RIYADMEDIA

The number of adults in the United States identifying as something other than heterosexual is holding steady at about 7.2%, and the two presidential candidates are taking note. VOA senior Washington correspondent Carolyn Presutti tells us how they are trying to attract that population.
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Washington — U.S. officials expect the Group of Seven (G7) wealthy democracies to send a tough new warning next week to smaller Chinese banks to stop assisting Russia in evading Western sanctions, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Leaders gathering at the June 13-15 summit in Italy hosted by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are expected to focus heavily during their private meetings on the threat posed by burgeoning Chinese-Russian trade to the fight in Ukraine, and what to do about it.

Those conversations are likely to result in public statements on the issue involving Chinese banks, according to a U.S. official involved in planning the event and another person briefed on the issue.

The United States and its G7 partners — Britain, Canada France, Germany, Italy and Japan — are not expected to take any immediate punitive action against any banks during the summit, such as restricting their access to the SWIFT messaging system or cutting off access to the dollar. Their focus is said to be on smaller institutions, not the largest Chinese banks, one of the people said.

Negotiations were still ongoing about the exact format and content of the warning, according to the people, who declined to be named discussing ongoing diplomatic engagements. The plans to address the topic at the G7 were not previously reported.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Treasury Department had no immediate comment, but Treasury officials have repeatedly warned financial institutions in Europe and China and elsewhere that they face sanctions for helping Russia skirt Western sanctions.

Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser for international economics, told the Center for a New American Security this week that he expected G7 leaders to target China’s support for a Russian economy now reoriented around the war.

“Our concern is that China is increasingly the factory of the Russian war machine. You can call it the arsenal of autocracy when you consider Russia’s military ambitions threaten obviously the existence of Ukraine, but increasingly European security, NATO and transatlantic security,” he said.

Singh and other top Biden administration officials say Washington and its partners are prepared to use sanctions and tighter export controls to reduce Russia’s ability to circumvent Western sanctions, including with secondary sanctions that could be used against banks and other financial institutions.

Washington is poised to announce significant new sanctions next week on financial and nonfinancial targets, a source familiar with the plans said.

This year’s G7 summit is also expected to focus on leveraging profits generated by Russian assets frozen in the West for Ukraine’s benefit.

Russia business moves to China’s small banks

Washington has so far been reluctant to implement sanctions on major Chinese banks – long deemed by analysts as a “nuclear” option – because of the huge ripple effects it could inflict on the global economy and U.S.-China relations.

Concern over the possibility of sanctions has already caused China’s big banks to throttle payments for cross-border transactions involving Russians, or pull back from any involvement altogether, Reuters has reported.

That has pushed Chinese companies to small banks on the border and stoked the use of underground financing channels or banned cryptocurrency. Western officials are concerned that some Chinese financial institutions are still facilitating trade in goods with dual civilian and military applications.

Beijing has accused Washington of making baseless claims about what it says are normal trade exchanges with Moscow.

The Biden administration this year began probing which sanctions tools might be available to it to thwart Chinese banks, a U.S. official previously told Reuters, but had no imminent plans to take such steps. In December, President Joe Biden signed an executive order threatening sanctions on financial institutions that help Moscow skirt Western sanctions.

The U.S. has sanctioned smaller Chinese banks in the past, such as the Bank of Kunlun, over various issues, including working with Iranian institutions.

China and Russia have fostered more trade in yuan instead of the dollar in the wake of the Ukraine war, potentially shielding their economies from possible U.S. sanctions.
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New York — “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” the fourth installment in the Will Smith-Martin Lawrence action-comedy series, opened with an estimated $56 million in theaters over the weekend, handing Hollywood a much-needed summer hit and Smith his biggest success since he slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards.

Expectations were all over the map for “Ride or Die” given the dismal moviegoing market thus far this summer and Smith’s less certain box-office clout. In the end, though, the Sony Pictures release came in very close to, or slightly above, its tracking forecast.

“Ride or Die,” produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, is Smith’s first theatrical test since his 2022 slap of Rock earned him a 10-year Oscar ban. The “Bad Boys” film was in development at the time and was momentarily put on hold, but ultimately went forward with about a $100 million production budget.

Smith starred in the Apple release “Emancipation,” but that film — released in late 2022 — was shot before the slap and received only a modest theatrical release before streaming.

This time around, Smith largely avoided soul-searching interviews looking back on the Oscars and instead went on a whistle-stop publicity tour of red carpets from Mexico to Saudi Arabia, where he attended what was billed as the country’s first Hollywood premiere. The 55-year-old Smith, who for years was one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, appeared on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon,” the YouTube series “Hot Ones” and Friday, made a surprise appearance at a Los Angeles movie theater.

Given that “Bad Boys” trailed May disappointments like “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and “The Fall Guy” – both of which struggled to pop with ticket buyers despite very good reviews – the “Ride or Die” opening counts as a critical weekend win for the movie business.

“The fact that a movie overperformed is the best possible news,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “It seems like all we’ve been doing over the past few weeks and almost since the beginning of the year, with a couple of exceptions, is try to figure out why seemingly well-marketed, well-reviewed movies have underperformed. This ignites the spark that the industry has been waiting for.”

“Ride or Die” still didn’t quite manage to match the opening of the previous “Bad Boys” film: 2020’s “Bad Boys for Life.” That movie, released in January 2020, debuted with $62.5 million. After the pandemic shut down theaters, it was the highest grossing North American release of that year, with $204 million domestically.

“Ride or Die” added $48.6 million internationally. Though reviews were mixed (64% on Rotten Tomatoes), audiences gave the film a high grade with an “A-” CinemaScore.

Black moviegoers accounted for 44% of ticket buyers, the largest demographic.

In the film, which comes 29 years after the original, Smith and Lawrence reprise their roles as Miami detectives. The plot revolves around uncovering a scheme to frame their late police captain (Joe Pantoliano). In one of the movie’s most notable scenes, Lawrence slaps Smith and calls him a “bad boy.”

