The Full Belmonte, 3/15/2022
“Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met by video Monday to try to end the war. A Ukrainian adviser said the talks would continue on Tuesday. As diplomats worked, Moscow continued its bombardment. One attack hit a nine-story apartment building in Kyiv that caught fire, killing two people and injuring 12, according to the Ukrainian military. Meanwhile, residents of the Russian-occupied parts of southern Ukraine reported soldiers killing civilians and looting stores and homes.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky visits an injured Ukrainian serviceman at a military hospital in Kyiv yesterday. Photo: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via Reuters
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will virtually address Congress on Wednesday.
‘We look forward to the privilege of welcoming President Zelensky’s address to the House and Senate and to convey our support to the people of Ukraine as they bravely defend democracy,’ said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in a statement.
️ Fox News journalist Benjamin Hall was injured while newsgathering outside of Kyiv and is hospitalized, the network said today.” Read more at Axios
State of the War
Residents of a building that was shelled in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
“Russian prosecutors threatened to arrest Western corporate leaders who criticize the government or to seize assets of companies that withdraw from the country. Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, IBM and Yum Brands were among the companies Russian officials have warned via calls, letters and visits over the last week. A Yum spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the restaurant company’s past statements on its decision to pause operations at its KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants in Russia. Spokespeople for the other companies declined to comment.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese diplomats in Rome on Monday in what a senior administration adviser described as an ‘intense’ seven-hour session. Sullivan expressed ‘deep concerns’ about China's close ties with Russia amid the war in Ukraine.” Read more at NPR
“A high-voltage power line at the former Chernobyl nuclear plant has once again been damaged by Russian forces, Ukraine’s nuclear agency said Monday, just one day after Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko announced that power had been restored following a Russian attack last week that disconnected the site from the electricity grid.
‘Reliable power supply to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is critical from the point of view of nuclear safety,’ Ukraine’s nuclear agency said.
Ukrenergo, the Ukrainian utility that carried out the repairs over the weekend, said in a Facebook post Monday that the power line has again been damaged by ‘the occupants.’ The company said its workers would have to return to the site to continue restoration.” Read more at Washington Post
People lining up for mandatory coronavirus testing in Shenzhen as an outbreak leads to a lockdown in the southern Chinese city.PHOTO: STR/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
“Covid-19 lockdowns in two Chinese manufacturing hubs caused Foxconn, Volkswagen and Toyota to halt production. The delays from the major assembler of Apple’s iPhone and the two carmakers are the latest hiccups in the global supply chain. In recent days, daily Covid-19 infections in China, which has a zero-Covid policy, have hit levels not seen since the start of the pandemic two years ago.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“The US has crossed into year three of the Covid-19 pandemic, and while the numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths are heading in the right direction, health experts say the world is certainly not out of the woods yet. There are an average of about 1,200 Americans dying from Covid-19 each day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. However, over the next few weeks, the CDC forecasts a decrease in hospitalizations and deaths, particularly as the weather improves and people head outside, where it's less likely that they'll catch Covid. In China, though, 37 million people are currently in Covid lockdown as the country battles its worst coronavirus outbreak since the early days of the pandemic.” Read more at CNN
“The Colorado House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill supporting abortion rights. The legislation states that ‘every individual has a fundamental right to use or refuse contraception [and] every pregnant individual has a fundamental right to continue the pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion.’ The Democratic sponsor of the bill hailed its passage as a ‘big win for protecting access to abortion and reproductive health care.’ Some Republicans, on the other hand, strongly disagree. This comes after restrictive abortion laws have been recently advanced by Republican state legislatures across the country. Florida, West Virginia and Arizona have all moved on 15-week abortion bans this session. And in Idaho, the state legislature gave final approval yesterday to a bill that would ban abortion after six weeks and allow the father, sibling, grandparent, aunt or uncle of the fetus to bring legal action against the medical professional who performed the abortion.” Read more at CNN
“Police in Washington, D.C., and New York City are looking for a suspected serial killer. A male suspect is believed to have shot two men sleeping on the street in Manhattan Saturday morning, authorities say, and three Washington homeless men were shot from March 3 to March 9. One victim in each city died.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Six individuals must produce documents for the Jan. 6 committee by Tuesday and appear for deposition between March 22-29, according to subpoenas filed by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol. The subpoenas claim the individuals promoted false claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent and participated in various actions based on those claims, including attempts to delay the certification of electoral votes on the day of the attack. Committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement that Cleta Mitchell, Kenneth Chesebro, Christina Bobb, Katherine Friess, Kurt Olsen and Phillip Kline reportedly attempted to ‘disrupt or delay the certification of electoral votes and any efforts to corruptly change the outcome of the 2020 election.’” Read more at USA Today
Virginia ‘Ginni’ Thomas arrives with her husband, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for a 2019 State Dinner at the White House. (Patrick Semansky/AP)
“Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for the first time has publicly acknowledged that she participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, ‘Stop the Steal’ rally on the Ellipse that preceded the storming of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, raising questions about the impartiality of her husband’s work.
