The Full Belmonte, 1/9/2023
Biden Visits Southern Border Amid Fresh Crackdown on Migrants
A surge of migration has made El Paso one of the most vivid symbols of the decades-long breakdown in America’s immigration system.
“EL PASO — President Biden on Sunday made his first visit to the border since taking office, arriving at a city swamped by migrants amid a historic surge in illegal immigration and anger from both parties about how he is handling it.
In a brief visit to El Paso’s busiest crossing and a migrant services support center, Mr. Biden acceded to demands by Republicans that he make the trip he had not taken for two years.
But as he arrived in El Paso, he found himself under siege from all sides.
Democrats and human rights activists condemned his new enforcement plan as a ‘humanitarian disgrace.’ Republicans blasted his delay in coming to a border they say is ‘wide open’ to illegal immigration. And Mexican officials — who are preparing to welcome him to a summit of North American leaders on Monday — warned that his proposals would cross a ‘red line’ for them.
The number of migrants apprehended trying to illegally cross the 2,000-mile border with Mexico has hit record highs. In the 12 months leading up to last October, the Border Patrol encountered 1.7 million migrants trying to cross illegally, the highest number since 1960. Officials said overall crossings had dipped some during the holiday season in December, but they said they expected the numbers to rise again quickly in the coming months….” Read more at New York Times
House Republicans Preparing Broad Inquiry Into F.B.I. and Security Agencies
Republicans plan to create a special subcommittee, led by a Trump ally, with a mandate to scrutinize open criminal investigations and classified intelligence.
By Charlie Savage and Luke Broadwater
Jan. 8, 2023
“WASHINGTON — Newly empowered House Republicans are preparing a wide-ranging investigation into law enforcement and national security agencies, raising the prospect of politically charged fights with the Biden administration over access to sensitive information like highly classified intelligence and the details of continuing criminal inquiries by the Justice Department.
The House plans to vote this week on a resolution to create a special Judiciary subcommittee on what it calls the ‘weaponization of the federal government,’ a topic that Republicans have signaled could include reviewing investigations into former President Donald J. Trump.
The panel would be overseen by Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, who is also poised to become the Judiciary Committee’s chairman. It remains to be seen who else Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who made numerous concessions to a far-right faction of his party to win the speakership, will put on it.
In a Fox News interview on Friday evening, Representative Chip Roy of Texas, a lead negotiator for hard-right lawmakers who pushed Mr. McCarthy’s team for concessions, portrayed the panel as part of the agreement they struck for their support. He said Mr. McCarthy had committed to giving the subcommittee at least as much funding and staffing as the House special committee in the last Congress that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol….” Read more at New York Times
Bolsonaro Supporters Lay Siege to Brazil’s Capital
Backers of former President Jair Bolsonaro ransacked government offices, denouncing what they falsely claim was a rigged election. Hundreds were arrested.
By Jack Nicas and André Spigariol
“Thousands of supporters of Brazil’s ousted former president, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices on Sunday to protest what they falsely claim was a stolen election, the violent culmination of years of conspiracy theories advanced by Mr. Bolsonaro and his right-wing allies.
In scenes reminiscent of the Jan. 6 storming of the United States Capitol, protesters in Brasília, Brazil’s capital, draped in the yellow and green of Brazil’s flag surged into the seat of power, setting fires, repurposing barricades as weapons, knocking police officers from horseback and filming their crimes as they committed them.
‘We always said we would not give up,’ one protester declared as he filmed himself among hundreds of protesters pushing into the Capitol building. ‘Congress is ours. We are in power.’
For months, protesters had been demanding that the military prevent the newly elected president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, from taking office on Jan. 1. Many on the right in Brazil have become convinced, despite the lack of evidence, that October’s election was rigged….” Read more at New York Times
Noma, Rated the World’s Best Restaurant, Is Closing Its Doors
The Copenhagen chef René Redzepi says fine dining at the highest level, with its grueling hours and intense workplace culture, has hit a breaking point: ‘It’s unsustainable.’
By Julia Moskin
Julia Moskin has been reporting on the restaurant industry for The Times since 2004. She was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on workplace sexual harassment issues.
“Since opening two decades ago, Noma — the Copenhagen restaurant currently serving grilled reindeer heart on a bed of fresh pine, and saffron ice cream in a beeswax bowl — has transformed fine dining. A new global class of gastro tourists schedules first-class flights and entire vacations around the privilege of paying at least $500 per person for its multicourse tasting menu.
Noma has repeatedly topped lists of the world’s best restaurants, and its creator, René Redzepi, has been hailed as his era’s most brilliant and influential chef.
Nevertheless, Mr. Redzepi told The New York Times, the restaurant will close for regular service at the end of 2024.
Noma will become a full-time food laboratory, developing new dishes and products for its e-commerce operation, Noma Projects, and the dining rooms will be open only for periodic pop-ups. His role will become something closer to chief creative officer than chef.
This move is likely to send shock waves through the culinary world. To put it in soccer terms: Imagine that Manchester United decided to close Old Trafford stadium to fans, though the team would continue to play.
The decision comes as Noma and many other elite restaurants are facing scrutiny of their treatment of the workers, many of them paid poorly or not at all, who produce and serve these exquisite dishes. The style of fine dining that Noma helped create and promote around the globe — wildly innovative, labor-intensive and vastly expensive — may be undergoing a sustainability crisis.
Mr. Redzepi, who has long acknowledged that grueling hours are required to produce the restaurant’s cuisine, said that the math of compensating nearly 100 employees fairly, while maintaining high standards, at prices that the market will bear, is not workable….” Read more at New York Times
“Lives Lived: Russell Banks brought his blue-collar background to bear in novels that vividly portrayed working-class Americans. He died at 82.” Read more at New York Times
Bernard Kalb, founding CNN ‘Reliable Sources’ anchor, dies at 100
By Jon Passantino, CNN
Bernard Kalb, a veteran journalist, has died. He was 100
Cynthia Johnson/The Chronicle Collection/Getty Images
“Bernard Kalb, the long-time journalist and founding anchor of CNN’s ‘Reliable Sources’ program, died on Sunday at his home in North Bethesda, Maryland, his family said. He was 100.
Kalb’s death was caused by complications from a recent fall, his younger brother, Marvin Kalb, told CNN by phone.
According to a CNN biography, Kalb traveled the globe for more than three decades as a correspondent covering world affairs for CBS News, NBC News and The New York Times. Kalb then became the first anchor of CNN’s ‘Reliable Sources’ program from 1992 to 1998….” Read more at CNN