October 18, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Another Trump Conspiracy Theory Fail. Linda Qiu & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Igor Danchenko, an analyst who provided much of the research in a notorious dossier of unproven assertions and rumors about ... Donald J. Trump and Russia, was acquitted on Tuesday on four counts of lying to the F.B.I. about one of his sources. The verdict was another stinging defeat for the special counsel, John H. Durham, who was appointed by Attorney General William P. Barr three years ago to investigate the F.B.I.'s investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia. Mr. Trump and his supporters have long insisted the inquiry would prove a 'deep state' conspiracy against him, but after pursuing various baseless theories, Mr. Durham never found and charged one. Instead he developed two narrow cases accusing people involved in outside efforts to scrutinize purported links between Mr. Trump and Russia of making false statements.... The trial against Mr. Danchenko is expected to be the last of Mr. Durham's prosecutions...."

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "President Biden pledged on Tuesday that the first bill he would send to Congress next year if Democrats retain House control and expand their Senate majority would be to codify abortion rights across the country. The commitment comes as the White House and Democratic candidates have been increasingly focused on protecting abortion access before the midterm elections next month, seeking to broaden support among women and independent voters. Mr. Biden said this summer that he supported ending the filibuster to protect a woman's right to an abortion and a broader constitutional right to privacy." CNN's report is here. ~~~

The "Fucking Lunatic" Exception. Marie: Here's another good reason to keep Democrats in power: Jim McGovern (D-Ma.), chair of the House Rules Committee, "explained to Republicans that his new rule for his committee says if you're 'batsh[it] crazy, you're not getting an amendment after he blocked one of [Lauren] Boebert's [Batshit-Colo.] amendments from going to the House floor. '... We're not doing this.... I'm not going to be part of any effort to legitimize people who are f[u]cking lunatics.'..."

~~~ MEANWHILE, GOP Plan: Global Financial Crisis. Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "After refusing for months to divulge what they'd do if they regained control of Congress, Republicans have finally revealed some of their economic agenda. Unfortunately, it might involve causing a global financial crisis.... House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and other Republicans have recently backed proposals to make the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent, as well as to extend or expand several other corporate tax breaks.... [Also, there's their] plan to hold the debt ceiling hostage next year, which could easily precipitate a global financial catastrophe.... If lawmakers dine-and-dash on behalf of Uncle Sam, they tarnish the creditworthiness of the United States and can make it more expensive for the federal government to borrow in the future because investors don't trust us. Worse, they might accidentally blow up every other financial market on Earth, too." ~~~