Movie theaters will need a lot more than “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” though, to right the ship. Ticket sales are down 26% from last year and more than 40% below pre-pandemic totals, according to Comscore. A big test comes next weekend with the release of Pixar’s “Inside Out 2.” After sending several Pixar releases straight to Disney+, the studio has vowed a lengthy, traditional theatrical rollout this time.

Last weekend’s top film “The Garfield Movie,” slid to second place. Also from Sony, the family animated comedy collected $10 million in ticket sales over its third weekend, bringing its domestic gross to $68.6 million.

The weekend’s other new wide release, “The Watchers,” failed to click with moviegoers. The horror film, directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, is about a stranded 28-year-old artist in Ireland. Following poor reviews, the Warner Bros. release grossed $7 million in 3,351 theaters.

That allowed “If,” the Ryan Reynolds imaginary friend fantasy, to grab third place in its fourth weekend of release, bringing the Paramount Pictures cumulative domestic total to $93.5 million. Rounding out the top five was “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” which added $5.4 million in its fifth weekend of release. It has grossed $150 million domestically and $360 million worldwide.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” $56 million.

2. ”The Garfield Movie,” $10 million.

3. “If,” $8 million.

4. “The Watchers,” $7 million.

5. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” $5.4 million.

6. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” $4.2 million.

7. “The Fall Guy,” $2.7 million.

8. “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” $2.4 million.

9. “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” $1.9 million.

10. “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” $1.8 million.
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Paris — Carlos Alcaraz came back to defeat Alexander Zverev 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 on Sunday and win the French Open for his third Grand Slam title.

Alcaraz is a 21-year-old from Spain who grew up watching countryman Rafael Nadal win trophy after trophy at Roland Garros — a record 14 in all — and now has eclipsed Nadal as the youngest man to collect major championships on three surfaces. Nadal was about 1½ years older when he did it.

Sunday’s victory — in which he trailed two sets to one, just as he had in the semifinals against Jannik Sinner on Friday — allowed Alcaraz to add the clay-court championship at Roland Garros to his triumphs on hard courts at the U.S. Open in 2022 and on grass at Wimbledon in 2023.

Alcaraz is now 3-0 in Grand Slam finals.

Zverev dropped to 0-2 in major title matches. The 27-year-old from Germany was the runner-up at the 2020 U.S. Open after blowing a two-set lead against Dominic Thiem.

This time, Zverev lost after surging in front by reeling off the last five games of the third set. Alcaraz’s level dipped during that stretch and he seemed distracted by a complaint over the condition of the clay at Court Philippe Chatrier, telling chair umpire Renaud Lichtenstein it was “unbelievable.”

But Alcaraz reset himself and surged to the finish, taking 12 of the last 15 games while being treated by a trainer at changeovers for an issue with his left leg.

No. 3 Alcaraz and No. 4 Zverev were making their first appearance in a French Open final. Indeed, this was the first men’s title match at Roland Garros since 2004 without Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer.

Nadal lost to Zverev in the first round two weeks ago; Djokovic, a three-time champion, withdrew before the quarterfinals with a knee injury that required surgery; Federer is retired.

There were some jitters at the outset. Zverev started the proceedings with a pair of double-faults — walking to the sideline to change rackets after the second, as though the equipment was the culprit — and eventually got broken. Alcaraz lost serve immediately, too, framing a forehand that sent the ball into the stands — which he would do on a handful of occasions — and double-faulting, trying a so-so drop shot that led to an easy winner for Zverev, then missing a backhand.

Let’s just say they won’t be putting those initial 10 minutes in the Louvre. A lot of the 4-hour, 19-minute match was patchy, littered with unforced errors.

Alcaraz managed to come out strong in the fourth set, grabbing 16 of the first 21 points to move out to a 4-0 edge, including one brilliant, sliding, down-the-line forehand passing winner that he celebrated by thrusting his right index finger overhead in a “No. 1” sign, then throwing an uppercut while screaming, “Vamos!”

No, he is not ranked No. 1 at the moment — Sinner makes his debut at the top spot on Monday — but he has been before and, although a “2” will be beside Alcaraz’s name next week, there is little doubt that he is as good as it gets in men’s tennis right now.

 
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Washington — President Joe Biden’s administration is prepared to defend in court the sweeping asylum policy put into place at the U.S.-Mexico border last week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday that generally bars migrants who illegally cross the southern border from claiming asylum and allows authorities to quickly deport or send migrants back to Mexico if the daily number of crossings exceeds 2,500. The asylum ban has exceptions for unaccompanied minors, people who face serious medical or safety threats, and victims of trafficking.

Mayorkas on Sunday said the administration was ready to defend the policy against an expected American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit.

“I respectfully disagree with the ACLU,” Mayorkas said. “We stand by the legality of what we have done. We stand by the value proposition. It’s not only a matter of securing the border, we have a humanitarian obligation to keep vulnerable people out of the hands of exploitative smugglers.”

The ACLU confirmed on Sunday it plans to sue.

“It was illegal when Trump did it, and it is no less illegal now,” ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project Deputy Director Lee Gelernt said in a statement.

Biden took office in 2021 vowing to reverse some of Republican Donald Trump’s restrictive policies but has grappled with record levels of migrants caught crossing the border illegally ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Mayorkas said initial indications showed the new policy was deterring some illegal immigration.

“It’s early. The signs are positive,” he said.

A U.S. border official told Reuters that authorities arrested around 3,100 people crossing illegally on Friday, down roughly 20% from the days before. The official requested anonymity to discuss preliminary figures.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who installed razor wire fencing along the Rio Grande and has seen a state law to enforce illegal crossings into his state blocked by a judge, told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” he thinks the policy is backfiring.

