The Full Belmonte, 3/26/2022
Russian military officials hold a briefing in Moscow today. Photo: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images
“Top Russian military officials said today the operation in Ukraine was entering a new phase focused on the ‘complete liberation’ of the eastern Donbas region, claiming Russia's assault on cities like Kyiv was part of a strategy to distract Ukrainian forces.
Why it matters: Russia's advance has stalled across most of the country after four weeks of war. The public briefing, which was riddled with false statements, could signal a pivot away from what U.S. officials believed were Russia's original objectives of regime change and long-term control of Ukraine.
Russian forces have lost full control of Kherson, the first city to fall to Russia earlier this month, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters today.
Outside of Kyiv, a Ukrainian counteroffensive has repelled Russian forces by several miles and forced them to assume a ‘defensive crouch.’
‘Clearly, they overestimated their ability to take Kyiv. Frankly, they overestimated their ability to take any population center,’ the U.S. official said.
Only in the Donbas are Russian forces shifting the front lines in their favor.” Read more at Axios
“President Joe Biden on Saturday will cap his European trip talking to Ukrainian refugees in Poland and delivering a speech on holding Russia accountable for its invasion and upholding democratic values. Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser, previewed Biden's remarks as a major address that will ‘speak to the stakes of this moment, the urgency of the challenge that lies ahead, what the conflict in Ukraine means for the world, and why it is so important that the free world sustain unity and resolve in the face of Russian aggression.’ Before delivering those remarks at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Biden will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda. Biden used his first stop in Poland Friday to personally thank U.S. troops stationed near the Ukraine border. Thousands of troops are stationed there to help shore up NATO's eastern flank amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In Brussels Thursday, Biden pledged $1 billion in U.S. humanitarian assistance to refugees fleeing the invasion.” Read more at USA Today
A Ukrainian soldier walks past the remnants of a destroyed Russian tank in northern Ukraine.Ivor Prickett for The New York Times
“Russia signaled a possible recalibration of its overall war aims. Its military said the ‘first stage’ of its operation was mostly done and that it will focus on securing Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where Russia-backed separatists have battled for years.” Read more at New York Times
“Some Russia analysts cautioned that the statement could simply be misdirection. Russia continued to pound Kharkiv with rockets and missiles, and it secured a partial land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, a key strategic goal.” Read more at New York Times
“Elsewhere, though, Russian ground forces have stopped trying to take Kyiv, a senior American military official said. And there were conflicting reports about whether they still have control of the first major city they captured.” Read more at New York Times
“Russian troops reportedly attacked their own commanding officer by running him over with a tank after many in their brigade were killed amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsymbaliuk said in a post on Facebook that Russian Col. Yuri Medvedev was attacked after fighting in Ukraine left nearly half of the men in the 37th Motor Rifle Brigade dead, The Washington Post reported.
Tsymbaliuk said the brigade injured both of Medvedev's legs by hitting him with a tank, causing him to be hospitalized, according to the newspaper.” Read more at The Hill
“Russian President Vladimir Putin chose to mark the 30th day of his war against Ukraine siding with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who he said was a victim of the type of “cancel culture” the West is waging against Russia. In a somewhat unhinged address, Putin complained that the West was trying to erase Russian culture from the map, citing composers Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Dmitry Shostakovich and Sergei Rachmaninov, who he said had been ‘canceled’ just like Rowling. ‘They canceled Joanne Rowling recently—the children’s author, her books are published all over the world—just because she didn’t satisfy the demands of gender rights,’ he said in a televised address. ‘They are now trying to cancel our country. I’m talking about the progressive discrimination of everything to do with Russia.’ He then likened his definition of ‘cancel culture’ to the Nazis burning books during WWII. ‘We remember the footage when they were burning books,’ he said. ‘It is impossible to imagine such a thing in our country and we are insured against this thanks to our culture.’” {Daily Beast] Read more at The Independent
“The 19 Ukrainian border guards who famously told an approaching Russian warship to ‘go fuck yourselves’ rather than surrender to them have been returned to Ukraine in a prisoner exchange. The guards, who were manning the tiny Ukrainian outpost of Snake Island (also known as Zmiinyi Island), were initially presumed to have been killed by their Russian invaders. But Ukrainian officials later learned they’d been taken prisoner. The Ukrainian parliament wrote on Twitter late Thursday that the ‘first exchange of war hostages occurred on President Zelensky’s order.’ The 19 guards were exchanged for 11 Russian sailors rescued from a sunken ship near Odessa. They will return home on a ship captured by Russian occupiers while trying to take the guards from Snake Island.” [Daily Beast] Read more at NPR
“The Kremlin again raised the spectre of the use of nuclear weapons in the war with Ukraine as Russian forces struggled to hold a key city in the south of the country.
Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who is deputy chairman of the country’s security council, said Moscow could strike against an enemy that only used conventional weapons while Vladimir Putin’s defence minster claimed nuclear ‘readiness’ was a priority.
The comments on Saturday prompted Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in an appearance by video link at Qatar’s Doha Forum to warn that Moscow was a direct threat to the world.” Read more at The Guardian
“The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Biden administration to take into account whether members of the military, including elite Navy SEALs, are vaccinated against the coronavirus when making deployment decisions.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch dissented from the short, unsigned order.
Writing for himself, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said ‘the President of the United States, not any federal judge, is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.’ He added there was ‘no basis in this case for employing the judicial power in a manner that military commanders believe would impair the military of the United States as it defends the American people.’
The order put on hold the judgments of a lower court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which had stopped the administration from making such decisions.” Read more at Washington Post
“Justice Clarence Thomas has sufficient reason to recuse himself from cases related to his wife’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, legal experts said.” Read more at New York Times
“Justice Clarence Thomas faces mounting ethical questions after reports of his wife’s aggressive effort to help overturn former President Trump’s electoral defeat have intensified scrutiny over the justice’s refusal to step aside from related cases before the Supreme Court.
In the weeks following the 2020 election, Virginia ‘Ginni’ Thomas, the justice’s wife, reportedly exchanged dozens of text messages with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that appeared to show her strategizing over how to bypass the will of American voters to install Trump for a second White House term despite his loss to President Biden, an outcome she described as an ‘obvious fraud’ and ‘the greatest heist of our history.’
The latest development, reported Thursday by The Washington Post and CBS, comes a week after Ginni Thomas revealed in an interview that she had participated in the pro-Trump ‘Stop the Steal’ rally that preceded the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
During roughly the same post-election time frame, Clarence Thomas declined to recuse himself from numerous pro-Trump legal challenges that contested the 2020 results. And earlier this year, he cast the lone dissenting vote from a Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for the House committee probing the Jan. 6 insurrection to obtain Trump White House records.
‘Today's revelations mean that now, beyond any doubt, Justice Thomas must recuse from any Supreme Court cases or petitions related to the Jan. 6 Committee or efforts to overturn the election,’ Gabe Roth, executive director of the left-leaning court-reform advocacy group Fix The Court, said after the Thursday report.
‘Ginni’s direct participation in this odious anti-democracy work, coupled with the new reporting that seems to indicate she may have spoken to Justice Thomas about it, leads to the conclusion that the justice's continued participation in cases related to these efforts would only further tarnish the court’s already fading public reputation,’ he said.
The Supreme Court’s public information office and Ginni Thomas did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Critics say the new details, while shocking, are part of a years-long pattern whereby Ginni Thomas’s political activity has posed an ethically troubling overlap with her husband’s judicial position and raised questions about his impartiality.
Supreme Court justices — unlike judges on lower federal courts — are not bound by a code of conduct and are permitted to decide for themselves whether recusal is appropriate.
In Clarence Thomas’s three decades on the bench, he has never stepped aside from a case due to a real or perceived conflict of interest resulting from his wife’s political activities, according to an analysis by the progressive court reform advocacy group Take Back the Court.
But the couple’s latest entanglement, which comes as the Supreme Court has seen its public image battered in recent years, has drawn particularly intense ire, with some calling for Thomas to resign or even be forced off the court.
