Hurricane warnings are
posted for parts of Texas coastline as Beryl nears
(NYTimes) — Texas braced for Tropical Storm Beryl on Saturday as it approached the state’s shores on the Gulf of Mexico, as some areas issued evacuation orders and hurricane warnings and watches were posted for the state’s southern coast. The storm made landfall Friday in Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane. Beryl, which then weakened to a tropical storm, was expected to become a hurricane before reaching the Texas coast as soon as late Sunday. Hurricane warnings were in effect for the Texas coast, from Baffin Bay, about 40 miles south of Corpus Christi, north toward Sargent, about 160 miles up the shoreline from the bay.
Biden aides provided
questions in advance
for his radio interviews
(NYTimes) — The questions asked of President Joe Biden by two radio interviewers this past week were provided in advance to the hosts by members of Biden’s team, one of the hosts said Saturday morning on CNN. Andrea Lawful-Sanders, host of “The Source” on WURD in Philadelphia, said Biden officials provided her with eight questions before Wednesday’s interview. “The questions were sent to me for approval; I approved of them,” she told Victor Blackwell, host of “First of All” on CNN. A spokesperson for the Biden campaign said campaign aides sent the questions.
Judge delays deadlines
in Trump classified
documents case
(NYTimes) — A federal judge Saturday postponed a few deadlines in former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case to allow prosecutors time to respond to his request for a broader pause in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling this past week on executive immunity. On Friday, lawyers for Trump asked Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the case, for permission to file additional papers to bolster their immunity contention. They argue that the Supreme Court’s decision in a separate case granting Trump wide protections for official acts as president applies to the documents proceeding.
Britain’s new leader is about to get a crash course in statecraft
(NYTimes) — Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain will barely get his feet under the desk in No. 10 Downing St. before he flies to Washington this coming week to attend a NATO summit. A week after that, he will play host to 50 European leaders at a security meeting at Blenheim Palace. It’s a crash course in global statecraft for Starmer, Britain’s first Labour prime minister in 14 years. But it will also give him the chance to project an image of Britain that is uncharacteristic in the post-Brexit era: a stable, conventional, center-left country amid a churning tide of politically unsettled allies.
Violence, rape, thirst, even organ theft: Migrants face lethal risks in Africa
(NYTimes) — If not left to die of dehydration or illness, migrants on the dangerous land routes through northern Africa toward the Mediterranean and Europe risk rape, torture, sex trafficking and even organ theft, according to a new report produced in part by the United Nations. Based on interviews with more than 31,000 migrants from 2020 to 2023, the report documents the brutality suffered by the growing number of people from dozens of countries who try to make their way across the Sahel and the Sahara, fleeing war, environmental degradation and poverty. The violence often came at the hands of organized criminal gangs and militias.
Foreign soldiers in Ukraine
unit killed prisoners
(NYTimes) — The shooting of an unarmed, wounded Russian soldier is one of several killings that have unsettled the Chosen Company, one of the best-known units of international troops fighting on behalf of Ukraine. The witness recollection of Caspar Grosse, a German medic in the unit, is the only available evidence of the trench killing. But his accounts of other episodes are bolstered by his contemporaneous notes, video footage and text messages exchanged by members of the unit and reviewed by The New York Times. Killing prisoners of war is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
After deadly protests, Kenyans tell of brutal abductions
(NYTimes) — One activist was taken while organizing a blood drive for wounded protesters. Another said he was snatched as he worked at home after midnight. A third said he was beaten and blindfolded then tossed into the trunk of a car. All of them said they were swept up by government security forces in Kenya over the past two weeks after they had spoken out against a contentious bill to raise taxes. At least 32 people have been abducted or arbitrarily detained, according to interviews with human rights monitors and dozens of activists.
In the French countryside, a
deep discontent takes root
(NYTimes) — Some 9.3 M people voted for the National Rally, a far-right party with quasi-fascist roots, in the first round of France’s election last weekend, more than double the 4.2 million in the first round of parliamentary elections in 2022. Spread across most regions in France, they included workers and pensioners, the young and the old, women and men. Tired of the status quo, they came together to roll the dice for change. To say a taboo has fallen against voting for the far right is insufficient; it has disintegrated in a tidal wave of National Rally support. Tensions have risen across the country as a result.
