Good news, Sex and the City fans, you’ll get to see more of Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and their pals in an all-new season of their “certain age” spin-off …And Just Like That.
HBO Max announced that it’s picked up the show for a sophomore frame, following its February-wrapped first season. Show creator Michael Patrick King said in a statement that he’s “delighted and excited to tell more stories about these vibrant, bold characters — played by these powerful, amazing actors.”
He added, “The fact is, we’re all thrilled. And Just like That… our Sex life is back.”
On her Instagram, Carrie Bradshaw herself, star and executive producer Sarah Jessica Parker, shared a cast photo, noting, “Thank you to our audience. Plain and simple. You are our heartbeat. We love you so.”
The good news was also shared on social media by SJP’s co-stars and co-executive producers Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis, who play Miranda and Charlotte, respectively. Davis also thanked the fans and added, “What a thrill to be a part of a show like this! And so thrilled to get to continue.”
The show hasn’t been without controversy: Fans of Kim Cattrall‘s Samantha Jones were disappointed that Cattrall made good on a vow she was “done” with the series; Samantha remains unseen on the follow-up series, although she made plans via text to meet up with Carrie after the events of the first-season finale.
Meanwhile, Candace Bushnell, the author who wrote the column that inspired the original series Sex and the City, told The New Yorker that she was “really startled” by some of what transpired on And Just Like That…, explaining, “I mean, Carrie Bradshaw ended up being a quirky woman who married a really rich guy. And that’s not my story.”
Bachelor alum Cassie Randolph is opening up about how she found out about her ex-boyfriend Colton Underwood’s sexual orientation.
Appearing on Tuesday’s Off The Vine podcast, Cassie revealed that she didn’t get a heads-up that the former Bachelor’s was going to publicly come out as gay during an interview on Good Morning America back in April 2021.
“I found out the same way that everyone else did,” she recalled. “I was actually in Mexico on vacation with friends…But yeah, I found out, I think, through Snapchat on GMA.”
“It was horrible,” Cassie added. “It was just, like, a shocking kind of feeling.”
Colton, 30, gave Cassie, 26, his final rose during season 23 of The Bachelor, which aired in 2019. The pair dated until May 2020. Later, Cassie filed a restraining order claiming Colton was stalking and harassing her. The order was dropped in November 2020.
Since then, both have moved on romantically. Cassie with singer-songwriter Brighton Reinhardt and Colton with Jordan C. Brown, who he got engaged to last month.
(WASHINGTON) — Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, faces another day of questions Wednesday after over 12 hours of grilling Tuesday on Day 2 of her four-day confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Here is how the news is developing Wednesday. Check back for updates:
Mar 23, 8:46 am
What to expect Wednesday
Judge Jackson faces another round of all-day questions on Wednesday from the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she will need a majority of senators to approve her Supreme Court nomination out of committee before it sees a full floor vote.
Because the committee did not finish its first round of questioning on Tuesday, it will pick back up at 9 a.m. with 30-minute rounds from Democratic Sen. John Ossoff and Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. Notably, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., traded spots with Tillis to go Tuesday evening, when she asked the Supreme Court nominee to provide a definition for “woman.”
While Democrats have used the hearings to give Jackson a chance to defend her record and display her personal side, Republicans have so far played to long-running culture wars, with Sen. Ted Cruz asking Biden’s nominee about critical race theory and Sen. Lindsey Graham probing her faith, he said, to make a point about how Democrats scrutinized Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
For the second round of questioning, each of the committee’s 11 Republican and 11 Democratic members will then have up to 20 minutes to question Jackson one on one in order of seniority.
On Thursday, senators can ask questions of the American Bar Association and other outside witnesses.
Mar 23, 8:14 am
Key takeaways from first day of questioning
Judge Jackson took questions for nearly 13 hours Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee — where Democrats hailed her for breaking barriers and Republicans attempted to brand her as “soft on crime” — but Jackson refused to play into political fights and vowed repeatedly to “stay in my lane.”
In several tense exchanges with Republicans on the committee, Jackson defended her record as both a lawyer and a judge.
She called her service as a federal public defender — including defense of accused terrorists held without charge at Guantanamo Bay — an act of “standing up for the constitutional value of representation.” Faced with allegations she was too lenient on child pornography offenders, Jackson stressed that she followed federal sentencing guidelines set by Congress and got emotional when talking about reviewing evidence in what she called “heinous” and “egrigous” crimes.