‘Clarence Thomas needs to be impeached,’ Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) wrote on Twitter in the hours after news of Ginni Thomas’s text exchanges with Meadows surfaced.
That call was echoed by progressive groups like Women’s March.
‘The revelations that Ginni Thomas advocated for the overthrow of our democracy are disqualifying — not just for her as a human being of any decency, but for her husband Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas,’ the group’s executive Rachel O'Leary Carmona said in a statement.
Among the 29 texts exchanged between Ginni Thomas and Meadows was a message dated Nov. 10 — a week after Election Day — in which, according to the Post, Ginni Thomas wrote: ‘Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!...You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.’
The report noted that Ginni Thomas may have been in contact with other Trump White House personnel, citing a Nov. 13 text to Meadows in which she mentions reaching out to ‘Jared,’ which may refer to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a former senior White House adviser.
‘Just forwarded to yr gmail an email I sent Jared this am,’ the text reads, according to the Post. ‘Sidney Powell & improved coordination now will help the cavalry come and Fraud exposed and America saved.’
Sidney Powell was among the most prominent pro-Trump attorneys who filed numerous post-election legal challenges and frequently took to the airwaves to amplify Trump’s lie that the vote was rigged against him.
According to the Post’s report, a Nov. 24 text exchange showed Ginni Thomas expressing a sense of reassurance after having ‘a conversation with my best friend’ and receiving Meadows’s vow that the ‘fight of good versus evil’ would continue — an apparent reference to the ongoing effort to overturn Biden’s victory.
‘This is a fight of good versus evil,’ Meadows wrote, according to the Post. ‘Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues. I have staked my career on it. Well at least my time in DC on it.’ The report states that Thomas replied: ‘Thank you!! Needed that! This plus a conversation with my best friend just now… I will try to keep holding on. America is worth it!’
It was not immediately clear to whom Ginni was referring as her ‘best friend,’ though she and Clarence Thomas have publicly used that term to refer to each other.” Read more at The Hill
“Senator Joe Manchin said he will vote to elevate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. His support all but ensures her confirmation.” Read more at New York Times
“With America in a pandemic lull, communities across the country are shutting down COVID testing and vaccination sites, even as experts warn another wave could be on the horizon, Axios Local reporters found.
Why it matters: The Omicron surge showed how our defenses can quickly be overwhelmed. But many places are scaling back anyway.
The latest shifts are often taking place in more solidly Democratic areas that have prided themselves on their pandemic response so far.
Colorado announced the shuttering of 14 state-run testing and vaccination sites by the end of the month, and ended a program to ship at-home rapid tests to residents. New strategies are needed because vaccine demand is plummeting, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment spokesperson Kristen Stewart told Axios.
Minnesota is preparing to shift to an ‘endemic’ phase of pandemic management, finalizing plans to close community testing and vaccination sites. Gov. Tim Walz (D) told Axios the state will do so ‘with the ability to pop them out almost immediately should we need them again.’
Austin has closed at least three testing sites run by Austin Public Health since mid-February ‘to meet the evolving needs of our communities and in response to declining testing demand.’
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said the pandemic is entering ‘the next phase of individual responsibility, preparedness and prosperity,’ as the state announced it would move ‘from crisis response to disease management.’
The big picture: There might not be relief from the federal government if another surge comes. The Biden administration sounded the alarm that it doesn't have the funding to secure fourth vaccine doses for many Americans should they become necessary, the Washington Post reports.
Plus, falling demand is causing testing manufacturers to cut back production — just like last year, Politico reports.
Between the lines: The country should have significant built-in immunity to the more-transmissible Omicron subvariant driving concerns of another wave, thanks to the past winter's sky-high caseloads.” Read more at Axios
“The General Services Administration has approved the sale of former president Donald Trump’s D.C. hotel lease to Miami investment fund CGI Merchant Group, the agency said Friday.
