Off the Tracks: In an incident that just beggars the imagination, as least 261 people were killed yesterday and 900 injured in a train wreck in eastern India. Initial reports say that that 10 to 12 coaches of one train derailed and some of the debris then landed on a nearby track, where it was hit by another train.

  Ultimately a third train was involved.

  Witnesses described a horrific scene of rescue workers with dogs and cutting equipment working frantically to free the injured who were trapped in the wreckage. One man told The Hindustan Times that, “There were loud shrieks and blood all over.”

  Members of the Army, Air Force, and National Disaster Response Force have been mobilized to help. 

  India has one of the world’s largest train systems with 40,000 miles of track, but it has not always been well maintained. They have a history of wrecks killing dozens, and sometimes hundreds of people. 

High Stakes: President Biden in a prime-time television address last night from the Oval Office praised this week’s this week’s bipartisan legislative budget and debt deal for averting the economic disaster of a default on the nation’s debt.

  “The stakes could not have been higher,” Biden said. He conceded that no one got everything they wanted but, “we protected important priorities from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid to veterans to our transformational investments in infrastructure and clean energy.”

  The President went out of his way to praise House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the Republican opposition leader. “We were straightforward with one another, completely honest with one another and respectful with one another,” Biden said. “Both sides operated in good faith.”

Econ 101: The economy added a healthy 339,000 jobs in May despite the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes intended to cool growth and thwart inflation.

  The Fed had signaled that they were going to leave interest rates unchanged this month, but the job numbers might make that harder to do. 

  Unemployment rose to 3.7 percent, up from 3.4 percent, with a decrease of 310,000 in the number of people employed, meaning there wasn’t much change in the size of the labor force. Employers are still attracting scarce workers with higher wages, another inflationary factor.

The War Room: Speaking in Finland yesterday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken listed the ways in which Russia is worse off diplomatically than before the Ukraine invasion, including convincing Finland to break its historic neutrality and join NATO. Finland has an 832 mile border with Russia.

  Russia is significantly worse off today than it was before the full-scale invasion — militarily, economically, geopolitically,” Blinken said. “Where Putin aimed to project strength, he has revealed weakness. Where he sought to divide, he has united. What he tried to prevent, he has precipitated.”

Trump World: After laying hands on an audio recording of former President Donald Trump discussing a secret document related to Gen Mark Milley and potential plans for military action against Iran, federal prosecutors say they have been unable to locate the document in question.

  Prosecutors issued a subpoena to Trump’s lawyers in March, demanding the materials, and the lawyers in turn have not, or have been unable to produce them.

  The recorded meeting took place in July 2021 at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey golf club. It was between Trump and two people helping with a memoir being written by Trump’s last White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Other aides were present.

  The recording is damaging to Trump not only because he is discussing a classified document with people not authorized to hear it, but that he can be heard admitted that he did not have the authority to declassify documents after he left office. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he has that power and therefore cannot be prosecuted for possessing classified documents.

The Obit Page: Cynthia Weil, who with her writing partner and husband, Barry Mann, wrote some of the most enduring lyrics of popular music, including  the Drifters’ hit “On Broadway,” the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’,” and “We Gotta Get Out of this Place” for The Animals, died at her home in Beverly Hills, at 82.

  Weil survived the trends of music over a lifetime of writing. Her first big hit came from a longing to be on Broadway. 

They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway

They say there’s always magic in the air

But when you’re walking down the street

And you ain’t had enough to eat

The glitter rubs right off and you’re nowhere

The Spin Rack: The Justice Department says it will not seek criminal charges against former Vice President Mike Pence for taking classified documents home with him to Indiana. — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill making that state the 23^rd to allow recreational use of marijuana. — Forty-five bags containing human remains with characteristics matching seven young people missing from a call center last month have been discovered in a ravine in a suburb of Guadalajara, Mexico. — Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby, has moved racing to a different Kentucky track while federal and state regulators investigate the deaths of 12 horses at Churchill in the past five weeks. We suspect the cause is horse training and racing, but what do we know? 

Below the Fold: Arizona’s election denying and failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has chosen the Leni Kravitz version of the song “American Woman” for her rally entrance music. Despite losing every lawsuit to overturn the election, Lake claims she’s going to get an “expedited” review and that the Supreme Court might be interested in her case even though they’ve said no such thing.

  But back to the song. We wonder whether she’s ever listened to the lyrics which go, in part:

American woman, stay away from me
American woman, mama let me be
Don’t come a hangin’ around my door
I don’t want to see your face no more