Current Affairs Of Pakistan & World: 03/07/23

Congress hears warning bells on interest, default

Mar 07, 2023

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AWFUL NEWS — “2 kidnapped Americans found dead in Mexico, 2 others alive,” by AP’s Alfredo Peña in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico: “Two others who were kidnapped with them were found alive, with one wounded.”

SOHN NOM SINKS — Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) said in a statement that he will vote against GIGI SOHN’s long-stalled nomination for Democratic FCC commissioner, noting that Sohn has received “unprecedented bipartisan opposition.” The FCC “must remain above the toxic partisanship that Americans are sick and tired of, and Ms. Sohn has clearly shown she is not the person to do that,” Manchin said. Read the full statement

Jerome Powell, seated at a table, listening with his hand against his chin during a hearing with other people sitting in the background.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell appears before the Senate Banking Committee this morning. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

A WARNING ON INTEREST — Fed Chair JEROME POWELL appeared before the Senate Banking Committee this morning, where he cautioned that the central bank “could increase the size of its interest rate hikes and raise borrowing costs to higher levels than previously projected if evidence continues to point to a robust economy and persistently high inflation,” AP’s Christopher Rugaber writes.

What Powell said: “The latest economic data have come in stronger than expected, which suggests that the ultimate level of interest rates is likely to be higher than previously anticipated. If the totality of the data were to indicate that faster tightening is warranted, we would be prepared to increase the pace of rate hikes.”

What it means, via the AP: “Most economists and Wall Street investors had expected the Fed to carry out another quarter-point increase at upcoming meetings. But traders and some analysts now see it as more likely that the Fed will implement a half-point hike later this month.”

The congressional response: “The chairman faced some pushback from Democrats on the Senate panel who blamed inflation on corporate greed and price gouging and said the Fed should reconsider its rate hikes,” CNBC’s Jeff Cox writes. “Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN, (D-Mass.), a frequent Powell critic, charged that the Fed’s inflation goals will put two million people out of work.”

Related read: “Why the Federal Reserve Won’t Commit,” by NYT’s Jeanna Smialek: “As with anyone who’s reluctant to define the relationship, there is a method to the Fed’s wily ways. At a vastly uncertain moment in the American economy, central bankers want to keep their options open.”

A WARNING ON DEBT DEFAULT — “Debt Default Would Cripple U.S. Economy, New Analysis Warns,” by NYT’s Jim Tankersley: “The U.S. economy could quickly shed a million jobs and fall into recession if lawmakers fail to raise the nation’s borrowing limit before the federal government exhausts its ability to pay its bills on time, the chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, MARK ZANDI, will warn a Senate panel on Tuesday.

“The damage could spiral to seven million jobs lost and a 2008-style financial crisis in the event of a prolonged breach of the debt limit, in which House Republicans refuse for months to join Democrats in voting to raise the cap, Mr. Zandi and his colleagues CRISTIAN deRITIS and BERNARD YAROS wrote in an analysis prepared for the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Policy.”

Meanwhile, NYT’s Catie Edmondson has a report from Okmulgee, Okla., on freshman GOP Rep. JOSH BRECHEEN, whose pitch back home “reflects the intensity of the Republican determination to use a coming confrontation over the federal debt” to extract spending cuts from Dems. “But it is about more than just dollars and cents,” Edmondson writes. “To spend a day in his district with Mr. Brecheen is to witness firsthand how hard-right Republicans have intertwined their fight to slash federal spending with battles over cultural issues that animate the right-wing Republican base.”

NEW INFO ON NORD STREAM — New intelligence obtained by U.S. officials suggests that a pro-Ukranian group was behind last year’s attack on the Nord Stream pipelines, Adam Entous, Julian Barnes and Adam Goldman report for NYT: “Officials said there were still enormous gaps in what U.S. spy agencies and their European partners knew about what transpired. But officials said it might constitute the first significant lead to emerge from several closely guarded investigations, the conclusions of which could have profound implications for the coalition supporting Ukraine.”

