The Full Belmonte, 7/16/2022
“JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — President Joe Biden, speaking at a summit of Arab leaders, said Saturday that the United States ‘will not walk away’ from the Middle East as he tries to ensure stability in a volatile corner of the globe and boost the worldwide flow of oil to reverse rising gas prices.
His remarks, delivered at the Gulf Cooperation Council as he closes out the final leg of a four-day trip, comes as the region braces for a potential confrontation with Iran.
‘We will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran,’ Biden said. ‘We will seek to build on this moment with active, principled, American leadership.’
Although U.S. forces continue to target terrorists in the region and remain deployed at bases throughout the Middle East, Biden suggested that he was turning the page after the country’s invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
‘Today, I’m proud to be able to say that the eras of land wars in the region, wars that involved huge numbers of American forces, is not under way,’ he said.” Read more at AP News
“JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — President Biden exchanged the shaken fist for a fist bump on Friday as he abandoned his promise to make Saudi Arabia a ‘pariah’ and sat down with the crown prince he deemed responsible for the grisly killing and dismemberment of a columnist who lived in the United States.
In the most fraught foreign visit of his presidency to date, Mr. Biden’s encounter with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave the de facto Saudi leader a measure of the international rehabilitation he sought, while securing steps toward closer relations with Israel and an unannounced understanding that the kingdom would soon pump more oil to relieve high gas prices at home.
Mr. Biden’s discomfort was palpable as he avoided a handshake with the prince in favor of a fist bump that in the end proved no less problematic politically. While cameras recorded the opening of their subsequent meeting, the president made no mention of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist assassinated in 2018 by Saudi operatives, and the prince smiled silently when a reporter asked if he owed an apology to the family.
But Mr. Biden later told reporters Mr. Khashoggi’s murder was ‘outrageous’ and said he had confronted the crown prince privately. ‘I raised it at the top of the meeting, making clear what I thought at the time and what I think of it now,’ he said. ‘I was straightforward and direct in discussing it. I made my view crystal clear.’
He reported that Prince Mohammed, often known by his initials M.B.S., had denied culpability. ‘He basically said that he was not personally responsible for it,’ Mr. Biden said. ‘I indicated that I thought he was.’
Saudi officials contradicted his account. Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs, told reporters that he did not hear Mr. Biden tell the crown prince that he was responsible, describing instead a brief and less contentious exchange that focused on human rights without dwelling on the killing.
Mr. Jubeir called the Khashoggi murder ‘a terrible mistake,’ but added that the two countries have moved on and he showed no interest in looking back. ‘People were put on trial,’ he said, referring to underlings convicted in the case. ‘We have individuals who are paying the price.’
The Saudis wasted little time splashing photographs of the president and the prince across social media two years after Mr. Biden had vowed on a campaign stage to make them ‘pay the price’ for Mr. Khashoggi’s murder and declared that he saw ‘very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia.’
White House officials knew there would be a political cost, but calculated the alliance with Saudi Arabia was too important to leave in limbo forever.” Read more at New York Times
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol attack subpoenaed the Secret Service on Friday night for text messages agents reportedly deleted around Jan. 6, 2021, as the panel probes Donald Trump’s actions at the time of the deadly siege.
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement that the committee understands the messages had been ‘erased.’ Thompson outlined an aggressive timeline for production of the documents by Tuesday.
‘The USSS erased text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021, as pan any and all divisions of the USSS pertaining or relating in any way to the events of January 6, 2021.’
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The subpoenas come hours after the nine-member panel received a closed briefing from the watchdog for Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service. The watchdog briefed the lawmakers about his finding that the Secret Service deleted texts from around Jan. 6, according to two people familiar with the matter.” Read more at AP News
Joe Manchin on Capitol Hill in February. Manchin’s opposition became clear on Thursday night.Photograph: Tom Brenner/Reuters
Joe Biden has promised executive action on climate change after Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator who has repeatedly thwarted his own party while making millions in the coal industry, refused to support more funding for climate action.
In another blow to Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, the West Virginia senator also came out against tax raises for wealthy Americans.
Manchin’s opposition became clear on Thursday night. On Friday, with Biden in Saudi Arabia, the White House issued a statement.
