House OKs bill to curb political interference with census
The House has passed legislation on a party-line vote that aims to make it harder for future presidents to interfere in the once-a-decade headcount that determines political power and federal funding. The bill is a Democrat-led response to the Trump’s administration’s failed efforts to place a citizenship question on the 2020 census. Republicans overwhelmingly opposed the bill, saying it places more power in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, reducing accountability. The 2020 census was one of the most challenging in recent memory because of the attempts at political interference, the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters.
Democrats punt same-sex marriage vote until after election
Democrats are punting a vote to protect same-sex and interracial marriages until after the November midterm elections, pulling back just days after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to put the Senate on the record on the issue “in the coming weeks.” The request for a delay by senators who have been pushing for the legislation comes after Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the lead champion of the legislation, had predicted they would be able to get the 10 Republican votes they need to break a filibuster. But the group struggled in recent days as some Republicans raised increasing concerns about religious liberty.
Facing budget shortfalls, schools are turning to the sun
One school district was able to give pay raises to its teachers as big as 30%. Another bought new heating and ventilation systems. The improvements were paid for by an endlessly renewable source — the sun. As solar energy gains traction across the country, one beneficiary has been schools, particularly those in cash-strapped districts. From New Jersey to California, nearly 1 in 10 K-12 public and private schools across the country were using solar energy by early 2022, according to data released Thursday by Generation180, a nonprofit that promotes and tracks clean energy. That’s twice as many as existed in 2015.
Montana defies order on transgender birth certificates
Just hours after a Montana judge blocked health officials from enforcing a state rule that would prevent transgender people from changing the gender on their birth certificate, the Republican-run state said it would defy the order. District Court Judge Michael Moses chided attorneys for the state on Thursday over the rule. He said it circumvented his April order that temporarily blocked a 2021 Montana law that made it harder to change birth certificates. The director of the health department issued a statement Thursday afternoon that it was keeping its new rule in place and would not be processing applications for birth certificate changes.
Ukrainian president: Mass grave found near recaptured city
Ukrainian authorities have found a mass burial site near a recaptured northeastern city previously occupied by Russian forces. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the discovery late Thursday in his nightly address to the nation. The grave was found close to Izium in the Kharkiv region. Associated Press journalists saw the site in a forest. Amid the trees were hundreds of graves with simple wooden crosses, most of them marked only with numbers. A larger grave bore a marker saying it contained the bodies of 17 Ukrainian soldiers. Investigators with metal detectors were scanning the site for hidden explosives. Zelenskyy said more information would be made public Friday.
Warming, other factors worsened Pakistan floods, study finds
A new study says human-caused climate change juiced the rainfall that triggered Pakistan’s floods by up to 50%. But the authors of Thursday’s study say other societal issues that make the country vulnerable and put people in harm’s way are probably the biggest factor in the ongoing humanitarian disaster. Still, they say climate change made it a lot worse. Researchers used the scientifically accepted technique of comparing what happened to computer simulations of a world without heat-trapping gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. The study from World Weather Attribution is not yet peer reviewed.
Putin thanks China’s Xi for his ‘balanced’ stand on Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked Chinese leader Xi Jinping for his “balanced” approach to the Ukrainian crisis and blasted Washington’s “ugly” policies at a meeting that followed a major setback for Moscow in the war. Putin and Xi met in Uzbekistan on the sidelines of the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Speaking at the start of talks with Xi in Uzbekistan, Putin said he was ready to discuss unspecified “concerns” by China about Ukraine. A Chinese government statement after the meeting didn’t specifically mention Ukraine, but said Xi promised “strong support” to Russia’s “core interests.” Beijing uses “core interests” to describe issues such as national sovereignty and the ruling Communist Party’s claim to Taiwan.
Germany offers Holocaust reparations package, and a special fund for Ukrainians
Germany on Thursday agreed to one of its largest financial reparations packages ever for the world’s remaining Jewish Holocaust survivors — including a 12 million-euro ($12 million) emergency fund for 8,500 survivors who remain in war-torn Ukraine. The entire package is worth a total of $1.2 billion and will be disbursed next year, mostly to help cover health care costs of an aging and dwindling population of survivors. It will also for the first time fund Holocaust remembrance education, according to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims, the negotiating body for reparations.
