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Los Angeles Times
Jan. 6 committee subpoenas Pat Cipollone, former White House counsel
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection issued a subpoena Wednesday to former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, who previous witnesses have testified was in meetings in which lawyers debated strategies to overturn … Trump’s election loss.
The committee said that it required Cipollone’s testimony after obtaining other evidence about which he was “uniquely positioned to testify.”
Cipollone, who was Trump’s top White House lawyer, is said to have raised concerns at the time about the president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and at one point threatened to resign. […]
The subpoena came one day after former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson provided new details about Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6, 2021… Hutchinson said Cipollone warned prior to Jan. 6 that there would be “serious legal consequences” if Trump went to the Capitol with the protesters expected to rally outside.
The Atlantic
The Most Damning January 6 Testimony Yet
Donald Trump knew the protesters marching on the Capitol on January 6 were armed. He knew they could do harm to someone. He wanted to go to the Capitol with them as they marched that afternoon. And he did nothing to stop them as they attacked. […]
When Trump arrived at a rally on January 6, he saw that the space for the speech was not totally full, Hutchinson testified today. Ever attentive to optics, he wanted the area filled, but many attendees were outside a cordon, because they weren’t allowed in: The Secret Service had set up magnetometers, or mags, and these people were carrying weapons. They didn’t want to disarm, and couldn’t enter while carrying. But Trump didn’t care.
“They’re not here to hurt me,” he said, according to Hutchinson. He demanded that the Secret Service “take the fucking mags away,” and added, “They can march to the Capitol after this is over.”
That is the most damning moment to emerge from the hearings so far.
CNN
Liz Cheney says US is ‘confronting a domestic threat’ in Donald Trump
Rep. Liz Cheney delivered a searing rebuke of … Donald Trump and GOP leaders at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Wednesday night, recounting some of the damning details that the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, has uncovered thus far and praising the bravery of witnesses – particularly the young female aides – who have come forward to aid its investigation.
“We are confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before – and that is a former President who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional Republic,” said Cheney, the vice chair of the House committee. “And he is aided by Republican leaders and elected officials who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man.”
CBS News
Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani who was a figure in President Donald Trump's first impeachment investigation, was sentenced Wednesday to a year and eight months in prison for fraud and campaign finance crimes. He was also ordered to pay $2.3 million in restitution to his victims.
Parnas, who had helped Giuliani connect with Ukrainian figures as part of a campaign to dig up dirt on President Joe Biden's son, had sought leniency on the grounds that he'd helped the Congressional probe.
The New York Times
Supreme Court Narrows Ruling for Tribes in Oklahoma
The Supreme Court on Wednesday narrowed the sweep of its landmark 2020 decision declaring that much of eastern Oklahoma falls within an Indian reservation, allowing state authorities to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against Indians on the land.
The ruling left in place the basic holding of the 2020 decision, McGirt v. Oklahoma, which was decided by a 5-to-4 vote and said that Native Americans who commit crimes on the reservation cannot be prosecuted by state or local law enforcement and must instead face justice in tribal or federal courts.
The vote on Wednesday was also 5 to 4, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was not on the court when the McGirt case was decided, casting the decisive vote.
ABC News
Justice Stephen Breyer to officially retire Thursday at noon, swear in Ketanji Brown Jackson
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, the most senior member of the U.S. Supreme Court's liberal wing, said he will officially step down from the bench at noon on Thursday, and the court announced he will then swear in his former law clerk -- Ketanji Brown Jackson -- to take his place on the bench, becoming the nation's first Black female justice.
"It has been my great honor to participate as a judge in the effort to maintain our Constitution and the Rule of Law," Breyer wrote in a letter to President Joe Biden dated Wednesday. […]
Jackson will take both her oaths at noon -- Chief Justice John Roberts administering the Constitutional Oath and Justice Breyer delivering the Judicial Oath.
The Washington Post
Two workers fired for not attending company’s prayers, lawsuit says
Two North Carolina workers allege they were fired for not participating in daily company prayer sessions, according to a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday.
