The Full Belmonte, 7/22/2022
“The January 6 committee presented new evidence Thursday highlighting then-President Donald Trump's refusal over three hours to publicly condemn the riot at the US Capitol or to call off the violent mob. During the primetime session, witnesses with firsthand knowledge of what was happening inside the White House on January 6 told the committee that Trump did not place a single call to law enforcement or national security officials as the insurrection was unfolding. Nor did he issue a statement during that time urging rioters to leave the Capitol and go home. The committee used that testimony to make a case that Trump's refusal to intervene amounted to a dereliction of duty. The hearing also featured disturbing new video and audio showing how endangered Vice President Mike Pence's security detail felt as they were trying to evacuate him safely from the Capitol. Thursday's session was the committee's final public hearing until September.” Read more at CNN
The committee showed outtakes from President Trump haltingly taping remarks the day after the riot. Screenshot: NBC News
“The Jan. 6 committee's summer-finale hearing used testimony from top White House officials and former President Trump's own Twitter feed to show how he watched the violent mob, Axios' Alayna Treene reports.
Why it matters: The panel showed how many of Trump's allies, including top Republicans in the House and Senate, were united in their opposition to how he handled the insurrection. Expect the spotlight on those members to follow them through the next months.
The committee used Trump's favorite mediums, Twitter and TV, against him — revealing raw footage of his addresses on Jan. 6 and 7 to demonstrate how he rebuffed his team in insisting on downplaying the attack and refusing to concede he lost.
The outtakes showed Trump balking at a script saying ‘the election is over.’
‘I don't want to say the election's over,’ Trump said. ‘I just want to say 'Congress has certified the results,' without saying the election's over, OK?’” Read more at Axios
“The Jan. 6 hearings on Thursday night finally dealt with one of the most central but least-understood aspects of that day: what President Donald Trump was up to while his supporters waged an attack on the U.S. Capitol in his name, seeking to return him to office by force.
The hearing featured live testimony from former White House aides Matthew Pottinger and Sarah Matthews, along with further details of former White House counsel Pat Cipollone’s videotaped testimony.
Former National Security Council member Matthew Pottinger and former Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews testifies on July 21, 2022.Saul Loeb/Pool photo
Below, some takeaways.
1. Cipollone’s significant timeline
We received the long-awaited, more detailed testimony from Cipollone, and it didn’t disappoint.
Cipollone offered a timeline of events that day that, at the least, reinforces just how derelict Trump was.
Because the White House itself has been something of a black box, there have been questions about just how quickly Trump appreciated the gravity of the situation on Jan. 6 — particularly how much he knew about the violence when he tweeted attacking Vice President Mike Pence at 2:24 p.m., while rioters were in the Capitol.
Cipollone said he personally learned the gravity of the situation before rioters had entered the Capitol — something that transpired around 2:15 p.m. Crucially, he said his and other staffers’ push for a strong statement to quell the violence began as early as around 2 p.m.
He declined to comment on conversations with Trump, citing executive privilege, but said he repeatedly and forcefully pushed for this inside the White House.
‘I think I was pretty clear there needed to be an immediate and forceful response — statement, public statement — that people need to leave the Capitol,’ Cipollone said.
His timeline would mean that two or more hours passed before Trump’s 4:17 p.m. video telling people to go home. And it places the consternation before many of the text messages we’ve seen from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’s phone.
And Cipollone repeatedly sought to emphasize he wasn’t the only one making the case in the intervening two hours.
“Just to be clear, many people suggested it — not just me,” he said. “Many people felt the same way.”
He confirmed they included Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, White House lawyer Eric Herschmann and Meadows.
The committee also cited an unnamed witness who said Trump knew about the violence even earlier — 11 minutes after his speech on the Ellipse. But Cipollone might be the best evidence yet that people were calling for action extremely early in the insurrection.
2. Cipollone’s striking, strained no comment
While that Cipollone testimony was perhaps more explicitly damaging, another portion of his testimony arguably spoke louder — with his struggling silence.
