Top eight today

Top eight stories for today including President Biden issued a trio of pardons and commuted the sentences of 75 people; The EU’s top court ruled countries can only install border controls temporarily and in response to serious security threats; New York’s high court seemed primed to sign off on congressional redistricting efforts that favor Democrats, and more.

National

Biden pardons three in first exercise of clemency power

Using his presidential clemency power for the first time, President Joe Biden announced three pardons Tuesday and commuted the sentences for 75 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses.

President Joe Biden waves as he leaves after speaking at Green River College in Auburn, Wash., on April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Biden lays out his authority to end ‘Remain-in-Mexico’ policy

Red states challenging the president’s authority over immigration policy made little headway at the Supreme Court in nearly two hours of oral arguments Tuesday on the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols.

A man from Nicaragua sits at a shelter for migrants on April 21, 2022, in Tijuana, Mexico. The man is waiting in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court, part of a Trump-era policy that argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 26, 2022. (Gregory Bull/AP)

Vice President Kamala Harris tests positive for Covid-19

Vice President Kamala Harris is not experiencing any symptoms, the White House stressed Tuesday, but tested positive for Covid-19.

Vice President Kamala Harris reacts as President Joe Biden shakes hands with former President Barack Obama after Obama jokingly called Biden vice president in the East Room of the White House in Washington on April 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Regional

Press lives to fight another day with First Circuit reversal of lower court dismissal

The Maine Press Corps and Courthouse News challenged the Bangor court clerk’s restriction on access but their case was dismissed. The First Circuit declared the dismissal was error.

Gerrymandering decision against NY Democrats unlikely at top court

New York’s high court seemed primed Tuesday to sign off on congressional redistricting efforts that favor the Democratic Party as the state barrels into 2022 midterm elections.

Maps of New York's 10th congressional district are pictured before and after redistricting after the 2020 census. (Exhibits courtesy of Courthouse News)

International

EU top court declares Austrian border controls unlawful

The European Union’s highest court found on Tuesday that countries can only install border controls temporarily and in response to serious security threats.

The European Court of Justice, based in Luxembourg, is the European Union’s supreme court in matters concerning EU law. (Molly Quell/Courthouse News)

Mexico City mourns — and politicizes — the loss of iconic 100-year-old palm tree

The palm tree located at a roundabout on Mexico City’s historic avenue Paseo de la Reforma died after being infected with a fungus. Its death became another symbol in Mexico’s polarized political debate.

Residents of Mexico City take photos with the palm tree of the Paseo de la Reforma the day city officials cut it down. Infected with a deadly fungus, the palm was over 100 years old. (Cody Copeland/Courthouse News)

Russia warns of World War III, West boosts arms to Ukraine

With the United States saying Russia needs to suffer a crippling defeat, the rhetoric coming from Moscow is getting more heated too with a warning from its foreign minister that the Ukraine conflict could spiral out of control into a new world war.

A Ukrainian serviceman walks amid the rubble of a building heavily damaged by Russian bombardments near a frontline in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Monday, April 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

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