;)
September 28, 2022
Afternoon Update:
How Dumb Is Trump? Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "As president, Donald Trump weighed bombing drug labs in Mexico[, Maggie Haberman writes in a new book,] after one of his leading public health officials came into the Oval Office, wearing a dress uniform, and said such facilities should be handled by putting 'lead to target' to stop the flow of illicit substances.... White House officials said the official, Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir, often wore his dress uniform for meetings with Trump, which confused him. [MB: Giroir is a pediatrician, not a military admiral.] 'The response from White House aides was not to try to change Trump's view, but to consider asking Giroir not to wear his uniform to the Oval Office anymore,' Haberman writes...." This article is full of answers to "How dumb is Trump" and "How narcissistic is Trump?"
Uh-Oh. How Dumb Is Biden? John Wagner of the Washington Post: "In his remarks Wednesday at a White House hunger conference, President Biden searched the audience for former congresswoman Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.).... Walorski died in a car crash in early August. She was one of four lawmakers who sponsored bipartisan legislation to hold the conference.... Asked later about Biden's comments, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Walorski had been 'top of mind' for Biden because he is planning to see her family Friday at a signing ceremony for a bill that renames a veterans clinic after her. In August following Walorski's death, Biden and first lady Jill Biden issued a statement extending their condolences, saying they 'appreciated her partnership' on facilitating the conference on hunger."
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Marie: I linked stories this morning up until about 9:15 am ET. If you stopped by earlier, you might want to scan the page again.
Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to move forward with a temporary spending package needed to keep the federal government running past Friday, drawing closer to averting a shutdown after Democrats dropped an energy proposal that had drawn bipartisan opposition. Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, had tucked the energy measure into the must-pass bill to fulfill a promise Democratic leaders made privately to Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, in exchange for Mr. Manchin's vote last month for the party's major climate, tax and health care law. But the inclusion of the proposal, which would make it easier to build oil, gas, solar and wind infrastructure around the country, had rankled lawmakers in both parties and complicated the perennial autumn push on Capitol Hill to keep the government funded past the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year." This is an update of a story linked yesterday.
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell endorsed a bill on Tuesday to overhaul how Congress counts electoral votes to confirm the results of a presidential election, significantly enhancing the prospects of enacting the most substantial legislative response yet to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The support from Mr. McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and minority leader, represented a substantial break with his party in the House, where all but nine Republicans opposed a similar measure that passed last week. It came as the Senate Rules Committee delivered an overwhelming bipartisan vote to send the legislation to the floor."
Claudia Grisales of NPR: "The House Jan. 6 committee is postponing its ninth public hearing on its investigation -- originally scheduled for Sept. 28 at 1 p.m. ET -- because of Hurricane Ian. The hearing, when rescheduled, could conclude its presentations of investigative findings before a final report due later this year."
** Violence Was Always the Plan. Luke Broadwater, et al., of the New York Times: "Shortly after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, as authorities began arresting people across the country in connection with the violence, the political operative Roger J. Stone Jr. started texting with a lawyer representing ... Donald J. Trump in his second impeachment trial, seeking a pardon. 'There will be mass prosecutions,' Mr. Stone wrote to David I. Schoen, the lawyer.... Could Mr. Schoen 'plug' his pardon request the next time he spoke to the president? The text messages are part of a trove of video evidence Danish filmmakers have turned over to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, which also shows Mr. Stone threatening violence and spelling out plans to fight the election results. Some of the material was expected in the panel's next hearing, which ... was postponed abruptly on Tuesday afternoon.... The footage shows Mr. Stone using bellicose language and laying out plans to create and exploit uncertainty about the election results to help Mr. Trump cling to power. 'Fuck the voting,' he says at one point with a laugh. 'Let's get right to the violence. Shoot to kill.'... Christoffer Guldbrandsen, the filmmaker who followed Mr. Stone off and on for more than three years, said he had provided the panel with clips they 'specifically requested,' but turned down similar requests from the F.B.I., because he didn't want to work with law enforcement."
Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "Senior leadership at the Secret Service confiscated the cellphones of 24 agents involved in the agency's response to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and handed them over to the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general, according to two sources with knowledge of the action. The agency handed over the phones 'shortly after' a July 19 letter was sent by Inspector General Joseph Cuffari's office around the time he launched a criminal probe into the Secret Service's missing text messages from Jan. 6, the sources said.... The revelation that Cuffari's office has had access to the phones since late July or August raises new questions about the progress of his criminal investigation into the missing text messages and what, if anything, the public may be able to learn about communications between agents on Jan. 6, 2021.... Some members of Congress and, most recently, some of Cuffari's employees have called his leadership into question." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A federal judge delivered a blistering rebuke of Republican Party leaders Tuesday for what she said was a cynical attempt to stoke false claims of election fraud of the kind that fueled the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said ... Donald Trump had turned his lies about the election into a litmus test for Republican candidates and that 'high-ranking members of Congress and state officials' are 'so afraid of losing their power' that they won't contradict him. That fealty, she said, comes even as law enforcement and judges involved in cases related to the former president are facing unprecedented threats of violence.... 'The judiciary ... has to make it clear: It is not patriotism, it is not standing up for America to stand up for one man -- who knows full well that he lost -- instead of the Constitution he was trying to subvert,' said Jackson, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama.... 'Some prominent figures in the Republican Party ... are cagily predicting or even outright calling for violence in the streets if one of the multiple investigations doesn't go his way,' Jackson said. The judge's tough remarks came as she delivered a sentence to Jan. 6 defendant Kyle Young, who pleaded guilty to assaulting D.C. Police Officer Michael Fanone in some of the most brutal violence that occurred during the attack on the Capitol." ~~~
~~~ Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A Donald Trump fan who brought his teenage son along as he assaulted then-D.C. police officer Mike Fanone and another officer at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was sentenced to more than seven years in prison on Tuesday. Kyle Young, a 38-year-old HVAC worker from Iowa whose lawyer said was he 'injected' with lies about the 2020 election and who had asked his Facebook followers to join him at the "stop the steel [sic]" rally, pleaded guilty in May to a felony count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers.... As discovered by online sleuths, the government argued that Young handed a taser to Danny Rodriguez, a MAGA fanatic who used it to electroshock Fanone in the neck on Jan. 6. Young, trailed by his 16-year-old son, was right nearby as Rodriguez electroshocked Fanone, extensive video evidence shows." Prosecutors had previously said Young stole Fanone's badge & buried it in his back yard. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "In court Tuesday, [former officer Mike] Fanone directly confronted his attacker, telling [Kyle] Young, 'I hope you suffer. The assault on me by Mr. Young cost me my career," Fanone said. 'It cost me my faith in law enforcement and many of the institutions I dedicated two decades of my life to serving.'... Young has a long criminal history. While in prison for producing meth, he faced repeated sanctions for violence."
Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: "A butcher from Maine who wore a personalized white work coat as he attacked police officers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was convicted Tuesday morning of six felonies and five misdemeanors after a trial where three officers testified they feared for their lives at points during the massive riot. Kyle B. Fitzsimons, 39, of Lebanon, Maine..., [was convicted in a] bench trial before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras. After hearing testimony from the three officers in mid-August, but not from Fitzsimons, Contreras elected to deliberate on his verdict for more than a month. The judge then laid out his precise reasoning for guilty findings on each of the counts, including felonies such as obstruction of an official proceeding, using a dangerous or deadly weapon on officers and inflicting bodily injury on officers."
Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "The newest addition to ... Donald Trump's legal team, Chris Kise, has been sidelined from the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation less than a month after he was brought on to represent Trump in the matter, two sources familiar with the move tell CNN. Kise is expected to remain on Trump's legal team but is not leading the work related to the federal government's investigation into how the former President handled 11,000 documents seized from his Florida home in August.... Kise's hiring came with an unusual price tag of $3 million, paid for by Trump's outside spending arm. The retainer fee, paid upfront, raised eyebrows among other lawyers on Trump's team, given the former President has a developed a reputation for not paying his legal fees. His sidelining will likely be read as another setback for Trump as he faces multiple investigations.... The legal strategy for fighting the Justice Department following the August seizure of over 100 documents marked as classified was also in disarray." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Andrew Weissmann, Harry Litman & Lawrence O'Donnell speculated Tuesday that Kise had refused to make misrepresentations to special master Judge Raymond Dearie, who demanded last week that Trump's team produce by this Friday evidence that Trump had declassified certain documents & that the FBI had planted documents at Mar-a-Lago. Trump has made these accusations in public remarks, but his legal team has not made them in court & resisted Judge Dearie's earlier request that they prove Trump declassified some documents. Numerous pundits, on-air and off, have opined that Trump made a big mistake when he decided to sue for a special master.