At one point, Cipollone was asked if anyone on White House staff didn’t want the rioters to go home. ‘On the staff?’ he responded. Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said she wanted to know about anybody ‘in the White House.’ Cipollone said he couldn’t ‘think of anybody’ who didn’t want that. Then the committee members asked him about one other person: Trump himself.
Then came the awkwardness.
Cipollone said he understood the question to be about White House staff, which it initially was, but Cheney indeed clarified it was about anybody in the White House. He was then asked directly about Trump. Cipollone hemmed and hawed, unsure of answering the question. He talked about whether it might be privileged, conferring with his lawyer. He seemed to want to give his view — but struggled with whether to do it. ‘I can’t reveal communications,’ he said, ‘but obviously I think in my …’ he paused, looking toward his counsel again. Not appearing to get any verbal guidance, he concluded, ‘Yeah.’
It would seem relatively straightforward for Cipollone to give his perception of Trump’s feelings, leaving any personal conversations aside. And he seemed to genuinely want to. He also could have said his perception was that Trump didn’t like the riot.
But he wouldn’t — or couldn’t — say it.
3. Trump wouldn’t give in, even on Jan. 7
The committee played new evidence — previewed by The Washington Post this week — that even the day after the riot, Trump pointedly declined to admit his loss.
In new outtakes of a video Trump recorded on Jan. 7, he read a script that said ‘this election is now over.’ But he said he preferred to merely say the election had been certified by Congress.
‘I don’t want to say the election’s over,’ Trump said. ‘I just want to say Congress has certified the results, without saying the election’s over, okay?’
Ivanka Trump cut in to suggest that Congress certifying the results meant it was indeed over.
Trump’s actions in the 4:17 p.m. video released on Jan. 6 — and even that night — made clear he wasn’t going to completely let go of his stolen-election talk. He tweeted about 6 p.m. saying, ‘These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.’
But this footage shows him just a day after the carnage on Jan. 6, when the dust had settled, balking at explicitly admitting the election had ended.
Similarly, Matthews testified that White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told her Trump “did not want to include any sort of mention of peace” in a tweet Trump was being urged to send the afternoon of Jan. 6. She said Ivanka Trump prevailed upon him to include “Stay peaceful.”
Certainly, it all underscores that Trump simply didn’t view what happened that day in the way that virtually everyone else did.
4. Driving it home with McCarthy and McConnell
The witnesses Thursday night were Pottinger and Matthews. But throughout the hearing, two other Republicans unwittingly played prominent roles. And they happened to be the GOP leaders of the House and Senate.
Cheney began the hearing by noting — correctly — that in the days after Jan. 6, virtually no Republicans actually defended Trump. In fact, even many who voted against impeachment sharply criticized Trump.
And videos of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) were played to drive that home. Both faulted Trump for failing to quell the violence when it began. McCarthy said, ‘The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters’ because he didn’t act ‘immediately.’ McConnell said, ‘It was obvious that only President Trump could end this’ because people were acting on Trump’s behalf. (McConnell also faulted Trump for inflaming supporters with false voter-fraud claims.)
Cheney summarized that ‘McConnell reached those conclusions based on what he knew then, without any of the much more detailed evidence you will see today.’ She added of McCarthy, perhaps needling the guy who helped push her out of GOP leadership for criticizing Trump over Jan. 6: ‘Their own Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, was scared.’
The committee would repeatedly return to the words of both Republican leaders, who roundly criticized Trump on the floors of their respective chambers.
This whole sequence reinforced how Republicans turned on a dime. It can be easy to forget just how strongly the GOP lawmakers (if not the party base) criticized Trump. As the committee got around to describing Trump’s actions that day, it sought to emphasize that GOP leaders saw the matter as pretty cut-and-dried a year and a half ago — when we knew considerably less.” Read more at Washington Post
Screenshot: ABC News
“Fox News personalities were among those texting White ld stop the riot.
Screenshot: NBC News
Historic photo: Congressional leaders in a secure location after evacuating the Capitol chambers.” Read more at Axios
Screenshot: ABC News
In outtakes never seen publicly before, President Trump adjusts his suit before taping belated comments urging rioters to go home.
