Slain Palestinian Journalist, Gas Vehicle Ban and the Tobacco Wars
ROUNDUP: It doesn't cause less anxiety than the news. But it is quicker.
WHAT’S THIS? The Stringer publishes a roundup of news items that you may have missed—with a global bent.
HOUSEKEEPING: The Stringer is returning to a weekly publishing schedule.
‘VICIOUS MONSTERS’
In the unfolding Mar-a-Lago saga, it’s been reported that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s raid was to recover documents Donald Trump was holding related to the nuclear program of an unnamed foreign country, as well as top-secret U.S. operations.
The former president won a small victory: A Trump-appointed member of the judiciary, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, gave the former president his “special master” to review the documents grabbed by the FBI. But it’s unclear how much effect it will have. The decision also triggered a slew of articles lambasting the decision, including a comment from William Barr, the former attorney general for the Trump administration.
For his part, Trump said the feds are “vicious monsters” at a rally in Pennsylvania, the first he’s held since the raid.
A heaping of news items that may have fallen through the cracks:
WORLD
NEW BOSS, OLD PARTY: Boris Johnson has been fully ousted. BoJo’s replacement, Liz Truss, has assumed office as the third woman prime minister in UK history. She’s opened with a pricey proposal to restrain energy prices.
HALF AN ADMISSION: In a report, the Israeli army now says there’s a “high probability” they killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh—a Palestinian-American—in an attack on the West Bank. They’d previously tried to blame Palestinian gunfire for the slaying.
THE END OF HIS STORY: Mikhail Gorbachev—the “first and only” president of the U.S.S.R.—went to the big pockmark in the sky.
A PARTING SHOT: On her way out the door, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet put out a report about China’s treatment of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region that suggests that China could be guilty of “crimes against humanity.”
POLITICS
ABORTION: Fighting continues in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision, which peeled off the federal protections for abortion. South Carolina is moving to ban abortion almost completely. A skirmish in Modesto, Calif., was put down by riot police.
NO MORE GAS CARS: California banned the sale of non-electric vehicles after 2035. They may have jumped the gun: California suffers from “urban sprawl”—people often have to travel hours every day for work, making driving necessary. Electric vehicles are still much more expensive than gas-powered ones, too, and the state doesn’t have a good infrastructure for electric vehicles or public transportation.
TOBACCO WARS: The company accused of being the pied piper of e-cigarettes, Juul, agreed to pay $438.5 million to close a massive investigation into whether its marketing and sales practices hooked kids.
SCIENCE
DELAYS: On Saturday, NASA pushed back its launch of Artemis I. The mission is the beginning of NASA’s attempt to colonize the moon.
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