Oct 29 2020 12 mins 4
This is Toby Sumpter with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Thursday, October 29, 2020. Today you will hear how Poland has nearly banned abortions, how one man protested Wales’ non-essential sales policy, congressional hearings for Twitter and Facebook, Van Morrison releases a new Covid protest song, and Kanye envisions choirs of hundreds of thousands. Remember: If you come across a news story you think we might need to cover, please send it to: news at crosspolitic dot com. This is a great way to share articles and stories with us that may end up in our daily or weekly shows: news at crosspolitic dot com From our news inbox: Poland Has Nearly Abolished Abortions https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54642108 Poland’s top court has ruled that abortions in cases of fetal defects are unconstitutional. Once the decision comes into effect, abortions will only be allowed in cases of rape or incest, or if the mother’s health is at risk. A legal challenge against the 1993 law permitting abortion in cases of severe fetal disabilities – which accounts for 98% of abortions carried out in Poland – was launched by MPs from the ruling nationalist Law and Justice party last year. A majority of the court’s judges were nominated by the same party. Almost all legal abortions in Poland are performed on the grounds of fetal defects, so this ruling, according to the BBC, effectively bans abortions in Poland. Bishops and lay Catholic groups have been challenging the governing Law and Justice party to impose a stricter law to protect unborn babies. In 2016 an estimated 100,000 people, mostly women, protested to block an attempt to tighten the law. Activists again held socially distanced protests against the proposals earlier this year Late last year a group of governing party and far-right MPs decided to ask the court to decide the issue. There were just over 1,000 legal abortions in Poland last year, although feminist groups estimate between 80,000 and 120,000 Polish women a year seek an abortion abroad. From another listener in our news inbox: One Man Protests Wales’ Ban on Non-Essential Items by Going to the store in His Skivvies https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/man-wears-underwear-supermarket-wales-nonessential-items In this specific situation, yes, at least a little bit of clothing certainly seems essential. A man in Wales claims he wore only underwear to a local Tesco supermarket in order to protest the country’s ban on the sale of nonessential items amid the pandemic, as seen in footage shared to social media over the weekend. In the video, Christopher Noden, from Newport, is seen walking into the store in just his boxer briefs and a mask. Noden is then approached by a security guard who tells him he can’t enter, only for Noden and his wife, Dawn, to question why he’s required to wear clothes if clothes themselves are indeed “nonessential.” One day after the government upheld its decision, Noden appeared on “Good Morning Britain” to defend his actions after footage of his visit to Tesco went viral online. “It felt like I was going to prove my point,” Noden said during the program, explaining that he got the idea after his wife came across an online meme that joked about clothing being a nonessential item, per Wales Online. He added that he and his wife couldn’t believe that clothing has been deemed nonessential, especially for premature babies who may need certain items. “So I said ‘Come on then, let’s prove the point in Wales you can go shopping without your clothes on and there’s nothing you can do about it,’” he said. During Online Congressional Hearing with Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey, Neither Could name a single high profile Democrat/liberal who has been censored by Twitter or Facebook: https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/1321554564114362368?s=20 A reminder that all of the talks from this year’s Fight Laugh Feast conference: Weapons for This War are up in the Club Member [...]
