A Ukrainian navy captain claimed Russia has only one missile ship left in the Black Sea.
He said that most of the Black Sea Fleet had relocated after a series of Ukrainian strikes.
A senior UK Royal Navy officer said that 25% of Russia’s Black Sea warships had been sunk or damaged.
A Ukrainian commander has said that Russia only has one “loser” missile ship left in the Black Sea after a series of successful attacks.
“Most of the combat units, if you take the carriers of cruise missiles, have actually all been relocated, except for one loser who has not yet launched a single missile,” Captain Dmytro Pletenchuk told Ukrainian TV.
He said that the lone ship remaining in Crimea is Russia’s Cyclone warship, a Karakurt-class corvette.
Pletenchuk noted that the Black Sea Fleet was once considered Russia’s main force in Crimea but had almost entirely been chased away and relocated.
A Ukrainian sea drone slams into a Russian warship in Novorossiysk on August 4, 2023.Pravda Gerashchenko
Ukraine has been successfully using missiles and drones to strike ships at Sevastopol, Russia’s major Black Sea port in Crimea.
A senior UK Royal Navy officer said last month that 25% of Russia’s vessels in the Black Sea had been sunk or damaged.
Last weekend, Ukraine carried out its latest attacks on the Russian fleet at Sevastopol, bombarding it with missiles that struck four ships.
Ukraine’s navy said it struck two of Russia’s large landing ships, the Yamal and the Azov, as well as the spy ship Ivan Khurs and the Konstantin Olshansky large landing ship.
The latter ship was seized from Ukraine in 2014 when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula.
The UK’s defense minister said on March 25, after the latest Ukrainian attack, that the Black Sea Fleet was “functionally inactive.”
In a further intelligence update on March 31, the UK defense ministry said that four Russian barges had been identified in recent imagery as being positioned at the entrance to the Black Sea Fleet facility at Novorossiysk.
The department noted this was an effort to boost the defenses of the port against attacks from Ukrainian Uncrewed Surface Vessels (USVs), which are remotely operated vessels that are packed with explosives and used to strike Russian ships.
The UK department said that some of the Black Sea’s most valuable assets had taken refuge Novorossiysk port in the eastern Black Sea after the regular attacks on their traditional homeport of Sevastopol.
Russia’s Adm. Viktor Sokolov, the former Commander of the Black Sea Fleet, was reported to have been fired after a string of successful Ukrainian attacks.
The UK defense department noted that his successor, Vice Adm. Sergei Pinchuk, has likely taken preventive measures to improve the survival chances of Russian vessels.
Louis Gossett Jr., first Black man to win Oscar for best supporting actor, dies at 87 – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Louis Gossett Jr. made history as the first Black man to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the drama “An Officer and a Gentleman.” Now, tributes to the actor are pouring in after his death at 87. Michelle Miller reports on his career and legacy.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Biden-Harris campaign works to court Black swing state voters, a vital bloc – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Black voters in swing states like Wisconsin were key to President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, but their support may be waning ahead of the 2024 election. The campaign is paying millions to court such voters.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
The Beyhive is busting out its cowboy hats and breaking out in line dances.
After the singer debuted two country singles, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages,” on Sunday during the Super Bowl, some country enthusiasts hoped that Beyoncé’s star power would help bring more recognition for Black artists within the genre. Many people also pointed out country’s roots in the African diaspora and believed Beyoncé’s venture into country would be an act of reclaiming the music, which has often been perceived as a genre for white men.
“I hope this is going to open up some people’s eyes to country music,” said Reyna Roberts, a Nashville-based singer who has previously opened for Reba McEntire. “Just [with] Beyoncé releasing her music, in the past day I’ve probably gained like 12,000 fans just from people looking at Black Country music.”
Beyoncé’s’s new album, Cowboy Carter, dropped Friday.
Many of Beyoncé’s fans — collectively known as the Beyhive — have been anticipating a full country album from the Texas-born singer since she released the song “Daddy Lessons” in 2016. As fans patiently await Act II, which releases March 29, they have started looking for other Black country artists to listen to in the meantime.
As TikTok users have posted their love for Beyoncé’s new “country era,” the platform’s algorithm has served them content from smaller Black country artists.
