News LIVE: Rebel MLAs name group after Balasaheb, say they are in Sena

Live news updates: From the political crisis in Maharashtra to the end of constitutional protection for abortions in US, catch all the latest updates here

8:04 AM

Uddhav Thackeray cries betrayal, slams rebel Shinde and BJP

Taking dissident Shiv Sena MLAs head on, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday accused them of betrayal and challenged them to try and wean away common party workers as he slammed rebel leader Eknath Shinde and also tore into the BJP, saying it wants to "finish off" his outfit and does not want to share its Hindu votebank.

As the four-day-old political crisis, triggered due to a revolt by a group of Sena MLAs led by cabinet minister Shinde, showed no signs of heading towards a resolution, Thackeray upped the ante and said those who want to leave can do so and communicated directly with Shiv Sainiks and mid-level functionaries, and also met NCP president Sharad Pawar, whose party is the second largest constituent in the ruling MVA alliance.

Thackeray, whose government is also supported by the Congress, dared Shinde and the BJP to try and take away the Shiv Sena cadre and those who vote for the party. In a virtual address to party corporators, he said the common Shiv Sena workers were his "wealth", and as long as they were with him, he did not care about criticism by others.

The Shiv Sena has been "betrayed by its own people," he said, as his two-and-a-half-year old coalition government faced a crisis after a majority of Sena MLAs joined Shinde, who is camping in Guwahati. 

8:02 AM

Roe ruling discussions turn contentious inside tech giants

Inside some technology industry bellwethers, discussion of the Supreme Court decision overturning abortion rights turned contentious Friday, prompting managers to take steps to quell discord.
 

At Amazon.com Inc., employees clashed on company message boards, debating the meaning of passages from the Old Testament, according to exchanges reviewed by Bloomberg. One person accused colleagues of harassment. Amazon Senior Vice President Beth Galetti sent a memo acknowledging “strong emotions” felt by some of its 1.6 million employees and saying “we work to be respectful of everyone’s perspectives while also taking care of and supporting our employees’ personal medical needs.”

 

Inside Apple Inc., the issue turned divisive as well. Some employees took to internal Slack channels Friday to celebrate the decision, while others bemoaned it. Posts reflected differing religious beliefs. The company’s brief statement on the matter — pointing to a decade-old policy of allowing employees to travel out of their home state for medical care — didn’t take a stance on the court’s ruling. Like other companies, Apple has offices in locations like Texas that are expected to take a particularly strong stance on enforcing the Supreme Court’s opinion.

 

8:00 AM

Former US president Obama says abortion ruling "attack on freedom" of Americans

Former US President Barack Obama on Friday condemned the US Supreme Court ending constitutional protection for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years.

Obama said on Twitter that the decision is tantamount to an attack on freedoms for millions of Americans.

The court's conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday. The decision is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

Three of the court's liberal justices wrote in a joint dissent that the decision would bring sorrow for the many millions of American women who will be losing a fundamental constitutional protection.

7:59 AM

Joe Biden vows abortion fight, assails "extreme" ruling by Supreme Court

US President Joe Biden said Friday he would try to preserve access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and he called on Americans to elect more Democrats who would safeguard rights upended by the court's decision. This is not over, he declared.

Let's be very clear, the health and life of women across this nation are now at risk, he said from the White House on what he called a sad day for the court and the country.

Biden added that the court has done what it's never done before expressly taking away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many Americans.

7:59 AM

Russia never threatened anyone with nuclear weapons: Foreign Ministry

Russia never threatened anyone with nuclear weapons and Moscow's approach to the issue of the hypothetical use of nuclear weapons is based solely on the logic of deterrence, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

"The statements made one day before the Conference of the [TPNW] States Parties in the context of the Ukrainian conflict regarding 'mutual threats to use nuclear weapons,' as well as individual statements from the rostrum of the conference about Russia's alleged 'nuclear blackmail' cannot but arouse bewilderment. We emphasize again: no 'nuclear threats' have ever been and are not heard from Russia," the statement says.

According to Zakharova, "Russian approaches are based solely on the logic of deterrence, including in the current conditions, when the NATO countries that provoked the aggravation of the Ukrainian crisis and unleashed a hybrid campaign against Russia and proclaimed themselves a 'nuclear alliance' are dangerously balancing on the brink of a direct armed conflict."

7:58 AM

Sena to send notices to rebels, seeks disqualification of four more MLAs

The Shiv Sena has sent the names of four more rebel MLAs to the Maharashtra Assembly deputy speaker for initiating action of disqualification against them, a senior leader said on Friday evening.

The party will also issue notices to 16 MLAs of the rebel faction and ask them to respond by Monday, said Sena MP Arvind Sawant here. The four legislators whose names were forwarded to the deputy speaker were Sanjay Raymulkar, Chiman Patil, Ramesh Bornare and Balaji Kalyankar, he said.

7:50 AM

EU makes Ukraine membership candidate, binding country close to West

The European Union agreed to put Ukraine on a path toward EU membership, acting with uncharacteristic speed and unity to pull the embattled country further away from Russia's influence and bind it more closely to the West.

 

Meeting at a summit in Brussels, leaders of the EU's 27 nations on Thursday mustered the required unanimous approval to grant Ukraine candidate status. That sets in motion a membership process that could take years or even decades.