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Woman kept on life support for months due to pregnancy finally laid to rest

Woman kept on life support for months due to pregnancy finally laid to rest

Independent12 hours ago

Adriana Smith, an Atlanta mother and nurse, has finally been laid to rest, months after she was declared brain-dead after suffering a catastrophic stroke while eight weeks pregnant.
The 31-year-old was kept on life support due to Georgia 's anti-abortion law, which grants personhood rights to a fetus, until her son, Chance, was delivered prematurely by emergency C-section.
Smith's life support was turned off in mid-June and her funeral was held at Fairfield Baptist Church, just outside Atlanta, on Saturday.
Her case has become a focal point for discussions on the impact of state-level abortion bans in medical emergencies and questions surrounding fetal personhood.
Advocates and family members, including Democratic State Rep. Park Cannon, are pushing for 'Adriana's Law' to ensure individuals retain agency over their medical decisions, even while pregnant.

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Trump sent ‘explicit' threat to cut funds from University of Virginia, senator says
Trump sent ‘explicit' threat to cut funds from University of Virginia, senator says

The Guardian

time14 minutes ago

  • The Guardian

Trump sent ‘explicit' threat to cut funds from University of Virginia, senator says

The University of Virginia (UVA) received 'explicit' notification from the Trump administration that the school would endure cuts to university jobs, research funding and student aid as well as visas if the institution's president, Jim Ryan, did not resign, according to a US senator. During an interview Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation, Mark Warner, a Democratic senator for Virginia, defended Ryan – who had championed diversity policies that the president opposes – and predicted that Donald Trump will similarly target other universities. Warner said he understood that the former UVA president was told that if he 'tried to fight back, hundreds of employees would lose jobs, researchers would lose funding, and hundreds of students could lose financial aid or have their visas withheld'. 'There was indication that they received the letter that if he didn't resign on a day last week, by 5 o'clock, all these cuts would take place,' Warner added. He also said he believes this to be the 'most outrageous action' that the Trump administration has taken on education since it retook office in January. Ryan resigned from his position as UVA president on Friday. He was facing political pressure from Washington to step aside in order to resolve a justice department investigation into UVA's diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, the New York Times reported on the same day. 'I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job,' Ryan said in his resignation message to the university community. He expressed an unwillingness to risk the employment of other staff, as well as cuts to funding and financial aid for students. Ryan had a reputation for trying to make the UVA campus more diverse and encouraging students to perform community service. He had served as the university's president since 2018. Warner criticized the administration for what he said was its overreach in education. He said federal education and justice department officials 'should get their nose out of [the] University of Virginia'. 'They are doing damage to our flagship university,' he remarked. 'And if they can do it here, they'll do it elsewhere.' He referred to Trump's ongoing battles with Harvard, the US's oldest university, including the president's signing a proclamation to restrict foreign student visas and continued threats to cut funding over its DEI policies. 'They all want to make them like Harvard,' Warner said. 'End of the day, this is going to hurt our universities, chase away that world-class talent. 'And, frankly, if we don't have some level of academic freedom, then what kind of country are we?'

War of words erupts on East Coast as locals propose renaming Delaware Bay... inspired by Trump's Gulf of America
War of words erupts on East Coast as locals propose renaming Delaware Bay... inspired by Trump's Gulf of America

Daily Mail​

time25 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

War of words erupts on East Coast as locals propose renaming Delaware Bay... inspired by Trump's Gulf of America

An all-out war of words has erupted on the East Coast after a New Jersey state lawmaker announced he plans to rename the Delaware Bay to 'The Bay of New Jersey' - echoing Donald Trump 's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. Republican state Sen. Michael Testa introduced a new bill Thursday that would direct state agencies to officially change the Delaware Bay so he could 'Make New Jersey GREAT AGAIN!' The Trump supporter, who represents Cape May County, took to X on Friday to defend his bizarre idea, suggesting that New Jersians should be able to fish in a bay with its name attached to it. 'I look at the robust fishing industry - commercial fishing industry and recreational industry of the State of New Jersey,' Testa told NJ Advance Media. The body of water has held the Delaware title since 1610 when it was named after Thomas West, the third baron de la Warr and Englishman who governed the Virginia colony, per the Delaware government's website. While Testa seems excited about his pitch, many people, especially Delaware residents, are not as thrilled. One raged on Facebook: 'Fight us for it Jersey!' 'It will always be the Delaware Bay,' said another. Someone else commented: 'Jersey stay away from our bay!' Another person even took a jab at Testa himself, and said: 'Maybe the Senator needs to change his name!' 'The GOP Always Trying To Rename Bodies Of Water ... How Pathetic...,' a user wrote. Meanwhile, some New Jersey residents were on board with the plan. 'You know what hell yeah,' one wrote. 'If ya really wanna do this, I suggest a more fluid phrase... How about 'Bay of Cape May,' said someone else. 'That's ridiculous.... it should be New Jersey Bay,' a user wrote alongside a laughing emoji. Although some New Jersians stood by the proposed legislation, others were just as unhappy with Testa for his 'dumb' idea. 'Lower my homeowners taxes in New Jersey. I could care less about the bay,' one wrote. Another sarcastically said: 'Ah yes that's definitely going to solve all of our problems of barely 'We need to vote idiots out of government,' another user said. The Delaware River - a 282 mile body of water that borders New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania - empties into the bay. It is commonly used for tourism, travel and commerce. Under Testa's proposed legislation, the possible new name of the bay would be included in 'publications, signage, websites, and materials to reflect the new designation and notify relevant federal entities.' This was not the only bill Testa proposed last week, as he also suggested the Garden State should reclaim land along New Jersey's Salem County shore that is claimed by Delaware as part of a decades-old border agreement. Testa's move follows suit with Trump's executive order to have the U.S. Department of the Interior to recognize the 'Gulf of America' in government-issued materials, including maps. In May, the House of Representatives passed a bill to officially change the Gulf of Mexico to the 'Gulf of America.' The name change is only recognized by the US, not by other countries, including Mexico.

