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Thursday, November 30, 2023

11/30 WAKE-UP CALL: Henry Kissinger Dead


Former presidential adviser Henry Kissinger has died, according to a statement posted on his website, bringing to a close one of the most polarizing and influential diplomatic lives in U.S. history. He died Wednesday at his home in Connecticut, said a statement by his consulting firm. He was 100 years old. The German-born academic was the only American official ever to concurrently serve as both secretary of state and White House national security adviser, giving him immense power during the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford presidencies. That helped him end the U.S. war in Vietnam and to shape American foreign policy toward the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

Kissinger’s diplomatic coups made him a hero to war-weary Americans fearing nuclear armageddon. But he drew the ire of both the American left, which held him responsible for brutalities committed abroad, and the right, which regarded him with suspicion for advocating detente with Communist regimes.  Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, along with the Vietnamese leader Le Duc Tho, for pursuing secret diplomatic talks that forged the Paris Peace Accords, ending the U.S. military campaign in Southeast Asia. 


➤TRUCE EXTENDED FOR ADDITIONAL DAY: Israel and Hamas agreed to extend the temporary truce by one day, following the release of 16 hostages held by militants in Gaza. Qatar announced the extension early Thursday. Before that announcement, 10 Israelis, including one who is also a U.S. citizen, were released as part of the soon-to-expire deal. Four Thai nationals and two Israeli-Russian citizens were also released, but they aren’t considered to be covered by the existing deal. In exchange, 30 Palestinians who had been imprisoned were freed under the truce deal, the Israeli prison service said. Israel is open to a new round of negotiations for the release of Israeli men and soldiers held in Gaza once all the civilian women and children hostages are freed, a senior official said Wednesday, indicating that the current truce could extend beyond this week, even as the Israeli government says it is prepared to resume its war with Hamas if necessary. Israeli leaders have come out strongly against a permanent cease-fire, in a demonstration of how the government is caught between Israelis’ conflicting desires to eradicate Hamas and bring home some 200 people captured on Oct. 7.

➤HOSTAGE FAMILIES HAVE QUESTION FOR BIDEN: The families of Americans still being held hostage by Hamas had a question for the Biden administration Wednesday morning. “Where are the U.S. Citizens?” Ruby Chen, the father of a 19-year-old Israeli American soldier being held by Hamas, said he planned to ask White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Chen, speaking with reporters Wednesday, wondered why only one American had been among the dozens of hostages released by Hamas in recent days. By late afternoon, one more American – Liat Binin, a 49-year-old high school teacher and guide at Israel’s Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem – was returned to her family. That left seven Americans and one permanent resident still in captivity.  Under the current negotiation's terms, only one qualifies for the release which cover women and children. But Hamas has released other adult males outside the scope of the agreement with Israel, including Thai nationals and a 25-year-old Russian-Israeli man. On Wednesday, two other 18-year-old males were released.

➤AMERICAN ASSAULTED IN RUSSIAN JAIL:  Paul Whelan, a U.S. citizen who has been held in Russia since 2018, was assaulted by a fellow inmate after a conflict at his prison east of Moscow, according to the Russian prison service and Whelan’s family. The former U.S. Marine and corporate security executive from Novi, Mich., who is serving a 16-year prison sentence on espionage charges he denies, was taken to the prison’s medical unit on Tuesday with a graze under his eye following a minor altercation with another prisoner, Russia’s state news agency RIA said.


In a statement, the U.S. State Department voiced concern about the assault on Whelan and said the embassy in Moscow had since been in contact with the 53-year-old by phone. “We call on Russia to ensure Paul Whelan and all U.S. citizen detainees are safe,” it said. “Russia should immediately release Paul Whelan.” Whelan was arrested during a trip to Russia in 2018. After a trial that was held entirely in secret, he was convicted in 2020. The U.S. considers Whelan to be wrongfully detained and has said that it believes his espionage conviction to be trumped up. His family has been campaigning for his release.

➤ECONOMY GROWING FASTER THAN EXPECTED: The U.S. economy grew at a healthy 5.2 percent annualized pace in the third quarter of this year. That’s stronger than most expected. The increase in gross domestic product was mostly due to business investment and government spending rather than consumer spending.

