The Full Belmonte, 11/19/2022
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to 11.25 years in prison.
“The 135-month term caps the extraordinary downfall of a one-time Silicon Valley wunderkind. Holmes, 38, who claimed to have revolutionized blood testing, was convicted in January on four counts of criminal fraud for deceiving investors for years. She had asked for a sentence of home confinement and community service, and no more than 18 months in prison. Prosecutors sought a 15-year prison term with three years of supervised release and more than $800 million in restitution. The Wall Street Journal’s investigative reporting first exposed the problems at Theranos.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Elizabeth Holmes outside San Jose, California, federal court on Friday. She was previously convicted of engaging in a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud investors in her company, Theranos. Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Garland Names Special Counsel for Trump Inquiries
Even before Mr. Garland’s announcement, there were signs that prosecutorial activity in both cases was accelerating after a brief slowdown in the run-up to the midterm elections.
By Glenn Thrush, Charlie Savage, Maggie Haberman and Alan Feuer
Nov. 18, 2022
“WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed a special counsel on Friday to take over two major criminal investigations involving former President Donald J. Trump, examining his role in events leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and his decision to retain sensitive government documents at his home in Florida.
In naming Jack Smith, the former head of the Justice Department’s public integrity section and a veteran war crimes prosecutor, Mr. Garland is seeking to insulate the department from claims that the investigations into Mr. Trump are motivated by politics.
Mr. Garland said the political intentions of Mr. Trump and President Biden prompted him to take what he described as an extraordinary step. Mr. Trump announced on Tuesday that he would pursue a third bid for the presidency in 2024, and Mr. Biden has indicated that he is likely to run as well.
‘Such an appointment underscores the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters,’ said Mr. Garland, who retains final say over whether Mr. Trump is charged with a crime after Mr. Smith presents recommendations.
Mr. Garland and Mr. Smith emphasized that the decision would not slow the pace of either investigation, particularly the documents inquiry, which is advancing faster than the Jan. 6 case. In a statement, Mr. Smith vowed that the investigations would move quickly ‘to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate.’
Mr. Trump wasted little time in attacking the appointment. During a black-tie event held by a political group allied with him at his private club in Florida on Friday night, he complained about ‘the appalling announcement today by the egregiously corrupt Biden administration,’ adding, ‘This horrendous abuse of power is the latest in a long series of witch hunts.’
Repeatedly calling the appointment ‘unfair,’ Mr. Trump said, ‘They want to do bad things to the greatest movement in the history of our country, but in particular, bad things to me.’
White House officials said they were not involved in the decision.
Special counsels usually have more autonomy than ordinary prosecutors but ultimately report to the attorney general. If Mr. Smith concludes that there is sufficient evidence to indict Mr. Trump, for instance, Mr. Garland would still have to sign off.
Even before Mr. Smith’s appointment, there were signs that prosecutors in both cases were accelerating their investigations after a brief slowdown before the midterm elections.” Read more at New York Times
Jack Smith, the former head of the Justice Department’s public integrity section and a veteran war crimes prosecutor, will oversee the investigations.Credit...Peter Dejong/Associated Press
Elon Musk’s Twitter Teeters on the Edge After Another 1,200 Leave
Mr. Musk sent emails on Friday asking to learn about Twitter’s underlying technology as key infrastructure teams have been decimated.
By Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac and Kellen Browning
Nov. 18, 2022
“Elon Musk sent a flurry of emails to Twitter employees on Friday morning with a plea.
‘Anyone who actually writes software, please report to the 10th floor at 2 p.m. today,’ he wrote in a two-paragraph message, which was viewed by The New York Times. ‘Thanks, Elon.’
About 30 minutes later, Mr. Musk sent another email saying he wanted to learn about Twitter’s ‘tech stack,’ a term used to describe a company’s software and related systems. Then in another email, he asked some people to fly to Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco to meet in person.
Twitter is teetering on the edge as Mr. Musk remakes the company after buying it for $44 billion last month. The billionaire has pushed relentlessly to put his imprint on the social media service, slashing 50 percent of its work force, firing dissenters, pursuing new subscription products and delivering a harsh message that the company needs to shape up or it will face bankruptcy.
Now the question is whether Mr. Musk, 51, has gone too far. On Thursday, hundreds of Twitter employees resigned after Mr. Musk gave them a deadline to decide whether to leave or stay. So many workers chose to depart that Twitter users began questioning whether the site would survive, tweeting farewell messages to the service and turning hashtags like #TwitterMigration and #TwitterTakeover into trending topics.
