The Full Belmonte, 10/26/2022
Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania's first and only Senate debate on Tuesday.
“The two candidates competing in arguably the highest profile Senate race of the year faced off in a televised debate Tuesday. Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz are vying for votes in Pennsylvania in a race that is considered the Democrats' best chance of flipping a seat in the Senate, with Republican Sen. Pat Toomey retiring at the end of the term. During the debate, Fetterman's delivery was at times halting and repetitive, dropping words during answers and occasionally losing his train of thought. He is currently recovering from a stroke he suffered in May. Much of the attention heading into the debate focused on how Fetterman's struggle with auditory processing and speech could impact the conversation against Oz, a celebrity doctor who rose to fame by hosting a daily television show for years. But the debate ultimately emphasized the deep policy differences between the candidates, with the two sparring over energy policy, abortion and the economy.” Read more at CNN
Fetterman's painful debate
John Fetterman (left) and Dr. Mehmet Oz last night. Screenshot: NewsNation
“Democrat John Fetterman began his first answer at last night's high-stakes U.S. Senate debate in Pennsylvania by saying: ‘Hi! Good night, everybody!’
It was downhill from there.
Fetterman, who has said he ‘almost died’ from a stroke in May, repeatedly struggled to answer questions — even with closed-captioning that was posted above the moderators as an accommodation.
Fetterman, the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor, said at one point when asked to clarify his position on fracking: ‘I do support fracking, and I don't, I don't — I support fracking, and I stand, and I do support fracking.’
His flip-flop on the issue has been a big problem for his campaign — and he flubbed the chance to explain himself on the Harrisburg debate stage, Axios' Alayna Treene notes.
Context: The race between Fetterman, 53, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, 62, the Republican nominee, is arguably the closest Senate race in the country — a pure tossup.
Axios' Josh Kraushaar has singled the race out as the ‘majority maker’ — the biggest bellwether on whether Republicans can win back a majority in the 50-50 Senate.
Momentum had been shifting Oz's way. It's hard to see how last night would have changed that.
Oz provided potential fodder for Democratic ads by saying at the debate that abortion decisions should be made among the ‘woman, doctor, local political leaders.’
Reaction: Numerous Democratic sources told Axios reporters they're stunned Fetterman's campaign let him debate when he clearly hasn't recovered. He would've been better off taking the hit for dodging debates.
‘Why the hell did Fetterman agree to this?’ one Democratic lawmaker and Fetterman backer told Axios. ‘This will obviously raise more questions than answers about John's health.’
Fetterman opened the debate by calling his health ‘the elephant in the room.’
‘I had a stroke. He’s never let me forget that,’ he said, referring to Oz.
‘And I might miss some words during this debate, moosh two words together. But it knocked me down, but I’m going to keep coming back up.’
Olivia Nuzzi of New York Magazine tweeted: ‘There is no amount of empathy for and understanding about Fetterman’s health and recovery that changes the fact that this is absolutely painful to watch.’
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said on CNN: ‘It's sad to see John Fetterman struggling so much. He should take more time to allow himself to fully recover.’
On NewsNation, the cable network carrying the debate, anchor Leland Vittert said: ‘Clearly the biggest issue was John Fetterman's health — and his ability both to comprehend speech, and then to speak coherently on the issues of the day.’
The other side: Stalwart Fetterman defenders argued he should get credit for at least showing up.” Read more at Axios
© Associated Press / Carolyn Kaster | The Capitol dome in March 2021.
Red wave likely in House as GOP gains crucial edge
“The midterm elections are less than two weeks away, and campaigns are scrambling to make last-minute pitches to voters as Election Day nears.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter on Tuesday increased its outlook for House GOP gains from 10 to 20 seats to 12 to 25 seats as Democrats’ blue state problems expanded. The GOP needs five seats to flip the House, and a new NBC News poll shows 78 percent of Republicans have a high interest in voting in the midterms, compared with 69 percent of Democrats.
