By HOLLY RAMER, Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Cecile Richards, a national leader for abortion access and girls's rights who led Planned Parenthood for 12 tumultuous years, has died. She was 67.

Richards died Monday at home “surrounded by her family and her ever-faithful dog, Ollie,” her family said in a press release.

“Our hearts are broken today, but no words can do justice to the joy she has brought into our lives,” the family said.

Richards, the daughter of the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards, was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain cancer, in 2023, five years later She left Planned Parenthood.

Although Planned Parenthood also offers contraception, cancer screenings and sexually transmitted disease testing at clinics across the country, its status because the nation's leading abortion provider has long been a source of debate. Richards played a distinguished role in warding off criticism during her term as president and beyond.

In 2015, she spent hours on it Answering hostile questions by Republican U.S. House members who later created an investigative panel to analyze Planned Parenthood's abortion and fetal tissue policies. In 2021, she warned that the U.S. Supreme Court's inaction on Texas' restrictive abortion law could mean the top of judicial checks and balances on the difficulty. And after court overthrew Roe v. calf In 2022, she continued to talk out.

“One day our children and grandchildren may ask us, 'When everything was on the line, what did you do?'” she said on the Democratic National Convention in August. “The only acceptable answer is, 'Everything we could.'”

President Joe Biden, who awarded Richards the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November, called her a “leader of the highest character” on Monday.

“Cecile has fearlessly pushed us forward to be the America we say we are,” he said in a press release. “She carried her mother’s torch for justice and championed some of our nation’s most important civil rights causes. She fought for the dignity of workers, defended and promoted women’s reproductive rights and equality, and mobilized our fellow Americans to exercise their right to vote.”

Alexis McGill Johnson, current president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, called Richards an “indomitable force.”

“As we continue to break new ground, we will be able to overcome the challenges we face thanks in large part to the movement Cecile has built over decades,” she said. “I know without a doubt that Cecile would tell us that the best way to honor her memory is to dress – preferably in pink – with her arms bandaged and fight like hell for Planned Parenthood patients across the country .”

In her speech on the Democratic National Convention, Richards described the enjoyment of becoming a grandmother in 2023 and quoted her mother when she called Kamala Harris' presidential campaign a “celebration of women.”

“As my mother, Gov. Ann Richards, would say, 'I hear America singing,'” she said. “When women have the freedom to make their own decisions about their lives and follow our dreams, we are unstoppable.”

Originally published: January 20, 2025 at 9:35am PST

Glenview Capital, a significant CVS Health The shareholder is anticipated to satisfy with company leadership on Monday to propose solutions to the troubled company, people aware of the matter say, a possible precursor to an activist push.

The hedge fund has built a large position in the corporate, some people said. Glenview invests in a wide range of sectors, but its most up-to-date regulatory filings show that the corporate holds positions in these sectors HundredsCVS and Teva Pharmaceuticals under other names.

Details of Glenview's proposals couldn’t be learned. The Wall Street Journal first reported that Glenview would meet with CVS management, including CEO Karen Lynch.

A CVS spokesman said the corporate “maintains a regular dialogue with the investment community as part of our comprehensive shareholder and analyst engagement program.”

“Furthermore, we cannot comment on engagement with specific companies or individuals,” the spokesperson said.

Shares of CVS rose about 2% in early trading Monday. Before Monday's open, the stock had fallen about 22% for the reason that start of the yr.

The meeting with Glenview is just not CVS's first encounter with an activist. Earlier this yr, Sachem Head Capital Management, the outstanding activist fund led by Scott Ferguson, disclosed in regulatory filings that it had built a stake in the corporate.

Jeff Smith's Starboard Value also built a stake in the corporate in 2019 and likewise held discussions with management.

Investor confidence in CVS has fallen after three straight quarters of full-year forecast cuts.

The company's bottom line is being hurt by higher medical costs in its insurance segment – a problem plaguing all the healthcare industry as more seniors undergo procedures that they had delayed throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

CVS owns Aetna, the nation third largest health insurer by market share, in accordance with the American Medical Association. The company's insurance unit includes Aetna's Affordable Care Act, Medicare Advantage and Medicaid plans, in addition to dental and vision insurance.

In its second-quarter leads to August, CVS unveiled a brand new plan to chop spending by $2 billion over several years, which would come with streamlining operations and increasing the usage of artificial intelligence. The company can also be finalizing a three-year plan to shut 900 of its stores, with 851 locations scheduled to shut by August.

