The Full Belmonte, 1/31/2022
“Super Bowl preparations will begin for the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams Monday, after the two teams claimed conference titles Sunday. The Bengals advanced after erasing an 18-point deficit against the Kansas City Chiefs, winning the AFC title game in overtime, 27-24. In the NFC, the Rams had a comeback of their own, defeating the San Francisco 49ers, 20-17, after trailing 10 points in the fourth quarter. Super Bowl LVI will be played on Feb. 13, at SoFi Stadium, the Rams' home field in Los Angeles.” Read more at USA Today
Super Bowl 56: Cincinnati Bengals vs. Los Angeles Rams live stream, time, TV, betting odds, halftime show.
San Francisco 49ers free safety Jimmie Ward pulls on the jersey of Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp.Gary A. Vasquez, USA TODAY Sports
The Bengals kicking the winning field goal.Charlie Riedel/Associated Press
“MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Rafael Nadal got to 21 first, breaking the men’s record for most Grand Slam singles titles and doing it the hard way by coming back from two sets down to beat Daniil Medvedev in an almost 5 1/2-hour Australian Open final.
Nadal was broken when serving for the championship for the first time at 5-4 in the fifth set, but he made no mistake two games later by served an ace to earn three championship points and converted it on the first attempt.
The 35-year-old Spaniard now has one more major title than Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, his long-time rivals in the so-called Big Three.
With the 2-6, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 win that started Sunday night, was delayed in the 84-minute second set when a protester jumped onto the court, and then finished early Monday morning, Nadal also became just the fourth man in history to win all four of the sport’s major titles at least twice.” Read more at USA Today
“Crews and residents are continuing to clear snow on the East Coast Monday after a ‘historic nor'easter’ swept across the region over the weekend. Authorities on Long Island reported three storm-related deaths. More than 100,000 lost power at the height of the storm, mostly in Massachusetts. Boston tied its record for biggest single-day snowfall on Saturday, with 23.6 inches, the National Weather Service said. Meanwhile, some sections of New York City were blanketed by more than foot of snow. The storm stretched from Maine to the Carolinas and the cold reached even farther: The temperature in Tallahassee, Florida, dipped below 20 degrees for the first time in more than 10 years. The storm became a bomb cyclone when it rapidly strengthened, or underwent bombogenesis, between Friday and Saturday afternoon as it rolled up the East Coast, AccuWeather said.” Read more at USA Today
“Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday appeared to enthusiastically endorse one of President Biden’s potential Supreme Court nominees to replace Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who last week announced his intention to retire at the end of this court term.
In an interview on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation,’ Graham sang the praises of South Carolina federal District Judge J. Michelle Childs.
‘I can’t think of a better person for President Biden to consider for the Supreme Court then Michelle Childs,’ Graham told ‘Face the Nation’ host Margaret Brennan. ‘She has wide support in our state. She’s considered to be a fair-minded, highly gifted jurist. She’s one of the most decent people I’ve ever met.’
Rep. James E. Clyburn (S.C.), the number three in House Democratic leadership, has been publicly calling on Biden to choose Childs, and Graham’s comments lend credence to his argument that she could attract bipartisan support. Clyburn is a longtime ally of Biden who helped revitalize his presidential campaign when it was on life support by endorsing the former vice president days ahead of the South Carolina Democratic primary in February 2020. This history gives Clyburn’s support for Childs extra heft, and the White House took the rare step Friday of confirming she is under consideration for the Supreme Court.
Graham’s show of support stood in stark contrast to most Republican senators, who have either refrained from weighing in or have expressed concern that Biden would nominate someone too ‘radical.’ Some have been critical of Biden’s promise to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. On Saturday, the White House issued a rebuke of Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who had said Biden’s pick would be a ‘beneficiary’ of affirmative action and predicted she would ‘probably not get a single Republican vote.’” Read more at Washington Post
“Ketanji Brown Jackson is a contender for the Supreme Court. Her family helped shape her understanding of the justice system.” Read more at New York Times
“As of today, 74.5 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 63.1 percent is “fully vaccinated,” according to the Bloomberg News global vaccine tracker and the government’s definition. The percentage of Americans who have received third or booster doses is 26.1.” Read more at The Hill
“Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is being blamed by GOP opponents and Democrats for bungling the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to the border under his signature program Operation Lone Star after a recent spate of suicides among the troops.
