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Tag: General elections

  • Voting in Yuba County: Here’s what’s on the 2024 general election ballot

    Voting in Yuba County: Here’s what’s on the 2024 general election ballot

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    (FOX40.COM) — The 2024 general election is on Nov. 5 and although the next president of the United States may be the most popular race, there are several other important decisions for California voters to make.

    This year, there are 10 statewide propositions concerning topics such as gay marriage, indentured servitude in state prisons, California minimum wage, healthcare, and housing. Tap here for information on those propositions.

    In addition, Yuba County voters will also decide on statewide and local races and measures. Here is what will appear on the ballot:

    Congress

    U.S. Senate – Full Term

    • Adam Schiff (D)
    • Steve Garvey (R)

    U.S. Senate – Partial/unexpired term (until Jan. 2025)

    • Adam Schiff (D)
    • Steve Garvey (R)

    United States Representative District 1

    • Doug La Malfa: Farmer, Member of the U.S/ House of Representatives
    • Rose Penelope Yee: Businesswoman, Nonprofit Leader

    United States Representative District 3

    • Jessica Morse: Former Deputy Secretary for Forest and Wildland Resilience
    • Kevin Kiley: United States Representative

    California State Senate District 1

    • David Fennell: Entrepreneur
    • Megan Dahle: Farmer, Businesswoman, Mother

    Marysville Mayor

    • Chris Branscum: Mayor, City of Marysville

    Marysville City Council

    • Stuart Gilchrist: Small business owner
    • Marjorie M. Rollins: Commissioner on the Planning and Historic Preservation Commission
    • Codi Lynn Walker: Corporate Manager/Marysville Planning Commissioner

    Wheatland City Council

    • John Abe: Property Manager
    • Brian Abe: Farmer, Veteran

    MJUSD Governing Board Member, Trustee Area 2

    • Gary Criddle: Educator

    MJUSD Governing Board Member, Trustee Area 3

    • Alison Hastey: Teacher

    MJUSD Governing Board Member, Trustee Area 4

    • Doug Criddle: High School Site Administrator

    • Trish Vega: Volunteer, X-ray technologist

    Plumas Lake Elementary School District, Governing Board Member

    • Code Hess: Public Outreach Specialist
    • Israel Camacho: 340B Consulting Manager, Komplete 340B Solutions
    • John Barnes: Financial Examiner
    • David Villanueva: Executive Manager

    Yuba County Water Agency – Director, North Division

    • Charlie Mathews: Incumbent

    Measures

    *Measure titles and descriptions below are from the briefing section of the county election guide.

    Wheatland Union High School District Bond Measures:

    • Measure A: Wheatland Union High School District – SFID 2

    “To improve the quality of education at Wheatland High; modernize/ renovate/ construct classrooms, restrooms, and school facilities; repair/ replace leaky roofs; make health, safety, and security improvements; shall the Wheatland Union High School District (SFID No. 2) measure authorizing $9,000,000 of bonds at legal interest rates be adopted, generating approximately $555,800 annually, at average rates of $28.50 per $100,000 assessed value, while bonds are outstanding, with annual audits, independent citizens’ oversight committee, NO money for salaries and all money staying local?“

    • Measure B: Wheatland Union High School District – SFID 1

    To continue construction on a new high school for Plumas Lake students, shall the Wheatland Union High School District (Plumas Lake SFID No.1) measure authorizing $19,700,000 of bonds at legal interest rates be adopted, generating on average $1,100,000 annually at average rates of approximately $26.70 per $100,000 assessed value, with annual audits, independent citizens’ oversight committee, NO money for salaries and all money staying local?

    • Measure C: Wheatland Union High School District – SFID 1

    “To construct classrooms, restrooms and other necessary high school facilities, shall the Wheatland Union High School District (Plumas Lake SFID No.1) measure authorizing $20,300,000 of bonds at legal interest rates be adopted, generating on average $1,200,000 annually at average rates of approximately $27.25 per $100,000 assessed value, with annual audits, independent citizens’ oversight committee, NO money for salaries and all money staying local?“

    Plumas Lake Elementary School District Bond Measures

    • Measure D: Plumas Lake Elementary School District

    “Core Academic Classrooms Measure. To insure safe facilities and quality education for District students and qualify for State matching funds by constructing and equipping core curriculum classrooms, bathrooms and other essential school facilities, shall Plumas Lake Elementary School District’s measure issuing $18,000,000 of bonds at legal rates, by levying approximately $30 per $100,000 of assessed value (raising $970,000 annually while bonds are outstanding) be approved, with independent oversight, annual audits, and all funds staying local?“

    • Measure E: Plumas Lake Elementary School District

    “STEAM and High School Readiness Measure. To insure quality education for District students and qualify for State matching funds by constructing and equipping facilities for science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) classrooms and labs, shall Plumas Lake Elementary School District’s measure issuing $18,000,000 of bonds at legal rates, by levying approximately $30 per $100,000 of assessed value (raising $970,000 annually while bonds are outstanding) be approved, with independent oversight, annual audits, and all funds staying local?“

    • Measure F: Plumas Lake Elementary School District

    “Student Health and Physical Education Measure. To insure safe facilities and quality education for District students and qualify for State matching funds by constructing, equipping required physical education facilities including a gymnasium, athletic fields and playgrounds, shall Plumas Lake Elementary School District’s measure issuing $18,000,000 of bonds at legal rates, by levying approximately $30 per $100,000 of assessed value (raising $970,000 annually while bonds are outstanding) be approved, with independent oversight, annual audits, and all funds staying local?“

    City of Marysville Transactions and Use Tax Renewal

    • Measure G: City of Marysville Transactions & Use Tax Renewal

    “Shall the measure, without raising taxes, to protect and maintain City of Marysville’s services, including Police and Fire Departments, neighborhood police patrols, 911 emergency response times, street repaving and pothole repairs, emergency preparedness and for general government use, to continue an existing voter-approved one-cent sales tax, until ended by voters, providing an estimated $3.9 million a year, within dependent audits, an oversight committee and all money locally controlled, be adopted?”

