Розділ: Повідомлення
Congress Approves Bill to Make Juneteenth a Federal Holiday
The United States will soon have a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the nation.The House voted 415-14 Wednesday to make Juneteenth, or June 19, the 12th federal holiday. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.Juneteenth commemorates when the last enslaved African Americans learned they were free. Confederate soldiers surrendered in April 1865, but word didn’t reach the last enslaved Black people until June 19, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to Galveston, Texas. That was also about 2½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Southern states.It’s the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created in 1983.”Our federal holidays are purposely few in number and recognize the most important milestones,” said U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney. “I cannot think of a more important milestone to commemorate than the end of slavery in the United States.”Standing tallSpeaking next to a large poster of a Black man whose back bore massive scarring from being whipped, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, said she would be in Galveston this Saturday to celebrate along with Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas.”Can you imagine?” said the rather short Jackson Lee. “I will be standing maybe taller than Senator Cornyn, forgive me for that, because it will be such an elevation of joy.”FILE – New Orleans baby dolls dance at the ancestor oak tree in Congo Square, in celebration of Juneteenth, a holiday that marks the end of U.S. slavery in 1865, in New Orleans, June 20, 2020. Juneteenth will soon be an official national holiday.The Senate passed the bill a day earlier under a unanimous consent agreement that expedites the process for considering legislation. It takes just one senator’s objection to block such agreements.”Please, let us do as the Senate. Vote unanimously for passage,” Representative David Scott of Georgia pleaded at one point with his colleagues.The bill was sponsored by Senator Edward Markey, a Democrat, and had 60 co-sponsors. Democratic leaders moved quickly to bring the bill to the House floor.Some Republican lawmakers opposed the effort. Representative Matt Rosendale of Montana said creating the federal holiday was an effort to celebrate “identity politics.””Since I believe in treating everyone equally, regardless of race, and that we should be focused on what unites us rather than our differences, I will vote no,” he said in a press release.Most states recognize Juneteenth as a holiday or have an official observance of the day, and most hold celebrations. Juneteenth is a paid holiday for state employees in Texas, New York, Virginia and Washington.Official nameUnder the legislation, the federal holiday would be known as Juneteenth National Independence Day.Republican Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana said that he would vote for the bill and that he supported the establishment of a federal holiday, but he was upset that the name of the holiday included the word “independence” rather than “emancipation.” “Why would the Democrats want to politicize this by co-opting the name of our sacred holiday of Independence Day?” Higgins said.”I want to say to my white colleagues on the other side: Getting your independence from being enslaved in a country is different from a country getting independence to rule themselves,” Representative Brenda Lawrence, a Michigan Democrat, replied, adding, “We have a responsibility to teach every generation of Black and white Americans the pride of a people who have survived, endured and succeeded in these United States of America despite slavery.”
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By Polityk | 06/17/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden Administration, US Lawmakers Grapple With Domestic Extremism Threat
The United States faces a growing threat from domestic violent extremists, according to a strategy released this week by the Biden administration. The warning comes as U.S. lawmakers continue to investigate the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump seeking to derail the Electoral College vote count confirming Joe Biden’s presidential victory. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.Producer: Katherine Gypson.
