Judge rules against Florida law restricting drag shows
A federal judge in Florida temporarily blocked a new law allowing the state to penalize businesses that admit children to “adult live performances” such as drag shows. Judge Gregory Presnell of the U.S. District Court in Orlando issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law, which went into effect last month. The law does not mention drag shows by name, but lawmakers made it clear they were targeting such performances. The Republican-controlled Legislature passed the measure in April. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who is running for president and has made anti-LGBTQ policies central to his agenda, signed the legislation last month.
Facing brutal heat, the Texas electric grid has a new ally: solar power
Strafed by powerful storms and superheated by a dome of hot air, Texas has been enduring a dangerous early heat wave this week that has broken temperature records and strained the state’s independent power grid. But the lights and air conditioning have stayed on across the state, in large part because Texas is becoming a leader in solar power. The amount of solar energy generated in Texas has doubled since the start of last year. And it is set to roughly double again by the end of next year, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
Arizona Governor says prosecutors cannot enforce abortion law
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs on Friday stripped local prosecutors of the power to criminally charge abortion providers, a move aimed at protecting abortion rights in a narrowly divided political battleground. An executive order signed by Hobbs, a Democrat, would take authority away from elected county attorneys, a largely Republican group, and transfer it to Arizona’s attorney general, a Democrat who has vowed not to prosecute abortion providers. Planned Parenthood of Arizona said Hobbs’ action would help ease fears and uncertainty among abortion providers. Clinics have closed, reopened, curtailed services and lost staff in the uncertain legal landscape since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade a year ago.
Abortion Politics Takes Center Stage at Evangelical Event, but Trump Remains the Focus
In a speech one year after the reversal of Roe v. Wade, former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday challenged the entire 2024 Republican presidential field to support a national abortion ban at 15 weeks, demanding the party go further than its primary front-runner, former President Donald Trump, has so far been willing to go. Pence issued the call at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, a major two-day evangelical gathering in Washington, D.C. Trump was a focus of attention for candidates and attendees alike. Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, was booed for rebuking the former president for his lack of leadership.
Supreme Court revives Biden immigration guidelines
The Supreme Court ruled Friday the Biden administration could set priorities for which immigrants to arrest and which to leave alone, rejecting a challenge from two conservative states that pressed for more aggressive enforcement and handing a victory to President Joe Biden. The dispute was part of a larger battle between Biden, who has struggled to balance control of the southern border with humane treatment of immigrants, and Republican-led states, which have sought to quash the administration’s immigration agenda by contesting policies. In allowing the administration leeway on arrests, the Supreme Court acknowledged the difficulty of the problem and the leading role the executive branch must play in solving it.
New Orleans officers lose credentials 18 years after Katrina shootings
A police oversight board in Louisiana on Thursday permanently stripped the credentials of four former New Orleans officers who were convicted of their roles in killing unarmed civilians on a bridge in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina nearly 20 years ago. The board, called the Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, decertified former officers Robert Faulcon Jr. and Anthony Villavaso, as well as two former sergeants, Kenneth Bowen and Robert Gisevius, for their roles in opening fire on six New Orleans residents, two of whom died, on the Danziger Bridge just days after the levees broke and then orchestrating a sweeping cover-up.
After threatening the army, Wagner chief is accused of ‘armed rebellion’
Russian generals late Friday accused Yevgeny Prigozhin, the outspoken mercenary tycoon, of trying to mount a coup against President Vladimir Putin, as Russian authorities opened an investigation into Prigozhin for “organizing an armed rebellion.” The long-running feud between Prigozhin and the Russian military over the war in Ukraine has now escalated into an open confrontation, setting up the biggest challenge to Putin’s authority since he launched his invasion of Ukraine 16 months ago. Prigozhin on Friday accused the Russian military of attacking his Wagner forces and pledged that his fighters would retaliate.
In Myanmar, birthday wishes for Aung San Suu Kyi lead to a wave of arrests
In military-ruled Myanmar, there seemed to be a new criminal offense this week: wearing a flower in one’s hair on June 19. Pro-democracy activists say more than 130 people, most of them women, have been arrested for participating in a “flower strike” marking the birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian leader who was ousted by Myanmar’s military in a February 2021 coup. Imprisoned by the junta since then, she turned 78 on Monday. The protest — a clear, if unspoken, rebuke of the junta — drew nationwide support, and many shops were reported to have sold all their flowers.
With a hand From the U.S. military, aid finally reaches a Syrian camp
Over the course of Syria’s long war, a remote desert camp for thousands of displaced people grew in the shadow of a U.S. military base, just out of reach of Syrian government forces. The Rukban camp ended up almost cut off from aid. One Syrian-American aid group worked for years to find a way to ease their plight. In recent days, the group has sent a first wave of critically needed supplies with the help of an obscure United States military provision that lets American aid groups use available space on U.S. military cargo planes to transport humanitarian goods to approved countries.
Ukraine’s Western-trained brigades begin to enter the fight
They are fighting more effectively at night than their Russian counterparts, U.S. officials say. They are using American-made Bradley Fighting Vehicles to destroy Russian armor with anti-tank missiles. And they are deploying combined arms tactics that they learned from American and other Western troops. It is, finally, showtime for the 36,000 Ukrainian soldiers — nine brigades — that have been armed, equipped and trained outside Ukraine over the past several months by the United States and its NATO allies. How these Western-trained troops perform over the next few months, military experts say, will help determine the success of Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive.
Going abroad, Modi receives a gift for image-building at home
His grip on the levers of national power secure, his hold on India’s domestic imagination cemented, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has increasingly turned to advancing himself on a new horizon: the global stage. With a packed diplomatic calendar that includes India’s hosting of the Group of 20 summit later this year, Modi is building an image going into his reelection campaign as a leader who can win respect and investment for his vast nation. The state visit accorded to Modi in Washington, which ends Friday, is perhaps the biggest prize yet in that quest.
Chinese firm sent large shipments of gunpowder to Russian munitions factory
On two separate occasions last year, railroad cars carrying tens of thousands of kilograms of smokeless powder — enough propellant to collectively make at least 80 million rounds of ammunition — rumbled across the China-Russia border. The powder had been shipped by Poly Technologies, a state-owned Chinese company. Its destination was Barnaul Cartridge Plant, an ammunition factory in central Russia with a history of supplying the Russian government. These previously unreported shipments, which were identified by Import Genius, a U.S.-based trade data aggregator, raise new questions about the role China has played in supporting Russia as it fights to capture Ukrainian territory.
By wire sources