~~~ AND. Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "What will the Biden administration do when the G.O.P. threatens to blow up the world economy by refusing to raise the debt limit?... The consequences of forcing a federal debt default, which is what refusing to raise the limit would do, would extend far beyond the operations of the federal government itself.... There's lots of evidence that Republicans will, if they can, try to use the debt limit to extort major cuts in Social Security and Medicare.... If Republicans do gain control of one or both houses in November, Democrats should use the lame-duck session to enact a very large rise in the debt limit, enough to put the issue on ice for years.... If for some reason Democrats don't take this obvious step, the Biden administration should be prepared to turn to legal strategies for bypassing the debt limit." MB: Republicans really do constitute the most wilfully innumerate body in the world. ~~~

~~~ AND, as I surmised in a Comment last week, Republicans have no interest in protecting allied nations' efforts to establish viable democracies in the face of violent invasion by totalitarian, imperial aggressors. Either that, or they've joined Donald Trump's Traveling Russian Marionette Show. ~~~

     ~~~ Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is signaling that if Republicans win the House majority in next month's midterm elections, the GOP is likely to oppose more aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia."

Charlie Savage & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The special master reviewing materials seized by the F.B.I. from ... Donald J. Trump's compound in Florida expressed skepticism on Tuesday about early claims by Mr. Trump's lawyers that certain documents were privileged and thus could be withheld from a Justice Department investigation. In a phone conference, the special master, Judge Raymond J. Dearie of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, complained that the log of an initial batch of documents over which Mr. Trump is seeking to claim privilege lacked sufficient information to determine whether the arguments were valid."

Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "In December 2019, after ... Donald Trump had shared with journalist Bob Woodward the fawning letters that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had written to him, the U.S. leader seems to acknowledge he should not be showing them around. After urging Woodward to 'treat them with respect,' Trump warns in an interview, 'and don't say I gave them to you, okay?... But I'll let you see them,' Trump adds.... A month later, in January 2020, Woodward pressed Trump in a phone call to let him also see the letters that Trump wrote to Kim. 'Oh, those are so top secret,' Trump says.... The comments by Trump show he was well aware that the 27 letters exchanged between himself and Kim were classified, despite his repeated claims that none of the documents he improperly took from the White House when leaving office, including the Kim letters, were in that category.... In an aside in the audio book, [which is to be released next week,] Woodward describes 'the casual, dangerous way that Trump treats the most classified programs and information...' That was in reference to Trump implying there was a secretive weapons system he controlled." CNN's report is here.

U.S. Is Training Top Mercenaries for Repressive Countries. Craig Whitlock & Nate Jones of the Washington Post: "More than 500 retired U.S. military personnel -- including scores of generals and admirals -- have taken lucrative jobs since 2015 working for foreign governments, mostly in countries known for human rights abuses and political repression, according to a Washington Post investigation. In Saudi Arabia, for example, 15 retired U.S. generals and admirals have worked as paid consultants for the Defense Ministry since 2016. The ministry is led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler, who U.S. intelligence agencies say approved the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist, as part of a brutal crackdown on dissent.... Most of the retired U.S. personnel have worked as civilian contractors for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Persian Gulf monarchies, playing a critical, though largely invisible, role in upgrading their militaries.... The U.S. government has fought to keep the hirings secret."

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Stacy Cowley & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The federal government on Monday began accepting applications for President Biden's promised student debt cancellation of up to $20,000 per borrower. Those who meet the program's annual income limits -- up to $125,000 per individual or $250,000 per household -- can apply online at https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief/application. 'This is a game changer for millions of Americans,' Mr. Biden said on Monday afternoon. The Education Department, which holds $1.6 trillion in student loan debt and will manage the cancellation process, quietly opened the application website for testing on Friday night. More than eight million people had already applied by Monday, Mr. Biden said. The form is available in English and Spanish, and is intended to work on desktop computers and mobile devices." ~~~

     ~~~ AND Then There Was This: "Lawsuits seeking to block the action were ... filed, most prominently by a group of six attorneys general from Republican-led states." MB: IOW, While Democrats are trying to help out ordinary Americans -- in this case, young people -- Republicans are suing to end the aid. As Rachel Maddow pointed out Monday night, this is de rigueur. Democrats passed a law to put a cap on life-saving insulin costs; For instance, Herschel Walker, who must have got a "junior doctor" certificate from a cereal box, pooh-poohed the price cap, saying, "Unless you're eating right, insulin is doing you no good. So you have to get food prices down and you gotta get gas down so you can go get insulin."

Max Boot of the Washington Post: "... last week the [Biden] administration's diplomacy hit pay dirt -- and almost no one noticed. On Oct. 11, Israel and Lebanon announced an agreement that would demarcate their maritime boundary. This sounds narrow and technical but is a major achievement given that the two countries have been formally at war since 1948. (And that has sometimes led to actual military conflict -- most recently in 2006.)... U.S. administrations have been trying for a decade to broker an agreement -- with no luck.... Enter Amos J. Hochstein, a former Senate staffer, energy industry executive and veteran of the Obama State Department who is the presidential coordinator for energy security.... The ... deal [he brokered] was hailed as 'historic' by both sides."

Azi Paybarah of the Washington Post: "The White House on Monday called Donald Trump's attack on American Jews antisemitic after the former president wrote online that American Jews need to 'get their act together' and show more appreciation for the state of Israel 'before it is too late.'... 'Donald Trump's comments were antisemitic, as you all know, and insulting both to Jews and to our Israeli allies,' [press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre] said. '... for years now, Donald Trump has aligned with extremist and antisemitic figures.... We need to root out antisemitism everywhere it rears its ugly head. We need to call this out. With respect to Israel, our relationship is ironclad and it's rooted in shared values and interests. Donald Trump clearly doesn't understand that either.'" An ABC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I suppose Trump sees nothing wrong with his attack on American Jews. As far as he is concerned, "other people" are not actually people. They're "others." They're part of a non-white Christianist "group." And if that "group" as a whole doesn't sufficiently express gratitude to him for something he imagines he did for them, then the entire "group" deserves punishment. In exchange for gifts he bestows (or imagines he does), the recipients must pledge loyalty to him. ~~~

     ~~~ MEANWHILE, Chris McGreal of the Guardian: "The US's largest pro-Israel lobby group is backing dozens of racists, homophobes and election deniers running for Congress next month because they have pledged to defend Israel against stiffening criticism of its oppression of the Palestinians. The powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) has justified endorsing Republicans with extremist views, including members of Congress with ties to white supremacist groups and representatives who attempted to block Joe Biden's election victory, on the grounds that the singular issue of support for Israel trumps other considerations." MB: This, of course, is precisely the sort of self-defeating behavior Trump expects.

