Eric Gay/AP/File

As triple-digit temperatures stressed Texas last summer, an airplane passed power lines – the lifelines of the state's power grid – as the sun set, Aug. 20, 2023, in San Antonio.

Before February 2021, few Texans knew the minute details of how electricity flowed through the state. Then, just before Valentine’s Day that year, the flow stopped.

A massive winter storm swept through Texas, triggering blackouts in millions of homes across the state. Some Texans spent days in the dark and cold. Many also lost running water, and hundreds lost their lives. By Feb. 18, 2021, everyone in Texas knew the name of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. And they knew they couldn’t trust it.

ERCOT doesn’t bill anyone or provide any electricity directly to consumers. It simply manages the flow of electricity through the Texas power grid. Since the blackout, the grid – which ERCOT oversees – has undergone significant changes. The Lone Star State has also experienced more extreme weather, including another major winter storm and two intense summer heat waves, without the kind of widespread system failure seen during the 2021 storm.

Indeed, the Texas power grid is more reliable today than it was three years ago, the result of significant changes in oversight, storm readiness, and capacity, experts say. 

But what hasn’t changed much? The trust Texans have in it. In a survey released last month, a Texas electricity provider found that nearly 7 in 10 Texans “have low trust in ERCOT and the stability of the Texas power grid.” 

Because while state regulators and officials have made some improvements, they’ve also made some mistakes, experts say. The grid is, in fact, more reliable, but power bills are higher for many Texans. ERCOT has also often asked residents to conserve electricity during severe weather events, eroding confidence that the grid has become more resilient.

David J. Phillip/AP/File

Workers repair a power line June 29, 2023, in Houston. An unrelenting Texas heat wave tested the state's power grid as demand soared during a second week of triple-digit temperatures.

There’s also an emotional layer that state officials need to work through, say grid watchers. As in any human relationship, Texans felt betrayed when the grid wasn’t there for them, says Joshua Rhodes, a research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin.

“It’s deep in the Texan psyche now to worry about the grid,” he adds.

“The grid is more reliable,” he continues. But to rebuild trust, “it’s going to take a lot of time and hard work, and being consistent about keeping the lights on [and] making people feel safe.”

The Lone Star State’s lone road with power

In a few ways, the Texas power grid is unique.

ERCOT is the only grid network in the United States that is not connected with other grid systems. This has meant the Texas grid isn’t covered by federal regulations. It also means that Texas can’t draw power from other states when needed. 

Normally this isn’t an issue. Through natural gas and, increasingly, renewable energy sources, Texas produces more electricity than any state in the country. ERCOT, meanwhile, manages the flow of all this electricity. When demand looks like it could exceed supply, ERCOT can tell more generators to come online. It can then also ask Texans to conserve electricity. 

ERCOT isn’t a state body itself, but it’s overseen by one: the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC). In February 2021, this system collapsed amidst days of subzero temperatures, freezing rain, and record snowfall around the state. Energy sources froze up, and power plants broke down. 

All forms of power generation failed, but the bulk of the outages came from the natural gas supply, which provides most of the grid’s electrical capacity.

To prevent an uncontrolled, systemwide blackout, ERCOT cut power to millions of homes across the state for days until generators could come back online. ERCOT and the PUC struggled both to restore power around the state and to communicate what was going as Texans sat freezing in their homes, few of which are winterized. As the snow melted and lights turned back on, demands for reforms soared.

And reforms happened. State lawmakers replaced the entire ERCOT and PUC leadership in the months after the storm; the Legislature passed a law requiring power plants to weatherize. Texas’ plant weatherization standards are now the strictest in the country, according to Will McAdams, who served on the PUC from April 2021 through December 2023.

Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman/AP

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (second from right) listens to ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas speak at a press conference in Austin, Jan. 12, 2024, about power grid operations and expectations for cold weather that hit Texas last month.

Meanwhile, ERCOT launched a program to increase its supplies of emergency electricity. The grid network is also adding renewable energy capacity at a prodigious rate. No state produces more wind power than Texas, which could soon also overtake California as the country’s leader in solar power. Battery storage is also poised to increase substantially.

“The capacity we’re adding right now – which is mostly solar and storage – is contributing in a major way to reliability,” says Doug Lewin, an expert on the Texas electrical grid and author of The Texas Energy and Power Newsletter.

