Tuesday, October 17, 2023. Annette’s News Roundup.
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Joe is always busy.
Biden to visit Israel on Wednesday in a major show of solidarity.
President Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday, Secretary of State Tony Blinken said late Monday.
Why it matters: The visit will be a show of support for Israel as it prepares for a ground offensive in Gaza and will be aimed at discouraging Iran and Hezbollah from joining the war. (Axios).
One more thing.
No other American President has visited Israel during a war. This is the second time President Biden has been in a war zone. He also spent 24 hours in Kyiv.
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Dark Brandon is really at it.
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This sad and terrible thing happened in Plainfield, Illinois.
The boy’s mother was also stabbed but survived.
The President responded.
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Trump updates.
Watch 👇 Trump once again insult our military.
Trump in Iowa describes military officials as "some of the dumbest people I've ever met in my life" -- and gets big applause for it.
Trump in Iowa describes military officials as "some of the dumbest people I've ever met in my life" -- and gets big applause for it pic.twitter.com/UmbQQAxJwQ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2023
Federal judge issues narrow gag order in Trump's Jan. 6 case.
U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on Monday issued a narrow gag order on former President Trump in his Jan. 6 criminal case.
Why it matters: Prosecutors had said a gag order was necessary to protect the integrity of judicial proceedings, while Trump's lawyers argued it would violate his right to free speech and hamstring his 2024 presidential campaign.
Under the order, Chutkan said Trump would not be allowed to mount a "smear campaign" against prosecutors and court personnel, AP reported.
"No other criminal defendant would be allowed to do so, and I'm not going to allow it in this case," she added.
Catch up quick: Special Counsel Jack Smith requested a "narrowly tailored" gag order for Trump in September to limit his public statements about the case.
Federal prosecutors argued that Trump's public remarks about the case threatened to "undermine confidence in the criminal justice system and prejudice the jury pool."
Trump's lawyers pushed back on the request, saying in a court filing that a gag order would violate Trump's First Amendment rights and "unconstitutionally silence" him during his ongoing bid for the White House.
State of play: Chutkan on Monday granted some of the prosecution's request for a gag order while denying other aspects, the New York Times reported.
The limited gag order forbids Trump from making statements that target special counsel Jack Smith or his family, prosecutors, court staff, or witnesses.
However, the order doesn't prevent him from criticizing the residents of Washington, D.C. — where the trial will take place — or the Biden administration or Justice Department, more generally.
Chutkan did not restrict Trump's statements about his belief that the case is politically motivated and did not prevent him from making statements about her.
Trump can also make remarks about political opponents, such as former Vice President Mike Pence, himself a potential witness, so long as they don't relate directly to his role in the case, per the Times.
Chutkan did not specify how she would enforce the order, but said she would address that if and when Trump violated it, the Times reported.
What they're saying: A Trump spokesperson in a statement called the decision "an absolute abomination and another partisan knife stuck in the heart of our Democracy."
Zoom in: Chutkan said Trump must "follow the conditions of release," and that "he does not have the right to say and do exactly what he pleases," to which Trump's lawyer, John Lauro, agreed, CNN reported.
Trump's conditions of release in the case prohibit harassing or intimidating witnesses, per NBC News.
Lauro argued Monday that the conditions of release have been working and are sufficient, and highlighted the difficulty of enforcing a gag order during the campaign, the Times reported.
Prosecutor Molly Gaston argued that the order would prevent Trump from making "disparaging and inflammatory or intimidating statements."
She raised the possibility of fining Trump or changing the conditions of his release if he were to violate a potential gag order, per the Times.
The big picture: Trump has repeatedly criticized Chutkan and others involved in the case on social media.
Prosecutors have pointed to Trump's social media posts as evidence of the need for narrow gag order. "If you go after me, I'm coming after you!" Trump wrote in one Truth Social post highlighted by prosecutors.
He has even called one potential witness "a gutless pig," AP reported.
Chutkan warned Trump in August against making any "inflammatory statements" about the case.
Of note: Chutkan said Monday the case's trial "will not yield to the election cycle, and we will not revisit the trial date," CNN reported.
Background: In August, Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges in the case.
Earlier this month, the New York judge overseeing Trump's civil fraud case issued a gag order against Trump, preventing him from making personal attacks against court staff. (Axios).
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Was Russia involved in igniting the attack by Hamas?
Israel sent military aid to Ukraine in February, despite demands from Putin that Israel not support Ukraine.Then in March the Hamas visit with Lavrov took place.
Do you remember Lavrov? He was the Russian diplomat that Trump recklessly shared intelligence with in 2017.
In his meeting with Lavrov, Trump seemed to be boasting about his inside knowledge of the looming threat. "I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day," the president said, according to an official with knowledge of the exchange.
Trump went on to discuss aspects of the threat that the United States learned only through the espionage capabilities of a key partner. He did not reveal the specific intelligence-gathering method, but he described how the Islamic State was pursuing elements of a specific plot and how much harm such an attack could cause under varying circumstances. Most alarmingly, officials said, Trump revealed the city in the Islamic State’s territory where the U.S. intelligence partner detected the threat. (Washington Post, May 15, 2017).
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We wait to see if there are still 5 House Republicans moral enough to stop Gym Jordan from becoming Speaker of the House, 2nd in line to the President.
According to the Hill, at least five Republicans say they do not plan to support Jordan on the first ballot Tuesday: Reps. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.).
Hope this sticks.
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Ring of fire eclipse was amazing appetizer for what’s coming in April.
ALBUQUERQUE — Every solar eclipse has a different flavor, and takes a different adventure to get to the right spot at the right time. After chasing three total solar eclipses in the past six years, I decided to try my hand at a new challenge: hunting down a “ring of fire” eclipse from beneath the wide-open skies of New Mexico.
Seeing an “annular” eclipse had been on my bucket list since childhood. But chasing this eclipse would afford the opportunity to knock something else off the list: experience the magic of Balloon Fiesta, the world’s largest hot air balloon festival. It happens each October in Albuquerque. The fiesta was born in 1972, when only 13 balloons were featured. Nowadays between 500 and 1,000 hot air balloons take to the skies each morning of the nine-day festival, which occurs the first full week of October.
In a fortuitous twist of fate, Albuquerque was to be directly on the centerline of Saturday’s eclipse, which would also coincide with the penultimate day of Balloon Fiesta — on a weekend, moreover! Upward of 1.2 million visitors have entered Balloon Fiesta Park over the past week and a half, setting a record.
I had been planning to fly to Albuquerque with my adventure buddy, Tess. I mentioned it in passing to my boss, Andy Green, the chief executive of MyRadar, a weather app based in Orlando. Before I knew it, MyRadar had offered to cover the travel and send a cameraman, Jack. The three of us rendezvoused in New Mexico on Friday, and then met up with a meteorologist friend of mine, Andrew.
My alarm buzzed at 1:18 a.m. Saturday. I had to charge our electric rental car, iron a shirt and gather my team. We planned to be at Balloon Fiesta Park early to score a flight aboard a balloon. A limited number of slots were available for the media.
My not-so-secret goal? Soar in the skies overhead during annularity, or the 4-minute, 48-second window during which the moon would intercede directly between the Earth and the sun. If all went well, we’d manage a once-in-a-lifetime shot from a vantage point that nobody else would have.
Unfortunately, winds were just a bit too strong Saturday morning and, about 9 a.m., our pilot scrubbed our launch. We didn’t have much time to be sad, however — the partial phase of the eclipse would begin at 9:13 a.m. as the moon just barely nicked the outer edge of the solar disk.
Fortunately, high, wispy cirrus clouds that had lingered overnight were largely dissipating. With a cobalt-blue sky overhead, the stage was set for the spectacle of the eclipse.
Andrew, Jack and Tess and I decided to watch the eclipse from the town of Rio Rancho, about 30 minutes northwest of the balloon park. None had ever seen an eclipse before, but I knew how visceral of an experience it would be; I wanted them to take in the sights, sounds and environmental oddities that accompany the sun’s occultation.
We hoped to escape the congestion of the city and find a wide open space. My GPS had us reaching the outskirts of the Albuquerque at 9:57 a.m., some 36 minutes before annularity would begin. About eight minutes out, though, I spontaneously turned onto an unpaved sandy road, accelerated and mischievously barked “hang on” to my intrepid passengers. We tumbled along for roughly a minute, virtually every piece of camera equipment and luggage in the cabin rattling as the vehicle protested in a series of dull thuds and groans. We skidded over a hill, at which point I abruptly chirped “here.” My friends were suspicious, but trustingly followed me as I lugged my camera gear up a sand dune.
“Wow!” I exclaimed upon reaching the crest, able to see for miles in all directions. Aside from distant city dwellings, the only thing on the horizon was the Sandia mountain range, which forms a spine through Bernalillo and Sandoval counties in New Mexico.
Around 10:20 a.m., things began getting weird. The shadows sharpened; sickle-shaped patches appeared on the ground where slits of sunlight shone between leaves in the shrubbery and scrub brush. The light breeze felt cooler. And, like with previous eclipses I’d witnessed, the landscape transformed.
This is the fourth time I’ve tried to explain in writing how, and yet I still can’t suitably describe it — it’s like the world is on a dimmer and is being viewed trough the sepia filter on an iPhone. An angst hangs in the air, like an ancient presence lurks nearby. In the past, I’d only seen total eclipses. At totality, night-like darkness would fall, and the sun’s corona — the outermost part of its atmosphere — would poke out from behind the moon. But that didn’t happen this time. We kept our glasses on during annularity, in awe of the razor-thin ring of gold that appeared in our jet-black lenses. The sun, moon and Earth were all lined up together — albeit only for a few fleeting minutes.
Of the multiple total eclipses I have experienced, none have ever delivered more than 2 ½ minutes of totality — allowing little time to take pictures. It feels like an instant. But with annularity persisting nearly twice as long in this eclipse, I was able to snap some dream photographs — and then sink into the sand and gawk upward.
The moment passed as quickly as it came. Andrew, Tess and Jack were impressed, but I knew it was nothing compared to a total solar eclipse. If an annular eclipse is like winning a gift certificate to your favorite restaurant, then a total eclipse is akin to winning the Powerball.
Fortunately, a total solar eclipse is coming next year. In the United States, it will be visible from Texas to northern Maine on April 8, 2024. The moon’s shadow will trace a path covering much of the central and eastern United States. (I’ve already told my family in Massachusetts that they’re required to go, it’s not optional.) The eclipse will also be “deeper” than its predecessor in 2017, meaning the sky will be darker, the path wider and totality longer.
Back atop our random sand dune in New Mexico, however, Tess needed no convincing — she’d had 2024 in her calendar for years.
“I’ll book the tickets tonight,” she joked. Jack and Andrew nodded in agreement.
And later that evening, as the four of us celebrated Tess’s birthday, she did. (Matthew Cappucci, Washington Post).
More photos.. of the eclipse.
A partial solar eclipse is seen on a telescope on Saturday in Marietta, Ga. NPR.
The moon crosses in front of the sun during the Annual Solar Eclipse in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Forbes.
Hundreds of spectators in sunglasses gathered to watch the moon glide across the sun. NDTV. News from India.
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