Important Takeaways:
- The Pentagon is moving U.S. military assets closer to Israel and Lebanon to be ready to evacuate Americans as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies
- U.S. officials are increasingly concerned Israel is going to carry out airstrikes and a possible ground offensive in Lebanon in the coming weeks.
- Israel wants to move Hezbollah farther away from the border and is pushing for a diplomatic solution, but if that does not work the Israel Defense Forces are ready to use force, an Israeli official said.
- The goal is to return quiet to northern Israel so that 60,000 Israelis who have left in the past eight months because of Hezbollah rocket fire can go home, the official said.
- The State Department estimated in 2022 that 86,000 Americans live in Lebanon. In 2006, the U.S. evacuated 15,000 people from the country during Israel’s war with Hezbollah.
- In a statement, Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said restoring calm along the Israel-Lebanon border “remains a top priority for the United States and must be of the utmost importance for both Lebanon and Israel. We continue to work toward a diplomatic resolution that would allow Israeli and Lebanese citizens to safely return to their homes and live in peace and security.”
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Important Takeaways:
- That will replace the state’s current ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
- Abortions after six weeks of pregnancy will be allowed in cases of rape if the assault is reported to law enforcement within 45 days, in cases of incest reported within 140 days, and if the pregnancy endangers the life of the pregnant person. It allows abortion in the case of life-threatening fetal abnormalities.
- The law had been in effect for a few days after Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed it last year but was blocked by a lower court in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.
- Today the court found that there is a “rational basis” to write a law banning abortion based on the detection of a fetal heartbeat, stating, “We conclude that the fetal heartbeat statute is rationally related to the state’s legitimate interest in protecting unborn life.”
- The Midwest is still a mixed picture for abortion rights. Neighboring Iowa are Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas and Illinois that still allow access to abortion beyond 20 weeks. But Missouri and the Dakotas have near-total bans and Nebraska has a 12-week ban.
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Important Takeaways:
- The case stems from a lawsuit filed by Joseph Fischer – one of more than 300 people charged by the Justice Department with “obstruction of an official proceeding” in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
- His lawyers argued that the federal statute should not apply, and that it had only ever been applied to evidence-tampering cases.
- The ruling reverses a lower court decision and returns the case to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, who will have the opportunity to reassess the case with Friday’s ruling in mind.
- The case stems from a lawsuit filed by Joseph Fischer – one of more than 300 people charged by the Justice Department with “obstruction of an official proceeding” in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. His lawyers argued that the federal statute should not apply, and that it had only ever been applied to evidence-tampering cases.
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Important Takeaways:
- State Superintendent Ryan Walters said during opening comments of Thursday’s State Board of Education meeting that “every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom.”
- According to the memo obtained by StateImpact, “all Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments, as an instructional support into the curriculum across specified grade levels, e.g., grades 5 through 12.”
- The memo to schools says the State Department of Education “may supply teaching materials for the Bible, as permissible, to ensure uniformity in delivery,” and “further instructions for monitoring and reporting on this implementation for the 2024/35 school year will be forthcoming.”
- Finally, it says adherence to the mandate is compulsory, and “immediate and strict compliance is expected.”
- Though many Oklahoma schools start fall classes within the next two months, Walters indicated there was still significantly more guidance to come on implementation and compliance monitoring of the mandate.
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Important Takeaways:
- Twelve-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was walking to a convenience store in Houston when she disappeared, police say; she was found dead in a creek earlier this month.
- Two undocumented men from Venezuela are accused of killing the girl and both are facing charges of capital murder in her death, according to the Houston Police Department.
- It is also the latest case to bring immigration to the forefront as a critical issue this election year, as the two men were in the country illegally, according to the US Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
- Where and when they entered the country is unclear, the spokesperson said, but each had been apprehended near El Paso by US Border Patrol – Martinez-Rangel on March 14 and Peña Ramos on May 28 – and released with a notice to appear in court in the future.
- The family will have a celebration of life for Jocelyn on Thursday afternoon in Houston.
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Important Takeaways:
- The New Jersey mother accused of drowning her daughters, ages 1 and 3, told investigators she “needed to kill the children for religious purposes” after having “concerning thoughts” days leading up to the Tuesday night attacks at her Lakewood apartment that also included stabbing one of the girls.
