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Apple became the first publicly traded American company with a market valuation over $1 trillion.
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Trump administration intelligence officials said Russia is still working to interfere in American elections. Other countries are attempting this, too.
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A new hacker group dubbed “Raspite” has penetrated the networks of electric utilities in the U.S. At least one cybersecurity firm believes the group is state sponsored.
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The 2019 defense authorization act requires companies that supply software to the Department of Defense to report if “foreign adversaries” have sought access to their software source code.
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The Department of Health and Human Services will continue funding Planned Parenthood affiliates with Title X family planning grants.
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The Trump administration again warned European countries that they’ll face American sanctions if they continue to do business with Iran.
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Sweden is buying Patriot missile systems to boost the country’s ballistic missile defenses.
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Jordan’s military killed several ISIS fighters who were approaching the border as they fled a Syrian government offensive.
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The Onion reviews Christopher Robin:
Tag: abortion
Links for 7-7-2018
- One American soldier was killed and two others were wounded during a green-on-blue attack in southern Afghanistan.
- The political left may have chased Scott Pruitt out as EPA administrator, but they’re going to hate his (at least temporary) replacement, Andrew Wheeler, even more.
- Andrew McCarthy writes that Democrats who say they’ll defend Roe v. Wade during the upcoming battle to confirm a Supreme Court justice are focused on the wrong court ruling — Planned Parenthood v. Casey has been the guiding case on abortion for the past 25 years:
Here is reality: Casey’s refinement of the right judicially manufactured in Roe granted expansive and expanding room to regulate abortion. The validity of those regulations, not the core holding of Roe, is what dominates abortion litigation nowadays. It is unlikely that cases will present a need to grapple with Roe, it is even less likely that Roe will be overturned, and even if this highly unlikely event were to come to pass, it would not render abortion illegal. Instead, abortion would once again be a question for the states, the vast majority of which would guarantee some degree of access to abortion. We are not going to move into a post-Roe era, but even if we did, no woman who could obtain an abortion today would be unable to get one post-Roe.
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo concluded two days of talks with North Korean officials, who dissed the outcome after Pompeo left.
The public complaint might be a real warning that Kim is about to break off contact, but it’s more likely just a test of the resolve of Pompeo and Donald Trump. North Korea knows how to manipulate negotiations, having very successfully done so in the past to win substantial concessions in return for empty promises. We knew this process would involve those attempts too; Pyongyang tried this before the summit and almost wound up with no meeting at all. They’re probing for weakness in the US negotiating team, and between the US and its allies. If we didn’t see a little of this, we might be better off worrying about whether we were giving the store away in negotiations.
- Two American guided missile destroyers sailed through the Taiwan Strait.
- Forty-nine people were killed and 48 are missing after heavy rains hit western and central Japan.
- Al Shabaab detonated two car bombs in Mogadishu and stormed a government building that houses Somalia’s security and interior ministries. At least five people were killed and 21 wounded.
Links for 6-26-2018
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The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5–4 in NIFLA v. Becerra that California can’t compel “professional” speech. California law required pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise abortions, and only five justices decided that law might actually violate people’s First Amendment rights.
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The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5–4 to uphold the third version of Donald Trump’s “travel ban.” The court ruled that Congress passed a bill giving the president wide discretionary powers over immigration, and Trump was operating within those powers.
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Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will meet with leaders from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador on Thursday. Those three countries account for many of the illegal immigrants crossing the border with Mexico.
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Senator Rand Paul filed a civil lawsuit against the neighbor who assaulted him.
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Large protests over the state of Iran’s economy prompted the closure of Tehran’s Grand Bazaar.
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Steven Crowder was tossed out of the Texas Democratic state convention after he confronted a woman who encouraged people to firebomb his vehicle:
Links for 6-13-2018
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Catholic hospitals in Ireland will be required to perform abortions. Ireland has a single payer medical system, which enables the government to dictate this.
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A proposal to split California into three states will be on the ballot in November.
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The Department of Justice plans to file more civil rights lawsuits against cities that discriminate against houses of worship.
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Andrew McCabe’s lawyer sued the Department of Justice and the FBI, claiming McCabe is being denied access to documents required to defend him against the misconduct allegations that got him fired.
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Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a large assault on the port of Hodeidah, Yemen. The Saudis say they only want to capture the seaport, the airport, and the road to Sanaa — they’re not interested in street-to-street fighting against the Houthis.
Links for 6-4-2018
- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7–2 in favor of Jack Phillips in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, but the ruling was drawn narrowly and avoided addressing First Amendment issues. Michael Farris, who represented Jack Phillips, wrote a reaction for National Review, and David French put a positive spin on the decision for the same publication. You can read the full decision here.
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The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously vacated a lower court ruling that required the federal government to facilitate an abortion for an illegal immigrant minor.
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A former Defense Intelligence Agency officer was arrested for spying on China’s behalf:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation took Ron Rockwell Hansen, 58, into custody on Saturday while he was on his way to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to get a connecting flight to China.
The department said he has been accused of trying to transmit national defense information to China and with receiving “hundreds of thousands of dollars” while acting illegally as an agent for the Chinese government.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on China to “make a full public accounting” of the Tiananmen Square massacre, 29 years after the event.
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Two Congressmen introduced a bill that would require Chinese government-funded Confucius Institutes operating on American college campuses to register as foreign agents.
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A anti-drug police unit in South Carolina routinely conducts illegal no-knock raids, including one where they shot a Myrtle Beach man nine times, crippling him for life.
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California’s legislature voted to extend the state’s Medicaid program to illegal immigrants. This will cost the state an estimated $3 billion this fiscal year.
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Facebook sold information about its users to at least 60 device manufacturers, including Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, and Amazon.
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Turkey and the U.S. agreed on a “roadmap” for the future of Manbij, Syria, but declined to say what’s on that roadmap.
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An ISIS suicide bomber targeted a gathering of Afghan clerics who are friendly with the government.
Links for 5-29-2018
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Missouri Governor Eric Greitens (R) resigned effective Friday afternoon after getting himself into scandals involving an extramarital affair and a potentially illegal fundraising scheme. Missouri’s legislature is in special session to consider what to do about him, and they could have impeached him. Lt. Governor Mike Parson will become the new governor.
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Congressman Thomas Garrett (R-VA) won’t run for re-election, and will instead spend his time being treated for alcoholism.
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The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a Planned Parenthood case challenging an Arkansas law that requires abortion doctors who dispense abortifacients to maintain contact with another doctor who has admitting privileges at a local hospital. Two of Arkansas’ three abortion clinics may close when the law goes into effect.
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A Russian journalist and critic of Vladimir Putin, Arkady Babchenko, was shot dead in Kiev, Ukraine, where he’d gone into exile.
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Japan detected another Chinese ship conducting transfers at sea with a North Korean ship, which suggests they were evading sanctions.
Links for 5-27-2018
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The USS Higgins and USS Antietam sailed to within 12 miles of artificial islands China built in the Paracel Islands chain in the South China Sea.
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Two former French intelligence officers were arrested and charged with spying for China. The two spies worked for DGSE, the French version of the CIA.
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British Prime Minister Theresa May refused to liberalize abortion laws in Northern Ireland after Irish voters approved a referendum allowing abortion.
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Four Russian soldiers were killed in Syria’s Deir al-Zor province. The Russians were working with a Syrian government artillery battery when it was attacked by rebels.
