Legendary Baseball Player Willie Mays Dies at 93

Willie Mays, the baseball great who captured the attention of millions for his strong batting and outfield abilities, died June 18th in Palo Alto, California, at 93. Known as ‘The Say Hey Kid,’ his cheerful demeanor and theatrics on the field delighted fans for his two decades of play in the major leagues.

Mays was born in 1931 in Westfield, Alabama. He began playing baseball as a young boy and started his professional career in the Negro Leagues, playing for the Chattanooga Choo-Choos and the Birmingham Barons.

In 1951, he joined the New York Giants, becoming National League Rookie of the Year. After being drafted to fight in the Korean War, he returned in 1954, helping the Giants win the World Series, most notably through the most famous play in his career, the ‘The Catch,’ in Game 1.

He went on to play until 1973, staying with the Giants when they moved to San Francisco in 1958 until his trade to the New York Mets in 1972, retiring as third in career home runs. He would make regular appearances at Giants games in his retirement.

 

Julian Assange Pleads Guilty as US Ends Legal Fight

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange pled guilty last Wednesday to one count of violating the Espionage Act at a US federal courthouse in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, capping a years-long fight against legal charges that threatened to send him to prison for decades. In exchange for the plea, Assange was sentenced to time served, crediting his time spent in a British prison awaiting extradition.

Assange, who launched Wikileaks in 2006, was accused of conspiring with hackers to steal US state secrets to publish on the site. Defenders of Assange called the charges attacks on the rights of journalists. Materials made public on Wikileaks over the years included video of US servicemembers killing Reuters journalists in Iraq and hacked DNC emails during the 2016 election.

After pleading guilty, Assange travelled to his home country of Australia. Assange had faced the threat of arrest and prison since 2010, first over sexual assault charges in Sweden. While those were dropped in 2019, the US charged him with Espionage Act violations in 2018. He had taken refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London from 2012 until 2019, when he was expelled and quickly arrested by British authorities.

 

Hurricane Beryl Becomes Earliest-Forming Category 4 in Atlantic Basin

Hurricane Beryl, only the second storm of what has been predicted to be a highly active Atlantic hurricane season, has become the earliest forming major hurricane in the Atlantic basin as well as the earliest forming category four storm in the basin, beating the record set by Hurricane Dennis in July 2007. Beryl, which only became a tropical storm on June 28th, rapidly intensified into a major hurricane, reaching category 4 status on Sunday.

The storm has the potential to reach category 5 strength, which would displace Hurricane Emily in 2005 as the earliest forming category 5 in the Atlantic.

Beryl will move through the Windward Islands this coming week, with major impacts expected in St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Tobago. Afterwards, the storm will head towards the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, where it faces an uncertain path forward through the Gulf of Mexico. The European model has Beryl heading into Mexico south of Tampico, while the US model takes Beryl on a more northerly path towards Corpus Christi, Texas.