The Full Belmonte, 3/14/2022
“A Russian airstrike on a Ukrainian military training center close to the Polish border threw into sharp relief the hazards of the Western push to deliver arms support to Kyiv while avoiding direct conflict with a nuclear adversary.
The airstrike killed 35 people at the facility in Yavoriv about 10 miles from the Polish border early Sunday, far to the west of where the conflict has been concentrated, one day after Moscow warned the West that it would consider arms deliveries to Ukraine as legitimate targets.
A large portion of the military aid from the West—one of the largest transfers of arms in history—passes through Poland into western Ukraine, part of the fine line the U.S. and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, allies are walking between aiding Ukraine militarily while steering clear of providing troops or enforcing a no-fly zone that Ukraine has called for.
The expansion of Russia’s aggression to a target close to Poland also increases the risk of the war encroaching on NATO territory, which the U.S. has warned would be treated as an attack on the alliance. Any strike on Poland would bring ‘the full force of the NATO alliance to bear in responding to it,’ Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, said in an interview Sunday on CBS News’ ‘Face the Nation.’” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — A pregnant woman and her baby have died after Russia bombed the maternity hospital where she was meant to give birth, The Associated Press has learned. Images of the woman being rushed to an ambulance on a stretcher had circled the world, epitomizing the horror of an attack on humanity’s most innocent.
In video and photos shot Wednesday by AP journalists after the attack on the hospital, the woman was seen stroking her bloodied lower abdomen as rescuers rushed her through the rubble in the besieged city of Mariupol, her blanched face mirroring her shock at what had just happened. It was among the most brutal moments so far in Russia’s now 19-day-old war on Ukraine.
The woman was rushed to another hospital, yet closer to the frontline, where doctors labored to keep her alive. Realizing she was losing her baby, medics said, she cried out to them, ‘Kill me now!’” Read more at AP News
“Brent Renaud, an acclaimed filmmaker who traveled to some of the darkest and most dangerous corners of the world for documentaries that transported audiences to little-known places of suffering, died Sunday after Russian forces opened fire on his vehicle in Ukraine.
The 50-year-old Little Rock, Arkansas, native was gathering material for a report about refugees when his vehicle was hit at a checkpoint in Irpin, just outside the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said the area has sustained intense shelling by Russian forces in recent days.
Renaud was one of the most respected independent producers of his era, said Christof Putzel, a filmmaker and close friend who had received a text from Renaud just three days before his death. Renaud and Putzel won a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University journalism award for ‘Arming the Mexican Cartels,’ a documentary on how guns trafficked from the United States fueled rampant drug gang violence.” Read more at AP News
“WASHINGTON (AP) — More than two weeks into a war he expected to dominate in two days, Vladimir Putin is projecting anger, frustration at his military’s failures, and a willingness to cause even more violence and destruction in Ukraine, in the assessment of U.S. intelligence officials.
Officials in recent days have publicly said they’re worried the Russian president will escalate the conflict to try to break Ukraine’s resistance. Russia still holds overwhelming military advantages and can bombard the country for weeks more. And while the rest of the world reacts to horrific images of the war he started, Putin remains insulated from domestic pressure by what CIA Director William Burns called a ‘propaganda bubble.’
Putin’s mindset — as tough as it is to determine from afar — is critical for the West to understand as it provides more military aid to Ukraine and also prevent Putin from directly taking on NATO countries or possibly reaching for the nuclear button. Intelligence officials over two days of testimony before Congress last week openly voiced concerns about what Putin might do. And those concerns increasingly shape discussions about what U.S. policymakers are willing to do for Ukraine.” Read more at AP News
Former President Barack Obama speaks during a memorial service for former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at the Smith Center in Las Vegas, Jan. 8, 2022. Former President Obama said on Sunday, March 13, 2022 that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, though he's feeling relatively healthy and his wife, Michelle, tested negative. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, file)
“Former President Barack Obama said on Sunday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, though he’s feeling relatively healthy and his wife, Michelle, tested negative.
