Politics
Abigail Spanberger Announces Run for Virginia Governor in 2025
(CTN News) – Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat from a swing district and a former CIA officer who has occasionally butted heads with her party’s leadership and left flank, revealed on Monday that she will not be seeking reelection in 2020 but will instead run for governor of Virginia in 2025.
Abigail Spanberger, 44, made history on Monday by being the first candidate from either major party to formally enter the race with the release of a campaign film. She is vying to replace Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, who cannot serve more than two consecutive terms due to term limits in the state constitution.
The privilege of serving Virginians in the U.S. House of Representatives has been the highest honour of my life. “Today, I am proud to announce that I will be working hard to gain the support and trust of all Virginians to continue this service as the next Governor of Virginia,” Abigail Spanberger said in a statement posted by her campaign.
Those words sum up my life in Virginia: “Virginia is where I grew up, where I am raising my own family, and where I intend to build a stronger future for the next generation of Virginians.”
Abigail Spanberger’s early entry gives Democrats more time to recruit candidates to run in the 7th District, a competitive territory stretching from the Washington suburbs of Prince William County nearly to Ashland in the outer reaches of Greater Richmond.
This is because the district’s election is not until 2025. In contrast, Youngkin entered the 2021 contest in January of that year, and Democratic former governor Terry McAuliffe entered the race in December of 2020.
It is widely anticipated that Abigail Spanberger’s decision will encourage candidates from both parties to quickly enter the race and begin fundraising for a campaign that last time cost Youngkin and McAuliffe a record-breaking $137 million.
Levar Stoney, the Democratic mayor of Richmond, has been hinting at a run for his party’s candidature for months. Politico reported last week that Stoney has recruited a team and wants to declare before the end of the year. Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears and Attorney General Jason S. Miyares are frontrunners for the Republican nomination.
In 2018, Abigail Spanberger captured national attention when she defeated tea party favourite and Republican Dave Brat in the 7th Congressional District of Virginia, a traditional GOP bastion in a suburban-rural area of central Virginia.
Abigail Spanberger was subsequently reelected to a third term. She was unopposed in the next two elections as well, including this past year when her district was moved further north into Richmond’s suburbs.
Spanberger, who was born in New Jersey to a nurse and a police officer, grew up in the Richmond suburbs after her father switched careers and began working for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Abigail Spanberger had an interest in learning languages thanks to her babysitter from Ecuador, and she eventually became fluent enough in French, Spanish, German, and Italian to recruit spies for the CIA from 2006 until 2014. She was the CIA’s only working mother, which she said was to her benefit.
“I would say the pregnant lady waddling through foreign cities is easily overlooked,” she told The Washington Post in an interview during her 2018 candidature.
They have three daughters, all of whom are in school age.
Abigail Spanberger has energised the Democratic base with her history as an organiser with the gun-control group Moms Demand Action, while appealing to independents and moderate Republicans in her swing district through her career in federal law enforcement and the CIA.
In the House, she has made an effort to walk a similar line, disagreeing with some of her party’s more extreme members on issues like abortion rights while disagreeing with their “defund the police” rhetoric. Nonpartisan groups such as the Common Ground Committee have routinely ranked her one of the country’s most nonpartisan politicians.
In addition to never having supported Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) bid for House speaker, Abigail Spanberger went on record last year criticising Pelosi for her handling of legislation to prohibit members of Congress from trading stock, saying that Pelosi had put up legislation that was “designed to fail.”
In an interview with the New York Times published in November 2021, Abigail Spanberger criticised her party’s rhetoric and negotiating methods around President Biden’s original Build Back Better plan, stating, “Nobody elected him to be FDR; they elected him to be normal and stop the chaos.”
Biden, who had not been informed of her absence, called the congresswoman and said, “Hello, Abigail, it’s President Roosevelt.”
Spanberger presents herself in her campaign announcement video, dubbed “What Matters Most,” as a public servant who can get things done despite the city of Washington’s current partisan divide.
