The Full Belmonte, 3/25/2022
“President Joe Biden will travel to Poland today, marking his second stop on a trip through Europe aimed at coordinating the West's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Yesterday’s crisis talks in Brussels ended with Western leaders touting their unity and announcing new sanctions on hundreds of Russia’s elite. Ukraine also updated its extensive wishlist of additional military assistance from the US government, saying it needs 1,000 missiles per day, according to a document provided to CNN. Less than two weeks into Russia's invasion, the US and other NATO members had sent about 17,000 anti-tank missiles and 2,000 anti-aircraft missiles into Ukraine. Since then, NATO countries, including the US, have kept the pipeline of weapons and equipment flowing, even as Russia has threatened to target the shipments. Separately, more than 3.5 million refugees have now fled Ukraine, according to new UN data. For its part, the US will welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing Russia's aggression, a senior administration official said yesterday.” Read more at CNN
In Brussels today (from left), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pose for a G7 leaders' family photo. Photo: Henry Nicholls/Pool via Getty Images
“President Biden said today that if Russia were to use chemical weapons in Ukraine it ‘would trigger a response’ from NATO, Axios' Ivana Saric reports.
‘The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use,’ he said at a summit with EU, NATO and G7 leaders.
Biden also supports expelling Russia from the G20 over its invasion of Ukraine, he said today. That step would further isolate Vladimir Putin on the international stage, Axios' Zachary Basu reports.” Read more at Axios
“President Biden, who heads to Poland today, unveiled a new deal in Brussels to supply the EU with American liquefied natural gas as part of a push to wean Europe off Russian energy.” Read more at Axios
“Moscow is using a Russian mercenary company to try to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the U.K. says. The British government announced sanctions against the Wagner Group but didn’t provide evidence or further details. Wagner, which emerged from Russia’s covert interventions in eastern Ukraine in 2014, was partially financed by catering and construction contracts for the Russian military that were linked with former restaurateur Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to European officials. A representative for Prigozhin questioned Wagner’s existence and said queries about the U.K.’s claim represented ‘a severe psychosis of Western media.’ The company couldn’t be reached for comment. The E.U. has already sanctioned the Wagner Group, calling it a proxy force for Russia’s Defense Ministry. The Kremlin has previously denied any formal connections with it.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Ukraine’s counteroffensive has scored several major strikes, destroying Russian helicopters, a resupply convoy and a naval ship in the Sea of Azov.” Read more at New York Times
“KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — About 300 people died in a Russian airstrike last week on a theater being used as a bomb shelter in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the city’s government said Friday, citing eyewitnesses.
When the theater was struck March 16, an enormous inscription reading ‘CHILDREN’ was posted outside in Russian, intended to be visible from the skies above.
It was not immediately clear whether emergency workers had finished excavating the site or how the eyewitnesses arrived at the horrific death toll. Soon after the airstrike, Ludmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament’s human rights commissioner, said more than 1,300 people had been sheltering in the building.
Mariupol has been the scene of some of the worst devastation of the war, which has seen Russia relentlessly besiege and pummel Ukraine’s cities. The misery inside them is such that nearly anyone who can is trying to leave and those left behind face desperate food shortages in a country once known as the breadbasket for the world.” Read more at AP News
“The U.S. imposed new sanctions on more than 300 members of Russia’s Parliament, and Biden said the country should be removed from the G20.” Read more at New York Times
“NEW YORK (AP) — The resignation of a senior Russian government official and his reported move abroad wasn’t the first voluntary departure of a person from a state job since the start of Russia’s war with Ukraine, but it certainly was one of the most striking.
Anatoly Chubais, who was President Vladimir Putin’s envoy to international organizations on sustainable development, is well known in Russia. He held high profile posts for nearly three decades, beginning under Boris Yeltsin, the first post-Soviet leader.
A number of public figures have condemned the invasion of Ukraine and left their posts at state-run institutions and companies, which could signal divisions in Russia’s official ranks over the war. So far there have been no indications that the resignations have reached into Putin’s inner circle.
