Plus, a U.S. delegation heads to Qatar for talks with Iran. And Trump won't commit to signing a housing bill, calling it a "yawn."
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The Supreme Court is handing down several major new opinions
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President Trump calls one a big win, but others don't go his way. Plus, the U.N. is preparing for a lot more tragedy in Venezuela
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as rescue crews run out of time to pull out survivors from last week's earthquakes
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And why critics say a newly passed House bill to protect kids online misses the mark
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The stories that matter, clear and credible, from across the country to around the world
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These are your unbiased updates from Straight Arrow. Hi everyone, I'm Simone del Rosario, in for Craig Negrelli
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We start this morning at the Supreme Court, which is handing down a flurry of opinions this week before justices go to summer recess
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We're expecting more rulings today. On Monday, they made four major decisions
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Two of the opinions centered on the firing of government officials. One, a loss for President Donald Trump, and the other, a win
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In a 6-3 decision along party lines, the conservative-led justices said presidents have free reign to fire federal agency heads
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despite federal laws requiring cause and a prior decision nearly a century ago that limited executive authority
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The president called this ruling a big win. However, the justices did rule that Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can keep her job while she fights Trump's efforts to fire her over allegations of mortgage fraud
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She has long denied any wrongdoing. In other news, the court declined to take up President Trump's attempt to throw out a jury's $5 million finding that he sexually abused and defamed writer E. Jean Carroll
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So that case stands as is. In another high-profile move, the justices ruled 5-4 that states can continue to count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day as long as it's part of state law and they're postmarked in time
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President Trump has long questioned the validity of mail-in ballots and continues to challenge his 2020 election loss
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After that opinion came down, Trump used it to bolster his argument that Congress should pass his controversial voting bill, the Save America Act
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Well, because of the mail-in ballot ruling, which was a little bit surprising, gives people more time to vote illegally, let's say
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But the SAVE Act is even more important. And that's the right
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You have to be a citizen of our country. OK, you have to show you're a citizen of our country called citizenship
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Voter ID by photo, photo voter ID and no mail-in ballots unless you're in the military disabled
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you're ill or you're away, even on a vacation, we're being very open about it
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It's pretty easy. And we'll have honest elections. While House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries
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praised the Supreme Court's decision. The Supreme Court did the right thing
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with respect to preserving each state ability consistent with the United States Constitution to manage the electoral process relative to voting by mail
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Voting by mail has never been a partisan issue until Donald Trump decided to peddle conspiracy theories related to his own failures to win back in 2020
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And lastly, a win for privacy advocates. The court held that constitutional privacy protections do extend to cell phone location information
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The ruling stems from a 2019 bank robbery case in which police obtained a geofence warrant and used it to locate cell phones near the bank around the time it was robbed, leading them to a suspect but wrapping up other people's information
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Still to come out of the court this week, a huge ruling on birthright citizenship
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a ban on transgender athletes, and a campaign finance ruling. The U.S. and Iran's ceasefire remains on shaky ground this morning as Washington and Tehran
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give conflicting updates about where negotiations stand. Despite that and recent attacks between the
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U.S. and Iran, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said on Fox News U.S. officials
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will be in Doha, Qatar today for high-level meetings. Iran has requested a meeting this week. So Special Envoy Whitcoff and Jared Kushner
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will be flying to Doha for high-level meetings this week as we continue to discuss the memorandum
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of understanding. On the sidelines of those high-level talks will be the technical talks
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So as far as we're concerned, we're holding up our end of the ceasefire. Violence will be met
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with violence. Iran's foreign ministry says no talks with the U.S. are scheduled in the coming
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days, but an Iranian delegation will travel to Doha later this week. Spokesman Ismail
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Bagayi says the U.S. delegation's visit, quote, has nothing to do with the Iranian delegation's
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visit. The talks were originally scheduled to take place in Switzerland this week
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Frustrations are rising in Venezuela as the death toll from last week's powerful twin earthquakes
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continues to go up, while the search for survivors grows more desperate. Fewer people are being pulled
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from collapsed buildings, and survivors say help is too slow. National Assembly President Jorge
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Rodriguez says the confirmed death toll has reached 1,719, with more than 5,000 injured
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and nearly 16,000 displaced. Among the dead are three Americans, according to U.S. officials
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while 12 more Americans remain missing. Venezuela's latest government tally shows nearly 200 buildings completely flattened and several hundred more severely damaged
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Experts told Reuters the disaster was likely made worse by years of poor building code enforcement
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weak licensing practices and infrastructure neglect. And as they've yet to excavate many of the collapsed buildings
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the United Nations coordinator in Venezuela says organization is preparing for the death toll to rise significantly
