Aurelia Butler

Sinema was one of two Democratic senators who joined with Republicans to vote against lowering the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to 50 so that the Senate could pass voting rights bill without bipartisan support.The censure is mostly a symbolic move, but it does highlight criticism that Sinema has faced from members of her own party, with polling indicating that Sinema is facing a rising amount of backlash from Democratic voters.Raquel Teran, the state party’s chair, said in a Saturday statement they supported Sinema’s votes to pass legislation to provide more coronavirus relief and to improve the nation’s infrastructure.”However, we are also here to advocate for our constituents and the ramifications of failing to pass federal legislation that protects their right to vote are too large and far-reaching,” Teran said. “While we take no pleasure in this announcement, the ADP Executive Board has decided to formally censure Senator Sinema as a result of her failure to do whatever it takes to ensure the health of our democracy,” Teran added.The failure to pass the legislation was a major blow to President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda and for voting rights groups, which had been fighting a slate of laws passed in Republican-controlled states that election experts have said were designed to suppress voting, especially among Black, Hispanic and poor voters.Experts and voting rights advocates say the states have passed the legislation largely to back former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was marred by rampant fraud. In Sinema’s home state of Arizona, state Senate Republicans contracted a private company called Cyber Ninjas to perform a so-called “audit” of the 2020 election. Election officials discredited the probe, with Arizona’s Secretary of State issuing a report saying the election was secure and accurate and calling the review “secretive and disorganized.”The company has since shut down after a judge ordered it to pay $50,0000 a day in fines, according to media reports.Sinema co-sponsored the Senate version of election overhaul legislation, but has publicly stated repeatedly she opposed changing filibuster rules.Sinema’s office shrugged off the censure in a statement.”During three terms in the U.S. House, and now in the Senate, Kyrsten has always promised Arizonans she would be an independent voice for the state – not for either political party. She’s delivered for Arizonans and has always been honest about where she stands,” a spokesperson said. More

ROME (Reuters) -Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi decided against running for president, he said in a statement on Saturday, removing an obstacle to cross-party negotiations ahead of the vote in parliament beginning on Jan. 24.The nomination of Prime Minister Mario Draghi is seen as the most probable outcome, but it is still unclear whether the broad sweep of parties that support his coalition will endorse him for fear his departure could trigger an early national election.Berlusconi said he wanted the former European Central Bank president to remain at the helm of the government until the natural end of the legislature, in 2023.”I have decided to take another step on the road to national responsibility, asking those who proposed it to renounce indicating my name for the Presidency of the Republic,” Berlusconi said.The rightist coalition had asked Berlusconi to run for president, but his bid was unlikely to be successful due to difficulties in mustering the broad support traditionally needed among the more than 1,000 lawmakers and regional delegates involved.Berlusconi is a highly divisive figure in Italy and the centre-left camp had already ruled out backing him. He was temporarily barred from public office after a conviction for tax fraud in 2013, and is still on trial in the latest of a series of instances for bribing witnesses in an underage prostitution case tied to his infamous “Bunga Bunga” sex parties of more than a decade ago.The Italian president has many ceremonial duties, but is also responsible for resolving political crises, making it a key role in a country where governments survive just one year on average.The winner of the secret parliamentary vote needs a two-thirds majority in any of the first three rounds of voting. An absolute majority is sufficient thereafter.Neither the centre-right nor the centre-left bloc have enough votes to impose a candidate from their own camp, meaning some sort of compromise is needed to prevent prolonged stalemate.”We will work with the leaders of the centre-right … to agree on a name that can gather a broad consensus in Parliament,” Berlusconi’s statement said.Berlusconi’s rightist allies, Matteo Salvini’s League and the Brothers of Italy, said they appreciated his decision.In a statement, Salvini said the centre-right bloc was united and ready to make several “high-profile” proposals. More

Social Democrat Labour Minister Hubertus Heil presented a draft law on Friday proposing to increase the wage floor from the current 9.82 euros from October onwards.”For me, raising the minimum wage to 12 euros is one of our most important legislative projects and it’s a matter of showing respect for the achievements of employees. I’m glad it’s on its way now!,” Scholz said on Twitter (NYSE:TWTR).The labour ministry estimates that more than 6 million people across the country will benefit from the measure and that the increase will cost employers some 1.6 billion euros in October-December.Heil told Reuters on Friday that he expected the change to benefit especially employees in eastern Germany and women working in the care sector and other services where wages are traditionally very low.The labour ministry sent around its proposal to the other departments on Friday, with the Social Democrats expecting their junior coalition partners Free Democrats and Greens to back the bill as agreed in coalition talks last year.The cabinet is likely to pass the draft law in February and parliament is expected to adopt the higher minimum wage before the summer break.Employers associations have said the increase by more than 20% was too high and warned they could challenge the measure in court. Scholz and Heil both have pushed back against assertions that a higher minimum wage could lead to job cuts.German companies are already suffering acute labour shortages in many sectors of the economy, so higher wages are also seen as a way to attract more foreign workers.The Bundesbank central bank has warned that the government’s plan could push wages up across the board and increase overall price pressures at a time of already high inflation in Europe’s largest economy. More

An IMF spokesperson also told Reuters on Saturday that a team will start virtual talks with Lebanese authorities next week.The Lebanese government has said it hopes to reach an initial agreement with the fund for financial support between January and February. Lebanon is in the grip of an unprecedented financial crisis and an IMF deal is widely seen as the only way for it to secure aid.The fund said in December it was assessing a $69 billion figure announced by Lebanese officials for losses in the country’s financial sector. Disagreements in Lebanon over the size of the losses and how they should be distributed torpedoed IMF talks in 2020. The central bank, banks and political elite rejected figures set out in a government plan that was endorsed by the IMF at the time.Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in September that the financial recovery plan to be drawn up by his cabinet will include a fair distribution of losses suffered by the financial system, but the cabinet hasn’t convened since October.It will convene again on Monday to discuss the 2022 budget, but no clear details have been released about the recovery plan. The Lebanese financial system collapsed in 2019 because of decades of corruption and waste in the state and the unsustainable way it was financed. The trigger was slowing inflows of hard currency into the banking system, which lent heavily to the government.Several reforms the IMF would likely seek, including cutting subsidies and unifying the numerous exchange rates in Lebanon’s chaotic cash economy, are already becoming realities as hard currency dries up, political sources say. More