“There’s still room for a lot of improvement, but the outages for particular thermal [fossil fuel] power plants are down quite a bit,” he adds. As ERCOT expands supply, especially with renewables, it also needs to expand its grid infrastructure. This work has begun in some ways, such as adding transmission lines in South Texas and integrating more customers onto the grid in the Texas Panhandle. But other improvements have yet to begin.

Keeping lights on 

Still, many Texans remain skeptical that the lights will stay on when the weather gets bad.

While regulators and lawmakers have improved the grid, they’ve also misstepped. In the aftermath of the blackout, for example, some Texans received massive electricity bills because the PUC had raised prices during the storm in an effort to increase conservation.

Bills have also stayed high for many consumers as electricity providers have made infrastructure improvements and expanded connections for the state’s growing population. One woman in the city of Nevada, Texas, was billed $6,200 the week after the storm, more than she paid for electricity in all of 2020, The New York Times reported.

Some policies have also been criticized. Amidst record-breaking heat last summer, ERCOT paid bitcoin mining companies – huge warehouses of servers that run code that creates bitcoin – millions of dollars to reduce their energy usage. The grid operator then proposed, but canceled, a plan to revive some old fossil fuel plants last winter. ERCOT also tried to enact a regulation that would limit the use of battery storage – a technology projected to increase capacity by 157% this year.

Henry Gass/The Christian Science Monitor

Andrew Borrego leans on his 1995 Toyota pickup, nicknamed "Old Faithful." One of millions of Texans who lost power during a winter storm in February 2021, he told writer Henry Gass that he thinks the state has improved its power grid since then. You can hear part of their exchange in the audio version of this story. Use the play button above.

Dakota Johnson-Martinez, who lives in San Antonio, weathered the 2021 storm reasonably well. She lost power intermittently, but not water, so she spent the week huddled under blankets playing games with her three children.

Still, three years later, she doesn’t trust that the power grid has improved. She only needs to look at her bill to see that the average monthly price of electricity has increased from 11.73 cents per kilowatt-hour each month in 2020 to an average of 16.66 cents per kilowatt-hour for the first six months of 2023, according to BKV Energy, a Fort Worth-based utility company.

“You keep raising our rates. Why aren’t you doing anything with it?” she asks. “I know that we have the windmills; I know we have the solar farms,” she adds. “And every time it gets too hot, they ask us [not] to lower our temperatures.”

And they don’t just ask when it gets hot. Over the past eight months, Texans had their phones blow up 13 times with warnings from ERCOT asking them to conserve electricity.

While there hasn’t been a widespread blackout, to many Texans these alerts are evidence of continuing grid frailty. From ERCOT’s perspective, however, they are intended to have the opposite effect. The grid is more reliable, experts say, and the grid operator is communicating with the public better than it did during the 2021 storm. But ERCOT may have overcorrected.

“People are getting annoyed with that,” says Mr. McAdams. “But it’s designed to increase public trust, so the public knows what’s happening and why it’s happening.

“I think it’s exacerbated some lack of trust that was already there,” he adds. “But over time, and if we don’t have emergency conditions, if we’re able to prevent that type of experience with the public, I think that can be restored. It will come slowly, and incrementally, but it will come back.”

With no major challenger for his party’s nomination, President Joe Biden might have expected to be coasting through the primary season right now.

Instead, he’s facing loud calls from various thought leaders – including prominent liberals – to drop out of the 2024 race, either soon or at the summer convention.

As these critics see it, Mr. Biden, at age 81, is too old – and more important, looks and sounds it – and is in real danger of losing to the likely Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump. The polls suggest as much. Some add that while Mr. Biden has a solid record to run on, it’s time to pass the torch to the next generation of Democratic leaders. 

And, they say, there’s still enough time for Democrats to find a new candidate before November. New York Times columnists Ezra Klein, a liberal, and Ross Douthat, an anti-Trump conservative, have argued separately this month that Mr. Biden should announce he’s stepping down at the August convention, setting off a frenzied contest in Chicago to select a new nominee. 

That’s what political conventions were originally designed for, Mr. Douthat writes: “handling intraparty competition.” Mr. Klein echoes that point, adding that there’s a “ton of talent” in the Democratic Party – governors, senators, Cabinet secretaries, not to mention Vice President Kamala Harris – who could vie for the nomination. 

But there’s a reason the parties ditched the “smoke-filled room” method of selecting nominees in favor of letting the voters decide via primaries and caucuses: It’s a much more democratic system. And while a brokered convention might be a great story for the media, it could easily backfire on the party. 

