The Full Belmonte, 5/1/2022
The Full Belmonte, 5/1/2022
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made an unannounced trip to the Ukrainian capital on Saturday, becoming the most senior United States official to meet with President Volodymr Zelensky since the war broke out more than two months ago.
Pelosi's office confirmed the trip in a statement on Sunday, saying that the Speaker had led an official congressional delegation to Ukraine -- the first since Russia's invasion.
Zelensky shared a video on Sunday of their meeting in Kyiv, and thanked the US for its powerful support of Ukraine against Russian aggression.
‘We are visiting you to say thank you for your fight for freedom, that we're on a frontier of freedom and that your fight is a fight for everyone,’ Pelosi said to Zelensky in the clip. ‘And so our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done.’” Read more at CNN
“Russia is calling in troops based in its far east to join the battle in Ukraine, the Ukrainian military high command said on Saturday, as Moscow seeks to reinforce its war-fighting force amid heavy losses and signs that its drive to seize eastern Ukraine has stalled.
Adding to the sense that both sides appeared to be girding for a war of attrition, Ukrainians on Saturday lined up at gas stations across the country as the government struggled to deal with a fuel shortage caused by Russian attacks on oil infrastructure.
‘Queues and rising prices at gas stations are seen in many regions of our country,’ President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said Friday in his nightly address. ‘The occupiers are deliberately destroying the infrastructure for the production, supply and storage of fuel.’
He said a Russian blockade of Ukrainian seaports meant that replacement stocks could not come in by tanker. The war has also paralyzed grain harvests in Ukraine, known as Europe’s breadbasket, disrupting global food supplies and worsening a food crisis in East Africa.” Read more at New York Times
“Naomi Judd, of the Grammy-winning duo The Judds and the mother of Wynonna and Ashley Judd, died on Saturday. She was 76.
Ashley Judd, the actress, confirmed her mother’s death on Twitter. She did not specify a cause of death but said, ‘We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness.’
Scott Adkins, a publicist, said Ms. Judd died on Saturday outside Nashville but did not give a more specific location.
The country music duo The Judds, made up of Naomi and Wynonna Judd, was to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday. They had just announced their final tour — and their first together in a decade. It was to begin in the fall.
Naomi Judd, Ashley Judd and Wynonna Judd at a gala in Washington in 2005.Credit...Louis Myrie/WireImage
The mother-daughter duo had 14 No. 1 singles during a three-decade career.
The Judds’ hits included “Mama He’s Crazy,” “Why Not Me,” (both in 1984); “Girls Night Out” (1985); “Rockin’ With the Rhythm of the Rain” and “Grandpa” (both in 1986); “Turn It Loose” (1988); and “Love Can Build a Bridge” (1990).
They won nine Country Music Association Awards and seven awards from the Academy of Country Music. They also won five Grammy Awards for hits like “Why Not Me” and “Give A Little Love.”
The pair stopped performing and recording in 1991, after Naomi Judd learned she had hepatitis.
Ms. Judd is survived by her two daughters and her husband, Larry Strickland, who was a backup singer for Elvis Presley.
In a news release this month announcing the upcoming tour, Ms. Judd said she was looking forward to reconnecting with fans and singing with her daughter Wynonna.” Read more at New York Times
“WASHINGTON — The annual White House press corps gala returned Saturday night along with the roasting of Washington, the journalists who cover it and the man at the helm: President Joe Biden.
The White House Correspondents' Association dinner, which the pandemic sidelined in 2020 and 2021, returned with Biden as the first president in six years to accept an invitation. Donald Trump shunned the event while in office.
‘Just imagine if my predecessor came to this dinner this year,’ Biden told an audience of 2,600, among them journalists, government officials and celebrities. ‘Now that would really have been a real coup.’
The president took the opportunity to make light of the criticism he has faced in his 18 months in office and take aim at his predecessor, the Republican Party and the members of the press.” Read more at USA Today
“A Michigan man accused of attempting to intimidate Black Lives Matter supporters by leaving nooses and threatening notes in his community and making racist threats in phone calls has been charged with hate crimes, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday.
The man, Kenneth Pilon, 61, faces six counts of interfering with federally protected activities after racist notes were found in Saginaw, Mich., and racist calls were made to Starbucks stores in the summer of 2020, prosecutors said in court filings in the U.S. Eastern District of Michigan.
The threats described by prosecutors targeted people who wore T-shirts promoting Black Lives Matter, the racial justice movement that saw a surge in support after George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.
Mr. Pilon’s lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
Prosecutors said that between late June and mid-July 2020, Mr. Pilon left five nooses with handwritten notes that said, ‘An accessory to be worn with your ‘BLM’ T-shirt. Happy Protesting!’ They were left in parking lots, inside a vehicle and in a beverage cooler inside a 7-Eleven, prosecutors said.” Read more at New York Times
“The Arkansas state attorney general is suing the value-store chain Family Dollar, claiming the company knew of a ‘massive and long-lasting’ rodent infestation at a West Memphis distribution center but still continued to sell potentially contaminated products that were stored there.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Thursday, came after the company temporarily shut down more than 400 stores in February following a Food and Drug Administration inspection that found ‘a history of infestation’ at the facility.