Julie Williams, an independent artist based in Nashville, posted a TikTok calling for more recognition and attention to Black country artists as people began posting about Beyoncé’s singles.
Williams said in an interview that she is optimistic that more people will become interested in country music because Beyoncé is “the creator of culture.”
“Black music is country music,” she added. “My hope is that in this era of Beyoncé, those lines will be blurred and people will discover country and country artists and will begin to innovate and bring amazing changes to the genre that have been needed for so long.”
Williams said that some progress has been made in recent years as platforms such as TikTok and YouTube have allowed marginalized country artists to surpass the “gatekeepers” in mainstream country radio. In 2019, Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” became one of the first TikTok hits and exposed a wider audience to a new kind of country sound. However, it was controversial among country fans, leading Billboard to take it off the genre’s charts.
The industry has still been slow to adapt, Williams said, despite calls to elevate Black country artists in subsequent years. She pointed out that women make up a small percentage of airtime on country radio — 11% in the entirety of 2022. The figure shrinks almost to zero when it comes to Black female artists.
Francesca T. Royster, a professor of English at DePaul University and the author of “Black Country Music,” said that Black musicians’ contributions to the country genre have historically been made invisible by the industry. Modern country, she said, was born out of minstrel traditionsthat used blackface and turned Black music into a joke for white audiences.
As the music became mainstream, its origins in Black culture and creativity were erased, Royster said.
Beyoncé’s move into country music is an “important gesture of taking up space,” she said.
“Country can potentially be this bigger thing that lots of people are participating in, even though I do think that there’s still this older sense of nostalgia and defensiveness that can be connected to country.”
Black music is country music
-Julie Williams, an independent artist based in Nashville
Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” project saw her elevate Black pioneers in house, ballroom and disco, and some fans think that she will do the same with country artists.
Williams said that Beyoncé has already started to reference Black country trailblazers. She pointed out that “Texas Hold ‘Em” starts with banjo playing from Rhiannon Giddens, a Grammy-winning country and Americana artist.
Giddens is known for her educational work around banjos. She led a documentary series called “The Banjo: Music, History and Heritage” last year that focuses on the instrument’s origins among the African diaspora, its role in slavery and its popularization in American music.
“I used to say many times as soon as Beyoncé puts the banjo on a track my job is done,” Giddens wrote in a Facebook post. “Well, I didn’t expect the banjo to be mine, and I know darn well my job isn’t done, but today is a pretty good day.”
A representative for Giddens did not respond to a request for comment.
“I think that it’s a huge statement right there in the first few lines of the song that shows the banjo is a Black instrument,” Williams said. “It was created by slaves. And this is an incredible Black artist who has been a champion of educating so many folks on that history, through her music and through playing it.”
Beyonce’s new album will show that country music can appeal to Black audiences and people of color, Williams said. Country music has long been perceived as a patriotic genre and the domain of white men.
“There’s a space in this genre that so often has not felt safe, has not felt comfortable,” Williams said. “And so my hope is that as we bring in this new wave of folks and that we will change the country music industry at shows, making sure that it is a comfortable place for fans to be.”
While the response to Beyoncé’s singles has been positive among fans, there has been resistance. Oklahoma radio station KYKC received backlash after one person tried to request “Texas Hold ‘Em.” The radio station had said that it does not “play Beyoncé as we are a country music station.”
Roger Harris, general manager of South Central Oklahoma Radio Enterprises (S.C.O.R.E.) which owns KYKC, said the station was unaware that Beyoncé had released country songs when the request was made. Harris said KYKC is a “small station” that doesn’t “get serviced by the big labels like bigger stations do.”
“As we got more and more emails…and more and more phone calls, we made an effort to track down the song,” Harris said in an email. He said the song was added to the country station’s playlist and the libraries of two other S.C.O.R.E. stations.
Still, Roberts, the country singer, said it was indicative of the challenges facing Black artists who try to get airplay on country radio.
“If it’s hard for Beyoncé to get played on country radio, how hard do you think it is for artists like me trying to get played on country radio?” she said. “Hopefully it opens people’s eyes to seeing how difficult it is for Black women, and just people of color in general, to be played in country music and to get the recognition and the platforms and the stuff that other artists have.”
Beyoncé’s new album, “Cowboy Carter,” has shined a light on a country music pioneer that many people may not know.
