UNITED STATES
Education cuts approved
A divided Supreme Court on Monday gave President Donald Trump the green light to resume dismantling the Department of Education. The conservative-dominated court, in an unsigned order, lifted a stay that had been placed by a federal district judge on mass layoffs at the department. The three liberal justices on the nine-member panel dissented. Trump pledged during his White House campaign to eliminate the education department, which was created by an act of Congress in 1979, and he moved in March to slash its work force by nearly half. About 20 states joined teachers’ unions in challenging the move in court, arguing that Trump was violating the principle of separation of powers by encroaching on Congress’ prerogatives. In May, District Judge Myong Joun ordered the reinstatement of hundreds of fired department employees. The Supreme Court lifted the judge’s order without explanation, just days after another ruling that cleared the way for Trump to carry out mass firings of federal workers in other government departments. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissent joined by justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said in the education ruling that “only Congress has the power to abolish the Department... The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave.”
HONG KONG
Lee backs gay couples’ bill
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee (李家超) yesterday threw his weight behind a bill recognizing limited rights for same-sex couples, despite fears that opposition from pro-Beijing parties could sink it. Lee’s administration this month proposed legislation to recognize some rights for same-sex partners whose marriages are registered abroad. Despite LGBTQ activists arguing it does not go far enough, the proposal drew near-universal criticism from the pro-Beijing politicians that dominate the Legislative Council. The clash pitted Lee against conservative lawmakers from his own camp and led some to fear the proposal might be pulled. The territory’s top court ordered the government to create an “alternative framework” for LGBTQ couples when it quashed a bid to recognize same-sex marriage in 2023. Lee yesterday said that the government “must not act in violation” of the Court of Final Appeal’s judgement. “Otherwise, it will be against the rule of law... Violating the rule of law will mean serious consequences,” he told reporters. The government will respect the legislature’s final decision, he added.
UNITED STATES
Beyonce’s music stolen
Computer drives containing unreleased music by Beyonce and plans related to her concerts were stolen last week in Atlanta, police said on Monday, with a suspect still at large. The items were stolen from a rental car used by Beyonce’s choreographer and a dancer on Tuesday last week, two days before the pop icon started the Atlanta leg of her “Cowboy Carter” tour, a police incident report said. Choreographer Christopher Grant, 37, told police that he returned to the car to find its rear window smashed and their luggage stolen. Inside were multiple jump drives that “contained water marked music, some un-released music, footage plans for the show, and past and future set list [sic],” the report said. Also missing were an Apple MacBook, headphones and several items of luxury clothing. Atlanta Police said in an online statement that a warrant had been issued for an unnamed suspect’s arrest, but that the suspect remained at large.
STEPPING UP: Diminished US polar science presence mean opportunities for the UK and other countries, although China or Russia might also fill that gap, a researcher said The UK’s flagship polar research vessel is to head to Antarctica next week to help advance dozens of climate change-linked science projects, as Western nations spearhead studies there while the US withdraws. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, a state-of-the-art ship named after the renowned British naturalist, would aid research on everything from “hunting underwater tsunamis” to tracking glacier melt and whale populations. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the country’s polar research institute, the 15,000-tonne icebreaker — boasting a helipad, and various laboratories and gadgetry — is pivotal to the UK’s efforts to assess climate change’s impact there. “The saying goes
Floods on Sunday trapped people in vehicles and homes in Spain as torrential rain drenched the northeastern Catalonia region, a day after downpours unleashed travel chaos on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. Local media shared videos of roaring torrents of brown water tearing through streets and submerging vehicles. National weather agency AEMET decreed the highest red alert in the province of Tarragona, warning of 180mm of rain in 12 hours in the Ebro River delta. Catalan fire service spokesman Oriol Corbella told reporters people had been caught by surprise, with people trapped “inside vehicles, in buildings, on ground floors.” Santa Barbara Mayor Josep Lluis
Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018. The detentions, which come amid renewed China-US tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded rare earth export controls last week, drew condemnation from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on Sunday called for the immediate release of the pastors. Pastor Jin Mingri (金明日), founder of Zion Church, an unofficial “house church” not sanctioned by the Chinese government, was detained at his home in the southern city of Beihai on Friday evening, said
SANCTIONS: Congolese Minister of Foreign Affairs Therese Kayikwamba Wagner called on the EU to tighten sanctions against Rwanda during an event in Brussels The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) has accused the EU of “an obvious double standard” for maintaining a minerals deal with Rwanda to supply Europe’s high-tech industries when it deployed a far-wider sanctions regime in response to the war in Ukraine. Congolese Minister of Foreign Affairs Therese Kayikwamba Wagner urged the EU to levy much stronger sanctions against Rwanda, which has fueled the conflict in the eastern DR Congo, describing the bloc’s response to breaches of the DR Congo’s territory as “very timid.” Referencing the EU’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she said: “It is an obvious double standard
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