9
NEWS
TICKER
States sue over
auto-emission
rulesTwenty-three states
sued the Trump
Administration on
Sept. 20 over its
move to revoke
California’s authority
to set its own vehicle-
emission standards.
The suit is part of
a larger battle over
the Administration’s
attempts to roll back
environmental-
protection rules.El Salvador
signs
migration dealAs the Trump Admin-
istration pressures
Latin American
governments to
curb migration,
El Salvador—one of the
region’s most violent
countries—signed a
deal on Sept. 20 that
would allow the U.S. to
send asylum seekers
back there if they
passed through the
country en route to the
U.S. border.Facebook
shuts down
appsFacebook has
suspended tens of
thousands of apps for
infractions including
privacy violations,
the social network
said on Sept. 20. The
decision followed an
internal investigation
that began in 2018,
after revelations that
Cambridge Analytica
had harvested users’
data without their
permission.on sepT. 24, u.k. supreme courT
President Brenda Hale wore a large, spider-
shaped brooch to announce that the court
had found Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s
suspension of Parliament “unlawful, void
and of no effect.” Lawmakers returned to
work the next day, three weeks earlier than
planned, resuming their scrutiny of John-
son’s plans ahead of Britain’s scheduled
exit from the E.U. on Oct. 31. And as Hale’s
choice of jewelry became a viral hit, her
words left Johnson even more entangled in
a web of his own making.
ROGUE DECISION On Aug. 28, Johnson
announced plans to “prorogue” (or sus-
pend) the sitting of both the upper and lower
chambers of Parliament for five weeks. His
plan was denounced by opposition law-
makers and many in his own party as a ploy
to prevent the passage of laws that would
make a “no-deal” Brexit illegal. But if that
was his plan, it failed: lawmakers rushed
through legislation doing just that, shortly
before Parliament was closed on Sept. 9.
COURT RED-HANDED With the U.K. lack-
ing a written constitution, the Supreme
Court was called to weigh in. Its justices
deliberated for three days over whether
they even had the authority to adjudicate on
pro rogation, which Johnson’s government
insisted was a “purely political matter.” But
the decision was ultimately unanimous.
The suspension was unlawful, the 11 jus-
tices said, because it frustrated “the ability
of Parliament to carry out its constitutional
functions without reasonable justification.”POLITICAL FALLOUT On Sept. 25, lawmakers
returned to Parliament, many of them call-
ing for the resignation of Johnson, who was
then in New York City for the U.N. General
Assembly. (He flew home early.) But more
significant than the bad optics of the court
ruling is the upcoming European Council
summit on Oct. 17, where Johnson hopes
the E.U. will finally offer to compromise on
a Brexit deal. If it doesn’t, Johnson might
soon find himself less like a spider and more
like its prey. —billy perrigoTHE BULLETIN
Brexit chaos rises after a historic Supreme
Court ruling against Boris Johnson
RAISED VOICES A man climbs atop fellow demonstrators during rare antigovernment protests on
Sept. 21 in Cairo, where unapproved public gatherings of more than 10 people have been banned
since President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi led a 2013 coup against Egypt’s first democratically elected
leader. Local NGOs say authorities have arrested more than 1,000 people since protesters took to
the streets on Sept. 20 for two days of rallies in several cities across the country.