Juneteenth Holiday | Boomers Daily

Five stories to know for June 18, 2021:

1. The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a Republican bid to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, preserving the landmark healthcare law for the third time since its 2010 enactment.

2. Juneteenth is now a federal holiday. Joe Biden signed into law a bill making June 19 a national holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans.

3. China launched three astronauts up to its unfinished space station on the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft. The astronauts will live in a module called ‘Tianhe’ for three months.

4. Israeli aircraft struck Hamas sites in Gaza on Thursday night after incendiary balloons were launched from the Palestinian enclave, for the second time this week, since a fragile ceasefire ended 11 days of deadly fighting last month.

5. Iranians voted in a presidential election likely to be won by a hardline judge subject to U.S. sanctions.

Five stories to know for June 17, 2021:

1. The Biden-Putin summit in Geneva highlighted huge differences but also small gains. Russia said arms control talks agreed with the U.S. should start within weeks.

2. U.S. Senate Democrats are scrambling to unite around a sweeping election reform bill that they aim to bring to a vote next week, in the face of Republican opposition and state moves to pass laws placing new restrictions on voting.

3. Biden is set to sign a bill declaring Juneteenth a federal holiday commemorating the end of legal enslavement of Black Americans.

4. Chinese state media quoted a disease expert saying the COVID-19 origins probe should shift to the United States after a study showed the disease could have been circulating there as early as December 2019. China’s top diplomat, said the idea that coronavirus escaped from a Wuhan laboratory is an “absurd story.”

5. Five hundred Hong Kong police officers sifted through reporters’ computers and notebooks at pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily, alleging that Apple Daily articles violate the national security law