AIDS relief program under threat as GOP insists on abortion restriction
President George W. Bush created the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief in 2003. In the two decades since, PEPFAR, as it is known, has saved 25 million lives and served as a powerful tool for soft diplomacy, a symbol of America’s moral leadership in the world. It has had extraordinary support from a bipartisan coalition of liberals and Christian conservatives. But now PEPFAR is in danger of becoming a victim of abortion politics. The program is set to expire at the end of September. But House Republicans are not moving forward with a bill to reauthorize it for another five years, because opponents of abortion are insisting on adding abortion-related restrictions.
Florida’s new Black history standards have drawn backlash. Who wrote them?
When Florida set out to revamp its standards for teaching Black history this spring, a natural place to turn would have been the state’s African American History Task Force. The volunteer task force has helped shape African American history instruction in Florida for more than two decades. But in updating educational standards to comply with a new law that limits how racism and other aspects of history can be taught, state officials largely bypassed the task force. To craft the document, the state’s Department of Education created a 13-member work group. The standards have drawn backlash for saying that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
Biden acknowledges granddaughter in Arkansas for first time
President Joe Biden publicly acknowledged his 4-year-old granddaughter, Navy Joan Roberts, for the first time Friday, saying in a statement that he and the first lady, Jill Biden, “only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.” The statement came as the president faced increasing pressure from critics who said that failing to acknowledge Navy publicly went against the image of a loving patriarch that he has nurtured since the beginning of his political career. “Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,” Biden told People magazine.
Biden overhauls military justice code, seeking to curb sexual assault
President Joe Biden gave final approval Friday to the biggest reshaping in generations of the country’s Uniform Code of Military Justice, stripping commanders of their authority over cases of sexual assault, rape and murder to ensure prosecutions that are independent of the chain of command. By signing a far-reaching executive order, Biden ushered in the most significant changes to the modern military legal system since it was created in 1950. The order follows two decades of pressure from lawmakers and advocates of sexual assault victims, who argued that victims in the military were too often denied justice, culminating in a bipartisan law mandating changes.
Biden administration moves to tighten fuel economy rules
The Biden administration on Friday formally proposed new fuel economy rules designed to accelerate the country’s transition to all-electric passenger vehicles. Under the proposal, automakers would be required to improve the average mileage of all the passenger vehicles they sell by 2% a year for passenger cars and 4% a year for light trucks, between 2027 and 2032. If implemented, the plan means new autos sold in the United States would achieve an average fuel economy of 58 mpg by 2032. Analysts project that in order for automakers to achieve that average, roughly two-thirds of the new cars they sell by that year would have to be all-electric.
‘Swift Quake’: Taylor Swift fans shake ground during Seattle concert
“I shake it off, I shake it off,” Taylor Swift sang. And boy did her fans deliver. A Taylor Swift concert in downtown Seattle last weekend shook the ground so hard, it registered signals on a nearby seismometer roughly equivalent to a magnitude 2.3 earthquake, seismologists said. The so-called “Swift Quake” recorded a maximum ground acceleration of roughly 0.011 meters per second squared, said Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a seismologist at Western Washington University. Seismologists use acceleration to measure ground vibrations, which are then converted to the more conventional Richter scale, the common measurement for earthquakes.
Ukraine launches rare missile strikes in Russia, Moscow says
Moscow said it shot down two Ukrainian missiles over southwestern Russia on Friday, including one that fell and exploded in a city center — apparently rare instances of Ukraine using such powerful weapons to attack targets inside Russia. Coming as Ukraine steps up its counteroffensive against the Russian invaders, the missile attacks could signal a more aggressive effort to expand a war that until now has brought death and destruction almost exclusively to Ukrainian territory. Russian officials said one downed missile fell in the city of Taganrog, injuring at least nine people, and that the other fell in “a deserted area” near the city of Azov.
Unhappy with right-wing leaders, some Israelis hatch escape plans
The passage of a new law overhauling the judicial system was the last straw for some Israelis. Hundreds of thousands have demonstrated against the legislation for over six months, saying the proposed changes would effectively end the independence of the judiciary and put civil rights in danger. Some say they have started hatching escape plans, transferring money abroad and applying for other passports if they are eligible for them even as the protest movement strengthens its commitment to keep the pressure on the government. Several WhatsApp groups for professionals who want to emigrate have sprung up, including one called “Physician Relocation” that has gathered thousands of members.
Europe vowed to make Russia pay for the war. It’s not that easy.
The United States and Europe have wrestled for months with the question of how to pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction from the war. As Russia pounds cities, factories and infrastructure in Ukraine, the estimated costs have swelled to $500 billion, with some experts citing numbers as high as $1 trillion. One solution seemed brilliant in its simplicity: What better way to foot the bill, and to make a moral point, than to make Russia pay? But that has proved far more difficult than first imagined, and it appears less and less likely. Experts warn that it would likely violate international law.
Fire aboard cargo ship off Dutch coast is still raging
A cargo ship that has been on fire since Tuesday near an island north of the Netherlands was still burning Friday, the Dutch coast guard said, as it emerged that the vessel had been carrying significantly more electric vehicles than initially reported. The cause of the fire aboard the ship, the Fremantle Highway, remains unclear. The 656-foot vessel was carrying about 3,000 vehicles, and while officials initially reported that it had 25 electric vehicles among them, Edwin Granneman, a spokesperson for the coast guard, said Friday that while he could not confirm an exact number, it was probably in the hundreds.
Defiant Netanyahu defends judicial overhaul in Israel
Just days after his coalition passed the first stage of a judicial overhaul plan that has divided the country, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel struck a defiant tone, saying he hoped to reinstate a key ally convicted of a felony and declining to say if he would respect a Supreme Court ruling on the plan if it did not go his way. In a flurry of interviews with U.S. broadcasters Thursday, Netanyahu sought to play down concerns about the law passed Monday, which reduces the influence of the Supreme Court, calling it “a minor correction” of the judiciary.
By wire sources