In her own words, “I committed to a life of service for our country and the people of Virginia,” she says. “First in law enforcement, then at CIA working to keep our country safe, and today in Congress, where, despite dangerous polarisation, I have found ways to bring people together and focus on what really matters.”
She presents herself in the film as a bulwark against conservative culture battles, such as prohibitions on books and abortion, while also being attentive to kitchen-table concerns (such as assisting veterans and small businesses and fighting addiction).
“When we rise above the chaos and division, we can focus on what matters most to Virginians: lowering prescription drug prices, growing the middle class, lowering costs, and easing inflation,” she says.
To ensure the success of all students, we must stop seeing educators and children as political pawns and instead concentrate on attracting and maintaining qualified educators. as well as preventing extremists from further eroding reproductive rights for women. We can take advantage of this situation even if it is so divisive.
Politics
Millennials in Canada Have Turned their Backs on Justin Trudeau
Justine Trudeau and his Liberal Party are currently engaged in a fierce battle for second place against Jagmeet Singh’s socialist NDP, as both parties find themselves trailing by 20 points behind Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives.
A recent poll indicates that 38% of Canadians consider Trudeau to be the most ineffective leader the nation has encountered in over fifty years. An impressive 47% of Canadian Millennials indicated they would support Poilievre if an election were to take place today, while nearly half of all Canadians express a desire for an election to be called this year.
Pierre Poilievre’s strong appeal among young voters can be attributed primarily to economic factors: soaring inflation, a pressing cost-of-living crisis, and the challenge of housing affordability are pushing many away from the Liberals, who have held power for nearly nine years.
According to UnHeard, Millennials are increasingly distancing themselves from Trudeau due to his stringent measures aimed at controlling the internet to combat alleged disinformation, as well as his climate change initiatives, notably the carbon tax.
An increasing number of Canadians are becoming aware of Trudeau’s ineffective policies and his approach to mass immigration. This past summer, there was significant outrage among parents of teenagers and young adults as they observed their children remaining at home without jobs.
The primary concern stemmed from the fact that most low-skilled and entry-level positions were being filled by unskilled, temporary foreign workers, predominantly from India.
There has been a notable rise in criminal activities linked to international students and unvetted temporary residents who are becoming involved with Punjabi gangs in Canada, contributing to a surge in auto thefts nationwide.
Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives are actively seeking to alter Trudeau’s approach to mass immigration and prioritize the construction of more housing should they come into power.
Significantly, Pierre Poilievre is perceived as more trustworthy than Trudeau, with over half of Canadians characterizing Poilievre as “open and honest about his actions, decisions, and intentions,” while only 39% share that sentiment regarding Trudeau.
The characteristics in question may shed light on Poilievre’s favorable polling, particularly among younger voters and women, who have historically leaned towards the Liberals or the NDP rather than the Conservatives.
The Liberal Party’s support has dwindled to an estimated 7% of Canadians, revealing a significant number of disillusioned voters eager for transformation. Poilievre is emerging as the type of leader that resonates with the desires of many Canadians.
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Politics
U.N. Special Rapporteur Calls on Thailand’s Banks to Cut-Off Myanmar Junta
The U.N special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar has said the Bank of Thailand, commercial banks, and the anti-money laundering office are working on measures to stop the Myanmar Junta from acquiring weapons through Thailand’s banking system.
Tom Andrews the U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, said that some banks commercial in Thailand had aided Myanmar Junta’s by facilitating transactions that supplied military equipment to the Junta through the international banking system.
He called on the Bank of Thailand and financial institutions to do more to stop Myanmar’s junta acquiring weapons which they use on civilians to maintain power.
The special rapporteur was in Bangkok to address a parliamentary committee on security, he called on the Thai government to stop financial transactions that help supply weapons to Myanmar’s junta in line with a plan promoted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that sets out an end to violence as a first step toward peace.
In his 2023 report “The Billion Dollar Death Trade,” Andrews noted that Singapore had implemented a clear policy opposing the transfer of weapons to Myanmar.
