The Full Belmonte, 1/24/2022
“The US is amplifying calls for Russia to cease its aggressive actions along the Ukrainian border, where more than 100,000 troops have been amassed. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned yesterday that there would be a severe response by the US and its allies if ‘a single additional Russian force’ enters Ukraine in an aggressive way. In preparation for a possible invasion, the US sent Ukraine a second weapons supply shipment of close to 200,000 pounds of lethal aid. Some political leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, are urging the US and its allies to penalize Moscow with sanctions now before any lives are lost. The US, however, has shown unwillingness to punish Russia preemptively. The Biden administration and its NATO allies are instead focused on bolstering troop levels in the region to support Eastern European and Baltic allies.” Read more at CNN
“The U.S. is considering sending up to 5,000 troops to Eastern Europe as fears of a Russian invasion in Ukraine grow. Although no final decision has been made, troops have been told to prepare to move.” Read more at NPR
A Ukrainian soldier on the frontline with separatist territories in the eastern Lugansk region on Jan. 21.
Photographer: Amatoli Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images
“The State Department on Sunday ordered the departure of eligible family members from the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, and said American citizens in the country should consider departing now.
‘There are reports Russia is planning significant military action against Ukraine,’ the State Department said in a statement. ‘The security conditions, particularly along Ukraine’s borders, in Russia-occupied Crimea, and in Russia-controlled eastern Ukraine, are unpredictable and can deteriorate with little notice.’” Read more at POLITICO
“The Biden administration is threatening to use a novel export control to damage strategic Russian industries, from artificial intelligence and quantum computing to civilian aerospace, if Moscow invades Ukraine, administration officials say.
The administration may also decide to apply the control more broadly in a way that would potentially deprive Russian citizens of some smartphones, tablets and video game consoles, said the officials.
Such moves would expand the reach of U.S. sanctions beyond financial targets to the deployment of a weapon used only once before — to nearly cripple the Chinese tech giant Huawei.
The weapon, known as the foreign direct product rule, contributed to Huawei suffering its first-ever annual revenue drop, a stunning collapse of nearly 30 percent last year.
The attraction of using the foreign direct product rule derives from the fact that virtually anything electronic these days includes semiconductors, the tiny components on which all modern technology depends, from smartphones to jets to quantum computers — and that there is hardly a semiconductor on the planet that is not made with U.S. tools or designed with U.S. software. And the administration could try to force companies in other countries to stop exporting these types of goods to Russia through this rule.” Read more at Washington Post
“BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO said Monday that it’s putting extra forces on standby and sending more ships and fighter jets to eastern Europe, as Ireland warned that new Russian war games off its coast are not welcome given tensions over whether President Vladimir Putin intends to attack Ukraine.
The U.S.-led military organization said that it is beefing up its ‘deference‘ presence in the Baltic Sea area. Denmark is sending a frigate and deploying F-16 war planes to Lithuania; Spain will also send warships and could send fighter jets to Bulgaria; and France stands ready to send troops to Bulgaria.
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO will ‘take all necessary measures to protect and defend all allies.’ He said: ‘We will always respond to any deterioration of our security environment, including through strengthening our collective defense.’” Read more at AP News
“It probably isn’t much consolation for Americans struggling with the highest inflation in 40 years, but they are not alone.
In the European Union, prices are rising faster than at any time since the euro currency was introduced. The annual inflation rate in the United Kingdom hit 5.4 percent in December, the highest figure there in nearly 30 years. Canada’s consumer prices are rising twice as fast as before the pandemic.
Even in Japan, where prices have been depressed almost continuously since the collapse of the late 1980s real estate bubble, the central bank in recent days revised upward its assessment of inflation risks for the first time in eight years. Among major economies, only China has a lower inflation rate today than in early 2020.
Four ways Americans are feeling inflation
Around the world, soaring prices are emerging as a feature of the post-pandemic recovery, prompting some central banks to pivot to inflation fighting.” Read more at Washington Post
Demonstrators gather at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday to protest coronavirus vaccine mandates. (Craig Hudson/For the Washington Post)
“Thousands of protesters from across the country — including some of the biggest names in the anti-vaccination movement — descended on the nation’s capital Sunday for a rally against vaccine mandates.
Almost two years into a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 860,000 Americans, the gathering on the National Mall was a jarring spectacle: A crowd of demonstrators, many unmasked, decrying vaccine mandates in the middle of a city that has adopted mask and vaccine mandates to reduce sickness and death from the surge of the virus’s omicron variant, which has battered D.C. for weeks.
Organizers had estimated that 20,000 people would attend the rally, marching from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, according to a permit issued by the National Park Service. A smaller crowd of several thousand had arrived on the Mall by early Sunday afternoon.