Jackson also resisted repeated attempts to classify her “judicial philosophy,” claiming she doesn’t have one, but she did lay out a “methodology” she’s developed for approaching each case: proceed from a position of neutrality, evaluate the facts and apply the law to facts in the case.
Asked also about same-sex marriage, abortion and the right to own a gun in the home, Jackson said the Supreme Court has established those rights and that she is bound to stare decisis as a jursist.
(NEW YORK) — Moderna said it plans to seek emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its COVID-19 vaccine in children under age 6.
The company released clinical trial data Wednesday showing neutralizing antibody levels were similar to those seen in adults.
The vaccine in children is a two-dose, 25-microgram shot, about a quarter of the dose used for adults.
The Love Boat is expecting you once again, only this time, it’s returning as The Real Love Boat, a CBS reality dating competition series. Patterned after the hit 1970s scripted series that used Princess Cruises ships as its setting, the new series “brings singles together to cruise the Mediterranean on a luxury cruise ship while looking for love,” according to CBS. “Destination dates, challenges and surprise singles will test the couples’ compatibility and chemistry” and, just as in the original, “the indispensable crew members…will play pivotal roles in the matchmaking and navigation of the romantic — and sometimes turbulent — waters ahead.” The winning couple will take home a cash prize, plus a once-in-a-lifetime trip courtesy of Princess Cruises. CBS is now casting…
The CW has given early renewals to seven of its scripted schedule, including a fifth season of All American, The Flash for a ninth, Kung Fu for a third, Nancy Drew for a fourth, Riverdale for a ninth and Superman & Lois and Walker, each for a third. “As we prepare for the 2022-23 season, these dramas are also important to our overall digital strategy, as they are some of our most-streamed and socially-engaged programming, and we look forward to adding more new and returning series to help strengthen and expand our multiplatform footprint,” Mark Pedowitz, chairman and CEO, The CW Network, said in a statement on Tuesday. The Flash‘s renewal for a ninth season makes it the network’s longest-running Arrowverse series, replacing Arrow, which ended after eight seasons…
Netflix has set April 29 as the premiere date for the final episodes of Grace and Frankie, according to Deadline. Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin will be back as the titular divorcées whose husbands, played by Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston, left them to marry each other. The series also stars Baron Vaughn, Ethan Embry, Brooklyn Decker, June Diane Raphael, Peter Cambor, Lindsey Kraft, Marsha Mason, Tim Bagley, Peter Gallagher and Christine Woods. Grace and Frankie, now in its seventh season, first launched on Netflix in 2015…
Steven Weber will return to Chicago Med for the NBC medical drama’s upcoming eighth season, according to Deadline. Weber, whose Dr. Dean Archer — a hated, but undeniably great surgeon — joined as a recurring cast member for the show’s sixth season and upped to a series regular for season seven in a one-year deal, has closed a new deal to return as a regular in season eight, premiering later this year…
(NEW YORK) — Egg freezing — a process that involves collection, freezing and storage of a woman’s eggs with the intention to use at a later time for pregnancy — is more widely available than it was even five or 10 years ago, but it is still a complicated decision for many women.
There is the cost — often thousands of dollars — as well as the fact that a woman’s biological clock keeps ticking even amid egg freezing.
There is also the unknown for so many women around egg freezing, from what exactly it entails to how often it works to any potential side effects to what it means to keep eggs in storage for possibly years.
When Courtney Hunt, 34, of New York, decided to freeze her eggs nearly two years ago, she chose to document the process and share it on her YouTube channel.
“I wanted to document this whole process because I think it’s important to really open the conversation,” Hunt told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “By documenting it, I could help educate people, inform people, and kind of just give women in general an opportunity to see another woman kind of going through [the process].”
She continued, “I think we do often feel alone in a lot of these experiences because we don’t talk about about a lot of these [topics] in conversations, miscarriages or IVF or egg freezing.”
GMA reached out to medical experts to talk more about the egg freezing process and what women should know. Here are five questions answered by the experts:
1. Why are more and more women turning to egg freezing?
After over 30 years of advancements since the first human birth from a frozen egg was reported in 1986, egg freezing is now widely available to women who may choose to delay child-bearing.
