Headline

US Supreme Court Rules In Favour Of Businesses Discriminating Against Gays

Published

2 years ago

June 30, 2023

One year after its ruling to erase abortion rights, the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court has underscored its determination to push society sharply to the right by scrapping long-established progressive policies.

In three emphatic rulings this week the court banned universities from giving minorities priority in admissions; said some business owners can refuse to serve gay couples on religious grounds; and struck down President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel student debt.

Each saw the court’s six conservative justices under Chief Justice John Roberts flexing their biceps over its three liberals.

Republicans cheered them on as major victories were scored against flagship progressive ideologies — as was also the case in last year’s landmark overturning of abortion rights.

“I have never been prouder of Roberts Court. The Supreme Court is truly standing up for individual constitutional rights and limited government,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham declared Friday.

While Biden, a Democrat, was outraged by the rulings handed down by a court heavily influenced by three justices appointed by Donald Trump during his presidency.

“This is not a normal court,” Biden said after the decision on affirmative action in university admissions.

– Victory for religious liberty? –

A day after the court’s affirmative action ruling, on Friday it ruled that a Colorado graphic designer was in her rights to refuse to design a website for a same-sex couple due to her Christian beliefs.

The court rooted its decision in the US Constitution’s guarantee of free speech, saying she could not be forced to create products that effectively forced her to say things she did not agree with.

The decision focused on a limited category of commercial activities, like artists or businesses those creating content, but added to the accumulating decisions by the court in favor of religious Americans projecting their beliefs onto society at large.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley called it a “major victory for free speech and religious liberty.”

For critics, it was a shocking erosion of anti-discrimination laws, opening the door for business owners generally to discriminate against customers who don’t fit their moral or social belief set.

“Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class,” wrote Sonia Sotomayor, a justice on the court’s liberal wing.

Sarah Kate Ellis, the chief executive of the LGBTQ lobby GLAAD, said the decision would “bring harm and stigma” to her community.

The ruling “is yet another example of a Court that is out of touch with the supermajority of Americans,” she said.

– Student debt relief –

In Friday’s second case, the court overruled Biden’s program to cancel more than $400 billion worth of student debt weighing down the lives of millions of lower and middle-income Americans.

The court majority said that given the large sum, Biden had overstepped his powers.

“The question here is not whether something should be done; it is who has the authority to do it,” Roberts wrote, sounding sympathetic to the president’s motives.

Republicans hailed the court siding with their stance that there was no justification for what they considered a politically motivated program.

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell called it the “student loan socialism plan” which he said would “pad the pockets” of Biden’s rich supporters.

Democratic Senator Patty Murray riposted that “Biden gave working and middle class borrowers some breathing room with desperately-needed debt relief.

“Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has once again slammed the breaks on critical progress for people across Washington state and our country.”

Headline

Family Of Five Killed In Iranian Missile Strike After Fleeing Ukraine For Safety In Israel

Published

19 hours ago

June 28, 2025

Editor

A Ukrainian family of five who fled Russia’s war in search of safety were killed in Israel by an Iranian missile — the very conflict they thought they had escaped.

Mariia Pieshkurova had brought her 7-year-old daughter, Anastasiia, to Bat Yam, a suburb of Tel Aviv, hoping to get lifesaving cancer treatment and refuge from the violence at home.

Along with Anastasiia’s grandmother, Olena Sokolova, and two young cousins, Illia and Kostiantyn, they had started over — believing they were finally safe.

But on June 15, an Iranian missile tore through their apartment building during a retaliatory strike on Israel, killing them all.

“I really thought they’d be safe,” said Artem Buryk, Anastasiia’s father and Mariia’s former partner. “I never thought they’d go to Israel to escape war — and find it there.”

The missile attack, part of Iran’s response to Israeli airstrikes on its territory, collapsed much of the building in Bat Yam.

It took four days to recover Mariia’s body from the rubble.

Their deaths marked a heartbreaking intersection of two wars — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Iran’s conflict with Israel — both of which had already tested the family’s will to survive.

Mariia had moved to Israel in late 2022 after Anastasiia was diagnosed with leukemia.

Ukraine’s hospitals were overwhelmed, and its largest children’s hospital was later destroyed in a missile strike.

In Israel, treatment began immediately. It was effective but costly. Mariia turned to Instagram, sharing photos of her daughter in treatment and videos of Artem pleading for help while serving on Ukraine’s front lines.

