Thursday morning news: June 27, 2024

Presidential debate preps » President Biden and former President Trump are gearing up for their big showdown tonight: the first debate of the presidential general election.

Trump phoned into a campaign event at a barbershop in Atlanta Wednesday, where someone asked him if he thinks the CNN moderators will treat him fairly.

TRUMP: I think it would be very good for CNN, actually, in terms of its credibility. It’ll be interesting to see.

Meantime, Biden has spent all week preparing at Camp David, where he’s been engaging in mock debates with his team.

The Democratic president also picked up his highest-profile Republican supporter so far: former congressman and January 6th Committee member Adam Kinzinger.

In the ad announcing his endorsement, Kinzinger repeated a well-worn Biden campaign mantra, saying of Trump…

KINZINGER: He doesn’t care about our country. He doesn’t care about you. He only cares about himself. And he’ll hurt anyone or anything in pursuit of power.

According to a new FOX News poll, 3 in 10 voters say tonight’s debate will be extremely important to how they vote.

It starts at 9:00 Eastern on CNN.

Mayorkas visits border in Arizona » Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says he’s seeing new success at the Southern border.

As he paid a visit to the border in Tucson, Arizona Wednesday, Mayorkas said President Biden’s tightened restrictions for immigrants seeking asylum are working.

In the three weeks since Biden’s executive order on asylum, Mayorkas says illegal border crossings have fallen more than 40 percent.

MAYORKAS: We are removing more non-citizens without a legal basis to stay here, nearly doubling the rate at which we are removing non-citizens directly from border patrol custody.

The Biden Administration was under pressure to do something after a record number of migrant crossings at the border; about 2.5 million over the past year.

Supreme Court Idaho slip-up » The Supreme Court may be poised to allow so-called emergency abortions in Idaho – but you weren’t supposed to know that yet. WORLD’s Travis Kircher has more.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: A draft opinion was briefly posted on the Supreme Court’s website yesterday before it was quickly taken down.

That’s according to the Bloomberg news service which saw the opinion before it was removed.

Bloomberg reported that the high court sided with the Biden administration…voting 6-to-3 to temporarily allow so-called emergency abortions to take place. That’s while a lower court reviews the legality of an Idaho law protecting the unborn.

Currently, Idaho protects all unborn children unless the life of the mother is at stake.

But the Biden administration says a federal law requires that abortions be allowed in cases when a woman’s health is endangered – even if the underlying health issue is not life-threatening.

The draft opinion was unsigned and it’s not clear why it was posted.

The Department of Justice and the White House deferred comment on the draft opinion until the full opinion is officially released.

For WORLD, I’m Travis Kircher.

Gershkovich trial starts » The trial for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has started in Russia.

Gershkovich is an American citizen who was arrested in Russia in March of last year on espionage charges.

Wednesday, White House National Security spokesman John Kirby reiterated those allegations are false.

KIRBY: I’ll state it again: Evan has never been employed by the United States government. Evan is not a spy. Journalism is not a crime and Evan should never have been detained in the first place.

Gershkovich appeared in court in a glass cage.

Journalists and two U.S. consular officers were briefly allowed into the courtroom before the closed-door proceedings began. It’s not clear what happened during yesterday’s two-hour session.

If convicted, Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison.

SOUND: [Bolivian leader call and response]

Bolivia coup attempt » Bolivia’s president, Luis Arce, leads supporters in chants of “Long Live Democracy!” after fending off an attempted coup.

Armored vehicles rammed the doors of the government palace, but Arce confronted the leader of the rebellion and demanded he withdraw his troops.

That insurgent leader, General Juan Jose Zuniga, is now under arrest. It’s not clear exactly what charges he’s facing.

Afterward…

SOUND: [Firecrackers and cheers]

Arce’s supporters celebrated by letting off firecrackers as he addressed them in Plaza Murillo.

They also waved flags and sang the national anthem.

Kenyan president cancels tax bill » Kenyan President William Ruto is canceling a new tax bill after protesters stormed parliament.

At least 20 people died in the melee as a result of gunfire.

RUTO: And listening keenly to the people of Kenya, I concede and therefore, I will not sign the 2024 finance bill.

However, President Ruto says the country must now come together to address Kenya’s financial challenges.

RUTO: How do we manage the affairs of the country together? How do we manage our debt situation together? How do we run through the budget with the deficits that now exist together?

Though he bowed to pressure, Ruto called the protests “treasonous” and vowed to combat such unrest, whatever the cost.

I’m Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah. Plus, playing closer attention to ordinary birds.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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