The handful of departures came as Putin blasted those opposing his course as ‘scum and traitors,’ which Russian society would spit out ‘like a gnat.’” Read more at AP News
“Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson wrapped up yesterday after four days. Jackson spoke about her judicial experience and addressed the historic nature of her nomination, which would make her the first Black female Supreme Court justice. The hearing also featured contentious moments of harsh questioning by committee Republicans. Sen. Lindsey Graham took issue with her sentencing of child pornography offenders and even criticized her as an ‘activist.’ On the other hand, New Jersey Democrat Sen. Cory Booker delivered a moving speech that brought tears to the nominee. The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Judge Jackson's Supreme Court nomination on Monday, April 4.” Read more at CNN
“The Supreme Court keeps getting more powerful, but confirmation hearings for new justices consistently fail to match the gravity of what's at stake, Axios' Sam Baker writes.
Why it matters: Nine people have the final say on all the biggest and most controversial issues in America — abortion, marriage, health care, immigration, voting rights, the boundaries of free speech. But the confirmation process rarely shines much new light.
Republicans pelted Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson this week with questions about culture-war issues that are a lot more relevant to the midterms than to the court's work.
‘Do you agree … that babies are racist?’ Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) — who held up a children's book called ‘Antiracist Baby’ — asked during a series of questions about critical race theory and schools.
‘Can you provide a definition for the word 'woman'?’ Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) asked at the end of a 13-hour hearing on Tuesday. Jackson replied: ‘I can't. ... I'm not a biologist.’
Flashback: During Justice Amy Coney Barrett's hearings, Democrats spent a great deal of time focusing on health care — even invoking personal stories of people covered by the Affordable Care Act.
And, yes, there was a case pending before the Supreme Court about the ACA, just as there may one day be another case about trans rights. But there was also an election just a few months away, in which the legal threat to the ACA was a big part of Democrats' message.
Television, followed by social media, turned these serious-business hearings into an irresistible platform for senators to indulge personal or partisan ambitions.
Nominees have learned the lesson from Robert Bork, whose nomination by President Ronald Reagan was rejected in 1987 because of the many hardline opinions the judge was willing to discuss publicly.
Years before she became a Supreme Court justice, then-professor Elena Kagan had particularly tough criticism for the say-nothing era of confirmation hearings, calling them ‘a vapid and hollow charade.’
‘Such hearings serve little educative function, except perhaps to reinforce lessons of cynicism that citizens often glean from government,’ Kagan wrote in 1995.
It's hard to argue the process has gotten better.” Read more at Axios
Screenshot: CBS News
“The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 riot at the US Capitol has in its possession more than two dozen text messages, 29 in total, between former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Virginia ‘Ginni’ Thomas, a conservative activist and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, according to multiple sources. The text messages, reviewed by CNN, show Thomas pleading with Meadows to continue the fight to overturn the 2020 election results. The revelation of messages between Thomas and Meadows, both key allies of former President Donald Trump, comes as progressives and some legal ethics experts see her activism as a potential conflict of interest for Justice Thomas' work on some Supreme Court cases. The committee is also considering whether to recommend that two former advisers to Trump be held in contempt for not cooperating with its investigation and to refer them to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.” Read more at CNN
“U.S. health experts are monitoring the U.K.’s recent rise in Covid-19 cases. Delta and Omicron trends overseas tended to foreshadow what happened in the U.S. The highly transmissible BA.2 Omicron variant spreads quickly, and both the U.S. and European countries have largely eliminated Covid-containing measures such as mask mandates. U.S. officials estimated the new strain represents approximately 35% of domestic cases, raising questions about another potential surge.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Data: Census Bureau. Chart: Jared Whalen/Axios
“In new U.S. census data showing migration from July 2020 to July 2021, five of the top 10 counties in numeric growth were in Texas — Collin, Fort Bend, Williamson, Denton and Montgomery counties.
The others were in Arizona (Maricopa County) ... California (Riverside County) ... Florida (Polk and Lee counties) ... and Utah (Utah County).
The three largest numeric losers were L.A. County ... New York County (Manhattan) ... and Cook County, Ill., which includes Chicago.
On a percentage basis (mapped above), the top gainer was Kaufman County, Texas (east of Dallas). The biggest loser was Manhattan.” Read more at Axios
“California is joining several states in attempting to give their residents relief from rising gas prices. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing an $11 billion bill that would give residents a $400 rebate for up to two cars.
