The Full Belmonte, 1/18/2023
Helicopter crash in Kyiv suburb kills 18
The dead include Ukraine's interior minister.
“A helicopter crash in a Kyiv suburb Wednesday killed 18 people, including Ukraine’s interior minister and three children, Ukrainian authorities said. Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi is the most senior Ukrainian official to have died since the start of the war with Russia almost 11 months ago. Nine of those killed were aboard the emergency services helicopter that crashed in Brovary, an eastern suburb of the Ukrainian capital, Ukrainian police said.There was no immediate word on whether the crash was an accident or a result of the war with Russia.” Read more at USA Today
First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska, center, reacts beside First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Svyrydenko, right, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland after a helicopter crash in Ukraine, where Minister of Internal Affairs Denys Monastyrsky died among others on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023.
Markus Schreiber, AP
White House defends its delayed, limited document disclosure
By COLLEEN LONG and ZEKE MILLER
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House brushed aside criticism Tuesday of its fragmented disclosures about the discovery of classified documents and official records at President Joe Biden’s home and former office, saying it may withhold information to protect the Justice Department’s investigation.
Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House counsel’s office, told reporters that the White House was releasing information as it deemed it ‘appropriate.’ Responding to criticism of the piecemeal disclosures, Sams said the White House was trying to be mindful of the ‘risk’ in sharing information ‘that’s not complete.’
‘We’re endeavoring to be as transparent and informative to you all in the media, to the public as we can consistent with respecting the integrity of an ongoing Justice Department investigation,’ he said.
The discovery of the documents in Biden’s possession complicates a federal probe into former President Donald Trump, who the Justice Department says took hundreds of records marked classified with him upon leaving the White House in early 2021 and resisted months of requests to return them to the government.
While the two cases are different — Biden for example, willingly turned over the documents once found — it still has become a political headache for a president who promised a clean break from the operations of the Trump administration.
On Saturday, the White House disclosed that Biden attorneys found classified documents and official records on four separate occasions — on Nov. 2 at the offices of the Penn Biden Center in Washington, on Dec. 20 in the garage of the president’s Wilmington, Delaware home, and on Nov. 11 and 12 in the president’s home library.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had said before the additional discovery that Americans could assume the investigation had completed. On Tuesday, she referred questions to the Justice Department or White House counsel’s office on whether more documents existed and whether they would be disclosed if discovered.
‘The president and his team rightfully took action,’ she said of the turning over the documents after they were discovered.
After the initial disclosure, the president said he was ‘briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there are any government records that were taken there to that office.’…” Read more at AP News
Far-right Republican lawmakers were assigned to House committees yesterday.
“Why that matters: When Democrats were in control, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) were removed from committees after making violent or extremist remarks.
One notable assignment: Greene, Gosar and other allies of former president Donald Trump are on a committee that plans to investigate President Biden.
What else is happening: Expect to hear a lot about the debt ceiling. The U.S. will begin taking ‘extraordinary measures’ tomorrow to stay under the borrowing limit.” [Washington Post]
Veterans
“Military veterans can now receive free emergency mental health care, according to an announcement by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The new policy, which went into effect Tuesday, provides inpatient care for ‘veterans in suicidal crisis’ for up to 30 days and outpatient care for up to 90 days at no cost. ‘This expansion of care will save Veterans' lives, and there's nothing more important than that,’ VA Secretary for Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough said. The policy will also allow the VA to make "appropriate referrals" after a period of emergency suicide care, determine veterans' eligibility for other services and benefits from the VA, and refer veterans who received emergency care to other VA programs and benefits.” [CNN]
Ohio legally redefined natural gas as ‘green energy’ this month.
“How it happened: Dark money groups — including one tied to the gas industry — helped state lawmakers push the ‘clean energy’ narrative, a Post investigation found. Natural gas is Ohio’s largest source of energy.
Why this matters: Natural gas is a fossil fuel. It emits significant amounts of methane, which is the second-largest greenhouse gas contributor to climate change.” [Washington Post]
Google Didn’t Show Bias in Filtering Campaign-Ad Pitches, FEC Says
GOP committees cited an academic article to claim Google’s spam filters were designed to benefit Democrats
An academic article said that nearly 70% of emails from Republican candidates were sent to spam on Gmail between 2019 and 2020 versus fewer than 1 in 10 from Democratic candidates.PHOTO: PETER DASILVA/REUTERS
“WASHINGTON—The Federal Election Commission has dismissed a complaint from Republicans that Google’s Gmail app aided Democratic candidates by sending GOP fundraising emails to spam at a far higher rate than Democratic solicitations.
