The Full Belmonte, 1/13/22
Supply-chain disruptions have helped keep food inflation elevated. PHOTO: SARAH SILBIGER/REUTERS
“December's inflation rate was 7 percent, bringing it to the highest it’s been in 40 years and hiking up prices at the grocery store and the gas pump, as well as on goods like cars and furniture. Those price increases effectively negate the higher wages workers have been able to negotiate, and present a major threat for the Biden administration and congressional Democrats as midterm elections approach.” [Vox] Read more at AP / Christopher Rugaber
“The current inflation problem is due to Covid-related supply and demand mismatch; supply chain snarls have made it difficult for goods to get to the consumers who, because they have more money from wage increases and government stimulus, are eager and able to spend. The Federal Reserve, which sets US monetary policy, has been discussing for months the remedies that it can enact to ease inflation.” [Vox]
“Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday told the Senate Banking Committee that he believed the economic recovery from the pandemic was going well and that the Fed’s efforts to keep the economy afloat through the pandemic could be scaled back to ‘cool’ the economy and lower inflation. But that could also slow hiring, which contradicts the Fed’s mandate to achieve full employment — when everyone who wants a job can get one.” [Vox] Read more at NYT / Jeanna Smialek
“Specifically, the Fed has already started the process of ‘tapering’ — decreasing its purchases of government bonds to fund stimulus. Powell also said Tuesday that he’s prepared to raise interest rates on borrowing, like credit and mortgages, multiple times over the next year.” [Vox] Guardian / Lauren Aratani]
“Interest rate increases are meant to limit the flow of money in the economy by making it more expensive to borrow, and rate increases could start as soon as March. That’s quicker than the central bank originally intended, signaling increased concern about the effect inflation is having on the economy, and fears that without aggressive action, it might be long-lasting.” [Vox] Read more at WSJ / Nick Timiraos
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy in the Capitol Rotunda in November. Photo: Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA via Reuters
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection requested an interview and records from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as it continues to seek first-hand details from members of Congress on former President Donald Trump’s actions on the day hundreds of his supporters brutally beat police, stormed the building and interrupted the certification of the 2020 election.
McCarthy issued a statement Wednesday saying he would refuse to cooperate. He said the investigation was not legitimate and accused the panel of ‘abuse of power.’
Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, requested that McCarthy, R-Calif., provide information to the nine-member panel regarding his conversations with Trump ‘before, during and after’ the riot. The request also seeks information about McCarthy’s communications with former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the days before the attack.” Read more at AP News
“Kevin McCarthy is signaling he'll institutionalize key Trumpian priorities if he takes over as House speaker next year — aggressive tactics targeting undocumented immigrants, liberals and corporate America, Axios' Jonathan Swan reports.
Why it matters: He'd govern with an edge and agenda in stark contrast to Paul Ryan, the last GOP speaker. McCarthy's vision would empower populists and pugilists to complete Donald Trump's Republican makeover.
Over the past year — and intensifying in recent months — McCarthy, 56, has been auditioning for a contest he failed at before:
On issue after issue, the man from Bakersfield is laying down markers to continue the dramatic GOP transformation that began in 2017.
‘We're going to be more aggressive than in the past,’ McCarthy told Axios in an interview.
‘We're not going to sit back and just take a 'no' for an answer. ... It can't be business as usual.’
What we're hearing: Where Ryan was comparatively sympathetic toward undocumented immigrants, McCarthy is preemptively hardline.
Where Ryan focused on tax cuts and friendly relations with corporate America, McCarthy is excoriating the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, threatening crippling regulations on social media companies and planning to inject an anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mindset into the work of every congressional committee possible.
Where Ryan tried for civil relationships across the aisle, McCarthy promises to strip high-profile Democrats of their committee assignments.
Between the lines: If Biden's low approval ratings and GOP strength in the generic ballot hold, the 2022 midterms may be the most favorable political environment for Republicans since the 2010 Tea Party wave election.
Ryan cast himself as a policy leader devoted to conservative principles such as shrinking the size of government.
McCarthy is more inclined to reflect the views of his conference — which may be even Trumpier a year from now than they are today.
A taste of Kevin McCarthy's plans if he becomes speaker, as previewed in an interview with Axios' Jonathan Swan:
Immigration: McCarthy reiterated to Axios his recent pledge to Breitbart's Matt Boyle — that he'll not consider any legislation offering legal status to undocumented immigrants, preemptively ruling out comprehensive immigration reform.
