Today’s edition of quick hits.
* SCOTUS news: “The Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority rejected a lawsuit from Planned Parenthood and one of its patients on Thursday, over dissent from the court’s Democratic appointees who said the ruling portends ‘tangible harm to real people.’”
* Tehran’s perspective: “Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei broke his weeklong silence Thursday, claiming in a televised speech that his country had secured a victory over Israel and delivered a ‘slap in the face’ to Washington.”
* On Capitol Hill: “Republicans suffered a blow Thursday after the Senate referee ruled that a series of health care cuts and savings in their sweeping domestic policy bill are ineligible for the party-line path they’re using to get around the chamber’s 60-vote threshold.”
* The new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, is not improved: “An advisory panel recently appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted on Thursday to walk back longstanding recommendations for flu vaccines containing an ingredient that the anti-vaccine movement has falsely linked to autism.”
* In related news: “The U.S. health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has moved to undermine public immunization programs in the United States, took his efforts global on Wednesday, accusing the leading international vaccine organization of having ‘ignored the science’ in immunizing children around the world.”
* It sure would be nice if we were led by officials who realize the climate emergency is real: “Summer started barely a week ago, and already the United States has been smothered in a record-breaking ‘heat dome.’ Alaska saw its first-ever heat advisory this month. And all of this comes on the heels of 2024, the hottest calendar year in recorded history. The world is getting hotter, faster. A report published last week found that human-caused global warming is now increasing by 0.27 degrees Celsius per decade. That rate was recorded at 0.2 degrees in the 1970s, and has been growing since.” * A case worth watching: “A group of Dallas-area families and faith leaders have filed a lawsuit seeking to block a new Texas law that requires copies of the Ten Commandments be posted in every public school classroom. The federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday, claims the measure is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state.” * I’m relieved the vote was unanimous: “The House passed a bipartisan resolution today condemning the shootings in Minnesota this month that killed Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband and injured Democratic state Sen.John Hoffman and his wife. The vote was 424-0.” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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