Today’s prime story is from Texas, the place the state legislature has okayed a ban on gender-affirming take care of minors. Transgender rights have emerged as a controversial political state of affairs, and Texas, like quite a few completely different Republican-majority states, have given priority standing this 12 months to measures limiting these rights.
Meanwhile, in Montana, lawmakers have banned Chinese-owned TikTok from working inside the state to “protect Montanans” from alleged Chinese surveillance. This makes it the first US state to ban the favored transient video app. However, the effectivity of the ban stays to be seen as specialists counsel that there is no such thing as a such factor as a precise method to implement the legal guidelines.
Here are 5 key headlines from the United States proper this second:
01Texas Legislature OKs ban on gender-affirming take care of minors
Texas would develop to be crucial state to ban gender-affirming take care of minors beneath a bill despatched Wednesday night to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who has beforehand ordered child welfare officers to investigate such remedy as abuse.
The bill cleared the GOP-controlled Legislature after a final vote inside the Senate over the objections of Democrats, who used parliamentary manoeuvres in newest weeks to delay passage nevertheless could not derail it totally. Texas is now poised to affix on the very least 17 completely different states which have enacted comparable bans. (AP)
02Montana is the first US state to ban TikTok totally
Montana turned the first state inside the U.S. to enact a complete ban on TikTok on Wednesday when Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a measure that’s further sweeping than each different state’s makes an try and curtail the social media app, which is owned by a Chinese tech agency.
The measure, scheduled to take affect on Jan. 1, 2024, is predicted to be challenged legally and might perform a testing ground for the TikTok-free America that many nationwide lawmakers have envisioned. Cybersecurity specialists say it might very nicely be troublesome to implement the ban. (AP)
03Prince Harry and Meghan made getaway in NYC taxi after being trailed by paparazzi
Prince Harry and his partner, Meghan, had been trailed of their automotive by photographers as they left a New York City charity event Tuesday night, briefly taking refuge at a police station sooner than being whisked away in a yellow taxicab. The pursuit and media frenzy evoked recollections of the 1997 automotive chase by Paris that killed Harry’s mother, Princess Diana — though on this case, police talked about, no person was harm.
The royal couple set off alarms when their spokesperson claimed Wednesday that they’d been dangerously pursued by paparazzi in a “near catastrophic car chase” by the streets of Manhattan. That account led New York City Mayor Eric Adams to condemn the paparazzi chasing them as “reckless and irresponsible. (AP)
04Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes loses bid to stay out of jail
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and former CEO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani had been on Tuesday ordered to pay $452 million to victims of the blood-testing startup’s fraud, and an appeals courtroom moreover denied Holmes’ request to remain out of jail whereas tough her conviction.
Holmes, who rose to fame after claiming Theranos’ small machines may run an array of diagnostic checks with just a few drops of blood, was convicted closing 12 months of misrepresenting the startup’s know-how and funds. She was sentenced to 11 years and three months in jail. (Reuters)
05Indian-American woman found lifeless mysteriously in Oklahoma
A 25-year-old Indian-American woman, who went missing from the US state of Texas earlier this month, was found lifeless virtually 322 kilometres away in neighbouring Oklahoma state, a day after she disappeared on her method to work.
Lahari Pathivada was closing seen driving a black Toyota to work inside the McKinney suburb. (Read further)