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration is set to embark Wednesday on an ambitious effort to end hunger in the United States by the end of the decade, convening hundreds of policymakers, health activists, farmers and business leaders as it lays out a plan to make healthful food more accessible across the nation. The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health will be the first such gathering since 1969, when President Richard M. Nixon hosted a summit that aimed to 'put an end to hunger in America for all time.'"; MB: Gosh, maybe they should have asked Republican members of Congress & people like, say, former Mississippi governor Phil Bryant & ex-football star Brett Favre what they thought about such a plan. Sorry, but these folks are all-in on letting Americans starve.
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "President Biden warned on Tuesday that Republicans posed a threat to Social Security and Medicare, amplifying an effort by Democrats to make the fate of America's social safety net programs a central campaign issue ahead of November's midterm elections. The comments were part of a push by Democrats across the country to steer the political conversation away from soaring prices and growing recession fears and remind anxious voters that some Republicans have been calling for restructuring or scaling back entitlement programs that retirees have relied on for decades."
Michael Scherer, et al., of the Washington Post: "Top allies of Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, worked this spring to deny [Rep. Madison] Cawthorn [R-S.C.] a second term in office, after the Donald Trump-endorsed lawmaker made controversial comments about cocaine use and sex parties in Washington that led McCarthy to announce he had 'lost my trust,' according to multiple Republicans briefed on the effort, which has not been previously reported.... Targeting Cawthorn was part of a larger behind-the-scenes effort by top GOP donors and senior strategists to purge the influence of Republican factions that seek disruption and grandstanding, often at the expense of their GOP colleagues.... The allies close to McCarthy have sometimes taken steps to conceal their efforts, as they did in the Cawthorn case.... The Bakersfield, Calif., Republican[, i.e., McCarthy,] has recently embraced some of the most far-right members of his caucus, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), whose committee assignments he plans to restore if Republicans win the House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Collin Binkley of the AP: "A libertarian group in California filed a legal challenge to President Joe Biden's plan for student debt cancellation on Tuesday, calling it an illegal overreach that would increase state tax burdens for some Americans who get their debt forgiven. The lawsuit, believed to be the first targeting Biden's plan, was filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a Sacramento legal advocacy group. It was filed in federal court in Indiana, one of several states that plan to tax any student debt canceled by Biden's plan." The Washington Post's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Salvatore Rizzo of the Washington Post: "A Maryland couple accused of trying to sell military secrets to a foreign country pleaded guilty for the second time Tuesday, weeks after a federal judge threw out their previous agreements with prosecutors, deeming those deals too lenient. Jonathan Toebbe, 43, a civilian engineer for the Navy with a top-secret security clearance, and Diana Toebbe, 46, a private-school teacher in their hometown of Annapolis, now face lengthier prison terms under revised plea agreements with federal prosecutors. Their sentencing dates are pending.... Diana Toebbe now faces a sentence of at least 12½ years, and Jonathan Toebbe faces more than 21 years in prison."
