The Full Belmonte, 2/18/2024
Donald Trump, speaking at Mar-a-Lago, was ordered to pay $355 million.
“Judge Arthur Engoron hit Donald Trump with his biggest punishment to date, in a ruling that fined the former president $355 million for fraudulently inflating the values of his properties. The blistering 93-page opinion painted the former president as unremorseful and highly likely to commit fraud again.
The body of jailed Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny should be handed over to his family ‘immediately,’ his spokesperson said, as she accused Russian officials of lying in order to delay the process. News of his death sparked outrage, with some Western leaders blaming Vladimir Putin.
A house exploded in Sterling, Virginia, as fire crews were inside checking a gas leak, leaving one firefighter dead and at least 13 others injured, including 11 first responders. Authorities assume the explosion ‘was propane-related,’ as firefighters had arrived to assess a leak in a 500-gallon underground tank.
President Biden, in a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, directly tied Ukraine’s withdrawal from the key town of Avdiivka to Congress’ inability to approve further aid . The Senate passed a bill including $60 billion for Ukraine, but House Speaker Mike Johnson said he does not plan to bring the measure to the floor.
The euphoria that swept Kansas City after back-to-back Super Bowl wins by its beloved Chiefs now seemed a distant memory, supplanted by shock and sadness . A deadly shooting at the hometown victory celebration left one woman dead, more than 20 other people injured and two teenagers in custody.” [CNN]
Indictment of FBI informant could spell trouble for key GOP impeachment claim
BY REBECCA BEITSCH
© Greg Nash
“The GOP was dealt a blow in its effort to impeach President Biden after a former FBI informant was arrested on charges that he simply made up the bribery allegations that have become central to the case.
Alexander Smirnov was arrested at the airport upon entering the country and charged with making false statements, including that then-Vice President Biden and his son each accepted a $5 million bribe.”
Read the full story here at The Hill
Arab Americans won't vote for Biden. There's 'a bone-deep sense of betrayal'
“Many of Michigan’s Arab Americans are not only vowing to vote against Joe Biden – they are actively campaigning against him.”
READ MORE at USA Today
Trump's phone-a-friend ploy
Illustration: Axios Visuals
“Former President Trump has cut back on rallies to save money and sit in court. But he often phones into other conservative celebrities' onstage events, Axios' Sophia Cai reports.
Why it matters: It's an efficient, cheap way to connect with fans and surrogates — and to court fringe followers without appearing in photos with them.
Behind the scenes: Many of Trump's call-ins are presented as surprises. But almost all are planned, a campaign official tells Axios.
Someone at the event starts a three-way call with the speaker onstage and Trump, who's at Mar-a-Lago or his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.
A speaker who chats regularly with Trump may dial the former president while onstage, after giving Trump a heads-up.
Trump is prepared with the names of local officials in the audience. He thanks them for their support — then launches into remarks that typically lavish praise on the host.
Case in point: Trump called into Michael Flynn's ReAwaken America Tour, a Christian nationalist road show, last year.
Reawaken America members tout QAnon conspiracy theories.
Trump has phoned into gatherings supporting Jan. 6 defendants — and more conventional events that feature Trump loyalists.
Former HUD Secretary Ben Carson held his phone up to the mic for a live message from Trump during a Pennsylvania Republican State Committee dinner this month.
Trump rang into Kari Lake's speech at the Hidalgo County GOP Reagan Dinner in McAllen, Texas, last August.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told us: ‘People can't get enough of him, even if it's spurts of him.’” [Axios]
400+ detained at Navalny tributes
Police detain a man as he wanted to lay flowers paying last respects to Navalny at a monument where the first camp of the Gulag political prison system was established, in St. Petersburg yesterday. Photo: AP
“Hundreds of Russians streamed to ad-hoc memorials and monuments to victims of political repression to pay tribute to Alexei Navalny after his death in prison at age 47.
Police detained 401 people in over a dozen cities, the rights group OVD-Info told AP.
In temperatures of -22F, Navalny's mother, Lyudmila, traveled to the remote Arctic penal colony where her son died to recover his body.
She was told he died of ‘sudden death syndrome,’ and that his body would not be released to the family until an investigation is complete, Reuters reports.
