CONFIRMED: Amy Coney Barrett is officially confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States

After the Senate voted to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court 52-48, Barrett was sworn in by Justice Clarence Thomas in a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, capping off a rapid confirmation process ending just days before the 2020 presidential election.

Barrett was President Donald Trump’s pick to fill the vacancy left behind by the late liberal icon, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“This is a momentous day for America,” Trump said before a crowd of about 200. 

Barrett told those gathered that she learned through the “rigorous confirmation” that “it is the job of a judge to resist her policy preferences.” She vowed, “I will do my job without any fear or favour.”

Barrett will be able to participate in the court Tuesday after taking the judicial oath administered by Chief Justice John Roberts in a private ceremony at the court.

With a Republican majority in the Senate, Barrett was approved Monday night following a quick confirmation and over the objections of Democrats, who said her nomination was too close to the U.S. election in November.

Vice President Mike Pence's office said Monday he would not preside at the Senate session unless his tie-breaking vote was needed after Democrats asked him to stay away when his aides tested positive for COVID-19. The vote was 52-48, and Pence's vote was not necessary.

The 48-year-old’s ascension to the Supreme Court tips the balance to a 6-3 conservative majority likely for years to come. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas administered the official constitutional oath to Barrett Monday evening. “This is something to be really proud of and feel good about,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said during a rare weekend session Sunday ahead of voting. He scoffed at the “apocalyptic” warnings from critics that the judicial branch was becoming mired in partisan politics and declared that "they won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come.”

Only one Republican, Sen. Susan Collins, who is in a tight re-election fight in Maine, voted against the nominee — but not over any direct assessment of Barrett. Rather, Collins said, “I do not think it is fair nor consistent to have a Senate confirmation vote prior to the election.”

Republicans in the Senate had been pushing for a quick vote before the Nov. 3 election and ahead of the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act, which the Supreme Court is set to hear on Nov. 10. Many questions from Democrats during the confirmation hearings centred on this topic, with fears that Barrett would be a vote to undo the “Obamacare” law — which provides more than 20 million Americans health insurance coverage.

During testimony earlier this month, Barrett presented herself as a judge with deeply held religious beliefs, but vowed to approach each case with an “open mind.” A devout Catholic, the appellate judge promised to bring no personal agenda to the high court.

Barrett has remained neutral on many issues, asserting it's against judicial code to say whether she would overturn the Affordable Care Act or how she would vote on other politically fraught issues, including abortion.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who presided over the confirmation hearings, said previously that Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court is a signal to young conservative women who oppose abortion that there’s “a seat at the table for them.”

“She’s going to the court,” Graham said Oct. 13. “This is the first time in American history that we’ve nominated a woman who’s unashamedly pro-life and embraces her faith without apology.”

Senators questioned Barrett’s views on racial equity and presidential power in a bid to determine how she would rule on cases. Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois probed whether her strict adherence to originalism means a president could not “unilaterally deny the right to vote” based on race, noting restrictions on mail-in ballots being erected in several states before Nov. 3.

Source: Fox10

Special forces did 'exemplary job' ending suspected tanker hijacking and crew are now safe

16 Special Boat Service (SBS) commandos boarded the Nave Andromeda after reports of stowaways.

Authorities did an "exemplary job" rescuing the crew onboard a tanker hijacked off the Isle of Wight, Matt Hancock has said.

Seven people have been detained after about 16 Special Boat Service (SBS) commandos boarded the Nave Andromeda on Sunday night and regained control of the vessel.

"I can confirm the crew are safe and the operation to secure the vessel concluded successfully," Mr Hancock told Sky News.

He added: "I would like to pay tribute to the police and armed forces who did such an exemplary job… this is what they train for and this is what they're there for, to protect our country and they did that to such a high standard."

Hampshire Police received reports that a "number of stowaways" were on board and had made "verbal threats towards the crew" soon after 10am on Sunday as the ship headed towards Southampton, having set sail from Lagos in Nigeria.

Special forces ended a suspected hijacking on tanker off the Isle of Wight

The raid on the tanker was authorised by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel in response to the "suspected hijacking" and after a tense 10-hour stand-off, the MoD said.

The SBS and two Royal Navy Merlin helicopters were involved, along with two Royal Navy Wildcat helicopters.

Source: Sky News

UK Road Cameras Secretly Repurposed to Snoop on Pedestrians Amid COVID Pandemic, Report Says

Last week, UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said that the government hopes the country's new three-tiered COVID-19 local lockdown system will be effective enough so that the strict social distancing measures can be lifted in time for the Christmas holidays.

© REUTERS / JASON CAIRN

More than 300 road traffic cameras are currently snooping on pedestrians across the UK as part of a government-backed project that was secretly launched amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a Daily Mail probe has revealed.

The inquiry claimed that in June, Vivacity Labs, the company behind the Artificial Intelligence camera technology, received instructions from the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy [BEIS] to "improve the collection of social distancing data", in what came along with a £49,481 ($64,450) government grant. This followed at least 363 cameras that were originally installed to monitor traffic flows being switched to spying on pedestrians, according to the probe. While Vivacity Labs declined to clarify where the cameras were rolled out, citing "commercial confidentiality", the Daily Mail investigation revealed that social distancing is already being monitored in an array of UK cities and counties, including Liverpool, Manchester, Westminster, and Oxfordshire, as well as Cambridgeshire, Warwickshire, Bournemouth, and Peterborough.

The inquiry also referred to Vivacity's "confidential" contract with the UK Department for Transport stipulating the company sending monthly updates on pedestrians commitment to social distancing rules to the department.

The probe specifically stressed that people were not in the know about their movements being spotted because the government avoided consulting the public on the change in the use of the cameras.

The Daily Mail cited former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith as describing the repurposing of the cameras as "the kind of stuff that China does".

"The reason why you film cars is to stop road accidents and things like that. You don't film people going about their daily business so you can report on their comings and goings. It's becoming mad", he said.

Smith claimed that Britons are "losing" their "inalienable freedoms", and the COVID-19 pandemic is "destroying the very nature of what it is to be in a democracy under the rule of law and protected freedoms".

"The authorities are now using devices [to monitor people] which were not intended for that purpose. The government should have informed the public but they shouldn't be doing this in the first place", he pointed out.

The former Tory leader was echoed by Edin Omanovic from the London-based charity Privacy International, who warned that if Brits "can't even walk in public without a tech company trying to profit from us or a government agency knowing about it we're heading to a truly dark place".

"The fact that they secretly sought to repurpose the cameras shows a shocking disregard for transparency, local authorities, and the public", Omanovic added.

The warning followed Mark Nicholson, one of Vivacity's founders, pledging last month that the company would soon expand the technology to conduct temperature checks "depending on how far down the 'Big Brother' route we want to go".

The Daily Mail probe was revealed a week after senior adviser to the UK government Sir John Bell told the BBC that the only way for the country to curtail an increasing spike in its COVID-19 numbers is through the imposition of a second national lockdown.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly opposed the imposition of a second nationwide, preferring instead to implement localised measures, including those related to social distancing.

Source: Spiked