Republicans blocked a last-ditch effort in the US Senate to lift the military’s ban on openly gay troops, rejecting another project pushed vigorously by US President Barack Obama.
The 57 to 40 vote on Thursday fell three short of the 60 needed in the 100-member chamber to overcome procedural hurdles to lift the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that replaced in 1993 an outright ban on gays in the US military.
In his 2008 campaign for the presidency, Obama promised to overturn the law. More recently, he has declared it one of his top legislative priorities for the year, but the White House did little to push the legislation, focusing instead on tax cuts and a nuclear arms treaty with Russia.
Repeal advocates said the fight was not over, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid seemed to have little appetite to return to the subject with only a week left in the post-election session and other major legislation pending.
“The other side may feel passionately that our military should sanction discrimination based on sexual orientation, but they are clearly in the minority,” Reid, a Democrat, said of Republicans. “And they have run out of excuses.”
Gay rights advocates were furious because the Senate vote failed largely due to a procedural disagreement.
More than 60 senators were expected to support repeal, with at least four Republicans having said they support overturning “don’t ask, don’t tell,” but Republican senators were united in demanding that the Senate vote on tax cuts first.
The Senate vote came after former Democratic Senator Sam Nunn announced in an interview with The Associated Press that he thinks gays could serve openly without damaging the armed forces’ ability to fight. Nunn, who led opposition to gays in the military in 1993, said he would advise that the Pentagon be given at least a year to prepare troops for the change.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not