The Full Belmonte, 4/20/2022
A mix of masked and unmasked people wait in a security line at Miami International Airport. Photo: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images
“America has a new divide:
Many joyfully embraced this first full day of new mask freedom. But plenty are sticking with a practice that's now 2+ years old.
Airlines and many airports dropped their mask rules, AP reports.
Many big cities kept mask requirements on mass transit, including New York, Chicago and L.A. Others ditched the rules, such as D.C., Atlanta and Kansas City.
Amtrak and Uber dropped their rules. Uber said passengers can return to the front seat.
Many parents fear for their kids who are too young for vaccines.
‘Here we are, trapped in the sky with our 8-month-old unmasked baby,’ tweeted Brooke Tansley of Nashville, who was on a plane when the rules changed mid-flight.
Between the lines: ‘For many flight attendants, the lifting of the mandate brought relief,’ The New York Times reports. ‘Flight crews have faced a surge in threats and violence ... over the past two years.’
The bottom line: President Biden said that it's ‘up to them’ for people to decide whether to wear masks.
Reality check: Maybe don’t throw away those masks. America entered last summer with similar hope and optimism — which was then dashed by the Delta variant.” Read more at Axios
“After a U.S. judge threw out the CDC’s public-transportation mask mandate, European airlines are weighing their own rules. Air France and Lufthansa still expect masks on all flights, in line with French and German regulations, while British Airways told customers that mask requirements would depend on restrictions at the destination. KLM ‘strongly advises all passengers’ to wear them, and Virgin Atlantic said that masks would be a personal choice for customers on all routes between the U.K. and U.S.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Moscow will seek the ‘complete liberation’ of Donetsk and Luhansk in the east, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced. His comments came hours after Zelensky said Russian troops have ‘begun the battle for Donbas.’” Read more at Washington Post
A resident walks along a street yesterday past burnt out buses in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine.
“The commander of Ukrainian forces’ last stronghold in Mariupol — surrounded by Russians and subjected to a constant barrage of fire — said his soldiers will not surrender, in an exclusive interview with The Washington Post. His forces have been holding out in the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant against a Russian force that vastly outnumbers them – but ‘we will not lay down our weapons,’ Major Serhiy Volyna of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade said.” Read more at Washington Post
“Russian forces are learning from their failure to take Kyiv, the Pentagon said. As it shifts its offensive focus to the Donbas region, Russia appears to be attempting to improve its command and control as well as logistics.” Read more at Washington Post
“Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded honors to an army brigade that Ukraine has accused of committing war crimes in Bucha, the Kyiv suburb where beheadings, mass graves and evidence of torture sent shock waves around the globe.” Read more at Washington Post
“Wimbledon is planning to bar tennis players from Russia and Belarusfrom this year’s tournament.” Read more at New York Times
Economists slash expectations for global growth
“As the world recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is disrupting supply chains and driving inflation higher. Economists are slashing expectations for global growth.” [Vox] Read more at NYT / Ana Swanson and Alan Rappeport
“On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund said the global economy would expand 3.6 percent in each of the next two years, a substantial drop from 2021’s 6.1 percent.” [Vox] Read more at CNN / Julia Horowitz
“Supply shocks from Western sanctions on Russian oil and gas and the lack of wheat from Ukraine are driving up prices. The IMF now says inflation is a problem worldwide.” [Vox] Read more at Reuters / Andrea Shalal
“While there is considerable focus on Ukraine, reports released on Monday indicate that zero-Covid lockdowns are hurting China’s economy. Factory shutdowns there could exacerbate global problems.” [Vox] Read more at Axios / Matt Phillips and Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian
“As their offensive in Ukraine’s east intensifies, some Russians are hoisting a new-old emblem in areas they capture: The Soviet flag. The red banner with that hammer and sickle has reportedly been waved by pro-Russian fighters in the breakaway region of Luhansk and adorned the sides of Russian military vehicles motoring to the front lines.
The intended symbolism is clear — the bloody Russian invasion of Ukraine, in the view of its aggressors, is an act of reclamation and restoration. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who once described the collapse of the Soviet Union as ‘the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,’ questions Ukraine’s right to even exist as an independent nation. His proxies on state media peddle visions of Russia forging a new union encompassing Belarus and Ukraine. And lurking behind it all is a powerful nostalgia — not necessarily for a life under communism, but for what it meant to belong to a globe-straddling power like the Soviet Union.
