The Full Belmonte, 7/10/2022
“The governor of Arizona has signed a measure into law that makes it illegal for people to record videos within eight feet of police activity, limiting efforts to increase transparency around law enforcement operations.
The law, signed by Gov. Doug Ducey on Wednesday, goes into effect in September. Many civil rights groups and news media organizations have criticized the measure, which comes after the predominance of cellphone cameras increased public documentation of police activity, including in the high-profile police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Eric Garner on Staten Island, N.Y.
State Representative John Kavanagh, the bill’s sponsor, said that there was little reason for bystanders to be within eight feet of an on-duty police officer and that the law would protect people from getting close to dangerous situations and prevent them from interfering from police work.” Read more at New York Times
“WASHINGTON — Pat A. Cipollone, who served as White House counsel for President Donald J. Trump, was asked detailed questions on Friday about pardons, false election fraud claims and the former president’s pressure campaign against Vice President Mike Pence, according to three people familiar with his testimony before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The panel did not press him to either corroborate or contradict some specific details of explosive testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who captivated the country late last month with her account of an out-of-control president willing to embrace violence and stop at nothing to stay in power, the people said.
During a roughly eight-hour interview conducted behind closed doors in the O’Neill House Office Building, the panel covered some of the same ground it did during an informal interview with Mr. Cipollone in April. In the session on Friday, which took place only after Mr. Cipollone was served with a subpoena, investigators focused mainly on Mr. Cipollone’s views on the events of Jan. 6 and generally did not ask about his views of other witnesses’ accounts.
Mr. Cipollone, who fought against the most extreme plans to overturn the 2020 election but has long held that his direct conversations with Mr. Trump are protected by executive privilege and attorney-client privilege, invoked certain privileges in declining to answer some of the committee’s questions.
Tim Mulvey, a spokesman for the panel, said the committee ‘received critical testimony on nearly every major topic in its investigation, reinforcing key points regarding Donald Trump’s misconduct and providing highly relevant new information that will play a central role in its upcoming hearings.’
‘This includes information demonstrating Donald Trump’s supreme dereliction of duty,’ Mr. Mulvey said. ‘The testimony also corroborated key elements of Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony.’
The panel recorded Mr. Cipollone on video with potential plans to use clips of his testimony at upcoming hearings. Aides have begun strategizing about whether and where to adjust scripts to include key clips, one person said. The next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
In the interview, Mr. Cipollone was asked about Mr. Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. The panel has asked similar questions of top Justice Department officials, White House lawyers and Trump campaign officials, who have testified that they did not agree with the effort to overturn the 2020 election.” Read more at New York Times
“TOKYO (AP) — Japanese voted Sunday in the shadow of the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that brought heightened security as party leaders avoided mingling with crowds and delivered messages of upholding democracy and free speech during campaigning the day before.
Exit polls for the election for the parliament’s upper house showed Abe’s governing party certain to win a major victory, possibly propelled by what is seen as a wave of sympathy votes in a country still reeling from the shock of Friday’s brazen shooting.
Also Sunday, police in western Japan sent the alleged assassin to a local prosecutors’ office for further investigation. A top regional police official acknowledged possible security lapses that allowed the attacker to get so close and fire a bullet at the still-influential former Japanese leader.
Exit polls by NHK public broadcaster and other media showed the governing Liberal Democratic Party was certain to secure a single majority of 125 seats, or half of the upper house, the less powerful of the two chambers. It’s a major boost for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who stands to rule without interruption until a scheduled election in 2025.” Read more at AP News
“COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s opposition political parties were meeting Sunday to agree on a new government a day after the country’s president and prime minister offered to resign in the most dramatic day of monthslong political turmoil, with protesters storming both leaders’ homes and setting fire to one of the buildings in a rage over the economic crisis.
Protesters remained in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s home, his seaside office and the prime minister’s residence, saying they will stay until they officially resign. Soldiers were deployed around the city and Chief of Defense Staff Shavendra Silva called for public support to maintain law and order.
Ranjith Madduma Bandara, a top official in main opposition party United People’s Force, said that separate discussions were held with other parties and lawmakers who broke away from Rajapaksa’s ruling coalition and more meetings are planned. He did not say when an agreement might be reached, even though it was expected to be finalized on Sunday.” Read more at AP News
Demonstrators inside the President's House in Colombo, Sri Lanka, yesterday. Photo: Jinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters
In South Asia, Sri Lankans roamed through a ransacked presidential palace today, after protesters stormed the building and forced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to announce his resignation, Reuters reports.
The political chaos worsens Sri Lanka's economic crisis, which has stalled imports of fuel, food and medicine.
Threat level: Sri Lanka stopped paying foreign bondholders this year. Then Russia missed a big debt deadline. Now a ‘quarter-trillion dollar pile of distressed debt is threatening to drag the developing world into a historic cascade of defaults,’ Bloomberg reports.
‘Now, focus is turning to El Salvador, Ghana, Egypt, Tunisia and Pakistan — nations ... vulnerable to default.’” Read more at Axios
“JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A mass shooting at a tavern in Johannesburg’s Soweto township has killed 15 people and left others in critical condition, according to police.