People who might be looking to switch to more energy efficient cars amid the gas price hike are out of luck. Electric cars and gas-electric hybrids are in short supply, and prices have been climbing rapidly.” Read more at NPR
“The Biden administration has finalized a federal regulation that will help settle asylum claims at a faster pace. The new rule will help alleviate the immigration court backlog by giving asylum officers more authority to hear and decide asylum claims -- cases that are usually assigned to immigration judges -- when migrants present at the US southern border. The change comes amid growing concerns about a potential migrant surge at the US-Mexico border. There are 1.7 million cases pending in immigration court, according to a system which tracks immigration court data. The administration is still assessing who the rule will apply to and where it will be implemented, officials said, emphasizing that the rollout will start small.” Read more at CNN
Former President Donald Trump arrives at a rally on Saturday, March 12, 2022, in Florence, S.C. | Meg Kinnard/AP Photo
“Former President Donald Trump is suing 2016 Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in a sprawling case that accuses her of conspiring with dozens of other actors — frequent targets of Trump’s conspiracy theories and rage — to topple his presidency.
The new lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Fort Pierce, Fla., accuses Clinton, her campaign, various campaign aides, former FBI Director James Comey, the Democratic National Committee and others of racketeering conspiracy for allegedly joining in ‘an unthinkable plot’ to falsely accuse Trump of colluding with Russia in the 2016 presidential election.” Read more at CNN
“A federal jury on Thursday convicted Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) on three felony counts for lying to federal investigators about illegal campaign contributions from a foreign billionaire.
The charges stem from a 2016 fundraiser held in Glendale, Calif., for the congressman’s reelection. There, Fortenberry received donations totaling $30,200 from Gilbert Chagoury, a wealthy Nigerian business executive of Lebanese descent who used other people as conduits to make the contributions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced in October.
Foreign nationals are prohibited from donating to candidates running for federal office in the United States. It is also illegal to disguise a donor’s identity through third-party contributions.
The week-long trial in Los Angeles concluded with a guilty verdict that was announced after two hours of deliberations, the Associated Press reported. But walking stoically and seemingly unflustered, Fortenberry addressed reporters outside the courtroom, with his wife, two of his daughters and his future son-in-law standing beside him.” Read more at Washington Post
“Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) has restarted talks with fellow Democrats about reviving the party’s climate and social spending bill, according to two people familiar with the matter, as administration officials search for oil and gas policies that could make the measure more palatable to him.
10 steps you can take to lower your carbon footprint
Manchin, who has traveled in the past week with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, has told staff members and colleagues that the legislation must be voted on before senators leave town in August, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has said that he wants the bill to take an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach to energy policy, these people said, and that it’s still possible to reach a deal that includes billions of dollars’ worth of provisions to tackle climate change, cut prescription drug costs and update the tax code.” Read more at Washington Post
“Arizona lawmakers passed a bill banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, becoming the second state legislature to push through this restriction ahead of a pivotal Supreme Court decision that could alter the abortion rights landscape nationwide.
The Arizona House of Representatives passed the bill in a 31-26 vote Thursday. It now heads to the desk of Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican who has signed restrictions on abortion since becoming governor in 2015.
A spokesman for Mr. Ducey didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The legislative efforts in Arizona follow similar moves in Florida, where Republican lawmakers earlier this month approved a ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. These bills are similar to the Mississippi law at the center of a Supreme Court case that challenges the high court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which established a constitutional right to end a pregnancy. Similar bills in West Virginia and Kentucky passed one chamber in those state legislatures.
The Arizona law, known as SB 1164, bars abortions in the state after 15 weeks of pregnancy, weeks earlier than current precedent established by the Supreme Court. The law allows for exceptions in medical emergencies. It doesn’t include exceptions for instances of rape or incest.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
A dying ritual in Midtown Manhattan. Photo: Noam Galai/Getty Images
“Movie scenes centered around the pain of hailing a taxi could soon look as dated as people smoking indoors.
The big picture: It's all moving to the apps, with longtime holdout New York City leading the way.
2014: Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said the company was in a campaign against an ‘a--hole named Taxi.’
2022: Uber and New York City agree to list city taxis on the app and integrate their back-end software, The Wall Street Journal reports.