‘I’ve had a scratchy throat for a couple days, but am feeling fine otherwise,’ Obama said on Twitter. ‘Michelle and I are grateful to be vaccinated and boosted.’
Obama encouraged more Americans to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, despite the declining infection rate in the U.S. There were roughly 35,000 infections on average over the past week, down sharply from mid-January when that average was closer to 800,000.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 75.2% of U.S. adults are fully vaccinated and 47.7% of the fully vaccinated have received a booster shot. The CDC relaxed its guidelines for indoor masking in late February, taking a more holistic approach that meant the vast majority of Americans live in areas without the recommendation for indoor masking in public.” Read more at AP News
“GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — After more than two days of testimony, jurors have unflattering snapshots of four men who are charged with planning to strike back against government by kidnapping Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from her weekend home.
Prosecutors introduced videos, messages and secretly recorded conversations full of antigovernment screeds, mostly expressed by Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox, who are described as the leaders. Evidence presented early in what’s likely to be a weekslong trial has bounced from Michigan to gatherings in Ohio and Wisconsin and an arrest in New Jersey — and not always in order.
‘The pattern doesn’t always become clear until the end. ... Don’t feel pressure to try to pull it all together just yet,’ U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker told jurors Thursday.
Croft, Fox, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta are charged with conspiracy; three of them also face weapons-related charges. Lawyers have signaled an entrapment defense, claiming the men were cajoled by undercover FBI agents and zealous, greedy informants.” Read more at AP News
“An assailant has shot three apparently homeless people in Washington and two in New York City. Two of the victims, one in each city, have died, police in both cities said Sunday night.
Police said they are investigating the attacks jointly.
In Washington, the shootings occurred in Northeast between March 3 and 9, according to police. In New York, the two shootings occurred Saturday, police there said.” Read more at Washington Post
“PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Makeshift shelters abut busy roadways, tent cities line sidewalks, tarps cover broken-down cars, and sleeping bags are tucked in storefront doorways. The reality of the homelessness crisis in Oregon’s largest city can’t be denied.
‘I would be an idiot to sit here and tell you that things are better today than they were five years ago with regard to homelessness,’ Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said recently. ‘People in this city aren’t stupid. They can open their eyes.’
As COVID-19 took root in the U.S., people on the street were largely left on their own — with many cities halting sweeps of homeless camps following guidance from federal health officials. The lack of remediation led to a situation that has spiraled out of control in many places, with frustrated residents calling for action as extreme forms of poverty play out on city streets.
Wheeler has now used emergency powers to ban camping along certain roadways and says homelessness is the ‘most important issue facing our community, bar none.’
Increasingly in liberal cities across the country — where people living in tents in public spaces have long been tolerated — leaders are removing encampments and pushing other strict measures to address homelessness that would have been unheard of a few years ago.
In Seattle, new Mayor Bruce Harrell ran on a platform that called for action on encampments, focusing on highly visible tent cities in his first few months in office. Across from City Hall, two blocks worth of tents and belongings were removed Wednesday. The clearing marked the end of a two and a half week standoff between the mayor and activists who occupied the camp, working in shifts to keep homeless people from being moved.
In Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser launched a pilot program over the summer to permanently clear several homeless camps. In December, the initiative faced a critical test as lawmakers voted on a bill that would ban clearings until April. It failed 5-7.
In California, home to more than 160,000 homeless people, cities are reshaping how they address the crisis. The Los Angeles City Council used new laws to ban camping in 54 locations. LA Mayoral candidate Joe Buscaino has introduced plans for a ballot measure that would prohibit people from sleeping outdoors in public spaces if they have turned down offers of shelter.” Read more at AP News
New York City Police Department gather in the lobby of the Museum of Modern Art after an alleged multiple stabbing incident, in New York, on Saturday. Photograph: Andrew Kelly/REUTER
“Video from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City showed the moment a man leaped over a reception desk and stabbed two employees as they tried to flee on Saturday.