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  • ‘Did not end well’: New Pence book details split with Trump

    ‘Did not end well’: New Pence book details split with Trump

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    NEW YORK — Former Vice President Mike Pence blames Donald Trump for endangering his family “and all those serving at the Capitol” on Jan. 6 in a new memoir released Tuesday.

    In “So Help Me God,” Pence recounts, for the first time in his own words, the Republican former president’s extraordinary effort to push him to overturn the results of the 2020 election and shares his account of the day thousands of rioters stormed the Capitol, with some chanting “Hang Mike Pence.”

    “They had come to protest the result of the election and to prevent Congress from fulfilling its responsibility to open and count the Electoral College votes,” Pence writes. “And, as I later learned, many had come looking for me.”

    The book, which traces Pence’s life in politics — from serving as youth coordinator for a local Democratic Party to watching then-Vice President Al Gore certify his election loss days after Pence had been sworn in as a member of Congress — largely defends Trump, glossing over and whitewashing many of his most contentious episodes. “I had always been loyal to President Donald Trump,” the book begins.

    But Pence, who spent years refusing to publicly criticize his old boss, makes clear that Jan. 6, 2021, was a breaking point in which, he writes, Trump’s “reckless words had endangered my family and all those serving at the Capitol.”

    “For four years, we had a close working relationship. It did not end well,” Pence writes, summing up their time in the White House. Still, he adds, “we parted amicably when our service to the nation drew to a close. In the months that followed, we spoke from time to time, but when the president returned to the rhetoric that he was using before that tragic day and began to publicly criticize those of us who defended the Constitution, I decided it would be best to go our separate ways.”

    The book, published by Simon & Schuster, comes as Pence appears increasingly likely run for president in 2024, a move that would put him in direct conflict with Trump, who is expected to formally launch his own reelection campaign in Florida on Tuesday night.

    Pence, who in the book never directly states that Democrat Joe Biden won fairly, writes that when Trump first suggested holding a rally in Washington on Jan. 6, the day Pence was set to preside over the election’s certification, he thought it was a good idea. “My first thought was that a rally that day might be useful as a way to call even more attention to the proceedings on the floor of the House and Senate,” he writes.

    Instead, Pence describes sitting in the Senate chamber and presiding over the certification when the Senate parliamentarian leaned over to inform him that rioters had breached the building and a member of his Secret Service detail rushing over to insist they leave. Pence refused to vacate the building and was instead ushered to a Senate loading dock, where he spent hours, surrounded by staff and family members, making calls to military and congressional leaders to coordinate the government’s response, as the president — who never bothered to check in on Pence’s safety — sat cloistered, watching TV.

    “All around was a blur of motion and chaos: security and police officers directing people to safety, staffers shouting and running for shelter. I could see the intensity in the eyes of the Secret Service detail; it was audible, too, in the voices of the Capitol Police. I could hear the fall of footsteps and angry chanting,” Pence writes. Still, Pence insists he was “not afraid,” only angry at what was unfolding.

    At 2:24 p.m., as Pence remained in hiding, Trump fired off that infamous tweet saying Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.”

    “I just shook my head,” Pence said he responded. “The truth was, as reckless as the president’s tweet was, I really didn’t have time for it. Rioters were ransacking the Capitol. … The president had decided to be part of the problem. I was determined to be part of the solution. I ignored the tweet and got back to work.”

    Pence also describes Trump’s campaign to pressure him to reject the results of the election by rejecting Electoral College votes or sending them back to the states, even though the Constitution makes clear that the vice president’s role is purely ceremonial.

    During one lunch on Nov. 16, 2020, Pence said he told Trump that “if the legal challenges came up short and if he was unwilling to concede, he could simply accept the results of the elections, move forward with the transition, and start a political comeback, winning the Senate runoffs in Georgia, the governor’s race in Virginia in 2021, and the House and Senate in 2022.”

    “That accomplished, I said, he could run for president in 2024 and win,” Pence writes. “He seemed unmoved, even weary, at the prospect.”

    “‘I don’t know, 2024 is so far off,’” Pence writes that Trump told him “before returning to the status of election challenges in various states.”

    At another lunch, Pence said he encouraged Trump “not to look at the election ‘as a loss — just an intermission’” and said if he “still came up short” after exhausting every legal option, Trump should “take a bow” and later run again.

    “He nodded, pointed at me as if to say, ‘That’s worth considering,’ and walked into the back hallway,” Pence writes. “I will always wish he had.”

    But as the lawsuits Trump’s legal team was pushing continued to fail, Pence writes that Trump’s mood darkened and he became increasingly irate. Pence says Trump berated him, telling him, “You’re too honest,” and predicting that “hundreds of thousands are gonna hate your guts” and “people are gonna think you’re stupid.”

    “As the days wore on, it was becoming clear that there would be a real cost to me politically when I presided over the certification of the 2020 election,” Pence writes. “I always knew that I did not possess the authority to overturn the election. I knew it would be hurtful to my friend for me to participate in the certification. But my duty was clear.”

    After the Capitol was cleared of the rioters, Congress reconvened and Pence presided over the certification of his and Trump’s loss. For several days the two men did not speak. But when they finally met, five days later, Pence said they spent more than 90 minutes together, alone.

    “I told him that I had prayed for him for the past four and a half years, and I encouraged him to pray,” Pence said he told Trump. “’Jesus can help you through this,’ I said. ‘Call on Him.’ He didn’t say anything.”

    “With genuine sadness in his voice, the president then mused, ‘What if we hadn’t had the rally? What if they hadn’t gone to the Capitol?’ Then he said, ‘It’s too terrible to end like this.’”

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  • Republican Katie Britt wins US Senate race in Alabama

    Republican Katie Britt wins US Senate race in Alabama

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    MONTGOMERY, Ala — Republican Katie Britt on Tuesday won the U.S. Senate race in Alabama, becoming the first woman elected to the body from the state.

    Britt will fill the seat held by Richard Shelby, her one-time boss who is retiring after 35 years in the Senate. Britt was Shelby’s chief of staff before leaving to take the helm of a state business lobby. Britt defeated Democrat Will Boyd and Libertarian John Sophocleus.