Beyond the Beltway
Arkansas. Only English-Speakers Need Vote Here. Antoinette Grajeda of the Arkansas Advocate: "Language poses a big challenge for voters with limited English proficiency in Arkansas, where ballots are only printed in English.... Federal law requires counties or cities where more than 10,000 or over 5% of voting-age citizens who are non-English-speaking to provide ballots in a limited number of languages -- Spanish, Asian and Native American languages. The Census Bureau determines which jurisdictions are subject to the law's requirement for translated ballots. Advocates for non-English-speaking groups and voting rights 'contend the federal threshold is too high and does not cover enough languages, leaving voters in many immigrant communities unable to fully understand election materials,' according to a May article in Stateline, a publication of the Pew Charitable Trusts.... No political subdivision in Arkansas is required to provide translated materials under that section of the Voting Rights Act." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Florida. DeSantolini Appointed the Only White Gadsden County Commissioner. Excellent Choice. Matt Dixon of Politico: "A Gadsden County [Florida] Commissioner appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis abruptly resigned last week after pictures allegedly showing him in a Ku Klux Klan outfit started to circulate, according to Gadsden County Sheriff Morris Young. Young said that the pictures were brought to him last Tuesday and multiple people told him the pictures were of Gadsden County Commissioner Jeff Moore. He said when he approached Moore about the pictures, Moore did not deny it was him.... 'He told me it was a costume.'... When DeSantis appointed Moore he was the only non-Black member of the county commission." Sheriff Young is Black. Both DeSantis & Young said they were busy with hurricane preparations & would address this later. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Moore took office in early August 2022. He replaced a Black commissioner, who retired.
Mississippi -- Is Corrupt. Rick Maeseof the Washington Post: "Mississippi's widening welfare scandal involves tens of millions of dollars and has embroiled the state's former governor [Phil Bryant (R)], Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre and professional wrestlers, among others. Organizations such as Operation Shoestring, and the at-risk populations that rely on those funds, continue to feel the sting.... While Favre, 52, has been linked to just a small fraction of the government money alleged to have been misused by state officials, he has emerged as a public face of the scandal.... But many in Mississippi stress that attention shouldn't be focused solely on the former quarterback.... Even before the scandal came to light, Mississippians have struggled to access money [provided through the federal government's TANF program to help needy people].... A Mississippi state audit in 2020 found more than $94 million in federal welfare funds that had been subject to suspect spending. An independent audit a year later confirmed most of the findings and, hampered by a lack of cooperation, said it was unable to discern whether nearly $77 million in spending was permissible." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) was a compromise cooked up by Bill Clinton & Newt Gingrich to replace Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Central to TNAF is that, unlike AFDC -- which directly gave aid to needy families under several programs -- TANF gave the money, in the form of block grants, to the states to administer. And guess what?: "There's very little accountability with regard to how states must spend this money, so many states treat the program like a slush fund by diverting the funds to a range of other purposes...." Like building volleyball stadiums for college kids!
Ohio. Marty Schladen of the Ohio Capital Journal: "At least two more minors made pregnant by sexual assault were forced to leave Ohio to avoid having their rapists' babies, according to sworn affidavits filed by abortion providers. The affidavits were filed in Cincinnati as part of a lawsuit aimed at stopping the enforcement of Ohio's strict new abortion law. Originally paused for two weeks, the enforcement delay will be extended to at least Oct. 12. If true, the affidavits show that a 10-year-old from Columbus was not the only child or teen rape victim forced to leave the state. They also describe more than two dozen other instances in which the abortion law put women under extreme duress.... They ... include two women with cancer who couldn't terminate their pregnancies and also couldn't get cancer treatment while they were pregnant. Another three examples were of women whose fetuses had severe abnormalities or other conditions that made a successful pregnancy impossible. Even so, they couldn't get abortions in Ohio." ~~~
~~~ This New York Times story, by Allison McCann, estimates what it costs to get an abortion for those living in states where abortions are banned or mostly banned. The story does not show figures for Ohio.
Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Race. Allan Smith of NBC News: "State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, said in 2019 that women should be charged with murder if they violated his proposed abortion ban. In an interview with Pennsylvania radio station WITF, Mastriano was pressed about a bill he sponsored that would generally bar abortions when a fetal heartbeat could first be detected, usually around six weeks..., before many women know they are pregnant.... At last week's Pennsylvania March for Life, Mastriano called the battle over abortion rights 'the single most important issue, I think, in our lifetime.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: You may comfort yourself thinking Mastriano is just one crazy misogynist, but punishing women for obtaining abortions is a natural development in the devolution of healthcare law regarding American women. Trump himself, in 2016 -- before he got "schooled" in then-popular anti-woman language -- said "there has to be some form of punishment" for women who have abortions should abortions become illegal.