“All that this new Biden policy is going to do is to actually attract and invite even more people to cross the border illegally,” Abbott said.
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Athens, Greece — The body of missing British TV presenter Michael Mosley was found on a Greek island Sunday morning after a days-long search, his family said.

A police spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of an ongoing investigation, said a body was found on a rocky coast by a private boat and that formal identification was pending.

Mosley’s wife said in a statement that her husband took the wrong route on a hike and collapsed in a place where his body couldn’t easily be seen. Mosley went missing on the island of Symi on Wednesday afternoon. 

“Michael was an adventurous man, it’s part of what made him so special,” Dr. Clare Bailey Mosley said. “It’s devastating to have lost Michael, my wonderful, funny, kind and brilliant husband. We had an incredibly lucky life together. We loved each other very much and were so happy together.”

She thanked the people of the island of Symi, whom she said worked tirelessly to find him.

“Some of these people on the island, who hadn’t even heard of Michael, worked from dawn till dusk unasked,” she said. “My family and I have been hugely comforted by the outpouring of love from people from around the world. It’s clear that Michael meant a huge amount to so many of you.” 

Lefteris Papakalodoukas, the island’s mayor, told The Associated Press he was on the boat with members of the media representatives when they saw a body some 20 meters above the Agia Marina beach. “We zoomed with the cameras and saw it was him,” he said. 

The mayor said that Mosley appeared to have fallen down a steep, rocky slope, stopping against a fence and lying face up with a few rocks on top of it. 

As police officers were retrieving Mosley’s body, one fell on the slope and had to be carried away on a stretcher, local media reported. The body will be taken to the nearby island of Rhodes for autopsy. 

Mosley, 67, was well known in Britain for his regular appearances on television and radio and his column in the Daily Mail newspaper. He was known outside the U.K. for his 2013 book “The Fast Diet,” which he co-authored with journalist Mimi Spencer. The book proposed the so-called “5:2 diet,” which promised to help people lose weight quickly by minimizing their calorie intake two days a week while eating healthily on the other five. 

He subsequently introduced a rapid weight loss program and made a number of films about diet and exercise. 

Mosley often pushed his body to extreme lengths to see the effects of his diets and  lived with tapeworms in his guts for six weeks for the BBC documentary “Infested! Living With Parasites.” 

Mosley had four children with his wife Clare Bailey Mosley, who is also a doctor, author and health columnist.
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BELLEAU, France — President Joe Biden closed out his trip to France by paying his respects at an American military cemetery that Donald Trump notably skipped visiting when he was president, hoping his final stop Sunday will draw the stakes of the November election in stark relief.

Before returning to the United States, Biden honored America’s war dead at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery about an hour outside Paris. He placed a wreath at the cemetery chapel before an expanse of white headstones marking the final resting place of more than 2,200 U.S. soldiers who fought in World War I.

It was a solemn end to five days in which Trump was an unspoken yet unavoidable presence. On the surface, the trip marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day and celebrated the alliance between the United States and France. But during an election year when Trump has called into question fundamental understandings about America’s global role, Biden has embraced his Republican predecessor — and would-be successor — as a latent foil.

Every ode to the transatlantic partnership was a reminder that Trump could upend those relationships. Each reference to democracy stood a counterpoint to his rival’s efforts to overturn a presidential election. The myriad exhortations to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia created a contrast with Trump’s skepticism about providing U.S. assistance.

Biden’s paeans to the struggle between democracy and autocracy drew plaudits in Europe, where the prospect of a return to Trump’s turbulent reign has sparked no shortage of anxiety. But it remains to be seen how the message will resonate with American voters, as Biden’s campaign struggles to connect the dire warnings the Democratic president so often delivers about his rival with people’s daily concerns.

The visit to the cemetery served as a moment to underscore the contrast once more.

“It’s the same story,” Biden said. “America showed up. America showed up to stop the Germans. America showed up to make sure that they did not prevail. And America shows up when we’re needed just like our allies show for us.”

During a 2018 trip to France, Trump skipped plans to go to the cemetery, a decision that the White House blamed on weather at the time. However, subsequent reports said that Trump told aides he didn’t want to go because he viewed the dead soldiers as “suckers” and “losers.” Trump has denied the comments, although they were later corroborated by his chief of staff at the time, John Kelly.

Trump’s purported insults have become a regular feature of Biden’s campaign speeches, including during an April rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

“These soldiers were heroes, just as every American who has served this nation,” Biden said. “Believing otherwise, that alone is disqualifying for someone to seek this office.”

Biden ignored a direct question about Trump at the cemetery. “The idea that I would come to Normandy and not make the short trip here to pay tribute,” he added, his voice trailing off as if to express disbelief.

Maura Sullivan, a former Marine officer who served on the American Battle Monuments Commission under President Barack Obama, said Biden’s visit would “set the example, and do what a president should do.” Now an official with the New Hampshire Democratic Party, Sullivan said that “voters can draw their own conclusions” from that.

Biden’s trip was full of emotional moments, and the president grew heavy-eyed after meeting with World War II veterans. A 21-gun salute cast eerie smoke over 9,388 white marble headstones at the Normandy American Cemetery.

“This has been the most remarkable trip that I’ve ever made,” Biden said on Saturday night, his last in Paris before returning to the U.S.

At Aisne-Marne, Biden said the trip “surprised me how much it awakened my sense of why it’s so valuable to have these alliances. Why it’s so critical. That’s the way you stop wars, not start wars.”

His remarks over the last few days were also freighted with political overtones.

On Thursday at Normandy anniversary ceremonies, Biden said D-Day served a reminder that alliances make the United States stronger, calling it “a lesson that I pray we Americans never forget.” He also highlighted how the war effort drew on immigrants, women and people of color who were too often overlooked by history.

