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Macron appoints Defense Minister Lecornu as France's latest prime minister
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Missouri Republicans advance Trump-backed plan to redraw US House districts
PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday appointed Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu as new prime minister and tasked him with immediately trying to get the country's fractious political parties to agree on a budget for one of the world's biggest economies.
Lecornu, 39, was the youngest defense minister in French history and architect of a major military buildup through 2030, spurred by Russia’s war in Ukraine. A longtime Macron loyalist, Lecornu is now France's fourth prime minister in barely a year.
A former conservative who joined Macron’s centrist movement in 2017, Lecornu has held posts in local governments, overseas territories and during Macron’s yellow vest “great debate,” when he helped manage mass anger with dialogue. He also offered talks on autonomy during unrest in Guadeloupe in 2021.
His rise reflects Macron’s instinct to reward loyalty, but also the need for continuity as repeated budget showdowns have toppled his predecessors and left France in drift.
Macron's quick decision to name Lecornu comes ahead of a day of mass disruption planned Wednesday by a protest movement called ‘’Block Everything'' that prompted the government to deploy an exceptional 80,000 police to keep order.Legislators toppled Lecornu’s predecessor François Bayrou and his government in a confidence vote on Monday, a new crisis for Europe’s second-largest economy.
Bayrou gambled that lawmakers would back his view that France must slash public spending to rein in its huge debts. Instead, they seized on the vote to gang up against the 74-year-old centrist who was appointed by Macron last December.The demise of Bayrou’s short-lived minority government heralds renewed uncertainty and a risk of prolonged legislative deadlock for France as it wrestles with pressing challenges, including budget difficulties and, internationally, wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the shifting priorities of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Drafting a budget will be a top priority for Lecornu, and normally a new prime minister would form the new government before negotiating the national spending in Parliament. However, Macron has asked Lecornu to consult with all of the political parties in Parliament first to try to agree on a budget before assembling his team.“The prime minister’s action will be guided by the defense of our independence and our power, serving the French and the political and institutional stability for the unity of our country,” Macron said in a statement.When the yellow vest movement against social injustice erupted, prompting months of sometimes violent demonstrations in the streets, Lecornu was chosen by Macron to lead the so-called “great debate” across the country aimed at appeasing tensions.
A minister of oversea territories from 2020 to 2022, Lecornu faced virus-related rioting and strikes in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, offering to discuss some autonomy for the territory affected by long-running frustrations over inequality with the French mainland.The 413 billion euros ($435 billion) defense spending package Lecornu championed for 2024-2030 represents the most significant spending hike in France in half a century. The money aimed to modernize France’s nuclear arsenal, augment intelligence spending and develop more remote-controlled weapons.
Over 350 Greenlandic women and girls forcibly given contraception by Danish officials, report says
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — More than 350 Greenlandic Indigenous women and girls, including some 12 years old and younger, reported that they were forcibly given contraception by Danish health authorities in cases that date back to the 1960s, according to an independent investigation's findings released Tuesday.
The Inuit victims, many of them teenagers at the time, were either fitted with intrauterine contraceptive devices, known as IUDs or coils, or given a hormonal birth control injection. They were not told details about the procedure, or did not give their consent.The victims described traumatic experiences that left some with physical side effects, ranging from pain and bleeding to serious infections.
The governments of Denmark and Greenland officially apologized last month for their roles in the historic mistreatment in an apparent attempt to get ahead of the highly anticipated report, which covered 488 times when a woman was given forced contraception between 1960 and 1991.
Nearly 150 Inuit women last year sued Denmark and filed compensation claims against its health ministry, saying Danish health authorities violated their human rights. Danish authorities last year said as many as 4,500 women and girls — reportedly half the fertile women in Greenland at the time — received IUDs between the 1960s and mid-1970s.The alleged purpose was to limit population growth in Greenland by preventing pregnancies. The population on the Arctic island was rapidly increasing at the time because of better living conditions and better health care.Greenland took over its own health care programs on Jan. 1, 1992.
