The Full Belmonte, 4/22/2022
A satellite image shows an alleged mass grave in the village of Manhush, outside the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, on April 3.
“Ukrainian officials say they have identified mass graves outside the city of Mariupol, which they say adds to mounting proof of Russian war crimes. New satellite images appear to show more than 200 new graves at a site on the northwestern edge of Manhush, a town about 12 miles to the west of Mariupol. CNN cannot independently verify claims Russians have disposed of bodies in mass graves at that location. However, journalists on the ground have documented the hasty burial of civilians in the city, and images have surfaced on social media showing bodies apparently left for collection. This comes as an estimated 100,000 people remain trapped in Mariupol, which has been under siege since it was surrounded by Russian forces on March 1.” Read more at CNN
“Britain's defense ministry says Russia's decision to end its effort to take a steel plant in the besieged port city of Mariupol is an effort to free up troops for deployment in other parts of eastern Ukraine. In an update posted Friday, the ministry says that ‘a full ground assault by Russia on the plant would likely incur significant Russian casualties, further decreasing their overall combat effectiveness.’ Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted victory in the battle for Mariupol Thursday, even as hundreds of Ukrainian troops hold out in and around the Azovstal plant. President Joe Biden pushed back on Putin's claim, saying there isn't evidence yet of a Russian win. Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said in order to cover up ‘military crimes,’ Russian troops have buried as many as 9,000 civilians killed in the conflict in a nearby mass grave. ‘The greatest war crime of the 21st century has been committed in Mariupol,’ he said.” Read more at USA Today
“More than 20 states have asked a judge to immediately block the Biden administration from repealing Title 42, a Trump-era pandemic restriction which allows authorities to turn away migrants at the US southern border. Despite pushback from both Democrats and Republicans, the Biden administration is on track to end the restriction on May 23 -- which is expected to result in a surge of migrants at the border. Earlier this month, Arizona, Louisiana and Missouri filed a lawsuit against the administration's decision to end Title 42. Later, more than a dozen states, mostly GOP-led, joined the lawsuit. Separately, a few hundred migrants who have been waiting in Reynosa, Mexico, for the end of Title 42 were allowed to seek asylum this week, sources on the ground told CNN.” Read more at CNN
Protesters at Disney World this month.Octavio Jones/Reuters
“The Florida legislature passed a bill yesterday that would eliminate the unique legal status that allows Disney to operate as an independent government around its Orlando-area theme parks. The move comes as Florida's Republican-led government has taken aim at Disney -- the largest single-site employer in the state -- for its objection to legislation that prohibits certain classroom discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity. The bill, which would dissolve the special district on June 1, previously allowed Disney to manage land within its boundaries and provide its own public services, such as firefighting and police. There are also significant tax advantages for Disney in the arrangement. President Joe Biden criticized the Republican Party yesterday over its confrontation with Disney, suggesting the ‘far right has taken over the party.’” Read more at CNN
“The Supreme Court ruled that Congress can exclude residents of Puerto Rico from a Social Security program because they generally don’t pay federal income taxes.” Read more at New York Times
“Three major US airlines announced yesterday they will let some passengers banned for mask violations back on their flights. Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines said they will allow passengers back on their flight rosters on a case-by-case basis. The decision was sparked by rulings and countermoves this week on the federal mask mandate for public transportation. After a federal judge struck down the mask mandate on Monday, the Justice Department filed an appeal to bring mask requirements back inside airplanes and other public transportation methods. But with the mandate no longer in effect, at least temporarily, many US airlines have already dropped their mask requirements for the foreseeable future.” Read more at CNN
“Philadelphia is ending its indoor mask mandate, city health officials said Thursday night, abruptly reversing course just days after people in the city had to start wearing masks again amid a sharp increase in infections.
The Board of Health voted Thursday to rescind the mandate, according to the Philadelphia health department, which released a statement that cited ‘decreasing hospitalizations and a leveling of case counts.’