Texas. Julian Mark of the Washington Post: "Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) 'ran' from his home and took off in a truck with his wife, a state senator, when a process server showed up to the residence Monday morning to serve Paxton with subpoenas in an ongoing lawsuit, according to an affidavit filed later that day.... On Monday evening, Paxton addressed the process server's claims, writing on Twitter that, earlier in the day, he had been avoiding a 'stranger lingering outside my home' and was concerned for his and his family's safety. 'This is a ridiculous waste of time and the media should be ashamed of themselves,' Paxton wrote in response to the Texas Tribune, which earlier reported the story. 'All across the country, conservatives have faced threats to their safety -- many threats that received scant coverage or condemnation from the mainstream media.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Ed Lavandera, reporting on CNN, was a bit skeptical. If Kennie Boy was so concerned about his family's safety, why did he send his wife Angela out in the presence of the process server to rev up their Chevy Tahoe so he could hop in & Angela could drive him away from the dangerous invader? Also too, how come Ken never called local law enforcement to save the family in the course of the hour-and-a-half the menacing process server remained on the property?
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Wednesday are here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday are here: "Several European leaders said the explosions that caused leaks in the undersea natural gas pipelines appeared to be sabotage, as the E.U. put out a statement vowing to respond.... Norway said it would increase security around its oil and gas infrastructure, while Swedish, Danish and German authorities have all opened investigations into the blasts.... Pro-Russian officials from Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions say they are heading to Moscow to make arrangements for the territories' accession to Russia. Russia conducted staged referendums in four Ukrainian regions under Russian control this week.... Canada will impose sanctions on individuals and entities 'complicit' in annexation attempts, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.... The United States will put forward a U.N. Security Council resolution on the annexations, [U.N.] Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. Despite Russia's recent threats, there is 'no practical evidence' that the country plans to use nuclear weapons imminently, CIA Director William J. Burns said in an interview with CBS.... But the United States must nonetheless take [Vladimir Putin's] threats 'very seriously,' he said.... Italian far-right leader Georgia Meloni pledged 'loyal support' to Ukraine."
Where Have All the Young Men Gone? Marc Santora, et al., of the New York Times: "As the avenues for Russians to escape a draft order issued last week narrowed, the Federal Security Service sent armored vehicles to the frontiers, where some men waiting to flee were being served military call-up papers, the state news media reported. The rush to the borders began within hours of President Vladimir V. Putin's announcement last week of a military call-up affecting hundreds of thousands of Russians, and the flow has gotten only bigger since then." ~~~
~~~ Jared Gans of the Hill: "The U.S. embassy in Russia is urging Americans in the country to leave and warning U.S. citizens to not travel to Russia after ... Vladimir Putin ordered a call-up of 300,000 reservists to aid depleted forces in Ukraine. The embassy said in a security alert on Wednesday that Russia may prevent U.S. citizens from leaving the country and conscript dual nationals into military service."
Mary Ilyushina & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: ... Vladimir Putin's plan to illegally annex four partially occupied regions in eastern and southern Ukraine lurched forward Tuesday, as Russian officials and Kremlin proxy leaders claimed that staged referendums showed residents in favor of joining Russia by absurd margins of more than 95 percent. Defying international condemnation and threats of additional Western economic sanctions, Putin could declare Russia's absorption of the four regions -- Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia -- as soon as Friday, the British Defense Ministry said."
Melissa Eddy of the New York Times: "Explosions under the Baltic Sea and the rupture of major natural gas pipelines from Russia to Germany appeared to be a deliberate attack, officials across Europe said on Tuesday, deepening uncertainty about European energy security amid soaring prices and fears of running short of fuel over the winter. Three separate leaks erupted from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which were already caught up in the conflict over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, sending swirling streams of methane to the surface of waters off Denmark and Sweden. Top Polish and Ukrainian leaders blamed Moscow, while Russian state media suggested U.S. or Ukrainian involvement." ~~~
~~~ David Sanger & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The C.I.A. issued a vague warning in June to a number of European nations, including Germany, that the two Nord Stream gas pipelines that carry natural gas from Russia could be targeted in forthcoming attacks, three senior officials familiar with the intelligence said on Tuesday. The warning was not specific, the officials said, and they declined to say whether Russia itself was identified as a possible attacker.... Both pipelines suffered a sudden loss of pressure and released gas into the sea, European officials reported, and the chances that both suffered accidents nearly simultaneously seem low."
