Religions don’t agree on abortion. That’s why some faiths plan to take their case to court.

Some activists devastated by the Supreme Court’s decision ending a constitutional right to abortion are turning to a new tactic: Bring God on to their side of the fight.

USA Today

Democrats face hard truths on abortion rights in Wisconsin midterm races

“We have to get Evers in in the state of Wisconsin. I mean, that’s our saving grace: That if we have Republican legislators, that he has the veto power,” Terry said.

NPR

Black Gun Owners React to Supreme Court’s Concealed Carry Decision

The latest Supreme Court ruling guarantee’s the Second Amendment right of people to carry their firearms in public space for “self-defense,” according to the Los Angeles Times. As we know, these new gun laws were advocated for because white people grew concerned about their gun rights. You know who’s even more concerned than them? Black gun owners.

The Root

To defeat Ron DeSantis, Florida Democrats are coalescing around Charlie Crist and the Joe Biden playbook

It was Charlie Crist — that instantly recognizable, enduring enigma of Florida politics — in his element: campaigning. At age 65, Crist, currently serving his third term in the US House, is running for governor, a job he first won in 2006 as a Republican, left after losing a 2010 US Senate race as an independent, and failed to win back in 2014 as a Democrat. And he’s doing it the only way he knows how: by trying to shake every hand in the state. In 36 hours, he attended the Sunday service, spoke to parents of children killed by gun violence, huddled with Nicaraguan refugees, lunched with Haitian American Democrats and toured Cuban American businesses in Little Havana with his new fiancée.

CNN

Broken and distrusting: why Americans are pulling away from the daily news

The Reuters Institute revealed last month that 42% of Americans actively avoid the news at least some of the time because it grinds them down or they just don’t believe it. Fifteen percent said they disconnected from news coverage altogether. In other countries, such as the UK and Brazil, the numbers selectively avoiding it were even higher.

The Guardian

U.S. agencies temporarily barred from enforcing guidance protecting LGBTQ individuals from discrimination

In an order on Friday, U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. ruled for the 20 state attorneys general who sued last August claiming the Biden administration directives infringe on states’ right to enact laws that, for example, prevent students from participating in sports based on their gender identity or requiring schools and businesses to provide bathrooms and showers to accommodate transgender people.

CBS News

Not all 911 callers want an armed response. New proposal could expand police, mental health cooperation nationally.

Experts and advocates say police officers are too often called to solve problems better addressed by mental-health workers or paramedics. They say reforms will free police to concentrate on more serious crimes and help prevent many interactions with police from spiraling into violence.

USA Today

‘Things Are Going to Break’: Texas Power Plants Are Running Nonstop

“Things are going to break,” she said. “We have an aging fleet that’s being run harder than it’s ever been run.”

Bloomberg

Pramila Jayapal, AOC Both Targeted with Racial Harassment

U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) was seemingly the target of a hate crime by a local man armed with a handgun, who a neighbor allegedly heard yelling at the congressperson “Go back to India” at her Seattle home on Saturday, July 11. Since then, some have wondered why the story hasn’t gotten much national coverage – especially as members of the Supreme Court have had their own security protections heightened, courtesy of Congress, in the wake of the Roe v. Wade ruling.

Teen Vogue

DOJ wants the first US Capitol rioter convicted by jury to serve 15 years

Prosecutors want the first US Capitol rioter convicted by a jury to spend 15 years behind bars — nearly a decade longer than the most severe sentence a rioter has received so far.

CNN

With a new sense of urgency, more Latinas are donating time and money to bolster abortion access

Abortion restrictions disproportionately affect Hispanic families, and Latinas across the country are drawing on their networks to ensure access to reproductive care.

NBC News

Sanders says Manchin ‘sabotaged the president’s agenda’

“The problem was that we continued to talk to Manchin like he was serious; he was not,” the Vermont senator said.

Politico

The other Joe: how Manchin destroys Biden’s plans, angering Democrats

The centrist Democrat senator has repeatedly stood in the way of the president’s most ambitious legislative aspirations and derailed fragile negotiations

The Guardian

Opinion: Criticizing Saudi Visit, Media Ignores Biden’s Difficult Bind of Saving Democracy

As the media takes these simple potshots at Biden for an apparent lack of consistency in addressing nation’s human rights violations, they are missing the larger context in which Biden is operating, isolating this event from the difficult and multi-dimensional geopolitical situation he is seeking to address as tries to hold together a fragile coalition of democratic nations–one he has largely led–against a menacing surge of authoritarianism globally and here in the U.S.

