British lawmakers OK Brexit bill, pave way to exit EU

LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers gave preliminary approval Friday to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill, clearing the way for the U.K. to leave the European Union next month.

The House of Commons voted 358-234 for the Withdrawal Agreement Bill.

It will receive more scrutiny and possible amendment next month, and also has to be approved by Parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords. But Johnson’s commanding Conservative majority in Parliament means it is almost certain to become law in January. Britain will then leave the EU on Jan. 31.

Johnson said Friday that passing the bill would end the “acrimony and anguish” that has consumed the country since it voted in 2016 to leave the EU. Opponents argue that leaving the EU will only trigger more uncertainty over Britain’s future trade relations with the bloc.

Friday’s vote was a moment of triumph for Johnson, who won a commanding parliamentary majority in last week’s general election on a promise to end more than three years of political gridlock and lead Britain out of the European Union on Jan. 31.

The U.K.’s departure will open a new phase of Brexit, as Britain and the EU race to strike new relationships for trade, security and host of other areas by the end of 2020.

Johnson, however, painted Friday’s vote as a moment of closure. Opening debate on the bill he said, optimistically, that after Jan, 31, “Brexit will be done, it will be over.”

“The sorry story of the last 3½ years will be at an end and we will be able to move forward together,” he said.

“This is a time when we move on and discard the old labels of ‘leave’ and ‘remain,’” Johnson added. “Now is the time to act together as one reinvigorated nation.”

Britain voted narrowly to leave the EU in a 2016 referendum. But previous attempts by Johnson and his predecessor, Theresa May, to pass a Brexit deal through the U.K. Parliament foundered as lawmakers objected to sections of the agreement and demanded a bigger say in the process. Johnson’s election victory finally gives him the power to get his way.

“The election has produced a result: We will leave the EU at the end of January,” acknowledged pro-EU Liberal Democrat legislator Wera Hobhouse. “The battle to stop Brexit is over.”

The bill commits Britain to leaving the EU on Jan. 31 and to concluding trade talks with the bloc by the end of 2020. Trade experts and EU officials say striking a free trade deal within 11 months will be a struggle, but Johnson insists he won’t agree to any more delays, The Brexit bill has been amended to bar ministers from agreeing to extend the transition period with the EU.

That has set off alarm bells among business es, who fear that means the country will face a “no-deal” Brexit at the start of 2021. Economists say that would disrupt trade with the EU — Britain’s biggest trading partner — and plunge the U.K. into recession.

Johnson said Friday he was confident of striking a “deep, special and democratically accountable partnership with those nations we are proud to call our closest friends” by the Brexit deadline.

He said extending the transition period would just prolong Brexit “acrimony and anguish … a torture that came to resemble Lucy snatching away Charlie Brown’s football.”

For all Johnson’s talk of “getting Brexit done” on Jan. 31, details of Britain’s negotiating stance — and even who will lead the trade talks — remain unknown.

Armed with his 80-seat majority in the 650-seat House of Commons, Johnson has stripped out parts of the Brexit bill that gave lawmakers a role in negotiating a future trade deal with the EU and required ministers to provide regular updates to Parliament. The clauses were added earlier in the year in an attempt to win opposition lawmakers’ support for the Brexit bill — backing that Johnson no longer needs.

A promise that workers’ rights will not be eroded after Brexit has also been removed from the bill, although the Conservative government says it will enshrine employment rights in separate legislation.

Opposition Labour Party lawmaker Hilary Benn said Johnson’s bill was “a gamble with our nation’s economy.”

“If he fails, the cliff-edge of a no-deal Brexit becomes in just 12 months’ time,” he said.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said his 203 lawmakers would oppose the Brexit bill because of “the reckless direction in which the government and the prime minister are determined to take our country.”

“There is a better and fairer way for this country to leave the European Union,” he said.

Even without opposition votes, the bill is expected to complete its passage through Parliament in January, in time for Britain to leave the 28-nation bloc on Jan. 31.

The divorce deal also needs to be ratified by the European Parliament. European Parliament vice president Pedro Silva Pereira said officials expect that to happen by Jan. 29.