CVS is cutting lower than 1% of its workforce, or about 2,900 jobs, as a part of the brand new cost-cutting plan, an organization spokesman said in an announcement Monday. The spokesman said the cuts would primarily impact corporate functions, not employees at the corporate's retail stores, pharmacies and distribution centers.

The majority of affected employees might be notified this week and can receive severance and other advantages, the spokesman said. Aside from layoffs, CVS has closed some open positions, they said.

“Our industry faces ongoing disruption, regulatory pressures and changing consumer needs and expectations. Therefore, it is critical that we remain competitive and deliver excellence,” the spokesperson told CNBC.

First, the Wall Street Journal reported the cuts on Monday.

Also in August, CVS announced a leadership change based on the performance and prospects of its insurance division. The company said CEO Lynch will replace segment president Brian Kane, effective immediately.

Meanwhile, CVS is under increased pressure in its pharmacy retail business. Reimbursement rates for prescribed drugs have fallen lately, while inflation and weaker consumer spending have made it harder for CVS locations to show a profit in stores.

WASHINGTON – Ding Jiaxi knew he would spend his 57th birthday alone in a Chinese prison cell, with out a call from his family or the possibility to stretch in the daylight.

It was the fifth yr that the activist had lived in these conditions. Although his family within the US received letters assuring him that he was healthy, his wife Sophie Luo was not convinced.

“I'm really worried about his health because he has been tortured before,” Luo told the Associated Press from Washington.

Luo shared details of her husband’s plight ahead of his birthday on Saturday and make clear the hard Treatment of the country’s imprisoned political prisonerswho, based on families and human rights groups, are sometimes denied rights corresponding to outdoor exercise and speak to with their family members.

Beijing said the prisoners' rights were protected under Chinese law. The Chinese embassy in Washington didn’t immediately reply to an email in search of comment.

Ding, a key member of the now-defunct New Citizens' Movement, which sought to advertise democracy and civil society in China, was arrested in December 2019 after attending a casual meeting within the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen to debate current affairs. In April 2023, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for subverting state power.

Maya Wang, acting China director of the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, described the tough treatment of political prisoners in China as “commonplace.”

“Unfortunately, abuses are widespread and have become even worse under Chinese President Xi Jinping,” Wang said. Political prisoners were torturedThey don’t have any access to lawyers and “very little” contact with their families, she said, adding that the secrecy has made it easier for prisoners' abuse to proceed and their health has suffered.

Representative Adam Schiff, who sits on a bipartisan congressional human rights commission, called for Ding's release.

“Once again, he will be alone in a prison in China's Hubei province. He will be separated from his loved ones – his wife and children. He will spend another birthday in isolation – his fifth in prison,” Schiff, Democrat of California, said in an announcement released Friday.

Luo said she has not been allowed to check with her husband on the phone since he was taken away by authorities in 2019. Since then, “I haven't heard his voice,” said Luo, who moved to the U.S. with the couple's two children shortly after Ding was first arrested in 2013.

It was not until March of this yr that she received his first letter. Ding was not allowed to write down letters about his case, his treatment in prison or other topics considered sensitive by the Chinese government, Luo said.

And she lamented Ding's absence from her two daughters' lives. “He can't be with the girls when they need a father the most,” she said. “It's really a big loss.”

Originally published: August 17, 2024 at 10:39 am

“The shareholders have spoken”

In 1987, fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier photographed supermodel Naomi Campbell within the desert wearing a gold Chanel jacket. It is a shocking photo and a historic one. This image appeared within the December issue of British Vogue that 12 months – it was only the third time There was a black woman on the duvet of the style magazine.

The image is so iconic that it was acquired by The National Portrait Gallery for everlasting exhibition in 2016. It is currently on display on the V&A in an exhibition celebrating the life and profession of Naomi Campbell.

I used to be born within the Nineteen Eighties myself and my teenage years were within the Nineteen Nineties, when Campbell rose to fame. Back then, it was unusual to see a girl of comparable skin color to me in mainstream media. This cover was groundbreaking, coming at a time when fashion editors believed that black models didn't sell issues. It was also in the primary 12 months of Campbell's profession – a profession that might break so many more barriers.

As a fashion expert and creator Michaela Angela Davies sums it up: “Black and non-white models are still generally seen as a trend – seasonal and largely expendable, as Dior did in the mid-20th century. Naomi Campbell broke through this disregard. It was constant, inevitable and undeniable. Naomi was the catalyst.”