One of the album’s tracks is called “The Linda Martell Show,” which is an intro to the song “Ya Ya.” Martell appears on that track, as well as the song “Spaghetti.” Though Linda Martell, 82, has a long history in country music, many who are unfamiliar with her name and her vocals, are asking the question: Who is Linda Martell?
Read on to learn more about the country music pioneer.
Who is Linda Martell?
In 1970, Martell released “Color Me Country” which featured the hit “Color Him Father,” a cover of a song by The Winstons. The album also included such popular songs as “Bad Case of the Blues,” “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” and “You’re Crying Boy, Crying.”
Rolling Stone said that her album, which was described as “a mix of honky-tonk spunk and heartbreak balladry, all infused with her roots in gospel and R&B,” led Martell to become the first solo Black woman country artist to play the Grand Ole Opry.
“During that time,” Rolling Stone reports, “She also appeared on the hugely popular syndicated country variety show ‘Hee Haw’ and shared stages with country artists like Hank Snow and Waylon Jennings.”
Lindamartell.com also touts her as “a pioneering force hailed as the unsung hero of the genre” who “had the highest peaking single on the Billboard Hot Country Singles (now Songs) chart at #22, ‘Color Him Father,’ by a Black female country artist in the history of the genre in 1969, until Beyonce’s “Texas Hold ’Em” debuted at #1 on February 21, 2024.”
What is Linda Martell’s history with country music?
Born Thelma Bynem in South Carolina, Martell debuted at the Opry in 1969 and told Rolling Stone in 2020 that she would make a dozen appearances on the famed stage. The Opry said she did perform, but could not confirm how many times.
Martell released only that one album after signing with Shelby Singleton Jr., who died in 2009. She was turned off when discovering it would be released not by his SSI International label, but a sister company called Plantation Records, a moniker replete with racial undertones, even though Singleton told her he didn’t have a specific reasons for using that name.
“I said, ‘Yes, there was,’” she told Rolling Stone. “He said, ‘Of course not.’ I said, ‘Yes. What you are telling me is that black people belonged on the plantation!’”
Martell also endured racist taunts while on the road.
“It was very hard,” she told Rolling Stone. “When you’re playing to an all-white audience — because Lord Jesus, they are prejudiced — you learn to not say too much. You can carry it a little too far if you’re correcting somebody. So you learn how not to do that.”
She said things would improve, but never to the point where heckling would disappear altogether.
“You still heard some names,” she said. “Maybe not loud names, but you’d hear them.… You wonder why people do it. Why not just sit there and enjoy the music?”
What happened to Linda Martell after she released her first album?
Martell would eventually leave Plantation Records and failed in her efforts to record another album. She also found herself on the outside looking in when she says Singleton told her he wanted to focus on the career of Jeannie C. Riley — who was white — after she scored a hit with “Harper Valley P.T.A.”
Linda Martell poses for a portrait, circa 1969 in Nashville.Michael Ochs Archives
“When Jeannie came on the scene, it seemed like he forgot all about me,” she told Rolling Stone. “I was totally ignored at that time.”
“I thought he was still gonna promote me,” she added. “But he just kept promoting Jeannie, and I told him I’m not gonna play second fiddle to Jeannie C. Riley. That’s when we separated.”
Martell claims Singleton “blackballed” her when she tried to make another album with a different company.
“He blackballed me,” she told Rolling Stone. “You heard the term? Well, he did that. So no one else would record me. It ruined my reputation in country music. Shelby had a lot of power during that time.”
What did Linda Martell do after country music?
Martell’s life would go in different directions after she left country music. She returned to South Carolina, sang in clubs and bars, as well as on a cruise in California. She ran a record store in the Bronx, drove a school bus when returning again to South Carolina and worked with kids with learning disabilities.
In 2021, she received the Equal Play Award at the CMT Music Awards “for her groundbreaking work as a woman of color in country music.”
Martell’s granddaughter, Marquia Thompson, is working on a documentary about the singer and her country music experience, “Bad Case of the Country Blues.”
“Minority, women and marginalized artists deserve to play on a level playing field in the country music industry,” she told The Tennessean in 2023. “My grandmother was (a) courageous artist who challenged an industry by following her passions. People who want to mirror my grandmother’s desires undeniably need to know her history.”
