Your Thursday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News
Top CNS stories for today including federal prosecutors indicted former President Barack Obama’s counsel Greg Craig with lying about his work on a secret Ukrainian government campaign linked to Paul Manafort; Pentagon officials faced an uphill battle in trying to get the Senate on board with spending $13.8 billion to launch the U.S. Space Force as a separate branch of the U.S. military; A London judge found Julian Assange guilty of breaching his bail conditions shortly after the WikiLeaks founder’s arrest, and more.
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National
1.) Touching two successive presidential administrations, federal prosecutors indicted former President Barack Obama’s counsel Greg Craig on Thursday with lying about his work on a secret Ukrainian government campaign linked to Paul Manafort.
2.) Backing their call for $13.8 billion to launch the U.S. Space Force as a separate branch of the U.S. military, Pentagon officials faced an uphill battle Thursday in trying to get the Senate on board.
3.) The first in a series of bills intended to help prevent the extinction of Southern Resident killer whales is headed to the desk of Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee. The measure, which Inslee requested, would protect habitat for the Chinook salmon the whales eat.
International
4.) Wasting little time after the WikiLeaks founder’s arrest this morning, a London judge found Julian Assange guilty Thursday of breaching his bail conditions.
5.) Rejecting a challenge by the Czech Republic, a magistrate judge urged Europe’s top court Thursday to uphold a law banning the use of semiautomatic weapons by civilians, among other gun restrictions.
6.) Weighing in on the ongoing war between the European Union and Poland over the rule of law, a European Court of Justice magistrate said Thursday that a law forcing Polish Supreme Court justices into retirement at age 65 undermines judicial independence and violates the foundations of EU law.
Science
7.) Two distinct archaic human lineages have been discovered that provide new information on the geographical distribution of archaic hominin populations, and future research has implications for modern health issues in understudied populations, a new study published Thursday reveals.
8.) A landmark study of an astronaut who spent nearly a year in space – and his Earth-bound twin brother – offers clues to the physical and genetic toll that long-term space travel can have on the body, NASA said Thursday amid efforts to boost deeper exploration of the Final Frontier.
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