Mr. Biden’s lack of competition for the Democratic nomination also likely indicates that the party’s next-generation politicians – from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro – all saw taking on an incumbent president as a losing battle. And falling short in the 2024 primaries, while possibly damaging the current president politically, could harm their prospects for 2028. 

AP

Many Democrats say the party has a strong bench of politicians who could run for president. Clockwise from upper left are Maryland Gov. Wes Moore in Annapolis Feb. 7, 2024; Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in Lansing Jan. 24, 2024; California Gov. Gavin Newsom in San Francisco Nov. 9, 2023; and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro in Harrisburg Feb. 6, 2024.

Then there’s the not-small matter of Vice President Harris, the nation’s first female vice president and a woman of color. Ms. Harris’ favorability numbers are lower than Mr. Biden’s. While she would be expected to vie for the nomination in the event Mr. Biden dropped out, there’s a real possibility she would not emerge as the nominee. Regardless, a sudden competition for the nomination could cause an ugly rift within the party.

Some observers describe all the hand-wringing as yet another example of Democrats playing to type and panicking prematurely about the polls. 

“Democrats do freak out,” says Larry Sabato, a veteran political analyst at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. “There are certainly Republicans who do this, but not to this degree.” 

That doesn’t mean the comments aren’t notable, though – or that the concerns aren’t warranted. Several top Democratic strategists have aired startlingly blunt assessments about Mr. Biden’s prospects – including David Axelrod and James Carville, former campaign strategists for ex-Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, respectively. 

Last fall, Mr. Axelrod posted polling data showing Mr. Biden losing to Mr. Trump in most battleground states and suggested Mr. Biden should strongly consider not running again. “The stakes of miscalculation here are too dramatic to ignore,” Mr. Axelrod wrote.

Mr. Biden was widely reported as having some choice words for Mr. Axelrod, whom he knew while serving as Mr. Obama’s vice president. Tensions between the Obama and Biden camps have been long-standing. 

Mr. Carville has also publicly questioned Mr. Biden’s ability to win for months. The day before the Super Bowl, he appeared on CNN and said that the president’s decision not to do a pregame interview for the second straight year was a sign that either he or his staff didn’t have much confidence in his ability to pull it off. Biden advisers told reporters they thought Americans probably wanted a break from politics during the game. 

Lately, other Democrats have begun pushing back more forcefully against all this friendly fire, arguing that Mr. Biden is not only going to be the party’s nominee but is also, hands-down, their best candidate.

“For a number of reasons – including the 2024 campaign calendar, the Biden-Harris war chest, and the president’s unique leadership skills and accomplishments – Biden remains the Democrats’ strongest option,” writes Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, on MSNBC.com.

In the end, Mr. Biden dropping out of the 2024 race is “not gonna happen,” says Mike Mikus, a Democratic consultant based in suburban Pittsburgh. The Democratic voters he knows who might in theory prefer a different nominee are also strongly opposed to Mr. Trump – a factor that’s likely to work to Mr. Biden’s benefit as the general election campaign kicks into gear.

The president isn’t that far behind Mr. Trump in head-to-head polls – just 2 percentage points on average. And Democratic organizers say “counter-mobilization” – getting voters to turn out against Mr. Trump as much as for Mr. Biden – will be key. 

Plus, Mr. Mikus adds, “members of my sportsmen’s club don’t care what Ezra Klein thinks.”

Every minute counts in the quest to turn children into readers.

That’s why Joshua Elementary School’s principal, Lorraine Zapata, guards a door shortly after 8 a.m. She stops each student crossing the threshold and asks for a handshake.

As Ms. Zapata uses her right hand for the formal greeting, her left thumb clicks a counting device. Each click represents a tardy student. By day’s end, the number grows to 131 out of 500-some students. Their efforts to teach students how to read are in vain, she says, if the students aren’t there to learn. 

She hurries them off to class, where reading instruction is about to begin. The school is among a growing number nationwide that have embraced a phonics-based “science of reading” teaching style at a critical time. Simply put, too many of America’s kids can’t read. 

Ineffective teaching strategies, exacerbated by pandemic-era learning disruption, have snowballed into a generation of struggling readers. Not making changes, science of reading proponents warn, could have wide-reaching implications, for both children and society at large.