Then on Friday, he went to Pointe du Hoc, a spot on the coast where Army Rangers scaled cliffs to overcome Nazi defenses on D-Day that was also the site in 1984 of one of President Ronald Reagan’s most memorable speeches about the struggles between the West and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

By following in an iconic Republican’s footsteps, Biden honed his appeal to traditional conservatives who are often frustrated by Trump’s isolationist vision. Biden issued a call for Americans to protect democracy like the Rangers who scaled the cliffs, a message that synced with campaign rhetoric that paints his election opponent as an existential threat to U.S. values.

While Biden was in France, his campaign announced that it had hired the onetime chief of staff to former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger to lead outreach to GOP voters. Kinzinger clashed with Trump’s foreign policy and efforts to overturn the last presidential election.

At Pointe du Hoc, Biden said the Army Rangers “fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the ’30s and ’40s. Does anyone doubt they wouldn’t move heaven and earth to vanquish hateful ideologies of today?”

Trump has argued that the U.S. needs to devote more attention to its own problems and less to foreign alliances and entanglements. He has also routinely played down the importance of American partnerships, suggesting the U.S. could abandon its treaty commitments to defend European allies if they don’t pay enough for their own defenses.

Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian who wrote a book about Pointe du Hoc and Reagan’s speech, said Biden “had big shoes to step into” by choosing the same location.

Biden’s speech “didn’t equal Reagan’s in grandeur, nor could it,” Brinkley said. Still, he said Biden “said the right words about why democracy matters.”

Paul Begala, a veteran Democratic strategist, said it could help Biden politically “to stand where Reagan stood.”

He noted that Biden is struggling with younger voters but appears to be gaining strength among older ones who may be more receptive to reminders of Reagan’s speech four decades ago.

“He needs a lot of Reagan Republicans to offset his challenges with younger voters,” he said.

Biden’s trip was also punctuated by the pomp of a state visit in Paris.

French President Emmanuel Macron arranged a ceremony at the Arc du Triomphe, where four fighter jets flew overhead, and hosted a banquet at the Elysee presidential palace.

“United we stand, divided we fall,” Macron said in toasting Biden. “Allied we are, and allied we will stay.”

Overall, Biden’s visit had a slower pace than other foreign trips. The 81-year-old president had no public events on his first day in Paris after arriving on an overnight flight, and didn’t hold a press conference with reporters, as is customary. John Kirby, a national security spokesman, said that was necessary to prepare “in advance of the weighty engagements” during subsequent days.

“There’s a lot on the calendar,” he said.

Still, it was a contrast to Macron’s tendency to offer prestigious guests an intense schedule with a mix of official meetings, business talks, cultural events and private dinners at fancy restaurants.

When the 46-year-old French leader hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping last month, the two-day agenda was crammed with activities including a trip to the Pyrenees Mountains near the border with Spain where Macron spent time as a child.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces have for the first time hit a latest-generation Russian Sukhoi Su-57 fighter jet at an air base inside Russia, Kyiv’s GUR defense intelligence agency said Sunday, showing satellite pictures which it said confirmed the strike.

In a Telegram post, the GUR did not specify how the Su-57 was hit or by which unit of the Ukrainian military.

A popular Russian pro-war military blogger who calls himself Fighterbomber and focuses on aviation said the report of the strike on the Su-57 was correct and that it had been hit by a drone.

The GUR said the aircraft was parked at the Akhtubinsk airfield, which it said was 589 kilometers from front lines in Ukraine between Ukrainian and Russian invasion forces.

“The pictures show that on June 7, the Su-57 was standing intact, and on (June 8th), there were craters from the explosion and characteristic spots of fire caused by fire damage near it,” the GUR said, with the images posted alongside the message.

Ukraine has been fighting a full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022. Both sides conduct regular strikes hundreds of kilometers into enemy territory with missiles and drones.

Ukraine, which lacks the vast arsenal of missiles available to Moscow, has focused on making long-range drones to strike targets deep inside Russia.

Russian blogger Fighterbomber said the jet fighter was struck by shrapnel and the damage was currently being assessed to see if the aircraft could be repaired.

He said if the plane were to be deemed beyond repair it would be the first combat loss of a Su-57.

Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti’s military correspondent Alexander Kharchenko posted a cryptic message which did not directly acknowledge the strike but decried the lack of hangars to protect military aircraft.

Despite being touted as a Russian fifth-generation fighter aircraft to rival its U.S. equivalent, the Su-57 was plagued by development delays and a crash in 2019. According to its manufacturer, serial production of the aircraft began in 2022.

It is a heavy fighter jet capable of fulfilling a variety of battlefield roles. 
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Spokane, Washington — The inmates of Washington state’s prison system tramp through the forest, their yellow uniforms and helmets bright against the brown branches and green leaves.  

They are Arcadia 20, or ARC 20, an elite group of firefighters based in Spokane who have been recruited from existing firefighting prison camps.  

The aim? Teach the inmates the skills needed to help prevent forest fires – and in the process, give them an opportunity to start on a path to a new career.  

Recruited by the state’s Department of Natural Resources and Department of Corrections, the program seeks to provide the dozen or so inmates with enough training to prepare them for jobs as civilian firefighters once they have completed their sentences.  

“I do believe one thing for sure, that people deserve a second chance,” said Kenyatta Bridges, 34, who joined the ARC 20 team for training in the middle of last year while serving a 10-year sentence for manslaughter in a 2014 gang-affiliated shooting in Pasco, Washington.  

Bridges started a job in a civilian fire crew on June 3, following his release.  

Reuters was granted exclusive access to ARC 20 over three months, including a visit last August to the Tonasket Rodeo Grounds, a rural community in northeast Washington near the Canadian border. Bridges and the ARC 20 crew were setting up their tents after a day of helping contain a fire.

Crew members learn how to conduct prescribed burns, how to handle dangerous equipment, and how to ensure fires that have been contained stay that way. And when necessary, they are on the front lines of a fire, digging lines to help reduce the chance a fire will continue to spread.

