The Full Belmonte, 3/18/2022
“Russian missiles struck today near the international airport in Lviv, a historic city in western Ukraine that has been a safe haven for people fleeing fighting — and a hub for U.S. media, the BBC reports.
U.K. armed forces minister James Heappey told ‘BBC Breakfast’ that Britain is training Ukrainians to use Starstreak anti-aircraft missile systems, which should arrive in the country ‘imminently.’
Satellite image: Maxar Technologies via AP
This satellite image shows burning buildings in a residential area in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, on Wednesday.
At least 53 people in Chernihiv were brought to morgues over 24 hours, killed amid heavy Russian air attacks and ground fire, the local governor, Viacheslav Chaus, told Ukrainian TV.
‘The city has never known such nightmarish, colossal losses and destruction,’ Chaus said.
Ukraine's emergency services said a mother, father and three of their children, including 3-year-old twins, were killed when a Chernihiv hostel was shelled, AP reports.
Civilians were hiding in basements and shelters across the embattled city of 280,000.
Photo: Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images
Above: Firemen work yesterday in the rubble of a Kyiv apartment building that was hit by debris from a downed rocket.” Read more at Axios
“Russia’s ground forces appears to be stalling — and suffering huge losses — as the war in Ukraine enters its fourth week. However, devastating air attacks on civilian area continue.” [Vox] Read more at New York Times / Marc Santora, Michael Schwirtz and Shashank Bengali
“Thursday, 21 people were killed, and dozens more injured, under heavy gunfire in Merefa, a town northeast of Kharkiv in a region that has seen extensive destruction since the invasion began.” [Vox / Li Zhou]
“That attack followed an assault in the southern city Mariupol, where more than a hundred survivors have so far emerged from the basement of a theater the day after the building, reportedly marked with the word “children,” was leveled by Russian missiles.” [Vox] Read more at CNN / Victoria Butenko, Olga Voitovych, Andrew Carey, James Frater and Jeevan Ravindran
“For days, Mariupol has been a focus of Russian aggression, and now thousands of people, under the constant threat of bombardment, are sheltering in basements with little food, water, or electricity.” [Vox] Read more at Reuters / James Mackenzie, Natalia Zinets and Oleksandr Kozhukhar
“The UK, France, Albania, Ireland, and Norway joined President Biden in accusing Putin of committing war crimes before a UN security council meeting on Thursday. The US is collecting a list of Putin’s alleged crimes, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.” [Vox] Read more at Guardian / Daniel Boffey and Dan Sabbagh
“In addition to government sanctions, many businesses and individuals have started boycotting Russian products in solidarity with Ukraine. But critics are speaking out against this, comparing the shunning of Russian artists, musicians, athletes and more to McCarthyism from the 1950s.” Read more at NPR
“Ukraine ballet star and internationally renowned dancer Artyom Datsishin has died, three weeks after he was hit by Russian shelling in Kyiv. He was 43. Datsishin performed leading roles in Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty with Ukraine’s National Opera. The acclaimed dancer’s death drew anger from across the ballet world, including the former artistic director of the Russian Bolshoi Ballet, Alexei Ratmansky, who described Datsishin’s death as ‘unbearable pain,’ according to Ukrainian news outlets. ‘I am furious,’ Ratmansky said Friday. Datsishin’s ballet style was described by Ukrainian news sites as ‘academic expressiveness, romantic elation, and psychological depth.’ [Daily Beast] Read more at Daily Mail
“Arnold Schwarzenegger released an emotional video directed at Russians and debunking misinformation.” Read more at New York Times
“President Biden today will tell Chinese President Xi Jinping that any military assistance China extends to Russia during its war with Ukraine will result in tough U.S. consequences for Beijing (The Hill).
The warning from the president, publicly previewed by top advisers, underscores concerns within the administration that President Vladimir Putin’s reported appeals for weaponry, lethal materiel and economic aid from China could escalate the Ukraine crisis into uncharted territory among the world’s most powerful nations (The Wall Street Journal).
The United States and the European Union would like Xi to help persuade Putin to walk back from a dangerous ledge. But China has refused to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine, and some in Europe believe the West’s openings with Beijing may have passed (South China Morning Post).
China has worked both sides of the conflict: Xi initially approached Putin’s invasion of Ukraine with support for an ally. There have also been official Chinese statements of neutrality and even support for ‘sovereign’ Ukraine as Putin’s ‘special military operation’ became a month of full-fledged war with global economic consequences and thousands of civilian fatalities.