Relationship with corporate America: After Jan. 6, many major corporations cut financial ties with Republicans who objected to certifying President Biden's victory. McCarthy hasn't forgotten, and he's signaled a hostile relationship with key emissaries of corporate America.
He's scolded the Chamber of Commerce — once a pillar of the Republican Party. He told Breitbart that ‘the Chamber left the party a long time ago,’ and noted its endorsements of House Democrats in 2020.
He traveled to Georgia last May to reinforce his vision of the GOP’s new relationship with business — siding with small businesses that oppose corporations pursuing ‘woke’ social justice policies.
McCarthy told Axios he plans to inject tough-on-China initiatives into the work of numerous congressional committees — putting him at odds with some of the GOP's traditional donor class.
Economic orthodoxy: Trump's biggest legislative accomplishment was a huge corporate tax cut. But when McCarthy talks about Republicans' approach to some of the biggest corporations, he makes threats.
On Jan. 4, after Twitter de-platformed far-right GOP congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), McCarthy tweeted: ‘Twitter (all big tech), if you shut down constitutionally protected speech (not lewd and obscene) you should lose [Section] 230 [immunity] protection.’
An enemies list: McCarthy has promised to escalate inter-party warfare by stripping multiple Democrats of their seats on important committees.
He says he'd retaliate against Pelosi, who stripped committee memberships from Greene and far-right Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), and blocked Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) from the Jan. 6 committee.
McCarthy told Breitbart he'd remove Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from the House Intelligence Committee; Swalwell from the Homeland Security Committee; and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.” Read more at Axios
“A Quinnipiac University poll out yesterday gave President Biden a 33% approval rating, with 53% disapproval (1,313 U.S. adults; margin: ±2.7 points) — statistically in line with the 36% disapproval he tallied in November.
With Biden hitting the one-year mark a week from today, Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy said: ‘A rocky start for President Biden gets him low grades on his year one report card.’
Between the lines: In the Quinnipiac polling graphed above, you see the lines cross — Biden goes underwater; more popular than unpopular — shortly after the fall of Afghanistan in mid-August.” Read more at Axios
“Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer prepared Democrats on Wednesday for the final phase of a year-long push to pass voting rights legislation, sketching out legislative maneuvers that could launch debate on a pair of stalled bills and force a confrontation over the Senate’s rules in the coming days.
The details of the next steps, laid out in a memo that Schumer (D-N.Y.) sent to colleagues Wednesday afternoon, comes as President Biden has launched his own aggressive push to convince his fellow Democrats to band together and overhaul the filibuster — the long-standing Senate rule requiring a 60-vote supermajority — in order to overcome strict GOP opposition to voting rights bills.
Biden made that case publicly in an address he delivered in Atlanta on Tuesday, when he said the Senate ‘has been rendered a shell of its former self’ and compared the present Republican opposition to the blockades mounted against civil rights bills in the Jim Crow era. He is scheduled to visit a Senate Democratic lunch Thursday in order to press his case directly with lawmakers.
In the memo, Schumer announced his intention to use existing rules to jump-start debate on the voting bills by having the House amend an existing, unrelated bill dealing with NASA and sending it back to the Senate as soon as Wednesday night. Starting debate under those circumstances requires only a simple majority of 51 votes — not a 60-vote supermajority.” Read more at Washington Post
“The ex-girlfriend of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) appeared Wednesday before a federal grand jury investigating the congressman for possible sex trafficking of a minor, according to a person familiar with a matter, a signal that the probe remains active more than a year after it began.
CNN and NBC News both spotted the woman and her attorney entering the federal courthouse in Orlando. A person familiar with the matter, who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, confirmed she was there as part of the Gaetz investigation.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. Timothy Jansen, a lawyer for the woman, confirmed to The Post that he and a client were at the federal courthouse in Orlando but declined to comment further.” Read more at Washington Post
“Two months after President Biden said migrant families separated at the border under the Trump administration deserve compensation, his administration’s lawyers are arguing in federal court that they are not in fact entitled to financial damages and their cases should be dismissed.
The Justice Department outlined its position in the government’s first court filings since settlement negotiations that could have awarded the families hundreds of thousands of dollars broke down in mid-December.
Government lawyers emphasized in the court documents that they do not condone the Trump administration’s policy of separating the children of undocumented migrants from their parents. But they said the U.S. government has a good deal of leeway when it comes to managing immigration and is immune from such legal challenges.
