Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Friday.
Migrants flood a tiny Spanish territoryTens of thousands of migrants surged into Ceuta, a tiny Spanish-governed peninsula on Morocco’s northern coast, last night and into this morning. They climbed over border fences or swam, sometimes for hours, to its shores. At least 60 people have died. Follow our live coverage. Normally, Ceuta (pronounced say-YOU-tah) has just 83,000 residents. The sudden influx of migrants created an immediate crisis for Spain’s pro-immigration government, which sent its military to reinforce overwhelmed police officers. The local authorities said they had no way to feed or shelter people, many of whom hadn’t eaten in almost two days. The mass crossing has drawn harsh criticism by far-right politicians in Europe. And today, President Trump used the crisis to warn Americans about voting for Democrats in November. Some 50,000 migrants had already returned to Morocco as of this afternoon, but hundreds if not thousands lingered on the beach in Ceuta. Several said the Moroccan authorities had encouraged the migration. “You ask why everyone came — because there’s no work in Morocco,” one man said.
Trump releases Hamas disarmament planThe president said last night that his Board of Peace had reached a new deal to begin disarming Hamas in Gaza. And this morning, the Board released a 15-point plan outlining concessions each side must make. The text says the parties have two weeks to set a schedule for carrying them out. (What is the Board of Peace?) For Hamas to disarm, Israel must also suspend its military operations and relocate its troops to an agreed-upon withdrawal line. In its initial response today, Hamas said the “first step” would be for Israel to commit to ending attacks. Israel has not yet issued a formal statement. Experts and officials have raised doubts about whether either side will follow through. Questions remain about whether Hamas needs to relinquish all of its weapons — and to whom? Today, Trump said that the Board of Peace would take possession of Hamas’s weapons, contradicting officials who said the weapons would be turned over to Palestinian authorities.
U.S. plans drastic Sun Belt water cutsArizona, Nevada and California face potentially drastic cuts in the water they can use from the Colorado River under a plan the Trump administration released today. As regional temperatures have risen, the river has shrunk, spawning bitter disputes over access to its dwindling water supply. (Related: Record high temperatures are expected across the Western U.S. this weekend.) Under the Trump administration’s plan, downstream Sun Belt communities — cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles — will bear the brunt of the cuts, rather than upstream Mountain West communities. A long legal battle may be coming. In other Trump administration news:
Larry Ellison’s A.I. gambleOracle’s 81-year-old billionaire founder, Larry Ellison, briefly became the richest person in the world last year after throwing his company headfirst into the A.I. boom. He built massive data centers; Oracle’s stock rose 43 percent. But his company borrowed billions to finance the data centers, and as investors got a clearer picture, Oracle’s stock cratered. Its credit rating neared “junk” status. The company’s fortunes embody a bigger risk facing the U.S. economy: Is the A.I. boom a soon-to-be-catastrophic bubble? Read The Times Magazine’s full investigation, and our takeaways. More on A.I. and the economy:
More top news
Spider-Man gets grittierIn recent movies, Peter Parker has traveled the multiverse, battling a towering purple alien, a wizard, a witch and a god. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” opening today, is smaller and more intimate. It’s as much about Parker’s run-down New York apartment and personal life as his web-shooting superpowers. The filmmakers and stars — including Tom Holland and Zendaya — are betting that their creative choice will breathe life into a genre that’s struggling at the box office. Read the review: “Brand New Day” feels like a cap on the character’s growing-up arc — but it’s not as fun as the previous films, our critic writes.
Library book? He’s got you coveredAt a warehouse tucked away in an industrial corner of Queens, books of all shapes, sizes and colors fly across conveyor belts, destined for 150 library branches across the city. It’s a symphony of bar codes and Dewey decimals, under the watchful eye of an unlikely conductor: Salvatore Magaddino, 65, a onetime Police Department captain. See how the magic happens — but quick! Today is Magaddino’s last day before retirement. Dinner table topics
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