    Britt, 40, cast herself as part of a new generation of conservative leaders and will become one of the Senate’s youngest members. She will be the first Republican woman to hold one of the state’s Senate seats and the state’s first elected female senator. The state’s previous female senators, both Democrats, had been appointed.

    “Tonight, parents, families and hard-working Alabamians across the state let their voices be heard. We said loud and clear this is our time,” Britt told supporters at her victory party in downtown Montgomery.

    Britt, who noted her early dismal poll numbers and how some initially dismissed her notion of running for Senate, said her campaign is “proof that the American dream is still alive.”

    Fueled by deep pockets and deep ties to business and political leaders, Britt ran under the banner of “Alabama First” and secured the GOP nomination after a heated and expensive primary. She was first in the initial round of voting and then defeated six-term Rep. Mo Brooks in a primary runoff.

    Brooks, who ran under the banner “MAGA Mo” — Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again campaign slogan — and was initially endorsed by the former president, had been an early favorite in the race. But Brooks faltered under a barrage of attack ads and lackluster fundraising. As Britt surged in the polls, Trump rescinded his endorsement of Brooks and swung his support to Britt.

    Britt began her political career working for Shelby. She thanked the outgoing senior senator for taking a chance on her 20 years ago and called him “Alabama’s greatest statesman” who left a lasting legacy on the state.

    The senator-elect was introduced by her husband Wesley Britt, a former football player for the New England Patriots and the University of Alabama, who said his best title is, “Katie’s husband.”

    Flanked by her husband and two-school-age children, and with her speech occasionally punctuated by the sound of children popping the red, white and blue balloons that fell to celebrate her victory, Britt called herself a “Mama on a mission” to get things done in Washington.

    Britt, who spent much of her race in partisan appeals, criticizing the policies of President Joe Biden and lamenting a country she said she no longer recognized, promised to work for all Alabamians, “even those that have different beliefs than I do.”

    “No one will worker harder than me in the United States Senate. I am going to listen to you, not lecture you. I know that every one of you is not going to agree with me on every single issue and that’s OK,” Britt said.

    “I am going to be a voice for parents and families and hard-working Alabamians across this state,” she said, “and I’m going to work tirelessly every single day to make Alabama proud.”

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

    ———

    Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.

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  • Voters in 5 states decide whether to legalize marijuana

    Voters in 5 states decide whether to legalize marijuana

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    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Voters in five states are deciding on Election Day whether to approve recreational marijuana, a move that could signal a major shift toward legalization in even the most conservative parts of the country.

    The proposals are on the ballot in Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota and follow moves by President Joe Biden toward decriminalizing marijuana. Biden last month announced he was pardoning thousands of Americans convicted of simple possession of marijuana under federal law.

    Advocates of the marijuana initiatives have said Biden’s announcement may give a boost to their efforts.

    Recreational marijuana is legal in 19 states, and polls have shown opposition to legalization softening. All of the states with recreational marijuana on the ballot, except for Maryland, voted for Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

    The five states also currently have legal medical marijuana programs. That includes Arkansas, which in 2016 became the first Bible Belt state to approve medical marijuana. The state’s dispensaries opened in 2019, and more than 91,000 patients have cards to legally buy marijuana for medical conditions.

    The legalization campaigns have raised about $23 million in the five states, with the vast majority in Arkansas and Missouri. More than 85% of contributions in those two states have come from donors associated with companies holding medical marijuana licenses, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent campaign finance reports.

    In Arkansas, supporters have been running upbeat ads touting the thousands of jobs they say will be created by the measure. Opponents have run more ominous spots, warning voters to “protect Arkansas from big marijuana.”

    The initiative has drawn the criticism of traditional legalization opponents as well as some medical marijuana advocates, who say the Arkansas proposal places too many limits and would only benefit a handful of dispensaries. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a former head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, has also opposed the measure.

    Missouri’s proposal would legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older and expunge records of past arrests and convictions for nonviolent marijuana offenses, except for selling to minors or driving under the influence. Maryland’s proposal would also make changes in criminal law and create automatic expungements of past marijuana possession convictions.

    North Dakota’s measure would allow people 21 and older to legally use marijuana at home as well as possess and cultivate restricted amounts of cannabis. It also would establish policies to regulate retail stores, cultivators, and other types of marijuana businesses.

    South Dakotans, including a sizable number of Republicans, voted to legalize marijuana possession in 2020, but that law was struck down by the state Supreme Court in part because the proposal was coupled with medical marijuana and hemp. This year, recreational pot is standing by itself as it goes before voters.

    In Colorado, where recreational marijuana has been legal for nearly a decade, voters on Tuesday are taking up a proposal that would allow the use of certain psychedelic substances. If approved, it would make Colorado the second state to take such a step.

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  • Danish leader to quit in bid to form new Cabinet despite win

    Danish leader to quit in bid to form new Cabinet despite win

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    COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Voters in Greenland secured the last two seats necessary for the center-left bloc of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to win Denmark’s general election.

    But Frederiksen plans to resign later Wednesday, because the Social Democratic leader wants to attempt to form a new government with broader support across the political divide — something she had suggested before the election.

    The two seats in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, meant that the so-called red bloc of Frederiksen reached the required 90-seat majority and put her in a strong position after Tuesday’s tight election.

    The Greenland results came in early Wednesday and the red side’s win was based on the assumption that a vote count in Greenland would give the autonomous Danish territory’s two seats to the center-left bloc.

    Siumut and Inuit Ataqatigiit, two left-leaning groups, grabbed 37.6% and 24.6% of the votes, respectively. Four of the 179 seats in Denmark’s legislature, known as the Folketing, are reserved for Greenland and the Faeroe Islands, another autonomous Danish territory.

    Frederiksen will formally hand in her resignation to Queen Margrethe at 11 a.m. (1000 GMT; 4 a.m. EDT) Wednesday after which talks to form a government — so-called queen rounds — are expected to begin with party leaders.

    “It is also clear there is no longer a majority behind the government in its current form. Therefore, tomorrow I will submit the government’s resignation to the queen,” Frederiksen said Tuesday as she announced she would step down.

    Margrethe’s role is largely ceremonial, but she performs certain official functions, including attending the opening of parliament, signing new laws, formally nominating a person to head the government-formation process and appointing the prime minister. Sometimes several “queen rounds” are needed before a new government can be formed.