“What is that going to be in the future?” says Maryanne Wolf, a cognitive neuroscientist and director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners and Social Justice at the University of California, Los Angeles. “We’re going to have an electorate that has the lowest literacy level.”

Take California, for instance, where only 43% of third graders met or exceeded English language arts standards on a state test in 2023. And for third graders from low-income families, it’s even worse, with only 3 in 10 reading on grade level. By that point in school, as the education mantra goes, third graders should be reading to learn, not learning to read. The consequences of not catching up and falling further behind lead to this sobering reality: About 28% of adults in California are illiterate. 

A widening coalition of literacy experts and cognitive neuroscientists believes the learning solution lies in the science of reading, which essentially hard-wires the brain to grasp fundamental concepts underlying language and reading. Sounds correspond to letters and letter combinations, which form words that have meaning. 

Jackie Valley/The Christian Science Monitor

Examples of consonant blends line a whiteboard inside a classroom at Joshua Elementary School, Jan. 30, 2024. Teachers have adopted a “science of reading” approach to literacy instruction.

In recent years, dozens of states and Washington, D.C., have passed laws aimed at overhauling how reading is taught – moving away from programs that de-emphasized phonics. California could become the next state to make the shift toward a mandated science of reading approach. If lawmakers approve recently proposed legislation, the state would update its instructional materials, require teacher training, and make changes to how aspiring educators are taught at the collegiate level.

“With an education, doors open and jobs happen,” Ms. Zapata says. “But if you are missing reading, you probably won’t even finish high school, which will put you below the poverty line and just getting by.”

She pauses to emphasize her final point: “That’s why reading is a civil right.”

“The priority of reading”

California’s science of reading bill – whose principal author, Assemblymember Blanca Rubio, is a former teacher – will receive its first legislative committee hearing in March.

Despite bipartisan support, the bill’s chances may come down to money. The Golden State is facing a roughly $38 billion shortfall this year. The professional development tied to the bill would cost an estimated $200 million to $300 million, says Marshall Tuck, CEO of EdVoice, a sponsor of the bill.

Even so, he frames the need as an equity issue, especially for children in low-income communities whose families cannot afford tutors or other reading boosts. 

“A budget is a statement of priorities,” he says. “And we believe that this is not a lot of money when it comes to the priority of reading.”

The bill provision concerning teacher preparation programs has been lauded as a critical missing link. If colleges and universities graduate teachers armed with science of reading skills, that reduces the training burden at individual schools.

Moving away from “whole language”

Before the recent shift, many American public schools used an approach that is often described as “whole language” or “balanced literacy.” Joshua Elementary was one of those. 

Though the strategies varied in practice, schools generally operated under the belief that if immersed in books and exciting stories, children would develop a love for literature and naturally pick up language patterns and reading. Some phonics instruction occurred. But educators also used cuing strategies such as asking students to determine words based on context clues or visuals.

Jackie Valley/The Christian Science Monitor

Principal Lorraine Zapata (left) and literacy coach Jennie Johnson pose by a free little library outside Joshua Elementary School, Jan. 30, 2024. The school has embraced a “science of reading” approach for literacy instruction.

On state standardized tests, the percentage of Joshua Elementary students meeting or exceeding grade-level benchmarks often registered in the single digits. The frustrating situation gnawed on staff’s confidence and morale. Looking back, Ms. Zapata describes literacy instruction as “haphazard.” Teachers asked students to look at a picture to help decipher words or think about the story plot.

But that changed several years ago when the school found itself plugged into a new literacy program. A 2017 lawsuit against California alleged the state was violating its constitutional responsibility of ensuring education by sending children to schools where they were not learning to read. The case settlement sparked the creation of a block grant program to support early literacy instruction. 

Beginning in July 2021, the state enrolled roughly 70 of its lowest-performing elementary schools into the program. It came with an edict: Convert to a science of reading approach.

The program allowed the schools some discretion in how they spent grant money toward that purpose: instructional coaches, professional development, assessment tools, instructional materials, tutoring, after-school programming, and parent outreach, among others.

Joshua Elementary leaders, for instance, hired a literacy coach, who works directly with teachers. K-3 educators also received intensive training in the science of reading. That academic instrument, so to speak, is one that staff believes will strengthen learning throughout these predominantly Black and Latino students’ lives.

Parent Tanai Thedford, whose 6-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son attend the school, says she regularly sees evidence of reading gains. Just as importantly, she also sees enthusiasm.

