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NYC indictment, emergency cease-fire and a papal smackdown

 
Today's politics story

New York Mayor Eric Adams reportedly indicted

What happened
A federal grand jury in Manhattan indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) yesterday, according to several major news organizations. Adams, elected in 2021 and ensnared in a web of investigations that included the seizure of his electronic devices last fall, said he will not resign. He would be the first sitting New York City mayor charged with a crime.

Who said what
If "the federal government intends to charge me with federal crimes," Adams said in a video released before news of the indictment broke, "these charges will be entirely false, based on lies." He said he would seek an "immediate" trial and "fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength, and my spirit."

The charges are an "extraordinary culmination to weeks of searches, subpoenas and resignations of top officials," including Adams' police commissioner, schools chancellor, health commissioner and chief counsel, The Associated Press said. Adams, a former police captain, pledged to reduce crime and "bring professionalism to City Hall," The New York Times said, but he "staffed top positions with friends and loyalists," many of whom "became engulfed by federal investigations."

New York has had some "unseemly mayors" who "left office before their terms have actually ended," retired Baruch College political scientist Doug Muzzio told Politico, but a "mayor with criminal charges" is a first. The Feds, he added, are "not going to indict a sitting mayor unless they have an airtight case."

What next?
The charges are expected to be unsealed today. If Adams resigns or is removed by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams would become acting mayor until a special election is held. A Hochul spokesperson said last night it's "premature to comment further until the matter is confirmed by law enforcement." 

 
 
Today's international story

US, allies push 21-day Israel-Lebanon cease-fire

What happened
Israel took steps to prepare for a ground invasion of Lebanon yesterday as the U.S., France and other European and Arab nations scrambled to prevent a full-scale war, proposing an "immediate 21-day cease-fire across the Lebanon-Israel border to provide space for diplomacy."

Who said what
The cease-fire deal was worked out in 48 hours on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Its dozen signatories said the recent intensification of fighting is "intolerable and presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation." U.S. officials said they were optimistic Lebanon and Israel would accept the proposal, with Lebanon responsible for Hezbollah's compliance. 

Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military chief of staff, told soldiers near the Lebanon border yesterday that ongoing Israeli airstrikes are "both to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah." Israel has killed about 600 people in Lebanon since Monday, according to Lebanon's health ministry. Hezbollah has continued sending missiles into Israel, including its first aimed at Tel Aviv. Israeli air defenses shot down that ballistic missile, but Hezbollah faces the "consequential" choice to either "unleash more of its advanced weapons, striking deeper into Israel and potentially triggering a full-scale war," The Wall Street Journal said, "or hold back and risk diminishing its reputation as one of the fiercest fighting forces in the Middle East."

What next?
"Hell is breaking loose in Lebanon," U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said at an emergency Security Council meeting last night. "War is not inevitable," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told the Security Council. "We are counting on both parties" to accept the 21-day cease-fire "without delay." Barrot is set to travel to Lebanon to try to persuade officials in Beirut.

 
 
Today's Demographics Story

Pope expels 10 for 'sadistic' abuses in Peru sect

What happened
Pope Francis yesterday expelled 10 members of Peru's controversial Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) movement, including a bishop, several priests and multiple lay members. The Vatican said the former members were guilty of "sadistic" abuses of power.

Who said what
The pope's public move against Sodalitium leadership was "unusual" and "astonishing," The Associated Press said, because it listed abuses that have "rarely if ever been punished canonically," like hacking a journalist's communications, and "cited the people the pope held responsible." Those expelled are accused of committing "physical abuse, including sadism and violence," as well as mental and spiritual abuse, and "abuse of authority," the Vatican said in a statement published online by the Peruvian Bishops Conference.

Wednesday's expulsion comes just over a month after the Vatican expelled Sodalitium founder Fernando Figari, who was accused of "physical, psychological and sexual violence, including against minors," Vatican News said. At its height, SCV "represented one of the most active forces for evangelization in South America," a conservative counterweight to Catholic liberation theology.

What next?
It isn't clear "how exactly the expulsions can be enforced," especially "for the laypeople involved," the AP said. But the "very public announcement" shows that Pope Francis was "willing to take an unorthodox approach to interpreting the church’s in-house laws to send a message." The Vatican said the pope and Peruvian bishops are "seeking the forgiveness of the victims" and urging SCV to pursue a "path toward justice and reparation."

 
 

It's not all bad

An international team of researchers found precisely why batteries lose capacity — a phenomenon that until recently was not completely understood. The group determined that hydrogen molecules from the battery’s electrolyte were preventing the lithium ions from moving to the cathode to produce a current. Electric vehicles can currently run for an average of about 200 miles on a single charge, but the study's findings, published in the journal Science, have the potential to increase their range by 60%.

 
 
Under the radar

Phillip Mehrtens, a pilot from New Zealand, was taken hostage in February 2023 when he landed a small commercial plane in the remote, "restive" region of Papua, a "resource-rich former Dutch colony" that is part of modern-day Indonesia, said CNN. His captors had "hoped to press New Zealand to lobby Indonesia" to meet their "seemingly impossible demand" for Papuan independence.

When Mehrtens was kidnapped and his plane torched, a spokesperson for his captors, the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), said they would "never release the pilot we are holding hostage unless Indonesia recognizes and frees Papua from Indonesian colonialism."

Mehrtens was released last weekend, after months of diplomatic efforts by New Zealand and Indonesia, the BBC said. Papua isn't liberated, but Mehrtens' 19 months in captivity renewed scrutiny of the "long-running, often brutally violent conflict between the Indonesian government and West Papua's indigenous people."

Papua, which borders independent Papua New Guinea, came under Indonesian control in 1969 after a referendum widely seen as a sham. Ever since, the Free Papua Movement has sought independence from the Indonesian government, which they accuse of "running a police state" of violent repression in the region, said DW.

The largely peaceful independence movement has been overshadowed by the increasingly deadly insurgency of the TPNPB and other armed groups. The TPNPB probably released Mehrtens when it became clear "there wasn't going to be any long-term benefit from keeping him", said Damien Kingsbury, professor at Melbourne's Deakin University and a specialist in West Papuan politics. "The best they could hope for was to be seen as having a humanitarian side and gaining some publicity for their cause."

 
 
On this day

September 26, 1580

Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation of the world. While he was not the first explorer to sail around the Earth, Drake's three-year expedition helped England enter the competition for global dominance alongside Spain and Portugal. Today, numerous locations around the world, such as the Drake Passage in Antarctica, are named for the explorer.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

Hurricane Helene, barreling toward Florida's northern Gulf Coast, is "on course to be worst hurricane of 2024," USA Today says on Thursday's front page, forecast to hit as a Category 3 or 4 monster with a "catastrophic and unsurvivable" storm surge of up to 20 feet. "Are we complacent?" the Tampa Bay Times asks. It's "all hands as Georgia, South brace for Helene," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says. In Congress, a "stopgap spending bill averts shutdown," The Washington Post says, with Democrats providing the bulk of the votes in the House and Senate. 

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Add helmets, maybe?

Due to health and safety concerns, local officials are proposing changes to the Beating of the Boundaries ceremony, a 450-year-old head-bumping tradition in Helston, England. As part of the event, residents are lifted into the air horizontally and have their heads tapped against stones that mark the town's boundary. The Helston Town Council, concerned about serious injuries, is suggesting that participants instead hit the stone with sticks or kneel and merely touch the stone with their head.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Harriet Marsden, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images; Mahmoud Zayyat / AFP via Getty Images; Eric Lalmand / Belga Mag / AFP via Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images