Tonight’s collection of news stories awaits your comments. Everyone is encouraged to share their 2¢ or articles, stories, and tweets. This is an open thread.
Slate
Democrats Are Headed for a Disaster With Unfilled Judicial Vacancies
[…] President Biden and Senate Democrats are on track to leave more than 60 judicial vacancies open at the end of this year. With the possibility looming that Republicans may retake the Senate, we know that leaving any vacancy open in January could well mean letting a newly empowered Mitch McConnell blockade them, just as he did President Barack Obama’s picks, from Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination to dozens of lower court nominees.
It’s time for Senate Democrats and the Biden White House to push beyond their current practices in order to fill all of the judicial vacancies by the end of this Congress… That means filling every vacancy, even if it means breaking with the few remaining judicial confirmation process norms left in McConnell’s wake or standing up to Republican senators. Beginning to bring balance to our judiciary is more important than respecting Senate traditions.
A more aggressive approach to judicial confirmations starts at the White House. Today, there are more than 80 judicial vacancies without nominees, out of 119 announced vacancies. One of the driving causes for this is too much White House deference to senators—both Democratic and Republican. The Biden administration needs to take a more assertive approach and show it is willing to bypass Senate tradition if senators are not proving good partners.
Louisville Courier Journal
Gov. Beshear turns over White House 'privileged' emails on Chad Meredith judge nomination
Gov. Andy Beshear's office reversed course Tuesday and turned over a June 23 White House email that confirms President Joe Biden intended to nominate an anti-abortion Republican to a lifetime appointment as a federal district judge in Kentucky.
The governor's office also turned over a follow-up email from a White House official sent June 29 — five hours before The Courier Journal first broke the story on the pending nomination of attorney Chad Meredith — clarifying that the original email was "pre-decisional and privileged information." […]
Over the past week, the White House has declined to comment on Meredith's potential nomination.
Rolling Stone
SCOTUS Justices ‘Prayed With’ Her — Then Cited Her Bosses to End Roe
At an evangelical victory party in front of the Supreme Court to celebrate the downfall of Roe v. Wade last week, a prominent Capitol Hill religious leader was caught on a hot mic making a bombshell claim: that she prays with sitting justices inside the high court. “We’re the only people who do that,” Peggy Nienaber said.
This disclosure was a serious matter on its own terms, but it also suggested a major conflict of interest. Nienaber’s ministry’s umbrella organization, Liberty Counsel, frequently brings lawsuits before the Supreme Court. In fact, the conservative majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which ended nearly 50 years of federal abortion rights, cited an amicus brief authored by Liberty Counsel in its ruling.
In other words: Sitting Supreme Court justices have prayed together with evangelical leaders whose bosses were bringing cases and arguments before the high court.
Los Angeles Times
Kamala Harris could break a record. Democrats wish she didn’t have to
Vice President Kamala Harris is on pace to set an unusual record, breaking the most tie votes in the U.S. Senate. But many Democrats and progressives don’t see the distinction as much of an honor. […]
Harris’ tiebreaking votes, in fact, have mostly been needed to unclog procedural gridlock over nominations, highlighting the limits of the Biden administration’s governing power in the face of stiff partisan resistance in Congress. […]
Despite Democrats’ limited legislative success, the 50-50 split has been valuable for Harris’ party. It has ensured Democrats chair committees, set the Senate calendar and can more easily confirm judges…
The Kyiv Independent
Sloviansk under heavy fire as Russia’s war enters new phase
Mayor of Sloviansk Vadym Liakh on July 6 urged remaining residents to evacuate, as the city appears to be Russia’s next target in its plans to capture Donetsk Oblast and civilian evacuation becomes increasingly difficult.
After seizing the city of Lysychansk on July 3, Ukraine’s last major stronghold in Luhansk Oblast, Russia is expected to focus on gaining full control over neighboring Donetsk Oblast.
Seizing the entirety of Donbas, the industrial heartland comprising Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, has been Moscow’s war goal since failing to capture Kyiv in March.
As part of that goal, over the past two weeks, Russian forces have intensified their shelling of Sloviansk, a small city 75 kilometers from recently besieged Lysychansk.
Reuters
Russia warns humanity at risk if West seeks to punish it over Ukraine
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said attempts by the West to punish a nuclear power such as Russia for the war in Ukraine risked endangering humanity, as the near five-month conflict leaves cities in ruins and thousands homeless.
Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most serious crisis in relations between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war. […]
"The idea of punishing a country that has one of the largest nuclear potentials is absurd. And potentially poses a threat to the existence of humanity," Medvedev, now deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said on Telegram on Wednesday.
ESPN
Brittney Griner's wife expresses gratitude, hope after phone call with President Joe Biden
Cherelle Griner, the wife of detained American basketball star Brittney Griner, released a statement Wednesday following a phone call with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, saying, "I am grateful to the both of them for the time they spent with me and for the commitment they expressed to getting BG home."
Cherelle Griner has sought a meeting with the White House since not long after her wife was arrested Feb. 17 while trying to enter Russia. Brittney Griner's trial on drug smuggling charges is expected to resume Thursday in a Moscow-area courtroom. A hand-written letter from Brittney Griner was delivered to Biden on Monday, in which she wrote that she was "terrified" she might be stuck in Russia forever, and asked him to help bring her and other detained Americans home.
EuroNews
Defiant Boris Johnson refuses to step down despite a flood of resignations
A defiant Boris Johnson is refusing to step down as prime minister of Great Britain, despite a flood of resignations from MPs critical of his leadership, and a group of cabinet ministers telling him in Downing Street that his time is up.
Johnson rejected demands that he step down during a stormy session of the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon, in the wake of a furor over his handling of sexual misconduct allegations against a senior official. […]
[Johnson] rejected suggestions he should seek a “dignified exit” and opted to fight for his political future, citing “hugely important issues facing the country,” according to the news agency. It cited a source close to the prime minister as saying he told his colleagues there would be “chaos” if he quit.
Chicago Sun-Times
Father killed in Highland Park Fourth of July massacre died shielding his 2 ½-year-old son
Aiden McCarthy, a 2 ½-year-old boy left orphaned by the mass shooting at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade Monday, survived because his father shielded him with his body, according to his grandfather.
Kevin McCarthy, 37, died protecting his son, said Michael Levberg, whose 35-year-old daughter Irina — McCarthy’s wife and Aiden’s mother — also was among the seven people killed as they watched the parade.
“He had Aiden under his body when he was shot,” the father-in-law said.
When he picked up his grandson at the Highland Park police station, Levberg said Aiden told him, “Mommy and Daddy are coming soon.”
Chicago Tribune
Less than 36 hours after a shooter opened fire at the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, killing seven people, Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in the north suburb Tuesday evening calling for federal action on assault weapons.
“We’ve got to be smarter as a country in terms of who has access to what, in particular assault weapons,” said Harris, who was joined by Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering and other Democratic politicians. “And we’ve got to take this stuff seriously. The whole nation should understand and have a level of empathy to understand that this could happen anywhere in any peace-loving community. And we should stand together and speak out about why it’s got to stop.”
Earlier in the day, Harris called for reinstituting a national assault weapon ban.
The Washington Post
With little outcry, Chicago’s bloody weekend eclipsed Highland Park toll
No new counseling resources are being launched on this city’s impoverished South Side, even after a man was shot to death in broad daylight, feet from a playground, days before July Fourth.
There are no crowdsourced charity drives raising millions for victims’ families in Chicago, where the holiday weekend death toll reached at least 10 with 62 injured — numbers that exceed the toll in Monday’s mass shooting at a July Fourth parade in nearby Highland Park, Ill. In that affluent lakeside suburb, the violence was an anomaly. Here, it is a grimly regular occurrence.
“They have a lot of resources there in Highland Park,” said Bobbie Brown, 62, who watched the nationally televised law enforcement response and community outpouring from her home in the Englewood neighborhood, down the block from where the homicide near the playground happened Friday afternoon. “Ain’t that something? Our babies see people get shot while they’re at a playground, and there’s no counseling. They have to suck it up and deal with it.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch
'Mass shooting on the Fourth of July' was intent of Richmond shooting suspects, police say
Richmond police on Wednesday said a tip from a “hero citizen” prevented a mass shooting at the Dogwood Dell Fourth of July celebration on Monday. Two men were arrested and two assault rifles, a handgun and several hundred rounds of ammunition were seized in a South Richmond residence, authorities said. […]
Officers and agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigated the information, which led them to a residence in the 3100 block of Columbia Street, Smith said. One of the occupants on Friday allowed police to search the home, where several firearms were found out in the open, police said.