GRAVES DECISION — Rep. GARRET GRAVES (R-La.) announced in a lengthy statement that he will not enter the Louisiana gubernatorial race, instead choosing to stay in Congress. Read the statement

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THE WHITE HOUSE

SETTING THE SECOND STATE VISIT — South Korean President YOON SUK YEOL will be the guest for President JOE BIDEN’s second official state visit, with a state dinner held on April 26, the White House announced today. More from the AP

CONGRESS

COMING IN HOT — Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) announced today that Starbucks CEO HOWARD SCHULTZ has agreed to appear before the Senate HELP Committee on March 29 to testify about his company’s labor practices. Read the announcement

JAN 6. AND ITS AFTERMATH

FOOTAGE FIASCO — “Senate leader Schumer blasts Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Speaker McCarthy over Jan. 6 footage,” by CNBC’s Dan Mangan: “In blistering terms, [Senate Majority Leader CHUCK] SCHUMER, D-N.Y., also criticized House Speaker KEVIN McCARTHY, R-Calif. for giving [TUCKER] CARLSON and Fox News exclusive access to 44,000 hours of Capitol security footage. … ‘I and so many others who were here’ on Jan. 6, 2021, ‘are just furious with Tucker Carson and Kevin McCarthy today,’ Schumer said on the Senate floor. He called Carlson’s broadcast this week, ‘One of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on cable television.’”

But Schumer wasn’t the only one with a strong reaction to Carlson’s coverage this morning.

CNN’s Manu Raju (@mkraju): “‘I think it’s bullshit,’ [North Carolina Republican Sen.] THOM TILLIS told me of how Tucker Carlson portrayed the events and he also criticized how other violent demonstrations have been portrayed in press.” Read through Raju’s thread of GOP reactions

POLICY CORNER

WU’S WARNING — “Biden’s former antitrust guru issues a warning,” by Josh Sisco in Brussels: “Two months after leaving his job in the White House as Joe Biden’s czar for competition policy, TIM WU has some words for backers of the national anti-monopoly movement that he has helped foster: Beware the blowback. And don’t count on Congress.”

What Wu said: “‘In the United States, a lot has happened in the last two years, but there is, based on looking at the history, a real danger, I think of a kind of premature declaration of victory,’ Wu said at an antitrust conference in Brussels last week. There is ‘an almost certain moment of a kind of Empire Strikes Back situation that I hope my allies in the administration in the United States are ready for.’”

HEADS UP — “DOJ sues to block JetBlue’s $3.8 billion Spirit takeover,” by Josh Sisco: “Filed in Boston federal court, the lawsuit comes after an almost year-long investigation of the merger, which would create the fifth-largest U.S. airline, and alleges the deal would raise prices and reduce consumer choice in travel options. JetBlue and Spirit have argued that though the merger will mean fewer seats available to passengers, fares would remain low.”

We’re spilling the tea (and drinking tons of it in our newsroom) in U.K. politics with our latest newsletter, London Playbook PM. Get to know all the movers and shakers in Westminster and never miss a beat of British politics with a free subscription. Don’t miss out, we’ve got some exciting moves coming. Sign up today.

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

ABORTION FALLOUT — “Florida GOP lawmakers file bills to ban abortion after 6 weeks of pregnancy,” by Arek Sarkissian: “The proposal allows for exceptions to save a patient’s life or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. The legislation, if approved, further restricts abortion in Florida, which last year outlawed abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy without exceptions for rape or incest. Lawmakers filed the bills just minutes before Gov. RON DeSANTIS delivered his annual state of the state address.”

THE ECONOMY

CLICKER — “How Seasonality Affects Our View of Inflation and Jobs, as Explained With Hot Dogs,” by WSJ’s Kara Dapena and Austen Hufford

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

AUSTIN ABROAD — “Austin makes surprise trip to Baghdad,” by Matt Berg: “Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN made an unannounced trip to Baghdad on Tuesday, where he promised to continue to battle the Islamic State until the group is defeated. Austin’s trip comes ahead of the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, led by the United States, that ousted former leader SADDAM HUSSEIN.”

DANCE OF THE SUPERPOWERS — “U.S. sees China propaganda efforts becoming more like Russia’s,” by AP’s Nomaan Merchant and Matthew Lee: “U.S. officials and outside experts cite recent examples of China-linked actors generating false news reports with artificial intelligence and posting large volumes of denigrating social media posts. While many of the discovered efforts are amateurish, experts think they signal an apparent willingness from Beijing to try more influence campaigns as part of a broader embrace of covert operations, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.”

Related read: “Record-Low 15% of Americans View China Favorably,” by Gallup’s Megan Brenan.

Afternoon read: “The Daring Ruse That Exposed China’s Campaign to Steal American Secrets,” by NYT’s Yudhijit Bhattacharjee: “How the downfall of one intelligence agent revealed the astonishing depth of Chinese industrial espionage.”

WHO GETS PAID — “Former top U.S. admiral cashes in on nuclear sub deal with Australia,” by WaPo’s Craig Whitlock and Nate Jones: “Briny Deep, based in Alexandria, Va., received a $210,000 part-time contract in late November to advise Australian defense officials during their negotiations to acquire top-secret nuclear submarine technology from the United States and Britain, according to Australian contracting documents. U.S. public records show the company is owned by JOHN M. RICHARDSON, a retired four-star U.S. admiral and career submariner who headed the U.S. Navy from 2015 to 2019.”