David Wasserman of The Cook Political Report described the House landscape as ‘unusually bifurcated.’ In some red and purple states, Democrats are beating President Biden’s ratings, but some of the party’s headaches are emerging in blue states such as New York, Oregon and Connecticut.
UVA Center for Politics, Sabato’s Crystal Ball, Kyle Kondik: The House: GOP hits 218 in ratings as battle rages across big playing field.
‘We thought for a little bit that we could defy gravity, but the reality is setting in,’ Sean McElwee, executive director of Data for Progress, a progressive research and polling firm, told The New York Times.
McElwee said that with Democrats on the defensive in states across the country, the party’s goal should now be to limit its losses and look forward to taking back the House in 2024.
The razor-tight margins mean all eyes will be on a handful of key races Nov. 8 — but voters may not learn the results that night. Poll closing times, state election laws, various voting systems and when states count early votes could combine to keep people waiting for days or even weeks for results. The Hill’s Caroline Vakil has rounded up an idea of when voters will likely know the victors in key states including Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin and Ohio.
The Hill: Getting the call right: Projection pressure rises for news organizations.” Read more at The Hill
Progressive Democrats retract Biden Ukraine letter after furious debate
Dramatic U-turn from progressive caucus, withdrawing letter sent to US president urging talks to end war in Ukraine
“The chair of the progressive caucus of the US House of Representatives, Pramila Jayapal, has retracted a letter sent by 30 of the members urging Joe Biden to engage in direct talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine following a heated debate within the Democratic party about future strategy over the conflict.
In a statement issued on Tuesday afternoon, Jayapal made a dramatic U-turn, scrapping the letter that had been sent to the White House the previous day and implying it had all been a mistake. ‘The letter was drafted several months ago, but unfortunately was released by staff without vetting,’ she said.
Jayapal went on to regret what she said was conflation of the progressive Democratic call for a diplomatic end to the Ukraine war with a recent statement by the Republican leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, which threatened an end to aid for the stricken country should the Republican party take back the House in next month’s midterm elections.
Jayapal said: ‘The letter sent yesterday has been conflated with GOP opposition to support for the Ukrainians’ just defense of their national sovereignty. As such, it is a distraction at this time and we withdraw the letter.’
Jayapal’s retraction is the latest twist in a strange 24 hours of Democratic politics, which has seen the progressive caucus apparently lend its name to a call for direct talks with Moscow to end the war in Ukraine, followed by a fierce backlash and then staged walking back of the position.
In the original letter, sent to the White House on Monday and first reported by the Washington Post, the progressive Democrats called on Biden to make ‘vigorous diplomatic efforts’ towards a ‘negotiated settlement and ceasefire.’ They highlighted the global hunger and poverty that could ensue from Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine as well as ‘elevated gas and food prices at home’, concluding that America’s top priority should be to seek ‘a rapid end to the conflict’.
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the letter was the proposal that Biden should explore ‘incentives to end hostilities, including some form of sanctions relief’ for Russia.
The letter provoked fierce pushback from several Democratic lawmakers – including one of its own signatories – and elicited a frosty White House response. It was interpreted as the first sign of friction over Ukraine within the Democratic party, which has until now stood firm behind Biden’s unconditional backing of Kyiv in its battle to defend and retrieve its sovereign territory from Moscow.
The timing of the correspondence was also criticised, coming at a crucial stage in the war and just a week after Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the House, said that Congress was ‘not going to write a blank check to Ukraine’.” Read more at The Guardian
Justice Alito says leak of abortion opinion made majority ‘targets for assassination’
“Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said Tuesday that the leak of his draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade made his colleagues in the majority on the U.S. Supreme Court ‘targets for assassination.’
The leak last spring before the court eliminated the nationwide right to abortion was a ‘grave betrayal of trust by somebody, and it was a shock,’ he said. The threat to the justices, he added, was not theoretical because it ‘gave people a rational reason to think they could prevent that from happening by killing one of us.’
He noted that a man has been charged in an alleged attempt to kill Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who was in the majority to overturn Roe. The California man, arrested near the justice’s home before the final opinion was released, was upset by the leaked draft, authorities said.
