A state-run Turkish news agency said a higher court in Turkey rejected an appeal Friday for the release of American Pastor Andrew Brunson, whose detention is a key point of dispute in the tense relationship between the two countries. Anadolu Agency said a high court in Izmir upheld a lower court’s decision earlier this week to keep Brunson under house arrest. President Donald Trump on Thursday signaled the United States could level new sanctions against Turkey over Brunson’s detention, and Turkey said it would reciprocate. U.S.

Former CIA Director John Brennan and a group of former intelligence officials accused President Donald Trump of attacking free speech by revoking Brennan’s security clearance and threatening to do the same to others. The White House announced Wednesday it was pulling Brennan’s clearance and listed several other Obama administration personnel who could be next, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former national security adviser Susan Rice.

A spate of drug overdoses broke out Wednesday morning in and around a New Haven, Conn., park, where emergency workers treated 76 people through early Thursday. Authorities suspect a bad batch of synthetic marijuana, or K2, is to blame. Many victims lost consciousness and some became nauseous and lethargic. According to initial toxicology results, some victims tested positive for the powerful opioid fentanyl, which might have been mixed with the marijuana. Onlookers and emergency workers described a spooky scene at the New Haven Green on Wednesday, with people dropping by the minute.

The FBI arrested a man in Sacramento, Calif., who, before he came to the United States as a refugee, allegedly committed acts of terror as an Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Qaeda operative in Iraq. Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, 45, is accused of killing a police officer, planting improvised bombs, robbing supply trucks, and other crimes. The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested him on a warrant issued in May by a Baghdad court. U.S. officials plan to extradite him to Iraq.

The Colorado commission that violated Jack Phillips’ religious liberty by trying to force him to make cakes for same-sex marriages is after the baker again. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this summer in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission that the state treated Phillips differently because of his Christian faith. Less than a month later, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission ruled against Phillips in a similar dispute stemming from his 2017 refusal to make a cake celebrating someone’s decision to change genders.

Twitter is putting InfoWars’ Alex Jones in timeout for a week after he posted a link to a video in which he urged followers to get their “battle rifles and everything ready at their bedsides” in case Chinese Communists attacked Americans in the middle of the night. Other media platforms, including Apple, Facebook, Spotify, and YouTube, blocked Jones earlier this month, but Twitter held out, saying Jones had not violated its terms of service.

Democrats in Vermont chose the nation’s first openly transgender major party nominee for a statewide office Tuesday as four states held primaries to decide ballots for November’s midterm elections. Democrat Christine Hallquist, previously known as “David” and the former chief executive of the Vermont Electric Cooperative, defeated three other candidates in Vermont’s Democratic primary for governor. Hallquist will battle incumbent Republican Gov. Phil Scott in November. Scott won unusual favor with Democrats and angered his own party by signing gun control legislation in April.