DEI statements stir debate on college campuses

Diversity statements are a new flashpoint on campus, just as the Supreme Court has driven a stake through race-conscious admissions. Nearly half the large universities in the U.S. require that job applicants write such statements, part of the rapid growth in diversity, equity and inclusion programs. To supporters, such statements are both skill assessment and business strategy. Given the ban on race-conscious admissions, and the need to attract applicants from a shrinking pool of potential students, many colleges are looking to create a more welcoming environment. But critics say these statements are thinly veiled attempts at enforcing ideological orthodoxy.

Louisville to pay $20 Million to two wrongly convicted men

Two Kentucky men who spent 22 years in jail for an unsolved 1992 murder they did not commit have agreed to settle a civil rights case against Louisville for $20.5 million. In 2018, Garr Keith Hardin and Jeffrey Clark were exonerated in the stabbing death of Rhonda Sue Warford after lawyers presented evidence casting doubt on the 1995 murder conviction of the men, who were accused of killing Warford as part of a satanic ritual. “The settlement pretty loudly and clearly represents an acknowledgment by the city of Louisville that Jeff and Keith were completely innocent and wronged through egregious police misconduct,” said Elliot Slosar, a lawyer who represented Clark.

Newsom to Democrats: ‘ buck up’ and back Biden

Over the past four months, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has traveled to six Republican-led states. He has goaded Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, to debate on Fox News. He has assembled a small staff of political advisers and created a political action committee to distribute $10 million to Democratic causes and candidates. But Newsom said in an interview that he was not running for president and that the time has come for Democrats to rally around President Joe Biden. “It’s time for all of us to get on the train and buck up,” Newsom said.

Hurricane Lee is a category 3 storm, and its eventual path is unclear

Hurricane Lee has grabbed the attention of forecasters and social media this past week as the intensifying storm moves west across the open waters of the Atlantic. It is easy to look at a map showing a major hurricane with a forecast path pointed at the United States and think the East Coast is in for it. But that scenario is not the most probable outcome. Even if it were, Lee wouldn’t arrive until late next week, which is beyond the official forecast from the experts at the National Hurricane Center. As of 5 p.m. Saturday, the Category 3 storm was about 310 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands.

G20 declaration omits criticism of Russia, notes Ukrainians’ ‘suffering’

A painstakingly negotiated declaration Saturday evening at the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi omitted any condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or its brutal conduct of the war, instead lamenting the “suffering” of the Ukrainian people. It was an eye-opening departure from a similar document agreed to less than a year ago in Bali, when leaders acknowledged different views over the invasion but still issued a strong condemnation of the Russian invasion and called on Moscow to withdraw its troops. U.S. officials defended the agreement, saying it built on the statement released last year and that the United States was still pressing for peace in Ukraine.

Vietnam chases secret Russian arms deal, even as it deepens U.S. ties

When President Joe Biden is greeted by Vietnamese officials Sunday, he will be celebrating the prospect of adding another friend in Asia to a coalition that his administration hopes will side with U.S. interests rather than China’s and Russia’s. But even as the United States and Vietnam have nurtured their relationship over recent months, Hanoi is making clandestine plans to buy an arsenal from Russia in contravention of U.S. sanctions. An internal Vietnamese government document, dated March 2023 and verified by Vietnamese officials, lays out how Vietnam proposes to modernize its military by secretly paying for weapons purchases through transfers at a joint Vietnamese and Russian oil venture in Siberia.

Ex-soldier who escaped from London prison is recaptured

Three days after a former British soldier facing terrorism charges engineered an audacious escape from a London prison, setting off an intense nationwide search, he was captured by police Saturday morning. The Metropolitan Police Service said the fugitive, Daniel Abed Khalife, had been apprehended just before 11 a.m. in Northolt, in northwest London. He broke out of Wandsworth prison Wednesday morning by strapping himself to the bottom of a food delivery van and vanishing into a nearby neighborhood. Khalife, 21, is scheduled to go on trial in November on charges that he left fake bombs at a military base to stir fears of a terrorist attack.

Prigozhin’s death sets off a scramble for his empire

A shadowy battle is now playing out for the lucrative paramilitary and propaganda empire that had enriched mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and served Russia’s ambitions — until the Wagner leader staged a failed mutiny against the Kremlin in June. Interviews with more than a dozen officials in Washington, Europe, Africa and Russia portray a tug of war over Prigozhin’s assets among major players in Russia’s power structure following his death in a plane crash last month. The fight is complicated by the lingering allegiance to Prigozhin in his private army, where some are bridling at being subsumed within Russia’s defense ministry and instead backing a transfer of power to Prigozhin’s son.

In search of cool green spaces, Paris turns to an old rail line

Paris is pushing to revitalize the greenery around a set of disused train tracks that circle the city, known as the Little Belt, as it aims to mitigate the effects of climate change. Paris has just half the green cover of Berlin and Madrid, and the dense suburbs surrounding the French capital put the countryside even farther out of reach. The hope is that this haven of green can offer crucial breathing space to a city ill adapted to heat. The project is scheduled to open 19 more acres to the public in the next three years.

By wire sources