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- Out of the coup: how a palace putsch helped make Qatar a global peace broker South China Morning Post
- Qatar: Efforts continuing to renew Israel-Hamas truce, release more hostages The Times of Israel
- Qatar PM warns: Gaza war putting entire generation at risk of ‘radicalisation’ Hindustan Times
Tag Archives: Rejecting
Rachel McAdams On Possible Appearance In The ‘Mean Girls’ Movie Musical & Why She “Felt Guilty” Rejecting Roles During 2-Year Acting Break – Deadline
- Rachel McAdams On Possible Appearance In The ‘Mean Girls’ Movie Musical & Why She “Felt Guilty” Rejecting Roles During 2-Year Acting Break Deadline
- Rachel McAdams Poses for Minimally Retouched Photos with Her Armpit Hair Showing: ‘This Is My Body’ PEOPLE
- Rachel McAdams Turned Down ‘Iron Man,’ ‘Casino Royale,’ ‘Mission: Impossible III’ and ‘Devil Wears Prada’ in Two-Year Period: ‘I Felt Guilty’ Yahoo Entertainment
- Rachel McAdams’ Red Dress With Cutouts Is Giving Dancing Lady Emoji Vibes Parade Magazine
- Rachel McAdams Recalls Feeling Guilty Over 2-Year Break from Acting PEOPLE
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Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol slams ump C.B. Bucknor for rejecting handshake: ‘Zero class’ – St. Louis Post-Dispatch
- Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol slams ump C.B. Bucknor for rejecting handshake: ‘Zero class’ St. Louis Post-Dispatch
- Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol says umpire C.B. Bucknor ‘has zero class’ after rejecting handshake Yahoo Sports
- Cardinals’ Oliver Marmol: Umpire C.B. Bucknor ‘has zero class’ ESPN India
- Cardinals Manager on Umpire C.B. Bucknor After Handshake Refusal: “He Has Zero Class” bleachernation.com
- Cardinals Manager Rips Umpire After Spring Training Game: ‘He Has Zero Class’ Sports Illustrated
- View Full Coverage on Google News
A Nonbinary Broadway Actor Is Rejecting Consideration For A Tony Because Of The Awards’ Gendered Categories – BuzzFeed News
- A Nonbinary Broadway Actor Is Rejecting Consideration For A Tony Because Of The Awards’ Gendered Categories BuzzFeed News
- Nonbinary “& Juliet” Performer Opts Out of Gendered Tony Awards The New York Times
- Nonbinary & Juliet Performer Withdraws from Gendered Tony Awards Consideration: ‘The Only Right Thing’ PEOPLE
- Nonbinary ‘& Juliet’ Performer Withdraws From Tony Award Consideration Over Gendered Categories; Tonys Considering Future Change Deadline
- Tony Awards Rules That Voters Do Not Need to See All Shows This Season Hollywood Reporter
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Jon Stewart rips Ted Cruz, GOP for rejecting bill helping veterans exposed to burn pits
So when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said Stewart was wrong about the bill and accused Democrats of playing a “budgetary trick” in the PACT Act, which Cruz voted against despite saying he supported the bill and veterans, Stewart wasn’t having it.
“What Ted Cruz is describing is inaccurate, not true, bull—-,” said Stewart in a video posted to Twitter.
Stewart mocked Cruz for arguing that Democrats moved “discretionary” spending in the bill to “mandatory.” Cruz referenced the budget policy dispute that was first raised this month by Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), who objected to the way the bill would change the accounting of about $400 billion in preexisting veterans spending to make it not subject to yearly congressional appropriations. Cruz was seen fist-bumping Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) on the Senate floor when Republicans blocked the bill in a celebration that angered Democrats and veterans groups.
Stewart and Democrats have refuted the Republicans’ claims, and the comedian challenged Cruz on Twitter to specifically point out in the bill the $400 billion “blank check or unrelated spending that was added/snuck in.”
“Now, I’m not a big-city, Harvard-educated lawyer, but I can read,” Stewart said in a mockingly bad Southern accent. “It’s always been mandatory spending, so the government can’t just cut off their funding at any point. No trick, no gimmick, been there the whole … time.”
A representative for Stewart did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday. When asked for comment, Cruz spokesman Steve Guest referred The Washington Post to the senator’s video posted to Twitter on Friday night.
“Jon, you’re a funny guy, and I appreciate your engaging on issues of public policy. That’s a good thing,” Cruz said, maintaining that he’s a strong supporter of the bill and the nation’s veterans. “But if you’re going to do so, the facts matter.”
