Monday, April 11, 2022
Zelenskyy pleads for more aid, Iowa nightclub shooting, Biden to regulate 'ghost guns,' Cheney says enough to refer Trump for criminal charges, Elon abandons Twitter board and Scheffler wins Masters.
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Good Monday morning. Here’s what is happening:
CBS News: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling for more aid immediately from the United States and its allies in order to withstand Russian attacks.
"We don't understand [the Russians]," Zelenskyy said in an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, two days after visiting Bucha, where civilian bodies lay in the streets after Russian forces withdrew from areas around Kyiv. "You can't really understand this world, that there are people on this planet who give these orders and people [who carry them out]."
"Death. Just death," Zelenskyy said of what he saw in Bucha, adding that bodies had been "left out like trash."
Despite Zelenskyy's repeated pleas for a no-fly zone, the U.S. and its allies have declined, saying it could lead to a direct military confrontation between two nuclear-armed powers – the U.S. and Russia.
"I remember, all of us remember, books about the second World War and about the devil in uniform – Adolf Hitler," Zelenskyy said. "Are those countries who did not participate in the war responsible? The countries who let German forces march throughout Europe? Does the world carry responsibility for the genocide? Yes. Yes, it does. When you [have the ability to] close the sky – yes it's scary, that a world war could start. It's scary. I understand [that]. And I cannot put pressure on these people because everyone is afraid of war. But whether the world [is responsible] for this, I believe so, yes. I believe so.
"Stand in front of the mirror every day and ask yourself, were you able to do something? Or were you unable to do something? You will find the answer in the mirror to this question, and to another question – who are you? That's what I believe."
Zelenskyy warned that not doing more for Ukraine now means Russia could "move closer and closer to Europe."
"They will only become stronger and less predictable," he said.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine needs more sanctions imposed on Russia, and more military aid from allies, who should be less fearful of Putin.
"Weapons, number one. They need to be very serious about it. They definitely understand what I'm talking about right now. They have to supply weapons to Ukraine as if they were defending themselves and their own people. They need to understand this: If they don't speed up, it will be very hard for us to hold on against this pressure. The second factor is sanctions. Because we've found some things in sanctions that are easy for financial experts to circumvent. Russia has been circumventing them, and this is absolutely true. The Western world knows it. This shouldn't be allowed. This is not a movie, this is real life. Stop fearing the Russian Federation. We've shown we are not afraid."
-ABC News: The U.S. says Russia 'planned' attacks on Ukrainian civilians.
-The Hill: A bipartisan group of lawmakers arrived in Poland this weekend to meet with U.S. forces and allies in the region amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Associated Press: Incumbent Emmanuel Macron will face far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen in a winner-takes-all runoff for the French presidency, after they both advanced Sunday in the first round of voting in the country’s election.
But while Macron won their last contest in 2017 by a landslide to become France’s youngest-ever president, the same outcome this time is far from guaranteed. Macron, now 44, emerged ahead from Sunday’s first round, but the runoff is essentially a new election and the next two weeks of campaigning to the April 24 second-round vote promise to be bruising and confrontational against his 53-year-old political nemesis.
Savvier and more polished as she makes her third attempt to become France’s first woman president, Le Pen was handsomely rewarded Sunday at the ballot box for her years-long effort to rebrand herself as more pragmatic and less extreme. Macron has accused Le Pen of pushing an extremist manifesto of racist, ruinous policies. Le Pen wants to roll back some rights for Muslims, banning them from wearing headscarves in public, and to drastically reduce immigration from outside Europe.
On Sunday, she racked up her best-ever first-round tally of votes. With most votes counted, Macron had just over 27% and Le Pen had just under 24%. Hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon was third, missing out on the two-candidate runoff, with close to 22%.
Macron also improved on his first-round showing in 2017, despite his presidency being rocked by an almost unrelenting series of both domestic and international crises. They include Russia’s war in Ukraine that overshadowed the election and diverted his focus from the campaign.
With polling suggesting that the runoff against Le Pen could be close, Macron immediately started throwing his energies into the battle.
Addressing supporters Sunday night who chanted “five more years,” Macron warned that “nothing is done” and said the runoff campaign will be “decisive for our country and for Europe.”
Claiming that Le Pen would align France with “populists and xenophobes,” he said: “That’s not us.”