PoliticsUSA

2022 is already a record year for state bills seeking to curtail LGBTQ rights, ACLU data shows

State lawmakers across the US have introduced at least 162 bills targeting LGBTQ Americans this year through July 1, according to a CNN analysis of data compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union, already marking a record-breaking year for such legislation.

CNN

The issues the US Supreme Court will rule on next and how they could change the country

With landmark decisions about abortion and climate protection, the Supreme Court’s past term has been one of the most momentous in the history of the US. Here’s what’s next for the country’s highest court.

Deutsche Welle

Biden’s realism approach runs head-on into liberal pressure

Throughout this century, presidents have often pushed aggressively to extend the boundaries of executive power. Biden talks more about its limits.

AP News

Wisconsin GOP Assembly Speaker ‘Violated the Public Records Law,’ Must Disclose Information About Partisan 2020 Election Review: Judge

Roughly a year ago, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) appointed former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to act as a special counsel to review the 2020 results. Vos has indulged former President Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, which Joe Biden won in Wisconsin by more than 20,000 votes. Efforts to overturn those results failed in state and federal court. Even after an audit found no widespread fraud, Vos and Gableman moved ahead with a GOP-backed partisan review. Both Vos and Gableman have been scolded by state courts repeatedly for failing to turn over records on it.

Law and Crime

On White Queer Fandom and the Erasure of Fans of Color

Fans of color should not have to choose between our queerness and our identities as people of color, especially when we’re not from the United States. However, queerness in fandom is often highly reliant on white queerness — queer white histories, queer white feelings — and so fans of color are implicitly or explicitly told to choose. We’re not seen as Real Queer Fans if we’re not doing exactly what everyone else in queer white fandom will do and if we ever question fandom practices or priorities, especially racism or how race is handled at all, we’re actively reframed as anti fans or outsiders out to destroy fandom as we know it.

Teen Vogue

Ted Cruz says Supreme Court was ‘clearly wrong’ about 2015 same-sex marriage ruling

“Obergefell, like Roe v. Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation’s history,” Cruz said in a clip posted on his YouTube channel for his podcast. “Marriage was always an issue that was left to the states. We saw states before Obergefell, some states were moving to allow gay marriage, other states were moving to allow civil partnerships. There were different standards that the states were adopting.”

CNN

With $27.6 million haul, Beto O’Rourke sets a new fundraising record in Texas politics

Incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott entered this year with a much larger war chest and still has the financial upper hand in the race. He raised $24.9 million over the same time period.

Texas Tribune

Billy Porter Bashes Supreme Court, Calls for New Political Messaging: “The Change Has Already Happened, and We Ain’t Going Back”

The star was honored at Outfest on Thursday for his directorial debut ‘Anything’s Possible,’ and after declaring “fuck SCOTUS,” used his time on stage to call for political action: “What will you do and who will you be? This is the moment, right now.”

The Hollywood Reporter

In the Late 1980s, the Gay Urban Truth Squad Took Dallas to Task Over the AIDS Crisis

The staccato thud of hammers broke the predawn stillness one morning in 1988. Activists dotted the vacant lot. They carried some 700 hand-painted white crosses bearing the names of Dallas County residents who’d succumbed to AIDS. Members of the Gay Urban Truth Squad (GUTS), a Dallas activist group, drove the wooden stakes into the dirt at the intersection of Lemmon and Cole avenues. GUTS leader William Waybourn remembers the sun crawling over the horizon, its rays catching the crosses. Their shadows stretched across the grassy field, he says: “It was a beautiful day.”

The Dallas Observer

America Has Never Had a Lesbian Governor Before. Soon, It Could Have Two

A wave of historic queer political candidates are hoping to stem the tide of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

them.

Video Explains Why Men Need to Talk About Abortion Too

Abortion is not a just a women’s issue, it’s one that affects all humans regardless of gender. Beyond the fact that not only women have abortions (trans and nonbinary people also need abortion care), cisgender men have partners, parents, friends, and acquaintances who have had or will have abortions. A new video from The Meteor underscores that point.

Teen Vogue

What Year Is This? While School Populations Have Become More Diverse, Segregation Still Remains

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a comprehensive report showing that 18.5 million attended a predominantly same-race/ethnicity school during the 2020-21 school year. 14% of students attended schools where almost all of the student body was of a single race/ethnicity.