The back-and-forth comes over a bill for veterans’ health care that previously had bipartisan support. The PACT Act would significantly change how the Department of Veterans Affairs cares for veterans who were exposed to toxic substances by compelling VA to presume that certain illnesses are linked to exposure to hazardous waste incineration, mostly focused on the issue of burn pits from recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would remove the burden of proof from the injured veterans.
But weeks after a version of the legislation was approved by the Senate by a vote of 84-14 on June 16, the bill faced a different fate shortly after the House made modest changes. Toomey claimed that the PACT Act authorizes $280 billion of new mandatory spending — which is not subject to yearly appropriations — and also converts the prior $400 billion in authorizations from discretionary to mandatory. The senator argued last month that the provision was a budget “gimmick” that could facilitate massive amounts of new appropriated spending — a claim that Democrats have rejected.
On Wednesday, 25 Republicans reversed course from their vote just a month before. The final vote was 55-to-42, falling short of the 60 votes needed to overcome the filibuster. Three senators abstained.
Among the Republicans who changed course was Cruz, whose fist bump with Daines was met with backlash from liberals as it went viral on social media.
This is the fist bump everyone needs to be talking about.
Ted Cruz and fellow Republicans celebrating after blocking a bill to help toxin-exposed veterans survive. pic.twitter.com/wJvRseE7B4
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) July 29, 2022
Democrats have accused Republicans of voting against the bill in retaliation for a deal announced by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) that is allowing Democrats to move ahead on an economic, health-care and climate package without Republican votes.
Stewart, who called the way Republicans rejected the measure a “gut punch,” was on a media blitz this week on channels like CNN, Fox News and Newsmax that had him ripping the 25 GOP senators for their change of heart on the bill. He took aim at Cruz on Friday in an appearance on MSNBC.
“The most despicable part of this whole thing is watching on the Senate floor Ted Cruz fist-bumping and then patting each other on the back when they blocked this bill,” Stewart said. He added that Toomey and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) were “celebrating their victory over veterans with cancer.”
Later that day, Cruz was approached by TMZ at Reagan National Airport about Stewart’s comments.
“He’s talking about the PACT Act, which is a bill I support. It’s a bill most senators support,” Cruz told the outlet. After pointing to the budget “gimmick” cited by Toomey, Cruz said the bill was “part of the out-of-control spending from the left.”
In his expletive-laden video on Twitter, Stewart trolled Cruz and Republicans for suggesting that language was added to the bill by Democrats “or spending fairies.”
“It’s nonsense,” Stewart said. “There’s nothing in the bill that is not related to veterans’ spending. … This is for veterans who suffered health effects from burn pits and other toxins. That is it!”
Cruz, in a video of his own, again cited Toomey’s concern and accused Democrats of altering the bill with “pork that will supercharge inflation.”
“You’re wrong here,” Cruz told Stewart in a tweet.
Fox News’s Jesse Watters joined Cruz in criticizing Stewart for what the host called “ginned-up drama.”
“I’m not going to blame Jon for not knowing all the facts,” Watters said on his Friday show. “Going forward, let’s do this: I’ll do the research and Jon Stewart can handle the farming. It’s better for everybody that way.”
Stewart tweeted that Cruz and Watters were “trying to rally the forces of misinformation to try and kill more vets.” He again challenged the senator from Texas to “pass the bill you already had passed.”
“This isn’t a game,” Stewart wrote. “Real people’s lives hang in the balance…people that fought for your life.”
Eugene Scott and Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.
About 2,500 Boeing workers to strike after rejecting deal
ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) — Roughly 2,500 Boeing workers are expected to go on strike next month at three plants in the St. Louis area after they voted Sunday to reject a contract offer from the plane maker.
The strike is planned to begin Aug. 1 at Boeing manufacturing facilities in St. Charles County, St. Louis County and Mascoutah, Illinois, after the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837 union voted down the contract, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“We cannot accept a contract that is not fair and equitable, as this company continues to make billions of dollars each year off the backs of our hardworking members,” the union said.
Boing said in a statement that the Arlington, Virginia-based company is disappointed in the vote, but it will now use its “contingency plan to support continuity of operations in the event of a strike.”
A Boeing spokesman said the company’s contract offer included competitive raises and a generous retirement plan that included Boeing matching employee contributions to their retirement plan up to 10% of their pay.
Boeing is expected to give an update on its finances this week when it releases its next quarterly earnings report on Wednesday. Earlier this year, Boeing reported a $1.2 billion loss in the first quarter, but just last week the company announced that Delta Air Lines had ordered 100 of its 737 airplanes.