The deployment was hasty, Guardsmen say. Some stationed on the border say they have little to do, which is leading to low morale. As well, the state has been slow to pay them, Guardsmen say.
Texas dedicated more than $3 billion to an effort to stem illegal border crossings, as border apprehensions reached record numbers in 2021. Mr. Abbott, who has made border issues the center of his re-election campaign this year, has accused the Biden administration of not doing enough to stop people from crossing.
Last spring, Mr. Abbott launched Operation Lone Star, which involves sending troops and state police to the border and arresting immigrants on state trespassing charges, saying he was looking for ways to take federal immigration enforcement into state hands.
Now, complaints within the ranks and concerns about the troops’ treatment could cast a pall over an operation that has been central to Mr. Abbott’s public messaging. Republican pollsters and consultants said there is no issue of greater importance to the party’s voters in Texas than border security and immigration.
Two Republican primary challengers of Mr. Abbott, Allen West, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, and former state Sen. Don Huffines, have called for more troops on the border. They say the mission to the border lacks focus and have said in speeches and interviews that Mr. Abbott is using the troops for political theater.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, 50 Democrats in the Texas Legislature sent a letter to the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security, requesting an investigation into the operation. The letter cited concerns about treatment of Guardsmen, as well as treatment of immigrants, stress on local justice systems and the role of private militia groups in the operation.
Earlier in the month, Texas Democrats in Congress asked the Texas Military Department to investigate treatment of service members under the mission.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“More than 20 Republicans who dispute President Biden’s election victory are running for state posts overseeing elections.” Read more at New York Times
“Federal prosecutors have reached a plea deal with two of the three men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery. The Department of Justice charged the three defendants with hate crimes. The three have already been sentenced in Georgia state court to life in prison for Arbery's murder.” Read more at NPR
“Health experts are worried the Beijing Olympics, which open Friday, offer the perfect conditions for a COVID outbreak:
That's because of the lightning-fast spread of Omicron, vaccines' weakened protection against it, and a mentality that the Games must go on in spite of the risks, Axios health care editor Tina Reed writes.
Why it matters: These Winter Games boast a ‘closed-loop system’ that has been called the strictest ever created for a global sporting event. But China's protocols seem more focused on keeping COVID from escaping the loop than protecting those inside it.
The rules even direct locals not to help if an Olympics vehicle gets in an accident.
"China has made their decision, and they're gonna steamroll this thing," Apolo Ohno, the most decorated American Olympian at the Winter Games, told Rolling Stone.
State of play: Omicron is still spreading fast, and now there are new warnings of an even more contagious version of the variant.
What's happening: As with the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, an International Olympic Committee playbook lays out a COVID safety strategy that begins well before an athlete's departure for the Games.
Competitors and journalists must test negative to enter China, must wear masks in public areas, and are told to social-distance, practice hand hygiene and get tested for COVID daily.
Unlike the Tokyo Games, China is also requiring vaccinations or quarantine for 21 days after arrival. Delegations have been told to use higher quality respirator masks, including N95s or KN95s.
Locals working within the closed-loop system won't be able to return to their homes until they've been quarantined. Even trash will be held in isolation.” Read more at Axios
“SEOUL — North Korea on Sunday carried out what appeared to be its boldest ballistic missile test in years, raising the stakes in a flurry of launches that analysts said were meant to put pressure on President Biden.
The missile was launched at 7:52 a.m. from the North Korean province of Jagang, which borders China, and flew across the North before falling into the sea off the country’s east coast, the South Korean military said. It was the North’s seventh missile test this month.
The office of South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, called the projectile an intermediate-range ballistic missile and condemned the test as a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. Flight data suggested it was the North’s most powerful launch since November 2017, when it tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that flew much higher.” Read more at Boston Globe
Civilian volunteers in Ukraine train to fight off possible Russian invasion.