Biden’s gamble, in effect, is to tell a rival superpower that a military friend to Ukraine’s enemy is not a U.S. friend. Time to choose, or suffer what the White House says are the ‘costs.’
‘We believe China in particular has a responsibility to use its influence with President Putin and to defend the international rules and principles that it professes to support,’ Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Thursday. ‘Instead, it appears that China is moving in the opposite direction by refusing to condemn this aggression while seeking to portray itself as a neutral arbiter.’
Biden, too, presents two narratives: He revels in his reputation for off-screen diplomacy, patience, consensus building and peacemaking. He also publicly assails Putin using denunciations and name-calling while previewing the Kremlin’s alleged military strategies. A day after describing Putin as a war criminal, Biden on Thursday called the Russian president a ‘murderous dictator, a pure thug who is waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine.’
Last year, Biden during an interview called Putin a ‘killer,’ which sparked a furious reaction from the Russian president. ‘It takes one to know one,’ he replied with some finger wagging.
Putin ‘is not relenting and in fact may be growing more desperate,’ Blinken added on Thursday. He warned that Moscow might be preparing to use chemical weapons in the war, could redirect private mercenary groups in battle zones elsewhere to Ukraine, and had begun to kidnap local officials in Ukraine and replace them with Putin’s allies (The Hill).” Read more at The Hill
“A 13-year-old boy was behind the wheel of a pickup truck that struck a van in Texas on Tuesday night in a collision that killed nine people, including a college golf coach and six of his players, along with the boy and a man traveling with him, officials said on Thursday.
Bruce Landsberg, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news conference that the truck’s left front tire was a spare that had blown out before the truck veered into the lane the golf team’s van was traveling in and struck the van head-on. It was unclear at what speeds the vehicles were traveling, but Mr. Landsberg noted that the speed limit in the area is 75 miles per hour.
‘It was very clearly a high-speed, head-on collision between two heavy vehicles,’ he said. ‘There is no question about the force of impact.’ Both vehicles went up in flames in the collision near Andrews, Texas, about 50 miles east of the state line with New Mexico.
It was unclear why the 13-year-old boy, whose name was not released by the authorities on Thursday, was driving the truck. Henrich Siemens, 38, of Seminole County, Texas, who was also in the truck, was killed in the collision, the authorities said.
The University of the Southwest identified the victims from that institution as Tyler James, 26, the coach, and the student-athletes Travis Garcia, Karisa Raines, Mauricio Sanchez, Tiago Sousa, Laci Stone and Jackson Zinn. Most of the golfers were freshmen at the university, a private, Christian institution in Hobbs, N.M., near the state line with Texas.
Two golf players who were in the van, Dayton Price and Hayden Underhill, were critically injured but survived the crash, and they were undergoing medical treatment in Lubbock, Texas, on Thursday, a spokesman for the university said at a news conference.” Read more at New York Times
“Moderna has joined Pfizer-BioNTech to request an emergency authorization for a second booster shot. This would be the fourth shot for Moderna's series of COVID-19 vaccines. The request is for approval for people 18 years and older.” Read more at USA Today
Ivermectin got attention from celebrities including podcast host Joe Rogan, but researchers said they found no indication that it is clinically useful against Covid-19.PHOTO: MIKE STEWART/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Researchers testing repurposed drugs against Covid-19 found that ivermectin didn’t reduce hospital admissions, in the largest trial yet of the effect of the antiparasitic on the disease driving the pandemic.
Ivermectin has received a lot of attention as a potential treatment for Covid-19 including from celebrities such as podcast host Joe Rogan. Most evidence has shown it to be ineffective against Covid-19 or has relied on data of poor quality, infectious-disease researchers said. Public-health authorities and researchers have for months said the drug hasn’t shown any benefit in treating the disease. Taking large doses of the drug is dangerous, the Food and Drug Administration has said.
The latest trial, of nearly 1,400 Covid-19 patients at risk of severe disease, is the largest to show that those who received ivermectin as a treatment didn’t fare better than those who received a placebo.