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By Polityk | 06/17/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Військовий поранений внаслідок обстрілу поблизу Луганського – ОТУ «Північ»
Стан здоров’я військовослужбовця задовільний, повідомляють в угрупованні
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By Gromada | 06/17/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Суд відмовився розглядати оскарження дозволу на заочне розслідування щодо Януковича у справі про захоплення влади
Відмову в суді пояснили тим, що адвокати подали скаргу на рішення, яке не підлягає оскарженню
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By Gromada | 06/16/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Байден згадав про тиск на Радіо Свобода в Росії під час переговорів із Путіним
Президент США нагадав про «важливість свободи преси та свободи висловлення думки»
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By VilneSlovo | 06/16/2021 | Повідомлення, Свобода слова
В електронному «кабінеті водія» запустили послугу замовлення страхового поліса на авто – МВС
Електронний «кабінет водія» – це ресурс, де можна здійснити обмін та відновлення посвідчення водія, верифікувати водійські документи, замовити індивідуальні номерні знаки тощо
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By Gromada | 06/16/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Відбулося останнє тестування основної сесії ЗНО-2021
Учасники зовнішнього незалежного оцінювання, які не змогли взяти участь в основній сесії ЗНО, можуть зареєструватися для участі у додатковій
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By Gromada | 06/16/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Military Defends January 6 Response as House Steps Up Probes
A top Army leader defended the Pentagon’s response to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, telling a House panel Tuesday that the National Guard was delayed for hours because they had to properly prepare for the deployment and that senior military leaders had determined beforehand that there was “no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election.” Lieutenant General Walter Piatt, director of the Army staff, echoed comments from other senior military leaders about the perception of soldiers being used to secure the election process. He said the Pentagon wanted to be careful about their response in part because of concerns about military helicopters that had flown low over Washington streets during protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in the summer of 2020. It also took several hours for Guardsmen to be equipped and given a plan for how to secure a building overrun by hundreds of supporters of former president Donald Trump, Piatt said. “When people’s lives are on the line, two minutes is too long,” he said. “But we were not positioned to respond to that urgent request. We had to reprepare so we would send them in prepared for this new mission.” FILE – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., walks to a news conference at the Capitol, Feb. 25, 2021.Piatt’s testimony comes as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House will step up its investigations into the deadly insurrection. She said Tuesday that the House “can’t wait any longer” to do a comprehensive investigation after Senate Republicans blocked legislation to create an independent commission. “Whether we have a commission today, tomorrow or the next day over in the Senate or not, the work of the committees will be very important in what we’re seeking for the American people — the truth,” Pelosi said. One option under consideration is a select committee on the January 6 attack, a setup that would put majority Democrats in charge. More than three dozen Republicans in the House and seven Senate Republicans wanted to avoid a partisan probe and supported the legislation to create an independent, bipartisan commission outside Congress. But those numbers weren’t strong enough to overcome GOP opposition in the Senate, where support from 10 Republicans is needed to pass most bills. Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer has said he may hold a second vote after the legislation failed to advance last month, but there’s no indication that Democrats can win the necessary support from three additional Republicans. “We can’t wait any longer,” Pelosi said. “We will proceed.” Meanwhile, most Republicans are making clear they want to move on from the January 6 attack, brushing aside the many unanswered questions about the insurrection, including how the government and law enforcement missed intelligence leading up to the rioting, and the role of Trump before and during the attack. FILE – FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies on Capitol Hill, June 10, 2021.The hearing Tuesday in the House Oversight and Reform Committee was to examine “unexplained delays and unanswered questions” about the siege, with public testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray, Piatt and General Charles E. Flynn, who was previously Army deputy chief of staff. All three men were involved that day as the Capitol Police begged for backup. The National Guard did not arrive for several hours, as police were overwhelmed and beaten by the rioters. Piatt insisted that he did not deny or have the authority to deny Guard help during a call with former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who has previously said he believed Piatt and other Army leaders were concerned about the optics of soldiers surrounding the building. According to the Defense Department, military leadership approved activation of the full D.C. National Guard at 3:04 p.m., about 40 minutes after the call with Sund. FILE – Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 11, 2020.Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who chairs the committee, criticized Wray for not providing documents her staff had requested and asked him if he believed the FBI should be blamed for the law enforcement failures on January 6. “Our goal is to bat 1.000, and any time there’s an attack, much less an attack as horrific and spectacular as what happened on January 6, we consider that to be unacceptable,” Wray replied. Seven people died during and after the rioting, including a Trump supporter who was shot and killed as she tried to break into the House chamber and two police officers who died by suicide in the days that followed. A third officer, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed and later died after engaging with the protesters, but a medical examiner determined he died of natural causes.