“The two top senators on the Foreign Relations Committee say they are confident they will get a bipartisan deal on Russian sanctions when the Senate comes back from recess, despite some sticking points. Some sanctions on the table could happen upfront, while others would go into effect if Russia were to invade Ukraine. Russia, meanwhile, is questioning the framing of NATO as a ‘defensive’ alliance, complaining that the bloc's ‘line of defense’ continues to move east toward the county. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said yesterday this is a clear sign that Russia will ‘highly likely’ invade Ukraine. The White House has also warned that a Russian invasion into Ukraine is ‘imminent.’ President Joe Biden said Friday he will move US troops to NATO allies in Eastern Europe in the ‘near term,’ marking a new phase in the US response to Russia's escalation on the Ukrainian border.” Read more at CNN
“UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to meet Monday for the first time on Russia’s troop buildup and threatening actions against Ukraine at the request of the United States, and all key players are expected to square off in public over the possibility of a Russian invasion and its global impact.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russia’s actions pose ‘a clear threat to international peace and security and the U.N. Charter.’ Council members ‘must squarely examine the facts and consider what is at stake for Ukraine, for Russia, for Europe, and for the core obligations and principles of the international order should Russia further invade Ukraine,’ she said Thursday in announcing the meeting.
Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky responded angrily, tweeting: ‘I can’t recall another occasion when a SC (Security Council) member proposed to discuss its own baseless allegations and assumptions as a threat to intl (international) order from someone else. Hopefully fellow UNSC members will not support this clear PR stunt shameful for the reputation of UN Security Council.’
Polyansky’s reaction indicated that Russia may start the meeting asking for a procedural vote on whether it should go ahead. To block the meeting, Russia would need support from nine of the 15 members….
Russia’s massing of an estimated 100,000 troops near the border with Ukraine has brought increasingly strong warnings from the West that Moscow intends to invade. Russia is demanding that NATO promise never to allow Ukraine to join the alliance, and to stop the deployment of NATO weapons near Russian borders and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe. NATO and the U.S. call those demands impossible.
Assuming the meeting goes ahead, the council will first hear a briefing by a senior U.N. official followed by statements from its 15 members including Russia, the United States and European members France, Ireland, United Kingdom and Albania. Under council rules, Ukraine will also speak.
China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun, whose country has close ties to Russia, indicated Beijing supports Moscow in opposing a council meeting.” Read more at AP News
“HASAKA, Syria — Kurdish-led forces regained full control of a prison in northeastern Syria on Sunday after a battle that spread to surrounding neighborhoods in the most intense urban combat involving American soldiers in Iraq or Syria since the self-declared Islamic State caliphate fell in 2019.
‘We announce the end of the sweep campaign in al-Sinaa Prison in Ghweran neighborhood in Hasaka and the end of the last pockets in which ISIS mercenaries were holed up,’ said the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish militia, in a statement, using an alternative name for the Islamic State group.
The US Special Operations Joint Task Force said the militia had cleared the prison of ‘active enemy fighters’ and was conducting recovery operations to make sure the area was fully safe. It said detainees were transferred to a more secure site.” Read more at Boston Globe
“U.S. President Joe Biden hosts the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the White House today with a packed agenda in store.
Biden is expected to lean on the Qatari leader for support in countering the power of Russian gas exports in Europe by sending some of its own stocks to the continent. It’s not clear what capacity Qatar has to divert gas to Europe; it already accounts for roughly five percent of Europe’s gas, but the majority of its exports go to Asia.
On a call with reporters on Sunday afternoon, a senior Biden administration official refused to be drawn on the issue, only saying that the White House was ‘consulting with all the leading gas suppliers around the world.’
It’s not the first time the United States has turned to its Gulf partner to help weather a geopolitical crisis. With the Biden administration refusing to recognize the Taliban government in Afghanistan, Qatar is now the official U.S. go-between on the ground, stepping in where the U.S. embassy no longer operates.
Qatar also took the lead in evacuation flights during the U.S. withdrawal in August. Those flights, chartered by the U.S. government and operated by Qatar Airways, resumed last Thursday following a weeks-long hiatus.
The two men are also likely to take up the issue of Iran, at a time when talks in Vienna aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear deal have shown signs of steady momentum. Unlike its Gulf competitors who are only now taking steps to mend their relationships with Tehran, Qatar’s ties go deeper, with the two countries sharing in the North Dome/South Pars oil field, the source of Qatar’s wealth.
While Biden has kept some Gulf leaders, most notably Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, at arm’s length, the same can’t be said for Al Thani. ‘Qatar’s regional policies and the Biden administration’s have aligned in the sense that Biden has put diplomacy first,’ Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Gulf expert at Rice University and author of Qatar and the Gulf Crisis, told Foreign Policy. ‘Qatar has since 2017 tried to dial down tensions, it hasn’t been the same as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which were heavily involved in inflaming regional conflicts.’