Some internal estimates showed that at least 1,200 full-time employees resigned on Thursday, three people close to the company said. Twitter had 7,500 full-time employees at the end of October, which dropped to about 3,700 after mass layoffs this month.
The employee numbers are likely to remain fluid as the dust settles on the exits, with confusion abounding over who is keeping a tally of workers and running other workplace systems. Some employees who quit said they were separating themselves from the company by disconnecting from email and logging out of the internal messaging system Slack because human resources representatives were not available.
Mr. Musk and representatives for Twitter did not respond to requests for comment.
But the billionaire tweeted on Friday what he said would be changes to Twitter’s content policy. Hateful tweets will no longer be promoted algorithmically in users’ feeds, he said, but they will not be taken down. He also reinstated several previously banned accounts, including those of the comedian Kathy Griffin and the author Jordan Peterson, and posted a poll asking users to vote on whether Twitter should reinstate former President Donald J. Trump’s account.
Perhaps the most crucial question now is how Twitter can keep running after the giant reduction to its work force in such a short time. The effects of the cuts and resignations have played out across the company’s technology teams, people with knowledge of the matter said.” Read more at New York Times
Twitter hasn’t yet decided whether to reinstate Donald Trump’s account.
“Sharing new details of the company’s freedom of speech policies, owner Elon Musk said that negative and hate tweets wouldn’t be prominently shown—’freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach,’ he tweeted. The social-media site restored some suspended accounts, including for Kathy Griffin and the Babylon Bee, a satirical conservative news site. Meanwhile, Musk ordered software workers to report to headquarters, a day after mass resignations in response to his insistence that only ‘hardcore’ employees stick around. He said he would be at HQ today until midnight and back again tomorrow and suggested those based elsewhere fly to San Francisco.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
FIFA head says fans should be able to abstain at World Cup
By JENNA FRYER
“DOHA, Qatar (AP) — FIFA president Gianni Infantino downplayed Qatar’s last minute ban on the sale of beer at World Cup stadiums as nothing more than a brief inconvenience to spectators.
‘If this is the biggest problem we have, I’ll sign that (agreement),’ Infantino said Saturday, a day after the conservative Muslim emirate did an about-face on the deal it had made to secure the soccer tournament.
Infantino blamed ‘crowd flows’ in Doha for the decision, though it appeared to be a ruling by Qatar’s autocratic government to placate its conservative Wahhabi citizens who already have been angered by some events around the tournament they view as Western excesses.
Infantino said the beer ban at stadiums was made jointly by Qatar officials and FIFA.
‘We tried until the end to see whether it was possible,’ Infantino said of allowing alcohol sales. ‘If for 3 hours a day you cannot drink a beer, you will survive. Maybe there is a reason why in France, in Spain, in Scotland, alcohol is banned in stadiums. Maybe they are more intelligent us, having thought maybe we should be doing that.’
Spectators can drink alcoholic beer in the evenings in ‘the FIFA Fan Festival,’ a designated party area that also offers live music and activities. Qatar puts strict limits on the purchase and consumption of alcohol, though its sale has been permitted in hotel bars for years outside of the tournament-run areas.
The World Cup begins Sunday with an opening match between host country Qatar and Ecuador, and when Qatar made its pitch to host the tournament, the country agreed to FIFA’s requirements of selling alcohol in stadiums. The alcohol plans were only released 11 weeks before kickoff and then changed on Friday.
FIFA says non-alcoholic beer will still be sold at the eight stadiums, while champagne, wine, whiskey and other alcohol will be served in the luxury hospitality areas of the arenas.
Previous World Cup hosts have been asked to make concessions. For the 2014 tournament, Brazil was forced to change a law to allow alcohol sales in stadiums — but the same cultural issues were not at play.
AB InBev’s deal with FIFA was renewed in 2011, after Qatar was picked as host. However, the Belgium-based brewer has faced uncertainty in recent months on the exact details of where it can serve and sell beer in Qatar.” Read more at AP News
U.S. Backs Immunity for Saudi Leader in Lawsuit Over Khashoggi Murder
The State Department said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, should have legal immunity as the head of the Saudi government.