Police officers detain a woman during a gathering in memory of Navalny near the Wall of Grief monument to the victims of political repressions in Moscow yesterday. Photo: Reuters
Police officers detain a man during a gathering near the Wall of Grief monument yesterday. Photo: Reuters
N.Y. Times Quote of the Day: ‘I don't want to give up either my country or my beliefs,’ Navalny wrote in Russian on Facebook on Jan. 17, to mark the third anniversary of his return and arrest in 2021.
‘I cannot betray either the first or the second. If your beliefs are worth something, you must be willing to stand up for them. And if necessary, make some sacrifices.’
Ukraine and Russia
In Avdiivka last June. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
“Russian forces took Avdiivka, a longtime Ukrainian stronghold, after some of the most destructive fighting of the war.” [New York Times]
“Ukraine is in its most precarious position since the opening months of the war. Read about the state of Russia’s offensive.” [New York Times]
More International News
“The World Health Organization said the Nasser Medical Complex, which was one of Gaza’s last functioning hospitals, can no longer serve its dozens of remaining patients as the Israeli military siege continues.” [New York Times]
“A 28-year-old college student in Eswatini wants to topple the nation’s monarchy. His father is a soldier sworn to protect the king.” [New York Times]
“In Brazil, where dengue fever is surging, teams of health agents are combing through junkyards and climbing roofs to hunt mosquitoes, The A.P. reports.” [New York Times]
Libraries on front lines
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
“Public libraries have morphed into all-purpose community centers amid soaring demand for social services.
Libraries are enjoying a renaissance in usage. They're also battling book bans and bearing the brunt of a host of societal issues — from caring for unhoused people and migrants to distributing COVID tests and Narcan for drug overdoses, Axios' Jennifer A. Kingson writes.
Why it matters: The result is frazzled staff and budgets spread thin from competing needs.
Librarians, while still helping kids with their homework, are helping migrants apply for asylum, and jobless people write resumes.
Libraries are offering expungement clinics to help people erase their rap sheets, and ‘digital navigators’ to help boost patrons' computer skills. Onsite social workers are assisting people with mental illnesses.
They're becoming cooling centers and climate resilience hubs.
Between the lines: ‘Libraries have never been more important than they are in 2024,’ says Patrick Losinski, CEO of the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Columbus, Ohio.
‘I'd much rather have these challenges for additional services and pressures than have people saying that our time has passed.’
Reality check: Librarians are fending off physical and verbal assaults from angry customers — some of whom blame these frontline workers for the content of books they'd like banned.
And they're grappling with everything from the high cost of e-books to the need for free outdoor Wi-Fi so people without broadband can have off-hours access.” [Axios]
February 18, 2024
Good morning. My colleague Christine Chung, a reporter on the Travel desk, has a new story about a technological shift underway at America’s airports. She explains the change in today’s newsletter. — David Leonhardt
Ben Konkol
Coming to an airport near you
“Biometrics are transforming the way we travel. The technology, which identifies travelers using unique physical traits like fingerprints and faces, is becoming more common at airports in the United States. As a result, time-consuming rituals that once required repeated ID checks — such as bag dropping, security screening and boarding — are getting easier and faster.
Some experts believe that this will be the year that biometric use, primarily facial recognition, becomes standard at many airports. The technology offers several advantages: enhanced security, quicker processing of passengers and a more convenient airport experience. It also raises concerns about privacy, ethics and the possibility of broader surveillance.
In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain how biometrics are already altering many travelers’ airport experiences, and how critics are pushing back.
Change is here
T.S.A. checkpoints at dozens of airports across the country, from Denver to Miami, look different than they did only a few years ago.
The agency is using technology that takes a photo of a traveler and swiftly matches it to a scan of their ID. This process will expand to around 400 more airports in the coming years, though it remains optional; travelers can still go through security the old-fashioned way if they prefer.
The T.S.A. has also developed programs with some airlines to enable PreCheck travelers, who are approved for expedited screenings at more than 200 airports, to check bags and even pass through security checkpoints by just showing their faces, no ID scan required. Airlines say these changes can save substantial time and make a noticeable difference in moving passengers through the airport.
Travelers will also have their identities confirmed by facial recognition when they are entering or leaving the United States. The government’s biometric entry system is fully operational, and the system to identify departing travelers using facial recognition is now in place at nearly 50 airports. It is set to be installed at every airport with international departures by 2026.
