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The Agenda
June 2007 Atlantic Monthly
Hurricane futures; the Swiss at sea; Bill Gates finally graduates Compiled by Matthew Quirk CalendarIllustrations by Istvan Banyai June 1 Windfall Profits
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June 1
iGottahaveone
June 5
Pardon Me?
June 6 –8
Ich Bin Ein Polluter
June 8
Scusi
America’s “war on terror” clashes with Europe’s sovereignty today over the issue of “extraordinary rendition.” An Italian court will try 25 CIA agents and an Air Force officer in absentia for allegedly kidnapping a radical imam in Milan four years ago and sending him to Egypt to be tortured. The U.S. State Department has refused to extradite any of the accused. June 7
Gates Finally Graduates
Bill Gates, the world’s most successful college dropout, returns today to Harvard, the university he quit during his sophomore year to found Microsoft. Gates will deliver a commencement address and at last get a degree (albeit an honorary one). June 23
Yodel-Ay-Heave-Ho!
The quest for the 32nd America’s Cup—at 156 years old, it’s the oldest trophy in international sports—starts today off the coast of Valencia, Spain. The unlikely defenders: the landlocked Swiss. June 30
The Veterans’ Affair
In response to revelations that wounded soldiers lived with mice, roaches, and mold at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a bipartisan panel delivers a report today reviewing veterans’ care. Critics argue the panel’s timeline was too brief to plumb the full problem.
June 30
D’oh-a
Also This Month:
Royal Mess
Taylor on Trial
The war-crimes trial of Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, is set to begin this month at The Hague. Taylor is accused of backing rebels who killed, raped, and mutilated thousands during the decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone that ended in 2002. The trial was moved from Freetown out of fear that Taylor loyalists might react violently. Iraq in a Hard Place
This month is the deadline for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to push a measure through parliament to apportion the country’s oil revenues. Otherwise, aides to Maliki claim, U.S. officials threatened to give him the boot. Ayad Allawi, Iraq’s former prime minister and a fellow Shiite, and Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish leader, are angling to replace him. Matthew Quirk is an Atlantic staff editor.
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ot everyone will be hoping for a tame storm season in 2007. With hurricane season beginning today, the 
Techie nirvana has arrived: Apple’s long-awaited 
Dick Cheney aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who in March was found guilty of lying to prosecutors during an investigation into a CIA leak scandal, receives his sentence today. Under federal sentencing guidelines, it will likely be between 21 and 27 months. 
This year’s G8 summit takes place on Germany’s Baltic Coast, and it’s expected to feature Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, pressuring nations—especially the United States—to cut emissions. The EU has announced plans to cut greenhouse-gas emissions 20 percent from their 1990 level by 2020 (30 percent if peer nations follow suit) as a model for moving beyond the 
Like a bad actor, the 
Nepal’s bloody transformation from divine monarchy to secular republic nears resolution this month with elections that will help determine who controls the country. Years of populist uprisings against King Gyanendra (who assumed the throne in 2001 after his nephew, the heir apparent, slaughtered most of the royal family in a murder- suicide) may finally succeed in ending the monarchy. 
