Colorado's Supreme Court has ruled that Donald Trump cannot run for president next year in the state, citing a constitutional insurrection clause.

The court ruled 4-3 that Mr. Trump was not an eligible candidate because he had engaged in an insurrection over the US Capitol riot nearly three years ago. It does not stop Mr. Trump running in the other states and his campaign says it will appeal to the US Supreme Court.

The decision, they said, was "completely flawed". The ruling only mentions the state's primary election on 5 March, when Republican voters will choose their preferred candidate for president. But it could affect the general election in Colorado next November.

It is the first ever use of Section 3 of the US Constitution's 14th Amendment to disqualify a presidential candidate. Tuesday's decision - which has been placed on hold pending appeal until next month - only applies in Colorado. Similar attempts to kick Mr. Trump off the ballot in New Hampshire, Minnesota and Michigan have failed.

Can Trump still run for president after Colorado ruling?

The justices wrote in their ruling: "We do not reach these conclusions lightly. We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us.

"We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach."

The decision reverses an earlier one from a Colorado judge, who ruled that the 14th Amendment's insurrection ban did not apply to presidents because the section did not explicitly mention them.

 That same lower court judge also found that Mr. Trump had participated in an insurrection in the US Capitol riot. His supporters stormed Congress on 6 January 2021 while lawmakers were certifying President Joe Biden's election victory.

The Colorado Supreme Court's decision does not go into effect until 4 January 2024. That is the eve of the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots.

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The desperate search for a missing submersible near the wreck of the Titanic entered a critical juncture on Thursday when air was expected to run out for the five people aboard, but officials vowed to continue scouring the remote North Atlantic.

Five days since the Titan began what should have been a two-hour dive to the century-old shipwreck, a massive multinational hunt over thousands of square miles was still expanding.

A remotely operated vehicle deployed from a Canadian vessel reached the ocean floor to begin searching, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Thursday morning, while another robotic craft from a French research ship was also preparing to dive to the seabed.

The minivan-sized Titan, operated by U.S.-based OceanGate Expeditions, began its descent at 8 a.m. (1200 GMT) on Sunday but lost contact with its support ship.

The submersible set off with 96 hours of air, according to the company, which means the oxygen would be exhausted by Thursday morning, assuming the Titan is still intact. Precisely when depends on factors such as whether the craft still has power and how calm those on board are, experts say.

Rescuers and relatives of the Titan's five occupants took hope when the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday that Canadian search planes had recorded undersea noises using sonar buoys earlier that day and on Tuesday.

The passengers included British billionaire and adventurer Hamish Harding, 58, and Pakistani-born business magnate Shahzada Dawood, 48, with his 19-year-old son Suleman, who are both British citizens. French oceanographer and leading Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, and Stockton Rush, the U.S. founder and chief executive of OceanGate, were also on board. Rush is married to a descendant of two of the Titanic victims.

But remote-controlled underwater vehicles searching where the noises were detected had not yielded results, and officials cautioned the sounds might not have originated from the Titan. 

Despite the fading hopes, U.S. Coast Guard rear admiral John Mauger told broadcaster NBC the search would continue throughout Thursday.

The French research ship Atalante, equipped with a robotic diving craft capable of reaching where the Titanic lies about 12,500 feet (3,810 meters) below the surface, had arrived in the zone as of Thursday.

It was first using an echo-sounder to accurately map the seabed for the robot's search to be more targeted, the French marine research institute Ifremer said.

The robot, Victor 6000, has arms that can be remotely controlled to help free a trapped craft or hook it to a ship to haul it up. The U.S. Navy is sending a special salvage system designed to lift large undersea objects.

DEEP-SEA ADVENTURE

The Titan submersible, operated by OceanGate Expeditions to explore the wreckage of the sunken Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland, dives in an undated photograph. The Titanic, which sank in 1912 on its maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 people, lies about 900 miles (1,450 km) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 400 miles (640 km) south of St. John's, Newfoundland.

The Titan's deep-sea excursion to the shipwreck capped a tourist adventure for which OceanGate charges $250,000 per person. Sean Leet, who heads a company that jointly owns the support ship, the PolarmPrince, has said all protocols were followed before the submersible lost contact.

"There's still life support available on the submersible, and we'll continue to hold out hope until the very end," said Leet, chief executive of Miawpukek Horizon Maritime Services.

 Questions about Titan's safety were raised in 2018 during a symposium of submersible industry experts and in a lawsuit filed by OceanGate's former head of marine operations, which was settled later that year. Even if the Titan were located, retrieving it would present huge logistical challenges.

 If the submersible had managed to return to the surface, spotting it would be difficult in the open sea and it is bolted shut from the outside, so those inside cannot exit without help.

 If Titan is on the ocean floor, a rescue would have to contend with the immense pressures and total darkness at that depth. British Titanic expert Tim Maltin said it would be "almost impossible to effect a sub-to-sub rescue" on the seabed.

It may also be difficult to find the Titan amid the wreck. "If you've seen the Titanic debris field, there'll be a thousand different objects that size," said Jamie Pringle, a forensic geoscientist at Keele University in the United Kingdom. "It might be an endless task."

 Source: Reuters

The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, on Tuesday, approved the reduction in the number of workdays for civil and public servants in the state from five to three per week.

 In a statement issued in Benin City, the governor said the measure was part of efforts to ameliorate the sufferings currently faced by the people following the rise in prices of goods and services occasioned by the fuel subsidy removal.

The Kwara State government had on Monday adopted the same measure to cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal on the people of the state.

Obaseki said: “In the wake of fuel subsidy removal by the Federal Government, fuel prices have increased astronomically, leading to a rise in prices of goods and services and overall cost of living.

 “The Edo State government shares the pains of our people and wants to assure everyone that we are standing with them in these very challenging times.

“We want to reassure our people that we will do all within our powers as a sub-national government to reduce the pains and ameliorate the sufferings our people are currently facing due to the current realities.

“As a proactive government, we have since taken the step to increase the minimum wage paid to workers in Edo State from the approved N30,000 to N40,000.

“We hope to increase it even further if more allocation accrues to our state from the Federal Government in view of the expected savings from the removal of the fuel subsidy.

“We know the hardship that has been caused by this policy which has increased the cost of transportation and eaten deep into the wages of workers in the state.

“Therefore, the Edo State government is hereby reducing the number of work days that civil and public servants will have to commute to their workplaces from five days to three days a week till further notice.

“Workers will now work from home two days every week.

“Similarly, for teachers and parents, their commuting to school will be reduced as the government is working on deepening the EdoBEST@Home initiative to create more virtual classrooms, thereby, reducing the cost of commuting on parents, teachers, and pupils.

“The Edo SUBEB will provide details on this initiative in the coming days.”

Source; Ripples Nigeria