Biden Delivers Oval Office Address as U.S. Averts Default
In his first prime-time address from the Oval Office, President Joe Biden hailed a legislative budget deal as averting an economic calamity from a default on the nation’s debt. Seated behind the Resolute Desk, Biden sought to reassure Americans that robust job growth — the economy added 339,000 jobs in May alone — would not be sidetracked by global fears about whether the United States is willing to pay its bills. “Essential to all the progress we’ve made in the last few years is keeping full faith and credit of the United States,” Biden said.”
Many in Guam Lack Power and Water a Week After Typhoon Mawar
Thousands of people across the island of Guam remained without power, water and cellphone service Friday, more than a week after the U.S. territory was pummeled by the strongest typhoon in at least two decades, which flooded homes, downed coconut and mango trees, and disrupted basic services. The typhoon, Mawar, brought widespread flooding and 140-mph winds, equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane, when it struck the island of 150,000 people in the South Pacific on May 24, knocking out power across much of the territory.
Two More Oath Keepers Members Receive Sentences
A federal judge sentenced two members of the Oath Keepers militia to less than four years in prison for seditious conspiracy Friday, placing a brake on the government’s effort to impose lengthy terms on members of the group for roles in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021. The two men, David Moerschel and Joseph Hackett, who traveled from Florida to join the Oath Keepers in Washington on Jan. 6, received terms of three years and 3 1/2 years, respectively. Prosecutors had requested 12 years for Moerschel and 10 years for Hackett.
Lawyers Unable to Find Document Trump Discussed on Tape
Shortly after learning that former President Donald Trump had been recorded discussing what appeared to be classified material describing military options for confronting Iran, federal prosecutors issued a subpoena to his lawyers seeking the return of all records that resembled the document he mentioned, two people familiar with the matter said Friday. But Trump’s legal team has informed the Justice Department that it was unable to find any such records in his possession, the people said. It is unclear whether prosecutors have been able to track down the document themselves.
Tropical Storm Forms in the Gulf of Mexico
Tropical Storm Arlene formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, making it the first named storm of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season. Arlene was 240 miles west of Fort Myers, Florida, on Friday afternoon and was moving southeast toward Cuba at 7 mph, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. The storm had sustained winds of 40 mph, with higher gusts. Arlene is technically the second system to reach tropical storm strength this year, as a storm that formed off the northeastern United States in mid-January was a later classified as an subtropical storm.
Biden Bans Drilling Around Native American Cultural Site
The Biden administration took action on Friday to block new oil and gas leasing on federal land around Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, one of the nation’s oldest and most culturally significant Native American sites. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced that her agency would withdraw public lands within a 10-mile radius of Chaco Canyon and the area around it, known as Chaco Culture National Historical Park, from access to new oil and gas leasing for 20 years, following through on a 2021 pledge by President Joe Biden to protect the area from drilling.
In Finland, NATO’s Newest Member, Blinken Details Russia’s ‘Failures’
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday took the stage in Finland, NATO’s newest member, to say that further strengthening Ukraine’s defenses against Russia was a “prerequisite” for diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine. In an address at City Hall in Helsinki, Blinken said the war by President Vladimir Putin of Russia had backfired since Moscow invaded in February 2022. He noted, for one, Finland’s decision last year to break from decades of neutrality and join the NATO alliance in a major strategic blow to Putin. The war “has been a strategic failure — greatly diminishing Russia’s power, its interests and its influence for years to come,” Blinken said.
As Kyiv Reckons With Deaths by a Shelter, Russia Evacuates Border Towns
Outside a children’s clinic turned bomb shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine, passersby mourned their neighbors’ deaths. Three people, including a woman and her child, were killed in an explosion around the entrance of their neighborhood shelter Thursday morning, having been locked out during an air raid. The deaths have led to multiple investigations, four detentions and widespread mourning. But the three Ukrainians killed in Kyiv by all accounts seemed to have had enough time to get to safety Thursday. Their deaths reflected a worst-case scenario for Kyiv residents in navigating hundreds of bomb shelters in the city.
More Than 230 Dead and 900 Injured in Train Crash in India
Two trains derailed in India in the eastern state of Odisha on Friday, government officials said, killing more than 230 people and injuring hundreds more in an accident that shook the country. Odisha’s chief secretary, Pradeep Jena, said on Twitter that 233 people had been killed and another 900 injured. Teams of rescue workers with dogs and cutting equipment were laboring frantically to free those trapped in the wreckage. A railroad ministry spokesperson was quoted by The Times of India as saying that 10 to 12 coaches of one train had derailed and that some of the debris then landed on a nearby track, where it was hit by another train.
U.S. Will Try to Bring China Into Arms Control Talks
The White House will renew its effort to draw China into discussions about entering arms control talks, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser said Friday, and will attempt to establish a global accord that specifies that artificial intelligence programs can never be used to authorize the use of nuclear weapons without a human in the decision loop. The speech by Jake Sullivan described Biden’s plans to deal with a world in which, he said, “cracks in our post-Cold War nuclear foundation are substantial.” But the solutions he pointed to were largely aimed at maintaining nuclear deterrence by supplementing America’s deployed arsenal of 1,550 weapons with new technologies rather than entering renewed arms races.
Haitian Businessman Gets Life Sentence in Assassination of Haiti’s President
A federal judge in Florida sentenced a former drug trafficker with Haitian and Chilean citizenship to life in prison Friday for his role in the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti. Rodolphe Jaar is the first person to be convicted and sentenced in what federal prosecutors have described as a sprawling conspiracy to murder the Haitian leader and seize power, aided by Haitian officials, Colombian mercenaries and illegal arms shipments from the United States. Though Jaar pleaded guilty to three conspiracy charges and agreed to testify against his co-conspirators, the Miami judge gave Jaar the maximum term of life imprisonment for all three counts.
Remains Match Traits of Missing Call Center Workers in Mexico, Officials Say
The search for seven missing employees of a call center led Mexican authorities to a gruesome discovery this week, when dozens of trash bags with several human remains were recovered from the bottom of a ravine outside Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco. Male and female body parts had been found in the bags, officials said. On Thursday, the state prosecutor’s office said that some remains preliminarily matched the physical characteristics of the missing staff members, who were last seen between May 20 and May 22.
By wire sources