Lawyers, Guns & Sexting. Alan Feuer & Zach Montague of the New York Times: "In the days before a pro-Trump mob -- including members of his own organization -- broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, went on a cross-country weapon-buying spree.... By the time he reached [Virginia,], prosecutors said on Monday at the trial of Mr. Rhodes and four of his subordinates on seditious conspiracy charges, the Oath Keepers leader had spent as much as $20,000 on what amounted to a small arsenal that included at least three rifles and an Israeli-made semiautomatic shotgun.... The purchases took place as Mr. Rhodes was overseeing the creation of what he has called an armed 'quick reaction force' that was staged in ... hotel rooms in Virginia.... [Accompanying Rhodes on his trip from Texas to Virginia was Oath Keepers lawyer Kellye SoRelle.] Earlier in the day, prosecutors showed the jury some sexually explicit text messages that Mr. Rhodes had swapped with Ms. SoRelle, the lawyer, in the days leading up to Jan. 6, suggesting that the two had more than the usual lawyer-client relationship." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Rhodes' sexts suggest that the reason these people go in for "thrills" like pretending they're revolutionaries is the stale banality of their bleak lives.

Alan Feuer & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The Justice Department said on Monday that Stephen K. Bannon ... should spend six months in jail and pay a fine of $200,000 after a jury found him guilty this summer of willfully disobeying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. Mr. Bannon pursued a bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt' from the moment he received the subpoena last year seeking records and testimony about his knowledge of Mr. Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, culminating in the violent assault on the Capitol, prosecutors said in a sentencing memo to Judge Carl J. Nichols, who is overseeing the case. The prosecutors noted that Mr. Bannon, who is set to be sentenced by Judge Nichols on Friday, deserved a penalty harsher than the minimum term of one month in jail because he had blatantly brushed off the committee"s demands and then attacked it in a series of brazen public statements." An AP story is here.

The Big Grifter's Gotta Grift. David Fahrenthold & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The Trump Organization charged the Secret Service up to $1,185 per night for hotel rooms used by agents protecting ... Donald J. Trump and his family, according to documents released on Monday by the House Oversight Committee.... The committee released Secret Service records showing more than $1.4 million in payments by the department to Trump properties since Mr. Trump took office in 2017. The committee said that the accounting was incomplete, however, because it did not include payments to Mr. Trump's foreign properties -- where agents accompanied his family repeatedly -- and because the records stopped in September 2021. The records the panel managed to obtain provided new details about an arrangement in which Mr. Trump and his family effectively turned the Secret Service into a captive customer of their business -- by visiting their properties hundreds of times, and then charging the government rates far above its usual spending limits.... Mr. Trump's son Eric -- who ran the family business while his father was in office -- provided a misleading account of what his company was charging. In 2019, Eric Trump said the Trump Organization charged the government only 'like $50' for hotel rooms during presidential visits." A Politico story is here. ~~~

      ~~~ Marie: I don't call "like $50" misleading; I call it a "honking big lie" when the rate the facilities charges could more "like $1,200," or 24 times as much as the figure he cited.

CDC = Center for Donald's Control. Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "Former CDC director Robert Redfield, former top deputy Anne Schuchat and others described how the Trump White House and its allies repeatedly 'bullied' staff, tried to rewrite their publications and threatened their jobs in an attempt to align the CDC with the more optimistic view of the pandemic espoused by Donald Trump, the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis concluded in a report released Monday.... Trump appointees oversaw a concerted effort to restrict immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border during the pandemic, change scientific reports and muzzle top officials at the [CDC], according to emails, text messages and interviews gathered by [the] congressional panel.... Redfield and other officials told the panel that they believed they might be fired if they angered the White House, hindering the CDC's ability to fight the virus."

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "Rolling Stone reported that [Donald] Trump is bragging to his close allies that he wants Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) as one of his [Cabinet] secretaries.... It's unclear what he would appoint Greene to be as she has no real expertise in anything other than CrossFit.... A second source said that over the past year Trump has been talking about Greene as someone who could be a senior official at the Justice Department.... Greene isn't a lawyer...." But so?

Robert Draper of the New York Times Magazine writes a feature piece on Majorie Taylor Greene. MB: I skimmed it, and it seems like a waste of ink to me.

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Cate Cadell & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Military research groups at the leading edge of China's hypersonics and missile programs -- many on a U.S. export blacklist -- are purchasing a range of specialized American technology, including products developed by firms that have received millions of dollars in grants and contracts from the Pentagon, a Washington Post investigation has found. The advanced software products are acquired by these military organizations through private Chinese firms that sell them on despite U.S. export controls designed to prevent sales or resales to foreign entities deemed a threat to U.S. national security, the investigation shows. Scientists who work in the sprawling network of Chinese military research academies and the companies that aid them said in interviews that American technology -- such as highly specialized aeronautical engineering software -- fills critical gaps in domestic technology and is key to advances in Chinese weaponry." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, the Pentagon is giving your tax dollars to companies that develop technology that the companies then sell to Chinese weapons makers.

Jenny Gross & Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "Kanye West has agreed in principle to buy Parler, the social media service that has attracted fans of ... Donald J. Trump, the service's parent company, Parlement Technologies, said in a news release on Monday.... The announcement came a little over a week after Twitter and Instagram restricted [West's] accounts in response to antisemitic remarks that he posted." An NPR story is here.

Lizzie Johnson of the Washington Post on how dogs being bred for research at Envigo became the target of the largest animal welfare seizure in the Humane Society's history.... After years of alarm from animal rights advocates and state legislators, after U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors found maggot-infested kibble, 300 dead puppies and injured beagles being euthanized, after an undercover investigation by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and after a lawsuit filed against Envigo by the Justice Department, the Indianapolis-based company had reached a settlement with the federal government. It agreed to shut down the Virginia breeding operation -- admitting no wrongdoing and receiving no punishment or fines -- rather than make what the CEO of its parent company called 'the required investments to improve the facility.' In July, U.S. District Court Judge Norman K. Moon approved the surrender of Envigo's beagles to the Humane Society of the United States.... What followed was two months of beagle mania, as people across the country showered the Humane Society with $2.2 million in donations and clamored to adopt the dogs. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle took in a beagle. So did the governor of New Jersey and the chief meteorologist at a Virginia news station." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The settlement should have included locking that CEO in a cage, cutting off his tail & feeding him maggot-infested kibble.

November Elections

Marie: I seldom do polls, but since the latest semi-reliable polls are finding pretty much the same thing, here's one: ~~~