The New York Times
Jan. 6 Panel Secures Deal for Cipollone to Be Interviewed
Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel to President Donald J. Trump who repeatedly fought Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, has reached a deal to be interviewed by Friday before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, according to people familiar with the inquiry.
The agreement was a breakthrough for the panel, which has pressed for weeks for Mr. Cipollone to cooperate — and issued a subpoena to him last week — believing he could provide crucial testimony. […]
Mr. Cipollone will sit for a videotaped, transcribed interview, according to a person familiar with the discussions. He is not expected to testify publicly.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Trump probe: Lindsey Graham plans to fight Fulton subpoena
South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top ally of … Donald Trump, plans to fight a subpoena issued by a Fulton County special grand jury investigating potential criminal interference in Georgia’s 2020 elections.
In a statement issued Wednesday on the Republican’s behalf, Graham’s attorneys called the Fulton probe a “fishing expedition.” Lawyers Bart Daniel and Matt Austin indicated the senator did nothing wrong when he called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff after the 2020 elections to ask about procedures for counting absentee ballots. […]
Jeff DiSantis, a spokesman for the Fulton DA’s office, said that “should witnesses choose to challenge an order that they testify before the Special Purpose Grand Jury, the District Attorney will respond in the appropriate court to compel their appearance.”
NBC News
Fulton County DA: Expect more subpoenas of Trump associates
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis [said] additional subpoenas of associates of … Donald Trump could be expected, adding that she does not rule out the possibility of issuing a subpoena to Trump himself. […]
"We’ll just have to see where the investigation leads us," Willis added. "I think that people thought that we came into this as some kind of game. This is not a game at all. What I am doing is very serious. It’s very important work. And we’re going to do our due diligence and making sure that we look at all aspects of the case.
Willis says she is “not in a rush” to finish her work, noting that if she has not concluded by the November midterm elections, she will pause activity between the start of early voting and conclusion of the election to avoid being perceived as trying to influence it.
CNBC
Judge holds real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield in contempt in NY probe of Trump Organization
A New York judge held real estate services giant Cushman & Wakefield in contempt of court for refusing to comply with subpoenas demanding documents sought by the state attorney general for her civil investigation of … Donald Trump’s company.
Cushman will have to pay a $10,000-a-day fine, starting Wednesday, until it complies with the subpoenas related to the firm’s work for the Trump Organization, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron said in the contempt order issued Tuesday night.
Engoron in that order wrote that Chicago-based Cushman engaged in “willful non-compliance with Court-ordered deadlines” for turning over the documents.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Another judge is ordering the embattled former Supreme Court justice leading Assembly Republicans' review of the 2020 election to stop deleting records related to his probe.
The order, issued Tuesday by Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost, requires Michael Gableman to preserve all records in his custody regardless of whether they have been requested under the state's public records law. […]
In last week's hearing, testimony revealed taxpayers paid Gableman $22,000 for virtually no work during the first two months of his review that has lasted nearly a year and now cost more than $1 million overall.
The Texas Tribune
Gov. Greg Abbott’s lead over Beto O’Rourke narrows to 6 points, poll finds
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s lead over Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke narrowed to 6 points last month, according to a poll conducted by the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. That’s a smaller gap than when Republican George W. Bush ousted Democrat Ann Richards in 1994 with a 7.6-point win.
Abbott’s unfavorability ratings are also the highest they’ve ever been at 44%, according to the poll, which was conducted after the deadliest school shooting in state history and almost entirely before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion.
ProPublica
DOJ Investigating Texas’ Operation Lone Star for Alleged Civil Rights Violations
The Department of Justice is investigating alleged civil rights violations under Operation Lone Star, a multibillion-dollar border initiative announced last year by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, according to state records obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.
The Legislature last year directed more than $3 billion to border measures over the next two years, a bulk of which has gone to Operation Lone Star. Under the initiative, which Abbott said he launched to combat human and drug smuggling, the state has deployed more than 10,000 National Guard members and Department of Public Safety troopers to the border with Mexico and built some fencing. Thousands of immigrant men seeking to enter the country have been arrested for trespassing onto private property, and some have been kept in jail for weeks without charges being filed.
Toronto Star
Canadian abortion doctors cautioned over prospect of charges, lawsuits if helping U.S. patients
An organization that helps physicians handle legal issues is raising the prospect of Canadian doctors facing criminal charges or lawsuits if they provide abortions to Americans who have come to Canada. […]
The Canadian Medical Protective Association, a non-profit that provides legal defence, liability protection and other risk-management services for physicians, issued a statement Tuesday to its members about non-Canadian residents who seek abortions in this country.
