The Full Belmonte, 4/10/2023
Health secretary slams abortion pill ruling as ‘not America’
By HOPE YEN
FILE - Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies during the Senate Finance Committee hearing on March 22, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Criticizing a judge's order barring abortion pills, Becerra on Sunday, April 9, blasted the decision as “not America" and pledged a vigorous legal fight by the Biden administration to maintain access for women seeking safe ways to end unwanted pregnancies. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s top health official said Sunday that a court ruling threatening the availability of a main drug used in medication abortion was ‘not America’ and he did not rule out defying the judge’s order if necessary.
‘We want the courts to overturn this reckless decision,’ Xavier Becerra, President Joe Biden’s health secretary, told CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’ ‘We want, yes, that women continue to have access to a drug that’s proven itself safe. Millions of women have used this drug around the world.’
He stressed that for now, women do have access to the abortion medication mifepristone after a federal judge in Texas, Donald Trump-appointee Matthew Kacsmaryk, put his ruling from Friday on hold for a week so federal officials could file a challenge. The drug was approved in 2000 by the Food and Drug Administration, which is overseen by the Health and Human Services Department headed by Becerra….” Read more at AP News
Stunning document leak
Locals collect scrap metal near a destroyed military plane in Ukraine's Kharkiv region today. Photo: Oleksandr Klymenko/Reuters
“Secret Pentagon documents leaked on social media, including Twitter, reveal just how deeply U.S. intelligence has penetrated Russia's military, the N.Y. Times reports (subscription).
The embarrassing, potentially dangerous breach also shows results of U.S. spying on allies including Israel and South Korea, as well as Ukraine.
Senior U.S. officials said the FBI will investigate the source of the leak, and acknowledged the documents (50-100 pages) appear to be legitimate briefing material compiled by the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, The Times adds.
‘The documents appeared online as hastily taken photographs of pieces of paper sitting atop what appears to be a hunting magazine,’ The Times reports. Former officials say it appears ‘a classified briefing was folded up, placed in a pocket, then taken out of a secure area to be photographed.’
‘The documents show that nearly every Russian security service appears penetrated by the United States in some way,’ and that the U.S. is also ‘spying on Ukraine’s top military and political leaders.’
A Feb. 23 battlefield document names one of its sources as ‘LAPIS time-series video,’ The Washington Post reports:
‘Officials familiar with the technology described it as an advanced satellite system that allows for better imaging of objects on the ground and that could now be more susceptible to Russian jamming or interference. They indicated that LAPIS was among the more closely guarded capabilities in the U.S. intelligence arsenal.’
Although one slide was doctored to favor Russia, both papers said that most of the documents appear to be unaltered.” [Axios]
Proud Boys leaders’ Jan. 6 sedition trial inches to a close
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and LINDSAY WHITEHURST
FILE - Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio rallies in Portland, Ore. Outside pressures and internal strife are roiling two far-right extremist groups after members were charged in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Aug. 17, 2019. A jury will soon decide whether the onetime leader of the Proud Boys extremist group is guilty in one of the most serious cases brought in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)
“WASHINGTON (AP) — After almost three months of testimony, dozens of witnesses and countless legal fights, a jury will soon decide whether the onetime leader of the Proud Boys extremist group is guilty in one of the most serious cases brought in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Closing arguments could be as early as this week before jurors decide whether to convict Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors say was a plot to forcibly stop the transfer of presidential power from Republican Donald Trump to Democrat Joe Biden after the 2020 election.
In a trial that has lasted over twice as long as expected, little new information has emerged about the Jan. 6 attack that halted Congress’ certification of Biden’s victory or the far-right extremist group’s role in the Capitol riot. But a guilty verdict against Tarrio, who wasn’t even in Washington, D.C., when the riot erupted, would affirm that those accused of planning and inciting the violence could be held responsible even if they didn’t join in it….” Read more at AP News
Nashville council to vote on restoring ousted state lawmaker
“Nashville officials are poised to vote to reinstate one of the two Black Democratic lawmakers expelled by Republican colleagues over their gun control protest on the House floor after a deadly school shooting. A metro council vote Monday would send Rep. Justin Jones back after essentially a long weekend. Many councilmembers have said they want to send Jones back to the statehouse. Expelled Memphis Rep. Justin Pearson, meanwhile, is awaiting word from the Shelby County Commission about plans to address his vacancy.” Read more at USA Today
Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, left, Justin Jones, center, and Justin Pearson in Nashville, Tennessee, on Friday, April 7, 2023.