Some were white-haired; others were being pushed in strollers. Most were White and many wore gear with slogans supporting former president Donald Trump. A group of men in front of a cart with a Don’t Tread on Me flag started chants of ‘Let’s go Brandon’ and ‘F--- Joe Biden’ to cheers. The few who wore masks risked the tirades of a man screaming ‘Take those masks off!’ and ‘It’s all a lie!’
Later, about 10 men wearing the insignia of the Proud Boys, an extremist group involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol, lingered on the Lincoln side of the Reflecting Pool. They briefly engaged in a shouting match with a small group of counterprotesters at the edge of the rally, then walked away.
The marchers carried posters and flags that included false statements such as ‘Vaccines are mass kill bio weapons’ and ‘Trump won.’ A bus was parked beside the Washington Monument, wrapped in ‘Arrest or Exile’ signs and displaying pictures of Anthony S. Fauci, Bill Gates and Jacob Rothschild — the last an echo of antisemitic conspiracy theories involving the Rothschild family. A speaker blared Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Stronger (What doesn’t kill you).’” Read more at Washington Post
The Biden administration will soon be distributing 400 million N95 masks from the Strategic National Stockpile.
“The Biden administration is expected to begin distributing 400 million free N95 masks to Americans this week, the latest federal step aimed at reining in the spread of Covid-19. The masks -- which are coming from the Strategic National Stockpile -- will be made available at a number of local pharmacies and community health centers. A White House official described the distribution as ‘the largest deployment of personal protective equipment in US history.’ The huge allotment amounts to more than half of the 750 million N95 masks currently stored in the reserve, a figure that tripled over the last year as the administration sought to boost reserves. The move comes as the US grapples with an unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron variant.” Read more at CNN
“Free COVID-19 test kits for people who ordered them from COVIDtests.gov will begin shipping via the U.S. Postal Service this week, according to the government website. Americans are supposed to be able to order four kits per address under a federal program that launched last week. Tests are expected to be mailed within seven to 12 days from when they are ordered. Customers should receive email notifications with shipping updates, including estimated delivery date and a tracking number on USPS.com. ‘All tests distributed as part of this program are FDA-authorized at-home rapid antigen tests,’ the website says. The White House also announced last week that it will begin making 400 million N95 masks available for free at pharmacies and community health centers. For the latest COVID-19 updates, tap here.” Read more at USA Today
“Staff illness and burnout have left Mississippi hospitals with a ‘foundational shortage of nurses.’” Read more at New York Times
“Poor countries are losing their best nurses to rich ones.” Read more at New York Times
“CHICAGO – The FBI on Saturday searched the headquarters of a nationwide string of coronavirus testing sites known as the Center for COVID Control.
The company and its main lab, which has been reimbursed more than $124 million from the federal government for coronavirus testing, are under investigation by state and federal officials. The company and lab are registered at the same address in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.” Read more at USA TODAY
“The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol has been having conversations with former Attorney General William Barr. Barr, a staunch defender of former President Donald Trump, pushed the administration's ‘law and order’ message, but resigned in December 2020 after rebuking Trump's false claims about widespread election fraud. Separately, Boris Epshteyn, an adviser to Trump's 2020 presidential campaign, acknowledged late last week that he was part of the effort to prop up so-called ‘alternate electors’ to support Trump in key states. Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani supervised that effort, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the scheme. It involved helping pro-Trump electors access state Capitol buildings, drafting language for fake electoral certificates to send to the federal government, and finding replacements for electors who refused to go along with the plot.” Read more at CNN
“Three ex-officers to stand trial on Monday accused of violating George Floyd’s civil rights. Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng have pleaded not guilty and are expected to try to pin blame on fellow ex-officer Derek Chauvin, say lawyers not involved in the case. Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder after kneeling on Floyd’s neck and back for more than eight minutes.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes celebrates a touchdown by wide receiver Tyreek Hill against the Bills. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
“KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Tom Brady was only minutes removed from his early playoff exit, and Aaron Rodgers was still too ‘fresh’ off the Green Bay Packers’ loss a night earlier to contemplate his future. Turns out, neither really needed to give an answer.
The present and future of the NFL were on display Sunday night in Kansas City, where a quarterback duel between the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and the Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen ushered in the next era.
In a rematch of the AFC championship game here almost exactly a year ago, Mahomes again guided the Chiefs to victory, edging Allen’s Bills in a 42-36 overtime thriller that featured 10 total touchdowns and 25 points in the final two minutes of regulation. The victory, coupled with a Cincinnati Bengals win a day before, ensured Kansas City will host the conference title game for the fourth consecutive season, a feat no other team has achieved.” Read more at Washington Post
“TAMPA – The epic comeback was not completed, after all. And no repeat crown.
If this is it for Tom Brady, what a downer.
