Tag: resignations

Pope Francis has already signed resignation letter in case of bad health | CNN

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Rome
CNN
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Pope Francis has revealed in a new interview that he has already signed his resignation letter to be used in the event of him becoming “impaired.”

Francis made the comment in an interview with Spanish news outlet ABC, published Sunday, when asked what would happen if a pope is suddenly rendered unable to perform his duties due to health issues or an accident.

Francis said he wrote the letter several years ago and gave it to then-Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who resigned in 2013.

“I have already signed my renunciation. The Secretary of State at the time was Tarcisio Bertone. I signed it and said: ‘If I should become impaired for medical reasons or whatever, here is my renunciation,’” Francis was quoted as saying.

“I don’t know who Cardinal Bertone has given that letter to, but I handed it to him when he was the Secretary of State,” Francis said, adding that this was the first time he had spoken publicly about the letter’s existence.

Francis said past pontiffs Paul VI and Pious XII had also drafted their letters of renunciation in the event of a permanent impairment.

Francis, 86, appears to be in good health apart from knee problems. He has often been seen with a walking stick and sometimes uses a wheelchair due to pain in his right knee.

Earlier this year, he canceled a trip to Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan after doctors said he might also have to miss a later trip to Canada unless he agreed to have 20 more days of therapy and rest for his right knee.

Last year, he had surgery to remove part of his colon due to diverticulitis, a common condition.

In 2013, Francis’ immediate predecessor, Pope Benedict, made the almost unprecedented decision to resign from his position, citing the reason as “advanced age” and startling the Catholic world.

It marked the first time a pope had stepped down in nearly 600 years. The last pope to step down before his death was Gregory XII, who in 1415 quit to end a civil war within the church in which more than one man claimed to be pope.

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December 18, 2022
Tens of thousands protest in Bangladesh to demand resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina | CNN

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New Delhi
CNN
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Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Dhaka on Saturday calling for the dissolution of parliament to make way for new elections, and demand the resignation of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The mass protest in the capital was organized by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which accuses Hasina of failing to address rising fuel prices and the cost of living.

Saturday’s protest comes amid a flurry of demonstrations in Bangladesh calling on Hasina to step down and demanding new elections.

Hasina has responded by calling the opposition leaders “arson terrorists” and warned people against allowing the BNP – the largest opposition party – back into power.

Several arrests were made in the lead up to Saturday’s protest.

Police arrested two top BNP leaders, including party secretary general Mirza Alamgir on Friday. Authorities said Alamgir was facing charges, without giving more information.

At least one man died during clashes between protesters and police on Wednesday when security forces fired tear gas to disperse people gathered in front of the BNP’s office in the capital.

Hasan Mahmud, Bangladesh’s Information and Broadcasting Minister, said authorities believe the man died after being injured by [Molotov] cocktails made by the activists and blamed the BNP for “creating chaos,” according to a report in state media outlet BSS.

The Bangladesh Election Commission has not announced a date for the next general election, which is due by the end of 2023.

The Bangladesh Awami League, led by 75-year-old Hasina, has been in power since 2009.

Hasina won a third consecutive term as Prime Minister in 2018 in a national election that was marred by deadly violence and allegations of rigged ballots.

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, criticized the government’s response to the protests.

“Concerned governments should publicly call on the prime minister to allow Bangladeshis to freely engage in peaceful political activities,” she said.

“Sheikh Hasina should accept the challenge of democratic rule, not authoritarian abuse.”

US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter D. Haas said in a statement Thursday that the embassy is concerned about reports of intimidation and political violence and urged authorities to investigate and protect freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly.

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December 10, 2022
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa resists calls to resign | CNN

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Johannesburg, South Africa
CNN
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After days of speculation, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa looks set to fight calls for his resignation despite a damning report that found he could have covered up the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars at his private game farm.

His spokesman Vincent Magwenya said Ramaphosa would not be resigning “based on a flawed report,” and “neither is he stepping aside.”

“The President has taken to heart the unequivocal message coming from the branches of the governing party who have nominated him to avail himself for a second term of the leadership of the ANC (African National Congress),” Magwenya added.

Prior to the release of the report, Ramaphosa was widely expected to win a second term as ANC leader. The ANC’s top leadership is expected to meet in the coming hours. Ramaphosa’s fate is likely to be top of the agenda.

Ramaphosa himself has not made any public statements since the report was released.

Ramaphosa was elected to root out corruption, but he is being probed in an ongoing scandal linked to the theft of more than $500,000 in cash from his private game farm in 2020. The cash was stuffed inside a leather sofa according to the panel investigation.

The panel, led by a former chief justice, found that the crime was not reported to the police and that there was a “deliberate decision to keep the investigation secret.”

Former South African spy chief Arthur Fraser alleged the theft occurred with the collusion of a domestic worker and claimed that the theft was concealed from police and the revenue service. Fraser, whose allegations were detailed in a report into the investigation, said Ramaphosa paid the culprits for their silence.

Ramaphosa has maintained that the cash was from the sale of buffalo at his Phala Phala farm to a Sudanese businessman and that the theft was reported to the head of presidential security.

The president also disputes claims by Fraser that the amount hidden at his farm was more than $4 million.

“Some are casting aspersions about me and money. I want to assure you that all this was money from proceeds from selling animals. I have never stolen money from anywhere. Be it from our taxpayers, be it from anyone. I have never done so. And will never do so,” he said while addressing members of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party in June this year.

He is a well-known owner and trader of rare buffalo, cattle, and other wildlife, and has become a multi-millionaire through his private buffalo farm.

The panel found that Ramaphosa’s submitted explanations were not yet sufficient and that he could have violated the constitution and his oath of office by having a second income as president.

The ANC’s top leaders are set to discuss the report and while the party does have a “step-aside” rule for misconduct, the ANC’s national spokesman Pule Mabe told local television that it only applied to those that are “criminally charged.”

Ramaphosa was recently feted at Buckingham Palace at the first state visit hosted by King Charles, but closer to home, the scandal threatens to end his political career, with speculation swirling around political circles in the country that he could step down.

The ANC’s elective conference to choose its leadership is due to take place in mid-December, but is likely to be dominated by the President’s troubles.

South Africa’s official opposition leader was quick to call for impeachment proceedings and early elections.

“The report is clear and unambiguous. President Ramaphosa most likely did breach a number of Constitutional provisions and has a case to answer. Impeachment proceedings into his conduct must go ahead, and he will have to offer far better, more comprehensive explanations than we have been given so far,” said by John Steenhuisen, the leader of the Democratic Alliance.

The panel was appointed by the speaker of parliament after a motion from a smaller opposition party.

The National Assembly will consider the report and may institute impeachment proceedings – though the ANC does hold a majority of seats.

Ramaphosa took office after his predecessor Jacob Zuma was forced to resign because of multiple allegations of corruption.

A former trade union head and multi-millionaire from his business career, Ramaphosa has repeatedly said that fighting corruption is a priority for his presidency.