“NASA's James Webb Space Telescope may have already discovered thr reports.
Why it matters: The Webb telescope is designed to detect the light of the first genhe two newfound galaxies — named GLASS-z13 and GLASS-z11 — were seen by Webb as they looked 13.5 billion years ago, according to two preprint studies.
‘If these galaxies are at the distance we think they are, the universe is only a few hundred million years old at that point,’ Rohan Naidu, an author of one of the new studies, told New Scientist.
Between the lines: Preprint studies like these haven't yet gone through peer review. So it's possible the conclusions will change once they move along through the scientific publishing process.” Read more at Axios
GLASS-z13 in JWST NIRCam (Naidu et al. 2022). Image composite: Gabriel Brammer (Cosmic Dawn Center, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen). Raw data: T. Treu (UCLA) and GLASS-JWST
Members of the U.S. Secret Service Counter Assault Team walk through the Rotunda as they and other federal police forces responded as violent protesters loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.J. Scott Applewhite / AP file
“The Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General has launched a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the destruction of Secret Service text messages that may have been relevant to inquiries about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The results of the investigation could be referred to federal prosecutors, the sources said, depending on the results.
The DHS Inspector General informed the Secret Service on Wednesday evening that the investigation is now criminal and that it should halt all internal investigations on the missing text messages, according to a letter detailed to NBC News.” Read more at NBC News
Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Seth Herald, Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images
“Former President Trump's top allies are preparing to radically reshape the federal government if he is re-elected, Axios' Jonathan Swan writes in a new series, ‘Inside Trump '25.’
They want to purge potentially thousands of civil servants, and fill career posts with loyalists to him and his ‘America First’ ideology.
Why it matters: The preparations are far more advanced and ambitious than previously reported. What is happening now is an inversion of the slapdash and virtually non-existent infrastructure surrounding Trump ahead of his 2017 presidential transition.
The impact could go well beyond typical conservative targets like the EPA and IRS:
Trump allies are working on plans that would potentially strip layers at the Justice Department — including the FBI, and reaching into national security, intelligence, the State Department and the Pentagon, sources close to the former president say.
Trump's groups are operating on multiple fronts: shaping policies, identifying top lieutenants, curating an alternative labor force of unprecedented scale and preparing for legal challenges and defenses that might go before Trump-friendly judges, all the way to a 6-3 Supreme Court.
This is a major series — in the style of ‘Off the Rails,’ our online and podcast series about Trump's final days in office — that Swan has been working on for months. Axios is running it at great length because of the depth of the reporting and importance of the subject matter.
The two-part series, today and tomorrow, goes deep into the infrastructure preparing an administration-in-waiting for Trump. It reveals key players, the legal strategy and the extensive personnel vetting — with loyalty as the key criteria for Trump.
Tomorrow's episode pulls back the curtain on that vetting process — how a radically different mindset took hold in 2020, and has continued in exile as Trump's top allies have worked to build a better machine.
Swan's key reporting about the scope and seriousness of the effort:
Trump remains distracted by his obsession with contesting the 2020 election results. But he has endorsed the work of several groups to prime a second administration. Personnel and action plans would be executed in the first 100 days of a second term starting Jan. 20, 2025.
Their work could accelerate controversial policy and enforcement changes — but also enable revenge tours against real or perceived enemies, and potentially insulate the president and allies from investigation or prosecution.
The heart of Trump's new plans derives from an executive order, ‘Schedule F,’ developed and refined in secret over most of the second half of Trump's term, and launched 13 days before the 2020 election.
Trump insiders intend to stack thousands of mid-level staff jobs. Well-funded groups are already developing lists of candidates selected often for their animus against the system — in line with Trump's long-running obsession with draining ‘the swamp.’ This includes building extensive databases of people vetted as being committed to Trump and his agenda.