The video released by police showed a man identified as 60-year-old Gary Cabana enter the museum lobby through a revolving door then climb onto the desk and jump over it as a man carrying what appeared to be a walkie-talkie tried in vain to stop him.
Police were still searching for Cabana as of Sunday morning.
On the video, Cabana, wearing a black wool hat and a surgical mask, approached three employees trapped in the small space and stabbed one of them – a young woman who was able to run away though not before she was stabbed again in the back.” Read more at The Guardian
“The Fox News primetime host Tucker Carlson has been widely accused of echoing Russian propaganda about the invasion of Ukraine. According to a report on Sunday, earlier this month the Putin regime in Moscow sent out an instruction to friendly media outlets: use more clips of Carlson.
Mother Jones, a progressive magazine, said it had obtained memos produced by the Russian Department of Information and Telecommunications Support.
One document, it said, was entitled ‘For Media and Commentators (recommendations for coverage of events as of 03.03)’, or 3 March. The magazine published pictures of the memo, which it said it was given by ‘a contributor to a national Russian media outlet who asked not to be identified’.
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It said the memo included an instruction: ‘It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticises the actions of the United States [and] Nato, their negative role in unleashing the conflict in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative behavior from the leadership of the eastern countries and Nato towards the Russian Federation and towards President Putin, personally.’
The document, Mother Jones said, summed up Carlson’s position on the Ukraine war as ‘Russia is only protecting its interests and security’ and included a quote: ‘And how would the US behave if such a situation developed in neighbouring Mexico or Canada?’
Carlson and Fox News did not comment to Mother Jones. Fox News did not respond to a Guardian request for comment.
On air last Wednesday, 9 March, Carlson said testimony by Victoria Nuland, a US undersecretary of state, about Ukrainian ‘biological research facilities’ had shown Russian claims of US involvement were ‘totally and completely true’.
Fact checkers said they were not.
‘Russian state TV featured Carlson’s take the next day,’ the Washington Post said, adding that the Russian claim about US participation in biological laboratories in Ukraine was ‘straight out of the old Soviet playbook. But that doesn’t mean prominent commentators like Carlson should be so quick to fall for it’.
Citing another Russian ‘recommendations for coverage’ memo, dated 10 March, Mother Jones said the text advised Russian hosts to relay the message that ‘activities of military biological laboratories with American participation on the territory of Ukraine carried global threats to Russia and Europe’.
On Sunday Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told NBC Russian claims about biological warfare facilities in Ukraine could indicate Russian willingness to use such weapons.
‘When Russia starts accusing other countries of potentially doing something, it’s a good tell that they may be on the cusp of doing it themselves,’ he said.
Mother Jones said no other western journalist was named in the memos it obtained, which it said also included advice on how to cite Carlson about how ‘Biden’s sanctions policy’ was actually an economic ‘punishment for the American middle class’. That memo, the magazine said, also cited the New York Post, like Fox News owned by Rupert Murdoch.” Read more at The Guardian
Twitter/Julia Davis
“Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) on Sunday took to Twitter to denounce former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s statements on the war in Ukraine. ‘Tulsi Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda,’ he wrote. ‘Her treasonous lies may well cost lives.’ Clips of the Hawaii Democrat on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight are being showcased across Russia’s government-controlled media outlets to defend the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the clips, host Tucker Carlson suggests ‘Russian disinformation’ is ‘true’ and Gabbard discusses biological and chemical weapons that may be in Ukraine. Gabbard also suggests there may be a deliberate cover-up to hide dangerous pathogens in Ukrainian labs.” Read more at Daily Beast
A lawsuit accuses Fox News of intentionally promoting and profiting from false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election.Credit...Spencer Platt/Getty Images
“The lawyers and First Amendment scholars who have made it their life’s work to defend the well-established but newly threatened constitutional protections for journalists don’t usually root for the media to lose in court.
But that’s what is happening with a series of recent defamation lawsuits against right-wing outlets that legal experts say could be the most significant libel litigation in recent memory.