- “The sad truth is Naomi Elkins has a well-documented history of severe mental illness which has absolutely played a major role in these devastating events,” the family’s statement said.
- Elkins told investigators she used a serrated knife to stab the 1-year-old girl in the stomach and back before she placed the child on a couch while she ran a bath, authorities said.
- Medics called police and performed CPR on the girls, but both were pronounced dead at the scene minutes later.
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Important Takeaways:
- North Korea might have launched a hypersonic missile, South Korea has said, as intelligence agencies investigated a ballistic missile test that failed early on Wednesday
- The latest missile test came days after North Korea signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation treaty with Russia and as the US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Busan to take part in joint military drills with South Korea and Japan.
- Such missiles are seen as harder to detect because they can travel at speeds in excess of five times the speed of sound and are designed to be maneuverable, posing a challenge to regional missile defense systems.
- Tensions in the region have risen as Kim has accelerated North Korean testing of missiles and other weapons.
- The United States and South Korea have responded by expanding their combined training and trilateral drills involving Japan, and sharpening their deterrence strategies.
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Important Takeaways:
- The so-called Darlene 3 fire broke out in central Oregon on Tuesday and burned more than 2,415 acres by Wednesday morning, prompting officials in the rural city of La Pine – population 2,500 – to issue evacuation orders and warnings
- As of Thursday morning, the east side of town and surrounding areas were under a level three evacuation order, the highest level, while residents in the central and west sides were asked to prepare to flee their homes.
- Officials have contained the fire by 30% as “fire activity picked up” on Wednesday.
- To the north, firefighters made headway against the Long Bend fire, which erupted in central Oregon on Saturday and, as of Wednesday, burned more than 1,000 acres
- The blaze knocked out power to homes and temporarily closed a portion of the Wapinitia Creek
- In New Mexico, firefighters gained momentum in the battle against two blazes that have forced thousands from their homes and killed at least two people.
- The South Fork and Salt fires have scorched 17,569 and 7,939 acres of land, respectively. They broke out on June 17 and have damaged over 23,000 structures and displaced about 8,000 people.
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Important Takeaways:
- The raging Blue Earth River, which caused an abutment of the 114-year-old Rapidan Dam to partially fail, has now swallowed most of the iconic home that sits on a nearby embankment amid Minnesota’s historic flooding.
- A nearby store could likely be next, according to the owners.
- Blue Earth County officials say the collapse occurred on Tuesday evening and they continue to monitor for possible impacts downstream.
- The river is expected to drop up to 5 feet by Friday. Officials say it’s still cutting away quickly.
- “It’s very close to the house. We had to evacuate this morning, get as much as we could out. All the freezers and such,” Barnes said. “It’s my childhood. I grew up in the house, I grew up in the dam store. I’ve been there all my life.”
- “My family is sitting here waiting for their history to be washed away minute by minute,” said Shannon Whittet, whose uncle Jim Hruska bought the store in 1972. “My family has lost their home, they’ve lost their business, their livelihood and their land will be gone. This isn’t a simple situation of something happened, and we will rebuild. The land will be the last thing. And it will be gone.”
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Important Takeaways:
- While over 150 of them have been arrested, the whereabouts of over 50 remain unknown
- One of the U.S. officials said people affiliated with ISIS are operating as human smugglers in Central Asia and helping people there leave their countries and travel to the West, where they are then smuggled into the U.S.
- The official added that the U.S. has no indication that the more than 400 migrants brought to the U.S. by the network have plans to carry out terrorism in the U.S., but immigration agents are looking to arrest them out of an abundance of caution.
- Many of the more than 400 migrants crossed the southern border and were released into the U.S. by Customs and Border Protection because they were not on the government’s terrorism watchlist
- But recent terrorist attacks in Russia have fueled heightened concern about ISIS and its offshoot ISIS-K. In recent months, DHS has been looking more closely at migrants from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Russia, countries where ISIS-K has been active.
- Thousands of migrants from those countries are already inside the U.S. awaiting court decisions on whether they can stay.
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