Overnight News Digest: Changes at US-Mexico border as Title 42 expires

Legal challenges threaten to upend Biden's border plan as Title 42 ends

Reuters

The U.S. on Friday ended COVID-19 border restrictions that blocked many migrants at the border with Mexico, immediately replacing the so-called Title 42 order with a sweeping new asylum regulation meant to deter illegal crossings.

But several last-minute court actions added confusion to how the new border policies will play out in coming days.

Just before Title 42 was set to expire at midnight on May 11, immigration advocates represented by the American Civil Liberties Union filed a legal challenge to the new asylum bars, claiming they violate U.S. laws and international agreements.

Advocates argue the new regulation, put in place by Democratic President Joe Biden to curb illegal crossings, resembles restrictions issued by … Donald Trump, his Republican predecessor. The rights groups successfully blocked the Trump rules in court and asked the same California-based judge to block these as well.

As debt ceiling talks progress, Biden and lawmakers are postponing their meeting

NPR News

President Biden will not meet with congressional leaders Friday to discuss the debt ceiling as planned, according to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's office.

Biden was set to meet McCarthy, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at the White House to continue talks on lifting the nation's debt limit, which expires as soon as early June. An meeting on Tuesday ended with no resolution.

McCarthy's office said Friday that he, Biden and the other leaders agreed that their staffs should continue to meet.

A source familiar with the meetings told NPR that Biden and the congressional leaders postponed their gathering because did not want interrupt the progress that was being made.

Is the debt ceiling constitutional?

Vox

The United States has a time bomb written into federal law, and no one knows whether it is constitutional or not. […]

The 14th Amendment provides that “the validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned,” and officials within the Biden administration are reportedly debating whether to challenge the constitutionality of the debt ceiling under this provision. Biden said on Tuesday that he is “considering” this option.

There are very strong legal arguments that the debt ceiling does, indeed, violate the 14th Amendment. But these arguments have never been tested. No court has ever ruled on whether the debt ceiling is unconstitutional. And only one Supreme Court case has ever even applied the 14th Amendment’s Public Debt Clause — and that case, Perry v. United States (1935), did so only briefly.

Meanwhile, an even more ominous question looms over any legal fight over the debt ceiling. Even if we assume that the Supreme Court, with its 6-3 Republican supermajority, would declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional if it is breached, would such a breach cause irreparable damage to the United States’ credit, even if it were later fixed by a Supreme Court order?

CIA moves to address sexual abuse allegations by personnel

The Washington Post

The Central Intelligence Agency announced Thursday that it was taking steps to make it easier for personnel to report allegations of sexual harassment and abuse, after several female employees told Congress earlier this year that the agency had discouraged women from complaining about sexual misconduct in the workplace.

By the end of this month, the CIA will issue new guidance designed to make it clearer to personnel how to report incidents of sexual abuse, a senior CIA official said. Discussions with employees revealed that some personnel had to make repeated complaints to different offices, which led to confusion and emotional suffering at having to relive their experiences, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the CIA to discuss the new policies.

“We need to change our processes,” the official said. “The feedback I hear is, it’s not working.”

Zelenskyy vows to give Russia an 'unpleasant surprise' in Ukrainian counteroffensive

Euronews

In an interview, Ukrainian president discussed security and Kyiv's preparations for an anticipated counteroffensive. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to give Russia an "unpleasant surprise" when Ukraine's counteroffensive begins in a new interview.

President Zelenskyy also discussed a wide range of topics including security, the Eurovision Song Contest and Ukraine’s military operation in general. While Ukraine is still awaiting more weapon deliveries from its Western partners, Zelenskky said more time is needed.

"We are expecting appropriate armoured equipment. It comes in parts, and with that amount, you can move forward... But we will lose a lot of people. I believe that this is impossible. We need to wait. We need some more time" he said.

Ukraine Claims Gains Near Bakhmut as Deadly Fighting Continues

The New York Times

Ukrainian military commanders said on Wednesday that their troops had broken through Russian positions on the southern flank of the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, forcing Russian units back from their positions at an important bridgehead of a canal.

Ukrainian officials and the head of Russia’s Wagner militia group said that Russian troops had lost an area of roughly three square miles southwest of the city. If confirmed, it would be the first significant gain for Ukraine in the fight for Bakhmut since pushing Russian forces off a key access road two months ago, although it was far from clear that Ukrainian forces could hold the ground or that it was a turning point in the monthslong battle.

Remembering first fallen US volunteer fighter buried in Ukraine

The Kyiv Independent

At first, everything about the small, solemn gathering in the grounds of Kyiv’s St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery had all the signs of a traditional Ukrainian military funeral. […]

This funeral, however, was different. Off to the side, wearing balaclavas to protect their identity, the line of soldiers standing motionless to pay tribute were mostly not Ukrainians. All the priest’s words were translated into English by a military translator.

