The Full Belmonte, 4/29/2022
While inflation is cutting into households’ purchasing power, businesses are boosting wages.
PHOTO: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
“The U.S. GDP fell 1.4% in the first quarter of 2022. The economy shrank for the first time since spring 2020, when the Covid pandemic and related shutdowns drove the country into a deep—albeit short—recession. The sharp reversal from a 6.9% annual growth rate in the fourth quarter stemmed from a widening trade deficit.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Firefighters work to extinguish several fires yesterday after a Russian rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine.
“Ukrainian officials have condemned Russia’s missile attack on Kyiv last night, which occurred as United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was finishing a visit to the Ukrainian capital. During his visit, Guterres called for evacuation corridors to be opened in Mariupol, saying that the besieged city is a ‘crisis within a crisis.’ Guterres met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday and said Putin agreed ‘in principle’ for the involvement of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant -- where Ukrainian fighters entrenched at the facility have been surrounded by Russian forces for weeks. At least 150 employees have been killed at the plant and thousands remain unaccounted for, according to Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest Holding, which owns the plant.” Read more at CNN
“The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has described how Russian forces came close to capturing or assassinating him in the early hours of the invasion.
Zelenskiy has been widely lauded for his response to the invasion in the 65 days since the first Russian troops entered Ukraine. He has addressed the US Congress, the World Bank and the Grammy Awards; Boris Johnson is among the high-profile figures eager to be seen in his company.
But his time as the leader of a country under attack from a far more powerful neighbour could have ended within hours of the invasion beginning, according to interviews in Time magazine.
Speaking to reporter Simon Shuster, who spent a fortnight in the presidential compound in Kyiv, Zelenskiy described how Russian troops came close to finding him and his family as they attempted to seize the capital’s government district on day one of the conflict.” Read more at Time
“Ukraine brought its first war-crimes charges against Russian soldiers. The 10 service members were noncommissioned officers and privates from one of the units that took part in the monthlong occupation of the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. In late March, after the Russian military retreated, Ukrainian authorities said that they discovered more than 400 dead civilians, their bodies packed in mass graves or left splayed on streets and sidewalks. Meanwhile, Russia’s military gradually seized more territory in Ukraine’s east, pushing south from the city of Izyum with the apparent aim of cutting off Ukrainian forces. Thousands of miles away, President Biden asked Congress for $33 billion for weapons and economic and humanitarian aid for Kyiv. However, the world’s largest arms maker and exporter, a.k.a. the U.S., is running short of some weapons and has yet to boost production to replace the depleted stocks due to supply-chain and labor shortages.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Moderna said yesterday it is seeking emergency use authorization from the FDA for its Covid-19 vaccine for children 6 months through 5 years of age. To date, no Covid-19 vaccines have been authorized for children younger than 5 in the US -- about 18 million people -- and a timeline to potential authorization is not yet clear. However, Moderna officials have said the FDA is expected to move fast, and a Pfizer official suggested its vaccine for younger children could also be available in June, if authorized. This comes days after Pfizer asked the FDA to green-light a booster dose of its vaccine for children ages 5 through 11. Experts say vaccines for children are high priority following studies that have shown that vaccine efficacy has waned significantly in children amid the spread of the Omicron variant.” Read more at CNN
“Not since an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs — along with half of all other beings on Earth — has life in the ocean been so at risk.
Warming waters are cooking creatures in their own habitats. Many species are slowly suffocating as oxygen leaches out of the seas. Even populations that have managed to withstand the ravages of overfishing, pollution and habitat loss are struggling to survive amid accelerating climate change.
If humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, according to a new study released Thursday, roughly a third of all marine animals could vanish within 300 years.
The findings, published in the journal Science, reveal a potential mass extinction looming beneath the waves. The oceans have absorbed a third of the carbon and 90 percent of the excess heat created by humans, but their vast expanse and forbidding depths mean scientists are just beginning to understand what creatures face there.
Yet the study by Princeton University earth scientists Justin Penn and Curtis Deutsch also underscores how much marine life could still be saved. If the world takes swift action to curb fossil fuel use and restore degraded ecosystems, the researchers say, it could cut potential extinctions by 70 percent.” Read more at Washington Post
“Gun thefts rose 29% in 10 major U.S. cities, according to data compiled by The Wall Street Journal. Experts say that’s helping to fuel the growing homicide rate and tied the climb in thefts to the growing number of inexperienced first-time gun owners, many of whom leave firearms in their cars; most gun theftsare from vehicles. A record number of Americans bought guns over the past couple of years, driven by concerns related to the pandemic, protests and rising crime.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“The Oklahoma Senate on Thursday approved a Republican bill that would outlaw abortion, putting the state on track to be the first in the nation to enact a total abortion ban once the GOP governor signs the measure into law.
Coming ahead of a highly anticipated Supreme Court decision on abortion expected this summer, the Oklahoma measure shows that states are not waiting for the high court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision enshrining abortion rights before acting to ban the procedure within their own borders.
Oklahoma’s bill is modeled after the restrictive Texas law enacted last fall, which has evaded court intervention with a novel legal strategy that empowers private citizens to enforce the law. But the Oklahoma bill goes even further than Texas, where abortion is allowed within up to six weeks of pregnancy.
