Democrats make new bid to reinstate an assault-weapons ban
House Democrats are making another bid for stricter gun laws, almost a month after Congress passed firearms legislation for the first time in three decades and Americans continue to express concern about gun violence. The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday took up a new assault weapons ban that would end the sale of semi-automatic rifles that can fire multiple rounds in a matter of seconds like those used in recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York; Uvalde, Texas; and Highland Park, Illinois. “These are weapons of war. They don’t just kill, they decimate,” said Rep. David Cicilline, the Rhode Island Democrat who sponsored the assault weapons ban.
Nearly one-third of US faces excessive heat
About 100 million Americans from California to New England sweated through heat advisories and warnings from the National Weather Service on Wednesday, as a brutal heat wave across the central part of the country showed no signs of letting up. Heat warnings and advisories were put in place for parts or all of 28 states. People in the Southeast and the Southern Plains faced the most oppressive temperatures, with triple digits expected Thursday and beyond across parts of Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana, said Andrew Orrison, a weather service meteorologist.
Prosecutors rest in contempt case against Bannon
The prosecution rested its case Wednesday in the trial of Steve Bannon, a former top adviser to President Donald Trump, as government lawyers sought to show that Bannon had repeatedly ignored warnings that he risked facing criminal charges in flouting a subpoena. Bannon was indicted in November on two counts of contempt of Congress after he refused to provide information to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The defense will have an opportunity to present its side Thursday. It is unclear if Bannon will testify, and the case could conclude as early as this week.
Giuliani ordered to testify in Georgia 2020 election probe
A judge in New York has ordered Rudy Giuliani to appear next month before a special grand jury in Atlanta that’s looking into whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 election in Georgia. New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber on July 13 issued an order directing Giuliani to appear before the special grand jury on Aug. 9 and on any other dates ordered by the court in Atlanta. Giuliani’s lawyer did not immediately return a call and email seeking comment Wednesday. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis began her investigation early last year, and a special grand jury was seated in May at her request.
2 indicted in migrant death-trailer case that left 53 dead
Two men have been indicted in the case of a tractor-trailer rig found with 53 dead or dying migrants inside in San Antonio. A statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio says 46-year-old Homero Zamorano Jr. and 28-year-old Christian Martinez, both of Pasadena, Texas, were indicted Wednesday on counts of transporting and conspiring to transport migrants illegally resulting in death; and transporting and conspiring to transport migrants illegally resulting in serious injury. The incident happened on a remote San Antonio back road on June 27. Conviction on the death counts could result in life sentences. But the Attorney General’s Office could authorize prosecutors to seek death penalties.
Russia signals that it may want a bigger chunk of Ukraine
Russia’s top diplomat said Wednesday that his country’s ambitions in Ukraine might broaden. In recent months, Russian forces have concentrated their assault on eastern Ukraine, which Russia appears determined to annex as it did Crimea in 2014. But Wednesday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the Russian state news agency that Moscow was now casting its gaze on a swath of Ukraine’s south as well, specifically naming the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions as well as “a number of other territories.” Lavrov said Ukraine’s allies were to blame if Russia expanded its military objectives. He pointed in particular to multiple rocket launchers that the United States has begun delivering to Ukraine.
Turkish warplanes strike Iraq resort, killing at least 8, officials say
Turkish warplanes struck a resort in northern Iraq Wednesday, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 23, according to government and hospital officials. The attack, by at least four missiles, took place in Parakh, a village in Dohuk province, in the semiautonomous Kurdish region near the Turkish border. Turkey’s armed forces regularly launch strikes into northern Iraq to target Kurdish militants who take refuge there. “Once again, the Turkish Forces committed an explicit and blatant violation of the sovereignty of Iraq and the lives and security of Iraq citizens,” Iraq’s prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, said in a statement posted to Twitter hours after the attack.
By wire sources