In an interview with the conservative Washington Free Beacon that was published Monday, Thomas, who goes by Ginni, said she was part of the crowd that gathered on the Ellipse that morning to support President Donald Trump. Trump was claiming falsely that widespread voter fraud had delivered the presidency to Democrat Joe Biden — a falsehood he continues to repeat.
Thomas said she was at the rally for a short time, got cold and went home before Trump took the stage at noon that day.
‘I was disappointed and frustrated that there was violence that happened following a peaceful gathering of Trump supporters on the Ellipse on Jan. 6,’ the conservative activist told the publication. ‘There are important and legitimate substantive questions about achieving goals like electoral integrity, racial equality, and political accountability that a democratic system like ours needs to be able to discuss and debate rationally in the political square. I fear we are losing that ability.’
A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In February 2021, Thomas apologized to her husband’s former law clerks after a rift developed among them over her election advocacy of Trump and endorsement of the Jan. 6 rally that led to violence and death at the Capitol.” Read more at Washington Post
“A former Proud Boys leader charged with trying to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election had a document detailing plans to storm government buildings on Jan. 6 last year.” Read more at New York Times
“Sarah Bloom Raskin’s nomination to the Federal Reserve Board appeared all but doomed on Monday after Sen. Joe Manchin III, a key Democratic vote, said he opposed her because of her stance on energy in an era of inflation.
‘I have carefully reviewed Sarah Bloom Raskin’s qualifications and previous public statements,’ Manchin, of West Virginia, said in a statement Monday. ‘Her previous public statements have failed to satisfactorily address my concerns about the critical importance of financing an all-of-the-above energy policy to meet our nation’s critical energy needs. I have come to the conclusion that I am unable to support her nomination to serve as a member of the Federal Reserve Board.’
Raskin’s nomination to the job of vice chair for supervision — the Fed’s top banking regulator — was already under pressure, with Republicans initially opposing her candidacy over her focus on climate change and its threat to financial stability.” Read more at Washington Post
“The US pays $2 million per month to protect former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a fellow former top Trump aide from what the State Department calls ‘serious and credible’ dangers from Iran.” [Axios] Read more at Associated Press / Matthew Lee
“Rideshare companies Uber and Lyft have announced plans to add a small fee on rides to help drivers deal with rising gas prices across the country. Starting tomorrow, Uber users will pay an extra $0.45 or $0.55 per trip and an additional $0.35 or $0.45 for Uber Eats for at least the next two months, depending on the location. Uber said all of the money from the surcharges will go to drivers to help ‘soften the burden’ of higher gas prices. Lyft did not specify how much extra passengers will pay or when the surcharge will go into effect. As of today, the national average price for gas is $4.31 a gallon, with California holding the highest price at $5.75 a gallon.” Read more at CNN
“An Australian court has overturned a landmark climate ruling -- spearheaded by a group of teenagers -- that ordered the federal environment minister to consider the impact of carbon emissions on children when approving new coal mining projects. The case was brought by eight Australians under 18 years old. Outside the Federal Court in Sydney today, the lead litigant in the case said she was ‘devastated by the decision and so, so angry.’ The Australian government is considered a laggard on climate action. In October, days before the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, Prime Minister Scott Morrison finally announced the country would join other developed nations by aiming to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.” Read more at CNN
“President Vladimir Putin has three main achievements from his war in Ukraine so far. None were intended.
First, he’s set the clock ticking for possible defaults on about $150 billion in debt as the Russian economy slumps and its currency collapses under the pressure of sanctions, including on its foreign-currency reserves.