What to know about Linda Martell’s collaboration with Beyoncé’ on ‘Cowboy Carter’
In March 2024, Beyoncé enlisted Martell on her new album, “Cowboy Carter,” which is the second act of her “Renaissance” trilogy.
Martell is featured on two of the album’s tracks: an intro titled “The Linda Martell Show” and a song called “Spaghetti,” which also features rising country music artist Shaboozey.
“The Linda Martell Show,” which is just 28 seconds long, serves as an intro to the song “Ya Ya.” On the track, Martell introducing the next record after a round of applause.
“Haha, okay, thank you so very much,” she says. “Ladies and gentlemen, this particular tune stretches across a range of genres and that’s what makes it a unique listening experience. Yes, indeed. It’s called ‘YA YA.’”
On “Spaghetti,” Martell starts off the song with a question about music genres, likely a nod to Beyonce’s past struggles with country music in which she said she did not feel welcomed by some in the community.
“Genres are a funny little concept, aren’t they?,” Martell asks, before Shaboozey responds, “Yes, they are.”
“In theory, they have a simple definition that’s easy to understand. But in practice, well, some may feel confined,” she adds.
From there, on a bass-heavy beat, Beyoncé and Shaboozey continue the song with a rap, before transitioning back to more melodic singing.
“Spaghetti” serves as the only rap song featured on the 27-track album.
For more from NBC BLK, sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner for his role in the seminal TV miniseries “Roots,” has died. He was 87.
Gossett’s cousin, Neal L. Gossett, confirmed his death to CBS News. The actor died Thursday night in Santa Monica, California, the Associated Press reported. No cause of death was revealed.
“It is with our heartfelt regret to confirm our beloved father passed away this morning. We would like to thank everyone for their condolences at this time. Please respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time,” his family said in a statement Friday.
Gossett always thought of his early career as a reverse Cinderella story, with success finding him from an early age and propelling him forward, toward his Academy Award for “An Officer and a Gentleman.”
He earned his first acting credit in his Brooklyn high school’s production of “You Can’t Take It with You” while he was sidelined from the basketball team with an injury.
“I was hooked — and so was my audience,” he wrote in his 2010 memoir “An Actor and a Gentleman.”
His English teacher urged him to go into Manhattan to try out for “Take a Giant Step.” He got the part and made his Broadway debut in 1953 at age 16.
Louis Gossett Jr. poses for a portrait in New York to promote the release of “Roots: The Complete Original Series” on Bu-ray on May 11, 2016.
Amy Sussman/Invision/AP
“I knew too little to be nervous,” Gossett wrote. “In retrospect, I should have been scared to death as I walked onto that stage, but I wasn’t.”
Gossett attended New York University on a basketball and drama scholarship. He was soon acting and singing on TV shows hosted by David Susskind, Ed Sullivan, Red Buttons, Merv Griffin, Jack Paar and Steve Allen. Gossett became friendly with James Dean and studied acting with Marilyn Monroe, Martin Landau and Steve McQueen at an offshoot of the Actors Studio taught by Frank Silvera.
In 1959, Gossett received critical acclaim for his role in the Broadway production of “A Raisin in the Sun” along with Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee and Diana Sands.
“I’m fortunate to have worked with Sidney Poitier, Diana Sands, Ruby Dee. What a pleasure,” Gossett told CBS News in 2020. “Showed me what was good and what was bad. They taught me about that. And I fell in love. It’s in my bloodstream.”
Gossett went on to become a star on Broadway, replacing Billy Daniels in “Golden Boy” with Sammy Davis Jr. in 1964.
Gossett went to Hollywood for the first time in 1961 to make the film version of “A Raisin in the Sun.” He had bitter memories of that trip, staying in a cockroach-infested motel that was one of the few places to allow Black people.
In 1968, he returned to Hollywood for a major role in “Companions in Nightmare,” NBC’s first made-for-TV movie that starred Melvyn Douglas, Anne Baxter and Patrick O’Neal.
This time, Gossett was booked into the Beverly Hills Hotel and Universal Studios had rented him a convertible. Driving back to the hotel after picking up the car, he was stopped by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s officer who ordered him to turn down the radio and put up the car’s roof before letting him go.
