#1: UK Voters Send Blow to Boris Johnson:
UK voters rejected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s party in two parliamentary elections with results revealed Friday. His party’s chairman quit and said the Conservative party “cannot carry on with business as usual.” The new elections were triggered by resignations of Conservative lawmakers involved in sex scandals. The elections gave voters the chance to give their verdict on Johnson, just weeks after 41% of his own ministers voted to get rid of him. Many former and current political leaders are calling for Johnson’s removal as leader of the party.
#2: Nigerian Organ Harvest Scheme Uncovered in London:
British police charged two Nigerians on Thursday, including a 60-year-old district Nigerian senator who was recently appointed as a visiting professor at the University of Lincoln in northern England, for conspiring to bring a child into the UK to harvest organs. The Nigerians are being detained in London and will return to court in July. The child was brought to safety.
#3: Heat Waves All Over the World:
Large areas of the Northern Hemisphere are heating up and summer has barely started. Over the past week, in the US, at least 15 states had temperatures of 100 degrees, and temperature records were set or broken, according to the National Weather Service. 30 million people in the US have been under a heat advisory.
In China, some provinces had some of their hottest days on record, with temperatures over 107 degrees. In Japan, heat records were broken in several cities.
Three deaths due to the heat occurred in Chicago, which changed its rules about air conditioning.
In Macon, Georgia, the temperature went from 64 to 105 over the course of nine hours on Wednesday, and peaked at 104 on Thursday, hitting a record. Even a city as far north as Minneapolis hit 100 degrees on Monday.
The heat wave seems to have spared the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast, but on Thursday, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, South Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Colorado, Nevada and California all reached at least 100.
A Russian city above the Arctic Circle hit almost 90 degrees on Thursday for its hottest day ever in June.
A European heat wave is also causing fires in Germany and Spain.
The trend is expected to continue, bringing a long hot summer.
#4: Biden Speaks Out Against Abortion Decision:
President Biden said the Friday SCOTUS abortion decision overturning Roe v Wade is a “sad day,” and urged Americans to elect pro-abortion rights officials. He pledged he would use whatever authority his administration has to protect abortion access. As protests begin to form across the nation, Biden urged people not to resort to violence. “I call on everyone no matter how deeply they care about this decision to keep all protests peaceful, peaceful, peaceful, peaceful, no intimidation. Violence is never acceptable,” Biden said.
#5: US Department of Education Canceling Some Student Loans:
The US Department of Education will cancel the student loans of around 200,000 people who had brought a class-action lawsuit against the department. The suits involved loans acquired by students who went to schools that had been found to engage in misconduct. Following the Sweet v. Cardona settlement, the Education Department will approve around $6 billion in debt forgiveness, providing full cancellation of their debt, refunds, and repair to their credit scores.