“Team work, communications skills, an accountability for one’s actions and others as it relates to duties and providing for safety” are an integral part of their mindset, according to ARC 20 management.  

“The fellas that I’ve worked shoulder to shoulder with, they’re amazing,” Bridges said. “We all made bad decisions in our life. Some of us got caught, some of us didn’t. But we learn from our mistakes.”

Earning ability

While states across the American West have inmate firefighting crews, Washington’s ARC 20 program is the only one of its kind in the U.S., recruiting incarcerated individuals from full confinement into a reentry center where they continue to build skills in firefighting and prepare for life after release.  

They also earn more. Inmates in Washington state’s regular prison firefighting camps, who number around 230, are paid up to $1.50 per hour, based on experience, for their daily duties. When dispatched to an active fire zone, they are paid the state’s minimum wage of $16.28 per hour plus overtime.  

Elite crew members who have joined the ARC 20 team are paid a base salary of up to $3,796 per month with potential overtime pay on fire assignments. This year-round crew has a maximum of 20 team members.  

It had 13 people on the team during its first full year in 2023 and expects to have 12 as Washington state’s fire season ramps up at the end of June.

The Pacific Northwest is struggling with the effects of climate change, with higher-than-normal chances of wildfires and a longer season this year, according to meteorologists at the Department of Natural Resources, the state agency charged with wildfire prevention and management.  

According to DNR officials who manage both fully incarcerated camp crews and the ARC 20 team, a high-earning member of the camp crew received approximately $11,000 in 2023, whereas an ARC 20 crew member earned up to $60,000.  

The ARC 20 team is trained to join “hand crews” — teams of 18 to 25 firefighters who work and camp near the front lines of active wildfires, often hiking long distances and carrying their own gear to reach remote areas. They also conduct prescribed burns and chainsaw trees to the ground as part of the state’s fire mitigation and forest management efforts.

ARC 20’s crew superintendent Ben Hood is on the team that selects participants.

“We call it getting bit with the fire bug… Once you get bit with it, you’re hooked in,” said Hood. “It becomes part of, kind of who you are, becomes more than just a job. It kind of becomes a lifestyle.”  

When the team isn’t traveling the state fighting fires, they are housed at Brownstone Reentry Center, a minimum security facility in downtown Spokane. Residents participate in work or training programs and are granted additional freedoms like wearing normal clothes or owning a cellphone.  

ARC 20 crew members are paid higher wages than some staff in the state’s correctional system, including the facility where they live, according to Brownstone’s manager.

Running a kitchen

Reuters visited another crew of fully incarcerated individuals in September at a Department of Natural Resources facility at Cedar Creek Corrections Center, southwest of the state’s capital city, Olympia.  

They had just returned from a weeks-long assignment running a mobile kitchen for almost 1,000 wildland firefighters per day, who were fighting two of the 2023 season’s biggest fires in the state.  

Timothy Bullock, 32, an electrician jailed for second-degree assault stemming from a domestic dispute, said he has changed his life goals and wants to become a wildland firefighter.

“I used to drink quite a bit… it was a terrible mistake on my part that affected other people, people I cared about. So it’s hard dealing with that,” said Bullock, acknowledging a prison sentence may have been needed for him to change his path. “I just know that I’m never going to make those types of mistakes ever again.”  

Bullock has been a standout member of the Cedar Creek Corrections Center camp crew, according to his bosses at DNR. He has submitted his application for ARC 20 and is being considered for a spot in late 2024.

“I’m getting real close to getting out. It’s kind of working out for the better, you know, to get back on my feet and then have an opportunity when I get out,” said Bullock.

Washington’s model could be a ‘stepping stone’ for state agencies across the U.S., according to transition crew liaison Roy Hardin, who helped form the crew with Hood.  

“If a person is employed, has a really good job right when they get out of prison, they’re not homeless, they’re probably not going to come back,” said Hardin. He said four crew members from ARC 20 have gone on to take jobs as members of the state firefighting agency – one engine leader and three engine crew members.  

Kenyatta Bridges is one of those crew members.  

On June 3, he started fighting fires with DNR’s Arcadia Engine 7405 near Spokane, in one of the most wildfire prone areas of Washington state.  

“He’s hard working. He’s motivated,” said superintendent Hood, who recruited Bridges. “He’s becoming one of those leaders. He’s good with the chainsaw. He doesn’t know how to quit working; he’s physically capable of the job. He’s what you want in a firefighter.”

Bridges is elated for this new chapter of his life. Since his release from Brownstone he has been living in transitional housing with other formerly incarcerated individuals in Spokane, and on May 20 his partner gave birth to their son.  

“I feel like I couldn’t ask for nothing better,” Bridges said, discussing his life post-release. “To have everything so quickly, it feels like every gear is rotating and spinning just on point.”
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CARENTAN-LES-MARAIS, France — Together, the collective age of the bride and groom was nearly 200. But World War II veteran Harold Terens and his sweetheart Jeanne Swerlin proved that love is eternal as they tied the knot Saturday inland of the D-Day beaches in Normandy, France.

Their respective ages — he’s 100, she’s 96 — made their nuptials an almost double-century celebration.

Terens called it “the best day of my life.”

On her way into the nuptials, the bubbly bride-to-be said: “It’s not just for young people, love, you know? We get butterflies. And we get a little action, also.”

The location was the elegant stone-worked town hall of Carentan, a key initial D-Day objective that saw ferocious fighting after the June 6, 1944, Allied landings that helped rid Europe of Adolf Hitler’s tyranny.

Like other towns and villages across the Normandy coast where nearly 160,000 Allied troops came ashore under fire on five code-named beaches, it’s an effervescent hub of remembrance and celebration on the 80th anniversary of the deeds and sacrifices of young men and women that day, festooned with flags and bunting and with veterans feted like rockstars.