The mandate went into effect Monday. Philadelphia had ended its earlier indoor mask mandate March 2.” Read more at Time
Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
Here's what we're following today:
“President Biden will commemorate Earth Day by signing an executive order to inventory and preserve old growth forests. The carbon stored by forests, harvested wood products and urban trees offsets around 14% of carbon released each year in the U.S. — and older trees hold more carbon.
The Biden administration also wants to help schools become greener: Vice President Harris announced a new, multibillion-dollar federal push to renovate public schools and make them healthier for students and the environment.” Read more at NPR
“Friday is Earth Day, with rallies, protests and other events expected through the weekend. Earth Day's global organizer, EarthDay.org , has given this year's holiday the theme of ‘Invest In Our Planet,’ and it will present a livestream of the Earth Day Climate Action Summit Friday. The annual observance spotlighting environmental issues comes just weeks after the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a report warning that rapid mitigation measures are needed to avoid unsustainable global warming. Although Earth Day is not a federal holiday in the United States, Americans have observed it for 52 years. More than 1 billion people worldwide mark the day by working to instigate climate policy change and shift everyday human behavior. President Joe Biden will spend Earth Day in Seattle, speaking about a need to bolster the nation's resilience in the face of threats like wildfires, and a need to rapidly deploy clean energy, the White House said.” Read more at USA Today
“FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Firefighters are bracing for the return of ferocious winds in the Southwest after a brief reprieve allowed them to attack flames from the air for the first time in days as a half-dozen large wildfires continue to grow in Arizona and New Mexico.
More than 500 firefighters were manning fire lines in the two states and more help was on the way Friday when the largest type of management team is scheduled to take command of resources at one of the biggest, most dangerous fires near Flagstaff, Arizona.
Spirits were lifted Thursday as helicopters were able to start dropping water on that blaze for the first time. It has burned more than 32-square miles (83-square kilometer), forced evacuations of 765 homes and destroyed at least two dozen structures since it broke out on Sunday.
Aerial attacks also resumed in northern New Mexico, where at least one airtanker was able to join the effort northeast of Santa Fe — something that’s likely to be impossible on Friday.” Read more at AP News
“A federal judge in Kentucky granted a request from one of the state’s two abortion providers for a temporary restraining order blocking a sweeping state abortion law . The move means Planned Parenthood and EMW Women’s Surgical Center may resume offering abortions after they ceased services when the law took effect April 13. The law –House Bill 3, also known as HB 3 – was implemented after the state's Republican-controlled legislature overrode a veto by Gov. Andy Beshear. HB 3 bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and adds a slew of other restrictions that pro-abortion advocates say would force people to carry pregnancies against their will and adversely affect their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing if it stands. The judge’s order comes as the Supreme Court is expected to rule on a case this June that could fundamentally alter Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that established the right to abortion.” Read more at USA Today
In this July 17, 2017, photo, escort volunteers line up outside the EMW Women's Surgical Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
FILE - Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer media award in Berlin on Dec. 1, 2020. Musk says he has lined up $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter, and he’s trying to negotiate an agreement with the company. The Tesla CEO says in documents filed Thursday, April 21, 2022 with U.S. securities regulators that he’s exploring a tender offer to buy all of the social media platform’s common stock for $54.20 per share in cash. (Hannibal Hanschke/Pool Photo via AP, File)
“Elon Musk says he has lined up $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter, putting pressure on the company’s board to negotiate a deal.
Last week, Musk announced an offer to buy the social media platform for $54.20 per share, or about $43 billion. At the time, he did not say how he would finance the acquisition.
The Tesla CEO said Thursday in documents filed with U.S. securities regulators that the money would come from Morgan Stanley and other banks, some of it secured by his huge stake in the electric car maker.
Twitter has yet to formally respond to Musk’s offer, but the company has enacted an anti-takeover measure known as a poison pill that could make a takeover attempt prohibitively expensive.” Read more at AP News
“SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Authorities on Thursday were investigating an incident in which former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson was recorded on video punching a fellow first-class passenger aboard a plane at San Francisco International Airport.
