Important Takeaways:
- The U.S.-led campaign against the Houthi rebels, overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, has turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II
- The combat pits the Navy’s mission to keep international waterways open against a group whose former arsenal of assault rifles and pickup trucks has grown into a seemingly inexhaustible supply of drones, missiles and other weaponry.
- Near-daily attacks by the Houthis since November have seen more than 50 vessels clearly targeted
- The Houthis say the attacks are aimed at stopping the war in Gaza and supporting the Palestinians, though it comes as they try to strengthen their position in Yemen.
- All signs suggest the warfare will intensify — putting U.S. sailors, their allies and commercial vessels at more risk.
- The U.S. has been indirectly trying to lower tensions with Iran, particularly after Tehran launched a massive drone-and-missile attack on Israel and now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
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Important Takeaways:
- The United Nations, the player with the widest reach delivering aid within Gaza, has paused its work with the pier after a June 8 operation by Israeli security forces that rescued four Israeli hostages
- Rushing out a mortally wounded Israeli commando after the raid, Israeli rescuers opted against returning the way they came, across a land border. Instead, they sped toward the beach and the site of the U.S. aid hub on Gaza’s coast.
- An Israeli helicopter touched down near the U.S.-built pier and helped whisk away hostages and the commando, according to the U.S. and Israeli militaries.
- For the U.N. and independent humanitarian groups, the event made real one of their main doubts about the U.S. sea route: Whether aid workers could cooperate with the U.S. military-backed, Israeli military-secured project without violating core humanitarian principles of neutrality and independence and without risking aid workers becoming seen as U.S. and Israeli allies — and in turn, targets in their own right.
- Israel and the U.S. deny that any aspect of the month-old U.S. pier was used in the Israeli raid. They say an area near it was used to fly home the hostages after.
- The U.N. World Food Program, which works with the U.S. to transfer aid from the $230 million pier to warehouses and local aid teams for distribution within Gaza, suspended cooperation as it conducts a security review. Aid has been piling up on the beach since.
- For aid workers who generally work without weapons or armed guards, and for those they serve, “the best guarantee of our security is the acceptance of communities” that aid workers are neutral, said Paul, the Oxfam official.
- “So you know, perception matters a lot,” he said. “And for the people who are literally putting their lives on the line to get humanitarian aid moving around a war zone, perception gets you in danger.”
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Important Takeaways:
- The court found that anti-abortion doctors who questioned the FDA’s easing of access to the pill did not have legal standing to sue
- In a blow for anti-abortion advocates, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone, meaning the commonly used drug can remain widely available.
- President Joe Biden said in a statement that while the ruling means the pill can remain easily accessible, “the fight for reproductive freedom continues” in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s ruling two years ago that overturned abortion rights landmark Roe v. Wade.
- Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the court, wrote that while plaintiffs have “sincere legal, moral, ideological, and policy objections to elective abortion and to FDA’s relaxed regulation of mifepristone,” that does not mean they have a federal case.
- Another regulatory decision left in place means women can still obtain the pill within 10 weeks of gestation instead of seven.
- Likewise, a decision to allow health care providers other than physicians to dispense the pill will remain in effect.
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Important Takeaways:
- Diplomats and world leaders have begun to worry that Biden’s reluctance to more fully break with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could cost him the election in November.
- Their concerns have been conveyed largely behind closed doors, out of consideration not to wade too far into U.S. domestic politics.
- But the thrust is often the same: The war has furthered the perception that the world is peppered with a variety of out-of-control hot spots and, in turn, made Biden look weak among voters back home.
- They fear that it may usher in former President Donald Trump and rupture the broader diplomatic harmony Biden has worked to establish.
- European officials say they’re more vexed that Netanyahu hasn’t publicly supported the proposal, even though the U.S. says he privately agreed to it.
- Biden officials have dismissed concerns about the impact of the war on the president’s candidacy, pointing to polling showing that it doesn’t rank among voters’ top priorities ahead of the election.
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Important Takeaways:
- The latest proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza has the support of the United States and most of the international community, but Hamas has not fully embraced it, and neither, it seems, has Israel.
- Hamas is seeking the release of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including political leaders and senior militants convicted of orchestrating deadly attacks on Israeli civilians.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly disputed aspects of the plan, raising questions about Israel’s commitment to what the U.S. says is an Israeli proposal.
- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Hamas had requested “numerous” changes, adding that “some of the changes are workable; some are not.”
