Nation & World News – At a glance – for Saturday, April 22, 2023

Supreme Court Ensures, for Now, Broad Access to Abortion Pill

The Supreme Court said Friday evening that the abortion pill mifepristone would remain widely available for now. The order halted steps that had sought to curb the availability of mifepristone as an appeal in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals moves forward: a ruling from a federal judge in Texas to suspend the drug from the market entirely and another from the appeals court to impose significant barriers on the pill, including blocking access by mail. The one-paragraph order marked the second time in a year that the Supreme Court had considered a major effort to sharply curtail access to abortion. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.

Testimony Suggests Trump Was at Meeting About Accessing Voting Software

Former President Donald Trump took part in a discussion about plans to access voting system software in Michigan and Georgia as part of the effort to challenge his 2020 election loss, according to testimony from former Trump advisers. The testimony, delivered to the House Jan. 6 committee, was highlighted Friday in a letter to federal officials from a liberal-leaning legal advocacy group. Allies of Trump’s ultimately succeeded in copying the elections software in those two states, and the breach of voting data in Georgia is being examined by prosecutors as part of a broader criminal investigation into whether Trump and his allies interfered in the presidential election there.

After Too Much Rain, Too Little Gas in South Florida’s Stations

Government agencies have intervened to try to address a severe gasoline shortage in Florida, where last week’s torrential rainstorms and floods damaged critical infrastructure and left gas stations in the state’s southeast without fuel. The Environmental Protection Agency has stepped in to help Florida increase gasoline supplies, while the state was delivering fuel directly to the areas where the shortage is most acute. Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said Thursday that the EPA was “quickly processing” a request from Florida “to expand the available supply of gas in the region” and that it was ready to provide additional help if requested.

Biden Announces Climate Justice Office

President Joe Biden on Friday announced the creation of a White House Office of Environmental Justice, one of several actions to address the unequal burden that people of color carry from environmental hazards. “Every federal agency must take into account environmental and health impacts on communities and work to prevent those negative impacts,” Biden told activists at a Rose Garden ceremony. “Environmental justice will be the mission of the entire government.” Biden used the opportunity to portray Republicans as extremists who support the fossil fuel industry at the expense of public health and the planet.

Baldwin Returns to ‘Rust’ Set as Charges He Faced Are Dropped

As Alec Baldwin returned to the set of “Rust,” which has been moved to Montana, prosecutors in New Mexico filed court papers formally dismissing, at least for now, the involuntary manslaughter charges he had been facing in the shooting of the film’s original cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, who was killed outside Santa Fe, where the movie was initially filmed. The prosecutors, Jason Lewis and Kari Morrissey, wrote in their filing in the case of the State of New Mexico vs. Alexander Rae Baldwin III that they were withdrawing the charges against him “since new facts were revealed that demand further investigation and forensic analysis.”

Elite Law Schools Boycotted the U.S. News Rankings. Now, They May Be Paying a Price.

It may be a case of be careful what you wish for. Seven months ago, dozens of elite law schools and medical schools announced that they were boycotting the U.S. News &World Report rankings. The rankings, they said, were unreliable and skewed educational priorities. Last week, U.S. News previewed its first rankings since the boycott — for the top dozen or so law and medical schools — and now, it seems, many of these same schools care quite a lot about their portrayal in the publication’s pecking order. Their complaints about methodology were so forceful that U.S. News announced Wednesday that it had indefinitely postponed the ranking’s official publication.

Russian Prisoners Choose War to Get Lifesaving Drugs

In Russian prisons, they said they were deprived of effective treatments for their HIV. On the battlefield in Ukraine, they were offered hope, with the promise of antiviral medications if they agreed to fight. It was a recruiting pitch that worked for many Russian prisoners. About 20% of recruits in Russian prisoner units are HIV positive, Ukrainian authorities estimate based on infection rates in captured soldiers. Those with HIV or hepatitis C were forced to identify their status in a very public manner. Many wore red or white wristbands, or both, signifying they had either disease. They were made to wear the wristbands ostensibly as a warning to other soldiers in case they were wounded.

Airman Shared Sensitive Intelligence More Widely and for Longer Than Previously Known

The Air National Guardsman accused of leaking classified documents to a small group of gamers had been posting sensitive information months earlier than previously known and to a much larger chat group, according to online postings reviewed by The New York Times. In February 2022, soon after the invasion of Ukraine, a user profile matching that of Airman Jack Teixeira began posting secret intelligence on the Russian war effort on a previously undisclosed chat group on Discord. The chat group contained about 600 members. The case against Teixeira, 21, pertains to the leaking of classified documents on another Discord group of about 50 members.

U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Resigns Amid Bullying Scandal

He had vowed to clean up Britain’s government after months of scandal and disarray under his predecessors. But on Friday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak lost another top minister, as his deputy, Dominic Raab, resigned after an investigation that found he had bullied subordinates. Raab, one of Sunak’s most loyal political allies, had long denied allegations of abusive behavior. But the investigation, by an independent barrister, examined eight cases in which civil servants accused Raab, 49, who also served as justice secretary, of mistreating them. In at least one case, it described his behavior as “an abuse or misuse of power in a way that undermines or humiliates.”

Two Former Peruvian Leaders Share the Same Jail. Another May Soon Join Them.

Two of Peru’s former presidents are behind bars, one convicted of human rights violations, the other accused of illegally trying to dissolve Congress. A third ex-president may soon join that ignominious group, with all three sharing the same prison. Alejandro Toledo, who led Peru two decades ago, surrendered Friday to law enforcement officials in California, according to a U.S. Marshals official, having exhausted efforts to resist extradition nearly four years after his arrest in connection with one of the biggest corruption scandals in Latin America. Once he is returned to Peru, Toledo is expected to be incarcerated while the case against him proceeds.

No Reprieve in Sudan Even for Eid Holiday as Calls for Cease-Fire Are Ignored

As people in Sudan marked the major Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr on Friday, forces led by the two warring generals vying for control of the country ignored calls for a cease-fire and clashed for a seventh day. Sudanese civilian coalitions and international officials had called for a three-day pause in fighting to allow people to gather for the Eid holiday marking the end of Ramadan, to evacuate loved ones, and to seek food and medical care. Residents in several neighborhoods in the capital, Khartoum, reported intense shelling and gunfights in the streets, and many across Sudan struggled to flee battle areas or get access to food and water.

Red Cross Expresses Alarm Over Detainee Health at Guantánamo Bay

A senior official with the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a rare statement of alarm Friday about deteriorating health conditions and inadequate preparations for aging prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. The U.S. military must do a better job of providing care for prisoners who are “experiencing the symptoms of accelerated aging, worsened by the cumulative effects of their experiences and years spent in detention,” Patrick Hamilton, head of the Red Cross delegation for the United States and Canada, said in the statement. In March, Hamilton and other delegates made a routine quarterly visit to the detention facility, the organization’s 146th since the wartime prison opened in January 2002.

By wire sources