➤STANDING-ROOM-ONLY CROWD FOR HALEY:  Hours after securing a coveted endorsement from the wealthy and powerful Koch political network, 2024 presidential hopeful Nikki Haley addressed a standing-room-only crowd of early primary voters Tuesday night with one bold question. “How many of you are here to hear me for the first time?” the former South Carolina governor asked, surveying the more than 300 people packed into the Derry Opera House on the blistering cold New England night. Almost half threw their hands in the air, including Christy Carlson, 54, and her friend Marlo Devir, 52. The two longtime New Hampshire Republicans had never once attended any of the hundreds of presidential campaign rallies that swing through the first-in-the-nation primary state every four years. They chose Haley’s town hall on a “whim” after hearing murmurs that the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nation’s star was on the rise.

➤WHERE THE UKRAINE AID WENT: For those who are wondering where that $27 billion in military aid to Ukraine went, the White House has released a map of the places that got the money, and they’re right here in the U.S. The map shows that plants in Pennsylvania built more than $2.3 billion worth of munitions and vehicles. Artillery shells were manufactured in Ohio and Texas. “Let me be clear about something,” President Joe Biden said last month. “We send Ukraine equipment sitting in our own stockpiles. And when we use the money allocated by Congress, we use it to replenish our own stores… with new equipment.”

➤NEW HEALTH INSURANCE POWERHOUSE COULD EMERGE: Cigna and Humana are discussing a possible merger that would create a new health-insurance powerhouse. A stock-and-cash deal could be finalized by the end of the year, assuming the dialogue doesn’t fall apart, according to people familiar with the matter. Joining Cigna and Humana—with respective market values of about $83 billion and roughly $62 billion as of this morning—would give the managed-care providers scale to rival that of UnitedHealth Group and CVS Health. Cigna would combine its huge pharmacy-benefit unit, which manages drug plans, and its strength in commercial insurance with Humana’s big position in the fast-growing Medicare segment, something Cigna has long sought. Humana could help Cigna move to paying doctors and hospitals without tying compensation to service volumes. Cigna and Humana also explored merging in 2015.

➤MUSK REGRETS CONTROVERSIAL TWEET, BUT... Elon Musk on Wednesday told the DealBook summit, hosted by The New York Times, that he regretted his November 15 tweet endorsing an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. But he condemned advertisers who fled X in the wake of the post, saying they could 'go f*** themselves'. Musk appeared at The New York Times ' DealBook summit, and was pressed by host Andrew Ross Sorkin on his November 15 tweet and the resulting fallout. He was asked specifically about Disney CEO Bob Iger, who explained on stage earlier on Wednesday his company's decision to pull advertising from the platform. 'Don't advertise. If someone is going to try and blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f*** yourself,' Musk said. 'Go f*** yourself, is that clear? Hey Bob, if you're in the audience. That's how I feel, don't advertise.'

🏈RODGERS CLEARED FOR PRACTICE: Aaron Rodgers will soon be back on an NFL field − a practice field, that is. The New York Jets have opened the 21-day practice window for the four-time MVP, head coach Robert Saleh announced Wednesday. Rodgers will return to practice at the organization's training center in Florham Park, New Jersey, on Wednesday in a limited capacity as the quarterback − who remains on injured reserve − has been cleared for "functional football activity."

"This isn't so much getting ready to play as much as it is a progression as rehab," Saleh told reporters. "There's no added risk to it. There's certain things that he's been cleared for that we're going to allow him to do."


➤WOKE REPORTER SLAMS CHILD'S FACE PAINT: The mother of a young football fan who wore a headdress and painted his face red and black to a Kansas City Chiefs game has blasted Deadspin for accusing him of “doubling up” on racism against black and Native communities — noting that her son is himself Native American. Holden Armenta became an unexpected focus of an article by senior writer Carron Phillips that focused on a photo of the boy standing sideways, suggesting he was wearing blackface with no mention of the red side.“The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress,” read the headline, which accused the boy of “doubling up on the racism.”

Phillips, a former New York Daily News reporter, also slammed Holden’s Native American headdress and his “Tomahawk Chop” gesture, claiming the boy “found a way to hate Black people and Native Americans at the same time.” “It takes a lot to disrespect two groups of people at once,” Phillips wrote in the article, which has since been tagged with a community note on X branding it “purposely deceiving.”

⚾LUIS SEVERINO MOVES ACROSS TOWN: Former New York Yankees pitcher Luis Severino is moving across town to play for the Mets. According to multiple reports, the one-year deal is worth $13 million.

🏂UPSTATE NEW YORK BURIED IN SNOW: The first big snowstorm of the season brought some eye-popping statistics for upstate New York. Much of Western New York got more than 20 inches of snow, with the town of Highmarket in Lewis County leading with 42.7 inches.
 


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