Cave Boys: At least five boys have been pulled out of a flooded cave in Thailand as the rescue operation continues. Four were brought out yesterday before dive teams had to re-stock the route with air tanks and tighten ropes.

The effort has involved 90 divers. It took six hours to get the boys from the chamber where they were trapped to the entrance.

A low dam built outside the cave has helped to keep water levels down but the rescue teams are racing against the return of monsoon rains.

Chemical War: A 44-year-old British woman has died after she was exposed to the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok in Amesbury, England, the Metropolitan Police said. Dawn Sturgess was exposed to the same nerve agent used in the attempted assassination of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March.

Strugess’s companion, Charles Rowley, 45, remains in critical condition in a hospital. The two had been in the area where Skripal was poisoned.

Authorities deduce that Sturgess and Rowley touched something with their hands that had been contaminated with Novichok. The assumption is that it’s related to the Skripal case, but they can’t be certain.

Supreme Announcement: President Trump is expected today to announce his nomination for a Supreme Court justice to replace the retiring Anthony Kennedy. The President likes drama and says he will announce on live television at 9 pm.

Reports say the field has been narrowed to four candidates, including one woman. Trump is under pressure to appoint someone who will vote to overturn the legality of abortion, but he also would be wise not to provoke a confirmation fight so close to the mid-term elections.

Japan Deaths: At least 112 people are now reported dead killed after flooding and mudslides in Kurashiki and Hiroshima, Japan.  An additional 78 people are still missing. Thousands more are displaced from their homes.

These areas of Japan are considered some of the safest from storms, earthquakes, and tsunamis.

Babes in Court: The Associated Press ran a story about the immigration mess that led with a description of a 1-year-old boy appearing without his parents in a Phoenix immigration court. The story said, “The 1-year-old boy in a green button-up shirt drank milk from a bottle, played with a small purple ball that lit up when it hit the ground and occasionally asked for ‘agua.’”

While the Trump administration is struggling under court order to re-unite parents and children separated under the President’s “zero tolerance” policy for illegal immigration, children face deportation without their parents.

The story said the judge was embarrassed when he had to ask the boy and other immigrant children whether they understood the proceedings. The story said the boy was from Honduras and his father had already been deported home.

Hundreds of children face the same situation. The immigration court system requires that children — some still in diapers — must appear before judges and go through deportation proceedings while separated from their parents. These children don’t have a right to a court-appointed lawyer.

Rule of Law: President Trump spent part of his weekend at his New Jersey golf resort assailing the Special Counsel and the Russian election interference investigation.

Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, wrote in The Washington Post that his party cannot stand by while the President attacks the legitimacy of the investigation and the Justice Department. “No matter who is in the White House, we Republicans must stand up for the sanctity of our democracy and the rule of law,” he wrote.

He went on, “When Trump talks about firing the special counsel or his power to pardon himself, he makes it seem as though he has something to hide. The president must remember that only Mueller’s exoneration can lift the cloud hanging over the White House.”

Frist said, “The special counsel’s investigation is not about Trump. It is about our national security. Every American should be rooting for Mueller’s success in determining precisely how Russia interfered in our fundamental democratic process.”

The Roundup: Starbucks announced that it will no longer hand out plastic straws by the year 2020. Like plastic shopping bags, straws are beginning to be phased out because they create so much waste. — Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell was heckled by immigration protesters as he left a restaurant in Louisville, Ky. — Britain’s “Brexit Minister” has resigned, claiming Prime Minister Theresa May is planning to withdraw the country from the European Union in name only while keeping most of the privileges and obligations.

Social Notes: Former teen music throb Justin Bieber, 24, is engaged to marry Hailey Baldwin, 21, daughter of Stephen Baldwin of the acting Baldwin Brothers. Hailey’s father is a bit of a religious nut. He tweeted, “Always pray 4 God’s Will!!” as if it would be God’s will to determine who Justin Bieber marries. Where was He when the Beebs got all those tattoos?

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