LEGISLATION

NI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris says no election will take place ahead of the festive season.

Few issues spark more passion in the United States than gun control.

Ministers say the move would ensure consumers and businesses pay a fair price for energy.

Ministers are also considering relaxing affordable homes targets, sparking outrage from Labour.

For almost two decades, lawmakers in Washington have been pushing legislation that would rein in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Facing a near-certain presidential veto, the proposal has never crossed the finish line. Now, the legislation is getting a new look amid surging gasoline and oil prices and OPEC+’s decision to cut output caps by 2 million barrels a day.

Average waiting times can range from 16 seconds to over 30 minutes - depending on the bank, says Which?.

Legislation targeting transgender Americans and trans children has increased sharply in the last year. Guest host Ari Shapiro speaks with the Florida mother of a trans daughter about how their family is coping with that state's new, more restrictive policies. Then, Ari discusses how this wave of law-making differs from so-called "moral panics" of past decades — and why that matters — with historian Jules Gill-Peterson, of Johns Hopkins University.Then, Broadway is back and bigger than ever, with 16 new shows opening this month. But this Broadway burst hasn't been immune to the pandemic. "Macbeth" director Sam Gold talks to Ari about having to go onstage himself this month, when too many of his cast tested positive for Covid; and about what feels different as actors and audiences try to get back to normal. You can follow us on Twitter @NPRItsBeenAMin and email us at ibam@npr.org.

A state representative from Brevard County announced he would introduce a bill making transgender treatments illegal for minors.

The House voted 69-47 last month to pass the bill, meaning that it will go to Gov. Ron DeSantis if it is approved by the Senate without changes.

Ministers express frustration about the sanctioning process as the Ukraine invasion escalates.

Middle and high school students across Seminole County walked out Thursday afternoon in protest of a Florida bill that would ban discussions about sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms across the state.

A law requiring most adults in Austria to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is ready to take effect, but the sense of urgency that accompanied its announcement in November has largely evaporated

The proposed bill, which calls for unvaccinated hospital patients to pay for health-care expenses out-of-pocket, comes as Illinois is grappling with increases in covid-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations in the last week.

Russia’s coronavirus death toll continues to hover near all-time highs, but the number of new infections has continued to decline

The bill would allow county party leaders, candidates, judges and political committees to formally ask the Texas secretary of state's office to review any "irregularities" in an election.

Representative Anthony Sabatini filed legislation on Wednesday that could prosecute doctors who perform gender-affirming surgeries on transgender children.

The legislation introduced Wednesday would prohibit abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Ignore the industry doomsayers. New reporting requirements for digital assets are a good first step toward getting people to pay what they owe.

Thanks to the budget process they must use to pass a sweeping list of priorities, Democratic leaders must sketch out their vast agenda in a matter of weeks.

UK travellers will have to quarantine for 14 days while Germany wants EU to step up restrictions.

Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill requiring each Florida state college to conduct an annual assessment of intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity Tuesday.

Lawmakers in Hungary passed legislation Tuesday that prohibits sharing with minors any content portraying homosexuality or sex reassignment, something supporters said would help fight pedophilia but which human rights groups denounced as anti-LGBT discrimination. The conservative ruling party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban introduced the legislation, which is the latest effort to curtail the rights of gay men, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people in the central European nation. Hungary's National Assembly passed the bill on a 157-1 vote.

BUDAPEST, Hungary — (AP) — Leading human rights officials urged lawmakers in Hungary on Monday to reject legislation banning any content portraying or promoting homosexuality or sex reassignment to anyone under 18. But Lydia Gall, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said equating sexual and gender diversity with pedophilia hurt the dignity of LGBT people and risked putting them in danger. "I urge you to remain vigilant against such initiatives to push through measures that limit human rights or stigmatize against some members of society," Mijatovic said in a statement Monday. Some human rights groups have compared the planned ban to a discriminatory 2013 Russian law banning so-called gay “propaganda,” widely viewed as a tool of discrimination. “The proposed legislative amendments run counter to international and European human rights standards.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to hold a bill signing in Miami Monday morning.

From the streets in Central Florida last summer to the House Floor in Tallahassee this spring, calls for police reform in Florida are leading to some change at the state level.

That legislation, which has to be approved by the House before it can be sent to Pritzker, also would allow restaurants, bars and retailers “flexibility to indirectly accept items such as tents, warmers and other equipment needed to attract customers to outdoor dining,” said the sponsor, Sen. Sara Feigenholtz, a Chicago Democrat.

LONDON – Scottish lawmakers have unanimously passed legislation that will make period products freely available to anyone who needs them, which according to campaigners makes it the first country to do so. Monica Lennon, a lawmaker from the opposition Labour Party, had campaigned against “period poverty” — when someone who needs sanitary products can't afford them — since 2016. Under the bill, the Scottish government must set up measures to allow anyone who needs period products to get them free of charge. The Scottish government already funds free period products in schools and universities, but the bill makes it a legal requirement. A 2017 survey by the charity estimated that 10% of girls aged 14 to 21 in the U.K. have been unable to afford period products, and 15% of girls have struggled to afford them.

Grubhub spokesman Grant Klinzman said in a statement that the caps “are well-intentioned but counterproductive at a time when restaurants need more support, visibility and order volume than ever. They limit how restaurants — especially small and independent establishments — can effectively market themselves to drive demand, which severely impacts how many customers and orders we can bring to these restaurants.”

FILE - In this Sunday, Nov. 10, 2019 file photo, former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair, left and John Major attend the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph in Whitehall in London. One major element of the Brexit withdrawal agreement is the section related to ensuring an open border on the island of Ireland to protect the peace process in Northern Ireland. The issue proved thorny during the more than two years of discussions it took to get a Brexit deal done, as the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland is the only land link between the U.K. and the EU. As a result, the two sides agreed there would be some kind of regulatory border between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland. Major and Blair, who both vociferously opposed Brexit, said the planned legislation puts the 1998 Good Friday agreement that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland at risk.

Workers in California and New York are in line for a raise, with legislation boosting those states' minimum wage to a nationwide high of $15 an hour. Don Dahler reports.

New legislation is a bipartisan rewrite of Bush-era "No Child Left Behind" initiative, which shifts more power back to states in ensuring accountability for public schools.