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Centuries of dehumanizing policiesThe investigation’s conclusion comes as Greenland is in the headlines alongside U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly said he seeks U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland. He has not ruled out a military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island.The leaders of Denmark and Greenland say the island is not for sale. Denmark’s foreign minister recently summoned the top U.S. diplomat in the country for talks after the main national broadcaster reported that at least three people with connections to Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland.
Greenland, which remains part of the Danish realm, was a colony under Denmark’s crown until 1953, when it became a province in the Scandinavian country. In 1979, the island was granted home rule, and 30 years later Greenland became a self-governing entity.The forced contraception of Indigenous women and girls was part of centuries of Danish policies that dehumanized Greenlanders and their families.
The policies included the removal of young Inuit children from their parents to be given to Danish foster families for reeducation and controversial parental competency tests that resulted in the forced separation of Greenlandic families.The investigators received reports from 354 Greenlandic women who were between 48 and 89 years old when they spoke to authorities for the independent investigation, which began June 1, 2023 following a media outcry.Almost all victims were between 12 and 37 years old at the time. One girl was under 12, but her exact age was not made public in Tuesday's report due to anonymity concerns. The vast majority of the procedures occurred in Greenland.Most of the women reported a single incident, while eight women said they were forcibly given contraception at least three times.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri's Republican-led House turned aside Democratic objections Tuesday and passed a plan backed by President Donald Trump to redraw the state's congressional districts so that Republicans could win an additional seat in the closely divided chamber.The rare mid-decade redistricting plan, which now heads to the state Senate, is aimed at bolstering Republicans' national prospects in next year’s U.S. House elections, where Democrats need to gain just three seats to take control. By reshaping a Democratic-held Kansas City district, Republicans could win seven of Missouri's eight congressional seats.Missouri's effort comes after a similar move by Republican-led Texas and a counter-offensive in Democratic-led California, which still needs voter approval. Other states, including Republican-led Indiana and Florida and Democratic-led Maryland and New York, could follow with their own revisions in what's emerging as a national redistricting battle.
U.S. House districts were redrawn across the country after the 2020 census to account for population changes. The current redistricting push is being done for partisan advantage, a process known as gerrymandering.“This is cheating,” said state Rep. Yolonda Fountain Henderson, one of many Democrats who denounced the measure. "It’s like when President Trump says, we jump.”
Trump wants to retain a congressional majority to advance his agenda. But historically, the party opposing the president has gained seats in the midterm elections, as Democrats did during Trump's first term and then proceeded to impeach him.
Missouri lawmakers are meeting in a two-prong special session called by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe.The House on Tuesday also passed a measure that — if approved by the Senate and statewide voters — would make it harder to pass citizen-led initiatives amending the state constitution by requiring a majority vote from each congressional district instead of a simple statewide majority. That comes after Missouri's initiative process has been used in recent years to win voter approval of amendments on abortion rights, marijuana legalization and Medicaid expansion.In a statement after the House votes, Kehoe thanked Republicans for "ensuring that the values of Missourians are represented clearly and effectively.”
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Revised Missouri map could help Republicans gain a House seatRepublicans already hold six of Missouri's eight U.S. House seats, with Democrats representing districts in Kansas City and St. Louis.The GOP plan targets a Kansas City district held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver by stretching it eastward into Republican-heavy rural areas and reducing the number of Black and minority voters in the district. Other parts of Kansas City would be added to two predominantly rural districts represented by Republicans.
Cleaver, who turns 81 in October, served as Kansas City's first Black mayor from 1991-1999 and won election to the U.S. House in 2004. He asserted that Republicans are creating an atmosphere of “intimidation” and “division” and pledged to challenge the new map in court."It’s one of those moments that, frankly, I never thought I would experience,” Cleaver said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.Missouri House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Democrat from Kansas City, denounced the Republican plan as “hyperpartisan gerrymandering" done along racial lines.“Under these new maps, they are erasing Emanuel Cleaver from Congress essentially,” Aune said.If the revised districts also pass the Senate, Aune said she expects an initiative petition drive to try to force a public referendum on the legislation. That could delay the changes from taking effect and potentially overturn them.Although the primary Kansas City district would expand significantly, the state's congressional districts overall would be more compact — and competitive — under the revised map, Republican lawmakers said. Kehoe has defended the revised map as a means of amplifying conservative voices in Congress.