That would be Russia’s worst economic crisis since the 1998 default that’s scarred into the memories of millions of its people. Unlike then, the Kremlin is now increasingly isolated, and the international community won’t likely be in the mood to help cushion the blow.Second, Putin has convinced Ukrainians they can never accept Russian dominance. While a pro-Moscow constituency existed in Ukraine before the war and largely agreed with his view that the two nations were one people, Russia’s destruction of mostly Russian-speaking cities such as Kharkiv and Mariupol has ended that debate.
And lastly, with Ukraine still defending fiercely nearly three weeks into the war, Putin has also exposed the failings of Russia’s military modernization on which he lavished billions in the past decade. That’s raising big questions about whether corrupt officials — Russia’s perennial problem — siphoned off funds that undermined the rearmament.
Despite Kremlin efforts to crush dissent, evidence of unease is emerging — an anti-war protest during Russia’s main TV news broadcast last night caused a sensation.
Still, state-run pollsters claim Putin’s popularity increased since the war started. It’s also far from clear sanctions will push Russians to protest. Historically, they’ve been motivated more by ideas than material hardship, which they generally meet with stoicism.
Putin showed he understood that, retaining public support with rhetoric about restoring Russia’s greatness following the Soviet Union’s collapse.
But his Ukraine gamble has cast doubt on that central message of his rule.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Wartime visit | The Polish prime minister and his Czech and Slovenian counterparts are traveling to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv and announce a package of support measures. That’s happening as officials from Russia and Ukraine are due to resume talks today following a night of shelling in Kyiv and what Ukrainian officials said were Russian efforts to fortify existing military positions rather than push forward. Follow the latest with our rolling coverage.
Kyiv will impose a curfew from 8 p.m. today to 7 a.m. Thursday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced.” Read more at Bloomberg
Photo: Screenshot via Channel One
“On Monday in Moscow, an employee of the popular state-owned television station Channel One charged onto its nightly news broadcast to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Maria Ovsyannikova, an editor for the network, appeared behind anchor Ekaterina Andreeva with a sign that read ‘NO WAR’ in English. She told the audience that the state-controlled media was ‘lying to you’ and called for an end to the war.” Read more at Intelligencer
The portrait of Metropolitan Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky painted by Oleksa Novakivsky is the last painting to be taken down from the walls in the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv on March 7. (Kasia Strek for The Washington Post)
“In more peaceful times, more than 1 million people a day rode the trains of the Kyiv Metro, a 52-stop network decorated with marble friezes, mosaics, chandeliers and vaulted ceilings. But the underground stations were also designed to double as bomb shelters. And while trains are still running, the Metro now provides safety to thousands of refugees and residents of the capital fleeing Russian bombs.” Read more at Bloomberg
Families sheltering in the Dorohozhychi station of the Kyiv Metro on March 2.
Photographer: Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images
“LVIV, Ukraine — Emptying a museum is a gargantuan task, and the entire workforce of the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv had been at it for a week before the final piece — a century-old portrait of the museum’s namesake — was taken down, leaving the last of its walls bare.
Ihor Kozhan, the director of the grand gallery opposite Lviv’s opera house, explained the rush.
‘There is an egomaniac in Moscow who doesn’t care about killing children, let alone destroying art,’ he said. ‘If our history and heritage are to survive, all art must go underground.’
Across Ukraine, artists, gallerists, curators and museum directors are desperately but carefully unhooking, wrapping and stashing away the country’s hefty cultural endowment as Vladimir Putin’s onslaught closes in. Statues, stained-glass windows and monuments are being covered with shrapnel-proof material. Basement bunkers are crammed with paintings.
As Russian bombardments have so far been heavier in the eastern half of the country, two of Ukraine’s richest cities in terms of cultural heritage, Lviv and Odessa, have had the benefit of extra time. Volunteers in the latter, for instance, took days to stack hundreds of sandbags around a monument to the Duke of Richelieu, a Frenchman who was one of the cosmopolitan port city’s founders. Just his head and his outstretched right arm remain uncovered.
Volunteers put sandbags around the monument to the Duke of Richelieu for protection from a possible Russian attack on the city of Odessa, Ukraine, on March 10. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
Kyiv and Kharkiv, the country’s two biggest cities, were struck early in the war and have already suffered devastating losses.
