Top News Stories for Today – Jan 23, 2019
Top News Stories for Today – Jan 23, 2019
Thai elections set for March
Thailand’s Election Commission has set March 24 as the date for the country’s first general elections since the 2014 military coup that toppled the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Wednesday’s decision came hours after King Maha Vajiralongkorn issued a royal decree authorizing the vote.
The military government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha has repeatedly delayed the general election, which was first tentatively set for 2015. The last tentative date for the general elections had been set for late February, but the junta did not want the elections to clash with early preparations for King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s coronation, which is set for early May. Thailand has been plagued by more than a decade of political chaos since 2006, when Yingluck’s older brother, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was toppled by the military after months of protests. VOA
US Senate to vote on shutdown plans
The US Senate is preparing for votes Thursday on separate Republican and Democratic proposals to end a partial government shutdown that is now in its second month. A bill already passed by the Democrat-led House of Representatives would provide stopgap funding through February 8, allowing the shuttered agencies to reopen while the two sides debate border security. It does not contain money for President Donald Trump’s desired wall at the US-Mexico border.
The Republican plan is based on a Trump proposal to spend $5.7 billion on the wall and provide temporary protections for some immigrants. The White House said Trump is scheduled to discuss his plan Wednesday with conservative leaders as well as state and local leaders. VOA
Ex-Chinese diplomat detained in China
An Australian newspaper says a Chinese-Australian writer and dissident has been detained during a visit to his native country. The Sydney Morning Herald says Yang Hengjun was detained by security agents at the airport in the southern China city of Guangzhou last Friday after arriving with his wife and her child after a flight from New York. The family was set to catch a connecting flight to Shanghai, but Yang was not allowed to continue.
Yang is a former Chinese diplomat turned democracy activist and novelist. His detention in China occurs amid the detention of two Canadian nationals in China in apparent retaliation for the arrest of a senior Chinese executive in Canada. Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer for Chinese telecom giant Huawei, was arrested in Vancouver on December 1 on behalf of the United States, which is seeking her extradition over alleged violations of US trade sanctions on Iran. VOA
Mueller wants to know Trump NRA ties
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has expressed interest in the Trump campaign’s relationship with the National Rifle Association during the 2016 campaign.
The special counsel’s team was curious to learn more about how Donald Trump and his operatives first formed a relationship with the NRA and how Trump wound up speaking at the group’s annual meeting in 2015, just months before announcing his presidential bid, Nunberg said. The NRA spent $30 million to support Trump’s candidacy, more than the organization spent on presidential, House, and Senate races combined in 2008 and 2012. CNN
Tax refunds may be delayed by shutdown
Last week, the White House budget office classified Internal Revenue Service employees who process tax refunds as “essential” and ordered at least 30,000 of them to return to work without pay. But hundreds of those un-furloughed workers are staying home, requesting and receiving “hardship” exemptions that, under their union contract, allow them to skip work during a shutdown if they can’t afford to work for free, The Washington Post reports.
If the number of IRS workers staying home rises, as union officials expect, tax refunds will likely be delayed. The IRS won’t say how many workers are out on hardship leave. “We are continuing our recall operations, and we continue to assess the situation at this time,” said IRS spokesman Matt Leas. The Washington Post via The Week
Supreme Court rules on transgender military members
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled to allow the Trump administration to enforce restrictions on transgender personnel in the military. President Trump’s ban was blocked by several courts last year, but the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to lift the injunctions that had rejected the restrictions.
The controversial policy first banned transgender people from serving in the US military “in any capacity,” then was later amended to ban transgender people who “may require substantial medical treatment.” The ruling means that the restrictions can be enforced while a case proceeds to determine the policy’s long-term fate. BuzzFeed News and Reuters via The Week
LA teachers’ strike end after 6 day
The Los Angeles teachers union ended its strike Tuesday night, based on overwhelming support for a contract agreement with the school district, union leaders said. Teachers, nurses, counselors and librarians will be back in their classrooms Wednesday, said Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of United Teachers Los Angeles. “A vast supermajority are voting yes for the agreement that we made,” said Caputo-Pearl, who also acknowledged that many votes still were being tallied.
The tentative deal includes what amounts to a 6% raise for teachers — with a 3% raise for the last school year and a 3% raise for this school year. Striking teachers were sincere, though, when they said the walkout was always about more than salary. Los Angeles Times