The Full Belmonte, 10/30/2022
S. Korea in shock, grief as 153 die in Halloween crowd surge
By KIM TONG-HYUNG and HYUNG-JIN KIM
“SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Concerned relatives raced to hospitals in search of their loved ones Sunday as South Korea mourned the deaths of more than 150 people, mostly in their 20s and 30s, who got trapped and crushed after a huge Halloween party crowd surged into a narrow alley in a nightlife district in Seoul.
Witnesses said the crowd surge Saturday night in the Itaewon area caused ‘a hell-like’ chaos as people fell on each other ‘like dominoes.’ Some people were bleeding from their noses and mouths while being given CPR, witnesses said, while others clad in Halloween costumes continued to sing and dance nearby, possibly without knowing the severity of the situation.
‘I still can’t believe what has happened. It was like a hell,’ said Kim Mi Sung, an official at a nonprofit organization that promotes tourism in Itaewon.
Kim said she performed CPR on 10 people who were unconscious and nine of them were declared dead on the spot. Kim said the 10 were mostly women wearing witch outfits and other Halloween costumes.
The crowd surge is the country’s worst disaster in years. As of Sunday evening, officials put the death toll at 153 and the number of injured people at 133. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said the death count could further rise as 37 of the injured people were in serious conditions.
Ninety-seven of the dead were women and 56 were men. More than 80% of the dead are in their 20s and 30s, but at least four were teenagers.
At least 20 of the dead are foreigners from China, Russia, Iran and elsewhere. There is one American among the dead, the Interior Ministry said in a release.
An estimated 100,000 people had gathered in Itaewon for the country’s biggest outdoor Halloween festivities since the pandemic began. The South Korean government had eased COVID-19 restrictions in recent months.
Witnesses said the streets were so densely clogged with people and slow-moving vehicles that it was practically impossible for emergency workers and ambulances to reach the alley near Hamilton Hotel swiftly.
Authorities said thousands of people have called or visited a nearby city office, reporting missing relatives and asking officials to confirm whether they were among those injured or dead after the crush.” Read more at AP News
Pelosi attack shocks country on edge about democracy threats
By CHRIS MEGERIAN, JONATHAN J. COOPER and STEVE PEOPLES
“WASHINGTON (AP) — An America that can already feel like it’s hurtling toward political disintegration has been jolted yet again, this time by the violent attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi less than two weeks before Election Day.
Seizing a hammer and leaving a trail of broken glass, an intruder broke into the couple’s San Francisco home early Friday and repeatedly struck Paul Pelosi, 82. He had surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands, and his doctors expect a full recovery, the speaker’s office said.
The assailant confronted Paul Pelosi by shouting, ‘Where is Nancy,’ according to another person familiar with the situation who was granted anonymity to discuss it. The Democratic congresswoman was in Washington at the time.
The calling out of her name was a sign that the assault could have targeted the lawmaker, who as speaker is second in line to the presidency. The ambush was a particularly savage reminder of the extremism that has coursed through American politics in recent years, adding to a sense of foreboding with the Nov. 8 election nearly at hand.
Armed watchers are staking out ballot drop boxes in Arizona to guard against false conspiracies about voter fraud. Threats against members of Congresshave risen to historic levels. Public opinion surveys show fears for a fragile democracy and even of a civil war. Former President Donald Trump continues to deny that he lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, and his acolytes are attempting to consolidate their power over future elections.
A new domestic intelligence assessment from the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies said extremists fueled by election falsehoods “pose a heightened threat” to the upcoming midterms.
The assessment, dated Friday, said the greatest danger was “posed by lone offenders who leverage election-related issues to justify violence.”
‘It is worse than it’s ever been,’ said Cornell Belcher, a Democratic pollster. ‘This is uncharted waters.’ Belcher blamed ‘the mainstreaming of behavior in politics that was, once upon a time, left or right, abhorrent.’” Read more at AP News
Brazil’s polarizing Bolsonaro-Lula contest goes to voters
By DIANE JEANTET
“RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilians began voting Sunday morning in a polarizing presidential runoff election that pits an incumbent vowing to safeguard conservative Christian values against a former president promising to return the country to a more prosperous past.
The runoff shaped up as a close contest between President Jair Bolsonaro and his political nemesis, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Both are well-known, divisive political figures who stir passion as much as loathing.
The vote will determine if the world’s fourth-largest democracy stays the same course of far-right politics or returns a leftist to the top job — and, in the latter case, whether Bolsonaro will accept defeat.” Read more at AP News
Russia suspends Ukraine grain deal over ship attack claim
By ANDREW MELDRUM
“KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia announced Saturday that it will immediately suspend its implementation of a U.N.-brokered grain deal that has seen more than 9 million tons of grain exported from Ukraine during the war and has brought down soaring global food prices. Ukraine accused Russia of creating a world ‘hunger games.’