The video shows Tyson leaning over the back of his seat repeatedly striking the unidentified man in the head, drawing blood. The footage was first shared by TMZ, which said it was recorded on a Jet Blue plane bound for Florida.
‘Unfortunately, Mr. Tyson had an incident on a flight with an aggressive passenger who began harassing him and threw a water bottle at him while he was in his seat,’ representatives for Tyson said in an email to The Associated Press.
Prior to the physical altercation, the man is seen on the video standing over Tyson’s seat, waving his arms and talking animatedly while the former boxer sits quietly.” Read more at AP News
“Patrick Lyoya and his family arrived in the U.S. from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2014 as refugees escaping war and prosecution. His death at the hands of a Grand Rapids police officer has reignited protests for racial justice. His family remembers him as a son, brother, father — and a person of faith whose life was inextricably shaped by war.” Read more at NPR
“The CDC is advising physicians and public health officials Thursday to be on the lookout for pediatric patients with hepatitis from unknown causes after nine children were identified between October 2021 and February 2022 who tested positive for hepatitis and adenoviruses.” Read more at NPR
“CNN+, the streaming service that was hyped as one of the most significant developments in the history of CNN, will shut down on April 30, just one month after it launched. CNN+ customers ‘will receive prorated refunds of subscription fees,’ the company said. The decision was made by new management after CNN's former parent company, WarnerMedia, merged with Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this month.” Read more at CNN
“For years now, through controversy after controversy, House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY has bent over backward to stay in former President DONALD TRUMP’s good graces, all to serve one major purpose: He wants to be speaker someday.
That hope may have just blown up on the launchpad.
On Thursday night, NYT’s Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns delivered an absolute stunner of a scoop: an audio recording of a phone call on Jan. 10, 2021, in which McCarthy is heard clearly and unambiguously saying that Trump should resign. Listen for yourself
What happens on the tape: McCarthy essentially conspires with Rep. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.) about how to get Trump to step down as president after the Jan. 6 insurrection. On the call, Cheney — now Trump’s Enemy No. 1, but at the time, the House GOP’s No. 3 leader — asks McCarthy if Trump is going to resign. McCarthy responds: ‘I mean, you guys all know him, too — do you think he’d ever back away? But what I think I’m going to do is I’m going to call him … The only discussion I would have with him is that I think this [impeachment resolution] will pass and it would be my recommendation you should resign.’
Making this all the more explosive is the backstory to the recording’s release:
Early Thursday morning, the NYT published a piece by Martin and Burns drawing on the reporting for their forthcoming book, ‘This Will Not Pass.’ They revealed that McCarthy (1) described Trump’s conduct related to Jan. 6 as ‘atrocious and totally wrong,’ (2) called on Trump to resign and (3) ‘inquired about the mechanism for invoking the 25th Amendment’ to remove him from power.
McCarthy’s office denied Martin and Burns’ reporting. In a statement, the GOP leader called it ‘totally false and wrong.’
Then, on Thursday night, Martin and Burns went on RACHEL MADDOW’s MSNBC show with audio proof that their reporting was correct — making McCarthy look silly in the process.
THE BIG QUESTION NOW: IS MCCARTHY TOAST? We made a bunch of calls to top Republicans both on and off the Hill on Thursday night, and there are two big things to watch here that could answer that question in the coming days:
1) Trump himself. All it would take is one wink and nod from the former president, and McCarthy would have serious problems getting the gavel. The former president has turned against those he views as unloyal Republicans for less. He recently unendorsed Alabama Rep. MO BROOKS’ Senate bid because Brooks — who backed his efforts to overturn the election — said it was time for Republicans to move on from relitigating 2020. Will Trump view McCarthy’s sin as worse? And if so, does he withhold his support for ‘My Kevin,’ as he once called him, in his bid for speaker?
There are a few views on this:
We caught up with one senior House Republican and McCarthy ally who noted that Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) also reportedly threatened to use the 25th Amendment against Trump over Jan. 6 — and has otherwise criticized Trump on occasion — but has remained firmly on his good side. This ally argued that McCarthy should be just fine, called the audio a ‘nothingburger’ and predicted that Trump will move on.
