Weekend Papers Summary
NEW YORK TIMES
-Coronation of King Charles III: A Celebration Decades in the Making. The world’s gaze will be on a royal family that has undergone an uneasy transition from imperial power to global celebrity.
-It’s a test of the new king’s ability to sustain the mystique of Queen Elizabeth II.
-Nearly all the king’s realms want to say goodbye to the British monarchy. Whether through a hard break or a soft fade in ties, nations that have kept the British monarch as their head of state are moving toward separation.
-Most fake Trump electors have taken Immunity Deals in Georgia Case. Prosecutors are nearing charging decisions after investigating whether former President Trump and his allies illegally meddled in Georgia’s 2020 election.
-Rioter gets 14 years for Jan. 6 attacks, in longest sentence so far prosecutors also recommended 25 years in prison for Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy.
-US defense experts worry about how AI could change war. US national security officials are warning about the potential for the new technology to upend war, cyber conflict and even the use of nuclear weapons.
-Tucker Carlson Wants to Return to TV Before 2025. Will Fox Let Him? In conversations with his associates, Mr. Carlson has expressed interest in getting back to work before his current contract expires.
-It may be in the interests of Fox and Mr. Carlson to resolve the situation. Leigh Vogel for The New York Times
-Demonstrators carrying flags, some of them similar to the American flag but in red, black and green, face the camera while marching across the Manhattan Bridge at night.
-Biden says he’s the most experienced 2024 candidate amid age concerns. President Biden also said that he was not yet prepared to lean on the 14th Amendment amid a showdown with House Republicans over the debt limit.
-DeSantis signs into law latest wrinkle in Disney feud. The bill would allow approved development agreements for Walt Disney World to be voided. The company has already sued Gov. Ron DeSantis over the issue.
-The Supreme Court stays execution of death row inmate Richard Glossip. The court acted after Oklahoma’s attorney general joined Mr. Glossip in urging it to halt the execution, which had been scheduled for May 18.
-Tightening Supreme Court ethics rules faces steep hurdles. Revelations about Justice Clarence Thomas’s failure to disclose largess from a Republican donor have highlighted a dilemma.
-A Police Funeral, 33 Years Waiting, for a Detective Shot in 1990. Detective Troy Patterson, mortally wounded during a robbery in Brooklyn, remained in a coma for more than three decades before dying last week.
-With a Ukrainian offensive looming, explosions in Crimea and inside Russia have rattled Moscow, sparking infighting among military commanders.
-Former President Trump did not disavow the “Access Hollywood” video when questioned by E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers, who rested their case Thursday.
-The Prince with no throne
If the Austro-Hungarian Empire still existed, 25-year-old Ferdinand Habsburg would eventually be its ruler. Instead he’s a racecar driver.
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
-US jobs growth was stronger than expected in April, showing the resilience of the economy even as the Federal Reserve signaled it was “getting close” to pausing its cycle of interest rate rises. The US added 253,000 non-farm jobs last month, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday, confounding expectations of a slowdown.
-Jack Dorsey spoke out publicly against Musk, saying he did not believe the Tesla chief “acted right” in his handling of Twitter. “It all went south,” wrote the 46-year-old, who rolled his stake over when Musk took Twitter private, making him one of its biggest shareholders. “But it happened and all we can do now is build something to avoid that ever happening again.”
-The US Securities and Exchange Commission has paid out its largest-ever award to a whistleblower, almost $279M, the regulator announced on Friday. The award is more than double the previous record amount of $114M, which was announced in October 2020.
-The European TTF benchmark hit a low of €35.20 a megawatt hour on Friday, a level last seen in July 2021 when Russia was first starting to squeeze Europe’s energy supplies ahead of its invasion of Ukraine. It later rose slightly to end the week at €35.95. The TTF benchmark peaked at more than €340/mwh hour last summer after Russian slashed gas exports to Europe, stoking inflation and sending energy bills soaring.
-The German economy ministry plans to subsidize 80% of the electricity cost for energy-intensive companies, in a proposal likely to fuel divisions inside the governing coalition and further alienate European nations who cannot afford such measures.
-The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner has stepped up threats to withdraw his fighters from Bakhmut and blamed military leaders in Moscow for heavy losses in the city ahead of a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
-China’s foreign minister will meet officials from the Taliban at the weekend as Beijing explores boosting investment in Afghanistan, including bringing the crisis-hit country into its Belt and Road infrastructure project.
-Crowds were gathering on London’s Mall on Saturday morning ahead of the coronation of King Charles III, heralding a day of ancient ceremony and military spectacle that will draw on a millennium of British history.
-Geoffrey Hinton’s resignation follows a series of groundbreaking AI launches over the past six months, starting with Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November and Google’s own chatbot, Bard, in March. Hinton voiced concerns that the race between Microsoft and Google would push forward the development of AI without appropriate guardrails and regulations in place.
-The Covid-19 emergency is over after at least 20mn deaths, the World Health Organization said on Friday, ending a designation in place for more than three years since the novel coronavirus began sweeping across the world.
-Burkina Faso’s interim leader said Russia is a “strategic ally” but denied that the Kremlin-linked mercenary group Wagner were engaged in the west African nation’s fight against Islamist insurgents. President Ibrahim Traoré, who seized power in a military coup last September, told state broadcaster Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina (RTB) that Russia was a supplier of equipment for Ouagadougou’s military and that the countries enjoyed a “frank” relationship.
-As dark clouds hung overhead, hundreds of striking screenwriters picketed along Sunset Boulevard outside the company they blame for bringing the remorseless economics of Silicon Valley to Hollywood: Netflix.
-A new alliance of the oil and gas sector is being marshalled by the COP28 team behind the UN climate summit in the United Arab Emirates, but early outlines of its goals aimed at tackling global warming do not include the bulk of emissions that arise from the use of fossil fuels.
-A confrontation broke out in Los Angeles this week as 11,500 writers for film and television went on strike. Screenwriters know all about confrontations: they are the second acts of three-act dramas, when the main characters face a crisis that only gets resolved at the end.
NY POST
-The coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla has finally arrived, following Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September. Their majesties will be formally crowned Saturday at London’s Westminster Abbey — the first coronation Britain.
-President Biden declared on Friday that his son Hunter Biden “has done nothing wrong” as federal prosecutors near a decision on whether to charge the first son with tax and gun crimes. Biden’s defense of Hunter came in a rare sit-down interview with MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle that aired Friday night at 10 p.m. “My son has done nothing wrong. I trust him. I have faith in him and it impacts my presidency by making me feel proud of him,” Biden, 80, told Ruhle when asked about how the first son being charged would impact his presidency.
-Anheuser-Busch is telling US beer distributors it has fired the “third-party ad agency” behind Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney fiasco — but the beer giant is staying tight-lipped about the marketing firm’s identity, even launching a fresh ad campaign aimed at damage control, The Post has learned. The company’s global CEO Michel Doukeris this week came out swinging at the “misinformation” being spread about the extent of Bud Light’s relationship with the transgender influencer, who has more than 10 million followers on TikTok.