The Full Belmonte, 10/7/2023
'We are at war,' Israel says as Hamas launches surprise attack
“Dozens of gunmen from the Palestinian militant group Hamas infiltrate southern Israel in a major attack that coincided with a holiday and the 50th anniversary of the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Israel calls up reservists and launches retaliatory strikes.”
READ MORE at USA Today
“Across the street, federal prosecutors alleged on the first day of Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial that he “lied to the world” as he built his FTX cryptocurrency exchange. His on-and-off girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, struck a deal with the government and is amongthe potential witnessesexpected to testify. As an aside, the US notified Bankman-Fried that it’s going after two luxury jets it says are proceeds of his alleged multibillion dollar fraud.” [Bloomberg]
Sam Bankman-Fried outside the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan Photographer: Drew Angerer
Owner of Colorado funeral home tried to conceal the improper storage of 115 decaying bodies
“The owner of a Colorado funeral home where 115 decaying bodies were found tried to conceal the improper storage of corpses and claimed he was doing taxidermy, according to a suspension letter sent to him by state regulators.” Read More at AP News
Northeast braces for flash floods from Storm Philippe
“Tropical Storm Philippe is now a post-tropical cyclone posing a risk of flash flooding across New England this weekend, the National Hurricane Center said.
Philippe is expected to bring strong winds, as well as 1 to 3 inches of rain to portions of New York and New England, with locally isolated amounts up to 5 inches, according to the NHC.
On the current track, the rain will begin tonight or early Saturday morning, and the system will reach eastern New England or the coast of Atlantic Canada Saturday night or Sunday.
Elsewhere in the country, about 14 million people are under the first freeze alertsof the season across the northern and central Plains, as well as sections of the Upper Mississippi Valley.” [NBC News]
Vermont police search for “armed and dangerous” suspect after suspicious death
“Vermont state police are asking for the public’s help to find an ‘armed and dangerous’ man after the ‘suspicious death’ of a woman along a popular trail, authorities announced.
Police have no suspects, and are urging the public to stay vigilant by locking their homes and cars, and walking in pairs, Major Daniel Trudeau said.
Classes have been canceled today at the nearby Castleton campus of Vermont State University, but the victim was not a student there, according to Trudeau.
Witnesses said they heard gunshots yesterday afternoon in the area where the woman was found dead, and a possible suspect was seen on the trail walking toward the campus, according to police.
Investigators have not released the victim’s cause of death, but the case is being treated as a homicide, Trudeau said.
Police are asking residents to review their home and business surveillance cameras for images of the possible suspect.” [NBC News]”
“Georgia state troopers will not be charged in the fatal shooting of Manuel Paez Terán, a 26-year-old environmental activist who allegedly shot and wounded a trooper during a protest at the site of a proposed police training center near Atlanta that’s become known as ‘Cop City,’ prosecutors announced today.” [NBC News]
Guatemala’s highest court says prosecutors can suspend president-elect’s party
“Guatemala’s highest court has upheld a move by prosecutors to suspend the political party of President-elect Bernardo Arévalo over alleged voter and registration fraud, a move the incoming leader denounces as a ‘coup.’” Read More at AP News
Women. Life. Freedom.
Iranian journalist Taghi Rahmani (center), husband of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi; their son Ali (right); and Reporters Without Borders Director-General Christophe Deloire arrive for a press conference in Paris on Oct. 6.Thomas Samson/AFP via Getty Images
“Amid a growing outcry over women’s rights abuses in Iran, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi with the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. A former journalist and the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, Mohammadi was celebrated for her fight against women’s oppression by Iran’s so-called morality police.
‘We hope today’s prize will send a clear message to world leaders including the United States that international pressure is needed to improve the lives of girls and women in Iran,’ said Henrik Urdal, the director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, which helps selects the Nobel Peace Prize winner. Mohammadi has been arrested 13 times, convicted five times, and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes for her advocacy work. She is currently serving multiple sentences, adding up to roughly 12 years, at Tehran’s Evin Prison.