The Republican National Committee and others contended that the alleged benefit amounted to unreported campaign contributions to Democrats. But in a letter to Google last week, the FEC said it ‘found no reason to believe’ that Google made prohibited in-kind corporate contributions, and that any skewed results from its spam-filter algorithms were inadvertent.
‘Google has credibly supported its claim that its spam filter is in place for commercial reasons and thus did not constitute a contribution’ within the meaning of federal campaign laws, according to an FEC analysis reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The RNC, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee complained to the FEC last year, citing an academic study that showed that nearly 70% of emails from Republican candidates were sent to spam compared with fewer than 1 in 10 from Democrat candidates from 2019 to 2020.
The RNC and other campaign committees argued that Google’s ‘overwhelmingly disproportionate suppression of Republican emails’ constituted an illegal corporate contribution to Democratic candidates.
But the FEC disagreed, finding that Google established that it maintains its spam-filter settings to aid its business in keeping out malware, phishing attacks and scams, and not for the purpose of benefiting any political candidates.
The FEC said it was closing its file, according to a letter from agency lawyers to Google.
‘The Commission’s bipartisan decision to dismiss this complaint reaffirms that Gmail does not filter emails for political purposes,’ said Google spokesman José Castañeda. ‘We’ll continue to invest in our Gmail industry-leading spam filters because, as the FEC notes, they’re important to protecting people’s inboxes from receiving unwanted, unsolicited, or dangerous messages.’
In a statement, RNC spokesman Nathan Brand said his organization ‘will continue to hold Big Tech accountable for putting its thumb on the scales to help Democrats win elections.’
‘Google cannot explain away how they’ve overwhelmingly and systematically diverted Republican emails to voters’ spam folders while letting Democrat emails through,’ he said, adding that a GOP lawsuit over the issue in California remains pending.
The academic study cited by the GOP committees was conducted by North Carolina State University and determined that for one baseline group, Gmail marked 67.6% of emails from Republican candidates as spam compared with 8.2% of emails from Democratic candidates, the FEC noted.
But the FEC also noted that the academic study stated that its authors had no reason to believe there were deliberate attempts by any of the email services studied to create biases to influence voters.
‘Though the NCSU Study appears to demonstrate a disparate impact from Google’s spam filter, it explicitly states that its authors have ‘no reason to believe that there were deliberate attempts from these email services to create these biases to influence the voters,’ the FEC said….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Covid-19
“Covid-19 has killed more than 1 million people in the US since the start of the pandemic, and life expectancy has been cut by nearly 2.5 years since 2020. While data from 2022 suggests that there were significantly fewer Covid-19 deaths in the third year of the pandemic than there were in the first two, experts say the virus will likely remain the third leading cause of death in the US in 2022 for the third year in a row, behind heart disease and cancer. CDC officials have said they are actively working to better develop and deploy rapid response measures to combat the spread of disease outbreaks. A new report, however, argues that the CDC is in "a moment of peril" and a significant reset is necessary to build a "strong, effective, and more accountable" agency.” [CNN]
Exercise Helps Blunt the Effects of Covid-19, Study Suggests
Physical activity benefits even those at higher risk for complications
Higher amounts of physical activity were associated with lower rates of death and hospitalizations from Covid-19 across nearly all demographics.PHOTO: RYAN DAVID BROWN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Alex Janin
“People who exercise regularly had lower rates of hospitalization and death from Covid-19 in a study published recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Regular exercise improves overall health and healthier people generally have fewer serious complications with Covid-19 infections. Earlier research has shown an association between exercise and better Covid-19 outcomes. This latest study goes a step further and suggests that even people whose age or health conditions make them higher-risk have better outcomes if they are regular exercisers.
Higher amounts of physical activity were associated with lower rates of death and hospitalizations from Covid across nearly all demographics, says Jim Sallis, a public health professor at the University of California San Diego and co-author of the study. A very active 70-year-old still had a higher risk of Covid-related complications than did a similarly active 40-year-old, but the exercisers in both groups had hospitalization rates lower than those who didn’t work out.
The study used data from nearly 200,000 adult Covid-19 patients across the Kaiser Permanente network in Southern California. It asked patients to self-report the number of minutes of moderate exercise they did per week and analyzed the records of how many people in the study cohort were hospitalized, experienced deterioration, such as admission into an intensive-care unit, or died within 90 days of a Covid diagnosis….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
The Justice Department unveiled policies offering additional incentives for companies to self-report misconduct.