By Ben Hubbard and Edward Wong
Nov. 18, 2022
“ISTANBUL — The Biden administration has declared that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia should be granted immunity in a U.S. legal case over his role in the murder of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, effectively blocking yet another effort to hold the kingdom’s leader accountable for the grisly crime.
Mr. Khashoggi was a well-known Saudi journalist who fled Saudi Arabia for the United States and published columns in The Washington Post criticizing Prince Mohammed’s policies. In October 2018, he was killed and dismembered by a team of Saudi agents inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, where he had gone to obtain papers he needed to marry his Turkish fiancée. U.S. intelligence concluded that Prince Mohammed had ordered the operation.
Prince Mohammed, 37, became prime minister in September, formalizing the power he had wielded for years as Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, although his elderly father, King Salman, remains the official head of state.
In a letter to the Justice Department late Thursday, the State Department said Prince Mohammed should be ‘immune while in office’ as the head of the Saudi government, referring to his role as prime minister. Senior Democratic lawmakers sharply criticized the Biden administration’s action on Friday.
zDespite a visit there in July, President Biden himself has denounced Saudi Arabia, most recently for the kingdom’s move in October to cut oil production despite the fact that Russia’s war in Ukraine had led to soaring energy prices.
Prince Mohammed has said repeatedly that he had no prior knowledge of the plot against Mr. Khashoggi, but that he accepted symbolic responsibility for it as the nation’s de facto ruler.
The letter said the State Department did not take a position on the suit itself and reiterated ‘its unequivocal condemnation of the heinous murder’ of Mr. Khashoggi. But it asked the Justice Department to formally request that the federal court in Washington, where the case was filed, grant Prince Mohammed legal immunity.
The department was responding to a request by the judge, John D. Bates, for the U.S. government to weigh in on any issues related to the case, including ‘the applicability of head-of-state immunity,’ the letter said.” Read more at New York Times
House GOP pushes Hunter Biden probe despite thin majority
By COLLEEN LONG
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Even with their threadbare House majority, Republicans doubled down this week on using their new power next year to investigate the Biden administration and, in particular, the president’s son.
But the midterm results have emboldened a White House that has long prepared for this moment. Republicans secured much smaller margins than anticipated, and aides to President Joe Biden and other Democrats believe voters punished the GOP for its reliance on conspiracy theories and Donald Trump-fueled lies over the 2020 election.
They see it as validation for the administration’s playbook for the midterms and going forward to focus on legislative achievements and continue them, in contrast to Trump-aligned candidates whose complaints about the president’s son played to their most loyal supporters and were too far in the weeds for the average American. The Democrats retained control of the Senate and the GOP’s margin in the House is expected to the slimmest majority in two decades.
‘If you look back, we picked up seats in New York, New Jersey, California,’ said Mike DuHaime, a Republican strategist and public affairs executive. ‘These were not voters coming to the polls because they wanted Hunter Biden investigated — far from it. They were coming to the polls because they were upset about inflation. They’re upset about gas prices. They’re upset about what’s going on with the war in Ukraine.’
But House Republicans used their first news conference after clinching the majority to discuss presidential son Hunter Biden and the Justice Department, renewing long-held grievances about what they claim is a politicized law enforcement agency and a bombshell corruption case overlooked by Democrats and the media.
‘From their first press conference, these congressional Republicans made clear that they’re going to do one thing in this new Congress, which is investigations, and they’re doing this for political payback for Biden’s efforts on an agenda that helps working people,’ said Kyle Herrig, the founder of the Congressional Integrity Project, a newly relaunched, multimillion-dollar effort by Democratic strategists to counter the onslaught of House GOP probes.
Inside the White House, the counsel’s office added staff months ago and beefed up its communication efforts, and staff has been deep into researching and preparing for the attacks. They’ve worked to try to identify their own vulnerabilities and plan effective responses.
Rep. James Comer, incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said there are ‘troubling questions’ of the utmost importance about Hunter Biden’s business dealings and one of the president’s brothers, James Biden, that require deeper investigation.
‘Rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government is the primary mission of the Oversight Committee,’ said Comer, R-Ky. “As such, this investigation is a top priority.”
