WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate passed legislation on Wednesday to ban the import of products from China's Xinjiang region, the latest effort in Washington to punish Beijing for what U.S. officials say is an ongoing genocide against Uyghurs and other Muslim groups.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act would create a "rebuttable presumption" assuming goods manufactured in Xinjiang are made with forced labor and therefore banned under the 1930 Tariff Act, unless otherwise certified by U.S. authorities.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. has sued Florida’s surgeon general, challenging the state’s barring of businesses from requiring proof of Covid-19 vaccination and intensifying the standoff between the company and Florida.

The cruise operator is sticking with its policy to require full vaccinations for all crew and passengers, including children, for initial sailings through Oct. 31 after more than a yearlong hiatus and billions of dollars in losses. That policy, if maintained in Florida, would result in the company being fined up to $5,000 for each passenger affected, it said.

The Miami-based company filed the lawsuit Tuesday against Scott Rivkees, the state surgeon general, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Norwegian asked the court to block and declare unlawful the enforcement of the ban on requiring proof of vaccination. Norwegian only sued Dr. Rivkees because he is the state official who has authority to enforce the ban, according to the company’s complaint.

To the editor: Jonah Goldberg complains that California's single-party rule leaves Republicans with no alternative except a recall. I have an idea for the state GOP: Become an American political party living in the 21st century.

Gun violence isn't reduced by allowing larger-capacity magazines and higher fire rates. California has an infant mortality rate of about 4 per 1,000 live births; nationally, the rate is 5.6, and Republican-controlled states that refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act have rates above the national average. The same is true for maternal mortality.

California's COVID-19 infection rate is well below the national average. Democrats did not storm the nation's capital and attempt to end American democracy.

The solution for California Republicans is not to complain about Democrats; it's for them to fix their party.

Kentucky’s GOP congressional delegation entered the redistricting cycle with an unusual request for their state legislative counterparts: leave Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth alone.

The group, which includes Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, wants the state’s Republican supermajority to refrain from cracking Yarmuth's Louisville-based district into three, even if that might deliver them control of all of Kentucky’s six House seats.

“It's been my experience in studying history that when you get real cute, you end up in a lawsuit — and you lose it. And then the courts redraw the lines,” said Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.). “So my advice would be to keep Louisville blue.”

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Besides Yarmuth in Louisville, Republicans will also have to consider whether to take the knife to the seats of Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) in Nashville; Reps. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) in Kansas City on both sides of the border and perhaps even freshman Rep. Frank Mrvan (D-Ind.) in northwest Indiana. Also potentially on the chopping block: the city of Omaha, the "cracking" of which could shore up Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) in one of the nation’s swingiest seats.

The decisions they make will shape the balance of power in Congress for the next five cycles. And because Nebraska splits its Electoral College votes by congressional district — changes there could even sway the 2024 and 2028 presidential contests.