“I want to reach out to all those who want to work for France,” he said. He vowed to “implement the project of progress, of French and European openness and independence we have advocated for.”
-CNN: Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan has been ousted as the country's leader following a vote of no confidence over allegations of economic mismanagement and mishandling of the country's foreign policy, bringing an end to his tumultuous term in office.
Cedar Rapids Gazette: Two people were killed and another 10 were injured in a shooting at a nightclub in Iowa early Sunday.
Gunmen targeting a victim inside a crowded downtown nightclub early Sunday shot “somewhere in the area of a dozen or two dozen” rounds, killing a man and woman and injuring 10 others, Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman told reporters.
Officers were already near the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge, 415 Third St. SE, where they were responding to an earlier call about an incident outside. Just before 1:30 a.m., the officers saw an “exodus” of people fleeing the club, and rushed inside to find the fatalities and wounded, Jerman said.
The chief said Sunday afternoon the investigation was “fluid” and no arrests had been made. The assailants — who police believe are both men — had likely fled with the crowd. Up to about 150 people were in the club when the shooting broke out inside.
Police said they do not believe there was an ongoing threat to the public, even with the suspects at large, because the shooters appear to have had a specific target.
“We do not believe that the general population or community is at a heightened risk, since the shooter achieved his goal of reaching his victim,” Jerman said in a Sunday afternoon news conference.
Police have not been able to establish a motive for the shooting.
The club, which has had private security at past events, did not have security present during the shooting, Jerman said. The club, which opened in 2019 inside the Sokol Building, was holding a “90s Bash” with a $10 cover charge at the time of the shooting, according to the club’s Instagram account.
Authorities have not yet fully identified the people who were killed beyond saying they were an adult male and adult female.
Jerman said the 10 who were injured by gunfire or shrapnel ranged from life-threatening to minor wounds, with one person who was in critical condition. Officers transported some of the victims to local hospitals in squad cars.
WTHR-TV: A man is dead and five other people were injured after a shooting at a birthday party Sunday morning on the northwest side of Indianapolis.
Police responded to a report of a person shot around 3:20 a.m. at an event center in the 4200 block of West 38th Street, near Lafayette Road.
When police arrived, they found three people who had been shot. Police said two of them had non-life-threatening injuries, but medics pronounced a man inside the building dead at the scene.
According to police, three other people went to local hospitals after being shot in the incident. Police said their injuries are believed to be non-life-threatening.
In total, six people — five men and one woman — were injured in the incident, with one of the men dying from his injuries.
According to a preliminary investigation, detectives believe a fight broke out at a birthday party at the event center, where shots were fired both inside and outside of the building.
Police said they do not have any suspects in custody at this time.
CNN: President Joe Biden is expected to announce new firearm regulations as soon as Monday meant to contain the use of 'ghost guns.'
The regulation on so-called "ghost guns" -- unregulated, untraceable weapons made from kits -- would address a critical gap in the government's ability to track them.
Biden is also expected to name Steve Dettelbach, a former US attorney from Ohio, as his nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as soon as Monday, according to a US official. Biden's previous nominee was forced to withdraw amid opposition in the Senate.
The moves come as gun violence and crime have ticked up in the United States, putting pressure on the White House to take action. Biden was expected to address new steps on guns in a public event Monday afternoon, according to people who have received invitations.
The White House declined to comment on the new steps, which were described by three people familiar with the matter not authorized to speak publicly. Dettelbach did not respond to a request for comment.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer again decried the use of ghost guns during a press conference Sunday, calling for a crackdown on the rise of the privately made firearms and speaking about a deadly shooting in the Bronx Friday.
Following a 2021 directive from the Biden administration, the ATF proposed a rule in May last year to allow the bureau to classify the building blocks that often make up ghost guns as firearms. The rule has been winding its way through the federal regulation process since then.
The ATF rule addresses a key problem in tracking and regulating ghost guns because certain frames and receivers used to assemble the guns are often purchased online and not classified as firearms by the bureau.
The rule would also require manufactures who sell parts to assemble ghost guns to be licensed and to run background checks on potential purchasers of the kits used to assemble the products.
The Justice Department has also launched a national ghost gun enforcement initiative, which will "train a national cadre of prosecutors and disseminate investigation and prosecution tools to help bring cases against those who use ghost guns to commit crimes," according to the White House.
