Nightly Brief

Your Friday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top CNS stories for today including President Donald Trump announced the United States will withdraw from a treaty that requires countries to put in place regulations on the international sale of certain types of weapons; Admitted Russian agent Maria Butina made an emotional but ultimately unsuccessful bid to get deported with time served; The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution protects the right to have an abortion, and more.

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National

1.) President Donald Trump on Friday announced the United States will withdraw from the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, a compact that requires countries to put in place regulations on the international sale of certain types of weapons.

Maria Butina walks with Alexander Torshin on Sept. 7, 2012, while Torshin was a member of the Russian upper house of parliament in Moscow, Russia. When gun activist Maria Butina arrived in Washington in 2014 to network with the NRA, she was peddling a Russian gun-rights movement that was already dead. Fellow gun enthusiasts and arms industry officials describe the strange trajectory of her Russian gun-lobby project, which U.S. prosecutors say was a cover for a Russian influence campaign. Accused of working as a foreign agent, Butina faces a hearing on Sept. 10 in Washington. (AP Photo/Pavel Ptitsin)

2.) Blaming herself for actions that she said had destroyed her life, admitted Russian agent Maria Butina made an emotional but ultimately unsuccessful bid Friday to get deported with time served.

3.) In a reversal where the court itself noted the potential for exploitation by usurious lenders, the Third Circuit ruled Friday that NFL players were entitled to trade their shares of a $1 billion concussion settlement for a quick cash payout.

FILE - In this Dec. 31, 2018, photo a Washington state ferry sails on a foggy day near cranes at the Port of Seattle. On Friday, April 26, 2019, the Commerce Department issues the first estimate of how the U.S. economy performed in the January-March quarter. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

4.) The U.S. economy beat expectations and grew at a 3.2% rate in the first three months of the year, fueled by a lower trade deficit and a boost in consumer spending.

Regional

FILE - In this March 14, 2019 file photograph, a Planned Parenthood supporter hosts an abortion rights button on her hat during a rally on the steps of the Capitol in Jackson, Miss. On Tuesday, March 19, 2019, Mississippi senators passed the final version of a bill that would ban most abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, about six weeks into pregnancy. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

5.) In a decision that has taken more than two years, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state constitution protects the right to have an abortion.

This courtroom sketch depicts former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor, center, on the witness stand Thursday, April 25, 2019, in Minneapolis during his trial in the fatal shooting of an unarmed Australian woman, Justine Ruszczyk Damond, in July 2017 after she called 911 to report a possible sexual assault behind her home. Listening to Noor's testimony are from top left, Hennepin County District Judge Kathryn Quaintance, prosecutors Patrick Lofton, and Amy Sweasy, defense attorneys Thomas Plunkett and Peter Wold. (Cedric Hohnstadt via AP)

6.) A former Minnesota police officer on trial for killing an unarmed Australian woman broke his silence and testified that he fired his gun “to stop the threat” when she appeared at the window of his squad car.

Alison Steele, mother of slain teenager Cayley Mandadi, in her camper van at an Austin-area state park on Thursday, April 25, 2019. (CNS Photo/Daniel Conrad)

7.) A year and a half after her 19-year-old daughter was killed, a Texas mother scored a major victory in her fight to ensure no other parent suffers what she did: on Friday, the Texas House passed a bill that would establish an adult alert system, similar to Amber Alerts, that could deter kidnappings and facilitate recovery efforts in emergencies.

International

A poster with a portrait of Spanish Prime Minister and Socialist Party candidate Pedro Sanchez is seen during an election campaign event in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Spain is preparing to hold its third parliamentary election in less than four years. But even though the exercise is familiar, uncertainty surrounds the election's outcome. Polls indicate a substantial share of voters, about one-third, hadn't decided by the final week of campaigning how they would mark their ballots on Sunday. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

8.) For the first time since Spain returned to democracy after the fall of the Franco dictatorship in the 1970s, the country faces the likelihood of being run by a coalition government.

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