The News & Guts Digest: a Serving of the Day’s Top News Stories with a Little Side of Commentary

Did Putin Just Blink?

The Russians are in retreat – or at least some of them, maybe…

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doesn’t want war and that “a decision was made to partially withdraw troops” from Russia’s border with Ukraine…

…The autocrat also indicated that he was open to continued talks with Western diplomats, buoying hopes that Russia’s long-simmering threat to invade its neighbor won’t boil over into a full-blown military conflict…

…Putin even suggested that he would oppose a motion that passed Russia’s parliament on Tuesday that seeks to recognize rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine as independent states. That characterization would violate the terms of pre-existing international agreements, so Putin’s rejection of it is viewed as a coup for diplomacy…

…NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said there’s reason to be “cautiously optimistic” about the surprisingly conciliatory tone coming out of Moscow, but of course no one is willing to take Putin at his word. Stoltenberg said there was no “evidence” that any Russians were withdrawing…

…“We won’t believe when we hear, we’ll believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, we’ll believe in de-escalation,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

…Julianne Smith, the American ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, added: “We do not understand—fundamentally, none of us do—what is inside President Putin’s head. So we cannot make any guess about where all of this is headed.”

…Similarly, U.S. President Joe Biden said the Russian retreat is “not yet verified” but “would be good.” He said over one hundred thousand Russian troops remain “very much in a threatening positioning.”

…Biden addressed the American people about the potential conflict on Tuesday afternoon from the East Room of The White House, saying the US is “prepared no matter what happens.” He warned that an “invasion remains distinctly possible” but that he’s committed to pursuing “high-level diplomacy.”

…Biden reiterated that U.S. troops would not be sent to battle in order to defend Ukraine, but said the West is prepared to “impose powerful sanctions.” He threatened to kill the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which will deliver Russian gas to Germany once its approved by regulators…

…Biden said a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be a “war of choice.” If Russia pursues that path, Biden warned, “the world will not forget that Russia chose needless death and destruction… the West is united and galvanized.”

…Meanwhile, several Ukrainian websites, including one belonging to a popular bank, were the victims of cyberattacks on Tuesday. “Analysts have warned that Russian cyberattacks could precede a conventional military attack, but it was not immediately clear who was behind the attacks on the Ukrainian websites,” reports The Washington Post.

Gun Manufacturers Hear A Warning Shot

Almost a decade after a mentally disturbed young man used a Remington rifle in a shooting spree that killed twenty children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the gunmaker reached a settlement with nine victims’ families for $73 million…

…the families alleged that Remington inappropriately marketed a weapon of war to at-risk young men through product placement in violent video games…

…Remington filed for bankruptcy in 2020, but its insurers have agreed to cover the settlement, which follows byzantine legal proceedings that reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 …

…”This victory should serve as a wake-up call not only to the gun industry, but also the insurance and banking companies that prop it up,” said Josh Koskoff, an attorney for the victims’ families, in a statement on Tuesday. “For the gun industry, it’s time to stop recklessly marketing all guns to all people for all uses and instead ask how marketing can lower risk rather than court it. For the insurance and banking industries, it’s time to recognize the financial cost of underwriting companies that elevate profit by escalating risk. Our hope is that this victory will be the first boulder in the avalanche that forces that change.”

…“Today is a day of accountability for an industry that has thus far enjoyed operating with immunity and impunity, and for this I am grateful,” said Veronique de la Rosa, the mother of six-year-old victim Noah Pozner, at a Tuesday press conference.

What a Joke

…Novak Djokovic is willing to sacrifice his tennis career in order to make a stand against COVID-19 vaccine mandates…

…In an interview with the BBC, Djokovic said he’ll miss the French Open and Wimbledon if their vaccine mandates remain in place. “That is the price I’m willing to pay,” he said.

…Djokovic was unable to compete in last month’s Australian Open because he refused to comply with the country’s vaccination protocols. That helped rival Rafael Nadal win the grand slam event and break a tie with Djokovic for most major championships in the sport’s history…

…Amol Rajan, who interviewed Djokovic for the BBC, asked the 34-year-old Serbian “Ultimately, are you prepared to forgo the chance to be the greatest player to ever picked up a racquet statistically because you feel so strongly about this jab?”

…“Yes,” Djokovic replied. “I do.”

These Poor Flight Attendants

…In yet another sign of our fraying social fabric, another unruly airline passenger faces federal charges after he attempted to open up an emergency door mid-flight…

…The 32-year-old, Michael Brandon Demarre, said he was trying to bait his fellow passengers into filming him, so he could share his anti-vaxx opinions with the world…

…Does this story sound familiar? Well, it should. Reports of unruly passengers have skyrocketed during the pandemic. The FAA says 72% of them are related to conflicts over mask wearing…

…Over the weekend, another man on another flight also attempted to open an emergency door. A flight attendant hit him over the head with a coffee pot…

It’s Not All Bad News

Scientists reported on Tuesday that they think they’ve cured a New York woman of H.I.V. using an experimental stem cell transplant method involving umbilical cord blood. The unidentified woman is believed to the third person – and first female – to be cured of the virus…

…Unfortunately, the procedure is extremely risky and doctors were only willing to try a Hail Mary treatment because the patient also suffered from cancer…

…Still, the development marks a major step toward a more widely available cure. About 1 million people die of H.I.V./AIDS every year…

Also Churning This News Cycle

… “Jurors found on Tuesday that The New York Times did not defame Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate, in a June 2017 editorial that wrongly claimed a link between an ad from her political action committee and a mass shooting many months later,” reports NPR.

… “Britain’s Prince Andrew, accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl supplied to him by financier Jeffrey Epstein, has agreed to settle by making a substantial donation to his accuser’s charity and declaring he never meant to malign her character, court papers revealed Tuesday,” reports The Associated Press.

… “The family of a cinematographer shot and killed on the set of the film “Rust” is suing Alec Baldwin and the movie’s producers for wrongful death, their attorneys said Tuesday. Lawyers for the family of Halyna Hutchins announced the lawsuit filed in New Mexico in the name of Hutchins’ husband, Matthew Hutchins, and their son, Andros, at a Los Angeles news conference,” reports CBS News.

Well Said

…This quote on the right’s cynical use of cancel culture from Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez caught our attention (via The New Yorker): “You look at the capture of power in the right wing, the ascent of white nationalism, the concentration of wealth. You cannot really animate or concentrate a movement like that — you can’t coalesce it into functional political power — without a sense of persecution or victimhood. And that’s the role of this concept of cancel culture. It’s the speck of dust around which the raindrop must form in order to precipitate takeovers of school boards, pushing actual discourse out of the acceptable norms. Like in terms of the 1619 Project or getting books banned from schools, they need the concept of cancel culture, of persecution, in order to justify, animate, and pursue a political program of takeover — or at least a constant further concentration of their own power.”