Very little will change immediately after Brexit. Britain will remain an EU member in all but name during the 11-month transition period that ends in December 2020.

Court report

DISTRICT COURT

Judge Daniel Creitz

Civil cases filed:

Ashley Geary vs. Cheyanne D. Reed, automobile tort

Kathy C. Bowen vs. Aaron L. and Amanda N. Cookus and Double A. Hauling LLC, other civil

Madeline N. Pace vs. Donald J. Boudreaux, protection from abuse

Madeline N. Pace vs. Donald J. Boudreaux, protection from stalking

 

MAGISTRATE COURT

Judge Tod Davis

Convicted of no seat belt and fined $30:

Terri L. Johnson, Moran

Julie C. Albert, Yates Center

Dwayne J. Albert, Yates Center

Convicted of speeding:

Robert H. Ward, Chanute, 88/65, $240

Joseph L. Nagy, Mountain Grove, Mo., 65/55, $153

Tristan E. Fraker, Iola, 80/65, $183

Naomi R. Grubbs, Kansas City, Mo., 80/65, $208

Desjuan N.W. Williams, Kansas City, Mo., 75/65 $153

Chase A. Agard, Shawnee, 75/65, $153

Hong B. Wang, Overland Park, 80/65, $208

Tiffany L. Tso, Shawnee, 75/65, $153

Johnny D. Onkst, Tulsa, Okla., 84/65, $232

Bethany J. Shepard, Oswego, 75/65, $153

Lonny Ryder, Versailles, Mo., 65/55, $153

Grayson D. Leweke, Shawnee, 75/65, $153

Yasel Martinez Acosta, Miami, Fla., 77/65, $165

Jamie C. Jackson, Emporia, 91/65, $267

Allan J. Burton, Centerville, 70/55, $183

Dylan K. Cash, Kansas City, Kan., 75/65, $153

Crosby L. Calvillo, Kansas City, Kan., 65/55, $153

Mark H. Bixler, Lawrence, 75/65, $153

Convicted as follows:

Kayla Devoe, Kincaid, possession of marijuana, $968, 12 months probation

Adam C. Reyes, Lyford, Texas, DUI, $1,303

Tristan E. Fraker, Iola, possession of marijuana, $968

Alejandro Guzman, Birmingham, Ala., 75/65, no seatbelt, no driver’s license, $303

Franklin D. Logan III, Gas, failure to give turn signal, $183

Cases deferred with fines assessed:

Callum W. Taylor, Iola, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, $583

Thomas J. Taylor, Iola, failure to yield, $208

Failed to appear:

Craig S. Taylor, Girard, expired registration, $350

Kyle A. Doolittle, Humboldt, no driver’s license, $350

Chad E. Ranes, Elsmore, no driver’s license, $350

Criminal cases filed:

Timothy P. Berry, Iola, stalking, domestic battery

Christopher W. Hibbs, Iola, theft

Jacob M. Dawson, Fort Scott, distribute marijuana, trafficking contraband in a correctional institution, possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia

Alexis N. Vanarsdel, Tulsa, Okla., possession of cocaine, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia

Contract cases filed:

Midland Credit Management Inc., vs. Duncan Brookes

Discover Bank vs. Rex C. Hobbs

 

IOLA MUNICIPAL COURT

Judge Patti Boyd

Convicted of speeding:

Ted L. Bresee, Iola, 45/35, $155

Richard L. Burton, Iola, 45/35, $155

Hunter J. Mittelmeier, Gas, 55/35, $215

Savannah P. Burgess, LaHarpe, 40/30, $155

Convicted as follows with fines assessed:

Julius J. Bables, Iola, no insurance, driving while suspended, $665

Zachery Baker, Humboldt, no registration, 46/35, $281

Mandy R. Connolly, Iola, parking violation, $30

Brandon J. Gray, Humboldt, duty to give information and render aid, $315

Angel D. Kilbury, Iola, driving while suspended, $1,825, probation ordered

Nancy K. Newkirk, Iola, DUI, two counts, $4,548, probation ordered

Drew K. Noble, Eudora, failure to yield, $195

Essence S. Owens, Topeka, DUI, failure to signal, $2,035, probation ordered

Charvelle Peterson, Iola, dog running at large, no animal registration, $255

Steven R. Sinclair, Iola, disorderly conduct, $195, probation ordered

Michael W. Craig, Iola, driving while suspended, no insurance, $665

Michael F. Naff, Humboldt, possession of drug paraphernalia, $555

Halle Y. Parish, Chanute, failure to yield, $195

Terry Shelton Jr., Iola, nuisance violation, $175

Terry Shelton, Iola, use and occupancy of dwellings violation, $175

Heather A. Sigg, Iola, duty of driver to report accident to unattended vehicle, $195

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob Burns

Bob Burns, age 92, of Iola, died on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019, at Allen County Regional Hospital, Iola.

He was born on June 25, 1927, to Vere Thomas Burns and Olive Josephine (Attkisson) Burns at Fort Scott.

He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He also served in the Naval Reserve and the National Guard.

He married Maude Ilene Stringer on May 28, 1949, at Hepler.

He was preceded in death by a son, Terry Wayne Burns.

Survivors include his wife, Maude; sons, Don Burns of Gas, and Ron Burns of Iola; daughter, Cinda Jones of Moran; and other relatives.

The family will greet friends from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday in The Venue at Feuerborn Family Funeral Service, Iola. Cremation will follow the visitation. A graveside service will be at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Hepler Cemetery.

KU food, housing costs dip

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — University of Kansas student will pay a little bit less for basic food and housing starting next fall, while costs will remain the same or increase at the state’s five other public universities.

Kansas Board of Regents voted Wednesday to drop the rate of a double occupancy room and limited dining option at KU to $9,700 from $9,768 for the 2020-21 academic year, the Lawrence Journal-World reports  that the

KU Chancellor Douglas Girod said the savings came from food service employees finding “efficiencies in the system.”

Though KU’s rate will decrease, it will remain the second most expensive in the state. Wichita State, which didn’t increase its cost, has the highest rate at $11,110.

The four other public universities saw an increase in rates for a double room and a basic meal plan. Pittsburg State University’s was the highest at 2.5%, from $7,354 to $7,538.

In discussing the food and housing adjustments, Regent Jon Rolph suggested that the board create a task force to study room and board costs.

“I think this ties right in with our goal of increasing access to students,” Regent Shelly Kiblinger said, adding that housing and food costs can be “just as big of a burden as tuition and fees.”

Trump impeached along party lines

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming only the third American chief executive to be formally charged under the Constitution’s ultimate remedy for high crimes and misdemeanors.

The historic vote split along party lines Wednesday night, much the way it has divided the nation, over a charge that the 45th president abused the power of his office by enlisting a foreign government to investigate a political rival ahead of the 2020 election. The House then approved a second charge, that he obstructed Congress in its investigation.

The articles of impeachment, the political equivalent of an indictment, now go to the Senate for trial. If Trump is acquitted by the Republican-led chamber, as expected, he still would have to run for reelection carrying the enduring stain of impeachment on his purposely disruptive presidency.

“The president is impeached,” Pelosi declared after the vote. She called it “great day for the Constitution of the United States, a sad one for America that the president’s reckless activities necessitated us having to introduce articles of impeachment.”

Trump, who began Wednesday tweeting his anger at the proceedings, pumped his fist before an evening rally in Battle Creek, Michigan, boasting of “tremendous support” in the Republican Party and saying, “By the way it doesn’t feel like I’m being impeached.”

The votes for impeachment were 230-197-1 on the first charge, 229-198-1 on the second.

Democrats led Wednesday night’s voting, framed in what many said was their duty to protect the Constitution and uphold the nation’s system of checks and balances. Republicans stood by their party’s leader, who has frequently tested the bounds of civic norms. Trump called the whole affair a “witch hunt,” a “hoax” and a “sham,” and sometimes all three.

The trial is expected to begin in January in the Senate, where a vote of two-thirds is necessary for conviction. While Democrats had the majority in the House to impeach Trump, Republicans control the Senate and few if any are expected to diverge from plans to acquit the president ahead of early state election-year primary voting.