“The CMPA is aware that some states are contemplating legislation that would potentially allow for criminal charges and civil legal actions to be brought against health-care providers who provide abortions to residents out of the state (even where the care is delivered outside of the state),” the association statement says.
“If this legislation is implemented, physicians in Canada who provide abortions for American patients from states where abortion is illegal … could face criminal charges/civil actions in the U.S.”
The Raleigh News & Observer
Cooper moves to protect abortion access in NC, including for travelers from out of state
North Carolina may become a destination for women who are seeking abortion care and coming from states with more restrictive laws since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month.
Gov. Roy Cooper on Wednesday said he’ll continue to fight for abortion rights and signed an executive order aimed to protect access to services in the state. He said states are “taking our country backward to the ‘50s and ‘60s where women died in back alleys.”
Dr. Katherine Farris, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and a “proud provider of abortion care” in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, said that North Carolina “has emerged as a critical access point for the entire region.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Group of Pa. Republicans bucking party to endorse Democrat Josh Shapiro for governor
In what analysts are calling an unprecedented move in an era of extreme hyperpartisanship, a group of Republican leaders — including a number of former officials who have been stalwarts of Pennsylvania’s GOP establishment for decades in Harrisburg and D.C. — is bucking their party to endorse Democrat Josh Shapiro for governor.
Mr. Shapiro, the sitting attorney general, will roll out the endorsements of 10 Republicans on Wednesday as part of a continued effort to label his candidacy a reach-across-the-aisle aficionado who will unify the parties to get things done.
The list includes two former U.S. representatives, Charlie Dent and Jim Greenwood; former state House Speaker Denny O’Brien; former Lt. Gov. and longtime state Sen. Robert Jubelirer; and former state Supreme Court Justice Sandra Schultz Newman.
Ohio Capital Journal
Activists want anti-vaccine amendment in Ohio Constitution
State politicians advanced an effort Tuesday to place anti-vaccination language onto a general election ballot, which would leave the fate of vaccine mandates in Ohio in voters’ hands.
If passed, Ohio would become the only state in the nation with an explicit ban of vaccine mandates in its constitution. It would mark a major step backward for public health, dampen an already sluggish COVID-19 vaccination effort in Ohio, and nix a practice of mandating vaccination that traces back through early American history.
The Ohio Ballot Board — a bipartisan panel controlled by Republicans — allowed organizers of the “Medical Right to Refuse” amendment to begin gathering the 443,000 voters’ signatures required to place the referendum on a ballot. Organizers said they’re hoping to put the issue to voters in May 2023.
The proposal covers all vaccines, not just COVID-19.
Houston Chronicle
Oil's tumble below $100 offers relief for drivers, threat of recession
The price of U.S. oil tumbled below $100 a barrel on Tuesday for the first time since May, offering drivers the promise of further relief from record-high gasoline prices. […]
The nearly $9 a barrel decline in the price of West Texas Intermediate to $99.50 comes as gasoline prices plummeted in Houston and across the country over the past week to their lowest levels in a month.
While still close to record highs, gasoline prices have fallen for three consecutive weeks, saving Americans an estimated $100 million from what they were spending when the national average peaked above $5 a gallon last month, according to fuel-price tracking service GasBuddy.
The Guardian
Zimbabwe to introduce gold coins as local currency tumbles
Zimbabwe will start issuing gold coins as legal tender in late July, its central bank has said, as the country battles to control runaway inflation that has considerably weakened the local currency.
The inflation rate more than doubled last month to 191%, stoking memories of the hyperinflation of the 2000s that saw the Zimbabwean dollar redenominated three times before being effectively abandoned in 2009.
The governor of the Central bank, John Mangudya, said the gold coins would act as a store of value and were expected to reduce the demand for US dollars – a phenomenon largely blamed for the tumbling value of the local currency.
El País
Euro falls to 20-year low against US dollar and approaches parity
The possibility that a US dollar and a euro will be worth exactly the same is getting closer to becoming a reality. The single currency suffered further falls this Tuesday and was trading for 1.028 dollars in the currency market, a level not seen in the last 20 years, specifically since December 2002. Investors believe that the weakness of the latest economic data will push the European Central Bank (ECB) to go slower in raising interest rates for fear of triggering a recession. Slower rate hikes would mean a devaluation of the euro against the dollar, given that the Federal Reserve is conducting a much more aggressive policy to contain inflation.