John McGaha and Mackenzie Saunders claim that their former employer, Aurora Pro Services in Greensboro, created a hostile work environment because they refused to attend mandatory Christian-based “prayer meetings.”
The lawsuit comes after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a former high school football coach who was disciplined by a Washington state school board for praying at midfield after a football game, a decision some religious liberties advocates hail as a victory for freedom of religious expression.
The Kyiv Independent
The death toll continues to grow after the Russian missile attack on the shopping mall Amstor in Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast, on June 27. At least 20 people were killed in the attack, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelensky's office.
At a briefing on June 28, Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky confirmed 18 deaths, but added that rescuers continue to retrieve fragments of bodies from under the debris. Twenty-one people are missing, according to Monastyrsky.
An estimated 1,000 people were inside the mall when the missile hit it mid-day on June 27. Because of the massive fire that broke out after the Russian strike, there is no hope to find any survivors under the debris of the attacked mall, according to Monastyrsky.
Reuters
Putin still wants most of Ukraine, war outlook grim -U.S. intelligence chief
Russian President Vladimir Putin still wants to seize most of Ukraine, but his forces are so degraded by combat that they likely can only achieve incremental gains in the near term, the top U.S. intelligence officer said Wednesday.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, outlining the current U.S. intelligence assessment of the more than four-month war, said that the consensus of U.S. spy agencies is that it will grind on "for an extended period of time."
"In short, the picture remains pretty grim and Russia's attitude toward the West is hardening," Haines told a Commerce Department conference.
Deutsche Welle
NATO declares Russia its 'most direct threat,' offers Finland, Sweden membership
[…] After decades of neutrality, Finland and Sweden are now set to join the alliance after Turkey removed its objections to the Nordic countries' membership on Tuesday evening.
And within 24 hours, NATO leaders collectively declared, "Today, we have decided to invite Finland and Sweden to become members."
Ratification in allied parliaments could take up to a year, but once completed, Finland and Sweden will be covered by NATO's Article 5 collective defense clause.
"We will make sure we are able to protect all allies, including Finland and Sweden," [NATO chief Jens] Stoltenberg said.
Huff Post / AP
1955 Warrant In Emmett Till Case Found, Family Seeks Arrest Of Woman
A team searching the basement of a Mississippi courthouse for evidence about the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till has found the unserved warrant charging a white woman in his 1955 kidnapping, and relatives of the victim who initiated the hunt want authorities to finally arrest her nearly 70 years later.
A warrant for the arrest of Carolyn Bryant Donham — identified as “Mrs. Roy Bryant” on the document — was discovered last week inside a file folder that had been placed in a box, Leflore County Circuit Clerk Elmus Stockstill told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Documents are kept inside boxes by decade, he said, but there was nothing else to indicate where the warrant, dated Aug. 29, 1955, might have been.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Sen. Tina Smith's Planned Parenthood tenure primes her to be 'leading voice' post-Roe
The lone senator who previously worked for Planned Parenthood was overwhelmed when she learned the U.S. Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade, upending decades of nationwide abortion rights.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota had been preparing for the ruling. But after news broke of the court's decision, realizing Democrats' fears and fulfilling Republican hopes, Smith said she confided to a staffer that she thought she would cry before pulling herself together.
"Just because you know something terrible is going to happen doesn't mean that when it actually happens you don't feel really angry and upset," said Smith, who was vice president for external affairs at what was then Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota from 2003 to 2006.
The Kansas City Star
Schmitt, Parson offer assurances on contraception, but Democrats want legal opinion
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Gov. Mike Parson both offered assurances Wednesday that the state’s abortion ban didn’t prohibit contraception after a Kansas City area health system stopped providing Plan B.
Saint Luke’s Health System said late Tuesday it had stopped offering emergency contraception at its Missouri locations because of the ban, which went into effect on Friday after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. […]
Schmitt and Parson, both Republicans, were jointly responsible for triggering Missouri’s abortion ban on Friday by signing documents allowing that part of state law to go into effect. In addition, Schmitt, a candidate for U.S. Senate, has the power to prosecute violations of the ban, along with local prosecutors. Both men faced intense pressure Wednesday to clarify their positions on contraception following Saint Luke’s decision.