Pelosi, once reluctant to lead Democrats into a partisan impeachment, gaveled both votes closed, risking her majority and speakership to follow the effort to its House conclusion.

No Republicans voted for impeachment, and Democrats had only slight defections on their side. Voting was conducted manually with ballots, to mark the moment.

On the first article, abuse of power, two Democrats, Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who is considering switching parties to become a Republican, and Collin Peterson of Minnesota voted against impeaching Trump. On the second article, obstruction, those two and freshman Rep. Jared Golden of Maine voted against. Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is running for president, voted “present” on both.

What Pelosi called a sad and solemn moment for the country, coming in the first year after Democrats swept control of the House, unfolded in a caustic daylong session that showcased the nation’s divisions.

The House impeachment resolution laid out in stark terms the articles of impeachment against Trump stemming from his July phone call when he asked the Ukrainian president for a “favor” — to announce he was investigating Democrats including potential 2020 rival Joe Biden.

At the time, Zelenskiy, new to politics and government, was seeking a coveted White House visit to show backing from the U.S. as he confronted a hostile Russia at his border. He was also counting on $391 million in military aid already approved by Congress. The White House delayed the funds, but Trump eventually released the money once Congress intervened.

Narrow in scope but broad in its charges, the impeachment resolution said the president “betrayed the nation by abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power in corrupting democratic elections,” and then obstructing Congress’ oversight like “no president” in U.S. history.

“President Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office,” it said.

Republicans argued that Democrats were impeaching Trump because they can’t beat him in 2020.

Said Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah: “They want to take away my vote and throw it in the trash.”

But Democrats warned the country cannot wait for the next election to decide whether Trump should remain in office because he has shown a pattern of behavior, particularly toward Russia, and will try to corrupt U.S. elections again.

“The president and his men plot on,” said Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., of the Intelligence Committee that led the inquiry. “The danger persists. The risk is real.”

The outcome brings the Trump presidency to a milestone moment that has been building almost from the time the New York businessman-turned-reality-TV host unexpectedly won the White House in 2016 amid questions about Russian interference in the U.S. election.

Democrats drew from history, the founders and their own experiences, as minorities, women and some immigrants to the U.S. spoke of seeking to honor their oath of office to uphold the Constitution. Rep. Lou Correa of California spoke in Spanish asking God to unite the nation. “In America,” said Hakeem Jeffries of New York, “no one is above the law.”

Republicans aired Trump-style grievances about what Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko called a “rigged” process.

“We face this horror because of this map,” said Rep. Clay Higgins of Alabama before a poster of red and blue states. “They call this Republican map flyover country, they call us deplorables, they fear our faith, they fear our strength, they fear our unity, they fear our vote, and they fear our president.”

The political fallout from the vote will reverberate across an already polarized country with divergent views of Trump’s July phone call when he asked Zelenskiy to investigate Democrats in the 2016 election, Biden and Biden’s son Hunter, who worked on the board of a gas company in Ukraine while his father was the vice president.

Trump has repeatedly implored Americans to read the transcript of the call he said was “perfect.” But the facts it revealed, and those in an anonymous whistleblower’s complaint that sparked the probe, are largely undisputed.

More than a dozen current and former White House officials and diplomats testified for hours in impeachment hearings. The open and closed sessions under oath revealed what one called the “irregular channel” of foreign policy run by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, which focused on investigating the Bidens and alternative theories of 2016 election interference.

The question for lawmakers was whether the revelations amounted to impeachable offenses.

Few lawmakers crossed party lines.

Van Drew, who is considering changing parties over his opposition to impeachment, sat with Republicans. Rep. Justin Amash, the Michigan conservative who left the Republican party and became an independent over impeachment, said: “I come to this floor, not as a Republican, not as a Democrat, but as an American.”

Beyond the impeachments of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, this first impeachment of the 21st century is as much about what the president might do in the future as what he did in the past. The investigation of Richard Nixon ended when he resigned rather than face the House vote over Watergate.

Rank and file Democrats said they were willing to lose their jobs to protect the democracy from Trump. Some newly elected freshmen remained in the chamber for hours during the debate.

