US Domestic News Roundup: New York judge strikes down state mask mandate; New York City Mayor Adams unveils plan to end gun violence and more

Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane are charged with violating Floyd's civil rights during his arrest on a road outside a Minneapolis grocery store in May 2020, video of which sparked street protests against racism and police brutality around the world. Analysis-'Aggressively conservative' Supreme Court plunges into U.S. culture wars The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear a case that could doom university policies considering race as a factor in student admissions is the latest sign of the conservative majority's eagerness to put its stamp on America's most divisive issues.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

New York judge strikes down state mask mandate

A New York judge struck down the state's mask mandate on Monday, one week before it was due to expire, ruling the governor overstepped her authority in imposing a rule that needed to have been passed by the state legislature. Judge Thomas Rademaker of New York State Supreme Court on Long Island found that the state legislature last year curbed any governor's ability to issue decrees, such as a mask mandate, amid a declared state of emergency.

New York City Mayor Adams unveils plan to end gun violence

New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Monday announced a plan to end gun violence in a city reeling from the fatal shooting of a police officer and a spate of violent crimes, as he promised to increase police officers in New York's most violence-plagued communities. Adams, a former police captain, said the plan would deliver on his November election campaign pledge by deploying more officers, stemming the flow of guns into the city, and appointing anti-gun violence coordinators in every city agency.

U.S. COVID peak may be over but not the pain as deaths rise

Even as COVID-19 cases drop and hospitalizations show signs of plateauing in hard-hit pockets of the United States, the still-rising death toll from the Omicron variant highlights the trail of loss that follows every virus surge. Coronavirus deaths hit an 11-month high on Sunday, climbing 11% in the past week when compared to the prior week, according to a Reuters.

Biden curses Fox News reporter after he asks about inflation

U.S. President Joe Biden was caught on a hot mic cursing a Fox News reporter at a White House event on Monday after the journalist shouted a question about the impact of rising inflation on this year's congressional elections. As journalists were ushered out of a meeting of Biden's Competition Council, Peter Doocy, a White House correspondent with whom Biden regularly spars, asked if it was OK to ask about inflation and if it was a political liability.

Georgia to impanel grand jury in probe of Trump bid to overturn 2020 election

The Georgia prosecutor investigating then-U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state will be allowed to seat a special grand jury to subpoena witnesses to testify against him. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis last week sought to have a special grand jury aid her investigation into the Republican leader's efforts to pressure officials in a state where he lost to Joe Biden.

Trump is nowhere -- and everywhere --- in Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race

Former President Donald Trump is nowhere to be seen in Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race, but he nonetheless is shaping the election as Republican candidates vie for his support and the state party considers skipping an endorsement to avoid being at odds with him. Trump has not revealed whether he will back any of the current candidates in the contest that could decide control of Congress in November's midterm elections.

U.S. court rejects Alabama redistricting as violating Black voting rights

A U.S. court rejected on Monday the Alabama legislature's redrawn U.S. congressional district map for November elections, saying it likely violated the Voting Rights Act and stood to deny Black voters an additional representative.

The ruling, which can be appealed, addresses an issue of contention between the two major political parties, in which Democrats accuse Republicans of exploiting their relative strength in state legislatures to diminish Black voting power.

Three Minneapolis ex-police officers were indifferent to George Floyd's pleas, jury told

Three former Minneapolis officers broke the law by failing to stop Derek Chauvin killing George Floyd during an arrest and were indifferent to the handcuffed Black man's dying pleas, a prosecutor told a jury in opening statements in the federal trial on Monday. Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane are charged with violating Floyd's civil rights during his arrest on a road outside a Minneapolis grocery store in May 2020, video of which sparked street protests against racism and police brutality around the world.

Analysis-'Aggressively conservative' Supreme Court plunges into U.S. culture wars

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear a case that could doom university policies considering race as a factor in student admissions is the latest sign of the conservative majority's eagerness to put its stamp on America's most divisive issues. The court already was due to issue rulings by the end of June in cases giving the justices a chance to curtail abortion rights and widen gun rights - major goals of U.S. conservatives. The case targeting the student admissions practices of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, taken up by the court on Monday, gives the conservative justices a chance to cripple affirmative action policies long despised by the American right, with a ruling expected next year.

U.S. Supreme Court to hear challenge to race-conscious college admissions

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a bid to bar Harvard University and the University of North Carolina from considering race in undergraduate admissions in a case that imperils affirmative action policies widely used to increase the number of Black and Hispanic students on American campuses. The justices agreed to hear appeals by a group called Students for Fair Admissions, founded by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, of lower court rulings that upheld the programs used by the two prestigious universities to foster a diverse student population. The cases give the court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, a chance to end such policies.