10 things you need to know today: June 12, 2023

A picture of Silvio Berlusconi waving and smiling while surrounded by people

Silvio Berlusconi built Italy's largest media company before upending the country's politics

(Image credit: Pier Marco Tacca / Getty Images)

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1. Barr warns Trump is 'toast' if indictment claims are true
2. Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi dies at 86
3. Tanker fire destroys section of I-95 in Philadelphia
4. Ex-Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon arrested, released in financial inquiry
5. Ukraine says it has reclaimed a 4th village in counteroffensive
6. U.S. citizen arrested on drug charges in Russia
7. Report: 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski died by suicide
8. Investor George Soros hands son control of $25 billion empire
9. Djokovic wins record 23rd Grand Slam title
10. 'Kimberly Akimbo' leads Tony Awards

By Harold Maass, The Week US

published 12 June 2023

1. Barr warns Trump is 'toast' if indictment claims are true

Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to turn himself in for arraignment in Miami on Tuesday and expected to plead not guilty to the 37 felony counts detailed in a Justice Department indictment unsealed Friday. Trump spent the weekend proclaiming his innocence and attacking the investigation. Some of the most damning evidence came from notes kept by one of Trump's own lawyers, M. Evan Corcoran, who wrote that Trump pressured him to prevent investigators from taking back classified material, according to The New York Times. It's important to hear Trump's legal defense, but "if even half" of the "damning" indictment's charges are "true, then he's toast," former Attorney General William Barr told Fox News Sunday.

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi died Monday after battling leukemia and a lung infection. He was 86. Berlusconi built Italy's largest media company before upending the country's politics as Italy's "most polarizing and prosecuted prime minister," according to The New York Times. He served from 1994-1995, 2001-2006, and 2008-2011. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said Berlusconi was "a great man and a great Italian." Berlusconi had no role in the current government, but his Forza Italia party is in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing coalition and Berlusconi's death could destabilize political life in the coming months, according to Reuters.

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A tanker truck carrying gasoline caught fire under an elevated section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia on Sunday, causing the highway to collapse and disrupting traffic on the East's main expressway. Authorities closed I-95 to traffic in both directions and said it could take months to rebuild the highway. "I-95 will be impacted for a long time, for a long time," Philadelphia managing director Tumar Alexander said. There were no reported injuries on I-95 but one vehicle remained trapped under the collapsed highway. The northbound lanes on the highway section were destroyed, and the southbound lanes were "compromised" by the heat from the fire, Philadelphia Fire Department battalion chief Derek Bowmer said.

Police in Scotland arrested former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in connection with an investigation into the finances of her pro-independence Scottish National Party. She was questioned and released without charge. Sturgeon led the party until unexpectedly resigning in February. Her arrest came as police investigate the possible misuse of about $750,000 raised in 2017 under a Scottish independence campaign. The arrest marked an embarrassing setback for the party, which has dominated Scottish politics for two decades, according to Reuters. Support for the SNP and the independence effort has dropped since Sturgeon resigned. Sturgeon said she was innocent, and described her arrest as "both a shock and deeply distressing."

Ukraine said Monday its forces had made a second day of small gains in a counteroffensive against Russia, recapturing a fourth village in the southeast. Unverified video posted online showed troops raising the Ukrainian flag in Storozheve in the Donetsk region. Ukraine said Sunday it liberated three other villages in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. Ukraine is pushing to reclaim occupied land in the east and south. If successful, Ukrainian forces could cut off the land bridge Russia uses to send supplies to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia occupies and annexed in 2014. Russia has posted images of destroyed U.S.- and German-made fighting vehicles and tanks, claiming that the counteroffensive, which it said started last week, has failed.

U.S. citizen Travis Michael Leake, frontman in a band called Lovi Nochi or Seize the Night, has been arrested in Russia on drug charges, Britain's The Guardian newspaper reported Sunday. Leake was detained along with a friend, Valeria Grobanyuk, and he denied wrongdoing. "I don't understand why I'm here. I do not admit my guilt," a man identified as Leake said in a video shown by Russian state media. Before his arrest, Leake, who has lived in Russia for year, thanked friends for concerns they expressed for him after Russia invaded Ukraine. His arrest threatened to increase tensions between the U.S. and Russia in the wake of the March arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges.

"Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, who died Saturday in a federal Supermax prison, took his own life as he suffered from late stage-cancer, The Associated Press reported Sunday, citing four people familiar with the matter. Kaczynski was serving four consecutive life sentences plus 30 years for a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others. His death came after the federal Bureau of Prisons came under scrutiny in recent years following the suicide of disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in his cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. Kaczynski had been in prison in Florence, Colorado, since 1998. He was convicted for 16 bombings from 1978 to 1995.

Investor and philanthropist George Soros is transferring control of his $25 billion empire to one of his younger sons, Alexander Soros, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The younger Soros told the Journal in his first interview since the decision that he is a center-left thinker, and "more political" than his father, a longtime supporter of liberal causes and politicians. "We think alike," the elder Soros said. The family's non-profit Open Society Foundations steers about $1.5 billion a year to human rights and democracy building groups worldwide. The Soros' Democracy PAC has supported the election campaigns of prosecutors and law enforcement officials aiming to address racial bias in the justice system, the Journal said.

Novak Djokovic beat Casper Ruud in straight sets, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3, 7-5 to win the French Open on Sunday, breaking a tie with Rafael Nadal to take sole ownership of the record for the most Grand Slams singles titles in men's tennis. Djokovic started 2023 by winning the Australian open, so taking his 23rd career singles championship at Roland Garros set him up to go for a calendar year Grand Slam at Wimbledon. After his win, Djokovic offered a message for kids: "I was a 7 year old dreaming I could win Wimbledon and become No. 1 in the world ... Take the future in your hands. Believe it." Nadal tweeted congratulations to his Serbian rival, saying that "23 is a number that just a few years back was impossible to think about, and you made it!"

The offbeat musical "Kimberly Akimbo" won best musical at Sunday's politically charged and unscripted Tony Awards ceremony, which took place amid a Hollywood writers' strike. "Kimberly Akimbo," the story of a teenage girl with a condition that causes her to age rapidly, received five awards, including best book and score, the most of any production. "Leopoldstadt," which follows a tight-knit Jewish community through a bloody period of European history, took home four Tonys, including best play, Variety reported. It is Tom Stoppard's record fifth show to receive the award. J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell became the first nonbinary acting award winners. "Thank you for the humanity," said Ghee, who won best lead actor in a musical for "Some Like It Hot."

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.