Recognition of Mohammadi’s work has also highlighted the plight of other Iranian women and girls, including Armita Garavand, a 16-year-old who remains in a coma after allegedly being attacked by the morality police on Sunday for not wearing a headscarf on a public subway car. Under Iranian law, all women and girls 9 years old and older must cover their hair to abide by the country’s strict interpretation of Islamic dress code.
Garavand is currently hospitalized in an intensive care unit for cerebral hemorrhaging. Iranian authorities have denied accusations of state forces assaulting Garavand. Instead, they allege that Garavand lost consciousness and hit her head when her blood pressure dropped because she skipped breakfast that morning. The whereabouts of Garavand’s mother, who reiterated the police’s official statement, have been unknown since Wednesday.
Many Iranians have drawn parallels between Garavand’s injuries and the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody in September 2022 after being arrested for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly, sparking mass protests. Since then, the Iranian government has arrested thousands of activists and killed around 500 others. Last month, Iran also passed new legislation imposing stricter fines and prison sentences for those who violate the country’s dress code policies.
Still, Mohammadi maintains that the future of women in Iran remains bright. ‘The global support and recognition of my human rights advocacy makes me more resolved, more responsible, more passionate and more hopeful,’ she wrote in a statement to the New York Timesfrom prison. ‘I also hope this recognition makes Iranians protesting for change stronger and more organized. Victory is near.’” [Foreign Policy]
“Cabinet shake-up. Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara removed the West African nation’s prime minister from office and dissolved his cabinet on Friday. The executive order was an unprecedented but not unexpected move; regional officials predicted that Ouattara would reshuffle his cabinet after his ruling Rally of the Republicans party won a landslide victory in local elections last month. Following the victory, Ouattara had hinted at plans to name new ministers.
Outgoing ministers could return to their posts in the near future. In the meantime, Ouattara and his secretary-general will oversee all government posts until new lawmakers are appointed. The Ivory Coast will hold its next presidential elections in 2025. Ouattara has not yet announced his reelection bid.” [Foreign Policy]
“Unrelenting airstrikes. Russian forces killed at least two Ukrainians, including a 10-year-old boy, and injured 28 others in Kharkiv on Friday. The Kremlin used Iskander ballistic missiles to target grain and port infrastructure, destroying a residential building in the process. Rescue operations are still underway.
The missile assault came less than 24 hours after Russian airstrikes killed at least 52 people at a café and local shop in a village near the eastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk. The missile strike was one of the war’s deadliest attacks against civilians since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv officials said. The Kharkiv region announced a three-day period of mourning, and on Friday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights deployed a field team to investigate the attack.” [Foreign Policy]
“Right-wing constitution advances. A right-wing-dominated body in Chile tasked with creating a new constitution approved a draft on Wednesday that includes a number of conservative policies. Among the articles in the draft are laws that limit citizens’ right to strike, impose stricter migrant expulsion regulations, add greater protections for fetuses, and affirm the right to use private health care and education systems. The draft will next be reviewed by an expert panel, and then the drafting body will have another chance to amend the text before it is finally presented to voters in a referendum.
According to a Cadem survey on Sunday, just 24 percent of Chileans plan to support the draft, with 54 percent planning to reject it. The effort to rewrite Santiago’s constitution began in 2019 and has taken a drastically right-leaning approach following major far-right election wins across the country in May.” [Foreign Policy]
“‘Tis a monumental day for Shakespeare enthusiasts. A theater in the United Kingdom hath discovered what it believes to be the only surviving stage that the legendary playwright performed on. The floorboards, first discovered last month, were dated back to 1592, when the Bard was likely staging Henry VI and Titus Andronicus in the area. All the world may be a stage—but this might be the most historic one yet.” [Foreign Policy]
What a striking new study of death in America misses
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“The story of death in America goes a little bit like this. For nearly two decades, the predominant theory was that Americans without college degrees die earlier and more from what researchers call ‘deaths of despair’: suicides, opioid overdoses, and alcohol related-causes. But it’s more complicated than that, senior correspondent Dylan Matthews argues.
