(Would you like to receive this newsletter in your inbox? Here it is the registration†
Good evening. Here’s the last one at the end of Monday.
1. A post-Roe America begins to take shape.
In the wake of Roe v. Wade’s destruction, conservatives in about half of the states are rapidly ending or limiting reproductive rights. Liberals in about 20 other states are trying to keep them. Their actions follow a weekend of furious protest and prayer.
In Louisiana, the state’s three remaining abortion clinics said they would resume proceedings after a judge temporarily blocked enforcement of the state’s abortion laws. A Utah judge also blocked enforcement of an abortion ban in the state for two weeks. Abortion rights activists have filed similar lawsuits in Kentucky, Texas, Idaho and Mississippi. We follow the states where abortion is prohibited.
California is in the process of posting a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights on November’s vote. The governor of Washington said he would pursue something similar.
A coalition of 22 prosecutors has broadly advocated the defense of abortion rights. In 19 other states, attorneys general have jointly asked the Department of Justice to protect anti-abortion organizations from violence.
2. Sales of the morning after pill are increasing.
Some women started taking the morning-after pill in response to the Supreme Court’s decision over Roe v. Waden. Retailers try to strengthen the offer. “I felt I had an obligation because our children go to school in a state hostile to abortion care,” said one mother.
3. The Supreme Court ruled that a high school football coach had a constitutional right to pray at the 50-yard line after his team’s games.
Judge Neil Gorsuch, who wrote for the majority in the 6-to-3 decision, said the prayers of the coach, Joseph Kennedy, were protected by the First Amendment. For eight years, Kennedy, a former coach in Bremerton, Washington, routinely prayed after games, with students often joining him.
4. The January 6 committee has unexpectedly scheduled a session for tomorrow to hear “recently obtained evidence” and witness statements.
The hearing is scheduled for 1:00 PM. The panel was not scheduled to meet this week and had scheduled at least two additional hearings for next month. In recent days, the committee has collected hours of footage from a documentary maker and studied it in depth. Aides declined to reveal what additional evidence they intended to present.
In other political news:
-
A federal task force tracked more than 1,000 threats against election workers. Only one has been fully prosecuted.
-
A law that would allow non-citizens to vote in New York’s local elections next year was scrapped by a state Supreme Court judge.
Russia missed a deadline for making bond payments yesterday, marking its first default on international debt in more than a century.
in Ukraine, a Russian missile strike hit a busy shopping center in the central Poltava region, killing at least 13 people. The Ukrainian president said there were an estimated 1,000 people in the building at the time of the strike.
Also, a Russian court said the trial of American basketball star Brittney Griner would begin Friday. She will remain in custody until the end, her lawyer said.
6. The FDA could move to update Covid vaccines to target the latest version of the coronavirus.
A panel of experts advising the agency plans to meet tomorrow to recommend whether booster shots need updating. The federal government hopes to improve the vaccine to better boost people’s immunity before the virus is likely to resurface this winter. But to do that quickly, it may have to give up the lengthy trials used to test the vaccines.
Taking a financial risk, Pfizer and Moderna began producing doses targeting the Omicron variant, on the gamble that the government would choose the booster to be used in the fall.
7. Ten years ago, a group of biochemists published the results of a test tube experiment on bacterial genes. It became one of the most celebrated inventions in modern biology.
In just ten years, the gene-editing tool CRISPR has led to innovations in medicine, evolution and agriculture. The impact was rapid, earning the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, but it has also raised ethical questions about altering human DNA. We examined the legacy and future prospects.
Entomologists, cardiologists, oncologists, zoologists and botanists have all used CRISPR to investigate infectious diseases, T-cells, heart failure, sickle cell anemia, and even more nutritious tomatoes.
8. Wimbledon should be Novak Djokovic’s time to shine† He did not disappoint in the first round.
Djokovic crawled to victory in the opening game of the tennis tournament. Djokovic does not normally play grass court events before Wimbledon, and he has won five times with that tactic. But Rafael Nadal and Matteo Berrettini (who are both playing tomorrow) are lurking.
Also tomorrow to watch: Serena Williams will make her 21st appearance at Wimbledon, having not played singles since Wimbledon last year. She told our reporter that she didn’t want this to be a lasting memory. “It was a huge amount of motivation,” Williams said. She plays Harmony Tan from France at 11:45 Eastern.
And in case you missed it, the Colorado Avalanche won their first Stanley Cup since 2001, denying the Tampa Bay Lightning a third straight title.
9. Does a good TV series always need a sequel?
It’s not without TV repeating itself, and for decades that was the goal. But as TV became more ambitious, writes our critic James Poniewozik, the question of how long a series should last got complicated. Returning tomorrow on Hulu, “Only Murders in the Building” is the latest series to investigate the mystery.
Season 2 “is entertaining in much the same way as season one,” Poniewozik writes. “But where Season 1 developed and deepened, Season 2 mostly takes place, hitting different versions of the same emotional beats for the central trio.”
Viewers know the New York building at the center of the series as the Arconia. But the Upper West Side building has a name of its own — and a dramatic story.
10. And finally, the great birdhouses of India.
Housing and feeding birds is common practice in much of India. Some communities participate in pigeon training, others focus on conservation. In Gujarat, the collective affinity is expressed through chabutras, decorative bird houses.
The photographer Nipun Prabhakar spent seven years documenting the structures, some of which are 40 stories high and may contain classrooms for local children. The birdhouses are paid for by residents and are often designed and built by masons who are able to express the ethos of their community. Look.
And if you’re in New York City, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has 33 new designer birdhouses installed, including a “Birdega.”
Have a rising night.
Sarah Hughes and Brent Lewis composite photos for this briefing.
Your evening briefing will be posted at 6:00 p.m. Eastern.
Do you want to catch up on previous briefings? You can browse them here†
What did you like? What do you want to see here? let us know at [email protected]†
be here today’s mini crossword† game match and word† If you’re in the mood to play more, find all our games here†