The bottom line: This isn't a bunch of fringe characters blowing hot air. It's well-funded groups run by former top Trump administration officials, working with Trump’s blessing — and, in some cases, direct financial support.” Read more at Axios
Former President Trump speaks at CPAC in Orlando in February. Photo: John Raoux/AP
“Sources close to Donald Trump tell Axios' Jonathan Swan the former president would immediately reimpose his ‘Schedule F’ executive order if he takes back the White House in the 2024 presidential elections.
The order is designed to remove employment protections for as many as 50,000 career civil servants, out of a workforce of more than 2 million — giving Trump the power to fire them and replace them with loyalists.
Why it matters: That would effectively upend the modern civil service, and put future presidents in the position of bringing in their own loyalists or reverting to a traditional bureaucracy.
The backstory: Trump signed an executive order in October 2020 which established a new Schedule F employment category for federal employees.
It was rescinded by President Biden shortly after he took office in 2021.
But back in March of 2022, Trump floated the possibility of going after the federal workforce.
‘We will pass critical reforms making every executive branch employee fireable by the president of the United States,’ he said at a rally in South Carolina. ‘The deep state must, and will be brought to heel.’” Read more at Axios
Via Twitter
“President Biden told Americans to ‘keep the faith’ after news he tested positive for COVID-19.
‘Hey folks, guess you heard,’ he said in a 21-second video posted to Twitter.
‘I really appreciate your inquiries and concerns. But I'm doing well.’
Why it matters: Even with two boosters and ‘very mild’ symptoms, the 79-year-old president is in the high-risk category because of his age.
Biden is taking Paxlovid, authorized to treat those who are at high risk of developing severe COVID.
The treatment is administered as three tablets that should be taken twice a day for five days.” Read more at Axios
Letter: The White House
White House physician Kevin O'Connor said in a letter that Biden's symptoms include "mostly rhinorrhea (or 'runny nose') and fatigue, with an occasional dry cough, which started yesterday evening."
Between the lines: Biden's virus sample has been sent for sequencing to determine what variant the president has, Ashish Jha, the White House's COVID response coordinator, said at a press briefing this afternoon.
It's not yet clear where exactly Biden was infected, Jha added.
Tucker Carlson opened his hour-long show with a spirited takedown of Biden. Photograph: János Kummer/Getty Images
“On Thursday night as the Congressional hearings into the January 6 Capitol riot drew to a close, Tucker Carlson directed his outrage at a president he felt had lied and was not being held accountable for falsehoods that shook popular faith in the American democratic system. But he wasn’t talking about Donald Trump inciting rioters to storm the Capitol. He was talking about Joe Biden getting Covid.
While millions of people last night tuned into America’s other TV news channels and heard testimony about what Trump did, or rather did not do, during the hours when the rioters stormed the Capitol, Fox News viewers saw the network’s primetime stars Carlson and Sean Hannity chide the ‘twice jabbed, double-boosted’ president for contracting the virus they say he alleged couldn’t be caught with a vaccine.” Read more at The Guardian
People subdue an assailant at a Rep. Lee Zeldin campaign appearance yesterday in Fairport, N.Y. Photo: Ian Winner via AP
“Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for New York governor, was assaulted by a man who apparently tried to stab him at an upstate event Thursday, but the congressman escaped serious injury.
Zeldin is challenging incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in November.
‘I'm OK,’ Zeldin said in a statement. ‘Fortunately, I was able to grab his wrist and stop him for a few moments until others tackled him.’
Zeldin's campaign said the attacker was taken into custody and the congressman continued his speech, AP reports.
The attacker climbed onto a low stage where the congressman spoke to a crowd of dozens outside Rochester, flanked by bales of hay and American flags. A video posted on Twitter shows the two falling to the ground as other people try to intervene.
Hochul condemned the attack and said she was ‘relieved to hear that Congressman Zeldin was not injured and that the suspect is in custody.’” Read more at Axios
A nurse prepares to administer the the polio vaccinne, among others on Friday April 28, 2017. Photo: Courtney Perry/For the Washington Post via Getty Images
“State and county health officials in New York announced on Thursday that a case of polio has been discovered in Rockland County, New York.