“If businesses fully cooperate with investigators and fix the underlying problems, including compliance-program shortcomings, they will avoid prosecution and get big discounts on potential fines. Qualifying companies would still be responsible for repaying any illegally earned profits and refunding money to victims. The DOJ declined to say how many self-reports of corporate wrongdoing it receives annually.” [Wall Street Journal]
China’s economic growth fell to near-historic lows last year amid zero-tolerance Covid-19 policies.
“The economy expanded 3% in 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics said, a sharp slowdown from 8.1% in 2021. Aside from 2020, when the economy grew only 2.2%, last year marked the country’s worst year for GDP growth since 1976, when Mao Zedong’s death ended the Cultural Revolution, according to World Bank data. Beijing scrapped most of its zero-Covid restrictions in December, which economists expect will lead to an economic rebound in 2023. Beyond that, China faces a starker problem: Its shrinking population means a smaller workforce and fewer consumers. It dropped in 2022 for the first time since 1961—down 850,000 to 1.412 billion.” [Wall Street Journal]
Threats, advantages seen in China’s shrinking population
By KEN MORITSUGU
“BEIJING (AP) — For seven decades, China’s Communist Party has ruled the world’s most populous country. As the country’s population crests and begins to shrink, experts say, it will face challenges ranging from supporting the elderly to filling the ranks of its military.
Population growth has been slowing for years, but the announcement Tuesday that the country’s population fell by about 850,000 in 2022 came sooner than earlier projections.
‘Those developments... may well feed domestic challenges at home and strategic challenges abroad. The Party, in short, may be in for a rough go,’ said Mike Mazza, an analyst of Chinese military modernization at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
Others are less pessimistic.
‘China’s increasingly becoming a higher-tech nation, so concentrating on improving the educational system, particularly in impoverished rural areas, and even in cities, is vital. So as well is increasing productivity. Wealthier people will buy more, which also increases GDP,’ said June Teufel Dreyer, a Chinese politics specialist at the University of Miami.
With the trend expected to continue, the U.N. estimates China’s population will fall from 1.41 billion to about 1.31 billion by 2050 and keep shrinking from there.
Beijing previously tried to rein in its population growth. Worries that China’s population was getting too big prompted it to adopt its ‘one-child policy’ in the late 1970s. Beijing says the policy prevented 400 million additional births, but demographers disagree about how much of the drop in birth rates is explained by the policy.
The one-child policy came on top of existing societal changes, notably the flocking of people to live in cities during the economic boom, demographers say.
‘Of course, the one-child policy had an effect,’ said Sabine Henning, who heads the demographic change section at the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok. ‘But lifestyles have changed. Living expenses have increased so people are less inclined to have children. All of this has resulted ... in a further decline in fertility since the one-child policy stopped.’
Experience in Europe and Japan shows how difficult it is to change mindsets and reverse the decline with government incentives and campaigns.
Faced with a crashing birthrate, the policy was abandoned seven years ago, but efforts to encourage bigger families have been largely unsuccessful, like similar efforts in other countries. Europe and Japan have also struggled to change mindsets and reverse the decline with government incentives and campaigns.
‘It amazes me how everyone seems to agree that the planet already has too many people whose demands for even the basics of existence like food, water and shelter are placing intolerable demands on the ecosystem — yet as soon as the population of a country begins to decline, its government reacts with near panic,’ Dreyer said.
Beijing’s most immediate demographic challenge is an aging population: Tuesday’s figures showed almost 20% of the population is now age 60 or older, and Chinese estimates say the number will rise to 30%, or more than 400 million people, by 2035.
Similar changes took decades in Europe.
‘They had more time to adjust, whereas it’s happening much faster in in Asia,’ said Srinivas Tata, director of the social development division at the U.N. commission in Bangkok.
To support this population of retirees, China may increase the retirement age, currently 50-55 for women and 60 for men.
The demographic news comes as China’s economy is still recovering from the three-year struggle against COVID-19, which not only battered the economy but sparked rare antigovernment and anti-party protest.
Even with a shrinking population, China maintains considerable economic advantages over emerging manufacturing rivals such as Vietnam and India, which is set to overtake China as most populous this year. China has superior infrastructure and long-standing private sector relationships that it can rely on for years to come, said Mazza.