‘There was no indication that ivermectin is clinically useful,’ said Edward Mills, one of the study’s lead researchers and a professor of health sciences at Canada’s McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Dr. Mills on Friday plans to present the findings, which have been accepted for publication in a major peer-reviewed medical journal, at a public forum sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Mills and his colleagues looked at 1,358 adults who visited one of 12 clinics in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil with Covid-19 symptoms. The patients all had a positive rapid test for SARS-CoV-2, and were at risk of having a severe case for reasons including a history of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease or lung disease.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“The biggest credit-reporting firms will strip tens of billions of dollars in medical debt from consumers’ credit reports, erasing a black mark that makes it harder for millions of Americans to borrow.
Equifax Inc., EFX +0.29% Experian EXPGY -0.32% PLC and TransUnion TRU -1.12% are making broad changes to how they report medical debt beginning this summer. The changes, which have been in the works for several months, will remove nearly 70% of medical debt in collections accounts from credit reports.
Beginning in July, the companies will remove medical debt that was paid after it was sent to collections. These debts can stick around on a consumer’s credit report for up to seven years, even if they are paid off. New unpaid medical debts won’t get added to credit reports for a full year after being sent to collections.
The firms are also planning to remove unpaid medical debts of less than $500 in the first half of next year. That threshold could rise, according to people familiar with the matter.
Medical debt is a huge burden for many Americans. Medical emergencies and unexpected diagnoses often result in giant billsthat can easily overwhelm people who otherwise never miss a debt payment. The unpaid bills end up on credit reports, sometimes lowering consumers’ credit scores and hindering their ability to get affordable mortgages, car loans and other credit.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimates that some $88 billion in medical billssits on 43 million credit reports. The three credit-reporting firms maintain reports on more than 200 million people in the U.S.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Companies that never had to deal with abortion rights are now picking a side, Axios Markets co-author Emily Peck reports.
Why it matters: After Texas effectively banned the procedure last year, and with the Supreme Court potentially poised to roll back abortion rights, new restrictions could soon put more pressure on big businesses to act.
It's a rare event when a change to a company's insurance benefits makes news. But that's what happened this week when Citigroup mentioned in a regulatory filing that it would cover travel expenses for U.S. employees seeking abortions.
Citi appears to be one of the first public companies to officially update its employee healthcare policy in response to the changing legal landscape.
Apple, which has a big presence in Texas, confirmed to Axios that its health insurance policies cover abortions, including travel fees if needed.
It's possible other employers have similar health insurance policies, but they haven't been talking about them.
The CEO of Match, the dating company, funded a program with Planned Parenthood to ensure her Texas-based employees receive safe and legal care.
Dating app company Bumble helped create a relief fund, in conjunction with advocacy groups, to help women pay for reproductive care in Texas.
How it works: Citi's policy is surprisingly uncomplicated. Travel expenses are covered under an employee's health insurance, according to a source familiar with it.
The company plan already covers people with, say, a heart condition who need treatment at a far-off hospital. This is no different. The benefit would extend to employees in any state where access is restricted.
Paid sick leave would cover any time off for an employee who needs to travel, get the procedure done and recover.” Read more at Axios
Alex Wong/Getty Images
“Facing an agenda stalled in the Senate, influential House Democrats are urging President Joe Biden to deliver on campaign promises through executive action ahead of November’s midterm elections.” [Vox] Read more at Politico / Sarah Ferris and Nicholas Wu
“Thursday, the 98-member Congressional Progressive Caucus released a list of executive actions Biden could take to achieve Democrats’ domestic agenda on issues like health care, student debt, criminal justice reform, and climate change.” [Vox] Read more at Business Insider / Ayelet Sheffey, Joseph Zeballos-Roig, and Juliana Kaplan
“The list comes as Democrats struggle to revive their Build Back Better bill, a massive social and climate spending initiative killed in late 2021 by the GOP and moderate Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin. The outlook for rebooting that bill isn’t good, so Democrats are now looking for an alternative.” Vox / Li Zhou
“Progressives aren’t the only ones pushing Biden to go it alone: The Congressional Black Caucus wants executive orders protecting voting rights and the Hispanic Caucus is seeking changes to immigration policies.” [Vox] Read more at Washington Post / Marianna Sotomayor
“Executive action has its limits, and can be undone by subsequent presidents. But with Democratic lawmakers unable to pass party priorities, they’re looking to Biden to make policy for them (while also giving them election year wins).” [Vox] Read more at Associated Press / Farnoush Amiri
“Some of Bernie Sanders’s former campaign officials are quietly pushing California Rep. Ro Khanna to run for president in 2024 — if Biden doesn’t.” [Vox] Read more at Politico / Holly Otterbein
“The United Kingdom is dropping all remaining COVID-19 travel measures Friday, according to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. The new measures allow all travelers – regardless of vaccination status – to enter without a passenger locator form or negative coronavirus test. Currently, adult travelers from the U.S. who are not fully vaccinated must show a negative coronavirus test taken no more than two days before travel and purchase a PCR test to be taken within the first two days after arrival. All passengers must also fill out a passenger locator form no more than three days before their arrival. The updated measures come even as COVID-19 case counts are rising. More than 444,000 people in the U.K. tested positive in the seven days leading up to March 14, up 48% from the week prior, according to government data.” Read more at USA Today
“WASHINGTON—Iran established a clandestine banking and finance system to handle tens of billions of dollars in annual trade banned under U.S.-led sanctions, enabling Tehran to endure the economic siege and giving it leverage in multilateral nuclear talks, according to Western diplomats, intelligence officials and documents.