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By Polityk | 06/16/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden Picks Israel, Mexico, NATO Ambassadors
President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced his nominees to be ambassadors to Israel, Mexico and NATO, as he moves to strengthen U.S. alliances in tough regions. Among a slate of names announced by the White House on Tuesday were Thomas Nides, a Morgan Stanley vice chairman who served as a deputy secretary of state under former President Barack Obama, to serve as the ambassador to Israel. The close U.S. ally is welcoming a new government after Israel’s parliament ended Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year run as prime minister on Sunday. Biden also picked Ken Salazar, a former U.S. senator from Colorado and interior secretary, as his ambassador to Mexico. The country is one of the United States’ biggest trading partners and the Biden administration is working to manage immigration across the U.S.-Mexican border. He also chose security expert Julianne Smith to represent the United States on the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a key Western bulwark against Russia. Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Geneva on Wednesday at a time of increased tensions between the two powers. The White House also said Biden picked C. B. “Sully” Sullenberger to be an ambassador and serve as the U.S. representative on the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization. Sullenberger rose to fame in 2009 after gliding his Airbus A320 to a safe landing on the Hudson River after hitting a flock of geese shortly after takeoff, in what became known as the “Miracle on the Hudson.” He also joined Biden on the campaign trail when he was running for president. Biden also named his ambassador picks to Sri Lanka, Gambia, Guinea, Paraguay and Costa Rica.
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By Polityk | 06/16/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Безпекова ситуація завадила забрати всіх українців із Сирії – Скібіцький
«Наше завдання полягає у поверненні до України всіх українців, які звернулись до нашої держави і бажають повернутись додому», представник Головного управління розвідки Міністерства оборони України
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By Gromada | 06/16/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
«Показовий процес»: президент Радіо Вільна Європа – Радіо Свобода про суд над Лосиком у Білорусі
Джеймі Флай закликав до негайного звільнення Ігоря Лосика та «припинення систематичного переслідування журналістів білоруським режимом»
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By VilneSlovo | 06/16/2021 | Повідомлення, Свобода слова
З початку доби на фронті зафіксували три обстріли і безпілотник бойовиків – штаб
«У районі населеного пункту Південне ворог застосував протитанковий ракетний комплекс», йдеться в зведенні
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By Gromada | 06/15/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
З таборів у Сирії повертаються 8 українців: жінка та семеро її дітей – журналіст Радіо Свобода
До процесу повернення жінок та дітей долучилися фахівці Головного управління розвідки та МЗС – за дорученням Офісу президента
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By Gromada | 06/15/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Trump Pressed Justice Department to Upend His Election Loss, Documents Show
In the last weeks of his administration, former U.S. President Donald Trump and his aides pressured the Justice Department to investigate his unfounded voting fraud complaints and upend his election loss, newly released documents Tuesday show. Nearly five months after leaving office, Trump still contends he was cheated out of another four-year term in the White House by voting irregularities. According to the House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee, before he left office, Trump, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and a private attorney, Kurt Olsen, all sought to enlist the Justice Department to pursue election irregularities that had already been rejected in dozens of court claims.However, the agency, which was being run by Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen in the last weeks of Trump’s presidency, rejected the Trump-led demands.FILE – Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Clark speaks as he stands next to Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Oct. 21, 2020.”These documents show that President Trump tried to corrupt our nation’s chief law enforcement agency in a brazen attempt to overturn an election that he lost,” said Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat.Trump made the demands even after outgoing Attorney General William Barr had already concluded by December 1 that “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.” Barr left office December 23 and was replaced by Rosen, who had been deputy attorney general.The documents released by the committee show that Trump, through an assistant, sent Rosen an email on December 14 with documents contending there was election fraud in northern Michigan — a debunked allegation that a federal judge had already rejected.Two weeks later, Trump also unsuccessfully sought to get Justice Department lawyers to file a draft legal brief written by Olsen with the U.S. Supreme Court contending that voting law changes made by the states of Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania to expand mail-in voting during the COVID-19 pandemic were illegal.The new documents showing Trump pressing his election fraud claims occurred about the same time Meadows, the White House chief of staff, was asking Rosen to examine other baseless conspiracy theories about the election.Among them, according to The New York Times, was one that claimed people linked to an Italian defense contractor used satellite technology based in Europe to tamper with U.S. voting equipment from Europe to switch votes from Trump to Joe Biden, who won the election and was inaugurated January 20.