Another senior Republican official (someone who is not on the Hill but is frequently in touch with Trump’s camp) argued that McCarthy could make the case to Trump that he was looking out for the president in this situation, wanting him to resign before he embarrassed himself with a conviction in an impeachment trial.
Two key questions that may help decide Trump’s reaction:
Did McCarthy deny the reports in conversations with Trump himself? That’s something multiple Republicans we spoke to Thursday night wondered. And if he did, will Trump be furious that he was misled?
Will Trump forgive McCarthy after hearing the audio on an endless loop on cable news?
2) Conservative House Republicans. How do MAGA die-hards like Reps. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) and MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.) react? They’ve already suggested they could oppose McCarthy for speaker. Does this reporting spark a rebellion?
One senior House Republican aide told us Thursday night that there’s already some grumbling among the rank and file over a report by Burns and Martin that McCarthy wanted to get some of his own members kicked off Twitter — and you can expect that to dominate GOP conversations when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill next week. (On MSNBC, J-Mart teased that they have audio of McCarthy saying this, too.)
How will the more traditional House Republicans react? The senior GOP lawmaker noted that many Hill Republicans freaked out during and after the Jan. 6 attack. ‘Thank God my private conversations weren’t recorded after Jan. 6,’ the lawmaker said. ‘We were all very emotional.’ In that sense, they argued, Republicans on the Hill could be more forgiving of McCarthy because they were in the same boat: concerned about Trump, but too afraid of him to do or say anything about it.
The senior GOP aide, however, wasn’t so sure. They noted that the entire situation Thursday shows that McCarthy has a ‘trust’ issue.
‘He’s a bald-faced liar who literally just has no problem completely lying. And that doesn’t sit well with members,’ the senior aide said. Still, they noted that McCarthy has plenty of time before a potential speaker run to win back any defectors.” Read more at POLITICO
“Biden confidence | Biden said Democrats could pick up two Senate seats in November’s mid-term elections and admitted he’s not doing enough to tell voters about his accomplishments. He said Democrats erred during Barack Obama’s first term by not trumpeting the passage of the Affordable Care Act, allowing Republicans to make major gains in the 2010 midterms.” Read more at Bloomberg
“France appears to be returning to the mainstream ahead of this weekend’s presidential election showdown. That’s good news for Europe, assuming the center can hold.
Emmanuel Macron’s advantage over his nationalist rival, Marine Le Pen, was as slim as two percentage points after the first round on April 10. Since then, the incumbent has surged, building a double-digit lead going into Sunday’s runoff.
Key Reading:
Macron Is Closing In on Second Term in France as Le Pen Falters
What Traders Are Watching Ahead of French Presidential Election
What’s changed is that the biggest slice of the 22% of voters who supported left-wing firebrand Jean-Luc Melanchon two weeks ago have concluded that Le Pen is their worst option and plan to back Macron to keep her out.
The sole televised debate between Macron and Le Pen didn’t help the challenger. Her focus on the soaring cost of living did resonate during the campaign, but not enough to haul in the president once he turned his full attention from Russia’s war in Ukraine to the election.
The campaign — a rematch of the 2017 contest — again featured France’s role in the European Union, with Macron portrayed as a bulwark of pro-EU policies against nationalists who would risk pulling the union apart.
While Le Pen says she no longer wants to abandon the euro nor favors “Frexit” departure from the EU, she argues for transforming the bloc into a looser alliance of nations, with French and not European law supreme in the country.
Without explicitly backing Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa called on voters not to support Le Pen in a joint column published yesterday.
They and all Europe will be watching on Sunday to see whether the polls can really be that wrong.” — Alan Katz Read more at Bloomberg
Macron speaks to the media in Paris yesterday. Photographer: Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg
“Cost to rebuild | Ukraine said it would cost $600 billion to repair the damage caused by Russia’s invasion. The U.S. Justice Department is also assisting Ukrainian prosecutors in gathering evidence for possible war crimes.
