The BWF Big showdowns 2023 saw a shocking development as dominant men’s singles champion Viktor Axelsen was deposed in the quarter-finals, while the imposing Carolina Marin fueled her direction through to the semi-finals in an energizing presentation of badminton greatness.
In an undeniably exhilarating confrontation at the Copenhagen Field on Friday, Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen, who secured the title in the past release, went head to head against Indonesia’s Anthony Ginting. In a wildly challenged match, Ginting arose successful, denoting the finish of Axelsen’s title protection crusade.
Ginting’s exceptional presentation drove him to get a hard-battled triumph against Axelsen, with a last score of 21-18, 19-21, 21-16. The Indonesian shuttler showed remarkable spryness, accuracy, and strategic artfulness, leaving the crowd in wonderment.
Considering his loss, Axelsen recognized Ginting’s ability, expressing, “Anthony played a splendid game today. He pushed me as far as possible, and I was unable to match his power. Credit to him for a merited success.”
With this startling new development, Viktor Axelsen’s excursion at the BWF Big showdowns 2023 reached a sudden conclusion, leaving fans and specialists the same dazed.
Conversely, the authoritative ladies’ singles Olympic boss, Spain’s Carolina Marin, proceeded to exhibit her predominance in the competition. Marin, who is known for her wild serious soul, showed an extraordinary exhibition against India’s PV Sindhu in the quarter-finals.
Marin got her position in the semi-finals with a persuading 21-15, 21-18 triumph over Sindhu. Her forceful playing style and amazing court inclusion ended up being the game changers in the match.
Talking after her victory, Carolina Marin communicated her assurance to proceed with her great altercation the competition. “I’m excited to progress to the semi-finals. The opposition is extreme, however I’m centered around doing everything I possibly can in each match,” Marin said.
Marin’s way to getting the ladies’ singles title at the BWF Big showdowns 2023 gives off an impression of being on target, however she is very much aware of the difficulties that lie ahead.
As the competition advances, badminton fans from around the world anxiously anticipate the leftover matches, expecting additional stunning minutes and startling surprises that characterize the pith of this esteemed title.
The BWF Big showdowns 2023 keeps on spellbinding the worldwide badminton local area, as the world’s best shuttlers compete for magnificence and acknowledgment on the most amazing phase of all.
The state court’s ruling issued Friday could also result in the U.S. Supreme Court dropping a closely watched case about the power of state legislatures over federal elections. The justices heard arguments on the issue in December, but signaled last month that they were considering changing course as a result of the effort to get the North Carolina court to reverse its earlier ruling.
In a separate ruling, the court also overturned another one of its past decisions on a voter ID law, on a similar 5-2 split strictly along party lines. That ruling issued Friday will clear the way for a long-litigated photo ID law to go into effect in the state.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who now runs a Democratic redistricting group, denounced the ruling as a nakedly political exercise.
“This shameful, delegitimizing decision to allow the unjust, blatant manipulation of North Carolina’s voting districts was not a function of legal principle, it was a function of political personnel and partisan opportunism,” Holder said in a statement. “Neither the map nor the law have changed since last year’s landmark rulings — only the makeup of the majority of the North Carolina Supreme Court has changed.”
The previous Democratic majority on the state court issued a series of recent decisions in the last year that ruled that partisan gerrymandering was illegal in North Carolina, while also blocking implementation of the state’s photo ID law. The new majority’s decision to rehear arguments on these cases so quickly was an unusual one, and many court observers believed the decision to do so meant that it was a matter of when, not if, the new court would allow for partisan gerrymandering.
In a lengthy decision issued by the court Friday, the conservative justices concluded that they could not adjudicate claims of partisan gerrymandering, saying that is the role of the state legislature.
“There is no judicially manageable standard by which to adjudicate partisan gerrymandering claims. Courts are not intended to meddle in policy matters,” Chief Justice Paul Newby wrote in his 144-page opinion for the court’s majority.
Much of the majority’s rationale echoes that of a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court decision that found federal courts could not act against partisan gerrymandering, but left the question in individual states to their courts.
“For a brief window in time, the power of deciding who is elected to office was given to the people, as required by the state constitution,” Justice Anita Earls wrote in her 72-page dissent, joined by Justice Michael Morgan. The two, who joined the court’s ruling last year striking down the map for being too partisan, are the last remaining Democratic jurists on the court.