Andrew Nelles, The Tennessean/USA TODAY NETWORK
First-ever April tropical storm could spin up in the Gulf of Mexico this week
“Meteorologists will be watching closely this week for history to be made in the Gulf of Mexico – the first tropical storm ever recorded there in April. Timing is everything, and a list of factors would have to line up correctly for a tropical system to develop, AccuWeather says. The initial step in the formation of a tropical system may occur as a dip in the jet stream, high in the atmosphere, plunges toward the Gulf of Mexico this week. And tropical storm or not, a wide span of moisture will develop from Florida to the upper Gulf Coast.” Read more at USA Today
Seas have risen drastically along the southern U.S. coast.
“How we know this: Multiple new studies. One calculated that sea levels have risen nearly 5 inches between 2010 and last year.
Why that matters: What seem like small amounts of sea level rise can make storms, like Hurricane Ian last year, considerably worse — especially in low-lying regions.
What this means: New Orleans, Miami, Houston and other coastal communities may be even more at risk than we thought.” [Washington Post]
Mosque stabbing
“An imam is in stable condition after being stabbed during a Sunday morning prayer service at a mosque in Paterson, New Jersey, according to local officials. The suspect, who was unknown to congregants, was performing prayers at Omar Mosque when he lunged forward with a knife at the imam. After stabbing him multiple times, the suspect attempted to flee but the congregants ‘were able to bring him down and apprehend him and hold him’ until police arrived and arrested him, a spokesperson for the mosque told CNN. There were more than 200 congregants in the mosque at the time of the stabbing, the spokesperson said, adding he believes that this was an isolated incident. The stabbing occurred during Ramadan, the holiest month of the Muslim calendar. In 2023, it runs from March 22 to April 20.” [CNN]
Biden's influencer army
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
“President Biden's not-yet-official campaign will lean on hundreds of social media stars who will tout his record — and soon may have their own briefing room at the White House, Axios' Sophia Cai reports.
Why it matters: It's an effort to boost Biden with young voters, and to try to counter former President Trump's massive online following.
Hundreds of content creators are working with Biden's White House, including:
Harry Sisson, a 20-year-old NYU student who breaks down the day's news on TikTok.
Boston College professor Heather Cox Richardson, who has one of the largest Substacks and a huge Twitter following.
Vivian Tu, a former trader who discusses financial topics in short clips on TikTok and Instagram.
Between the lines: A briefing space for influencers would show that the press room is no longer the administration's prime media audience.
Reality check: Biden's social-media followings are much smaller than Trump's, especially on YouTube and Facebook.
Biden's strategy is aimed at platforms favored by younger voters, especially Instagram and TikTok.” [Axios]
By Ishaan Tharoor
with Sammy Westfall
China’s new world order is taking shape
French President Emmanuel Macron walks with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcome ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on April 6. (Ng Han Guan/Pool/Reuters/via REUTERS)
“It was a bumper week for diplomacy in Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping accompanied his French counterpart, President Emmanuel Macron, on a three-day visit to the Chinese capital and the southern metropolis of Guangzhou. Escaping, if briefly, from the fiery protests taking place in his own country, Macron was received by adoring, excited crowds of students at Guangzhou’s Sun Yat-sen University. In between grand receptions and formal tea ceremonies, the two leaders saw a slate of French companies and Chinese state-run firms clinch some major business deals.
Macron gave Xi the optics he sought: A clear reminder to the United States — who Xi obliquely referred to as a domineering ‘third party’ — of the gap between its hawkish stance on China and the more perhaps equivocating posture of many in Europe. It was less clear what Xi gave Macron politically: The French president urged Xi to bring Russia ‘to reason’ over its invasion of Ukraine, but that was met by boilerplate rhetoric and little indication of the needle of the conflict being moved in any significant direction.
