State Senate approves constitutional amendments
for voters' consideration
Posted By: FormerDem, 1/16/2026 4:38:10 PM
The whole of Virginia's General Assembly has approved four constitutional amendments — on abortion and reproductive health care, the automatic restoration of voting rights, marriage equality and mid-decade redistricting — after the state Senate's Friday vote. With the draft amendments passing both chambers in consecutive years, with a House of Delegates election in the middle, Virginia voters will now have the last say in a multi-year process on whether to enshrine in the constitution: A fundamental right to reproductive care, including access to abortion, contraception and fertility treatments
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The whole of Virginia's General Assembly has approved four constitutional amendments — on abortion and reproductive health care, the automatic restoration of voting rights, marriage equality and mid-decade redistricting — after the state Senate's Friday vote.
With the draft amendments passing both chambers in consecutive years, with a House of Delegates election in the middle, Virginia voters will now have the last say in a multi-year process on whether to enshrine in the constitution:
A fundamental right to reproductive care, including access to abortion, contraception and fertility treatments
The Labour Party chairman has repeatedly refused to rule out delaying the next general election after scrapping council elections next year. Anna Turley MP left Sky News host Trevor Phillips stunned as she was given repeated opportunities to rule out the idea.... Mr Phillips pointed to this week’s move to scrap up to 63 council elections next year, on top of delaying votes on new mayors. Labour has blamed the delays on reorganisations of local government, prompting the interviewer to ask whether Sir Keir Starmer may find an excuse to avoid going to the polls in 2029.
Justice Secretary David Lammy is proposing to massively restrict the ancient right to a jury trial by only guaranteeing it for defendants facing rape, murder, manslaughter or other cases passing a public interest test.
An internal government briefing, produced by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) for all other Whitehall departments, confirms plans to create a new tier of jury-less courts in England and Wales.
The new courts would deal with most crimes currently considered by juries in Crown Court.
But the MoJ said no final decision had been taken by the government.
The Prime Minister is set to approve plans for a controversial Chinese "super embassy" in central London, Sky News understands.
A final decision on the planning application for the former Royal Mint site near the Tower of London is due on 10 December, after numerous previous delays.
The proposal is highly politically sensitive due to concerns about Chinese espionage activities in the UK, inflamed by the collapse of a recent court case involving two men accused of spying for China.
For 33 days, a wounded Ukrainian soldier lay trapped behind enemy lines; a tourniquet the only thing keeping him alive after a landmine shattered his foot.
Six rescue missions failed. The escape vehicles were destroyed in the “kill zone”, where drones and mines make undetected movement nearly impossible.
But his comrades did not concede defeat.
On the seventh attempt, an armoured unmanned vehicle crawled over 40 miles along enemy lines in a meticulous five-hour-and-58-minute mission – battered by blasts, slowed by a damaged wheel – emerging against the odds.
Two years ago, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani sponsored a bill that would strip away the tax-exempt status of local charities with ties to Israeli settler groups that forcibly occupy the Palestinian West Bank.
When the effort went nowhere, he pushed a revised version of the bill, known as the “Not On Our Dime” Act, the following year. It failed as well.
Now, with Mr. Mamdani considered the front-runner in the New York City mayoral race, he may soon be in a position to use his power to hold Israel accountable for its treatment of Palestinians. He has called its actions in Gaza a genocide.
It was a moment that some have compared to Barack Obama’s landmark 2008 speech about race, inequality and unity in American politics.
In the closing weeks of the mayoral campaign, Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic front-runner, veered off from the economic message he has clung to doggedly for more than a year.
“I want to use this moment to speak to the Muslims of New York City,” he said.
... tearfully, describing his experiences with his faith, identity and Islamophobia, ...
“No longer will I live in the shadows,” he said.
Scores of people have been killed in attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during their recent capture of the city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s western Darfur region, according to a medical group and researchers.
The RSF, which has been fighting Sudan’s military for control of the country, killed at least 1,500 people over the past three days as civilians tried to flee the besieged city, the Sudan Doctors Network said on Wednesday. The group, which tracks the country’s civil war, described the situation as “a true genocide”.
Good morning. The horrors that unfolded across social media over the past week have laid bare another devastating chapter in Sudan’s civil war.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been locked in a brutal conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for more than two years, seized a key military base in the city of El Fasher over the weekend. After the capture, the RSF was accused of killing more than 2,000 unarmed civilians, with Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab calling the level of violence comparable to the first 24 hours of the Rwandan genocide.