President Joe Biden said the U.S. is sending Ukraine another $1.3 billion in arms and economic aid, and that he’ll ask Congress to authorize further assistance as Russia steps up its attacks in the country’s east.
Scholz pledged to continue shipping weaponry to Ukraine, though he insisted his aim is to avoid an open conflict between NATO and Russia that could lead to nuclear war.” Read more at Bloomberg
“BEIJING (AP) — Officials in Shanghai promised Friday to ease anti-virus controls on truck drivers that are hampering food supplies and trade, while city streets were still largely empty after millions of people were allowed out of their homes.
A deputy mayor, Zhang Wei, promised “every effort” to resolve problems that prompted complaints about lack of food and fears that the shutdown, which barred most of Shanghai’s 25 million people from going outdoors, might disrupt global trade.
The streets of China’s most populous city were quiet despite an easing of restrictions beginning April 13 that has released more than 10 million people. Many were barred from leaving their neighborhoods. Others had nowhere to go because most factories, shops and offices were closed.” Read more at AP News
Military deployment | Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered soldiers to the streets of the central town of Rambukkana for three days ahead of the funeral of a protester killed by police earlier this week. Demonstrations have rocked the South Asian nation as its worst economic crisis in decades has sparked calls for the government to resign.
Sri Lankan lawmakers backing the president said they’re willing to consider constitutional changes submitted by his opponents, including clipping his executive powers.” Read more at Bloomberg
Carlos Ghosn pictured in 2020. As he awaited trial in December 2019, Ghosn staged an audacious getaway, smuggled out of Japan in an audio equipment case on a private jet.Photograph: Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images
“France has issued an international arrest warrant for Carlos Ghosn, the disgraced former Nissan executive who jumped bail in Japan and fled to Lebanon, prosecutors have said.
The warrant was issued on Thursday over €15m (£12.6m) in suspect payments between the Renault-Nissan alliance that Ghosn once headed and an Omani company, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA), said prosecutors in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
The allegations involve misuse of company assets, money laundering and corruption.
Ghosn, then the chief of Nissan and the head of an alliance between Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, was detained in Japan in November 2018 on suspicion of financial misconduct, along with his top aide, Greg Kelly. They both denied wrongdoing.
In December 2019, as he awaited trial, Ghosn staged an audacious getaway, being smuggled out of Japan in an audio equipment case on a private jet.
Ghosn, who holds French, Lebanese and Brazilian passports, landed in Beirut, which has no extradition treaty with Japan.
The 68-year-old said he fled because he did not believe he would get a fair trial in Japan, where prosecutors have an almost 99% conviction rate in cases that go to trial.
He also accused Nissan of colluding with prosecutors to have him arrested because he wanted to deepen the Japanese firm’s alliance with Renault.
A statement from his PR team called the French warrant “surprising”, suggesting it was ineffective as Ghosn “is subject to a judicial ban on leaving Lebanese territory”.
Lebanon does not extradite its citizens. Ghosn has citizenship in Lebanon, France and Brazil.
The Nanterre judge heading the investigation issued four other arrest warrants targeting the current and former leaders of SBA, the prosecutor’s office said.
Nanterre authorities visited Beirut twice during their investigation, questioning two witnesses in February after having spoken to Ghosn last year along with Paris investigators.
The French investigation centres on alleged improper financial interactions with Renault-Nissan’s distributor in Oman, payments by a Dutch subsidiary to consultants, and lavish parties organised at the Palace of Versailles.
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Ghosn was heard as a witness and would need to be in France to be formally indicted and gain access to the details of the charges he faces.
His former aide Kelly, meanwhile, was given a six-month suspended sentence by a Tokyo court last month over allegations he helped Ghosn attempt to conceal income.
Prosecutors had sought two years in prison for Kelly, accusing him of helping Ghosn underreport his income to the tune of 9.1bn yen (£55m) between 2010 and 2018. The court found him not guilty on the charges for the financial years 2010 to 2016, and guilty for the financial year 2017.