Alito’s remarks during an event at the Heritage Foundation touched on criticism of the court, relations between the justices and proposals to expand the size of the Supreme Court. His comments come as polls show public approval of the court has dropped to record lows after the conservative majority allowed greater restrictions on abortion, expanded gun rights and limited the government’s power to address climate change.” Read more at Washington Post
“The Justice Department is asking a federal judge to force two of former President Donald Trump's White House lawyers to testify about their conversations with the former President, according to three people familiar with the investigation. The move to compel additional testimony from former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and deputy White House counsel Patrick Philbin just last week is part of a set of secret court proceedings. Trump has been fighting to keep former advisers from testifying before a criminal grand jury about certain conversations about the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, citing executive and attorney-client privileges to keep information confidential or slow down criminal investigators. Separately, Hope Hicks, who served as Trump's communications director, is being called back for a foon, a source familiar with the details told CNN.” Read more at CNN
LA police investigating if racist recording taped illegally
By STEFANIE DAZIO
“LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles detectives are investigating whether a recording last year that captured city councilmembers’ racist remarks was made illegally, the police chief said Tuesday.
The recording’s disclosure earlier this month unleashed a growing scandal in the nation’s second-largest city just weeks before Election Day. The councilmembers’ bigoted discussion — laden with crude insults — laid bare the unequal representation and divided political power along racial lines in Los Angeles.
The council president, Nury Martinez, resigned in disgrace, while two other councilmembers have resisted widespread calls — from the White House down — for their ousters.
The uproar began with the release nearly two weeks ago of a previously unknown recording of a 2021 private meeting involving Martinez and Councilmen Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, as well as powerful labor leader Ron Hererra, head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.” Read more at AP News
Gunman left behind a handwritten note in St. Louis high school shooting
“The 19-year-old gunman, who was killed by police within minutes of the first 911 call, used an AR-15-style weapon and had more than 600 rounds of ammunition during the shooting Monday at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, St. Louis Police Commissioner Mike Sack said at a press conference Tuesday. The gunman also left behind a handwritten note, Sack said. More than 100 people gathered at a vigil Monday night to honor the victims and share a range of emotions including ‘frustration, anger, grief,’ St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones said at the press conference. Officials and family members identified the victims as 61-year-old Barbara Kuczka and 15-year-old Alexzandria Bell.” Read more at USA Today
Marie Crane, center, holds a candle during a vigil in Tower Grove Park for the victims of a school shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School in St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022.David Carson, AP
“Mayors and police chiefs are being warned that extremists could focus intimidation efforts on neighborhood ballot boxes instead of national spectacles, Jennifer A. Kingson writes in Axios What's Next.
Some far-right groups, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, are signing up as poll workers and drop-box watchers, in an effort to use legitimate means to infiltrate and disrupt elections.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors held an event this week warning of decentralized election interference aimed at local voters, candidates and election workers.
‘We've seen them dismantle some of their nationwide organizations,’ said Mary McCord, executive director of Georgetown Law's nonprofit Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.
Zoom in: In 50 out of 67 Pennsylvania counties, election chiefs have left because of threats, harassment and intimidation against them and their families, McCord said.
A post on the right-wing social network Gab, quoted by McCord, said: ‘Focus on county over country. Capture your local county, then several of them, then maybe your state.’
What's next: Public officials are being advised to issue strong statements about how vigorously they would prosecute voter intimidation or harassment.
