Names and faces
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg said she hopes the traditional “bipartisan spirit” of congressional hearings for judges will once again prevail rather than recent votes that have divided along party lines. Speaking on Thursday in Jerusalem after the screening of RBG, the documentary about her life and career, Ginsburg said she would not address past or present personnel changes on the court, in reference to
Justice Anthony Kennedy’s upcoming retirement. But she bemoaned how partisan the process of picking a justice has become. She noted for instance that her strongest supporter when she was confirmed in 1993 was Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. On Wednesday, Ginsberg received a lifetime achievement award from the Genesis Prize Foundation, a prominent Jewish organization, In her acceptance speech at a ceremony in Tel Aviv, Ginsburg cited Holocaust diarist Anne Frank among others as she talked about her fight for women’s rights and quoted from Jewish traditions and history. Ginsburg, 85, has served on the Supreme Court since 1993. She was the second female justice and often cites her Jewish heritage as a source for her love of learning and sensitivity to the plight of oppressed minorities.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has granted permission for an orange blimp depicting President Donald Trump as an infant in diapers with an iPhone in hand to fly over Parliament Square Garden when the U.S. leader visits Britain’s capital next week. On Thursday, a Khan spokesman confirmed to The
Washington Post that his office will allow the blimp to take off, saying in an email that Khan “supports the right to peaceful protest and understands that this can take many different forms.” However, the spokesman added that the activists flying the blimp “will also need to receive the necessary approvals from the Metropolitan Police and National Air Traffic Service in order for it to fly.” Trump is scheduled to visit London next week, with concerns over protests having scuttled previous plans. He has repeatedly angered Londoners with comments about their city, including remarks at a National Rifle Association meeting in May in which he claimed that London has strict gun laws but has such a bad knife problem that a hospital in the city looks like a “military war-zone hospital.” The activists planning the blimp stunt, known as “Trump Baby,” raised more than $20,000 through an online crowdfunding campaign. About 10,000 people also signed a petition asking for permission to fly the massive balloon for about two hours on July 13. The campaign asked donors to “make our six meter high orange, inflatable baby with a malevolent face and tiny hands fly over central London during Trump’s U.K. visit.”