Naomi on the V&A is the primary exhibition ever to give attention to the person wearing the garments reasonably than the designer who created them, correcting a historical oversight of the numerous influence models have on fashion culture.

This exhibition is a testament to how essential the black British model has been to culture at large and its representation in the style world and beyond.

Co-produced with Campbell, the exhibition features pieces from her own wardrobe, in addition to loans from designer archives and objects from the V&A's collections, representing key moments in her 40-year profession. Spread over two floors, these pieces weave within the story of how she succeeded despite the immense challenges of being a young black woman during this time, which inspired her activism.

It begins with a bit on the early years of her life. You can hear Campbell's own voice speaking of “the freedom to express yourself through dance.” Campbell was discovered in 1985 on the age of 15 while pursuing her dream of becoming a dancer. The exhibition shows how this background prepared her for her unexpected profession as a model.

Campbell's first catwalk was for French designer Yves Saint Laurent in 1987. In this section, a photograph of her ticket to that show is shown next to a pair of worn ballet shoes. As Davies said, “Nobody walks like Naomi Campbell. She walks like a warrior, moving through the territory of haute couture with a supernatural flair.”

A video montage of such impressive catwalks greets visitors before they even enter the exhibition. In it, you may see Campbell on the catwalks of Anna Sui, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood and Prada. Each image is sort of a murals and a testament to her impressive presence.

“God bless Yves,” she says in a caption that appears on the label of the feather dress she wore in her first couture cut, citing Laurent because the designer who helped change the course of her profession.

Yves Saint Laurent reportedly threatened to drag his ad in French Vogue if the magazine continued to refuse to forged black models on its cover. But as much because the exhibition is in regards to the clothes, accessories and collaborations, it’s closely linked to current discussions about diversity in the style industry. In Campbell's words:

When I take a look at Iman and Beverly Johnson and Naomi Sims and Peggy Dillard and all of the others, I'm grateful that they opened the door for me. If they hadn't come first, I’d never have gotten to where I’m now. And I hope that I open the door for the people who find themselves behind me.

This exhibition portrays Campbell not only as a supermodel but additionally as a cultural innovator, highlighting her role in disrupting established norms, breaking racial barriers, and using her platform to empower latest creatives, advocate for equality, and drive social change.

As one in every of the primary black supermodels to attain global recognition, she defied convention and broke the mold of what was considered the accepted ideal of beauty on the time. Her skilled success has helped raise the standards for a way other ethnically diverse models needs to be represented in fashion.

As this metamorphosis continues, let's take a moment to enjoy all of the glitz and glamour this exhibition has to supply, celebrating the rise of a supermodel icon – and the transformative power of fashion.

Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., the died on June 9, 2024 on the age of 95was a Methodist minister and a powerful advocate of nonviolence in the course of the civil rights movement.

Lawson is best generally known as the pilot of two crucial civil rights campaigns – one in Nashville in 1960 and the opposite in Memphis in 1968.

In Nashville, Lawson trained students within the systematic use of non-violent pressure tactics. Multiracial student teams would sit at local lunch tables reserved for whites to violate segregation laws. Most importantly, it prepared them to be beaten or arrested. Following the instance of Mahatma Gandhi, who used nonviolent resistance to oppose the British occupation of India, students engaged in collective nonviolent direct motion. When the primary wave of scholars were beaten or arrested, one other wave of scholars poured in behind them to take their places.

Hundreds were arrested or beaten before their actions prompted Nashville Mayor Ben West to publicly declare segregation immoral—a signal to downtown business owners that it was time to finish Nashville's segregation policy.

In Memphis, Lawson organized what became the last election campaign within the lifetime of Martin Luther King Jr.King got here to Memphis to affix forces with 1,300 impoverished garbage staff who were striking against their employer, the Memphis City Council, over poor wages and dealing conditions. When two staff, Echol Cole and Robert Walkerwere crushed by a garbage compactor as they sought shelter from the rain. The staff had had enough and went on strike. Ultimately, they won a small pay rise and modest improvements within the workplace.

By 1968, Lawson had established himself as a number one authority on nonviolent conflict, a fact what King himself testified. I studied Lawson and I argue that he was probably the most significant figures within the nonviolent civil rights movement of the Fifties and Nineteen Sixties.