By 2025: ‘Uber wants to list every taxi in the world on its app,’ per The Journal.
Between the lines: Uber needs more drivers, and taxi drivers need more return passengers for trips back to Manhattan, The Journal notes.
The move could better equalize Uber and yellow cab fares.” Read more at Axios
“The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week fell to its lowest level since 1969 — 53 years ago, the Labor Department said. Go deeper.” Read more at Axios
Abby Broyles, a Democrat, has ended her bid to represent Oklahoma’s Fifth Congressional District.Credit...Garett Fisbeck/Associated Press
“A Democratic candidate for Congress in Oklahoma has ended her campaign one month after she apologized for verbally abusing children attending a sleepover at a friend’s home.
The candidate, Abby Broyles, a former investigative television reporter who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2020, said she was ending her bid to represent Oklahoma’s Fifth Congressional District ‘to focus on myself and my happiness,’ according to a Medium post published on Thursday.
In the essay, Ms. Broyles, 32, described how she ‘hit rock bottom’ after the sleepover incident last month.
She described being in an emergency room on March 2, less than two weeks after the apology.
‘I drank heavily in my hotel room, more than 1,300 miles away in an effort to hide and took sleeping pills, anguishing in pain reading about myself on social media and in tabloid articles,’ she wrote.
Ms. Broyles also said she had ‘struggled with mental health issues including self-worth, severe anxiety and insomnia for about 20 years.’
Ms. Broyles, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday, has said that she has no memory of what happened during the Feb. 11 sleepover where she had mixed alcohol and sleep medication. About eight girls ages 12 and 13 attended the sleepover, where they watched the movie ‘Titanic,’ according to NonDoc Media, a journalism nonprofit in Oklahoma.
When first contacted by NonDoc Media for comment, Ms. Broyles seemed to deny that she was at the party. After a TikTok video showed otherwise, she gave an interview to KFOR-TV, an Oklahoma City station where she once worked.
In the interview, Ms. Broyles said that she had ‘blacked out’ after drinking wine and taking a sleeping medication. She said that her friend, who was hosting the sleepover, had given her medicine that she had never taken before.
After the sleepover episode made national headlines, Ms. Broyles said she had received death threats and had been harassed by online trolls. She also wrote that she had ‘lost support’ from Democratic leaders. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which Ms. Broyles said ‘announced it was distancing itself’ from her after the episode, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on Thursday.” Read more at New York Times
“A memorial service for the six Oklahoma teenagers killed Tuesday afternoon when the car they were riding in was hit by a large truck has been scheduled Friday night at the football stadium of the high school they all attended. The girls were students at Tishomingo High School and were on a lunch break at the time of the accident, according to district Superintendent Bobby Waitman. Those who died included the 16-year-old driver, three 15-year-olds and two 17-year-old passengers, the patrol said. Their names were not released because they are juveniles. The six girls were in a 2015 Chevrolet Spark that is designed to carry four passengers and only two of the six were wearing seat belts, according to a report by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. The car also reportedly failed to come to a full stop before entering an intersection where it was hit by the truck that was hauling rocks, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.” Read more at USA Today
Tishomingo High School puts up a memorial after six high school students died Tuesday, March 22, when their car collided with a tractor-trailer near Tishomingo, about 130 miles south of Oklahoma City.Nathan J Fish/The Oklahoman
“U.S. President Joe Biden visits Polish President Andrzej Duda on Saturday to pay tribute to a country that has become central to the West’s response to the war in Ukraine.
The war next door has transformed Poland from an EU pariah into an indispensable partner as its proximity enables humanitarian and military aid flows into Ukraine and as it accepts the lion’s share of Ukraine’s estimated 3.6 million refugees.
The scale of Poland’s refugee undertaking cannot be overstated. More than 2.1 million have crossed into the country since Russia’s invasion, part of the fastest exodus of refugees this century. Poland’s citizens have responded with kindness, taking the refugees into homes and driving from all over the country to pick up fresh arrivals from the border. Poland’s government, usually hostile to migrants, has waived visa entry requirements for those fleeing the war.