    Troels Bøggild, an associate professor of political science at Aarhus University in western Denmark, said that Frederiksen ”has two options to form a government.”

    “Either go with the Moderates (at the center) and the Liberals and if that fails, she can crawl back to the red bloc and form a government there.”

    “By resigning, she shows that her election promises to build a broad center government is serious,” he told The Associated Press. “If she didn’t resign and formed a government in the red bloc, she would face criticism. To avoid that, she has resigned.”

    Frederiksen was forced to call the vote earlier this month amid the fallout from her government’s contentious decision to cull millions of minks as a pandemic response measure. The cull and chilling images of mass graves of minks have haunted Frederiksen since 2020 and eventually led to cracks in the center-left bloc.

    The Social Democrats remained Denmark’s top party with 27.54% of votes, but it remained unclear long into the night whether the center-left parties together would reach a majority. The decisive seat flipped at the very end of the vote count.

    Before that, former Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen appeared set to become kingmaker. His newly formed centrist party won 9.27% of the vote for 16 seats, according to the preliminary results. Final results were expected later.

    Løkke Rasmussen said he too wanted Frederiksen to try to form a government, but he wouldn’t provide support for her to remain “as prime minister.”

    Løkke Rasmussen, a two-time government leader who lost the 2019 election to Frederiksen and abandoned the center-right Liberal party following an internal power struggle, wouldn’t say whom he would back as the next prime minister or whether he saw that role for himself.

    “I know for sure that Denmark needs a new government,“ he told jubilant supporters in Copenhagen. “Who is going to sit at the end of the table? We do not know.”

    Prior to the election, the 44-year-old Frederiksen floated the idea of a broader alliance that would also include opposition parties, but was rebuffed by opposition leaders Jakob Ellemann-Jensen of the Liberals and Søren Pape Poulsen of the Conservatives.

    Even though the election result suggested she could ostensibly carry on as prime minster with only center-left support, Frederiksen said she would adhere to her ambition to also reach out to opposition parties.

    “The Social Democrats went to the election to form a broad government,” she said on election night. “I will investigate whether it can be done.”

    Frederiksen, who became Denmark’s youngest prime minister when she took office at 41 more than three years ago, teamed up with the opposition to hike NATO-member Denmark’s defense spending in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Her steadfast leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic was partly overshadowed by the mink-culling episode.

    The decision to slaughter up to 17 million minks to protect humans from a mutation of the coronavirus was taken in haste and without the required legislation in place. It dealt a devastating blow to Danish mink farmers, even though there was no evidence the mutated virus found among some minks was more dangerous than other strains.

    “It can take a long time before a new government is formed as all the pieces of the puzzle have been tossed up in the air,” Bøggild said, adding he believes that Frederiksen will become prime minister again.

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  • EXPLAINER: Why the British public is not choosing its leader

    EXPLAINER: Why the British public is not choosing its leader

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    LONDON — Observers of Britain’s governing structure can be forgiven for scratching their heads in recent weeks as they watch the country reel through a succession of prime ministers without holding an election. While the opposition Labour Party is demanding an election, the governing conservatives are pushing on with choosing another prime minister from within their own ranks, which they have the right to do because of the way Britain’s parliamentary democracy works.

    BRITONS NEVER ACTUALLY VOTE FOR THEIR PRIME MINISTER

    Britain is divided into 650 local constituencies, and people tick a box for the representative they want to become their local member of parliament, or MP. In most cases, this will be a member of one of the country’s major political parties.

    The party that wins the majority of seats gets to form a government, and that party’s leader automatically becomes prime minister. While coalitions are possible, Britain’s voting system favors the two largest parties and in most cases a single party will take an absolute majority of seats, as is the case for the Conservatives in the current Parliament.

    HOW DO THE PARTIES CHOOSE THEIR LEADERS?

    Since 1922, all of Britain’s 20 prime ministers have come from either the Labour Party or the Conservative Party. This means the members of these parties have an outsized influence on who will be the country’s prime minister. The processes the parties use to choose them can appear Byzantine.

    Deep breath: For the Conservative Party, their lawmakers must first signal their support for a potential leader. If there is enough support, this person will become an official candidate. All Conservative MPs then cast a series of votes, gradually whittling down the number of candidates to two. Finally, the party’s ordinary members — around 180,000 of them — vote between these two candidates. Last time they chose Liz Truss over Rishi Sunak.

    If the MPs are able to unite behind a single candidate then there is no need for the wider party members to have a vote. This last happened in 2016 when the lawmakers backed Theresa May after the resignation of David Cameron and she automatically became prime minister. This could happen again.

    The Labour Party has its own process that is, arguably, even more complicated.

    BUT DIDN’T BRITAIN VOTE FOR BORIS JOHNSON IN 2019?

    Johnson was selected by his party following the resignation of Theresa May. He had already been prime minister for five months when electors ticked their ballot cards in December 2019. However, voters’ support for the Conservative Party did cement his position as prime minister.

    Even in that election, though, it was only actually around 70,000 people who got the chance to vote directly for or against Johnson — those who happened to live in his Parliamentary constituency of South Ruislip and Uxbridge, in west London.

    Since then, another prime minister, Liz Truss, has come and gone, and one more will be in place by the end of next week — all without anyone troubling the general electorate.

    WILL THERE BE A GENERAL ELECTION SOON?

    Constitutionally, no general election is required in Britain for two more years. But as the prime ministers come and go, selected by a tiny proportion of the population, a lot of Britons are beginning to wonder why they are not getting a chance to influence who is their next leader. The clamor for a general election in the near future is only likely to get louder.

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  • Holocaust survivor opens Senate as far-right to govern Italy

    Holocaust survivor opens Senate as far-right to govern Italy

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    ROME — Italy’s Fascist past and its future governed by a party with neo-fascist roots came to an emotional head Thursday when a Holocaust survivor presided over the first seating of Parliament since general elections last month.

    Liliana Segre, a 92-year-old senator-for-life, opened the session in the upper chamber, subbing in for a more senior life senator who couldn’t attend. Her speech formally launched the sequence of events that is expected to bring the Brothers of Italy party, which won the most votes in Sept. 25 elections and has its origins in a neo-fascist movement, to head Italy’s first far-right-led government since the end of World War II.

