Federal judge says San Francisco can’t clear homeless camps
A federal judge has temporarily banned San Francisco from clearing homeless encampments, saying the city is violating its own policies. The judge granted an emergency order Friday night. The move came in a lawsuit filed on behalf of homeless plaintiffs that seeks to stop San Francisco from dismantling homeless encampments until it has thousands of additional shelter beds. The judge says evidence shows the city regularly and illegally fails to offer shelter to inhabitants before clearing the encampments and improperly seizes or throws out their belongings, including medication and even prosthetic limbs. Mayor London Breed said in a statement that the decision will hamper the city’s efforts to help bring people indoors and keep neighborhoods safe.
Lake loses suit over her defeat in Arizona governor’s race
A judge has thrown out Republican Kari Lake’s challenge of her defeat in the Arizona governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs. The judge rejected her claim that problems with some ballot printers were the result of intentional misconduct. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson says in a Saturday decision that there was no clear or convincing evidence of the widespread misconduct that Lake had alleged had affected the election result. Lake says Saturday that she will appeal the ruling. She was among the most vocal 2022 Republicans promoting former President Donald Trump’s election lies. Lake has not joined most of the other election deniers around the country who conceded after losing their races in November.
$600M designated for struggling water system in Mississippi
The federal government will put $600 million toward repairing the troubled water system in Mississippi’s capital city — a project that the mayor has said could cost billions of dollars. Funding for Jackson water is included in a $1.7 trillion federal spending bill that President Joe Biden is expected to sign into law. Jackson is a majority-Black city of nearly 150,000, with about 25% of residents living in poverty. The water system nearly collapsed in late August after heavy rainfall exacerbated problems at the main water treatment plant. Most of Jackson lost running water for several days. People had to wait in lines for water to drink, cook, bathe and flush toilets.
Editions of Jan. 6 report already on Amazon best seller list
It took less than a day for the Jan. 6 report to go from public unveiling to the bestseller list on Amazon.com. By late Friday, three editions of the Congressional probe of the 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump were in the top 30 on Amazon. The 814-page document, released late Thursday, is not copyrighted. It can be published by anyone and is otherwise available for free on various government and media web sites. Previous government publications have been bestsellers, including the Sept. 11 report.
Packed ICUs, crowded crematoriums: COVID roils Chinese towns
As China grapples with its first-ever national COVID-19 wave, emergency wards in small cities and towns southwest of Beijing are overwhelmed. Intensive care units are turning away ambulances, relatives of sick people are searching for open beds, and patients are slumped on benches in hospital corridors and lying on floors for a lack of beds. Even as the young go back to work and lines at fever clinics shrink, many of Hebei’s elderly are falling into critical condition. As they overrun ICUs and funeral homes, it could be a harbinger of what’s to come for the rest of China.
Taliban ban women from working for domestic, foreign NGOs
The Taliban government in Afghanistan has ordered all foreign and domestic non-governmental groups to suspend employing women. It’s the latest restrictive move by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers against women’s rights and freedoms. The order came in a letter from the economy minister on Saturday. It said that any NGO found not complying with the order will have their operating license revoked in Afghanistan. The ministry said it has received “serious complaints” about female staff working for NGOs not wearing the “correct” headscarf, or hijab. It was not immediately clear if the order applies to all women or only Afghan women at the NGOs. The Taliban also on Saturday separately banned women from attending religious classes at the mosques in the capital of Kabul.
Tunisia’s political experiment threatens economic collapse
Tunisia’s political crisis has brought the already struggling economy closer to collapse. The IMF has frozen a loan deal the government badly needs to cope with budget fallout from the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Foreign investors are pulling out of Tunisia, and ratings agencies are on alert. Inflation and joblessness are on the rise. Many Tunisians, once proud of their country’s relative prosperity, now struggle to make ends meet. But Tunisia’s increasingly authoritarian president appears determined to upend the country’s political system, once seen as a model for the Arab world. An election debacle a week ago has made matters worse: Just 11% of voters took part.
By wire sources