But the ANC has, by all accounts, been fractured by factional politics during his tenure. Some allies of former president Zuma are now openly asking for Ramaphosa to step down.

Soon after the report’s findings were released, Ramaphosa’s office reiterated his statement to the panel, “I have endeavored, throughout my tenure as President, not only to abide by my oath but to set an example of respect for the Constitution, for its institutions, for due process and the law. I categorically deny that I have violated this oath in any way, and I similarly deny that I am guilty of any of the allegations made against me.”

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December 4, 2022
Twitter is less safe due to Elon Musk’s management style, says former top official | CNN Business

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CNN Business
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Twitter owner Elon Musk’s dictatorial management style risks driving the company headlong into unforced business blunders, content moderation disasters and the degradation of core platform features that help keep vulnerable users safe, according to a former top Twitter official who led the company’s content moderation before abruptly resigning this month.

The social media company’s botched rollout of a paid verification feature “is an example of a disaster that slipped through” amid the chaos Musk brought to Twitter, and the prospect of further disasters made it impossible to stay, said Yoel Roth, the company’s former head of site integrity, during an onstage interview with the journalist Kara Swisher Tuesday in his first public appearance since quitting Twitter on Nov. 10.

Roth and other colleagues tried to warn Musk of the “obvious” problems in his plan to offer a verified check mark to any user who paid $8 a month. But Musk charged ahead anyway through sheer force of will, leading to a wave of new impostor accounts posing as major brands, athletes and other verified users that soon forced Twitter to suspend the feature.

“It went off the rails in exactly the ways that we anticipated,” Roth said.

The public reflections of a senior Twitter leader who had close contact with Musk in the raw, early days of his ownership of the company — a period marked by internal tumult and a damaging advertiser revolt — provide the latest evidence of a billionaire CEO who leads by his gut at the expense of virtually everyone else.

There was no explosive confrontation with Musk that led to Roth’s resignation, and the episode involving Twitter’s paid verification feature was only one of many factors that drove Roth’s decision to leave, he said. But the experience exemplified the kind of damage Musk’s freewheeling approach can do, Roth added, likening his final weeks at the company to standing before a leaky dam, trying desperately to plug the holes but knowing that eventually something would get past him.

In the hour-long interview, Roth warned Musk’s laissez-faire approach to content moderation, and his lack of a transparent process for making and enforcing platform policies, has made Twitter less safe, in part because there aren’t enough staff remaining who understand that malicious actors are constantly trying to game the system in ways that automated algorithms don’t know how to catch.

“People are not sitting still,” he said. “They are actively devising new ways to be horrible on the internet.”

He urged Twitter users to monitor the functioning of key safety features such as muting, blocking and protected tweets as early warning signs the platform may be breaking down.

“If protected tweets stop working, run,” he said.

For two weeks after Musk closed his purchase of Twitter, Roth presented himself as a voice of stability and calm at the center of a company undergoing dramatic change. Roth knew that by remaining at the company, Musk was using him to help keep advertisers from abandoning the platform. But Roth also suggested that he and others who did not leave Twitter may have been able to influence Musk and keep him from making damaging unilateral decisions, which he had “multiple opportunities” to do.

Even as he spent his initial days in the new regime battling a “surge in hateful conduct on Twitter” apparently meant to test Musk’s tolerance for racism and antisemitism on the platform, Roth sought to reassure the public that Twitter’s trust and safety work continued unhindered.

He shared data on the platform’s ongoing enforcement efforts, and downplayed the impact of Twitter’s mass layoffs on its content moderation team, saying the job cuts were less severe in that department compared to the wider organization.

As late as Nov. 9, Roth spoke alongside Musk during a public Twitter Spaces event intended to persuade advertisers not to flee the platform. In the hour-long session, which was attended by more than 100,000 listeners, including representatives of Adidas, Chevron and other major brands, Roth waxed optimistic about Twitter’s plans to fight hate speech.

The very next day, Roth abruptly resigned, joining a slew of other senior executives including Twitter’s chief privacy officer and chief information security officer.

In a subsequent New York Times op-ed, Roth said his reason for leaving came down to Musk’s highly personal and improvisational approach to content moderation. Roth’s essay accused Musk of perpetuating a “lack of legitimacy through his impulsive changes and tweet-length pronouncements about Twitter’s rules.”

On Tuesday, Roth said the popular narrative that describes Musk as a villain is wrong and doesn’t reflect his own experiences with him. But, he said, Musk surrounds himself with those who rarely challenge him.

Before Musk took over Twitter, Roth wrote down several commitments to himself that would trigger the decision to quit. One limit, he said — one that was never reached — was that Roth would refuse to lie for Musk. Another limit, one that was ultimately reached and drove his decision to resign, was “if Twitter starts being ruled by dictatorial edict rather than by a policy.”

Roth’s role at Twitter came under intense scrutiny in 2020 after the company appended a fact-check message to false tweets by then-US President Donald Trump.

Tweets that Roth sent in 2016 and 2017 that were critical of President Trump and his supporters were dug up and used to argue that Roth and Twitter were biased against the president.

Among Roth’s tweets was one he wrote on Election Day 2016 that read, “I’m just saying, we fly over those states that voted for a racist tangerine for a reason.”

Twitter defended Roth at the time, saying, “No one person at Twitter is responsible for our policies or enforcement actions, and it’s unfortunate to see individual employees targeted for company decisions.”

When Roth was still working at Twitter in October, Musk was asked about Roth’s old tweets.

“We’ve all made some questionable tweets, me more than most, but I want to be clear that I support Yoel. My sense is that he has high integrity, and we are all entitled to our political beliefs,” Musk tweeted.

Roth also became the personal face of Twitter, and a target of harassment, after the company decided to suppress a 2020 New York Post story about Hunter Biden, a decision then-CEO Jack Dorsey has since said was a mistake.

“It’s widely reported that I personally directed the suppression of the Hunter Biden story. That is not true. It is absolutely, unequivocally untrue,” Roth told Swisher on Tuesday.

Roth did not feel removing the content from Twitter was appropriate, he said, but at the time the story seemed to bear the hallmarks of a hack-and-leak information operation.

Roth also said Tuesday that, in retrospect, suppressing the Hunter Biden story was a mistake. But he defended Twitter’s other decisions to ban Trump for his activities around the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, as well as a personal account belonging to Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and an account belonging to the satirical website Babylon Bee.

All three cases involved obvious violations of Twitter’s publicly accessible, written policies, Roth said, making them a much clearer case for enforcement.

Amid the layoffs that have decimated Twitter’s content moderation team, Musk has said he intends to rely much more heavily on crowdsourced fact-checking of tweets to provide context to misleading claims. But Roth said that in doing so, Twitter risks abdicating its responsibility to the public, which should still apply despite it being a private company.

Policymakers should require platforms to share data with academics and researchers, he said, preempting privately owned platforms such as Twitter from shirking a duty to transparency.

Asked to give a single piece of advice to Musk going forward, Roth paused for the briefest of moments.