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By Polityk | 06/15/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Rep. Greene Apologizes for Comparing Safety Masks, Holocaust
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene apologized Monday for affronting people with recent comments comparing the required wearing of safety masks in the House to the horrors of the Holocaust.
“I’m truly sorry for offending people with remarks about the Holocaust,” the Georgia Republican told reporters outside the Capitol, saying she had visited Washington’s U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum earlier in the day. “There’s no comparison and there never ever will be.”
Greene’s comments were a rare expression of regret by the conservative agitator, a freshman whose career has included the embrace of violent and offensive conspiracy theories and angry confrontations with progressive colleagues.
Her apology came more than three weeks after appearing on a conservative podcast and comparing COVID-19 safety requirements adopted by Democrats controlling the House to “a time and history where people were told to wear a gold star.” She said they were “put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany. This is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.” Pelosi, D-Calif., is House speaker.
Greene’s comments were condemned by Republican leaders, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who called the comparison “appalling.”
GOP leaders have often been reluctant to castigate Greene, a close ally of former President Donald Trump. After social media posts were unearthed in which Greene suggested support for executing some Democratic leaders, McCarthy and most Republicans stood by her when the House took the unusual step of stripping her of her committee assignments in February.
But as House members returned to the Capitol on Monday after a three-week break, Greene was contrite.
“Anti-Semitism is true hate,” she said. “And I saw that today at the Holocaust Museum.”
In 2018, two years before her election to Congress, she speculated on Facebook that California wildfires may have been caused by “lasers or blue beams of light” controlled by a left-wing cabal tied to a powerful Jewish family.
On Monday, she told reporters that when she was 19, she visited the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp in what during World War II was Nazi-occupied Poland. “It isn’t like I learned about it today,” she said of the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews and huge numbers of other people were killed. “I went today because I thought it was important,” she said, and wanted to talk about it as she apologized.
House leaders have recently said vaccinated people no longer must wear masks in the chamber.
Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., said he would introduce a resolution in the House this week to censure Greene.
In addition, Republicans may try forcing a vote to punish Rep. Ilhan Omar. The Minnesota Democrat recently made remarks criticized by top House Democrats and Jewish lawmakers for seeming to compare the U.S. and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban. Omar said she didn’t mean to draw that parallel.
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By Polityk | 06/15/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
В Одесі ветерани виступили на підтримку батальйону шейха Мансура
До списку «злодіїв у законі», який наприкінці травня оприлюднила Рада національної безпеки і оборони, потрапило чотири бійці батальйону шейха Мансура
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By Gromada | 06/15/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Шмигаль наказав погасити заборгованість перед медиками
Мінсоцполітики та Мінфіну доручили опрацювати проєкт змін до державного бюджету щодо врегулювання ситуації з виплатою лікарняних, заявив Шмигаль
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By Gromada | 06/15/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Сьогодні відбудеться ЗНО з географії
На останнє тестування основної сесії ЗНО зареєструвалися 175 тисяч людей.