The system, which comprises accounts in foreign commercial banks, proxy companies registered outside the country, firms that coordinate the banned trade, and a transaction clearinghouse within Iran, has helped Tehran resist the Biden administration’s pressure to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal, buying it time to advance its nuclear program even while negotiations were under way. Officials say they are closing in on a deal, with the release of two British women in recent days foreshadowing a potential agreement within days.
Years of sanctions have hobbled Iran’s economy and caused its currency, the rial, to collapse. But the ability to boost trade roughly to pre-sanction levels has helped the economy rebound after three years of contraction, alleviating domestic political pressure and bolstering Tehran’s negotiating position, say the officials and some analysts.
Iran’s success at circumventing trade and finance bans, apparent in trade data and confirmed by Western diplomats and intelligence officials, shows the limits of global financial sanctions at a time when the U.S. and European Union have sought to use their economic might to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. and EU have barred major Russian banks from trading dollars and euros and frozen the Russian central bank’s assets held overseas. As a result, the ruble has lost 13% of its value against the dollar since the Feb. 24 invasion. At the same time, the Biden administration has sought Russia’s cooperation in rounds of talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the deal.
According to the documents and Western officials, the clandestine banking system works like this: Iranian banks that serve companies barred by U.S. sanctions from exporting or importing engage affiliate firms in Iran to manage sanctioned trade on their behalf. Those firms establish companies outside of Iran’s borders to serve as proxies for the Iranian traders. The proxies trade with foreign purchasers of Iranian oil and other commodities, or sellers of goods for import into Iran, in dollars, euros or other foreign currencies, through accounts set up in foreign banks.
Some of the revenue is smuggled into Iran by couriers who carry cash withdrawn from the proxy company accounts abroad, according to some of the officials. But much of it remains in bank accounts abroad, according to the Western officials. The Iranian importers and exporters trade foreign currency among themselves, on ledgers maintained in Iran, according to the Iranian central bank.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Pressure intensifies | Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, is facing increasing calls to resign as more lawmakers from his ruling Tehreek-e-Insaf party desert him. Criticized by the opposition for mismanaging the economy and overseeing souring ties with the U.S., the 70-year-old leader will have a hard time surviving a no-confidence vote expected this month.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Facing a severe drought likely made worse by climate change, 4 million Somalians face severe hunger and starvation should spring rains again fail to materialize.” [Vox] Read more at Reuters / Feisal Omar
“Amazon closed its $6.5 billion deal to acquire MGM. The online retailer said it had provided the Federal Trade Commission all the information regulators had requested, although the agency could still challenge the deal for the Hollywood studio. European antitrust officials approved the acquisition earlier this week. The FTC’s investigation has been closely watched because Chairwoman Lina Khan has long been a vocal critic of Amazon. The agency declined to comment on the deal specifically.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Kanye West was suspended for Instagram for 24 hours on Thursday for using a racial slur against comedian Trevor Noah.” [Vox] Read more at Guardian / Ben Beaumont-Thomas]
“Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel has sold over $400 million in company stock since its successful vaccine rollout began.” [Vox] Read more at CNBC / Spencer Kimball
“March Madness is officially here.
Thursday's first-round action offered a smorgasbord of college basketball for fans on St. Patrick's Day, with 16 men's NCAA Tournament games – three of which went into overtime, including a thrilling finale that saw Murray State clip San Francisco.