“Humility goes a really long way,” he said.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

– CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan contributed to this report

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November 29, 2022
Taiwan’s President billed midterms as all about China. Now she’s resigning as party chief | CNN

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Tainan, Taiwan
CNN
—

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has resigned as the leader of the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, after her party suffered heavy losses in mid-term elections.

The DPP’s losses in Saturday’s vote come as a heavy blow for Tsai as she had tried to frame the election – technically a local affair to choose city mayors, councilors and county chiefs – as a way to send a message against Beijing’s rising bellicosity toward the island.

Beijing has been increasingly assertive in its territorial claims over Taiwan in recent months, and in August launched large-scale military exercises around the island in response to a controversial visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

But Tsai’s appeal to link the issues appears to have done little to boost the fortunes of her party, which is often outperformed by the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party in local ballots.

The KMT – which is widely seen as friendlier to Beijing and advocates greater economic ties with mainland China – is expected to win mayoral elections in 13 counties, according to Taiwan’s official Central News Agency. Tsai’s party, by comparison, is expected to win only five – one fewer than in the last local election.

“We humbly accept the results of the election and the decision of the people of Taiwan,” Tsai wrote on Facebook on Saturday night.

She added that she had already resigned as party chief to “fully bear the responsibilities”.

However, Tsai will remain as President. Her presidential term ends in 2024.

The result comes despite escalating rhetoric from Beijing. China’s leader Xi Jinping told a Communist Party meeting last month that “the wheels of history are rolling on towards China’s reunification” and that Beijing would never renounce the use of force to take Taiwan.

Analysts said the result showed voters were more focused on domestic issues like the economy and social welfare.

“Taiwanese voters have become desensitized to China’s military threat. And hence there isn’t quite as much of a perceived urgency to making the issue of survival front and center,” said Wen-ti Sung, a political scientist with the Australia National University’s Taiwan Studies Program.

“The DPP’s China threat card is facing diminishing marginal returns over time.”

That assessment tallied with the thoughts of voter Liao Su-han, an art curator from the central Nantou county who cast a ballot for the DPP but said Beijing’s recent actions were not a major factor in deciding her vote.

“China’s military threat has always been there, and it did not just begin this year,” she said.

“As Taiwanese, we are pretty used to China’s rhetoric that they want to invade us all the time, so [it] did not have a big impact on who I’m voting for.”

Eric Su, a 30-year-old account manager who lives in New Taipei City, said while he voted for Tsai in the presidential election, he supported a KMT candidate because they are stronger on local issues.

“In a presidential election, I consider more about global issues, because a president can influence our economy and international standing,” he said.

“In a mayoral election, I care more about what a candidate can bring to local residents, such as infrastructure planning and child subsidies.”

The KMT, also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party, ruled over China between 1912 and 1949, when it retreated to Taiwan after losing a civil war to the Chinese Communist Party.

The KMT set up its own government on the island – having taken control of it from Japan after the second world war – while the Communist Party took control of mainland China. Ever since, the Communist Party has harbored ambitions of “reunification” with Taiwan – by force, if necessary.

When the KMT first fled to Taiwan, its then-president Chiang Kai-shek ruled the island with an iron fist and implemented decades of martial law to crack down on political dissent.

After decades of struggle by pro-democracy campaigners, Taiwan was gradually transformed from authoritarian rule into a democracy, and it held the first direct presidential election in 1996.

The KMT is now widely seen as friendlier to Beijing than the ruling DPP, and it accepts a so-called “1992 consensus”, a tacit understanding that both Taipei and Beijing acknowledge they belong to “one China”, but with different interpretations of what that entails.

Tsai, on the other hand, has refused to acknowledge the consensus. The position of her DPP is to defend Taiwan’s status quo as an independent government and expand its international space against an increasingly assertive Beijing.

Among the more notable victories in Friday’s mayoral races was that of Chiang Wan-an – the great-grandson of Chiang Kai-shek. He will become the next mayor of Taipei after beating the DPP’s Chen Shih-chung, who served as Taiwan’s health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement on Saturday night, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the election results showed that most people in Taiwan valued “peace, stability and a good life”. It said Beijing will continue to “firmly oppose Taiwan independence and foreign interference.”

However, experts said the KMT’s victory did not necessarily reflect a shift in how Taiwan’s public viewed their relationship with mainland China.

“The election was voted on bread-and-butter issues, and I disagree that it signals a major impact on Taiwan’s cross-strait policies,” said J. Michael Cole, a Taipei-based senior adviser for International Republican Institute.

“The outcome of this election is not reflective of what voters will be looking for in choosing the next president.”

Sung at Australia National University said it was too early to speculate over the KMT’s chances of winning the next presidential election in 2024, but felt this result had given it a boost.

“The KMT is now better positioned to be the (party) that unifies the opposition and attracts all the anti-status quo protest votes against the current administration,” he said.

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November 26, 2022
Rishi Sunak: The super-rich former banker who will be the first person of color to lead Britain | CNN

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London
CNN
—

Just seven short weeks ago, it looked as if it might be all over for Rishi Sunak.

The former chancellor of the exchequer – the UK’s title for its chief finance minister – made a high-stakes gamble. He launched an attack that helped to end Boris Johnson’s premiership, put himself forward as his replacement, but ultimately lost to Liz Truss. Admitting defeat, he retreated to the parliamentary back benches.

But in a sign of just how unpredictable British politics has become, Sunak has returned triumphant from the political wilderness to replace Truss, whose premiership imploded last week.

Sunak was the only leadership hopeful to secure the support of 100 Conservative members of parliament, the necessary threshold set by party officials for potential candidates. He will become the first person of color to lead the UK – and at the age of 42, he is also the youngest person to take the office in more than 200 years.

He was the last person standing after his rivals – Johnson and the Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt – fell by the wayside.

Sunak first publicly declared on Sunday morning that he would be standing in the contest. In a tweet, he wrote, “The United Kingdom is a great country but we face a profound economic crisis. That’s why I am standing to be Leader of the Conservative Party and your next Prime Minister. I want to fix our economy, unite our Party and deliver for our country.”

Other than that brief statement, he has made no big pitch for the leadership this time round.

In the last contest, over the summer, he was widely seen as the more moderate of the two candidates. Compared to Truss, he took a less ideological line on matters like Brexit and the economy. (Unlike Truss, a remainer-turned hardline Brexiteer, Sunak voted for the UK to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum.)

Like Truss, Sunak promised a tough approach to illegal immigration and vowed to expand the government’s controversial Rwanda immigration policy.

Sunak, whose parents came to the UK from East Africa in the 1960s, is of Indian descent. His father was a local doctor while his mother ran a pharmacy in southern England, something Sunak says gave him his desire to serve the public.

He will be the first Hindu to become British prime minister, securing the position on Diwali, the festival of lights that marks one of the most important days of the Hindu calendar. Sunak himself made history in 2020 when he lit Diwali candles outside 11 Downing Street, the official residence of the UK chancellor.