The agency said it approved CGI as a buyer after reviewing the company’s agreement with Hilton Worldwide, which will turn the hotel into a Waldorf Astoria, as well as the company’s financial capabilities and ability to secure bank financing.
‘The confirmation was based on an extensive and exhaustive due diligence review of the documentation provided in support of the proposed assignment,’ the agency said in a statement Friday.
While GSA’s decision was largely perfunctory, it moves Trump’s business one step closer toward unloading a hotel that became a center of controversy during his presidency — and which has recently draw interest from New York prosecutors looking into whether he misled the government in his initial application for the lease.
Leading Congressional Democrats have raised concerns about the lease sale, asking GSA to investigate the Trump Organization’s management of the property or void his lease, particularly after Trump’s longtime accounting firm said last month that his financial statements — including those he provided to the GSA to get the lease — ‘should no longer be relied upon.’'“ Read more at Washington Post
“The U.S. and the EU reached a preliminary deal to allow data about Europeans to be stored on U.S. soil. The Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework could alleviate the concerns of thousands of companies with operations on both sides of the pond, such as Meta and Alphabet. At issue is the ability of businesses to use U.S.-based data centers to do things like sell online ads, measure their website traffic or manage company payroll in Europe.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Search and rescue teams have found engine parts from the China Eastern plane that crashed.
PHOTO: ZHOU HUA/ZUMA PRESS
“The descent of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735, which crashed on Monday, was one of the fastest in commercial aviation history.
After flying normally for about an hour, the plane plunged more than 21,000 feet in 72 seconds. Video footage captured by a mining company’s surveillance camera showed the Boeing 737-800 almost perpendicular to the ground in its final moments. All 132 people on board were killed. An independent safety-advocacy group with a flight accident database going back to 1919 said it identified eight examples of accidents since 1985 where a plane quickly descended in an abnormally steep way or fell out of the sky at high speed. Only one of the aircraft’s two black boxes—believed to be the cockpit voice recorder—has been recovered.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Women in Afghanistan are struggling with the Taliban’s rule requiring them to travel with a male relative.
The mandate for a mahram, or male guardian, applies to trips of more than 48 miles, but women across the country say the rules are imposed on a far wider scale—even for basic tasks such as entering government buildings, seeing a doctor or catching a taxi. Stricter enforcement is more common outside big cities. Women who venture out guardian-less are often harassed or detained, said a representative from Human Rights Watch. The Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Microsoft fired some employees and terminated partnerships after investigating bribery allegations related to sales in the Middle East and Africa in recent years. A former manager, who said he was fired after a decade in 2018, said employees used local partner companies to help sell the software maker’s products to customers. Those companies would facilitate a kickback scheme in which customers were granted discounts that would be distributed instead among Microsoft employees rather than to the buyers.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Georgetown University’s bid for racial healing ran into a lack of consensus over reparations. In April 2017, the U.S. leader of the Society of Jesus stood before cameras at the school and apologized for the Jesuits’ sale of 272 enslaved people to three Louisiana plantations in 1838—a transaction that replenished Georgetown's finances. Since then, the institution has wrestled with divisive questions about how reparations should be distributed and in what form.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Post-pandemic socializing is a whole new world. Even though many want life to return to normal, some people aren’t embracing in-person interactions the way they did before Covid-19 sent them burrowing into their homes in March 2020. Many are finding that their comfort and energy levels aren’t the same anymore, in part because our brains and bodies need time to re-adapt.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Satellite data shows the Conger ice shelf has broken off iceberg C-38 and collapsed in Antartica.Photograph: USNIC
“An ice shelf about the size of Rome has completely collapsed in East Antarctica within days of record high temperatures, according to satellite data.
The Conger ice shelf, which had an approximate surface area of 1,200 sq km, collapsed around 15 March, scientists said on Friday.
