LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Cherokee Nation Entertainment on Friday filed a lawsuit challenging a constitutional amendment Arkansas voters approved this week that revokes its license for a planned casino in the state.

The lawsuit filed in federal court claims the measure approved by voters on Tuesday violates its constitutional rights, and seeks to block its enforcement before it takes effect Nov. 13. The constitutional amendment blocks a casino that was planned in Pope County.

Pope County was one of four sites where casinos were allowed to be built under a constitutional amendment that voters approved in 2018. Casinos have already been set up in the other three locations.

“Cherokee Nation Entertainment is firmly committed to protecting its constitutional rights, defending its lawfully issued casino license, and safeguarding the substantial investments it made in good faith based on the establishment of the Pope County casino license under Amendment 100 in 2018,” Bart Calhoun, an attorney for Cherokee Nation Entertainment, said in a statement.

The lawsuit is the latest in a costly fight between the Cherokee Nation and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, which had spent at least $30 million combined on the campaign over the ballot measure. The state Supreme Court last month rejected a lawsuit by the Cherokee Nation that sought to disqualify the measure from the ballot. The Choctaw Nation operates a casino near the Arkansas border.

“This legal action to attempt to bypass the voice of Arkansas voters is not unexpected,” said Hans Stiritz, spokesman for Local Voters in Charge, the campaign backed by the Choctaw Nation in favor of the measure. “But we are fully confident in the process that brought Issue 2 to the ballot. Arkansas voters have spoken clearly on Issue 2 and we expect it to stand.”

Attorney General Tim Griffin called the lawsuit “baseless” and said he was prepared to vigorously defend the state.

The proposed amendment removes the Pope County casino’s authorization from the state constitution. It also requires future casino licenses to be approved by voters in the county where it would be located. The constitution currently requires casino license applicants to submit letters of support from local officials.

Cherokee Nation Entertainment has said it plans to build a 50,000-square-foot (4,600-square-meter) casino northeast of Russellville, 60 miles (97 kilometers) northwest of Little Rock. Plans also call for a 200-room hotel, a conference center and an outdoor music venue.

A senior Ukrainian official confirmed to Fox News that Elon Musk joined a Trump-Zelenskyy call on Wednesday in which President Zelenskyy congratulated the president-elect on his win.

“It was a very good call. Our work continues,” said the Ukrainian official to Fox News.

ELON MUSK REVEALS HIS POLITICAL PAC’S FUTURE AMID TIGHT PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Musk’s unexpected appearance during the first official conversation between President-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may point to his influence in the upcoming Trump administration.

“I had an excellent call with President Trump and congratulated him on his historic landslide victory — his tremendous campaign made this result possible,” Zelenskyy posted on X.

Details of Musk’s exact role were not disclosed according to reporting from Axios, though sources reported Musk expressed his intent to continue supporting Ukraine through his Starlink satellite network—a service critical to Ukraine’s wartime communications.

Throughout his campaign, Trump voiced skepticism about continued U.S. aid to Ukraine and emphasized a fast resolution to its conflict with Russia, which raised concerns across Europe. 

UKRAINE, NORTH KOREAN TROOPS CLASH FOR FIRST TIME; ZELENSKYY WARNS OF ESCALATION

Trump assured Zelenskyy of support on the 25-minute call, but did not provide specifics on either policies or military aid. Axios first reported Musk’s presence on the call, and Musk has not yet given comment.

SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk speaks during an America PAC town hall on October 26, 2024, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Musk has donated more than $75 million to America PAC, which he co-founded with fellow Silicon Valley venture capitalists and tech businessmen to support Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

According to sources, Zelenskyy interpreted both the call’s timing and Trump’s reassurances as a good sign. Trump and his advisers have privately conveyed more supportive messages about Ukraine than the campaign suggested.

The phone call is expected to be the first of many between Trump’s team and Zelenskyy’s advisors as both sides navigate America’s involvement in the ongoing conflict.

Musk reportedly also joined a recent call between Trump and Turkish President Erdoğan, per reporting from Axios.

35 years ago the Berlin wall fell, reuniting Germans who were divided between east and west for nearly three decades.

As Berliners poured through holes in the concrete to reach the other side, the iron curtain that separated the Soviet Union from the West was shattered.

For some, the event was a tragedy rather than a cause for celebration.

Institute for European Politics research fellow Laura Worsch says Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the breakup of the Soviet Union the “greatest trauma and tragedy in Russian history. So there you can already see that in his world and in his ideology, he would rather have this separation again.”

She says it is not just about separation, but also about having military and economic power over people.

Less than a thousand kilometres east of Berlin at the border with Europe, new walls are being built.

Poland is fortifying its border with Belarus to stop illegal migrants, who according to Warsaw are being used by Belarus and Moscow to destabilise the West.

Worsch says this wall is a “humanitarian catastrophe for the refugees, for the migrants that are stuck there in the forest with no infrastructure, no food and no humanitarian aid whatsoever.”

‘Uphold freedom’

This year, people in the German capital will celebrate the fall of the wall with the slogan “uphold freedom.”

Worsch draws a link between the Berlin Wall and countries in Europe fortifying their borders.

In September, Germany announced it would be imposing temporary checks on its land borders, citing concerns over immigration.

Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland have also imposed border checks, a move critics say undermines freedom of movement in the European Union.

Decisions made to impose border checks are mostly motivated by concerns around illegal immigration. In October, migration dominated a summit of European leaders with several calling for so-called “return hubs” — third country centres where migrants would be processed.

Worsch says that, in this case, there “are so many crises that I think it’s natural that people feel vulnerable and threatened and tend to kind of close themselves off from the world and concentrate on what they feel is theirs.”

Dividing east and west

The Berlin wall, which was in place in the city between 1961 and 1989, divided the city between the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR) and capitalist West Germany.

ADVERTISEMENT

It was a physical reminder of the Iron Curtain, a metaphor used to describe the competing idealogies and politics between the Soviet Union and its satellite states and the West during the Cold War.

During the near three decades that the wall stood, at least 140 people died at the wall under circumstances connected to the GDR.

When the wall fell in 1989, it marked the first step towards German reunification and was one of a series of events which kickstarted the fall of communism in central and eastern Europe.

Fragments of the wall still stand today, and draw thousands of visitors from across the world to the German capital.

ADVERTISEMENT