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At least 2 structures affected most of which fully collapsed So we are definitely looking at a number that is higher than the one already reported
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I can give you a proxy indicator. We are procuring, and this is something that has been agreed with the authorities here, 10,000 body bags
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Meanwhile, relatives of the more than 100 Venezuelans deported by the U.S. government
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just hours before the quakes are searching for their loved ones after a hotel they were staying
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in, which was in the hardest hit state of La Guayra, collapsed. Officials say some of the 146
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deportees, which included 19 women and seven children, made it out, but many remain trapped
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under the rubble. President Trump is casting more doubt on whether he'll sign a bipartisan
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affordable housing bill, while the House has a trick up its sleeve to pass the voter ID law
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the Save America Act. Trump put the housing bill in limbo last week when he canceled the signing
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just hours before it was set to happen. He said at the time he wouldn't approve it until Congress
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passes the unrelated Save Act, which imposes new restrictions on voter registration and mail-in
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voting. When asked this week whether he will sign the housing bill, the president said this
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It's a yawn. Some people say it's wonderful. To me, compared to the Save America Act
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Just about everything is a big yawn. I think it's so unimportant by compared to the Save America Act
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I think the Save America Act is exactly what it says. It's saving America from crooked elections
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And the housing bill is a bill that can get approved. They worked on it long and hard
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It's very bipartisan. That means the Democrats like it. I think it's maybe even, it's probably maybe more that way they're getting things that I wouldn't necessarily agree to
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The housing bill aims to lower the cost of buying a home by building more housing
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and restricting larger corporations from buying single-family homes to turn them into rental properties
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It passed Congress last Tuesday. Well, despite the president calling it a big yawn
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Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson later told USA Today he knows the president won't veto it
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He says he'll either sign it or let the 10 days pass until it automatically becomes law
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As for the Save America Act, Johnson has plans to wrap that tough-to-pass legislation
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with a must-pass defense bill, the National Defense Authorization Act. That maneuver now goes to the House floor for consideration
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The House just passed a major children's online safety package, but the bill is already running into resistance. The Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act passed
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Monday night in a bipartisan vote 267 to 117. Supporters say it would give parents more control
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over kids online activity require new safety features and place new limits on how minors data can be used It would also create rules for AI chatbots online games and age verification on pornography sites But the House
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version is still narrower than the Kids' Online Safety Act that the Senate previously passed
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House lawmakers removed a duty-of-care provision that put more ownership on online platforms to
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prevent harm to minors. Supporters of that provision say it was one of the most important
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parts of the Senate bill. And the criticism of the House bill comes in both directions
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not far enough and too far. Digital rights and tech groups warn it could threaten privacy
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free expression, and online anonymity. The bill now heads to the Senate, where the path
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is less certain. Senator Richard Blumenthal has called the House version dead in the Senate
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while Senator Ted Cruz has said he is open to negotiations. Finally this morning, an eagle from Serbia is back home after a migration turned into a cross-border rescue mission
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Felix is a year-old eastern imperial eagle. He set off on his first migratory flight last year, going from Serbia across North Macedonia, Greece and Turkey
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before they lost his tracking signal over Syria. Then came the worrying news
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Felix had been captured by poachers and put up for sale in WhatsApp groups used to sell illegally trapped wild birds
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Michel Souan, who leads the Lebanese Association for Migratory Birds, helped track Felix down
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It was a complicated mission, actually, because there has been some clashes on the borders in that day
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And there has been a storm, a rainstorm. and the river that separates Lebanon from Syria
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the level of water was very high. So we had to wait nine days
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We had to wait for someone to transport it with the human illegal refugees
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We can't record, of course. But if you see how they managed to get it, it's crazy
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They put it in a potato box and they hold it in their hands and they cross the river
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So Felix was sold to a buyer in Lebanon, then resold back into Syria before Suwan's network
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retrieved him. Getting him out was its own ordeal. After three failed attempts to get him home
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the Serbian army helped bring Felix back on a military transport plane on June 22nd
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He's now in quarantine at a zoo in northern Serbia. Experts say he will get a new transmitter
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before he gets to take to the skies a free bird once again
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Well, Unbiased Updates is the fastest, fairest few minutes in news. You can watch us anytime at SAN.com or on our app
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or join our growing audience on Spotify. We want to thank you for making us part of your morning routine
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Those are your Unbiased Updates for this Tuesday. We'll see you right back here tomorrow. For all of us here at Straight Arrow, I'm Simone Del Rosario
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Have a great day
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