~~~ Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Republicans enter the final weeks of the contest for control of Congress with a narrow but distinctive advantage as the economy and inflation have surged as the dominant concerns, giving the party momentum to take back power from Democrats in next month's midterm elections, a New York Times/Siena College poll has found. The poll shows that 49 percent of likely voters said they planned to vote for a Republican to represent them in Congress on Nov. 8, compared with 45 percent who planned to vote for a Democrat. The result represents an improvement for Republicans since September, when Democrats held a one-point edge among likely voters.... (The October poll's unrounded margin is closer to three points, not the four points that the rounded figures imply.)" ~~~

     ~~~ As RAS pointed out in yesterday's Comments thread, Nate Cohn of the New York Times added some caveats to the "perceived" poll results. "Characterizing this poll as a four-point Republican lead doesn't merely offer a false sense of precision -- it's just false," Cohn writes.

California House. Eric Swalwell (D) on what Republicans have in mind:

The Philadelphia Inquirer may have endorsed John Fetterman (D) for U.S. Senate, but wait! Why not vote for this guy? ~~~

~~~ Pennsylvania Senate. Meidas Touch: "In a newly resurfaced clip from The Jimmy Kimmel Show discovered by PatriotTakes, Republican Senate Candidate Dr. [Mehmet] Oz [R] talks about his love of drinking urine. Jordy Meiselas reports." ~~~

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia Man Runs Big Con from Prison. Vimal Patel of the New York Times: Arthur Cofield, an inmate in a Butts County, Georgia, state prison, ran a massive con from the prison in which he stole $11 million by stealing the identity of an elderly billionaire. "Mr. Cofield, 31, was charged with several federal counts, including conspiracy to commit bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to court documents. He has pleaded not guilty. MB: If Cofield is looking for a new job, he has just the right resumé to join Trump's Liars Social, which reportedly has been shedding executives.

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Tuesday are here: "The death toll from a Russian fighter-bomber crash in Russia rose to 13, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry reported Tuesday morning. The Russian Su-34 aircraft crashed into a residential building Monday near the Russian city of Krasnodar, about 120 miles east of Crimea. Monday's kamikaze drone strikes in Kyiv killed at least five people, including a pregnant woman, Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry accused Iran of supplying Russia with the drones, and the Defense Ministry said Tuesday morning that more than 40 Iranian-made Shahed-136 attack drones had been deployed by Russia in the past 24 hours. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied knowledge of Russia using Iranian drones.... E.U. member countries are considering paying billionaire Elon Musk to maintain internet services provided by Starlink to Ukraine, Politico reported. Musk tweeted Monday that 25,300 Starlink terminals were sent to Ukraine but that 10,630 are being paid for. Musk's company SpaceX, which provides the Starlink services, has withdrawn its request for funding from the U.S. Defense Department, Musk tweeted."

Nahal Toosi & Matt Berg of Politico: "The United States intends to further crack down on Iran for helping Russia in the war on Ukraine, a U.S. official said Monday following reports that Tehran plans to send Moscow missiles to use on the battlefield. The penalties -- likely to include economic sanctions and possibly some export controls -- would also target third parties that help Tehran and Moscow.... The Washington Post reported over the weekend that Iran -- in addition to continuing to sell Russia drones, some of which are used kamikaze style to crash into targets -- plans to send Moscow surface-to-surface missiles."

Iran. Josh Rogin of the Washington Post: "The Saudi government has sentenced a 72-year-old U.S. citizen [Saad Ibrahim Almadi] to 16 years in prison for tweets he posted while inside the United States, some of which were critical of the Saudi regime. His son, speaking publicly for the first time, alleges that the Saudi government has tortured his father in prison and says that the State Department mishandled the case ... with neglect and incompetence.... Despite that Saudi Arabia is supposedly a U.S. ally, the Saudi government under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) is dealing with its U.S.-citizen critics more harshly than ever.... Almadi is not a dissident or an activist; he is simply a project manager from Florida who decided to practice his right to free speech inside the United States. But last November, when he traveled to Riyadh to visit family, he was detained regarding 14 tweets posted on his account over the previous seven years."

U.K. NEVER MIND! Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Britain's new chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, said on Monday that he would reverse virtually all the government's planned tax cuts, sweeping away Prime Minister Liz Truss's free-market economic plan in a desperate bid to steady the financial markets and stabilize her government. Mr. Hunt also announced that the government would end its massive state intervention to cap energy prices next April, replacing it with a still-undefined program that he said would promote energy efficiency, but that could increase uncertainty for households facing rising gas and electricity bills. Ms. Truss's Conservative government had planned to announce the tax and spending details of its fiscal plan on Oct. 31, but with the markets still gyrating, Mr. Hunt rushed forward the schedule. His announcement constituted one of the most dramatic reversals in modern British political history." ~~~

     ~~~ William Booth & Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Britain's brand new finance minister [Jeremy Hunt] scrapped the remaining elements of Prime Minister Liz Truss's signature taxation policy on Monday, a move that seemed to successfully reassure markets but left many wondering who is now in charge of the government." MB: Maybe it's "Charles in Charge."

October 17, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Marie: I seldom do polls, but since the latest semi-reliable polls are finding pretty much the same thing, here's one: ~~~

~~~ Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Republicans enter the final weeks of the contest for control of Congress with a narrow but distinctive advantage as the economy and inflation have surged as the dominant concerns, giving the party momentum to take back power from Democrats in next month's midterm elections, a New York Times/Siena College poll has found. The poll shows that 49 percent of likely voters said they planned to vote for a Republican to represent them in Congress on Nov. 8, compared with 45 percent who planned to vote for a Democrat. The result represents an improvement for Republicans since September, when Democrats held a one-point edge among likely voters in the last Times/Siena poll. (The October poll's unrounded margin is closer to three points, not the four points that the rounded figures imply.)"

Alan Feuer & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The Justice Department said on Monday that Stephen K. Bannon ... should spend six months in jail and pay a fine of $200,000 after a jury found him guilty this summer of willfully disobeying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. Mr. Bannon pursued a bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt' from the moment he received the subpoena last year seeking records and testimony about his knowledge of Mr. Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, culminating in the violent assault on the Capitol, prosecutors said in a sentencing memo to Judge Carl J. Nichols, who is overseeing the case. The prosecutors noted that Mr. Bannon, who is set to be sentenced by Judge Nichols on Friday, deserved a penalty harsher than the minimum term of one month in jail because he had blatantly brushed off the committee's demands and then attacked it in a series of brazen public statements." An AP story is here.

The Big Grifter's Gotta Grift. David Fahrenthold & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The Trump Organization charged the Secret Service up to $1,185 per night for hotel rooms used by agents protecting ... Donald J. Trump and his family, according to documents released on Monday by the House Oversight Committee.... The committee released Secret Service records showing more than $1.4 million in payments by the department to Trump properties since Mr. Trump took office in 2017. The committee said that the accounting was incomplete, however, because it did not include payments to Mr. Trump's foreign properties -- where agents accompanied his family repeatedly -- and because the records stopped in September 2021. The records the panel managed to obtain provided new details about an arrangement in which Mr. Trump and his family effectively turned the Secret Service into a captive customer of their business -- by visiting their properties hundreds of times, and then charging the government rates far above its usual spending limits.... Mr. Trump's son Eric -- who ran the family business while his father was in office -- provided a misleading account of what his company was charging. In 2019, Eric Trump said the Trump Organization charged the government only 'like $50' for hotel rooms during presidential visits. APolitico story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't call "like $50" misleading; I call it a "honking big lie" when the rate is more "like $1,200," or 24 times as much as the figure he cited.

Jenny Gross & Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "Kanye West has agreed in principle to buy Parler, the social media service that has attracted fans of ... Donald J. Trump, the service's parent company, Parlement Technologies, said in a news release on Monday.... The announcement came a little over a week after Twitter and Instagram restricted [West's] accounts in response to antisemitic remarks that he posted." An NPR story is here.

