Texas Mandates Bible Reading in Schools

Good morning. Earthquake ravage Venezuela searches for survivors, but tens of thousands remain missing how Texas became the first state to put the Bible on its mandatory reading list for public schools And the World Cup knockout stage has begun. When you look at the bracket, I think that you see sort of an imbalance where some teams get some really tough matchups and other teams have an easier road. It's Monday jun twenty ninth. I'm Gianen Resnk in Fh Met to Basu. This is Apple News today. But first to the Supreme Court, which issued some of the most highly anticipated decisions of its term this morning President Trump won a big case, but lost a few others Two of the cases involved his attempts to fire heads of independent agencies In twenty twenty five, Trump fired two Democratic commissioners on the Federal Trade Commission before their terms expired, citing policy disagreements. Today, the court ruled in the six three decision along ideological lines that he could do that President Trump had also attempted to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board, citing allegations of mortgage fraud, which Cook has denied In that case, the court ruled in a five, four decision that Trump could not fire Cook while her legal challenges play out In distinguishing between these cases, Chief Justice Roberts said that the Fed has a unique role that grants its special status Giving the president the ability to fire leaders of some independent agencies across the government overturns over ninety years of legal precedent that have traditionally insulated them from politics It expands presidential power by giving the executive branch more control over who can participate on a wide range of commissions, from the FTC to the SEC and more potentially impact how media, labor, financial markets, and more are regulated In a bloed to Trump's agenda to reshpe the election system, the court also ruled in a five for decision that federal law does not require mail and ballots to be received by election officials on election day This means that mail and ballots can continue to be postmarked by election day in states that have that policy. This case centered on a challenge from the RNC to a Mississippi law, one of the states that permits it Nationwide, there are more than a dozen plus Washington DC, that allow ballots to be mailed by election dayay Roughly one in three people cast their ballots by mail in the last presidential election alone This decision means the rules would remain in place at least through the midterms And in a case on the court's shadow docket, the justices rejected a request from President Trump to review a five million dollars verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer, Egene Carroll Their ruling did not include a reason and there were no public dissents that were noted A jury ruled in twenty twenty three that Trump sexually abused Carol in a department store dressing room in the nineteen nineties and had ordered the president to pay her damages As search and rescue teams wade through the rubble, the scale of destruction left behind by earthquakes in Venezuela is starting to emerge The official death toll passed a thousand over the weekend But the true figure is likely to be much higher. Around fifty thousand people were listed as unaccounted for on a website promoted by the country's political opposition. The odds of finding them alive get slimmer by the day On Sunday, interim President Delseie Rodriguez spoke in televised conference.. is alvamento continontinu Oi Em Cupperado persona Cbil. She said rescue efforts continue and that they would keep hope alive The teams on the ground have called for quiet as they listen out for signs of life. In the northern coastal region of the Guara, crews were able to hear a faint cry for help underneath the debris of a building That's are Mio The video captured the miraculous recovery of an eleven year old boy, saved after being located by a scanner And NBC News reports a four year old boy and his family were pulled from the rubble unharmed after being trapped for more than twenty four hours.or According to his grandfather, rescuers at the scene worked for hours to get the family out safely, asking them to speak and knock at specific places to determine their best path of access. These were rare moments of relief, as aid agencies say the chances of finding people alive dropped sharply after the first seventy two hours NPR's Aider Peralta was in L Guira and told the network what he had seen There's some parts that are totally okay and then there are some parts where it's just completely devastated. and it's a massive disaster. There's a lot of aid, but it's just not enough. Today, we were in front of a twelve story building. and No one was there. No official rescuer was there. It was just the families of the people who lived in that building who were digging through the rubble. And it's just With their hands. The BBC and AP are among those reporting frustration with the government's response so far Titiano Brreda is a Latin America expert at ACLED a monitoring group that tracks political violence and protest He told the BBC that this tragedy is also a crossroads for the country's interim leadership Well it's certainly a make or break moment for Rodriguez. She has the opportunity to try and overcome all the political divergencies that have affected the country and driven the political crisis over the past few years. But you might also face the temptation of politicizing the humanitarian hate through channeling through the Chavista sort of movements and so prioritizing certain sectors and of course leans on top of an institution that is affected by widespread corruption and may face a renewed wave of discontent if her government doesn't manage to handle this crisis correctly According to the UN, more than two thousand rescue workers have now arrived And on Sunday, the U.S. State Department said it was assisting with personnel, equipment, and humanitarian aid. For more than five million students in the US, the Bible will soon be required reading On Friday, Texas became the first state to make readings from the Bible mandatory for all public schools when it approved a new booklist It will go into effect first for elementary students starting in twenty thirty. In practical terms, it means elementary school students would read books like Winnie the Pooh, along with David and Goliath Middle and high schoolers would read things like the tragedy of Julius Caesar alongside passages about Jesus and an excerpt from the book of Job. The decision affects roughly eleven percent of the total U. S. public school population And it marks another controversial turn J a year after Texas became the largest state in the country to require teachers to hang the Ten commommandments in every classroom. The changes were approved by the Republican controlled State Education Board along party lines after months of debate and divided public testimony The board heard from teachers. It has no business in our public school in this capacity. It is not being used to teach morals at that point. It is being used to teach the religion. And they heard from parents Bob was worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities ese teaching provide essential context for literacy and historical and analysis. And students, There is no evidence that this country was found on any religion. There's no mention of Christianity or any religion in the Constitution or the Declaration of Iependence And the Treat of trioli explitly states that this country was not in any sense founded on a religion. Suorters of the change argued that the Bible is an essential piece of