911 dispatchers should prioritize calls about problems at polls and send officers promptly, said Charles Ramsey, former police chief in D.C. and Philadelphia, and now an adviser to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.” Read more at Axios
“Two counties in the Western battleground states of Arizona and Nevada are moving forward with plans to hand count ballots in this year's consequential midterm elections -- a sign of the deep distrust of electronic vote tallying machines in some pockets of the country. Officials in the two communities still plan to use machines for the tallies, but experts worry the additional hand counts could result in two different totals and could further undermine public trust in elections. Critics also say hand counting thousands of ballots is not likely to produce accurate results. Meanwhile, local election workers are leaving their posts in droves due to continued threats and harassment as the November midterms draw closer due to continued threats and harassment. In some places, the exodus has opened the door to election deniers seeking roles in county elections offices.” Read more at CNN
Ex-Black Panther asks for fresh trial amid new evidence
New evidence shows that the conviction of Mumia Abu-Jamal – who has spent over 40 years in prison – was tainted, prompting calls for a re-examination
“Mumia Abu-Jamal, the best known of the African American radicals incarcerated for decades for their actions during the black liberation struggle of the 1970s and 80s, is petitioning a Pennsylvania court for a new trial after the discovery of fresh evidence that casts doubt on his conviction.
Abu-Jamal’s case will come before the court of common pleas in Philadelphia on Wednesday. The hearing could be one of the prisoner’s last attempts at freedom after more than 40 years behind bars, including two decades on death row, for the murder of a white police officer – a crime for which he has always insisted he is innocent.
The former Black Panther and radical journalist is 68 and has long struggled with serious heart conditions and other health problems. He was moved off death row in 2011, but since then has been held on life without parole.
Abu-Jamal was convicted of murdering Daniel Faulkner on 9 December 1981 in Philadelphia. At about 4am that morning the prisoner’s younger brother, William Cook, was stopped in his car by the police officer.
Abu-Jamal, then working as a taxi driver, coincidentally passed them by and came to his brother’s assistance. A shooting spree ensued and Faulkner was shot and killed while Abu-Jamal was also shot in the stomach.
He was put on trial in 1982, found guilty and sentenced to death. Flaws and inconsistencies in the prosecution case have been revealed, generating worldwide concern about the justice of his prolonged imprisonment.
In 2000 Amnesty International investigated the case and, without taking a definitive stand on his guilt or innocence, concluded that ‘numerous aspects of this case clearly failed to meet minimum international standards’.
Wednesday’s petition relates to six filing boxes marked with the prisoner’s name that were found in a storage room in the Philadelphia district attorney’s office in December 2018. The existence of the boxes were disclosed to Abu-Jamal’s lawyers the following month.
His lawyers, Judith Ritter and Samuel Spital, argue in the petition that the boxes contained ‘highly significant evidence which the commonwealth never previously disclosed’. The new evidence shows that their client’s conviction was tainted.
One of the documents found in the boxes is a handwritten letter sent from the state’s star witness at trial, Robert Chobert, to the prosecutor, Joseph McGill. ‘I have been calling you to find out about the money own (sic) to me,’ Chobert writes. ‘Do you need me to sign anything. How long will it take to get it.’
Chobert was one of only two witnesses at the trial who claimed to have seen Abu-Jamal shoot the police officer. No other evidence directly connected the defendant to the killing.
Abu-Jamal’s lawyers argue that the letter indicates that Chobert ‘understood there to be some prior agreement or understanding between himself and the prosecution, such that the prosecution ‘owed’ him money for his testimony’.” Read more at The Guardian
“Pandemic-era free school lunches expired last month, and states have been scrambling to deal with the financial burden since. California and Maine passed bills to keep lunches free last year, and nine other states are working to do the same now.” Read more at NPR
Russian Court Upholds Griner’s Sentence
“American basketball star Brittney Griner is set to serve a nine-year prison sentence in a Russian penal colony after a court shot down her appeal on Tuesday, in a ruling that U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan condemned as ‘another sham judicial proceeding.’
While expected, Griner now faces a harrowing future in a penal colony, notoriously brutal Russian prisons that force prisoners to work and can be traced back to gulags. News reports, inmate testimonies, and government investigations describe a harsh system in which torture, physical attacks, and sexual violence are rampant.
Griner’s fate now lies in the hands of U.S. diplomats, who have spent months struggling to negotiate her release as U.S.-Russia relations rapidly deteriorate over the war in Ukraine. In July, the Biden administration proposed a prisoner swap—releasing Viktor Bout, an arms dealer, in exchange for the freedom of Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan—although the Kremlin insisted on waiting for her court case to conclude.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin wields Griner’s detention as political leverage, the Biden administration is facing a ‘really difficult set of competing priorities,’ said Danielle Gilbert, a hostage diplomacy expert at Dartmouth College.