‘At issue in this case is whether adults who entered the country without authorization can challenge the federal government’s enforcement of federal immigration laws’ under federal tort claims laws, the Justice Department said in a Jan. 7 brief in a lawsuit in Pennsylvania. ‘They cannot.’
The legal strategy reflects the Biden administration’s awkward position as it shifts from championing the migrant families politically to fighting them in court. Migrant families have filed approximately 20 lawsuits and hundreds of administrative claims seeking compensation for the emotional and sometimes physical abuse they allege they suffered during the separations.
The motions to dismiss the cases were filed in a pair of lawsuits in Pennsylvania and California. Lawyers for the families said they expect the Justice Department to take a similar stance in other cases.” Read more at Washington Post
“A court in Germany found a former Syrian security officer guilty on Thursday of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to life in prison. He is the highest-ranking Syrian official to be held accountable for abuses committed by the government during a decade of civil war.
The former officer, Anwar Raslan, was accused of overseeing a detention center where prosecutors said at least 4,000 people were tortured and nearly 60 were killed.
The verdict marks a watershed moment for an international network of lawyers, human rights activists and Syrian war survivors who have struggled for years to bring officials who sanctioned or participated in the violence to justice.
Through nearly 11 years of civil war, the Syrian government bombed residential neighborhoods, used poison gas and tortured countless detainees in state lockups, but until now, no high-level officials had been held accountable for these acts, which human rights lawyers describe as war crimes.” Read more at New York Times
“CNN)A federal judge in New York on Wednesday denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against Prince Andrew filed by Virginia Giuffre, a woman who alleges she was sexually trafficked to the royal when she was underage.
‘Ms. Giuffre's complaint is neither 'unintelligible' nor 'vague' nor 'ambiguous,' Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in the ruling. ‘It alleges discrete incidents of sexual abuse in particular circumstances at three identifiable locations. It identifies to whom it attributes that sexual abuse.’
Giuffre alleged in the lawsuit that the late financier Jeffrey Epstein trafficked her and forced her to have sex with his friends, including the Prince, and that Andrew was aware she was underage (17) in the US at the time. She alleges the Prince sexually abused her at Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands, at his mansion in Manhattan and at his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell's home in London.
Prince Andrew has denied the allegations and had moved to dismiss the suit. CNN has reached out to his attorneys for further comment.” Read more at CNN
“College undergraduate enrollment continued to shrink this fall and has now declined by more than a million students since the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, according to a report released Thursday by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, a nonprofit research group.
Compared with last year, college undergraduate programs lost 465,300 students, or 3.1% of their total. Since the start of the pandemic, enrollment has declined by nearly 7%.
The decrease has translated into deep cuts at many schools as well as an uptick in school mergers and closings.
‘Our final look at fall 2021 enrollment shows undergraduates continuing to sit out in droves as colleges navigate yet another year of Covid-19,’ Doug Shapiro, executive director of the center, wrote.
College enrollment has been trending downward for a decade, driven in part by a demographic dip. The pandemic accelerated the decline.
Nationwide, 14,441,432 undergraduate students are enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities this fall. The greatest declines were among students seeking associate degrees: their enrollment fell by 6.2% this year.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Army, for the first time, is offering a maximum enlistment bonus of $50,000 to highly skilled recruits who join for six years, The Associated Press has learned, as the service struggles to lure soldiers into certain critical jobs during the continuing pandemic….
The annual recruiting goal fluctuates as currently serving soldiers decide whether to reenlist or leave. In the last two years, as the pandemic raged, many decided to stay in, lessening the pressure on recruiting to help keep the Army at its full strength of 485,000. Last year’s recruiting goal was 57,500, and Vereen said it will be about the same this year.
To entice recruits, those who sign up for a six-year enlistment in one of several high-demand career fields can get bonuses that total as much as $50,000. Given the high standards, it will be difficult for many to qualify for the top bonus.
