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National

US labor market stays strong, adding 372,000 jobs

The U.S. economy added 372,000 jobs in June, a sign that employers are so far unfazed by fears of a looming recession.

A hiring sign is shown at a booth for Jameson's Irish Pub during a job fair in the West Hollywood section of Los Angeles in this September 2021 file photo. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

Biden signs executive order aimed at protecting abortion access

Amid mounting pressure to take action in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday aimed at protecting access to abortions.

People participate in an abortion-rights rally at Lafayette Park in front of the White House on Monday, July 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Is overturning precedent the new precedent at the high court?

Rulings from the Supreme Court hold enormous weight because unlike bills from Congress or executive orders from the president, their effectiveness is not dependent on the current officeholder. Experts say that might not be the case anymore.

Demonstrators protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court, Thursday, May 5, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Regional

Wisconsin Supreme Court bans absentee ballot drop boxes

Wisconsin voters will no longer be allowed to cast their absentee ballots via remote drop boxes, as the state’s highest judicial body ruled Friday they are not permitted under state law.

A ballot drop box is seen outside of the Milwaukee Election Commission warehouse. (Joe Kelly/Courthouse News)

LA’s insatiable demand for warehouses starts to gobble up suburban office parks

In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, Los Angeles County is seeing the first glimpses of a transformation of the suburban landscape where the dreary office campus, as parodied in the 1999 cult classic “Office Space,” is making way for industrial warehouses.

An office complex in the Chatsworth suburb of Los Angeles that in the coming years will be replaced by a warehouse. (Source: CBRE)

International

Ukraine war builds toward new big battles in east

The war in Ukraine is building toward more big battles in the east where Russian forces are seeking to seize the entire Donetsk region while Ukraine is hitting back with newly acquired advanced weapons from the West.

Paramedics carry the body of a woman who was killed during a Russian bombardment on a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, July 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

EU tracks highest spike in housing prices in nearly two decades

While rent has remained steady, the cost to buy a home in the EU has drastically increased over the last decade.

Science

New vaccine aims to protect against coronaviruses and their variants

As the super-infectious BA.5 variant of the virus that causes Covid-19 marches across the United States, researchers at Caltech have developed a new type of vaccine that shows promise in providing protection against different types of coronaviruses without the need to be updated against new variants.

FILE - This electron microscope image made available and color-enhanced by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Integrated Research Facility in Fort Detrick, Md., in 2020, shows Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 virus particles, orange, isolated from a patient. (NIAID/National Institutes of Health via AP)

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