“Today, the majority strips the people of this right; it tells North Carolinians that the state constitution and the courts cannot protect their basic human right to self-governance and self-determination,” Earls added, declaring that her Republican colleagues’ “efforts to downplay the practice do not erase its consequences and the public will not be gaslighted.”
Friday’s decision on partisan gerrymandering will likely cement Republican power in the state. The state legislature has the power to remake the state’s evenly split congressional delegation — unusually, the state’s chief executive, currently Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, is explicitly left out of the process — and Republican lawmakers won’t need to negotiate with Democrats because the GOP has supermajorites in both chambers.
The new maps will likely gravely endanger Democratic Reps. Kathy Manning in Greensboro, Wiley Nickel in the Raleigh suburbs and Jeff Jackson in Charlotte by placing them into Republican-leaning seats. Freshman Democratic Rep. Don Davis could also see his rural northeastern district become more competitive as well.
Republicans could snag as many as 11 seats under a new map. Some GOP names to watch in potential new red seats: former Rep. Mark Walker, who has been eyeing a return to Congress while also teasing a run for governor; Bo Hines, who lost in 2022 to Nickel; and House Speaker Tim Moore.
When Republicans first drew congressional lines after the 2020 census, they heavily favored their party. That map were heavily litigated and eventually struck down in state court, with court drawn maps instituted for the 2022 election only. The state legislature always expected to get another crack at redrawing the map ahead of 2024, and Friday’s ruling means that legislators could draw lines substantially similar to those the courts had previously thrown out.
Moore, the state House speaker, has previously said before Friday’s ruling that he didn’t anticipate the legislature taking up the mapmaking process until the summer.
Friday’s decision from North Carolina’s state Supreme Court could also have ramifications in the nation’s highest court.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Moore v. Harper, which is a challenge brought by Republican legislative leaders to the North Carolina Supreme Court decision overturning the original gerrymandered maps last year.
That federal case advanced a once-fringe legal idea called the Independent State Legislature theory, which holds that under the U.S. constitution, state judiciaries have little — to no — authority to review state legislatures’ decision-making on laws around federal elections, including redistricting. At least four of the court’s conservative justices have in the past signaled, at a minimum, some friendliness to the theory — but during oral arguments in December it appeared that the court was not prepared to accept the most robust reading of the theory.
The U.S. Supreme Court asked parties in the federal case to submit additional briefings on if the court still had jurisdiction over the federal case after North Carolina’s state Supreme Court’s decision to rehear the redistricting case earlier this year. That was a signal the nation’s top court is at least considering dismissing the case as improvidently granted, which is the court functionally saying it heard the case prematurely and will not be issuing a decision.
Even some opponents of the independent state legislature theory feared the U.S. Supreme Court would dismiss the case. If it did so, it could mean there was no clear interpretation of the ISL theory heading into the 2024 election from the Supreme Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court has not signaled a timeline for its next steps on Moore.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Abortion rights campaigners won notable victories in Nebraska and South Carolina on Thursday, blocking a six-week ban in the first state and a near-total ban in the second.
In Lincoln, Nebraska, a vote to end debate so the bill could advance failed by one vote. Cheers erupted as opponents of the bill waved signs and chanted: “Whose house? Our house!”
Jo Giles, executive director of the Women’s Fund of Omaha, was brought to tears.
“Wow!” she said. “This was unexpected, but we’re so glad to have this win. We have fought so hard. This bill is not what the majority of women in this state wanted.”
In Columbia, South Carolina, senators rejected a bill that would have banned nearly all abortions in a state increasingly serving women across a region where Republicans have otherwise curtailed access.
Sandy Senn, a Republican senator, criticized the majority leader, Shane Massey, for repeatedly “taking us off a cliff on abortion”.
“The only thing that we can do when you all, you men in the chamber, metaphorically keep slapping women by raising abortion again and again and again, is for us to slap you back with our words,” Senn said.
The Nebraska bill would ban abortion around the sixth week of pregnancy. It is now unlikely to move forward this year. Since 2010, Nebraska has banned abortions after the 20th week. The new bill would have banned abortion once cardiac activity can be detected. It failed to get the crucial 33rd vote when state senator Merv Riepe abstained. He was a cosigner but expressed concern a six-week ban might not give women time to know they were pregnant.