The new measure makes exceptions for rape and incest — as long as they are reported to law enforcement — and medical emergencies. The bill cleared the Oklahoma House in March and now goes to Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), who is expected to sign it.
The Senate vote was 35-10.
During the debate, state Rep. Warren Hamilton (R) questioned why the bill should include an exception for ectopic pregnancies, a life-threatening condition in which the fetus grows outside the uterus. ‘I wonder how we square that with the idea of justice for all,’ said Hamilton, who also opposed the measure’s exceptions for rape and incest.
Democratic state Rep. Mary Boren argued that “the only kind of abortion this bill attempts to reduce is legal abortion in Oklahoma,” emphasizing that the legislation would force women to travel to abortion clinics out of state or perform their own abortions. ‘That’s why this isn’t a pro-life bill. Jeopardizing women’s health is not pro-life.’” Read more at Washington Post
Postal workers load mail in Carlsbad, Calif., in this 2013 image. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia sued the Postal Service on Thursday to block its purchase of 148,000 mail trucks. (Mike Blake/Reuters)
“Sixteen states, the District of Columbia and environmental activist groups are suing the U.S. Postal Service to block its purchase of 148,000 gas-guzzling delivery trucks over the next decade, alleging the agency has vastly underestimated the vehicles’ costs and adverse ecological impact.
The suits brought by the state attorneys general, Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council contend that the mail service relied on faulty assumptions and miscalculations to justify spending as much as $11.3 billion on gas-powered vehicles that get 8.6 mpg, which is only incrementally better than the 30-year-old vehicles now in use.
Postal officials hoped the truck procurement would go smoothly and signal that the mail agency was evolving to meet new business opportunities and joust with its private-sector rivals. But the agency’s purchase plan would have only 10 percent of the new fleet dedicated to electric power, well below benchmarks set by FedEx, UPS and Amazon. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
Transportation is the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, but electric vehicles have yet to make significant inroads. EV proponents had hoped the Postal Service contract would provide a lift for electric automobiles, which account for about 5 percent of all new-vehicle purchases.” Read more at Washington Post
Newport is the leading U.S. menthol-cigarette brand. A U.S. menthol-cigarette ban would be a blow to British American Tobacco, whose Reynolds American unit makes Newport.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
“The FDA unveiled its proposal to ban menthol cigarettes.
They account for more than one-third of all cigarettes sold in the U.S. each year. According to the FDA, they’re harder to quit and likely pose a greater health risk than regular cigarettes. The plan, which has been in the works since 2009, wouldn't take effect for at least two years, though at least two tobacco companies have indicated they might then sue, further delaying it. Menthol, a compound that occurs naturally in mint plants, has been added to cigarettes since the 1920s to create a cooling sensation in the mouth and throat, like a mentholated cough drop. Health officials say that eases the throat irritation caused by smoking, so menthols appeal more to young people and those who’ve never smoked. Menthol also interacts with nicotine in the brain to enhance the chemical’s addictive effects, according to the FDA. Menthols are the overwhelming cigarette of choice for Black smokers. Black people in the U.S. die at a higher rate than other groups from smoking-related cancers, according to CDC research.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“For months, Americans were pessimistic even though the economy was booming. Suddenly, reality is catching up, Axios' Emily Peck reports:
Next week, the Fed is likely to slow the economy intentionally by raising interest rates a half percentage point, which could cool off the era's signature hot labor market.
The U.S. economy shrank in the first quarter, according to weaker-than-expected GDP figures out yesterday. That raised recession fears. ‘But the negative number masked evidence of a recovery that economists said remained fundamentally strong,’ the N.Y. Times writes.
Amazon yesterday reported its first quarterly loss since 2015, as online shopping slowed and warehouse and fuel costs soared. The stock slumped 10.5% in after-hours trading.
The twist: The hot labor market is a clear bright spot — with very low unemployment and record job security. That boom is cooling a bit, says Nick Bunker, economic research director at the Indeed Hiring Lab.
‘But that's moving from a labor market that was at 105 degrees to a market that's maybe 95 degrees. Still hot.’
Reality check: Americans are worried — producing a gloomy mood in the White House ahead of November's midterms.
Inflation has been the main drag, according to the surveys of consumers by the University of Michigan, the longest-running study in the country. ‘Many people tell us that inflation has cut their living standards,’ said Richard Curtin, director of the survey since 1976.
The war in Ukraine added to fears of recession, polling shows.
Then there's the supply chain. In a Morning Consult poll last month, 41% of consumers said purchases were hindered by shortages.
Zoom out: Looming over every indicator is the pandemic.
Two-thirds of U.S. adults say their lives changed forever, according to a February poll by Harris Poll and the American Psychological Association.” Read more at Axios
“Matilda Bogner, the head of a U.N. team documenting possible human rights abuses in Ukraine says her team has investigated Russia's indiscriminate use of explosives in civilian areas, illegal executions of civilians and ‘high numbers of allegations of sexual violence’ around Kyiv. Nearly 3,000 civilian deaths have been recorded.” Read more at NPR
Edwin Remsberg/Getty Images
“Every dog person knows that all dogs are good boys, regardless of breed. Now science is on their side: breed plays less of a role in behavior than previously thought.” Read more at NPR