Tornado, hail warnings in North Mississippi today – National & International News – TUE 29Nov2022

Tornado, hail warnings in Mississippi today. Senate to hold final vote on same-sex marriage bill. China: Top security agency calls for “crackdown” on antigovernment protests.

NATIONAL NEWS

Tornado, hail warnings in Mississippi today

Much of the state is in for a severe weather outlook starting this afternoon and continuing overnight into Wednesday morning. The Memphis office of the National Weather Service reports conditions that could create severe powerful “long-track” tornados as well as possible hail storms. 

Not only North Mississippi but the entire state is in the path of this storm system. Mississippi’s Emergency Management Agency has warned all three million residents to prepare for power outages. MEMA also advises to stay off the roads and to be prepared to take refuge in a safe place in their home in case of a tornado. Pay attention to local conditions. Make sure your phones are charged and pay attention weather alerts. Some alerts may be coming during the night.

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Senate to hold final vote on same-sex marriage bill

Today, the Senate hopes to hold its final vote on the Respect for Marriage Act. The bill would codify into law the right to marry both for same-sex couples and interracial couples. This bill has found enough bipartisan support to meet the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster. In a previous procedural vote, 12 Republican Senators joined all Democrats in opening debate on the bill.

Some GOP Senators have objected that the bill is pointless as the Supreme Court has already affirmed the right for same-sex couples to marry nationwide. It’s important to note, many raised this objection for decades when bills arose to codify a nationwide right to abortion.

In his Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health opinion in June, Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas specifically declared that he would like to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, which made same-sex marriage rights the law of the land in 2015. Thomas wrote that both Obergefell and Roe v. Wade were decided on the basis of the 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the law, a premise Thomas considered flawed. Interestingly, Thomas, who is interracially married, made no mention of the 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision which established a right to interracial marriage and was also based on the equal protection clause. 

Assuming the Respect for Marriage Act passes the Senate today, the House should quickly ratify it and it could be on President Biden’s desk by the end of the week.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

China: Top security agency calls for “crackdown” on antigovernment protests

Large protests popped up in cities all over China this weekend in protest of President Xi Jinping’s Zero COVID policy. Last week, 10 people died in an apartment fire in Xinjiang because the entrance was barricaded. Much of Xinjiang, home to most of China’s Uighur Muslim minority, has been under continual COVID lockdown for the past two years.

But even China’s most prominent commercial cities in the east of the country have suffered periodic snap lockdowns. Earlier this year, Shanghai, a city of about 25 million people, was under strict lockdown for the better part of two months. Xi’s Zero COVID policy has created havoc in China’s economy, forcing factory districts, ports and entire cities to shut down.

Despite heavy censorship of any mention of the protests on Chinese social media, the protests have continued and spread to other cities. Police have engaged in violent showdowns in some instances. But in most cases, police have conducted a more “quiet” crackdown, filming protests and later rounding up attendees. Some protesters have reported getting phone calls and text messages from the police warning them against taking part in further demonstrations. 

Now, China’s top national security agency has called openly for a “crackdown” of what they call “hostile forces”. As in Iran, which has also experienced weeks of antigovernment protests, China is blaming the protests on international actors hostile to their government.

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