What happened
Two federal judges in Texas yesterday sentenced seven anti-ICE protesters to 50 to 100 years in prison over a demonstration outside the Prairieland Detention Center last year in which one of the defendants, Benjamin Song, shot and wounded a police officer. Prosecutors had won terrorism convictions, portraying the group as part of antifa, the decentralized movement of antifascist activists. An eighth defendant, who wasn’t at the protest, got 30 years.

Who said what
Prosecutors “described the case as the first domestic terrorism trial” that convicted “alleged antifa cell members,” the Fort Worth Star-Telegram said. “The defendants denied having connections to antifa.” President Donald Trump last year “issued an executive order declaring antifa a ‘domestic terrorist organization’ — a designation that does not actually exist under U.S. law,” The New York Times said. The “remarkably stiff penalties” handed down by the “staunchly conservative” judges signaled that, “at least in Texas, the courts would deal aggressively with ICE protesters,” especially those accused of antifa ties.

What next?
Lawyers for the eight defendants said they would appeal the convictions, which critics warned “could have wide-reaching impact on protests and First Amendment free-speech rights,” The Associated Press said. Eight other Prairieland defendants will be sentenced July 1.

What happened
The Senate yesterday voted 50-48 to adopt a resolution instructing President Donald Trump to end the Iran war or obtain congressional authorization. Four Republicans joined all but one Democrat to pass the resolution, and two Republicans were absent. The House approved the measure, 215-208, on June 3, and Trump cannot veto it.

Who said what
The resolution’s adoption is a “significant rebuke” to Trump and a “strong message that the war lacks support in Congress,” CNN said. It reflects “growing concerns” among GOP lawmakers “over both the war and the deal Trump struck with Iran to end it,” The Associated Press said. Trump called the vote “poorly timed and meaningless.”

This is the “first time since the enactment of the War Powers Resolution of 1973” that both chambers “approved a concurrent resolution directing a president to end a military conflict,” The New York Times said. Whether it’s legally binding without a president’s signature “has never been definitively tested before the Supreme Court.”

What next?
The White House is expected to request $80 billion this week to pay for the war. Trump is “set to travel to Capitol Hill” today to “meet with restless GOP senators,” Politico said. His preference that Congress “pony up, and don’t ask too many questions,” is “grating on many congressional Republicans.” 

Stress levels along the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults in Southern California have “now reached high levels,” said a study published in the journal JGR: Solid Earth. And if the “two fault systems interact,” it could lead to a massive earthquake.

While the Los Angeles area has seen a fair share of small earthquakes, its last devastating quake was in 1857. Since then, the San Andreas fault has “remained largely dormant, with stress continuing to build,” said The Washington Post. Now, “stress along multiple portions of the faults is the highest it has been in at least a millennium.”

Quakes occur when a slip along a fault line “releases energy built up over time,” said CNN. The San Andreas and San Jacinto fault lines meet at a point called the Cajon Pass that could serve as an “earthquake gate,” which can “either stop or transmit large ruptures between the two faults.” And whether the gate opens or stays closed depends on “how closely the stress levels on the two fault systems are aligned with each other at the time of rupture,” said lead study author Liliane Burkhard in a news release.

A “joint rupture” of both faults could be “significantly more damaging than a single-fault event,” said the release. And the resulting quake would affect “densely populated areas” like Los Angeles. Researchers predict the tremor would be between a 7.4 and 7.8 in magnitude, said CNN, and cause significant damage to “major highways, railways and energy corridors over several cities simultaneously.”