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Weekend Briefing

From Reuters Daily Briefing

By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor

Welcome to another Saturday with me and the weekend gang. We're tracking developments in Sudan, Ukraine, the United States and beyond.

Julie Mullette inserts an IV in a patient ahead of a surgical abortion procedure at Blue Mountain Clinic in Missoula, Montana, February 23, 2023. REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare

Supreme Court preserves broad access to abortion pill

The latest: The justices granted emergency requests by the Justice Department and the mifepristone's manufacturer to put on hold a lower court's ruling that would have greatly limited the availability of the pill.
What next? While abortion-rights supporters expressed relief, they warned of a long fight ahead as a legal challenge to the medication continues.

Fighting rages in Khartoum

Eid al-Fitr: Sudan's army and its paramilitary rival declared three-day ceasefires to mark the holiday, but firing and airstrikes continued. Hundreds have been killed, and the country faces a humanitarian disaster.
Escape: People are trying to move to safer areas of the capital or to escape the city. The US joined the United Nations, UK, Japan and other countries in making preparations or attempting to remove their people. Learn more about the conflict here.

Fox-Dominion settlement turns out well for the lawyers

Payday: We didn't get the media circus many had hoped for, but the dozens of lawyers from nine law firms retained by Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News who forged a $787.5 million settlement stand to make a tidy packet for their work.
Value: Was Dominion owed as much as the $1.6 billion it had sought? And Fox will keep busy with other disputes, including a defamation lawsuit filed by voting-technology company Smartmatic and possible action by shareholders.

Ukraine grain remains en train

Moving food: Ukraine's prospects of unblocking grain shipments to eastern Europe improved after neighboring countries complained that cheap imports were hurting their economies, but there was no progress on extending the Black Sea export deal.
As of Saturday: Fighting in Bakhmut continues, and tanks are on their way to Ukraine as Kyiv presses allies for long-range weapons, jets and ammunition.

Tesla wins key car-crash trial

Mixed grill: A California jury found that Tesla's Autopilot feature did not fail to perform safely in what appears to be the first trial related to a crash involving the software. And the company posted its lowest quarterly gross margin in two years as it slashed prices.
Sky rockets in flight: Elon Musk got his rocket up, then it exploded. He said SpaceX will give it another go in a few months.

Before I forget…

A Kansas City homeowner pleaded not guilty to assault in the shooting of a Black teenager, Florida's education board extended a ban on gender-identity lessons, Republicans want to cut aid for food banks, and Ron DeSantis faces skepticism on whether he could take the Republican presidential nomination over Donald Trump.

In Europe, a French court cleared Air France and Airbus over the deadly Rio de Janeiro-to-Paris plane crash, and a Kremlin critic got 25 years in jail. Moving east, Israel strengthened its ties with Turkmenistan with a permanent embassy close to Iran's border, and Rahul Gandhi lost his appeal to stay a defamation conviction, while a court acquitted 69 Hindus of the murder of 11 Muslims during the Gujarat riots.

Earth Day brought more portents, including a report that said the pace of global sea-level rise has doubled and that more extreme weather is on the way thanks to climate change.

Bonus: We have a special Saturday edition of our Reuters World News podcast, with an Earth Day feature on the fastest-warming place on the planet. And have a listen to Friday's edition to find out how AI can make your band sound more like Oasis than you ever thought possible. Also, would you test for Alzheimer's? It's a more harrowing question than many might think.

In business news, a US Senate committee said Credit Suisse hampered an internal probe into servicing Nazi clients and Nazi-linked accounts, McDonald's tweaked its buns for better Big Macs, and Unilever won a labeling case for "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!" Track the latest corporate quarterly financial results on our business page.

Finally, I did not know what a hedgelayer was, despite my Britbox addiction. Now I do, thanks to King Charles.

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