The final figure depends on when they agree to ship out for training, if they already have critical skills and if they choose airborne or ranger posts. Certain careers — such as missile defense crew, special forces, signals intelligence and fire control specialists who coordinate battlefield weapons operations — can often come with the maximum bonuses. But other key jobs include infantry, intelligence analyst, combat medic specialist, military police, combat engineer and several others. And those may change every month, based on available spots in the training pipeline and other service needs.” Read more at AP News
“As Omicron drives Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations to new highs, some states' health care systems are struggling to handle the surge. Four states have less than 10% remaining capacity in their ICUs, according to datareleased Wednesday by the US Department of Health and Human Services, and five other states are close to just 10% of ICU capacity remaining. Nationally, Covid-19 hospitalizations have reached record highs with at least 151,261 Americans needing care as of yesterday. Separately, President Joe Biden is expected to deliver remarks later today announcing the deployment of a new wave of military medical teams to help hospitals in six states, a White House official told CNN.” Read more at CNN
“Despite the omicron-led surge in COVID-19 cases, Americans are no longer paying attention to expert advice. Health professionals say health messaging regarding COVID-19 has to adapt to survive.” Read more at NPR
“Donald Trump endorsed booster shots and said politicians who hid their vaccination status were ‘gutless.’” Read more at New York Times
“Cruise lines will no longer be obliged to follow COVID guidance on ships as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC's Framework for Conditional Sailing Order, which was extended and modified in October, will expire Saturday at which point the health agency's COVID guidance for cruise ships will become voluntary, the CDC confirmed to USA TODAY Wednesday. This means cruise lines can choose whether to follow the health agency's guidance or not.
The health agency ‘is transitioning to a voluntary COVID-19 risk mitigation program’ the CDC said in a statement shared by spokesperson David Daigle.
The program includes guidance and recommendations for cruise ships to keep operating in a way that fosters a safer and healthier environment for passengers, crew and impacted communities, according to the CDC.” Read more at USA Today
“West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) says he is ‘extremely unwell’ after testing positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday and will have to cancel his State of the State address scheduled for Wednesday. In a statement, the governor’s office said Justice experienced a ‘sudden onset of symptoms’ Tuesday and subsequently tested positive for the virus. ‘I woke up this morning with congestion and a cough. A little while later, I developed a headache and fever, so I decided to get tested right away,’ Justice said, adding that his symptoms worsened throughout the day. ‘That being said, I feel extremely unwell at this point, and I have no choice but to postpone my State of the State address to the Legislature,’ he wrote. The event will now be held at an as-yet-undetermined date. Justice noted that he is ‘thankful’ to be vaccinated and boosted, and said he had already begun undergoing monoclonal antibody treatment. ‘I ask everyone to continue praying for the 5,452 great West Virginians that we’ve lost. We need to keep pulling the rope together. We’re going to get through this and put an end to this terrible pandemic once and for all,’ he said.” Read more at Daily Beast
“Less than a day after Chicago and its teachers union brokered a tentative peace, the city’s mayor has announced she has tested positive for COVID. In a Tuesday afternoon tweet, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said that she was ‘experiencing cold-like symptoms but otherwise feel fine.’ She credited her mild symptoms to being vaccinated and boosted, and said she’d be self-isolating at home in compliance with CDC guidelines. ‘This is an urgent reminder for folks to get vaccinated and boosted as it’s the only way to beat this pandemic,’ Lightfoot concluded. Supporters of the teachers union’s walkout last week, executed over fears of the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, were quick to deride the mayor for the announcement that she would continue to work virtually. ‘Sorry, you still have to come in,’ one user quipped. ‘Your rules.’” [Daily Beast]
Public-school attendance is way down across the U.S.
“Many students are staying home, either because they have Covid-19 or their parents are fearful that their kids will catch it. But remote learning has been largely abandoned, so teachers have to weigh whether to continue their lessons with so many students out and falling behind. In New York City, the largest school district in the U.S., the overall attendance rate was less than 70% after the holiday break versus a daily average of more than 91% before the pandemic. Absences also threaten to weigh on children’s social development and their performance on standardized tests. Some teachers are trying to adapt by teaching new material more slowly than usual or by holding after-school Zoom calls to bring absent students up to speed.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Mayor Eric Adams named his brother a deputy police commissioner. After an outcry, he changed the job to director of mayoral security.” Read more at New York Times
Senate unveils Russia sanctions bill as US, NATO reject Russian security demands
“Talks between the US and its NATO allies and an increasingly aggressive Russia reached no conclusions this week, as NATO flatly refused some of Russia’s key security demands including an end to the security alliance’s open-door membership policy. At the same time, the US Senate revealed plans to target with severe sanctions Russian financial institutions and high-powered individuals, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, should Russia invade Ukraine.” [Vox] Read more at Washington Post / Seung Min Kim
