Nightly Brief

Your Wednesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top CNS stories for today including five states holding primary elections Tuesday, with two key GOP races marked by the candidates’ willingness to follow President Donald Trump’s policies; South Carolinians awoke Wednesday morning to word that Mark Sanford, who had never lost a race in his political career, had been defeated in his congressional primary by a candidate who made his lack of support for President Donald Trump the focus of her campaign; Special Counsel Robert Mueller requests a federal court in Virginia issue additional blank subpoenas for the first day of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s trial; California official qualify a ballot initiative that would break up the nation’s most populous state and its $2.7 trillion economy; a new study finds melting Antarctic ice has raised global sea levels by more than a quarter of an inch since 1992; a grand jury returns indictments against five Russians and three Syrians accused of violating U.S. sanctions by shipping jet fuel and money to Syria, and more.

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**National **

President Donald Trump approaches the microphones to speak to the media as he walks to the Marine One helicopter Friday, May 25, 2018, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. Trump is traveling to Annapolis to address the U.S. Naval Academy graduation ceremonies. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

1.) Five states held primary elections Tuesday, with two key GOP races marked by the candidates’ willingness to follow President Donald Trump’s policies.

2.) In 2017, Virginia voters shocked the Republican political establishment by flipping a dozens seats in the state legislature and coming close to handing control of the body to Democrats. That election set in motion the “blue wave” that has since been felt in every corner of the country.

U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford hugged his sons after addressing his supporters at Liberty Tap Room in Mount Pleasant, S.C., Tuesday, June 12, 2018. Sanford lost his first election ever Tuesday, beaten for the Republican nomination for another term in the coastal 1st District around Charleston by state Rep. Katie Arrington. (Wade Spees/The Post And Courier via AP)

3.) South Carolinians awoke Wednesday morning to word that Mark Sanford, the former governor and a presence on the state’s political scene for nearly a quarter of a century, was defeated in his congressional primary by a candidate who made his lack of support for President Donald Trump the focus of her campaign.

FILE- In this May 30, 2018, file photo the East Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington is seen under stormy skies. On Tuesday, June 12, the Treasury Department releases federal budget data for May. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

4.) A working group created by the federal judiciary to address sexual harassment came under fire Wednesday as activists skewered their efforts to date in a Senate hearing.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs after a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 21, 2017. Mueller’s team considers President Donald Trump a subject, not a criminal target, in the wide-ranging Russia investigation. The designation, first reported by The Washington Post and confirmed by The Associated Press, has raised questions about what legal threat Trump personally faces from the special counsel and whether it has any impact on his decision to sit for an interview with prosecutors. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

5.) Special Counsel Robert Mueller requested Wednesday that a federal court in Virginia issue additional blank subpoenas for the first day of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s trial.

Michael Cohen arrives to court in New York, on May 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

**6.) ** Suggesting the imminence of a plea deal for embattled Trump attorney Michael Cohen, sources told ABC News and The Associated Press on Wednesday that Cohen’s attorneys are withdrawing their services.

**Regional **

Graphic of the State of California shows the divisions of a proposed initative to split the state into three states; 2c x 4 inches; 96.3 mm x 101 mm;

7.) The nation’s most populous state and its $2.7 trillion economy could be broken up, as California officials late Tuesday qualified a plan for the November ballot that would slice the Golden State in three.

8.) A pair of street preachers ejected from the 2015 Nashville Pride Festival and threatened with arrest argued Wednesday before the Sixth Circuit that their First Amendment rights were violated by event and security staff.

9.) Major League Baseball’s Cincinnati Reds asked the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday to reverse a finding that sports teams must pay sales taxes on collectible bobblehead toys and other giveaways to fans on game days.

**10.) ** As epic in scope as the global challenge it tackled, the first hearing Wednesday in New York City’s attempt to impute liability on oil companies for climate change featured a 90-minute salon on modern history.

**Science **

11.) Melting Antarctic ice has raised global sea levels by more than a quarter of an inch since 1992, with 40 percent of the increase occurring in the past five years, according to a study published Wednesday in the leading scientific journal Nature.

12.) A subset of killer whales that dine on marine mammals telegraph their presence by emitting alarming and identifiable calls, a new study finds.

**International **

In this photo released on Sunday, June 10, 2018 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks during an interview with the Daily Mail, in Damascus, Syria. In the interview Assad said the West is fueling the devastating war in his country, now in its eighth year, with the aim of toppling him. Assad said that Western nations have lied about chemical attacks in Syria and supported terrorist groups there, while Russia has supported his government against the foreign "invasion." (SANA via AP)

13.) A grand jury returned indictments Tuesday against five Russians and three Syrians accused of violating U.S. sanctions by shipping jet fuel and money to Syria.

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