Ghosn, who faced several additional financial misconduct charges, has always insisted he and Kelly are innocent and that Japanese prosecutors worked to help Nissan push him out in a ‘palace coup’.” Read more at The Guardian
“Honduras extradited former President Juan Orlando Hernandez to the U.S. where he faces drug-trafficking and weapons charges.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Australia’s opposition Labor Party has to make last-minute changes to its election campaign after leader Anthony Albanese was diagnosed with Covid-19.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Hong Kong is thinking of easing rules on suspensions of flights if they bring in a certain number of Covid cases, amid pressure to loosen one of the world’s strictest pandemic travel regimes.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Fire at Russian defense facility. A fire at a defense research facility in Tver—about 100 miles from Moscow—killed seven people and injured 25, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. The blaze erupted in a building housing an aerospace research institute, which is part of the defense ministry. Photos of the building suggest its upper floors were completely gutted. Reports of a second mysterious fire at a chemical plant emerged a few hours later and remain unconfirmed.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Slovenia’s election. Slovenians vote for a new parliament on Sunday, with Prime Minister Janez Jansa’s Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) in a close race with the environmentalist Freedom Movement. Both parties are polling at around 26 percent, all but assuring a coalition government. Jansa has been one of the most outspoken European leaders in support of Ukraine, and was among the first to visit Zelensky in Kyiv after Russia’s invasion.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“A Brazilian court has ordered tech giant Apple to pay just over $1,000 to an iPhone customer for failing to provide a charger with the product. The judge ruled that by not providing a charger with the purchase, Apple had violated Brazil’s consumer protection laws, which says that certain electronic devices cannot be sold without chargers if they are critical to the device’s operation.
The ruling is part of an ongoing battle between Apple and Brazil’s consumer protection agency, which has already fined the company millions of dollars for not including chargers with its phones.
Phone chargers are not only a political concern in Brazil. On Wednesday, the European Parliament backed a proposal to mandate a common charger for all portable devices.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrived in India under the shadow of ‘partygate’ and found himself in the middle of another controversy when he posed for a photo atop an excavator at a factory of the British construction giant JCB. The image made for poor optics because bulldozers have been in the news as officials in several Indian states used them to destroy homes and businesses of mostly poor Muslims, as punishment for alleged crimes like stone-pelting during clashes with majority Hindu groups.” Read more at Bloomberg
Johnson in Vadodara, India. Photographer: WPA Pool/Getty Images
Oleksii Yeromin, wrapped in a Ukrainian flag, hugs Ukrainian refugees at the San Ysidro (PedWest) port of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
“A nonprofit group that helped relocate Afghan refugees in the U.S. is launching a new effort to recruit 100,000 American residents to sponsor Ukrainian refugees, Axios' Russell Contreras reports.
The Biden administration announced today the Uniting for Ukraine program, which will allow Ukrainian citizens to apply for humanitarian parole.
Welcome.US is spearheading the sponsor recruitment, funded primarily by $3.6 million from the Goldman Sachs Gives fund.
What's next: Americans interested in sponsoring a Ukrainian family can sign up at ukraine.welcome.us beginning Monday.
Sponsors can offer temporary hosting through Airbnb or donate to Airbnb to help cover temporary housing costs.
People can donate airline miles through Miles4Migrants or purchase needed items for refugees.” Read more at Axios
“After fading into obscurity, the late artist Francis Hines is gaining new attention after a car mechanic rescued hundreds of his paintings from a dumpster in Connecticut.
Hines, an abstract expressionist, garnered some recognition in 1980 by using fabric to wrap the arch in New York City’s Washington Square in an intricate crisscross pattern. But he kept a low profile and drifted out of the art world’s spotlight, passing away in 2016.
The trove of paintings, most using his signature wrapping style, was found a year later — and that’s where the artist’s path to rediscovery began.
An exhibit of the found art will open May 5 at the Hollis Taggart galley in Southport, Connecticut, which is known for showing the works of lost or forgotten artists. A smaller exhibit will be shown simultaneously at the gallery’s flagship location in New York City.