Such visions send ripples through the post-Soviet world. A handful of countries once in Moscow’s orbit are doing their best to toe a different line. The Baltic states, members of both NATO and the European Union, have flung themselves into the resisting the Russian advance next door; tiny Estonia, for example, has already committed nearly 1 percent of its total gross domestic product in support of Ukraine’s fight. They comprise the spearhead of a galvanized Western response to Putin’s war.
But beyond the conflict, there’s a deeper disquiet in many other countries that were once in the Soviet sphere. A new report from Freedom House, a Washington-based think tank that tracks democracy around the world, found that only six of 29 countries spanning from Central Europe to Central Asia managed to maintain a ‘consolidated’ democracy, while most others drifted toward authoritarianism or a bleak ‘gray zone’ where the trappings of democracy truss up illiberal or autocratic political project. This is certainly on view in Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban recently won reelection in a political context widely seen as unfair and stacked against the opposition.
Freedom House marked the 18th consecutive year of democratic decline in this region, a trendline that dovetails with the organization’s broader prognostications about the ailing state of democracy the world over. But the countries in question in this report matter as a kind of bellwether: After the end of the Cold War, the pursuit of liberal democracy in many states once under the Soviet yoke captured the imagination of American strategists and observers, and seemed to portend a new, happy era of global politics. That liberal heyday, though, has now clearly passed.
‘In this emerging era, liberal democracy no longer prevails as the assumed goal of national political development,’ the Freedom House report notes. ‘Increasingly, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia are headed toward two different destinations: the abyss of full-blown autocracy and the gray zone of hybrid governance, where ostensibly democratic structures belie undemocratic practices.’
Freedom House deploys a scoring system that rates individual countries on criteria like the integrity of electoral processes, the strength of civil society and the independence of the judiciary. Across the board, it found worrying declines. In autocratic states from Belarus to the five former Soviet republics in Central Asia, ‘longtime despots stamp out dissent and fortify themselves against perceived foreign and domestic enemies.’ Meanwhile, even relatively healthy democracies in places like Slovenia and Slovakia have been ‘buffeted by the corrosive effects of illiberalism and corruption.’
At the heart of the storyline is Russia under Putin. Not only has the Russian leader embarked on a ruthless campaign of repression at home, rapidly transitioning what was a ‘soft dictatorship’ into a ‘raw dictatorship’ — as Freedom House President Michael Abramowitz told Today’s WorldView — but Kremlin influence operations have also played a significant role in undermining democratic governments in Russia’s neighborhood. The war in Ukraine, of course, may derail the country’s slow, fitful progress toward strengthening its own democracy.
‘Ukraine, while not a perfect democracy, was relatively speaking one of the countries that had been doing fairly well in the region in general,’ Abramowitz said. ‘Obviously now with the invasion, the future of democracy in Ukraine is very much in question.’
Abramowitz added that he his ‘hopeful that this will be a turning point’ — that Ukraine’s defiance of the Russian war machine and the Western bloc’s newfound unity can embolden action against autocrats and sharpen policies that weaken their oligarchic supporters. But, the report adds, more needs to be done to strengthen democracy internally, including within the European Union, where officials in Brussels struggle to arrest the democratic backsliding in countries like Hungary and Poland.
Similar concerns also exist in Washington, consumed, as it is, by political polarization and its own illiberal assaults on democracy. Some commentators urge Americans to see their politics in line with countries elsewhere. ‘If the United States seeks to stem the decline of liberal democracy abroad and patch the flaws in our democracy at home, we must treat them as part of a single set of related problems, unimpeded by borders, languages, or religions,’ wrote Ryan Suto, a senior policy adviser at FairVote Action, which campaigns for electoral reforms in the United States. ‘That is, support for the rule of law and liberal democracy must be valued in both foreign policy and domestic policy.’
Others worry that if Putin emerges from the Ukraine war in any way victorious, it could spell trouble for democracies elsewhere. ‘The war in Ukraine impacts the American people in the sense that, if Vladimir Putin succeeds, then such people here — those anti-democratic forces — will succeed as well,’ political theorist Francis Fukuyama said in a recent interview. ‘I believe they actually pose a real and present danger to American democracy, and if they’re not beaten back we could be facing a serious constitutional crisis in this country in 2024.’” Read more at Washington Post
“The Diocese of Camden, N.J., said on Tuesday that it had agreed to pay $87.5 million to settle claims made by hundreds of people who accused clergy members of sexually abusing them, one of the largest such settlements involving the Catholic Church in the United States.