A former hospital administrator, Riepe introduced an amendment that would have extended the ban to 12 weeks and add to the list of exceptions fetal anomalies deemed incompatible with life.
Riepe warned Republicans to heed signs that abortion will galvanize women to vote them out. He offered up his own election last year, noting that in the primary he was 27 points ahead but after the US supreme court’s Dobbs decision in June, striking down Roe, his margin of victory in the general election against the same challenger, a Democrat who made abortion rights central to her campaign, dropped to just under five points.
“We must embrace the future of reproductive rights,” Riepe said.
The failed bill included exceptions for cases of rape, incest and medical emergencies and made exceptions for ectopic pregnancies and IVF procedures. It allowed for the removal of a fetus that has died in the womb. It did not ascribe criminal penalties to women or doctors. It would have subjected doctors to professional discipline.
The bill’s author, Joni Albrecht, called it “the friendliest pro-life bill out there”. But she rejected a compromise that would exempt women and medical professionals from criminal penalties.
“This is simply not necessary,” Albrecht said. She also rejected Riepe’s amendment, saying her six-week proposal “was a big compromise” from a total ban she failed to pass last year.
Among those celebrating outside the legislature was Pat Neal, 72, of Lincoln, who has been fighting for abortion rights since she received an abortion in 1973, the year the Roe v Wade decision guaranteed the right.
“This gives me hope for the future,” Neal said. “It gives me hope that the direction we’ve been seeing – across the country – could turn around.”
In South Carolina, three near-total bans have now failed in the Republican-led chamber since the Dobbs decision. Six Republicans helped defeat the bill this year.
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The chamber’s five women filibustered the proposal in speeches highlighting the male majority they criticized for pushing abortion over other issues.
Penry Gustafson spent over 30 minutes on Wednesday detailing bodily changes throughout pregnancy. She said millions of women had not been heard. She emphasized her “pro-life” position but said the proposal left “no room for empathy, reality or graciousness”.
The bill would have banned abortion with exceptions for rape or incest through the first trimester, fatal fetal anomalies confirmed by two physicians, and to save the patient’s life or health.
Mia McLeod, an independent, criticized leaders who prioritized the ban over efforts to make South Carolina the 49th state to allow harsher punishments for violent hate crimes.
McLeod, who shared during debate that she had been raped, said it was unfortunate that women must reveal intimate experiences to “enlighten and engage” men.
“Just as rape is about power and control, so is this total ban,” McLeod said. “Those who continue to push legislation like this are raping us again with their indifference, violating us again with their righteous indignation, taunting us again with their insatiable need to play God while they continue to pass laws that are ungodly.”
Abortion remains legal through 22 weeks in South Carolina, a status that has drawn patients throughout the increasingly restrictive south-east.
The number of out-of-state patients has risen since the state supreme court struck down a 2021 law.
Opponents of the total ban said it would prevent safe access to the procedure and worsen alarmingly high maternal death rates and poorer outcomes for Black women.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Quarterbacks dominated the first part of the NFL draft.
Bryce Young, CJ Stroud and Anthony Richardson were among the top four picks Thursday night, an expected result in a league where teams know finding a franchise QB is the quickest path to success.
The Carolina Panthers selected Young, the slender and dynamic Alabama quarterback, with the No 1 pick, seven weeks after making a blockbuster trade with Chicago to move up to get their choice.
First-round draft selections
The Panthers chose the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner over Ohio State’s Stroud, Florida’s Richardson and Kentucky’s Will Levis. New coach Frank Reich said earlier in the week that the organization reached a consensus Monday after several weeks of deliberation.
Stroud didn’t have to wait long. He went No 2 to the Houston Texans, who then made a blockbuster deal with Arizona to acquire the No 3 pick and selected Alabama edge rusher Will Anderson Jr.
Richardson then went at No 4 to the Indianapolis Colts, who will begin a sixth straight season with a different starting QB.
Heading into the draft, there was no consensus beyond the No 1 pick.
A dual-threat playmaker with a strong arm and an elite combination of instincts and intelligence, Young also possesses the intangibles and characteristics coaches desire, including leadership ability and a strong work ethic.