He has faced challenges over his elite background, having studied at the exclusive Winchester College, Oxford and Stanford universities. He is known for his expensive taste in fashion and has worked for banks and hedge funds, including Goldman Sachs.

Sunak has also been scrutinized over the tax arrangements of his wife Akshata Murty, the daughter of an Indian billionaire.

Earlier this year, Sunak and Murty appeared on the Sunday Times Rich List of the UK’s 250 wealthiest people – the newspaper estimated their joint net worth at £730 million ($826 million).

Sunak’s election on Monday marks the pinnacle of what has been a speedy rise to power. He was first elected as an MP in 2015 and spent two years on the back benches before becoming a junior minister in Theresa May’s government. Johnson gave Sunak his first major government role, appointing him as chief secretary to the Treasury in 2019 and promoting him to chancellor in 2020.

Sunak has experience of economic crisis-fighting, having guided the UK through the Covid-19 pandemic, and positioned himself as the “sound finance” candidate.

During the pandemic, Sunak put in place measures worth £400 billion ($452 billion) aimed at boosting the economy, including a generous furlough scheme, business loans and discounts on eating in restaurants. But that stimulus came at a huge cost and left the government scrambling to find savings.

Sunak was an early critic of Truss’ economic plan, which was panned by investors, the International Monetary Fund and credit ratings agencies. While he also advocated for lower taxes, he said tax could only be cut once inflation is brought under control, which could take several years.

His warning over the summer that Truss’ unfunded tax cuts could spark panic in the financial markets turned out to be true. The British pound crashed to a record low against the US dollar when Truss and her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled their plan. Prices of UK government bonds rose at the fastest pace ever, sending borrowing costs skyrocketing.

He also secured the most votes from MPs in the last leadership election – comfortably clearing the new threshold with 137 endorsements. Although Truss eventually won the decisive vote among grassroots members, Sunak was not far behind, gaining 43% of the vote.

Johnson has made no secret of the fact that he believes Sunak betrayed him by resigning from his government, triggering his resignation on July 7 after a string of scandals made his position untenable.

Johnson’s downfall followed months of revelations of parties held in 10 Downing Street while the rest of the country was under Covid lockdown restrictions. Johnson himself was fined by the police, making him the first prime minister in history found to have broken the law in office.

For a long time, Sunak stood by Johnson – especially since he too was fined in the so-called Partygate scandal.

But he turned against him after Johnson was slow to act when his deputy chief whip responsible for party discipline, Chris Pincher, was accused of sexually assaulting two men at a party in early July. (Pincher later said he had “drunk far too much,” although has not directly addressed the allegations.)

Sunak’s shock resignation from Johnson’s cabinet over the Pincher scandal set into motion a series of high-profile resignations that led to Johnson’s demise – and ultimately, to his own rise to the Downing Street.

Sunak faces an enormous task. The UK is in the midst of a deep cost-of-living crisis and soaring inequality. Financial markets are still spooked after Truss’ disastrous economic policy missteps.

The Conservative party, already unpopular after 12 years in power, has plunged itself into a state of utter chaos over the past four months and is now well behind the opposition Labour party in opinion polls. The only comfort for Sunak is that he doesn’t have to call an election until January 2025.

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October 24, 2022
Who might succeed Liz Truss as UK prime minister? | CNN

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London
CNN
—

Britain will have a new prime minister within a week, outgoing leader Liz Truss said in her resignation speech outside 10 Downing Street on Thursday.

The fast-track process is in stark contrast to the contest that catapulted Truss into the hot seat – that lasted six weeks at the height of the summer.

This time, with the Conservatives at rock-bottom in the opinion polls and the markets jittery after a weeks of drama over Truss’ failed economic policy agenda, the party wants a new leader in place as soon as possible and with as little drama as possible.

Graham Brady, the Conservative official responsible for the process, announced the candidates to replace Truss will need get least 100 nominations from the party’s MPs by 2pm local time Monday.

If only one candidate meets that threshold, they will automatically become leader. Otherwise, an online ballot of party members will close on Friday October 28.

The winner of the contest will be the fifth Conservative prime minister in just over six years – and the third within this parliamentary term. But who might the next leader be? Here are some of the main runners and riders:

Though he has yet to formally declare his candidacy, Sunak has already reached the 100-nomination threshold, Britain’s PA Media news agency reported on Friday.

The former Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) has proved to be something of a prophet of the government’s demise, as many of the predictions he made during this summer’s leadership about Truss’s economic plan came to pass.

Sunak warned that Truss’s unfunded tax cuts would lead to a run on sterling, a panic in the bond market and concern from the International Monetary Fund. Perhaps even he would have been surprised by the pace with which he was proved right.

Sunak has experience of economic crisis-fighting, having guided the UK through the Covid-19 pandemic.

He also secured the most votes from MPs in the last leadership election – comfortably clearing the new threshold with 137 endorsements. Although Truss eventually won the decisive members’ vote, Sunak only lost narrowly – with 43% of the vote.

The trust he has among MPs – and the vindication his predictions have gained – may make him the most likely next set of hands to steer the ship.

The Leader of the House of Commons may have had a dress rehearsal for being prime minister this week, after stepping in for an absent Liz Truss at a debate.

“The prime minister is not under a desk,” Mordaunt confirmed Tuesday – in a performance that seemed as much about pitching herself as it did about helping the PM.

Mordaunt confirmed in a tweet Friday afternoon that she was running to replace Truss – the first MP to do so.

She promised a “fresh start” for the country, aiming “to unite our country, deliver our pledges and win the next general election.”

Mordaunt came third in the last leadership election, narrowly missing out on being put before the members. With 105 votes from MPs in the last election, she too is expected to clear the newt threshold. She is expected to perform well among the party membership, in part due to her military credentials. Mordaunt is a reservist of the Royal Navy and served a short spell as Secretary of State for Defense.

Like Sunak, she is from the more moderate wing of the party. There was even talk among MPs of the two forming a “dream team” ticket, although this is yet to materialize – and it is unclear if either would accept being chancellor over taking the top job.

Badenoch came fourth in this summer’s leadership election – securing only 59 votes from MPs – but was consistently rated by pollsters as a favorite among Conservative grassroots members.

One of the younger MPs in the running, Badenoch quickly won the endorsement of long-serving Tory grandee Michael Gove, who praised her as the “outstanding talent” in the party.

Badenoch is from the right of the Tory party – and in her previous leadership bid suggested that the government’s climate targets might prove too costly.

With Truss’s votes from MPs now up for grabs, Badenoch may have an outside chance of clearing the threshold and making it to the members’ vote.

Boris Johnson is flying back to the UK from his Caribbean holiday and plans to join the race to replace Truss, Britain’s PA Media news agency reported Friday.

UK Trade Minister Sir James Duddridge, a close Johnson ally, told PA Media that he had been in contact with Johnson via Whatsapp, saying that Johnson had sent him: “‘I’m flying back, Dudders. We are going to do this. I’m up for it’.”