As the swing of Glenn Miller and other period tunes rang out on the streets, well-wishers — some in WWII-period clothes — were already lined up a good hour before the wedding behind barriers outside the town hall, with a rousing pipe and drum band also on hand to serenade the happy couple.

After both declaring “oui” to vows read by Carentan’s mayor in English, the couple exchanged rings.

“With this ring, I thee wed,” Terens said.

She giggled and gasped, “Really?”

With Champagne flutes in hand, they waved through an open window to the adoring crowds outside.

“To everybody’s good health. And to peace in the world and the preservation of democracy all over the world and the end of the war in Ukraine and Gaza,” Terens said as he and his bride then clinked glasses and drank.

The crowd yelled “la mariée!” — the bride! — to Swerlin, who wore a long flowing dress of vibrant pink. Terens looked dapper in a light blue suit and matching pink kerchief in his breast pocket.

And they enjoyed a very special wedding-night party: They were invited to the state dinner at the Elysee Palace on Saturday night with French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Joe Biden.

“Congratulations to the newlyweds,” Macron said, prompting cheers and a standing ovation from other guests during the toast praising French-American friendship. “(The town of) Carentan was happy to host your wedding, and us, your wedding dinner,” he told the couple.

The wedding was symbolic, not binding in law. Mayor Jean-Pierre Lhonneur’s office said he wasn’t empowered to wed foreigners who aren’t residents of Carentan, and that the couple, who are both American, hadn’t requested legally binding vows. However, they could always complete those formalities back in Florida if they wished.

Lhonneur likes to say that Normandy is practically the 51st state of the U.S., given its reverence and gratitude for Allied soldiers and the sacrifices of tens of thousands who never made it home from the Battle of Normandy.

“Love is eternal, yes, maybe,” the mayor said, referring to the newlyweds, although his comments also fittingly describe the feelings of many Normans for veterans.

“I hope for them the best happiness together.”

Dressed in a 1940s dress that belonged to her mother, Louise, and a red beret, 73-year-old Jane Ollier was among the spectators who waited for a glimpse of the lovebirds. The couple, both widowed, grew up in New York City: she in Brooklyn, he in the Bronx.

“It’s so touching to get married at that age,” Ollier said. “If it can bring them happiness in the last years of their lives, that’s fantastic.”

The WWII veteran first visited France as a 20-year-old U.S. Army Air Forces corporal shortly after D-Day. Terens enlisted in 1942 and, after shipping to Britain, was attached to a four-pilot P-47 Thunderbolt fighter unit as their radio repair technician.

On D-Day, Terens helped repair planes returning from France so they could rejoin the battle. He said half his company’s pilots died that day. Terens himself went to France 12 days later, helping transport freshly captured Germans and just-freed American POWs to England. Following the Nazi surrender in May 1945, Terens again helped transport freed Allied prisoners to England before he shipped back to the U.S. a month later.

Swerlin made it abundantly clear that her new centenarian husband doesn’t lack for rizz.

“He’s the greatest kisser ever, you know?” she proudly declared before they embraced enthusiastically for the TV cameras.

“All right! That’s it for now!” Terens said as he came up for air.

To which she quickly quipped: “You mean there’s more later?”
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paris — Christophe Deloire, who negotiated to free imprisoned journalists around the world and offered refuge to reporters under threat as the head of the media freedom group Reporters Without Borders, died Saturday. He was 53. 

Deloire had been battling sudden and aggressive cancer and died in Paris surrounded by loved ones, according to board members of Reporters Without Borders, also known by its French acronym RSF. 

Deloire was “a tireless defender, on every continent, of the freedom, independence and pluralism of journalism, in a context of information chaos,” RSF said in a statement. “Journalism was his life’s struggle, which he fought with unshakeable conviction.” 

With boundless energy and a ready smile even when dishing out trenchant criticism, Deloire traveled constantly, to Ukraine, Turkey, Africa and beyond to lobby governments and defend journalists behind bars or under threat. Press freedom activists from many countries shared tributes to his work and mourned his passing. 

Deloire helped Russian broadcast journalist Marina Ovsiannikova flee Russia in a secret operation in 2022 after she came under fire for denouncing the war in Ukraine on live television. RSF also launched a program to provide protective equipment and training to Ukrainian journalists after Russia’s invasion. 

Publicly and behind the scenes, Deloire worked for the release of journalist Olivier Dubois, held by Islamic extremists in Mali for two years and freed in 2023, and for other jailed reporters. 

In his 12 years at the helm of RSF, he expanded the group’s reach and activism and raised its profile with governments. Under Deloire’s watch, RSF launched the Journalism Trust Initiative, a program to certify media organizations to restore public trust in the news, and a program called Forum for Democracy aimed at heading off threats to democratic thought and freedoms. 

Born May 22, 1971, in Paray-le-Monial in Burgundy, Deloire worked as an investigative reporter and led a prominent French journalism school, CFJ, before becoming director of RSF. 

He is survived by his wife Perrine and their son Nathan. 
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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis, who says he regularly prays “Lord, give me a sense of humor,” will welcome comedians from around the world to a cultural event in Italy to “celebrate the beauty of human diversity,” the Vatican said Saturday. 

Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien and Chris Rock will be among more than 100 entertainers at the Vatican on June 14. 

The pope “recognizes the significant impact that the art of comedy has on the world of contemporary culture,” a Vatican statement said. 

British comedian Stephen Merchant — the co-writer of the TV comedy series “The Office” — and Italian comedian Lino Banfi will also be at the event. 

The meeting will take place Friday morning, before the pope travels to Puglia to attend the Group of Seven (G7) leaders’ summit. 

“The meeting between Pope Francis and the world’s comedians aims to celebrate the beauty of human diversity and to promote a message of peace, love and solidarity,” the Vatican said. 

The audience has been organized by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education and Dicastery for Communication. 

