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RETIRED SPACE SHUTTLE commander Mark Kelly has won a US Senate seat in Arizona, defeating a Republican incumbent who succeeded John McCain.
Before his win was confirmed, Democrat Kelly (56) told supporters he was “confident that when the votes are counted, that we’re going to be successful in this mission”.
Kelly is the husband of former Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who survived being shot in the head in an assassination attempt during a constituent event in Tucson in 2011.
The former astronaut saw off a challenge from Senator Martha McSally, a trailblazing former fighter pilot.
McSally was aligned with President Donald Trump earlier this year but distanced herself from him in recent weeks in the southwestern state, where changing demographics and moderate conservatives’ frustrations with Trump helped Democrat Joe Biden win the state in the presidential race.
“The work starts now. And we desperately need Washington to work for Arizona,” Kelly told a small group of family and reporters gathered for his victory speech in Tucson.
“My top priority is making sure we have a plan to slow the spread of this virus, and then getting Arizona the resources our state needs right now.”
There were 35 of the Senate’s 100 seats up for election on Tuesday. Senators serve six-year terms and a third of the seats are up for reelection every two years.
Republicans held a 53-47 Senate majority prior to the election. As things stand, with 31 of 35 races called, the Republicans have 48 seats to the Democrats’ 46, while independents have two seats (51 is needed for a majority).
To date, Democrats have 210 seats to the Republicans’ 194; 218 seats are needed for a majority in the 435-member House. Members serve two-year terms.
Biden nearing victory
Democrat Joe Biden is on the brink of winning the White House after taking the lead in the potentially decisive state of Pennsylvania but Trump is showing no signs of being ready to concede and his campaign insisted the bitterly contested race is “not over”.
Pennsylvania, and its 20 electoral votes, would be enough to vault the 77-year-old Biden past the magic number of 270 votes in the Electoral College, which determines the presidency.
With tens of thousands of votes remaining to be counted in Pennsylvania, many from heavily Democratic areas, Biden opened up a 9,000-vote lead over the Republican incumbent, according to real-time state election results.
Biden currently has at least 253 electoral votes and is leading in three other states — Arizona, Georgia and Nevada — where ballots from Tuesday’s bitterly contested election continue to be counted.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, welcomed what she called the “strong mandate” given to “President-elect Biden”. It is “a happy day for our country. Joe Biden is a unifier, because he is determined to bring people together,” Pelosi said.
While his reelection hopes may be fading, Trump is making it clear that he is not ready to accept defeat, launching unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud during an extraordinary White House appearance yesterday and claiming that he had actually won.
“This election is not over,” the Trump campaign’s general counsel Matt Morgan said after news of Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania broke.
“The false projection of Joe Biden as the winner is based on results in four states that are far from final,” Morgan said in a statement.
“Biden is relying on these states for his phony claim on the White House, but once the election is final, President Trump will be re-elected.”
Morgan alleged there had been “improperly cast” ballots in Georgia, where a recount is expected, and Nevada and claimed Republican vote-counting observers had been denied access in Pennsylvania.
The Biden campaign fired back at the Trump campaign’s refusal to admit defeat with a statement tinged with sarcasm.
“As we said on July 19th, the American people will decide this election,” it said. “And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”
- © AFP 2020 with additional reporting from Press Association
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A million is too much to get accurate figures on sexual violence affecting Irish citizens? But 5 million on PR is just fine?
Is Mary Lou really saying she would rather invest a million in research than services? How many reports are there now gathering dust?
@lavbeer: it’s not either/or, we can do both. The SAVI report never gathered dust anyway, it has been used extensively by all agencies working to combat child sexual abuse. 1 million is a drop in the ocean compared to the billion the State has had to pay to the victims of institutional child abuse. A small spend now will go a long way to saving money down the line
Perhaps im just jaded…..but this seems like a political stunt to bring the female vote back for Leo…….after hes put his foot in it a couple of times on the repeal issue….
@Dearbhla Russell: DRCC and other groups have been seeking that SAVI be updated but Minister for Justice resisted.
In light of recent developments, including Tom Humphries, accurate measurement is seen as now required. There may well be political expedience at play but SAVI update is needed.
And if they could get back to him in a year or two that would be fine
Look at that Muslim Brotherhood supporter beside him in the photo. Wonder what their views on sexual violence are? Oh! I know. They approve and recommend it.
It is not a question of either €1 million on an update on SAVI 1 or spending this on vital services. It is not either/or. It is both/and.
An update on SAVI 1, a reasonably measurement of the problem, can guide in whether an increase in the allocation to support services is required, how and where funding should be allocated, how best to reduce the problem of sexual violence in Ireland and to better guide criminological policy in this area.
We need to do far more as a society to prevent sexual violence in Ireland and to support the unfortunate past and present victims of sexual violence in Ireland.
Prevent, address and try to rectify. First, gain an accurate measurement of causes, extreme, impacts and critically assess current reporting, detection, protection, sentencing, preventative and restorative measurements.
The experts in this area, including the DRCC and various criminologists, have all advised of the urgent need for an update to SAVI 1. Now is the time to get on with it.
The country needs updating with a better honest leader!
SAVI 1 needs to be updated so as to measure the estimated size of the problem. Many victims never report sexual violence offences to An Garda Siochana. There are reasons for this. Addressing a problem depends on accurate measurement of the true extent of the problem at present.
Your grammar needs TO BE UPDATED.
The SAVI Report and it’s methodology have been totally discredited, which is why it has never been revisited in all this time – untill now of course.
It was based upon the European FRA Report and the technique pioneered by Mary Koss, a feminist researcher who felt that official government unbiased reports didn’t provided the results she wanted so she set up her own surveys designed to adjust the figures to provide statastics more suitable to her ideology. She admitted in 1992 she surveys were flawed.
White Ribbon campaigns in several other countries have been totally discredited for several reasons with the governments of Canada and Australia noticing that they were being used to funnel the vast majority of money into salaries.
The SAVI report used a similar methodology and showed that 42% of Irish women and 28% of Irish men reported some form of sexual abuse. Almost a third of women and one in five men experienced sexual abuse in childhood with more than a quarter of women and one in ten of men experiencing it in adulthood.
This research has been based upong the idea that women and men don’t know what things like ‘stalking’, ‘violence’ and ‘rape’ mean and need a feminist expert to interpret for them and fill out the forms.
The SAVI Report – 2001 – contains the word ‘ABUSE’ one thousand six hundred and one times (1601). Is that not enough? Do you need an update, when you don’t even believe or act on official findings and data !
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