The minister also said via Twitter “I hope you enjoyed your holiday boss. Time to come back. Few issues at the office that need addressing. #bringbackboris.”

Sky News said one of its reporters, who boarded the flight Johnson took, snapped a picture of the former prime minister and his wife Carrie Johnson on board, adding that the couple received several boos from fellow passengers.

Multiple allies have made the case that Johnson could be a unity candidate who could bring stability to the country, despite the fact he resigned in disgrace only a few months ago after a series of scandals came together, making his position untenable.

When asked by CNN how they could justify Johnson standing to be PM again, one MP who campaigned for Johnson in the 2019 leadership campaign, said: “Socialists will destroy our economy and if you don’t understand that then I genuinely fear for our future.”

Another MP who supported Johnson in 2019 said he was the only candidate who could comfortably win over both Conservative MPs and members of the Conservative Party.

Johnson’s closest allies said they were aware he was being actively lobbied in the hours after Truss’ resignation speech, making the case to him that he represented the party’s best shot at stability in the medium term.

In his final speech as prime minister outside 10 Downing Street, Johnson made one of his characteristic allusions to ancient history. He said he would “return to his plough” like the Roman statesman Cincinnatus – suggesting a quieter life on the backbenches. But that’s not how Cincinnatus saw out his days. He was called back from his plough to return to Rome for a second term – this time as a dictator.

Some suspect that the new 100-vote threshold is an attempt by the Conservative Party to render another Johnson term impossible. But Johnson’s campaign has already started to gather momentum. A number of prominent Conservative MPs announced Friday that they will back him – even though Johnson has yet to confirm he will stand.

As Conservative MPs are currently facing electoral oblivion, their desire for self-preservation should not be underestimated. Less than three years ago Johnson delivered an 80-seat majority, and the right of the Tory party may think he is the only candidate capable of saving their jobs.

If Johnson was to secure the required 100 votes from MPs, he would be expected to perform extremely well in a vote by the party membership.

It is a sign of the disorder of the last days of Truss’s government that she elevated Grant Shapps to home secretary – despite not offering him a ministerial role of any sort when she first took office.

Shapps served as transport secretary under Boris Johnson. He put himself forward to succeed him in the previous leadership election – only to withdraw from the race three days later, after failing to secure the requisite 20 MPs’ votes to proceed to the next round.

The new threshold will likely prove too high for Shapps – but his criticism of Truss’ government from the outset may have won him the support of more MPs than last time.

Suella Braverman’s resignation as home secretary on Wednesday night may have been a precursor to a possible leadership bid. The former attorney-general has not run before – but with her hard-line stance on immigration, might look set to drag the party further to the right.

Tom Tugendhat emerged as a surprise favorite among Tory members and the wider public, despite only coming fifth in the last leadership election. Having not served as a cabinet member before that contest, Tugendhat distanced himself from the moral mess of Johnson’s government and promised a “clean start” for Britain. After serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tugendhat was made security minister by Truss.

Ben Wallace, defense secretary and another ex-military man, was tipped to succeed Johnson in the last leadership contest – polling extremely well among Conservative members. However, he never ran in that election, and he has now ruled himself out of this race.

Former prime minister Theresa May has also been floated as a possible “unity” candidate to succeed Truss. May tried to bring together the warring wings of the Conservative party over Brexit, in move that ultimately saw her replaced by Boris Johnson. As the party has proven unable to resolve its disputes this time round, another attempt at compromise may soon be in order.

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October 21, 2022
LA City Councilmember Nury Martinez resigns from office, two days after stepping down from leadership post | CNN

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[Breaking news update, published at 5:50 p.m. ET]

Los Angeles City Council member Nury Martinez resigned from her seat on Council District 6, two days after stepping down from her post as president for making racist remarks.

“It is with a broken heart that I resign my seat for Council District 6, the community I grew up in and my home,” she said in a news release.

[Original story, published at 4:32 p.m. ET]

A day after Los Angeles City Council’s president resigned from her post for making racist remarks, the new acting president proposed several changes to help move the city forward.

During a loud and contentious council meeting Tuesday – the first meeting since the scandal broke – Acting President Mitch O’Farrell proposed “major reform of the city charter, city council and how we approach redistricting, representation – the topics at the center of this crisis.”

He called for expanding the council and an independent redistricting commission to map out representation of the “diverse metropolis.”

It was the first council meeting since audio posted online revealed then-President Nury Martinez made racist comments about another council member’s family and said that colleague’s son “needs a beatdown.”

The remarks were part of leaked audio that was posted anonymously on Reddit and obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Martinez publicly apologized for her comments Monday and resigned from her post as council president. On Tuesday, she also took a leave of absence from the council.

O’Farrell presented a motion for a ballot measure that could be posed to voters to decide if the council should grow.

The number of members – 15 – has not changed since 1925, when Los Angeles had less than 1 million residents, O’Farrell said.

The city’s population has since quadrupled, according to US Census data.

“This council should reflect and represent the residents we serve,” O’Farrell said. “A ballot measure that increases the number of council seats to help us meet that goal and involve Angelenos in the process, as will an immediate redistricting process, should the people decide they want an expanded city council.”

When the council reconvenes Wednesday, members will discuss another ballot measure that calls for an independent redistricting commission that would determine the boundaries set every 10 years.

According to The Los Angeles Times. the leaked audio captured conversation from October 2021 involving Martinez; her fellow councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León; and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera.

Much of the conversation focused on maps proposed by the city’s redistricting commission and the councilmembers’ frustration with them, as well as the need to “ensure that heavily Latino districts did not lose economic assets” in the once-in-a-decade process, according to the Times.

The councilmembers then discussed Councilmember Mike Bonin, a White man. In clips of the leaked audio posted by the Times, Martinez is heard recounting a conversation and says “Bonin thinks he’s f**king Black.”

According to the Times, Martinez says Bonin appeared with his son on a float in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade and he “handled his young Black son as though he were an accessory.” The boy is 8 years old, according to a Facebook post by his father.

The Times reported that Martinez also said of Bonin’s child, “Parece changuito,” or “He’s like a monkey.”

In the leaked audio, Martinez can be heard talking about Bonin’s son allegedly misbehaving while at the parade by hanging from a railing of their float, saying “this kid is going to tip us over.”

“They’re raising him like a little White kid,” Martinez said in the audio released by The Times. “I was like, this kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner and then I’ll bring him back.”

CNN has not been able to verify the audio recording. But the fallout has been swift.

On Monday, Herrera resigned as president of Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Councilmember Cedillo issued a public statement saying he should have stepped in during the conversation.

“I want to start by apologizing. While I did not engage in the conversation in question, I was present at times during this meeting last year,” Cedillo said Sunday. “It is my instinct to hold others accountable when they use derogatory or racially divisive language. Clearly, I should have intervened.”

Councilmember de León also said he should have acted differently.

“On that day, I fell short of the expectations we set for our leaders – and I will hold myself to a higher standard,” he said in a written statement Sunday.