- Hamas has insisted it will not release the remaining hostages unless there’s a permanent cease-fire and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
- When President Joe Biden announced the latest proposal last month, he said it included both.
- Israel has yet to put forward a plan for Gaza’s postwar governance, and has rejected a U.S. proposal that has wide regional support because it would require major progress toward creating a Palestinian state.
- Blinken hinted that the negotiations would not continue indefinitely. “At some point in a negotiation, and this has gone back and forth for a long time, you get to a point where if one side continues to change its demands, including making demands and insisting on changes for things that it already accepted, you have to question whether they’re proceeding in good faith or not.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy will sign a 10-year bilateral security agreement at the G7 summit in Italy, as arguments continued on the sidelines about how the west can provide a Donald Trump-proof $50bn loan to Ukraine.
- As with the other bilateral pacts, the agreement with the US will not require America to come to Ukraine’s defense if attacked. But it could make it easier for Ukraine to enter into peace negotiations with Russia, as Kyiv would have some assurance about the help it would receive in the event of a further Russian attack.
- The US-Ukraine agreement does not require the authorization of Congress and could be undone by a future Trump administration.
- Biden has said previously that guarantees for Ukraine would be equivalent to those to Israel, covering financial and military assistance as well as the possibility of the joint weapons production.
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Important Takeaways:
- The incident first occurred on March 5 when Liam Morrison was pulled from gym class and asked to remove his shirt because other students were allegedly complaining and did not feel safe
- The seventh grader was told by a staff member that his shirt was “targeting a protected class.” Morrison said he would not change his shirt, and the school called his father to pick him up.
- During a Middleborough Public Schools board meeting on April 13, Morrison shared his experience with the intention that the school district should show more support for students’ First Amendment rights.
- Morrison’s parents filed a lawsuit, arguing that the school violated his First Amendment rights. Earlier this year, a district court ruled against the parents, which the appeals court affirmed this week
- “This case isn’t about T-shirts; it’s about a public school telling a middle-schooler that he isn’t allowed to express a view that differs from their own,” David Cortman, Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel and vice president of U.S. Litigation, said in a statement following the federal court’s decision
- Cortman said the legal system is “built on the truth that the government cannot silence any speaker just because it disapproves of what they say.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Multiple communities across South Florida — including the Miami and Fort Lauderdale areas — flooded Wednesday amid bouts of torrential rain that prompted the state’s governor to declare an emergency and stranded drivers across the region.
- Along with the heavy rainfall, the storm system also brought an EF1 tornado Wednesday to Hobe Sound, located in Martin County about 35 miles north of West Palm Beach, a National Weather Service damage survey confirmed.
- The city saw a preliminary rainfall total of roughly 9.58 inches Wednesday, making it Fort Lauderdale’s eighth wettest day on record, according to data from the National Weather Service. That preliminary rainfall total is also just above Fort Lauderdale’s average June rainfall of 9.55 inches – meaning the area saw over a month’s worth in one day.
- Heavy rainfall over the last 48 hours totaled about 12.8 inches, making it the ninth wettest two-day period for the city.
- Flood watches are in effect for more than 8 million people in South Florida Wednesday through Thursday night at the earliest.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Board of Supervisors for the City of San Francisco declared the city a transgender “sanctuary city” on Tuesday — or, officially, a “Sanctuary City for Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, Non-Binary, and Two-Spirit People.”
- The resolution, which applies to both the city and county of San Francisco, says it is a response to laws passed in conservative states that limit access to transgender surgery and drugs, especially for children.
- There are growing warnings from medical authorities around the world about the negative effects of transgender surgery and drugs on minors.
- The vote in favor of the resolution was unanimous
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Important Takeaways:
- ‘People will die’: Biden’s border order will worsen migrants’ risks, experts say
- El Paso mayor says order ‘will save lives’ but advocates express concern over heat and exploitation by criminals
- The aggressive new election-year policy triggers a block on most asylum claims once the number of people crossing the border without authorization exceeds a certain level
- The mayor of El Paso, Texas, Democrat Oscar Leeser, said the order “will save lives, keep people from dying in the desert, jumping over the walls and falling, as well as keep them from being exploited”
- Dora Rodriguez, executive director of Salvavision, a group that provides aid to migrants on both sides of the border, said “People will die. Because they will not stop crossing”
- Experts and human rights advocates in El Paso are concerned that the unintended consequences of Biden’s executive action may be to worsen the risks for asylum seekers, while not deterring them from taking those risks
- And they warned that more obstacles in the asylum process will increase exploitation by criminals.
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