Nation & World News – At a Glance – for Sunday, June 4, 2023

Biden Signs Fiscal Responsibility Act in End to Debt Limit Crisis

President Joe Biden signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 into law Saturday, ending for now the threat of economic calamity from a default on the nation’s debt and putting limits on spending for two years. Biden signed the legislation days after it was passed by the House and the Senate following weeks of sometimes bitter negotiations with Republicans. Biden’s signature came just two days before the so-called X-date, when Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary, had said the government would run out of cash to pay its debts.

Trump Lawyer’s Notes Could Be a Key in the Classified Documents Inquiry

Turning on his iPhone one day last year, lawyer M. Evan Corcoran recorded his reflections about a high-profile new job: representing former President Donald Trump in an investigation into his handling of classified documents. In the recording, Corcoran recounted a nearly monthlong period of the documents investigation. Such a recording is typically shielded by attorney-client or work-product privilege. But in March, a federal judge ordered Corcoran’s recorded recollections to be given to prosecutors in the documents investigation, setting aside those protections under the crime-fraud exception, which allows prosecutors to work around attorney-client privilege if they have reason to believe legal advice or services were used in furthering a crime.

Judge Finds Tennessee Law Aimed at Restricting Drag Shows Unconstitutional

A federal judge said late Friday that a law in Tennessee aimed at restricting drag shows was unconstitutional, saying it was overly broad and violated the First Amendment. The ruling is an initial victory for supporters of LGBTQ rights after weeks of confusion over the law’s language and how it would affect not only drag artists in the state but also transgender, nonbinary and other gender-nonconforming people. Although only Shelby County, where the lawsuit was filed, is explicitly prevented from enforcing the law, the decision by Judge Thomas Parker of the U.S. District Court in Memphis could lead to challenges elsewhere.

Texas Governor Signs Bill Banning Transgender Care for Minors

Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, signed a bill Friday to ban hormone and puberty blocking treatments, as well as surgeries, for transgender minors. Set to go into effect Sept. 1, the measure would make Texas the largest state to ban transition medical care for people younger than 18. The bill would prohibit a doctor from performing mastectomies or surgeries that would sterilize a minor or remove otherwise healthy tissue or body parts, and from prescribing drugs that would induce transient or permanent infertility. The law is likely to face legal challenges in the three months before it is scheduled to go into effect.

New Hampshire Man Is Arrested After Threatening to Kill U.S. Senator

A man from New Hampshire faces up to up to 10 years in prison after threatening to kill a U.S. senator because he was angry the senator was “blocking military promotions,” according to federal court documents. The U.S. attorney’s office for the District of New Hampshire announced Friday that Brian Landry, 66, of Franklin, New Hampshire, had been charged with threatening to assault, kidnap or murder a U.S. official. Landry called a senator’s district field office May 17 and left a threatening voicemail message, according to court documents. The senator who was threatened by Landry was not named in court documents.

Why It’s So Hard to Tear Down a Crumbling Highway Nearly Everyone Hates

Hardly anyone in Syracuse, New York, sees the Interstate 81 viaduct as anything but an ugly 1.4-mile overpass that spews noise and pollution and has worsened race relations in the city. So when the New York State Department of Transportation decided in 2019 the crumbling roadway should be torn down, a lot of people were excited. But demolishing a highway nearly everyone hates has proved more complicated than expected. Part of this stems from the fact that the area primarily affected is a historically Black neighborhood that abuts the highway and has long borne the brunt of its impact. Residents are wary of gentrification and further disruption.

3 Israeli Soldiers Killed in Rare Attack on Egyptian Border

A man identified by Israeli and Egyptian authorities as an Egyptian security officer entered Israeli territory Saturday and killed three Israeli soldiers in two separate shooting incidents in a remote desert area along the border between the two countries, according to an initial investigation by the Israeli military. Many details remained murky hours after the events unfolded, but Israeli military officials appeared to be treating the incident along the usually quiet border as a rogue assault and said the investigation was being conducted in cooperation with the Egyptian army. The Israeli and Egyptian militaries offered different versions of the episode.

India Rail Disaster Convulses Country Dependent on Trains

As giant excavators tried to untangle crushed trains Saturday at the scene of India’s worst rail disaster in decades, a solemn scene was playing out at a nearby school. Amid odor of human flesh, relatives went through the harrowing exercise of identifying loved ones from about 120 dead bodies lined up on the ground after Friday night’s crash. At least 288 people were killed and over 700 others injured in what officials in a preliminary government report described as a “three-way accident” involving two passenger trains and one freight train. The toll has renewed long-standing questions about safety problems in a system that transports over 8 billion passengers a year.

Car Bombing in Russian-Occupied Ukraine Shows Reach of War

A car bomb killed at least one person Friday night in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials, highlighting the war’s reach far beyond the front lines as Ukrainian partisans aim to undermine their occupiers. The blast occurred in Mykhailivka, a town in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. The targeted vehicle was carrying “four supporters of the Kremlin,” said Ivan Fedorov, the Ukrainian mayor in exile of the nearby Russian-occupied city of Melitopol. Vladimir Rogov, a Russian occupation official in the Zaporizhzhia region, confirmed the attack, saying the bomb killed a “local businessman” named Sergei Didovoduk and injured two others. On Saturday, he said authorities had opened an investigation.

In Russian Schools, It’s Recite Your ABCs and ‘Love Your Army’

A new version of the ABCs in Russia’s Far East starts with “A is for Army, B is for Brotherhood” — and injects a snappy phrase with every letter, such as “Love your Army.” A swim meet in Magnitogorsk featured adolescents diving into the pool wearing camouflage uniforms, while other competitors slung model Kalashnikov rifles across their backs. “Snipers” was the theme adopted for math classes at an elementary school in central Russia, with paper stars enumerating would-be bullet holes on a target drawn on the chalkboard. As the war in Ukraine continues, educational programs across Russia are awash in lessons and extracurricular activities built around military themes and patriotism.

Vigilante Justice Rises in Haiti and Crime Plummets

The 14 presumed gang members under arrest were arriving at a police station in Haiti’s capital when a group of people overpowered the police, rounded up the suspects outside and used gasoline to burn them alive. The gruesome executions April 24 marked the start of a vigilante campaign to reclaim the streets of Port-au-Prince from gangs that have inflicted terror on Haitians for nearly two years. Civilians have taken up arms and killed at least 160 people believed to be gang members since a citizens “self-defense” movement kicked off its vigilantism with the police station attack. The result: a sharp drop in kidnappings and killings attributed to neighborhood gangs.

U.S. Defense Chief Vows to Continue Military Actions Near China

The U.S. military will keep passing through Asian skies and seas where China has become increasingly pugnacious, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in Singapore, where the Chinese defense minister’s refusal to hold talks with him has highlighted the rifts between Beijing and Washington. In his speech at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Austin pressed his main themes: justifying activities by the United States and its allies in the seas and airspace near China; promoting stronger alliances with Washington in the region; and vowing continued U.S. support for Taiwan. All these are sore points for Beijing, especially Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.

By wire sources