Biden said: ‘Action on climate change and clean energy remains more urgent than ever.’
“So let me be clear: if the Senate will not move to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry, I will take strong executive action to meet this moment.
‘My actions will create jobs, improve our energy security, bolster domestic manufacturing and supply chains, protect us from oil and gas price hikes in the future, and address climate change. I will not back down: the opportunity to create jobs and build a clean energy future is too important to relent.’
Biden and Democrats hope to include environmental measures in a $1tn version of the $2tn Build Back Better spending bill Manchin killed last year in dramatic fashion.
Then, the Biden White House angrily accused Manchin of breaching ‘commitments to the president and [his] colleagues in the House and Senate’. Bridges were rebuilt but on Thursday night Manchin appeared to reach for the dynamite once again.
According to a Democrat briefed on negotiations, Manchin told Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, he would oppose legislation if it included climate or green energy provisions or higher taxes on the rich and corporations.
The Democrat also said Manchin told Schumer he would support a new spending package only if it was limited to curbing pharmaceutical prices and extending federal subsidies for buying healthcare insurance.
Manchin disputed that version of events in a call to a West Virginia radio show. He said he told Schumer he would not commit to environmental or tax measures until he saw the inflation rate for July, which is due out on 10 August, and the size of the expected interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve at the end of July.” Read more at The Guardian
Trump at a campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa in October 2020. Have the January 6 hearings managed to launch a torpedo sufficiently explosive to sink USS Trump? Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters
“Republicans are odds-on to take back the House and Senate in November, and the last thing the party needs, experts say, is a Trump distraction
On Thursday the Trump campaign sent out a begging-bowl email to hundreds of thousands of supporters, previewing the former president’s rally in Arizona this weekend and teasing the recipients with a portent of momentous things to come.
Donald Trump ‘wants to make sure it’s one of his best rallies yet’, his loyal followers were told. ‘He is preparing the speech that he will give in front of the American people.’
‘The speech he will give’ was a nudge-nudge wink-wink suggestion that the one-term president is poised to announce another run on the White House in 2024. The tantalizing hint was the latest in an intensifying stream of similar baits – most recently in remarks to Olivia Nuzzi of New York magazine this week – that are driving Republican party leaders to distraction.
With inflation running at 40-year highs, and with Joe Biden suffering record lows in his approval ratings, the Republican script for winning back the US House and Senate in November’s midterm elections writes itself. The last thing the party needs, many top Republicans believe, is Trump muddying the message by talking about himself and 2024.
“Trump never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” said Frank Luntz, the pollster who has a long track record of advising Republican campaigns. “He has the chance to participate in an amazing, historic Republican resurgence, and instead he’s making everything all about him. That could cost Republicans the majorities.”
Luntz said that Republican leaders have told Trump “in no uncertain terms that anything that takes attention away from inflation and Biden’s failures could hand the election to the Democrats. But they know there is nothing they can do to influence him, and that he doesn’t really care.”
The incentive to announce early is self-evident: Trump is a past master at deflecting public attention from inconvenient truths. It is no coincidence that his dalliance with a third presidential bid comes just when he is taking a battering at the hands of the congressional hearings into the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
Millions of Americans have watched live as the January 6 committee has exposed the lengths to which the then-sitting president was prepared to go to hold onto power having lost the 2020 election. He tried to grab the steering wheel of his armored vehicle to turn it towards the Capitol and join the insurrectionists; he splattered White House walls with ketchup in a fit of rage; and when his vice-president faced a mob of violent white supremacists chanting ‘Hang Mike Pence!’ he told aides that ‘Mike deserves it’.
‘It’s the cumulative weight of the evidence that’s piling up,’ said Charlie Sykes, a prominent conservative commentator who edits the Trump-critical news site the Bulwark. ‘The most damaging evidence is coming from people within Trump’s orbit. That’s potentially the greatest danger for Donald Trump: it’s the people closest to him, people who were inside the Oval Office, who are saying it was a big lie.’
People like Trump’s then-attorney general Bill Barr who testified that he told the president to his face that his claims that the election was stolen were ‘crazy stuff’ and ‘bullshit’. Or Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, who declared in a heated Oval Office meeting a month after the election that seizing voting machines was a ‘terrible idea’ and ‘not how we do things in the United States’.