The Root

I’m a Buddhist monk and a makeup artist. Here’s how both my religion and makeup helped me discover myself.

Kodo Nishimura’s mission in life is to free people from traditional and limiting values using Buddhist teachings and makeup.

Insider

South Korea’s China, Russia deals derailed amid new administration’s policy shift toward US

An apparent shift in the external economic policy of South Korea’s new government has put the brakes on a number of efforts in Russia and China that were initiated under the previous administration.

South China Morning Post

Hungary: Protesters angered by Orban-backed tax reforms

At least 1,000 people took to the streets to protest against a new law that curtails tax relief for scores of small businesses. They come at a time when PM Viktor Orban is facing some of his toughest challenges yet.

Deutsche Welle

Holocaust survivors mark 80 years since mass Paris roundup

French President Emmanuel Macron decried his Nazi-collaborator predecessors and rising antisemitism, vigorously vowing to stamp out Holocaust denial as he paid homage Sunday to thousands of French children sent to death camps 80 years ago for one reason alone: because they were Jewish.

AP News

Pope hopes Canada trip will help heal ‘evil’ done to indigenous people

Pope Francis said on Sunday his trip to Canada next week will be a “pilgrimage of penance” that he hopes can help heal the wrongs done to indigenous people by Roman Catholic priests and nuns who ran abusive residential schools.

Reuters

Forest fires rage across Europe as heatwave sends temperatures soaring

Firefighters in Portugal, Spain, France, Greece and Morocco are battling forest fires raging across tens of thousands of hectares as this week’s heatwave continues to bring extreme temperatures and cause hundreds of deaths across south-western Europe.

The Guardian

King Mohammed VI recognizes Jewish community as part of Moroccan culture

‘We can only hope this will inspire and embolden Arabs and Muslims around the world to follow Morocco’s lead.’

The Jerusalem Post

In Kabul, a new ritual: Hungry women wait for bread outside bakeries

But since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan last August, another ritual has emerged: Women in blue burqas settle in front of the city’s upscale bakeries, silently waiting for charitable passersby to purchase bread for them.

NPR

Bloody battle for control rages in eastern Ukraine as Russia struggles to gain ground in Donetsk

The Ukrainian military rebuffed Russian advances in Donetsk over the weekend, as the bloody battle for control in the eastern Donbas region grinds on.

CNN

Hashtag Politics | Why is Modi, vocal during UPA rule, ‘silent’ on Rupee fall now, asks Oppn

Opposition leaders took to social media to slam the Narendra Modi govt over the Rupee’s plunge to record lows against a US dollar, pointing out how the BJP was critical of the previous Congress-led UPA govt over the same issue before coming to power in 2014

The Indian Express

Human rights group says UAE has detained lawyer who represented Khashoggi

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) said in a press release that Asim Ghafoor, who is a U.S. citizen and a board member of the organization, sent a text early Thursday saying that he had been approached by two UAE security agents while he was at the airport in Dubai. Ghafoor was on his way to a family wedding in Turkey and had been waiting for his next flight.

The Hill

Germany: Neo-Nazi march blocked by opponents

Thousands of anti-racism protesters pushed back a small march by an extreme-right group in the western city of Mainz. Police said clashes broke out between officers and some of the demonstrators.

Deutsche Welle

Filipinos are buying books to preserve the truth about the Marcos regime

The rush to buy books documenting Marcos’ destructive 21-year reign comes as his son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., assumes office after a landslide election victory in May.

CTV News

Chad rebels halt peace-building talks with interim military authorities

Chad rebels said on Saturday they would suspend their participation in talks with the government, a move that raises doubt about their involvement in a national dialogue in August that is meant to be a precursor to long-awaited elections.

Reuters

Military drills a sign of Beijing’s increasingly aggressive stance towards Taiwan, analysts say

Mainland China has adopted a more aggressive military posture towards Taiwan, holding more combat-readiness drills near the self-ruled island since the beginning of the year, according to analysts.

South China Morning Post

UN decries rising death toll, rights violations in Haiti

The UN says at least 234 people were killed or injured in gang-related violence from July 8 to 12 in Port-au-Prince.

AlJazeera

Protesters across UK decry ‘heinous’ Rwanda deportation plan

Protests were scheduled to take place in Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Leeds, Manchester, Oxford and Sheffield, according to refugee charity Care4Calais.

The Guardian