Ghost guns have been used in multiple recent shootings, including at a Maryland high school in January. The exact number in circulation is unknowable, given the inability of regulators to track them.
Multiple states have moved to restrict their sale as ghost guns become more common at crime scenes.
NBC News: The House panel investigating the January 6 attack has enough evidence to refer President Donald Trump for criminal charges, Rep. Liz Cheney said Sunday.
“It’s absolutely clear that what President Trump was doing — what a number of people around him were doing — that they knew it was unlawful. They did it anyway,” Cheney, the vice chair and one of two Republicans on the committee, said on CNN's "State of the Union" when host Jake Tapper asked her whether the panel had enough evidence to make a criminal referral for Trump. Cheney said the panel has not made a decision about moving forward with the referral.
The New York Times reported that the committee has concluded that it has enough evidence to make a criminal referral but that its leaders were divided over whether to do so.
"I think what we have seen is a massive and well-organized and well-planned effort that used multiple tools to try to overturn an election," Cheney said. The committee has "got a tremendous amount of testimony and documents that I think very, very clearly demonstrate the extent of the planning and the organization and the objective."
She added: "The objective was absolutely to try to stop the kind of electoral votes, to try to interfere with that official proceeding. And it’s absolutely clear that they knew what they were doing was wrong."
-Denver Post: Election deniers received the support of the Colorado Republican Party faithful on Saturday as delegates voted to put candidates such as indicted secretary of state candidate Tina Peters and U.S. Senate candidate Ron Hanks on the GOP primary ballot.
NPR: Former president Donald Trump has endorsed fellow TV personality-turned-politician Dr. Mehmet Oz for the U.S. Senate ahead of the Republican primary in Pennsylvania.
"This is all about winning elections in order to stop the Radical Left maniacs from destroying our Country," Trump said in a statement promoting the celebrity heart surgeon-turned-politician this weekend. "I have known Dr. Oz for many years, as have many others, even if only through his very successful television show. He has lived with us through the screen and has always been popular, respected, and smart."
The former president also praised Dr. Oz's medical and academic credentials, adding, "He even said that I was in extraordinary health, which made me like him even more (although he also said I should lose a couple of pounds!)."
The endorsement comes as Republican candidates vie for Trump's support in the key battleground state and in other primaries across the countrylike Ohio. While the former president has been reserving his support for candidates who reinforce his false claims of voter fraud, it's unclear how much weight a Trump stamp of approval carries for the contested primary elections.
Earlier, Trump had endorsed Sean Parnell, an Army veteran who dropped out of the race after allegations of physical abuse against his wife and children emerged. Parnell has denied those accusations.
-Axios: Former Sen. Rick Santorum will endorse Dave McCormick for the Republican nomination in the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania.
-The New York Times: Before Giving Billions to Jared Kushner, Saudi Investment Fund Had Big Doubts.
amNewYork: NYC Mayor Eric Adams tested positive for COVID-19 Sunday, the latest high-ranking official to contract the virus.
The announcement comes after hizzoner abruptly called off all in-person appearances scheduled for April 10, which also marked his 100th day in office.
“This morning, Mayor Adams woke up with a raspy voice and, out of an abundance of caution, took a PCR test that has now come back positive,” said the mayor’s press secretary Fabien Levy, in a statement Sunday afternoon, April 10.
“At this time, the mayor has no other symptoms, but he is already isolating and will be canceling all public events for the remainder of the week. He is also going to immediately begin taking the anti-viral medications offered for free to New York City residents and encourages all New Yorkers eligible for these medications to take them as well,” Levy added. “While he is isolating, he will continue to serve New Yorkers by working remotely.”
COVID-19 cases have been on the rise across the Five Boroughs in recent weeks due to the highly contagious BA.2 variant.
-POLITICO: Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday there’s no particular reason to fear that President Joe Biden will be infected with COVID-19, despite how hard official Washington has been hit lately.
-NBC News: Sixty-eight people have tested positive for COVID-19 after having attended the Gridiron Dinner in Washington last weekend, including members of the Biden administration and reporters.
-The Associated Press: Thousands of people including truckers and firefighters from across the country gathered Sunday outside Los Angeles City Hall to protest vaccination mandates.
-The Wall Street Journal: School Reopening Mess Drives Frustrated Parents Toward GOP.
