News From Around the Web
#10 Supreme Court Allows Retailer to Challenge Debit Card Swipe Fees - Matthew Vadum for The Epoch Times, and Robert Simpson on X
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on July 1 that a retailer can challenge the fees the Federal Reserve System allows banks to charge for processing debit card transactions despite not filing the challenge before the usual six-year cutoff. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion in the case known as Corner Post Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Dissenting were Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson...
#9 Forget About Wi-Fi, Your Own Private 5G Network Could Be the Answer to Your Connection Woes - Wayne Williams for TechRadar, and DTM on X
Private 5G networks, where individuals or companies set up their own cellular connections, could potentially provide a viable alternative to Wi-Fi. Vodafone, which wants to make 5G-based mobile private networks (MPNs) more accessible to the 22 million SMEs across Europe, first unveiled a Raspberry Pi-powered prototype of a 5G network-in-a-box at MWC 2023 and followed it up with an improved version at this year’s event. Produced in collaboration with Lime Microsystems (whom Vodafone first partnered with on Open RAN technology back in 2017), the LimeNET Micro 2.0 Developer Edition, a crowd-funded series of private 5G base-station kits, is on sale now through Crowd Supply, with prices ranging from $800 to $12,000...
#8 America’s Electric Grid Is on the Brink With Biden’s Clean Power Plan 2.0 - Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (r-w.va.) and Rep. Troy Balderson (R-Ohio) for The Hill, and Power PA Jobs on X
The state of America’s electric grid is growing more perilous each day. Legacy power plants are rapidly retiring while power demand is projected to rise at historic rates, driven by artificial intelligence and data centers, manufacturing, and President Biden’s efforts to force electrification of the economy, including the cars and trucks we drive. If we continue on our current course, energy demand in the U.S. will exceed supply in just a few years. Grid operators, including PJM, the nation’s largest, began sounding the alarm more than a year ago. Despite these warnings, the Biden administration has proceeded to finalize a barrage of the most damaging regulations ever levied on our nation’s power producers, including the “Clean Power Plan 2.0,” a new set of stringent rules targeting power plant emissions...
#7 University Study: ‘Vast DEI Bureaucracy’ Negatively Impacting U.S. Armed Forces - Cameron Arcand for The Washington Examiner, and Semperfi Virginia on X
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts in the United States military are ineffective, a new Arizona State University study suggests. The study done by the university’s Center for American Institutions argued that there is an emphasis on training new soldiers about social issues like “unconscious bias” and “intersectionality” in a way the center says runs contrary to typical American ideals. The study examined DEI plans in different sectors of the military, including DEI office staffing and education at academies like West Point...
#6 Transgender Runner Nikki Hiltz Is Headed to the Paris Olympics - Jo Yurcaba for NBC News, and Nikki Hiltz and Isaac's Army on X
Transgender and nonbinary middle-distance runner Nikki Hiltz ran the second fastest time ever of any American in the women’s 1500-meter race at the U.S. Olympic Trials Sunday, qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Hiltz, who uses they/them pronouns, charged ahead of Elle St. Pierre and Emily Mackay in the final stretch of the race, finishing with a time of 3:55:33, a trial record. All of the top eight finishers set a new personal best time, according to OutSports. Paris will mark Hiltz’s Olympic debut. In a post-race interview with NBC Sports, Hiltz, 29, said the race had significance beyond their personal accomplishment. “This is bigger than just me. It’s the last day of Pride Month. ... I wanted to run this one for my community,” they said. “All the LGBT folks, yeah, you guys brought me home that last hundred [meters]. I could just feel the love and support.”
#5 Under Pressure on Plane Safety, Boeing Is Buying Stressed Supplier Spirit for $4.7 Billion - AP News, and BloombergTV, and Reuters Business on X
Boeing announced plans to acquire key supplier Spirit AeroSystems for $4.7 billion, a move that it says will improve plane quality and safety amid increasing scrutiny by Congress, airlines, and the Department of Justice. Boeing previously owned Spirit, and the purchase would reverse a longtime Boeing strategy of outsourcing key work on its passenger planes. That approach has been criticized as problems at Spirit disrupted production and delivery of popular Boeing jetliners, including 737s and 787s. “We believe this deal is in the best interest of the flying public, our airline customers, the employees of Spirit and Boeing, our shareholders, and the country more broadly,” Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun said in a statement late Sunday...
#4 The UK Will Hold Its First Election in Almost 5 Years. Here’s What to Know - Danica Kirka for AP News, and NW Nature Lover, Kyle Bass, and Amuse on X
The United Kingdom will hold its first national election in almost five years on Thursday, with opinion polls suggesting that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party will be punished for failing to deliver on promises made during 14 years in power. The center-right Conservatives took power during the depths of the global financial crisis and have won three more elections since then. But those years have been marked by a sluggish economy, declining public services, and a series of scandals, making the Tories, as they are commonly known, easy targets for critics on the left and right. The Labour Party, which leans to the left, is far ahead in most opinion polls after focusing its campaign on a single word: Change...
#3 Search of Ex-Florida GOP Chairman’s Phone in Rape Probe Was Illegal, Judge Rules - Max Greenwood for The Miami Herald, and Tracy Beanz, Christian Ziegler, and Craig Pittman on X
A Sarasota judge has ruled that law enforcement officials violated former Florida Republican Party Chairman Christian Ziegler’s rights during their investigation into an alleged sexual battery and video voyeurism. In a 46-page order posted early Monday morning, Sarasota County Circuit Court Judge Hunter Carroll declared that three search warrants that allowed investigators to comb through Ziegler’s cell phone for documents — including hundreds of thousands of photos, videos and text messages — were “severely overbroad,” and contained communications that had “no connection” to the allegations against Ziegler...#2 US Supreme Court Rules Trump Has Broad Immunity From Prosecution - John Kruzel and Andrew Chung for Reuters, and Amaravati, and Andre Nuta and Simon Ateba on X
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Donald Trump cannot be prosecuted for actions that were within his constitutional powers as president in a landmark decision recognizing for the first time any form of presidential immunity from prosecution. The justices, in a 6-3 ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, threw out a lower court's decision that had rejected Trump's claim of immunity from federal criminal charges involving his efforts to undo his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. The six conservative justices were in the majority, while its three liberal members dissented...#1 BBC Host Deletes Post Calling for Biden to Have Trump ‘Murdered’ After Backlash, Says It Was ‘Satire' - Kristine Parks for Fox News, and The Gateway Pundit, Dan Wootton, and Libs of TikTok on X
A BBC presenter and journalist deleted a controversial social media post on Monday calling for President Biden to have former President Trump assassinated, defending the post as "satire." "If I was Biden I'd hurry up and have Trump murdered on the basis that he is a threat to America's security," Radio 4's "Briefing Room" show host David Aaronovitch posted to X, with the hashtag, "SCOTUS." His comments went viral and drew backlash from conservatives in the United Kingdom. Critics accused the BBC presenter of inciting violence, while several others questioned if he was breaking the BBC's editorial guidelines on impartiality...
And Now for Something Special 
A Giant Hand Now Emerges From Wales' Tallest Tree - Sunny Skyz
The Giant Hand of Vyrnwy was commissioned in 2011 to transform a storm-damaged tree at the Lake Vyrnwy estate. Once 209′ tall, it had to be felled to only 50′. The Forestry Commission wanted it turned into a memorial to the tree it had once been…
The reaching hand is the tree’s final attempt to reach the sky.