The Philadelphia Inquirer may have endorsed John Fetterman (D) for U.S. Senate, but wait! Why not vote for this guy? ~~~

~~~ Pennsylvania Senate Race. Meidas Touch: "In a newly resurfaced clip from The Jimmy Kimmel Show discovered by PatriotTakes, Republican Senate Candidate Dr. [Mehmet] Oz [R] talks about his love of drinking urine. Jordy Meiselas reports." ~~~

Vimal Patel of the New York Times: Arthur Cofield, an inmate in a Butts County, Georgia, state prison, ran a massive con from the prison in which he stole $11 million by stealing the identity of an elderly billionaire. "Mr. Cofield, 31, was charged with several federal counts, including conspiracy to commit bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to court documents. He has pleaded not guilty." MB: If Cofield is looking for a new job, he has just the right resumé to join Trump's Liars Social, which reportedly has been shedding executives.

Lizzie Johnson of the Washington Post on "how dogs being bred for research at Envigo became the target of the largest animal welfare seizure in the Humane Society's history.... After years of alarm from animal rights advocates and state legislators, after U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors found maggot-infested kibble, 300 dead puppies and injured beagles being euthanized, after an undercover investigation by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and after a lawsuit filed against Envigo by the Justice Department, the Indianapolis-based company had reached a settlement with the federal government. It agreed to shut down the Virginia breeding operation -- admitting no wrongdoing and receiving no punishment or fines -- rather than make what the CEO of its parent company called 'the required investments to improve the facility.' In July, U.S. District Court Judge Norman K. Moon approved the surrender of Envigo's beagles to the Humane Society of the United States.... What followed was two months of beagle mania, as people across the country showered the Humane Society with $2.2 million in donations and clamored to adopt the dogs. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle took in a beagle. So did the governor of New Jersey and the chief meteorologist at a Virginia news station." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The settlement should have included locking that CEO in a cage, cutting off his tail & feeding him maggot-infested kibble.

Ukraine, et al. Nahal Toosi & Matt Berg of Politico: "The United States intends to further crack down on Iran for helping Russia in the war on Ukraine, a U.S. official said Monday following reports that Tehran plans to send Moscow missiles to use on the battlefield. The penalties -- likely to include economic sanctions and possibly some export controls -- would also target third parties that help Tehran and Moscow.... The Washington Post reported over the weekend that Iran -- in addition to continuing to sell Russia drones, some of which are used kamikaze style to crash into targets -- plans to send Moscow surface-to-surface missiles."

U.K. NEVER MIND! Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Britain's new chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, said on Monday that he would reverse virtually all the government's planned tax cuts, sweeping away Prime Minister Liz Truss's free-market economic plan in a desperate bid to steady the financial markets and stabilize her government. Mr. Hunt also announced that the government would end its massive state intervention to cap energy prices next April, replacing it with a still-undefined program that he said would promote energy efficiency, but that could increase uncertainty for households facing rising gas and electricity bills. Ms. Truss's Conservative government had planned to announce the tax and spending details of its fiscal plan on Oct. 31, but with the markets still gyrating, Mr. Hunt rushed forward the schedule. His announcement constituted one of the most dramatic reversals in modern British political history."

~~~~~~~~~~

Colleen Long & Zeke Miller of the AP: "Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced ... Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted 'cruelty and exclusion at every turn,' including toward those fleeing the 'brutal' government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor's playbook. Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 -- which Biden's own Justice Department is fighting in court -- to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Robert Barnes & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Over eight oral arguments, [Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson] dominated the questioning and commentary, speaking twice as much as her next most loquacious colleague. It is likely a record for a new justice.... Her contributions ranged from the sweeping -- a rejection of an originalist interpretation of a colorblind Constitution that provoked swoons from the liberal legal community -- to the kind of mundane minutiae upon which even Supreme Court decisions turn." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump attacked American Jews in a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, saying Jews in the United States must 'get their act together' and show more appreciation for the state of Israel 'before it is too late.' American Jews have long been accused of holding secret loyalty to Israel rather than the United States, and Trump's post leaned on that antisemitic trope, suggesting that by virtue of their religion, American Jews should show more appreciation to Israel. Trump also complained in the post that 'no president' had done more for Israel than he had but that Christian evangelicals are 'far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.'... Trump's latest diatribe about Jews came as Republican candidates have made overt appeals to racial animus and resentments in the closing weeks of the midterm election campaign." An NBC News report is here.

Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: "In a flurry of elections, some of the world's major democracies have been leaning toward or outright embracing far-right authoritarian leaders, who have echoed one another by promising to crack down on loose morals, open borders and power-hungry elites.... In the United States..., Donald Trump has presumptively rejected future election results, and a majority of Republican candidates on the ballot this fall for major state and federal elective offices have joined him in repudiating the outcome of the 2020 presidential election -- an epidemic of election denialism in the United States that historians and political scientists define as a core element in any country's drift toward authoritarian rule. Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Soviet communism heralded a new era of democratic governance and a huge expansion of global trade, that democratic wave has been replaced in many countries by a tide of authoritarianism."

November Elections

Arizona Governor. Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake sparred with CNN's Dana Bash over unfounded claims of mass election fraud in 2020 during an interview on Sunday. 'You called the 2020 election corrupt, stolen, rotten and rigged, and there was no evidence of any of that presented in a court of law or anywhere else that any of those things are true. So why do you keep saying that?' Bash asked Lake on CNN's 'State of the Union.'... A series of investigations into Arizona's 2020 elections failed to find evidence of substantial fraud that would have overturned President Biden's victory in the state. Lake went on to portray the media as covering only 'one side' of the issue, while Bash repeatedly contested Lake's claims of electoral fraud.... During a subsequent interview on 'State of the Union' with Lake's opponent, Katie Hobbs, the Arizona Democrat lambasted Lake's position. 'This is disqualifying,' Hobbs said. 'This is a basic core of our democracy, and she has nothing else to run on.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mary Astor of the New York Times: "Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, refused on Sunday to commit to accepting the results of her election, using much of the same language that ... Donald J. Trump did when he was a candidate." CNN's report is here.