“There were comments made in the context of this meeting that are wholly inappropriate; and I regret appearing to condone and even contribute to certain insensitive comments made about a colleague and his family in private. I’ve reached out to that colleague personally.”

Officials near and far – including Sen. Dianne Feinstein and President Joe Biden – believe the councilmembers who took part in the recorded conversation should resign.

“At a time when our country has seen a steep rise in racially motivated hate crimes, it’s critical that elected officials set a positive example on behalf of everyone they represent,” said Feinstein, the senior US senator from California.

The city council’s new acting president also called for the full resignation of the three colleagues.

“I do not believe we can have the healing that is necessary or govern as we need to while council members Martinez, de Leon, and Cedillo remain as members of this council,” O’Farrell said Tuesday.

A motion to elect a new council president will be heard next Tuesday.

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October 12, 2022
Inside the long and winding road to Trump’s historic indictment | CNN Politics

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The New York grand jury hearing the case against Donald Trump was set to break for several weeks. The former president’s lawyers believed on Wednesday afternoon they had at least a small reprieve from a possible indictment. Trump praised the perceived delay.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had other plans.

Thursday afternoon, Bragg asked the grand jury to return an historic indictment against Trump, the first time that a current or former US president has been indicted. The surprise move was the final twist in an investigation that’s taken a long and winding road to the history-making charges that were returned this week.

An indictment had been anticipated early last week – including by Trump himself, who promoted a theory he would be “arrested” – as law enforcement agencies prepared for the logistics of arraigning a former president. But after the testimony of Robert Costello – a lawyer who appeared on Trump’s behalf seeking to undercut the credibility of Trump’s former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen – Bragg appeared to hit the pause button.

Costello’s testimony caused the district attorney’s office to reassess whether Costello should be the last witness the grand jury heard before prosecutors asked them to vote on an indictment, multiple sources told CNN.

So they waited. The next day the grand jury was scheduled to meet, jurors were told not to come in. Bragg and his top prosecutors huddled the rest of the week and over the weekend to determine a strategy that would effectively counter Costello’s testimony in the grand jury.

They called two additional witnesses. David Pecker, the former head of the company that publishes the National Enquirer, appeared on Monday. The other witness, who has still not been identified, testified on Thursday for 35 minutes in front of the grand jury – just before prosecutors asked them to vote on the indictment of more than 30 counts, the sources said.

Trump and his attorneys, thinking Bragg might be reconsidering a potential indictment, were all caught off-guard, sources said. Some of Trump’s advisers had even left Palm Beach on Wednesday following news reports that the grand jury was taking a break, the sources added.

After the indictment, Trump ate dinner with his wife, Melania, Thursday evening and smiled while he greeted guests at his Mar-a-Lago club, according to a source familiar with the event.

The Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into Trump has been ongoing for years, dating back to Bragg’s predecessor, Cy Vance. Its focus shifted by mid-2020 to the accuracy of the Trump Org.’s financial statements. At the time, prosecutors debated legal theories around the hush money payments and thought they were a long shot. At several points, the wide-ranging investigation seemed to have been winding down – to the point that prosecutors resigned in protest last year. One even wrote a book critical of Bragg for not pursuing charges against Trump released just last month.

The specific charges against Trump still remain under seal and are expected to be unveiled Tuesday when Trump is set to be arraigned.

There are questions swirling even among Trump critics over whether the Manhattan district attorney’s case is the strongest against the former president amid additional investigations in Washington, DC, and Georgia over both his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents at his Florida resort.

Trump could still face charges in those probes, too, which are separate from the New York indictment.

But it’s the Manhattan indictment, dating back to a payment made before the 2016 presidential election, that now sees Trump facing down criminal charges for the first time as he runs again for the White House in 2024.

It was just weeks before the 2016 election when Cohen, Trump’s then-lawyer, paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep silent about an alleged affair with Trump. (Trump has denied the affair.) Cohen was later reimbursed $420,000 by the Trump Organization to cover the original payment and tax liabilities and to reward him with a bonus.

That payment and reimbursement are keys at issue in the investigation.

Cohen also helped arrange a $150,000 payment from the publisher of the National Enquirer to Karen McDougal to kill her story claiming a 10-month affair with Trump. Trump also denies an affair with McDougal. During the grand jury proceedings, the district attorney’s office has asked questions about the “catch and kill” deal with McDougal.

When Cohen was charged by federal prosecutors in New York in 2018 and pleaded guilty, he said he was acting at the direction of Trump when he made the payment.

At the time, federal prosecutors had determined they could not seek to indict Trump in the scheme because of US Justice Department regulations against charging a sitting president. In 2021, after Trump left the White House, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York decided not to pursue a case against Trump, according to a recent book from CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig.

But then-Manhattan District Attorney Vance’s team had already picked up the investigation into the hush money payments and begun looking at potential state law violations. By summer 2019, they sent subpoenas to the Trump Org., other witnesses, and met with Cohen, who was serving a three-year prison sentence.

Vance’s investigation broadened to the Trump Org.’s finances. New York prosecutors went to the Supreme Court twice to enforce a subpoena for Trump’s tax records from his long-time accounting firm Mazars USA. The Trump Org. and its long-time chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg were indicted on tax fraud and other charges in June 2021 for allegedly running an off-the-books compensation scheme for more than a decade.

Weisselberg pleaded guilty to the charges last year and is currently serving a five-month sentence at Rikers Island. Prosecutors had hoped to flip Weisselberg to cooperate against Trump, but he would not tie Trump to any wrongdoing.

Disagreements about the pace of the investigation had caused at least three career prosecutors to move off the investigation. They were concerned that the investigation was moving too quickly, without clear evidence to support possible charges, CNN and others reported last year.

Vance authorized the attorneys on the team to present evidence to the grand jury near the end of 2021, but he did not seek an indictment. Those close to Vance say he wanted to leave the decision to Bragg, the newly elected district attorney.

Bragg, a Democrat, took office in January 2022. Less than two months into his tenure, two top prosecutors who had worked on the Trump case under Vance abruptly resigned amid a disagreement in the office over the strength of the case against Trump.

On February 22, 2022, Bragg informed the prosecution team that he was not prepared to authorize charges against Trump, CNN reported. The prosecutors, Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz, resigned the next day.

In his resignation letter, Pomerantz said he believed Trump was guilty of numerous felonies and said that Bragg’s decision to not move forward with an indictment at the time was “wrong” and a “grave failure of justice.”

“I and others believe that your decision not to authorize prosecution now will doom any future prospects that Mr. Trump will be prosecuted for the criminal conduct we have been investigating,” Pomerantz wrote in the letter, which was reviewed by CNN.

At that point, the investigation was focused on Trump’s financial statements and whether he knowingly misled lenders, insurers, and others by providing them false or misleading information about the value of his properties.

Prosecutors were building a wide-ranging falsified business records case to include years of financial statements and the hush money payments, people with direct knowledge of the investigation told CNN. But at the time, those prosecutors believed there was a good chance a felony charge related to the hush money payment would be dismissed by a judge because it was a novel legal theory.