Top Republicans, including Rep. Devin Nunes on the Intelligence Committee, called the Ukraine probe little more than a poor sequel to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Mueller spent two years investigating the potential links between Moscow and the Trump campaign but testified in July that his team could not establish that Trump conspired or coordinated with Russia to throw the election. Mueller did say he could not exonerate Trump of trying to obstruct the investigation, but he left that for Congress to decide.

The next day, Trump called Ukraine. Not quite four months later, a week before Christmas, Trump was impeached.

Kansas delegation split on impeachment

The vote by the Kansas delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives on whether to impeach President Donald Trump split along party lines.

Republicans Roger Marshall, Ron Estes and Steve Watkins all voted no Wednesday night on the two articles of impeachment. Democrat Sharice Davids voted yes.

The split mirrored that of the entire House. In a vote that almost exclusively fell along party lines, House members voted to impeach Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

He is the third president in U.S. history to be impeached.

The case now moves to the Senate, which is expected to vote next month on whether to remove Trump from office. Political experts consider that unlikely.

Members of the Kansas delegation all released statements either just before or after the vote.

 

Ron Estes, Republican, 4th District

Tonight’s impeachment is not about evidence, the rule of law or the Constitution. Instead, the articles of impeachment passed tonight by the U.S. House of Representatives are the culmination of a desire by many House Democrats to impeach President Trump which began the day he was sworn-in. 

 

Roger Marshall, Republican, 1st District

I will vote no because this President has done nothing wrong. And if my Democrat colleagues were honest, they’d tell us that the only thing President Trump is guilty of is not being Hillary Clinton. The only party guilty of obstruction, abuse of power, or whatever focus group term they are using today, is the party on the other side of this aisle.

 

Steve Watkins, Republican, 2nd District

After three years of obstruction and resistance, Democrats brought forward articles of impeachment that prove once and for all this entire process has been nothing more than desperate political theatre. The American people deserve better. I will be voting no on both articles of impeachment. 

 

Sharice Davids, Democrat, 3rd District

President Trump used the office of the presidency to solicit foreign interference in our elections for his own personal, political benefit. His actions endangered our national security, violated his oath of office, and undermined the security of our elections … the very basis of our democracy. It has left me with no other option than to vote in favor of the articles of impeachment.

Court strikes ACA mandate

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday struck down “Obamacare’s” now-toothless requirement that Americans carry health insurance but sidestepped a ruling on the law’s overall constitutionality. The decision means the law remains in effect for now.

The 2-1 ruling handed down by a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans means the ultimate fate of the rest of the Affordable Care Act including such popular provisions as protections for those with pre-existing conditions, Medicaid expansion and the ability for children under the age of 26 to remain on their parents’ insurance remains unclear.

The panel agreed with Texas-based U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor’s 2018 finding that the law’s insurance requirement, the so-called “individual mandate,” was rendered unconstitutional when Congress, in 2017, reduced a tax on people without insurance to zero.

The court reached no decision on the big issue — how much of the Affordable Care Act must fall along with the insurance mandate.

“It may still be that none of the ACA is severable from the individual mandate, even after this inquiry is concluded. It may be that all of the ACA is severable from the individual mandate. It may also be that some of the ACA is severable from the individual mandate, and some is not,” Judge Jennifer Elrod wrote.

The decision sends the case back to a judge who already ruled once to throw out the entire ACA but with some guidance. O’Connor has to be more specific about which parts of the law can’t be separated from the mandate, and also must take into account Congress’ decision to leave the rest of the law essentially unchanged when it reduced the penalty for not having insurance to zero, Elrod wrote.

In dissent, Judge Carolyn Dineen King said her colleagues were prolonging “uncertainty over the future of the healthcare sector.” King would have found the mandate constitutional, although unenforceable, and would have left the rest of the law alone.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is leading state efforts to defend the law, promised a quick appeal to the Supreme Court.

“For now, the President got the gift he wanted — uncertainty in the healthcare system and a pathway to repeal — so that the healthcare that seniors, workers and families secured under the Affordable Care Act can be yanked from under them,” Becerra said in a statement.

Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas, which spearheaded the lawsuit seeking to throw out the ACA, applauded the court’s decision to declare the mandate unconstitutional.

“As the court’s opinion recognized, the only reason the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare in 2012 was Congress’ taxing power, and without the individual mandate’s penalty that justification crumbled,” Paxton wrote. “We look forward to the opportunity to further demonstrate that Congress made the individual mandate the centerpiece of Obamacare and the rest of the law cannot stand without it.”

President Donald Trump also applauded the decision, calling it a “win for all Americans.”

A legal analyst who has followed the health law from its early days said the ruling seems to indicate that the lower court judge who struck the entire statute down as unconstitutional overreached.

“The opinion suggests that Judge O’Connor went too far in invalidating the entire statute, and that he should have considered what Congress intended in 2017 when it zeroed out the mandate penalty,” said Tim Jost, a retired law professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia. Jost supports the ACA.

The court’s ruling ensures “Obamacare” will remain a political issue during the 2020 election campaign, giving Democrats a line of attack against Trump and congressional Republicans. With the health law’s ultimate fate still in doubt, Democrats will argue that Republicans are trying to strip coverage away from 20 million Americans.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the ruling a “chilling threat” to those who rely on the Affordable Care Act.

All the Democratic presidential candidates favor expanding coverage to the remaining 27 million uninsured, although their ideas range from building on the Obama health law to replacing America’s mix of private and public insurance with a single plan run by the government.

The decision comes after the conclusion of sign-up season for ACA coverage in most states. Technical glitches over the weekend had led to an extension until early Wednesday. That means the court ruling will not affect enrollment for 2020.

The lawsuit followed congressional approval of a major tax cut in 2017, which included the reduction of the “Obamacare” tax on the uninsured to zero. The case came about because “Obamacare” opponents noted a splintered Supreme Court ruling of 2012 that upheld the law. In that decision, conservative justices had rejected the argument that Congress could require that everyone buy insurance. But Chief Justice John Roberts, joining four liberal justices, said Congress did have the power to tax those without insurance.

With no tax in effect, the Texas lawsuit argued, the so-called “individual mandate” was unconstitutional and the entire law must fall. Judge O’Connor agreed in his December 2018 ruling.

Supporters of the law said the reduction of the tax penalty to zero could be read as a suspension of the tax, which didn’t render the mandate unconstitutional. They said the structure for collecting a penalty from the uninsured remained in place.

They added that, even if the individual mandate was rendered unconstitutional by the tax cut bill, the rest of the law could be salvaged.

Congress had already failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act in its entirety, the law’s supporters noted. What happened in 2017, they contended in written arguments, is that Congress “chose to make the minimum coverage provision unenforceable — while leaving every other part of the ACA in place.”

Queen lays out Johnson’s Brexit plan to Parliament

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson signaled an end to Britain’s era of Brexit deadlock today, announcing a packed legislative program intended to take the U.K. out of the European Union on Jan. 31, overhaul everything from fishing to financial services and shore up the country’s cash-starved public services.

The commanding House of Commons majority won by Johnson’s Conservative Party in last week’s general election all but guarantees he will be able to turn those promises into law, although with Brexit casting a shadow over the British economy, there’s a question mark over how he will pay for it all.

In a speech delivered from a golden throne in Parliament by Queen Elizabeth II, Johnson opened the legislative floodgates after three years in which minority Conservative governments tried in vain to win lawmakers’ backing for their Brexit plans.

“Last week’s seismic election not only changed the political landscape, it has broken the parliamentary deadlock of the last three years and allowed the country to go forward,” Johnson said in a written introduction to the speech.

In less than 10 minutes, the monarch rattled through more than two dozen bills the government intends to pass in the coming year. The first will be the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill, the law needed to make Brexit a reality, which is set to receive its first significant parliamentary vote on Friday.

The bill commits Britain to leaving the EU on Jan. 31 and to concluding trade talks with the bloc by the end of 2020. Trade experts and EU officials say striking a free trade deal within 11 months will be a struggle, but Johnson insists he won’t agree to any more delays. That vow has set off alarm bells among businesses, who fear that means the country will face a “no-deal” Brexit at the start of 2021.