Within minutes, he was stopped by eight sheriff’s officers, who had him lean against the car and made him open the trunk while they called the car rental agency before letting him go.
“Something happened to my system. You know, have to look over and be careful. Because that sensation did damage to me,” Gossett said while recounting the incident in 2020. “So, when they say Black lives matter? All lives matter, because not only did they hurt me, but they hurt themselves.”
After dinner at the hotel, he went for a walk and was stopped a block away by a police officer, who told him he broke a law prohibiting walking around residential Beverly Hills after 9 p.m. Two other officers arrived and Gossett said he was chained to a tree and handcuffed for three hours. He was eventually freed when the original police car returned.
“Now I had come face-to-face with racism, and it was an ugly sight,” he wrote. “But it was not going to destroy me.”
In the late 1990s, Gossett said he was pulled over by police on Pacific Coast Highway while driving his restored 1986 Rolls Royce Corniche II. The officer told him he looked like someone they were searching for, but the officer recognized Gossett and left.
Louis Gossett Jr., poses with the Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in “An Officer and a Gentleman.”
/ AP
He founded the Eracism Foundation to help create a world where racism doesn’t exist.
Gossett made a series of guest appearances on such shows as “Bonanza,” “The Rockford Files,” “The Mod Squad,” “McCloud” and a memorable turn with Richard Pryor on “The Partridge Family.”
In August 1969, Gossett had been partying with members of the Mamas and the Papas when they were invited to actor Sharon Tate’s house. He headed home first to shower and change clothes. As he was getting ready to leave, he caught a news flash on TV about Tate’s murder. She and others were killed by Charles Manson’s associates that night.
“There had to be a reason for my escaping this bullet,” he wrote.
Louis Cameron Gossett was born on May 27, 1936, in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York, to Louis Sr., a porter, and Hellen, a nurse. He later added Jr. to his name to honor his father.
Gossett broke through on the small screen as Fiddler in the groundbreaking 1977 miniseries “Roots,” which depicted the atrocities of slavery on TV. The sprawling cast included Ben Vereen, LeVar Burton and John Amos.
Gossett became the third Black Oscar nominee in the supporting actor category in 1983. He told CBS News that at first, he didn’t realize he had won for his performance as the intimidating Marine drill instructor in “An Officer and a Gentleman” opposite Richard Gere and Debra Winger.
“My agent hit me in the chest and said, ‘They mentioned your name!’ And I had to look at him ’cause I thought I was asleep,” said Gossett, who also won a Golden Globe for the role. “And I looked around and there was applause. Not supposed to be possible. So, that’s a piece of history.”
Gossett said that that win allowed him to choose “good parts” in future movies. In 2020, he told CBS News that he considered his long career “a blessing” and would stay in the business as long as he was able.
“As long as I’m here, there is a job to do for the benefit of us all, for what it’s worth,” he said.
Gossett appeared in such TV movies as “The Story of Satchel Paige,” “Backstairs at the White House, “The Josephine Baker Story,” for which he won another Golden Globe, and “Roots Revisited.” He played an obstinate patriarch in the 2023 remake of “The Color Purple.”
Gossett struggled with alcohol and cocaine addiction for years after his Oscar win. He went to rehab, where he was diagnosed with toxic mold syndrome, which he attributed to his house in Malibu.
In 2010, Gossett announced he had prostate cancer, which he said was caught in the early stages. In 2020, he was hospitalized with COVID-19.
He is survived by sons Satie, a producer-director from his second marriage, and Sharron, a chef whom he adopted after seeing the 7-year-old in a TV segment on children in desperate situations. His first cousin is actor Robert Gossett.
Gossett’s first marriage to Hattie Glascoe was annulled. His second, to Christina Mangosing, ended in divorce in 1975 as did his third to actor Cyndi James-Reese in 1992.
With the release of “Happiness Bastards,” The Black Crowes’ first album in over a decade, brothers Chris and Rich Robinson are stirring the souls of rock enthusiasts once more.
The album, featuring the lead single “Waiting & Wanting,” embodies the rock and roll spirit the Robinson brothers have been known for since their early days in Atlanta.
Rich Robinson said the pandemic served as a catalyst for his songwriting.
“I started writing during the pandemic just for my sanity, you know, just to … because that’s what I do,” he said.
As he shared his new melodies with Chris, the foundation for “Happiness Bastards” took shape.
