10 things you need to know today: May 19, 2023

G7 pose for the family photo at the Itsukushima Shrine

G7 leaders are gathering in Hiroshima, Japan

(Image credit: Stefan Rousseau - Pool/Getty Images)

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1. U.S. announces Russia sanctions as G7 summit begins
2. Ukraine, Wagner say Russia retreating near Bakhmut
3. Supreme Court sides with Google, Twitter in terror liability cases
4. Feinstein suffered previously unreported complications during illness
5. Disney scraps $1 billion Florida office plan as feud with DeSantis intensifies
6. Supreme Court dismisses GOP suit challenging end of Title 42
7. Flood death toll rises in Italy
8. Nashville parents file motion to prevent release of school shooter's writing
9. Pakistani troops surround Imran Khan's house
10. DeSantis expected to launch presidential bid next week

By Harold Maass, The Week US

published 19 May 2023

1. U.S. announces Russia sanctions as G7 summit begins

The United States announced a fresh round of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine on Thursday as President Biden joined leaders of the world's advanced economies for a Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan. A top Biden administration official said the measures would make it harder for Moscow to sidestep sanctions and access the international financial system to fund its war. The official said G7 nations also would discuss ways to help target Russia's finances. The U.S. also will blacklist dozens of entities and target more than 300 individuals and entities in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia that have helped Russia financially. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was expected to fly to the summit to request more military aid.

The Ukrainian military and the Russian mercenary group Wagner said Thursday that Russian forces were retreating from several positions around Bakhmut, the ruined Ukrainian city that has seen some of the bloodiest fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. The Russian pullback came as Ukrainian forces made their biggest push in Bakhmut in six months ahead of a long-anticipated counteroffense by Ukraine. Kyiv said its troops had advanced more than a mile in some places after months of struggling to simply hold firm against Russian attacks. "Now, for the most part, as we have started to advance, they are shelling all the routes to front positions, so our armored vehicles can't deliver more infantry, ammunition, and other things," said Petro Podaru, commander of a Ukrainian artillery unit.

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The Supreme Court on Thursday left protections for social media companies intact, ruling against relatives of terrorism victims who sued to hold Google and Twitter liable for attacks by terrorist groups that posted on their platforms. "Plaintiffs' allegations are insufficient to establish that these defendants aided and abetted ISIS in carrying out the relevant attack," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the unanimous court in the Twitter case. The court expressed similar reasoning in the Google case. The twin rulings preserved protections under a law, Section 230, that shields social media companies from lawsuits seeking to hold them accountable for content posted by their users. The law has drawn attacks as social media companies face pressure to take down posts that stoke violence, racism, and disinformation.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) suffered previously unreported complications after being hospitalized for shingles in February, multiple news outlets reported Thursday. Feinstein returned to Capitol Hill last week, appearing frail and using a wheelchair. She was recovering from the spread of the virus to her face and neck, which gave her vision and balance problems, and facial paralysis known as Ramsay Hunt syndrome, The New York Times reported. Feinstein's shingles infection also caused encephalitis, which had not previously been reported. This swelling of the brain can cause lasting memory and language difficulties, confusion, headaches, and impair walking, although a spokesperson told the Times the condition had "resolved itself" in March. Despite her health problems, Feinstein has remained determined to stay on the job.

Disney on Thursday dropped plans to build a $1 billion office complex in Orlando after accusing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) of "anti-business" attacks on the entertainment giant. Disney last month sued DeSantis and his allies for tightening oversight of Walt Disney World near Orlando in what the company called "a targeted campaign of government retaliation" for Disney's criticism of DeSantis' Parental Rights in Education or "don't say gay" law. Disney said it was pulling the plug due to unspecified "changing business conditions," which reportedly include budget cuts as well as the DeSantis feud. The office project would have added 2,000 high-paying jobs. The company also is scrapping an underperforming luxury hotel that simulated a two-night trip on a Star Wars spaceship.

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a Republican-led appeal that sought to keep Title 42, the pandemic-era policy Presidents Trump and Biden used to expel asylum seekers in the name of fighting the spread of COVID-19. As expected, the justices ordered a lower court to dismiss the challenge as moot because Biden let the public health emergency policy expire last week, eliminating the justification for the challenge by 19 conservative states that wanted to preserve Title 42. But Justice Neil Gorsuch said the court never should have agreed to hear the case, because the challengers appeared to be trying to "prolong an emergency decree designed for one crisis in order to address an entirely different one."

Italian authorities on Thursday found more bodies from flooding that spread as more than 20 rivers overflowed their banks between Bologna and Italy's north-east coast 70 miles away. At least 13 people have died and thousands more have been forced to flee their homes after six months' worth of rain fell in one and a half days. "It was a very bad 48 hours. Water and mud took over our whole village," said Roberta Lazzarini, 71, whose village south of Bologna was flooded Wednesday, with water filling streets and houses. "I've never seen anything like that here. We were stuck and didn't know what to do," she said. Firefighters used rubber boats to rescue people stranded in their houses.

A group of Nashville, Tennessee, parents whose children attend The Covenant School, scene of a shooting that left three children and three adult staff members dead, have filed a motion asking a court to block the release of the shooter's writings. The filing came after 66 Republican state lawmakers called for making the writing public. "The parents see no good that can come from the release" of "the dangerous and harmful writings of a mentally-damaged person," the filing said. Investigators found a map of the school and writing attributed to suspect Audrey Hale that suggested months of planning. House Republican Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison wrote Nashville Police Chief John Drake a letter saying the material was "critical to understanding the shooter's behavior and motives."

Pakistani security forces surrounded Imran Khan's Lahore home on Thursday in the latest escalation of a showdown between authorities and the former prime minister, who faces corruption charges he denies, calling them political. The show of force at Khan's home came after Punjab Interim Information Minister Amir Mir accused Khan of harboring dozens of "terrorists" and demanding that he hand them over. Authorities believe protesters who vandalized and burned army installations last week to protest Khan's detention are hiding out at his property. The attacks on military sites amounted to an unprecedented outburst of anger at the powerful military after paramilitary troops stormed a courthouse to detain Khan. He was released days later after the country's Supreme Court ruled the arrest illegal.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is expected to launch a campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination next week, multiple news outlets reported Thursday. DeSantis has long been expected to run. The 44-year-old conservative governor has consistently placed second in polls behind former President Donald Trump in the GOP primaries. Trump recently has started attacking DeSantis and extending his polling lead, but many analysts expect DeSantis to get a bounce after he formally announces his candidacy. DeSantis and his fellow Florida Republicans pushed through several measures that are expected to win over conservative voters, including immigration restrictions, provisions against gender and diversity instruction in schools, and an open-carry gun law.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.