    Speaking to the Senate, Segre marveled at the “symbolic value” of the coincidence of her role and the historic moment that Italy is witnessing. She noted that she was presiding over the Senate as Italy soon marks the 100th anniversary of the March on Rome, which brought Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini to power, and as war rages once again in Europe with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    “Today, I am particularly moved by the role that fate holds for me,” Segre told the hushed chamber. “In this month of October, which marks the centenary of the March on Rome that began the Fascist dictatorship, it falls to me to temporarily assume the presidency of this temple of democracy, which is the Senate of the Republic.”

    Segre was one of the few Italian children who survived deportation to a Nazi death camp, and she has spent recent decades telling Italian schoolchildren about the Holocaust. Her advocacy led President Sergio Mattarella to name her a senator-for-life in 2018 as Italy marked the anniversary of the introduction of fascist-era racial laws discriminating against Jews.

    In her speech, Segre choked up as she recalled that those laws forbade Jewish children like her from attending school.

    “It is impossible for me not to feel a kind of vertigo, remembering that that same little girl who on a day like this in 1938, disconsolate and lost, was forced by the racist laws to leave her elementary school bench empty. And that, by some strange fate, that same girl today finds herself on the most prestigious bench, in the Senate.”

    Her emotional remarks brought the 200 senators to their feet in applause, including the Brothers of Italy delegation headed by Ignazio La Russa. La Russa, who once proudly showed off his collection of Mussolini memorabilia, was later elected Senate speaker.

    The Brothers of Italy, headed by Giorgia Meloni, has its origins in the Italian Social Movement, or MSI, which was founded in 1946 by former Mussolini officials and drew fascist sympathizers into its ranks. It remained a small far-right party until the 1990s, when it became the National Alliance and worked to distance itself from its neo-fascist past.

    Meloni was a member of the youth branches of MSI and the National Alliance and founded Brothers of Italy in 2012, keeping the tricolor flame symbol of the MSI in her party logo.

    During the campaign, amid Democratic warnings that she represented a danger to democracy, Meloni insisted that the Italian right had “ handed fascism over to history for decades now, ” and had condemned racial laws and the suppression of democracy.

    Segre didn’t refer to the party by name in her speech, but she said Italian voters had expressed their will at the ballot box.

    “The people have decided. It is the essence of democracy,” Segre said. “The majority emerging from the ballot has the right to govern, and the minority has the similarly fundamental obligation to be in the opposition.”

    Looking ahead to the upcoming legislature, she called for a civilized debate that does not degenerate into hateful speech and respects the Italian Constitution.

    She cited in particular the Constitution’s Article 3, which states that all Italian citizens are equal under the law “without distinction of sex, race, language, religion, political opinion or personal or social condition.”

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  • Malaysia’s Mahathir, 97, to run in general elections

    Malaysia’s Mahathir, 97, to run in general elections

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    PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia — Malaysia’s 97-year-old former leader Mahathir Mohamad announced Tuesday he will defend his seat in the general elections expected next month, though he wouldn’t say whether he would be prime minister a third time if his political alliance wins.

    “We have not decided who will be prime minister because the prime minister candidate is only relevant if we win,” Mahathir told a news conference.

    Though unlikely, he would be the oldest ever candidate for the post, which has a five-year term.

    Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob dissolved Parliament on Monday for snap polls, caving in to pressure from his United Malays National Organization party, which is hoping for a big win on its own amid feuds with allies in the ruling coalition. The Election Commission will meet on Oct. 20 to fix a date for the vote, which must be held within 60 days of Parliament’s dissolution.

    Despite his age and a health scare this year, Mahathir said he will defend his parliamentary seat in Langkawi island. He also warned that a win by the ruling UMNO party could see imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak pardoned and let off the hook.

    Mahathir was a UMNO premier for 22 years until his retirement in 2003. Then, in 2016, he was inspired to return to politics by the massive looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad state fund during Najib’s term in office and rode a wave of public anger to lead the opposition to a historic victory in 2018 polls that ousted UMNO, which had ruled since the country’s independence from Britain in 1957.

    Mahathir became the world’s oldest head of government at 93, and oversaw graft charges against Najib and other UMNO leaders. But his reformist alliance collapsed in less than two years due to defections, returning UMNO to power under a new coalition government.

    After his government’s collapse in 2020, Mahathir formed the Pejuang party and a new alliance with several small parties.

    Mahathir, echoing both the opposition and UMNO allies, slammed UMNO on Tuesday for putting its own interest first in rushing elections during the annual monsoon season in November that brings major floods. He said UMNO aims to win big by offering bribes and money to the people.

    He said UMNO’s main objective is to free Najib, who began his 12-year jail term in August after losing his final appeal in a corruption case linked to the 1MDB scandal. Najib also faces several other trials linked to 1MDB that could lengthen his jail term if he is found guilty. UMNO President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is also on trial for dozens of graft charges unrelated to the 1MDB case.

    “If they win this election, their first move would be to ask (Malaysia’s king) to pardon Najib. At this moment, they have made a request but has not been pardoned,” Mahathir said. “Should they be able to win and form the government, that is their first objective, not about the welfare of the people.”

    Mahathir said his political alliance hasn’t been approved by the government and that some 120 candidates will run under Pejuang’s banner in Malay-dominated parliamentary seats.

    Analysts said Mahathir’s pull may no longer appeal to ethnic Malay voters who supported him in 2018. UMNO, which had only 36 out of 222 lawmakers in the just-dissolved Parliament, believes many Malays have returned to its fold following its landslide victory in recent byelections.

    The Alliance of Hope, which Mahathir led to victory in 2018 polls, remains the key contender with 90 lawmakers. Its prime minister candidate is Anwar Ibrahim, who was originally due to succeed Mahathir before their government collapsed.

    While Mahathir competes head-on with UMNO and others for votes of Malays, who account for two-thirds of Malaysia’s 33 million people, Anwar’s alliance remains on a multi-racial platform. Ethnic Chinese and Indians form large minorities in the country.

