Biden evacuated after plane entered airspace near beach home
The White House says a small private airplane entered restricted airspace near President Joe Biden’s Delaware vacation home on Saturday, and that led to the brief evacuation of the president and first lady. The White House says there was no threat to Biden or his family and that precautionary measures were taken. After the situation was assessed, Biden and his wife, Jill, returned to their Rehoboth Beach home. The Secret Service said in a statement that the plane was immediately escorted from the restricted airspace after “mistakenly entering a secured area.” The agency said it would interview the pilot who, according to a preliminary investigation, was not on the proper radio channel and was not following published flight guidance.
The mass shootings where stricter gun laws might have made a difference
If the key gun control proposals now being considered in Congress had been law since 1999, four gunmen younger than 21 would have been blocked from legally buying the rifles they used in mass shootings. At least four others would have been subject to a required background check. Ten might have been unable to steal their weapons because of efforts to require or encourage safer gun storage. And 20 would not have been allowed to legally purchase the large-capacity magazines. Taken together, those four measures might have changed the course of 35 mass shootings that killed a combined 446 people, a New York Times analysis found.
Republicans elevate diverse recruits in bid to Win House majority
If Republicans win back the House majority in the November elections, it will be because of candidates such as Arizona’s Juan Ciscomani. In the nation’s most competitive congressional districts, Republicans have aggressively recruited people of color with powerful personal stories to tell, betting that compelling candidates, equipped with disciplined messages that focus on kitchen table issues such as inflation and public safety, will deliver them control of the House. Republicans saw the potency of the strategy in 2020 when handicappers and pollsters predicted that Democrats would expand their majority. Instead, Democrats did not gain a single new seat, while Republican candidates — women, minorities and veterans — won 15.
Dispatcher fired over mishandling 911 call during Buffalo shooting
An emergency services dispatcher in Buffalo, New York, who was accused of hanging up on a 911 call from a supermarket employee who was whispering while hiding during the racist shooting rampage last month was fired Thursday, an official said. The dispatcher, who has not been publicly identified, was fired in a disciplinary hearing, the official, Peter Anderson, a spokesperson for the Erie County executive, said in an email. Anderson said the dispatcher, who had worked for Erie County for eight years, had been on paid administrative leave since May 16 “as the mishandled call was investigated.”
Jubilee honors Britain’s queen but also highlights her increasing absences
Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee has become a party without its guest of honor. Her absence is part of an awkward limbo in which the 96-year-old queen still reigns but has, in many ways, been replaced by her heir, Prince Charles. After appearing Thursday on the balcony at Buckingham Palace and lighting a beacon to celebrate 70 years on the throne, the queen skipped a thanksgiving service Friday. The palace cited her “discomfort” and problems with mobility. Charles’ unspoken transition into the sovereign’s role amounts to a kind of soft launch, royal experts said, allowing Britons to get used to the idea of him as king.
Ukraine rejects Macron plea not to ‘humiliate’ Russia
The Ukrainian government Saturday sought to repel a demand by President Emmanuel Macron of France that Moscow not be humiliated to improve chances of reaching a diplomatic solution. “We must not humiliate Russia so that the day when the fighting stops we can build an exit ramp through diplomatic means,” Macron said in an interview with French newspapers. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba responded with a scathing post on social media. “Calls to avoid humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France and every other country that would call for it,” Kuleba wrote.
Mourning Tiananmen’s victims and the Hong Kong that was
For decades, a large candlelight vigil was held in Hong Kong each June 4 to commemorate those killed when Chinese soldiers crushed the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing. On Saturday, smaller crowds gathered in Taipei, Taiwan, and other cities around the world — this time mourning not just the people slain 33 years ago but also the fate of Hong Kong, where the smothering of dissent has put an end to the vigil in Victoria Park, the world’s most prominent public memorial to the victims of 1989. Since 2020, when Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, the local government has essentially banned public commemorations of the 1989 killings.
Ukraine has cleared more than 127,000 explosives since Russia invaded, UN says
Ukraine has cleared more than 127,000 explosive devices from its territory since Russia invaded in late February, according to a U.N. report. The report, issued by the U.N. Development Program, said that the retreat of Russian forces from areas in and around Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the northeast of the country had “offered space for considerable explosive ordnance clear-up operations.” Most of the efforts to remove unexploded mines, rockets, bombs and artillery shells undertaken by Ukraine’s State Emergency Services have been focused on urban areas in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Zhytomyr regions, according to the report.
By wire sources