Traditionally, women resorted to egg freezing due to medical conditions such as a cancer diagnosis requiring chemotherapy, which can damage reproductive cells, or genetic abnormalities that shorten reproductive years. In 2012, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine lifted the “experimental” label from egg freezing, allowing it to be utilized more widely.
The number of women who utilize egg freezing is expected to continue to grow as the technology becomes more accessible and better understood, experts say.
Over 22,000 egg freezing cycles were performed in the United States in 2019, up from around 18,000 in 2018 and 14,500 in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“There is just more information out there now for women,” Dr. Elizabeth Sarah Ginsburg, medical director of assisted reproductive technologies at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told ABC News. “Women are now more aware of the age-related decline in fertility that women experience.”
While there are many medical reasons for egg freezing, today many women are also turning to egg freezing to focus on their careers or postpone having children until they are partnered.
“Most of the women that I see are freezing their eggs because they don’t have a partner,” Ginsburg said, also adding, “I’ve had women who are married freeze eggs to start their own companies or because they’re up for a promotion and they know their eggs are aging but can’t take time out to have a baby.”
In Hunt’s case, she said she took advantage of the opportunity to freeze her eggs when she learned the process was paid for by her then-employer. She said she did it as assurance that when she is ready to have kids, the option is there.
“It was never a battle in my mind of all the what-ifs and what if this doesn’t happen with a partner or what if this does,” said Hunt. “I was just doing this, selfishly, for myself to make sure that I do have an opportunity if and when I want kids, however that comes about for myself.”
2. What is the process of egg freezing?
The egg freezing process involves four main steps — ovarian stimulation, a trigger shot, egg retrieval and egg freezing.
The total time commitment for an egg freezing cycle is about two to three weeks and involves continuous monitoring with ultrasounds to time each of the steps.
Ovarian stimulation involves self-administering daily injections for about two weeks to grow multiple eggs in the ovaries to eventually collect and freeze. For many, this step may be the most physically and emotionally draining.
“Making sure you’re doing things right in such a delicate and, frankly, expensive process is something that even worried me when I knew what I was doing,” said Dr. Samantha Estevez, a clinical fellow in the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai who went through the egg freezing process herself.
Most commonly, women experience mild fullness, bloating and cramping during their cycle.
“The ovaries get pretty big. A normal ovary, not stimulated, is about the size of a walnut. In women who stimulate a lot and get say 20 eggs, ovaries will be the size of an orange,” Ginsburg said.
Once the eggs reach their target size, a different injection, referred to as the “trigger shot,” is administered to make the eggs undergo their final maturation for retrieval.
The egg retrieval procedure is then typically scheduled 36 hours after this injection. This is a procedure done under sedation with vaginal ultrasound guidance to collect the matured eggs.
After the eggs are collected, they are then frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored until the person decides to come back for them.
For those who return for their eggs with the hopes of becoming pregnant, the frozen eggs are thawed and fertilized in the laboratory using donor or partner sperm to make embryos and undergo genetic testing if desired, then transferred into the uterus for pregnancy.
3. What is the cost of egg freezing?
The cost of egg freezing can be highly variable. For anyone considering egg freezing, experts recommend understanding the breakdown of the costs and the factors that can influence these costs to estimate final costs for an individual.
“There is usually a global fee that includes all the monitoring, the anesthesia, egg retrieval and freezing for that cycle of the two-week period from that first ultrasound to the egg removal and freezing of the eggs,” Ginsburg said, adding that the net cost for an individual may be higher or lower depending on insurance, employer, region and the fertility center. “Patients really need to call around to find out.”
At CCRM, a fertility clinic network with 11 locations across the U.S. and Canada, the average cost of a single egg freezing cycle is $9,232, according to Dr. Jaime Knopman, a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist at CCRM New York.
Other expenses, including medications and anesthesia, total over $6,000 on average at CCRM, according to Knopman, who added that the cost depends on each individual person.
“Older women or those with lower ovarian reserve would pay more in total, but not because the process is more expensive,” said Knopman. “The cost is higher because medication dosage is higher, and therefore the cost of medications is higher.”
People who are older may also need to do more than one cycle of egg freezing, which comes at an additional cost, Knopman explained.
After the egg retrieval, storage comes at an additional cost depending on how long a person would like to freeze their eggs. Storage can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to over $1,000 per year.
At CCRM, for example, the average annual cost of storage is $775.
