Long-serving Utah Senator Orrin Hatch dies at age 88

Orrin G. Hatch, who became the longest-serving Republican senator in history as he represented Utah for more than four decades, died Saturday at age 88. His death was announced in a statement from his foundation, which did not specify a cause. He launched the Hatch Foundation as he retired in 2019 and was replaced by Mitt Romney. A conservative on most economic and social issues, he nonetheless teamed with Democrats several times during his long career on issues ranging from stem cell research to rights for people with disabilities to expanding children’s health insurance. He also championed GOP issues like abortion limits and helped shape the U.S. Supreme Court,

Filing provides new details on Trump White House planning for Jan. 6

Before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Trump White House officials and members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus strategized about a plan to direct angry marchers to the building, according to newly released testimony obtained by the House committee investigating the 2021 riot and former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. On a planning call that included Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff; Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer; Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; and other Freedom Caucus members, the group discussed the idea of encouraging supporters to march to the Capitol, according to one witness’s account.

Protesters amass at White House, demanding action on climate

Environmental activists amassed in front of the White House on Saturday, calling on President Joe Biden and Congress to pass a climate bill that has been stalled in the Senate since December. The demonstration was one of dozens of “Fight for Our Future” rallies across the country to press the government to cut the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet, capping a week of events timed to coincide with Earth Day. Biden, who came into office promising urgent action on climate change, has seen his ambitious plans pass the House but get watered down and stuck in the Senate.

Mask ruling underscores deep split in attitudes

Wearing masks during the pandemic has long been a divisive issue in the United States. And now that a federal judge has tossed out the mask mandate for planes and public transportation, rules in some places have been thrown into chaos. Many were lifted and a few reimposed. But even as the changes cause some confusion, Americans’ attitudes toward the restrictions have wavered little in recent months and, in fact, are still impassioned. Some who are already in the habit of masking in public and see COVID-19 cases rising again in parts of the country are angry at losing the protection on which they have relied. Others are elated.

Beijing on alert after COVID-19 cases discovered in school

Beijing is on alert after 10 middle school students tested positive for COVID-19, in what city officials say was an initial round of testing. City officials suspended classes in the school for a week following the positive test results on Friday. The Chinese capital also reported four other confirmed cases that were counted separately. Mainland China reported 24,326 new infections on Saturday, with the vast majority of them asymptomatic cases in Shanghai, where enforcement of a strict “zero-COVID” policy has drawn global attention. China has doubled down on the approach even in face of the highly transmissible omicron variant.

Turkey closes its airspace to Russian jets flying to Syria’s war

Turkey closed its airspace to Russian jets flying to Syria, a significant shift in Turkish policy aimed at increasing the cost of the war in Ukraine for Vladimir Putin. Turkey barred all Russian aircraft, including civilian flights carrying troops, from its skies for the first time since Russia intervened in Syria’s civil war in 2015 in support of President Bashar al-Assad. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Putin of his decision in a phone call, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was cited as saying by state broadcaster TRT. He didn’t specify when the call took place. Most Russian flights to Syria pass though Turkish airspace, though exact numbers of troops or materiel isn’t publicly disclosed.

Discreetly, the young in Japan chip away at a taboo on tattoos

A growing number of young people are bucking Japan’s long-standing taboos against tattoos, which remain identified with organized crime even as the Japanese mob has faded and body art has become widely popular in the West. About 1.4 million Japanese adults have tattoos, almost double the number from 2014, according to Yoshimi Yamamoto, a cultural anthropologist at Tsuru University. In 2020, tattooing took a huge leap toward broader acceptance when Japan’s Supreme Court ruled that it could be performed by people other than licensed medical professionals. In big cities, visible tattoos are becoming more commonplace among food service workers, retail employees and those in the fashion industry.

As a changed France votes, anger at a distant president simmers

France has changed. It has eviscerated the center-left and center-right parties that were the chief vehicles of its postwar politics. It has three blocs: the hard left, an amorphous center for President Emmanuel Macron, and the extreme right of Marine Le Pen. Macron might win Sunday’s presidential election, but he will face a fractured country. Above all, with Le Pen likely to get some 45% of the vote, it has buried a tenacious taboo. In a country that for four wartime years lived under the racist Nazi-puppet Vichy government, no xenophobic, nationalist leader would be allowed into the political mainstream.

By wire sources

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