Jackie Valley/The Christian Science Monitor

Tanai Thedford sits with her 6-year-old daughter, Sanai, in a Joshua Elementary School courtyard Jan. 31, 2024. She has watched her daughter’s enthusiasm for learning to read grow since attending the school.

“She’ll come and she will be like, ‘Put your choppers up, Mom. Let’s chop up this word,’” she says, referring to a hand motion they use to break words into syllables in her daughter’s class.

And her son is a sponge, she says, soaking up everything his big sister is doing. It gives her hope for their future.

“I could be looking at our future president, a future RN, a future doctor, astronaut,” she says. “Whatever they want to be.”

“Ham-bur-ger” and “spa-ghe-tti”

On a recent morning, a symphony of letter sounds drifts from classrooms as students and staff start their day. 

In one room, a teacher leading 4-year-olds holds a sign featuring the letter J. She slowly and deliberately enunciates the corresponding sound. Her students follow suit. The decibel level rises as they gain confidence mastering the letter sound.

In a nearby kindergarten classroom, teacher Gretchen Shimer announces another iteration of phonemic awareness, or an understanding of speech sounds. “All right, friends, are we ready to blend?” she says. “Today, we are going to blend three sounds.”

And so begins a chorus of words with a theme that could make the youngsters’ bellies rumble: “ba-nan-a,” ”straw-berr-ies,” “ham-bur-ger,” and “spa-ghe-tti.”

Second grade teacher Emily Cooksey says the teaching approach has brought her students closer to grade-level reading skills. Fewer students entered her class this year needing beginner help known as “alphabet boot camp.”

A fringe benefit also emerged for Ms. Cooksey, who has dyslexia and never understood the phonics underlying word construction until she learned how to teach that way.

“It has made me a stronger reader even as an adult to look at some words and go, “Oh, that’s how you say that word,’” she says.

Jackie Valley/The Christian Science Monitor

Teacher Kiara McCoy, who leads a transitional kindergarten class, helps her students pronounce letter sounds Jan. 31, 2024, at Joshua Elementary School.

In December, two Stanford University researchers released a study showing the program “generated significant (and cost-effective) improvements” during its first two years. 

On average, students attending the block grant-eligible schools gained nearly a quarter year of reading skills, outpacing their peers at similar schools, says Thomas Dee, the Barnett Family Professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. The schools also saw some spillover gains in students’ math achievement.

“I’m hopeful that schools will be able to continue to nurture the reading gains and the math gains the students have achieved, and that it will redound to future success,” Dr. Dee says. “But we’re going to have to wait and see for time to pass and there’s data to become available.”

The schools’ initial success, offering proof of possibility, has intensified the drumbeat for more science of reading-based instruction. The recently proposed legislation, dubbed “California Kids Read,” sets a multiyear pathway for moving the state wholly in that direction.

Dr. Wolf, the UCLA cognitive neuroscientist, has been urging people to think of it as more than just phonics. Done correctly, she says, the teaching method creates deep readers capable of not only decoding words but also mastering their meaning and usage.

When that happens, the written words in a book activate feelings and critical thinking that children need as they grow.

“These stories teach empathy,” she says. “They teach having friendships that are different from you. They teach about perspective-taking.” 

Before reading, meeting basic needs

Ms. Zapata knows this all too well at her school, where the challenges are many and staff turnover is high. A large portion of children come to school carrying trauma from home lives disrupted by addiction, abuse and neglect, incarceration, homelessness, chronic illnesses, and hunger. The school is their safe haven from a neighborhood that tilts toward instability. On a weekday in January, suspects opened fire from a sidewalk bordering the school and shot multiple rounds toward a nearby house. The school building went into lockdown.

The school provides meals, a clothing closet, and virtual doctor appointments for students.

“That’s the reality of the neighborhood we’re in,” Ms. Zapata says. “And so how do you help students regulate? How do you help families regulate? And how do you help the professionals that are here regulate to do the important work?” 

Her response to the proposed legislation: “Hallelujah.”

In essence, more trained educators should lead to more consistency over time. It’s a similar struggle with students. Of the 120-plus kindergartners at Joshua Elementary when this work began, only 53 remain today. 

Ms. Zapata says the school relies on constant assessments of new and existing students to measure their reading growth. School-based diagnostic tests have shown greater numbers of students at or approaching grade-level reading skills.