The suits, which are being argued in several state and federal courts, accuse Project Veritas, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, One America News and others of intentionally promoting and profiting from false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election, and of smearing innocent civil servants and businesses in the process.
If the outlets prevail, these experts say, the results will call into question more than a half-century of precedent that created a clear legal framework for establishing when news organizations can be held liable for publishing something that’s not true.
Libel cases are difficult to prove in the United States. Among other things, public figures have to show that someone has published what the Supreme Court has called a “calculated falsehood” or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
But numerous First Amendment lawyers said they thought the odds were strong that at least one of these outlets would suffer a rare loss at trial, given the extensive and well-documented evidence against them.
That ‘may well turn out to be a good thing,’ said Lee Levine, a veteran First Amendment lawyer who has defended some of the biggest media outlets in the country in libel cases.
The high legal bar to prove defamation had become an increasingly sore subject well before the 2020 election, mainly but not exclusively among conservatives, prompting calls to reconsider the broad legal immunity that has shielded journalists since the landmark 1964 Supreme Court decision New York Times v. Sullivan. Critics include politicians like former President Donald J. Trump and Sarah Palin, who lost a defamation suit against The Times last month and has asked for a new trial, as well as two Supreme Court justices, Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch.
Mr. Levine said a finding of liability in the cases making their way through the courts could demonstrate that the bar set by the Sullivan case did what it was supposed to: make it possible to punish the intentional or extremely reckless dissemination of false information while protecting the press from lawsuits over inadvertent errors.” Read more at New York Times
Pages from the U.S. State Department's Global Engagement Center report released on Aug. 5, 2020, are seen in this photo. Long before waging war on Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin was working to make Russia's internet a powerful tool of surveillance and social control akin to China's so-called Great Firewall. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
“BOSTON (AP) — Long before waging war on Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin was working to make Russia’s internet a powerful tool of surveillance and social control akin to China’s so-called Great Firewall.
So when Western tech companies began cutting ties with Russia following its invasion, Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov was alarmed. He’d spent years exposing Russian censorship and feared that well-intentioned efforts to aid Ukraine would instead help Putin isolate Russians from the free flow of information, aiding the Kremlin’s propaganda war.
‘Look, guys the only space the Russians have to talk about Ukraine. and what is going on in Russia. is Facebook,’ Soldatov, now exiled in London. wrote on Facebook in the war’s first week. ‘You cannot just, like, kill our access.’
Facebook didn’t, although the Kremlin soon picked up that baton, throttling both Facebook and Twitter so badly they are effectively unreachable on the Russian internet. Putin has also blocked access to both Western media and independent news sites in the country, and a new law criminalizes spreading information that contradicts the government’s line. On Friday, the Kremlin said it would also restrict access to Instagram. By early Monday, the network monitor NetBlocks reported the social network throttled across multiple Russian internet providers.
Yet the Kremlin’s latest censorship efforts have revealed serious shortcomings in the government’s bigger plans to straightjacket the internet. Any Russian with a modicum of tech smarts can circumvent government efforts to starve Russians of fact.
For instance, the government has so far had only limited success blocking the use of software known as virtual private networks, or VPNs, that allows users to evade content restrictions. The same goes for Putin’s attempts to restrict the use of other censorship-evading software.
That puts providers of internet bandwidth and associated services sympathetic to Ukraine’s plight in a tough spot. On one side, they face public pressure to punish the Russian state and economic reasons to limit services at a time when bills might well go unpaid. On the other, they’re wary of helping stifle a free flow of information that can counter Kremlin disinformation — for instance, the state’s claim that Russia’s military is heroically ‘liberating’ Ukraine from fascists.” Read more at AP News
Julian Assange and Stella Moris pictured in the Ecuadorian embassy while he was seeking asylum. Photograph: WikiLeaks/PA
“WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will get married in Belmarsh prison on 23 March, with just four guests allowed to attend.