The government also plans to pass several other Brexit-related measures, including a new “points-based” immigration system that will be introduced after Brexit, when EU citizens will lose the automatic right to live and work in the U.K.

There are also plans to overhaul agriculture, fishing, trade and financial services after Brexit in ways that will have a huge — though still largely unknown — effect on the British economy.

Johnson also promised “an ambitious program of domestic reform,” including a law committing the government to spend more on the National Health Service, which has struggled to keep up with growing demand during a decade-long funding squeeze by previous Conservative governments.

There were tough-sounding announcements on law and order, including longer sentences for people convicted of terrorist offenses and other serious crimes.

Several of the measures are likely to prove contentious. The government said it would hold a sweeping review of defense and foreign policy, and set up a “Constitution, Democracy and Rights Commission” that could lead to reform of institutions including the Supreme Court. The court angered the government by ruling in September that Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament was illegal.

Shami Chakrabarti, justice spokeswoman for the opposition Labour Party, said the proposal “looks like a vindictive revenge” for Johnson’s Supreme Court defeat, calling it “another play from the Book of Trump.”

The government also intends to pass a law protecting military veterans from “vexatious” prosecutions. The question of whether veterans who served decades ago in Northern Ireland should be open to criminal prosecution is hugely controversial.

Also proposed is a ban on public institutions taking part in “boycott, divestment or sanctions campaigns against foreign countries and those who trade with them” without the government’s approval. The move is aimed at universities that have boycotted Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians.

The government also promised to lessen regional inequality and bring greater unity to the United Kingdom, which is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. But Brexit is making that more difficult. Scotland voted to remain in the EU in Britain’s 2016 referendum, and last week most Scottish seats in Parliament were won by the anti-Brexit, pro-independence Scottish National Party.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon says Scotland should be able to hold a vote on independence, an option Scots rejected in a 2014 referendum that was billed as a “once-in-a-generation” event.

Sturgeon said she had formally written to the prime minister requesting the power to hold a new independence vote.

“The alternative is a future that we have rejected being imposed upon us,” Sturgeon said in Edinburgh. “Scotland made it very clear last week it does not want a Tory government led by Boris Johnson taking us out of the European Union.”

Johnson has said he will refuse, and the two sides look set for a slow-burning constitutional showdown.

The Queen’s Speech was the centerpiece of the State Opening of Parliament, a blend of politics and pageantry that usually takes place about once a year. Britain saw its last state opening just two months ago, soon after Johnson took over as prime minister from Theresa May through a Conservative Party leadership contest and shortly before the early election that returned him to power.

The pomp was toned down for the queen’s second visit this year. There were still officials with titles like Black Rod, scarlet-clad yeomen of the guard and lords in ermine-trimmed robes. But the 93-year-old monarch was driven from Buckingham Palace to Parliament in a car, rather than a horse-drawn carriage, and wore a pale blue dress and matching hat rather than robes and a diamond-studded crown.

Johnson will make his mark on the government more decisively in the new year, when he shakes up his Cabinet and the structure of government. Johnson’s office confirmed that one ministry, the Department for Exiting the European Union, will be abolished after Britain leaves the bloc Jan. 31.

Anand Menon, director of political think-tank U.K. in a Changing Europe, said that, with his 80-strong majority in the 650-seat House of Commons, Johnson was in a “very, very strong position.”

“It’s been so long since we’ve seen an effective majority government that for the first few months of this one I think we’ll just sit there going ‘Wow, they’re getting things done,’” Menon told the BBC.

Amid crippling power cuts, Zimbabwe turns to solar

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Outside Cecilia Ziwane’s house sits a neatly stacked woodpile next to a small solar panel — her two major sources of energy.

“We cannot do without them,” said the mother of three, who lives in Glen Norah, a working class suburb of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. Like the rest of the country, Ziwane has been coping for more than a year with crippling power cuts lasting up to 19 hours per day.