It is not yet clear whether the hearings have managed to launch a torpedo sufficiently explosive to sink USS Trump. But the vessel is clearly taking on water, as is demonstrated by the polls.” Read more at The Guardian
Donald and Ivana Trump. Photograph: John Barrett/REX/Shutterstock
“Ivana Trump, the first wife of Donald Trump and the mother of his three oldest children, died from blunt force injuries to her torso that she suffered after an accidental fall, New York City’s chief medical examiner said Friday.
The former president announced that Ivana Trump died aged 73 a day earlier at her Manhattan home but didn’t include any details about the cause or manner of her death. On Friday, a spokesperson for the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner confirmed reports that Ivana Trump apparently fell inadvertently and was found at the bottom of her home’s stairs.
US health officials consider falls to be the leading cause of injury-related death for people who are 65 years of age or older. About 64 out of 100,000 elderly people die as a result of accidental falls, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” Read more at The Guardian
“KHIMKI, Russia (AP) — A lawyer for WNBA star Brittney Griner at her drug possession trial in Russia on Friday gave the court a U.S. doctor’s letter recommending she use medical cannabis to treat pain.
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and standout for the Phoenix Mercury, was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in February after customs officials said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage. She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on charges of transporting drugs.
In court last week, Griner pleaded guilty and acknowledged possessing the canisters but said she had no criminal intent and said they were in her luggage because she packed hastily in her return to Russia to play for the UMMC Ekaterinburg basketball team during the WNBA’s offseason.
In Russia’s judicial system, admitting guilt doesn’t automatically end a trial. Since that plea, her court sessions have focused on in-person and written testimony to her good character and athletic prowess.” Read more at AP News
“Two Los Angeles men were arrested on Friday in connection with a string of robberies at 7-Eleven stores in Southern California on Monday in which two people were fatally shot and three others injured in a crime spree that terrorized the region, the authorities said.
The arrests of the two men — Malik D. Patt, 20, and Jason Payne, 44 — on Friday afternoon ended a search that had spanned four California counties and involved at least seven police departments.
At a news conference on Friday, the authorities did not fully address the motives for the crimes or explain how the men had been found.” Read more at New York Times
“WASHINGTON — The White House is abandoning plans to nominate a Kentucky lawyer who opposes abortion rights and is backed by Senator Mitch McConnell to a federal court seat, citing opposition from Senator Rand Paul, Mr. McConnell’s home-state colleague.
The resistance from Mr. McConnell’s fellow Republican marked a new twist over a potential nomination that had prompted outrage on the left. Democrats were incensed that President Biden’s team had agreed to advance a conservative chosen by Mr. McConnell to fill a district court vacancy as the party is stepping up its focus on countering new abortion restrictions.
The prospective nominee, Chad Meredith, had successfully defended Kentucky’s anti-abortion law as a lawyer for the state. Mr. Biden’s plan to nominate him was made public by The Louisville Courier-Journal just before the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade precedent that established abortion rights.” Read more at New York Times
“Protesters in Sri Lanka took to the streets to celebrate the departure of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who stepped down after days of anti-government demonstrations in the economically crippled country. The plane carrying Rajapaksa to Singapore was the most tracked in the world.” Read more at Bloomberg
A demonstrator waves the national flag outside the president’s office in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photographer: Buddhika Weerasinghe/Bloomberg
“COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan lawmakers met Saturday to begin choosing a new leader to serve the rest of the term abandoned by the president who fled abroad and resigned after mass protests over the country’s economic collapse.
A day earlier, Sri Lanka’s prime minister was sworn in as interim president until Parliament elects a successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whose term ends in 2024. Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana promised a swift and transparent political process that should be done within a week.
The new president could appoint a new prime minister, who would then have to be approved by Parliament.
Parliament’s secretary general, Dhammika Dasanayake, said during a brief session on Saturday that nominations for the election of the new president will be heard on Tuesday and if there is more than one candidate, the lawmakers will vote on Wednesday.