It's "a congressional map that will better represent Missouri in Washington, D.C.,” said sponsoring state Rep. Dirk Deaton, a Republican.Some Republicans join Democrats in opposing new districtsThe Missouri House passed the revised districts on a 90-65 vote. Thirteen Republicans, including House Speaker Jon Patterson of suburban Kansas City, joined Democrats in voting against the revised map. But only a couple spoke against it during two days of debate.“Using our raw political power to tilt the playing field to our side, regardless of the party, is wrong,” Republican state Rep. Bryant Wolfin said.Leading up to the House vote, three Democratic state lawmakers staged a sit-in in the House chamber for several days and nights to protest that the special session began while most members were absent. Former Vice President Kamala Harris ordered pizza and chicken wings delivered to them in a show of support.Republicans are “bending a knee to Donald Trump and pushing through these racist, gerrymandered districts,” said Rep. Ray Reed, of St. Louis, one of those who slept in the chamber.The Missouri NAACP has sued seeking to invalidate the special session. The state lawsuit asserts there is no extraordinary circumstance to justify the session and that the state constitution prohibits redistricting without new census data or a ruling invalidating the current districts.Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, who took office Monday, said she doesn't think there is any constitutional prohibition on mid-decade redistricting.
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Thailand's former PM Thaksin Shinawatra to serve 1-year prison term for previous conviction
BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Supreme Court said Tuesday former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra must serve a one-year prison term for previous convictions on graft and abuse of power charges, after investigating whether officials had mishandled his return to Thailand in 2023 to begin serving the sentences.
A judge said that the enforcement of Thaksin’s penalty was not done properly, and therefore his detention in a police hospital did not count as serving prison time.
Following his return to Thailand after more than a decade of living in self-exile, Thaksin was sent to a suite at Bangkok’s Police General Hospital, reportedly for medical reasons, after spending less than a day in prison. His eight-year sentence was then commuted to one year by King Maha Vajiralongkorn, and he was released on parole after six months in the hospital.
The circumstances raised questions about whether he received special treatment and many were suspicious whether he was genuinely ill.
Thaksin was sent to the Bangkok Remand Prison after the proceedings. A message on his Facebook page, shared by his team following the ruling, said that he accepted the court’s decision.
“I’d like to look into the future, to give conclusions to everything, whether the legal proceedings or the conflicts that were caused by or related to me,” read the post. “From today, although I’m without freedom, I still have freedom of thought for the benefit of the country and its people.”
Before the ruling, Thaksin arrived at the court with his family, including two of his children, Pintongta Shinawatra, and former Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was removed from her position last month after a court found her guilty of an ethics violation for a politically compromising phone call with Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen.
Paetongtarn spoke to reporters after the ruling, thanking the king for commuting Thaksin's sentence. She said Thaksin would remain a spiritual leader in Thai politics and that he always thinks about working for the good of the country and Thai people.
“I'm worried about my father, but I'm also proud that he has created so many historic moments for the country,” she said. “It's quite tough, but of course we are still in a good spirit, both my father and our family.”
Thaksin was prime minister from 2001 until a military coup ousted him in 2006 while he was abroad.
His ouster triggered nearly two decades of deep political polarization, pitting his supporters against opponents including better-off urban dwellers, ardent royalists and the military. He briefly returned in 2008 to face charges but skipped bail and fled abroad again, commencing a self-imposed exile lasting over a decade.
After leaving office, he faced a barrage of lawsuits and criminal charges he claimed were politically motivated.
Last month, a criminal court acquitted him of royal defamation, an offense also known as lese-majeste, which could have resulted in a 15-year prison sentence.
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