Mitch mcconnell

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Senate Republicans blocked the advancement Thursday of the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, a measure that was pushed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer just a day earlier as something that "will let us take action on guns." Before Thursday's Senate vote, McConnell told reporters that he was "hopeful" for a "bipartisan solution that's directly related to the facts" of the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday. But the Senate's vote tally landed at 47-47, falling short of the 60-vote threshold the bill would have needed to proceed, according to CNN . All votes against the measure came from Republicans and from Schumer, who changed his vote to "no" as a procedural move toward the end of the voting process. While many Americans and lawmakers have been united in grief and anger following the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School, where 19 children and two adults were killed, Democrats and Republicans … [Read more...] about McConnell was “hopeful” for gun law middle ground before blocking Democrats

Nicola Sturgeon should be enjoying a landmark week in her political career as she becomes Scotland's longest-serving First Minister. Instead, she's been suffering from a bout of COVID that really "knocked her for six" since coming back from a working visit to the US. With seven years and 187 days in office under her belt, Sturgeon has now outlasted her predecessors, Scotland's early Labour Party First Ministers Donald Dewar, Henry McLeish, Jack McConnell - and the man who led Scotland into the 2014 independence referendum, her former friend and one-time mentor Alex Salmond. Sturgeon is still planning to hold a fresh referendum in 2023, recently repeating the mantra that her government has a "very firm mandate" to do so. And it's true: the Scottish National Party won an extra seat in the Scottish Parliament elections last year, missing out on an overall majority by just one seat; and in May's local council elections the SNP also increased its number of … [Read more...] about Nicola Sturgeon is Scotland’s longest-serving leader. Will she deliver an independence vote?