The Russian Defense Ministry cited an alleged Ukrainian drone attack Saturday against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet ships moored off the coast of occupied Crimea as the reason for the move. Ukraine has denied the attack, saying that the Russians mishandled their own weapons.
The Russian declaration came one day after U.N. chief Antonio Guterres urged Russia and Ukraine to renew the grain export deal, which was scheduled to expire on Nov. 19. Guterres also urged other countries, mainly in the West, to expedite the removal of obstacles blocking Russian grain and fertilizer exports.” Read more at AP News
Twitter trolls bombard platform after Elon Musk takeover
Platform says 300 accounts carried out 50,000-plus tweets in ‘organised effort to make users think firm has changed content policy’
Dan Milmo Global technology editor
Sun 30 Oct 2022 06.54 EDT
“Twitter has been hit by a coordinated trolling campaign in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover, with more than 50,000 tweets from 300 accounts bombarding the platform with hateful content.
The social media platform said it has been targeted with an attempt to make users think Twitter has dropped or weakened its content policies after the world’s richest man bought the company for $44bn (£38bn) last week.
Twitter’s head of safety and integrity said those running the site had not changed content policies but had been subject to ‘an organised effort to make people think we have’.
In a Twitter thread posted on Sunday, Yoel Roth said the company had seen a ‘ton’ of tweets posted by a small number of accounts featuring slurs and other derogatory terms. To illustrate the scale of the attack, he said more than 50,000 tweets that repeatedly used one unspecified slur came from just 300 accounts.
Roth said most of those accounts were ‘inauthentic’ and the users involved had been banned.
‘We’ve taken action to ban the users involved in this trolling campaign – and are going to continue working to address this in the days to come to make Twitter safe and welcoming for everyone,’ he wrote.
Roth’s thread also linked to a post from Musk, who bought the platform last week, in which the Tesla chief executive said: ‘We have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies.’
Musk’s takeover has led to widespread expressions of concern that the multibillionaire, a self-confessed ‘free speech absolutist’, will relax content policies and reinstate banned accounts such as those controlled by the former US president Donald Trump and Katie Hopkins, the rightwing British political commentator.
Shonda Rhimes, the TV producer behind Grey’s Anatomy and Bridgerton, appeared to quit the platform on Saturday, telling her 1.9 million followers that she was ‘not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned’.
As well as stressing that there had been no change to Twitter’s content policies, Musk has announced the formation of a ‘content moderation council’. He said the new body would bring together ‘widely diverse viewpoints’ and no decisions on content policy or account reinstatements will be taken until the council has convened.
Musk has also indicated that Twitter could be split into different sections where users give their posts content ratings and take part in online rows in a specially created space on the platform.
His suggested changes emerged in interactions with Twitter users after the deal. He also supported a user’s suggestion that the service splits into different video game-style modes, including a ‘player v player’ version where verified accounts can engage in Twitter spats.
The billionaire, who has more than 100 million followers on the platform, said users could select a version of Twitter like they were choosing a film based on its content rating.
He wrote: ‘Being able to select which version of Twitter you want is probably better, much as it would be for a movie maturity rating.’
Musk added that the rating of a user’s tweet could be self-selected and then ‘modified by user feedback’.” Read more at The Guardian
Somalia’s president says at least 100 killed in car bombings
By OMAR FARUK
“MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia’s president says at least 100 people were killed in Saturday’s two car bombings at a busy junction in the capital and the toll could rise in the country’s deadliest attack since a truck bombing at the same spot five years ago killed more than 500.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, at the site of the explosions in Mogadishu, told journalists that nearly 300 other people were wounded. ‘We ask our international partners and Muslims around the world to send their medical doctors here since we can’t send all the victims outside the country for treatment,’ he said.
The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group, which often targets the capital and controls large parts of the country, claimed responsibility, saying it targeted the education ministry. It claimed the ministry was an ‘enemy base’ that receives support from non-Muslim countries and ‘is committed to removing Somali children from the Islamic faith.’” Read more at AP News
Elon Musk will have to pay three fired Twitter executives nearly $200 million
“The three top Twitter executives whom Elon Musk fired Thursday will walk out the door with about $187 million of Musk’s money.
Former CEO Parag Agrawal, former CFO Ned Segal and former Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde were ousted after Musk took control of the company late Thursday, according to a source familiar with the situation.
They would have received a large chunk of that money even if they had stayed on board under the new ownership – they and other shareholders will receive payouts from Musk after he bought their shares for $54.20 each.
Fired Twitter executives Ned Segal, left, Parag Agrawal, center, and Vijaya Gadde, right, leave the company with $187 million of Elon Musk's money.
Kevin Dietsch/David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Agrawal, who only assumed the CEO title a little less than a year ago, had the smallest stock holdings of the three: 155,000 shares worth $8.4 million at the price Musk paid. Segal will get $22 million for the 406,000 shares he owns while Gadde will walk away with $34.8 million for her 642,000 shares.
