CODE ORANGE: The judge appointed to oversee Donald Trump’s trial on charges of illegally retaining national defense secrets has ordered that any lawyer taking part in the case must get security clearance to handle the classified documents that are part of the evidence against the former president. 

  The brief order by US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed under Trump, instructed the lawyers to “expedite” the process of getting a clearance. Neither of Trump’s current lead lawyers have that clearance and the former president is still considering other candidates to represent him.

  Cannon’s order suggests that despite her lack of trial experience and the controversy over incompetent rulings she made during the investigative stage of the case, she has no intention of recusing herself.

  The classified documents and how to handle them in his trial will present Trump with a wedge to delay until election season and even until — he would hope — that he’s president again and can kill the case.

  Meanwhile, judges are lining up to schedule Trump trials. The former president and his companies now have three trials scheduled for the first three months of next year. A federal judge in New York yesterday set January 15^th for writer E. Jean Carroll’s original 2019 defamation case. Trump had said, “She’s not my type” when Carroll accused him of raping her in a department store dressing room. Carroll has already won a lawsuit against Trump.  

NATIVE CHILD: In a big win for Tribal rights, the Supreme Court upheld a 1978 law designed to keep Native American adopted children within their tribes and traditions.  

  The Indian Child Welfare Act gives adoption preference to Native families. It was challenged by a white couple claiming the policy violates principles of equal protection and discriminates against Native children and non-Native families who want to adopt because it employs race as the qualification for placement. Jennifer and Chad Brackeen have had custody of a 5-year-old Native American girl for nearly her entire life.

  Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority, noted that tribal rights have previously been recognized in law and that keeping children within the tradition is vital to survival of the tribes.

  The vote was 7 to 2, with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Jr. dissenting. In his dissent, Thomas wrote that the Indian Child Welfare Act exceeds the federal government’s power and that it “lacks any foothold in the Constitution’s original meaning.”

SHOT DOWN: Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, who posted dozens of secret intelligence reports and other sensitive documents on a gaming server, has been indicted on six counts of retaining and transmitting classified defense information.

  Teixeira has been in federal custody since April since prosecutors convinced a judge that he has a history of making violent and racist threats, had a small arsenal of guns, and was still a risk for sharing defense secrets with foreign countries.

TWISTER: A tornado destroyed a trailer park in the Texas Panhandle city of Perryton, killing three people as a storm system swept through the state. All that’s left is twisted wreckage. At least 75 people were injured. 

THE WAR ROOM: Ukraine’s grinding counteroffensive against Russian defenses has been costly, Ukrainian and American officials admitted yesterday, but they insisted that it is making gains. 

  Ukraine is trying to punch through Russian minefields, trenches, bunkers, tank obstacles and artillery positions. “It is very difficult to advance,” Hanna Malyar, a deputy Ukrainian defense minister, told reporters. “It may be slow when you look at the numbers, but the progress is confident.”

 She added, “Our troops are dealing with strong enemy resistance and their superiority in numbers of men and weapons.”

ROYALTIES: Spotify has ended its podcast deal with British royals Harry and Meghan, evidently because they didn’t crank out enough episodes to satisfy the contract. Since leaving royal life the couple has been making their living off their fame as former royals. They still have a multimillion-dollar deal with Netflix and Harry’s book contract with Penguin.

THE OBIT PAGE: British actress Glenda Jackson, who won two Oscars for Best Actress and was also a Member of Parliament for 23 years, has died after a brief illness at 87.

  She had only recently filmed a new movie with Michael Caine.

  Jackson won her first Oscar for the 1969 period drama “Women in Love,” and her second for the 1973 romantic comedy “A Touch of Class.” She left acting in her 50s to become a Member of Parliament in 1992 with the Labour Party.

  She returned to the stage at 80 as the title character in “King Lear.” She was an actress of great range. “I like to take risks,” she told The New York Times in 1971, “and I want those risks to be larger than the confines of a structure that’s simply meant to entertain.”

THE SPIN RACK: A 30-year-old American man is in custody after pushing two young American women into a 160-foot ravine at Germany’s historic Neuschwanstein Castle. One of the women died and the other was airlifted out. Authorities say the man may have attempted a sexual assault. — At least 15 people were killed yesterday in central Canada when a semitrailer collided with a bus carrying senior citizens. — It’s “Pride” month and the city of council Hamtramck, Michigan voted unanimously to restrict the city from flying any “religious, ethnic, racial, political, or sexual orientation group flags” on public grounds. 

BELOW THE FOLD: While visiting the Versailles Cuban restaurant in Miami Tuesday after his arraignment, Donald Trump declared, “Food for everyone,” then left a while later without picking up anyone’s tab. 

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