If a person ultimately decides to use the eggs they have frozen, there is also additional cost involved.
“People going into egg freezing also need to recognize that this is just the first step, not the final step when it comes to fertility preservation if they end up using the eggs,” Estevez said. “The transfer cycle is less involved than egg freezing cycle but almost financially equivalent.”
Knopman said she tells patients at CCRM to expect to pay around $10,000 for a frozen embryo transfer, a total that includes medications and the process itself.
Some larger companies such as Facebook, Google and The Walt Disney Company offer egg freezing benefits to their employees, and some health systems have also started to pay for it for their employees, which can make egg freezing more affordable.
As of 2021, 15 states have laws that require insurance companies to cover infertility treatment and two states have laws that require insurance companies to offer coverage for infertility treatment, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
4. What is the right age to consider egg freezing?
Although most women who undergo egg freezing in the U.S. are in their late 30s, the younger you are, the better, data shows.
According to a study published in 2020 in the journal Human Reproduction, success rates for live births were double for women who stored their eggs at age 35 and younger.
“There is no question that pregnancy rates are higher if women are younger,” said Ginsburg, adding that, “A higher percentage of eggs in the ovaries are chromosomally abnormal the older women get, so the less likely a particular egg is to result in a pregnancy.”
Once a woman reaches the age of 30, her fertility starts to decline, according to Dr. Nita Landry, a Los Angeles-based board-certified OBGYN.
“Once she reaches her mid-30s, especially around 37, that decline becomes faster,” Landry said. “Once a woman is 45 years of age, the probability of her conceiving without any fertility intervention is going to be low.”
The risks associated with pregnancy also increase as a woman ages.
Studies show that women who become pregnant at an advanced age inherently have an increased risk for pregnancy complications such as gestational diabetes, hypertension, pre-term birth and low birth weight.
Therefore, women who get pregnant in their late 30s or 40s may not have successful pregnancies regardless of how old their eggs were when they were frozen.
5. What are alternatives to egg freezing?
There are options other than egg freezing for those who are not partnered but are ready to become parents now. Women can get pregnant using their own eggs with donor sperm rather than freeze and store their eggs.
“Some women think about freezing eggs and when they realize they really want a baby and decide that a partner is not critical to their life being fulfilled, donor insemination is the other way to go,” Ginsburg said. “That tends to happen more in women in their late 30s.”
Some also choose to freeze embryos rather than eggs because of higher success rates for live births.
“Often when someone is married, they will freeze part eggs and part embryos because of the fact that if a man gives his sperm and embryos are frozen, he has a say in whether they can be used or not later,” Ginsburg said. “So I think egg freezing is favored from a reproductive autonomy standpoint.”
Women now have many options in reproductive technologies. Although costs remain a barrier for many, these technologies may become more affordable as they continue to grow in popularity.
“I think insurance companies are doing better and better about paying for egg freezing that is medically indicated,” Ginsburg said. “I think it’s also going to increasingly be a benefit of employment especially in firms that are trying to increase the number of women in their ranks.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden planned to depart for Europe Wednesday as he tries to keep NATO allies and other European partners united against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine.
With fighting lasting nearly a month — and Ukrainian forces unexpectedly holding Russia to a standoff — Biden and other world leaders will seek to speed an end to the conflict.
They’ll face pressure to make announcements about new sanctions on Russia, humanitarian assistance for refugees and additional support for Ukraine’s military.
Putin and China will be watching, with the fate of Ukraine — and Russia’s place in the world — hanging in the balance.
And while Biden will command much of the attention this week, his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also plans to speak to — and potentially pressure — Biden and other NATO leaders.
Whirlwind diplomacy on display
Biden will spend much of Wednesday traveling from Washington to Brussels, ahead of a whirlwind day of diplomacy in the Belgian capital the next day.
On Thursday, he plans to attend a summit of all 30 NATO leaders, where he will discuss deterrence against Russia and “reaffirm our ironclad commitment to our NATO allies,” according to the White House.
Biden will also participate in a pre-scheduled meeting of the European Council — the political body of the European Union — and meet with leaders of the Group of Seven, or G-7, major industrial nations.
Throughout the meetings, Biden hopes to achieve “continued coordination and a unified response” to Russia, the White House said.
Biden has made working in lockstep with Europe a top priority, at times holding back sanctions — such as on Russian energy — to maintain that show of unity.