The most audacious anti-government protest inside China for years took months of elaborate planning.
Qi Hong, a former factory worker, first had to source a powerful enough projector to display his message onto a high rise building.
Then he had to install the device, covering his tracks as he prepared to stage the demonstration on the eve of China’s massive military parade, hosted by leader Xi Jinping.
And finally, he had to get to a safe distance.
When the lights flickered on – illuminating in giant letters “Down with red fascism; overthrow the tyranny of the Communist Party” – Mr Qi was somewhere in Britain, hiding with his family.
Peace after conquest
3 replies
The Armenia–Azerbaijan peace summit can be claimed as the most significant achievement of President Donald Trump’s second-term foreign policy. As his administration constantly reminds us, Trump, a man chasing the ever-elusive Nobel Peace Prize, is the “peace president”—so much so that he is seeking peace in the badlands of Eastern Europe/Western Asia, where three Huntingtonian civilizational blocs (Western, Islamic, and Orthodox) clash, and in the chronically bloody Middle East. The admin also reminds us that he has settled wars between Thailand and Cambodia (true), India and Pakistan (debatable), and a variety of African ethnic groups (partially true).
Donald Trump signs executive order allowing
illegal immigrants to book 'free flights
out of US' 18 replies
illegal immigrants to book 'free flights
out of US' 18 replies
Donald Trump has signed a new executive order launching what he called the “first ever self-deportation programme,” allowing undocumented immigrants to leave the United States at no cost, with flights booked via a new government-backed app.
In a video posted on Truth Social, the president said: “Today I signed an executive order to launch the first ever self-deportation program for illegal aliens. We are making it as easy as possible for illegal aliens to leave America. Any illegal alien can simply show up at an airport and receive a free flight out of our country.”
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Judge rules feds in Minneapolis immigration
operation can’t detain or tear gas peaceful protesters 22 replies
operation can’t detain or tear gas peaceful protesters 22 replies
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal officers in the Minneapolis-area participating in its largest recent U.S. immigration enforcement operation can’t detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who aren’t obstructing authorities, including when these people are observing the agents, a judge in Minnesota ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez’s ruling addresses a case filed in December on behalf of six Minnesota activists. The six are among the thousands who have been observing the activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officers enforcing the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area since last month.
Federal agents and demonstrators have repeatedly clashed since the crackdown began.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, has its priorities out of order.
As chaos unfolds due to leftist agitators and rioters harassing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers trying to apprehend illegal aliens, city officials are offering employees healing circles and baby “therapy goats.”
In an email screenshotted and uploaded to social media platform X on Thursday, Minneapolis City Attorney Kristyn Anderson announced that a healing circle would be provided “as a quiet, supportive environment for connection and presence.” After mentioning the goats were also available, she warmly told her colleagues they are “welcome to simply sit, listen, and be in community with another.”
Minnesota residents of Somali descent and Hispanic heritage are suing President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to effectively shut down federal immigration enforcement across the state.
On Thursday, the left-wing American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), representing Somali immigrant Mubashir Khalif Hussen, Mahamed Eydarus, who is American and of Somali descent, and Javier Doe, a Hispanic American, filed suit against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Director Todd Lyons, among other agency officials.
The lawsuit is asking a federal court to issue a statewide injunction to stop what it calls “unlawful policies and practices” being carried out by ICE agents, including allegations of racial profiling.
The President Receives a Historic Gift
18 replies
On Thursday afternoon, I wrote about how María Corina Machado visited the White House and had lunch with Donald Trump. While I was writing that article, some rumors were circulating about a big gesture she made, but I couldn't confirm them at the time. Now I can. The Venezuelan opposition leader, on behalf of her people, gave the president her Nobel Peace Prize. Not a replica. The real thing. Since the meeting was purposely kept private, I wasn't sure that a photo would surface, but one got out, and as of late Thursday night, both the White House and Machado have shared it on social media.
The Justice Department is investigating Minnesota officials, including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, over an alleged conspiracy to impede federal immigration agents, an extraordinary escalation in the Trump administration's clash with Democratic leaders there, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
One of the sources, a U.S. official, said the investigation stems from statements that Walz and Frey have made about the thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents deployed to the Minneapolis region in recent weeks.
Canada’s globalist Prime Minister Mark Carney’s long-anticipated trip to Beijing appears to be marked by a striking pivot away from Canada’s traditional alliances and toward deeper engagement with Communist China.
Claimed by Carney as a necessary adjustment to a “new world order,” the visit instead underscored Ottawa’s growing willingness to accommodate Beijing—and push away the United States—at a moment of geopolitical upheaval.
