Good morning.
Russia’s defense minister has appeared on state TV and emergency counter-terrorism measures have been cancelled in Moscow and surrounding regions as the Kremlin seeks to restore calm after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed mutiny.
The defense ministry released footage today that it claimed showed Sergei Shoigu “visiting the forward command post of one of the formations of the ‘western’ group of troops”. In the video, Shoigu is shown riding in a vehicle and arriving at a command post, where he listens to reports from officers and pores over a battlefield map.
If confirmed, the footage would be the first sighting of Shoigu since Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, declared war on him and his ministry on Friday.
But the video was released without sound and it was unclear when and where it was filmed. Russian news agencies have in the past released pre-filmed segments called “preserves”, attempting to show that officials including Vladimir Putin were working in the Kremlin when they could be hundreds of miles away.
What’s happening in Moscow? A sense of normality returned to Moscow yesterday after Prigozhin halted his assault on the Russian capital under a deal that defused an unprecedented challenge to Putin’s authority. Security forces were seen disassembling barricades that had been hurriedly put up as Prigozhin’s Wagner troops approached along the M4 road from Rostov-on-Don, while workers began repairing roads leading up to the capital that were destroyed to stop the warlord’s advances before he ordered their withdrawal.
What does the future hold for Prigozhin and Wagner after the mutiny? Despite the seemingly failed mutiny and Peskov’s statements, Wagner fighters seemed to be in a celebratory mood on Saturday, tooting their horns as they left Rostov-on-Don. Several Telegram channels linked to Wagner were similarly upbeat, suggesting that the uprising had reached its goals.
‘We can’t rest or relent’: Mike Pence reiterates support of staunch abortion restrictions
Despite their unpopularity with the American public, former Republican vice-president and 2024 White House hopeful Mike Pence increased his hardline support of staunch abortion restrictions, saying: “We just can’t rest or relent until we restore the sanctity of life.”
Pence – in an interview on Fox News Sunday – made clear that he viewed bringing the elimination of abortion “to the center of American law” as both essential and “a winning issue” for the Republican party trying to wrest back control of the Oval Office.
“I’m pro-life, and I don’t apologize for it,” Pence boasted to host Shannon Bream, even though polling shows most Americans favor keeping the termination of pregnancies legal in most cases.
The Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling that the US supreme court handed down one year ago Saturday in effect left it up to states to decide whether abortion should be legal within their boundaries. Many states have taken steps to severely limit access to abortion, setting off a seismic shift in how doctors are training to provide reproductive care to how far patients in need of attention must travel.
What did Pence say about Roe v Wade? On Sunday the former vice-president hailed the Dobbs decision as “a historic victory” that sent the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling establishing federal abortion rights “to the ash heap of history”. But he also suggested it didn’t go far enough and reiterated a call he had publicly made days earlier for his fellow Republicans to rally behind setting “a minimum standard” and implementing a nationwide ban on abortions beyond 15 weeks.
Republicans’ enduring fealty to Donald Trump on display at conference after his indictment
Republicans’ enduring loyalty to Donald Trump was on vivid display at a conservative conference this weekend, convened just two weeks after the former president was indicted on 37 federal charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Addressing this year’s Road to Majority conference Saturday, Trump lashed out against federal prosecutors, who have accused the former president of intentionally withholding classified documents from authorities and obstructing justice in his efforts to keep those materials concealed. Trump, who could soon face additional charges in Washington and Georgia, told the supportive crowd that he considered each of his two indictments so far to be “a great badge of courage” as he ran to unseat the Democratic incumbent, Joe Biden.
“Joe Biden has weaponized law enforcement to interfere in our elections,” Trump told the audience. “I’m being indicted for you.”
Trump was among several Republican presidential candidates to speak at the conference, held in Washington and hosted by the rightwing evangelical group Faith and Freedom Coalition.
What did his opponents say? His message was echoed by some of his presidential primary opponents. Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, promised to replace the FBI’s director, Christopher Wray, who was appointed during Trump’s presidency. The South Carolina US senator, Tim Scott, pledged to fire the attorney general, Merrick Garland, and “change the trajectory of this nation by focussing on restoring confidence and integrity” in the US justice department.
Did anyone speak against him? Yes. Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, did not shy away from directly confronting Trump, accusing him of “letting us down”.
In other news …
India’s finance minister has derided comments by Barack Obama that Narendra Modi’s government should protect the rights of minority Muslims, accusing Obama of being hypocritical. “He was commenting on Indian Muslims … having bombed Muslim-majority countries from Syria to Yemen … during his presidency,” Nirmala Sitharaman said.
