Global report
1 UNITED STATES
Biden will nominate Black woman to supreme court
Joe Biden intends to announce his nominee to become the first Black woman to sit on the US supreme court by the end of February.
The president was speaking at a formal White House event to mark the retirement of the liberal-leaning justice Stephen Breyer, who he lauded as a “model public servant at a time of great division in this country”. Biden pledged to replace him with someone worthy of Breyer’s “legacy of excellence and decency”. He said the nominee would have “extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity, and that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States supreme court.” He added: “It is long overdue in my view.”
Biden’s confirmation that he is still studying the résumés of candidates will do little to settle nerves among progressives still smarting from Donald Trump’s three supreme court appointments. Many Democrats want the president to emulate the speed with which the Trump administration drove through the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett in less than six weeks following Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death in September 2020.
2 FRANCE
Right and left divided weeks before elections
A “people’s primary” has picked the former justice minister Christiane Taubira as the favourite