In what may be a first for such litigation, the ultimate payout to the plaintiffs could be substantially higher, lawyers representing them said, because the settlement allows for further litigation against insurance companies for the diocese and related entities like parishes and schools.” Read more at New York Times
Demonstrators gather at the Education Department headquarters in Washington earlier this month to call on President Biden to cancel all student-loan debt.PHOTO: BRYAN OLIN DOZIER/NURPHOTO/ZUMA PRESS
“The Biden administration said it plans to make it easier for lower-income student-loan borrowers to get debt forgiveness through an existing program that has enrolled millions of people, but provided few with relief.
The move, announced by the Education Department on Tuesday, is part of a politically sensitive debate on the forgiveness of student-loan debt and attempts to more broadly overhaul how the student-loan repayment system works. President Biden earlier this month extended to Aug. 31 a pandemic-related pause on payments of federal student loans and faces pressure from progressive members of his own party to forgive debt on a larger scale.
The changes would apply to an income-based program for repaying student loans, allowing around 3.6 million people—nearly 10% of all student-loan borrowers—to receive at least three years of credit toward eventual debt forgiveness.
The program, referred to as income-driven repayment plans, permits borrowers to pay a certain percentage of their income on loans for 20 to 25 years and have the rest of their balances forgiven. Loan servicers play a key role in how borrowers navigate their repayment options.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“The Biden administration is restoring stricter environmental standards for approving construction projects including new pipelines, highways and power plants. Starting next month, federal agencies will have to consider how the work might affect climate change. Business groups opposed to restoring the National Environmental Policy Act measures, which former President Donald Trump removed, say the Biden approach could stall needed infrastructure projects.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
A statue of company founder Walt Disney, with Mickey Mouse, at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.PHOTO: JOHN RAOUX/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis escalated his battle with Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday, asking state lawmakers to consider ending the special tax district that has allowed the company to govern the land on which its theme parks sit.
Florida lawmakers could take up a bill that ends the district this week.
Losing the special district would be a blow to Disney’s operations in Florida. The provision exempts the company from a host of regulations, and saves it tens of millions of dollars every year, according to a person familiar with the company’s finances who studied the issue over a decade ago.
In recent weeks, Mr. DeSantis has clashed with Disney over the company’s opposition to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, which Mr. DeSantis signed into law last month.
The law, which critics call the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ legislation, bars classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation for schoolchildren through grade three, and limits it for older students to material that is ‘age appropriate.’
Initially, Disney remained silent on the bill. When it passed, however, the company vowed to push for its repeal and to fight similar bills in other states following vocal objection to the law from many of its employees.
Disney representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Reedy Creek Improvement District, as the special district that includes Walt Disney World is known, didn’t respond to calls or emails requesting comment.
Mr. DeSantis on Tuesday said he was extending the scope of a special legislative session this week on congressional redistricting to include consideration of special districts like Reedy Creek. The district, which was created in 1967 and has its own board of supervisors and fire department, allows Disney to oversee land use and environmental protections. It includes Walt Disney World’s four theme parks, two water parks, a sports complex and its hotels, stores and restaurants.” Read more at New York Times
“Actor Johnny Depp took the stand yesterday in his defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard. In his roughly three-hour testimony, which will continue later today, the Oscar-nominated star said he has never ‘struck any woman’ in his life. He also spoke in detail about Heard's allegations of domestic abuse and his history with substance abuse. Depp, known for his work in the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise, is suing Heard for $50 million in a Fairfax County, Virginia, court over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she wrote about her experience with domestic abuse. Heard did not name Depp in the story, but Depp still claims the piece led to severe financial losses for him, including being dropped from future ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films after he led the franchise for 15 years.” Read more at CNN
“French showdown | French President Emmanuel Macron and Marine le Pen are gearing up for their only live TV debate tonight in Paris just days before this weekend’s presidential runoff. Macron faces a tougher challenge than in 2017, when the nationalist leader gave a disastrous performance in a bruising sparring match in which they traded insults and clashed over how to fix a sluggish economy and fight terrorism.
Macron leads in polls, but he still faces one big risk: Voters are angry over the highest inflation since the 1980s, and Le Pen is campaigning on the French losing their spending power.