“Masha did everything for her little girl,” said Anastasiia’s godmother, Khrytsyna Chanysheva. “She dedicated her life to her, moved to Israel to get her full treatment.”

Despite the pain, Anastasiia always smiled at visitors.

“She was in pain, and she would close her eyes for a second,” said charity worker Lada Fichkovsi. “But every time I walked into her room, she would smile.”

Her cousins joined the family in May 2024 as the situation in Odesa deteriorated.

“The shelling made my children cry,” said Hanna Pieshkurova, Mariia’s sister. “I decided to let them go.”

Though Israel was at war with Hamas, Mariia had assured her sister that Bat Yam was calm. Air raid sirens were rare, and the Iron Dome defense system offered hope.

“Ukrainians often say, ‘This is not Ukraine, it’s not as scary,’” said Inna Bakhareva of Chance4Life, a charity helping sick children in Israel. “They felt secure due to the Iron Dome.”

That sense of security evaporated after Israel struck Iranian targets on June 12. Iran retaliated with missile attacks across Israeli cities.

“Dad, at night I saw how the missiles were falling,” Anastasiia told her father in a voice message the night before she died.

She and her mother had been scheduled to visit the hospital the next morning. The missile struck before dawn.

Mr. Buryk, who had just returned from the front lines near Sumy, received the news that same day.

“I still don’t understand what’s happening,” he said. “I still can’t believe it.”

He used to promise Anastasiia they’d go fishing together when peace returned.

“Every time I talked to her, I’d say, ‘Sweetheart, we’ll go fishing. Just us,’” he said. “And now I just don’t understand. I still don’t even grasp that she’s gone.”

“Last night,” he added quietly, “I sent her voice messages.”

(New York Times)

Headline

Militia Attack On DRC IDP Camp, Kills 10, Mostly Women, Children

Published

1 day ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

An armed group at the centre of a long-running ethnic conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeast attacked a camp for displaced people on Friday, killing 10, local sources told AFP.

Bordering Uganda, Ituri province has for years been the scene of pitched battles between the Lendu, a group mainly made up of settled farmers, and the Hema people, typically nomadic herders.

The fighting has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and the mass displacement of many more.

Friday’s assault on the Djangi displaced persons camp was carried out by the self-proclaimed Cooperative for the Development of Congo (Codeco), a Lendu-aligned militia responsible for previous civilian massacres, the camp’s head told AFP.

“They were many and armed with firearms and machetes. They surprised us, they killed 10 displaced people, most of them women and children,” said Richard Likana.

An employee of the Red Cross, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed the attack, which took place around 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Bunia.

“They were cut up with machetes while others were shot,” the humanitarian worker added.

Congolese army Colonel Ruffin Mapela, the local administrator for Djugu territory where the camp is located, gave the same toll of 10 dead and put the number of injured at 15.

According to local and humanitarian sources, Codeco was responsible for an attack on February 10 which killed 51 people in Ituri province. Most of the victims were also displaced persons.

That raid was said to be a response to a strike by the rival Hema-led Zaire militia in the same area.

Violence between the Hema and Lendu killed thousands in gold-rich Ituri from 1999-2003, which only ended after European forces intervened.

The conflict erupted again in 2017, killing thousands more.

The violence has led to more than 1.5 million people leaving their homes, according to the UN.

AFP

Headline

Israel Wants Global Action Against Iran’s Nuclear Plans

Published

1 day ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

Israel’s foreign minister said on Friday that the world was obliged to stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb, days after Israel claimed it had “thwarted Iran’s nuclear project” in a 12-day war.

“Israel acted at the last possible moment against an imminent threat to itself, the region, and the international community,” Gideon Saar wrote on X.

“The international community must now prevent, by any effective means, the world’s most extreme regime from obtaining the most dangerous weapon.”

Israel and Iran each claimed victory in the war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.

The conflict erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign, stating it aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon—an ambition Iran has consistently denied.

Following waves of Israeli attacks on nuclear and military sites, the United States bombed three key facilities, with President Donald Trump insisting it had set Iran’s nuclear programme back by “decades”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to the nation after the ceasefire, announced that “we have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project”.

However, there is no consensus as to how effective the strikes were.
On Friday, Iran rejected a request by UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi to visit the bombed facilities, saying it suggested “malign intent”.

The comments from Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi came after parliament approved a bill suspending cooperation with the UN watchdog.

In a post on X following the move, Saar said Iran “continues to mislead the international community and actively works to prevent effective oversight of its nuclear programme”.