Brady and the defending Super Bowl champions were clipped by the Los Angeles Rams, 30-27, in an NFC divisional playoff result that was almost too wild to believe.
The Rams, with new quarterback Matthew Stafford living up to the promise envisioned when he was obtained from Detroit in an offseason trade, are headed home to face their NFC West rival San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game next Sunday.
Brady, meanwhile, could be headed into the sundown of his storied career. The marquee quarterback hasn’t committed to return next season, which means the Tampa Bay era just might be finished. According to multiple reports, Brady, 44, will contemplate his future with his family over the next few weeks.
Brady went down swinging, for sure. The Bucs rallied from a 27-3 deficit to tie the game in the final minute – only to lose the game in the final seconds when the defense couldn’t prevent the Rams from a comeback of their own.
Not only did Brady leave with a big L, he drew the first unsportsmanlike conduct penalty of his 22-year career after yelling at referee Shawn Hochuli during a heated, second-quarter exchange after he absorbed a hit from Von Miller.
And Brady endured a bloody lip, too, a picture that said the proverbial 1,000 words about the pain inflicted on him by the Rams’ defensive front.
It figured that if any team would stop the bid by the Bucs to become the first repeat Super Bowl champion since Brady led the New England Patriots to a Super Bowl crown in the 2004 season, it would be the Rams.
Since Brady arrived in 2020, he’s gone 0-for-LA – losing all three matchups against Sean McVay’s team.
In September at Los Angeles, the Bucs fell 34-24 in a Week 3 contest when Brady passed 55 times and was also the team’s leading rusher, while Stafford burned Tampa Bay for 343 yards and 4 TDs. In November of 2020, the Rams scratched out a 27-24 win here in a game when Brady was intercepted twice by Jordan Fuller.” Read more at USA Today
“For the first time in NFL history, all four Divisional Round games ended in walk-off wins. It was the greatest playoff weekend ever, Axios Sports editor Kendall ‘All-Nighter’ Baker writes.
Last season marked the first time a team (Tampa Bay Bucs) played the Super Bowl in its own stadium. The L.A. Rams are one win from making it happen two years in a row.
The average margin of victory this weekend: 3.8 points.
Chiefs 42, Bills 36 (OT): An instant classic. We may never see a better game. Patrick Mahomes (33/44, 378 yds, 3 TD; rush TD) and Josh Allen (27/37, 329 yds, 4 TD) were phenomenal, combining for 25 points in the last two minutes and overtime alone. Relive the game-winner.
Rams 30, Buccaneers 27: Tom Brady and the Bucs somehow rallied from a 27-3 third-quarter deficit to tie the game with 42 seconds left. But that was just enough time for Matthew Stafford to show why the Rams made him the centerpiece of a team with a Super Bowl mandate.
Bengals 19, Titans 16: The Bengals hadn't won a playoff game in 31 years. They've now won two in a week thanks to rookie Evan McPherson's game-winning FG. The Titans had a playoff-record nine sacks but couldn't overcome Ryan Tannehill's brutal day.
49ers 13, Packers 10: Robbie Gould's walk-off in the snow clinched San Francisco's 17th trip to a conference title game, the most of any team since the 1970 merger. Aaron Rodgers fell to 0-4 against the 49ers in the playoffs, and may have just played his last game as a Packer.” Read more at Axios
Sarah Palin speaks in Phoenix last month at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest. Photo: Antranik Tavitian/The Arizona Republic via Reuters
“A defamation suit by Sarah Palin, who has spent 4½ years battling The New York Times over a corrected editorial, will be heard in Manhattan federal court beginning tomorrow, Reuters reports.
Why it matters: The trial, expected to last five days, marks a rare instance of a major media company defending its editorial practices before an American jury.
What's happening: Palin bears the high burden of showing there was ‘actual malice’ in the newspaper's editorial writing process.
The editorial — ‘America’s Lethal Politics,’ published after the shooting of Republican House leader Steve Scalise — originally linked Palin's PAC to the earlier shooting of former Rep. Gabby Giffords.
The stakes: It has been 58 years since the Supreme Court adopted the ‘actual malice’ standard in the landmark decision New York Times v. Sullivan, making it difficult for public figures to win libel suits.
Two current justices, conservatives Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, have suggested revisiting that standard.
Palin has signaled in court papers she'll challenge Sullivan on appeal if she loses at trial.” Read more at Axios
“Early tax filers can file their 2021 tax returns online starting Monday. That's earlier than the delayed start of Feb. 12 last year, when the IRS needed extra time for many pandemic-related reasons, including new tax rules that were signed into law in late December 2020. The Jan. 24 kickoff puts the IRS back on a more normal track: In 2020, the IRS began processing 2019 tax returns on Jan. 27. Most taxpayers will receive their refund within 21 days of when they file electronically if they choose direct deposit and there are no issues with their tax return, according to the IRS.” Read more at USA Today
“NEW YORK (AP) — Democrats braced for disaster when state legislatures began redrawing congressional maps, fearing that Republican dominance of statehouses would tilt power away from them for the next decade.
