Thursday, May 5, 2022

Wake-Up Call: Russia Accused Of 'Missile Terrorism'


RUSSIA COMPLAINS WEST 'STUFFING UKRAINE WITH WEAPONS': As Russia targeted railroad stations and other supply line targets in Ukraine with missile strikes to try to block the flow of weapons from Western nations, and also attacked Ukrainian troop strongholds and fuel and ammunition depots with artillery and aircraft, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia of using, quote, "missile terrorism tactics in order to spread fear across Ukraine." Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, meanwhile, complained that the West is, quote, "stuffing Ukraine with weapons."


Attacks were reported Wednesday near the capital of Kyiv, in Cherkasy and Dnipro in central Ukraine, and in Zaporizhzhia in the southeastern part of the country. However, AP cited a senior U.S. defense official as saying that even though Russia has been trying to hit railroads around the western city of Lviv near the Polish border, there's been, quote, "no appreciable impact" on Ukraine being able to resupply its forces with weapons from the West. Ukraine's General Staff said Ukrainian forces made some gains on the border of the southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv, and repelled 11 Russian attacks in the eastern Donetsky and Luhansk regions.



The mayor of Mariupol said there was heavy fighting at the sprawling steel mill that's been the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the devastated southern city. The commander of the military unit defending the plant said Russian forces got into the plant's territory and that their incursions continued for a second day with, quote, "heavy, bloody battles." Russia, however, denied its forces were storming the plant.
 

E.U. Prez Calls for It to Ban Russian Oil Imports: European Union President Ursula von der Leyen called on the 27-nation bloc yesterday to ban Russian oil imports, something that would need unanimous approval. The E.U. is also considering barring Russian natural gas, and has already approved cutting off coal imports from Russia.

NY Post 5/5/22
➤FEDERAL RESERVE TARGETS INFLATION WITH HALF-POINT INTEREST RATE INCREASE: The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by a half-percentage point yesterday (May 4th) as part of its bid to tackle inflation, which is at its worst level in four decades. The increase raised the rate to a range of 0.75 percent to one percent, its highest point since before the pandemic. The increase was the Fed's most aggressive move since 2000. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said, "Inflation is much too high, and we understand the hardship it is causing." Powell also made clear that more interest rate hikes will be coming. Addressing concerns that the actions could send the economy into recession, Powell said he believes the economy is resilient enough, saying, "I see a strong economy. Nothing about it says it’s close to or vulnerable to a recession."

➤OATH KEEPER IS THIRD TO PLEAD GUILTY TO SEDITIOUS CONSPIRACY OVER JANUARY 6TH: A 44-year-old North Carolina man who's a member of the far-right Oath Keepers milita group pled guilty to seditious conspiracy yesterday, admitting to conspiring with other members of the group to forcefully halt the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden. William Todd Wilson is the third Oath Keepers member to plead guilty to seditious conspiracy related to the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Wilson and other Oath Keepers entered the Capitol during the January 6th attack and later than afternoon, according to a court filing, he joined Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes in a hotel suite. There Rhodes called an unnamed person on a speaker phone and repeatedly urged them to tell then-President Donald Trump to, quote, "call upon groups like the Oath Keepers to forcibly oppose the transfer of power." The person on the phone refused to let Rhodes speak directly with Trump.
 

➤JUDGE ACCEPTS CHAUVIN PLEA DEAL IN FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS CASE: The judge overseeing the federal civil rights cases against four former Minneapolis police officers in the May 2020 killing of George Floyd said yesterday that he's accepted the terms of Derek Chauvin's plea agreement and will sentence him to 20 to 25 years in prison. Chauvin pled guilty in December to violating Floyd’s civil rights when he knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, leading to his death, admitting he willfully deprived Floyd of his right to be free from unreasonable seizure, including unreasonable force by a police officer. He could have potentially faced life in prison if convicted in federal court. Chauvin is already serving a 22 1/2 year sentence for his murder conviction in Minnesota last year. He would serve the federal sentence concurrently with the state sentence.

➤AMBER HEARD RECALLS FIRST TIME JOHNNY DEPP ALLEGEDLY HIT HER:  During her emotional testimony Wednesday, Amber Heard detailed the first time Johnny Depp allegedly hit her.


Heard told the jury that she had asked the Pirates of the Caribbean actor a question about his famous “Wino Forever” tattoo and he slapped her across the face.

Heard recalled, “I laughed because I didn’t know what else to do. I thought this must be a joke because I didn’t’ know what was going on. I just stared at him thinking that he was going to start laughing too.”Instead, she says he slapped her again.

During her testimony, the Aquaman actress said that there were two different sides to Depp. She said, “He was the love of my life but he was also this other thing and this other thing was an awful, awful thing that would come out and take over. You couldn’t see the Johnny I loved underneath it.”

➤MAN ARRESTED FOR ATTACKING DAVE CHAPPELLE ONSTAGE AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL:  A 23-year-old man was arrested Wednesday for attacking Dave Chappelle onstage at the Hollywood Bowl during Tuesday night’s Netflix Is A Joke Festival at the Hollywood Bowl.

The LAPD says that Isaiah Lee, who was carrying a plastic replica gun that contained a knife blade, was taken into custody for assault with a deadly weapon.