Republican legislators promised a trove of new information this past week, but what they have presented so far has been a condensed rehash of a few years’ worth of complaints about Hunter Biden’s business dealings, going back to conspiracy theories raised by Trump.” Read more at AP News
Hakeem Jeffries announces bid to succeed Nancy Pelosi
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“On Friday, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) announced a bid to succeed Nancy Pelosi as Democratic House leader.” (Vox) Read more at CBS News / Nikole Killion and Caroline Linton
“In a letter to his House colleagues, Jeffries promised to win back the majority, combat crime, and increase security for lawmakers amid recent political violence.” (Vox) Read more at CNN/ Alex Rogers, Daniella Diaz, and Manu Raju
“Jeffries, 52, represents Brooklyn and Queens and has served as Democratic caucus chair since 2018.” (Vox) Read more at USA Today / Rachel Looker
“Pelosi released a statement supporting Jeffries, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, and Pete Aguilar of California as the ‘next generation’ of House leadership.” (Vox) Read more at[Roll Call / Lindsey McPherson
“House Democrats hold leadership elections on November 30. If elected, Jeffries would be the first Black person to lead a party in Congress.” (Vox) Read more at Axios / Andrew Solender
Former Anti-Abortion Leader Alleges Another Supreme Court Breach
Years before the leaked draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, a landmark contraception ruling was disclosed, according to a minister who led a secretive effort to influence justices.
“As the Supreme Court investigates the extraordinary leak this spring of a draft opinion of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade, a former anti-abortion leader has come forward claiming that another breach occurred in a 2014 landmark case involving contraception and religious rights.
In a letter to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and in interviews with The New York Times, the Rev. Rob Schenck said he was told the outcome of the 2014 case weeks before it was announced. He used that information to prepare a public relations push, records show, and he said that at the last minute he tipped off the president of Hobby Lobby, the craft store chain owned by Christian evangelicals that was the winning party in the case.
Both court decisions were triumphs for conservatives and the religious right. Both majority opinions were written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. But the leak of the draft opinion overturning the constitutional right to abortion was disclosed in the news media by Politico, setting off a national uproar. With Hobby Lobby, according to Mr. Schenck, the outcome was shared with only a handful of advocates.
Mr. Schenck’s allegation creates an unusual, contentious situation: a minister who spent years at the center of the anti-abortion movement, now turned whistle-blower; a denial by a sitting justice; and an institution that shows little outward sign of getting to the bottom of the recent leak of the abortion ruling or of following up on Mr. Schenck’s allegation.
The evidence for Mr. Schenck’s account of the breach has gaps. But in months of examining Mr. Schenck’s claims, The Times found a trail of contemporaneous emails and conversations that strongly suggested he knew the outcome and the author of the Hobby Lobby decision before it was made public.
Mr. Schenck, who used to lead an evangelical nonprofit in Washington, said he learned about the Hobby Lobby opinion because he had worked for years to exploit the court’s permeability. He gained access through faith, through favors traded with gatekeepers and through wealthy donors to his organization, abortion opponents whom he called ‘stealth missionaries.’
The minister’s account comes at a time of rising concerns about the court’s legitimacy. A majority of Americans are losing confidence in the institution, polls show, and its approval ratings are at a historic low. Critics charge that the court has become increasingly politicized, especially as a new conservative supermajority holds sway.
In May, after the draft opinion in the abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, was leaked in what Justice Alito recently called ‘a grave betrayal,’ the chief justice took the unusual step of ordering an investigation by the Supreme Court’s marshal. Two months later, Mr. Schenck sent his letter to Chief Justice Roberts, saying he believed his information about the Hobby Lobby case was relevant to the inquiry. He said he has not gotten any response.” Read more at New York Times
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. with his wife, Martha-Ann. An evangelical minister said he learned of the ruling in the Hobby Lobby contraception case from a woman who dined with the couple. Credit...Alex Edelman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Sam Bankman-Fried cashed out $300 million while raising funds for FTX last year.
“The founder and former CEO told investors at the time that the payment was a partial reimbursement of money he’d spent to buy out rival Binance’s stake in FTX, according to people familiar with the transaction. The cashout was large by startup world standards; historically such sales are taboo because they allow founders to reap profits before investors. More information about the crypto exchange’s balance sheet is coming to light through its bankruptcy, including that it didn’t name the parties involved in related-party transactions. Bankman-Fried and several other former executives didn’t respond to requests for comment about related parties.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
U.S. home sales fell for the ninth straight month in October.