Why it matters: No polio cases have originated in the U.S. since 1979. The last time the virus was brought into the country via travelers was in 1993, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
The big picture: Officials are warning health practitioners to be on the lookout for additional cases, per a press release from the New York State Department of Health and the Rockland County Department of Health.
Polio is considered to be very contagious, and symptoms can take up to 30 days to appear, per the press release.
People already vaccinated against the virus have a low risk of contracting it, but health officials are advising those who are unvaccinated or haven't completed their vaccinations to do so.
Based on the strain of polio that was detected, officials believe the virus likely originated abroad, according to the press release.
What they're saying: ‘Many of you may be too young to remember polio, but when I was growing up, this disease struck fear in families, including my own,’ said Ed Day, Rockland County executive, in the release.
‘The fact that it is still around decades after the vaccine was created shows you just how relentless it is,’ he added. ‘Do the right thing for your child and the greater good of your community and have your child vaccinated now.’
Flashback: Before polio vaccines were available, outbreaks caused more than 15,000 cases of paralysis annually in the U.S. in the 1950s, the CDC noted.” Read more at Axios
“The deadly heat waves across the globe have done strange things to infrastructure as millions endure searing temperatures that are expected to last through the weekend. On the outskirts of London, a portion of an airport runway melted after the UK capital saw its hottest day on record Tuesday with temperatures breaching 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Officials in London are also wrapping the famous Hammersmith Bridge in foil to reflect sunlight and keep the bridge from overheating. A heat wave is also currently affecting more than 900 million people in China -- or 64% of the population. In the city of Chongqing, which has also been under a red alert, the heat caused a museum roof to melt. And in many parts of the US, triple-digit temperatures are causing several power grids to buckle.” Read more at CNN
“The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to freeze a lower court order that has blocked the Department of Homeland Security from implementing new immigration enforcement priorities. The court's 5-4 vote is a loss for the Biden administration, which is trying to return to Obama-era policies that limit immigration arrests in order to focus on security risks instead of the more aggressive approach taken by the Trump administration. The vote was also the first for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson since she was sworn in on June 30. Jackson joined the court's three other female justices in dissenting with the ruling. This comes a little more than a week after thousands of migrants from multiple countries descended upon the US-Mexico border in search of asylum, adding to the Biden administration's challenges.” Read more at CNN
“ST. PAUL, Minn. — Thomas Lane, a former Minneapolis police officer who held down George Floyd’s legs as he gasped for air while dying under the knee of another officer, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Thursday.
A federal judge in St. Paul handed down the sentence to Mr. Lane several months after a jury found him guilty of violating Mr. Floyd’s rights by not providing him with medical care after Derek Chauvin, the other officer, knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. Mr. Lane, who is also waiting to be sentenced over a state manslaughter charge, will be the second officer imprisoned over Mr. Floyd’s death, which set off a summer of protests across the United States in 2020.
Mr. Lane’s sentence showed that the judge, Paul Magnuson, was willing to imprison a police officer who was not primarily responsible for Mr. Floyd’s death, though the sentence imposed was less than half as long as what prosecutors had sought. Mr. Floyd’s relatives had asked the judge to impose the maximum prison term possible and said afterward that they were upset by the sentence.” Read more at New York Times
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said ‘women must again fight for our basic right to birth control.’PHOTO: WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
“WASHINGTON—The House on Thursday passed a bill that would protect access to contraception on a federal level, as Democratic lawmakers say they fear the recent Supreme Court ruling ending the constitutional right to an abortion could endanger other protections.
The bill passed 228-195, with eight Republicans siding with Democrats, while two Republicans voted present. It follows another piece of legislation that passed this week to protect same-sex and interracial marriage, in which about four dozen Republicans joined Democrats in support.
