David Sherfinski

President Joe Biden's administration is advancing a first-of-its-kind proposal to safeguard indoor and outdoor workers from the perils of extreme heat as the United States swelters under record-breaking temperatures this summer.

But it will still likely take years to enact a federal rule that could be undone with the stroke of a pen should Donald Trump win the White House – or by a U.S. Supreme Court that just dealt a major blow to the federal government's regulatory authorities.

U.S. President Joe Biden's seismic announcement this week that he will not seek re-election has left political parties scrambling with less than four months until November's election.

It has also poised Vice President Kamala Harris to supplant Biden as the Democratic party's candidate to take on former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.

Across the United States, many far-flung, rural communities have outsized political and economic clout due to the number of people counted as living there, even though many inhabitants are there unwillingly as prisoners in large remote jails.

But a growing number of states are moving to use the home addresses of incarcerated people - often in cities and urban areas - in their own population counts.

One is 81 and already the oldest man to run the White House. His challenger - a spry 78 - was right behind him. And neither man seems ready to call it quits.

But President Joe Biden's shaky debate performance against his predecessor Donald Trump has reignited discussion about imposing an age limit on candidates seeking the highest office.

Sam Law, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, was one of roughly 80 people arrested and charged with criminal trespassing for protesting the war in Gaza on his campus at the end of April. 

Someone had apparently read a dispersal order over a loudspeaker at that April 29 protest, Law said, citing his arrest affidavit, but he doesn't remember hearing one. 

After a particularly gruelling shift lifting heavy boxes in an Amazon warehouse in New York State, Keith Williams' hands and wrist stopped working - when he woke up the next day, he could barely grasp a milk jug.

Williams blames the injury in February last year on the breakneck pace of work at the Amazon facility, which he said the company enforced by precisely measuring his productivity and pushing him to work faster. 

Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to abortion, justices preserved access to a widely used abortion drug for now in a ruling on June 13.

The justices decided against a group of doctors who had challenged the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approvals of abortion medication, saying in a 9-0 opinion the doctors lacked standing to bring the case.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that granted a constitutional right to an abortion, pro-choice activists have worried law enforcement could use women's data, technology use and even online searches to pursue prosecutions.

But while prosecutions and legal actions are often brought using more low-tech means, states are increasingly looking for new ways to crack down on abortion.

When U.S. lawyer Elizabeth Ling takes calls from women seeking legal advice about their abortion rights, the most challenging cases often come from people seeking to terminate their pregnancy while behind bars, on parole or probation.

In the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling that established abortion rights nationwide, the 'Repro Legal Helpline' has been inundated with calls from women struggling to navigate abortion bans and restrictions.

His home wrecked by flooding, Texas resident Kevin McKinney had to borrow money from his wife's retirement fund to cover some of the cost of repairing damage wrought by the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

"I had three feet (0.9 metres) of water in my home for eight days," McKinney told Context, saying 500 fellow residents had "lost everything" due to flooding in the storm's wake.