The fallen soldier being honored on this day was 27-year-old Christopher Campbell, an American who was killed in early April outside Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast, fighting in the ranks of Ukraine’s International Legion.

Sudan warring factions make humanitarian promise

Deutsche Welle

Sudan's rival forces have committed to protecting civilians and the passage of humanitarian aid, late Thursday, but did not yet agree to a cease-fire, US officials said.

Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces also agreed to work towards a temporary cease-fire in future dialogue. This comes a week after the two warring factions began talks in the Saudi port of Jeddah moderated by US, UN and Saudi representatives, which US diplomats described as difficult.

"We affirm our commitment to ensuring the protection of civilians at all times, including by allowing safe passage for civilians to leave areas of active hostilities on a voluntary basis in the direction of their choice," the declaration said.

Within less than a month of fighting, over 750 people have been killed in the violent power struggle between the rival generals. According to UN figures, some 700,000 people have been displaced internally while another 150,000 have fled the north African nation.

Israel kills 30 Palestinians in Gaza as violence escalates

Al Jazeera

Israel has killed 30 Palestinians and injured more than 90 others in air attacks on the Gaza Strip since Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry has said.

The victims include six children and three women as well as the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) rocket force and his deputy.

Palestinian factions in Gaza continued to fire rockets in retaliation from the besieged coastal enclave into Israel, killing one person on Thursday.

Amid mediation efforts by Egypt, neither side seemed ready to douse the worst flare-up since August, now in its third day.

Wildfires may have stoked rare ‘triple-dip’ La Niña

Science

In 2019, Australian skies glowed crimson in one of the country’s worst recorded fire seasons. The infernos blackened some 190,000 square kilometers of land, killing dozens of people along with an estimated 1 billion animals and destroying thousands of structures. The bushfires also unleashed plumes of smoke so voluminous they could be seen from space.

Surprisingly, that smoke may have helped spark an important climate phenomenon half a world away: a rare 3-year stint of cool La Niña conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean, according to a new modeling study published today in Science Advances.

The result underscores the idea that fires and other events “can have really strong impacts on the climate that we don’t fully understand,” says Samantha Stevenson, a climate scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who was not part of the study team. It also suggests forecasts of La Niña and other seasonal events could be improved if scientists could account for wildfires.

Australia government approves first new coal mine since elected

BBC News

The Australian government has approved a new coal mine for the first time since it was elected - on a climate action platform - last year. 

The government was bound by national environment laws when considering Central Queensland's Isaac River coal mine, a spokeswoman said. Only one coal mine proposal has ever been blocked under those laws.

Scientists have repeatedly warned that any new fossil fuel projects are not compatible with global climate goals.

The Isaac River coal mine - which will be built near Moranbah, an 11-hour drive north of Brisbane - is expected to produce about 2.5 million tonnes of coal over five years.

The mine will extract metallurgical coal, also known as coking coal, which is used in steelmaking.

Amazon Rainforest loss could reach new height in just 5 years, study says

Mongabay

Within just five years, the Amazon Rainforest could lose half the total forest cover that it lost in the first 20 years of this century, a recent study has shown, as deforestation rates continue to accelerate in almost all nine Amazonian countries.

From 2001-20, the rainforest lost 542,581 square kilometers (209,492 square miles), an area larger than Spain, according to data released in March by the Amazon Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG). By extrapolating these past trends, the study predicted possible deforestation scenarios for the rainforest from 2021-25. In an optimistic scenario, the rainforest would lose 94,349 km2 (36,428 mi2) to clearing, while a pessimistic scenario would see 237,058 km2 (91,529 mi2) cleared, an area almost the size of the United Kingdom.

“Unfortunately, we are currently witnessing the pessimistic scenario,” Marlene Quintanilla, director of research and knowledge at the organization Friends of Nature and contributor to the study, told Mongabay by video call.

Youth climate lawsuit attorneys say Montana tried to scuttle trial by dropping energy policy

AP News

Attorneys for young people suing Montana over damages caused by climate change said officials repealed the state’s energy policy in a last-minute bid to avoid a trial sought by the plaintiffs to highlight the dangers of fossil fuels.

The two sides are due in court Friday for arguments before state District Judge Kathy Seeley. A two-week trial is scheduled to begin June 12.

The case was brought in 2020 by attorneys for the environmental group Our Children’s Trust, which since 2010 has filed climate lawsuits in every state on behalf of youth plaintiffs. Many of the cases — including a previous one in Montana — have been dismissed. None have yet reached trial.

300 troops being deployed to fight Alberta wildfires, more than $2M paid out to evacuees

CBC News

About 200 troops have been deployed by the Canadian Armed Forces to help fight wildfires burning across Alberta, and 100 more will be joining the battle to tame the flames over the weekend, the province's public safety minister said Thursday.