The windows of Kharkiv’s main art museum have been blown out, subjecting the 25,000 artworks inside to freezing temperatures and snow for weeks. The city’s opera and ballet theaters were extensively shelled.
Twenty-five works by one of Ukraine’s most celebrated painters, Maria Prymachenko, famed for her colorful representation of Ukrainian folklore and rural life, were burned when Russians bombed the museum housing them in a town outside Kyiv. Other museums in the capital are boarded up, their works still inside because those who would have evacuated them have fled.” Read more at Washington Post
“The pandemic drove a fresh burst of interest in meal-kit delivery and recipe boxes in the United States, as homebound families sought convenient and healthy home-cooked meal options. Those days are over.
A post-pandemic resumption of regular life has led to fewer meals eaten at home once again, and meal-kit subscriptions are struggling, experts say.
Meal-kit delivery giants like HelloFresh, Sunbasket and Blue Apron are faring worse or dealing with much slower growth, especially compared to 2020 record highs, partly due to fierce competition from more than a dozen newer companies like Freshly, EveryPlate and others. Plus, several grocery stores, like Kroger, are also getting in on the action, with its purchase of Home Chef. Competition is also coming from fully reopened restaurants hustling to regain customers, as well as delivery companies like DoorDash and Uber Eats.” Read more at Washington Post
“The NCAA men's basketball tournament gets started Tuesday with a pair of play-in games. Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Texas Southern kick things off when the two 16 seeds face off. Texas A&M Corpus Christi is coming off a win in the Southland Conference Championship Game, while Texas Southern won comfortably in the Southwestern Athletic Conference title game. The winner of this matchup will go on to face Kansas, the top seed in the Midwest Region. In the second matchup of the evening, Indiana will face Wyoming in a battle of No. 12 seeds. Most recently, both teams lost in the semifinals of their conference tournaments – Indiana in the Big Ten and Wyoming in the Mountain West. Awaiting the winner of Indiana-Wyoming will be Saint Mary's College, the No. 5 seed in the East Region.” Read more at USA Today
“The criticism arrived as swiftly as the praise.
Just a day after Jane Campion was applauded for the candor with which she pushed back on disparaging remarks made about her film ‘The Power of the Dog,’ the filmmaker herself caught flak for a comment she made while accepting best director at Sunday’s Critics Choice Awards.
After pointing out that the other nominated directors in her category were all men, Campion turned to Serena and Venus Williams, who attended in support of the film ‘King Richard.’ She said, ‘You know, Serena and Venus, you are such marvels. However, you do not play against the guys like I have to.’
The audience broke out into cheers and applause while the camera cut to Venus Williams, a seemingly uncomfortable smile on her face. The response online mirrored Williams’s (minus the smile). Many people expressed how unnecessary it was for Campion, a White woman, to compare her experiences of sexism with the uphill battles fought by the Williams sisters, two Black women who have faced unrelenting racism and sexism while working toward remarkable levels of success in tennis, a White-dominated sport.
“Jane Campion, daughter of famous New Zealand theatre director Richard Campion & actress Edith Campion MBE, explains the challenges of being a white woman from an established family to Venus and Serena Williams,” tweeted BBC reporter Megha Mohan.
‘Anyone who knows anything about Venus and Serena’s careers wouldn’t think to utter something this stupid and insulting,’ wrote Chicago Sun-Times editor Gene Farris.
Writer Saeed Jones noted, ‘That Jane Campion whiplash is a perfect distillation of white feminism.’
Campion issued a statement Monday afternoon apologizing for her words.
‘I made a thoughtless comment equating what I do in the film world with all that Serena Williams and Venus Williams have achieved,’ she said. ‘I did not intend to devalue these two legendary Black women and world class athletes. The fact is the Williams sisters have, actually, squared off against men on the court (and off), and they have both raised the bar and opened doors for what is possible for women in this world. The last thing I would ever want to do is minimize remarkable women.’
‘I love Serena and Venus. Their accomplishments are titanic and inspiring. Serena and Venus, I apologize and completely celebrate you.’ Read more at Washington Post
“‘I don’t feel that I have earned that right’: Dolly Parton removed herself from the ballot for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.” Read more at New York Times
“Lives Lived: Bernard Nussbaum faced Whitewater, Vince Foster’s suicide and other controversies during his 14 months as Bill Clinton’s first White House counsel. Nussbaum died at 84.” Read more at New York Times