Moving the needle on state standardized tests has been more difficult. Nine percent of the school’s students met or exceeded state literacy standards during the 2022-2023 academic year, a modest 1 percentage point increase over the prior year.

It’s nowhere near where the school needs to be, Ms. Zapata says. As the school chugs full steam ahead with the science of reading, she believes that will change when today’s younger students start taking those tests.

To curb tardiness and chronic absenteeism, Ms. Zapata has been making home visits. She recently purchased snacks as a goodwill offering. With goodies in hand, she learns more about her students and encourages them to show up each day to learn.

“[The science of reading] is not a magic panacea,” she says. “It’s consistency and building the pathways in the brain and then making sure that our kids are here and engaging – in spite of whatever trauma, in spite of whatever they bring with them.” 

Julian Stratenschulte/picture-alliance/dpa/AP/File

Baba Hydara (second from left), son of slain Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara, stands with activists in front of the German court where a man involved in his father's murder was found guilty of the crime.

Deyda Hydara had just turned his blue Mercedes onto a dark dirt road lined with factories when a beat-up yellow taxi with no license plates suddenly appeared behind him, flashing its lights.

It was 10 p.m. on Dec. 16, 2004, and the renowned journalist was driving home from a party at work in Banjul, Gambia’s capital city. He waved out his window for the taxi to pass. But as it pulled around Mr. Hydara’s car, the taxi suddenly slowed. A passenger leaned out the window and fired three shots directly into the Mercedes.

It was easy to guess who ordered the murder of Mr. Hydara, an outspoken critic of Gambia’s dictator, Yahya Jammeh. But the president and his hit squad, the Junglers, seemed all but untouchable, even long after the dictator was ousted from power in 2017.

Until last November, when a German court sentenced Bai Lowe, the man driving the yellow taxi that night, to life in prison for crimes against humanity for his role in several political murders between 2003 and 2006.

The ruling marked the first time that any member of the Junglers had been convicted for their crimes, anywhere in the world. It was made possible by an increasingly popular legal principle called universal jurisdiction, which allows severe crimes to be tried regardless of where they were committed or the nationality of the perpetrator or victim. In recent years, universal jurisdiction has become an essential avenue to the prosecution of atrocities committed in countries like Syria, where prospects for accountability are otherwise limited. 

Now, Gambian activists hope the German ruling will create momentum to help them find justice for many more of Mr. Jammeh’s victims, whether within Gambia’s own legal system or far beyond the tiny west African nation’s borders.

“It reinforces the idea that justice can be served anywhere, no matter who you are,” says Zainab Lowe-Baldeh, an advocate for victims of Mr. Jammeh’s regime and whose brother was killed by the Junglers.

Jerome Delay/AP/File

People cheer Senegalese troops outside the state house in the Gambian capital, Banjul, in 2017, the day after former President Yahya Jammeh went into exile.

Truth and reconciliation

When Mr. Jammeh fled into exile in 2017 after losing a presidential election, he left behind a nation traumatized by his rule. For 22 years, his regime had employed a range of brutal tactics to stifle dissent, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and sexual violence. His targets included activists, political rivals, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and even his own family members.

The new administration of Adama Barrow pledged that justice for these victims and their loved ones was a top priority. In 2018, it established the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) to investigate rights violations during the Jammeh era.

Gambians followed the proceedings with rapt attention – huddling around TVs and radios in restaurants, shared taxis, and corner stores to listen to victims and perpetrators describe the horrors they had been part of. Ayesha Jammeh, a relative of the former president, sat in the front row at the TRRC in 2019 as a Jungler named Omar Jallow described helping strangle her father, Haruna, and aunt, Masie, who were cousins of Mr. Jammeh, in 2005.

For Ms. Jammeh, also an activist for other victims of the former president, it felt like justice might finally be close at hand.

In its final report released in 2021, the TRRC recommended the criminal prosecution of 70 individuals, including Mr. Jammeh and Mr. Jallow. It also urged reparations for victims and comprehensive human rights training for security forces.

But Gambia’s government dragged its feet, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and financial problems. Like other perpetrators, the men who killed Ms. Jammeh’s father and aunt remain free.

David Bruckmeier

Ayesha Jammeh is a co-founder of the Gambia Center for Victims of Human Rights Violations, which represents survivors of the dictatorship. Like many others, Ms. Jammeh still awaits justice a decade after her father and aunt were killed by Junglers, a government death squad.