China’s political system also plays a role, said Mary Gallagher, a scholar of Chinese politics at the University of Michigan.
‘Becoming the workshop of the world... requires a political system that can take advantage of that cheap young labor without much regard for the laborers’ political and civil rights,’ Gallagher said.
U.S. economic sanctions and its push to block Beijing’s access to cutting-edge processors and chip-making technology are further complicating efforts at recovery.
The Party also faces a challenge finding qualified recruits for its military, the 2 million-member People’s Liberation Army, experts say.
‘It is doubtful that the PLA is getting the best and the brightest, given that families who have the means will discourage military service,’ said Daniel Blumenthal, director of Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and an expert on East Asian security issues and US-China relations.
Blumenthal warns, however: ‘That said, if Xi decides he wants a war over Taiwan he will not be deterred by caring about one-child families.’
Some American observers argue that these challenges could prompt Beijing to make aggressive moves sooner. With the U.S. refocused on the Indo-Pacific, China’s economy slowing and the population shrinking, some in Washington see Beijing as facing a narrowing window for military action against the self-governing island that it claims as its territory.
Still, the effects may not be known for some time.
‘Since demographic changes happen slowly, at least at the start of the turn, their effect on China’s standing and influence globally will take time to happen,’ said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the London University School of Oriental and African Studies and a longtime observer of Chinese political and social trends.
President Xi Jinping is committed to his program of achieving ‘the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation’ by 2049, Tsang said — even if his country may be 100 million people smaller by then.” [AP News]
Meet Germany’s New Defense Minister
“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has appointed a new defense minister: Boris Pistorius. This comes after the last defense minister, Christine Lambrecht, resigned after a series of gaffes, the latest of which was talking about the war in Ukraine while New Year’s Eve fireworks went off around her in Berlin—a move criticized as ‘tone deaf’ by the opposition.
Pistorius has long been a politician, serving as the interior minister of Lower Saxony. But he has no defense experience, has never held senior federal office, and is not well known outside Germany (or even, as the Wall Street Journal put it, outside his own state). He is a member of Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD). One main item on his long-term agenda will be renewing and reinvigorating Germany’s armed forces, making good on the Zeitenwende, or ‘epochal shift,’ that Scholz announced after Russia invaded Ukraine.
In the short term, Pistorius, 62, will have to get to work on his new beat immediately. On Friday, he is hosting many of his counterparts, including U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, at a meeting to discuss military support for Ukraine moving forward. Germany remains reluctant to support Ukraine by sending modern Leopard 2 battle tanks. Pressure is growing from German allies—and from some politicians in Germany, notably in the Green Party, a SPD coalition partner—for Scholz and his new defense minister to act more decisively.” [Foreign Policy]
Blinken meeting Turkish counterpart in Washington. “U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting his Turkish counterpart, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, on Wednesday. Though Turkey and the United States are NATO allies, the two countries are at odds on a range of issues. Turkey wants to buy F-16s from the United States, a deal that faces Congressional pushback; the United States, meanwhile, also wants to sell F-35s to Greece, which is increasingly at odds with its Turkish neighbor.
Further friction has come from Turkey’s reluctance to ratify Swedish and Finnish bids to join NATO. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s latest demand, issued at a youth rally earlier this week, was that Sweden and Finland send ‘nearly 130 terrorists’ (Erdogan’s description of political opponents) back to Turkey if they want their bids approved by Ankara. Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO countries that have yet to ratify Sweden and Finland’s applications to join NATO.” [Foreign Policy]
“India’s increased Russian oil consumption. India is now reportedly buying 33 times more Russian oil than it was a year ago. In December, India is said to have purchased, on average, 1.2 million barrels from Russia per day, a 29 percent increase from the previous month. Russia invaded Ukraine last February and has been waging war against it ever since, leading many countries to sanction Russia and to wean themselves off of Russia oil and gas. India, on the other hand, now imports more oil from Russia than from any other country.” [Foreign Policy]
“U.S. arms to Ukraine by way of Israel. The New York Times reported Tuesday that the United States will be sending weapons to Ukraine from a stockpile of U.S. arms stored in Israel to help Ukraine meet its need for artillery shells. The United States stores the stockpile and has, in the past, allowed Israel to access it in case of emergency. Israel, which has been careful not to upset Russia, frustrating Ukrainians and their allies, initially reportedly expressed concern that the move would damage its relations with Moscow.” [Foreign Policy]
Microsoft
“Microsoft is set to announce thousands of job cuts today, according to multiple news reports, potentially becoming the latest tech company to shrink its workforce. Sources say the reported layoffs could affect roughly 5% of the company's workforce and largely impact the company's engineering divisions. Microsoft employs 221,000 people around the world, including 122,000 in the US. Multiple tech companies have made deep cuts to their workforces since the start of the year, as inflation weighs on consumer spending and rising interest rates squeeze funding. The demand for digital services during the pandemic has also waned as more people return to their offline lives.” [CNN]
Polar bear kills woman and boy in Alaska village
Image caption, Polar bear in Alaska (stock image)
“A polar bear has killed a woman and a boy in a remote Alaska village, authorities have said.