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PLAYBOOKERS

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Stacey Walker will be director of external comms and public relations at Way to Win. He previously was Iowa co-chair for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign and served on the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force.

MEDIA MOVES — Leland Vittert will moderate a new hourlong weekday political program, “The Hill,” launching on NewsNation next month. His “On Balance with Leland Vittert” will also move to D.C. … Kelly Hooper is now a health care reporter at POLITICO. She previously was a breaking news reporter.

TRANSITIONS — Ty McEachern is now press secretary for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). He previously was press secretary for Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s (D-Conn.) reelect. … Nicole Lindler is now deputy executive secretary at the Treasury Department. She previously was senior adviser for intergovernmental relations at HUD. … Miriam Cash is now director of national media at the National Partnership for Women & Families. She most recently was comms director for former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) and is an Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand alum. …

… Rep.-elect Jennifer McClellan (R-Va.) has added Tara Rountree as chief of staff, Melody Tan as senior policy adviser, Rahmon Ross as legislative assistant, Jannie Kamara as legislative correspondent, Lena Jacobson as press and digital assistant and Sarah Houle as staff assistant.

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Corrections: Yesterday’s Playbook PM misreported the duty status of Gen. David Rodriguez and Capt. Pete Shoemaker.

California Today: A Central Valley town, forgotten and flooded

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March 7, 2023

By Soumya Karlamangla

California Today, Writer

It's Tuesday. Residents of Planada, a farming town in the Central Valley, are struggling to recover weeks after devastating floods. Plus, a warming climate has left a fifth of the Sierra Nevada's conifer forests stranded in habitats that no longer suit them.

Fabi Cervantes standing in the doorway of a bedroom in her mother's home in Planada, which was heavily damaged by flooding.Jim Wilson/The New York Times

PLANADA — In 1910, the Los Angeles real estate developer J. Harvey McCarthy decided that this small agricultural town in the Central Valley would be his "city beautiful," a model community and an automobile stop along the road to Yosemite.

An infusion of money brought Planada a bank, hotel, school, church and its own newspaper, the Planada Enterprise, by the following year. A celebration for the town's first anniversary drew an estimated 10,000 people (though Planada had only several hundred residents) as the city had become the best-known place in Merced County.

But McCarthy eventually abandoned the community, located nine miles east of Merced, leaving its settlers to pick up the pieces. It remained a farming town and is now home to 4,000 mostly low-income and Spanish-speaking residents who work at nearby orchards.

In January, a brutal set of atmospheric rivers unleashed a disaster in Planada, where a nearby creek overflowed and sent muddy water gushing into streets. Pictures of Planada, which for several days looked like a lagoon, circulated on social media and news sites. The waist-high floodwaters destroyed hundreds of cars and homes, and created damage that residents are still struggling to recover from weeks later.

I recently visited Planada and wrote about the impacts of the storms, which pushed hundreds from their homes into camps typically used by farmworkers who come to Merced each spring to work in the fields. For many of these low-wage workers, the losses inflicted by the severe flooding will require tens of thousands of dollars to repair and years of rebuilding.

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"We came as immigrants, we started with nothing," said Cecilia Birrueta, who milks cows at a dairy nearby and whose home in Planada may need to be demolished. "We bought a place of our own that we thought would be safe for our kids, and then we lost it. We lost everything."

Walking through the wide, dusty streets of the town recently, I saw crews in hazmat suits ripping out the floors at Planada Elementary, where floodwaters destroyed 4,000 books as well as desks, rugs and more. In front of the hardest-hit homes were piles of furniture taller than me, as most of those families' belongings had to be thrown out because they were either soaked beyond salvage or covered in mold.

Though Planada is in a flood zone, most homeowners said they couldn't afford to pay thousands of dollars for flood insurance. Besides, they said, so many years of severe heat and drought made wildfires seem a much greater concern than a deluge.

Maria Figueroa, a FEMA spokeswoman, told me that the agency would provide at most $41,000 per flooded household. The funds are intended to jump-start recovery, not cover a full rebuild. "We're not an insurance agency," she said.

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Marie Boyer, who was recently fixing her pickup truck outside a pink bungalow she rents in Planada, told me that she offered to clean her neighbors' flooded homes at no charge, since hers didn't sustain severe damage. In most of the houses, however, almost nothing was left inside.