Vivienne Westwood is designing a wedding dress for the 50-year-old’s fiancee, the lawyer Stella Moris, and a kilt for Assange, whose parents have links to Scotland. The designer has been a staunch supporter of Assange.
Moris, who met Assange when he was living in London’s Ecuadorian embassy seeking political asylum, will marry the WikiLeaks founder in the high-security jail nearly three years after his arrest. The couple have two children.” Read more at The Guardian
“Any hoops fan hungering for a return to normal this March might have looked at the bracket when it finally came out and wondered what ever changed.
Gonzaga is the tournament’s top seed. Kansas and Arizona are No. 1s, as well. Duke and Kentucky are right up there as No. 2s and the defending champion, Baylor, is the other top seed and a force to be reckoned with again, too.
But all that sameness felt like more of a celebration when the pairings were set this Selection Sunday. The most-anticipated reveal of the year felt like a party again, even if it might have been pushed down a notch on the ticker by the unexpected return of Tom Brady to the NFL in an announcement that came just as Dick Vitale and Co., were starting to break down the 68-team draw.
‘This was a really special year because we all realized what we missed,’ Villanova coach Jay Wright said.
For the first time since 2019, the teams will scatter across the country to eight cities for 48 games over the first four-day weekend of America’s unofficial hoops holiday. Then, they will move to four cities for the Sweet 16. And they will cut down the nets in New Orleans, where the Final Four runs April 2-4.” Read more at AP News
“TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Tom Brady’s retirement lasted 40 days.
Brady said Sunday he’s returning to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for his 23rd NFL season.
The seven-time Super Bowl champion announced his decision on Twitter and Instagram, saying he has ‘unfinished business.’ The news stole the spotlight from the NCAA’s Selection Sunday.
‘These past two months I’ve realized my place is still on the field and not in the stands,’ Brady wrote. ‘That time will come. But it’s not now. I love my teammates, and I love my supportive family. They make it all possible. I’m coming back for my 23rd season in Tampa.’
Brady led the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl title following the 2020 season and NFC South championship last season. He teamed with coach Bill Belichick to win six Super Bowls during 20 seasons with the New England Patriots.
The 44-year-old Brady led the NFL in yards passing (5,316), touchdowns (43), completions (485) and attempts (719) in 2021, but the Buccaneers lost at home to the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round.” Read more at AP News
Naomi Osaka spoke with the WTA Tour supervisor Clare Wood after asking to address the crowd during her match.Credit...John G Mabanglo/EPA, via Shutterstock
“INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Crying on court after being heckled by a spectator, Naomi Osaka was knocked out of the BNP Paribas Open in the second round on Saturday.
Osaka, the Japanese star who has struggled with her mental health and with ambivalence toward professional tennis, spoke to the crowd directly at her request after her 6-0, 6-4 defeat against the No. 21 seed, Veronika Kudermetova.
Fighting for composure, Osaka explained that the heckler, who shouted, ‘Naomi, you suck!’ after the opening game, had made her flash back to footage she had seen of Venus and Serena Williams being booed and jeered at Indian Wells during the tournament in 2001.
‘To be honest, I’ve gotten heckled before, and it didn’t really bother me,’ Osaka said. ‘But, like, heckled here? I watched a video of Venus and Serena getting heckled here, and if you’ve never watched it, you should watch it.’
“And I don’t know why, but it went into my head, and it got replayed a lot,” she continued, apparently referring to Saturday’s match.
Osaka then thanked the crowd, slung her bag over her shoulder and left the court.
Osaka, a former No. 1 whose ranking has dropped to No. 78, was unseeded this year at Indian Wells, where she made a major breakthrough by winning her first WTA singles title in 2018 as an unseeded player. She has gone on to win four Grand Slam singles titles, most recently at the 2021 Australian Open. But since then, she has played infrequently and has not won another tour event, or even reached another final. Saturday’s defeat was her latest setback, and her latest vulnerable moment in the public eye.
‘I feel like I’ve cried enough on camera,’ she said in teary post-match remarks to the crowd. She skipped her post-match news conference.