    Anwar said Monday that the election will be a time for the people to vote out traitors who led to the collapse of his alliance government in 2020.

    “Did you think we could reverse 60 years of entrenched corruption and kleptocracy with just one election? Did you think these conniving robbers and thieves would just give up?” Anwar said in a statement. “We don’t give up, either. We don’t give up, ever.”

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  • NY Rep. Lee Zeldin says 2 people shot in front of his home

    NY Rep. Lee Zeldin says 2 people shot in front of his home

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    NEW YORK — New York congressman and Republican candidate for governor Lee Zeldin says his family is safe after two strangers were shot outside his Long Island home on Sunday.

    Zeldin said in a statement that he does not know the identities of the two people who were shot but that they were found under his porch and in the bushes in front of his home in Shirley, New York. The congressman and his wife were not at home at the time of the shooting but their teenage daughters were in the home and heard gunshots and screaming, he said in the statement released by his office.

    Zeldin said his 16-year-old daughters locked themselves in a bathroom and called 911. The family is shaken but OK, he said. Zeldin and his wife were returning from a parade in the Bronx when the shooting occurred.

    He said police officers were at his home investigating Sunday evening and were looking over the home’s security cameras. The two people who were shot were taken to local hospitals, he said.

    Zeldin planned to hold a news conference outside his home Sunday night to address the shooting.

    The Suffolk County Police Department issued a brief statement saying it was investigating the shooting, which appeared to have no connection to Zeldin’s family. Police had no information to release about who fired the shots or who first found the two people shot, a spokeswoman said.

    Zeldin, who is running against Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, has made rising crime rates and violent crime a focus of his campaign. He has called for the state’s bail laws to be toughened, among other measures.

    “Like so many New Yorkers, crime has literally made its way to our front door,” Zeldin said Sunday.

    He said later in a post on Twitter that his daughters were at the kitchen table when the shooting occurred and that one of the bullets was found 30 feet away from them.

    It’s the second scare he’s had in several months. In July, he was assaulted while campaigning in upstate New York when a man approached him onstage and thrust a sharp object near his head and neck. He was uninjured and the man was arrested.

    Hochul said in a statement posted on Twitter that she had been briefed on the shooting.

    “As we await more details, I’m relieved to hear the Zeldin family is safe and grateful for law enforcement’s quick response,” the governor said.

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  • Exit poll: Center-right GERB party will win Bulgarian vote

    Exit poll: Center-right GERB party will win Bulgarian vote

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    SOFIA, Bulgaria — An exit poll in Bulgaria suggested Sunday that the center-right GERB party of ex-premier Boyko Borissov, a party blamed for presiding over years of corruption, will be the likely winner of Bulgaria’s parliamentary election.

    The poll conducted by Gallup International showed the GERB party earning 24.6% support, apparently edging out the reformist We Continue the Change pro-Western party of former Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, which is expected to capture 18.9%. Still, the predicted percentage won’t be enough for Borissov’s party to form a one-party government, and the chances for a GERB-led coalition are slim.

    The exit poll also predicted that eight parties could pass the 4% threshold to enter a fragmented parliament with populist and pro-Russia groups showing increased gains.

    The European Union nation’s fourth election in 18 months was marked by a raging war nearby, political instability and economic hardships in the bloc’s poorest member. A low turnout reflected voter apathy.

    Petkov conceded defeat late Sunday.

    “We lost the election, albeit by a small margin, and now GERB has the responsibility to form a coalition and govern the country,” he said.

    It could take days before the final official results are announced. If they confirm the exit poll, Borisov will be handed a mandate to form his fourth cabinet. It will be an uphill task for him to produce a stable governing coalition, however, since most political groups have in advance rejected any cooperation with his GERB party, which presided over years of corruption that hampered development.

    The early election came after a fragile coalition led by Petkov lost a no-confidence vote in June. He claimed afterward that Moscow had used “hybrid war” tactics to bring down his government after it refused to pay gas bills in rubles and ordered an expulsion of Russian diplomats from Bulgaria.

    The deputy chief of the European Council on Foreign Relations, Vessela Cherneva, said the predicted result could produce two types of coalitions: an anti-corruption coalition, in which GERB under Borissov would find no place, or a geopolitical coalition of the centrist parties, which would be possible only if Borissov resigns from leading his party.

    “The scenario under which there is no coalition possible would undermine parliamentary democracy in Bulgaria and will further tilt the balance towards the pro-Russian President (Rumen) Radev,” Cherneva said.

    After casting his vote Sunday, Borissov told reporters that Bulgaria needs to clearly position itself on Russia’s war in Ukraine.

    “With this aggression, with this war with a clear aggressor in the face of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin – (I have) nothing against the Russian people — with this farce with the referendums, Bulgaria must be very clear, categorical, and precise about its place in the European Union and NATO,” he said.

    He said getting Bulgaria into Europe’s 19-nation shared currency eurozone should be the next government’s most important task.

    Petkov ran on promises to continue efforts to eradicate corruption, but a European energy crisis sparked by Russia’s war on Ukraine was the dominant economic theme for voters.

    Many Bulgarians share pro-Russia sentiments, which provides fertile soil for aggressive Kremlin propaganda in the Balkan country.

    The pro-Russia party Vazrazhdane, riding on those feelings, captured 10.2% of the vote, up from 4.9% in the previous election, the exit poll predicted.

    Unlike the stance taken by the EU, which has fully condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine and slapped sanctions on Russia for it, Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov has urged “full neutrality” for Bulgaria in the war.

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  • Sweden: Right-wing party get 4 chairmanships in parliament

    Sweden: Right-wing party get 4 chairmanships in parliament

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    STOCKHOLM — A right-wing populist party that received the second-most votes in Sweden’s general election last month landed the chairmanships of four parliamentary committees Saturday and with it, the ability to wield more influence in mainstream Swedish politics.

    The positions to be held by lawmakers from the Sweden Democrats include chairing the Riksdag’s justice, foreign affair, business affairs and labor market committees.

    “It is important for us, a milestone in the party’s history,” legislator Richard Jomshof, a Sweden Democrat who was tapped to be the next chairman of the justice committee, told Swedish public broadcaster SVT. “It is an expression of the fact that we are Sweden’s second largest party.”