Dunne and Pomerantz pushed to seek an indictment of Trump tied to the sweeping falsified business records case, but others, including some career prosecutors, were skeptical that they could win a conviction at trial, in part because of the difficulty in proving Trump’s criminal intent.

Despite the resignations of the prosecutors on the Trump case, Bragg’s office reiterated at the time that the investigation was ongoing.

“Investigations are not linear so we are following the leads in front of us. That’s what we’re doing,” Bragg told CNN in April 2022. “The investigation is very much ongoing.”

At the same time that Bragg’s criminal investigation into Trump lingered last year, another prosecution against the Trump Org. moved forward. In December, two Trump Org. entities were convicted at trial on 17 counts and were ordered to pay $1.6 million, the maximum penalty, the following month.

Trump was not personally charged in that case. But it appeared to embolden Bragg’s team to sharpen their focus back to Trump and the hush money payment.

Cohen was brought back in to meet with Manhattan prosecutors. Cohen had previously met with prosecutors in the district attorney’s office 13 times over the course of the investigation. But the January meeting was the first in more than a year – and a clear sign of the direction prosecutors were taking.

As investigators inched closer to a charging decision, Bragg was faced with more public pressure to indict Trump: Pomerantz, the prosecutor who had resigned a year prior, released a book about the investigation that argued Trump should be charged and criticized Bragg for failing to do so.

“Every single member of the prosecution team thought that his guilt was established,” Pomerantz said in a February interview on “CNN This Morning.”

Asked about Bragg’s hesitance, Pomerantz said: “I can’t speak in detail about what went through his mind. I can surmise from what happened at the time and statements that he’s made since that he had misgivings about the strength of the case.”

Bragg responded in a statement saying that more work was needed on the case. “Mr. Pomerantz’s plane wasn’t ready for takeoff,” Bragg said.

Prosecutors continued bringing in witnesses, including Pecker, the former head of American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer. In February, Trump Org. controller Jeffrey McConney testified before the grand jury. Members of Trump’s 2016 campaign, including Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks, also appeared. In March, Daniels met with prosecutors, her attorney said.

And Cohen, after his numerous meetings with prosecutors, finally testified before the grand jury in March.

The second week of March, prosecutors gave the clearest sign to date that the investigation was nearing its conclusion – they invited Trump to appear before the grand jury.

Potential defendants in New York are required by law to be notified and invited to appear before a grand jury weighing charges.

Behind the scenes, Trump attorney Susan Necheles told CNN she met with New York prosecutors to argue why Trump shouldn’t be indicted and that prosecutors didn’t articulate the specific charges they are considering.

Trump, meanwhile, took to his social media to predict his impending indictment. In a post attacking Bragg on March 18, Trump said the “leading Republican candidate and former president of the United States will be arrested on Tuesday of next week.”

“Protest, take our nation back,” Trump added, echoing the calls he made while he tried to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump’s prediction would turn out to be premature.

Trump’s call for protests after a potential indictment led to meetings between senior staff members from the district attorney’s office, the New York Police Department and the New York State Court Officers – who provide security at the criminal court building in lower Manhattan.

Trump’s lawyers also made a last-ditch effort to fend off an indictment. At the behest of Trump’s team, Costello, who advised Cohen in 2018, provided emails and testified to the grand jury on Monday, March 20, alleging that Cohen had said in 2018 that he had decided on his own to make the payment to Daniels.

Costello’s testimony appeared to delay a possible indictment – for a brief time at least.

During the void, Trump continued to launch verbal insults against Bragg, calling him a “degenerate psychopath.” And four Republican chairmen of the most powerful House committees wrote to Bragg asking him to testify, which Bragg’s office said was unprecedented interference in a local investigation. An envelope containing a suspicious white powder and a death threat to Bragg was to delivered to the building where the grand jury meets – the powder was deemed nonhazardous.

The grand jury would not meet again until Monday, March 27, when Pecker was ushered back to the grand jury in a government vehicle with tinted windows in a failed effort to evade detection by the media camped outside of the building where the grand jury meets.

Pecker, a longtime friend of Trump’s who had a history of orchestrating so-called “catch and kill” deals while at the National Enquirer, was involved with the Daniels’ deal from the beginning.

Two days after Pecker’s testimony, there were multiple reports that the grand jury was going into a pre-planned break in April. The grand jury was set to meet Thursday but it was not expected to hear the Trump case.

Instead, the grand jury heard from one last witness in the Trump case on Thursday, whose identity is still unknown. And then the grand jury shook up the American political system by voting to indict a former president and 2024 candidate for the White House.

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April 12, 2021
Graham will support replacing Feinstein on Judiciary Committee if she resigns, following precedent | CNN Politics

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Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that he will follow precedent for replacing Sen. Dianne Feinstein on the Judiciary Committee if she resigns, signaling a willingness to vote to replace the California Democrat if she left the chamber altogether.

“If she does resign, I would be in the camp of following the precedent of the Senate, replacing the person, consistent with what we have done in the past,” the South Carolina lawmaker told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”

Feinstein was hospitalized in March for shingles and has yet to return to the Senate. She has asked to be “temporarily” replaced on the Senate Judiciary Committee while she is recovering but remains committed to returning to Washington.

Democrats would need 60 votes to replace Feinstein on the panel, but senior Republicans in leadership and on the committee have made clear that they would not give them the votes to do that on a temporary basis.

Senate Republicans blocked an effort last week by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to temporarily replace Feinstein on the Judiciary panel with Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin.

But Graham – who objected to Schumer’s request – signaled Sunday that the situation would be different if Feinstein resigned.

“If she resigned, I would make sure that whatever we did in the past when members resigned would be followed,” he said.

“As to Sen. Feinstein, she is a wonderful person. She’s been a very effective senator. I hope she comes back,” the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee added.

Feinstein is facing calls to resign from at least two House Democrats, though most congressional Democrats have remained largely supportive of her decision to remain in office while absent from the Capitol.

More than 60 progressive organizations across California signed a letter Friday calling for Feinstein’s resignation.

“For three decades, 39 million Californians counted on you to be our hardworking voice in Washington, day in and day out. We still need a daily voice, now more than ever,” the letter stated. ” We respectfully ask you to give one more gift of service to our great state by fully stepping back to allow a new appointee to carry forth and extend your legacy.”

On the issue of abortion, Graham would not say Sunday whether he believes the procedure should be regulated at the state or federal level.

“It’s a human rights issue, does it really matter where you’re conceived?,” Graham said. He added later: “I welcome this debate. I think the Republican Party will be in good standing to oppose late-term abortion.”

Graham’s comments highlight the difficulty that Republicans have had navigating the abortion issue. The Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last year has energized Democrats, with voters across the country rejecting ballot efforts to restrict abortion at the state level.

which was once a popular GOP premise. After Roe v. Wade was overturned last year, voters overwhelmingly rejected further efforts to restrict abortion.

