Morning Report

TODAY’S COURTS story

Supreme Court clears path to wipe Bannon conviction

What happened
The Supreme Court yesterday cleared the way for the dismissal of Steve Bannon’s 2022 contempt of Congress conviction for defying a subpoena from the House’s Jan. 6 committee. After President Donald Trump returned to office, the Justice Department asked the courts to dismiss the conviction of his longtime ally and former adviser "in the interests of justice.” The two-sentence ruling yesterday vacated a D.C. appellate court ruling upholding Bannon’s conviction and sent the case back to a lower court, with the expectation it will be tossed.

Who said what
Dismissing the case “would effectively wipe out” the conviction, The New York Times said, but it would “have little practical effect” since Bannon (pictured above) already served his four-month sentence. Trump’s Justice Department has “sought to undo a number of criminal cases” involving his allies, The Washington Post said. But it’s unlikely the Supreme Court acted “out of particular sympathy or ideological alignment,” said Stanford criminal law professor Robert Weisberg. “It’s simply saying as a kind of supervisory matter: Let’s clean the court of cases the prosecution doesn’t want to pursue.“

What next?
Trump previously pardoned Bannon for criminal charges tied to defrauding donors to a charity, but Bannon "pleaded guilty in a New York state court" to similar charges, under a “deal that allowed him to avoid jail time,” The Associated Press said. “That conviction is unaffected by the Supreme Court action."

TODAY’S IMMIGRATION Story

Minneapolis video refutes ICE account of shooting

What happened
Minneapolis yesterday released footage from a city-owned security camera that appeared to contradict the federal government’s initial account of an ICE agent’s nonfatal shooting of Venezuelan immigrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during President Donald Trump’s “Operation Metro Surge” blitz in January. The Justice Department dropped its charges against Sosa-Celis and his roommate Alfredo Aljorna in mid-February. But the “federal government had access to that video within hours of the shooting,” The New York Times said, so the newly released footage “raises questions about why it took weeks for the government’s case to fall apart.”

Who said what
The Department of Homeland Security initially said Sosa-Celis and Aljorna beat the ICE agent “with a shovel or broom” for about three minutes before the officer “fired a defensive shot to save his life.” The video appears to show the agent tackling Aljorna outside their home, followed by a 12-second scuffle involving Sosa-Celis, and the officer then firing through a door after the migrants escape inside, wounding Sosa-Celis in the thigh.

When U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen moved to drop all charges, DHS said that “sworn testimony” from two officers appeared to contain “untruthful statements.” Federal prosecutors had “felt urgency to file charges” and didn’t watch the video until “almost three weeks” after charging Sosa-Celis and Aljorna, the Times said, citing a Justice Department official. Both spent weeks in jail and their girlfriends were sent to a detention center in Texas.

What next?
ICE said yesterday that federal prosecutors are “actively investigating” the “false statements” made by the agents, who “may face termination of employment, as well as potential criminal prosecution.”

It’s not all bad

Bat guano is the foundation of entire cave ecosystems and serves as a boost to human agriculture, according to research from Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park. The findings could help communities discover a “sustainable way to harvest guano using less damaging techniques,” scientist Raul da Silva Armando Chomela told The Guardian. By showing how bats reduce pests and improve crops, the project is also helping to shift perceptions of the winged mammals and support their conservation.

Under the radar

Sharks are testing positive for cocaine, other drugs

Sharks around Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas have tested positive for both legal and illegal drugs, according to a study published in the journal Environmental Pollution. Researchers tested the blood of 85 sharks in the region, and 28 sharks from “three species had caffeine, anti-inflammatory painkillers or other drugs” in their system, said Science News. “Caffeine was the most common, followed by acetaminophen and diclofenac,” the active ingredients in Tylenol and Voltaren, respectively.

This is the “first report of caffeine and acetaminophen detected in any shark species worldwide and the first report of diclofenac and cocaine in sharks from the Bahamas,” said the study. “We are talking about a very remote island,” said Natascha Wosnick, the lead study author and a biologist at the Federal University of Paraná, to Science News. The sharks were captured in popular areas for diving and cruising, and the exposure is “mostly because people are peeing in the water and dumping their sewage.”

While cocaine-positive sharks are concerning, the “widespread presence of caffeine and pharmaceuticals in the blood of analyzed sharks is equally alarming,” Wosnick told CBS News. “These are legal substances, routinely consumed and often overlooked, yet their environmental footprint is clearly detectable.”

The Bahamas sharks’ blood also had “changes in some biological markers, which can point to how tissues are functioning,” said Smithsonian Magazine. These markers “might be leading to higher stress and higher energy use as the aquatic predators’ bodies work to detoxify their systems,” said Science Alert.

On this day

April 7, 2001

NASA launched the Mars Odyssey spacecraft on a mission to orbit the Red Planet. The Odyssey is still sending back data from Mars and holds the record as the longest-operating spacecraft in Martian orbit. NASA’s ongoing Artemis II mission is the latest step in eventually getting humans to Mars.

TODAY’S newspaperS

‘Another leap for mankind’

“Trump holds fast on Iran deadline, intensifies threat,” the Los Angeles Times says on Tuesday’s front page. “Hopes fade for Iran deal ahead of deadline,” The Wall Street Journal says. “After dodging one risk, Trump takes on more,” The New York Times says. “President: God supports U.S. cause in Iran war,” The Washington Post says. “Unprecedented views of moon for Artemis,” the Houston Chronicle says. “Another leap for mankind,” says The Dallas Morning News. “ICE targeted father of 2 disabled kids,” the Arizona Republic says. “Texans of all stripes united” to “stop the wall” in Big Bend, “and signs are it might work,” says USA Today.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

Office to the races

Office chair racing has become a sporting event in Japan, with teams of three trying to complete as many laps around a track as possible in two hours. The Japan Office Chair Racing Association hosts competitions in 10 cities every year, including Tokyo and Kyoto. Participants must wear helmets and use unmodified, commercially available office chairs, and teams typically log 12 to 15 miles per race. The grand prize is nearly 200 pounds of rice.

Morning Report was written and edited by Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Rafi Schwartz, Peter Weber and Kari Wilkin, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.