The warm welcome has been met with charges of hypocrisy, contrasting it with the cold shoulder—and violent pushback—Poland gave Iraqis, Afghans, and Syrians after Belarus cynically trafficked them to the border last year. It has since begun the construction of a $388 million border fence—ostensibly to deter those it deems migrants rather than refugees.
Though accusations of double standards abound, Michal Baranowski, the director of the Warsaw office at the German Marshall Fund, has a more generous interpretation, putting the difference down to a mixture of geography and history, as well as the fact that the response has been led by ordinary Poles and civil society rather than the government alone. ‘It’s a war next door. And on top of that, it’s the Russians who are causing this suffering. In the end, these people are being killed by our enemies,’ Baranowski told me.
Poland’s problems with the European Union—its far-right tilt against LBGT and women’s rights, as well as the politicization of its judiciary—have been forgotten for now as security concerns come to the fore. ‘No one wants to talk about it,’ Baranowski said. ‘It’s not a subject that comes up, but it’s not being solved.’
So with Poland’s newfound status as Western darling, how will Duda use his leverage when he meets with Biden on Saturday? Expect Duda to once again push Biden to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank, Baranowski says, while also calling for Washington’s assistance in covering the costs of hosting 2.1 million people in need.
That more hawkish position would likely mean more NATO troops and equipment in Poland and nearby NATO countries. In considering Duda’s pleas, Biden will need to weigh the need to reassure those U.S. allies with the risks of antagonizing Russia.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Throttling tech | EU negotiators have put the finishing touches on a landmark law they say will break a stranglehold on digital ecosystems by tech giants such as Google, Apple and Facebook. The Digital Markets Act, which takes effect next year, is designed to stop corporations from stifling competition by confining users to their platforms and carries fines of as much as 10% of a company’s global annual sales for an initial breach of the law.” Read more at Bloomberg
North Korea launches its first missile in five years
“North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time since 2017 on Thursday, suddenly ending the ban on long-range tests it announced in 2018.” [Vox] Read more at NYT / Choe Sang-Hun
“The ICBM is believed to be the most powerful North Korea has launched: It traveled nearly 700 miles, landing about 100 miles west of Japan’s Oshima Peninsula.” [Vox] Read more at CNBC / Sam Meredith
“South Korea responded to the launch with its own missile launches into the Sea of Japan. Japanese officials expressed anger at North Korea’s provocations amid the existing conflict in Ukraine.” [Vox] Read more at The Guardian / Justin McCurry
“Some experts believe the ICBM launch was meant to display a bargaining chip in any future discussions of lifting international sanctions on North Korea.” [Vox] Read more at NBC News / Jennifer Jett, Stella Kim, and Arata Yamamoto
“US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the launch at Thursday’s G-7 summit in Brussels and emphasized the need to hold North Korea accountable.” [Vox] Read more at ABC News / Kim Tong-Hyung and Mari Yamaguchi
“Global climate strike. A worldwide climate strike organized by Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future initiative takes place today, with young people across the globe expected to stage school walkouts to protest inaction on climate change. More than six million people joined a similar strike in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic hampered mass gatherings.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Malta’s elections. Malta holds parliamentary elections on Saturday, with the European Union’s least populous country expected to return the incumbent Labour party to power in a landslide victory, according to recent polls. The election is in part a referendum on the leadership of Prime Minister Robert Abela, who replaced predecessor Joseph Muscat after the former prime minister’s associates were linked to the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Prince William and his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, arrived in the Bahamas Thursday for the final leg of their weeklong trip to Central America and the Caribbean designed to strengthen Britain's ties with Commonwealth nations as Queen Elizabeth II marks 70 years on the throne. The royal couple are scheduled to take part in several events and attend a dinner featuring community leaders Friday. William also will give a speech at the dinner. But protests have clouded the royal couple's three-nation visit and that will continue Friday when a demonstration will be held by Rastafarian groups in the Bahamas demanding reparation payments by Great Britain and an apology from the monarchy for its role in the slave trade. Local opposition also forced the couple to cancel a visit to a cacao farm in Belize and the Jamaica trip angered some. William expressed his ‘profound sorrow’ for slavery during a speech Wednesday in Jamaica, though he stopped short of offering the apology protesters demanded.” Read more at USA Today
