Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Friday, June 14, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas. There’s a lot going on in the world, so let’s get right into today’s big stories. The Supreme Court made two recent rulings: one could affect baristas and the other pertains to abortion. The House of Representatives votes to hold the U.S. attorney general in contempt of Congress, a significant ruling will prevent a transgender swimmer from competing in women’s events, and the CDC now says there’s a new COVID variant on the rise.
Supreme Court Sides With Starbucks in Labor Dispute With Union Activists
The high court has just ruled unanimously in favor of Starbucks in its decision to rein in the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) authority to decide if fired union activists in Tennessee should get their jobs back. For years, the coffee giant has been fighting organized labor, which is trying to unionize baristas across the country.This case involved a store in Tennessee. The company fired the so-called Memphis Seven, claiming the employees violated company policy by allowing a TV news crew into the store after business hours so it could tape and broadcast their intention to unionize the store. The Starbucks Workers United union complained to the NLRB and filed unfair labor practice charges, claiming that Starbucks interfered with the workers’ right to form a union and discriminated against union members.
They secured a preliminary injunction from a federal district court in 2022 after alleging Starbucks had engaged in unfair labor practices and ordered the coffee giant to temporarily rehire the fired employees. Starbucks appealed the decision, which eventually ended up at the Supreme Court.
The court ruled that the NLRB can bring in-house enforcement proceedings against employers and labor unions for engaging in unfair labor practices. Simply put, it will now be tougher for the government to use the courts to protect workers’ organizing efforts. The court has tended to rule in favor of employers in recent years, and so you know, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the court’s 9–0 decision.
Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Abortion Drug Mifepristone
The Supreme Court has unanimously rejected a challenge that was brought by a doctors group, which opposed the FDA’s decision to make the abortion pill mifepristone available for use without a doctor’s order. The justices said the doctors lacked the legal standing to challenge the FDA’s regulations.
President Joe Biden praised the court’s decision and criticized Republicans, saying their “attacks on medication abortion are part of ... an extreme and dangerous agenda to ban abortion nationwide.”
Advocates for mifepristone claim the current system by which the drug is provided is safe, while opponents claim it puts women at risk by ignoring safety measures that used to be in place.
The decision comes two years after the court’s landmark 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. It overturned Roe v. Wade, and gave states the authority to regulate abortion. Medication abortions are reportedly lawful in 36 states and the District of Columbia, and so you know, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the 9–0 opinion.
House Votes to Hold AG Garland in Contempt of Congress
The Republican-led House voted 216–207 this week to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena to produce audio tapes of President Biden’s interviews with special counsel Robert Hur. A referral will now be made to the Department of Justice (DOJ), which is unlikely to prosecute the matter, so it may end up in the courts.Their action follows a months-long standoff between House Republicans and the DOJ over the recordings of President Biden’s two-day interview with Mr. Hur related to the handling of classified documents. Mr. Hur’s report stated the DOJ would not recommend charges against the president, due to concerns that he would appear to a jury as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
While the DOJ turned over the transcripts and notes from the interview, Republicans insisted on hearing the tapes to verify the transcript’s accuracy and to confirm that Mr. Hur’s observation was justified. The DOJ and Democrats pushed back, claiming that Republicans wanted the tapes solely for partisan reasons. The DOJ also claimed that artificial intelligence could be used to create “deep fakes” of the audio to distort what President Biden actually said.
For his part, Mr. Garland says he’s deeply disappointed that the House turned a serious congressional authority into a partisan weapon.
Transgender Swimmer Loses Bid to Overturn Ban on Men in Elite Women’s Sports
The Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) just ruled against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, who hoped to compete for a spot on next month’s Paris Olympics team.Two years ago, a group called World Aquatics banned transgender swimmers who have gone through male puberty from competing in elite women’s races. World Aquatics is the international governing body for aquatic sports.
Thomas had filed a legal challenge to these rules, asking CAS to overturn them.
World Aquatics released a statement welcoming the CAS decision, saying, in part, that they’re dedicated to fostering an environment that promotes fairness, respect, and equal opportunities for athletes of all genders. Former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines, who competed against Thomas in college, praised the arbitration panel’s ruling, calling it a victory for women and girls everywhere.
A different organization, World Athletics, which is the international governing body for most athletics, recently banned “male-to-female transgender athletes” from competing in women’s events at international competitions.
CDC: New COVID Variant KP.3 on the Rise Across the US
The CDC claims there’s a new COVID-19 variant on the rise. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say KP.3 is rising and will become the dominant COVID strain nationwide. It already makes up 25 percent of all COVID-19 cases that have been detected by the agency, and it’s followed by two other variants.The latest COVID-19 data were collected over a two-week period from May 26 to June 8. A spokesperson from the CDC says they’re working to better understand its potential impact on public health.
Meanwhile, other data suggest that despite the increase in this latest variant’s prevalence, the United States is currently seeing low levels of COVID-19 activity overall.
A CDC graph of COVID-19’s historic trends shows that weekly deaths are at the lowest point since the pandemic started in early 2020 along with virus-linked hospitalizations. Additionally, a molecular microbiology professor at Johns Hopkins University says that these latest variants do not appear to be more or less severe than prior COVID-19 strains.
The good news for now is we’re no longer masking up and we’re free to see our family and friends anytime we want.
Looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re going to call it a wrap for the Friday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief. The weekend is so close, you can almost taste it.
Now before we shut down and lock up the News Brief studio, just a small favor to ask: At some point today, we hope you’ll tell a friend or two about our program as we’re always trying to grow the ever-expanding News Brief family—and as you know, our goal is to become the biggest brief on the block!
From Laura Ramirez: “Thank you for bringing important issues to our attention. Thank you for keeping us informed.”
Gloria Murphy wrote in to say that he’s enjoying all the info, and “Thank you for your efforts.”
And from Noralyn Marshall: “Really appreciate your briefs”
*(Don’t forget the News Brief Motto): We’re portable, affordable, and we’re always on-demand.
And finally, as we do each and every day on this program, we wrap things up with a very “notable” quote:
It was Muhammad Ali who said: “Don’t count the days, make the days count.”
Ali was often regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, and as you know, he always had something interesting to say.
For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas. Thanks a million for starting your day with us, enjoy the rest of your Friday and we’ll see you right back here tomorrow for the Saturday edition (the weekend edition) of The Epoch Times News Brief! Have an awesome day today. Bye for now.