But the biggest question about Young is his size. He measured at 5ft 10in 1/8 and weighed 204lbs at the combine. Though he dominated the SEC, some scouts and coaches fear Young may not be able to physically withstand all the hits in the NFL.
The Panthers couldn’t pass up his superior skills.
Kyler Murray, the No 1 overall pick in 2019, is the only other QB since 2003 to be selected in the first round after weighing in at 207 pounds or less at the combine.
“I’m confident in my abilities,” Young said Wednesday. “I don’t know how to play the game another way. I’ve been this size relative to the people around me my entire life. I focus on what I control, and I can’t grow. That doesn’t fall into that category. I can’t get any taller. I focus on myself. I’m confident in myself with what I’ve been able to do and I’m excited for the work it’s going to take.”
The Panthers have sought an answer at quarterback since moving on from Cam Newton, who was the No 1 overall pick in 2011 and the NFL MVP in 2015 when he led the Panthers to a 15-1 record and a Super Bowl appearance.
Young had a spectacular career at Alabama and the Panthers are hoping he can deliver the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy. He played in a pro-style offense under offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien, the former Texans head coach who has returned to the NFL to run New England’s offense.
Young threw for 4,872 yards with 47 touchdowns and seven interceptions in his first season starting as a sophomore in 2021. Last season, he had 3,328 yards passing with 32 TDs and five picks while playing with a new supporting cast.
Stroud’s stock had seemingly dropped after reports that he scored poorly in the S2 Cognition test surfaced recently. He told the AP earlier in the day he didn’t know where he would end up going, even saying it could be top 20.
Instead, Stroud, a finalist for the Heisman Trophy the past two seasons, goes to Houston to help the rebuilding Texans move past Deshaun Watson.
Richardson might have the most upside of all the QBs in this draft class but he has the least experience. Colts owner Jim Irsay is fond of Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts and Richardson has similar playmaking ability.
He’ll play for Shane Steichen, who was the offensive coordinator in Philadelphia when Hurts developed into an MVP runner-up.
Defense-needy Seattle took Illinois cornerback Devon Witherspoon at No 5 and the Cardinals moved up to No 6 to select Ohio State offensive lineman Paris Johnson. Las Vegas then chose Texas Tech edge Tyree Wilson and Atlanta made Bijan Robinson the first running back taken in the top 10 since Saquon Barkley went No 2 to the Giants in 2018.
NFC champion Philadelphia moved up one spot to take troubled Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter at No 9 and Chicago went with Tennessee offensive lineman Darnell Wright with the 10th pick.
At No 11, the Titans passed on Levis for Northwestern offensive lineman Peter Skoronski. Levis and Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker could make it five QBs in the first round a year after Kenny Pickett (No 20) was the only signal-caller to go in the first round.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers also passed on Levis at No 19, taking Pitt defensive tackle Calijah Kancey.
It took until the 20th pick for the first wide receiver to go. The Seahawks chose Jaxon Smith-Njigba. That started a run of four wideouts in a row. The Chargers then took Quentin Johnston, the Ravens grabbed Zay Flowers to team up with Odell Beckham Jr, and the Vikings added Jordan Addison to go with Justin Jefferson.
Two months after the hometown Kansas City Chiefs celebrated another Super Bowl title with a downtown parade, a sea of red-clad fans lined up in the streets where the century-old Union Station served as the backdrop for the draft.
Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes and All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce walked on stage with the Vince Lombardi Trophy and riled up the crowd before turning it over to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
Mahomes implored fans to scream louder – they did. Kelce asked if they wanted to trade up for the No 1 pick.
But the Chiefs don’t need a QB. Carolina, Houston and Indianapolis did.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
In a state where surveys show a majority of voters favor keeping abortion legal, he has compared the procedure to murder. And even some Republicans in North Carolina see him as a liability.
“Because of his comments, he will nationalize the gubernatorial race in North Carolina for the Democrats, which will open the door for them in raising tens of millions of dollars across the country,” said Paul Shumaker, a Republican consultant in the state.
But as he launches his campaign in rural Alamance County, Robinson will need to do what many high-profile, controversial Republicans failed to accomplish in last year’s midterms — overcome his past comments that could be deeply unpopular with general election voters.
It is a critical test for the GOP in the post-Trump era, after a slate of problematic nominees cost Republicans a number of winnable governor and U.S. Senate races in 2022.
