Top eight today

National

Succession after Scalia: How the GOP outmaneuvered Roe v. Wade

The American public received a wake-up call this week when a draft opinion overruling Roe v. Wade leaked from the Supreme Court. While the thought of winding back reproductive rights some 50 years was a shock to some, court watchers have been anticipating this moment for years as the collision of constitutional hardball and luck created a conservative supermajority of justices to tackle a long-sought goal. 

New federal agency pairs civil rights and environmental activism

Attorney General Merrick Garland launched the Justice Department’s first-ever Office of Environmental Justice on Thursday as part of a strategy laid out in the first month of the Biden administration.

Regional

The church closed. What happens to its graveyard?

A Coptic church that bought a defunct Episcopal church can’t just dig up the bodies in the church’s cemetery and move them, the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled Thursday. 

Chicago mayor chooses Bally’s for city’s first casino-resort

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Thursday morning that she has chosen a winner in the long-running race to build the city’s first major casino-resort.

International

EU eyes sanctions on Russian oil, church leader as war rages on in Ukraine

The European Union on Thursday was in heated discussions over whether to impose an embargo on Russian oil and freeze the assets of Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, for his statements in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Court adviser says EU residents can sue over pollution-related health problems

European Union citizens can sue their governments for failing to meet air pollution standards if their health has suffered as a result, an adviser to the EU’s high court said Thursday.

Science

Lunar soil may hold key to better crewed missions to the moon

Chang’e 5 is the fifth lunar mission from the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. As soon as the spacecraft returned to Earth with a sample, material scientists from Nanjing University got to work.

Good news: Inbreeding may not doom vaquita porpoise to extinction after all

There are only about 10 vaquita porpoises left today in the world. But there’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon for the small marine mammals. A study published Thursday in the journal Science finds that inbreeding won’t necessarily doom the vaquitas — meaning that if the porpoises manage to procreate, they stand a fighting change of surviving as a species.

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