Mississippi Free Press
12-Year-Old Incest Victims Should Birth Dad’s Child, House Speaker Gunn Says
Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn says abortion should be illegal even for a 12-year-old rape victim carrying her father or uncle’s child. He made the remark to reporters in the hours after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, allowing state abortion bans to take effect.
“What about the case of a 12-year-old girl who was molested by her father or uncle?” Associated Press reporter Emily Wagster Pettus asked the Republican speaker on the Mississippi House floor on Friday, June 24. […]
“No, (the law) does not include an exception for incest,” Gunn said. “I don’t know that that will be changed.”
“Do you think the Legislature should revisit that?” Pettus asked.
“Personally, no. I do not,” Gunn said. “I believe life begins at conceptions. Every life is valuable. And those are my personal beliefs.” (Child pregnancies carry significantly higher health risks than adult pregnancies.)
AL.com
Alabama AG argues Dobbs abortion ruling allows for transgender health care ban
Alabama officials arguing for the state’s ban on care for minors used language directly derived from the U.S. Supreme Court’s Friday decision to overturn the right to abortion.
Attorney General Steve Marshall wrote in a brief for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that “no one—adult or child—has a right to transitioning treatments that is deeply rooted in our Nation’s history and tradition,” which could open the door to banning treatments for adults should the appeal be upheld.
Mediaite
President Joe Biden “is poised to nominate” an anti-abortion Republican lawyer to a federal district judgeship in Kentucky, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported on Wednesday.
The paper said the pending nomination of Chad Meredith appears to be part of a deal between Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). According to the Courier-Journal, Meredith’s appointment would come in exchange for McConnell “agreeing not to hold up future federal nominations by the Biden White House.”
Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) said he “strongly” opposes the nomination.
“Given that a judicial position isn’t currently open on the Eastern District Court, it’s clear that this is part of some larger deal on judicial nominations between the president and Mitch McConnell,” Yarmuth said.
Engadget
Amazon to limit purchases of Plan B and other emergency contraceptive pills
Amazon is limiting sales of Plan B and other emergency contraceptives to three units per customer in the wake of increased demand, the company confirmed to several media outlets. Last week’s US Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade prompted a spike in sales of Plan B and other generic brands of levonorgestrel morning-after pills.
Customers who order emergency contraception on Amazon still face a bit of a wait. Amazon’s main listing for Plan B (a popular name brand of levonorgestrel made by a company called Foundation Consumer Healthcare) displays an estimated delivery range of July 19 through August 6. MyChoice, a generic brand of levonorgestrel that is cheaper than Plan B displays a delivery date of July 28. Engadget has reached out to Amazon for an estimate on when it will remove its cap on sales, and will update if we hear back
The Mercury News
The personal information of California residents who received or were denied a concealed and carry weapons permit between 2011 and 2021 was wrongly disclosed online this week, according to the California Attorney General’s Office.
The data breach, which could potentially involve hundreds of thousands of gun owners, occurred as part of an update to the state Department of Justice’s 2022 Firearms Dashboard Portal, the office said in a statement Wednesday. The information included names, birthdates, addresses, driver’s license numbers and criminal histories. Social Security numbers and financial information were not disclosed.
Five other state-operated databases were also affected. They included the Assault Weapon Registry, Firearm Safety Certificate and Domestic Violence Restraining Order dashboards.
EuroNews
Paris terror attacks trial: Salah Abdeslam given life in prison without parole
Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the so-called Islamic State extremist team that organised and conducted the 2015 attack on the Bataclan theatre in Paris, has been found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In addition to Abdeslam, 19 other men accused of playing critical roles in the country's worst peacetime attacks were found guilty "of all charges" on Wednesday. Only 14 of them have appeared in court, with the other six being tried in absentia.
Mohamed Abrini was given life in prison with a possibility of parole after 22 years behind bars, with the court stating it established "his allegiance" to the so-called Islamic State.
The Hindu
Tailor beheaded in Udaipur for social media post backing Nupur Sharma
One of the assailants, identified as Riyaz, attacked Kanhaiya Lal with a sharp weapon while the other recorded the crime on his mobile phone, police said.