Goldberg last month said in an interview that she had offered the pope a cameo in “Sister Act 3,” in which she will reprise her comedy role of a singer who takes refuge in a convent and organizes a choir. 

“He said he would see what his time was like,” Goldberg said joking, when asked if the pope had accepted her offer. 
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The United States cricket team beat Pakistan — a former world champion — on Thursday, achieving one of the biggest upsets in T20 Cricket World Cup history. This year’s tournament is being hosted by the United States and the West Indies. Saqib Ul Islam has more from the games in Dallas, Texas.
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BRUSSELS — It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the EU elections. Voters are casting ballots in two dozen languages in 27 countries with scores of different campaign issues.

Here’s a look at some key places to watch in the June 6-9 elections for a new European Parliament.

Hungary

Long-serving Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is expected to extend his party’s nearly 15-year streak of election victories when the Central European country votes in European Parliament elections Sunday but is facing one of the most formidable challenges of his career from a former ally.

Orban’s right-wing populist Fidesz party has taken more than 50% of the vote in the last three EU elections and looks poised to take the most votes again this year. But a new opposition force, headed by a former Fidesz insider-turned-critic, has in a matter of weeks grown to become Hungary’s largest opposition party and will likely cause Fidesz to lose at least one seat in the parliament.

Peter Magyar, a 43-year-old lawyer who was once married to Hungary’s former justice minister and Orban ally Judit Varga, has shot to prominence since February on his public accusations of corruption and mismanagement within Orban’s government.

Magyar’s party, Respect and Freedom, has presented itself as a more centrist alternative to Orban’s brand of illiberal populism — and is likely to gain several seats in the EU legislature. It has also capitalized on an economic crisis and disaffection with Hungary’s traditional opposition parties to siphon away much of their support.

Still, the social Democratic Coalition, as well as the liberal party Momentum, could retain some of their seats, while the far-right Our Homeland party may send its first delegate to Brussels after the Sunday vote.

Orban has cast the election as an existential struggle between war and peace, telling voters that casting their ballots for his opposition would draw Hungary directly into the war in neighboring Ukraine and precipitate a global armed conflict. He has been in power since 2010.

Italy

Premier Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, is forecast to sharply expand its number of seats in the European Parliament from seven in the last election, which could extend her influence in the EU.

Her pro-Ukraine and Israel policies have proven reassuring to centrist American and European allies, but she is leading culture wars at home that preserve her far-right credentials.

In Italy, the vote is not expected to destabilize the government, even if Meloni’s advantage will be at the expense of her partners in the governing coalition, the populist, anti-migrant right-wing Lega, led by Matteo Salvini, and the center-right Forza Italia, led by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.

Polling data forecasts that Brothers of Italy will get about a quarter of the vote, on par with the results of the 2022 national elections but well ahead of the last European parliamentary vote in 2019. The center-left Democratic Party is polling to come in second, followed by the opposition 5-Star Movement.

Italians ages 18 and over are eligible to cast ballots to elect 76 European parliamentary seats over two days, on June 8-9.

France

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and the anti-immigration, nationalist ideas she has long championed are expected to be big winners in the EU elections.

Pollsters expect her National Rally party to win the most of France’s 81 seats, well ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s moderate pro-business party.

The National Rally’s lead European Parliament candidate, Jordan Bardella, promises to limit free movement of migrants within the EU’s open borders and dial back EU climate rules. The party no longer wants to leave the EU and the euro, but to weaken it from within.

Many French voters will use the EU election to express dissatisfaction with Macron’s management of the economy, farming rules and security. That could hurt him as he tries to lead Europe-wide efforts to defend Ukraine and boost the EU’s own defenses and industry.

On the left, polls show a surprising resurgence of France’s Socialist Party behind lead candidate Raphael Glucksmann, who pledges a more ambitious climate policy and protections for European businesses and workers. Some left-wing voters are frustrated with the staunch pro-Palestinian stance of the influential far-left France Unbowed party.

France has the largest Jewish community in Europe, as well as one of the largest Muslim populations, and the Israel-Hamas war has been a flashpoint in the election campaign.

Germany

In Germany, which will have the largest number of the new European Parliament’s 720 seats at 96, the three parties in center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpopular governing coalition risk being punished by voters because of persistent squabbling and a weak economy.

The mainstream center-right opposition hopes to benefit and maintain its position as the strongest German party in Brussels as it looks ahead to a national election expected in the fall of next year.

But much attention will be on the performance of the far-right Alternative for Germany, which has enjoyed strong support over the past year despite a string of setbacks going into the European election. Among those are scandals surrounding its top two candidates for the EU legislature.

The party can expect to make gains on its performance in 2019, but perhaps not as much as it hopes.
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ROME — Another body was spotted off the coast of Libya on Saturday, a day after a Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, rescue ship recovered the bodies of 11 migrants in the same area of the Mediterranean Sea and said it had saved more than 160 people from boats.

Nonprofit organization Sea Watch said on social media platform X that its plane had spotted the corpse on Saturday.

“Yesterday our aircraft crew sighted 11 bodies, and so far, one more has been discovered on today’s flight. The flight and the search continue,” the Germany-based nonprofit group said.

The United Nations has registered more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014, making it the most dangerous migrant crossing in the world.

MSF said its Geo Barents search and rescue vessel picked up 146 migrants in two operations and then found a further 20 in a separate boat. They also retrieved the bodies of 11 people who were seen by the Sea Watch plane.

“We do not know the precise cause of this tragedy, but we know that people continue to die in a desperate attempt to reach safety. This slaughter must end,” MSF said on X.

The 11 bodies should be transferred onto a ship of the Italian coast guard and then disembarked temporarily at the island of Lampedusa, Italian media reported on Saturday.

Italy has urged Tunisia and Libya to do more to stop would-be migrants from putting to sea. It has also clamped down on the operations of rescue ships, saying they encourage people to head to Europe — something the charities deny.