Georgia Senate. Maya King of the New York Times: "Herschel Walker was not onstage on Sunday night for Georgia's second U.S. Senate debate. But he was one of its main topics anyway. Senator Raphael Warnock, the incumbent and a Democrat, excoriated his Republican opponent, Mr. Walker, who chose not to attend the debate, arguing tha Mr. Walker's history of domestic violence, lies about his past and refusal to participate in the forum made him unqualified for office. Throughout the hourlong matchup in Atlanta, Mr. Warnock stepped out of character, opting for direct attack lines over the thinly veiled criticisms he has leveled at Mr. Walker for most of the campaign. He answered panelists' questions with a mix of policy points and full-throated rebukes of Mr. Walker's claims about his personal life, business prowess and academic record. He described Mr. Walker's 'well-documented history of violence' in reference to reports about Mr. Walker's domestic violence against his ex-wife, Cindy Grossman, calling them 'disturbing.'"

Ohio Senate. Cleveland Plain Dealer Editors Endorse Democrat Tim Ryan for U.S. Senate: "There is not much question as to what the state would get from either of the two candidates -- Ryan, as a congressman, having voted with Democrats virtually all of the time and [Republican J.D.] Vance having signed on to Donald Trump's Big Lie and extremist approach to politics after being highly critical of the former president during the 2016 campaign and afterward.... During his [20] years in Congress, Ryan has shown himself to be an able collaborator who is willing to work across the aisle, an important quality in a deeply divided Senate.... The pragmatic grasp he showed in discussing the need to stand firm against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the potential threat of China doing the same with Taiwan add up to a strong argument for Ryan to replace [Rob] Portman [R] in the Senate.... Who can forget [Vance's] initial reaction to the Russian invasion: 'I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.' Unfortunately, Vance elected not to appear before our editorial board to explain his indefensible embrace of Trump's Big Lie or clarify where he stands on Ukraine, abortion restrictions, domestic violence against women or other matters." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Pennsylvania Senate. Julia Mueller of the Hill: "The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday endorsed Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) in the state's Senate race after declining to endorse him in his party's primary earlier this year. 'There is no reason Fetterman cannot serve effectively after his stroke,' the editorial board wrote, noting that the Democrat struggles with slightly delayed auditory processing after suffering a stroke shortly before the primary but contending that the lag of a 'couple of moments ... should not significantly impair him' from serving as a senator. The editors added that 'Fetterman knows what his values are and is capable of communicating them. The same cannot be said for his opponent, Mehmet Oz, a man wholly unprepared to be Pennsylvania's U.S. senator.' Republican nominee Mehmet Oz, a former cardiothoracic surgeon-turned-television personality, has mocked his opponent's stroke and painted Fetterman as unfit." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russia launched another attack on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, using explosive Iranian drones to hit the city early Monday, one week after it unleashed a deadly missile barrage on the capital and other cities across the country that killed at least 19 people." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Monday are here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Russia's attack on the capital city with kamikaze drones, insisting Moscow 'terrorizes the civilian population' as a residential building was hit.... The E.U. Foreign Affairs Council is scheduled to meet Monday and discuss 'Russian aggression against Ukraine.'... Ukraine has sent about 8 million tons of food to countries since it resumed shipping in July, Zelensky said."

Charlotte Higgins & Artem Mazhulin of the Guardian: "Russian soldiers have shot dead a Ukrainian musician in his home after he refused to take part in a concert in occupied Kherson, according to the culture ministry in Kyiv. Conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko declined to take part in a concert 'intended by the occupiers to demonstrate the so-called "improvement of peaceful life" in Kherson', the ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page.... Kerpatenko, who was also the principal conductor of Kherson's Mykola Kulish Music and Drama Theatre, had been posting defiant messages on his Facebook page until May. The Kherson regional prosecutor's office in Ukraine has launched a formal investigation 'on the basis of violations of the laws and customs of war, combined with intentional murder'.... Condemnation by Ukrainian and international artists was swift." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "The police in a small Oklahoma city found four bodies in a river on Friday, three days after they said four men, all described as friends, had been reported missing. The discovery of the bodies deepened the mystery surrounding the missing men in Okmulgee, a city of about 11,000 people about 40 miles south of Tulsa. The police said the bodies were males but were awaiting a medical examiner's confirmation of their identities. The Okmulgee Police Department said a passer-by had noticed something suspicious in the Deep Fork River on Friday, leading investigators to find what appeared to be human remains protruding from the water." ~~~

     ~~~ Update: New York Times: "The mysterious disappearance of four friends in Oklahoma took a grim turn on Monday after the police confirmed that their remains had been found in a river after they had been fatally shot and then dismembered. Joe Prentice, the police chief in Okmulgee..., said at a news conference on Monday that the remains had been identified as those of Mark Chastain, 32; Billy Chastain, 30; Mike Sparks, 32; and Alex Stevens, 29, all of Okmulgee. The chief said the Chastains were brothers. Chief Prentice said that investigators believed the men had planned to 'commit some type of criminal act' after they left Billy Chastain's home on Okmulgee's west side around 8 p.m. on Oct. 9. All four were reportedly riding bicycles, the police said. Their plan to engage in criminal activity was based on information from a witness who had been invited to join the men to 'hit a lick big enough for all of them,' the chief said, quoting the witness. 'That is common terminology for engaging in some type of criminal behavior...,' he added." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I once lived in Okmulgee County. It is that kind of place, a place where your friends & neighbors just might dismember you.

October 16, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Colleen Long & Zeke Miller of the AP: "Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced ... Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted 'cruelty and exclusion at every turn,' including toward those fleeing the 'brutal' government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor's playbook. Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 -- which Biden's own Justice Department is fighting in court -- to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19."

Robert Barnes & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Over eight oral arguments, [Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson] dominated the questioning and commentary, speaking twice as much as her next most loquacious colleague. It is likely a record for a new justice.... Her contributions ranged from the sweeping -- a rejection of an originalist interpretation of a colorblind Constitution that provoked swoons from the liberal legal community -- to the kind of mundane minutiae upon which even Supreme Court decisions turn."