Democrats are seen as the underdogs in November’s midterm elections in the House, and they have been rolling out a series of votes related to privacy rights. Many Republicans have accused Democrats of playing politics by setting up votes on rights that aren’t in danger and crafting bill text that GOP lawmakers can’t accept due to concerns about abortion or other issues.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Army recruiting crisis results in soldier shortage, record enlistment bonuses
The Army faces the worst recruiting environment since the all-volunteer force was created in 1973. The shortfall in soldiers comes as the Pentagon sends troops to reinforce NATO after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February. One cause of the crisis is that the attractive civilian job market and a shrinking pool of qualified candidates has left the Army critically short of the young people it needs to fill its ranks and perform vital tasks. To entice recruits, the Army is offering $50,000, its highest bonus ever, for recruits who commit to six-year enlistments. Read more at USA Today
Soldiers of the US Army stand in front of a turreted self-propelled howitzer (M109 Paladin) during the 'Dynamic Front 22', the US Army led NATO and Partner integrated annual artillery exercise in Europe, in Grafenwoehr, near Eschenbach, southern Germany, on July 20, 2022.CHRISTOF STACHE, AFP via Getty Images
Data: AAA; Chart. Jacque Schrag/Axios
“Falling gas prices are a political relief for President Biden and Democrats, but there is no guarantee the relief will last through the fall, Ben Geman writes in Axios Generate.
The national average has plummeted by nearly 60¢ since breaching $5-per-gallon in mid-June, per AAA, though costs remain high.
It's $4.41 today.
What's happening: Future oil and gas prices are notoriously hard to game out, and this moment is especially heavy on wild cards. But analysts see the possibility of another price spike in the months ahead, even though markets have loosened up somewhat. Two key risks:
Tightening European sanctions and other efforts to cut Russia's fossil fuel exports windfall — steps that could slash production there.
An active hurricane season could produce powerful storms that hit the Gulf Coast.” Read more at Axios
“The Department of Justice announced charges against three people on Thursday accused of trading on privileged information about which tokens Coinbase would list on its cryptocurrency exchange.
‘Our message with these charges is clear: fraud is fraud is fraud, whether it occurs on the blockchain or on Wall Street,’ U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said.
Why it matters: Coinbase is the dominant exchange in the U.S., which is the dominant market for cryptocurrency in the world. A listing on Coinbase has provided a guaranteed boost in the price of any cryptocurrency or token, so knowledge about which cryptocurrencies it would add was extremely privileged.
The complaint was made in collaboration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which released a corresponding announcement Thursday.
What they're saying: ‘In nearly a year, the defendants collectively earned over $1.1 million in illegal profits by engaging in an alleged insider trading scheme that repeatedly used material, nonpublic information to trade ahead of Coinbase listing announcements,’ Carolyn Welshhans, of the SEC's cyber unit, said in a release.
Details: Ishan Wahi, 32, of Seattle, served as a product manager at Coinbase, assigned to the asset listing team. As such, he had access to internal deliberations about which tokens would be listed on the exchange.
According to the announcement, he collaborated with his brother, Nikhil Wahi, 26, also of Seattle, and an associate, Sameer Ramani, 33, of Houston, to make purchases of tokens ahead of the announced listings in order to sell them at a profit.
The Wahis were arrested Thursday morning in Seattle. Ramani, who has also been charged, remains at large.
Ishan Wahi was charged with two counts of wire fraud conspiracy and two counts of wire fraud. His brother and Ramani were charged with one count each.
According to the announcement, Ishan Wahi attempted to flee the country when Coinbase asked him to come in for an interview in May, but he was detained by law enforcement.
The indictment details trades on several tokens, including TRIBE, XYO, ENS and POWR.
The indictment credits a Twitter user with detecting the purchases. Without citing the specific users, it provides an extensive quote, which appears to be this tweet from ‘Cobie’ (formerly known as ‘Crypto Cobain,’ real name Jordan Fish).
Between the lines: The SEC appears to be using this indictment to make a case that several of the tokens in question are securities and therefore under their jurisdiction. Its announcement noted that those accused had ‘allegedly purchased at least 25 crypto assets, at least nine of which were securities.’
Zooming out: The case here is basically the same as the one against former OpenSea employee Nate Chastain, who was arrested in early June.
In both cases, employees traded on privileged knowledge of a major platform driving a fresh level of attention to a particular asset.
