| Protests in Senegal over opposition leader’s sentencing |
| Clashes erupted between protesters and security forces in Senegal’s largest cities after a court sentenced Ousmane Sonko, the country’s leading opposition figure, to two years in prison for “corrupting youth.” The ruling throws the nation’s political future into uncertainty less than a year before its next presidential contest. |
| Sonko was accused of raping a massage parlor employee in Dakar, the capital, and of issuing death threats against her. Though the court acquitted him of those charges, his conviction of “corrupting youth” — a charge related to an accusation that he had a sexual relationship with the woman, who was under 21 at the time — renders him ineligible to run in the election. |
| Sonko, who denounced the allegations as an attempt by Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, to sideline him, cannot appeal because he did not appear in court for the hearings or the verdict, citing threats to his safety. Ismaïla Madior Fall, Senegal’s justice minister, said Sonko could be arrested at any time. |
| Statement: Bamba Cissé, a lawyer for Sonko, said that he would not surrender “because we’re against a judiciary system perverted by political leaders.” He continued: “For two years, Senegal has been told that Mr. Sonko was involved in a rape affair. Today, we have the proof that it was a plot.” |
 The march went off peacefully under heavy security.Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
| Conflict shrouds Jerusalem’s Pride parade |
| The annual Pride and Tolerance Parade in Jerusalem is normally relatively staid, especially compared with Tel Aviv’s carnival-like iteration. But yesterday’s event occurred at a fraught moment for Israel, five months after the most hard-line and religiously conservative government in the country’s history took power. |
| The march, in which 30,000 people reportedly participated, went off peacefully under heavy security, with about 2,000 police officers deployed along the short route. At the same time, Lehava, an extremist organization that promotes strict separation of Jews and non-Jews, held a small counterdemonstration nearby against what it called the “abomination parade.” |
| The parade came amid a backlash from liberal Israelis against the right-wing government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Their main target has been a government plan for a judicial overhaul that critics say would damage Israel’s democratic system and leave minorities, like the L.G.B.T.Q. community, more vulnerable. |
| The latest: The Netanyahu government has not, so far, passed any laws impinging on L.G.B.T.Q. rights, despite a promise made to parties in its coalition to amend the current anti-discrimination law to allow businesses to refuse to provide a service contrary to their religious beliefs. |
 Puricelli/EPA, via Shutterstock |
| Four people died in a boat accident in northern Italy. Then it emerged that 21 of those aboard were current or former Israeli or Italian spies, causing a speculative frenzy.The U.S. announced sanctions on two warring military factions in Sudan and on companies linked to both sides.The British government refused to hand over former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Covid-era text messages to a committee investigating the handling of the pandemic.Is Australia’s most decorated living soldier a war criminal? A judge effectively found that the answer was yes. |
| From the U.S. |
 Senate Television, via Associated Press |
| The U.S. Senate gave final approval to bipartisan legislation suspending the debt limit and imposing new spending caps.President Biden tripped and fell onstage after speaking at the Air Force Academy graduation in Colorado.Federal prosecutors have a 2021 recording of Donald Trump discussing a sensitive military document he kept after leaving office, two people briefed on the matter said.The Defense Department said it would not host drag shows at military bases after complaints from Republican politicians.In the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Dev Shah, 14, spelled “psammophile” correctly to win $50,000, a commemorative medal and the coveted trophy. |
| The Week in Culture |
| Beyoncé and Jay-Z paid $200 million for their new home. The sale was the most expensive residential real estate deal in California history.Why is Michel Houellebecq, the provocative French author, at loggerheads with the Dutch art collective KIRAC?Alicia Keys is making a musical inspired by her life story.Mary Trump, Donald Trump’s niece, and E. Jean Carroll, who won a sexual abuse case against the former U.S. president, are writing a romance novel together.The comedian Hannah Gadsby curated an exhibition about Pablo Picasso at the Brooklyn Museum. Its ambitions “are at GIF level,” our critic writes. |
| A Morning Read |
 Laura Edelbacher |
| Binge eating disorder, in which a person regularly eats an objectively large amount of food in a short period of time, is the most common eating disorder in the U.S., but it is often overlooked. |
| Often, people will exhibit symptoms for decades before receiving a diagnosis. “For so long, they’ve been told things like ‘Oh, this is just emotional eating’ or ‘You’re out of control’ or ‘It’s because you have no willpower’ or ‘Gluttony’s a sin,’ or whatever these things are that people explain it away, without realizing that they have a treatable condition,” one expert said. |
| SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC |
| Inside one of soccer’s most innovative clubs: Arnie Slot turned down the chance to manage a Premier League team to continue building something special at Feyenoord. |
| The Barcelona star who watches eight soccer games every weekend: From humble beginnings in Uruguay to relishing his “beautiful” duels with Vinícius Júnior, this is Ronald Araújo in his own words. |
| Soccer chairman offered his club’s stadium as collateral to buy another team: Leeds United was relegated from the Premier League as its owner tried to buy an Italian club. |
| From The Times: We built a game to test your basketball knowledge. Can you guess where these passes are going? |
| SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICA |
 TJ Bade/Associated Press |
| Mourning Sierra Leone’s Cotton Tree |
| A 230-foot kapok tree known as the Cotton Tree, a symbol of freedom at the center of Sierra Leone’s foundation story, was felled in a heavy storm. Only the splintered base of the tree remains in the center of Freetown, the capital. |
| The tree, which was roughly 400 years old, became part of Sierra Leone’s history at the end of the 18th century, when Africans formerly enslaved in the U.S., England, Jamaica and Canada returned to Africa as free men and women. According to tradition, the tree offered shelter and became synonymous with refuge. |
| As Freetown developed into a modern capital, the tree stood at the center of a roundabout, near the president’s official residence and the High Court. |
| Its toppling last week was a reminder of the country’s vulnerability to extreme weather. “For us, the Cotton Tree wasn’t just a tree, it was a connection between the past, present and the future and we must strive to immortalize it,” President Julius Maada Bio tweeted. |
| Parts of the tree will be preserved in museums and official buildings. — Lynsey Chutel, a Briefings writer in Johannesburg |
