Excerpt from humanevents.com

The Prime Minister of Australia declared during a press conference on Wednesday that social media platforms have “a responsibility” to remove memes of him from the internet.

Excerpt from abcnews.go.com

According to Capt. Thomas Wheatley, an assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a 2020 Equal Opportunity law empowers the military to court martial soldiers that refuse to use the preferred pronouns of other soldiers.

Wheatley is warning Congress to fix the problem before it begins to be exploited (if it hasn’t been already). He said the military “is right to want to protect the rights and welfare of its transgender service members. But it owes the same protection to those who share a different perspective on the issue, especially when that perspective is a deep-seated expression of personal conscience.”

Excerpt from lidblog.com

Excerpt from www.realclearpolitics.com

California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna told ABC’s “This Week” that he and “a few progressive Democrats” would vote to keep Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson in power through the end of this year if GOP hardliners like Marjorie Taylor Greene try to force him from power.

“I would actually vote to table any motion to vacate him,” Khanna said. “I’m a progressive Democrat and I think you would have a few progressive Democrats doing that. And I disagree with Speaker Johnson on many issues and have been very critical of him. But he did the right thing here and he deserves to keep his job until the end of his term.”

JON KARL: After a busy and dramatic day on Capitol Hill, I’m joined now by Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California. Congressman Khanna, does Speaker Johnson deserve credit for how this played out?

REP. RO KHANNA: He does. Look, we came into Congress together and he always cared about civility. He actually led the civility pledge. We had one issue, which was give individual votes. Don’t lump things together. And I give him credit for doing this. I would actually vote to table any motion to vacate him.

You know, Congressman McCaul quoted Churchill. One of the things Churchill said is that America always exhausted every wrong option until doing the right thing. And this shows that American democracy still is very strong.

KARL: OK, you just said something significant. You said you would oppose the tabled – the motion to vacate. In other words, you will protect Speaker Johnson’s job if Marjorie Taylor Greene and the others go through with their threat to try to remove him?

KHANNA: I would, though the end of the term. I expect Speaker Pelosi — Speaker Jeffries will be there in 2025. But look, I’m a progressive Democrat and I think you would have a few progressive Democrats doing that. And I disagree with Speaker Johnson on many issues and have been very critical of him. But he did the right thing here and he deserves to keep his job until the end of his term.

KARL: Now, would you and fellow Democrats that will protect him at this moment ask him anything in return? I mean do we effectively have – you heard me ask Congressman McCaul, a coalition government in the House?

KHANNA: I’ll leave the negotiations to Speaker Jeffries. But I don’t think everything in politics needs to be transactional. I think here you have Speaker Johnson, who not only put this up for a vote, but he also separated the bills, which I thought was courageous. He let people vote their conscience on Taiwan, on the offensive aid to Israel, on – on Ukraine. And I give him credit for that.

Excerpt from www.axios.com

Weeks of threats to oust Johnson over Ukraine aid fizzled Saturday when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene left town without pulling the trigger.

Why it matters: Greene is still talking the talk, but momentum for an ouster effort against Speaker Mike Johnson that seemed certain now has no timeline and no new endorsers.

• Greene said she will “go home and hear from their constituents” before making her decision following weeks of threats to force a vote to oust him.
• “He needs to do the right thing and resign … If he doesn’t do so, he will be vacated,” Greene said Sunday on Fox News.
• “When John Boehner was replaced, it wasn’t by a motion to vacate on the floor” but rather his pre-announced resignation, said Rep. Thomas Massie, who joined Greene on the motion to vacate.

 

Excerpt from www.reuters.com

Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu’s party earned a landslide victory in parliamentary elections, local media reported on Monday, a result set to move the Indian Ocean archipelago closer to China and away from traditional partner India.

The PNC together with its coalition parties holds 75 seats in total while the main opposition Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) dwindled to only 12 seats from 65 previously.

Jubilant voters celebrated with party poppers and cut cakes in their constituencies. Official PNC celebrations were due to start in the evening with a rally in Male.

Both Beijing and New Delhi have wooed the Maldives as they vie for influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a police sergeant who was transferred to a different department to make room for a man had a right to continue with her sexual discrimination lawsuit she had already filed with the courts. The woman, Sgt. Jayontya Muldrow, saw her case dismissed by lower courts but now the SCOTUS ruling allows her to go forward with her suit.

Muldrow sued the St. Louis Police Department under the Title VII provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a provision that is already being invoked in lawsuits filed by employees who faced similar circumstances which are facilitated by the social employee management program, DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion). The win here could send a chilling message to DEI managers and the employers who hired them.

Excerpt from ABC News

The Supreme Court on Wednesday made it easier for workers who are transferred from one job to another against their will to pursue job discrimination claims under federal civil rights law, even when they are not demoted or docked pay.

Workers only have to show that the transfer resulted in some, but not necessarily significant, harm to prove their claims, Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court…

Muldrow sued under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion and national origin. Lower courts had dismissed Muldrow’s claim, concluding that she had not suffered a significant job disadvantage.

“Today, we disapprove that approach,” Kagan wrote. “Although an employee must show some harm from a forced transfer to prevail in a Title VII suit, she need not show that the injury satisfies a significance test.”