It’s no secret that Republican state legislatures are working overtime to alter election laws in ways to twist American democracy to their favor. Having imposed rules that make it harder to vote and to discourage those who can’t vote in person, the newest point of attack is to threaten election officials with fines and jail time.

The Supreme Court draft ruling overturning Roe v. Wade raises just as many arguments and counterarguments as the original ruling that Justice Samuel Alito excoriated in his opinion, leaked this week to Politico. Alito’s assertion that abortion rights don’t fall under the 14th Amendment, and that the Constitution makes no mention of abortion as a right, calls into question a wide range of other supposed rights for which no mention of any kind appears in the Constitution.

The leak of a draft United States Supreme Court ruling written by Justice Samuel Alito in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which would overturn past court precedents in favor of leaving abortion laws to the states, has ignited intense political debate over the future of abortion laws and the institution of the Supreme Court itself.

India’s record-breaking heat wave has been a footnote in the news cycle. I would hardly have noticed myself, but my fiance, a commercial airline pilot, checked the weather ahead of a trip this week to Delhi. He braced himself for steady 112-degree heat.

The leaked draft of five conservative justices’ decision to overturn Roe v. Wade calls into question, like never before, the Supreme Court’s legitimacy in the eyes of the American public. Justices have long been united across philosophical lines in voicing their respect for precedent and established law. But now, everything is up for grabs.

The decision by Wimbledon officials to ban top stars from Russia and Belarus from this summer’s premier grass tennis tournament is short-sighted and unfair, even if it might satisfy those who want to bring maximum pressure to bear on Russian leader Vladimir Putin for the atrocities his forces are committing in Ukraine.

The Food and Drug Administration has proposed banning menthol-flavored cigarettes, potentially beginning in 2024. It’s a tragedy that it is taking this long, but it’s never too late to save a life — or in this case, potentially hundreds of thousands of lives.

The overwhelming vastness of the famed National Cathedral seemed to shrink to mere expansiveness, as Washington’s famous names, including three presidents, filled its pews Wednesday morning to honor yet another eminent insider with yet another quintessentially Washingtonian farewell.

U.S. gross domestic product shrank 1.4% in the first quarter at the same time inflation continued to soar. For older Americans, that combination conjures memories of 1970s stagflation, a nightmarish combination of double-digit inflation, double-digit interest rates, soaring gasoline prices and persistently high unemployment.

A new International Monetary Fund report suggests that the economic hiccups roiling American politics are actually being felt worldwide and probably have little or nothing to do with President Joe Biden’s leadership. Biden certainly isn’t blameless for at least a portion of the nation’s current inflationary spiral, but the monetary fund’s report makes clear that the entire world would be in economic turmoil regardless.

Our fellow Texan Elon Musk made a big purchase this week. You may have heard. Some billionaires buy yachts, jets or islands. Musk’s vanity purchases venture into uncharted territory: spaceships and social media companies. He paid $44 billion for Twitter.