“We knew that we wanted to make like a rock and roll record, a Saturday Night record, up tempo, big riffs. We’re very visceral. It has to feel a certain way for us,” said Chris Robinson.
Growing up in Atlanta, the Robinson brothers found their musical calling one Christmas morning when they unwrapped instruments. There was a guitar for Rich, a bass for Chris, drums for their cousin and a shared amp. The gifts set the stage for their unique blend of rock that would later define the Black Crowes.
“Of course, we could make, get in the basement and just start making a noise,” said Chris Robinson.
In 1990, the music world was introduced to the Black Crowes with their debut album, “Shake Your Money Maker.”
Rich was just 19, while Chris was 22. They were unaware of the success that was to come. That album climbed to number four on the musical charts. Their next project, “The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion,” hit the No. 1 spot.
However, this period of professional triumph was also marked by personal turmoil as both brothers fought bitterly and relentlessly—fighting on stage, during gigs, backstage and during road trips. When they officially broke up in 2015, they hadn’t been speaking for years.
“I think it’s just the typical sort of brother thing,” said Rich Robinson. “(Chris) can be aggressive. And I can be really passive-aggressive. You know what I mean? I mean, we both have our ways of going about this. And so fights were us trying to figure out, or at least me trying to figure out like who I was.”
Chris Robinson said other factors contributed to the group’s split.
“And while Rich is like that, I’m completely out of my mind,”Chris Robinson said. “You know what I mean? I mean I’m out of my mind and then you add drugs and alcohol into the whole thing and I’m really cookin’ with gas at this point,” he said.
During an interview in 2020, Chris Robinson said his ego had gotten in the way of the group.
“My ego, right or wrong or whatever, I was kinda, ‘I don’t need him. I can go sing these songs without him.’ And see if I can, ya know what’ll happen.”
That acknowledgment paved the way for a heartfelt reunion.
In 2020, “CBS Mornings” spoke to the brothers after they had just reunited. The two toured to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their debut album, and the tour eventually led to the creation of “Happiness Bastards.” Chris’s wife, Camille, was the creative force behind the artwork for the album.
As the Black Crowes embark on this new chapter, they do so with a renewed sense of unity and purpose.
“We made a concerted effort to make it about sort of, this comes first and like the two of us need to talk. And we can’t talk through people,” said Rich Robinson.
Chris Robinson said the two are more harmonious than ever, even off stage.
“And for the first time in both of our lives, I think we’re on the same page, not only about the art but about the experience and how special it’s been,” he said. “Just gives us a better place to deal with each other, to love each other. And I think we can celebrate that, and we couldn’t before.”
Astronomers have discovered powerful “twisted” magnetic fields spiraling around the black hole that sits at the center of the Milky Way, the European Southern Observatory said Wednesday.
A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) for the first time showed in polarized light a ring of magnetic fields surrounding the Sagittarius A* black hole.
The fields are similar to those observed around the M87* black hole at the heart of the M87 Galaxy, which the ESO says suggests that strong magnetic fields may be common to all black holes.
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, who produced the first ever image of our Milky Way black hole released in 2022, has captured a new view of the massive object at the centre of our Galaxy: how it looks in polarized light.
European Southern Observatory via Reuters
“What we’re seeing now is that there are strong, twisted, and organized magnetic fields near the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy,” said Sara Issaoun, from Harvard’s Center for Astrophysics, and co-lead of the project.
Polarized light images allow the astronomers to isolate the magnetic field lines.
Supermassive black holes, which sit at the center of galaxies, have masses millions and even billions greater than the sun. They are believed to have emerged very early in the universe but their creation remains a mystery.
Nothing can escape their gravitational pull, not even light, making them impossible to observe directly.
But with M87* in 2019 and Sagittarius A* in 2022, the EHT captured the halo of light that is produced by the flow of matter and gas that black holes suck in and eject.
“By imaging polarized light from hot glowing gas near black holes, we are directly inferring the structure and strength of the magnetic fields that thread the flow of gas and matter that the black hole feeds on,” said Angelo Ricarte, member of the Harvard Black Hole Initiative and a co-lead of the project.