"Units will deploy to the Grande Prairie, Fox Creek and Drayton Valley areas soon, so Albertans will see movement on roads and in the air," Mike Ellis, minister of public safety and emergency services, said in wildfire update news conference.

More than 6,500 applications have been received for emergency financial assistance, with $2 million in email transfers sent to evacuees and $77,000 in debit cards distributed. The number of evacuees is now 16,470, down from a high of about 31,000 at the peak of the emergency.

Texas House Republicans block last-ditch effort to raise age to buy AR-15s

Houston Chronicle

Republican lawmakers have again blocked the Texas House from voting whether to raise the age to purchase assault-style rifles, the biggest priority for Uvalde families after last year’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.

State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, made a last-ditch effort to bring the policy to a floor vote on Thursday by presenting it as an amendment to a different firearm bill. Earlier this week, Uvalde families slammed GOP lawmakers for missing a key deadline to bring House Bill 2744, the raise-the-age legislation they’ve been championing, to the floor.

May 24 will mark one year since 19 fourth-graders and two teachers were killed at Robb.

“This amendment would have precluded that tragedy from happening,” Moody said.

Oregon Senate delays potential crucial turning point in walkout, as negotiations continue

Oregon Public Radio News

Oregon Senate leaders have delayed what could be a critical turning point in the ongoing walkout by Senate Republicans.

Four lawmakers are just a single unexcused absence away from being unable to run for reelection, under a new rule passed by voters last year. Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, and Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, say they’ve agreed to cancel floor sessions on Friday and over the weekend,

That means that the legislators nearing the 10-absence mark — Sen. Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles; Sen. Cedric Hayden, R-Falls Creek; Sen. Dennis Linthicum, R-Beatty; and Sen. Brian Boquist, I-Dallas — will not hit that point-of-no-return until at least Monday.

Could Trump’s town hall remarks help Fulton prosecutors investigating him?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

[…] Some legal observers said Trump’s remarks could help bolster a potential case from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. The prosecutor recently wrote in a letter to metro Atlanta law enforcement that she would announce indictment decisions stemming from her investigation of alleged criminal interference in Georgia’s 2020 elections between July and September. In that missive, Willis heavily suggested she would seek an indictment against Trump, telling authorities they needed “heightened security and preparedness” because her announcement “may provoke a significant public reaction.”

Norm Eisen, former President Barack Obama’s ethics czar who is closely following the probe, said Trump essentially confessed during the town hall, advancing Willis’s case.

“Trump was already in a hole legally and criminally in Georgia, and he dug in deeper last night because he articulated the motive for his unlawful conduct in the United States of America, including under Georgia law,” Eisen said Thursday. “You’re not allowed to take the law into your own hands once an election has been certified and call for the election to be overturned by finding non-existent votes no matter what you believe.”

Trump's comments on Mar-a-Lago documents 'like red meat to a prosecutor'

NBC News

Donald Trump’s comments Wednesday night about his handling of classified documents appeared to contradict statements by his lawyers, and provide potentially important evidence for federal prosecutors investigating whether to charge him with a crime, legal experts say.

Trump’s lawyers told Congress last month that the classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago compound got there by accident. But when questioned about the issue at a CNN town hall, Trump said he had “every right” to take them from the White House.  

“I didn’t make a secret of it,” he said. “You know, the boxes were stationed outside the White House, people were taking pictures of it.”

He said he didn’t recall having shown secret material to others, which is a key question prosecutors would want to answer. Disclosing classified material to people not authorized to receive it is a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Asked if he showed classified documents to others, he answered, “Not really…I would have the right to,” later adding, “not that I can think of.”

Daniel Penny faces manslaughter charge, to turn himself in Friday in NYC subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely

New York Daily News

Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran whose chokehold killed Jordan Neely on a Manhattan subway train, is to be charged with second-degree manslaughter and will turn himself in to police on Friday, sources told the Daily News.

Penny, 24, is expected to turn himself in at the Fifth Precinct stationhouse on Elizabeth St. in Chinatown, said a police official. Doug Cohen, a spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, confirmed the arrest charge.

After he turns himself in, Penny is to be arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court, Cohen said.

Supreme Court pork ruling boosts states’ rights

E&E News

The Supreme Court on Thursday said pork producers may not proceed with their claims against a California animal welfare law in a ruling that may bolster states’ authority to set their own climate regulations.

In a splintered decision led by Justice Neil Gorsuch in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, the high court affirmed a ruling by a lower bench blocking farmers from raising a dormant commerce clause argument against the Golden State’s spacing requirements for pork-producing sows.

Litigants have used the dormant commerce clause — the implicit prohibition in the Constitution against state actions that impede interstate economic dealings — to fight state energy and climate rules.