Thailand’s Banks Lacked Clear Policy
As a result, exports of weapons and related materials from Singapore-registered entities using the formal banking system dropped from almost U.S. $120 million in fiscal year 2022 to just over $10 million over the next 12 months.
However, he said Thailand had no explicit policy position opposing weapons transfer to the Myanmar Junta, which saw exports from Thai-registered entities more than double in 2023, from just over $60 million to nearly $130 million.
He called on Thai Government to conduct a thorough investigation into transfers as Singapore had done into its companies’ dealings.
Andrews told the the committee that five Thai commercial banks and Thai-based companies were assisting Myanmar’s junta obtain weapons, dual-technology items and jet fuel, enabling Military Junta to conduct atrocities against the people.
But said he had found no evidence that the Thai government was involved or was aware of the transactions or that Thai commercial banks had knowledge.
Banks Condemn Myanmar Junta Violence
Meanwhile representatives from Thailand’s central bank, anti-money laundering office and the commercial banks named in the report were also present at the parliamentary meeting at government house in Bangkok.
A representative of the Bank of Thailand said officials were working with the commercial banks and the anti-money laundering office to make sure that enhanced oversight was properly practiced.
The Thai Bankers Association that was also at the parliamentary meeting said it did not have the means to investigate and monitor such irregularities beyond Thailand’s borders.
Mr. Pongsit Chaichatpornsuk, a Thai Bankers Association representative told the committee that If government security agencies tell us, we will stop transactions. We don’t support arms procurement by Myanmar Junta or any military government to violate human rights.
Thailand, which shares a long border with Myanmar and hosts many thousands of refugees fleeing conflict there, has tried to promote dialogue between Myanmar’s military rulers and opposition forces but no progress has been made.
This Article was first published in RFA
Politics
People Rushing Sign Online Petition to Impeach South Korea’s President Crash Site
The Speaker of the National Assembly of South Korea said in a statement that an online petition calling for South Korea’s President Mr. Yoon Suk-yeol’s impeachment crashed due to the enormous number of individuals attempting to sign the petition. Saying the National Assembly would resolve the matter as quickly as possible.
Since the petition was launch on the National Assembly’s website on June 20, more than 811,000 people have signed it. The petition urges Parliament to introduce legislation to impeach President Yoon on the grounds that he is unfit for office.
Late on June 30, National Assembly Speaker Mr. Woo Won-shik issued an apology for the disturbance and stated that Parliament would take action to protect the public’s fundamental rights.
People attempting to access the petition on July 1 experienced delays of up to four hours. At one point, an error message indicated that more than 30,000 individuals were waiting to access the site.
South Korea’s Parliament Hesitant
The online petition accuses Yoon of corruption, escalating the risk of conflict with North Korea, and endangering South Koreans’ health by failing to prevent Japan from leaking treated radioactive water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant.
By law, Parliament must assign every petition signed by more than 50,000 people to a committee, which will then decide whether to put it to a vote in the assembly.
However, the opposition Democratic Party, which has a majority in Parliament, is hesitant to turn the petition into an impeachment bill, according to media reports, with a spokesperson stating that the party has yet to address the topic.
The Parliament can impeach a president with a two-thirds majority. The Constitutional Court then deliberates the motion and decides whether to remove or reinstall the president.
Meanwhile, on Monday Reuters reported North Korea criticized a joint military exercise performed this month by South Korea, Japan, and the United States, according to official media, saying such drills demonstrate the three nations’ alliance has evolved into “the Asian version of NATO”.
On Thursday, the three countries began large-scale combined military drills named “Freedom Edge” featuring navy destroyers, fighter fighters, and the nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, with the goal of strengthening defenses against missiles, submarines, and air strikes.
The drill was designed at a three-way meeting at Camp David last year to boost military cooperation amid concerns on the Korean peninsula caused by North Korea’s weapons testing.
Pyongyang will not overlook the strengthening of a military bloc led by the United States and its allies, and it would respond aggressively and decisively to defend regional peace, according to North Korea’s foreign ministry, as reported by KCNA.
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