‘They want to bring home Americans who were wrongfully imprisoned,’ she said. ‘But they also don’t want to reward this kind of bad behavior or give anything up to Vladimir Putin at a time that he’s engaged in a brutal and unjust war in Ukraine, nor do they want to incentivize future arrests of this sort.’
Griner, who turned 32 last week, has now been detained since Feb. 17, just before Russia invaded Ukraine. She had been arrested for carrying under one gram of hashish oil; Moscow convicted her of drug smuggling. In May, Washington said Griner had been ‘wrongfully detained.’
U.S. officials are set to continue talks for Griner’s release, although past prisoner swaps suggest that it could take years for progress to be made. Whelan himself has been held in Russia since 2018.
‘When we look at cases of Americans who have recently come home from this sort of unjust captivity abroad, it’s often two, three, four years that they are imprisoned before the negotiations are concluded,’ Gilbert said.
Until then, Griner faces a deeply uncertain future.
‘She is not yet absolutely convinced that America will be able to take her home,’ Alexandr Boykov, one of Griner’s lawyers, told the New York Times earlier in October. ‘She is very worried about what the price of that will be, and she is afraid that she will have to serve the whole sentence here in Russia.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
Iran protests: Mourners defy police to gather at Mahsa Amini's grave
Image caption, Videos posted online by Kurdish activists showed people protesting at the Aichi cemetery in Saqqez
By David Gritten
BBC News
“A large crowd has protested at the cemetery in north-western Iran where Mahsa Amini is buried, as activists called for demonstrations to mark 40 days since her death in police custody.
Videos posted online showed that hundreds of men and women defied security forces to gather in Saqqez.
They were heard shouting ‘Woman, life, freedom’ and ‘Death to the dictator’.
They are two of the signature chants of the anti-government unrest that has swept across Iran since Ms Amini died.
The 22-year-old Kurdish woman was detained by the morality police in the capital, Tehran, on 13 September for allegedly wearing her hijab ‘improperly’.
She fell into a coma after collapsing at a detention centre and died three days later. There were reports that officers beat her on the head with a baton and banged her head against a vehicle, but the police denied that she was mistreated and that said she suffered a heart attack.” Read more at BBC
“Fragile link | The founder of one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural businesses was killed in a Russian missile strike a day before the Kremlin allowed the first vessel to sail from Odesa under a deal to get Ukrainian grain back into global markets and tame raging food price inflation. Marc Champion and Daryna Krasnolutska report that his son fears just one missile hitting a ship in the sea corridor would be enough to end the trade.
Biden again warned Russia against using a nuclear or radioactive weapon in Ukraine.” Read more at Bloomberg
Wheat grain being harvested in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, on June 28. Photographer: Julia Kochetova/Bloomberg
U.S. fear about Russia nukes
Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on Oct. 19. Photo: Sergei Ilyin/Sputnik via Getty Images
“‘One senior U.S. official said there were new, troubling developments involving Russia’s nuclear arsenal,’ The New York Times reports in the 29th paragraph of a story saying Vladimir Putin's commanders ‘may be preparing the ground for a sharp escalation’ in the war in Ukraine.
Why it matters: The developments, which weren't detailed, ‘heightened concerns among already jittery senior Pentagon officials about Russia’s next possible step up the escalation ladder’ in Ukraine, The Times adds.
A senior military official said at a Pentagon background briefing on Monday that the U.S. has ‘no indications that the Russians have made a decision to employ nuclear weapons.’” Read more at Axios
“Familiar faces | New UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak named an experienced Cabinet to tackle what he called a ‘profound economic crisis,’ only to face criticism for reappointing scandal-hit former ministers to top jobs. Jeremy Hunt remains Chancellor of the Exchequer, though Downing Street today delayed the announcement of the government’s spending and tax plan from Oct. 31 to Nov. 17.