With no sign of the state utility generating adequate electricity, desperate Zimbabweans are reverting to a combination of old and new sources of energy: firewood for cooking and solar for light.

“I would rather have normal electricity supplies. Solar is better but firewood … as you can see, it is heavy, it is dirty, but I have no choice,” she said.

Zimbabwe is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a decade, with inflation estimated at nearly 500%. The most severe drought in decades has added to the country’s woes, increasing shortages of food and water.

The drought has also made electricity even more scarce. Zimbabwe’s state power utility relies heavily on hydro-power generated by the Kariba Dam on the Zambezi River. Lake Kariba, one of the world’s largest man-made bodies of water, is currently only 10% full, compared to 55% at the same period last year, according to the Zambezi River Authority, which manages the dam.

With water levels still shrinking, authorities have severely reduced power generation and, at times have warned of a complete shutdown.

Nor does Zimbabwe have the foreign currency needed to import adequate electricity from neighboring Mozambique and South Africa. The result is the widespread power cuts leaving homes, offices and factories in the dark.

To promote solar energy, the government has removed import duties on solar panels and accessories and encouraged new buildings to include solar power, said Energy Minister Fortune Chasi.

“It is clean, it is sustainable and could save us a lot of the money that we use to import electricity,” said Chasi to The Associated Press. “Climate change means we have to look at alternatives, we can’t rely on hydro power as much as we did before.”

Zimbabwe’s rich and poor alike are turning to solar energy. Small solar panels are perched atop makeshift shacks made from plastic sheets, cardboard boxes, grass and mud in a squatters’ camp on what used to be open land in Borrowdale, one of Harare’s affluent suburbs. Larger solar panels are on the roofs of the substantial homes, just a few meters (yards) away.

“They have money but they don’t have electricity, just like us squatters,” said 78-year-old Chiwenga Mutekede, pointing at the posh houses nearby. “We are in the same boat, solar all the way,” he said with a chuckle. He said he bought his 20 watt solar panel for $15 to power a small radio and his phone.

His wealthy neighbors also praise solar power.

“I just passed my examinations! It was because of this solar panel,” said 12-year-old Rumbidzai Magaya, who said she completed her homework thanks to a light bulb powered by the solar panel.

Some of Harare’s big businesses are using solar power as much as possible. Firms such as telecoms giant, Econet and Schweppes Zimbabwe, which produces and distributes drinks under license from Coca-Cola, have covered their rooftops and carports with solar panels. They say they want their operations to use more electricity from solar than from the national power company.

In the poor Mbare area, a barber used humming clippers to give haircuts to a steady stream of customers. “I had to get a solar panel to stay in business,” said Segmore Chirwa.

Nearby, a diesel generator powered a mill grinding maize (corn) into a meal used to make sadza, a thick porridge that is Zimbabwe’s staple food. Others displayed firewood for sale on street pavements and outside houses.

Energy minister Chasi said rather than firewood, people should go for solar “to save our forests and the environment.”

Glen Norah resident Ziwane agrees. She said although she would rather have the “normal” electricity supplies more regularly, solar “is not that bad.”

“I am getting used to it, but it is still for the rich. I can’t power my fridge, stove and everything with solar,” said Ziwane. “I don’t have the money to cover my roof with solar panels like the rich people do.”

Hoot, hoot hooray

SOUTHERN SHORES, N.C. (AP) — An owl that got trapped in the grille of a vehicle has lived to fly another day.

A barred owl took an unexpected three-hour ride to the Outer Banks of North Carolina over the weekend, said Lou Browning, the founder and president of Hatteras Island Wildlife Rehabilitation.

A family from Wilmington heard something hit their car on the drive to Southern Shores but kept going when nothing appeared out of the ordinary, Browning told news outlets. The owl was found after the family got to their destination, according to a Facebook post from the wildlife group.

“Nothing’s broken,” Browning said of the freed owl’s condition. “Just bruising.”

Barred owls are one of three owl species seen regularly in eastern North Carolina.

Owls getting hit by vehicles isn’t uncommon. Browning says he receives about 70 to 100 raptors a year from car strikes. He says they are often out hunting this time of year because they need more calories when it’s cold.