    In addition to the four chairperson posts, the party was allowed to name the vice-chairs of parliament’s civil affairs, traffic, defense and tax committees.

    Sweden Democrats, a nationalist and anti-immigration party with roots in the neo-Nazi movement, is part of right-wing bloc that won a narrow majority in the Riksdag in the Sept. 11 election.

    Decisions on the posts were announced Friday in a joint statement from the four center-right parties that are in talks to form a coalition government. Sweden Democrats, which is one of the four, announced its nominees Saturday.

    Ulf Kristersson, the leader of the center-right Moderates, the party that placed third, has been tasked with forming a government that is likely to have the Sweden Democrats as part of a governing coalition or at least the party’s support in securing a majority in parliament.

    Kristersson has until Oct. 12 to present results of his talks with parties to Parliament speaker Andreas Norlen.

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  • Latvian leader’s party expected to fare well in election

    Latvian leader’s party expected to fare well in election

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    HELSINKI — Polling stations opened Saturday in Latvia for a general election influenced by neighboring Russia’s attack on Ukraine, disintegration among the Baltic country’s sizable ethnic-Russian minority and the economy, particularly high energy prices.

    Several polls showed the center-right New Unity party of Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins emerging as the top vote-getter with up to 20% support.

    Karins, who became head of Latvia’s government in January 2019, currently leads a four-party minority coalition that along with New Unity includes the center-right National Alliance, the centrist Development/For!, and the Conservatives.

    Support for parties catering to the ethnic-Russian minority that makes up over 25% of Latvia’s 1.9 million population is expected to be mixed; a share of part of loyal voters have abandoned them – for various reasons – since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

    A total of 19 parties have over 1,800 candidates running in the election, but only around eight parties are expected to break through the 5% threshold required to secure a place in the 100-seat Saeima legislature.

    Some 1.5 million people are eligible to vote.

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  • Bulgaria to hold election overshadowed by war in Ukraine

    Bulgaria to hold election overshadowed by war in Ukraine

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    SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarians will go to the polls for the fourth time in less than two years in a general election overshadowed this time by the war in Ukraine, rising energy costs and galloping inflation.

    Pollsters expect that voters’ fatigue and disillusionment with the political system will result in low turnout and a fragmented parliament where populist and pro-Russia groups could increase their representation.

    The early election comes after a coalition led by pro-Western Prime Minister Kiril Petkov lost a no-confidence vote in June. He claimed that Moscow used “hybrid war” tactics to bring down his government after it refused to pay gas bills in rubles and ordered the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomatic staff from Bulgaria.

    The latest opinion polls suggest that up to seven parties could pass the 4% threshold to enter parliament in a contested vote on Sunday.

    Despite a decrease in support for the GERB party of ex-Prime Minister Boyko Borissov in previous elections, it is tipped now to finish first. Analysts explain that the shift is likely because of voters’ reluctance to accept change in times of crises and a preference to chose a party they are familiar with.

    Parvan Simeonov, a Sofia-based political analyst for Gallup International, said that the war in Ukraine has a strong influence on this election.

    “While at previous polls the division was for and against the model of governance of the last 10 years personified by GERB and Boyko Borissov, the main issues now are stabilization, keeping prices low and dealing with the consequences of the war,” Simeonov told The Associated Press.

    “The main division in the country now is between East and West on the political map, rather than between status quo and change,” he added.

    Still, the predicted percentage won’t be enough for Borissov’s party to form a one-party government, and the chances for a GERB-led coalition are slim as it is blamed for corruption by almost all other opponents.

    A recent Gallup International survey ranked GERB first with 25.9%, followed by its main rival — Petkov’s We Continue the Change party with 19.2%.

    Borissov, addressing party activists at the last campaign event in Sofia, was positive that GERB would score a convincing victory.

    “That’s the only solution for Bulgaria. We have the rare chance to have a stable government,” said the 63-year-old ex-premier, who is vying for a fourth term in office.

    His main rival, Kiril Petkov, is also confident that Sunday’s vote will yield positive results for his party.

    “I certainly expect us to be the first political power. The goal is to have a majority in the next parliament together with the other two parties — Democratic Bulgaria and the Socialist Party,” he told the AP.

    The war in Ukraine was among the main topics in the campaign and calls by the leader of the pro-Russia party Vazrazhdane, Kostadin Kostadinov, for “full neutrality” of Bulgaria in this war are attracting many voters as latest opinion polls predict that the group would gain 11.3% of the votes, up from 4.9% at the previous election.

    Deep conflicts between the main parties make it almost impossible to form a viable coalition government, which would prolong the political impasse and add more economic woes in the poorest European Union member country.

    Simeonov sees a possible solution in forming a Cabinet of experts with a limited term.

    “The other possible option would be no government and go to new elections,” he said.

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  • Trump Returns to Rally Team MAGA

    Trump Returns to Rally Team MAGA

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    WILKES-BARRE, Pa.—Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday night was his first major public appearance since the FBI searched his Florida home—and you could tell. A kind of manic, vengeful energy circulated among the throngs of supporters in the blue stadium seats at the Mohegan Sun Arena. Fans wore T-shirts reading YOU RAIDED THE WRONG PRESIDENT and THREAT TO DEMOCRACY, in a reference to President Joe Biden’s speech last week in Philadelphia. The audience of thousands screamed in agreement when Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who’s become a regular warm-up act at these rallies, declared that the FBI had “violated our president’s rights.” And later on, the crowd exploded into one resounding, ricocheting jeer when Trump, finally on stage, addressed the matter himself.

    “There can be no more real example of the very clear threats to American freedom than just a few weeks ago,” the former president said, when “we witnessed one of the most shocking abuses of power we have witnessed from any administration in American history!”

    Trump is back at the forefront of American politics, just two months ahead of the midterm elections. This time, the former president is in a strange new position: He’s backed into a corner by legal trouble. And his ever-loyal fans have joined him in a defensive crouch. “We came because of the Mar-a-Lago raid,” Mike Rutherford, a truck driver from East Stroudsburg, told me. He sat near the stage in a folding chair alongside his wife, Pat. “We’re here to support him,” Pat said, nodding. “I can’t believe how brave that man is.”