In what was framed as a joint call with France, Xi urged for peace talks to resume soon and called ‘for the protection of civilians,’ while also reiterating that ‘nuclear weapons must not be used, and nuclear war must not be fought’ over Ukraine. That latter point marked perhaps the biggest distance between Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has periodically rattled the nuclear saber as the war he unleashed in Ukraine lurches on. Despite European entreaties, Xi made no definitive commitment to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Macron was joined in China by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. The two leaders sent somewhat divergent messages; von der Leyen bemoaned China’s ‘unfair practices,’ particularly in trade, and arrived in the country after delivering a tough speech on the authoritarian challenge posed by Beijing. Macron, on the other hand, warned against the West plunging itself into an ‘inescapable spiral’ of tensions with China.
Chinese commentators suggested that’s because the tables of history have turned and Macron recognizes the sheer weight and importance of China’s economy, not least at a moment when he’s trying to carve out a vision of a more robust, capable and independent Europe. ‘Although there are still concerns in France about our country’s increasing [global] role, China’s support is essential if France wants to exercise its soft power in global governance,’ Shanghai-based scholars Zhang Ji and Xue Sheng wrote in a recent essay.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian holds hands with his Saudi Arabian counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, and Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, in Beijing on Thursday. (Ding Lin/Xinhua News Agency/AP/AP)
In the middle of Macron’s visit, another major summit took place in Beijing. The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran — the Middle East’s feuding antagonists — conducted the highest-level meeting between their two countries in seven years in the Chinese capital. In Washington, a bemused clutch of regional experts looked on as China played the role of a stabilizing outside power in the Middle East.
The thaw between Riyadh and Tehran was long in the works and not exclusively because of Chinese efforts. ‘Analysts say the warming ties are due to a convergence of interests,’ wrote my colleagues Kareem Fahim and Sarah Dadouch. ‘Iran, under Western sanctions and trying to suffocate a domestic protest movement, has looked to ease its global and regional isolation; Saudi Arabia, faced with security threats from Iran that threaten its plan to diversify the kingdom’s economy away from oil, is seeking to tamp down regional tensions — a strategy that has included pursuing partnerships with major world powers beyond the United States.’
But it does invariably show a waning of American influence, especially over the Saudis. ‘Many experts still assume that whoever is in the White House will guide Saudi policy on Iran, but that simply isn’t true today,’ said Anna Jacobs, a senior Gulf analyst at the International Crisis Group, to the New York Times. ‘Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab states are focusing on their economic, political and security interests and protecting themselves from regional threats.’
Enter Xi’s China, an economic juggernaut now flexing new geopolitical muscles. ‘China has in recent years declared that it needs to be a participant in the creation of the world order,’ former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger told Post columnist David Ignatius last month. ‘It has now made a significant move in that direction.’
The contours of this imagined Chinese world order are still difficult to sketch. We know about its vast economic ambitions, including the Belt and Road Initiative that has seen China finance and invest in major infrastructure projects around the world. But in recent weeks, Xi has touted a number of other new initiatives over ‘security’ and ‘civilization’ — still vague policy positions essentially challenging the architecture of the U.S.-led order, as well as the concept of universal values.
‘It appears to be a counterargument to [President] Biden’s autocracy versus democracy narrative,’ Moritz Rudolf, a research scholar at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, told the Financial Times. ‘It’s an ideological battle that’s more attractive to developing countries than people in Washington might believe.’
China’s foray into Middle East great power politics, in particular, show a new capacity and willingness to act. ‘In the past we would declare some principles, make our position known but not get involved operationally. That is going to change,’ said Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said in the same Financial Times story.
For some analysts, Macron’s visit is a reminder of the tough questions facing Europe. While the war in Ukraine and antipathy toward Russia have galvanized the transatlantic alliance, the question of China is thornier, with Chinese investment and trade vital to Europe’s future prospects. What that means for the grim scenarios that obsess Washington policymakers — including a possible future Chinese invasion of Taiwan — is an open question, and one that may elicit unwelcome answers on both sides of the pond.
‘The paradox would be that, overcome with panic, we believe we are just America’s followers,’ Macron told reporters traveling with him, before gesturing to current tensions over Taiwan. ‘The question Europeans need to answer … is it in our interest to accelerate [a crisis] on Taiwan? No. The worse thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction.’