The ESO also released a video of the new findings, which were published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
A polarised view of our black hole | ESO News by
European Southern Observatory (ESO) on
YouTube
Mariafelicia De Laurentis, deputy scientist at the EHT and professor at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, said that “since both (black holes) are pointing us toward strong magnetic fields, it suggests that this may be a universal and perhaps fundamental feature of these kinds of systems.”
News of the magnetic fields comes just weeks after researchers studying a galaxy through NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope announced multiple discoveries, including spotting the most distant active supermassive black hole ever found.
In November, scientists discovered the oldest black hole yet, estimated to have formed 470 million years after the Big Bang — and 10 times bigger than the black hole in our own Milky Way.
Earlier this week, Rev. Greg Lewis, an assistant pastor at St. Gabriel’s Church of God In Christ in Milwaukee, physically carried one of his parishioners to the polls inside the city’s Midtown early voting center to cast a ballot in Wisconsin’s upcoming Democratic primary. Supported by crutches and the pastor himself, the disabled man was one of many residents Lewis has helped vote this cycle.
Through his nonprofit, Souls to the Polls, Lewis has been coordinating multi-church early voting campaign drives after services on Sundays, encouraging more Black residents to vote.
“They are the difference makers,” Lewis said on Monday.
President Biden’s winning coalition in 2020 was led by Black voters, particularly in major cities in battleground states. But this time around, there are signs that his support among this bloc of voters has softened. A CBS News poll in late February showed 76% of likely Black voters said they backed his reelection bid, down from 87% who voted for him in 2020.
The more than a dozen Black voters and organizers interviewed by CBS News in battleground states have shared a sense of disappointment about the impending rematch of the 2020 presidential election, with worries it will translate to voters staying home in November.
They credit Mr. Biden’s policies and legislative record, but say there have been difficulties in effectively communicating his successes to voters.
And while the president has just wrapped a post-State of the Union tour of every battleground state, they want him to appear in bigger, more accessible venues. They also want him to meet more frequently with Black groups and organizations in Black communities.
“He’s getting there. He just needs to be in Georgia more and let the people see him get out,” said Tina Metcalf, a former educator who saw Mr. Biden speak in Atlanta recently.
Concerns about voter apathy, messaging and representation
A voter casts a ballot at an early voting center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Sunday, March 24, 2024.
CBS News
In January, Karen Weaver, the former mayor of Flint, Michigan, attended a virtual meeting between Black women leaders and Biden campaign leadership. The women shared concerns about the Biden campaign’s representation of Black women in leadership and surrogate roles, and the effectiveness of communicating the administration’s record.
Weaver and Holli Holliday, who is the president of the group Sisters Lead Sisters Vote and organized the meeting, said those concerns remain.
“People are saying, ‘OK, well, now, what have they done again?’ That shouldn’t be a question that people are asking. That message ought to be loud and clear,” Weaver said.
“We need to have messengers and people affiliated with the campaign that can speak to these different audiences. And it’s going to be more than the president and vice president,” Holliday said. “Mis[information] and disinformation has continually made the electorate less trustful of elected officials.”
In response to calls for more Black women in campaign leadership, a Biden spokesperson said they have hired Black women “to lead vital programs at both the national and state level – this includes leading our national voter protection and access efforts, as well as serving as leaders in key states.”
In a focus group of voters organized by BlackPAC, a left-leaning political action committee dedicated to mobilizing Black voters, initial sentiments toward Mr. Biden were largely negative. After learning about policy changes spearheaded by the Biden administration, specifically student loan forgiveness and a cap on insulin prices, many shifted their perspective.
“We’re hearing while [Black voters] are excited about some of the policy initiatives, they haven’t felt them. That’s one of the challenges of making big, long-term policy, is it doesn’t have that immediate effect,” said Quentin James, the founder of the Collective PAC, the largest political action committee supporting Black candidates.
Battleground state party officials and organizers say highlighting the binary choice between Mr. Biden and former President Donald Trump, in addition to the White House’s record, is key to energizing voters.
“It’s still relatively early in the campaign,” Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia said Sunday on “Face the Nation.” “I think that at the end of day Black voters, Georgia voters, will see that this is a binary choice. And the more Donald Trump talks, the better our fortunes will be.”
