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Army chief and ex-minister of defence accused over missile attacks on civilian targets including power plants

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

The international criminal court (ICC) at The Hague has issued arrest warrants for Russia’s ex-minister of defence and current army chief of staff for alleged war crimes in Ukraine after a missile campaign targeting Ukrainian power plants and other civilian infrastructure during the full-scale invasion.

Ex-minister of defence Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, Valery Gerasimov, are accused of the war crimes of directing attacks at civilian objects and of causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects. They are also accused of crimes against humanity.

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Source: www.databreachtoday.com – Author: 1 Healthcare , HIPAA/HITECH , Industry Specific Agency Must Drop Updated Guidance Provisions Regarding Certain PHI ‘Combinations’ Marianne Kolbasuk McGee (HealthInfoSec) • June 21, 2024     Image: Getty Images A Texas federal court ruled the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services overstepped its authority in guidance warning HIPAA regulated […]

La entrada Court: HHS Overstepped HIPAA Authority in Web Tracking Guide – Source: www.databreachtoday.com se publicó primero en CISO2CISO.COM & CYBER SECURITY GROUP.

The recording, which was provided exclusively to Rolling Stone, captures Windsor approaching Alito at the event and reminding him that they spoke at the same function the year before, when she asked him a question about political polarization. In the intervening year, she tells the justice, her views on the matter had changed. "I don't know that we can negotiate with the left in the way that needs to happen for the polarization to end," Windsor says. "I think that it's a matter of, like, winning." "I think you're probably right," Alito replies. "On one side or the other — one side or the other is going to win. I don't know. I mean, there can be a way of working — a way of living together peacefully, but it's difficult, you know, because there are differences on fundamental things that really can't be compromised. They really can't be compromised. So it's not like you are going to split the difference." Windsor goes on to tell Alito: "People in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that — to return our country to a place of godliness." "I agree with you. I agree with you," replies Alito, who authored the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision, which reversed five decades of settled law and ended a constitutional right to abortion.

The unguarded moment added to calls for greater scrutiny by Democrats, many of whom are eager to open official investigations into outside influence at the Supreme Court. But the core of the idea expressed to Mr. Alito, that the country must fight the decline of Christianity in public life, goes beyond the questions of bias and influence at the nation's highest court. An array of conservatives, including antiabortion activists, church leaders and conservative state legislators, has openly embraced the idea that American democracy needs to be grounded in Christian values and guarded against the rise of secular culture. They are right-wing Catholics and evangelicals who oppose abortion, same-sex marriage, transgender rights and what they see as the dominance of liberal views in school curriculums. And they've become a crucial segment of former President Donald J. Trump's political coalition, intermingled with the MAGA movement that boosted him to the White House and that hopes to do so once again in November. The movement's rise has been evident across the country since Mr. Trump lost re-election in 2020. The National Association of Christian Lawmakers formed to advance Christian values and legislation among elected officials. This week in Indianapolis, delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America, are voting on issues like restricting in vitro fertilization and further limiting women from pastoral positions. [US Southern Baptists effort to enshrine ban on women pastors falls short (earlier: Southern Baptists finalize expulsion of two churches with female pastors), US Southern Baptists condemn IVF procedure] And in Congress, Mike Johnson, a man with deep roots in this movement and the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group, is now speaker of the House. Now, Supreme Court justices have become caught up in the debate over whether America is a Christian nation. While Justice Alito is hardly openly championing these views, he is embracing language and symbolism that line up with a much broader movement pushing back against the declining power of Christianity as a majority religion in America. The country has grown more ethnically diverse and the share of American adults who describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated has risen steadily over the past decade. Still, a 2022 report from the Pew Research Center found that more than four in 10 adults believed America should be a "Christian nation." Justice Alito's agreement isn't the first time he has embraced Christian ways of talking about the law and his vision for the nation. Shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago, a ruling for which Justice Alito wrote the majority opinion, the justice flew to Rome and addressed a private summit on religious liberty hosted by the University of Notre Dame. His overarching concern was the decline of Christianity in public life, and he warned of what he saw as a "growing hostility to religion, or at least the traditional religious beliefs that are contrary to the new moral code that is ascendant." "We can't lightly assume that the religious liberty enjoyed today in the United States, in Europe and in many other places will always endure," he said, referencing Christians "torn apart by wild beasts" at the Colosseum before the fall of the Roman Empire... [T]he resonance of the Sacred Heart goes beyond simply an abstract religious concept, just as the Pride flag does. Each is notable for the vision of America that they symbolize, and the different visions of marriage, family and morality that they represent. For one slice of America that celebrates L.G.B.T.Q. rights, June is Pride Month. For another devout, traditional Catholic slice, June is a time to remember the Sacred Heart.

The justice's comments appeared to be in marked contrast to those of Chief Justice Roberts, who was also secretly recorded at the same event but who pushed back against Ms. Windsor's assertion that the court had an obligation to lead the country on a more "moral path." "Would you want me to be in charge of putting the nation on a more moral path?" the chief justice said. "That's for people we elect. That's not for lawyers." Ms. Windsor pressed the chief justice about religion, saying, "I believe that the founders were godly, like were Christians, and I think that we live in a Christian nation and that our Supreme Court should be guiding us in that path." Chief Justice Roberts quickly answered, "I don't know if that's true." He added: "I don't know that we live in a Christian nation. I know a lot of Jewish and Muslim friends who would say maybe not, and it's not our job to do that." The chief justice also said he did not think polarization in the country was irreparable, pointing out that the United States had managed crises as severe as the Civil War and the Vietnam War. When Ms. Windsor pressed him on whether he thought that there was "a role for the court" in "guiding us toward a more moral path," the chief justice's answer was immediate. "No, I think the role for the court is deciding the cases," he said.

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Enlarge / Mifepristone (Mifeprex) and misoprostol, the two drugs used in a medication abortion, are seen at the Women's Reproductive Clinic, which provides legal medication abortion services, in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, on June 17, 2022. (credit: Getty | Robyn Beck)

The US Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a case that threatened to remove or at least restrict access to mifepristone, a pill approved by the Food and Drug Administration for medication abortions and used in miscarriage care. The drug has been used for decades, racking up a remarkably good safety record in that time. It is currently used in the majority of abortions in the US.

The high court found that the anti-abortion medical groups that legally challenged the FDA's decision to approve the drug in 2000 and then ease usage restrictions in 2016 and 2021 simply lacked standing to challenge any of those decisions. That is, the groups failed to demonstrate that they were harmed by the FDA's decision and therefore had no grounds to legally challenge the government agency's actions. The ruling tracks closely with comments and questions the justices raised during oral arguments in March.

"Plaintiffs are pro-life, oppose elective abortion, and have sincere legal, moral, ideological, and policy objections to mifepristone being prescribed and used by others," the Supreme Court noted in its opinion, which included the emphasis on "by others." The court summarized that the groups offered "complicated causation theories to connect FDA’s actions to the plaintiffs’ alleged injuries in fact," and the court found that "none of these theories suffices" to prove harm.

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South Africa's case against Israel over allegations of genocide before the international court of justice has raised a central question of international law: what is genocide and how do you prove it? It is one of three genocide cases being considered by the UN's world court, but since the genocide convention was approved in 1948, only three instances have been legally recognised as genocide. Josh Toussaint-Strauss looks back on these historical cases to find out why the crime is so much harder to prove than other atrocities, and what bearing this has on South Africa's case against Israel and future cases

• What is the genocide convention and how might it apply to the UK and Israel?

• ‘Famine is setting in’: UN court orders Israel to unblock Gaza food aid