a blog by Jack Limpert, Editor of The Washingtonian for more than 40 years.
From a Wall Street Journal story headlined “Latest news in the Russia-Ukraine War”:
Ukraine: Ukrainian forces began a counteroffensive toward the eastern city of Izyum, attempting to disrupt Russian supply lines into Donbas, while continuing to clear villages north of Kharkiv.
Republican senators led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) traveled to Kyiv to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday. The Ukrainian president said the visit was a powerful signal of bipartisan support for Ukraine from Congress and the American people.
Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin told Finnish President Sauli Niinistö that joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a move backed by the country’s leadership, would be a mistake.
From a story on axios.com by Felix Salmon headlined “It’s a bad year to be fantastically rich”:
It hasn’t been a great year for the 0.00001%. The fortunes of Russian oligarchs have been frozen; crypto fortunes have been destroyed; and five billionaires — Bernard Arnault, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Changpeng Zhao — have each lost more than $50 billion this year alone.
Why it matters: Even the most chipper tycoon might feel a pang of humility upon seeing an 11 (or 12)-figure sum evaporate from his personal balance sheet.
From a Wall Street Journal story by Joe Morgenstern headlined “So Long to the Dark Full of Light”:
It’s been two days short of 27 years since I signed on as the Journal’s film critic. I never expected to stay so long at the fair, but this is my last column for the newspaper that has given me the happiest of homes during all those years. I’ve got books to write and read, a life to live free of the weekly deadlines I kept telling myself took no toll, and, of course, new movies to see as a paying customer.
From an AP story headlined “Pub in Vogue, England rebuffs magazine’s name-change request”:
LONDON (AP) — The owner of a rural English pub says he was asked to change the bar’s name by a fashion magazine because of the village where it’s located: Vogue.
Mark Graham, who runs the Star Inn at Vogue, said he received a letter from British Vogue publisher Conde Nast, saying the name could “cause problems” because members of the public might confuse the two businesses.
He said the letter from Sabine Vandenbroucke, chief operating officer of Conde Nast Britain, asked if he would change the name, adding: “Please reply within seven days or we will take remedial action.”
From a Washington Post story by Lauren Lumpkin headlined “Apple CEO Tim Cook to Gallaudet graduates: Lead with your values”:
From a Jack Shafer Fourth Estate column on politico.com headlined “Why Everyone Digs Book Bannings”:
Like El Niño and solar flares, the impulse to ban books seems to be a cyclical force of nature. In ordinary times, book bannings surge and then, like clockwork, recede away like floodwaters. But these are not normal times. Over the past nine months, we’ve entered a book banning era like none other in our country’s history. Between July 2021 and the end of March 2022, an astounding 1,586 book bannings took place in 86 school districts in 26 states, according to a comprehensive PEN America study. Texas, natch, led the pack, with Pennsylvania and Florida taking second and third. And that’s only the bannings PEN America is aware of. Likely more exist.
From a story on niemanlab.org by Joshua Benton headlined “How do newsrooms talk to readers when they’ve really screwed up? With process, transparency, and trust.”:
How do news organizations respond when they screw up?
I’m not talking about a we-misspelled-someone’s-name level of screw-up, the sort of mistake that can be addressed with a quick edit and a correction. I’m talking about a big screw-up — the kind that makes readers raise fundamental doubts about an outlet and how they do their work.
“That 8-year-old heroin addict we wrote about, the story that won the Pulitzer? Yeah, he’s made up.”
From a Washington Post obit by Adam Bernstein headlined “Robert Goolrick, whose books explored tragedy and endurance, dies at 73:”
The cause was pneumonia and complications from the coronavirus, said the actor and producer Bob Balaban, a friend of Mr. Goolrick’s since the 1970s, when they met on a Kool-Aid commercial.
KRAKOW, Poland — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia faced fresh setbacks Friday over the Ukraine invasion, as Sweden became the second neutral country in two days to move toward joining NATO and the West devised ways to reroute Ukrainian grain past a Russian naval blockade.
New signs of a Russian military retreat near Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, also added to Mr. Putin’s challenges, appearing to subvert or at least delay the Kremlin’s goal of encircling Ukrainian forces concentrated in eastern Ukraine.