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This story has been corrected to show that Boeing is based in Arlington, Virginia.
9/11 group thanks golfers for rejecting Saudis
A group of nearly 2,500 survivors of family members killed or injured in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have written an open letter to PGA Tour members to thank them for remaining loyal to the tour and not joining the rival LIV Golf Invitational Series, which is being financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
In the letter, which was released Wednesday, the survivors described themselves as the spouses, children, parents and siblings of those who died and who were injured in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
“To those many of you who chose to remain loyal to the PGA Tour — and did not defect to the Saudi Arabia-bankrolled LIV Golf Series — we thank you and the sponsors who support you,” the letter read. “Thank you for standing up for decency. Thank you for standing up for the 9/11 Families. Thank you for resisting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to cleanse its reputation by buying off professional athletes.”
Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11 were Saudis.
More than 20 PGA Tour players, including former major champions Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, have signed with LIV Golf and received signing bonuses between as much as $100 million to $200 million, according to published reports.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan suspended 17 players who competed in the inaugural LIV Golf tournament outside London without a conflicting-event release. The first LIV Golf event in the United States is scheduled to start June 30 at Pumpkin Ridge in Portland, Oregon.
“We know that not all of you are millionaires, and that you compete to win tournaments, fame, and glory,” the letter continued. “We appreciate and applaud your spirit, drive, and talents, and believe that is all part of what makes competitive sports great.
“Some of your fellow PGA Tour members have traded their dreams of earned success for easy money — indeed, blood money — whether they need those funds or not. They include some of the richest in the field, who justify their roles in Saudi Arabia’s efforts to sportswash by simply, and astoundingly, looking the other way. They do so casually when asked the hard questions or are faced with the uncomfortable truth: That they are helping one of the world’s worst regimes paper over its crimes.”
Other 9/11 survivor groups have accused the players who defected to LIV Golf of being complicit in what they have termed Saudi Arabia’s sportswashing efforts.
“I think I speak for pretty much every American in that we feel the deepest of sympathy and the deepest of empathy for those that have lost loved ones, friends in 9/11,” Mickelson said before last week’s U.S. Open. “It affected all of us, and those that have been directly affected, I think I can’t emphasize enough how much empathy I have for them.”
Tuesday’s letter detailed other human rights violations, including the Saudi monarchy’s alleged involvement in the slaying of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. citizen.
“Unfortunately, Saudi terrorism didn’t end with 9/11,” the letter read. “The world saw that in 2018 with the cold-blooded murder of Jamal Khashoggi ordered by the Saudi Crown Prince himself. And we continue to see it in 2022, as the Saudi government has imprisoned scores of dissenters and journalists, hosted a public execution of 81 people, slaughtered and bombed Yemenis, and committed countless other crimes against women and minorities.”
Some of the players who have signed with LIV Golf lost longtime sponsors after defecting. KPMG, Workday and Amstel Light ended their deals with Mickelson. Callaway, his longtime equipment sponsor, paused its relationship with him. The Royal Bank of Canada halted its business relationships with Johnson and Graeme McDowell, and Rocket Mortgage ended its sponsorship of DeChambeau.
“To those of you who have chosen what is right over blood money from a corrupt, destructive sports entity and its Saudi backers, please continue to stand strong,” the letter read. “You inspire hope and conviction that our long journey to accountability and justice is in reach. We deeply value your integrity and your willingness to stand up for principle.
“We will Never Forget. Thank you for reminding all Americans and people of the world that we should never forget. Thank you for doing what is right.”
Texas GOP adopts resolution rejecting 2020 election results
“We reject the certified results of the 2020 Presidential election, and we hold that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States,” reads the resolution, passed by voice vote in Houston on Saturday. “We strongly urge all Republicans to work to ensure election integrity and to show up to vote in November of 2022, bring your friends and family, volunteer for your local Republicans, and overwhelm any possible fraud.”
Before the final resolution was adopted, Brian Bodine, a platform committee member who says he wrote the resolution, proposed an amendment about the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. It asserted that the “rights of those charged with crimes have been violated” and rejected the “narrative” that events at the US Capitol represented an insurrection. The proposal drew applause and “Let’s go Brandon” chants. Matt Rinaldi, chairman of the committee, ruled the amendment was out of order and would not be considered.
The platform also included a section calling homosexuality “an abnormal lifestyle choice” and opposing “all efforts to validate transgender identity.”
The state party’s platform has not yet been finalized, James Wesolek, a spokesperson for the Texas GOP, told CNN, but votes are being tallied on each individual plank.