But they also receive ‘Golden Parachute Compensation’ in the merger agreement approved by shareholders. That includes a year’s base pay – $1 million for Agrawal and $600,000 each for Segal and Gadde. They also will get a year of health insurance, worth about $73,000 among the three.
Elon Musk's bumpy road to owning Twitter: A timeline
The most lucrative part by far is the accelerated vesting of stock they stood to receive in the future but had not yet qualified for. That will end up being worth $56.4 million for Agrawal, $43.8 million for Segal and $19.4 million for Gadde. Agrawal and Segal get the accelerated vesting of all of their shares while Gadde gets accelerated vesting of only half of her shares.
Added up, the parachute payments come to $121.8 million. Add on the $65.2 million for the purchase of the shares they already own and you get $187 million.” Read more at Bloomberg
Federal judge rules in favor of bikini baristas over dress
FILE - A barista at a Grab-N-Go Bikini Hut espresso stand holds money as she waves to a customer on Feb. 2, 2010, just outside the city limits of Everett, Wash., in Snohomish County. Everett's dress code ordinance that says ‘bikini baristas’ must cover their bodies at work has been ruled unconstitutional by a federal court. The city and the baristas have been battling since 2007 after Everett enacted a dress code for those working at ‘quick service facilities’ like coffee shops and fast-food restaurants. Everett is about 30 miles north of Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
“EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — A Washington city’s dress code ordinance saying bikini baristas must cover their bodies at work has been ruled unconstitutional by a federal court.
The decision in a partial summary judgment this week comes after a lengthy legal battle between bikini baristas and the city of Everett over the rights of workers to wear what they want, the Everett Herald reported. Everett is about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Seattle.
U.S. District Court in Seattle found Everett’s dress code ordinance violated the Equal Protection clauses of the U.S. and Washington state constitutions. The Court found that the ordinance was, at least in part, shaped by a gender-based discriminatory purpose, according to a 19-page ruling signed by U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez.
It is difficult to imagine, the court wrote, how the ordinance would be equally applied to men and women in practice because it prohibits clothing ‘typically worn by women rather than men,’ including midriff and scoop-back shirts, as well as bikinis.” Read more at AP News
Astros burst ahead, beat Phillies 5-2, tie World Series 1-1
By RONALD BLUM
“HOUSTON (AP) — Framber Valdez swapped his glove and his spikes midgame. He repeatedly rubbed his hands.
By the time he strode off the mound to a standing ovation and handed the Houston Astros’ bullpen a seventh-inning lead, it was clear he had thrown a curve at the Philadelphia Phillies.
‘This was a really good game for the fans, a really good game for our team and also for me,’ he said through a translator after pitching the Astros over the Phillies 5-2 Saturday night to tie the World Series at one game apiece. ‘I’ve just been playing really inspired.’
Valdez made a five-run lead stand up after Houston’s lightning first-inning burst and Alex Bregman homered as the Astros rushed to a 5-0 lead for the second straight night. Unlike ace Justin Verlander in the opener, Valdez and Houston held on.
‘His curveball was on tonight,’ Phillies star Bryce Harper said after going 0 for 4. ‘It was big, sharp.’
Houston became the first team to open a Series game with three straight extra-base hits, and Valdez pitched shutout ball into the seventh, rebounding from a pair of poor outings against Atlanta last year that had left him with a 19.29 Series ERA.
He threw 42 curveballs among 104 pitches and got six of nine strikeouts with that pitch, three of them looking. He allowed four hits and one run in 6 2/3 innings, giving up a leadoff double in the seventh to Nick Castellanos, who scored on Jean Segura’s sacrifice fly off Rafael Montero.” Read more at AP News
Powerball grand prize climbs to $1B without a jackpot winner
“DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Powerball jackpot keeps getting larger because players keep losing.
It happened again Saturday night as no one matched all six numbers and won the estimated $825 million grand prize. That means the next drawing Monday night will be for a massive $1 billion, according to a statement by Powerball.
The winning numbers Saturday night were: white balls 19, 31, 40, 46, 57 and the red power ball 23.
The increased jackpot will be the second-largest in U.S. history. The biggest prize was a $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot won by three ticketholders in 2016.
Although the advertised top prize will be an estimated $1 billion, that is for winners who receive their winnings through an annuity paid over 29 years. Winners almost always opt for cash, which for Monday’s drawing will be an estimated $497.3 million.
The $825 million jackpot for Saturday’s draw increased from $800 million on Friday as a result of strong ticket sales, Powerball said.” Read more at AP News
Vince Dooley, Hall of Fame Football Coach for Georgia, Dies at 90
In a 25-year coaching career, he appeared in 20 bowl games and won 201 games, the fourth-highest total in Southeastern Conference histor
By Frank Litsky
Oct. 29, 2022
“Vince Dooley, a Hall of Fame football coach at the University of Georgia who in 25 years won more games than any other coach did in the school’s history, died on Friday at his home in Athens, Ga. He was 90.
His death was announced by the university. No cause was given, but Dooley had recently been hospitalized.” Read more at New York Times