The Ledes

Thursday, September 19, 2024

New York Times: “A body believed to be of the suspect in a Kentucky highway shooting that left five people seriously injured this month was found on Wednesday, the authorities said, ending a manhunt that stretched into a second week and set the local community on edge. The Kentucky State Police commissioner, Phillip Burnett Jr., said in a Wednesday night news conference that at approximately 3:30 p.m., two troopers and two civilians found an unidentified body in the brush behind the highway exit where the shooting occurred.... The police have identified the suspect of the shooting as Joseph A. Couch, 32. They said that on Sept. 7, Mr. Couch perched on a cliff overlooking Interstate 75 about eight miles north of London, Ky., and opened fire. One of the wounded was shot in the face, and another was shot in the chest. A dozen vehicles were riddled with gunfire.”

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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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May 1, 2022

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi became the most senior American official to visit Kyiv, announcing on Sunday that she had met with President Volodymyr Zelensky and had pledged 'to do what is needed to help the Ukrainian people as they defend democracy for their nation and for the world.' The visit on Saturday by Ms. Pelosi and a small delegation of American lawmakers was kept secret until they returned to Poland, where they held a news conference on Sunday morning.... Russia's renewed assault in the east has made only incremental territorial gains while causing widespread carnage, as local leaders and Ukrainian military officials in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions reported fierce battles and as Russian tank columns tried to push into areas that Moscow's forces have pounded with artillery fire. The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that it had struck 800 targets across Ukraine over the past day.... In territory controlled by Russia, the occupying forces were trying to solidify control and taking steps to erase Ukrainian identity. On Sunday, Russian forces in the southern region of Kherson started to enforce the transition to the Russian ruble from Ukrainian currency. At the same time, nearly all internet and cellular service in the region went down over the weekend." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Sunday are here: Speaker "Pelosi walked the streets of Ukraine's capital with House lawmakers, including Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory W. Meeks (N.Y.) and Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (Mass.).... In Kyiv, [President] Zelensky awarded Pelosi with the Order of Princess Olga, a decoration bestowed upon women who have made outstanding contributions to Ukraine.... Civilian evacuations from a Mariupol steel plant that has been the last base for Ukrainian fighters in the besieged port city were expected to continue on Sunday, after a group of about 20 women and children were allowed to leave under a cease-fire that began Saturday." ~~~

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

Timothy Bella & Julian Duplain of the Washington Post: "Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have seized more than 2,000 pieces of artwork from the besieged port city of Mariupol. They have been taken to Russian-occupied Donetsk, local channel TV7 reported. The Mariupol City Council wrote in a Telegram message Thursday that Russian forces have raided the three local museums, including the Kuindzhi Art Museum, since the start of the invasion." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Al Jazeera: "Dutch dock workers are refusing to unload a tanker with a consignment of Russian diesel in the port of Amsterdam, a day after a similar action by dockers kept the ship from entering Rotterdam port. The Sunny Liger, a 42,000-tonne tanker was lying at anchor off Amsterdam on Saturday, while port companies were mulling her entry into the Dutch capital. On Friday, dock workers in Rotterdam also refused to handle her cargo. 'Late last night we requested all parties in the port of Amsterdam not to let the ship dock and not to (handle) it,' the FNV trade union's harbour worker branch chairwoman Asmae Hajjari said."


Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "Washington's media and political elite partied like it was 2019 on Saturday at the annual White House correspondents' dinner, the traditionally glitzy spring gala that staggered back to life after a pandemic-induced two-year hiatus. Despite the continuing specter of the coronavirus, the event once again had all its usual trappings and excesses: a tuxedoed-and-begowned throng of insiders, a smattering of celebrities, an appearance by the president and a big-name comedian to make fun of them and it." The Guardian's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Actually, they partied more like it was 2016, as the so-called then-president* didn't have the guts to go in 2017 and 2018. ~~~

This is the first time the president has attended this dinner in six years. It's understandable. We had a horrible plague, followed by two years of covid. -- President Biden, at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, Saturday

     ~~~ Here's what Sonia Rao of the Washington Post dubs President Biden's best jokes.

Trump said he won the election, but everyone was able to look at the numbers and see that he was wrong. That's why Ron DeSantis is one step ahead. First you ban the math textbooks, then nobody knows how to count the votes. -- Trevor Noah, at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, Saturday ~~~

     ~~~ And these are Trevor Noah's best burns, according to Rao.

As you may know, James Corden is leaving his late-late-nite gig. Apparently, he is in search of new opportunities. Let's see how this one works out:

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Attorney John Eastman, a key architect of ... Donald Trump's legal effort to overturn the 2020 election, is preparing to provide another 10,000 pages of records to the Jan. 6 select committee, his attorney revealed late Friday.... Eastman had claimed attorney-client privilege over 37,000 pages of post-election emails related to his work for Trump. But under pressure from U.S. District Court Judge David Carter -- who ruled in March that Eastman and Trump likely entered into a criminal conspiracy to overturn the election -- Eastman withdrew privilege claims for nearly a third of that total. In Friday's court filing, Eastman's lawyers indicated that the select committee now wants more time to consider how to handle the remaining 27,000 pages of records that remain in dispute." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eric Tucker of the AP: "Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows accused the congressional committee investigating last year's attack on the U.S. Capitol of leaking all of the text messages he provided to the panel in what he says was an effort to vilify him publicly. The argument was made in a filing Friday in Washington's federal court.... In the ... filing, lawyers for Meadows asked a judge to reject the committee's request for a court ruling in its favor that could force Meadows to comply with [committee] subpoenas." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Who's doing the "vilifying" if what's so embarrassing is your own texts?