Also, during the convention, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a lead GOP negotiator on bipartisan gun talks, received boos from his home-state crowd after he said he had “fought and kept President Biden’s gun-grabbing wish list off the table.”
“Democrats pushed for an assault weapons ban, I said no. They tried to get a new three-week mandatory waiting period for all gun purchases, I said no. Universal background checks, magazine bans, licensing requirements, the list goes on and on and on. And I said no, no, 1,000 times no,” Cornyn said.
“So, you might ask, ‘What is on the table?’ More mental health resources, more support for our schools, and making sure that violent criminals and the mentally ill cannot buy a firearm,” Cornyn said, as boos continued. “That primarily means enforcing current law. That’s what I’ve heard from many of you here today and this week, and that’s what we’re working on — nothing more, and nothing less.”
The party also nearly unanimously adopted a resolution by voice vote on Saturday rejecting the bipartisan gun agreement and rebuking Cornyn and other GOP negotiators, including Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Mitt Romney of Utah, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Rob Portman of Ohio and Roy Blunt of Missouri.
Trump Attacks Mike Pence for Not Rejecting Electoral Votes in 2020
A day after the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault illustrated the serious danger that rioters posed to Mike Pence, former President Donald J. Trump unleashed a new attack on the man who had served him as vice president, criticizing him for refusing to interfere with the Electoral College certification of the 2020 presidential contest.
Speaking on Friday afternoon before a faith-based group, Mr. Trump said that “Mike did not have the courage to act” in trying to unilaterally reject the Electoral College votes that were being cast for Joseph R. Biden Jr.
On Thursday, the House panel demonstrated that Mr. Trump and his advisers were told repeatedly that Mr. Pence had no power to block the certification and that doing so would violate the law, but pressed him to try anyway.
The committee also used witnesses to dismantle and debunk Mr. Trump’s false claims of widespread election fraud — arguments that he repeated in his keynote speech on Friday at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Nashville.
Mr. Trump has grown angry watching the hearings, knowing that he lacks a bully pulpit from which to respond, according to his advisers. He used much of his Friday address to repeat his false election claims and to denigrate Mr. Pence.
The Themes of the Jan. 6 House Committee Hearings
Most striking was the context for the attack on Mr. Pence, whose presence on the presidential ticket in 2016 was critical to reassuring evangelical voters that Mr. Trump, a thrice-married New York real estate developer whose first divorce was tabloid fodder for months and who had supported abortion rights, had become sufficiently conservative on social issues.
Mr. Pence, who often talks about his religious faith, is a favorite among the kind of voters attending the conference. But that did not stop Mr. Trump from denouncing him from the stage on Friday.
After repeating claims about election fraud that have been widely debunked, including by his former attorney general, William P. Barr, Mr. Trump turned his sights on Mr. Pence.
First, he insisted that he had not called Mr. Pence a “wimp” in a phone call with the vice president on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, even though Mr. Trump’s former aide Nick Luna had testified under penalty of perjury about such a comment. “I don’t even know who these people are,” Mr. Trump told the crowd.
“I never called Mike Pence a wimp,” said Mr. Trump, whose daughter Ivanka was present for the call and later told her chief of staff that Mr. Trump had effectively called Mr. Pence a coward, using a vulgarity. Then, Mr. Trump went on to describe Mr. Pence as weak.
“Mike Pence had a chance to be great. He had a chance to be, frankly, historic,” the former president said. “But just like Bill Barr and the rest of these weak people,” he said, Mr. Pence “did not have the courage to act.” The comment was met with applause.
Mr. Trump continued to mock Mr. Pence, whose aides testified that he had told Mr. Trump repeatedly that he did not have the power to dismiss Mr. Biden’s Electoral College victory or declare a 10-day recess in the congressional session to send the votes back to states to be re-examined.
“Mike Pence had absolutely no choice but to be a human conveyor belt,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump also mischaracterized the 1801 certification of Thomas Jefferson’s presidential victory — a process that Jefferson, then the vice president, oversaw — to argue that Mr. Pence should have used that model to keep Mr. Trump in office.
“I said to Mike, ‘If you do this, you can be Thomas Jefferson,’” Mr. Trump said. “And then after it all went down, I looked at him one day and I said, ‘Mike, I hate to say this, but you’re not Thomas Jefferson.’”
Marc Short, Mr. Pence’s former chief of staff, said this conversation never happened. Mr. Short did not comment more broadly on Mr. Trump’s speech.
