In the news
■ Barbel Bas, president of the German parliament, said she was appalled and has “no understanding for it” after Last Generation climate activists splashed a dark liquid, purportedly oil, over an artwork engraved with key articles from the country’s constitution.
■ Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk, was convicted of a misdemeanor for refusing to turn over an iPad she is alleged to have used to videotape a court hearing as she awaits trial on seven felony charges over accessing confidential voting machine data.
■ Paul Sherrell, a Tennessee lawmaker, apologized after asking if “hanging by a tree” could be added to the state’s execution methods along with a firing squad, a comment that shocked Black lawmakers who pointed to the state’s dark history of lynching.
■ Jeremy Moss, a Michigan legislator, cited “a long journey of real people here who have suffered and people who have died waiting for this moment to come” as the Senate voted to expand the state’s civil-rights law to include the LGBTQ community.
■ William Ruto, president of Kenya, criticized a recent Supreme Court ruling that allows an activist to register an LGBTQ rights organization and said, “It is not possible for our country Kenya to allow same-sex marriages … not in Kenya.”
■ Asuman Basalirwa, a Ugandan lawmaker, introduced legislation that seeks to prohibit homosexuality, voicing widespread anti-gay sentiment as the speaker said, “You are either with us or you’re with the Western world.”
■ Peter Isbister of the Georgia chapter of Trans-Parent USA said he was “relieved and surprised” as a state bill aimed at stopping teachers from talking to students about gender identity died an unexpected death as conservatives worried about unintended consequences.
■ Saadah Masoud of Staten Island in New York City was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to a federal hate crime conspiracy charge in a series of antisemitic assaults, including punching and dragging a counterprotester draped in an Israeli flag at a pro-Palestinian demonstration.
■ Christopher Miller, who spent 16 years in prison for a rape that DNA evidence showed he didn’t commit, reached a $4 million wrongful imprisonment settlement with Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and said, “Too many years were stolen from me and my family,” but “I am thriving now.”