The prime minister of America’s neighbor to the north gushed over Chinese President Xi Jinping, praising his “leadership” during public remarks—language that raised eyebrows both at home and abroad.
If Minnesota officials don’t like President Donald Trump’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act, maybe they should do more to tamp down the insurrectionary activity in their state.
After an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was violently attacked by two illegal immigrants while making an arrest Wednesday night and shot one assailant in the leg in self-defense, anti-ICE activists — predictably enough — rioted.
In response to the unprovoked attack on the officer, Mayor Jacob Frey once again blasted ICE.
Imagine, he implored,
Billionaire tycoon forced to rename yacht
after realizing it was vile phrase when
spelt backwards 15 replies
after realizing it was vile phrase when
spelt backwards 15 replies
A billionaire's yacht was renamed after the media mogul didn't realize that the ship's title, spelled backwards, was a vulgar antisemitic phrase.
Larry Ellison, once the world's richest person and the co-founder of the media and entertainment conglomerate, Oracle, renamed his German-built yacht the Izanami, which, spelt backwards, reads: 'I'm a nazi'.
The 81-year-old chose to name the enormous, 191-foot vessel after a Shinto deity in Japanese mythology, the goddess of creation and death, seemingly without realizing the phrase it spelled in reverse.
Ellison, whose family has strong ties to Israel, became aware of the vile phrase and renamed the yacht, according to Futurism.
The yacht owner has repeatedly shown his support for Israel,
Canada and China are forging ahead with a new strategic partnership and both sides stand to make “historic” gains as they leverage each other’s strengths, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday.
“Particularly in agriculture and agri-food, energy, and finance,” Carney said. “That is where I believe we can make immediate and sustained progress.”
Carney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit China since 2017, was on a mission to Beijing this week to forge a new partnership with Canada’s second-largest trading partner after the United States, building on months of diplomatic efforts to turn the page on previous tensions and conflict.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has responded to calls to exclude the U.S. and its athletes from the upcoming Winter Olympics over the country's recent military intervention in Venezuela. The committee ruled out any penalty on the U.S. in the aftermath of the intervention.
"As a global organization, the IOC has to manage a complex reality. The IOC has to deal with the current political context and the latest developments in the world," the IOC said in a statement to the BBC.
"The ability to bring athletes together, no matter where they come from, is fundamental to the future of values-based, truly global sport,
Trump says he may punish countries with
tariffs if they don’t back the US controlling Greenland 14 replies
tariffs if they don’t back the US controlling Greenland 14 replies
— U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Friday that he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the U.S. controlling Greenland, a message that came as a bipartisan Congressional delegation sought to lower tensions in the Danish capital.
Trump for months has insisted that the U.S. should control Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in U.S. hands would be “unacceptable.”
During an unrelated event at the White House about rural health care, he recounted Friday how he had threatened European allies with tariffs on pharmaceuticals.
A far-left, race-baiting mayor of a small Missouri town of less than 2,400 people has been busted on nine incredibly heinous crimes after perpetrating a disgusting race hoax.
As First Alert 4 news reported, Riverview mayor Mike Cornell Jr. has been charged with four counts of second-degree statutory sodomy, three counts of first-degree sodomy or attempted sodomy, one count of first-degree harassment, and one count of possession of child pornography.
There were four victims involved in these incidents, including two minors under the age of 17. The alleged crimes occurred between December 2016 and 2026.
Comments:
The extreme abortion amendment, which will proceed to a referendum for voters to decide later this year, would go far beyond even what Roe v. Wade previously allowed. It would enshrine virtually unlimited abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with no age restriction. Among numerous other problems, it would severely jeopardize Virginia’s parental consent law, health and safety standards for women, conscience protections for healthcare providers, and restrictions on taxpayer-funded abortions. Most tragically of all, the extreme abortion amendment provides no protections whatsoever for preborn children. Parental rights and the health and well-being of minors must be defended. So too must religious liberty. No one should ever be forced to pay for or participate in an abortion. Health and safety should be enhanced, not diminished. Most importantly, human life is sacred. The lives of vulnerable mothers and their preborn children must always be welcomed, cared for, and protected. The proposed abortion amendment will appear on a ballot later this year. So too will a measure we oppose that would repeal the one-man/one-woman marriage provision approved by Virginia voters in 2006, as well as an initiative we support to restore voting rights to all who have completed their prison sentences. That is Knestout's summary and I can't improve on it.