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A ‘great day for America’: Trump, Republicans hail affirmative action ruling
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women Lilac Luncheon in Concord, New Hampshire, U.S., June 27, 2023. REUTERS/Reba Saldanha/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump and other top U.S. Republican leaders hailed the Supreme Court’s rejection on Thursday of race-conscious student admissions programs at two universities, with the former president saying the ruling marked “a great day for America.”
The court decision, strongly criticized by Democrats including President Joe Biden, effectively prohibits affirmative action policies long used to raise the number of Black, Hispanic and other underrepresented minority students on U.S. campuses.
Trump, who is part of a crowded race for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election, said the ruling will bring the country “back to all merit-based” admissions.
“This is a great day for America. People with extraordinary ability and everything else necessary for success, including future greatness for our country, are finally being rewarded,” the former president said in a statement.
Other Republican presidential contenders, including Trump’s top election rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, said the ruling would end what he described as race-based “discrimination” in university applications.
“College admissions should be based on merit and applicants should not be judged on their race or ethnicity,” DeSantis wrote on Twitter.
Trump’s former vice president Mike Pence, who is also seeking the 2024 Republican nomination, said on Twitter he was “honored to have played a role in appointing three of the justices who ensured today’s welcomed decision.”
In the U.S. Congress, top Republican lawmakers including House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the decision would ensure fair competition in admissions.
“Today’s rulings make clear that colleges may not continue discriminating against bright and ambitious students based on the color of their skin,” McConnell said in a statement.
Many institutions of higher education long have backed affirmative action on campuses not simply to remedy racial inequity and exclusion in American life, but to ensure a talent pool that can bring a range of perspectives to the workplace. Democrats broadly support this argument.
In a May Reuters/Ipsos poll, 49% of respondents agreed that “due to racial discrimination, programs such as affirmative action are necessary to help create equality,” while 32% disagreed and 19% were unsure.
(Reuters) -Private equity firm Insight Partners is on the brink of closing a new $10 billion-plus fund, roughly half the amount originally targeted, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing five people with knowledge of its plans.
Insight will not formally close its 13th fund until early next year, the report said, adding that the final figure may be closer to $12 billion.
Insight Partners declined to comment on the report.
The report said Insight is using a private equity-style structure to sell more than $1 billion worth of stakes in start-ups and to free up cash to return to investors.
One of the start-ups is Israeli cybersecurity firm Wiz, which had called off a $23 billion deal with Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:) in July, the report said.
New York-based Insight raised $20 billion for its 12th flagship fund in 2022, aiming to ramp up investments in software and technology companies.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would inflict a “heavy price” on the Iran-aligned Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they reached central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the group struck with a new hypersonic ballistic missile that travelled 2,040 km (1270 miles) in just 11 1/2 minutes.
After initially saying the missile had fallen in an open area, Israel’s military later said it had probably fragmented in the air, and that pieces of interceptors had landed in fields and near a railway station. Nobody was reported hurt.
Air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel moments before the impact at around 6:35 a.m. local time (0335 GMT), sending residents running for shelter. Loud booms were heard.
Reuters saw smoke billowing in an open field in central Israel.
At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the Houthis should have known that Israel would exact a “heavy price” for attacks on Israel.
“Whoever needs a reminder of that is invited to visit the Hodeida port,” Netanyahu said, referring to an Israeli retaliatory air strike against Yemen in July for a Houthi drone that hit Tel Aviv.
The Houthis have fired missiles and drones at Israel repeatedly in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians, since the Gaza war began with a Hamas attack on Israel in October.
The drone that hit Tel Aviv for the first time in July killed a man and wounded four people. Israeli air strikes in response on Houthi military targets near the port of Hodeidah killed six and wounded 80.
Previously, Houthi missiles have not penetrated deep into Israeli air space, with the only one reported to have hit Israeli territory falling in an open area near the Red Sea port of Eilat in March.
Israel should expect more strikes in the future “as we approach the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 operation, including responding to its aggression on the city of Hodeidah,” Sarea said.
The deputy head of the Houthi’s media office, Nasruddin Amer, said in a post on X on Sunday that the missile had reached Israel after “20 missiles failed to intercept” it, describing it as the “beginning”.
The Israeli military also said that 40 projectiles were fired towards Israel from Lebanon on Sunday and were either intercepted or landed in open areas.
“No injuries were reported,” the military said.
PARIS (Reuters) – Eight people have died trying to cross the Channel from France to England, French authorities said on Sunday, confirming earlier media reports.
This latest incident follows the deaths of 12 people earlier this month when their boat capsized in the Channel on its way to Britain and highlights the pressure on the British and French governments to find ways to tackle the boat crossings.
Jacques Billant, the Prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region, said that rescue crews were alerted that a boat with 59 people onboard was in difficulty in waters off the coast of Ambleteuse in the Pas-de-Calais area.
“A new drama took place around one in the morning and we deplore the death of eight people,” he told a news conference, adding that the other 51 onboard were now in the care of rescue and medical crews.
The dead were men from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Egypt, Iran and Afghanistan, he added.
The Channel is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and currents are strong, which makes crossing on small boats dangerous.
The latest incident brings to 46 the number of people who have died trying to cross the Channel from France since the start of the year, Billant said.
On September 14 alone there were eight attempts to cross the Channel from France and some 200 migrants were rescued, he said.
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