He has also fastidiously tried to avoid a wider conflict, declining to send American troops to Ukraine or support a NATO-enforced no-fly zone over the country.
Whether he’ll push allies to more directly confront Russia — by committing more troops to the region, providing even more provocative military assistance to Ukraine or otherwise directly assisting Kyiv — remains to be seen.
One challenge he may face Thursday, though, is responding to Zelenskyy’s remarks to NATO leaders.
The Ukrainian leader has repeatedly commanded the world’s attention with moving, sometimes blunt addresses to national and international bodies. His direct demands sometimes go beyond Biden and other leaders’ comfort levels, and he has not held back from naming and shaming those who he does not believe are doing enough to support Ukraine.
New sanctions and aid expected
The president “will have the opportunity to coordinate on the next phase of military assistance to Ukraine,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday.
Biden and other leaders will announce a new “package of sanctions” on Russia, too, including “tightening the existing sanctions to crack down on evasion and to ensure robust enforcement,” Sullivan said.
“One of the key elements of that announcement will focus not just on adding new sanctions,” Sullivan said, “but on ensuring that there is a joint effort to crack down on evasion, on sanctions-busting, on any attempt by any country to help Russia, basically, undermine, weaken or get around the sanctions.”
Biden will also speak with leaders about “longer-term adjustments to NATO force posture on the eastern flank,” Sullivan said, referring to the United States and other NATO countries deploying additional troops to countries that border Russia, like Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.
And he will announce a “joint action on enhancing European energy security and reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian gas,” Sullivan added, without elaborating.
Focus on millions of displaced Ukrainians, US troops
In Brussels, Biden “will announce further American contributions” to help the 3.5 million Ukrainians who have fled the country and for the millions more who have become internally displaced, according to Sullivan.
On Friday, the president will travel to Poland, where he’ll “engage with U.S. troops” — he has deployed thousands there in response to the invasion — and on Saturday, meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda. Poland has taken in more than two million Ukrainian refugees.
“It is the right place for him to go to be able to see troops, to be able to see humanitarian experts, and to be able to meet with the frontline and very vulnerable allies,” Sullivan said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said this week that there were “no plans” for Biden to travel into Ukraine and that the White House had “not explored that option.”
Putin, China watching
Biden said Monday that “the one thing I’m confident, knowing Putin fairly well — as well as, I guess, another leader could know one another — is that he was counting on being able to split NATO. He never thought NATO would stay resolved — stay totally, thoroughly united.”
“And I can assure you,” he told a group of chief executives, “NATO has never been stronger or more united in its entire history than it is today, in large part because of Vladimir Putin.”
In fact, Russia’s invasion has united NATO against it. And a month of crushing sanctions have crippled Russia’s economy and largely isolated Putin.
Whether world leaders in Brussels decide to ramp up the pressure on Putin in a way that could further change Putin’s calculus — and bring an end to war, perhaps by offering him a clear off-ramp — could determine the length and course of the conflict.
But it’s not clear the decreasing number of options they have left could fundamentally sway Putin. Russian troops continue to pummel Ukrainian cities and kill civilians even as the Ukrainians have prevented them from claiming major wins and toppling the government in Kyiv.
And it’s not clear what that off-ramp could be.
“Putin’s back is against the wall,” Biden said Monday.
And China’s President Xi Jinping will be watching, too. In a call last week, according to the White House, Biden warned him of the consequences of providing aid to Russia.
Sullivan told ABC News’ Elizabeth Schulze on Tuesday that, since last week, the U.S. had “not seen” China provide military equipment to Russia, as it had feared China may do.
The degree to which Biden is able to get European leaders on board with potential punishments for China could also determine whether Xi decides to support Putin or stay out of the fight.
(WASHINGTON) — Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson took questions for nearly 13 hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, defending her record against an orchestrated Republican effort to brand it as “soft on crime” and liberal activism. She returns Wednesday morning for another round of all-day questioning.
Here are some top takeaways:
Pushback on child porn sentencing claims
Jackson mounted her first public rebuttal to charges by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley that she has a “long record” of letting child pornography offenders “off the hook” in sentences to the endangerment of children.
“Sentencing is a discretionary act of a judge, but it’s not a numbers game,” she said.