“While there is still room for negotiation on some issues, like arms control and the military exercises both sides conduct near Ukraine, Russia has amassed about 100,000 troops as well as heavy military equipment on its border with Ukraine — which certainly appears like preparation for an invasion. Should continued diplomatic efforts fail, though, the bill drafted by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) amps up the economic pressure on Russia and targets the banking system in ways previous sanctions haven’t done.” [Vox]
“The bill would allow for sanctions against trading on Russia’s primary and secondary sovereign debt, permit sanctions on its extractive industries, and on messaging services banks use to communicate. It would also provide an additional $500 million in weapons for Ukraine.” [Vox] [Sen. Robert Menendez]
“It’s much broader than a rival bill from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), which advocates for sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which is already built and will provide natural gas to Germany once regulators approve it, regardless of whether Russia invades Ukraine. These sanctions also directly hit Putin and the financial sector; while sanctions imposed since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 have placed travel bans and asset freezes on some of Putin’s inner circle, those haven’t deterred Putin in his quest to assert his influence in former Soviet republics.” [Vox] Read more at NYT / Catie Edmonson
“Boris Johnson said he was sorry he attended a May 2020 garden party that violated Covid-19 restrictions. An estimated 100 people were invited to the bring-your-own-booze get-together at Downing Street, though rules at that time allowed meeting only one other person outdoors. The U.K. prime minister said he’d believed it was a work event and attended for 25 minutes to thank staffers for their work during the early days of the pandemic.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“PARIS (AP) — Less than two weeks after the winter term started, French teachers are already exhausted by the pressures of surging COVID-19 cases.
On Thursday, French teachers are walking out in a nationwide strike organized by teacher’s unions to protest virus-linked class disruptions and ever-changing isolation rules.
France is at the epicenter of Europe’s current fight against COVID-19, with new infections topping 360,000 a day in recent days, driven by the highly contagious omicron variant. Teachers are upset and want clarifications on rules and more protections, such as extra masks and tests to help with the strain.” Read more at AP News
“A multiday heat wave is gripping parts of central South America, bringing record warmth to several large cities. Parts of Argentina are about 25 degrees above normal, while Chile, Paraguay and Bolivia are experiencing unusual warmth. Excess strain on power grids has caused widespread outages, leaving 700,000 people in the Argentine capital without electricity. The heat wave doesn’t appear to be letting up until this weekend.
The heat has been unusually pronounced for more than two weeks in Argentina, where temperatures topped 100 degrees to round out December. Areas south of the equator are experiencing summer at present, but readings are still wildly off base for what would typically be observed this time of year.” Read more at Washington Post
“A contingent of troops dispatched by the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will begin withdrawing from Kazakhstan today, less than a week after they were deployed by the Russian-led organization to help quell rare protests over fuel prices across the country.
The relatively swift withdrawal of the 2,500 troops allays fears that the mostly-Russian force would continue and grow within the country. It also helps President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev regain an air of legitimacy after calling for foreign help last week.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Brazil’s election. With months remaining before Brazilians go to the polls and neither of the two presumed frontrunners formally declaring their candidacies, former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has opened up an enormous lead over current President Jair Bolsonaro in a Wednesday poll. Asking to vote for a preferred candidate if the election were held that day, 45 percent opted for Lula, while just 23 percent chose Bolsonaro. The incumbent president faces low approval ratings, with 50 percent of Brazilian voters saying his government is bad or terrible.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“JERUSALEM — An 80-year-old Palestinian American man died Wednesday after being detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, prompting U.S. officials to call for an investigation into the circumstances of his death.
The victim, identified as Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad, was still wearing a plastic restraining zip tie on one wrist when he was found early Wednesday morning in a village outside of Ramallah, according to Palestinian officials.
The Israeli military confirmed Wednesday that As’ad had been stopped during a security check of the area and detained after he ‘resisted a check.’ An spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said that As’ad was held for only a short time and that he was alive when he was released.
As’ad was returning home from visiting relatives when he was stopped in the village of Jiljilya by Israeli soldiers, according to a statement by the Palestinian health ministry. Witnesses told Palestinian media that he was handcuffed and led away about 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning.” Read more at Washington Post
“Turks are dumping the local lira for even riskier cryptocurrencies.