A fumigation completed in January revealed the presence of more than 1,100 dead rodents. Internal company records indicated that more than 2,300 rodents had been collected between March and September of 2021, according to an F.D.A. report.
Federal inspectors said the company was aware of an ‘increased presence of rodents’ in the facility since at least January 2020.” Read more at New York Times
“Russian internet trolls based in an old arms factory in St Petersburg are targeting world leaders online and spreading support for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the British government has said, citing research.
Online operatives were found to be ordering followers to target western media outlets and politicians, according to research funded by the UK government, which plans to share it with major online platforms and other governments.
The troll factory is suspected to be linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Internet Research Agency accused of meddling in the 2016 election that saw Donald Trump win the presidency. The headquarters is allegedly located in rented space in St Petersburg’s Arsenal Machine-building Factory, a company that manufactures military equipment and technology.” Read more at The Guardian
Dr Mehmet Oz at a CPAC panel in Orlando, Florida, in February. Photograph: Joe Marino/UPI/REX/Shutterstock
“The TV doctor Mehmet Oz’s move into politics appears to have been a step too far for administrators at Columbia University, who have quietly purged his presence from their website as the Republican seeks to represent Pennsylvania in the US Senate.
For more than seven years, the private New York university has resisted calls to cut ties with Oz, a heart surgeon who has used his TV platform to push medicines ranging from ineffective diet pills to discredited Covid treatments.
According to the Daily Beast, that changed this year, within weeks of Oz, 61, declaring his candidacy for the Senate seat being vacated by the Republican Pat Toomey.
Oz, a friend and acolyte to Donald Trump, who has endorsed him, no longer has personal pages on the website of Columbia’s Irving Medical Center, the Beast reported, noting he once held senior titles including director of surgery and director of integrated medicine.” Read more at The Guardian
“A new Iron Curtain has mired routine economic and scientific dealings between Norwegians and Russians. The two border countries have cooperated for decades on key issues — from climate action to nuclear waste control. But cascading tensions in Europe are changing that. One group chaired by Russia, the Arctic Council, suspended all work, including vital climate research. And it’s not the only one to be caught in the political crosshairs. Many industry leaders worry that decades of progress may be stalled — or worse.” Read more at NPR
“The Fox News host Tucker Carlson built what may be cable news’ most racist show while embracing Trumpism without Trump, a Times investigation found. Here are six takeaways.” Read more at New York Times
“You might associate May Day with baskets of flowers and the start of summer — but it has another meaning: worker unity. The origin of May Day in America was born out of the push for an eight-hour workday in Chicago in the 19th century, when anarchists and labor activists began a multi-day strike. What became known as the Haymarket affair of 1886 ended in a deadly melee after police attacked workers. Unlike other countries, the U.S. does not officially recognize International Labor Day on May 1. And that stems from a resistance to emboldening global working-class unity, historians say.” Read more at NPR
“Texas updated its sex education for the first time in decades. Advocates say a lot is still missing. The state’s first update to its curriculum since the 1990s means students will now learn about birth control and STIs — but it’s still driven by abstinence-first messaging. And LGBTQ+ and gender topics aren’t covered. Neither is consent. Plus, a new policy requires parents to opt-in to health education for their children, which means the default is no classes at all. Here’s what that could mean for kids in the state.” Read more at NPR
“Bill Murray has acknowledged that his behavior on the set led to a complaint from a woman and the suspension of filming on his latest movie.
The actor and comedian, in his first comments about the shutdown of "Being Mortal," described the incident as a "difference of opinion" but declined to provide specifics on what transpired, or who it involved.
‘I did something I thought was funny and it wasn't taken that way,’ he told CNBC on Saturday during an interview at the annual shareholders meeting for Berkshire Hathaway. ‘The movie studio wanted to do the right thing so they wanted to check it all out, investigate it and so they stopped the production.’
Murray said he and the unnamed woman are talking it through and ‘trying to make peace with each other.’ He didn't say when or if production would resume and whether he'd continue to take part in the film.
‘We're both professionals,’ Murray said of the woman. ‘We like each other's work. We like each other, I think, and if you can't really get along and trust each other, there's no point in going further working together or making a movie as well.’
The 71-year-old ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Caddyshack’ comedian suggested the changing nature of what's considered appropriate humor was a factor.
‘It's been quite an education for me,’ he said. ‘The world is different than it was when I was a little kid. What I always thought was funny as a little kid isn't necessarily the same as what's funny now. Things change and the times change so it's important for me to figure it out.’” Read more at USA Today
“C. Vivian Stringer, the Hall of Fame women’s basketball coach at Rutgers University who first commanded a college sideline in 1971 and became one of her sport’s premier defensive minds, said Saturday that she would retire in September.
The first Black coach to win at least 1,000 Division I basketball games, Stringer, 74, has long been among the celebrated and idolized figures in college sports.” Read more at New York Times