Monday, Jun 23rd
Last update07:24:40 AM GMT
Democrats are furious with former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s decision to publicly leave the party and announce she’s a political independent while promoting a book.
Jean-Pierre served as former President Biden’s voice to the media for more than two and a half years, and her decision to split from the party at a time when it is particularly troubled has been more than irksome to Democrats.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz defended President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” over criticism that millions of people could lose health coverage, saying those who would face new work requirements should “prove that they matter.”
Oz made the comments during an interview Wednesday on Fox Business, arguing that when Medicaid was created in the 1960s lawmakers did not include work requirements because it “never dawned on anybody that able-bodied people who work would be on Medicaid.”
“We’re asking that able-bodied individuals who are able to go back to work at least try to get a job or at least volunteer or take care of loved-one who needs help or go back to school,” he said. “Do something that shows you have agency over your future.”
If Americans are willing to do that, he added, they should be able to be enrolled or stay enrolled in Medicaid.
The Supreme Court on June 5 said Wisconsin should not have denied a tax exemption to a Catholic Charities chapter, the latest in a series of rulings the justices have decided in favor of faith groups.
The court unanimously ruled that the state violated the First Amendment's protection for religion and discriminated against the religious organization in Wisconsin.
"There may be hard calls to make in policing that rule, but this is not one," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote.
Wisconsin’s law, which is similar to most states' and the federal government’s, grants exemptions from its unemployment insurance program for certain church-controlled organizations that are “operated primarily for religious purposes.”
The United States has vetoed a United Nations security council resolution calling for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza while the 14 remaining countries on the council voted in favour.
The vetoed resolution also called the situation in Gaza “catastrophic”, and demanded the “immediate and unconditional lifting of all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and its safe and unhindered distribution at scale, including by the UN and humanitarian partners”.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he spoke with Russian leader Vladimir Putin for well over an hour about Ukraine’s latest attack on Russian airplanes and nuclear talks with Iran.
Putin in that call vowed retaliation against Ukraine for the stunning surprise attack, which Kyiv said resulted in strikes on more than 40 Russian bombers, Trump said.
“It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The Kremlin later confirmed the call, which came as fighting continues more than three years after Russia invaded Ukraine.
“President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,” the president added.
Trump’s post did not say if he discouraged Putin from taking that action during their 75-minute conversation.
Friday marks the closing weekend of WorldPride, an international festival that is being held this year in Washington, D.C. There are many events taking place, including concerts, a human rights conference and D.C.'s annual Pride Parade.
The last time WorldPride was in the U.S., in 2019, it was held in New York City, and attendance was estimated at more than 5 million. Corporate sponsors included T-Mobile, L'Oréal, Delta Air Lines, JPMorganChase, Starbucks, the NBA and WNBA.
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government to immediately halt deportation proceedings against the wife and five children of a man charged in the firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, responding to what the judge called an urgent situation to ensure the protection of the family's constitutional rights.
U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher granted a request from the family of Mohamed Sabry Soliman to block their deportation, after U.S. immigration officials took them into federal custody Tuesday.
"The court finds that deportation without process could work irreparable harm and an order must issue without notice due to the urgency this situation presents," Gallagher wrote in the order.
Smoke from wildfires in Canada is spreading across multiple states in the US including the eastern seaboard, prompting multiple states to issue air-quality alerts.
The poor air quality stretching across the US came as a result of dozens of wildfires burning across Canada as the country’s annual wildfire season roars into destructive action.
The fires, which have been sparked by both humans and natural causes, have prompted at least 25,000 residents in three Canadian provinces to evacuate in recent days.
On Wednesday afternoon, a map from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow forecast showed large swaths of moderate to unhealthy air quality across the east, midwest and southern parts of the US, featuring smoke and dust.
Also on Wednesday, the New York state department of environmental conservation issued an air-quality advisory from 11am to 11pm for multiple counties including parts of New York City.
A Guatemalan man who said he was deported to Mexico despite fearing he would be persecuted there was flown back to the US on Wednesday after a judge ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return, his lawyer said.
Brian Murphy, a US district judge in Boston, Massachusetts, had ordered the man’s return after the US Department of Justice notified him that its claim that the man had expressly stated he was not afraid of being sent to Mexico was based on erroneous information.
In a court order last month, Murphy found that the deportation of the man, identified in legal filings only as OCG, likely “lacked any semblance of due process”.
A lawyer for OCG, Trina Realmuto, told the Guardian on Wednesday evening shortly after the man landed in Los Angeles: “We can confirm that OCG landed in the US a few hours ago. He made contact with the legal team while waiting in line to go through immigration. We expect that he will be detained, but we don’t know where yet. If DHS again seeks to deport him to a third country, the judge’s order requires that he be given due process, including notice and the opportunity to present a fear-based claim.”
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