But as the redistricting process reaches its final stages, that anxiety is beginning to ease.
For Democrats, the worst case scenario of losing well over a dozen seats in the U.S. House appears unlikely to happen. After some aggressive map drawing of their own in states with Democratic legislatures, some Democrats predict the typical congressional district will shift from leaning to the right of the national vote to matching it, ending a distortion that gave the GOP a built-in advantage over the past five House elections.
‘We have stymied their intent to gerrymander their way to a House majority,’ Kelly Ward Burton, head of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said of the GOP.
The jockeying in state capitals has implications not just for Democrats’ uphill effort to maintain a majority in the U.S. House in this year’s midterm elections. It will affect the broader balance of power in Washington and state legislatures for the remainder of the decade.
While Republicans say they’ve achieved their goals so far, they’re surprised at how much Democrats have tried to expand the number of seats their party can win. The GOP has taken a markedly different approach by aiming to shore up its vulnerable members’ districts, transforming competitive seats into safe ones.
That’s in part because Republicans already expanded the map with aggressive redistricting after the 2010 census, when they controlled more states. Now, as the lines are adjusted to meet last year’s census figures, they are locking in their gains while Democrats are taking risks to fight back.
In a wave election, Democrats could lose even more seats in the maps they have drawn because they spread their voters so thin, analysts say. And, if political coalitions shift in upcoming years, seats Democrats thought were within reach could suddenly disappear.
‘Republicans have given themselves pretty good tsunami protection,’ said Michael Li of the Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks redistricting. ‘But for Democrats, if it rains a little, their house is flooded.’
The Democratic push comes as the party has unsuccessfully fought to ban partisan gerrymandering nationwide — their elections bill barring the practice died in the Senate last week during a Republican filibuster. Li said Democrats, however, are still gerrymandering in states they control, sometimes aggressively as in Illinois, other times relatively lightly, as in New Mexico and Oregon.
In contrast, experts say Republicans, who control more states, have gerrymandered heavily in places like Texas, North Carolina and Ohio. But the GOP’s Ohio maps were tossed out by the state Supreme Court this month, and Democrats are hopeful North Carolina’s high court follows suit with the districts there, part of the reason for the party’s increased optimism.
The next and biggest opportunity for Democrats is in New York, which will test how much power Democrats are willing to give up to fight gerrymandering. Saying they wanted to take partisanship out of redistricting, Democrats there in 2014 backed a ballot measure to put the process in the hands of a bipartisan commission. But the state legislature can overrule the commission. In 2014 it was divided between Democratic and Republican control. Now Democrats have a supermajority in both houses.
The New York Legislature already rejected the commission’s first attempt at maps, and can seize control if it rejects the second one, due by Tuesday.
“The Democratic leadership and those on the far left that run the show in Albany, they’re hellbent to take this process over to derail the commission, and to have the the party bosses in Albany draw the maps,” said Nick Langworthy, chairman of the New York GOP. “I think that they looked at a handful of states to give them a shot to hold on to the majority.”
Republicans need only to net five seats in November’s election to gain control of the U.S. House. They started the redistricting cycle controlling line-drawing in states representing 187 House seats while Democrats controlled only 75.
That means the final outcome will inevitably favor the GOP, no matter how hard Democrats fight back, said Kimbrall Brace, a veteran redistricting consultant. “They’re ending up still putting a Republican flavor on the overall plan,” Brace said.
So far, the GOP has gained a handful of seats in the maps that have been finalized, but it’s hard to put a precise number on how many because half of the states have yet to formally adopt maps. If Democrats are aggressive, for example, they could net four seats in New York and largely wipe out the GOP’s national gains. But then Republicans in Florida could counter with a gerrymander.
Still, Republicans have passed up multiple opportunities to pad their margins even more.
In Missouri, some GOP state lawmakers are fuming that the legislature is advancing a plan that locks in the status quo rather than trying to turn Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City-area seat to the GOP. In Indiana, Republicans did not split up the Gary-based district represented by Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan.
Even in Georgia, where Republicans flooded a seat in the Atlanta suburbs held by Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath with GOP voters, they balked at doing the same to her Democratic neighbor, Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux. Instead, they packed Democratic voters into Bourdeaux’s district, making it safer so no other Republicans’ seats would be at risk.” Read more at AP News
“Virginia’s Republican attorney general fired a top Jan. 6 investigator from his job at the University of Virginia. Democrats said it was a partisan move.” Read more at New York Times
“As the United States continues to pursue diplomacy amid a Russian military build-up near Ukraine’s borders, recent developments have put NATO’s ability to present a united front in question.
