00:01The Supreme Court is handing down several major new opinions.
00:04President Trump calls one a big win, but others don't go his way.
00:08Plus, the U.N. is preparing for a lot more tragedy in Venezuela
00:12as rescue crews run out of time to pull out survivors from last week's earthquakes.
00:17And why critics say a newly passed House bill to protect kids online misses the mark.
00:24The stories that matter, clear and credible,
00:27from across the country to around the world.
00:30These are your unbiased updates from Straight Arrow.
00:36Hi, everyone. I'm Simone del Rosario, in for Craig Negrelli.
00:40We start this morning at the Supreme Court,
00:42which is handing down a flurry of opinions this week before justices go to summer recess.
00:46We're expecting more rulings today.
00:49On Monday, they made four major decisions.
00:51Two of the opinions centered on the firing of government officials.
00:54One, a loss for President Donald Trump, and the other, a win.
00:58In a 6-3 decision along party lines, the conservative-led justices said presidents have free reign to fire federal
01:05agency heads,
01:07despite federal laws requiring cause and a prior decision nearly a century ago that limited executive authority.
01:13The president called this ruling a big win.
01:16However, the justices did rule that Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can keep her job while she fights Trump's efforts
01:23to fire her over allegations of mortgage fraud.
01:26She has long denied any wrongdoing.
01:28In other news, the court declined to take up President Trump's attempt to throw out a jury's $5 million finding
01:34that he sexually abused and defamed writer E. Jean Carroll.
01:37So that case stands as is.
01:39In another high-profile move, the justices ruled 5-4 that states can continue to count mail-in ballots that
01:46arrive after Election Day,
01:47as long as it's part of state law and they're postmarked in time.
01:51President Trump has long questioned the validity of mail-in ballots and continues to challenge his 2020 election loss.
01:58After that opinion came down, Trump used it to bolster his argument that Congress should pass his controversial voting bill,
02:05the Save America Act.
02:06Well, because of the mail-in ballot ruling, which was a little bit surprising, gives people more time to vote
02:14illegally, let's say.
02:16But the Save Act is even more important, and that's the right.
02:20You have to be a citizen of our country.
02:23Okay, you have to show you're a citizen of our country, called citizenship.
02:27Voter ID by photo, photo voter ID, and no mail-in ballots, unless you're in the military disabled, you're ill
02:36or you're away,
02:36or even on a vacation, we're being very open about it.
02:40It's pretty easy, and we'll have honest elections.
02:44While House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries praised the Supreme Court's decision.
02:48The Supreme Court did the right thing with respect to preserving each state's ability,
02:56consistent with the United States Constitution, to manage the electoral process relative to voting by mail.
03:05Voting by mail has never been a partisan issue until Donald Trump decided to peddle conspiracy theories
03:14related to his own failures to win back in 2020.
03:19And lastly, a win for privacy advocates.
03:22The court held that constitutional privacy protections do extend to cell phone location information.
03:28The ruling stems from a 2019 bank robbery case in which police obtained a geofence warrant
03:34and used it to locate cell phones near the bank around the time it was robbed,
03:39leading them to a suspect but wrapping up other people's information.
03:43Still to come out of the court this week, a huge ruling on birthright citizenship,
03:47a ban on transgender athletes, and a campaign finance ruling.
03:51The U.S. and Iran ceasefire remains on shaky ground this morning,
03:55as Washington and Tehran give conflicting updates about where negotiations stand.
04:00Despite that and recent attacks between the U.S. and Iran,
04:03White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said on Fox News,
04:06U.S. officials will be in Doha, Qatar today for high-level meetings.
04:10Iran has requested a meeting this week, so Special Envoy Whitcoff and Jared Kushner
04:14will be flying to Doha for high-level meetings this week as we continue
04:18to discuss the memorandum of understanding.
04:21On the sidelines of those high-level talks will be the technical talks.
04:25So as far as we're concerned, we're holding up our end of the ceasefire.
04:28Violence will be met with violence.
04:29Iran's foreign ministry says no talks with the U.S. are scheduled in the coming days,
04:34but an Iranian delegation will travel to Doha later this week.
04:38Spokesman Ismail Bagayi says the U.S. delegation's visit, quote,
04:43has nothing to do with the Iranian delegation's visit.
04:46The talks were originally scheduled to take place in Switzerland this week.
04:50Frustrations are rising in Venezuela as the death toll from last week's powerful twin earthquakes
04:55continues to go up, while the search for survivors grows more desperate.
04:59Fewer people are being pulled from collapsed buildings, and survivors say help is too slow.
05:04National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez says the confirmed death toll has reached 1,719,
05:11with more than 5,000 injured and nearly 16,000 displaced.
05:15Among the dead are three Americans, according to U.S. officials, while 12 more Americans remain missing.
05:22Venezuela's latest government tally shows nearly 200 buildings completely flattened
05:26and several hundred more severely damaged.
05:29Experts told Reuters the disaster was likely made worse by years of poor building code enforcement,
05:35weak licensing practices, and infrastructure neglect.
05:38And as they've yet to excavate many of the collapsed buildings,
05:41the United Nations coordinator in Venezuela says organization is preparing for the death toll to rise significantly.