Arizona. Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake sparred with CNN's Dana Bash over unfounded claims of mass election fraud in 2020 during an interview on Sunday. 'You called the 2020 election corrupt, stolen, rotten and rigged, and there was no evidence of any of that presented in a court of law or anywhere else that any of those things are true. So why do you keep saying that?' Bash asked Lake on CNN's 'State of the Union.'... A series of investigations into Arizona's 2020 elections failed to find evidence of substantial fraud that would have overturned President Biden's victory in the state. Lake went on to portray the media as covering only 'one side' of the issue, while Bash repeatedly contested Lake's claims of electoral fraud.... During a subsequent interview on 'State of the Union' with Lake's opponent, Katie Hobbs, the Arizona Democrat lambasted Lake's position. 'This is disqualifying,' Hobbs said. 'This is a basic core of our democracy, and she has nothing else to run on.'"

Ohio. Cleveland Plain Dealer Editors Endorse Democrat Tim Ryan for U.S. Senate: "There is not much question as to what the state would get from either of the two candidates -- Ryan, as a congressman, having voted with Democrats virtually all of the time and [Republican J.D.] Vance having signed on to Donald Trump's Big Lie and extremist approach to politics after being highly critical of the former president during the 2016 campaign and afterward.... During his [20] years in Congress, Ryan has shown himself to be an able collaborator who is willing to work across the aisle, an important quality in a deeply divided Senate.... The pragmatic grasp he showed in discussing the need to stand firm against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the potential threat of China doing the same with Taiwan add up to a strong argument for Ryan to replace [Rob] Portman [R] in the Senate.... Who can forget [Vance's] initial reaction to the Russian invasion: 'I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.' Unfortunately, Vance elected not to appear before our editorial board to explain his indefensible embrace of Trump's Big Lie or clarify where he stands on Ukraine, abortion restrictions, domestic violence against women or other matters."

Pennsylvania. Julia Mueller of the Hill: "The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday endorsed Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) in the state's Senate race after declining to endorse him in his party's primary earlier this year. 'There is no reason Fetterman cannot serve effectively after his stroke,' the editorial board wrote, noting that the Democrat struggles with slightly delayed auditory processing after suffering a stroke shortly before the primary but contending that the lag of a 'couple of moments ... should not significantly impair him' from serving as a senator. The editors added that 'Fetterman knows what his values are and is capable of communicating them. The same cannot be said for his opponent, Mehmet Oz, a man wholly unprepared to be Pennsylvania's U.S. senator.' Republican nominee Mehmet Oz, a former cardiothoracic surgeon-turned-television personality, has mocked his opponent's stroke and painted Fetterman as unfit."