“Sales of previously owned homes dropped 5.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.43 million, the National Association of Realtors said. October sales fell 28.4% from a year earlier. The streak of declines is the longest on record. Higher mortgage rates driven by the Fed’s aggressive interest-rate increases are pushing buyers out of the market. U.S. stocks edged higher to end a tumultuous week. The S&P 500 gained 0.5%, the Nasdaq Composite less than 0.1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.6%.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
As More Top Law Schools Boycott Rankings, Others Say They Can’t Afford to Leave
Four schools joined Yale and Harvard’s rebellion against U.S. News. And the bar association will no longer require schools to mandate the LSAT or GRE. But rankings still matter.
By Anemona Hartocollis and Eliza Fawcett
Nov. 18, 2022
“For more than 30 years, roughly the same 14 law schools have been the most highly rated by U.S. News, fluctuating only slightly. The list has been so set in amber that people refer to it as the T14. Graduating from schools on this list can make a material difference in careers, from salary to Supreme Court clerkships.
Now there is a growing movement to no longer cooperate with the U.S. News & World Report rankings. At least four more members of the T14 — Stanford, Georgetown, Columbia and Berkeley — have joined Yale and Harvard’s move this week to withdraw and not submit their data for judgment.
Their concerns were about ethics, equity and mission. The rankings, with their focus on test scores, grades and employment, created a perverse incentive to downgrade public service law careers and to award merit aid rather than need-based aid, they said.
Their boycott is part of a broader movement to increase access to law school. On Friday, a panel of the American Bar Association voted to stop requiring accredited law schools to mandate the Law School Admission Test or Graduate Record Examination, making standardized testing optional for students applying in the fall of 2025. Critics say the tests hinder diversity, and the association’s decision comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is reconsidering affirmative action in higher education.” Read more at New York Times
Suspect in University of Virginia Shooting Had Guns in His Dorm Room, Report Says
Authorities found a semiautomatic rifle, a pistol and ammunition, according to a local newspaper.
“CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The suspect in the shooting deaths this week of three fellow University of Virginia students had a semiautomatic rifle, a pistol, ammunition and a device designed to increase a weapon’s rate of fire in his dorm room on campus, according to a police search warrant inventory obtained by The Daily Progress, a local newspaper.
A special agent with the Virginia State Police executed the search warrant on Monday just after 10 a.m., less than 12 hours after the shootings, according to The Daily Progress. Searching the room of the suspect, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., on the second floor of the Bice House dorm, an agent found a Ruger AR-556 semiautomatic rifle, a Smith & Wesson Model 39 pistol, a box of Winchester .223 ammunition, two Glock 9-millimeter magazines, a gun-cleaning kit and a Franklin Armory binary trigger, which is designed so that a gun will fire when a trigger is pulled and again when it is released, increasing the rate of fire.
Students are not permitted to have weapons on University of Virginia property except for under certain circumstances, such as official military or Reserve Officer Training Corps activities, according to the weapons policy on the university’s website.
As of Friday morning, the search warrant had been sealed by the Albemarle County Circuit Court. The district attorney’s office said it was not unusual for warrants to be sealed.
Mr. Jones has been charged with three counts of second-degree murder, two counts of malicious wounding and five counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony. He has not entered a plea. It remained unclear Friday who was representing Mr. Jones, and no representative could be reached on his behalf.
In September, Mr. Jones, a senior, had come to the university’s attention after another student reported that Mr. Jones had mentioned having a gun. The tipster had not actually seen Mr. Jones with a gun, officials said this week, and the university’s threat assessment team learned that Mr. Jones’s roommate had not seen a gun, either.
But while investigating the tip, university officials said they discovered that Mr. Jones had been convicted in 2021 of a misdemeanor concealed weapons charge and had not informed the university, violating campus policy.
Brian Coy, a university spokesman, said this week that on Oct. 26, after Mr. Jones ‘repeatedly refused to cooperate’ with the investigation, a representative for student affairs sent Mr. Jones sent an email warning him that his failure to report the conviction would be referred to the Student Judicial Council, the student-run body that handles discipline on campus. But for reasons that remain unclear, that referral was never made.
D’Sean Perry, Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis Jr., all members of the university’s football team, were killed in Sunday night’s shooting on a bus that had just returned from a class field trip to see a play in Washington. A fourth football player, Michael Hollins, was shot in the back and is currently in the hospital; according to his father, he is expected to make a full recovery. Another student, Marlee Morgan, was also injured in the attack. Mr. Jones was also on the trip.” Read more at New York Times
Four University of Idaho students were slain in their beds while they slept: What we know
“The murder investigation into four University of Idaho students believed to have been stabbed to death while sleeping in their beds has left residents rattled and authorities trying to unravel a mystery that's getting increasing attention across the country.
