October 26, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Amy Wang & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows must testify before a Georgia grand jury investigating Republican efforts to reverse the 2020 presidential election results in the state, a South Carolina judge ruled Wednesday. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) has said that her inquiry is examining 'the multistate, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.' Because Meadows does not live in Georgia, she could not subpoena him to testify but filed a petition in August for him to do so. South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Edward Miller ruled Wednesday that Meadows must comply with a subpoena as his testimony is 'material and necessary to the investigation and that the state of Georgia is assuring not to cause undue hardship to him.'... An attorney for Meadows said Wednesday there is a possibility of an appeal or additional legal action." CNN's report is here.

Florida. Minyvonne Burke of NBC News: Ron Smith "spent over a decade fighting Florida laws that required the use of helmets [when riding a motorcycle], and represented a number of clients who violated state motorcycle requirements.... Smith, an experienced rider, was killed on Aug. 20 after he lost control of his motorcycle and crashed into a utility trailer. His girlfriend, Brenda Volpe, was his passenger and also died.... A medical examiner said Smith and Volpe died from head trauma, the Times reported. The accident report noted that neither was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash...."

Michigan. Joanna Slater of the Washington Post: "A jury on Wednesday convicted three men of aiding a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in a case that deepened concerns about the spread of right-wing extremism and potential violence directed at politicians. The three men -- Joseph Morrison, Paul Bellar and Pete Musico -- were found guilty in state court of providing material support for terrorist acts, possessing a firearm while committing a felony and being members of a gang. They face up to 20 years in prison." The AP report is here.

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Guardian: "The US president, Joe Biden, and Britain's new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, agreed during talks on Tuesday to work together to support Ukraine and stand up to China, the White House said. They spoke for the first time a few hours after Sunak became Britain's third prime minister this year, inheriting an economic crisis after the resignation of Liz Truss.... Only in recent days has Biden appeared to publicly criticise Truss's doomed economic strategy, in a rare intervention by the US president.... The White House said Biden and Sunak also agreed to 'address the challenges posed by China', which Washington has identified as its top geopolitical and economic rival on the world stage."

The Deal That Wasn't. Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "As President Biden was planning a politically risky trip to Saudi Arabia this summer, his top aides thought they had struck a secret deal to boost oil production through the end of the year -- an arrangement that could have helped justify breaking a campaign pledge to shun the kingdom and its crown prince. It didn't work out that way.... American officials said that, even days before the OPEC Plus decision, they had received assurances from the crown prince there would be no production cuts -- and when they learned of the Saudi reversal they made a futile last-ditch push to change minds in the royal court.... The outcome has been another low point in America's tumultuous ties with Saudi Arabia."

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "Two senior Social Security officials who exposed massive, unprecedented fines imposed on disabled and poor elderly people -- prompting multiple inquiries and halting the practice -- now say they've faced ongoing backlash from their supervisors for speaking out. Joscelyn Funnié and Deborah Shaw, veteran attorneys in the Social Security Administration's inspector general's office, were removed from their jobs and placed on paid leave after expressing concerns about the fines, then eventually reinstated. But since returning to work under Inspector General Gail Ennis, they said they have been excluded from meaningful assignments, given tasks below their experience and abilities, shut out of meetings and collaboration with colleagues, and denied opportunities for advancement. Their claims are echoed in contemporaneous emails with management officials and backed up by two senior officials familiar with their work climate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.... "[The retaliatory measures are] all common tactics and they're all illegal," said Tom Devine, legal director of Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit group that represents whistleblowers in Washington."

Alan Feuer & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to force the two top lawyers in Donald J. Trump's White House to provide additional grand jury testimony as prosecutors seek to break through the former president's attempts to shield his efforts to overturn the 2020 election from investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors filed a motion to compel testimony from the two lawyers, Pat A. Cipollone and Patrick F. Philbin, last week. They told Beryl A. Howell, a judge in Federal District Court in Washington who oversees grand jury matters, that their need for the evidence the men could provide should overcome Mr. Trump's claims that the information is protected by attorney-client and executive privilege, the people said." CNN's report is here.

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Advisors to ... Donald Trump are hoping they talked him out of the idea of complying with a subpoena from the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol because they fear his testimony would result in perjury charges.... One of Trump's advisors told Rolling Stone the message aides sent to the former president was, 'absolutely f*cking not.'"

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The seditious conspiracy trial of members of the Oath Keepers charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol resumed Tuesday after Stewart Rhodes, founder of the extremist group, waived his right to be present in federal court after testing positive for the coronavirus in jail. Rhodes, 56, speaking by telephone from jail to the courthouse in D.C., waived his constitutional right to be present for testimony of eight government witnesses who his attorneys said were less critical to his defense because they would speak to events inside the Capitol, which Rhodes is not accused of entering. The move ... could prevent the government from completing its case Friday as prosecutors planned."

     ~~~ Marie: The article doesn't indicate whether or not Rhodes has been vaccinated. If not (and he's the kind of guy who be a "not"), it seems to me Rhodes could be sidelined for a long time.

Sravasti Dasgupta of the (U.K.) Independent, republished by Yahoo! News: "Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has issued a threat to Anthony Fauci, saying the president's chief medical adviser and his entire family are going to 'suffer' after the midterm elections next month. 'On 8 November, when we destroy the Democratic party as a national political institution and really end the regime, the hunted become the hunters. The whole Fauci family is going to be welcome to the investigations. The entire family,' Mr Bannon said on his War Room podcast on Sunday.... 'Remember, War Room was taken off Twitter because of comments I made about, wait for it, [FBI director] Christopher Wray and Anthony Fauci that their day was coming... they took the War Room account off Twitter. Paybacks across the board on all that, a big move,' Mr Bannon said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Now, let's get that straight. Dr. Fauci's family is going to "suffer paybacks" because Bannon made incendiary remarks about Dr. Fauci. I'm having a little trouble seeing how that makes a lick of sense.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The leak of his draft majority opinion overruling Roe v. Wade put the Supreme Court justices in the majority at risk of assassination, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said during wide-ranging remarks in a public interview on Tuesday at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative legal group.... Justice Alito took issue with criticism of the court's legitimacy in the wake of the Dobbs decision.... "Someone also crosses an important line when they say that the court is acting in a way that is illegitimate.....'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Alito doesn't understand the difference between (1) making a decision based on his own personal preferences & medieval rationales to rescind human rights & endanger millions and (2) making a decision based on sound legal & moral reasoning & established precedent.