05:48At least 2,500 structures affected, most of which fully collapsed.
05:55So we are definitely looking at a number that is higher than the one already reported.
06:03I can give you a proxy indicator.
06:06We are procuring, and this is something that has been agreed with the authorities here,
06:1110,000 wallet banks.
06:13Meanwhile, relatives of the more than 100 Venezuelans deported by the U.S. government
06:17just hours before the quakes are searching for their loved ones after a hotel they were staying in,
06:22which was in the hardest-hit state of La Guayra, collapsed.
06:26Officials say some of the 146 deportees, which included 19 women and 7 children, made it out.
06:32But many remain trapped under the rubble.
06:35President Trump is casting more doubt on whether he'll sign a bipartisan affordable housing bill,
06:40while the House has a trick up its sleeve to pass the voter ID law, the Save America Act.
06:46Trump put the housing bill in limbo last week when he canceled the signing just hours before it was set
06:51to happen.
06:51He said at the time he wouldn't approve it until Congress passes the unrelated SAVE Act,
06:57which imposes new restrictions on voter registration and mail-in voting.
07:01When asked this week whether he will sign the housing bill, the president said this.
07:06It's a yawn. Some people say it's wonderful.
07:10To me, compared to the Save America Act, just about everything is a big yawn.
07:17I think it's so unimportant by compared to the Save America Act.
07:23I think the Save America Act is exactly what it says.
07:26It's saving America from crooked elections.
07:29And the housing bill is a bill that can get approved.
07:32They worked on it long and hard.
07:33It's very bipartisan.
07:36That means the Democrats like it.
07:39I think it's maybe even, it's probably maybe more that way than getting things that I wouldn't necessarily agree to.
07:49The housing bill aims to lower the cost of buying a home by building more housing
07:53and restricting larger corporations from buying single-family homes to turn them into rental properties.
07:59It passed Congress last Tuesday.
08:01Well, despite the president calling it a big yawn, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson later told USA Today he knows
08:08the president won't veto it.
08:10He says he'll either sign it or let the 10 days pass until it automatically becomes law.
08:15As for the Save America Act, Johnson has plans to wrap that tough-to-pass legislation with a must-pass
08:22defense bill, the National Defense Authorization Act.
08:25That maneuver now goes to the House floor for consideration.
08:30The House just passed a major children's online safety package, but the bill is already running into resistance.
08:35The Kids' Internet and Digital Safety Act passed Monday night in a bipartisan vote 267-117.
08:43Supporters say it would give parents more control over kids' online activity, require new safety features, and place new limits
08:50on how minors' data can be used.
08:53It would also create rules for AI chatbots, online games, and age verification on pornography sites.
08:59But the House version is still narrower than the Kids' Online Safety Act that the Senate previously passed.
09:06House lawmakers removed a duty-of-care provision that put more ownership on online platforms to prevent harm to minors.
09:13Supporters of that provision say it was one of the most important parts of the Senate bill.
09:18Then the criticism of the House bill comes in both directions, not far enough, and too far.
09:24Digital rights and tech groups warn it could threaten privacy, free expression, and online anonymity.
09:30The bill now heads to the Senate, where the path is less certain.
09:34Senator Richard Blumenthal has called the House version dead in the Senate, while Senator Ted Cruz has said he is
09:41open to negotiations.
09:42Finally this morning, an eagle from Serbia is back home after a migration turned into a cross-border rescue mission.
09:50Felix is a year-old eastern imperial eagle.
09:53He set off on his first migratory flight last year, going from Serbia across North Macedonia, Greece, and Turkey, before
10:01they lost his tracking signal over Syria.
10:04Then came the worrying news.
10:06Felix had been captured by poachers and put up for sale in WhatsApp groups used to sell illegally trapped wild
10:13birds.
10:14Michel Souwan, who leads the Lebanese Association for Migratory Birds, helped track Felix down.
10:19It was a complicated mission, actually, because there has been some clashes on the borders in that day, and there
10:26has been a storm, a rainstorm.
10:28And the river that separates Lebanon from Syria, the level of water was very high.
10:36So we had to wait nine days.
10:39We had to wait for someone to transport it with the human illegal refugees.
10:47We can't record, of course, but if you see how they managed to get it, it's crazy.
10:52They put it in a potato box, and they hold it in their hands, and they crossed the river.
11:02So Felix was sold to a buyer in Lebanon, then resold back into Syria before Souwan's network retrieved him.
11:08Getting him out was its own ordeal.
11:11After three failed attempts to get him home, the Serbian army helped bring Felix back on a military transport plane
11:17on June 22nd.
11:18He is now in quarantine at a zoo in northern Serbia.
11:22Experts say he will get a new transmitter before he gets to take to the skies a free bird once
11:27again.
11:28Well, Unbiased Updates is the fastest, fairest few minutes in news.
11:32You can watch us anytime at san.com or on our app, or join our growing audience on Spotify.
11:38We want to thank you for making us part of your morning routine.
11:40Those are your Unbiased Updates for this Tuesday.
11:43We'll see you right back here tomorrow.
11:44For all of us here at Straight Arrow, I'm Simone Del Rosario.
11:47Have a great day.
11:48We'll see you next time.
Comments