The bottom line: ‘We are not concerned with labels, but rather the economic realities of an offering,’ Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in a statement.” Read more at Axios
“ISTANBUL (AP) — Russia and Ukraine were expected to sign an agreement Friday that would allow Ukraine to resume grain shipments to world markets and Russia to export grain and fertilizers, ending a standoff that threatened world food security while the two countries are at war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian and Russian military delegations reached a tentative agreement last week on a United Nations plan that would enable Ukraine to export 22 million tons of desperately needed grain and other agricultural products that have been stuck in Black Sea ports due to the war.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan planned to oversee the signing of the agreement in Istanbul. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, were the expected signatories, according to their governments.
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but Russia’s invasion of the country and naval blockade of its ports have halted shipments. Some grain is being transported through Europe by rail, road and river, but the prices of vital commodities like wheat and barley have soared during the nearly five-month war.” Read more at AP News
A destroyed grain silo in the Donbas region of Ukraine on May 25. Photographer: Alex Chan/LightRocket
“Russia's Ukraine war effort is running ‘out of steam’ and Russia has lost its ability to spy in Europe ‘by half,’ according to the chief of Britain's foreign intelligence service. ‘I think our assessment is that the Russians will increasingly find it difficult to supply manpower material over the next few weeks,’ Richard Moore, the head of MI6, told CNN. ‘They will have to pause some way and that will give the Ukrainians opportunities to strike back.’ In addition, the European Council hit Russia with new restrictive measures today, preventing another major Russian bank from conducting transactions outside of the country. Separately, the Russian government today expanded its list of ‘unfriendly foreign states,’ adding Greece, Denmark, Slovenia, Croatia and Slovakia.” Read more at CNN
“Security forces in Sri Lanka raided the main anti-government protest camp in the capital early on Friday, arresting protesters and dismantling tents.
Hundreds of troops and police commandos moved on the protesters outside the presidential offices in Colombo, hours before they were due to leave the area.
A BBC video journalist was beaten by the army and one soldier snatched his phone and deleted videos.
Nine people, including two who are injured, have been arrested by police.” Read more at BBC
“RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A raid of Rio de Janeiro’s largest complex of favelas that left at least 18 people dead has sparked renewed complaints of excessive police violence and ignited debate over how to handle crime ahead of state and presidential elections.
Rio authorities said 16 suspected criminals were killed in confrontations with police in Complexo do Alemao favela, or low-income community, along with a police officer and an woman. The raid targeted a criminal group that stole cars and robbed banks, and invaded nearby neighborhoods.
Videos circulating on social media showed intense shootouts between criminals as well as a police helicopter flying low over the small, brick houses. Rio’s police have used helicopters to shoot at targets, even in densely populated residential areas, and video showed shots being fired from the favela at the aircraft.” Read more at AP News
“Snap vote | Italy will hold an early election on Sept. 25, with a bloc led by Giorgia Meloni’s nationalist Brothers of Italy currently leading in the polls. President Sergio Mattarella officially dissolved parliament yesterday after Mario Draghi resigned as prime minister. While the center-right coalition is expected to win the most seats, negotiations inside the alliance could take weeks to be resolved.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Seven trees memorializing people who died at Buchenwald during the Holocaust were chopped down on Tuesday near the former concentration camp outside Weimar, Germany, in what the International Committee of Buchenwald Dora called a ‘horrible act of vandalism.’
The foundation that runs the Buchenwald memorial complex announced the news on Twitter. The trees were part of the 1,000 Beeches project, an effort to plant trees along the 118-mile route that prisoners from Buchenwald were forced to march in April 1945 when the Nazis tried to evacuate the camp as U.S. forces closed in, according to the charity in charge of the project. ‘Buchenwald’ is the German word for ‘beech forest.’