It’s likely that even after the chaotic exit from Afghanistan, the U.S. government will still be looking to Doha to iron out its more difficult problems, Coates Ulrichsen said: ‘The fact the Qataris have relationships and can bring people together that cannot talk directly, from a U.S. perspective, that could produce results with Iran too.’
And what will Qatar want from the meeting? By being the first Gulf Cooperation Council leader to visit the White House under Biden, Al Thani has already won in the Gulf prestige stakes, but the emir is expected to press for more concrete results as well. While a future designation as a major non-NATO ally—floated in 2020 but not followed through—may be too much, clearance on a $500 million U.S. weapon sales is likely to be a priority.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“U.K. pivot | Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to hold talks with Russia President Vladimir Putin this week and introduce legislation to remove European Union laws from British statute books as he attempts to move on from the ‘partygate’ scandal that has dominated headlines for weeks.
Johnson will make a statement to the House of Commons today to set out his response to the allegations of rule-breaking by his office during the Covid lockdowns, sources say.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Ireland’s fishing community scored a victory over the Russian navy after Moscow caved to their demands to move naval exercises out of Ireland’s exclusive economic zone. The fishermen had planned to stage a peaceful protest at sea if the exercises had gone ahead as planned, prompting a showdown between Dublin and Moscow.
On Saturday, Russia’s ambassador to Ireland said the exercises would be moved out of Ireland’s EEZ ‘as a gesture of goodwill’ and aimed ‘not to hinder fishing activities by the Irish vessels in the traditional fishing areas.’
Brendan Byrne of the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association welcomed the news and said that Russia ‘may have miscalculated.’ Byrne’s organization is now calling for a 10-year moratorium on any country’s naval exercises within the Irish EEZ.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“The unvaccinated face fines in parts of Europe. Starting Tuesday, Italy will begin imposing 100-euro penalties on residents 50 years old and over who aren't vaccinated against Covid-19, while a similar measure in Austria targets over-18s. Italians on the wrong side of their country's push to improve vaccine uptake are finding it increasingly difficult to carry on life as usual.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“BAUTZEN, Germany — Among the crowd who gathered to protest the German government’s pandemic policies at a medieval square in the old town of Bautzen on a recent icy Monday evening were a gaggle of first-time demonstrators.
A 16-year-old nursing student said new German mandates on vaccinations for health-care workers, due to come into force in the spring, had gotten her out on the streets. Others said they just wanted to be able to meet at a cafe to drink coffee with friends — now not possible in Germany for the unvaccinated unless they recently had the coronavirus.
‘We feel left out of society,’ said Stephanie Handrick, 37, who was demonstrating for the first time with her mother, Karin, 62.
Protests in Germany — the majority in the form of Monday evening ‘walks’ — are growing. According to official estimates, there were 1,700 demonstrations across the country in the third week of January alone, drawing around 400,000 people, said a security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information.
How the omicron variant is spreading around the world
Anti-vaccine movements have hardened across Europe in recent months — and at times drifted into violence — as winter surges in infections have brought new restrictions and mandates. There have been threats against French members of Parliament and clashes on the streets of Rotterdam. On Jan. 23, demonstrators at a 50,000-strong demonstration in Belgium attacked European Union buildings. There were also large-scale protests in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, on Saturday.
But in Germany, organizers have moved toward more community protests, aiming to strengthen movements locally and overwhelm the police by stretching security forces thin. The eastern German state of Saxony has emerged as a particular epicenter, with as many as 200 demonstrations each week drawing some 50,000 people, according to police estimates.
Opponents of vaccinations and other coronavirus-fighting measures walk through the Pieschen district of Dresden, Germany, on Jan. 3 (Sebastian Kahnert/AP)
In Saxony, which has the lowest vaccination rate in Germany, far-right extremists also have tried to gain ground in the growing movement against vaccine mandates and other health measures. Demonstrators come from a mix of backgrounds, said Saxony’s Interior Minister Roland Wöller, but he said extremist groups are attempting to use them to ‘move into the middle of society.’