Biden congratulated Sunak in a call in which they discussed Russia’s war in Ukraine and challenges arising from China, the White House said.” Read more at Bloomberg
Biden thought he had secret Saudi deal
President Biden fist bumps Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in July. Photo: Royal Court of Saudi Arabia/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
“‘As President Biden was planning a politically risky trip to Saudi Arabia this summer, his top aides thought they had struck a secret deal to boost oil production through the end of the year,’ The New York Times reports(subscription).
Instead, the Saudis cut production — ‘the opposite of the outcome the administration thought it had secured as the Democratic Party struggles to deal with inflation and high gas prices heading into the November elections.’
‘Lawmakers who had been told about the trip’s benefits in classified briefings ... have been left fuming that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman duped the administration,’ The Times adds.” Read more at Axios
“Israel’s deadly raid. At least five Palestinians were killed after Israeli forces carried out a raid against a group called the Lions’ Den in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday. Israeli authorities have accused the organization of launching a spate of attacks. The leader of the Lions’ Den, Wadie al-Houh, was killed.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Qatar’s human rights abuses. Human Rights Watch has recorded six cases in which Qatari authorities have arbitrarily detained, beaten, and sexually harrassed LGBT people from 2019 to 2022. In several cases, officials forced transgender women to participate in conversion therapy, the organization said.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Myanmar’s concert attack. Eighty people have reportedly died after Myanmar’s military launched a deadly airstrike at an outdoorconcert organized by a branch of the Kachin, one of the country’s major ethnic groups. The concert was commemorating the establishment of the Kachin Independence Organization, which has opposed and clashed with the junta.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Flooding in South Sudan. Extreme flooding has displaced and upended the livelihoods of more than two million people in South Sudan this year. Eight of the country’s ten states are now experiencing flooding, officials said, while 65 percent of people suffer from food insecurity.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Billions of dollars of criminal proceeds are being laundered through slot machines in pubs and clubs in Australia’s biggest state, according to an official inquiry that recommends tighter controls on the gaming industry.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Wuhan locked down one of its central districts after Covid cases were found, as China persists with a zero-tolerance approach to the virus almost three years since the pathogen first emerged in the city.” Read more at Bloomberg
“China’s iconic Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze River is the world’s largest power plant, but it fell eerily quiet this summer as scorching temperatures and a drought upstream reduced the reservoir and drastically cut its ability to generate electricity. It’s part of a global hydropower crisis being made worse by global warming as heatwaves and droughts shrink rivers that feed reservoirs from California to Germany.” Read more at Bloomberg
Floodwater is discharged from the Three Gorges Dam in August 2020. Photographer: VCG/VCG
Ukraine war: South Africa refuses to seize sanctioned Russian superyacht
“South Africa says it will allow a sanctioned Russian oligarch to dock his superyacht in Cape Town.
The $521m (£472m) vessel, which belongs to Alexei Mordashov - an ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin - left Hong Kong earlier this week.
South African opposition leaders had urged the government to seize the 465ft long (141m) yacht called The Nord.
But a spokesman for President Cyril Ramaphosa said he saw ‘no reason’ to comply with Western sanctions.
‘South Africa has no legal obligation to abide by sanctions imposed by the US and EU,’ Vincent Magwenya told reporters in Pretoria on Tuesday.
‘South Africa's obligations with respect to sanctions relate only to those that are specifically adopted by the United Nations,’ Mr Magwenya added, noting that Mr Mordashov is not under any UN-sponsored sanctions.
Western countries and their allies have imposed sanctions on more than 1,000 Russian individuals and businesses in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Like many other African countries, Mr Ramaphosa's government has so far avoided directly criticising Russia, abstaining in several UN votes that have expressly condemned the war. Pretoria has also called for a negotiated settlement to end the conflict.” Read more at BBC
Adidas Ends Partnership With Kanye West at a Considerable Cost
The German sportswear giant is the latest company to cut ties with Mr. West, now known as Ye, after his antisemitic remarks. Ending the partnership is expected to hurt company profits.