    Pennsylvania found itself smack-dab in the eye of the midterms hurricane this week. Trump’s rally was intended to give a boost to the flagging campaigns of the gubernatorial candidate and State Senator Doug Mastriano and the Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, both of whom have endorsed Trump’s election lies and received his endorsement in exchange. Just two days ago, Biden spoke 100 miles to the south before an eerily lit Independence Hall, and was more direct in his warnings than he’s been in previous addresses: “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.” The Darth Vader optics of his speech may have interfered with its intended effect, but Trump and the candidates he’s endorsed are a threat to democracy because they appear to believe in only two kinds of election outcomes: Either they win or the system is rigged.

    David Frum: The justification for Biden’s speech

    Pennsylvania has become a hub for “Stop the Steal” candidates thanks, in part, to Mastriano, who spoke ahead of Trump on Saturday night. The Republican state senator and former Army colonel was outside the Capitol when rioters broke in on January 6; he helped lead the state efforts to overturn the presidential election in 2020; and he’s been subpoenaed by the January 6 committee for his alleged involvement in organizing an alternate set of Electoral College electors for Trump. (Last week, Mastriano sued the panel to avoid testifying.)

    Both he and Oz offered versions of their stump speeches and declared solidarity with their party leader in his moment of need on Saturday. Other headliners included Greene, the Georgia representative who’d descended the arena steps earlier in the afternoon as “She’s a Beauty” by the Tubes played over the loudspeakers, and the Pennsylvania congressional candidate Jim Bognet, who quipped that America should hire “87,000 more border patrol agents, not IRS agents!”

    When Trump emerged shortly after 7 p.m., backed by the usual Lee Greenwood soundtrack, he meandered through his standard repertoire: the Russia investigation “hoax,” Biden’s failures, the death penalty for drug dealers. He even managed to encourage a mass heckling of the press seated in the back of the stadium on at least five occasions. But it was Trump’s FBI comments that got the crowd most riled up. “The FBI and the Justice Department have become vicious monsters, controlled by radical-left scoundrels, lawyers, and the media, who tell them what to do,” he told them. Audience members whooped, and a few shouted out “Defund the FBI!”

    The Trump’s fans I’d spoken with earlier, standing near the Dippin’ Dots ice-cream stall and in line for Chickie’s & Pete’s chicken cutlets, all had his back. “It’s politically motivated,” Jim Shaw, a barber from New Milford, told me when I asked what he made of the search at Mar-a-Lago. “If Donald Trump wasn’t looking like he was the [leading] Republican candidate for president, I don’t think it would have happened.” Every one of the dozen or so people I talked with offered some defense of the former president: The search was a setup; the evidence was planted; Biden’s DOJ was trampling on Trump’s constitutional rights to keep him from running for office again.

    Read: ‘Stop the Steal’ is a metaphor

    I detected a touch of desperation in many people’s responses—a sense that, if Trump-endorsed candidates don’t win in November, America as they know it will cease to exist. Here in northeast Pennsylvania—just 20 miles down the road from Biden’s hometown—was a gathering of people not just pessimistic about the future of the country under his leadership, but deeply fearful too. “At this point right now, I’m worried about being targeted by the FBI because I’m a Christian, I’m conservative,” Pat Rutherford said. “I know they won’t find anything, but I am going to need a lawyer to prove I am innocent.” The DOJ “is like a militia for the Democrats,” Linda Hess, from Selinsgrove, told me. “I think our First Amendment rights are basically gone as conservatives. I really do.”

    Trump and his loyalists are eager to fan these fears. “Your president called all of you extremists!” Greene told the rally when she was on stage. “Joe Biden has declared that half of this country are enemies of the state!” (The president, in fact, made a clear distinction: “Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans.”) “Save us, Trump!” one woman yelled from the crowd during his speech.

    Fear can be a winning political tactic. It helped candidates like Mastriano sail to victory in the Republican primary. But general elections are different. The president’s party usually fares poorly in the midterms cycle, and just a few weeks ago, the fundamentals would have indicated that Republicans were about to have an excellent November. Recently, though, the numbers have shifted in the Democrats’ favor. Inflation is down, and so are gas prices; new job numbers are high, and unemployment is still low; and Democrats are already seeing signs that their voters are highly motivated by the overturning of Roe v. Wade. In the latest polls, both Mastriano and Oz are trailing their respective Democratic opponents, Josh Shapiro and John Fetterman.

    Still, 10 weeks is a long time in American politics. Republicans could gain back an edge between now and then. Some experts predict that both races will probably end up much closer than they are now. The risks of electing an election denier such as Mastriano are clear: As governor, he’d have the power to appoint the secretary of state, and together, the two officials could muddy the waters after a close election or, allied with the Republican-dominated state legislature, even change election rules to benefit their party.

    That danger extends far beyond the Keystone State. Other “Stop the Steal” candidates are running all over the country. In 2020 battleground states, candidates who’ve endorsed Trump’s lies about election fraud have won nearly two-thirds of GOP nominations for state and federal offices with election-oversight powers, according to a Washington Post analysis.

    Read: The radical fringe that just went mainstream in Arizona

    Whether these specific candidates win or lose, election denial has become the most important litmus test for the MAGA base. “Stop the Steal” is an expression of a deepening distrust in government and institutions—a mantra to remind its adherents that they, not their political opponents, are the rightful inheritors of America. The phrase is a metaphor, the sociologist Theda Skocpol told me last month, “for the country being taken away from the people who think they should rightfully be setting the tone.”

    When their candidates lose, it can be only through trickery. When their leader is investigated for squirreling away cartons of national secrets at his country club, it’s a targeted attack by the “Regime,” to use Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s word—and capitalization.

    After Mastriano had finished speaking, and before Trump took to the stage, an elderly white man stood up behind me and shouted, “Whose country is this?” The people nearby in the bleachers joined him in response: “It’s our country!” Later, Trump affirmed the sentiment. “No matter how big or powerful these corrupt radicals may be, you must never forget that this nation does not belong to them,” he told his supporters. “This nation belongs to you!” The people in the stadium roared their approval.

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    Elaine Godfrey

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