Dasanayake also read Gotabaya’s resignation letter out loud in Parliament.” Read more at AP News
The EU takes Hungary to court over anti-LGBT law
“On Friday, the European Commission sued Hungary over an anti-LGBT law and restrictions on press freedom.” [Vox] Read more at Reuters / Gabriela Baczynska and Charlotte Campenhout
“Last year, Hungary passed a law banning information about homosexuality and gender reassignment from appearing in teaching materials for people under 18 or on TV. It also took the country’s last independent radio station off the air.” [Vox] Read more at Deutsche Welles
“Brussels says Hungary’s law ‘discriminates against people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity.’” [Vox] Read more at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
“The lawsuits are the latest clash between the European Union and Hungary. The EU claims the country is undermining Western democratic principles while Hungary claims the EU is trying to impose liberal values.” [Vox] Read more at AP / Raf Casert and Justin Spike
“Heat waves are threatening ancient sequoias in Yosemite National Park, shrinking wheat yields in France and turning deadly in China. Amid the driest spell in Spain and Portugal in more than a millennium, Russia’s retaliation over sanctions for its war on Ukraine is forcing Europe to burn more coal.” Read more at Bloomberg
Firefighters put out hot spots from the Washburn Fire in Yosemite National Park, California. Photographer: Nic Coury/AFP
“Across China, homebuyers are refusing to pay mortgages, escalating the real estate crisis, and the country is now censoring crowd-sourced documents tallying the boycotts. In the tight US home market, 15% of sales fell through last month as rising interest rates pushed buyers to walk away. In Manhattan, apartment rents reached another record high.” Read more at Bloomberg
“ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) — Tiger Woods removed his cap a few strides from Swilcan Bridge, knowing Friday might be the last time he crossed over in a British Open at St. Andrews.
This is where the legends pause, pose and wave goodbye.
‘Stop! Stop!’ a few photographers cried out as they positioned themselves for another historic moment at the home of golf.
Woods kept right on walking, even as tears began to form in his eyes.
‘That’s when I started to realize — that’s when I started thinking about — the next time it comes around here, I might not be around,’ Woods said.
He said this wouldn’t be his last British Open. Woods just doesn’t know if his 46-year-old body, battered by multiple surgeries on both legs and his back, would be fit enough to compete when it returns to the home of golf. Woods mentioned 2030. The R&A hasn’t announced the rotation that far out.
Still, the moment was not lost on him.
Woods saluted the thousands of fans in the grandstands on the left, and thousands more who watched from hotel balconies and rooftops on the perimeter of the Old Course, some peering through windows, others without a ticket hanging from the top of the fence on the road down the right side of the 18th fairway.
Rory McIlroy looked over at him from the first fairway — he was starting his second round as Woods was finishing a 75 to miss the cut — and tipped his cap. Justin Thomas was on the first tee and nodded to Woods.
“As I got closer to the green, the ovation got louder,” Woods said. “You could feel the warmth and you could feel the people from both sides. Felt like the whole tournament was right there.”
It may as well have been.
This is where Woods won his first Open in 2000 to become the youngest player to complete the career Grand Slam. He won another claret jug at St. Andrews in 2005, the year Jack Nicklaus finished his major championship career.
No one has ever won an Open at St. Andrews three times, and Woods wasn’t about to change that. The only thing ceremonial for him was his golf — a 78 in the first round, only one birdie in the second round despite the most benign conditions of the week.
No matter. The Old Course, which had been relatively quiet all morning, came to life the closer he made his way to the finish.
‘The people knew that I wasn’t going to make the cut,’ Woods said. ‘But the ovations got louder as I was coming home. And that to me was ... just the respect. I’ve always respected this event. I’ve always respected the traditions of the game.’
‘I put my heart and soul into this event over the years,’ he said. ‘And I think the people have appreciated my play.’
Woods gave them little to celebrate on what might be his final round at St. Andrews. He only had four reasonable birdie chances. His flop shot over a pot bunker guarding the front pin on the 16th hit the top and rolled back into the sand, leading to his third double bogey of the week.
By then, it didn’t matter. The people just wanted to see him.” Read more at AP News
“Lea Michele will replace Beanie Feldstein and Tovah Feldshuh will replace Jane Lynch in the Broadway production of ‘Funny Girl.’” Read more at New York Times
“Ada Limón will be the next U.S. poet laureate.” Read more at New York Times