The opportunity for Republicans in North Carolina is enormous. Democrats haven’t won a presidential or U.S. Senate race there since 2008. And with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper leaving office — a candidate who won twice as Donald Trump took the state in both 2016 and 2020 — Tarheel Democrats are staring down an election without their best candidate in a generation.
Robinson will be boosted by an existing small-dollar fundraising operation and a flurry of earned media on conservative platforms, where he has raised his profile in recent years. And he’ll have the backing of fiery grassroots supporters that dominate the GOP base in North Carolina. None of the negative headlines have so far stopped his meteoric rise in state politics, riding a viral video of him giving public comment about gun rights at a city council meeting in 2018 to being elected to the state’s second-highest office a little over two years later. And even after in-state media uncovered a past comment by Robinson — a staunch abortion opponent — that he and his wife had terminated a pregnancy decades ago, his standing remained virtually unchanged, Raleigh’s WRAL found in a survey.
Still, he could face a potentially bruising challenge in the primary — largely focused on other Republicans’ concerns that he is not electable in the fall.
Mark Walker, a former Greensboro-area congressman who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for Senate last year, is publicly mulling a run, and is expected to enter the race in the coming weeks.
Walker acknowledged in an interview that most political observers in the state see Robinson as the “strong favorite” to win the GOP nomination, but he repeatedly suggested that Robinson would not be a good general election candidate because of baggage he carried. Walker, who is being advised by National Public Affairs, a political consulting group run by Bill Stepien and other Trump alumni, said he was “disappointed that [Robinson] would not be honest with the people of North Carolina about all different things,” declining to elaborate further.
Walker’s criticism carries a bit of irony since he helped launch Robinson’s political career by sharing that 2018 viral video on Facebook. He insisted there was “nothing personal” about potentially running against Robinson, only that Republicans needed to nominate a winning candidate for the fall.
Even if Walker does not get in, Robinson is facing other challengers in the Republican primary. Already in the race is Dale Folwell, the state treasurer first elected in 2016, who cast himself as an alternative to Robinson in part because he is “not a gamble on the ballot.”
But any challenger to Robinson faces a tough path. Members of North Carolina’s Republican legislative leadership are largely supportive of Robinson’s primary bid, according to four state GOP insiders. Legislative leaders gave him an unusually prominent perch earlier this year, tapping Robinson to give the response to Cooper’s state of the state address — a spot where Robinson tried to shed at least some of his usual bomb-throwing persona.
And Republican legislators are expected to be among those supporting Robinson at his announcement Saturday.
Early polling on the general election race shows it’s likely to be a dead-heat. Carolina Forward, a progressive advocacy group, released a survey this fall that showed state Attorney General Josh Stein — who Democrats have coalesced around — at 44 percent support, compared to Robinson’s 42 percent. But among independents — a key voting bloc in North Carolina — Robinson was up slightly.
“You’re going to have two absolute juggernauts from either party, with Robinson and Stein raising, I predict, more money than we’ve ever seen in a governor’s race in this state,” said Conrad Pogorzelski III, Robinson’s top political strategist.
While it remains to be seen how Robinson’s past scandals and history of heated rhetoric will play out under greater scrutiny this election cycle, those close to the lieutenant governor have advised him to proceed as if the primary is already over — and to focus more on the general electorate than dishing out more red meat to the base. Saturday’s rally could be an early sign of whether he’ll actually embrace that advice.
Robinson — the state’s first Black lieutenant governor, who worked a manufacturing job up until his recent political career launch — has sought to emphasize his relatability to average people when confronted with past news coverage about his personal financial mismanagement and other missteps.
“It’s a quasi-populist message that’s about going after the elites, and that’s what Trump was able to channel very effectively when he carried the state of North Carolina twice,” said Jonathan Felts, a Republican strategist who most recently advised Sen. Ted Budd’s midterm campaign. “It’s not just a fringe-right phenomenon — it’s something that percolates across the political spectrum and something that pollsters and the D.C. consultant class have gotten wrong since 2016.”
If he wins the primary, Robinson’s traits will be contrasted with the mild-mannered persona of Stein, a Dartmouth and Harvard-educated lawyer who has served two terms as the state’s top prosecutor. But it’s one that Democrats eagerly embrace.
