Top 8 today

Top eight stories for today including millions of people on the East Coast were told to stay indoors due to a toxic haze from Canadian wildfires; The Fifth Circuit heard an appeal from a man arrested for posting a joke on Facebook; The EU’s second-highest court rejected a claim the Batman logo was too generic, and more.

National

Canadian wildfires spread dirty smoke into US, fouling air quality

Blanketed in smoke brought by wildfires in Quebec and northern Ontario, much of the East Coast from New England to the Carolinas faced air quality advisories Wednesday.

A man using his phone looks through the haze at the George Washington Bridge from Englewood Cliffs, N.J., on June 7, 2023. Intense Canadian wildfires are blanketing the northeastern U.S. in a dystopian haze, turning the air acrid, the sky yellowish gray and prompting warnings for vulnerable populations to stay inside. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Under ethics scrutiny, Justice Thomas delays financial disclosure

Accused of violating ethics guidelines by hiding luxury vacations and real estate transactions paid for a billionaire benefactor, Justice Clarence Thomas on Wednesday delayed the release of his highly anticipated financial disclosure report for 2022.

Associate Justice Clarence Thomas sits during a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington on April 23, 2021. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

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Mike Pence throws his hat in ring for presidential race

Former Vice President Mike Pence formally announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president at an event in Iowa on Wednesday.

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Federalist Society Executive Branch Review conference, Tuesday, April 25, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Regional

Fifth Circuit hears case of man arrested for posting joke on Facebook

Waylon Bailey was arrested at gunpoint by a Louisiana SWAT team after making light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The charge was dismissed, but so too was Bailey’s subsequent lawsuit for constitutional violations. His appeal went before the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday.

The icons of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp can be seen on the screen of a smartphone on Oct. 4, 2021. (Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa via AP)

US sues Southern California Edison for negligence in 2017 Creek Fire

The United States brought a federal complaint against Southern California Edison on Wednesday, seeking more than $40 million in damages from the 2017 Creek Fire that ravaged the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County.

Smoke from the Creek Fire as seen on Dec. 5, 2017. (U.S. Forest Service via Courthouse News)

International

Decades-old tensions drive escalating conflict in northern Kosovo

As the young Balkan nation continues to push for political recognition as an independent European state, violent protests show the EU and U.S.-mediated relationship between Kosovo and Serbia remains unstable.

The town hall in Mitrovica has been guarded by Kosovar police after recent riots. The flag of Kosovo was put up after an Albanian mayor took office. (Mie Olsen/Courthouse News)

The logo he deserves: DC Comics prevails in Batman trademark fight

An Italian company did not get away with contesting the copyright of the Caped Crusader on Wednesday, as the EU’s second-highest court rejected a claim the logo was too generic.

A ruling from the General Court of the European Union includes this mark registered by DC Comics in 1996. (InfoCuria via Courthouse News)

EU court backs sanctions on Belarusian oligarch

EU judges upheld sanctions Wednesday against a Belarusian oligarch and ally of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Prommedinvest, the trade company owned by Belarusian oligarch Aliaksandr Shakutsin, owns a controlling stake in the holding company Amkodor, which was formed around Udarnik, a machinery factory in Minsk pictured here in 2020. (Creative Commons via Courthouse News)

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