The trend is clear. The euro has lost 9% so far this year and 13% in the last 12 months. And no one is assuming that the correction is over. Three more sessions with falls similar to Tuesday’s would be enough to reach euro-dollar parity. And many analysts predict that it is inevitable. […]
The president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, has been immersed in a dilemma for months: raise rates boldly to curb the suffocating inflation (8.6% in June), even at the cost of stressing borrowing costs for southern European countries and disrupting the recovery, or go slower despite the risk that the economy will enter a spiral of rising prices and wages from which it is not easy to get out.
Bloomberg
France to Nationalize Debt-Laden EDF as Energy Crisis Mounts
The French government will nationalize its financially struggling nuclear giant Electricite de France SA to help it ride out Europe’s worst energy crisis in a generation and invest in new atomic plants.
“The climate emergency requires strong, radical decisions,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said during a policy speech in parliament in Paris on Wednesday. “We need to have full control of the production and our energy future. We must ensure our sovereignty faced with the consequences of the war and the colossal challenges ahead.”
The Sydney Morning Herald
No longer one-in-100-year events, experts say it’s time to plan for disasters
The days of calling disasters one-in-100-year events are over, experts say, as they warn that increasingly unpredictable weather events driven by global warming are happening more frequently, and we need to adapt and consider future urban development.
As Sydney was hammered by rain and Hawkesbury residents inundated for the fourth time in 18 months, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said the traditional metrics for measuring natural disasters had been overtaken by climate change.“
We’re seeing these events which we call one-in-1000-year events or one-in-100-year events now becoming one-in-one-year events,” Perrottet said.
Deutsche Welle
Water scarcity: EU countries forced to restrict drinking water access
Amplified by human-induced climate change and water over-consumption, southern Europeans are feeling the consequences of more extreme heat waves and longer droughts.
Now governments from Portugal to Italy are calling on citizens to limit water use to the bare minimum. But in some places, this is not enough.
While private consumption of water in the EU accounts for just 9% of total usage, around 60% is absorbed by agriculture.
"Droughts are one thing," said Nihat Zal, a water expert at the European Environment Agency (EEA), which informs EU environment policy. "The other is how much water we take out of the system."
Al Jazeera
India ruling party has no Muslim MP for the first time in history
The resignation of a federal minister has left India’s ruling party with no Muslim parliamentarian for the first time in its history.
Minorities Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi resigned on Wednesday, a day before his term as a member of parliament (MP) was scheduled to end.
The 64-year-old politician was the only Muslim minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that boasts of nearly 400 MPs.
Naqvi’s exit comes as the BJP faces allegations of persecuting the minority community since coming to power in 2014.
India is home to about 200 million Muslims – the world’s third-largest Muslim population after Indonesia and Pakistan.
BBC News
China: MI5 and FBI heads warn of ‘immense’ threat
The heads of UK and US security services have made an unprecedented joint appearance to warn of the threat from China.
FBI director Christopher Wray said China was the "biggest long-term threat to our economic and national security" and had interfered in politics, including recent elections.
MI5 head Ken McCallum said his service had more than doubled its work against Chinese activity in the last three years and would be doubling it again.
MI5 is now running seven times as many investigations related to activities of the Chinese Communist Party compared to 2018, he added.
The FBI's Wray warned that if China was to forcibly take Taiwan it would "represent one of the most horrific business disruptions the world has ever seen".
Ars Technica
COVID was the leading cause of death in Americans ages 45-54 in 2021
COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in Americans between March 2020 and October 2021, accounting for one in every eight deaths.
In that time frame, COVID-19 ranked in the top five causes of death for every age group of people older than 15 years. Between January and October 2021, the pandemic disease was the leading cause of death among people 45 to 54 years old.
That's all according to a study of national death certificate data published Tuesday in JAMA Internal Medicine by researchers at the National Institutes of Health.
The study found COVID-19 caused roughly 700,000 deaths between March 2020 and October 2021. The pandemic disease trailed only heart disease and cancer, which caused roughly 2.15 million collectively in that time frame. The fourth and fifth deadliest afflictions in the US were accidental deaths—including car crashes, overdoses, and alcohol-related deaths—and stroke, which collectively caused around 624,000 deaths during that period.