On Friday, it emerged that Germany was blocking NATO ally Estonia from transferring German-origin howitzer artillery to Ukraine, while off-the-cuff remarks from Germany’s navy chief Kay-Achim Schönbach—saying that Crimea would not return to Ukraine and that Russian President Vladimir Putin deserved respect—forced his resignation over the weekend.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made no secret of the country’s hesitancy to provide arms that may be used in a future war. ‘Our restrictive position is well known and is rooted in history,’ Baerbock said last week. The speedy departure of Schönbach also shows Germany has no desire to be seen as a Russian catspaw.
Still, the relative reticence of Germany to follow its NATO allies in supporting Ukraine has raised questions over Germany’s position should a Russian an invasion occur, and how far the country would be willing to go in supporting a Western sanctions campaign. German officials have privately said they are ready to shelve Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline direct from Russia to Germany, in the event of Russian military action, although such a threat has yet to be made explicitly.
The issue of arms transfers remain a difficult issue for German policymakers to follow their NATO counterparts on, Liana Fix, a resident fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, told Foreign Policy. ‘Weapons deliveries are very clearly seen in other countries as a deterrence measure, whereas in the German political discourse they are seen as contributing to further escalation,’ Fix said.
While arms transfers may be off the table politically, Fix doesn’t rule out further actions to reassure allies, like when Germany led a NATO battalion to Lithuania in 2016.
Constanze Stelzenmüller, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said Germany’s prevarications stem from a domestic politics that is yet to grasp 21st century realities. It can’t be blamed on the small number of explicitly pro-Russian elements in the country, but rather a cognitive dissonance among mainstream politicians, making them ‘unwilling to look reality in the face because it would force them to reconsider their position.’
When it comes to Ukraine, Stelzenmüller said, that dissonance plays out in Germany’s decision to help fund a field hospital in Ukraine while other allies provide arms: ‘I don’t know how we could say more obviously that we expect there to be bloodshed, but then we’re not going to do anything about it except co-finance an Estonian field hospital.’
If the United States is disappointed in Germany’s level of coherence, it is not showing it publicly. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC on Sunday that the Germans ‘very much share our concerns and are resolute in being determined to respond and to respond swiftly, effectively, and in a united way. I have no doubts about that.’
‘German foreign policy is always slow and incremental,’ GMF’s Fix said, citing the country’s initial soft approach to sanctioning Russia over its annexation of Crimea in 2014 which then grew into much stronger measures. ‘I think it’s perhaps too early to judge yet whether Germany is really the weak link.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Burkina Faso. Burkinabe authorities denied that a coup attempt had taken place amid reports of an army mutiny and sustained gunfire at military bases in the country. The mutinying soldiers have called for ‘appropriate’ resources to fight Islamist militants in the area as well as the resignation of senior military and intelligence leaders. Protests in support of the mutineers were met with tear gas by police, while protesters looted and burned the offices of the People’s Movement for Progress (MPP), the party of President Roch Kabore.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“BEIJING (AP) — A fresh outbreak in Beijing has prompted authorities to test millions and impose new measures two weeks ahead of the opening of the Winter Olympics, even as Chinese officials on Monday lifted a monthlong lockdown on the northern city of Xi’an and its 13 million residents.
Despite falling case numbers, pandemic controls have been stepped up ahead of the Olympics, where all participants must be tested before and after their arrival in Beijing.
In the capital, the 2 million residents of Fengtai district underwent testing following the discovery of more than three dozen cases in the capital. Targeted testing was being conducted at residential communities in six other districts.
The government told people in areas of Beijing deemed at high risk for infection not to leave the city after 25 cases were found in Fengtai and 14 elsewhere. Residents lined up Sunday on snow-covered sidewalks in freezing weather for testing.
The Beijing Municipal Health Commission also said Sunday that anyone who had purchased medicine for fever, cough and other infections within the past two weeks would be required to take a COVID-19 test within 72 hours, the state-owned Global Times newspaper reported.
The Olympics are being held under strict controls that are meant to isolate athletes, staff, reporters and officials from residents. Athletes are required to be vaccinated or undergo a quarantine after arriving in China.
The announcement by the city of Xi’an Monday followed the restart of commercial flights from the city over the weekend. The major tourism center and former imperial capital, famed as the home of the Terracotta Warrior statue army, struggled to get food to some residents in the early days of the lockdown, after people were confined to their homes.
Xi’an has been a cornerstone of the ruling Communist Party’s “zero tolerance” strategy toward COVID-19 that mandates lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass testing whenever a case is discovered.” Read more at AP News
“People who aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19 are no longer allowed in France’s restaurants, bars, tourist sites and sports venues unless they recently recovered from the virus.