‘Week by week, we have more and more participants, and nothing speaks to a situation that this will come to an end,’ Wöller said. ‘It’s a minority,’ he added, but it’s a ‘loud minority.’” Read more at Washington Post
“South Korea’s presidential contest. The two leading contenders for South Korea’s presidency, the Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung and conservative People Power Party’s Yoon Suk-yeol, go head to head in the first debate of the campaign season. The most recent poll gave Yoon a six-point lead over Lee. The two men are likely to discuss North Korea’s latest missile activity after it tested a nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile on Sunday.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Portugal’s election. Portugal’s ruling Socialist Party came out on top in Sunday’s legislative elections, winning approximately 42 percent of the vote—enough to give it an absolute majority of 117 seats in the country’s 230-seat legislature under Portugal’s proportional representation system. The rival Social Democrats won 29 percent of the vote, while the right-wing Chega party won 7 percent, giving it 12 seats.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Japan’s parliament is set to pass a resolution expressing concern about Uyghur human rights as early as tomorrow, a move likely to irk China days before the Beijing Winter Olympics begin.” Read more at Bloomberg
“A group of French voters named former justice minister Christiane Taubira as their preferred presidential candidate, raising pressure on the fractured left parties to unite behind her in April’s election.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Australia’s government could face a landslide loss in elections due within months, according to a new poll, after widespread criticism of its handling of Covid-19.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Grindr, a popular gay dating app, has been removed from Apple’s App Store in China, days after Beijing said it was going to renew its campaign to police online content.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Employers are beefing up benefits packages to lure workers in a tight labor market, and many are adding pricey fertility benefits — including in-vitro fertilization and egg freezing.
Why it matters: Benefits around fertility and family-building had long been overlooked by employer health care plans, Erica Pandey writes for Axios What's Next.
What's happening: In the past, many companies have avoided offering fertility benefits due to concerns about the cost, Erin Dowling of Mercer writes. But the rise in the number of fertility clinics — and growing demand for their services — is driving down the price.
97% of employers who provide this coverage say it has not resulted in a significant increase in medical plan costs, per a Mercer survey.
Some companies — including Nike, Johnson & Johnson and IBM — even help with the costs of adoption.” Read more at Axios
“Spotify announced it is adding a content advisory to any podcast episode that includes discussion about Covid-19. This comes after the streaming service received a flurry of criticism from a number of prominent artists who said they will leave the platform if it continues to host comedian Joe Rogan, whose podcast has spread misleading and inaccurate claims about vaccines and the virus. Spotify’s new advisory will direct listeners to a Covid-19 hub that will include links to trusted sources. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are among a growing list of prominent people who have expressed their concerns to Spotify over Covid-19 misinformation -- a move sparked by musician Neil Young. Earlier this month, a group of more than 250 scientists, doctors and nurses penned an open letter to Spotify condemning the streamer for hosting Rogan after he suggested that healthy young people should not necessarily get vaccinated against Covid-19.” Read more at CNN
Photo: Vivian Zink/Syfy/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
“Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is refusing to take action against the platform's most popular podcaster, and has instead vowed to be more transparent about content rules and add advisories to podcasts that discuss COVID-19, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer writes.
Why it matters: Spotify is facing a very public boycott over its handling of an ultimatum from musician Neil Young, who demanded his music be taken down unless the streamer addressed vaccine misinformation spread by Joe Rogan.
Spotify inked an exclusive, multi-year deal to distribute all of Rogan's podcasts in 2020, reportedly for over $100 million.
‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ is by far the most popular show on the platform, with millions of streams per episode.
Rogan denied last night that he promoted misinformation, but said he would ‘try harder to get people with differing opinions’ on his show and ‘do my best to make sure I’ve researched these topics.’” Read more at Axios
“Lives Lived: Howard Hesseman was most famous for playing a fallen radio star in the sitcom ‘WKRP in Cincinnati.’ He died at 81.” Read more at New York Times
“The one-year extension Tom Brady signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the 2022 season included a $20 million signing bonus – with $15 million of it to be paid on Feb. 4, 2022, according to a report.” Read more at USA Today
“She ‘embodied love’: Cheslie Kryst, the 2019 winner of the Miss USA pageant and a correspondent for the entertainment news program ‘Extra,’ has died at age 30.” Read more at USA Today
Miss USA Cheslie Kryst onstage at the 2019 Miss Universe Pageant.Paras Griffin, Getty Images