“Step to peace | The warring sides in Ethiopia agreed to a conditional trucein the northern Tigray region, where a 16-month civil war has driven millions of people from their homes and brought hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation. The tentative agreement is the closest the two sides have come to a cease-fire since the conflict began and may serve as a step toward the resumption of humanitarian aid.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Blinken goes East. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken begins a five-day Middle East and North Africa tour starting Saturday. Blinken is scheduled to visit Israel, the West Bank, Algeria, and Morocco. Blinken may meet with King Abdullah II of Jordan on his travels, as the two are expected to be in Ramallah on the same day.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Australia's Great Barrier Reef is suffering its sixth mass bleaching event due to heat stress caused by climate change, the reef's managers confirmed today. The update comes mid-way through a 10-day monitoring mission by scientists who are considering whether to add one of the world's seven natural wonders to their ‘in danger list.’ According to a biologist monitoring the project, more than half of the living coral seen from the air is severely bleached completely white and are producing fluorescent pigments in an attempt to protect their tissue from the intense sun during marine heatwaves. This is the fourth mass bleaching event in six years and the first since 2020, when about one quarter of the reef showed signs of severe bleaching. Previous bleaching occurred in 1998 and 2002.” Read more at CNN
“By the time Friday is over, we'll be down to the Elite Eight in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. The slate begins with the field’s last true Cinderella in action: Saint Peter's of the MAAC has a chance to do what no other No. 15 seed has done and reach the regional final. But they will need to beat No. 3 Purdue, a former No. 1 team in the nation, which has a great chance to reach the Final Four for the first time since 1980 (7:09 p.m. ET, CBS). Also in the East Region, traditional college basketball stalwarts will face off when No. 4 seed UCLA takes on No. 8 North Carolina (9:39 p.m. ET, CBS). Both games will be played in Philadelphia. In the Midwest Region in Chicago, No. 4 Providence meets the only No. 1 seed remaining in Kansas (7:29 p.m. ET, TBS). The last game of the night will see two surprising teams match up when No. 11 Iowa State faces No. 10 Miami (9:59 p.m. ET, TBS). Head to our men's and women's college basketball pages for more on the Friday matchups.” Read more at USA Today
Kamani Johnson celebrating during the second half of the Arkansas Razorbacks’ 74-68 victory over top-seeded Gonzaga.Credit...Steph Chambers/Getty Images
“SAN FRANCISCO — Top-ranked Gonzaga, which hoped to ride its high-flying offense to its first national championship, was stopped short of that goal with a 74-68 loss to No. 4-seeded Arkansas on Thursday night in a West regional semifinal.
With one star big man, Chet Holmgren, beset by foul trouble and the other, Drew Timme, hounded by Arkansas defenders, the Zags looked nothing like the offensive juggernaut that hummed with great efficiency through the regular season.
As their struggles intensified, the Zags pressed — fumbling passes, hurrying shots and wearing the frustration on their faces. When Timme missed a layup after being fouled, he slapped his hands together in anger, knowing how precious each point would be.
Andrew Nembhard knocked in a 3-pointer with 16.5 seconds left to bring Gonzaga within 68-65, the closest the Zags had been since early in the second half. But Arkansas made its free throws and Gonzaga never got the ball back with a chance to get even.” Read more at New York Times
“This is where the Saint Peter’s storybook run should end, right? Powerful Purdue with 7-foot-4 Zach Edey is favored by 12 1/2 points, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. But this is March, and anything can happen.
Count on fans all around the country, plus a packed arena in Philadelphia, to be rooting for an upset in this East semifinal. No doubt plenty will drive down the New Jersey Turnpike to pull for the Peacocks to become the first 15 seed to make the Elite Eight. As it is, they’re only the third team seeded so low to go so far.
Saint Peter’s plays great defense, but will have to get creative to keep third-seeded Purdue in check. The Big Ten Boilermakers have weapons all over the court in likely NBA lottery pick Jaden Ivey, 6-10 Trevion Williams, deadeye 3-point shooter Sasha Stefanovic and Edey.” Read more at AP News
“Lives Lived: As a programmer for CompuServe in 1987, Stephen Wilhite led a team that revolutionized how people shared online video clips. They called their format a GIF (pronounced ‘jif,’ as Wilhite himself said). He died at 74.” Read more at New York Times