While the early part of the day started quiet — outside of No. 11 seed Michigan knocking out No. 6 Colorado State, that is — the second half of the day produced a string of bracket-busting upsets. We welcomed our first Cinderella of the day in Richmond. The No. 12 seeded Spiders shocked No. 5 Iowa to advance in the Midwest region. Next came fellow No. 12 seed New Mexico State, fueled by breakout star Teddy Allen's 37 points, in an upset of No. 5 UConn to advance in the West.
But the unrivaled highlight of the day came when Saint Peter's stunned Kentucky to become just the 10th No. 15 seed to oust a No. 2 seed. Coach John Calipari's group was sent home early as the inspired Peacocks busted brackets everywhere in the East region. Both Arkansas (vs. Vermont) and UCLA (vs. Akron) were luckier and avoided upsets in down-to-the-wire finishes.
Unlike Kentucky crumbling to a No. 15, top seeds Baylor, Kansas and Gonzaga dispatched their No. 16 seed opponents, although not without difficulty for the 'Zags. Thursday capped off a horrid 0-4 showing for the Mountain West in these NCAAs, with San Diego State losing in overtime, Boise State and Colorado State also losing and then Wyoming losing in the First Four on Tuesday.” Read more at USA Today
“In one of the biggest upsets in March Madness history, the No. 2-seeded University of Kentucky Wildcats lost 85-79 in overtime to the 15th-seeded Saint Peter Peacocks, an outsider team from a tiny Jesuit college in Jersey City, in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday night. Wildcats Coach John Calipari, who was last offed in the first round in 2012, said his experienced team somehow just wasn’t prepped for the win-or-go-home dynamic of March Madness. ‘It was one of those games I was hoping I’d get them by it and get on to the next game,’ Calipari said. ‘I didn’t do a very good job of it.’ ‘At the end of the day, every team that made it to the NCAA Tournament deserves to be here,’ Peacocks Coach Shaheen Holloway said. ‘Every team that made it to the NCAA Tournament believes they can advance. It’s about this night.’ Yahoo Sports noted Holloway makes less than four of Calipari’s Kentucky assistants.” [Daily Beast] Read more at Kentucky.com
“Consumers gobbled up a record $36.9 billion in candy, gum, mints and chocolate in 2021 — and are projected to keep buying more, Axios' Jennifer A. Kingson writes from a National Confectioners Association report.
Why it matters: The pandemic not only gave us license to buy goodies, we got into the habit of buying them online and eating them at home.
Flashback: One of the last big spikes in sales of sweets happened in 2009 — the height of the big recession.” Read more at Axios
“Sharing your Netflix password is going to cost you. The streaming giant is testing a new feature in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru that will charge subscribers $2.99 a month to add sub accounts for up to two people outside their households. In January, Netflix raised its U.S. subscription prices, which now start at $9.99 a month.” Read more at Wall Senate Journal
“Maserati will make an electric version of all of its models by 2025, and it plans to phase out all of its internal combustion engine vehicles by 2030-ish.” Read at Axios
A driverless tractor plows a field in Blue Earth, Minn. Photo: Bill Krzyzanowski/John Deere via AP
“Beginning this fall, green 14-ton tractors that can plow day or night — with no one sitting in the cab, or even watching nearby — will roll off the John Deere factory assembly line in Waterloo, Iowa, AP reports.
Why it matters: It's a milestone for automation advocates, who for years have had to explain why driverless cars aren't quite ready for prime time.
The new technology will be added to tractors that currently sell for about $500,000.
The company plans to operate autonomous tractors on 10–50 farms by this fall, before significantly increasing the number in following years.
Photo: Bill Krzyzanowski/John Deere via AP
What's happening: Tractors receive consistent GPS data — unlike cars, which can lose contact traveling through tunnels or amid tall buildings.
As Joel Dawson, a Deere production director, put it: ‘You aren't going to see a crosswalk in most cornfields in Iowa or Nebraska.’
Modern tractors already have GPS guides to handle steering and turning during plowing, seeding and harvesting.
They use real-time streams of data to adjust to soil conditions or the amount of fertilizer.
The driverless tractors are equipped with six pairs of cameras that work like human eyes, and provide a 360-degree image.” Read more at Axios
“Lives Lived: The Yankees pitcher Ralph Terry threw two of the most dramatic pitches in baseball history. Both ended a World Series, but with different outcomes. He died at 86.” Read more at New York Times
John Locher/AP
“The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame isn't taking no for an answer. The organization says Dolly Parton will remain on this year's ballotbecause voting has already begun.” Read more at NPR