Hawley spent nearly 30 minutes scrutinizing Jackson’s 2013 decision to sentence an 18-year-old convicted of possessing child pornography to three months in prison — below the two years prosecutors had sought and far short of the up to 10 years in federal guidelines.
Jackson called the crime “heinous” and “egregious,” going on to explain the multifaceted process she was required to follow in devising a sentence that was “sufficient but not greater than necessary.”
“Congress has given judges not only the discretion to make the decision, but required judges to do so on an individualized basis,” she said, “taking into account not only the guidelines but also various factors, including the age of the defendant, the circumstances of the defendant, the terrible nature of the crime, the harm to the victims.”
Judicial ‘methodology,’ not a philosophy
Jackson resisted repeated attempts to classify her jurisprudence as emblematic of a particular “philosophy,” but she did delineate a “methodology” developed for deciding cases.
She laid out three steps she follows when receiving a case: first, “proceeding from a position of neutrality;” second, “evaluating all of the facts;” third, interpreting and applying the law to facts in the case.
Sen. Ben Sasse asked Jackson with which historical justice she’s most aligned. “If you had to tell the American people who you’re closest to, who are those justices?” he asked.
“I must admit that I don’t really have a justice they’ve molded myself after or that I would,” Jackson replied. “What I have is a record. I have 570-plus cases in which I have employed the methodology that I described and that shows people how I analyze cases.”
Defending her defense of accused terrorists
Jackson called her service as a federal public defender — including defense of accused terrorists held without charge at Guantanamo Bay — an act of “standing up for the constitutional value of representation.”
“People under our system are entitled to representation,” she said. “Federal public defenders don’t get to pick their clients. It’s a service.”
Jackson’s service extended into private practice, which Sen. Lindsey Graham scrutinized during a dramatic exchange with the nominee.
“What made you join the case?” he pressed. “If it’s not your position, why would you take the client?” Graham has long opposed efforts to win release for detainees from the post-9/11 war.
As part of her work, Jackson helped file a Supreme Court brief alleging on her client’s behalf that the U.S. government’s treatment “constitute(s) war crimes and/or crimes against humanity.”
Sen. John Cornyn later accused Jackson of branding former President George W. Bush and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfed as “war criminals” in the brief, but the documents show no such direct or personal accusation was made.
Critical race theory and the law
They were “friendly” as Harvard Law classmates, but on Tuesday Sen. Ted Cruz sparred tensely with Jackson over critical race theory and its place in American academia and law.
“I’ve never studied critical race theory, and I’ve never used it. It doesn’t come up in the work that I do as a judge,” Jackson told Cruz.
Cruz attempted to get Jackson to explain CRT — an academic theory that racism is inherent in American society — and why it has appeared in the curriculum at Georgetown Day School, where she sits on the board.
Armed with poster board excerpts of books he said were used at the private school, Cruz pressed Jackson to address the messages they contained. “Do agree with this book that is being taught to kids that babies are racist?” he asked.
“I do not believe that any child should be made to feel as though they are racist or though they are not valued or though they are less than, that they are victims, that they are oppressors,” Jackson replied.
Hot button social issues: Guns, faith, abortion, same-sex marriage
Every modern Supreme Court nominee is asked about his or her position on some of the most hot-button social issues of the day. Jackson, like her predecessors, delicately answered to preserve her impartiality in future cases.
Asked about the Second Amendment, Jackson said, “The Supreme Court has established that the individual right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental right.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham asked point blank, “What faith are you?” Jackson said she is a nondenominational Protestant Christian whose faith is “very important” in her life.
“On a scale of 1 to 10, how faithful would you say you are?” Graham continued. “How often do you go to church?” Jackson declined to discuss details of her faith practice.
Asked whether she supports a “traditional” view of marriage, Jackson said: “I am aware that there are various religious faiths that define marriage in a traditional way,” adding “these issues are being litigated, as you know … and so I’m limited in what I can say.”
Sen. John Kennedy asked the judge if she knows when life begins.
“I don’t know,” Jackson replied. “I have a religious view that I set aside when ruling on cases.”
Earlier in the hearing, she said that Roe vs. Wade was “settled law.”
(NEW YORK) — Women of color are disproportionately represented in the low-wage workforce, a new study released Tuesday found.
Half of working women of color earn less than $15 an hour, according to Oxfam, the anti-poverty charity organization responsible for the research.
