Your Monday Summary – The New York Times

Good morning. We’re talking about a heatwave in Europe, a shakeup in the Ukrainian government, and a report of a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

Extreme temperatures in Europe

A life-threatening heatwave is continue marching through Western Europe this week.

Spain and Italy grilled over the weekend, and raging forest fire in France, forcing the evacuation of more than 14,000 people near Bordeaux since the start of last week, local authorities said. France’s national weather agency predicts temperatures of at least 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on the country’s Atlantic coast through tomorrow.

Now, Severe weather is moving to the UK. Today and tomorrow, the temperature could rise up to 41 degrees Celsius, will break records. Air conditioners are rare in the country, where buildings are built to retain heat (because cold temperatures have, in the past, been a bigger concern).

This is guide to stay safe and cool during a heat wave.

Climate change: Heat waves in Europe have increase frequency and intensity over the past four decades.

War in Ukraine: Energy prices have skyrocketed in Europe partly because of the war, which has made running air conditioners more expensive. The heat could damage France’s wheat production at the moment Ukraine’s grain mountains remain blocked from the distribution of Russian warships.

Zelensky fires top officials

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, yesterday fired his prosecutor general and intelligence chief, the country’s two top law enforcement officials. This was the most significant government shake-up there since the start of the Russian invasion.

Zelensky said he is responding to a large number of treason investigations opened with employees of law enforcement agencies. US officials said the moves reflect Zelensky’s efforts to place more experienced leaders in key security positions.

Officials stressed that the firing of Ivan Bakanov, head of Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service and childhood friend of the president, was not because of any intelligence mishandling or any other incident. any major infiltration of the Ukrainian intelligence services.

Other strikes: Russian attacks intensify with one “big attackOn Mykolaiv, according to a Ukrainian news agency. Ukrainian officials say Russia has launched at least 10 missiles towards the city. On Friday, a volley two universitiesa hotel and a shopping mall.

Fee: After a pause, Russian Defense Minister order the army stepped up attacks, intensified fighting in the Eastern Donbas. Yesterday, loved ones were buried a 4-year-old girl with Down syndromeone of 23 people killed by a Russian missile in Vinnytsia last week.

Europe: Continent in a fragile moment as it faces tests of its democracy, plunging currency and war in Ukraine.

Culture: President Vladimir Putin is doing profound change into the school curriculum to shape the views of young Russians. And our critic Jason Farago traveled to Ukraine to document the country’s fight to preserve and expand its artistic heritage in war.

‘System error’ in Uvalde

First comprehensive review of law enforcement’s response to Deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texasfound “systemic failure” and “severely poor decision-making” in police response.

Nearly 400 officers responded to the school during the May 24 attack. However, the final decision to confront the gunman was made by a small group of officers, the report said. found, concluding that others at the scene could have been responsible and had done it sooner. .

A perfect police response would not have saved most of the victims, who were seriously injured by being shot with a high-powered AR-15-style rifle. But some people survived, only to die on the way to the hospital, the report noted, adding that it was “logical that some victims could have survived if they didn’t have to wait” to be released. assist.

Story: Officers waited outside two interconnected classrooms where the gunman killed 19 children and two teachers. It took 77 minutes for the new police burst into the classroom after the gunman opened fire.

LATEST NEWS

Europe

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the president of Egypt, jailed critics on a large scale by detaining them before trial, a Times investigation found.

Between September 2020 and February 2021, The Times estimates, about 4,500 people were detained before trial. At least a quarter of those incarcerated have spent more than a year in detention, their cases protracted without trial again and again.

Discover decades-old graffiti

A graffiti artist known as the “King of Kowloon” once wrote special, personal messages all over Hong Kong.

During his lifetime, his work was not considered political. Instead, the artist Tsang Tsou-choi covered public spaces with vast mosaics of Chinese characters to declare his unshakable belief that much of the Kowloon Peninsula belongs to China. about his family legally.

Despite his popularity, his works are often drawn by city workers seeking to stop graffiti. Tsang’s art almost completely disappeared from public space after his death in 2007.

But this year, the paint on the railway bridge was peeling off reveal the ruins of the writings of Tsang. A local artist said: “I think the old Hong Kong is saying hello again.

The lost artworks have also created a new political buzz in a changed Hong Kong, where an extensive campaign against dissent broke the city’s formerly liberal eccentricities.

Louisa Lim, who examined Tsang’s legacy in her book “The Indelible City: Rejection and Challenges in Hong Kong,” said: “He talked about Hong Kong’s preoccupations before. someone else – territory, sovereignty, appropriation and loss.