Good morning.
A powerful earthquake that hit eastern Afghanistan has left more than 800 people dead and injured about 2,500, according to Taliban officials.
The magnitude 6 earthquake hit four provinces in eastern Afghanistan around midnight on Sunday, with the rugged, mountainous region of Kunar the worst affected, triggering landslides and flooding.
The earthquake was shallow, taking place close to the Earth’s surface, which is known to cause greater destruction. Several aftershocks were reported throughout the night and into Monday morning, which could even be felt in the capital, Kabul, more than 100 miles away.
Is the death toll expected to rise? Yes, it’s expected to rise significantly as local hospitals report being inundated with casualties and hundreds still remain unaccounted for. Medics at the provincial hospital in Asadabad in Kunar described the situation as an overwhelming crisis, with new patients arriving every few minutes.
Trump says he plans unconstitutional executive order to mandate ID for voters
Donald Trump has said he will issue an executive order to mandate identification for all US elections, a move likely to be challenged in court as unconstitutional.
“Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS! I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!!,” the US president said on Truth Social late on Saturday. Trump also said he wanted to ban all voting by mail except for those who are very ill or in military service.
The US constitution grants primary authority to regulate elections to the states, while empowering Congress to enact election laws or regulations. It gives no explicit authority to the president to regulate voting.
Why does Trump want to mandate ID for voters? The voting reform push by Trump stems from baseless claims that the 2020 election he lost was stolen from him.
Judge orders US to halt deportation of hundreds of Guatemalan children
A US judge yesterday ordered an emergency halt to a plan by the Trump administration to deport a group of nearly 700 unaccompanied Guatemalan children back to their home country after immigrant advocates lawyers called the plan “illegal”.
Attorneys for 10 Guatemalan minors, ages 10 to 17, said in court papers filed late on Saturday that there were reports that planes were set to take off within hours for the Central American country.
What happened yesterday? A federal judge in Washington said those children couldn’t be deported for at least 14 days, and after a hastily scheduled hearing yesterday, she enforced that they needed to be taken off the planes and back to the Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities while the legal process plays out.
In other news …
A suspect has been arrested over the murder of the former Ukrainian parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
Doctors have found a drug that is better than aspirin at preventing heart attacks and strokes, in a discovery that could transform health guidelines worldwide.
The United States has suspended visa approvals for nearly everyone who holds a Palestinian passport, the New York Times reported yesterday.
An extravagant – and continuing – makeover of the White House’s decor has taken place during the president’s second term. One color theme stands out.
Stat of the day: ‘The forgotten forest’ – how smashing 5.6m urchins saved a California kelp paradise
Pollution, warm oceans and hungry urchins devastated Pacific kelp. In recent years, scientists have staged a comeback – mounting one of the largest and most successful kelp restoration projects in the world. To do so, they’ve recruited an army of hammer-wielding divers to smash and clean up the voracious urchins.
Don’t miss this: I’m a liberal who loves hunting. Allow me to change your mind
In Missoula, where I live – a blue dot in a red state – my hunting community includes conservationists, outdoor enthusiasts, university lecturers and, more prosaically, people simply looking to fill the freezer. There are plenty of Maga types too, I am sure – they are just not in my social circles. More women than ever before are joining the ranks. I am one of them.
… or this: Michael Rosen’s guide to having a happier day – listen to music, get a good night’s sleep … and add raisins to ice-cream
Philip Larkin wrote that “days are where we live”. Even in the bleakest of times, there are things you can do to improve yours. Michael Rosen, the author of wildly popular children’s book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, has some suggestions …
Climate check: ‘It happened so fast’: the shocking reality of indoor heat deaths in Arizona
Heat is the deadliest weather phenomenon in the US and globally, killing almost half a million people worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organization. The death toll is rising as human-caused climate crisis drives more frequent, more brutal and longer heatwaves. In Arizona, heat deaths could surge as energy poverty linked to Trump’s energy and trade policies burns.
Last Thing: Can you solve it? Are you a genius at gerrymandering?
Irrespective of the politics of gerrymandering, the ruse conceals some interesting math. Such as – given a certain distribution of voters, how do you draw a map that makes the minority party win the majority of districts? It’s exactly this question that underlies today’s puzzles.
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