According to reports, the incident occurred just after the comedian told the crowd that he needed to ramp up security due to backlash from his remarks about the trans community last year. Lee was corralled by security and fellow comedian Jamie Foxx as Chappelle joked, “It’s a transman,” causing backlash online once again.

A Chappelle spokesperson told Deadline in a statement, “Dave Chappelle celebrated four nights of comedy and music, setting record-breaking sales for a comedian at the Hollywood Bowl. This run ties Chappelle with Monty Python for the most headlined shows by any comedian at the Hollywood Bowl, reaching 70k fans of diverse backgrounds during the first Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival, and he refuses to allow last night’s incident to overshadow the magic of this historic moment.”


➤SECRETARY OF STATE BLINKEN TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19: Secretary of State Antony Blinken tested positive for Covid-19 yesterday, the State Department announced, saying he is fully vaccinated and experiencing only mild symptoms. Blinken attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend, as did President Biden, but he isn't considered a close contant of the president. Blinken will isolate at home and work virtually.

🏖NANTUCKET TO ALLOW PEOPLE TO GO TOPLESS AT BEACHES:  The island of Nantucket off the coast of Massachusetts is moving toward allowing people to go topless at all of its beaches regardless of gender. At the annual town meeting Tuesday night, the Gender Equality on Beaches bylaw amendment passed 327-242. It must still be approved by the state attorney general's office in order to go into effect. Currently, only men can be topless in public under Massachusetts law. Resident Dorothy Stover proposed the bylaw, which says, in part, "In order to promote equality for all persons, any person shall be allowed to be topless on any public or private beach" in Nantucket. She told station WBUR that she hopes to normalize bodies of all shapes and sizes and foster an environment of acceptance. AP reports there had been a proposed amendment to exempt two beaches that are popular with families and tourists, but it was withdrawn.

➤STUDY: FACEBOOK OUTAGE MAY REVEAL DEPTH OF SOCIAL MEDIA DEPENDENCY:  How much do you rely on social media? Penn State researchers looked at tweets reacting to a six-hour Facebook outage in the fall of 2021—there were enough that the hashtag #FacebookDown was a trending topic. Many of the tweets showed anger or ridiculed Facebook, and users also expressed a need to find other social media outlets. Researcher Shyam Sundar explains, “It is not simply that people are dependent on it at a social level. When these social media sites go down, businesses also will go down. A lot of people engage in business transactions on the whole family of Facebook apps […]. There are newspapers that run completely on Facebook and small businesses and entrepreneurs who have their businesses, like yoga classes that hold lessons through Facebook. So, for some people, it’s a utility because it’s critical to their livelihood.” Tweets that expressed a desire to find another form of social media actually grew as the outage continued, and another trending topic suggested that users were ready to leave social media altogether. Researchers say the findings suggest that social media platforms need to look at outages as seriously as utility companies, which are constantly planning to face outages and preparing communication plans to help consumers navigate the outage.

🏀NBA PLAYOFFS: Results from second-round games yesterday:
  • Miami Heat 119, Philadelphia 76ers 103 - Miami leads series 2-0
  • Phoenix Suns 129, Dallas Mavericks 109 - Phoenix leads series 2-0

🏒NHL PLAYOFFS: Results from first-round games yesterday:
  • Carolina Hurricanes 5, Boston Bruins 2 - Carolina leads series 2-0
  • Tampa Bay Lightning 5, Toronto Maple Leafs 3 - Series tied 1-1
  • Minnesota Wild 6, St. Louis Blues 2 - Hat trick for Wild's Kirill Kaprizov - Series tied 1-1
  • Edmonton Oilers 6, L.A. Kings 0 - Series tied 1-1

🏀ESPN: WARRIORS' PAYTON TO BE OUT FOR MONTH WITH FRACTURED ELBOW: The Golden State Warriors will have to continue their playoffs battle without Gary Payton II, with ESPN reporting Wednesday that he's expected to be out for about a month with a fractured left elbow. The report said that if the Warriors make it to the NBA Finals, there's a possibility he could return. Payton was hurt when the Memphis Grizzlies' Dillon Brooks hit him in the head in the air as he chased him down early in Memphis' 106-101 win in Game 2 of their second-round playoffs series Tuesday. Brooks was ejected for a flagrant foul, and could potentially be suspended.

🏀NETS' SIMMONS TO HAVE SURGERY FOR HERNIATED DISK: The Brooklyn Nets' Ben Simmons will have surgery for a herniated disk, the team said yesterday, with the procedure set to be done today. Simmons didn't play at all this season, staying off the court in Philadelphia after requesting a trade from the 76ers, citing mental health concerns, and then because of back pain after he was traded to the Nets in February. He'd hoped to return during the playoffs, but his back troubles resurfaced before the game in which he'd been on track to make his debut, which turned out to be the game that eliminated Brooklyn in the first round.


➤KENSETH AMONG THOSE VOTED INTO NASCAR HALL OF FAME: Driver Matt Kenseth headed the class that was voted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame yesterday. The 50-year-old Kenseth retired in 2020 with 39 Cup victories, winning the Daytona 500 twice and the 2003 Cup Series championship among his accomplishments. He was chosen in his first year of eligibility. Joining him were driver Hershel McGriff and crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine. They will officially be inducted in a January 20th ceremony.





Posted

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)