Police say they are investigating reports that a group of men arrived in a minibus taxi and opened fire on some of the patrons at the bar shortly after midnight Sunday.
Those injured have been taken to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
The number of cartridges found on the scene indicates that a group of people opened fire in the bar, said Gauteng province police commissioner Lt. Gen. Elias Mawela.” Read more at AP News
“A pregnant woman from Plano, Texas, got a ticket for driving alone in an HOV lane — and plans to fight it by arguing her unborn baby counts as a passenger, reports the NBC affiliate in Dallas.
Brandy Bottone was driving alone on an expressway when she was stopped at a sheriff’s checkpoint targeting HOV violators.
‘He starts peeking around,’ she told the station. ‘He's like, 'Is it just you?' And I said, 'No there's two of us ... Right here,'" she recalled, pointing to her stomach. "I said: 'Well, not trying to throw a political mix here, but with everything going on [end of Roe], this counts as a baby.’
She got the $275 ticket. Her court date is July 20 — around her due date.
Reality check via the WashPost: While the state's penal code recognizes a fetus as a person, the Texas Transportation Code doesn't.” Read more at Axios
Alex Holder’s Unprecedented shows ex-president perpetuating big lie about voter fraud – but his children are much less forthcoming
“A documentary film scrutinised by the congressional January 6 committee exposes divisions between the former US president Donald Trump and his children over the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol.
Released to the public on Sunday, Unprecedented portrays Trump’s 2020 election campaign as a family affair and features interviews with him and his inner circle before, during and after the vote.
British film-maker Alex Holder gives plenty of airtime to the ex-president and his offspring lavishing praise on one another – material that is not likely to interest the committee – but also asks their views on the fateful events of January 6.
Trump reverts to his lies about widespread voter fraud: ‘Well, it was a sad day but it was a day where there was great anger in our country,’ he says. ‘The people went to Washington primarily because they were angry with an election that they think was rigged.’
“A very small portion, as you know, went down to the Capitol and then a very small portion of them went in. But I will tell you, they were angry from the standpoint of what happened in the election and because they’re smart and they see and they saw what happened. And I believe that was a big part of what happened on January 6.”
But when Holder then puts the same question to three of Trump’s children, they are less forthcoming. His son Eric says: “Yeah, let’s skip the 6th.” Son Don Jr and daughter Ivanka also decline to comment on the incendiary subject, as does vice-president Mike Pence.
Ivanka’s silence is perhaps the least surprising. The film recalls how, at a campaign rally in Georgia on 4 January, Ivanka swerved past the election fraud conspiracy, allowing Don Jr to seize the opportunity to outflank her and impress his father. The January 6 committee has also heard Ivanka testify that she accepted attorney general William Barr’s assessment that the election was free and fair.
Ivanka is less forthright in Unprecedented when she carefully states: ‘As the president has said, every single vote needs to be counted and needs to be heard. And he campaigned for the voiceless.’
Author and journalist Philip Rucker comments in the film: ‘She was very uncomfortable with the president’s lie after the election but she would never utter anything herself to establish that disagreement.’
Holder recently testified to the House of Representatives panel investigating the January 6 attack for around four hours behind closed doors about his approximately 100 hours of footage. He turned over segments of the footage demanded in a subpoena requiring his cooperation.
The filmmaker has also been subpoenaed to testify in a Georgia investigation into whether Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in the state.” Read more at The Guardian
“The R&A said no way to Greg Norman.
The ruler of the game's Rules of Golf outside the U.S. and Mexico who also stage the Open Championship announced Saturday it had reached out to Norman to tell him he was not invited to play in the Celebration of Champions on Monday.
Norman, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, won the Open Championship in 1986 at Turnberry and in 1993 at Royal St. George's. But Norman is the head of LIV Golf, the Saudi Arabia-backed rival league that has lured top stars away from the PGA Tour and DP World Tour and caused angst in golf's world order.
‘In response to enquiries regarding the R&A Celebration of Champions field and the Champions' Dinner, we can confirm that we contacted Greg Norman to advise him that we decided not to invite him to attend on this occasion,’ the R&A said in a statement.
‘The 150th Open is an extremely important milestone for golf and we want to ensure that the focus remains on celebrating the Championship and its heritage. Unfortunately, we do not believe that would be the case if Greg were to attend. We hope that when circumstances allow, Greg will be able to attend again in the future.’
On Saturday, Norman spoke with Australian Golf Digest on the matter, saying he was unhappy with the decision.” Read more at USA Today
“Oprah Winfrey is thanking friends and family for their thoughts and prayers after announcing the death of her father.
The actress, producer, host and philanthropist confirmed her 89-year-old father, Vernon Winfrey, died Friday surrounded by loved ones and family after battling cancer.
‘I had the sacred honor of witnessing the man responsible for my life, take his last breath. We could feel Peace enter the room at his passing,’ Oprah Winfrey wrote on Instagram Saturday. ‘That Peace still abides. All is well. Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts.’” Read more at USA Today