The bear entered the village of Wales on Tuesday afternoon, on the western tip of the Seward Peninsula, and began chasing people, police said.
As it attacked the woman and boy, it was shot and killed but the mauling proved to be fatal.
Fatal polar bear attacks in Alaska are rare but experts say encounters with humans will increase as more ice melts.
Wales is a small town, mainly consisting of the native Inupiaq people. Around 150 people live in the remote settlement, located over 1,185 miles (1,907km) north-west of the state capital Juneau.
‘Initial reports indicate that a polar bear had entered the community and had chased multiple residents,’ Alaska state troopers wrote in a despatch, according to Associated Press.
‘The bear fatally attacked an adult female and juvenile male.’
The names of the two victims were not released by police as family members were still being notified.
Police and state officials will travel to Wales to investigate further once the weather allows.
Studies in the US have shown that as the animal's natural habitats begin to recede, attacks on humans were more likely as they moved inland.
A 2017 study published by The Wildlife Society found that polar bear attacks on humans had increased since 2000 and were more likely to occur between July and December - when sea ice covered a smaller area.” [BBC]
World's oldest person, French nun Sister André, dies aged 118
Image caption, Sister André, a French nun who took her vows in 1944, died at her nursing home in Toulon aged 118
By Malu Cursino
“The world's oldest person, French nun Lucile Randon, has died aged 118.
Ms Randon - who assumed the name Sister André when she became a nun in 1944 - died in her sleep at her nursing home in Toulon, France.
Born in 1904 in southern France, she lived through two world wars and dedicated much of her life to Catholicism.
‘Only the good Lord knows’ the secret of her longevity, she told reporters.
Born when Tour de France had only been staged once, Sister André also saw 27 French heads of state.
A spokesman from her nursing home, David Tavella, shared news of her death with reporters on Tuesday.
‘There is great sadness but... it was her desire to join her beloved brother. For her, it's a liberation,’ Mr Tavella said.
Sister André was said to have a close relationship with her brothers. She once told reporters one of her fondest memories was their safe return from fighting at the end of World War One.
‘It was rare,’ she recalled. ‘In families there were usually two dead rather than two alive’.
Despite being blind and reliant on a wheelchair, Sister André cared for other elderly people - some of whom were much younger than herself.
In an interview last April with the AFP news agency, Sister André said: ‘People say that work kills, for me work kept me alive, I kept working until I was 108.’
During the same interview, she said she would be better off in heaven, but continued to enjoy earthly pleasures like eating chocolate and drinking a glass of wine every day.
She had been Europe's eldest for some time, but she entered the Guinness Book of Records last April as the world's oldest person following the death of Kane Tanaka, a Japanese woman who lived until she was 119 years old.
It was not her first time in the record books. In 2021 she became the oldest person to recover from Covid-19.
Sister André was born into a Protestant family, but later converted to Catholicism, before being baptised when she was 26 years old.
Driven by her desire to ‘go further’, she joined an order of nuns known as the Daughters of Charity about 15 years after her decision to join the Catholic Church.
She was assigned to a hospital in Vichy, where she spent most of her working life, about 31 years.
In one of her last interviews, she told reporters: ‘People should help each other and love each other instead of hating. If we shared all that, things would be a lot better.’ [BBC News]
Flyers’ Provorov cites religion for boycott on Pride night
By DAN GELSTON
“PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov cited his Russian Orthodox religion as the reason he did not participate in pregame warmups when the team wore Pride-themed jerseys and used sticks wrapped in rainbow Pride tape.
The 26-year-old Provorov boycotted the pregame skate with his teammates before Tuesday night’s game against Anaheim as the Flyers celebrated their annual Pride night in celebration and support of the LGBTQ+ community. He played nearly 23 minutes in Philadelphia’s 5-2 victory.