Your Next Mosquito Repellent Might Already Be in Your Shower

The Atlantic

For as long as I can remember, I have been that friend—the one who, from May to November, gets invited to every outdoor soiree. It’s not because I make the best desserts, even though I do. It’s because, with me around, the shoes can come off and the DEET can stay sheathed: No one else need fear for their blood when the mosquitoes are all busy biting me.

Explanations abound for why people like me just can’t stop getting nipped—blood type, diet, the particular funk of the acids that emanate from our skin. Mosquitoes are nothing if not expert sniffers, evolving over millennia to detect the body’s many emissions, including the carbon dioxide we exhale and the heat we radiate.

But to focus only on a mosquito’s hankering for flesh is to leave a whole chapter of the pests’ scent-seeking saga “largely overlooked,” Clément Vinauger, a chemical ecologist at Virginia Tech, told me. Mosquitoes are omnivores, tuned to sniff out blood and plants. And nowadays, most humans, especially those in the Western world, tend to smell a bit like both, thanks to all the floral, citrusy lotions and potions that so many of us slather atop our musky flesh.

FDA advisers unanimously back over-the-counter birth control pill

Nature

An advisory committee for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has unanimously endorsed the agency making an oral contraceptive available over the counter. If the FDA follows this advice, the medication, sold under the name Opill, will be the first birth-control pill available without prescription in the United States. A final decision by the agency is expected in the coming months.

Because the FDA often follows its advisers’ recommendations, the two-day meeting, which ended on 10 May, was hotly anticipated. Associations such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Medical Association have been urging the agency to make oral contraceptives available over the counter.

“The scientific evidence is clear that over-the-counter access to contraception without age restrictions can be accomplished safely, and the benefit of increased access is significant,” said Kristyn Brandi, a gynaecologist representing ACOG at the meeting. She pointed out that many people seeking medication to prevent unwanted pregnancies face obstacles, including cost barriers and difficulties in obtaining an appointment with a physician. “People from marginalized communities, including racial and ethnic minorities, uninsured people and those who don’t speak English, are more likely to face these barriers,” she said.

Minnesota poised to close state park, return land to Dakota tribe

Minneapolis Star Tribune

A Minnesota state park built on a notorious site of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 would be closed and transferred to the Dakota under a proposed state law.

The 1,300-acre Upper Sioux Agency State Park, composed of rolling prairies and wetlands at the confluence of the Yellow Medicine and Minnesota rivers, would be returned to the Upper Sioux Community that was forced out after the war. It would mark the first time in decades that the state of Minnesota relinquished a state park.

"There are points in time where we have the opportunity to do the right thing," said state Rep. Zach Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids. "And this is the right thing, to return this land at this time."

The park was the site of the Upper Sioux Agency, a government-run complex responsible for paying the band of Dakota the money, food and supplies owed to them under the treaties that gave the United States much of what is now Minnesota.

Chinese warships sail around Japan as tensions rise ahead of G7 summit

CNN

A Chinese naval flotilla led by a powerful destroyer has been on a 12-day circumnavigation of Japan’s main islands in a display of military power as tensions simmer over Taiwan and as Japan prepares to host G7 leaders next week.

Japan’s Defense Ministry on Thursday released a map showing the Type 055 guided missile destroyer Lhasa, one of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s most powerful warships, leading a four-ship flotilla that also included a smaller destroyer, a frigate and a supply ship on the clockwise circumnavigation.

The Japanese map shows the voyage began April 30 in the Tsushima Strait between South Korea and Japan, progressed through the Tsugaru Strait at the northern tip of Hokkaido on May 5 and 6 and then was in the Izu island chain south of Tokyo on Thursday.

EPA announces new rules to get carbon out of electricity production

Ars Technica

Today, the Biden administration formally announced its planned rules for limiting carbon emissions from the electrical grid. The rules will largely take effect in the 2030s and apply to gas- and coal-fired generating plants. Should the new plan go into effect, the operators of those plants will either need to capture carbon or replace a large fraction of their fuel with hydrogen. The rules will likely hasten coal's disappearance from the US grid and start pushing natural gas turbines to a supplemental source of power.

Whether they go into effect will largely depend on legal maneuvering and the results of future elections. But first, the rules themselves.

In 2007, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Clean Air Act applied to greenhouse gas emissions. This allows the EPA to set state-level standards to limit the release of greenhouse gasses, with the states given some leeway on how they reach those standards. Since then, the court has clarified that these standards must be met on a per-plant basis rather than at the grid level; the EPA can't set rules that assume that the grid has more generation from solar and less from coal plants.

The new plan reflects those rulings, creating compliance rules that need to be met by existing coal and natural gas plants. It also sets targets for any new natural gas plants brought into service but skips rules for new coal plants because there is no indication that anybody will ever want to build one. (And these rules make it even less likely that someone will.)