Nation and world news — at a glance — for July 3
Giuliani barred from practicing law in New York
Giuliani barred from practicing law in New York
(NYTimes) — Rudy Giuliani — the former mayor of New York, top federal prosecutor and a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump — has been disbarred from the practice of law, a New York state appellate court ruled Tuesday. The 31-page order banning Giuliani from practicing law in New York focused on his work as the personal lawyer for Trump and his failed effort at reelection in 2020. It said Giuliani was being disciplined for lies he told in numerous forums. One of Giuliani’s lawyers, Barry Kamins, said, “Mr. Giuliani is obviously disappointed in the decision. We are weighing our appellate options.”
Parole denied for Native American activist convicted in 1975 killings
(NYTimes) — A Native American activist who was convicted of killing two federal agents nearly 50 years ago has once again been denied parole, the U.S. Parole Commission announced Tuesday. The decision came despite decades of complaints from supporters that the activist, Leonard Peltier, did not get a fair trial and was unjustly convicted. Peltier, 79, was given two life sentences for his role in a shootout between activists and FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975 that left two agents and an activist dead. Peltier has admitted to participating in the 1975 shootout, but has insisted that he acted in self-defense and did not kill the agents.
Northwestern law school accused of bias against white men in hiring
(NYTimes) — A conservative group filed a lawsuit against Northwestern University’s law school on Tuesday, claiming that its attempts to hire more women and people of color as faculty members violate federal law prohibiting discrimination against race and sex. The complaint is expected to be among the first in a wave of similar legal challenges following the Supreme Court’s decision last year striking down the use of affirmative action in college admissions. The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, says Northwestern has deliberately sidelined white male candidates for law school faculty positions. Jon Yates, a Northwestern spokesperson, said the university would defend its hiring practices in court
Stampede at religious gathering in India kills more than 100
(NYTimes) — More than 100 people were killed Tuesday and many others were injured in a stampede during a Hindu religious event in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where thousands of devotees had gathered. Most of the dead were women and children who appeared to have suffocated in a crush, said Ashish Kumar, the Hathras district magistrate. “As of now, the confirmed death toll is 116 people,” said Chaitra V., a top civil servant in the Aligarh administrative region, which includes Hathras. Local officials suggested that heat and overcrowding had set off a panic; temperatures in Hathras on Tuesday approached 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Thousands flee in Gaza as Israel orders more evacuations
Israel issued a new round of evacuation orders for a large swath of the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, sending thousands of Palestinians fleeing once again for relative safety. In recent weeks, Israeli officials have spoken of moving toward narrower, more targeted attacks, but the exodus taking place in the city of Khan Younis made it clear Tuesday that for Palestinians, a return to ordinary life is not close. Palestinians who had already been forced to flee again and again were once more on the move, hauling piles of their belongings on cars, trucks and donkey carts. Hospital patients were pushed in wheelchairs alongside others who fled on foot.
With fists and knives, mobs attack Syrian refugees in Turkey
(NYTimes) — Over the past two days, angry groups of men in a half-dozen cities in Turkey have turned on the Syrian refugees living among them, damaging their shops and cars and assaulting them with fists and knives. Across the border in parts of northern Syria where Turkey holds sway, Syrians have confronted the Turkish soldiers in their midst, pelting their vehicles with rocks, tearing down Turkish flags and condemning them in street protests. The scattered violence, which has left at least seven people dead in Syria, according to a war monitor, has exposed growing cracks in the coexistence between Syrians and Turks on both sides of their shared border.
Orban, Russian friend angling for EU influence, visits Ukraine
(NYTimes) — He stood alone in blocking a European aid package for Ukraine worth $52 billion but then folded. He refused to accept Sweden as a new member of NATO for more than a year before eventually bowing to pressure and giving assent. The pattern repeated itself Tuesday when Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary made a surprise visit to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Hungarian officials explained the unannounced trip as an effort to promote “peace” — Hungary’s euphemism for a settlement built on Ukrainian capitulation to Russian demands. Many observers saw it instead more as a move to end Orban’s isolation over Ukraine on the European stage.
UK nurse Lucy Letby convicted of attempted murder in retrial
(NYTimes) — Lucy Letby, a neonatal nurse who was convicted last year of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others at the English hospital where she worked, was found guilty Tuesday of the attempted murder of another premature baby. A jury had initially failed to reach a verdict in the case of the child, known as Baby K to protect her identity, and Letby was retried over the last four weeks in a court in Manchester in the north of England. She will be sentenced Friday and is already serving life in prison for the earlier convictions.
UN panel adds to chorus calling for release of Evan Gershkovich
(NYTimes) — Russia arrested Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to punish him for his reporting on the war in Ukraine, a United Nations panel said in a statement Tuesday. The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that Gershkovich, who appeared in a secret court hearing last week to face an espionage charge that he denies, must be released immediately. “Mr. Gershkovich’s arrest was conducted under the pretextual label of espionage but was in fact designed to punish his reporting on the armed conflict” between Russia and Ukraine, the group said. It said that it had requested that Russia “clarify the legal provisions justifying” Gershkovich’s detention but that it did not receive a response.