literature C critical to understanding American history and references that students encounter in literature, art, and beyond. Here's Brandon Hall, a Republican pastor who serves on the State Board of Education, speaking with a local CBS affiliate It's impossible to have a complete education as a young Texas student without understanding texts that were very foundational to our culture. and I also believe that they have a ton of literary value for our students. Critics, meanwhile, say the move erodes the separation of church and state They say the new reading list gives teachers less autonomy in their classrooms arged that Texas is now giving Christianity special treatment This was called out by a number of people who attended public hearings last week. This does not represent the diversity of our society This is an attempt to force the belief of a few on everyone This is Christian nationalism. It is not Christianity The reading list in Texas is not the only thing changing The State Board of Education also decided last week to change how history will be taught Approving changes to lessons for students K through eight. Social studies classes will now place greater emphasis on Christianity's influence on American history and Texas history And the Texas Tribune reports that the changes to the Social studies curriculum reduce lessons about racial, cultural, and geographic diversity A at stage has officially begun at this year's World Cup with Canada defeating South Africa yesterday to reach the final sixteen for the first time Over the course of the week, another thirty teams will face off. their opponents dictated by where they finished in the group tables One team has to progress, so you can expect to see some games decided by extra time or nail biting penalties This is the largest World Cup ever With more countries than usual qualifying But not everyone thought that bigger would mean better There was some concern that some of the smaller nations would detract from the competitiveness in the group stage And instead it did what we usually see in tournaments like this. It provided some of the best stories. Paulinorio is a senior writer for the athletic and spoke to us from the Canada South Africa Match. What Cpe Verde did to get out of the group and finish second in their game against Spain to start things off, I think it alled some of those concerns. And it showed that we can enjoy these smaller countries that are making it to these tournaments for the first time, that they provide Something valuable. Kate Verde isn't the only African success story Nine out of ten countries from the continent have made it through to this year's expanded knockout The whole intention of expanding this World Cup is to bring football more places and give more players and more countries opportunities. And you're seeing the growth of the sport globally in how these African teams have continued to perform so well on these big stages. And so I think we should celebrate that as well. Of course, most of the world's best players are in the tournament too, and they've put on a show Lenel Messi and Cristiana Ronaldo have broken records with their goals, while Frananceis Killian andbape and England's Harry Kane are off to strong starts too That's what we want in sports. We want the big stars delivering. We want these fun performances, and then we want the underdog stories. And I think the group stage gave us all of that The US had a pretty breezy run to the knockouts, even with a loss to Turkey in the last game And Tenorio says they've so far leaned into the squad's attacking strengths On Wednesday, they play Bosnia and Herzegovina, the lowest ranked European World Cup qualifier This is a World Cup and this is the knockouts round. So let's throw out the idea of ratings really because it's going to be about heart to a certain degree. It's going to be about fight and Bosnia's team is going to bring plenty of that But if you need more soccer in your life, Tinorio gave us some highlights to look out for in this next stage The first is Netherlands Morocco. I think that's going to be a fantastic game, highigh level soccer, two very talented teams playing against each other in aroundound a thirty two. It almost feels unfair, frankly to have to see those two play this early in the tournament. And I actually think Mexico, Ecuador, and Brazil, Japan are two kind of fun games that maybe people won't be talking about enough But that could be some of the more entertaining games of the route of thirty two The matches get going today from one PM easastern Here are a few other stories we're following today Temperature records have been shattered across Europe as a deadly heat wave moves east. The French public Health aggency said the country saw around one thousand more deaths than normal last week at the height of its heat wave, and that that number could still rise. eightighty five percent of those observed deaths involve senior citizens Events this weekend, including the Paris Pride March were canceled to avoid placing excess strain on already overwhelmed hospitals The World Health Organization's director genereneral said that Europe is heating at twice the global average and is now the fastest warming continent on Earth The organization is urging action plans from countries to prevent death and to limit carbon emissions. Beyond France, record high temperatures were set over the weekend in the Czech Republic, Denmark, and Switzerland. Cooler weather is returning to Western Europe this week. The U.S. and Iran have agreed to resume peace talks after days of the most serious escalation since a peace deal was signed by the two countries The Wall Street Journal reports that another summit could be set for this week. Yet there still appears to be some key differences to be worked out Iran's foreign minister said yesterday that the country has the right to manage traffic in the Strait of Hormz, according to the deal that was signed That's at odds with American positioning, which has pledged to return to pre war conditions. And it follows days of back and forth strikes with the US that saw traffic in the strait reportedly fall And on Saturday, Hezbollah rejected a U. S. brokered agreement between Lebanon and Israel, characterizing it as a surrender. And finally, Wimbledon begins today, and with it comes the return of a seven time singles champion Serena Williams is returning to the tournament for the first time since twenty twenty two She spoke to reporters Sunday about how she was feeling I expect to be nervous. I was also nervous every single match that I've ever played in my life. I think that showed the passion and the love and the care that I cared about my job, whether it was the first round or the second round or Finals, I've always had some nerves But then I just dust them off and then you know, I move on. I definitely expect to have those same feelings The AP reports the All England Club held onto one last wild card entry in hopes that the twenty three time Grand Slam champion would play in the singles event And Williams admits that she had to give herself a pep talk before accepting Williams first match is tomorrow night on Center forward You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app And if you're already listening to the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next Popular mechanics tells the incredible story of a group of women code brereakers who uncovered a Soviet spying during World War twoI marking one of the most significant counter espionage accomplishments of the twentieth century. If you're listen in the podcast app, you can follow Apple News Plus narrative to find that story, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow