While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, July 1
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Demonstrators in favour of cancelling student debt protest outside the US Supreme Court.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
US Supreme Court steers society sharp right
One year after its ruling to erase abortion rights, the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court has underscored its determination to push society sharply to the right by scrapping long-established progressive polices.
In three emphatic rulings this week the court banned universities from giving minorities priority in admissions; said some business owners can refuse to serve gay couples on religious grounds; and struck down President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel student debt.
Each saw the court’s six conservative justices under Chief Justice John Roberts flexing their biceps over its three liberals.
Republicans cheered them on as major victories were scored against flagship progressive ideologies – as was also the case in last year’s landmark overturning of abortion rights.
Zelensky orders tighter security at Ukraine-Belarus border
REUTERS
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday ordered security to be beefed up at his country’s border with Belarus, where fighters from the Russian paramilitary group Wagner have been offered exile.
Following Wagner’s short-lived mutiny against Moscow last week, the Kremlin gave fighters from the private army the choice of signing contracts with the Russian defence ministry, returning to civilian life or going into exile in Belarus, whose authoritarian leader is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Zelensky said he had been informed on Friday of the situation in Belarus by the Ukrainian intelligence service GUR, foreign intelligence services and border guards.
Tajik man shoots two dead at Moldova’s international airport
EPA-EFE
A 43-year-old Tajik man grabbed a gun, shot dead two security officers and wounded a civilian at Moldova’s main international airport on Friday after being denied entry, authorities said.
He was himself injured and apprehended, police said, in an incident that briefly grounded flights at Chisinau International Airport.
One witness, Ms Olena Shevelyova, said she had been told to evacuate the airport with other passengers and heard four or five gunshots about 30 minutes later.
Bolsonaro barred from holding public office in Brazil until 2030
REUTERS
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s political career was in tatters on Friday as Brazil’s federal electoral court (TSE) barred the far-right nationalist from public office until 2030 for his conduct during last year’s fraught election.
Five out of seven justices voted to convict the 68-year-old Bolsonaro for abuse of power and misuse of the media over his actions in July 2022, ahead of the election, when he summoned ambassadors to vent unfounded claims about Brazil’s electronic voting system.
Their decision marks a stunning reversal for Bolsonaro, a fiery populist who narrowly lost the October vote to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
US actor Kevin Spacey called ‘sexual bully’ in UK trial
EPA-EFE
Kevin Spacey is “a sexual bully” who “delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable,” a prosecutor told a British jury on Friday.
Speaking at Southwark Crown Court, the prosecutor, Christine Agnew, outlined her case against the Academy Award-winning actor, who is on trial in London facing multiple charges of sexual assault.
The actor “abused the power and influence that his reputation and fame afforded him” to take “who he wanted, when he wanted,” Ms Agnew said. Spacey has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