Lisa Murkowski's new book details centrist senator's clash with Trump, dismay at supreme court
Lisa Murkowski's new book details centrist senator's clash with Trump, dismay at supreme court

The Guardian

timean hour ago

  • The Guardian

Lisa Murkowski's new book details centrist senator's clash with Trump, dismay at supreme court

Lisa Murkowski is Alaska's four-term senator, first appointed in 2002 by Frank Murkowski, her father and the state's governor. An avowed moderate Republican, she entertains the possibility of caucusing with the Democrats if the Senate emerges deadlocked from next year's midterms. Her relationship with Donald Trump is fraught. In 2016, she voted for the former Ohio governor John Kasich. In Far From Home, her first book, she writes: 'One of my simple rules … has been to withhold my vote from any candidate of bad character, regardless of the politics.' Trump … failed the test. In office, Murkowski clashed with him over the attempted repeal of the Affordable Care Act, AKA Obamacare, and the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the supreme court. Trump trashed her (to Don Young, then Alaska's congressman) as 'that bitch Murkowski'. Young and Murkowski were allies. It made no difference to the president. At Trump's second impeachment trial, Murkowski voted to convict. Out of office, he attempted to doom her 2022 re-election – and failed. Still, of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict, only Murkowski, Susan Collins of Maine and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana remain in Congress. Subtitled An Alaskan Senator Faces the Extreme Climate of Washington, Murkowski's memoir sheds light on her life, family and career, brimming with anecdotes and grudges. Well-paced and informative, with an assist from Charles Wohlforth, a seasoned Alaska writer and politico, the book offers a window into Murkowski's mind. 'I call myself a Republican because of the values I hold, such as personal responsibility, small government, a strong national defense, and the individual's right to make her own choices,' she writes. Along with Collins, she is the last of that tribe. The geographic and ideological centers of the GOP reside in the Rust belt and the south, not in New England and Alaska. Murkowski is wary of populism and shows little respect for Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor who was the Republican nominee for vice-president in 2008. Two consecutive sentences sum up her take. 'Sarah Palin didn't know she was helping start a movement – she was just being Sarah Palin – but she became the prototype for Donald Trump, the showman without principle,' Murkowski observes, acidly. 'And he took populism much further, partly because he didn't need a script.' Murkowski viewed Palin as both lazy and a dim bulb, unfit for higher office. 'I would have warned John McCain about selecting her as his vice-presidential running mate if I had given any credence to the rumors that he was considering Palin,' Murkowski writes. 'I did not, because I thought the idea was preposterous.' Palin failed to complete her term as governor, resigning in summer 2009, as she faced ethics investigations and growing legal bills. More recently, she has lost in two attempts to sue the New York Times for defamation. In 2010, Murkowski lost the Republican primary but won in November as a write-in. After the initial loss, Joe Biden, then vice-president, called to console her. 'Goddamn it, what were those people thinking?' he said. Murkowski devotes considerable space to the Kavanaugh confirmation, the #MeToo movement and sexual assault. She discloses for the first time how as a second-grader, walking alone in a forest, she was abused by a relative of a neighbor. 'I was terrified,' she writes. 'He said if I ever told anyone what happened, I would get in horrible trouble for being bad. I believed him. I never told anyone, not even my sisters. I was ashamed as well as afraid.' Murkowski is pro-choice. Kavanaugh signed the majority opinion and wrote a concurrence in Dobbs, the decision that overturned Roe v Wade and gutted the federal right to abortion. She accuses him of bad faith. 'Kavanaugh had emphasized the strength of precedent over and over, in formal and colloquial language, in a way that could hardly be interpreted any other way than as saying Roe should not be overturned,' Murkowski says. 'More than being angry, I was discouraged. I had believed that the court would keep Americans' trust as an institution, as we needed it to do.' Only 44% of the US views the supreme court favorably. Only one-fifth agree that the court is politically neutral – 58% disagree. Murkowski also dives into religion. A Georgetown University graduate and a practicing Catholic, she addresses the role of faith in public life, particularly given her support for Roe. It wasn't simple. 'In my own life, harsh voices declared I was not a good enough version of who I am – a Catholic unworthy of Communion, a Republican in name only … not even a real Alaskan,' Murkowski writes. At church, a parishioner handed out anti-abortion leaflets critical of Murkowski. Her family, including her son Nic, then 13, were offended. Church leaders offered reassurance but tension took its toll. 'My relationship to the church has suffered,' she writes. Murkowski counts former centrist senators – Joe Manchin, Mitt Romney and Kyrsten Sinema – as friends. Manchin and Romney (and Christine Todd Whitman, a former Republican New Jersey governor) provide blurbs for her book jacket. As senators, Manchin, Sinema and Romney voted to convict Trump and bar him from office. Manchin and Sinema later left the Democratic party, to become independents. Might Murkowski follow their path? She laments the stridency exacted by hyper-partisanship. 'The parties demand conformity, and their loudest voices are also their most extreme and uncompromising,' she complains. 'As holdouts for bipartisanship, those of us building consensus brought abuse on ourselves. Now all three of these smart, honorable, productive colleagues have retired from the Senate.' Trump is back in the White House. Murkowski remains in the Senate. She has criticized him over Ukraine and expressed doubts about Medicaid cuts in the 'big, beautiful bill'. Both their terms expire in 2028. Trump is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election. Murkowski is not. Far From Home is published in the US by Penguin Random House

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