The South Carolina senator introduced a bill in September that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

“Here’s what I believe, that anybody running for president who has a snowball’s chance in hell in the 2024 primary is going to be with me, the American people, and all of Europe, saying late-term abortions should be off the table,” Graham, who has endorsed former President Donald Trump’s reelection bid, said Sunday. “I am confident, over time, that’s where our nominee will be.”

The issue of abortion has continued to reverberate across the political landscape. The Supreme Court on Friday protected access to a widely used abortion drug as appeals play out by freezing lower-court rulings that had placed restrictions on its usage.

Meanwhile, Graham, who recently traveled to the Middle East, said Sunday that he saw dramatic change while on the ground in Saudi Arabia.

“The biggest prize, for lack of a better word, would be to get Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel and vice versa. And the Biden administration is trying to do that. And I want to help them. I think the Biden administration is right to want a normalize relationship with Saudi Arabia, based on the changes I see,” he said.

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April 12, 2021
Florida GOP lawmakers clear path for DeSantis to run for president without resigning | CNN Politics

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Florida lawmakers gave final passage Friday to a measure that clears a path for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to run for president without resigning from his current job.

The provision, which was anticipated, would tweak a Florida law – known as “resign to run” – that currently requires candidates in the state seeking higher office to give up their elected post once they qualify for the ballot. The legislation approved Friday exempts “any person seeking the office of President or Vice President of the United States” from the resign-to-run law.

The provision was tacked on to a sweeping election bill that passed the House in a 76-34 vote, sending it to DeSantis for his signature. The package had passed the Senate on Thursday 28-12. Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers.

“I can’t think of a better training ground than the state of Florida for a future commander in chief,” Republican state Rep. Tyler Sirois said.

The change would eliminate a dispute that has not been previously resolved. The law says that “no officer may qualify as a candidate for another state, district, county, or municipal public office” without resigning from their current office. However, it leaves unclear at what point that would apply to a presidential candidate – when they file paperwork to run, when they qualify for the ballot in any state or just in Florida, or when they are nominated by their party.

Democrats overwhelmingly objected to the provision, saying DeSantis should not be able to govern the country’s third-largest state while also campaigning nationwide for the White House.

“This is not just a clarification, this is an intentional move to curry favor,” state Sen. Shevrin Jones said Thursday. “You’re not doing this because it’s the right thing to do. You’re doing it because you can.”

DeSantis has not officially declared that he is running for president, but he is widely expected to do so in the weeks after state lawmakers conclude their legislative session. The last day of the session is May 5.

This is not be the first time that Florida lawmakers have voted to amend the resign-to-run law to help clear a path for a governor to reach the White House. In 2007, the law was changed to remove the requirement for federal candidates. It was widely seen as a move to assist then-Gov. Charlie Crist, who was in the mix as a potential running mate on the 2008 GOP presidential ticket.

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April 12, 2021
Twitter’s head of trust and safety says she has resigned | CNN Business

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Twitter’s head of trust and safety Ella Irwin told Reuters on Thursday that she has resigned from the social media company.

In the role, Irwin oversaw content moderation, but the company has faced criticism for lax protections against harmful content since billionaire Elon Musk acquired it in October.

Irwin’s departure also comes as the platform has struggled to keep advertisers on it, mainly as brands have been wary of appearing next to unsuitable content.

Musk announced earlier this month that he hired Linda Yaccarino, former NBCUniversal advertising chief, to become Twitter’s new CEO.

Fortune earlier reported that Irwin’s internal Slack account appeared to be deactivated.

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April 12, 2021
Oklahoma governor calls on officials to resign over recording of racist and threatening remarks | CNN

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The governor of Oklahoma is calling on four McCurtain County officials to resign after they allegedly participated in a secretly recorded conversation that included racist remarks about lynching Black people and talking about killing journalists.

The McCurtain Gazette-News over the weekend published the audio it said was recorded following a Board of Commissioners meeting on March 6.

The paper said the audio of the meeting was legally obtained, but the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that it was illegally recorded and is investigating. The sheriff’s office also said it believes the recording had been altered.

“I am both appalled and disheartened to hear of the horrid comments made by officials in McCurtain County,” Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement Sunday. “There is simply no place for such hateful rhetoric in the state of Oklahoma, especially by those that serve to represent the community through their respective office. I will not stand idly by while this takes place,” the statement said.

The governor called for the immediate resignations of McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy, District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings, sheriff’s investigator Alicia Manning and jail administrator Larry Hendrix. He also said he would ask the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to look into the case.

McCurtain County is in southeastern Oklahoma, about 200 miles from Oklahoma City.

The recording was made hours after Gazette-News reporter Chris Willingham filed a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office, Manning and the Board of County Commissioners, alleging they had defamed him and violated his civil rights, the newspaper reported.

In the recording, Manning spoke of needing to go near the newspaper’s office and expressed concern about what would happen if she ran into Willingham, the Oklahoman reported, citing additional reporting from the Gazette-News.

According to the Oklahoman report, Jennings said, “Oh, you’re talking about you can’t control yourself?” and Manning replied: “Yeah, I ain’t worried about what he’s gonna do to me. I’m worried about what I might do to him. My papaw would have whipped his a**, would have wiped him and used him for toilet paper … if my daddy hadn’t been run over by a vehicle, he would have been down there.”

Jennings replied that his father was once upset by something the newspaper published and “started to go down there and just kill him,” according to the Gazette-News.

“I know where two big, deep holes are here if you ever need them,” Jennings allegedly said. Clardy, the sheriff, allegedly said he had the equipment.

“I’ve got an excavator,” Clardy is accused of saying during the discussion. “Well, these are already pre-dug,” Jennings allegedly said.

In other parts of the recording, officials expressed disappointment that Black people could no longer be lynched, according to the paper.

CNN has not been able to verify the authenticity of the recording or confirm who said what. CNN has reached out to all four county officials for comment.

The Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association voted Tuesday to suspend the membership of Clardy, Manning and Hendrix, the group’s executive director told CNN.

Willingham and his father, Bruce Willingham, the paper’s publisher, have been advised to temporarily leave town, CNN affiliate KJRH reported.

“For nearly a year, they have suffered intimidation, ridicule and harassment based solely on their efforts to report the news for McCurtain County,” Kilpatrick Townsend, the law firm representing the Willingham family, told CNN in a statement.

The McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Monday that there is an “ongoing investigation into multiple significant violations” of the Oklahoma Security of Communications Act, which makes it “illegal to secretly record a conversation in which you are not involved and do not have the consent of at least one of the involved parties.” It also said the recording has yet to be “duly authenticated or validated.”

“Our preliminary information indicates that the media released audio recording has, in fact, been altered. The motivation for doing so remains unclear at this point. That matter is actively being investigated,” the statement said.

The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office has received an audio recording and is investigating, Communications Director Phil Bacharach said.

The FBI wouldn’t confirm or deny whether it was involved in the investigation, with spokesperson Kayla McCleery saying it is agency policy not to comment.

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April 12, 2021