Underscoring the restrictions, Italy on Friday told Geo Barents to take its latest group of migrants to the northern port of Genova, more than 650 nautical miles away and far from the more convenient ports in nearby Sicily.

“This will significantly delay assistance for the … survivors who endured a lot already,” MSF said.
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A man accused of assaulting the Danish Prime Minister in central Copenhagen will appear in a pre-trial custody hearing on Saturday, authorities said.

Police confirmed “there has been an incident” with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Friday and that a 39-year-old man was arrested. They didn’t provide further details and it wasn’t clear if Frederiksen was hurt.

The man is expected to arrive at 1100 GMT at the Copenhagen District Court in Frederiksberg, a municipality enclave within the Danish capital.

The prime minister’s office told the Danish state broadcaster DR on Friday that Frederiksen was “shocked” by what happened.

Two eyewitnesses, Anna Ravn and Marie Adrian, told the daily BT that they saw a man walking toward Frederiksen and then “pushing her hard on the shoulder so she was shoved aside.” They stressed that the premier did not fall down.

Another witness, Kasper Jørgensen, told the Ekstra Bladet tabloid that a well-dressed man, who seemed part of Frederiksen’s protection unit, and a police officer took down the alleged assailant.

Søren Kjærgaard who was working at a local bar on Kultorvet Square where the incident happened told the BT that he saw Frederiksen after the incident and she had no visible injuries to her face but walked away quickly.

Politicians in the Scandinavian country and abroad condemned the reported assault.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary-general, said he was shocked to hear what happened to Frederiksen, whom he called a friend.

“NATO allies stand together to protect our values, freedom, democracy and our rule of law,” Stoltenberg wrote on the social media platform, X, on Saturday.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that “an attack on a democratically elected leader is also an attack on our democracy.” Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said he strongly condemned “all forms of violence against the democratically elected leaders of our free societies.”

Charles Michel, president of the European Council, condemned on X what he called a “cowardly act of aggression.”

European Union parliamentary elections are currently underway in Denmark and the rest of the 27-nation bloc and will conclude Sunday.

Frederiksen has been campaigning with the Social Democrats’ EU lead candidate, Christel Schaldemose. Media reports said the attack was not linked to a campaign event.

Violence against politicians has become a theme in the run-up to the EU elections. In May, a candidate from Germany’s center-left Social Democrats was beaten and seriously injured while campaigning for a seat in the European Parliament.

In Slovakia, the election campaign was overshadowed by an attempt to assassinate populist Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15, sending shockwaves through the nation of 5.4 million and reverberating throughout Europe.

Frederiksen, 46, is the leader of the Social Democratic Party and has been Denmark’s prime minister since 2019.

She has steered Denmark through the global COVID-19 pandemic and a controversial 2020 decision to wipe out Denmark’s entire captive mink population to minimize the risk of the small mammals retransmitting the virus.

Assaults on politicians in Denmark are rare.

On March 23, 2003, two activists threw red paint on then-Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen inside the parliament and were immediately arrested. Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller also suffered some splashes that day.
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PHOENIX — The season’s first heat wave is already baking the Southwest with triple-digit temperatures as firefighters in Phoenix — America’s hottest big city — employ new tactics in hopes of saving more lives in a county that saw 645 heat-related deaths last year.  

Starting this season, the Phoenix Fire Department is immersing heatstroke victims in ice on the way to area hospitals. The medical technique, known as cold water immersion, is familiar to marathon runners and military service members and has also recently been adopted by Phoenix hospitals as a go-to protocol, said Fire Capt. John Prato.  

Prato demonstrated the method earlier this week outside the emergency department of Valleywise Health Medical Center in Phoenix, packing ice cubes inside an impermeable blue bag around a medical dummy representing a patient. He said the technique could dramatically lower body temperature in minutes.  

“Just last week we had a critical patient that we were able to bring back before we walked through the emergency room doors,” Prato said. “That’s our goal — to improve patient survivability.”  

The heatstroke treatment has made ice and human-sized immersion bags standard equipment on all Phoenix fire department emergency vehicles. It is among measures the city adopted this year as temperatures and their human toll soar ever higher. Phoenix for the first time is also keeping two cooling stations open overnight this season.  

Emergency responders in much of an area stretching from southeast California to central Arizona are preparing for what the National Weather Service said would be “easily their hottest” weather since last September.  

Excessive heat warnings were issued for Wednesday morning through Friday evening for parts of southern Nevada and Arizona, with highs expected to top 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius) in Las Vegas and Phoenix. The unseasonably hot weather was expected to spread northward and make its way into parts of the Pacific Northwest by the weekend.  

Officials in Maricopa County were stunned earlier this year when final numbers showed 645 heat-related deaths in Arizona’s largest county, a majority of them in Phoenix. The most brutal period was a heat wave with 31 subsequent days of temperatures of 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.4 Celsius) or higher, which claimed more than 400 lives.  

“We’ve been seeing a severe uptick in the past three years in cases of severe heat illness,” said Dr. Paul Pugsley, medical director of emergency medicine with Valleywise Health. Of those, about 40% do not survive. 

Cooling down patients long before they get to the emergency department could change the equation, he said.  

The technique “is not very widely spread in non-military hospitals in the U.S., nor in the prehospital setting among fire departments or first responders,” Pugsley said. He said part of that may be a longstanding perception that the technique’s use for all cases of heatstroke by first responders or even hospitals was impractical or impossible. 

Pugsley said he was aware of limited use of the technique in some places in California, including Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto and Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, and by the San Antonio Fire Department in Texas. 

Banner University Medical Center in Phoenix embraced the protocol last summer, said Dr. Aneesh Narang, assistant medical director of emergency medicine there.  

“This cold water immersion therapy is really the standard of care to treat heatstroke patients,” he said. 
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