Sunday's crime has reverberated through the college town of Moscow, a city of about 26,000 people near the Idaho-Washington State border. Moscow hasn't had a murder in about five years.
The victims were stabbed to death in their beds and likely were asleep, Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt told NewsNation. Mabbutt would later tell CNN that she saw ‘lots of blood on the wall’ when she arrived at the scene.
‘It has to be somebody pretty angry in order to stab four people to death,’ Mabbutt told the cable news channel. The victims were stabbed in the chest and upper body, she said.
The coroner added that stab wounds on the hands of at least one victim appear to be defensive wounds and that there were no signs of sexual assault.
‘We're looking for additional tips and leads,’ said Aaron Snell, a spokesman for the Idaho State Police told CNN on Friday. ‘We believe that releasing information about the locations of the victims throughout the night might generate some information that we can follow up on.’” Read more at USA Today
“Polish Blast Puts Focus on Ukraine Need for Stronger Air Defense
The blast that killed two people in Poland near its eastern border put Ukraine’s air defenses under the spotlight as Kyiv’s allies face growing pressure to deliver more aid to fend off intensifying Russian attacks, Natalia Drozdiak and Marc Champion report.” Read more at Bloomberg
Investigators at the site of the rocket strike in Przewodow on the Polish-Ukrainian border on Wednesday. Source: Polish Police
“Living Next Door to Rising Seas: Portraits From Palau
Ocean issues are on the agenda at this year’s COP27, as is loss and damage, United Nations jargon for compensating developing nations for climate disasters. But as Todd Woody explains, most wealthy countries have thus far offered little to help island peoples survive climate-driven typhoons, heat waves and biodiversity loss.” Read more at Bloomberg
US Investors in Limbo as Portugal Weighs End of Golden Visa
Prime Minister Antonio Costa says country’s citizenship-for-investment program is ‘no longer justified.’
“US winemaker Laely Heron has been looking for years for a property investment in Portugal that will enable her to get a golden visa and travel freely across Europe, where she owns other businesses.
The 58-year-old transferred money to Portugal, found a local partner and even hired a lawyer to take care of the paperwork for the fast-track residence program. Earlier this year, Heron said she found the right property and returned to the US ready to go ahead with the deal.
‘I love Portugal. The food is great, the wine is great and the people are so cool,’ Heron, who has lived in six countries and owns wineries in California and southern France, said in an interview. ‘The golden visa is a win-win situation because I could travel freely in Europe and also contribute to Portuguese society.’
But Heron’s long-awaited plan may soon come crashing down.
Prime Minister Antonio Costa said this month that the golden visa, which offers citizenship to foreigners who invest as little as 350,000 euros ($363,000) in real estate, ‘is no longer justified.’ His government has since placed the program under review.
The initiative was conceived a decade ago as part of a government effort to fix Portugal’s public finances following a 2011 bailout from the European Union. Since then, the country has raised 6.6 billion euros, mostly from Chinese investors, according to the Portuguese Immigration and Borders Service.
While the Chinese remain Portugal's biggest golden visa investors over the years, Americans are poised to surpass them this year for the first time.