Mr. Trump also complained that the House committee had edited videos of his former aides’ testimony so that they were not played in full context. He appeared to be referring indirectly to testimony by his daughter Ivanka, whose remarks have been used against her father in two hearings.
Speaking of the mob that left his speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6 and swarmed the Capitol, Mr. Trump remained defensive. “It was a simple protest,” he said. “It got out of hand.”
Kellogg Workers Prolong Strike by Rejecting Contract Proposal
About 1,400 striking workers at four Kellogg cereal plants in the United States have rejected a tentative agreement on a five-year contract negotiated by their union, the company said on Tuesday.
The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, which represents the workers, did not reveal the vote totals but said in a statement that its members had “overwhelmingly voted” against the agreement.
The vote was the latest of several recently in which workers expressed dissatisfaction with the terms negotiated by their unions. Deere & Company workers rejected two tentative agreements before approving a third one last month, and some workers there worried that their union was not aggressive enough with the company.
The Kellogg rejection is “similar to what we saw earlier on in Deere,” said Johnnie Kallas, a Ph.D. student at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University and the project director of its Labor Action Tracker. “With the inflation we’re experiencing now and the fact that we’re in a relatively tight labor market, workers do feel emboldened.”
The votes are in keeping with other signs of labor activism. Workers across the economy have grown more assertive in recent months, engaging in strikes and informal actions and taking part in new organizing efforts.
The Kellogg strike began on Oct. 5 and has largely revolved around the company’s two-tier compensation structure, agreed to in 2015, in which newer employees earn lower wages and receive less generous benefits than veteran workers. Under the previous contract, the lower tier could include up to 30 percent of workers.
According to a summary provided by the company, the new agreement would have immediately moved all employees with four or more years at Kellogg into the veteran tier. A group of lower-tier employees, equivalent to 3 percent of a plant’s head count, would move into the veteran tier in each year of the contract.
“We are disappointed that the tentative agreement for a master contract over our four U.S. cereal plants was not ratified by employees,” Kellogg said in a statement.
The company said that no further bargaining sessions were scheduled, and that it would “hire permanent replacement employees in positions vacated by striking workers.”
Permanently replacing workers on strike over economic issues like pay and benefits is legal, though Democrats are seeking to outlaw the practice in the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act. The House passed the bill in March, but it faces long odds in the Senate.
Under the rejected agreement, veteran workers, who Kellogg has said make about $35 an hour on average, would have received a 3 percent wage increase in the first year and cost-of-living adjustments in subsequent years. Newer hires make almost $22 per hour, according to the company.
The company had proposed eliminating the cap on the percentage of lower-tier workers and setting up a six-year progression to veteran status. But some employees and union officials saw that as a way to increase the number of lower-tier workers overall. They worried that it could put downward pressure on veteran workers’ wages if those in the lower tier became a majority.
“As soon as the lower tier has 50 plus one, they have voting power on future contracts and my wage can go down,” Dan Osborn, president of a Kellogg workers local in Omaha, said in an interview shortly after the strike began.
Mr. Osborn said at the time that veteran workers at his plant made about $30 per hour and that they felt especially frustrated by the company’s offer after working long hours, often on weekends, during the pandemic. They believed they had leverage over the company because of a general worker shortage and because some of their skills are specialized.
Mr. Osborn said he had fixed and maintained machines at Kellogg for more than 15 years, but added, “There are days, even weeks, when I can’t even get the things going.”
In addition to Mr. Osborn’s plant, Kellogg workers are on strike at plants in Battle Creek, Mich.; Lancaster, Pa.; and Memphis.
The company said in a statement in late November that it was able to “run our plants effectively with hourly and salaried employees, third-party resources and temporary replacements,” and indicated that it was hiring permanent replacement workers.
The strike is part of an increase in labor unrest this fall, including the strike by 10,000 Deere workers and one by more than 2,000 hospital workers in New York, each of which lasted more than one month.
Workers have sometimes directed their frustration at union leaders whom they criticize for not bargaining aggressively enough. Last month, the nearly 1.4 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters elected a president who had challenged the candidate backed by the union’s departing president, James P. Hoffa, on the grounds that the union had been too willing to accept concessions under Mr. Hoffa’s leadership.
More than half the roughly 420 workers on strike at a Heaven Hill spirits bottling plant near Louisville, Ky., voted to reject a tentative agreement between their union and the company in late October, but the six-week-long strike could be prolonged only with at least two-thirds opposition under union rules.
“I think there’s a lot of anger,” Mr. Kallas of Cornell said. “It is a unique moment. But what sort of gains that translates into in the long term very much remains to be seen.”