U.K. Eshe Nelson of the New York Times: "The Bank of England said on Wednesday that it would temporarily buy British government bonds, after the new government's fiscal plans roiled markets and sent borrowing costs soaring higher over the past few days. Bonds with long maturities have been particularly affected, the central bank said.... 'The purpose of these purchases will be to restore orderly market conditions,' the central bank said.... On Friday, the government's announcement of a sweeping plan to cut taxes and increase government borrowing, presented without an independent fiscal and economic assessment, sent investors fleeing from British assets. The pound fell to a record low against the U.S. dollar." MB: Why, it almost seems as if Liz Truss flubbed her new job, big-time. Hmm, it seems many Britons agree, as does the IMF: ~~~
~~~ Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Four days after [PM Liz] Truss's tax cuts and deregulatory plans stunned financial markets and threw the British pound into a tailspin, the prime minister's political future looks increasingly precarious as well. Her Conservative Party is gripped by anxiety, with a new poll showing that the opposition Labour Party has taken a 17 percentage point lead over the Tories. Labour is seizing the moment to present itself as the party of fiscal responsibility.... That Ms. Truss should find herself in this predicament so soon after taking office attests to both the radical nature and awkward timing of her proposals.... The International Monetary Fund, which bailed out Britain in 1976, added to the deepening sense of anxiety when it urged the British government to reconsider the tax cuts. In a statement, it said the cuts would exacerbate inequality and lead to fiscal policy and monetary policy working at 'cross purposes.' Already, the specter of higher interest rates was causing the housing market to seize up." ~~~
~~~ How Embarrassing! Larry Elliott of the Guardian: "Liz Truss and [new Chancellor of the Exchequer] Kwasi Kwarteng have taken on the economic orthodoxy. They have announced extra borrowing to pay for tax cuts. They have sacked the Treasury's top mandarin. They have insisted they will press on with their dash for growth despite a hostile reaction in the markets. Now the economic orthodoxy has struck back -- and in the most high-profile way possible: a public and stinging rebuke from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It is hard to overstate just how severe an embarrassment the dressing down from the IMF is for the government, which has been told to rethink last week's mini-budget. The blunt language used by the IMF spokesperson was the sort normally reserved for a struggling emerging market economy seeking financial support."
News Ledes
The Washington Post's live updates of Hurricane Ian developments are here. Access is free to nonsubscribers.
The New York Times' live updates of Hurricane Ian developments are here: "Ian passed west of the Florida Keys on Tuesday night and is expected to make landfall near Port Charlotte, just south of Sarasota." The path of its eye & ancipated track are on this NYT page. The page also shows counties with mandatory evacuation orders.
Washington Post: "As it gained strength Tuesday, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center called for Hurricane Ian to make landfall along Florida's southwest or west central coast between Wednesday afternoon and night as a major Category 4 storm. Hurricane conditions are forecast to be impacting Florida's Gulf Coast by Wednesday morning, so authorities urged residents to evacuate to higher ground and otherwise make sure they are prepared for the storm Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, conditions are expected to rapidly devolve, with threats of hurricane-force winds, flooding rain and a damaging ocean surge. The zone between Fort Myers and Sarasota, where computer models tend to show the storm coming ashore, may be most seriously affected."
Washington Post: "Government crews in Cuba were working to restore electricity Tuesday night after Hurricane Ian knocked out power to the entire island, authorities said. At least two people died in the cyclone, which crossed western Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane Tuesday en route to Florida, authorities said. Buildings and infrastructure in the western province of Pinar del Rio, where Ian made landfall early in the day, suffered major damage."
The Weather Channel's main page has links to numerous stories about Hurricane Ian.
New York Times: "The body of an American mountaineer whose daring achievements brought her acclaim among some of the world's most elite climbers was found Wednesday on a peak in Nepal, two days after she went missing, a government official said. Hilaree Nelson, 49, and her romantic and climbing partner, Jim Morrison, were attempting to ski down Manaslu, the world's eighth-highest peak, on Monday. An avalanche apparently blew her off a cliff onto the south face of the mountain, opposite of their intended route of descent, said Sachindra Yadav, an expedition liaison officer from the Gorkha district, which includes Manaslu." MB: People should stop doing this stuff.
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