Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

Israel’s wartime government frays as frustration with Netanyahu grows

Summary: A politically centrist member of Israel’s war cabinet, Benny Gantz, announced over the weekend that he would leave the government if Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn’t present a plan for the future of the war in Gaza by June 8.

Context: This ultimatum is being seen as an indication that the temporary alliance of necessity between political parties in Israel following Hamas’ attack on the country on October 7 is beginning to fray, and that Netanyahu’s seeming lack of a plan for what happens after Israeli forces root out the last of Hamas’ leadership in the Gaza Strip is a broad cause for consternation; the country’s defense minister recently demanded that Netanyahu make a pledge to not establish a military government in Gaza, which he worries is where things are headed, and which is a situation he says would be untenable for many reasons; Netanyahu, in response, has accused Gantz of supporting Israel’s defeat in the conflict against Hamas.

—The New York Times

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UN urges US to stop forced returns to Haiti after latest deportation flight

Summary: The UN refugee agency has asked the US government to stop forcibly returning Haitian refugees to Haiti, as doing so puts those refugees at life-threatening risk due to widespread gang violence.

Context: This call for a change in policy came after the US’s most recent deportation flight last week, and the concern is that Haiti is basically under the control of a slew of gangs, which unified against the government in recent months; the UN estimates that 362,000 people, about half of them children, are internally displaced in Haiti right now, and the UN’s refugee agency is asking the US to redesignate Haiti for a temporary protective status which grants Haitian refugees temporary permission to stay and work in the US—this status is currently set to expire in early August.

—Al Jazeera

France mobilises police to regain control of New Caledonia airport road

Summary: In the wake of several days of at times violent and destructive riots, French police have cleared barricades from the main road leading to the airport in the New Caledonian capital city, Noumea, though officials say it will still be a few days before all the debris has been cleared.

Context: The French territory’s main airport is still closed because of unrest, and these protests, which sparked the rioting, were catalyzed by a constitutional amendment that would allegedly dilute the vote of indigenous people by allowing French people who had lived in New Caledonia for ten years to vote in provincial elections—something pro-independence (from France) indigenous groups say is an attempt to prevent their movement from ever resulting in a decoupling from European governance.

—Reuters

According to a new survey, Americans are reporting being more stressed on average, and the number for women is substantially higher than for men across four major age-groups, though young women in particular are reporting the highest levels of stress across all age and gender demographics.

—Gallup

40,000

Milestone (in points) that the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached late last week for the first time.

The surge in money flooding into Dow-listed companies is being attributed to new data that showed annual inflation in the US has eased a bit, following three months of less-than-ideal inflation news—suggesting the Fed could still lower their interest rate sometime this year.

—NPR News

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Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

Former Kazakh minister gets 24 years in prison for murdering wife

Summary: The former economy minister of Kazakhstan has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for murdering his wife, following a trial that was broadcast live over the past seven weeks, and which has stoked discussions and outcries about women’s rights in the country.

Context: Kuandyk Bishimbayev was found guilty of torturing and then murdering his wife, and there was CCTV footage of him assaulting her in the lead-up to all of that, alongside videos from his phone in which he abused her in various ways; the President of Kazakhstan has said he wants to improve rights for women in the country, and this case led to new demands for a law that criminalizes domestic violence, which passed last month; government data shows that one in six women in Kazakhstan have experienced some form of violence from their partner.

—Reuters

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Biden signs Russian uranium ban

Summary: US President Biden has signed a bill that bans the import of Russian enriched uranium, but which allows some companies to continue importing it until 2028.

Context: This was a bipartisan bill that’s meant to keep the $1 billion or so that the US sends to Russia for uranium, each year, from enriching Russia’s coffers; this uranium is used to fuel nuclear power plants, and it’s part of a larger effort to disentangle the US economy from Russian fuel exports, which included a ban on oil, gas, and coal soon after Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022; Russia currently supplies about 20% of the enriched uranium US energy companies use for this purpose, and that allowance to keep importing until 2028 is meant to give said companies some leeway as they find new sources from US companies, or those located in less antagonistic nations.

—Axios

Fires used as weapon of war in Sudan destroyed or damaged 72 villages last month, study says

Summary: A new study by UK-based Sudan Witness indicates that fires were used as a weapon of war in Sudan in at least 72 instances last month, alone, and that fire has been used in this way at least 201 times since fighting originally broke out between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in mid-April of 2023.

Context: The RFS has been especially enthusiastic in its use of arson in this conflict, in many cases setting entire villages on fire in order to kill, punish, and force people to flee; hundreds of thousands of people have been internally displaced as a result, and more than 14,000 people have been confirmed killed, so far; the capital city of North Darfur, el-Fasher, reportedly faces imminent attack from the RFS, raising concerns that those numbers, both of people killed and displaced, will rise still further in the near-future.

—The Associated Press

Nearly 10% of TV-viewing time in the US in April of this year was spent watching YouTube’s smart-TV app, according to new data from Nielsen, marking a transition (for many, at least) for the platform from “place to watch quick videos in between doing other things” to “something like a channel where one might watch a bunch of stuff over long periods.”

—The Wall Street Journal

20%

Percent by which heart attack, stroke, or death due to cardiovascular disease was reduced in participants of a study that tested the impact semaglutide had on these conditions.

Semaglutide is best known as the active ingredient in diabetes and weight-loss medications like Wegovy and Ozempic, but new studies are increasingly showing its efficacy in treating or preventing other diseases and conditions, as well.

—The Guardian

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