Greece’s new prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, vowed to immediately press ahead with his ambitious reform programme after winning a decisive victory in the general elections yesterday. The New Democracy leader said his commanding 24-point lead had given him a “strong mandate”.
A worker at San Antonio’s international airport died after being sucked into a jet’s engine late on Friday, officials said. A source briefed directly on the case told the Guardian on Sunday that it appeared the worker had “intentionally stepped in front of the live engine”.
Authorities on Sunday were testing the water quality along a stretch of the Yellowstone River where mangled train cars carrying hazardous materials remained after crashing into the waterway after a bridge collapse. The seven mangled train cars were carrying hot asphalt and molten sulfur when they fell.
Stat of the day: New Jersey man flies 23m miles with lifetime United pass ‘like a sultan’
A US man who bought a lifetime pass from United Airlines three decades ago has “lived like a sultan” ever since, according to a report, flying multiples of miles more than the Apollo 11 spacecraft in the process. Tom Stuker, from New Jersey, paid $290,000 for the pass in 1990, according to the Washington Post, a decision he said is the “best investment of my life”. Stuker’s mileage in 2019 alone “covered more than six trips to the moon”, the Post reported. That year Stuker took 373 flights, covering 1.46m miles. Had he paid cash for the flights, it would have cost $2.44m. As for the environmental impact, Stuker seemed unfazed in an interview with GQ in 2020. “I’m not adding to the footprint,” Stuker said. “The plane is going to fly whether I’m on it or not. It would be much more relevant if I was flying in a private jet. Those are the people who can help the environment much more than I can if they flew commercial.”
Don’t miss this: Attacks on LGBTQ+ Americans cast long shadow over Pride month
St Cloud, Florida, a suburb of Orlando, hosted its first official Pride celebration just last year. This year, the organizers made the difficult decision to cancel, in large part because of the state’s recent law effectively banning drag shows with minors in attendance. The other reason was a death threat; a sign appeared in a nearby community that read: “Kill all the gays.”
For decades in the US, Pride events have been a celebrated – and even profitable – part of the month of June, dedicated to the history and culture of the LGBTQ+ community. But recent legislative attacks on transgender Americans and hateful political rhetoric about queer identity have cast a shadow over Pride this year, even in states traditionally supportive of gay rights. Extremists have cast threats and attacks against members of the LGBTQ+ community, forcing events to ramp up security or cancel. Elected officials have tried – and sometimes succeeded – to ban the emblematic rainbow flag. Companies have backtracked on their support.
Pride across the US: celebration and defiance in the face of threats
… or this: ‘Let the world know’ – elderly survivors of the Tulsa race massacre push for justice
In 1921, a white mob descended on the neighborhood of Greenwood, home to a business district known as Black Wall Street, killing an estimated 300 people and looting and burning businesses and homes. Thousands were left homeless and living in a hastily constructed internment camp. It became known as the Tulsa race massacre. For most Americans it is the stuff of history books and museum exhibits, as foreign and far away as Charles Lindbergh or the Wall Street crash. For Viola Ford Fletcher, it is a childhood scar that never went away. Now 109 and still dressing to the nines with earrings and bracelets, she is the oldest living survivor of the massacre and is still demanding accountability. There has never been any direct compensation from the city of Tulsa or the state of Oklahoma for massacre survivors or their descendants. Racial disparities, compounded by gentrification and urban planning, persist in Tulsa today.
Climate check: El Niño – how the weather event is affecting global heating in 2023
The planet is being hit with a double-whammy of global heating in 2023. On top of the inexorable rise in global temperature caused by greenhouse gas emissions is an emerging El Niño. This sporadic event is the biggest natural influence on year-to-year weather and adds a further spurt of warmth to an already overheating world. The result is supercharged extreme weather, hitting lives and livelihoods. The last significant El Niño from 2014 to 2016 led to each of those years successively breaking the global temperature record and 2016 remains the hottest year ever recorded. Now El Niño has begun again and may already be driving new temperature records, with record heatwaves on land from Puerto Rico to China and record heatwaves in the seas around the UK.
Last Thing: Harvard professor who studies honesty accused of falsifying data in studies
In an ironic twist in the world of behavioral science, a Harvard professor who studies honesty has been accused of data fraud. Over the last few weeks, allegations have surfaced against Francesca Gino, a prominent Harvard Business School (HBS) professor who has been accused of falsifying results in several behavioral science studies. On June 16, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that Max Bazerman, an HBS professor and co-author who published a paper in 2012 alongside Gino, said that Harvard informed him that it believed one of the studies overseen by Gino had falsified results. The paper in question is on findings published in – and later retracted by – the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and surrounds an experiment that asked participants to fill out tax and insurance paperwork.
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