Ukraine, et al. Charlotte Higgins & Artem Mazhulin of the Guardian: "Russian soldiers have shot dead a Ukrainian musician in his home after he refused to take part in a concert in occupied Kherson, according to the culture ministry in Kyiv. Conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko declined to take part in a concert 'intended by the occupiers to demonstrate the so-called 'improvement of peaceful life' in Kherson', the ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page.... Kerpatenko, who was also the principal conductor of Kherson's Mykola Kulish Music and Drama Theatre, had been posting defiant messages on his Facebook page until May. The Kherson regional prosecutor's office in Ukraine has launched a formal investigation 'on the basis of violations of the laws and customs of war, combined with intentional murder'.... Condemnation by Ukrainian and international artists was swift."

~~~~~~~~~~

Betsy Klein & Shawna Mizelle of CNN: "President Joe Biden said on Saturday the video and testimony shared at the January 6 hearing this week was 'devastating' and said the committee overall has made an 'overwhelming' case. Asked his thoughts on the hearing during an unannounced stop at a Baskin-Robbins in Portland, Oregon, Biden said, 'I think the testimony, the video are absolutely devastating. And I've been going out of my way not to comment, see what happens, but it's just -- I think it's been devastating.'"

** Whistleblower Outs Trump's Media "Empire." Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "Will Wilkerson, [once] an executive at ... Donald Trump's start-up Trump Media & Technology Group..., [has turned over] hundreds of previously unreported company messages, documents, photos and audio recordings ... in connection with a whistleblower submission [that] reveals a stunning portrait of the animosity that has built up inside Trump Media since its high-profile debut last year.... Inside the company, Wilkerson said..., plans [to create a media empire] gave way to bitter infighting, technical failures and a chaotic jockeying for power among Trump allies that undermined its potential.... Wilkerson, who was fired from his job Thursday ... after he spoke to The Post, filed the whistleblower complaint with the SEC in August.... Wilkerson is cooperating with investigations into Trump Media by the SEC and federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, said his attorneys...." In an anecdote cited at the top of the story, Trump telephoned Andy Litinsky, a co-founder of Trump Media, & demanded that Litinsky turn over some of his corporate shares to Melania Trump. Five months later, Litinisky was removed from the board of directors in a move Litinsky claimed "was payback for his refusal to turn over a small fortune to the former president's wife."

Kyle Cheney of Politico (Oct. 14): "A federal judge on Friday denied an effort by John Eastman, the attorney who helped devise Donald Trump's last-ditch effort to subvert the 2020 election, to reclaim his phone from the Justice Department. New Mexico-based Senior U.S. District Court Judge Robert Brack ruled that Eastman had failed to show that the government's seizure of his phone -- by FBI agents who confronted him outside a restaurant in June -- had caused 'irreparable harm.' Brack noted that Eastman had obtained a replacement phone and that his desire to bar the government from combing the contents of his seized phone was not a sufficient reason to reclaim it from the Justice Department." MB: Brack is a Bush II appointee.

November Elections. Mainstreaming Bigotry. Liz Gooswin of the Washington Post: "As the campaign heats up in the final weeks before November's midterm elections, so have [Republicans'] overt appeals to racial animus and resentment. And the toxic remarks appear to be receiving less pushback from Republicans than in past years, suggesting that some candidates in the first post-Trump election cycle have been influenced by the ex-president's norm-breaking example.... 'Here's the difference between Democrats and MAGA Republicans. When a Democrat says something racist or antisemitic, we hold Democrats accountable,' said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. 'When a MAGA Republican says something racist or antisemitic, they are embraced by cheering crowds.'... 'It is not new to see antisemitism or overt racism in politics,' [Jonathan] Greenblatt [of the Anti-Defamation League] said. 'What is new is after years ... in which it was clear that to be credible in public life politicians had to reject prejudice, it's now been normalized in ways that are really quite breathtaking.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. More DeSantis Stunts in the Works. AP: "The Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, plans to continue flying undocumented migrants to Democratic strongholds, his spokeswoman said on Saturday, a day after released records showed the state paid nearly $1m to arrange two sets of flights to Delaware and Illinois. Documents released on Friday showed that the planned flights will transport about 100 migrants. They were scheduled for before 3 October but were halted or postponed. The contractor hired by Florida extended the window for the trips until 1 December, according to memos released by the state transportation department."

Michigan. AP: "A judge has dismissed a young woman from the jury hearing the trial of three men in connection with a 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer after attorneys accused her of flirting with one of the defendants. Judge Thomas Wilson announced Friday that the woman has been removed from the jury, two days after attorneys raised concerns the juror was having too much non-verbal communication with defendant Paul Bellar, the Jackson Citizen Patriot reported."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Sunday are here: "Russia's effort to limit Ukrainian counteroffensives by pounding Kyiv and other cities with missiles and mobilizing more troops is unlikely to shift the dynamics of the conflict, which is now clearly tilting in favor of Ukraine, Western intelligence assessments and military experts say.... [Ukrainian President] Zelensky says the Russian death toll is 'approaching 65,000.'... The Kremlin is still conducting massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians, the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said -- and it may be replacing them with imported Russian citizens."

Piper Sauer of the Guardian: "At least 11 people were killed and 15 more wounded at a military training ground in the Belgorod region in south-western Russia on Saturday when two volunteers opened fire on other troops, the Russian defence ministry has said. The ministry said in a statement that the two shooters were nationals from a former Soviet republic and had been shot dead after the attack. The ministry called the incident a terrorist attack."

Robyn Dixon & Natalia Abbakumova of the Washington Post: "In cities and towns across Russia, men of fighting age are going into hiding to avoid the officials who are seizing them and sending them to fight in Ukraine. Police and military press-gangs in recent days have snatched men off the streets and outside Metro stations."

AFP: "Elon Musk on Saturday announced that his company would continue to pay for Starlink satellite internet in war-torn Ukraine, a day after suggesting he could not keep funding the project. 'The hell with it,' the world's richest man wrote on Twitter. 'Even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we'll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.' Musk had said on Friday that SpaceX would not be able to pay for Starlink in Ukraine indefinitely, as the US military confirmed it was communicating with the billionaire's company about funding for the key network."

China. Christian Shepherd & Lily Kuo of the Washington Post: "Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged Sunday to turn China into a 'great modern socialist country' that represents a 'new choice' for humanity, as he opened a Chinese Communist Party meeting where he is expected to secure a precedent-breaking third term. From a lectern onstage at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Xi spoke without a mask for an hour and 45 minutes to open the twice-per-decade meeting that sets the national agenda for the next five years." ~~~

     ~~~ Helen Davidson & Emma Graham-Harrison of the Guardian: “Xi Jinping celebrated China's crushing of Hong Kong's autonomy and warned Taiwan that the 'wheels of history are turning towards Beijing taking control of the island democracy in his speech opening the Communist party congress. The most important gathering in the five-year Chinese political cycle is expected to hand Xi another five-year term running China, cementing his position as the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times is live-updating developments related to the party congress.

Haiti, et al. Danica Coto of the AP: "The U.S. and Canada sent armored vehicles and other supplies to Haiti on Saturday to help police fight a powerful gang amid a pending request from the Haitian government for the immediate deployment of foreign troops. A U.S. State Department statement said the equipment was bought by Haiti's government, but it did not provide further details on the supplies flown on military aircraft to the capital of Port-au-Prince."

Iran. Sarah Dadouch & Babak Denghanpisheh of the Washington Post: "A massive fire broke out Saturday night in Iran's notorious Evin prison, which holds hundreds of dissidents and has detained hundreds more during the past month of street protests. Iran's state news agency IRNA reported that eight people were injured in the fire and that it was under control by Sunday morning, while citing officials who insisted there was no link between the blaze and the recent demonstrations." A BBC report is here.

U.K. Toby Helm & Michael Savage of the Guardian: "Senior Conservatives will this week hold talks on a 'rescue mission' that would see the swift removal of Liz Truss as leader, after the new chancellor Jeremy Hunt dramatically tore up her economic package and signalled a new era of austerity. A group of senior MPs will meet on Monday to discuss the prime minister's future, with some wanting her to resign within days and others saying she is now 'in office but not in control'. Some are threatening to publicly call on Truss to stand down after the implosion of her tax-cutting programme. In a rearguard action to prop up the prime minister, her cabinet allies tonight warned MPs they would precipitate an election and ensure the Tories were 'finished as a party' if they toppled a second leader in just a few months."

However, support for Truss is also evaporating inside the cabinet, with members keeping in close touch with her critics.

News Ledes

New York Times: "A man the police described as a 'potential serial killer' who terrorized residents in California's Central Valley in a string of fatal shootings was arrested early on Saturday while he was 'out hunting' for more victims, the authorities said. The man, Wesley Brownlee, 43, was arrested in Stockton after an investigation that connected five fatal shootings across Stockton along with a killing about 70 miles away." The Guardian's report is here.

AP: "A 15-year-old boy alleged to have killed five people and injured two in a shooting rampage in Raleigh, North Carolina, will be charged as an adult, authorities said.... 'In this situation, there's no question the mass loss of life, in my opinion, this case be transferred and tried in superior court,' [Wake County D.A. Lorrin] Freeman said at a press conference on Friday."

Washington Post: "Widespread flooding caused by extreme rainfall and the release of excess water from a dam in neighboring Cameroon has left 1.4 million Nigerians displaced and claimed 500 lives, according to government officials. The floods also injured 1,546 people, inundated 70,566 hectares of farmland and 'totally damaged' 45,249 homes, said Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, the permanent secretary in Nigeria's Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development."