‘I respect everybody’s choices,’ Provorov said after the game. ‘My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion. That’s all I’m going to say.’
Provorov declined to answer follow-up questions about his decision.
Flyers coach John Tortorella said Provorov ‘was true to himself and to his religion.’
‘It’s one thing I respect about Provy, he’s always true to himself,’ Tortorella said.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, leader of Russia’s dominant religious group, sent a strong signal last March justifying his country’s invasion of Ukraine — describing the conflict as part of a struggle against sin and pressure from liberal foreigners to hold ‘gay parades’ as the price of admission to their ranks.
The jerseys and sticks were set to be auctioned off by the Flyers following the game, with proceeds going to the team’s charity and its efforts to grow the game of hockey in diverse communities.
The Flyers also hosted a pregame skate for local LGBTQ+ youth. Flyers players James van Riemsdyk and Scott Laughton have been staunch supporters of the community and launched a program in support of local LGBTQ+ youth in the greater Philadelphia area.
Laughton and van Riemsdyk met after the game with about 50 people in the LGBTQ+ community. Laughton said overall the Flyers had a ‘great, great night that brings a lot of awareness.’
Laughton said there would be more conversations ahead with Provorov, who moved from Russia to the United States as a teenager. He signed a six-year, $40.5 million contract before the 2019 season and won the Barry Ashbee Trophy as the Flyers’ outstanding defenseman in his rookie season, the youngest Philadelphia player to receive the honor.
‘I don’t hold anything against anyone,’ Laughton said. ‘It’s nothing like that. It was an awesome night and I’m very happy we got a win on a night like this.’
All-Star forward Kevin Hayes, who had a hat trick in the win over Anaheim, said ‘it’s not for me to answer’ when asked how he felt about Provorov’s decision.
The Wells Fargo Center was decorated Tuesday night in rainbow hues representing the LGBTQ+ community through special pride-themed arena LEDs, décor and rainbow-themed team merchandise.
‘The Philadelphia Flyers organization is committed to inclusivity and is proud to support the LGBTQ+ community,’ the team said in a statement after the game. ‘Many of our players are active in their support of local LGBTQ+ organizations, and we were proud to host our annual Pride Night again this year. The Flyers will continue to be strong advocates for inclusivity and the LGBTQ+ community.’
The NHL also champions the You Can Play Project, which aims to ensure equality, respect and safety for all athletes, without regard to sexual orientation. The NHL has never had an openly gay active player.” [AP News]
Top-seeded Rafael Nadal ousted in second round of Australian Open
“What already was a poor start to 2023 following a year marred by all manner of health issues reached a low point at the Australian Open on Wednesday. The defending champion and No. 1 seed at Melbourne Park, a clearly hurting Rafael Nadal, lost his second-round match to Mackenzie McDonald 6-4, 6-4, 7-5, abruptly ending his bid for a record-extending 23rd Grand Slam trophy. He is currently ranked No. 2 but was the top seed at Melbourne Park because No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz is sitting out the Australian Open with a bad leg.” Read more at USA Today
Rafael Nadal of Spain reacts during his second round loss to Mackenzie McDonald of the U.S. at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
The Associated Press
Madonna unveils 2023 North America and European tour dates
By The Associated Press
FILE - Madonna speaks at the MTV Video Music Awards at Barclays Center on Sept. 12, 2021, in New York. Madonna will launch a new tour through North America and Europe this summer that will be include 38 songs in the Billboard Hot 100. The 35-city tour will kick off on July 15 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia with stops in Detroit, Chicago, New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
“NEW YORK (AP) — Madonna will ‘Take a Bow’ with a new tour through North America and Europe starting this summer that will be a ‘Celebration’ of the pop icon’s hits, which include 38 songs in the Billboard Hot 100.
The 35-city Live Nation-backed ‘Madonna: The Celebration Tour’ will kick off July 15 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, with stops in Detroit, Chicago, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Denver, Atlanta and Boston, among others. That leg ends on Oct. 7 in Las Vegas.
Then the Material Girl hits Europe, where she has 11 dates throughout the fall, including London, Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, Milan and Stockholm, among others. The tour will wrap in Amsterdam on Dec. 1.
The singer will ‘be highlighting her unmatched catalog of music from the past 40-plus years,’ according to the announcement. It will also ‘pay respect to the city of New York, where her career in music began.’….” Read more at AP News