North Carolina Gerrymander Ruling Reflects Politicization of Judiciary Nationally
Last year, Democratic justices on the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that maps of the state’s legislative and congressional districts drawn to give Republicans lopsided majorities were illegal gerrymanders. On Friday, the same court led by a newly elected Republican majority looked at the same facts, reversed itself and said it had no authority to act. The North Carolina case mirrors a national trend in which states that elect their judges — Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and others — have seen races for their high court seats turned into multimillion-dollar political battles, and their justices’ rulings viewed through a deeply partisan lens.
Top Republicans Balk at WinRed’s Plan to Charge More for Online Donations
A battle over a threatened price increase has exposed growing tensions between top Republican Party officials and the company with a virtual monopoly on processing Republican campaign contributions online. Party leaders have risen up in opposition to the plan to raise prices, which would siphon millions of dollars from GOP campaigns. Gerrit Lansing, the president of the company, WinRed, has told the leaders of the Republican National Committee, the House and Senate campaign arms and former President Donald Trump’s campaign that WinRed’s prices needed to go up. The Republican officials all objected.
Unemployment Gap Between Black and White New Yorkers Is Widening
The gulf between Black and white unemployment rates in New York City is now the widest it has been this century, exceeding even the largest gap during the Great Recession, according to a new report. In the first three months of the year, the unemployment rate for Black New Yorkers rose to 12.2%, the highest rate of any group, while the white unemployment rate dropped to 1.3%, the lowest it has been since 2000, according to the report, which was released Thursday by the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School. The overall unemployment rate among New Yorkers was 5.3%.
Researchers Identify Possible New Risk for Breast Cancer
Scientists have long known that dense breast tissue is linked to an increased risk of breast cancer in women. A study published Thursday in JAMA Oncology adds a new twist, finding that while breast density declines with age, a slower rate of decline in one breast often precedes a cancer diagnosis in that breast. Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis analyzed breast density changes over a 10-year period in 10,000 women. Some 289 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in that time; the study compared changes in their breast tissue to those in 658 similar women who did not develop breast cancer.
Army Grounds Nonessential Flights After 2 Helicopter Crashes
The U.S. Army said Friday that it was grounding all Army flights except those needed for critical missions until aviation squadrons complete required training after two deadly helicopter crashes in a month. The training will focus on topics including risk mitigation, maintenance and flight planning, the Army said in a statement. Units can resume flights after completing the daylong training, which can begin as early as Monday. The grounding of flights follows the deaths of 12 soldiers in two separate midair collisions during training missions. Both incidents remain under investigation.
Alito Says He Has ‘Pretty Good Idea’ Who Leaked Abortion Ruling
Justice Samuel Alito, the author of the majority opinion that overruled Roe v. Wade last June, told The Wall Street Journal’s opinion pages that he had “a pretty good idea who is responsible” for leaking a draft of his opinion to Politico. Alito added that he did not have “the level of proof that is needed to name somebody.” Alito rejected the theory that the Politico leak had come from the right side of the court in an effort to lock in what was then and turned out to be a five-justice majority for overruling every part of Roe.
Germany Protecting Memorials to Soviet Soldiers of World War II
Days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with Moscow’s forces massing on the border, officials in the medieval town of Lützen, Germany, afforded landmark status to a Soviet-era World War II memorial standing outside a kindergarten in the town center. Lützen is not an outlier. Scattered across Germany, but primarily in what was once the Soviet-dominated German Democratic Republic in the east, are more than 4,000 protected monuments commemorating the sacrifices of Soviet soldiers in the struggle against Nazism. Such memorials, most of them commissioned by the Red Army or local allies, have been toppled, removed or vandalized across Eastern Europe for decades as odious symbols of oppression by Moscow.
Deadliest Russian Attack in Months on Ukraine’s Cities Kills at Least 25
Russia on Friday launched its first widespread aerial assault in more than a month against Ukrainian civilian targets, killing at least 25 people, officials said — the deadliest such attack since January. At least 20 died at an apartment block in Uman. The attack marked a return to a pattern Russia adopted last year after its invasion failed to defeat Ukraine militarily: launching large-scale barrages of missiles, rockets and drones at cities and towns far from the battlefields in the east and south. It is a campaign intended partly to destroy civilian infrastructure, and appears aimed at terrorizing and demoralizing the population.
EU Extends Tariff Waiver for Ukrainian Grain, Despite Some Protests
European Union ambassadors agreed Friday to allow Ukraine’s grains into the bloc free of tariffs for another year, while granting more than $100 million in aid for farmers in neighboring EU countries where crop prices have collapsed with the flood of cheaper imports. Four of those countries — Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia — had recently enacted unilateral bans on Ukrainian food imports in an effort to contain the problem. But the bans frustrated officials in Brussels and Kyiv and illustrated how the EU tariff waiver, enacted last year to support Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, had created unintended consequences that threatened to disrupt the bloc’s united front on the war.
Spain Bakes in Summer-Like Heat, and Worries About What Comes Next
In Madrid, where it hit around 90 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday, schools were allowed to close early to avoid the heat. In Catalonia, it’s so dry that the valves of an irrigation canal have been closed for lack of water. And in Seville, police are investigating the death of a horse pulling a tourist carriage from apparent heatstroke. With temperatures over 100 degrees in early April, people in Spain have moved into summer mode, looking for shade, hitting the beach. But the extreme heat — so early in the year — has prompted fears that it is no longer a seasonal phenomenon but a new daily reality.
War Court Proceedings Stream to Guantánamo From a Secret Chamber in Virginia
After 9/11, the George W. Bush administration created a war crimes court at Guantánamo to be out of reach of the U.S. courts. But now, increasingly, lawyers are examining witnesses and making arguments in the remote annex — 4 miles from the Supreme Court and 10 miles from CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The annex was set up during the coronavirus pandemic when the Navy base commander placed all legal staff members under 14-day quarantine upon arrival at Guantánamo Bay. Each person bound for court was confined to a cramped metal trailer, with soldiers and security cameras monitoring all movements. The remote chamber became a necessity.
Pope Returns to Hungary and Meets With Prime Minister Orban
Pope Francis, who has made welcoming migrants, embracing minorities and warning against nationalism central tenets of his pontificate, began his second visit to Hungary in less than two years Friday and met with Prime Minister Viktor Orban, perhaps Europe’s chief opponent of migrants, closest ally of Russia and most vocal critic of gay rights. The two men, who represent often diametrically opposed views of the future of Europe, had a tete-a-tete in the Castle District of Budapest. It was the start of a three-day visit by the pope to, as he put it, “reembrace” Hungary’s large but declining Catholic population, and to call attention to suffering Ukrainians across the border.
By wire sources