Wariness over their national financial system’s recent ups and downs has prompted some to keep their money in U.S. dollars, euros or gold. But fears about potential runs on banks and having dollar deposits converted into liras have made cryptocurrencies more attractive. Last year, Turkey officially banned using cryptocurrency as a form of payment. This past fall, the lira became the most traded government-issued currency against the dollar-pegged stablecoin tether, according to data provider CryptoCompare.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Ireland will allow adopted people automatic access to their birth records for the first time.” [Vox] Read more at Reuters
“‘We all suffer from PTSD’: Ten years have passed since the Costa Concordia cruise ship slammed into a reef and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio. Italy on Thursday is marking the anniversary of the disaster with a daylong commemoration that will end with a candlelit vigil near the moment the ship hit the reef: 9:45 p.m. on Jan. 13, 2012. The events will honor the 32 people who died that night, the 4,200 survivors and the residents of Giglio.” Read more at USA Today
“‘My dad's a fighter’: The recovery of a man who received a heart from a genetically modified pig is exceeding expectations.” Read more at USA Today
“A month into lockout, MLB and players will hold talks: Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association will meet in a video conference Thursday, their first meeting since Dec. 1 – when players were locked out by the owners. MLB hopes to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement that would not delay the start of spring training in February.” Read more at USA Today
“The voice of The Ronettes, Ronnie Spector, has died.
The singer’s representative, Seth Cohen, confirmed Spector died Wednesday after a brief battle with cancer. She was 78.
Spector’s family said in a statement to USA TODAY that she ‘lived her life with a twinkle in her eye, a spunky attitude, a wicked sense of humor and a smile on her face.’…
Born Veronica Bennett, Spector formed The Ronettes in 1957 with her older sister, Estelle, and their cousin, Nedra Talley. She married mercurial record producer Phil Spector in 1968 – they divorcedin 1974 – who produced the majority of the group’s chart-toppers.
The group’s debut album, ‘Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica,’ was released in 1964. Five of its 12 tracks had made it to the U.S. Billboard charts.” Read more at USA Today
“Ida B. Wells, the pioneering Black investigative journalist, suffragist, and civil rights crusader, is now a Barbie doll.” [Vox] Read more at The Hill / Brooke Migdon
“LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jason Momoa and wife Lisa Bonet have ended their 16-year relationship.
A joint statement posted on the ‘Aquaman’ star’s Instagram page Wednesday that he and his wife were parting ways.
‘We have all felt the squeeze and changes of these transformational times… A revolution is unfolding (tilde)and our family is of no exception,’ the post said, adding that they were announcing the split so ‘as we go about our lives we may do so with dignity and honesty.’
Momoa, 42, and Bonet, 54, met and started dating in 2005 and officially married in late 2017. They have a son and daughter together.
Bonet, who rose to fame playing one of Bill Cosby’s daughters on ‘The Cosby Show’ and its spinoff, ‘A Different World,’ was previously married to rocker Lenny Kravitz.” Read more at AP News
Israeli researchers have taught goldfish to drive, according to a study that offers new insights into animals’ ability to navigate — even when they’re literally fish out of water.
For the study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Behavioural Brain Research, the goldfish were trained to use a wheeled platform, dubbed a Fish Operated Vehicle. The FOV could be driven and have its course changed in reaction to the fish’s movements inside a water tank mounted on the platform.
Their task was to ‘drive’ the robotic vehicle toward a target that could be observed through the walls of the fish tank. The vehicle was fitted with lidar, short for light detection and ranging, a remote sensing technology that uses lasers to collect data on its ground location and the fish’s location within the tank.
The researchers, from Ben-Gurion University, found the fish were able to move the FOV around unfamiliar environments while reaching the target ‘regardless of their starting point, all while avoiding dead-ends and correcting location inaccuracies.’
The Loch Ness Monster is still a mystery. But scientists have some new evidence for a theory.
The goldfish in the tank were placed in a test arena and tasked with driving toward a target. Upon successfully hitting the target, they received a food pellet reward. The scientists said that after a few days of training, the fish were able to navigate past obstacles such as walls, while eluding efforts to trick them with false targets.” Read more at Washington Post
“Wordle, the online word game that went viral after New Year's, has started to attract copycats — including some that charge hefty subscription prices or sell items online, Axios' Ina Fried writes.
Why it matters: The game has a simple premise, making it easy to duplicate.
Apple has started removing some of the Wordle-like apps, per The Verge.
The real Wordle is a simple web app, found here. It spread rapidly as people shared their results on Facebook and Twitter.
In the competing Absurdle, your software ‘opponent’ can keep changing the hidden word on you.
How Wordle works: Each day, you guess a five-letter word — by guessing a five-letter English word.
The game lets you know if a letter is in the right place ... in the word but not in the right place ... or not in the word at all.
From there, you keep guessing — using real, five-letter English words — and hopefully get it within six guesses.” Read more at Axios