The South Carolina Senate voted on Monday to remove the Confederate flag from a pole on the statehouse grounds, though the proposal still needs approval from the state House and the governor.
Lawmakers had largely ignored calls to remove the rebel flag until the killing of nine black people during a Bible study at a historic African-American church on June 17.
The bill requires a two-thirds vote in each chamber of the legislature. The Senate approved it 37-3 on Monday, but the bill still needs the approval of the state House.
Republican South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has said she wants the flag to come down and will sign the bill.
Monday’s vote came less than a week after the 15th anniversary of South Carolina taking the flag off the Capitol dome where it had flown since the early 1960s and moving it to beside a monument honoring Confederate soldiers.
Earlier on Monday, the Senate rejected a pair of amendments — one that would only fly the flag on Confederate Memorial Day and one that would leave the flag’s fate up to a popular vote.
State Senator Lee Bright, who suggested the popular vote amendment, said the Confederate flag has been misused by people like Dylann Roof, who is charged with nine counts of murder in the church shootings and posed in pictures posted online with the rebel banner.
A survey asking lawmakers how they intend to vote after Haley’s call to remove the flag found at least 33 senators and 83 House members agreed with her, satisfying the two-thirds majority required by law to alter the flag’s position, but the survey by The Post and Courier newspaper, the South Carolina Press Association and The Associated Press asked only about whether to keep or lower the flag.
The flag did not come down on Monday.
There were indications the proposal could have a tougher road in the House. Some powerful Republicans have not said how they would vote, including Speaker Jay Lucas.
Some Republicans want to keep the flagpole and put a different flag on it. Suggestions have included the US flag, the South Carolina flag and a flag that may have been flown by Confederate troops, but does not have the same connections as the red banner with the blue cross and white stars.
Democrats have said they cannot support any flag linked to the Confederacy. Haley and business leaders agree.
The Confederacy was the group of southern, pro-slavery states that seceded from the US, only to be defeated in the 1861 to 1865 US Civil War.
“There is no good-looking Confederate flag. It all stands for the same thing — secession,” said Lonnie Randolph, president of the South Carolina chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Outside the statehouse, there were dozens of protesters. Some called for the flag to come down. Others said the state was giving in to northern liberals and civil rights activists by taking it down.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of