Being rich is its own qualification for elite college admissions, study shows
A large study released this week quantifies for the first time the extent to which being very rich is its own qualification in elite college admissions. The analysis, by Opportunity Insights, a group of economists based at Harvard who study inequality, focused on admissions at 12 top colleges including the eight Ivy League universities. It shows that for applicants with the same SAT or ACT score, children from families in the top economic 1% were 34% more likely to be admitted than the average applicant, and those from the top 0.1% were more than twice as likely to get in.
Justice Department opens civil rights investigation of Memphis police
The Justice Department said Thursday that it had begun a sweeping civil rights investigation into policing in Memphis, Tennessee, digging into allegations of excessive force and unlawful stops of Black residents that were amplified by the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols in January. The beating of Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was captured by body camera and surveillance footage and brought intense scrutiny onto how the Memphis Police Department operates. Residents and activists argued that Nichols’ case was reflective of an aggressive approach that officers routinely took with Black people. A preliminary review by the Justice Department lent credence to those claims, officials said.
Spared the worst of summer until now, the Northeast joins a nation scorched
New York City’s power company asked customers to cut back on electricity use Thursday and Philadelphia declared a health emergency as the dangerous heat that has scorched other parts of the country for more than a month spread to the nation’s most populous region. Spiking temperatures and humidity prompted widespread heat warnings in New England and the mid-Atlantic. The heat will probably peak in the region Friday, forecasters said, before easing over the weekend. About 118 million Americans were expected to be in the “danger” zone Friday, with the heat index rising into the 100s, according to a New York Times analysis of National Weather Service and U.S. Census Bureau data.
Michigan judge weighs whether school shooter could ever leave prison
In a hearing that started Thursday, a Michigan judge heard arguments on whether Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 when he killed four students at his Michigan high school, should be eligible for a sentence that could allow him to one day leave prison. Crumbley pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, a conviction that for most adults in Michigan forces a sentence of life in prison without parole. But a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 2012 requires judges to consider giving juvenile defendants a chance for eventual release. The hearing is expected to stretch into Friday and possibly next week.
Labor department decries surge in exploited migrant children
The Labor Department on Thursday denounced a national surge in child labor, saying the agency’s inspectors had found thousands of violations and were investigating a slaughterhouse in Mississippi where a 16-year-old boy from Guatemala was killed this month. The update followed a hearing on Wednesday in which lawmakers from both parties accused the Health and Human Services secretary, Xavier Becerra, of failing to protect migrant children from exploitation. The department said inspectors were pursuing more than 700 open cases and had already found 4,474 children working illegally since the start of the fiscal year — a 44% increase over the previous year.
Held hostage by his military, Niger’s president vows to save democracy
Hours after soldiers seized power in the West African nation of Niger, the country’s ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum, sounded a defiant note Thursday morning, vowing to protect his “hard-won” democratic gains, even as he was being held hostage in the presidential palace by his own guards. But his army chief, Gen. Abdou Sikikou Issa, poured cold water on such hopes, saying in a statement that the army was backing the mutineers to avoid bloodshed and prevent infighting among the security forces. If the coup holds, it will be West Africa’s sixth military takeover in less than three years, following in the footsteps of Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso.
Wooing African nations, Putin casts West as a common foe
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday pledged free grain for some African countries and accused the West of “telling lies” about the dormant deal that had allowed Ukrainian food exports, scrambling to shore up support among African leaders and casting his war in Ukraine as part of an increasingly global conflict. Putin hosted around 20 African leaders for the start of a two-day summit in St. Petersburg, drawing a significant contingent of officials from across the continent looking to Russia as a source of arms and food. But the gathering attracted fewer than half the number of leaders who attended the summit in 2019.
Bid to reassign Netanyahu prosecution hints at next steps in Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long denied seeking to use his power to undermine his long-running corruption trial, and rejected the notion that his government’s ongoing judicial overhaul was partly an attempt to get his case dismissed. But on Wednesday night, some of Netanyahu’s closest allies provided a glimpse of how they could intervene in his prosecution. Eleven lawmakers from Netanyahu’s right-wing party, Likud, introduced a bill that would strip the attorney general — who has been critical of the government — of the right to oversee the prosecution of government ministers, including the prime minister.
Once wary, Biden welcomes Italy’s Meloni to the White House
President Joe Biden warmly welcomed Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to the White House on Thursday, embracing her as a friend and casting aside initial doubts that her far-right party might prove to be troublesome for the United States. Biden, who last fall publicly expressed concern that the rise of Meloni’s coalition signaled a retreat from democracy in Italy, expressed nothing but admiration for her during a meeting in the Oval Office. He singled out her support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, a position at odds with that of some of her coalition partners. “We’ve become friends,” Biden told reporters with Meloni sitting by his side.
King Charles doesn’t have as many swans as he used to
Six wooden skiffs set out from the town of Sunbury-on-Thames this month on a five-day mission with one goal: to uphold one of Britain’s more obscure royal traditions and report back to King Charles on how many swans he owns. This year, because of avian flu, as well as encounters with animals and aggressive humans, the numbers were not good. The counters on the River Thames recorded 94 cygnets, as young swans are called, compared with 155 last year. That’s a roughly 40% drop, and a worry for conservators and animal lovers alike. The annual expedition, along a 79-mile stretch of the river, is known as the “swan upping.”
By wire sources