“You couldn’t have a bigger contrast between these two candidates,” said Morgan Jackson, a Democratic strategist who advises both Cooper and Stein. “Mark Robinsion is the most far-right extreme candidate who has ever run in the history of North Carolina.”
The race comes at a dire moment for the Democratic Party in North Carolina.
The state was supposed to be the swing state of the future for Democrats, after then-candidate Barack Obama won a squeaker in 2008 and Kay Hagan won an open Senate seat by over 8 points that year. But Democrats have not won a statewide federal race since then — losing a string of close Senate and presidential contests that have thrown into question the true tossup nature of the state.
Democrats have fared far better on the statewide level. Republicans have won just one governor race in the last 30 years, and there has been a single Republican attorney general in the last century. Even so, Cooper, the most successful Democrat in North Carolina in any recent history, is term-limited out. And Republicans hold supermajorities in both state legislative chambers.
“This could be the culmination of 15 years of [Republican] work, in the sense of a consolidation of power by any means,” said Democratic state House Minority Leader Robert Reives.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Former President Donald Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago estate on April 4, 2023, in Palm Beach, Fla., after being arraigned earlier in the day in New York City. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
Former President Donald Trump has gained more support for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination from South Carolina Republican voters than former Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott in their home state, a Winthrop University poll released Wednesday shows.
Trump was the top pick among 41 percent of respondents. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who has yet to declare his candidacy, though he is widely expected to — came in second with 20 percent and Haley came in third with 18 percent.
Seven percent of respondents support a presidential nomination for Scott. The South Carolina senator has not announced that he’s running for the GOP ticket in 2024, but he officially launched his presidential exploratory committee Wednesday.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The ruling was appealed by the Biden administration as lawmakers, including Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), called on President Joe Biden to use his executive powers to protect the drugs’ availability even sooner. Hundreds of thousands of patients in the United States use the medication both for abortions and treating miscarriages.
Mace sided with the outspoken Democrats, the first Republican to publicly do so.
“This is an issue that Republicans have been largely on the wrong side of,” she said. “We have, over the last nine months, not shown compassion toward women, and this is one of those issues that I’ve tried to lead on as someone who’s pro-life and just have some common sense.”
Mace said there’s “no basis” for the ruling, explaining that the Texas judge cited a Supreme Court decision, which was later overturned, for his decision.
Over the weekend, Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Texas) floated the idea of defunding FDA programs if the ruling is ignored. When asked about those comments, Mace emphasized that most Americans aren’t radically opposed to abortion access and would likely agree with the FDA’s authority to allow the drug’s sale.
“We are getting it wrong on this issue,” she said. “We’ve got to show some compassion to women, especially women who’ve been raped. We’ve got to show compassion on the abortion issue because by and large most Americans aren’t with us on this issue.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
President Joe Biden is greeted by Columbia Mayor Stephen Benjamin as he arrives at Columbia Metropolitan Airport on Air Force One in West Columbia, S.C. Friday, Dec. 17, 2021. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo
Stephen Benjamin, the former mayor of Columbia, S.C., will be the new senior adviser and director of the Office of Public Engagement, replacing Keisha Lance Bottoms, the White House announced on Monday.
Benjamin previously served as Columbia’s mayor from 2010 to 2021 and currently sits as the CEO and president of the Benjamin Firm, LLC. As mayor, he served as the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors from 2018 to 2019 and the president of the African American Mayors Association from 2015 to 2016.
“Mayor Benjamin is a longtime public servant, who has served the people of South Carolina for over two decades statewide and as a three-term mayor of Columbia,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “As a former President of both the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the African American Mayors Association, Steve’s deep relationships with communities across the country will serve our Administration and the American public well.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach. | U.S. Navy via AP
The military has concluded its efforts to recover debris from what the U.S. government says was a Chinese government surveillance balloon that was downed off the coast of South Carolina.
U.S. Northern Command officials said Friday that it wrapped up recovery efforts Thursday and is sending the final pieces of debris to an FBI lab in Virginia for analysis.
The balloon, which was shot down Feb. 4, was the first of four objects downed after flying in U.S. airspace in recent weeks. Three smaller objects, which have not been similarly identified by the U.S. government as surveillance equipment, were subsequently shot down over Canada, Alaska and Lake Huron.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