After the tension in 2001, the Williams sisters did not return to the tournament in Indian Wells for more than a decade, with Serena only coming back in 2015 and Venus in 2016. Serena, now 40, and Venus, now 41, are still active players, but neither is participating in the event this year.
During the Williams sisters’ early years as professionals, there was speculation on tour that their father and co-coach, Richard Williams, was prearranging the results of their matches against each other. At Indian Wells in 2001, the Russian player Elena Dementieva spoke about her suspicion publicly after losing to Venus Williams in the quarterfinals.
When Venus withdrew from the semifinal against Serena only minutes before it was to begin, citing tendinitis in her right knee, the crowd responded by booing. Dementieva later insisted her comment had been a joke, and the sisters and Richard Williams denied that any of their match results were prearranged.
But two days later, Serena Williams was booed throughout the tournament final, and Richard Williams, who was watching from the stands with Venus, said he was subjected to racial slurs. Serena Williams won in three sets but has said that the experience was traumatic and ‘haunted’ her and her family for years.
The circumstances on Saturday seemed vastly different. Osaka, 24, had ample support from the overwhelming majority of the crowd. There were several thousand fans scattered throughout the stands in the 16,100-seat main stadium on a chilly evening, and after the heckler’s insult — clearly audible on the television broadcasts of the match — there were loud cheers for Osaka’s few winners in the opening set and even more support for her down the stretch as she raised her game.” Read more at New York Times
“NEW YORK (AP) — William Hurt, whose laconic charisma and self-assured subtlety as an actor made him one of the 1980s foremost leading men in movies such as ‘Broadcast News,’ ‘Body Heat’ and ‘The Big Chill,’ has died. He was 71.
Hurt’s son, Will, said in a statement that Hurt died Sunday of natural causes. Hurt died peacefully, among family, his son said. The Hollywood Reporter said he died at his home in Portland, Oregon. Deadline first reported Hurt’s death. Hurt was previously diagnosed with prostate cancer that had spread to the bone in 2018.
In a long-running career, Hurt was four times nominated for an Academy Award, winning for 1985′s ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman.’ After his breakthrough in 1980’s Paddy Chayefsky-scripted ‘Altered States’ as a psychopathologist studying schizophrenia and experimenting with sensory deprivation, Hurt quickly emerged as a mainstay of the ’80s.” Read more at AP News
Jane Campion accepts a DGA Award in Beverly Hills on Saturday. Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
“The director Jane Campion has called the actor Sam Elliott ‘a little bit sexist’ and ‘a bitch’, for criticising The Power of the Dog, her Oscar- and Bafta-nominated western, for its driving theme of repressed homosexual desire and for being filmed in New Zealand.
Campion’s film has 12 Oscar nominations, including best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), best supporting actress (Kirsten Dunst) and two nominations for best supporting actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee and Jesse Plemons). Campion is the first woman to be nominated for best director twice.
Campion spoke to Variety at the Directors Guild of America awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, at which she won the award for outstanding directorial achievement in theatrical feature film.” Read more at The Guardian
“PHILO, Calif. (AP) — Sally Schmitt, who founded The French Laundry restaurant in California wine country and helped launch the region’s farm-to-table movement, has died. She was 90.
Schmitt died on March 5 at her home in the Mendocino County town of Philo after several years of declining health, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported Saturday.
Schmitt and her husband Don opened The French Laundry in 1978 after spending four years rener got around to putting a sign outside, didn’t advertise and didn’t accept credit cards. Yet the restaurant gained a reputation for its ever-changing prix fixe menu, where diners could choose between three starters, a soup, an entrée, a salad and a choice of three desserts at a fixed price.
The couple used produce from local growers and offered wine from Napa Valley.
The tables were booked months in advance.
The couple sold the restaurant in 1994 to chef Thomas Keller, whose award-winning cooking turned The French Laundry, as well as Napa Valley, into a food-and-wine destination.” Read more at AP News