Warnings are piling up that financial markets are underestimating the risks of a surprise Le Pen victory, which would be the biggest electoral shock to European markets since Brexit.” Read more at Bloomberg
“COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Thousands of people across Sri Lanka took to the streets on Wednesday, a day after police opened fire at demonstrators, killing one person and injuring 13 others, reigniting widespread protests amid the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.
Protesters used vehicles to block key roads in many parts of the country as they demonstrated against the shooting as well as rising fuel prices and the government’s failure to resolve the deepening economic problems. The shooting was the first by Sri Lankan security forces during weeks of protests.
The shooting occurred Tuesday in Rambukkana, 90 kilometers (55 miles) northeast of Colombo, the capital. Fifteen police officers were also admitted to a hospital with minor injuries after clashes with protesters.
Police said the demonstrators had blocked railway tracks and roads and ignored police warnings to disperse. Police also said protesters threw rocks at them.” Read more at AP News
“Blinken hosts migration conference. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Panama today as he co-hosts a ministerial level conference on migration. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will also attend the meeting, which will include representatives from more than 20 Western Hemisphere countries. The gathering takes place as the United States saw an increase in migrants at its Mexican border in March, with the 221,000 peopleprocessed that month representing a 20-year high.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Tangled ties | The U.S. and Australian governments have voiced their concern about the ‘lack of transparency’ of a new security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands, a diplomatic victory for Beijing in a region which has usually turned to Washington and Canberra for support. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said yesterday the deal had officially been signed.” Read more at Bloomberg
“A Shawnee State University professor who was reprimanded after refusing to use a trans student’s pronouns won a $400,000 settlement against his employer for violating his religious rights.” [Vox] Read more at NBC News / Matt Levietes
“$4,500 — The price paid for a 15-year-old Afghan boy’s kidney. His parents sold it to repay money they borrowed for medicine and food. Afghans are resorting to increasingly desperate measures to survive. More than half the country’s 39 million residents face acute hunger, according to the U.N., and prices of staples such as flour and oil have doubled since the Taliban took over.
3.6 million — The estimated number of lower-income student-loan borrowers who’ll receive at least three years of credit toward eventual debt forgiveness. The Biden administration is expanding access to a program that lets borrowers pay a certain percentage of their income on loans for 20 to 25 years and then have the rest of their balances forgiven.
$835 million — The pay package that Jeff Green, the chief executive of the ad-tech company Trade Desk, received last year, the biggest among the 358 companies on the S&P 500 that have disclosed 2021 CEO compensation, according to data provided by MyLogIQ. The bulk of Green’s package came from a stock-option award that vests in eight batches if the company’s share price rises significantly over the next decade.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Kurt Russell teaching. Photo: Mark Gillispie/AP
“Ohio history teacher Kurt Russell was named National Teacher of the Year. Russell has spent the last 25 years teaching history and African American history at Oberlin High School outside Cleveland, AP reports.” Read more at Axios
“Several Walmart heirs are helping start an art and music festival in their hometown of Bentonville, Ark.
Format (For Music + Art + Technology) is an attempt to turn the retailer’s headquarters city into a cultural destination, taking a page from the Austin City Limits Festival playbook. Performances will include bands such as Rüfüs Du Sol, Phoenix, the Flaming Lips and the War on Drugs alongside art performances and immersive pieces by visual artists, including Nick Cave, Pia Camil and Jacolby Satterwhite. Organizers aim for up to 17,000 people in their 30s and 40s to attend the weekend of Sept. 23. Tickets start at $275, and 400 camping sites will also be available. Alice Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, is a major collector who opened Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville 11 years ago, but the festival is led by two of her nephews, Steuart and Tom Walton, and the latter’s wife, Olivia Walton.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Dean Baquet and Joe Kahn.Celeste Sloman for The New York Times
“Joe Kahn will be the next executive editor of The Times, succeeding Dean Baquet. (For more on Kahn, including his ‘J.F.K.’ initials, read this profile.)” Read more at New York Times
“Netflix lost subscribers for the first time in more than a decade, and its stock fell.” Read more at New York Times
“Lives Lived: Kathryn Hays had a brief turn in ‘Star Trek’ but found enduring appeal as a soap opera star on ‘As the World Turns.’ She died at 87.” Read more at New York Times