This was one of the most challenging reporting assignments of my 20+ yrs covering politics: Spending the past two months talking to Democratic parents in New Jersey about the political implications of the pandemic. wsj.com/articles/covid…-Reuters: Shanghai residents question human cost of China's COVID quarantines.
CNBC: Elon Musk has abandoned his plans to join the board of Twitter.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced publicly on Sunday that Musk remains the largest shareholder of Twitter, and the company will remain open to his input.
Musk informed Twitter on Saturday morning that he would not, in fact, take the board seat.
Agrawal wrote, “We were excited to collaborate and clear about the risks. We also believed that having Elon as a fiduciary of the company where he, like all board members, has to act in the best interests of the company and all our shareholders was the best path forward.”
The Twitter CEO did not say whether Musk gave specific reasons for changing his mind about taking on a new obligation.
Encouraging Twitter employees to remain focused, Agrawal also wrote, “There will be distractions ahead but our goals and priorities remain unchanged. The decisions we make and how we execute is in our hands, no one else’s.”
Twitter CEO @paraga note to staff as @elonmusk decides not to join the company's board. $TWTR-Axios: Elon Musk suggested in a series of tweets Saturday night changes to the premium Twitter Blue service — including a cheaper subscription price, banning ads and offering the option to pay in cryptocurrency.
ESPN: Scottie Scheffler won The Masters by three strokes over Rory McIlroy to earn his first career major championship victory Sunday.
Scottie Scheffler looked like a Masters champion even before he slipped into his green jacket, the model of calm as he methodically worked his way around the most stressful course in major championship golf.
Sunday morning was different. That turned out to be the toughest test he had all day.
"I cried like a baby this morning. I was so stressed out. I didn't know what to do," Scheffler said after winning his first major. "I was sitting there telling [wife] Meredith, 'I don't think I'm ready for this' ... and I just felt overwhelmed."
And then he capped off his torrid two-month stretch with his grandest feat of all, leading the entire weekend and strolling to a 1-under 71 -- with one lapse in concentration at the end when it didn't matter -- for a 3-shot victory over Rory McIlroy.
For a guy who had won three of his previous five tournaments, who reached No. 1 in the world, why suddenly be overcome with doubt?
"I think because it's the Masters. I dreamed of having a chance to play in this golf tournament. I teared up the first time I got my invitation in the mail," Scheffler said.
"If you're going to choose a golf tournament to win, this would be the tournament," he said. "You don't know how many chances you're going to get. And so having a chance -- I had a 5-shot lead on Friday and then a 3-shot lead going into today -- I don't know if you get better opportunities than that. You don't want to waste them."
-NBC News: Tiger Woods fell short in his miraculous Masters comeback.
-Axios: Power has been restored to most of Puerto Rico following an island-wide outage.
-The Hill: Major budget airlines canceled hundreds of flights again over the weekend, citing weather and air traffic control-related issues.
-The Daily Beast: A pair of phony Homeland Security agents who allegedly infiltrated the highest levels of federal law enforcement and plied agents with lavish gifts were somehow tipped off to their arrest last week, allowing them to stash guns and other items, prosecutors revealed in a new filing on Sunday.
-The Washington Post: Maryland enacted the most sweeping change to its abortion laws in three decades on Saturday, as Democratic state lawmakers overrode Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto.
-Texas Public Radio: A Texas DA is moving to dismiss a murder charge against a woman accused of a self-induced abortion.
-The Des Moines Register: Former U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer cannot appear on Iowa's June 7 Democratic primary ballot for U.S. Senate, a judge ruled Sunday night.
-POLITICO: White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday that she suspects student loan borrowers will have to start paying their debt at some point during the Biden administration.
-NBC News: A judge has struck down the military's limits on service members with HIV in a landmark ruling.
-POLITICO: A significant majority of Americans blame Russian President Vladimir Putin for the recent spike in America’s gas prices, but almost as many blame oil companies, according a new poll.
-The Weather Channel: Confidence is growing in yet another severe weather outbreak in parts of the South and Plains this week for the fourth week in a row.
Here are my target areas for greatest #tornado potential Monday PM through Wednesday. I'll be working Texarkana through Little Rock area Monday PM, with potential for gorilla hailers all the way back to DFW. Tuesday looks to be the biggest setup in Tornado Alley since 2019.