By Melissa Eddy, Vanessa Friedman and Michael J. de la Merced
Oct. 25, 2022
“For more than two weeks, as Kanye West made a series of antisemitic remarks and embraced a slogan associated with white supremacists, Adidas, the most important partner in his fashion empire, said only that its relationship with the rapper and designer was ‘under review.’
But as Ye, as Mr. West is now known, continued his offensive behavior, and with the condemnation of his remarks growing more widespread, Adidas announced Tuesday that it would cut ties with him — a move the company said would cost it 250 million euros ($246 million) this year.
The end of their nearly decade-long partnership — which one estimate said was worth close to $100 million annually to Ye — raised questions of what would come next for Ye, who has been one of the most influential pop stars of recent decades but has become increasingly polarizing and unreliable. CAA, Ye’s former talent agency, no longer represents him and Def Jam, his longtime record company, said that his contract had expired last year.
‘Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech,’ the company said in a statement. ‘Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.’” Read more at New York Times
“LinkedIn is rolling out new features to catch bots and fake accounts on its site. While often thought of as a tamer social platform for professionals and job seekers, LinkedIn is not immune to inauthentic behavior, which experts say can be hard to detect and is often perpetrated by sophisticated bad actors on the site. The professional networking company has in the past year faced criticism over accounts with artificial intelligence-generated profile photos used for marketing or pushing cryptocurrencies, and other fake profiles listing major corporations as their employers for applying for high-profile job openings. In the second half of 2021, the company removed 11.9 million fake accounts at registration and another 4.4 million before they were ever reported by other users, according to its latest transparency report. The company told CNN Business this week that the new features will soon help users evaluate the authenticity of accounts before engaging with them.” Read more at CNN
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has granted the emperor penguin endangered species protections. Dwindling sea ice levels are threatening the future of the population.” Read more at NPR
By Kevin Roose
Technology Columnist
Good morning. Top social media apps are struggling after a decade of dominance.
Jenny Kane/Associated Press
Losing ground
“For years, most of the conversation about social media companies was about how powerful and dominant they were.
These days? Not so much.
The tech industry has had a rough year, and social media companies have been hit especially hard. The stock price of Meta (formerly known as Facebook) has plummeted more than 60 percent. Snap, the maker of Snapchat, has fallen more than 80 percent. Layoffs and hiring freezes are common, and some companies have begun cutting their famously cushy employee perks. (No more free laundry, Metamates!)
Social media is still an important part of billions of people’s lives. But as my co-host Casey Newton and I often discuss on our new Times tech podcast, ‘Hard Fork,’ the industry increasingly feels as if it’s having an identity crisis.
Today, I will explain what’s troubling each of the big social media companies.
Meta
Meta’s cash-cow social media apps — Facebook and Instagram — are in decline, with younger users abandoning them for apps like TikTok. Meta has also lost billions of dollars in advertising revenue because of changes Apple made in 2021 to its mobile operating system, which made it harder for apps to track users across the internet.
And investors are skeptical that Mark Zuckerberg’s big bet on the metaverse will pan out in time to turn the company around. In a letter to Zuckerberg this week, one investor suggested that Meta lay off 20 percent of its employees and cap spending on metaverse-related projects at $5 billion per year.
Prognosis: Vitals are falling fast. The patient needs a transfusion, stat.
Reason for hope: Meta still has plenty of cash, and its new virtual reality headset, the Meta Quest Pro, is getting good reviews.
Twitter may be about to gain an owner and lose many executives.Jason Henry for The New York Times
Twitter has spent most of 2022 locked in battle with Elon Musk — who wanted to buy the company for $44 billion, then decided he didn’t, then decided he did again.
Musk told investors this week that he plans to close the deal by Friday and take control of Twitter. I’ve written that a Musk-controlled Twitter will have several major problems from the start, including a staff revolt, mass firings of executives and changes to Twitter’s content moderation rules that could be unpopular. And while Musk certainly planned for some amount of chaos, he may be surprised by how hard it is to run the company.
Even without any Musk-related drama, Twitter will face challenges. The company rarely turns a profit, and growth has been slow for years.
