The Ledes

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Washington Post: “Rescue teams raced to submerged homes, scoured collapsed buildings and steered thousands from overflowing dams as Helene carved a destructive path Friday, knocking out power and flooding a vast arc of communities across the southeastern United States. At least 40 people were confirmed killed in five states since the storm made landfall late Thursday as a Category 4 behemoth, unleashing record-breaking storm surge and tree-snapping gusts. 4 million homes and businesses have lost electricity across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, prompting concerns that outages could drag on for weeks. Mudslides closed highways. Water swept over roofs and snapped phone lines. Houses vanished from their foundations. Tornadoes added to the chaos. The mayor of hard-hit Canton, N.C., called the scene 'apocalyptic.'” An AP report is here.

The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
The Ledes

Friday, September 27, 2024

New York Times: “Maggie Smith, one of the finest British stage and screen actors of her generation, whose award-winning roles ranged from a freethinking Scottish schoolteacher in 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' to the acid-tongued dowager countess on 'Downton Abbey,' died on Friday in London. She was 89.”

The Washington Post's live updates of developments related to Hurricane Helene are here: “Hurricane Helene left one person dead in Florida and two in Georgia as it sped north. One of the biggest storms on record to hit the Gulf Coast, Helene slammed into Florida’s Big Bend area on Thursday night as a Category 4 colossus with winds of up to 140 mph before weakening to Category 1. Catastrophic winds and torrential rain from the storm — which the National Hurricane Center forecast would eventually slow over the Tennessee Valley — were expected to continue Friday across the Southeast and southern Appalachians.” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here.

Mediaite: “Fox Weather’s Bob Van Dillen was reporting live on Fox & Friends about flooding in Atlanta from Hurricane Helene when he was interrupted by the screams of a woman trapped in her car. During the 7 a.m. hour, Van Dillen was filing a live report on the massive flooding in the area. Fox News viewers could clearly hear the urgent screams for help emerging from a car stuck on a flooded road in the background of the live shot. Van Dillen ... told Fox & Friends that 911 had been called and that the local Fire Department was on its way. But as he continued to file the report, the screams did not stop, so Van Dillen cut the live shot short.... Some 10 minutes later, Fox & Friends aired live footage of Van Dillen carrying the woman to safety, waking through chest-deep water while the flooding engulfed her car in the background[.]”

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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Apr092023

April 9, 2023

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration is planning some of the most stringent auto pollution limits in the world, designed to ensure that all-electric cars make up as much as 67 percent of new passenger vehicles sold in the country by 2032, according to two people familiar with the matter. That would represent a quantum leap for the United States -- where just 5.8 percent of vehicles sold last year were all-electric -- and would exceed President Biden's earlier ambitions to have all-electric cars account for half of those sold in the country by 2030. It would be the federal government's most aggressive climate regulation and would propel the United States to the front of the global effort to lash the greenhouse gases generated by cars, a major driver of climate change." (Also linked yesterday.)

Republicans in Disarray, Ctd. Zachary Leeman of Mediaite: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is facing backlash from GOP lawmakers after the New York Times published a report suggesting the Republican was blaming his own leadership for the lack of a budget. According to the Times report this week, McCarthy reportedly said he doubted House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) could deliver a budget proposal, and he called Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) an 'ineffective' leader. McCarthy denied the accusation that his leadership team is not unified though.... The Times previously reported McCarthy had been 'trash talking' his GOP colleagues and compared the reported infighting to 'Mean Girls drama' playing out on Capitol Hill."

The Week That Is. Easter, according to the Gospel of Donald ~~~

The Week That Was. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "A surge of youthful activism powered major liberal victories in Wisconsin and Chicago and a boisterous legislative uprising in Tennessee this week, as Republicans absorbed a string of damaging political blows, beginning with the arraignment of their leading presidential contender on criminal charges in Manhattan.... To be sure, there were bright spots for Republicans: They won a special election giving them a supermajority in the Wisconsin Senate, which entails broad impeachment powers. And a Democrat's switch to the G.O.P. in the North Carolina House of Representatives handed Republicans a two-chamber legislative supermajority in the only Southern state where abortion is broadly legal, granting Republicans in Raleigh the ability to override the vetoes of Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat.... [BUT] 'The right wing understands that time is not on their side," said Representative Maxwell Frost, 26, a Florida Democrat who last year became the first member of Generation Z to be elected to the House." ~~~

~~~ Ditto. Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "Americans may be exhausted by the turmoil and chaos of the Trump years, but there seems no slackening or pulling back. Each event in the past week seemed to reinforce the overall stakes.... For Republicans, the past week's news was almost uniformly bad.... There are certain through-lines in all this. The issues around [Donald] Trump have been present since he first ran for president eight years ago. His message now as then touches chords of grievance, alienation and racism that had begun to emerge during Barack Obama’s presidency but which have burst out more dangerously since." ~~~

An Anti-abortion Screed Masquerading as a Judicial Opinion. Abbie VanSickle & Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "The dramatic dueling rulings by two federal district judges on Friday about access to a widely used abortion pill set up a lower court conflict that legal experts say will almost certainly send the dispute to the Supreme Court.... If the Texas case [outlawing the use of the abortion pill mifepristone] reaches the Supreme Court, it could have implications far beyond access to abortion pills. The court could be asked to consider the effects of the Texas ruling not only for abortion but also for the F.D.A.'s authority to approve and regulate other drugs.... In his ruling against the F.D.A.'s approval of mifepristone, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk] often used the language of the anti-abortion movement.... 'This does not read like a judicial opinion, it reads like an activist complaint,' [lawyer and professor of medicine] Dr. [Ameet] Sarpatwari said." ~~~

     ~~~ Rachel Cohen of Vox has quite a comprehensive explanation of the decisions, their immediate effects for pregnant women, and other lawsuits in the works. ~~~

~~~ Alice Ollstein of Politico: "Now, senators, representatives, state officials and advocacy groups are calling on President Joe Biden to defy the U.S. District Court judge [who banned mifepristone] and use his executive powers to protect the drugs' availability even before the case is heard by the conservative-leaning 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 'I believe the Food and Drug Administration has the authority to ignore this ruling, which is why I'm again calling on President Biden and the FDA to do just that,' Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Friday.... Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) ... [argued] that the 'deeply partisan and unfounded nature' of the court's decision undermines its own legitimacy and the White House should 'ignore' it. But the Biden administration is afraid any public defiance of the Friday-night ruling could hurt its position while the case moves through the appeals process.... Biden ... [said] in a statement that while the administration was appealing the case, 'The only way to stop those who are committed to taking away women's rights and freedoms in every state is to elect a Congress who will pass a law restoring Roe versus Wade.'" ~~~

~~~ Lauren Aratani of the Guardian: "Democratic lawmakers are doubling down on outrage against Friday's ruling that threatens access to a widely used abortion medication, saying the ruling sets a 'dangerous new precedent' that could harm future medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration. 'Make no mistake, the decision could throw our country into chaos,' said the Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer on a call with reporters on Saturday. 'Republicans have completely eviscerated the FDA as we know it and threatened the ability of any drug on the market to avoid being prohibited. 'What could come next if some fringe radical group brings a lawsuit? Cancer drugs? Insulin? Mental health treatment?'... Schumer said that Republicans have likely mostly been silent on the ruling because 'they're afraid to speak out.... That is outrageous. They are letting the ... extreme wing of their party ... run the whole show,' he said.... Also on Saturday, more than 40 House Democrats sent Joe Biden a letter calling on the president to 'use all the tools at your disposal to protect access to abortion and reproductive healthcare'." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If the confederate-leaning Fifth Circuit neither reverses nor issues a longer stay of Kacsmaryk's opinion this week, it does seem to me that President Biden will have to do something to protect women's rights and women's health. Oh, and a special thanks to Senate Republicans who confirmed Kacsmaryk's appointment. (Susan Collins was the only GOP senator to vote against his confirmation. No Democrats voted to confirm him.) ~~~

~~~ Caroline Kitchener of the Washington Post writes a profile of Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, which is downright creepy in places. MB: Here's an ominous detail I didn't know: "Kacsmaryk is also presiding over a lawsuit filed by anti-vaccine activists led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that accuses several media outlets, including The Washington Post, of colluding to censor their views on coronavirus vaccines." ~~~

~~~ Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "Congratulations are in order for Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. The competition is fierce and will remain so, but for now he holds the title: worst federal judge in America.... What really distinguishes Kacsmaryk is the loaded content of his rhetoric -- not the language of a sober-minded, impartial jurist but of a zealot, committed more to promoting a cause than applying the law.... This is a judge who knows what conclusion he wants to reach and is going to do what he must to get there -- facts, fairness and law be damned." ~~~

~~~ Everything Old Is New Again. Matthew Perrone of the AP: "A 19th century 'anti-vice' law is at the center of a new court ruling that threatens access to the leading abortion drug in the U.S. Dormant for a half-century, the Comstock Act has been revived by anti-abortion groups and conservative states seeking to block the mailing of mifepristone, the pill used in more than half of U.S. abortions." ~~~

~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... just a year ago, the idea of a judge using the Comstock Act to halt medication abortion nationwide would have seemed hysterical.... The Comstock Act, the notorious anti-obscenity law used to indict the Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, ban books by D.H. Lawrence and arrest people by the thousands, turned 150 last month.... Yet suddenly, the prurient sanctimony that George Bernard Shaw called 'Comstockery' is running rampant in America.... Thanks to a rogue judge in Texas, the Comstock Act itself could be partly reimposed on America. Though the act had been dormant for decades..., it was never fully repealed. And with Roe v. Wade gone, the Christian right has sought to make use of it. The Comstock Act was central to the case brought by a coalition of anti-abortion groups in Texas seeking to have Food and Drug Administration approval of mifepristone, part of the regimen used in medication abortion, invalidated. And it is central to the anti-abortion screed of an opinion by Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, the judge, appointed by Donald Trump, who on Friday ruled in their favor.... 'The Comstock Act plainly forecloses mail-order abortion in the present,' wrote Kacsmaryk.... a ['textual'] reading of the Comstock Act [by right-wing justices] could do far more than prohibit patients from getting mifepristone by mail." ~~~

~~~ Ken W., in yesterday's Comments: "That conservative jurisprudence has to reach so deep into the past to find its precedents for its abortion decisions -- into English Common Law for Dodd, into our own dim past to the 150 year old Comstock Act -- should tell us something, many somethings, none of them good. Bringing forward precedents from pre-Enlightenment English Law, when kings still reigned, peasants worked the soil, human slavery was acceptable, the franchise, what there was of it, was limited, when woman had no voice and in many jurisdictions couldn't even inherit property, all beg the question: Why abortion only? Why not the rest of the social/legal/economic/package? Oh, but that's exactly what is happening." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Steven Shepard of Politico: "Conservatives are finding out the hard way that abortion isn't a 50-50 issue anymore. Janet Protasiewicz's 11-point blowout victory this week for a state Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin was just the latest example of voters who support abortion rights outnumbering -- and outvoting -- their opponents.... The Supreme Court's Dobbs decision last year ending [the] constitutional right [to abortion] has exposed Americans' broad opposition to the strict abortion bans adopted or proposed in GOP-controlled states."

MAGA = Make Attorneys Get Attorneys. Lawyers inevitably are sorry for taking on assignments with him. They spend a lot of time before grand juries or depositions themselves. -- Former AG Bill Barr on Fox "News" ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: The lawyers surrounding Donald Trump during his arraignment "revealed more about the client than about the case at hand. It was emblematic of his relentless search for the perfect lawyer -- and of his frequent replacement of his lawyers when they fail to live up to his ideal for how the perfect lawyer should operate. Mr. Trump has long been obsessed with lawyers: obsessed with finding what he thinks are good lawyers, and obsessed with ensuring that his lawyers defend him zealously in the court of public opinion. His lawyers' own foibles are seldom disqualifying, so long as they defend him in the manner he desires. That often means measuring up to the example of Roy M. Cohn, Mr. Trump's first fixer-lawyer, who represented him in the 1970s and early 1980s.... Mr. Trump's continual efforts to identify and recruit the newest Roy Cohn have always been unusual and impulsive.... 'He picks his lawyers literally off of TV,' said one lawyer who used to represent Mr. Trump.... Until he announced his presidential campaign in November, Mr. Trump had paid at least $10 million to his lawyers over the prior two years using money donated to his political action committee."

Richard Fawcett & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "While nothing is certain, there are numerous signs that [Fulton County, Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis] may go big, with a more kaleidoscopic indictment charging not only [Donald] Trump, but perhaps a dozen or more of his allies.... Nearly 20 people are already known to have been told that they are targets who could face charges, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump's former personal lawyer, and David Shafer, the head of the Georgia Republican Party.... The wide scope of the investigation has been evident for months, and Ms. Willis has said that seeking an indictment under the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, statute is an option that she is considering.... Ms. Willis has extensive experience with racketeering cases...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Race to Indict. Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: "The Fulton County district attorney's investigation into ... Donald J. Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia is nearing a decision point, posing fresh challenges for federal prosecutors considering charging him in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.... Both [investigations] rely on similar documentary evidence, some of the same criminal targets and a small, shared pool of witnesses with knowledge of the former president's actions and intent.... The federal investigation into Jan. 6 focuses on several charges, according to two law enforcement officials: wire fraud for emails sent between those pushing the false electors scheme; mail fraud for sending the names of electors to the National Archives and Records Administration; and conspiracy, which covers the coordination effort. (A fourth possible charge, obstruction of an official proceeding before Congress, has been used in many cases brought against participants in the Capitol attack.)... The Atlanta case has put additional pressure on [federal special prosecutor Jack] Smith. Justice Department officials have said they wanted to make charging decisions in the spring or summer, before the 2024 election kicks into high gear -- which raises the question of whether Mr. Smith will try to bring charges before Ms. Willis does." (Also linked yesterday.)

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Enrique Tarrio, then chairman of the far-right extremist group [Proud Boys], repeatedly shared outlines of members' plans in D.C. and elsewhere at the request of Shane Lamond, a 22-year veteran of the D.C. police department, according to text exchanges read by Tarrio's defense in his trial on seditious conspiracy charges with four other Proud Boys leaders. Tarrio argues that his relationship with Lamond showed there was no Proud Boys conspiracy to oppose police or federal authority, or plan to disrupt Congress's confirmation of Joe Biden's 2020 election victory on Jan. 6. But prosecutors say the bulk of the exchanges occurred long before the alleged conspiracy.... U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly has previously said in court that other conversations between the officer and Tarrio cited by prosecutors revealed a 'closeness' and 'inappropriateness' that undercut Tarrio's defense.... Lamond remains under federal investigation for his exchanges with Tarrio." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Thomas-Crow Affair. (MB: My best headline ever!) From the original ProPublica report on Clarence Thomas and billionaire Harlan Crow: "On the weekend of Oct. 16, 2021..., Thomas and Crow traveled to a Catholic cemetery in a bucolic suburb of New York City. They were there for the unveiling of a bronze statue of the justice's beloved eighth grade teacher, a nun, according to Catholic Cemetery magazine." Crow & his wife paid for the statue. Marie: Turns out the Crows are right fond of sweet commemorative statues: ~~~

     ~~~ The Company He Keeps. Sylvie McNamara of the Washingtonian: "When Republican megadonor Harlan Crow isn't lavishing Justice Clarence Thomas with free trips on his private plane and yacht..., he lives a quiet life in Dallas among his historical collections. These collections include Hitler artifacts -- two of his paintings of European cityscapes, a signed copy of Mein Kampf, and assorted Nazi memorabilia -- plus a garden full of statues of the 20th century's worst despots.... Among the figures in the 'Garden of Evil' are Lenin and Stalin, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito.... Crow has said that [the statues are] bona-fide artifacts from public squares across Europe and Asia that citizens toppled at the end of dictatorial regimes.... [The] collections caused an uproar> back in 2015 when Marco Rubio attended a fundraiser at Crow's house on the eve of Yom Kippur. Rubio's critics thought the timing was inappropriate given, you know, the Hitler stuff."(Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Connecticut. Stephanie Guerilus of ABC News: "Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., suffered a broken leg Saturday at the UConn men's championship parade in Hartford, Connecticut, and will undergo surgery. Blumenthal's injury occurred when another parade goer fell on him.... 'FYI after he broke his femur he got back up, dusted himself off, and FINISHED THE PARADE,' [fellow Connecticut Sen. Chris] Murphy [D] tweeted. 'Most Dick Blumenthal thing ever.'"

New York. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Three months into her administration, [New York City fire commissioner Laura Kavanagh] faced a mutiny by several of her male staff chiefs, giving one retired female firefighter I talked to flashbacks to reports of those early days of vitriol [and physical attacks on female firefighters]. Progress has been made, but the paternal, parochial 1950s mind-set has never really gone away in the overwhelmingly white, male, tradition-bound hierarchy, some female firefighters told me."

Texas. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said on Saturday that he would pardon a man who was convicted on Friday of murdering a protester in Austin, as long as a state board brought such a request to his desk. The announcement from the governor directly places the fate of Daniel S. Perry, who was found guilty of killing Garrett Foster, 28, at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in 2020, in the hands of the Board of Pardons and Paroles. The board's members, who are appointed by the governor, determine who should be granted a pardon.... 'Texas has one of the strongest "Stand Your Ground" laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,' Mr Abbott wrote on Twitter.... The governor's statement came a day after Matt Rinaldi, the chairman of the Republican Party in Texas, expressed his disdain for the verdict, saying that 'this case should have never been prosecuted' and that a pardon from the governor was 'in order.'... This week, Republican lawmakers introduced a bill in the State Senate that would curtail the power of elected prosecutors, particularly those in left-leaning counties who decline to pursue certain cases, like some related to abortion bans." The Texas Tribune's story is here.

Way Beyond

China. Helen Davidson of the Guardian: "China has sent dozens of warplanes towards Taiwan for a second day of military drills, launched in retaliation to the island's president, Tsai Ing-wen, meeting the US House Speaker during a brief visit to the US.Taiwan's defence ministry said it was monitoring the movements of China's missile forces, as the US said it too was on alert. China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) sent 58 war planes, including fighter jets, reconnaissance planes, and refuellers, into Taiwan's air defence identification zone on Sunday morning, according to Taiwans defence ministry."

Israel. John Hudson & Louisa Loveluck of the Washington Post: "As the Biden administration races to investigate a leak of classified U.S. documents, Washington and Jerusalem are remaining silent about a particularly sensitive disclosure within the trove of files: an alleged revolt by Israel's top spy service against the judicial overhaul proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The leaked document labeled top secret says that in February, senior leaders of the Mossad spy service 'advocated for Mossad officials and Israeli citizens to protest the new Israeli Government's proposed judicial reforms, including several explicit calls to action that decried the Israeli Government, according to signals intelligence.' By itself, the direct intervention into Israeli politics by Mossad, an external spy service forbidden from wading into domestic matters, would be a significant revelation. That the information surfaced as a result, apparently, of U.S. espionage on its closest Middle East ally could further inflame what has been a time of historic political unrest in Israel." More on the leaks linked below.

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Ukraine is bolstering its defenses on its border with Russian-aligned Belarus, laying down thousands of antitank mines. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with his top military and intelligence officials to discuss how to 'prevent the leakage of information regarding the plans of the defense forces of Ukraine,' his office said in a statement after the unauthorized release of classified Pentagon documents that appear to detail Ukraine's combat capabilities and Western support.... Facing a critical shortage, Ukrainian troops ration ammunition[.]" ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "A trove of leaked Pentagon documents reveals how deeply Russia's security and intelligence services have been penetrated by the United States, demonstrating Washington's ability to warn Ukraine about planned strikes and providing an assessment of the strength of Moscow's war machine. The documents portray a battered Russian military that is struggling in its war in Ukraine and a military apparatus that is deeply compromised. They contain daily real-time warnings to American intelligence agencies on the timing of Moscow's strikes and even its specific targets. Such intelligence has allowed the United States to pass on to Ukraine crucial information on how to defend itself. The leak, the source of which remains unknown, also reveals the American assessment of a Ukrainian military that is itself in dire straits. The leaked material, from late February and early March but found on social media sites in recent days, outlines critical shortages of air defense munitions and discusses the gains being made by Russian troops around the eastern city of Bakhmut." ~~~

~~~ Shane Harris & Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "On Saturday, as U.S. officials and their foreign allies scrambled to understand how dozens of classified intelligence documents had ended up on the internet, they were stunned -- and occasionally infuriated -- at the extraordinary range of detail the files exposed about how the United States spies on friends and foes alike.... According to one defense official, many of the documents seem to have been prepared over the winter for Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other senior military officials, but they were available to other U.S. personnel and contract employees with the requisite security clearances.... The 5o pages reviewed by The Washington Post involved nearly every corner of the U.S. intelligence apparatus."

Carlotta Gall, et al., of the New York Times: "In the 13 months since [Russia's] invasion [of Ukraine], thousands of Ukrainian children have been displaced, moved or forcibly transferred to camps or institutions in Russia or Russian-controlled territory, in what Ukraine and rights advocates have condemned as war crimes. The fate of those children has become a desperate tug of war between Ukraine and Russia, and formed the basis of an arrest warrant issued last month by the International Criminal Court accusing President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Maria Lvova-Belova, his commissioner for children's rights, of illegally transferring them.Once under Russian control, the children are subject to re-education, fostering and adoption by Russian families.... In March ... a group of women assisted by Save Ukraine completed a nerve-wracking, 3,000-mile journey through Poland, Belarus and Russia to gain entry to Russian-occupied territory in eastern Ukraine and Crimea to retrieve ... [16] children. Then they had to take another circuitous journey back ... [although the children were] only a few hours away by car but in territory closed off by the war." Several charity groups are helping mothers get their children home. The report features some individual stories. (Also linked yesterday.)


Vatican. Frances D'Emilio of the AP: "In an Easter message highlighting hope, Pope Francis on Sunday invoked prayers for both the Ukrainian and Russian people, praised nations which welcome refugees, and called on Israelis and Palestinians wracked by the latest surge in deadly violence to forge a 'climate of trust.' Francis, along with dozens of prelates and tens of thousands of faithful, marked Christianity's most joyful day with Mass in a flower-adorned St. Peter's Square."

News Lede

New York Times: "Benjamin B. Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials, who convicted Nazi war criminals of organizing the murder of a million people and German industrialists of using slave labor from concentration camps to build Hitler's war machine, died on Friday at an assisted living facility in Boynton Beach, Fla. He was 103." An AP obituary is here.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (4)

The SNL skit depicting the Last Supper with Jesus sitting with his disciples –--fingers poised and one with "knives out" hidden agenda was one of the best I've seen lately. Our man of the hour taking the persona of the savior in waiting for the fall from grace as he faces HIS last supper. And today the bunnies––although not as plentiful as last year as Forest and I have mentioned–--nevertheless delivered their chocolate treats to little people who still believe in magic.

Here is my friend fron Scotland on the BBC this morning explaining the particulars of the medication for abortion,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w172z09bhywpp71 .

April 9, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D.Pepe

I saw one article where Tennessee may withhold allocated funds from Memphis if the return their expelled member. Haven't seen anything about Nashvilles.

If true, it sure seems like voter intimidation.

April 9, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

@Bobby Lee: I saw that, too, but where I saw it was in a reference to a Fox "News" article, so naturally, I passed up looking for it. That doesn't mean it isn't true, and it sure rings true to the mentality we see coming out of the state's poobahs.

April 9, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Just a link to Tennessee,

https://www.gocomics.com/laloalcaraz/2023/04/08

April 9, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee
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