Michael de la Merced, et al., of the New York Times: "Adidas said on Tuesday that it is cutting ties with Kanye West, ending what may have been the most significant corporate fashion partnership of the rapper and designer's career after he made a series of antisemitic remarks and embraced a slogan associated with white supremacists that earned him widespread condemnation." (Also linked yesterday.)

November Elections

President Joe Biden in a CNN opinion column: "Over the past nearly two years, we have made enormous progress. My administration, working with Democrats in Congress, is building an economy that grows from the bottom up and middle out. The unemployment rate is 3.5% -- a 50-year low. We've created 10 million jobs, including almost 700,000 manufacturing jobs. On my watch, 'Made in America' isn't just a slogan, it's a reality.... But all of our progress is at risk. The American people face a choice between two vastly different visions for our country. Republicans in Congress are doubling down on mega, MAGA trickle-down economics that benefit the wealthy and big corporations. They've laid their plan out very clearly. It would raise your costs and make inflation worse." And so forth.

Patrick Marley, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Republican National Committee and its allies say they have staged thousands of training sessions around the country on how to monitor voting and lodge complaints about next month's midterm elections.... Supporters of former president Donald Trump who falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen have summoned a swarm of poll watchers and workers in battleground states to spot potential fraud this year. It is a call to action that could subject voting results around the country to an unprecedented level of suspicion and unfounded doubt.... The appeal from GOP figures who deny the results of the last presidential vote has created a dilemma for election officials, who rely on ordinary citizens to do the grunt work of democracy -- checking in voters, for instance, or opening absentee ballots -- but now fear some of those who show up could become agents of disruption."

Alaska Senate. Eugene Scott & Leigh Ann Caldwell of the Washington Post: "The Alaska Republican Party voted Monday to censure Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a gesture with no practical consequence but one that is intended to send a strong signal to conservative voters in the state to vote for Donald Trump-backed candidate Kelly Tshibaka over Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski. The McConnell-aligned super PAC Senate Leadership Fund has spent more than $5 million in ads attacking Tshibaka in a bid to help Murkowski win reelection."

Florida Senate, etc. Matt Shuham & Christopher Mathias of the Huffington Post: "The Florida Republican Party paid thousands of dollars over the summer to a far-right activist who attended the white nationalist 'Unite the Right' rally in 2017 and later charged at a crowd of anti-racist demonstrators with a Confederate flag. Christopher Monzon was paid more than $10,000 by the party between June and September, federal campaign finance records show.... Monzon was in the news Monday after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted that 'one of our canvassers' had been attacked in Hialeah -- a conservative and predominantly Cuban-American city in Miami-Dade County -- 'by 4 animals who told him Republicans weren't allowed in their neighborhood.'... A Hialeah Police Department spokesperson told Local 10 News

     ~~~ Marie: It seems to me some thugs got into a street fight & the Nazi/KKK guy lost, after which Marco has chosen to make "Republicans" victims. The HuffPost story makes clear that Marco is right to identify a white supremacist thug with the GOP.

New York Governor. Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Michael Gold of the New York Times: "In their only scheduled debate, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York and her challenger, Representative Lee Zeldin, quarreled intensely on Tuesday over divisive issues such as rising crime and abortion access, while accusing each other of corruption and dangerous extremism. Mr. Zeldin, who has spent his campaign trying to appeal to voters’ dissatisfaction with the status quo, went on the attack from the get-go, frequently raising his voice as he channeled a sense of outrage, especially around crime. Ms. Hochul, a Buffalo-area Democrat vying for her first full term, took a more measured approach that fit her insistence that the state needs a steady hand to lead it."

Pennsylvania Senate. Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Five months after a stroke nearly took his life, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania, clashed with Dr. Mehmet Oz on Tuesday in their one and only debate, disagreeing sharply over abortion, the economy and other partisan issues as Mr. Fetterman tried to assure voters of his fitness to serve.... The debate was held under unusual conditions. Situated above the moderators were two 70-inch monitors to show the text of what was being said in close to real time -- for both questions and answers. Professional typists were on hand to try to transcribe the debate as part of an agreed-upon accommodation for Mr. Fetterman, who has publicly discussed his lingering auditory processing issues after the stroke. Mr. Fetterman's words were frequently halting, and it was apparent when he was delayed in either reading or reaching for a phrase or word. But he was also fluent enough over the course of the hour to present his Democratic vision for a state that could determine control of the Senate." ~~~

     ~~~ Nick Visser of the Huffington Post: "Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, said Tuesday that discussions about abortion access should be left to women, doctors and 'local political leaders.'... Oz has walked a fine line with his anti-abortion stance throughout the campaign in hopes of appealing to moderate Pennsylvanians. Leaked audio from earlier this year, however, sparked controversy after Oz was recorded saying abortion at any stage of pregnancy was 'still murder.'" MB: That's right, little lady; even a famous teevee doctor says you need your local politicians to help you make your healthcare decisions. Oh, and evidently counsel from your partner & loved ones is unnecessary. Because local political leaders.

Beyond the Beltway

California. Mike Ives of the New York Times: "The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating whether a secretly recorded conversation between [among!] three City Council members and a labor leader that included racist insults and slurs was made illegally, Chief Michel Moore said on Tuesday. The leaked audio, recorded last year and made public this month, prompted calls from across the nation for those involved to resign and highlighted racial tensions in Los Angeles.... Chief Moore said that all four people captured on the leaked audio had approached the department on Friday to request an investigation. They told the department that they had been 'unlawfully and surreptitiously recorded,' he added."

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 Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Wednesday are here: "Russia is set to begin annual nuclear exercises Wednesday involving large-scale drills of its strategic forces. While the drills are routine, President Vladimir Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons since the war in Ukraine began. At a closed-door U.N. Security Council meeting, Western diplomats denounced Russia's unfounded claim that Ukraine plans to use a 'dirty bomb' on its own soil as misinformation.... Ukrainian citizens residing abroad should not return home for the winter, one of the country's deputy prime ministers said, citing the need to save energy from power facilities recently crippled by Russian strikes.... Ukrainian forces continued their advance against Russia's military in the southern Kherson region, pushed back Russian mercenaries from Bakhmut in eastern Donetsk and gained new momentum in Luhansk.... A Russian anti-war group has claimed responsibility for an explosion on a railway near the Russia-Belarus border this week, Britain's Defense Ministry said Wednesday.... New British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke with [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelensky in a phone call Tuesday 'to underline the United Kingdom's steadfast support for Ukraine,' according to a statement from Sunak's office."

Liberal Democrats Make Fools of Themselves. Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Progressive House Democrats on Tuesday retracted their call for President Biden to engage in direct diplomatic talks with Russia over a Ukraine cease-fire, an abrupt retreat that exposed Democratic divisions and the first public hints of dissent in Congress over the war. What began this summer as an effort among liberal Democrats to persuade Mr. Biden that he had political support to pursue diplomacy for ending the conflict imploded on Tuesday after an extraordinary 24 hours. First came a letter from the liberal Congressional Progressive Caucus pressing the president to seek a 'rapid end to the conflict,' then href="https://progressives.house.gov/2022/10/congressional-progressive-caucus-chair-reaffirms-support-for-ukraine-clarifies-call-for-diplomacy">a clarifying statement to respond to a hail of criticism from other Democrats, and ultimately a complete retraction as members of the group scrambled to distance themselves from their own missive, grasping for someone else to blame." Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ David Stern & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Members of Ukraine's political elite rejected demands by some congressional Democrats for negotiations with Russia to end the war, saying this was 'not a viable option,' after a group of liberals called on President Biden to push Kyiv for direct talks with Moscow. The Ukrainians said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had closed off any possibility of negotiations by illegally declaring the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, and that the Russians, who are facing repeated setbacks on the battlefield, would use any cease-fire to rebuild their strength and then resume Putin's plan to steal Ukrainian territory and destroy Ukraine as a nation." (Also linked yesterday.)

Maite Simon of the Washington Post: "A Russian court rejected U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner's appeal against her nine-year prison sentence on drug charges Tuesday. The basketball star has been imprisoned since her Feb. 17 arrest, after she was accused of entering Russia with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which her lawyers said was prescribed as part of treatment for chronic pain and other conditions." An NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Israel/Palestine. Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Israeli forces carried out a major raid against a Palestinian militia in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday, killing a leader of the group and four other men, according to members of the militia and Palestinian officials.... Many Palestinians have championed the group's fighters as popular heroes.... Israel has blamed the [militia known as the] Lions' Den for a rise in shootings that it says are aimed at its troops and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including one that killed a soldier this month. It said that it had killed the group's leader, Wadie al-Houh, in an exchange of gunfire, adding that he was the main target of the raid and was responsible for producing bombs and obtaining weapons for the group." (Also linked yesterday.)

U.K. Megan Specia of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Rishi Sunak mapped out his new cabinet on Tuesday with a flurry of announcements showcasing mostly familiar faces who have served in previous Conservative Party governments, reinforcing his desire for stability during one of Britain's most fraught political moments. Mr. Sunak drew on lawmakers who had held prominent positions before to fill the most senior positions, including a number of people who were cabinet members during his predecessor Liz Truss's seven-week tenure. He signaled his strategy with his very first appointment, choosing to keep Jeremy Hunt as chancellor of the Exchequer."

~~~ Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "On Tuesday, in a carefully choreographed sequence of events..., [King Charles III] invited the new leader of the Conservative Party, Rishi Sunak, to form a government. It was at that exact moment -- and not before -- that Sunak became prime minister of the United Kingdom.... Britain is a constitutional monarchy and one of the few powers that the monarch has left is the ability to appoint the prime minister. In theory, the king could exert some personal choice; in practice, he automatically appoints the person who can command a majority in the House of Commons. (The last time a monarch exercised any real discretion was in 1931, when King George V convinced a prime minister not to resign.)... The monarch and the prime minister meet weekly, currently on Wednesdays, to discuss matters of state. There is no one else in the room...."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "A Wisconsin jury found Darrell E. Brooks Jr. guilty of first-degree intentional homicide during a Christmas parade attack in November 2021 that killed six people. Brooks slammed an SUV into a crowd at a Christmas parade near Milwaukee. He injured at least 48 others. The 40-year-old was found guilty on all intentional homicide and reckless endangerment charges, as well as six counts of hit-and-run causing death, two counts of bail jumping and one count of misdemeanor battery, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Each homicide count carries a mandatory life sentence, according to the Associated Press. Each of his 61 counts of reckless endangerment carries a maximum sentence of 17 1/2 years in prison." The AP's report is here.

Cringeworthy News. Washington Post: An Indonesian woman was killed & swallowed whole by a 22-foot python Sunday. "A search team killed the reptile and sliced open its stomach, where they discovered Jahrah's remains completely intact." ~~~

~~~ On a somewhat related note, this Washington Post article tells you what to do if you encounter a bear. Bottom line: if you are in an area when you may meet a bear, carry bear spray, AND this rule-of-thumb: "If the bear is black, fight back. If the bear is brown, lie down."

October 25, 2022

Late Morning Update:

David Stern & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Members of Ukraine's political elite rejected demands by some congressional Democrats for negotiations with Russia to end the war, saying this was 'not a viable option,' after a group of liberals called on President Biden to push Kyiv for direct talks with Moscow. The Ukrainians said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had closed off any possibility of negotiations by illegally declaring the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, and that the Russians, who are facing repeated setbacks on the battlefield, would use any cease-fire to rebuild their strength and then resume Putin's plan to steal Ukrainian territory and destroy Ukraine as a nation." Related story linked below.

Michael de la Merced, et al., of the New York Times: "Adidas said on Tuesday that it is cutting ties with Kanye West, ending what may have been the most significant corporate fashion partnership of the rapper and designer's career after he made a series of antisemitic remarks and embraced a slogan associated with white supremacists that earned him widespread condemnation."

Israel/Palestine. Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Israeli forces carried out a major raid against a Palestinian militia in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday, killing a leader of the group and four other men, according to members of the militia and Palestinian officials.... Many Palestinians have championed the group's fighters as popular heroes.... Israel has blamed the [militia known as the] Lions' Den for a rise in shootings that it says are aimed at its troops and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including one that killed a soldier this month. It said that it had killed the group's leader, Wadie al-Houh, in an exchange of gunfire, adding that he was the main target of the raid and was responsible for producing bombs and obtaining weapons for the group."

Russia. Maite Simon of the Washington Post:"A Russian court rejected U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner's appeal against her nine-year prison sentence on drug charges Tuesday. The basketball star has been imprisoned since her Feb. 17 arrest, after she was accused of entering Russia with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which her lawyers said was prescribed as part of treatment for chronic pain and other conditions." An NBC News story is here.

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Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors investigating ... Donald J. Trump's handling of national security documents he took with him from the White House have ratcheted up their pressure in recent weeks on key witnesses in the hopes of gaining their testimony, according to two people briefed on the matter.... A key focus for prosecutors is Walt Nauta, a little-known figure who worked in the White House as a military valet and cook when Mr. Trump was president and later for him personally at Mar-a-Lago.... At the same time, the prosecutors are trying to force a longtime aide and ally to Mr. Trump, Kash Patel, to answer questions before a grand jury about how the documents were taken to Mar-a-Lago and how Mr. Trump, his aides and his lawyers dealt with requests from the government to return them.... Mr. Patel refused to answer many questions this month before a grand jury in Washington hearing evidence about Mr. Trump's handling of the documents, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination...."

Ariane de Vogue & Tierney Sneed of CNN: "Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday agreed to temporarily freeze a lower court order requiring the testimony of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham in front of an Atlanta-area special grand jury that is investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state. Thomas acted alone because he has jurisdiction of the lower court that issued the original order. Thomas' move is an administrative stay that was most likely issued Monday to give the Supreme Court justices more time to consider the dispute. The court has asked for a response from the Georgia investigators by Thursday." MB: Yeah, I think he asked Ginny what to do. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "As a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol during the January 6 attack in a desperate attempt to keep him in the Oval Office, Ted Cruz hid in a closet next to a stack of chairs, but he never thought twice about continuing to sow doubt about the former president's electoral defeat, the Republican senator from Texas has revealed.... Cruz said ... some [of his fellow senators] blam[ed] him and his allies in the chamber 'explicitly for the violence that was occurring'.... While we waited for the Capitol to be secured, I assembled our coalition in a back room (really, a supply closet with stacked chairs) to discuss what we should do next, Cruz continued.... Cruz said several of those in his coalition wanted to suspend their objections to the certification.... But ... 'I urged my colleagues that the course of action we were advocating was the right and principled one.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

The Collaborator. Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A former police officer charged with obstruction for telling a Jan. 6 rioter to remove a Facebook post about being in the U.S. Capitol testified Monday that he was 'embarrassed' about having spoken to the man, who he claims duped him about his level of involvement in the attack. Michael Riley, who sent messages to Jan. 6 rioter Jacob Hiles shortly after the insurrection, when he was a U.S. Capitol Police officer, told jurors Monday that he believed Hiles when Hiles posted that he was forced into the Capitol by the pro-Trump mob.... Riley was charged in October 2021 and resigned from the department that month; the details of his departure and his current status have been concealed from jurors." Riley sent his advice to Hiles in a private message, and Riley later deleted the message.

Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: "In 2015, the financier Thomas J. Barrack Jr. agreed to support his old friend Donald J. Trump's long-shot presidential campaign because he sensed an opportunity in his career's twilight to 'weave a web of tolerance' in the Middle East. The result was 'disastrous,' Mr. Barrack told a jury Monday in Brooklyn's federal court, where he took the witness stand in his own defense on charges that he acted as an undisclosed agent for the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Trump's ban on Muslim immigrants and support for a blockade of Qatar alienated Mr. Barrack's longtime friends and business partners in Middle East, said Mr. Barrack.... The administration's near-constant 'drama' made investors skittish about Mr. Barrack's companies, he testified. Then the investigators came calling."

Zoe Richards of NBC News: "A pair of right-wing provocateurs pleaded guilty Monday to telecommunications fraud stemming from robocalls made shortly before the 2020 election. Jacob Wohl, 24, and Jack Burkman, 56, each pleaded guilty to one felony count, a spokesperson from the Cuyahoga County [Ohio] Prosecutor's Office confirmed. Both men were indicted in October 2020 on eight counts of telecommunications fraud and seven counts of bribery in connection with trying to influence voters through robocalls on Aug. 26, 2020, that included disinformation about mail-in voting ahead of the November election.... Prosecutors said more than 8,100 of the robocalls went to phone numbers of residents in Cleveland and East Cleveland.... Burkman, of Arlington, Virginia, and Wohl, of Irvine, California, have been accused of trying to dissuade 85,000 voters in urban areas across the country, through robocalls that included misinformation about mail-in voting leading up to the 2020 election in Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania and other states." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Rachel Maddow played one of the robocalls last night, and it really was intimidating; a woman with a sweet voice said she was calling to warn "urban voters" that information they provided on their mail-in ballots would be used against them by local law enforcement.

Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post reviews the interview techniques Bob Woodward used is talking with Donald Trump. Interesting.

Lauren Lumpkin & Sahana Jayaraman of the Washington Post: "In March 2021, the Biden administration released the federal government's largest pool of pandemic relief for public schools. The American Rescue Plan infused campuses with $122 billion to reopen buildings, address mental health needs and help students who had fallen behind academically.... But ... school systems throughout the country reported spending less than 15 percent of the federal funding.... The trend of a slow rollout was especially apparent in some of the school districts that have incurred the steepest learning losses in English and math, according to the data.... The vast majority of funds have already been committed to 'critical needs,' ... and will be spent over the next two years.... Many expenses, such as staff salaries, can only be drawn down gradually, officials added."

Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Two Chinese intelligence officers tried to bribe a US law enforcement official as part of an effort to obtain inside information about a criminal case against the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment unsealed on Monday. The announcement of charges against the two alleged agents came as attorney general Merrick Garland detailed two other cases in which Chinese intelligence operatives harassed dissidents inside the United States and pressured US academics to work for them.... Washington has long accused Beijing of meddling in US politics and attempting to steal intellectual property. But the move to unmask the espionage operation marked an escalation by the justice department after it accused Huawei in February 2020 of conducting racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets."

I believe that there is a right to privacy. I think it's settled as part of the liberty clause of the 14th Amendment and the Fifth Amendment. -- Judge Sam Alito, to Ted Kennedy, 2005 ~~~

~~~ Confederate Justices Are Big Fat Liars. John Farrell of the New York Times: In 2005, Judge Samuel Alito told Sen. Ted Kennedy that he considered Roe v. Wade settled law & that he recognized the right to privacy on which it is based. When, in 2022, Alito wrote the Dobbs decision, overturning Roe, he wrote, "Roe was egregiously wrong from the start." "In a case similar to Mr. Kennedy's, Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who supports abortion rights, said she felt betrayed by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who in seeking her support as a court nominee in 2018 persuaded her that he was no threat to Roe."

Uh, Maybe Not the Best Defense. Meghann Cuniff of Law & Crime: "A defense lawyer for Harvey Weinstein told jurors Monday that the once-renowned movie producer regularly engaged in 'transactional sex' with women looking to break into Hollywood, part of a widely accepted 'casting couch' culture.... 'You'll learn that in Hollywood, sex was a commodity.... Everyone did it.... Because each wanted something from another,' Mark Werksman said in his opening statement. The sex 'may have been unpleasant' and 'might be embarrassing,' Werksman said, but it was consensual.... 'He's not Brad Pitt or George Clooney. Do you think those beautiful women had sex with him because he's hot? No. They did it because he was powerful,' Werksman said.... Two others who accuse him are lying about consensual encounters, Werksman said, including Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). If Siebel Newsom wasn't married to the governor and pushing herself as a leader in the #MeToo movement, 'she'd be just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: SAG should sue Werksman for asserting that "unpleasant, embarrassing" sex with an unattractive man is fine because it's a valid part of a job application, and women who work in film are bimbos. Just disgusting.

Scott Dance of the Washington Post: "Researchers amassed data on food production and its impacts on the Earth including disturbances to wild-animal habitats, water use and pollution, and contribution to planetary warming. Their findings reveal what types of food production have the greatest consequences, and where. The study published in the journal Nature Sustainability -- which examined nearly 99 percent of all food production on land and sea as reported to the United Nations in 2017 -- offers a new way to evaluate what to eat and how to feed the world, according to its lead author, Ben Halpern, a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara.... Five countries account for nearly half of all food system impacts: India, China, the United States, Brazil and Pakistan." MB: Kinda makes you feel like not eating. At all.

November Elections

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been racing to cities across the country "in a grueling, nonstop push for campaign money to hang on to her embattled House majority.... This could well be Ms. Pelosi's final trip around the track as party leader.... Since assuming the party's House leadership in 2002, she has brought in $1.25 billion for Democrats, according to a party tally, including $42.7 million in the third quarter of this year alone. Her haul so far this election cycle is $276 million, reaped at more than 400 events. Just this month, she has visited more than 20 cities."

Florida. Bridgette Matter of WPLG-TV Miami: "'Last night one of our canvassers wearing my T-shirt and a (DeSantis) hat was brutally attacked by (four) animals who told him Republicans weren't allowed in their (Hialeah) neighborhood,' [Sen. Marco] Rubio tweeted late Monday morning. 'He suffered internal bleeding, a broken jaw & will need facial reconstructive surgery.'" MB: Looks as if Marco is trying to make himself a victim of vicious Democrats. It turns out there was only one person who attacked his campaign worker and police have not determined that the motive was political. Another person came out to help the canvasser/victim. Plus, it's a bit hard to believe the "victim" was entirely blameless; at a political rally in 2017, he "was wearing a shirt that said 'League of the South.' [Police then accused him of] of jabbing a flag, containing a Confederate design, at people. At the time, he faced charges of aggravated assault, inciting a riot and disorderly conduct." The League of the South is a neo-Confederate hate group. ~~~

     ~~~ Oh, and at a rally on Sunday, Rubio said of the incident, "It's always important to have details. We're not like these other people that always jump to conclusions...."

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "A former Minneapolis police officer who helped to pin George Floyd down as he gasped for air under the knee of another officer pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday, forgoing a trial in exchange for an agreement to drop a more serious murder charge. J. Alexander Kueng, a rookie officer..., placed his knee on Mr. Floyd for several minutes in May 2020 while Mr. Floyd protested that he could not breathe and eventually lost consciousness.... Mr. Kueng, who also is Black, is already serving a three-year prison sentence in the federal case, after a jury convicted him of failing to provide aid or to intervene as another officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on Mr. Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes. Mr. Kueng had knelt on Mr. Floyd's torso." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michigan. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "A Michigan teenager [Ethan Crumbley] calmly confessed in court on Monday to killing four fellow students and injuring seven others during a shooting rampage at his high school last November.... As the families of victims listened in the crowded Oakland County courtroom, the defendant, now 16, also made a disclosure that could play a role in his parents' pending criminal case on charges of involuntary manslaughter: The gun, he said, 'was not locked.' The defense attorneys for the teenager's parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were not immediately available for comment. But they had previously said that the gun was secured. The parents have pleaded not guilty." (Also linked yesterday.)

Texas. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "The man who sold a gun to a British national who used the weapon to take four people hostage at a Texas synagogue in January was sentenced on Monday to nearly eight years in prison, the Justice Department said. The man, Henry Dwight Williams, 33, who had previously been convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, pleaded guilty in June to being a felon in possession of a firearm in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas, prosecutors said. Mr. Williams sold the pistol to Malik Faisal Akram two days before Mr. Akram used it to take four people hostage inside Congregation Beth Israel of Colleyville, a Fort Worth suburb, on Jan. 15, the Justice Department said. Mr. Akram, 44, was killed by an F.B.I. hostage-and-rescue team after a harrowing 11-hour ordeal, during which one hostage was released and the three others escaped unharmed."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's liveblog for Tuesday is here. The Guardian's summary report is here.~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Tuesday are here: "Russia apparently intends to raise at the U.N. Security Council its unfounded accusation that Ukraine is planning to use a 'dirty bomb' -- an explosive weapon designed to scatter radioactive material -- on its own soil. Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya, in a letter to the council that was seen by Reuters, urged Western nations 'to exert their influence' on Kyiv to prevent what he called a potential 'act of nuclear terrorism.'... A Moscow court has begun hearing [Brittney] Griner's appeal. Her lawyers previously said the WNBA star -- who appeared in court Tuesday via video link from detention outside the Russian capital -- isn't expecting 'miracles.' A judgment is expected later in the day.... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is in Croatia for a summit organized by Ukraine to discuss the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.... Russia has lost over a quarter of its fleet of attack helicopters in the war, Britain's Defense Ministry said."

Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "A group of 30 House liberals is urging President Biden to dramatically shift his strategy on the Ukraine war and pursue direct negotiations with Russia, the first time prominent members of his own party have pushed him to change his approach to Ukraine. A letter sent by the group to the White House on Monday, first reported by The Washington Post, could create more pressure on Biden as he tries to sustain domestic support for the war effort, at a time when the region is heading into a potentially difficult winter and Republicans are threatening to cut aid to Ukraine if they retake Congress.... Many Democrats fiercely pushed back on the letter...."

United Kingdom

The Guardian's liveblog of the transfer of power to a new prime minister is here. It includes most of the content of new PM Rishi Sunak's first speech. Also a photo of Sunak's audience with King Charles.

William Booth & Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Liz Truss's tenure as Britain's shortest-serving prime minister came to an end Tuesday, after 49 days in office, and Rishi Sunak's premiership began, as he picked up responsibility for Britain's battered economy and deeply divided politics.... Truss held her last cabinet meeting and made a defiant final statement outside 10 Downing Street before she submitted her resignation to King Charles III. Sunak will follow her to Buckingham Palace and ask permission to form a government in a ceremony known as 'kissing hands.' Sunak will return to Downing Street around 11:35 a.m. and deliver his first remarks as prime minister -- as the first person of color and first Hindu to hold the role. Expect a flurry of cabinet announcements as he seeks to form a government...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The other day, Ken W. noted in the Comments thread that it's unlikely an American president would resign to get back to writing his book about Shakespeare, as Boris Johnson reputedly has done. (Okay, Boris actually resigned to vacation in the Caribbean, but let's not quibble.) Anyway, I guess Liz thought she would one-up Boris by citing Seneca: "As the Roman philosopher Seneca wrote, 'it is not that things are difficult that we do not dare, it's because we do not dare, that it is difficult.'" But then. "She stumbled somewhat over Seneca's name." (I didn't see how one could stumble on the name Seneca, but she did.) The oddest thing about her little speech, though, was that she spoke as if she had been a normal PM for a normal term in office.

Peter Walker & Rowena Mason of the Guardian: "Rishi Sunak has become the new Conservative leader and will be prime minister after Penny Mordaunt followed Boris Johnson in withdrawing from the running, minutes before the party was due to announce how many MPs had backed each candidate. In an apparent acknowledgment that she had not reached the necessary 100 MP threshold to progress, two minutes before the nomination process closed at 2pm, Mordaunt tweeted that she had pulled out, and that Sunak had her 'full support'. Five minutes later, Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, formally announced the result: 'I can confirm that we have one valid nomination, and Rishi Sunak is elected as leader of the Conservative party.' He will formally take over as prime minister from Liz Truss, most likely on Tuesday, after meeting the king at Buckingham palace, at which point Truss would have served 50 days in the job. It is understood the king is travelling back to London from his Sandringham estate in Norfolk on Monday afternoon." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Richer AND More Powerful than the King. Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Rishi Sunak is one of the wealthiest people in Britain and will soon be the most powerful when he becomes prime minister. This may be the first time in history that the residents of Downing Street are richer than those of Buckingham Palace.... Sunak, a former banker, and his wife, Indian tech heiress Akshata Murty, have an estimated fortune of about 730 million pounds ($830 million), according to the Sunday Times Rich List. On this year's list, published before her death, Queen Elizabeth II was estimated to have about 370 million pounds ($420 million) by comparison. The couple's money comes primarily from Murty's stake in her father's company, Infosys.... Earlier this year, Sunak's wife was at the center of a tax scandal after it emerged that she had been filing in the United Kingdom as a 'non-domiciled' resident, which allowed her to avoid paying British taxes on the substantial income she earned abroad. The family had been living at 10 Downing Street, in the apartment designated for Britain's finance minister.... In the last leadership election this summer, they circulated a video clip from a 2007 BBC documentary in which he suggests he doesn't have any 'working-class friends.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Ashton B. Carter, an academic physicist who later climbed the leadership ranks at the Pentagon, culminating in two years as secretary of defense under President Barack Obama, a position he used to further open the military to women and transgender service members, died on Monday in Boston. He was 68."

October 24, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Ariane de Vogue & Tierney Sneed of CNN: "Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday agreed to temporarily freeze a lower court order requiring the testimony of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham in front of an Atlanta-area special grand jury that is investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state. Thomas acted alone because he has jurisdiction of the lower court that issued the original order. Thomas' move is an administrative stay that was most likely issued Monday to give the Supreme Court justices more time to consider the dispute. The court has asked for a response from the Georgia investigators by Thursday." MB: Yeah, I think he asked Ginny what to do.

Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "As a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol during the January 6 attack in a desperate attempt to keep him in the Oval Office, Ted Cruz hid in a closet next to a stack of chairs, but he never thought twice about continuing to sow doubt about the former president's electoral defeat, the Republican senator ... has revealed.... Cruz said ... some [of his fellow senators] blam[ed] him and his allies in the chamber 'explicitly for the violence that was occurring'.... While we waited for the Capitol to be secured, I assembled our coalition in a back room (really, a supply closet with stacked chairs) to discuss what we should do next, Cruz continued.... Cruz said several of those in his coalition wanted to suspend their objections to the certification.... But ... 'I urged my colleagues that the course of action we were advocating was the right and principled one.'

Michigan. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "A former Minneapolis police officer who helped to pin George Floyd down as he gasped for air under the knee of another officer pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday, forgoing a trial in exchange for an agreement to drop a more serious murder charge. J. Alexander Kueng, a rookie officer..., placed his knee on Mr. Floyd for several minutes in May 2020 while Mr. Floyd protested that he could not breathe and eventually lost consciousness.... Mr. Kueng, who also is Black, is already serving a three-year prison sentence in the federal case, after a jury convicted him of failing to provide aid or to intervene as another officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on Mr. Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes. Mr. Kueng had knelt on Mr. Floyd's torso."

Michigan. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "A Michigan teenager [Ethan Crumbley] calmly confessed in court on Monday to killing four fellow students and injuring seven others during a shooting rampage at his high school last November.... As the families of victims listened in the crowded Oakland County courtroom, the defendant, now 16, also made a disclosure that could play a role in his parents' pending criminal case on charges of involuntary manslaughter: The gun, he said, 'was not locked.' The defense attorneys for the teenager's parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were not immediately available for comment. But they had previously said that the gun was secured. The parents have pleaded not guilty."

Peter Walker & Rowena Mason of the Guardian: "Rishi Sunak has become the new Conservative leader and will be prime minister after Penny Mordaunt followed Boris Johnson in withdrawing from the running, minutes before the party was due to announce how many MPs had backed each candidate. In an apparent acknowledgment that she had not reached the necessary 100 MP threshold to progress, two minutes before the nomination process closed at 2pm, Mordaunt tweeted that she had pulled out, and that Sunak had her 'full support'. Five minutes later, Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, formally announced the result: 'I can confirm that we have one valid nomination, and Rishi Sunak is elected as leader of the Conservative party.' He will formally take over as prime minister from Liz Truss, most likely on Tuesday, after meeting the king at Buckingham palace, at which point Truss would have served 50 days in the job. It is understood the king is travelling back to London from his Sandringham estate in Norfolk on Monday afternoon." ~~~

~~~ Richer & More Powerful than the King. Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Rishi Sunak is one of the wealthiest people in Britain and will soon be the most powerful when he becomes prime minister. This may be the first time in history that the residents of Downing Street are richer than those of Buckingham Palace.... Sunak, a former banker, and his wife, Indian tech heiress Akshata Murty, have an estimated fortune of about 730 million pounds ($830 million), according to the Sunday Times Rich List. On this year's list, published before her death, Queen Elizabeth II was estimated to have about 370 million pounds ($420 million) by comparison. The couple's money comes primarily from Murty's stake in her father's company, Infosys.... Earlier this year, Sunak's wife was at the center of a tax scandal after it emerged that she had been filing in the United Kingdom as a 'non-domiciled' resident, which allowed her to avoid paying British taxes on the substantial income she earned abroad. The family had been living at 10 Downing Street, in the apartment designated for Britain's finance minister.... In the last leadership election this summer, they circulated a video clip from a 2007 BBC documentary in which he suggests he doesn't have any 'working-class friends.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

When you compare Trump's cons with the $50 trillion that the GOP has swindled out of the American working class and given to the top 1 percent since 1980, Trump looks like a piker. -- Thom Hartmann ~~~

~~~ Thom Hartmann discusses the impact of Lewis Powell's infamous memo (1971) that sounded the alarm about how liberals were on the verge of destroying capitalism. He also mentions a Supreme Court decision Powell wrote -- Bank of Boston v. Bellotti -- "which defined the free speech right of corporations." MB: Hartmann is a black-and-white thinker, so he tends to exaggerate & oversimplify, but he's usually on the right track. For instance, here's something from his essay I can go along with 100%: "... here we have Republican politicians acting on behalf of rightwing billionaires as they are spending mind-boggling amounts of time, effort, and money promoting 'solutions' to a problem that doesn't exist." That, IMO, is the fundamental GOP policy prescription. From that, all else flows. And it is, as Hartmann writes, the biggest con in American history. Thanks to RAS for the link.

Sarah Mervosh & Ashley Wu of the New York Times: "U.S. students in most states and across almost all demographic groups have experienced troubling setbacks in both math and reading, according to an authoritative national exam released on Monday, offering the most definitive indictment yet of the pandemic's impact on millions of schoolchildren. In math, the results were especially devastating, representing the steepest declines ever recorded on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation's report card, which tests a broad sampling of fourth and eighth graders and dates to the early 1990s.... The picture was mixed, and performance varied by grade level and subject matter in ways that were not always clear cut.... '... The results in today's nation's report card are appalling and unacceptable,' said Miguel Cardona, the secretary of education. 'This is a moment of truth for education. How we respond to this will determine not only our recovery, but our nation's standing in the world.'"

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "This week will drive home [a] stark reversal of fortune [for Donald Trump's businesses] as the company faces a highly public reckoning: a criminal trial in Manhattan, where the district attorney's office will accuse it of tax fraud and other crimes.... The trial in State Supreme Court will present an embarrassing scene for the former president.... This case centers on special perks doled out by the former president's business, the Trump Organization, which comprises a universe of more than 500 corporate entities. Last year, the district attorney's office accused two of those entities -- The Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corp. -- of awarding off-the-books benefits like rent-free apartments and leased luxury vehicles to a few top executives who failed to pay taxes on the perks. As jury selection begins on Monday, the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, appears to have the upper hand. The Trump Organization's 75-year-old chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, recently pleaded guilty to conspiring with the two corporations to carry out the scheme -- and agreed to testify at their trial, tipping the case in favor of Mr. Bragg, a Democrat." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Some crap reporting here: (1) Trump cannot be embarrassed. As he famously said, not paying taxes "makes me smart." (2) Bragg's party affiliation has nothing to do with the fact that Trump's company (allegedly) cheated on taxes.

Hope Yen of the AP: "The [House January 6] committee is demanding [Donald] Trump's testimony under oath next month as well as records relevant to its investigation. To avoid a complicated and protracted legal battle, Trump reportedly had told associates he might consider complying with the subpoena if he could answer questions during live testimony.... Rep. Liz Cheney on Sunday ... said the committee would not allow Trump's testimony to turn into a 'food fight' on TV -- much as was seen, she said, in Trump's broadcast appearances such as one of his 2020 presidential debates -- and she warned that the committee will take action if he does not comply with the subpoena. 'We are going to proceed in terms of the questioning of the former president under oath,' Cheney, R-Wyo., said on 'Meet the Press' on NBC. 'It may take multiple days, and it will be done with a level of rigor and discipline and seriousness that it deserves. We are not going to allow -- he's not going to turn this into a circus.'" ~~~

~~~ Olivia Olander of Politico: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi goaded ... Donald Trump on the airwaves Sunday, saying she doesn't think he'll testify for the committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. 'I don't think he's man enough to show up,' Pelosi (D-Calif.) told MSNBC's 'The Sunday Show' host Jonathan Capehart in a wide-ranging interview. She also suggested Trump's lawyers might not want him to show up, since he would be testifying under oath and possible penalty of perjury."

Bob Woodward in the Washington Post: "In more than 50 years of reporting, I have never disclosed the raw interviews or full transcripts of my work. But after listening again to the 20 interviews I conducted with ... Donald Trump during his last year as chief executive, I have decided to take the unusual step of releasing them. I was struck by how Trump pounded in my ears in a way the printed page cannot capture." MB: The point of this article is to promote Woodward's audio book. If you click on the audio button at the right of the screen, you can hear excerpts. I turned it on, then turned it right off. Listening to the grating, nagging voice of a whining braggart is too much.

Sam Jones of the Guardian: "Salman Rushdie has lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand after the attack he suffered while preparing to deliver a lecture in New York state two months ago, his agent has confirmed. The 75-year-old author, who received death threats from Iran in the 1980s after his novel The Satanic Verses was published, was stabbed in the neck and torso as he came on stage to give a talk on artistic freedom at the Chautauqua Institution on 12 August."

Monica Alba of NBC News: "President Joe Biden will get the updated Covid-19 shot Tuesday after he delivers remarks about the pandemic and the administration's efforts to get people in the U.S. boosted, a White House official said."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Monday are here: "The United States, Britain and France rejected as 'transparently false' claims by Moscow's defense minister that Ukraine is preparing to use a 'dirty bomb' -- explosive weapons designed to widely disperse radioactive material -- on its own territory with Western help, characterizing the claims as an attempt by Moscow to create a pretext for escalating the conflict.... 'Ukrainian efforts to defeat' Iranian-made drones used by Russia on the battlefield 'are increasingly successful,' the British Defense Ministry said, citing claims by [President] Zelensky that Ukrainian forces are intercepting up to 85 percent of the unmanned aerial vehicles' attempted strikes.... Ukraine still faces widespread power outages and cuts after Russian strikes pummeled the country's energy infrastructure in recent days."

U.K. The New York Times is running a liveblog of developments in Britain's Conservative party effort to quickly come up with a new prime minister. Mark Landler: "Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor of the Exchequer, was poised to become Britain's next prime minister as soon as Monday, after Boris Johnson pulled out of the race to succeed Liz Truss on Sunday evening." ~~~

~~~ Bye-bye, BoJo. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Boris Johnson pulled out of the race to succeed Liz Truss as Britain's prime minister on Sunday evening, leaving Rishi Sunak, his former chancellor of the Exchequer, with a commanding lead in the contest to be Britain's next leader.... Mr. Johnson's decision ends a feverish couple of days in which he mounted a lively bid to reclaim the job he gave up three months ago amid a cascade of scandals. The former prime minister's campaign never gained momentum, however, as prominent members of the Conservative Party threw their support to Mr. Sunak as a better option to try to reunite a deeply divided party." The AP's story is here. (Also linked late yesterday.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "Leslie Jordan, a comic actor who after a late start in his performing career became a recognizable face from roles on numerous television shows, most notably 'Will & Grace,' then achieved even more fame during the pandemic when his quirky homemade videos attracted millions of Instagram followers, died on Monday in a car crash in Hollywood, Calif. He was 67."

Washington Post: "A man opened fire at a St. Louis high school Monday morning, leaving a teenage girl and an adult woman dead and several others wounded before being fatally wounded by police, according to school and police officials. The shooting was reported shortly after 9 a.m. at the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, a specialty school of about 400 students known as CVPA, in the southwestern corner of the city. Police arrived a couple of minutes later to find students running from the building and reporting that the man had a long gun, according to Michael Sack, the St. Louis Police commissioner."