Two persons beheaded a 40-year-old man in broad daylight at his tailoring shop in a market in Rajasthan’s Udaipur city on Tuesday, after an exchange of a series of inflammatory social media posts in the last few days.
The victim, Kanhaiya Lal, had shared posts in support of suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma, who had made offensive remarks against the Prophet in a television debate last month.
Al Jazeera
Disinformation reigns in Philippines as Marcos Jr takes top job
[…] Diosa Labiste, a professor at the University of the Philippines’ College of Mass Communication, said there has been a “bombardment” online of “outright lies” about Marcos’s legacy. “These distortions were meant to make Marcos Jr win,” said Labiste, who has been fact-checking social media posts for the last two elections as one of the experts behind the Google- and Meta-funded coalition Tsek.ph. “And of course, these were massively shared by a network of disseminators.” […]
“Combined fact-checkers are no match for the systematic networks of information operators behind the martial law disinformation,” she said. “We only fact-checked the last six months and we’re up against this tsunami of disinformation. The sharing suggests behaviour is coordinated by repeat spreaders or established channels and influencers.”
The Guardian
Hong Kong tightens security ahead of Xi visit for 25th anniversary of handover
In downtown Hong Kong huge barriers have gone up around the convention centre, establishing a tight, two-level securitised zone with no civilian access…
On Friday, Hong Kong will mark 25 years since the territory was returned from Britain to China, and authorities are taking no chances, ensuring the day is filled with pomp and pageantry – and no sign of dissent. China’s president, Xi Jinping, will attend a ceremony marking the anniversary, his first trip outside mainland China since the pandemic began.
On 1 July 1997, the territory was promised 50 years of self-government and freedoms of assembly, speech and press that are not allowed on the Communist-ruled Chinese mainland. As the city of 7.4 million people marks a quarter of a century under Beijing’s rule, those promises have all but evaporated.
The Texas Tribune
U.S. charges driver and 3 others in deaths of 53 migrants found in tractor-trailer
Federal authorities announced on Wednesday that they had charged four men with human smuggling in the deaths of 53 Central American migrants who were found in a sweltering tractor-trailer in Southwest San Antonio on Monday, a gruesome discovery that has generated outrage in the United States and at least four other nations.
The driver of the tractor-trailer, Homero Zamorano Jr., 45, was arrested Wednesday and charged with involvement in alien smuggling resulting in death. If convicted, he could face life in prison or even the death penalty.
Zamorano, who is from Brownsville but now lives in Pasadena, a Houston suburb, abandoned the 18-wheeler on a semirural road near Interstate Highway 35 and tried to flee, officials said. He was “observed hiding in the brush after attempting to abscond,” according to the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas.
BBC News
Election win should trigger Scottish independence, says Sturgeon
Scotland could become independent if the SNP won a majority of votes in a UK election, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The first minister wants a referendum in 2023, and is pushing for the Supreme Court to rule on a bill to set this up.
If this does not happen, she has said the SNP would treat the next general election as a "de facto referendum".
AP News
NASA hopes New Zealand launch will pave way for moon landing
NASA wants to experiment with a new orbit around the moon that it hopes to use in the coming years to once again land astronauts on the lunar surface.
So it is sending up a test satellite from New Zealand. The initial stages of the launch went according to plan late Tuesday, with the rocket carrying the satellite reaching space.
If the rest of the mission is successful, the Capstone CubeSat satellite — only about the size of a microwave oven — will be the first to take the new path around the moon and will send back vital information for at least six months.
Ars Technica
Fauci reports COVID rebound, says his is “much worse” than initial illness
The country's top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, has been struck by a phenomenon that appears to be becoming more common in the latest stage of the pandemic—rebounding bouts of COVID-19 after a course of the antiviral drug Paxlovid.
In an interview Tuesday at Foreign Policy's Global Health Forum, Fauci recounted the progression of his infection to his current rebound, which he said has been much worse than his first round with the disease. Fauci—the director of the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and chief medical advisor to the president—is 81 years old and has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and boosted twice.