The new law came into effect Monday requiring a ‘vaccine pass’ that is central to the government’s anti-virus strategy.
France is registering Europe’s highest-ever daily coronavirus infection numbers, and hospitals are continuing to fill up with virus patients, though the number of people in intensive care units has dropped in recent days.
The government has imposed few other restrictions amid the surge in the omicron variant, focusing instead on the vaccine pass, approved by France’s parliament and Constitutional Council last week.
Omicron is less likely to cause severe illness than the previous delta variant, according to studies. Omicron spreads even more easily than other coronavirus strains, and has already become dominant in many countries. It also more easily infects those who have been vaccinated or had previously been infected by prior versions of the virus.” Read more at AP News
“Italy selects. Italian lawmakers gather for a joint session today to begin the process of selecting a new president to replace Sergio Mattarella, whose seven-year term is at an end. Mario Draghi, the current prime minister, is heavily favored for the role, while former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has ruled himself out of the running. The presidential race, FP columnist Adam Tooze writes, goes beyond whether Draghi will ascend but is rather ‘the latest round in the decades-long struggle to reconcile Italy’s position as a member of the inner circle of Europe—and the euro—with the shifting currents of Italian democracy.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Taiwan incursions. Some 39 Chinese aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone on Sunday, the highest figure since October, the island’s defense ministry reported. Taiwan scrambled its own fighter jets in response to the flights, which came close to the Pratas Islands.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Iran talks. The United States appeared to tie the success of a nuclear deal with Iran to the release of four U.S. citizens currently held by Iran. Asked about the Vienna negotiations and Americans, U.S. special envoy for Iran Robert Malley told Reuters that the two issues were ‘separate’ but ‘it is very hard for us to imagine getting back into the nuclear deal while four innocent Americans are being held hostage by Iran.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Boris Johnson’s future. The results of an internal investigation into allegations of lockdown rule-breaking at 10 Downing Street are expected this week, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s future hanging in the balance. Dominic Cummings, a former Johnson adviser, is expected to be interviewed by investigator Sue Gray today. On Sunday, the Telegraph reported that members of the Metropolitan Police were part of the investigation and may provide independent corroboration to several allegations.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“While British politicians weigh judgement on their own prime minister’s adherence to coronavirus restrictions, nearly 12,000 miles away, another prime minister has canceled her wedding to keep within national measures.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was set to marry her partner Clarke Gayford later this month, but new public health restrictions in the wake of the omicron variant have put the nuptials on ice.
‘My wedding won’t be going ahead, but I just join many other New Zealanders who have had an experience like that as a result of the pandemic,’ Ardern told reporters. ‘Such is life.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Two Canadian guests are dead and another injured after a Friday shooting at a luxury hotel in Mexico, the latest act of violence along Mayan Riviera, a hotspot of the nation's tourism industry.” Read more at USA Today
“The United Arab Emirates intercepted two ballistic missiles targeting Abu Dhabi early Monday, state media reported, the latest attack to target the Emirati capital.” Read more at USA Today
“Selling at the right time
In an academic paper published a few years ago, an economist named Serkan Karadas highlighted a suspicious pattern: Members of Congress earned higher than average returns on their stock investments.
The findings suggested that at least some Congress members were profiting off their jobs. With inside knowledge about forthcoming policy changes or economic developments, the members could buy stocks shortly before they rose in price or sell them shortly before they fell.
There have been several high-profile examples in recent years that seem to fit that pattern. In each case, the members say they did nothing inappropriate:
Tom Price, a former Georgia congressman (and later Donald Trump’s secretary of health and human services), repeatedly traded health care stocks, including a discounted purchase through a special offer from an Australian drug company.
Representative John Yarmuth, a Kentucky Democrat, bought several cannabis stocks while promoting bills favorable to the industry, as Judd Legum of Popular Information reported.
Several senators — including Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat; and Kelly Loeffler and Richard Burr, both Republicans — sold stocks after receiving a private briefing on Covid-19 weeks after the discovery of the first case in China.
Similarly, Senator David Perdue, a Georgia Republican who was an active trader while in the Senate, bought shares in companies that stood to benefit from the pandemic, like Pfizer and Netflix.
The wife of Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, bought stock in Gilead Sciences, which makes a Covid antiviral drug, in the pandemic’s early weeks.
In all, members of Congress and their immediate families bought more than $260 million worth of assets and sold more than $360 million last year, my colleagues at DealBook have reported. Karadas’s research found that many of the outsize stock gains in recent years flowed to high-ranking Republicans.
‘A huge conflict’
A bipartisan group of Congress members is now trying to put a stop to these trades. They have proposed bills that would require Congress members to place their holdings in a blind trust, operated by somebody else. A separate bill would bar members and senior congressional aides from buying and selling individual stocks.