Boyer, 53, said she had watched over the past several weeks as Planada residents carried their destroyed belongings into dumpsters that had been placed on street corners.

Trash collectors would "empty them, and everybody would fill them right back up again," said Boyer, who works as a housekeeper. "I don't know if people here are going to make it through."

For more:

Read more about Planada.

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Source: The Global Ecology and Climate Solutions Lab at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, using data from the U.S. Forest Service's Wieslander Survey and Existing Vegetation maps.

The rest of the news

"Zombie" forests: A warming climate has left a fifth of the conifer forests that blanket California's Sierra Nevada in habitats that no longer suit them, according to a new study by researchers at Stanford University.
Los Angeles or bust: According to the results of a poll by Home Bay, a real estate advice website, the city that Americans would most like to move to if money were no object is Los Angeles. No other California cities cracked the top 10.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Former NBC correspondent: A man who once served as NBC's chief on-air medical correspondent in Los Angeles pleaded no contest to charges that he solicited nude pictures from a child, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Disneyland parade: The song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," which originates from a racist film, has been quietly removed from Disneyland's Magic Happens parade, which reopened last month after a hiatus during the pandemic, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Snowstorm: Crews on Monday were still struggling to clear roads in the San Bernardino Mountains, where many residents have been stranded for days by heavy snow, The Los Angeles Times reports.

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

Unarmed man shot: State investigators will look into the killing of a man by the Fresno police over the weekend, saying he appears to have been unarmed when he was shot, The Fresno Bee reports.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Oakland ransomware attack: A hacker group claimed responsibility for a recent ransomware attack on the city of Oakland and leaked its first batch of files, KRON reports.
David Lance Goines: The graphic artist who created sensuous posters for Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley and came to define the city's counterculture aesthetic died last month. Read his obituary.

A $2.75 million bungalow in Los Angeles.Anthony Barcelo

What you get

For $2.8 million: A three-bedroom condo in a midcentury-modern building in San Francisco, a 1951 bungalow in Los Angeles or an apartment near the beach in Carlsbad.

Joel Goldberg for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.

What we're eating

Buttery cabbage and noodles.

Where we're traveling

Today's tip comes from Rich Eckert, who lives in San Francisco:

"I can rhapsodize about Yosemite and Lassen National Parks, the latter being the undiscovered jewel in the National Park System. But if I really had to name my favorites, it would be far closer to home, home being the Inner Richmond District of San Francisco.

It would start with a walk down the Embarcadero to Oracle Park, a beautiful gem among the nation's newest baseball parks. After dinner and drinks at Perry's Embarcadero after the game, I would be fortified for a trek through Chinatown, with the requisite stop for dim sum, up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower, down the Greenwich steps to Levi's Plaza and the Blue Jean Museum. Then I would wind it up with a couple of cold refreshing adult beverages at Pier 23 before heading off to the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Terminal and the California bus home.

The next day would start with a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge and back, followed by lunch at the Beach Chalet. The rest of the afternoon would be spent at the Tiled Steps and Mount Davidson, popular among the locals but unknown to most tourists.

The day following that would be hiking among the labyrinth of trails at Land's End and along Ocean Beach. Followed by even more cold refreshing adult beverages at the many welcoming pubs in the Richmond and Sunset Districts.

I could go on and on, but in the interest of time, suffice it to say that one doesn't have to venture too far from home to find one's favorite destinations."

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We'll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

Tell us

It's been a wild winter in California. Snow in Silicon Valley. Record-breaking flooding along the Central Coast. Graupel on the Hollywood sign.

Send us your photos and stories of what these past few months of unusual weather have been like in your corner of California. Email us at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

A street corner along Rosecrans Avenue in Los Angeles.Adali Schell for The New York Times

And before you go, some good news

In The New York Times Magazine, the writer Rosecrans Baldwin makes the case for Los Angeles as a walking city.

He chronicles a stroll down a strip of Rosecrans Avenue, a 27-mile street that stretches from South Los Angeles to Fullerton and that's named after one of his ancestors, William Starke Rosecrans, a Union general in the Civil War who later became a Los Angeles congressman. Baldwin writes:

"A 90-minute ramble revealed L.A.'s familiar extremes: big houses alongside dingbats, the shock of the unexpected coinciding with numbing dullness. But I also saw small green parks, southern views of the basin and an older-women's jogging group all wearing sun hats that looked like huge black shells. I finished at Rosecrans's eastern terminus and got a burrito. There was a feeling I've experienced only in Los Angeles: I was in the middle of nowhere and at the center of everything, all at once."

Thanks for reading. I'll be back tomorrow. — Soumya

P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword.

Briana Scalia contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

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