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By Gromada | 06/15/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Republican McConnell Says He Would Block a Biden Supreme Court Pick in 2024
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday that President Joe Biden would not get a Supreme Court nominee confirmed in 2024 if Republicans regain control of the chamber and a vacancy arises during that presidential election year. “It’s highly unlikely. In fact, no, I don’t think either party, if it were different from the president, would confirm a Supreme Court nominee in the middle of an election,” McConnell told syndicated conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. McConnell could return as majority leader if Republicans regain control of the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections. While serving as majority leader, McConnell blocked Democratic former President Barack Obama from filling a vacancy left by the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016, saying it would be improper to confirm a Supreme Court nominee during a presidential election year. McConnell and his fellow Senate Republicans refused to consider Obama’s nominee — Merrick Garland, who now serves as Biden’s attorney general — in a move with little precedent in U.S. history. That enabled Donald Trump, the winner of the November 2016 election, to appoint conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2017. Democrats accused McConnell of hypocrisy last year when he allowed the Senate to confirm Trump’s conservative Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett to replace liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September about six weeks before the 2020 presidential election. Trump, a Republican, was defeated by Biden, a Democrat, in the election, and Democrats also took control of the Senate. McConnell signaled that a Biden nominee could have problems even outside an election year. When Hewitt asked if a Republican-controlled Senate would give “a normal mainstream liberal” nominee a fair shot at a confirmation hearing if a vacancy opened in 2023, McConnell replied: “Well, we’d have to wait and see what happens.” He described his decision to keep Scalia’s seat open until after Trump was elected as “the single most consequential thing I’ve done in my time as majority leader of the Senate.” McConnell made confirmation of Trump’s conservative judicial nominees a high priority. Trump appointed three justices, also including Brett Kavanaugh, to the Supreme Court, which now has a 6-3 conservative majority. Criticism from DemocratsDemocrats denounced McConnell’s comments, with some even using them to solicit campaign donations. “He would change the rules a third time if he could to make sure they (Republicans) would get the choice for the next Supreme Court justice. He’s not much for precedent and tradition when it doesn’t serve him politically,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat. FILE – U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) speaks at Logan Airport in Boston, Jan. 21, 2019.Democratic Senator Ed Markey wrote on Twitter: “Mitch McConnell is already foreshadowing that he’ll steal a 3rd Supreme Court seat if he gets the chance. He’s done it before, and he’ll do it again. We need to expand the Supreme Court.” Some Democrats have proposed expanding the number of justices in order to end the Supreme Court’s conservative majority. Some liberal activists have urged liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, at 82 the court’s oldest member, to retire now while the Senate remains in Democratic hands. Biden during the election campaign vowed to name a Black woman to the court, which would be a historic first. The Senate was due later on Monday to vote on the confirmation of Washington-based U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to an influential federal appellate court. Jackson, among the most prominent Black women in the federal judiciary, is considered a potential Supreme Court pick for Biden. The 100-seat Senate is currently split 50-50, with Democrats in control only because Vice President Kamala Harris wields a tie-breaking vote.
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By Polityk | 06/15/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Прийом заявок на стипендію Вацлава Гавела продовжили до 18 червня
Учасниками можуть стати журналісти з України, Вірменії, Азербайджану, Білорусі, Грузії, Молдови та Росії
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By Gromada | 06/14/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Бойовики стріляли двічі з початку доби – штаб ООС
За даними штабу, ніхто з українських військових не постраждав від обстрілів
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By Gromada | 06/14/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Президенту «МАУ» вручили обвинувальний акт через його дії на посаді голови «Борисполя» – адвокати
Ексголову аеропорта підозрюють у зловживанні службовим становищем через підписання договорів оренди
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By Gromada | 06/14/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
В ОГП розслідують недопуск дітей з окупованих на підконтрольні уряду України території
Розпочато досудове розслідування за фактом порушення законів та звичаїв війни
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By Gromada | 06/14/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Суд став на сторону обвинуваченого у підпалі редакційного авто «Схем», прокуратура й адвокати оскаржать рішення
Cуд закрив справу Кирила Баріхашвілі, якого звинувачують у підпалі авто водія програми розслідувань «Схеми» Бориса Мазура
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By VilneSlovo | 06/14/2021 | Повідомлення, Свобода слова
З початку червня на водоймах в Україні загинули 8 дітей – ДСНС
За даними рятувальників, летальні випадки за останні дні зафіксовано на Прикарпатті, в Донецькій області та в Запоріжжі
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By Gromada | 06/14/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Помер відомий український хореограф Григорій Чапкіс
У Києві у віці 91 року у неділю помер відомий український хореограф, народний артист України Григорій Чапкіс, повідомив у фейсбуці його син Григорій та близькі артиста.
За повідомленнями, у Чапкіса з кінця минулого року були проблеми зі здоров’ям.
Григорій Чапкіс народився 24 лютого 1930 року в Кишиневі. Почав танцювати в десять років. Виступав у ансамблі танцю під керуванням Павла Вірського. Згодом відкрив власну школу танців, був членом журі танцювальних шоу. Автор книжки «Любов і танець – секрети довголіття».
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By Gromada | 06/14/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
