Flagship

1. Biden slams immunity case
2. Orbán goes to Kyiv
3. Dutch right takes power
4. Omens of hurricane season
5. Panama to curb crossings
6. Kenya braced for unrest
7. Bird flu surveillance fears
8. Firms cut China staffing
9. Shooting Walmart drones
10. The rise of pickleball

The UK’s low-budget gambling scandal, and Flagship recommends a novel by an acclaimed Albanian author.

Biden criticizes immunity decision

US President Joe Biden said a Supreme Court decision to grant presidents some immunity from prosecution “undermines the rule of law.” The ruling affects whether Biden’s rival Donald Trump could face charges for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Justices also said that presidents’ official acts could not be used as evidence in prosecution — a decision that one former White House counsel said would have allowed former President Richard Nixon to survive Watergate. Trump’s legal team hopes now to overthrow his recent convictions in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case: Although that trial was about his actions as a candidate, it was built partly on evidence from his time as president, and lawyers argue that evidence was inadmissible.

Orbán makes surprise Kyiv visit

Hungarian President Viktor Orbán made a surprise trip to Kyiv — his first since Russia launched its February 2022 invasion. Orbán’s visit came a day after he took over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, the grouping of the bloc’s leaders: Analysts fear that Orbán taking on that role will weaken the EU’s efforts to support Ukraine, because the Hungarian president has been the European leader most openly opposed to sending materiel to Kyiv. Yet Orbán is unlikely to derail the EU’s Ukraine push, RFE/RL’s Europe editor argued, because the presidency’s power has been diluted over the years and Brussels is focused on wrangling over official positions after last month’s European Parliament elections.

Dutch government reflects Europe shifts

A former Dutch spy chief today becomes the prime minister of the Netherlands, heading a right-wing anti-immigration coalition that reflects changes underway across Europe. Though the far-right party of Geert Wilders won last year’s election, he had to shelve his own prime ministerial ambitions in order to win more moderate parties’ backing for the alliance. The coalition’s inauguration comes after the far right made historic gains in European Parliament elections last month, and soon after Marine Le Pen’s National Rally won the first round of French parliamentary elections on Sunday. “Nationalist populism now looks like a permanent and even defining feature of western politics,” the Financial Times’ chief foreign affairs commentator wrote, “rather than a temporary aberration.”

Beryl is omen of bad hurricane season

Hurricane Beryl strengthened into a top-level Category 5 storm, with sustained winds over 160 mph, the earliest a storm has been known to do so. The previous record, set in 2005, heralded the second most intense hurricane season on record, and Scientific American argued that Beryl will similarly be a harbinger of more storms, with the warm ocean waters in the Atlantic driven by climate change and El Niño pushing more energy into cyclones. Tropical storms worldwide are changing: The World Meteorological Organization declared that Cyclone Freddy, which sat over southeast Africa for weeks in 2023, killing hundreds, was the longest-lasting tropical cyclone ever recorded. The WMO said it was “possible, and indeed likely, that greater extremes will occur in the future.”

Panama pledges to shut Darién Gap

Panama’s newly inaugurated president pledged to curb migrant crossings via the Darién Gap — a dangerous route for many looking to make their way to the United States. The remarks by José Raúl Mulino, a former security minister, came as Washington signed a deal with his government, committing to pay for the repatriation of any migrants who entered Panama via the crossing, a largely lawless patch of jungle connecting the country to Colombia. The number of migrants making the journey has skyrocketed in the past year, reshaping not just the politics of the countries affected but also those of the US, where immigration has neared the top of voters’ concerns in a presidential election year.

Kenya readies for new protests

Kenya braced for renewed protests as activists rejected government calls for dialogue over proposed tax hikes that have sparked huge anger even after they were eventually withdrawn. The worst of the clashes between demonstrators and security forces last week resulted in dozens of deaths and the storming of Parliament in Nairobi, morphing from opposition to the finance bill to broader calls to fight corruption and unseat President William Ruto. “Kenya is experiencing a polycrisis,” the analyst Nanjala Nyabola wrote in The Guardian: The finance bill was “the trigger” but the backdrop was government debt and “ill-advised infrastructure projects.”

