The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | China and Cuba Colluding, Newsom’s Plan to Limit Gun Rights, Smoke Covers East Coast | June 8

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: Supreme Court rules against Alabama in major voting district case.  Cuba agrees to allow China to build an eavesdropping station on the Island.�� A smoky haze still hangs over much of the East Coast.  Fox News says Tucker Carson may have violated his contract.  Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., has proposed a 28th Amendment aimed at limiting gun rights. Relevant Links Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription   Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm Virginia Allen, and this is the Daily School Top News for Thursday, June 8th. Here are today's headlines. We are kicking off today's show with some big news regarding a Supreme Court ruling. Today, the justices announced their decision on a case involving voting districts in Alabama. The court ruled that recently redrawn voting districts in Alabama likely violate the Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act is a piece of federal legislative. passed in 1965. The law prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate against voters based on things like race or color. Civil rights activists argue that Alabama's voting map

discriminates against black voters. The Supreme Court has ruled in the activist's favor and a five-for decision. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with the court's three more liberal justices. The state is about 27 percent. black and has seven congressional districts, six of which are currently represented by Republicans. I spoke with Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow Hans von Bikovsky about the case, and he explained how it rose to the Supreme Court. After the 2020 census, the state was sued and the challengers said, oh, your new plan is discriminatory because you have to put in two districts that are majority.

minority districts for black voters. And Alabama fought that. They said, well, look, the only way you can draw up two districts like that is if race is the predominant factor you use in drawing boundary lines. And that's prohibited by Supreme Court precedent, which it is. Hans said, in his legal opinion, the Supreme Court ruling today did not follow precedent. As Justice Alito pointed out in his dissent, actually, what the court did was not follow their precedent on this. They didn't follow the rules they have set out on this. And as he said, it sets the Voting Rights Act on a very dangerous path. Now, Alabama will have to redraw its voting map before next year's election.

Cuba and China have reached an agreement. According to U.S. officials, Cuba has agreed to allow China to build an eavesdropping station on the island. Cuba is a nation that needs cash. And sources say that China has agreed to pay Cuba several billion dollars to build the spying facility. But what does this deal mean for America's national security? Here with us to help answer that question is Research Fellow in the Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center, Michael Cunningham. Michael, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me on.

So Michael, what do we know about this facility? What we're trying to be using it for? Well, we don't know much about the facility, to be honest. It's based on reports, leaks from officials. But what we do or what we assume it would be is an eavesdropping facility, essentially, on the island, which is really only about 100 miles away from Florida. I would give Chinese intelligence agencies, it would make it easier for them to monitor ship traffic and electronic communications throughout the U.S. southeastern region where there

are several military facilities, quite concerning, if true. I do have to say though that China and Cuba are both sovereign states. This is the type of, and Cuba is one of the usual suspects. So this is not, it's concerning, but it shouldn't be surprising, to be honest. And China has been using Cuba sort of as an outpost close to America for its surveillance and espionage activities in the past. So the fact that this is newsworthy probably speaks to how scary it is, to be honest, in that they already were. We're quite active in Cuba, and now they're reportedly going to build a several billion dollar new facility. Wow. Do we know when this facility would be operational?

No, none of the reports I've seen have any kind of a timeline. The White House has essentially said that these reports are inaccurate. not sure if that is a denial or if it's or or if they're just saying some of the details are wrong. But, you know, there reports about a secret deal that are coming from what has been described in media as highly confidential intelligence, which means that there's a lot more that we don't know than what we do know at this point. Well, we're going to keep following this story, Michael Cunningham, of the Heritage Foundation.

You can check out all of his work at heritage.org. Michael, thanks for being here. Thanks. Well, sunshine was predicted along much of the East Coast today, but you would not have known it as a smoky haze is still hanging along much of the north and mid-Atlantic states. Wildfires in Canada are still blazing, and smoke continues to blow south. U.S. National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Ramsey says the haze of smoke, it's likely sticking around for a couple more days.

Yesterday, air quality in New York City reached hazardous levels. Air quality improved slightly in the Big Apple today and is now around 165 on the air quality index. That's still unhealthy. For reference, air quality that is 50 or lower is considered healthy. There are reported to be more than 400 blazes burning across Canada. The fires have displaced. 20,000 people. In response, the U.S. has sent about 600 firefighters up to Canada to help control

and extinguish the blazes. You all will remember that on Tuesday, Tucker Carlson released what he labeled episode one of his new show on Twitter. But Fox News says that Carlson may have violated his contract with Fox by releasing the show. Remember that Carlson was not actually fired from Fox News. His was canceled, so he's technically still under contract with Fox. But Carlson's lawyers say he was practing his first amendment right to free speech when he aired the show. Brian Friedman is one of Carlson's lawyers, and he told Axios that Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds.

Now they want to take Tucker Carlson's right to speak freely away from him because he took to social media to share his thoughts on. current events. A lawsuit between Tucker Carlson and Fox News would be highly public, given the nature of the situation, something that Fox likely doesn't want. For now, it appears that Fox and Carlson's lawyers are holding off on taking legal action to be continued. California Governor Gavin Newsom wants to add an amendment to the Constitution. Newsom has proposed a 28th Amendment aimed at limiting gun rights. Newsom says the amendment would add common-sense gun measures to the Constitution.

Newsom shared about his proposed amendment on his Twitter today. He said the American people are sick of Congress's inaction. The 28th will enshrine four widely supported gun safety freedoms while leaving the Second Amendment intact. Newsom explained the four tenants of his amendment in a video on Twitter. Take a listen. It raises the minimum age to purchase a firearm. from 18 to 21, because if you can't buy a beer, you shouldn't be able to buy a gun. It mandates universal background checks to prevent truly dangerous people from purchasing

a gun that can be used in a crime. It institutes reasonable waiting periods for all gun purchases, and it bans civilians from buying assault rifles. Those weapons of war are founding fathers never foresaw. So what are Second Amendment advocates saying, about Newsom's proposed amendment. The National Rifle Association responded to Newsom's proposed amendment, calling it a publicity stunt and claiming Newsom has unhinged contempt for the right to self-defense. And with that, that's going to do it for today's edition of the Daily Signal's top news.

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