Early influences

Lawson grew up in Massillon, Ohio. His father, James M. Lawson Sr., was an African Methodist minister. who carried a gun on his hipPerhaps an odd influence for a nonviolent advocate, however the elder Lawson taught his son to all the time fight for what is true.

His mother taught him the ability of affection. After Lawson slapped a white child for calling him a racist name, his mother patiently asked, “Jimmy, what did that do… there has to be a better way.” Lawson called this moment “a supernatural experience, a transformative experience…that began my experiment to find the better way.”

As a student at Baldwin Wallace College, he was inspired by Abraham Johannes Tintewhich Time magazine called America’s “Pacifist primary.“ Muste represented the Community of Reconciliationthe oldest pacifist anti-war group in US history.

Lawson also closely followed the work of the Congress for Racial Equality when it challenged racial segregation laws with nonviolent direct motion within the early Forties.

Lawson realized he had a likelihood: he could challenge racial segregation, and he could do it with nonviolence. Inspired by these examples, Lawson decided never to obey a segregation law againHe said: “I have made a commitment that… I will not allow myself to be disciplined or twisted into something I am not.”

Nonviolence and racial segregation laws

Lawson put his philosophy into practice when the United States entered the Korean War in 1950. Lawson concluded that he wouldn’t cooperate: “There were certain laws that Christians did not have to follow: the segregation laws and the military draft laws. So I sent back my draft notices and said I could no longer join.”

He believed that conscription laws had the identical fundamental problem as racial segregation laws. They too were “a complete denial of the meaning of freedom.”

Lawson spent nearly 14 months in prison for refusing to fight within the Korean War. After his parole, he went to India, where he worked with the Student Christian Movement in Nagpur. Lawson tried to raised understand the situation. Gandhian principles This enabled him to make use of them within the fight against racial segregation, racism and violence under Jim Crow laws.

In the autumn of 1957, Lawson decided to maneuver south and have become the Southern Secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a predominantly white pacifist group that had long been concerned about African-American civil rights. Based in Nashville, Lawson traveled to all the former Confederate states except Florida during his first full 12 months of labor. Teaching the philosophy and practice of non-violent protest.

He taught black Christian students that by resisting racial segregation they were imitating Jesus, who challenged the oppression of the Roman Empire.

Lawson taught his students that Jim Crow laws were designed to make black Americans feel and behave like second-class residents. He argued that it was unethical to abide by such laws. Anyone who knowingly cooperates with evil resides a lie, Lawson argued. To share in a single's own suffering and the suffering of others is a fate worse than death, he said.

His compelling argument convinced many Americans that they may not cooperate with Jim Crow. As his student Diane Nash recalled: “Oppression all the time requires the participation of the oppressed.”

Lawson and students across the country used nonviolent noncooperation to finish legalized racial segregation within the United States. He taught his students that they need to be willing to fight and die for the reason behind human freedom and justice, but that they need to not kill.

Lawson's influence lives on

Lawson continued his philosophy of nonviolence when he moved to California in 1974. He allied himself with the Justice for caretakers movement and gave workshops on non-violence until his death.

Lawson leaves behind powerful lessons. In a recent documentary entitled “Love & Solidarity“, Lawson said, “Love is power. It is essentially the most creative power within the universe. It is the best force available to humanity. Humanity must learn the way to use it.”

In a world stuffed with violence, Lawson showed us that nonviolence a good more powerful force To create societies characterised by justice, freedom and equality.

Although Frederick Douglass Although he’s the best-known abolitionist to go to Ireland within the many years before the American Civil War, he was not the just one.

In addition, as much as 30 black abolitionists and activists traveled to Ireland between 1790 and 1860. Olaudah Equiano was one among them. Equiano was born in Africa and kidnapped on the age of about 10. However, he later bought his freedom, wrote a best-selling autobiography and arrived in 1791 as a guest of the United Irishmen, a gaggle of radical nationalists.

Another was Sarah Parker Remondwho got here to Ireland in 1859 and stayed with the identical family that had hosted Douglass 14 years earlier. After experiencing equality for the primary time, she couldn’t bear to return to America.

Instead, she accomplished her studies at a school in London and moved to Italy, where she trained as a health care provider. Both Equiano and Parker Remond worked closely with Irish abolitionists.

Even before Douglass arrived in Ireland in 1845, he was aware of the wealthy tradition of Irish men and ladies involved within the transatlantic movement to finish the American slavery system.

