10 things you need to know today: June 2, 2023

The debt ceiling deal passed the Senate and will be sent to Biden's desk

(Image credit: Ting Shen / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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1. Senate approves debt ceiling suspension, averting default
2. Oath Keeper sentenced to 4 years for seditious conspiracy
3. Senate backs repealing Biden student-loan forgiveness plan
4. Arizona limits construction in Phoenix area over groundwater shortage
5. Japan birth rate drops to record low
6. Biden falls on stage at Air Force graduation
7. Bill Cosby faces another sexual assault lawsuit
8. Hurricane season gets underway
9. Jordan celebrates Crown Prince Hussein's wedding to Saudi architect
10. Florida 8th grader wins National Spelling Bee

By Harold Maass, The Week US

published 2 June 2023

1. Senate approves debt ceiling suspension, averting default

The Senate on Thursday voted 63-36 to suspend the debt ceiling for two years and reduce government spending, sending the bill to President Biden's desk in time to avert an unprecedented default on U.S. financial obligations that loomed as soon as Monday. The bill, negotiated by Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), passed the House on Wednesday with broad bipartisan support. In the Senate, four Democrats, 31 Republicans, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) voted against the deal. "America can breathe a sigh of relief," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said after the vote. "We are avoiding default." Biden said he looks forward to signing the bill "as soon as possible." Several conservative senators tried to delay the vote, demanding more defense spending.

Robert Minuta, a member of the far-right Oath Keepers group seen on video guarding conservative activist Roger Stone before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, was sentenced to more than four years in prison Thursday. Minuta was one of six Oath Keepers a jury found guilty of seditious conspiracy in a violent plot to keep then-President Donald Trump in power by preventing Congress from certifying President Biden's 2020 election victory. Another man, Army veteran Edward Vallejo, on Thursday received a sentence of one year of home confinement for his involvement. Two other Oath Keepers, including founder Stewart Rhodes, were sentenced last week on the same rarely used charge. Rhodes got 18 years, the longest sentence yet in a Capitol riot case.

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The Senate on Thursday approved a bill seeking to repeal President Biden's plan to forgive up to $20,000 of student loans for tens of millions of borrowers. Senators voted largely along party lines in the Democrat-controlled chamber, but Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), who caucuses with Democrats, joined Republicans to help them pass the bill. Manchin, like Republicans, said excusing some people's debts would be unfair to struggling borrowers who have paid off student debt on their own. Biden's plan is already stalled due to a pair of challenges before the Supreme Court. The House has already approved the bill. The White House says Biden will veto it, and his rivals don't appear to have enough votes to override him.

Arizona said Thursday it would stop approving new Phoenix-area development that relies solely on groundwater after the state's water agency said groundwater aquifers currently serving 4.6 million people across metro Phoenix weren't keeping up with growth. The state's groundwater law bars construction of new homes unless the Department of Water Resources certifies that they have access to a 100-year water supply. "If we do nothing, we would face a 4% shortfall in groundwater supply over the next 100 years," Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) said as she released the new state groundwater model. She said the state would try to address the issue by repurposing $40 million in federal Covid-19 recovery funds to create a fund administered by the water agency to promote groundwater conservation.

Japan's birth rate fell to a record low last year, the country's health ministry said Friday. The rate declined for the seventh straight year, with the average number of children born to the average woman in her lifetime hitting 1.2565. The previous low was 1.2601, set in 2005. A rate of 2.07 is considered necessary for the population to be stable. Births fell 5% to 770,747 in 2022, also a new low. Deaths jumped 9 percent to a record 1.57 million. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to spend $25 billion a year on child care and other programs to support parents as his government makes it a priority to address a crisis as the birth rate falls and the population ages.

President Biden tripped on a sandbag as he was shaking hands with graduates after giving the commencement address at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Thursday. Air Force officials and Secret Service agents helped Biden, 80, back to his feet, and the White House said he was "fine." "I got sandbagged!" Biden joked as he returned to the White House Thursday night. The incident came as Republicans seek to make an issue of Biden's age. He is already the oldest person to serve as president as he seeks re-election in 2024. "This is a liability that comes with age," said David Axelrod, who served as a senior adviser under former President Barack Obama. "Incidents like these are going to be blown up."

Lawyers for Victoria Valentino, a former Playboy centerfold model, filed a lawsuit Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court accusing actor and comedian Bill Cosby of drugging and raping her more than five decades ago. The lawsuit is the first known action against Cosby, 85, using a new California law temporarily lifting the statute of limitations of civil sexual assault allegations. "It's not about money, it's about accountability," Valentino, 80, told The Washington Post. Valentino said writer E. Jean Carroll's successful defamation and sexual assault lawsuit against former President Donald Trump gave her the confidence to file her case. Six other accusers filed lawsuits against Cosby last year under a similar New York law. Cosby denies all allegations of sexual assault.

The Atlantic hurricane season officially started on Thursday with a tropical depression already churning in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. The National Hurricane Center said, however, that the storm, Tropical Depression Two, was expected to "remain offshore and ... be weak and short-lived." Still, the storm could increase rainfall in Florida and cause flooding. The storm had top winds of 35 miles per hour early Friday. It has a 70% chance of developing into a tropical storm, with top sustained winds of at least 39 mph. Its name will be Arlene if it reaches that point. The storm is heading south toward the western tip of Cuba.

Jordan held a royal wedding on Thursday, with Crown Prince Hussein, 28, marrying Rajwa Alsaif, 29, a Saudi architect who studied at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. The guest list included celebrities and leaders from around the world, including Britain's Prince William and his wife, Kate, and first lady Jill Biden. The ceremony culminated weeks of preparations around the desert kingdom. The event marked a political coming-out party for the prince two years after his father, King Abdullah II, disrupted a coup plot that involved former crown prince Hamzah, Crown Prince Hussein's half-brother. Hamzah did not appear with other members of the royal family in events before the ceremony. He remains under house arrest.

Dev Shah, a 14-year-old from Florida, won the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling the word "psammophile," which Merriam-Webster defines as "an organism that prefers or thrives in sandy soils or areas." Before the winning word, the eighth grader from Largo in the Tampa Bay area nailed "poliorcetics," "aegagrus," and "schistorrhachis" on his way to claiming the $50,000 cash prize. Shah has competed in the National Spelling Bee before, tying for 51st place in 2019 and coming in 76th in 2021. Charlotte Walsh of Arlington, Virginia, came in second after she and Shah were the last two contestants on stage, and she missed "daviely." She took home $25,000 for finishing second.

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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.