Top 8 today

Top eight stories for today including the Supreme Court intervened to ensure medication abortion remains available without restrictions; The 21-year-old Air National Guard member suspected of leaking classified military documents appeared in court; France's constitutional court upheld President Emmanuel Macron's deeply unpopular move to raise the age of retirement, and more.

National

Supreme Court safeguards abortion pill, for now

The Supreme Court intervened Friday to ensure that medication abortion remains available to the public without restrictions while a legal battle plays out in the lower courts.

A patient prepares to take the first of two pills for a medication abortion during a visit to a clinic in Kansas City, Kan., on Oct. 12, 2022. (Charlie Riedel/AP)

Pentagon documents leaker charged with espionage

The 21-year-old Air National Guard member suspected of leaking classified military documents to a private online chat appeared in court on Friday to face charges under the Espionage Act.

Jack Teixeira, in T-shirt and shorts, is taken into custody by armed tactical agents on April 13, 2023, in Dighton, Mass. (WCVB-TV via AP)

Supreme Court to decide if postal worker should get pass for Sabbath Sunday

The justices must decide if employers are obligated to accommodate a worker's need for Sundays off, even if that would burden other staff.

A mailbox sits outside a U.S. Post Office building in the Susquehanna Township section of Harrisburg, Pa., on Nov. 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

Regional

Ex-Orange County Democratic Party leader pleads guilty in bribery scheme

The former executive director of the Democratic Party of Orange County, California, pleaded guilty Friday to attempted wire fraud as part of a broader bribery investigation.

Melahat Rafiei, the former executive director of the Democratic Party in Orange County, California, in a Sept. 2021 Facebook post (Facebook via Courthouse News).

Wisconsin antifreeze murderer again sentenced to life without parole

Mark Jensen, the Wisconsin man twice convicted of murdering his wife using antifreeze as poison, was sentenced to life without parole on Friday, the second such sentence he’s received in a dark, circuitous case going back more than 20 years.

Mark Jensen, 63, awaits the jury's verdict at the Kenosha County Courthouse on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, in his retrial where prosecutors again claimed he used antifreeze to murder his wife in 1998. (Image from Law & Crime livestream via Courthouse News)

International

French court backs Macron pension reforms, sparking more protests

France's constitutional court on Friday upheld President Emmanuel Macron's deeply unpopular move to raise the age of retirement without a vote in parliament and in the face of widespread public opposition and protests.

Police officers guard the entrance of the Constitutional Council in Paris on Friday, April 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Denmark moves to expand ‘fixing rooms’ for drug addicts

Danish leaders say it is important to give addicts a safe and warm environment to consume drugs, and they’re calling for an upgrade of supervised use facilities.

The fixing room at H17 in Copenhagen, Denmark, is for safely injecting drugs, and each person gets their own table. (Mie Olsen/Courthouse News)

Science

Women of the Mongolian Steppe expanded two empires 1,500 years apart, study says

Long before the Mongol Empire was the Xiongnu — a society that a team of international researchers calls the first of several nomadic empires of Inner Asia. They buried their servants in satellite burials and interred their aristocratic elites in square tombs containing their wood-plank coffins.

The Xiongnu built a multiethnic empire on the Mongolian steppe that was connected by trade to Rome, Egypt, and Imperial China. Artist reconstruction of life among the Xiongnu imperial elite by Galmandakh Amarsanaa. (Galmandakh Amarsanaa/DairyCultures Project)

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