The bills’ sponsors include Senators Jon Ossoff, Mark Kelly, Jeff Merkley and Representative Abigail Spanberger, all Democrats, and Senator Josh Hawley and Representative Chip Roy, both Republicans.
‘It is a huge conflict of interest for someone to be trading in, say, pharmaceutical stocks at the same time as making policy for pharmaceutical companies,’ Merkley, who represents Oregon, told NPR.
Spanberger told The Washington Post that she and Roy, who are sponsoring a bill together, were both ‘disgusted’ by the current situation. ‘If placing limitations on how we can buy and sell stock makes it so that someone trusts us a bit more — Congress doesn’t have a great approval rating — I think that is a quote-unquote sacrifice we should make,’ said Spanberger, who represents a swing district in Virginia.
For now, the bills seem unlikely to become law, partly because they lack the support of Democratic leaders. Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, has argued that members of Congress deserve the same freedom as other Americans to buy and sell stocks. ‘We are a free-market economy,’ Pelosi said last month. Members of Congress ‘should be able to participate in that.’
Critics respond that Congress members are different from everybody else, because of their access to sensitive information. The critics also argue that people who enjoy the privilege of serving in Congress have a responsibility to put the public trust above their own financial interests; if they would rather not do so, they can join the private sector.
Michelle Cottle, a Times Opinion writer, wrote that Pelosi’s position seemed ‘a wee bit out of touch’ given many Americans’ economic frustrations. Helaine Olen of The Washington Post has written: ‘Neither bill demands major financial sacrifice. But it’s still asking too much for some.’
Congress did tighten the rules on itself in 2012, through a law known as the Stock Act. It prohibits members from making trades based on privileged information and requires them to disclose any trades within 45 days. But the law has failed to prevent problematic trades — much as early critics of it, like Senator Elizabeth Warren, predicted.
Why? Proving that a specific trade stemmed from a specific piece of information is so difficult that prosecutors have never brought charges based on the law. And dozens of members and their aides have ignored the disclosure requirement, according to the publication Insider. The standard first-time fine for failing to report a trade on time is only $200.
All of which suggests that members of Congress will continue to profit from their access to sensitive information, unless they eventually pass a new bill that restricts trading.
Related: Three top Federal Reserve officials have resigned in the past year after being criticized for their trades. ‘The conduct is beyond reprehensible,’ Dennis Kelleher, the president of Better Markets, a watchdog group, told me. The Fed has since tightened its rules.” Read more at New York Times
“18 — The number of Covid-19 trials aiming to enroll more than 100 people for testing combinations of antivirals, according to a Jan. 7 analysis from Airfinity in London. Researchers worry the virus will figure out a way to evade new pills, prompting efforts to look for signs of such resistance and find drug combinations to thwart it.
25% — The rough percentage of Germany’s total energy consumption that is represented by natural gas. Germany draws more than half of its gas imports from Russia, leaving Europe short of options to sanction Moscow if it invades Ukraine—and vulnerable should Russia stop gas exports to the West.
5,013 — The number of Covid cases recorded among cruise ship passengers and crew between Dec. 15 and 29, compared with 162 in the previous two-week period. Operators say the infections are a fraction of the number of cases reported earlier in the pandemic, but industry analysts say elevated case counts could once again depress demand.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“The Beijing Olympics, opening in 12 days, will be the first to rely completely on artificial powder, Bloomberg Green reports.
Why it matters: ‘Experts worry that the push to transform Zhangjiakou [the main ski and snowboard venue] will worsen the region’s severe water scarcity,’ which is among the worst in China.
Past Olympics have used fake snow, but to a lesser extent.
Genting Snow Park will be home of most freestyle skiing and snowboarding events. Photo: Wu Diansen/VCG via Getty Images
Between the lines: The Winter Games will be ‘the culmination of a six-year effort to turn Zhangjiakou into China’s version of the Alps, creating an upscale winter holiday destination in the hopes of lifting an agricultural region out of poverty,’ Bloomberg notes.
China could need 2 million cubic meters of water — enough to fill 800 Olympic-sized swimming pools — to create enough fake snow to cover ski runs and access roads during the Games.” Read more at Axios
“The percentage of Americans who belong to a union plunged last year back to its pre-pandemic low, despite high-profile efforts to organize workers at Starbucks and Amazon, Nathan Bomey writes in Axios Closer.
10.3% of workers belonged to a union in 2021, matching 2019’s low.
That's down from 10.6% in 2020, when the share temporarily spiked due to a disproportionate and temporary decrease in total nonunion workers due to pandemic shutdowns.