‘It’s just a slap in the face if they change this,’ said Heron, adding that she could invest somewhere else if Portugal scraps the program. ‘I’m just one person, but I also know other people that want to do something, that feel community-minded about Portugal. It’s a shame to take it away.’” Read more at Bloomberg
“What Qatar Built for the Most Expensive World Cup Ever
Discrimination against women and LGBTQ people, poor treatment of migrant laborers — controversy has trailed the 2022 football World Cup that kicks off Sunday ever since Qatar was chosen to host it. Yet Simone Foxman and Adveith Nair write that the tournament, on which the tiny gas-rich Middle East nation has spent $300 billion, could earn as much as $5.4 billion for sport's governing body FIFA.” Read more at Bloomberg
The Al Thumama stadium in Doha. Photographer: Hector Vivas /FIFA/Getty Images
“Dogs make everything better—even work. Firms in Japan have been allowing pups to accompany their humans to the office, based in part on a study in the journal Animals that found having pooches in the workplace leads to more well-being and job satisfaction. In Mexico, a Labrador named Frida who became a national hero for helping locate earthquake victims passed away at the age of 13.” Read more at Bloomberg
Frida Photographer: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP
The Numbers
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“The number of law schools, out of 82, undecided about continuing to require the LSAT, according to a new Kaplan Testing survey. An American Bar Association panel voted to make the standardized admissions test optional, amid debate about whether it helps or hurts student diversity.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
THE WEEK IN CULTURE
Terry Wyatt/Getty Images
“Taylor Swift blamed corporate partners for the chaos over her tour ticketing. The Justice Department is investigating the parent company of Ticketmaster, the firm behind the botched rollout.” Read more at New York Times
“The casting director Robert Sterne has helped turn ‘The Crown’ into a clearinghouse for some of Britain’s biggest stars.” Read more at New York Times
“Times reporters weighed the surprises and snubs of the Grammy nominations.” Read more at New York Times
“Bad Bunny amassed wins at the Latin Grammy Awards including best urban album for ‘Un Verano Sin Ti,’ the year’s most popular LP.” Read more at New York Times
“After 19 seasons, Ellen Pompeo is leaving ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ People reported.” Read more at New York Times
“A $100 million bet by Drake saved the long-lost art carnival Luna Luna.” Read more at New York Times
“Hollywood’s leading horror producers, Jason Blum and James Wan, are in talks to create a sprawling horror film factory.” Read more at New York Times
“To many people, Mariah Carey will probably stay queen of Christmas, but she won’t have the trademark, the BBC reported.” Read more at New York Times
“Kevin Spacey faces additional sexual assault charges in Britain.” Read more at New York Times
GAME OF THE WEEKEND
South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston.Gail Burton/Associated Press
“No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 2 Stanford, women’s college basketball:The best player in the country, Aliyah Boston, is back for South Carolina. Last season, Boston, a 6-foot-5 center, was nigh unstoppable, recording a double-double in 27 consecutive games and leading her team to a national championship. When The Athletic asked reporters to predict this season’s champion, South Carolina was the clear favorite. The only other team they picked? Stanford. ‘The Cardinal have the talent to match up overall, and the size to mitigate Aliyah Boston,’ wrote Brian Hamilton. 3 p.m. Eastern tomorrow on ABC.” Read more at New York Times
Robert Clary, Who Took a Tragic Journey to ‘Hogan’s Heroes,’ Dies at 96
After surviving concentration camps as a youth, he went on to star on the hit 1960s sitcom set in a German prisoner-of-war camp.
Nov. 17, 2022
“Robert Clary, a Parisian Jew who survived concentration camps as a youth and went on to star on ‘Hogan’s Heroes,’ the hit 1960s sitcom set in a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, died on Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., He was 96.
Brenda Hancock, a niece, confirmed the death.
The diminutive Mr. Clary was best known for his role on ‘Hogan’s Heroes,’ broadcast on CBS from 1965 to 1971, as Cpl. Louis LeBeau, a beret-wearing French prisoner in the fictional Stalag 13. LeBeau, who whipped up Gallic culinary delights in the barracks when not blowing up bridges, was a member of a camp-based band of wisecracking Allied saboteurs led by Bob Crane’s Col. Robert E. Hogan. Mr. Clary was the show’s last living star.
‘Hogan’s Heroes,’ which made its debut only 20 years after the end of the war, raised questions of taste, even in the often absurdist context of 1960s sitcoms. But few viewers at the time were aware that the show, which lampooned German soldiers and SS officers as bumbling, vainglorious buffoons, starred several actors of Jewish heritage who had experienced Nazism firsthand.
They included Werner Klemperer, who played the pusillanimous camp commandant, Col. Klink, and who was the son of the renowned orchestra conductor Otto Klemperer; his family fled Berlin for Los Angeles when Mr. Klemperer was 13 to escape persecution. John Banner, who played the doltish Sgt. Schultz, fled his home country, Austria, after Germany annexed it in 1938.
But no one involved in the show had a more searing memory of Nazi atrocities than Mr. Clary, who spent nearly three years in German concentration camps during his teens and lost 10 of his 13 siblings, as well as his parents, in the Holocaust.
After he was deported to Ottmuth, a concentration camp in Upper Silesia, and eventually to Buchenwald, what helped him survive, he later said, was his skill as an entertainer; he would perform song-and-dance routines for other prisoners, and often for SS guards as well.” Read more at New York Times