Bird flu warnings mount

Bird flu could be a pandemic “unfolding in slow motion,” scientists warned, as gaps in surveillance leave them unable to monitor its progress. The virus has now been detected in 129 dairy herds in the US, as well as dozens of other mammal species, and epidemiologists are concerned that it will soon be transmissible between humans. “Right now, the threat is pretty low,” one researcher told Reuters, “but that could change in a heartbeat.” Cows are only tested as they cross state lines, and testing of humans exposed to cattle is “very, very limited,” according to another researcher. Early warning of a jump to humans could allow health officials to boost vaccine development and containment measures.

How did the media miss the biggest story in American politics? Many journalists were shocked by Joe Biden’s decline on the debate stage. Did the media fail to see the president clearly, ask the wrong questions, or fall for White House spin? In this emergency pod, Nayeema, Ben, and Max separate conspiracy from reality, exploring theories about Jill Biden’s role and more. They welcome spicy takes from top editors and media elites, and predict where we go from here, including who might be the most media-savvy Biden replacement (...if it comes to that).

Listen to the full story on Mixed Signals.

Western firms cut ties to China

Western professional services firms are reducing their ties to China. Investment banks — which had ramped up staffing in the country in recent years — have made swingeing cuts in the face of a market downturn, with one analyst telling the Financial Times they were “running out of patience when the opportunities in India, south-east Asia and the US are looking more promising.” The US law firm Dechert is considering closing both its Beijing and Hong Kong offices, according to Reuters, and the new boss of the consultancy Bain & Co. told the FT the firm would step back from work in “sensitive industries” in the country.

Gun owners risk jail for shooting drones

A Florida man faces prosecution for shooting a Walmart delivery drone. Automated drone deliveries have solved various technical and regulatory challenges to reach the market, Business Insider reported, but still face another complication: the heavily armed US population. The Florida case is one of several involving gun owners shooting unmanned aerial vehicles, in what they may not realize is a serious crime: US regulators do not distinguish between a cheap quadcopter drone and a commercial airliner. Shooting at any aircraft is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Walmart and Amazon are expanding their use of drones: Armed Americans may prevent some of them reaching customers, but risk jail in doing so.

Tennis faces competition

Tennis clubs are facing upheaval as new racquet sports gain popularity. “Padel” and “pickleball,” which use smaller courts and racquets, were invented in the 1960s and have established fanbases in the US and Spain. Tennis clubs elsewhere in Europe are seeing a surge in demand — and also a potential new revenue stream, as several padel courts can fit into a single tennis court. One British club has seen padel membership almost quadruple in two years. There has been pushback from tennis fans, who resent their courts being taken over, but even the most famous clubs are making room: Roland Garros, home of the French Open, turned its court number 5 into three pickleball courts while the tournament was still underway.

• Experts will brief the UN Human Rights Council on Syria and Belarus.
• Tesla reports its second-quarter deliveries and production.
• Sprint, a docuseries following the training programs of elite sprinters, debuts on Netflix.

The value of a bet that has led to the suspension of a British politician. A low-stakes gambling scandal is playing out in the UK: Gambling is legal, and although soccer players are banned from betting on soccer and jockeys from betting on horses, politicians are free to bet on politics. One lawmaker from the ruling Conservative Party bet £100 ($125) on a July election days before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the surprise July 4 date: He has since been suspended but a further 15 party officials are under investigation for similar small bets. Betting on politics is “niche but popular,” The Wall Street Journal reported: Bookmakers devote huge resources to managing sports-betting odds, meaning political punters have a better chance of beating the house.

Broken April, by Ismail Kadare. The esteemed Albanian writer who died Monday, aged 88, led a life that was “unavoidably marked by the totalitarian communist regime” which ruled his country for most of his life, Balkan Insight wrote. A few of his works are allegories of living under a dictatorship that caused him to face criticism and censorship. Broken April, a 1978 novel that became one of his most well-known works in the English language, is a “fable of vendetta in the north Albanian highlands,” one which embodies Kadare’s interest for “the distinct, cruel traditions of the Balkans, where nobody forgets anything and revenge is eternal,” The Guardian wrote.

• Biden camp rallies around him despite growing calls to step down.
• Ukrainians in occupied territories face threat of Russian ‘passportization.’
• Meta hit with EU charges as bloc tightens control over Big Tech.