‘What happens in Europe now — not just in terms of the outcome of this war [in Ukraine], but how Europeans define their relations with China in the future — will shape transatlantic relations,’ wrote Andrew Michta, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. ‘And Europe’s choices when it comes to its China policy will greatly influence the outcome of U.S. competition with China in other theaters too.’
A global order defined — or heavily sculpted — by Beijing’s one-party regime would not be an attractive prospect to most countries. China is, in the Economist’s gloomy analysis, a would-be ‘superpower that seeks influence without winning affection, power without trust and a global vision without universal human rights.’
But its greater clout on the world stage need not always ring alarm bells. ‘Not everything between the U.S. and China has to be a zero-sum game,’ Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Middle East panel, told Politico in the context of Beijing’s Middle East diplomacy. ‘I don’t know why we would perceive there to be a downside to de-escalation between Saudi Arabia and Iran.’ [Washington Post]
El Salvador Decimated Its Ruthless Gangs. But at What Cost?
In the year since El Salvador declared a state of emergency, the government has delivered a stunning blow to the gangs that were once the ultimate authority in much of the country.
Natalie Kitroeff and the photographer Daniele Volpe traveled to several areas in El Salvador that were previously controlled by gangs and once impenetrable to most outsiders.
“When the MS-13 gang ran the neighborhood of Las Margaritas, one of its strongholds in El Salvador, there were rules you had to follow to stay alive.
You couldn’t wear the number eight because it was associated with the rival 18th Street gang. You couldn’t wear the brand of sneakers the gangsters wore. And you could not, under any circumstances, call the police.
‘People couldn’t complain to the police because of what the boys would say,’ said Sandra Elizabeth Inglés, a longtime resident, referring to the gang members. ‘They became the authority in this system.’
El Salvador, the smallest country in Central America, was once known as the hemisphere’s murder capital — with one of the highest homicide rates anywhere in the world outside of a war zone.
But in the year since the government declared a state of emergency to quell gang violence, deploying the military onto the streets in force, the nation has undergone a remarkable transformation.
Now, children play soccer late into the evening on fields that were gang turf. Ms. Inglés gathers soil for her plants next to an abandoned building that residents say was used for gang killings.
Homicides plunged. Extortion payments imposed by gangs on businesses and residents, once an economy unto itself, also declined, analysts said.
‘You can walk freely,’ Ms. Inglés said. ‘So much has changed.’
El Faro, El Salvador’s leading news outlet, surveyed the country earlier this year and delivered a stunning assessment: The gangs largely ‘do not exist.’
But that achievement, critics say, has come at an incalculable price: mass arrests that swept up thousands of innocent people, the erosion of civil liberties and the country’s descent into an increasingly autocratic police state.
Most Salvadorans appear willing to accept that deal. Fed up with the gangs that terrorized them and forced so many to flee to the United States, the vast majority of people here support the measures and the president behind them, surveys suggest.
With approval ratings around 90 percent, El Salvador’s president, the 41-year-old Nayib Bukele, has become one of the world’s most popular leaders and has earned fans across the Western Hemisphere.
Hondurans chanted Mr. Bukele’s name and cheered him at the inauguration last year of their president. One survey showed that people in Ecuador, where violence is rising, think more highly of Mr. Bukele than of their own leaders.
As politicians from Mexico to Guatemala vow to emulate Mr. Bukele’s iron-fisted approach, critics have grown concerned that the country could become a model for a dangerous bargain: sacrificing civil liberties for safety….” Read more at New York Times
Fox News Settles Defamation Case With Venezuelan Businessman
In a letter to a New York judge, the parties said they had reached a settlement in a case related to claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, but did not disclose the terms.
April 9, 2023
“Fox News and one of its former hosts, Lou Dobbs, have settled a defamation suit with a Venezuelan businessman whom the network linked to voting-system fraud in the 2020 election.
In a letter filed on Saturday to a federal judge in the Southern District of New York, the parties said they had reached a confidential settlement, although they did not disclose the terms.
‘This matter has been resolved amicably by both sides,’ a spokesperson for Fox News said in an email. ‘We have no further comment.’
The settlement comes days before jury selection this week in a major case that Fox News is defending. That case, a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, says that Fox News lied about voter fraud in the 2020 election, and that Fox hosts and guests repeatedly made false claims about Dominion machines and their supposed role in a plot to steal the election from President Donald J. Trump in 2020.