In particular, he was an admirer of the Irish nationalist leader Daniel O’Connell. A vocal critic of slaveryO'Connell played a crucial role in finish it within the British Empire in 1833.

The Making of an Abolitionist

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born a slave in Maryland in 1818 and met his enslaved mother only a couple of times before she died. His father was widely believed to be the white owner of the plantation.

At the age of 20, Frederick fled to New York, where he modified his last name to Douglass.

Although he could have continued on to Canada, where he would have been secure, he selected to remain within the United States and work for the abolitionists. Although Douglass had no formal education, he proved to be a superb orator who had experienced slavery firsthand.

Douglass' fundamental motivation for travelling to Great Britain in August 1845 was to avoid being enslaved again. Seven years earlier, Douglass had declared himself free. However, under American law, he was still considered a “runaway slave” and will subsequently be caught at any time.

At the age of 27, due to his lectures, he was American Anti-Slavery Society and the success of his autobiography, which he published in May 1845.

Obviously he was a thorn within the side of slavery and its supporters.

The 12 months before his visit to Ireland, Douglass wrote:

“The true and only reliable movement for the abolition of slavery in this country and throughout the world is a great moral and religious movement. Its object is to enlighten the public, to quicken and enlighten the dead conscience of the nation, and to make them feel the gross injustice, fraud, wrong, and inhumanity of the enslavement of their fellow men.”

The fight in Ireland

Douglass was reluctant to go away America because he was married and the daddy of 4 young children.

Two days after his arrival within the port of Liverpool, Douglass travelled to Ireland, where a number one Irish abolitionist, Richard Webbhad offered to reprint Douglass's autobiography to offer him with much-needed income. Douglass had only intended to spend a couple of days in Dublin, but after the nice and cozy welcome he received, he ended up staying for 4 months.

During this time he gave nearly 50 lectures across the country. Despite his busy schedule, he described these months because the “happiest“ Period of his life:

“I am living a new life. The cordial and generous co-operation which I have received from the friends of my despised race… and the total absence of anything which appeared to be prejudice against me on account of the color of my skin – is in such strong contrast to my long and bitter experience in the United States, that I look upon the transition with wonder and amazement.”

Part of Douglass' transition was based on the political approach of the Irish leader O'Connell and Belief in universal human rights:

“I am a friend of liberty in every climate, every class, and every color. My sympathy for suffering is not confined to the narrow confines of my own green island. No – it extends to every corner of the earth. My heart is abroad, and wherever the poor need to be helped or the slaves to be freed, there my spirit is at home, and I am happy to live there.”

O'Connell had won political rights for Catholicswho were traditionally regarded by the British establishment as second-class residents in Ireland. The comparison didn’t escape Douglass, who a letter from 1846 to the well-known American abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison:

“I see much here that reminds me of my former condition, and I confess I should be ashamed to raise my voice against American slavery, but I know that the cause of humanity all over the world is one. He who really and truly sympathizes with the American slaves cannot arm his heart against the suffering of others; and he who thinks himself an abolitionist, but cannot understand the wrongs of others, has yet to find a true basis for his opposition to slavery.”

Return to America

In January 1846, Douglass left Ireland to lecture in Scotland and England. During his stay, he became homesick and longed to see his family again.

A gaggle of Irish and British women offered an answer. They raised the cash and accomplished the legal process to purchase Douglass's release.

Douglass returned to America as a free man in April 1847. But his latest status didn’t protect him from prejudice and racial discrimination.

Five years after his return home, Douglass delivered one among his the sharpest attacks on American slavery:

“What does the Fourth of July mean to the American slave? I answer: a day which reveals to him, more than any other day of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty of which he is constantly the victim. To him, your celebration is a farce.”

The long arc of history

In the years following the tip of the American Civil War, Douglass' influence as a global advocate for human rights continued to grow.

In 1887 he visited Ireland again, this time as an American citizen, holding a passport and being allowed to cross the Atlantic in a first-class cabin.

Douglass explained that the explanation for the trip was “to look into the faces of the people who had been kind to me 40 years ago.”

Sadly, most of them were dead.

During this visit, Douglass announced his support for Irish nationalists and their long struggle for independence.

Back home, Douglass continued the fight against “the hidden practices of men who have not yet given up the idea of ​​dominion and domination over their fellow men.”

Douglass believed that further resistance was vital and quoted three words he had learned from O'Connell in Dublin in 1845: “Agitate, agitate, agitate.”