The lowdown:
Life expectancy rates give us a glimpse into what’s going well and what’s not in a given place. A sharp dip, like the one caused by Covid in 2020 and 2021, indicates something deeply wrong.
The traditional college vs. non-college life expectancy breakdown obscures something big. Some researchers are finding that stagnating progress against cardiovascular disease is actually an even bigger contributor to US life expectancy stalling out than college degrees.
And the big divide on premature death isn’t really between college grads and non-grads. It’s between high school dropouts and everyone else. That implies we might want to think more specifically about heart disease, and about the American underclass, and less about the college divide.
The stakes: As Dylan explains, understanding where certain rates come from allows us to better figure out effective (and rather quick) interventions.
’People dying now cannot wait for the whole US economy to transform to be more worker-friendly, as nice as that might be,’ he writes. ‘They need solutions that are tailored for their specific problems that can be implemented soon.’” [Vox]
Religion's downfall
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
“There's a global, fast-growing population of people without a religion, Axios' Erica Pandey writes from a new AP-NORC Poll.
Why it matters: Religion has long been a powerful force in society, touching politics, art and daily life. The rise of nonbelievers is diminishing its influence.
By the numbers: 3 in 10 U.S. adults said they had no religious affiliation.
About half of them identify as atheist or agnostic. The other half say their religion is "nothing in particular."
The shift away from religion is even starker among younger adults: 43% of 18- to 29-year-old Americans responded "none" when asked which religion they follow.
But fewer than 20% of U.S. adults over 60 are "nones."
The trend is also gaining momentum across the world, AP reports from several countries:
In Japan, 70% of people in Japan say they have nonreligious feelings.
Nearly 80% of Italians say they're Catholic. But most view it as a tradition, with fewer than 20% attending services weekly.
Israel, a country with about 7 million Jews, is remarkably nonreligious: Just 33% said they practiced "traditional" religious worship. Conflict between secular and ultra-religious Israelis has grown in recent years.
Reality check: Organized religion remains a key source of community for many Americans, with two-thirds of U.S. adults identifying as Christian, according to the Pew Research Center.
As recently as the 1990s that share was 90%.” [Axios]
GAME OF THE WEEKEND
The New York Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces facing off in August.Ethan Miller/Getty Images
“New York Liberty vs. Las Vegas Aces, W.N.B.A. finals: These two teams have been on a collision course. After the Aces won the championship last season, the Liberty assembled a superteam to challenge them. New York tore through the regular season, and the team’s new forward, Breanna Stewart, won the league M.V.P. award. The Aces haven’t slowed down, either — their star, A’ja Wilson, is averaging 26 points and 11 rebounds per game in the playoffs. Stewart and Wilson have been the league’s best players for years; a clash in the finals takes their rivalry to the next level. 3 p.m. Eastern tomorrow on ABC.” [New York Times]
THE WEEK IN CULTURE
Paris Fashion Week
“On the runways of Paris Fashion Week, and on the streets outside, outfits popped with bright colors. The photographer Simbarashe Cha captured the best looks.” [New York Times]
“New York, London, Milan and Paris: Our critics have a guide to the most memorable clothes and moments from a month of fashion shows.” [New York Times]
“The talk of Fashion Week, apart from the looks? Paris’s bedbug infestation.” v
“The singer Grimes sued Elon Musk to establish parental rights over their three children, Vulture reports.” [New York Times]
“Paramount Pictures uploaded the entirety of the 2004 movie “Mean Girls” to TikTok in 23 snippets, part of a trend among studios and streamers.” [New York Times]
“The film adaptation of the viral New Yorker short story “Cat Person” was released in theaters. Read the Times review.” [New York Times]
“Tom Hanks warned his Instagram followers that an A.I. likeness of him was being used to advertise a dental plan.” [New York Times]
“Lady Gaga will not have to pay the $500,000 reward she offered for her missing French bulldogs, because the woman who returned them was charged in connection with their theft.” [New York Times]
“Jack Fisk is the force behind many of Hollywood’s most indelible film sets. His latest effort: creating the Osage Nation of Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.”” [New York Times]