“Women and people of color do much more than their fair share of low-wage jobs, and as wages lose value, it’s becoming a civil rights crisis in this country,” Oxfam stated in the study release.
In 25 states, at least 60% of working women of color earn under $15.
Women typically receive 83 cents on the dollar that every white, non-Hispanic man in the same position makes, Oxfam reported.
For women of color, that disparity rises drastically — Black women are paid 64 cents; American Indian women are paid 60 cents; and Latina or Hispanic women make 57 cents, compared to a dollar that a white man makes.
Oxfam found that nearly a third of all U.S. workers earn under $15 an hour — 25% of all men and 40% of all women. That’s roughly 52 million people.
When broken down by race, 26% of white workers earn less than $15, while 46% of Hispanic and Latino workers and 47% of Black workers do.
With inflation levels at the highest they’ve been in decades, families are left struggling, researchers say.
“It’s been 13 years since Congress raised the wage floor in this country, and in that time all costs of living have steadily climbed,” Kaitlyn Henderson, senior research advisor at Oxfam America, said in a press release.
She added, “It’s shameful that at a time when many U.S. companies are boasting record profits, some of the hardest working people in this country — especially people who keep our economy and society functioning — are struggling to get by and falling behind.”
The report also highlights that some workers are paid even lower than $7.25 thanks to federal laws that allow tipped workers, student workers, farmworkers, domestic workers and workers with disabilities to be paid less.
“It’s long past time to adjust our priorities to reflect the value and decency inherent in all work by paying workers a higher wage, adjusting the compensation of CEOs and shareholders, and moving to an economic model that prioritizes people over profits,” said Gina Cummings, vice president of advocacy, alliances and policy for Oxfam America.
(KINGSTON, Jamaica) — As Prince William and Duchess Kate are met with protests during their arrival to Jamaica for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, which marks the 70th anniversary of her coronation, pressure for the country to cut ties with the British monarchy continues to grow.
Roughly 350 protestors demonstrated in Kingston, where activists from the Advocates Network delivered an open letter to the British High Commission on Tuesday, calling for reparations and a formal apology from the royal family for its colonial past and ties to slavery.
The protest in the Jamaican capital comes just days after the royal couple were forced to change plans in Belize, after locals protested their initial arrival. The island of Barbados in November became a republic after officially cutting ties with Queen Elizabeth as head of state.
While the royal family attempts to strengthen its relationship with commonwealth nations throughout the Caribbean, the controversies have reignited a fierce debate in Jamaica over how and when the island would remove Queen Elizabeth as head of state.
Robert Nesta Morgan, the minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister, told ABC News that there is consensus within the country, and agreement between the Jamaican government and opposition leadership that the country is “moving towards becoming a republic.”
Prime Minister Andrew Holness appointed Marlene Malahoo Forte, the country’s former attorney general, to be the minister of constitutional affairs, which took effect in January. Her new role, in part, oversees and advises the government as it seeks to transition to republic status.
Malahoo Forte told the Jamaica Observer in December that Holness gave her instructions for the constitution to be amended for the purposes of becoming a republic.
The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) met on Feb. 27 at the University of West Indies to discuss what a republic would look like, according to Morgan. However, disagreements on whether the country would have an executive president or a ceremonial president have stalled the referendum needed to move forward.
Unlike the Island of Barbados, which removed Elizabeth as head of state with a simple majority vote, Jamaica has entrenched provisions in its constitution that require a referendum, allowing the electorate to vote on the proposal before it heads to the legislature. The amendment to become a republic would then have to be approved by a two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
“It’s not a straightforward simple process. It requires a lot of planning. It requires a lot of public education and it also requires a lot of consensus between both the opposition and the government,” Morgan told ABC News.
He continued, “I think there is agreement between the two sides [Jamaica Labour Party and the People’s National Party] and there has been discussions for many decades … we want to move to a republic, but there were sticking points.”
Despite the arduous process to sever ties with the British monarchy, Morgan said he believes the appointment of a minister of constitutional affairs is “a big step.”
The minister also reacted to Tuesday’s protests led by the Advocates Network, saying the government respects the rights of its citizens to protest.
“We are a democracy and we are a country that very much values free speech. So the government does not reject or view with disdain those who are seeking to fulfill their constitutional right to protest.” Morgan said, later adding that the Jamaican government believes in the concept of reparations from Britain.