East Antarctica saw unusually high temperatures last week, with Concordia station hitting a record temperature of -11.8C on 18 March, more than 40C warmer than seasonal norms. The record temperatures were the result of an atmospheric river that trapped heat over the continent.” Read more at The Guardian
Species including bluejays, yellow warblers and field sparrows are now laying their first eggs 25 days earlier than they were 100 years ago, the research found. Photograph: Ashwini Bhatia/AP
“The arrival of spring has seemingly immutable rituals – lengthening days, blossoming plants and a surge in bees’ activity. But the onset of spring is now being warped by the climate crisis, with new research finding that many species of birds are nesting and laying eggs nearly a month earlier than they did a century ago.
US scientists who analyzed the nesting trends of birds from egg samples collected in the Chicago area found that of the 72 species for which historical and modern data exists, around a third are now nesting much earlier in the year than before.
These species, including bluejays, yellow warblers and field sparrows, are now laying their first eggs 25 days earlier, on average, than they were 100 years ago, the research found. The heating of the atmosphere, due to the burning of fossil fuels, is seemingly upending a process that long appeared unshakeable.” Read more at The Guardian
The 2021 toll shows the killings span a Noah’s Ark of species. About 64,000 coyotes were killed. Photograph: Rory Merry/Zuma/Rex/Shutterstock
“An obscure division of the US government had a busy – and ruthless – year in 2021, killing more than 1.75 million animals across the country, at a rate of about 200 creatures every hour.
The latest annual toll of Wildlife Services, a department within the US Department of Agriculture, has further stoked the fury of conservation groups that have decried the killings as cruel and pointless. Wildlife Services maintains the slaughter is necessary to protect agricultural output, threatened species and human health.
The 2021 toll shows the killings span a Noah’s Ark of species, including alligators, armadillos, doves, owls, otters, porcupines, snakes and turtles. European starlings alone accounted for more than 1m of the animals killed. A single moose was shot, along with a solitary antelope and, accidentally, a bald eagle.” Read more at The Guardian
“The greatest run in NCAA men's tournament history will continue for at least two more days.
The story of the opening weekend after advancing with upsets of No. 2 Kentucky and No. 7 Murray State, No. 15 Saint Peter's stunned No. 3 Purdue on Friday, becoming the first No. 15 seed in tournament history to reach the Elite Eight.
The Peacocks will meet No. 8 North Carolina, which dispatched No. 4 UCLA, for a shot at the Final Four.
Purdue's 67-64 loss as the favorite represents the Boilermakers' latest postseason nightmare. They have only two Final Four bids in program history, the last in 1980.
Also on Friday, No. 1 Kansas held off No. 4 Providence in a 66-61 win defined by lackluster offense from both teams. Later, No. 10 Miami (Fla.) took care of No. 11 Iowa State.
Attention now turns to this weekend's slate of Elite Eight games, beginning with Saturday's matchups featuring No. 2 Villanova against No. 5 Houston and No. 2 Duke against No. 4 Arkansas.
The Peacocks, Boilermakers, Jayhawks and others make up Friday's list of winners and losers:
WINNERS
Saint Peter's
They had no chance against Kentucky. Didn't have what it took to beat Murray State. Had a shot against Purdue, which was nobody's idea of a juggernaut, but the dream was supposed to die in the Sweet 16. What is there to say about the Peacocks? This team takes its lead from coach Shaheen Holloway and plays with poise and composure despite the huge stakes in March. While the Boilermakers wilted, Saint Peter's pulled out of a 56-52 hole and was nearly perfect from the line, making 19-of-21 free throws and all eight of its tries in the final two minutes. This latest upset may have been written in the stars — or on the calendar, at least. What is March 25? Why, it's National Peacock Day, of course.
ACC
There were well-founded criticisms of the conference through most of the season as only Duke seemed capable of mounting a tournament run and the rest of the league's teams were just struggling to find a way to get into the field. Five teams eventually made it in with the help of some late-season surges. After the Blue Devils locked up their place in the Elite Eight on Thursday, they were joined Friday by North Carolina and Miami, while no other conference has more than one team left. The three teams advancing come one year after the league was shut out of the regional finals last season.
