Farmers protest across Europe – The Dispatch

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Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• Britain on Wednesday announced new sanctions targeting six Russian prison staff who worked at the penal colony where opposition leader Alexei Navalny died over the weekend. According to British officials, bloombergprison guards allegedly kept Navalny under constant torturous conditions and in solitary confinement.
• James Biden testified Wednesday in a closed session of the House Oversight Committee as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry against his brother, President Joe Biden. “I have a 50-year career in various businesses,” James Biden said as part of his opening statement, multiple news outlets reported. “Joe Biden has never been involved in any of these activities and has no direct or indirect financial interest in them. None.” The president’s son Hunter Biden is a key witness in the impeachment inquiry. He is scheduled to testify before a committee next week following the indictment of former FBI intelligence officer Alexander Smirnov, who claims he lied about his business dealings with the Bidens. Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.
• President Biden announced Wednesday the cancellation of $1.2 billion in student loans for approximately 153,000 borrowers. This affects individuals who are enrolled in an income-based repayment program called Save for Valuable Education (SAVE), have made repayments over 10 years, and have borrowed $12,000 or less. . “If you’re eligible, you’ll hear from me very soon,” Biden said Wednesday, noting that selected borrowers will receive an email alerting them that their loans have been cancelled. “The Biden-Harris administration has now approved approximately $138 billion in student loan cancellation for approximately 3.9 million borrowers through more than 20 executive actions,” a White House fact sheet states.
• Former Vice President Mike Pence has launched the American Solutions Project, a $20 million organization that seeks to defend conservative principles from “the populist right and the progressive left.” real clear politics It was reported on Wednesday. “Our country was founded on conservative principles that have stood the test of time,” Pence said in his statement.. “The Constitution and this great American experiment cannot be swayed by movements or individual personalities, but must hold fast to the time-honored principles that have made America strong, prosperous, and free,” Pence said this term. He was seeking the Republican nomination for president, but his brand of conservatism failed to resonate with voters and he withdrew from the race before primary voting was held.
• The University of Alabama at Birmingham, home to the state’s largest hospital, announced Wednesday that it is suspending all in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures. The suspension comes after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last week that frozen embryos created and stored through in vitro fertilization are legally considered children under the state’s wrongful death law. It is something. “While we regret that this will impact patients’ attempts to have a baby through IVF, we do not believe that patients and physicians may face criminal prosecution or punitive damages for following the standard of care for IVF treatment. We need to assess the possibility of this happening,” the hospital said in a statement released yesterday.

we are farmers

Farmers across Europe are once again taking to the streets on tractors to protest a host of issues, including rising farming costs and shrinking profits, the cost of environmental regulation and potential trade deals that could undermine European markets. are doing. As Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo said earlier this month, farmers are facing a “lasagna” problem. And as protests reignite, European lawmakers are weighing their own climate policy goals against the interests of politically powerful blocs as elections loom later this year.

Peasant protests have become more frequent in Europe in recent years. For example, the Netherlands was the site of particularly large-scale demonstrations in 2022. But since the beginning of this year, protests have spread across the European Union (EU), with tractors tearing up roads in cities from Brussels to Barcelona to Prague in Spain, France, Greece, Belgium, Poland, Germany, Italy, Romania and the Czech Republic. The long lines are filling up. In France, farmers blocked roads leading to the City of Love and tried to build tractor barricades around Paris. In Berlin, tractors were lined up at the Brandenburg Gate. In Rome, a convoy of peasants passed by the Colosseum.