Prognosis: Acute short-term pain, with promises of a vague miracle cure ahead.
Reason for hope: Financially, Twitter is in a better position than many rivals. If the Musk deal goes through, shareholders will get bought out at a good price ($54.20 per share), and the company — which will no longer be publicly traded — will get some relief from the pressures of the markets.
TikTok
TikTok has what every social media company wants — a big, engaged user base, a format that keeps people scrolling for hours and an iron grip on youth culture and the entertainment industry.
But in some ways, TikTok is the most vulnerable app of all. The Chinese company ByteDance owns it, and U.S. regulators have been circling for years, looking for proof that the Chinese government is steering or influencing TikTok. If they find it, they could declare TikTok a threat to national security and ban the app — game over.
Prognosis: Unlikely to die of natural causes but could easily be killed by a blunt instrument.
Reason for hope: TikTok is incredibly popular. Politicians fearful of public backlash could look for a more moderate solution than an outright ban.
Snapchat
Snapchat is still popular among young people, but Snap’s advertising business (like many) took a dive during this year’s economic downturn, and the company recently laid off roughly 20 percent of its workers. Like Meta, Snapchat is also a casualty of Apple’s privacy changes, which made it harder to target ads to iPhone users, and a victim of TikTok, which is eating into Snapchat’s following.
Prognosis: Snapchat should recover if it survives the winter.
Reason for hope: The number of Snap’s daily active users grew 19 percent last quarter — so the users are there, even if advertisers aren’t.
The free-speech brigade
Apps like Parler, Truth Social and Rumble — all promoting themselves as pro-free-speech alternatives to mainstream social media sites — have garnered a lot of attention. But that hasn’t translated into popularity.
Parler — which announced last week that the rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, was acquiring it — has only about 40,000 daily active users, according to one estimate. Truth Social, Donald Trump’s megaphone of choice, has had similar struggles. And Rumble — a kind of right-wing YouTube that is among the most successful of the alt-platforms — has seen its stock price fall more than 35 percent this year.
If Musk reverses Twitter’s bans of prominent right-wing figures, as he has said he would do, these sites could have an even harder time justifying their existence.
Prognosis: D.O.A.
Reason for hope: The next presidential election could give a boost to right-wing content creators.
The new class
As the giants struggle, BeReal, Gas and other new social media apps are taking off with young people. (Fellow olds: BeReal is a photo-sharing app that lets you post only once per day; Gas is for sharing compliments and is currently the big hit among high schoolers.)
Prognosis: Healthy for now, with possible growing pains ahead.
Reason for hope: No social media giant lasts forever, and it may be a new generation’s turn in the spotlight.” Read more at New York Times
Politics increasingly a deal-breaker on US dating scene
By Jason Armesto
BBC News, Washington
“Angela Hammontree, 55, considers herself very conservative - ‘pro-gun, pro-Bible, pro-Trump’.
That can trip her up when it comes to love, though.
‘The first person I dated after my divorce seemed like a great guy,’ Ms Hammontree recalled. ‘And then I found out he was a freaking Democrat!’
They dated for three months, but broke up one month before the November 2020 presidential election.
‘I couldn't stand it any longer,’ she said. ‘I really liked the guy. But I just don't feel like a relationship can go very far without those same [political] views.’
Now, she checks voter registrations on Google before dates - just to make sure she's not going to be dining with a Democrat.
In fact, studies suggest that Ms Hammontree is not alone in her view on relationships. A 2020 YouGov/Economist poll found that 86% of Americans think it has become harder to date someone who supports the opposite political party.
Experts say that who you vote for has now risen to be among the most important factors in love.” Read more at BBC
@hiitaylorblake/Screenshot by NPR
“Good news! Emmanuel the emu does not have avian flu. But he is very stressed out after the virus left dozens of his bird friends dead at Knuckle Bump Farms in South Florida.” Read more at NPR
“Ashton Carter, a secretary of defense under Barack Obama who further opened the military to women and transgender people, died at 68.” Read more at New York Times