Privacy concerns
Executives at various airlines tell me they believe passengers are becoming more comfortable with using biometrics in their daily lives. Many people regularly use facial recognition to unlock their phones, and shoppers can use their palms to pay for groceries at some Whole Foods stores.
But not everyone is happy with the technology’s growth. Critics say the systems lack guardrails to ensure people’s biological data is not misused. And, though they have improved over the years, facial-recognition algorithms have historically been shown to work better on white faces.
The Traveler Privacy Protection Act, a bill introduced by Senators Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, and John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, seeks to halt the T.S.A.’s ongoing facial-recognition program. The bill’s sponsors say they have serious concerns regarding security and the possibility of racial discrimination.
Cody Venzke, senior policy counsel on privacy and technology at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the government had not yet shown a demonstrated need for facial-recognition technology at airports. And he expressed concern over what he called the ‘nuclear scenario.’
‘Facial recognition technology,’ he said, could be ‘the foundation for a really robust and widespread government surveillance and tracking network.’” [New York Times]
Lefty Driesell, courtside in 1975. Photo: Sporting News via Getty Images
“Lefty Driesell, the legendary college basketball coach, died yesterday at 92.
‘He was a great yet often underrated coach. He won 786 games and reached the Elite Eight four times — twice at Davidson and twice at Maryland,’ The Washington Post's John Feinstein writes.
Photo: Stacy Revere/Getty Images
Another moment for the basketball history books: The NBA held its first-ever him-vs.-her All-Star event in Indianapolis yesterday.
Elite shooters Steph Curry and Sabrina Ionescu faced off. He beat her by three points, AP reports.
Ionescu said: ‘It's changed the landscape of how people view what we're doing.’” [Axios]
“Lives Lived: Alvin Moscow wrote a best-selling account of the sinking of the ocean liner Andrea Doria in 1956, then collaborated on the memoirs of several public figures, including Richard Nixon. He died at 98.” [New York Times]
Parting shot
Bioluminescent waves at Torrey Pines and Carlsbad beaches. Photos: Vishwas Lokesh. Used by permission
“San Diego's beaches were lit up with electric blue waves this week, Axios San Diego's Kate Murphy writes.
What's happening: Millions of bioluminescent plankton were showing off at Torrey Pines and Carlsbad beaches, as captured by local photographer Vishwas Lokesh.
During a red tide, plankton release a flash of light when they're disturbed, creating a ripple of neon-blue waves that literally glow.” [Axios]
MONDAY
“The third Monday in February is a holiday that the federal government designates as Washington's Birthday. Individual states, local government agencies and mattress stores, however, refer to it alternatively as President's Day, Presidents' Day or Presidents Day . Whatever the name, many corporate offices, banks, post offices and non-essential government agencies will be closed. Most retailers and restaurants, however, will be open.
TUESDAY
February 20 is the deadline for special counsel Jack Smith to respond to an emergency filing from former President Donald Trump asking the Supreme Court to step into the dispute over whether he may claim immunity from prosecution. Trump asked the high court to temporarily block a scathing and unanimous decision from a federal appeals court handed down earlier this month that flatly rejected his claims of immunity from election subversion charges brought by Smith.
WEDNESDAY
The House Oversight Committee is set to interview James Biden amid its impeachment inquiry into his brother, President Joe Biden. Last week, special counsel David Weiss charged a former FBI informant with lying about the president and his son Hunter Biden’s involvement in business dealings with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings — undercutting a major aspect of House Republicans’ case for impeachment . Alexander Smirnov, 43, was arrested Thursday and is facing charges in connection with lying to the FBI and creating false records. Congressional Republicans have championed Smirnov’s now-discredited allegations for roughly a year in their efforts to impeach President Biden, though not by name.
THURSDAY
NASA is hoping that the Odysseus lunar lander, nicknamed “Odie,” will be the first US-made spacecraft to touch down safely on the moon in five decades. Odie lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket last week from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is aiming for a soft landing in a crater near the moon’s south pole.
SATURDAY
Voters in South Carolina head to the polls in the state's Republican primary , and former Palmetto State Gov. Nikki Haley is hoping for a good showing. Haley has denied she could leave the race if she has a disappointing finish in South Carolina, saying earlier this month that she's ‘not going anywhere’ and is ‘willing to do the fight and go through the pain’ as she continues to battle Trump for the GOP presidential nomination.
February 24 also marks two years since Russia invaded Ukraine.” [CNN]