic – as a measure tied to a public health emergency. President Joe Biden’s administration allowed the policy to expire last week, with new asylum restrictions taking effect.

At issue in the case, which the court had agreed to hear in December, was whether a group of Republican state attorneys general could intervene to defend the Title 42 policy after U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan in November ruled the public health order unlawful in a lawsuit by asylum-seeking migrant families. The Supreme Court had voted 5-4 in December to keep in place the Title 42 policy, putting on hold Sullivan’s decision.

The Supreme Court removed the case from its argument calendar after the Justice Department said in February that the case would become moot because Title 42 would expire in light of a Biden administration announcement that the recognition of a COVID-19 public health emergency would end effective May 11.

The justices on Thursday threw out a lower court’s ruling that rejected the states’ bid to intervene, concluding that the states’ request was now moot.

In a statement agreeing with the decision, conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, who had dissented from December’s decision to maintain Title 42, repeated his criticism that “the current border crisis is not a COVID crisis.”

Gorsuch added that the court in December “took a serious misstep when it effectively allowed nonparties to this case to manipulate our docket to prolong an emergency decree designed for one crisis in order to address an entirely different one. Today’s dismissal goes some way to correcting that error.”

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

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