In that trial, which is expected to begin on April 17, a jury will weigh whether Fox spread false claims about Dominion while knowing that the claims were untrue, and it will determine any damages.
‘Dominion’s lawsuit is a political crusade in search of a financial windfall,’ the Fox spokesperson said.
In the case of the Venezuelan businessman, Majed Khalil, Mr. Dobbs and Sidney Powell, a regular guest on Fox News, said on-air and in related Twitter posts that Dominion was using software to flip votes from President Trump to Joseph R. Biden Jr., or to add votes for Mr. Biden.
One of the tweets falsely said Mr. Khalil was ‘the effective ‘COO’ of the election project.’ In an earlier complaint, Mr. Khalil said neither Fox News nor Mr. Dobbs had reached out to him for comment.
Fox Business canceled Mr. Dobbs’s weekday show in February 2021.” [New York Times]
Dalai Lama regrets asking boy to 'suck my tongue'
Image caption,
The Dalai Lama's office said he ‘regrets the incident’
The Dalai Lama has apologised after footage showed him asking a boy if he wanted to suck the Tibetan spiritual leader's tongue.
His office said he wanted to apologise to the child and his family ‘for the hurt his words may have caused’.
The video also shows the Dalai Lama kissing the child on his lips.
‘His Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. He regrets the incident,’ his office said.
The footage has sparked widespread criticism, with many social media users saying it was inappropriate and disturbing.
The incident appears to have taken place at the Dalai Lama's temple in Dharamshala on 28 February. He had interacted with around 120 students who had completed a skills training programme organised by the M3M Foundation, the philanthropic arm of real estate company M3M Group.
The foundation uploaded photos from the event on social media in March - in one of them, the Dalai Lama is seen hugging the boy from the viral video.
In the video which has circulated online, the boy is seen asking if he can hug the Dalai Lama. The leader motions to his cheek, saying ‘first here’ and the boy kisses his cheek and gives him a hug.
Then, while holding the boy's hand, the Dalai Lama motions to his lips and says ‘I think here also’, and kisses the boy on the lips.
The leader then puts his forehead to that of the boy's, before sticking out his tongue, saying ‘and suck my tongue’. As some people laugh, the boy sticks his tongue out before withdrawing a little, as does the Dalai Lama.
There are then more hugs, as the spiritual leader speaks to the boy for a while longer, telling him to look to ‘good human beings who create peace and happiness’.
Sticking one's tongue out can be a form of greeting in Tibet.
The Dalai Lama has been living in exile in India since fleeing Tibet in 1959, following an uprising against Chinese rule there.
In 2019, the Dalai Lama's office apologised after the spiritual leader told the BBC in an interview that any future female Dalai Lama should be ‘attractive’.” [BBC]
Stat du jour: Parental leave boom
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
“The number of men taking parental leave has surged 183% in the last five years, The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription).
What's happening: Though the U.S. has no nationally mandated parental leave policy, employers across the country have steadily been expanding access to time off for child care — especially for fathers.
The number of women taking parental leave has increased by 13% since 2018, as employers broaden access to leave for mothers as well.
What to watch: Laws in seven states plus D.C. now require employers to offer paid parental leave — up from four in 2018, The Journal notes.
Four more states will mandate it by 2026.” [Axios]
Masters
“Jon Rahm won the 2023 Masters Tournament on Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club, clinching his first green jacket and second career major. The Spaniard's impressive victory saw him leapfrog reigning Masters champion Scottie Scheffler as world No. 1. Rahm put on a clinic in consistency to ease to a four-shot victory ahead of LIV Golf Series duo Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson. Fifteen-time major champion Tiger Woods announced his withdrawal due to injury hours before play resumed on Sunday after visibly struggling with movement throughout the weekend. Ultimately, Rahm carded a final round three-under 69 to finish 12-under. He became the fourth Spaniard to win the green jacket and the first European golfer to win both The Masters and the US Open.” [CNN]
“Lives Lived: Nora Forster was a German-born publishing heiress and music promoter. She gained fame by marrying (and staying married to) Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols. Forster died at 80.” [New York Times]