Context: The national unionization rate has been steadily drifting down for decades. It was 20.1% in 1983, the first year with comparable figures.” Read more at Axios
“"America's 6.6 million public-school teachers have grown more racially and ethnically diverse — but not nearly as fast as the student population, which is nearing majority-minority, Axios' Russell Contreras writes.
Census data this month (based on 2014-18) showed three in four public-school teachers were white — while nearly half of students from preschool to high school were students of color.
What's happening: The disparities are especially acute between Hispanic students and teachers.
Recruitment is only part of the problem: Experts tell Axios teachers of color are leaving the profession faster than their white counterparts.
Zoom out: The gaps are widening as school districts become political lightning rods in elections.
The backlash by social conservatives to a national reckoning over structural racism is playing out in contested school board races, book bans and legislative efforts to block curriculum.
By the numbers: 79% of U.S. public school teachers identified as white, non-Hispanic, according to a Pew Research Center analysis released last month. (The data are from the 2017-18 school year — the latest available from the National Center for Education Statistics.)
Fewer than one in 10 teachers was Black (7%), Hispanic (9%) or Asian American (2%).
Compare that with the latest available comparable student data: 47% of public elementary and secondary school students were white, 27% were Latino, 15% were Black and 5% were Asian American.” Read more at Axios
Protesters and tenants facing displacement held a rally last fall against a landlord they accused of sharply increasing rents in Brooklyn. PHOTO: ED JONES/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
“To bargain with their landlords, renters are forming tenant unions.
Apartment tenants are forming unions in an effort to gain leverage in landlord negotiations, a response to record-high rents and the recent expiration of eviction bans enacted during the pandemic. Tenant unions, also known as associations, have been around for more than a century. They have been especially active in expensive cities with large renter populations such as San Francisco and New York. Now they are spreading in places like Akron, Ohio; Milwaukee, and the Maryland suburbs. Tenant unions often start with letters to the landlord, asking for things like building improvements or a meeting to discuss evictions. They can escalate by holding public protests, contacting government officials or going on a rent strike, as did a tenant union organized in Queens, N.Y. A key difference from labor unions is that tenant associations in the private housing market have almost none of the legal recognition that organized labor does, which means tenant groups have much less bargaining power.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Workers are having their moment. How long can it last?
It’s a good time to be an American worker. Wages are climbing higher, and they’re expected to stay that way for years. This shift in bargaining power is the latest example of how the pandemic upended the U.S. economy in some unexpected ways. Today, just about anyone who wants a job now can get one, especially in manufacturing, mining and wholesale trade. The news isn’t all good, however. Rising inflation is eating away at robust wage growth, leaving many workers with pay that isn’t keeping pace with higher prices. And economists expect some groups of workers could remain sidelined for months or even years. Less-educated workers and Black women dropped out of the workforce in droves at the onset of Covid-19, and some appear hesitant to jump back into the workforce despite more opportunities. Economists say that could be related to a shortage of child-care workers as the Omicron variant disrupts schools and daycare. Others, they say, might be worried about getting infected if they return.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Evan Rachel Wood revealed shocking abuse allegations against Marilyn Manson in a new documentary.” Read more at USA Today
“A growing number of brands are giving customers the chance to opt out of marketing emails ahead of Valentine's Day and other holidays, Axios' Shoshana Gordon and Erica Pandey report.
Why it matters: Ads and promotions around holidays — particularly ones that celebrate relationships — can cause anxiety and depression.
What's happening: Retailers, florists, media companies and more are taking a thoughtful approach to holiday marketing, trying not to inundate their customers with ads that'll hurt them.
Etsy, for instance, lets people opt out of Valentine's Day emails and offers as well as marketing around Mother's Day and Father's Day.
What's next: Look for more brands to collect insights on which holidays their customers celebrate — just like they keep track of demographic data — and use those insights to target marketing.” Read more at Axios
“TOKYO (AP) — French fashion designer Manfred Thierry Mugler, whose dramatic designs were worn by celebrities like Madonna, Lady Gaga and Cardi B, has died. He was 73.
He died Sunday, his official Instagram account said. ‘May his soul Rest In Peace,’ it said in a post that was all black with no image. It did not give a cause of death.
Mugler, who launched his brand in 1973, became known for his architectural style, defined by broad shoulders and a tiny waist. The use of plastic-like futuristic fabric in his sculpted clothing became a trademark.
He defined haute couture over several decades, dressing up Diana Ross and Beyonce at galas, on red carpets and runways.
His designs weren’t shy about being outlandish, at times resembling robotic suits with protruding cone shapes. Mugler also had a popular perfume line, which he started in the 1990s.
The fashion world filled with an outpouring of sympathy. Bella Hadid, an American model, said ‘Nonononono,’ followed by an image of a sad face, while American actress January Jones responded with a heart mark, from their official Instagram accounts.” Read more at AP News