Back Story Newsletter
Good morning,
Djokovic and Australia
The Australian Open is set to open Monday without its number 1 ranked player, Novak Djokovic. His visa was cancelled by the Immigration Minister even after an Australian court had ruled Djokovic had stayed.
In a statement released Alex Hawke said he had cancelled Mr Djokovic's visa on the grounds of "health and good order".
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also released a statement saying the decision was in the context of sacrifices made by Australians during the pandemic, "and they rightly expect the result of those sacrifices to be protected".
Djokovic was unvaccinated but had received an exemption because he had gotten Covid in December. But his entry forms were not clear, and indicated he had not travelled to a number of countries recently.
Public health and messaging on the benefits of vaccines over sports it seems, though many Djovovic fans will not see it that way.
British P.M. Johnson - Party Revelations
There is that stark lonely image of the Queen sitting alone at her husbands funeral last April, obeying social distancing rules wearing her mask, mourning in solitary silence.
It has now been revealed the night before at Boris Johnsons official residence, there were two parties, and they later merged into one larger one. Its front page news here.
It’s not the first party revelation, as there were several more the P.M. had to apologize for this week in the House of Commons, where earlier he may have lied to law makers denying knowledge of parties at Number 10 Downing Street.
In fact Boris Johnson attended at least one of them with his wife while the rest of the nation was respecting lock down rules.
The calls for Johnson to resign may be too loud now for him to ignore, and his political fortunes seem to be sinking by the day.
The party included a boozy toast to Johnsons director of communications, who left to become Deputy of the Sun Newspaper, and he has come clean and apologized. There is no denying the party took place.
Jan 6 Conspiracy
‘The plot thickens’ as they say, because now the FBI has charged Steward Rhodes, the leader of the far right Oath Keepers Militia, on charges of seditious conspiracy to storm the Capitol last jan 6.
Rhodes is one of 11 charged in the plot to conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States.
He used encrypted comms to coordinate with his team which entered the Capitol, but apparently didn’t enter the building himself, which is not critical to prove the charge.
Through their lawyers, members of the Oath Keepers who are already facing charges have said that they converged on Washington as part of a security detail hired to protect conservative celebrities like Roger J. Stone, Jr., the longtime ally of former President Donald Trump.
On Election Day, Mr. Rhodes allegedly said that an “honest” count of the votes could only result in a victory for Mr. Trump and called on members of his group to “stock up on ammo” and prepare for a “full-on war in the streets.”
If he was brought to the Capitol by Trump allies where does this ultimately lead? And if Trump encouraged violence and refused to stop it as it took place is that not also sedition?
Prince Andrew
The Queen’s second son, Andrew has been caught up in a worsening scandal that is now effectively sidelining him from all Royal duties, as a civil court action in the U.S. on sex allegations with a minor gains speed.
This week a U.S. Judge ruled that Virginia Giuffre's battery lawsuit against Andrew, filed at the federal court in New York, can move forward. Giuffre alleges she was 17 when she was trafficked for sex by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to Prince Andrew who had sex with her. Epstein later committed suicide while awaiting trial and Maxwell was convicted of child sex trafficking.
While Andrew has denied the allegations, Buckingham Palace has now stripped the Prince of all military titles and patronages and will no longer use his HRH title.
The statement from the Palace; “The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen.”
Andrew may have to pursue a private out of court settlement with Giuffre, or choose to very publicly fight his accuser in court.
Russia Crisis
On Back Story w/Dana Lewis podcast, Olga Oliker of the Int. Crisis Group, says it doesn’t matter if we agree with Russia’s claims on Ukraine, or against NATO expansion, but talks are vital to head off a war in Europe.
Just talking may lead to buying time, and eventual arms agreements and troop deployment discussions, that will solve a crisis while not removing a security blanket for countries which fear Russia.
But late Thursday night those talks looked in danger as a Russian official said talks with the West were approaching a “dead end”.
And we also interview the Soufan Groups Mollie Saltskog on questions of what really happened in Kazakhstan, was it an attempted coup or a popular uprising?
The back story on Back Story w/Dana Lewis link is here;
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/9880064
Thats a quick look at the big news for Friday Jan. 14, 2022.
Have a good weekend everyone!
Dana
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/13/us/politics/oath-keepers-leader-arrested-in-jan-6-investigation.html
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/prince-andrew
https://www.9news.com.au/national/novak-djokovic-visa-cancelled-full-statement-from-immigration-minister-alex-hawke-on-cancelling-novak-djokovic-visa/bfff8689-b727-4a7c-9ae3-a1f829142ec4