Hines made a good living as an illustrator for magazines and the G. Fox department store, and his personal art was about the process, not about selling or displaying his work, said Peter Hastings Falk, an art historian who is helping curate the exhibit.” Read more at AP News
Bill Murray at the Oscars in March 2022. Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
“A complaint of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ has been made against the actor Bill Murray, leading to the production shutdown of the film he is working on, it has been reported.
According to Deadline, production on the Searchlight film Being Mortal was halted on Monday and a letter was subsequently sent to cast and crew saying: ‘We were made aware of a complaint, and we immediately looked into it. After reviewing the circumstances, it has been decided that production cannot continue at this time.’
The letter did not name Murray as the target of the complaint. However, Deadline named Murray and the New York Times followed, referencing an anonymous source saying that the movie was shut down because of what was described only as ‘inappropriate behaviour’.
Being Mortal is an adaptation of Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, a nonfiction exploration of death and dying by surgeon Atul Gawande, and is written and directed by Aziz Ansari. Ansari also stars in the film alongside Murray and Seth Rogen.
It is not known how long the shoot will be suspended. In their letter Searchlight say: ‘Our hope is to resume production and are working with Aziz [Ansari] and [producer] Youree [Henley] to figure out that timing.’
Both Searchlight and a representative for Murray have been contacted for a response. Searchlight told Deadline it does not comment on ongoing investigations.” Read more at The Guardian
“Lives Lived: Robert Morse’s impish grin and comic timing won him a Tony for the 1961 musical ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.’ A run on ‘Mad Men’ capped his career. He died at 90.” Read more at New York Times
“Soon after a meal of meatballs, bread, tortellini and Caesar salad, the guests at the wedding of Andrew and Danya Svoboda began to feel strange, according to the authorities in Seminole County, Fla.
One man, an uncle of the groom visiting from Michigan, said he felt ‘tingly.’ His heart raced and he was ‘having crazy thoughts,’ the police said in an affidavit.
Another guest began feeling nauseated and dizzy even though she had drunk only one glass of red wine. Another woman said her heart felt like it was going to stop.
The guests at the Feb. 19 wedding soon learned that the food included marijuana, according to an arrest affidavit written by Detective Daniel Anderson.
Ms. Svoboda, 42, of Longwood, Fla., and the caterer, Joycelyn Bryant, 31, have been charged with two felonies — food tampering and the delivery of marijuana — and culpable negligence, a misdemeanor. They were arrested on Monday and will be arraigned in June. Ms. Svoboda and Ms. Bryant did not respond to messages for comment.
No lawyer was listed for Ms. Svoboda, according to court records in the 18th Judicial Circuit Court in Seminole County. A lawyer listed for Ms. Bryant did not respond to a phone message or an email for comment.
The arrests, which were reported Wednesday by WESH-2, an NBC affiliate in Orlando, come as more states make marijuana legal and as the House of Representatives passed legislation recently to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, an effort to capitalize on the political resonance of legalized cannabis as an issue of economic growth and racial justice.” Read more at New York Times
“Lawyers for Amber Heard worked on Thursday to point out inconsistencies in Johnny Depp’s testimony in the defamation trial between the formerly married actors, presenting text messages sent by Mr. Depp and audio recordings of the couple’s arguments.
Ms. Heard has asserted in court papers that Mr. Depp repeatedly assaulted her throughout their marriage, including during a fight in 2015 in which she said he “reeled back” and head-butted her in the face, “bashing” her nose. Mr. Depp has testified that he never struck Ms. Heard during their relationship and accused her of being the aggressor.
Mr. Depp said on the stand Thursday that he vehemently disagreed that he had head-butted Ms. Heard that night, saying that he was only trying to restrain her and that it was “not impossible for them to bump.”
Confronted with a recording of himself saying, “I head butted you in the forehead,” using an expletive, and “That doesn’t break a nose,” Mr. Depp said he had been trying to placate Ms. Heard by repeating her version of events.” Read more at New York Times