Health care law passes another test

June 26, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

The Supreme Court's upholding of a key part of the Affordable Care Act further entrenches the controversial – but increasingly durable – law.

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Islamic State militants launched major attacks in northern Syria on Thursday in a swift counter-offensive after recent battlefield setbacks. On one front, Islamic State fighters advanced early in the morning into the northeastern city of Hassakeh, long split between Syrian Kurds and government forces, capturing parts of it. The other push was into the Syrian border town of Kobane, which famously resisted a months-long assault by the Islamic militants before they were driven out in January, and surrounding villages.

Myanmar's parliament voted against several constitutional amendments Thursday, ensuring that the military's veto power remains intact and that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi cannot become president in an election this year. The legislature ended a 3-day debate on proposed changes to the 2008 constitution, which bars Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, from seeking the presidency and gives the military an effective veto over constitutional amendments.

European Union countries will reject a plan obliging them to share thousands of refugees arriving in Greece and Italy, diplomats said on the eve of a summit this week where Europe's battle to manage a major migrant influx is high on the agenda. Conflict and poverty have driven more than 100,000 migrants to Europe this year, and almost 2,000 have died or gone missing while crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

Conservationists hail it as a possible game-changer in the struggle to curb the slaughter of elephants: an unexpected pledge by a senior Chinese official to stop the ivory trade in a country whose vast, increasingly affluent consumer market drives elephant poaching across Africa. Now they are waiting in suspense for China to outline how and when it would ban an industry that criminal syndicates use as cover for their illicit business in tusks. The ban could happen in 2017 when a legal stockpile of ivory in China is possibly depleted, predicted Zhou Fei, head of the China office of TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring organization.

Investigators are blaming mistakes by IRS employees – not a criminal conspiracy – for the loss of thousands of emails related to the tax agency's tea party scandal. IRS workers erased 422 computer backup tapes that "most likely" contained as many as 24,000 emails to and from former IRS official Lois Lerner, who has emerged as a central figure in congressional investigations, according to IRS's inspector general. The workers erased the tapes a month after IRS officials discovered that an untold number of Lerner's emails were lost. The IG says the workers were unaware of a year-old directive not to destroy email backup tapes.

Whole Foods supermarkets have been routinely overcharging customers by overstating the weight of prepackaged meat, dairy and baked goods, New York City's consumer chief said Wednesday. The price on a package of coconut shrimp at the upscale market was too high by $14.84, said Department of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Julie Menin. A package of chicken tenders was overpriced by $4.85, and a vegetable platter by $6.15, the department said.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

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