Graham Kates of CBS News: "Fulton County[,Georgia,] prosecutors will begin selecting participants Monday for a special grand jury to consider whether ... Donald Trump should be charged for his attempts to pressure Georgia officials to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis ... has said in interviews that the investigation includes a January 2, 2021 phone call in which Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, 'I just want to find 11,780 votes.' Trump lost the state to Joe Biden by that margin -- an outcome that was affirmed by several recounts."

Emily Davies & Peter Hermann of the Washington Post: "Now, as the government investigates whether ... [two men -- Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali -- who posed as federal agents,] may have bribed members of the Secret Service who lived in the building and threatened national security, questions still remain over the motive behind the alleged ruse." MB: This is another of those "Franco is still dead" stories that Patrick pointed out last week, but it gathers & expands on some details of the men's activities. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Maybe in commemoration of May Day, Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times is taking a three-part deep dive into white nationalist Tucker Carlson: "... Mr. Carlson has constructed what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news -- and also, by some measures, the most successful.... Night after night, hour by hour, Mr. Carlson warns his viewers that they inhabit a civilization under siege -- by violent Black Lives Matter protesters in American cities, by diseased migrants from south of the border, by refugees importing alien cultures, and by tech companies and cultural elites who will silence them, or label them racist, if they complain.... His encyclopedia of provocations has only expanded. Since the 2020 presidential election, Mr. Carlson has become the most visible and voluble defender of those who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol to keep Donald J. Trump in office, playing down the presence of white nationalists in the crowd and claiming the attack 'barely rates as a footnote.' In February, as Western pundits and politicians lined up to condemn the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, for his impending invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Carlson invited his viewers to shift focus back to the true enemy at home." Part 1 is here; Part 2 is here; and Part 3, which is mostly audio clips with some context provided, is here. According to the Times, "This series is part of an ongoing examination by The Times of challenges to democratic norms in the United States and around the world." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ TuKKKer Is Not the Problem. What may be the clearest indication that we have deep-seated, extensive and intractable political problems is not the voter suppressing, racist and misogynistic governments of red states or our national Constitutionally-supported minority government that makes it nearly impossible to get anything useful done, but that Tucker Carlson has any audience at all, let alone a large one. -- Ken W., in yesterday's Comments thread ~~~

~~~ Racism Was of the Essence of the Scheme. Scott Lemieux of LG&$: "... the increase in ratings as [Carlson] got more explicitly racist is the real key here.... Without the white nationalist demagoguery he was just another dispensable mediocrity. He became an actual star by grasping the same things about both himself and the Republican electorate that Trump did."

Beyond the Beltway

** Connecticut, a Pro-Woman State. Sarah Nir & Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "Connecticut lawmakers approved a bill late Friday night that takes direct aim at states that have passed aggressive anti-abortion laws as the country prepares for a Supreme Court ruling this summer that could weaken or overturn the constitutional right to abortion enshrined in Roe v. Wade. The Connecticut bill, which Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, has said he intends to sign, would expand the field of people who can perform certain types of abortions beyond doctors, to include nurse-midwives, physician assistants and other medical professionals. And in what lawmakers said could be a model for other states seeking to safeguard abortion rights, the law would also shield abortion providers and patients from lawsuits initiated by states that have banned or plan to ban abortion, even outside their own borders." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nebraska. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "A second woman has publicly accused Charles W. Herbster, the Republican candidate for governor in Nebraska endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump, of groping her at a 2019 Republican fund-raising dinner. Elizabeth Todsen said Mr. Herbster grabbed her at the dinner in Omaha and said details of the incident reported earlier this month by the Nebraska Examiner were correct.... The longtime Trump ally has adopted the former president's playbook in responding to the allegations, forcefully denying them, suing his first public accuser, a state senator, and tying her to his political rivals."

News Lede

New York Times: "Naomi Judd, of the Grammy-winning duo The Judds and the mother of Wynonna and Ashley Judd, died on Saturday. She was 76."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (4)

What a delight to watch last night's Correspondence get together. For the first time I felt that the kids were going to be all right and gray skies were lifting a tad and perhaps we weren't as bad as we thought. It was sort of like enjoying a really good meal knowing that it might be your last really good meal––for awhile.

I thought Biden was terrific–--forceful, funny, and that great smile––wonderful to see. Trevor was, as Trevor often is, clever and did his punches in exactly the right places and to the right persons. But his emphasis on the importance –-the necessity–-of good, honest, thorough reporting was key, reminding us once again that under a dictatorship his ass would be in jail along with all those reporters.

May 1, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

@P.D. Pepe: Your point that Trump could have thrown all those happy journalists in jail was a jarring one. I'm not sure Trump would have gotten away with imprisoning the "fake news" journalists he didn't like, but it's not impossible. After all, during the Civil War, Lincoln shut down newspapers & jailed some reporters & editors. So there's nothing saying Trump wouldn't have done the same in some sort of concocted "national security emergency."

Most of those White House correspondents sitting there laughing at the jokes probably don't have the imagination to picture themselves locked away in damp cells, except to the extent some might see themselves in some extraordinary circumstances as "freedom of the press" martyrs with a lot of the free press rallying to their cause & making famous heroes of them. In the meantime, they'll stick with that both-sides "journalism."

May 1, 2022 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Marie: I'm not sure Noah meant jail sentences under Trump but was referring to Russia's silencing reporters and newspapers under that kind of dictatorship, but yes, since Trump called the press "the enemies of the People" he just may have.

May 1, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

Humor in the midst of horror?

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/01/europe/russia-farm-vehicles-ukraine-disabled-melitopol-intl/index.html

May 1, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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