The Biden campaign’s outreach
Following his State of the Union speech, Mr. Biden’s campaign ramped up its battleground state travel, infrastructure and outreach to key voting blocs. As part of a $30 million ad buy in March, the campaign launched multiple ads targeting Black voters in the battleground states.
“As bad as Trump was, his economy was worse. And Black America felt it the most,” Mr. Biden says to the camera in one ad.
In August 2023, the Biden campaign announced a $25 million advertising campaign that included targeting voters through Black-owned media, such as “The Shade Room” media company.
“It’s not one of those campaigns which we feel is parachuting in at the last minute. They are coming here repeatedly and they are focused on talking to Black voters,” said Angela Lang, the founder of Black Leaders Organizing Communities in Milwaukee.
Deputy Biden campaign manager Quentin Fulks told CBS News that the campaign has made “historic investments to engage Black voters directly and reach folks where they are, earn every vote, and ensure voters are aware of how President Biden and Vice President Harris have delivered for them.”
He said the campaign saw Black communities turn out in high numbers during the primaries “because they understand the stakes of this election.”
Republicans see an opening
While Mr. Biden still captures the majority of Black voters in polling, Trump has slightly increased his support with the voting bloc.
Republicans have looked to capitalize on that opening by casting a wide net of messaging. In March, Trump’s super PAC MAGA Inc. launched radio ads targeted toward Black voters in Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania. The ads were focused on transgender policies and immigration. In speeches, Trump often argues the economy was better and touts Black unemployment numbers during his term.
Mikail Stewart-Saadiq, a director for the Michigan Muslim Community Council in Detroit, said he’s seen “a lot” of young Black men “drinking the MAGA juice.”
“They don’t see themselves as being full-fledged, card-carrying members of American society. Things push us to the fringes. The Republican Party, some of the MAGA rhetoric, is capitalizing on that sentiment,” said Stewart-Saadiq, who organized in 2020 for Biden’s campaign.
Mr. Biden, his campaign and White House officials have denounced as “racist” some of Trump’s recent remarks, such as when he suggested in a February speech that Black voters can relate to his mugshot.
Organizers said they believe the choice between the two candidates will become clearer as the campaign ramps up.
“The Trump situation is just headed downhill fast,” said Holliday, of Sisters Lead Sisters Vote. “This is a case of, we’re doing OK, and they’re doing so damn awful.”
Aaron Navarro
Aaron Navarro is a CBS News digital reporter covering Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign and the 2024 election. He was previously an associate producer for the CBS News political unit in the 2021 and 2022 election cycles.
Ukraine revised its tally of Russian ships it said were damaged in strikes over the weekend.
It said four Russian ships were hit, when earlier statements just mentioned two.
Ukraine has targeted Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which the UK said is now “functionally inactive.”
Ukraine said that its weekend strikes on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet were more successful than it previously revealed, with damage to two additional vessels.
Ukraine’s navy said on Sunday that it struck two of Russia’s large landing ships, the Yamal and the Azov, in occupied Crimea, in an attack on Saturday.
But in an update on Tuesday, it said it had also damaged two other ships, “the spy ship Ivan Khurs and the Konstantin Olshansky large landing ship.”
Ukraine’s defense ministry said a homemade Neptune anti-ship missile was used to strike the Konstantin Olshansky.
The ship was seized from Ukraine in 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, as Business Insider’s Jake Epstein previously reported.
A Ukrainian navy spokesperson described the ship as “not operational” after the weekend attack, The Moscow Times reported.
Business Insider was unable to independently confirm the attacks, and it is not clear what state the vessels are in.
The latest reported strikes come after a slew of Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
The UK said last month that 25% of Russia’s vessels in the Black Sea had been sunk, damaged, or destroyed. This is despite Ukraine not having a functional navy of its own.
The UK’s defense minister said on Sunday, after Ukraine’s first updates about the attack, that the Black Sea Fleet was “functionally inactive.”
“Putin’s continued illegal occupation of Ukraine is exacting a massive cost on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet which is now functionally inactive,” Grant Shapps wrote, adding: “Russia has sailed the Black Sea since 1783 but is now forced to constrain it’s fleet to port. And even there Putin’s ships are sinking!”
Ukraine has used missiles, drones, and commando raids to harass ships at Sevastopol, Russia’s major Black Sea port in Crimea.
In response, Russia has moved many vessels away to safer, more distant ports.
