The News Not Noise Letter: When All Yoga Is Hot Yoga
A punishing heat wave roasts the Northern Hemisphere. Plus: a Supreme Court surprise ruling, and did Biden freeze?
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Here are your headlines:
SCOTUS’s Surprise Gun Ruling: In an unexpected 8-1 ruling, the Supreme Court Friday upheld a federal law that bars people under domestic abuse restraining orders from possessing guns. The law is intended to protect targets of domestic violence. Justice Thomas was the lone dissenting voice. The ruling came as a surprise to many given the Court’s recent record on gun cases; since 2008 the justices have consistently ruled in favor of expanding rights to own and carry a gun. In 2022 they made a historic ruling that overturned any restrictions on gun ownership or sales that weren’t “consistent with this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation” in what was seen as a huge victory for the gun lobby. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion in the domestic violence case, arguing it is “consistent with the Second Amendment” to temporarily disarm a person who “poses a credible threat to the physical safety of an intimate partner.” He added that the law is “consistent with the principles that underpin our regulatory tradition.” Sobering statistic: nearly 1 million US women report having been shot or shot at by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
The Court We Used to Know: Historically, a defining feature of the Court was its commitment to issuing decisions “outside” politics. In the past, justices’ rulings often did not track with the party affiliation of the president who put them on the Court (i.e., liberal or conservative). This is how the Court earned the trust of the American people. Recently, the Court has become far more political and polls show Americans’ trust in the court is at a historic low. In the past 10 days, we’ve seen a shift.
Last week the Court unanimously dismissed the mifepristone case.
This week all the justices except Thomas and Gorsuch upheld a Trump-era tax law.
Friday we got the guns/domestic violence ruling with Thomas the only holdout.
The Roberts Influence? One wonders if this is the work of Chief Justice John Roberts, an institutionalist who is believed to care enormously about the institutional integrity of the Court and in the past has worked to build consensus where there might have been division. Don’t expect the Court to move center, but these are noteworthy exceptions to the emerging rule of a divided Court.
Middle East Updates: Tensions between the Netanyahu and the Biden administration ratcheted up again this week after Netanyahu accused the White House of withholding weapons, which the administration denies. (Reportedly one bomb shipment is under review.) This led the US to cancel a high-level meeting with Israeli officials. Also this week, Israel threatened serious retaliation after Hezbollah rockets caused wildfires to scorch northern Israel and Hezbollah seemed to threaten an attack on the Israeli city of Haifa. The US sent a special envoy to try to cool tensions; the risks of a wider conflict remain.
Biden’s Immigration Policy: After his executive order cracking down on the border earlier this month, President Biden this week announced a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented spouses of US citizens. The new program applies to about half a million people. Immigration is a top issue for many voters, including men in key swing states who could decide the outcome of the election.
Global Heat Wave: Millions of Americans were under heat advisories this week as a prolonged “heat dome” stalled over the Midwest and East Coast – and in some areas of the country, the heat is expected to continue into the next week. In Manhattan, some made the most of the weather by doing hot yoga in Times Square. The US isn’t the only place enduring extreme heat. This week in Saudi Arabia, hundreds of Muslim pilgrims died from heat while performing the annual Hajj to Mecca. In Delhi, India, it got so hot the city saw temperatures in the mid-90s Fahrenheit – in the middle of the night. And much of the Balkans lost power today for hours – while temperatures were over 100 Fahrenheit. Climate scientists say these overwhelming heat waves are drastically more likely now than they were in the year 2000. Because of manmade climate change, the world will continue getting hotter (and experiencing more dramatic weather disasters).
Putin and Kim: This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited North Korea to meet with Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. The two leaders signed a mutual defense agreement, a major signal to the West and its allies that North Korea and Russia are standing together.
TikTok Case: TikTok filed the first brief in its lawsuit against the “TikTok ban” passed this year. TikTok argues the ban violates users’ freedom of speech, and said that it would isolate Americans in an “island” of content separate from what the rest of the world is seeing. (Um, we are already isolated in our filter bubbles, that’s how the algorithm works. And the US gets radically different content on TikTok than Chinese audiences.) The US government says TikTok is a national security threat. Court proceedings will begin in mid-September.
Did Biden Freeze? Know Before You Share:
As election season heats up, the pressure is on each of us to evaluate the information we receive before sharing it online or repeating it IRL. In the past 2 weeks, a number of viral videos exploded and they show a new tactic at play. Researchers call them “cheapfakes.” That’s when propagandists edit real-life video, cropping and trimming to take moments out of context. This is digital sleight-of-hand, making it look like one thing is happening when in reality, something else is happening. (This is different from a “deepfake,” which is when propagandists use AI or sophisticated software to create video of something that isn’t real.) Cheapfakes work best when they reinforce an existing narrative or stereotype.