Ohio voters reject constitutional change intended to thwart abortion amendment
Ohio voters on Tuesday rejected a bid to make it harder to amend the state constitution, according to the Associated Press, a significant victory for abortion-rights supporters trying to stop the Republican-controlled state Legislature from severely restricting the procedure. The abortion question turned what would normally be a sleepy summer election in an off year into a highly visible dogfight that drew an uncharacteristically high number of voters for an August election. The heart of the Legislature’s proposal, which it enacted largely along party lines in May, required that amendments to the state constitution gain approval by 60% of voters, up substantially from the current requirement of a simple majority.
DeSantis upends campaign leadership as Trump loom s and urgency grows
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is shaking up his presidential campaign — again. For the third time in less than a month, DeSantis’ campaign announced a major restructuring, removing campaign manager Generra Peck and replacing her with a loyalist from the governor’s office, as he continues to search for a campaign team and a political message that can compete with former President Donald Trump. The reorganization caps a turbulent period of layoffs, financial worries and a shift in strategy for DeSantis, who is increasingly banking on an Iowa-or-bust approach. So far, he and his message have failed to connect with Republican primary voters or make a dent in Trump’s sizable lead in polls.
By 5-4 vote, Supreme Court revives Biden’s regulation of ‘ghost guns’
The Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily revived the Biden administration’s regulation of “ghost guns” — kits that can be bought online and assembled into untraceable homemade firearms. In defending the rule, a key part of President Joe Biden’s broader effort to address gun violence, administration officials said such weapons had soared in popularity in recent years, particularly among criminals barred from buying ordinary guns. The court’s brief order gave no reasons, which is typical when the justices act on emergency applications. The vote was 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the court’s three liberal members — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — to form a majority.
With national monument designation, Biden tries to balance electoral realities
After spending most of his appearance near the Grand Canyon describing how his fifth national monument designation would preserve the environment, President Joe Biden said Tuesday that protecting the land long held sacred by Native American leaders held other benefits, too. “By creating this monument, we’re setting aside new spaces for families to bike, hunt, fish and camp, growing the tourism economy,” Biden said as he declared nearly 1 million acres near the Grand Canyon as a national monument. Biden has often framed climate investments — in this case a permanent ban on uranium mining in the area — as a means to spur domestic energy production and create thousands of jobs for blue-collar workers.
Georgia grand jury likely to hear Trump case next week
The fourth criminal case involving Donald Trump is likely to come to a head next week, with the district attorney in Atlanta expected to take the findings from her election interference investigation to a grand jury. The Georgia investigation may be the most expansive legal challenge yet to the efforts that Trump and his advisers undertook to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election. Nearly 20 people are known to have been told that they could face charges as a result of the investigation, which Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has pursued for 2 1/2 years.
Weight loss drug cuts risk of heart problems, maker says
A new obesity drug, Wegovy, slashed the risk of serious heart problems by 20% in a large trial, the drug’s maker said Tuesday, a finding that could challenge the perception of weight loss drugs as nothing more than cosmetic medicines and put pressure on insurers to cover them. The trial was the first to demonstrate that the new class of obesity drugs could bring lasting benefits to heart health for people who were overweight but did not have diabetes. The trial included nearly 18,000 adults with previous cardiovascular disease and tracked them for up to five years.
A missile strikes the heart of a Ukrainian city — and then another
In the center of Pokrovsk, a small Ukrainian city in the Donetsk, rescuers dug through rubble Tuesday, looking for survivors after a pair of missile strikes that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said had killed at least nine people and wounded 82 others. Two Russian missiles hit just 37 minutes apart and in nearly the same location. They seriously damaged at least 12 multistory buildings, including a hotel and a five-floor apartment block. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that its forces had hit a command post. Ukrainians said the explosions Monday appeared to be a “double-tap attack,” with the second strike maximizing casualties among rescuers and onlookers responding to the first one.
Hopes for dialogue dim in Niger as junta clings to power
The new military leaders of Niger have rebuffed diplomatic efforts by the United States, the United Nations and regional groups to resolve a crisis sparked by a coup in the West African nation, dimming hopes that civilian rule will be restored soon. The soldiers who took over Niger last month refused to meet a delegation of envoys Tuesday from the U.N., the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States, the 15-member regional bloc known as ECOWAS. A day earlier, Victoria Nuland, the acting U.S. deputy secretary of state, made a surprise trip to Niger but left after talks with a coup leader she described as “extremely frank and at times quite difficult.”
Amazon countries, led by Brazil, sign a rainforest pact
The leaders of eight countries that are home to the Amazon River basin agreed Tuesday to work together to conserve the world’s largest rainforest at a groundbreaking meeting convened by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil. The agreement, called the Belém Declaration, provides a road map to stave off the rampant deforestation, caused in large part by industrial agriculture and land-grabbing, that has severely damaged the rainforest and has major implications for Earth’s climate. The meeting was also expected to yield a separate agreement Wednesday among other nations with major rainforests — including Congo, the Republic of Congo and Indonesia — to more closely coordinate protecting the ecosystems globally.
Floods, fires and torrential rains further bedevil Europe
Floods, fires and heavy rains have landed more blows across Europe this week, with authorities on the continent scrambling to respond to the extreme weather that has become increasingly common in the past few years. The most recent events have destroyed large amounts of land, left dozens of people injured, forced thousands to evacuate and, in some cases, caused deaths, and they come on the heels of scorching temperatures that have engulfed much of Southern Europe this summer. Climate change has made extreme heat a fixture of the warmer months in Europe, but experts say that the continent has failed to significantly adapt to the hotter conditions.
Swiss museum cashier pockets more than $1 million in yearslong scam
A court in Switzerland convicted a museum cashier of stealing almost 1 million Swiss francs by pocketing entry fees at the Beyeler Foundation. The court heard that the 54-year-old woman skimmed the money between 2008 and 2019, when she was caught and fired. “Most likely, you would have continued like this if you hadn’t been found out,” the presiding judge, Marcia Stucki, said when announcing the verdict Friday, according to the Basler Zeitung, a local newspaper. The court sentenced the woman to three years and seven months in prison and a $3,600 fine. She is also responsible for repaying the museum what she stole.
By wire sources