A transnational fight

As the TRRC’s calls to action fizzled in Gambia, however, efforts to pursue justice beyond the country’s borders gained momentum.

Among those who brought global attention to impunity in Gambia was Baba Hydara, Deyda Hydara’s eldest son. Living in exile after his father’s murder, Mr. Hydara tried to carry on his legacy by working for Reporters Without Borders. After Mr. Jammeh’s ouster, he returned to Gambia to manage Deyda’s incendiary independent newspaper, The Point.

“All over I went to raise awareness about the situation in the Gambia, about what happened to my family,” he says.

But they still lived in the shadow of the murder. Despite evidence pointing to government involvement in Deyda’s death, the family struggled to find concrete answers. The pieces started coming together in 2013, when Mr. Lowe, then living in Germany as a refugee, revealed his role as a driver in the killing in a radio interview. However, it wasn’t until 2021, prompted by additional evidence from the TRRC hearings, that German authorities arrested him. 

The subsequent trial spanned 19 months, featuring testimonies from former Junglers, eyewitnesses, and relatives of other victims. Mr. Hydara was a co-plaintiff, and The Point covered the trial extensively, keeping the Gambian public informed about the proceedings. 

Although the people who fired the fatal shots at his father remain free, Mr. Hydara sees the verdict against Mr. Lowe as a potential turning point.

“This ... verdict is a big, big relief – not only for the Hydara family but for all the other families of victims in the Gambia,” Mr. Hydara says.

David Bruckmeier

A display showcases personal items of Deyda Hydara at Memory House, a museum commemorating victims of the Jammeh regime near Banjul, Gambia.

New momentum

Activists say they hope the ruling against Mr. Lowe will snowball into something far larger. Last month, similar proceedings against former Interior Minister Ousman Sonko, an ally of Mr. Jammeh accused of murder, rape, and torture, started in Switzerland. The trial of Michael Correa, another alleged Jungler, is expected to begin in the United States in September.

Critics of universal jurisdiction have argued that the principle is not universal at all – but rather used exclusively by Western courts to pursue perpetrators from less powerful countries.

However, its application has been widely accepted in Gambia’s transitional justice process, and proponents stress that universal jurisdiction trials can be an effective tool to exert pressure on governments to take domestic legal action as well.

“They ... send a strong signal to the Gambian authorities, who are the first concerned, that they should initiate their own prosecutions,” wrote Benoit Meystre, a legal adviser for TRIAL International, which initiated the case against Mr. Sonko, in an email.

In Gambia, Ms. Jammeh, the victims’ rights activist, says she hopes the international cases will be “a wake-up call for our government,” but worries that President Barrow’s commitment to ending impunity is insincere. In 2021, he formed an alliance with a faction of Mr. Jammeh’s party, and he has elevated politicians from that era to senior government positions. 

Still, she says, there is reason for hope. There are tentative plans for a new local court backed by the Economic Community of West African States to try Jammeh-era crimes. And last month, a special division opened in Gambia’s High Court that will focus specifically on prosecuting cases referred by the TRRC.

For activists, the hope is that this surge in cases will ultimately arrive at the doorstep of their former dictator himself. 

“All these convictions coming mean that Jammeh ... will soon have his turn in court,” Mr. Hydara says.

Float Up, Sing Down, by Laird Hunt

In Laird Hunt’s collection of stories, residents of an Indiana farming community in 1982 go about their routines, with secrets and regrets roiling beneath the surface. “Things grew where they grew and flew where they flew and that was all there was to it,” thinks one character. It’s an assessment that infuses these deeply felt tales.

Wandering Stars, by Tommy Orange

Tommy Orange weaves a fictional Cheyenne family into such real-life events as the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, dramatizing the impact of historical events on subsequent generations of Native Americans. “Wandering Stars” is the engaging follow-up to his award-winning first novel, “There There.” 

Cahokia Jazz, by Francis Spufford

Welcome to Cahokia, Illinois, in 1922, a fast-paced industrial burg whose Black, Native, and white denizens dwell in relative calm. After a gruesome murder ignites old fears, Joe Barrow – a biracial police officer with a talent for jazz piano – gets the case. Oozing with noir tropes yet still remarkably original, Francis Spufford’s speculative tale wrestles with trust, truth, and transformation.