Kansas
Guard Remy Martin scored 22 points and did almost all of the heavy lifting in the first half as Kansas topped Providence to reach the Elite Eight for the ninth time under coach Bill Self. Martin has led the Jayhawks in scoring in all three tournament games; he scored 15 points in the win against No. 16 Texas Southern and 20 points against No. 9 Creighton. But this game was on defense and on the boards: Kansas pulled down 43 rebounds, 10 on the offensive end resulting in 17 second-chance points, and had 11 blocks.
Jim Larrañaga
Coach L has been here before. For the second time in his coaching career he has taken a double-digit seed to the Elite Eight. No other coach has done that before. The first time was with George Mason in 2006 when the Patriots unexpectedly reached the Final Four. He's now taken Miami to its first regional final with the Hurricanes blowing away Iowa State with their veteran backcourt leading the way. A matchup with No. 1 seed Kansas awaits, but with the way Miami has jelled late in the season and with the steady hand of Larrañaga guiding the team, you can't write them off.
LOSERS
Big Ten
There were two Big Ten teams in the Sweet 16. With first Michigan and then Purdue sent packing, there will be none in the Elite Eight. Nine teams from the Big Ten made the tournament, the most of any conference. How the others fared: Rutgers lost in the First Four, Iowa and Indiana lost in the first round, and Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Illinois lost in the second round.
Mick Cronin
Last year's run to the Final Four from the First Four could be overlooked as a weird product of playing in a COVID-impacted season in a tournament bubble. A second consecutive trip would have validated the UCLA coach's place with the Bruins after many criticized his hiring. Instead, Cronin and his team will rue a missed opportunity to reach another Final Four with too many wasteful possessions with the lead late against North Carolina. Caleb Love's shooting kept the Bruins from moving one step from New Orleans. You'd have loved their chances against Saint Peter's, but unfortunately they're headed home to Los Angeles.
Purdue
Purdue's stomach-churning postseason history has its lowest moment. This is a program with a strong track record of tournament wins under coach Matt Painter, who has led the Boilermakers to at least the Sweet 16 in each of the past five tournaments. But given the size advantage, talent gap and the team's favored status against the underdog Peacocks, this is a loss that will linger around Purdue until the program can break through this ceiling and return to the Final Four for the first time in more than 40 years.
Providence
After winning 27 games, the Friars' most in a season since 1974, and reaching the Sweet 16, a first since 1997, Providence bricked away a shot at the program's third Final Four bid by shooting just 20% from the field in the first half and 32.3% overall against the Jayhawks. Down only nine points at halftime, however, the Friars were close enough to even take a short lead, 48-47, with under six minutes to go. But the offense went missing again, allowing Kansas to pull off the win despite failing to hit a shot from the field in the game's final three minutes.” Read more at USA Today
“Taylor Hawkins, the longtime drummer of the band Foo Fighters, has died. He was 50.
The rock band announced Hawkins' death on Twitter Friday. No cause of death was provided.
‘The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our Taylor Hawkins,’ read the band's statement. ‘His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever. Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time.’
A representative for Hawkins told USA TODAY Friday that no further details are currently available.
Hawkins joined Foo Fighters in 1997, taking over for original drummer William Goldsmith. On Friday, the band was scheduled to play at the Festival Estéreo Picnic in Bogotá, Colombia. Their next show was scheduled for Lollapalooza Brasil in São Paulo, Brazil on Sunday, and they were also set to play at the Grammy Awards on April 3.” Read more at USA Today
“Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer and Regina Hall will host Hollywood's biggest night at the Dolby Theatre Sunday. The 94th Academy Awards (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, ABC) will have an emcee for the first time in three years and the ceremony will certainly promise surprises and snubs. Some of the hottest contenders for the gold statue this year include Will Smith for his role as tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams' dad in ‘King Richard,’ Jane Campion and her Western ‘Power of the Dog,’ and ‘CODA,’ which already won best picture at the Producers Guild Award. If you aren't in it for the movies, watch to catch Beyoncé and other nominated artists including Billie Eilish and Sebastián Yatra perform their original song contenders.” Read more at USA Today
“The British Museum will remove the Sackler name from its walls.” Read more at New York Times