Good morning. We’re covering the plight of displaced Ukrainians and Boris Johnson’s effort to hold onto his job. |
| As the front line of the war in Ukraine has moved, many who fled have returned home. But for those from the country’s east, the prospect of returning has only become more uncertain and remote.Mauricio Lima for The New York Times |
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War has displaced a third of Ukrainians |
The internally displaced people — a larger population than the nearly five million who have fled into Europe — are mostly women and children, many of whom face shortages of food, water and basic necessities. They also are, in large part, from the country’s east, which has become the focus of Russia’s attacks. |
American detainee: Pushing back against the U.S. government’s assessment that the W.N.B.A. star Brittney Griner is “wrongfully detained,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Griner could appeal her sentence or ask for clemency once the court delivers its verdict. |
| Prime Minister Boris Johnson has faced pressure from members of his own party to resign. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images |
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Allies turn on Boris Johnson |
The renewed pressure came just one day after Johnson suffered two shattering defections by senior ministers from his cabinet. Those defections broke open a movement for his removal that had been building for months, fueled by embarrassing reports of social gatherings at Downing Street that violated the government’s coronavirus lockdown rules. |
Johnson has vowed to fight on, trying to deflect the focus to new tax cuts. But in back rooms across Westminster, lawmakers have held meetings about ways to force him out, possibly within days. The BBC reported that Michael Gove, an influential cabinet member, told the prime minister that it was time to go. Johnson responded by firing Gove. |
What’s next: If Johnson were to resign, there would not automatically be a general election to replace him. Instead, the Conservative Party would select its own next leader, who would then become prime minister. |
The most recent scandal: Johnson promoted a lawmaker, Chris Pincher, despite previous allegations of misconduct; Pincher resigned after new accusations of sexual misconduct and excessive drinking emerged. Ministers were sent out to offer denials about what the prime minister had known of the allegations, but those claims unraveled quickly. |
| Members of the European Parliament argued that gas and nuclear energy remained important in the transition to a carbon-neutral future.Patrick Hertzog/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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Europe says gas and nuclear energy are green |
The move is part of a broader new E.U. law that classifies various types of energy investments as environmentally friendly and lays out detailed rules for how to assess them. The “green” label would allow some gas and nuclear projects access to cheap loans and even state subsidies. |
European officials conceded that gas and nuclear energy were not perfectly aligned with environmental goals but argued that they remained important in Europe’s transition from its current energy mix toward a carbon-neutral future. Critics said that Europe's vote — which is likely to be seen as a benchmark elsewhere — countered the bloc’s efforts to slash carbon emissions by 55 percent by 2030 and to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. |
Details: The new classification for gas is likely to make it far more difficult to meet a climate goal championed at the last international climate negotiations: cutting methane, which is more potent in its ability to warm the planet than carbon dioxide emissions are. |
Global politics: Europe has used its shifting energy policies to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. So far E.U. nations have banned Russian coal, and most will phase out Russian oil, but they remain especially dependent on Russian natural gas for electricity and heating. |
| Chinese officials have been doling out tax and housing credits, educational benefits and cash to encourage women to have more children, but only if they are married.Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times |
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| The body of the Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was brought to the organization’s office in the West Bank city of Ramallah in May.Pool photo by Abbas Momani |
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| Residents wept after laying flowers at the entrance to Enyobeni Tavern in East London, South Africa, where 21 teenagers died in the early hours of June 26.Joao Silva/The New York Times |
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Hundreds of young people flocked to a small tavern in South Africa for a party at the end of the school term in June. Twenty-one of them, all teenagers, did not survive the night. Survivors recall a mysterious gas and then a crush to escape. |
Clothing used to have the ability to jolt viewers with concepts that today feel quaint, like a flash of flesh or an absurd idea. At this summer’s Paris couture shows, fashion houses have tried to prove that their industry still has the ability to shock. |
One effort has stood out, writes Vanessa Friedman, The Times’s chief fashion critic: Iris van Herpen’s use of 3-D printers and laser cutters, which makes her clothes look like organic life-forms. |
“They rewrite the physics of dress and reimagine the body without erasing it, not in a cartoonish way but in an utterly convincing way,” Vanessa writes. |
| Chris Simpson for The New York Times |
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That’s it for today’s briefing. See you next time. — Matthew |
The latest episode of “The Daily” is about Brittney Griner, the W.N.B.A. star detained in Russia. |
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