One of the trees honored the 1,600 children who died at Buchenwald, the foundation said. The other trees that were cut down each honored a former prisoner and were planted by relatives of those prisoners in 2015. In a statement, the International Committee of Buchenwald Dora condemned the vandalism and said it was ‘deeply outraged.’” Read more at New York Times
“Trade spat | Mexico could be hit with as much as $30 billion in tariffs if it loses a trade spat with the US and Canada, according to two former officials who negotiated the pact under which the dispute was raised. Washington and Ottawa have requested dispute settlement talks under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, arguing that Mexico is violating the North American free trade deal with its moves to prioritize energy from its state utility over private renewables companies.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Brazil’s presidential race. On Thursday, Brazil’s Workers Party officially nominated former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as its candidate in the Oct. 2 presidential election. Even though he leads incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro by a healthy margin in polls, Lula has chosen former São Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin, a centrist, as his running mate to widen his appeal outside his left-wing base.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Colombia’s drug war. Six of Colombia’s top criminal gangs have proposed a cease-fire to the incoming government of President-elect Gustavo Petro, who said he would begin peace talks with the groups once in office as part of his rethinking of the country’s war on drugs.
‘We cannot be indifferent to the clamor of Colombian society and the thinking of its democratically elected president, in order to achieve the desired peace with social justice, among other things,’ the six groups, including the Clan del Golfo, the Caparros, and the Rastrojo said in a statement.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“A brewery and pub in Germany is offering beer in exchange for cooking oil, as the country faces a shortage of sunflower and rapeseed oil due to the war in Ukraine and Russia sanctions. The Giesinger Brewery in Munich is offering a liter (around 33 ounces) of beer for a liter of oil, and has so far received 400 liters of oil as part of the deal. ‘The whole thing came up because we simply ran out of oil in the kitchen and that’s why we have to be inventive,’ the pub manager, Erik Hoffmann, told Reuters TV. ‘Getting oil is very difficult … if you need 30 liters a week and only get 15 instead, at some point you won’t be able to fry a schnitzel any longer,’ Hoffmann said.” Read more at Foreign Policy
Image caption, Ricky Martin, pictured at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year
“A Puerto Rico judge has lifted a restraining order taken out against Ricky Martin by a family member who had claimed the singer harassed him.
The man withdrew a domestic violence complaint he filed earlier this month in which he alleged Martin refused to accept the end of their relationship.
Martin had denied the man's claims.
Reacting to the judge's decision on Thursday, Martin said he had been the ‘victim of a lie’ and that it was now ‘time for me to heal’.
A judicial spokesperson said the order has been ‘archived’, in other words it is now closed.” Read more at BBC
“A Michigan woman who sued a man for $10,000 for standing her up on a date got into a heated argument with a judge in a scene captured on video. According to the claim filed in Michigan's 67th District Court of Genesee County, the experience caused her emotional distress because the date fell on her late mother's birthday.” Read more at USA Today
QaShontae Hosomla Short, filed a $10,000 lawsuit on Sept. 10, 2020 in Michigan against Richard Jordan after she said he stood her up for a date.Fox 29
“NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Shonka Dukureh, who played Big Mama Thornton in this year’s movie about Elvis Presley, was found dead Thursday in a bedroom at her home in Nashville, police said. She was 44.
Nashville police said there were no signs of foul play. Autopsy results are pending from the medical examiner.
Dukureh, a Fisk University graduate and Nashville singer, shared the apartment with her two young children, police said. One of the children found her unresponsive and went to the apartment of a neighbor, who called 911 shortly before 9:30 a.m., police said.” Read more at Time
“Noah Lyles set the American record to win 200 the meter world title at the World Track and Field Championships.” Read more at USA Today
Noah Lyles celebrates winning gold in the men's 200m.Ezra Shaw, Getty Images
“Kyler Murray gets his deal: The Arizona Cardinals quarterback had been clear he desired a new contract, and yesterday the team obliged with a five-year, $230.5 million deal ($160 million guaranteed). It’s the second-highest average annual value ($46.1 million) in N.F.L. history.” Read more at New York Times
“Lives Lived: Werner Reich was a frightened 16-year-old prisoner at Auschwitz when a fellow inmate, a magician, taught him a card trick. It changed his life. He died at 94.” Read more at New York Times