Acts of Forgiveness, by Maura Cheeks

The novel imagines what the United States would look like if the government passed a law requiring reparations to descendants of enslaved people. As Black families pour into the South to hunt for records of their ancestors, the white backlash begins. The novel begins slowly, but builds with each page. 

Smoke Kings, by Jahmal Mayfield

If first novels indicate career trajectory, Jahmal Mayfield has a future in crime fiction. His “Smoke Kings” is a fresh take on current events and history, mixed with social commentary. It’s a fast-paced story of twisted altruism that is not only entertaining but also thought-provoking.

Diva, by Daisy Goodwin

Novelist Daisy Goodwin unfolds the glamorous world of legendary opera star Maria Callas, and her love affair with Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis. Heartbroken after Onassis marries the widowed Jacqueline Kennedy, Callas discovers her true voice.

The Turtle House, by Amanda Churchill

When Grandminnie unexpectedly becomes her architect granddaughter Lia’s roommate, they begin sharing poignant secrets as Lia records Grandminnie’s life stories. This exceptional debut novel honors Amanda Churchill’s real grandmother, a Japanese war bride who relocated to a vast Texas ranch in the 1950s. “The Turtle House” is filled with bighearted characters, delightful storytelling, and precise prose. 

This Disaster Loves You, by Richard Roper

Sad-sack Brian, a British pub owner in midlife, has been mourning the baffling disappearance of his wife, Lily. Following the digital breadcrumbs of an online travel reviewer who may be Lily, Brian embarks on a quest to find his beloved. In Richard Roper’s capable hands, the search becomes so much more – a kindling of confidence, a step down new paths. It’s an engaging, poignant read.

The Stolen Wealth of Slavery, by David Montero

Journalist David Montero’s searing, meticulous history demonstrates that the banks and corporations of the North, more than the plantations of the South, benefited financially from slavery in the U.S. Many of those entities are still in business today. In following the massive wealth created by enslaved people in earlier centuries into our own, the author makes a compelling argument for reparations.

Brought Forth on This Continent, by Harold Holzer

Harold Holzer covers the previously neglected topic of Abraham Lincoln and immigration in his illuminating book. He begins with Lincoln’s balancing act as a member of the nativist Whig Party early in his political career. The author then charts the 16th president’s embrace of European immigration as the standard-bearer of the new, anti-slavery Republican Party.

AP

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, left, welcomes European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, for talks about progress that Poland's new government has been making in restoring rule-of-law principles as it seeks to have its EU funds unfrozen, in Warsaw, Poland, Friday Feb. 23.

Poland, which was the pioneer in eroding the Soviet empire during the 1980s, was rewarded last week for being a pioneer in rolling back an authoritarian trend within Europe. The executive branch of the European Union announced that Poland would start receiving $148.5 billion in frozen EU funds after the country – led by young voters – took the first steps in restoring a core principle of democratic governance: equality in rule of law before impartial judges.

“Poland is moving from being a rule of law problem child to becoming a champion of democracy,” said German Minister of State for Europe Anna Lührmann.

The money due Poland had been withheld by the EU because the previous government, under the Law and Justice party (known by its Polish acronym PiS), had violated the separation of powers in eroding the independence of the judiciary. Since 2015, when the party won an election, it had altered the selection process for judges in order to place thousands of party loyalists on the bench.

The PiS lost power after an election last October that saw the highest voter turnout – 74% – in over a century. “Polish citizens chose democracy and the rule of law on the 15th of October,” Donald Tusk, the new prime minister, told reporters. “They are the real heroes of Polish history.”

In particular, voters under age 29 showed up. Their turnout was nearly 69%, compared with 46% in 2019. Under the previous government, they had experienced an erosion of civic liberties marked by greater inequality from court decisions.

“The outcome of the October election should serve as a reminder that democracy’s decline is not inevitable and can be halted,” wrote Patrice McMahon, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in The Conversation.

The new ruling coalition under Mr. Tusk faces an uphill struggle to clean up Poland’s judiciary. The current president, a PiS loyalist whose term ends next year, can veto measures passed by the parliament. Yet the EU has enough faith in the new government’s initial reforms to start releasing the bloc’s funds promised to Poland.

“We are impressed by [the efforts] of the Polish people to restore the rule of law as the backbone of your society,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “A society where everyone plays by the rules. A society where people and businesses can trust the institutions and can hold authorities to account. Together we will protect the rule of law all over Europe.”