The Full Belmonte, 11/21/2022
Jason Connolly/AFP via Getty Images
“A gunman killed five people and injured at least 25 others at an LGBTQ nightclub late Saturday in Colorado Springs, Colo. The 22-year-old suspect was taken into custody shortly after police arrived on the scene, and they're still trying to determine his motive. Here's what we know so far.
Police are investigating to determine whether the shooter can be charged with a hate crime. Here's what that means under Colorado law.
The shooting occurred on the eve of Transgender Remembrance Day. It's the deadliest attack on LGBTQ people in the U.S. since the Pulse shooting in 2016, and LGBTQ advocates say its the latest tragedy in a year that has felt particularly bleak.
Authorities are praising two ‘heroic’ patrons at the club, who they say grabbed a gun from the shooter and hit him with it.” Read more at NPR
“The suspect has a history of violence: Police confirmed he was arrested in June 2021 after a standoff at a home where his mother lived. During that incident, he reportedly made a bomb threat and other threats of violence. The shooting has shaken the area’s LGBTQ community. According to residents, Club Q was ‘a second home full of chosen family’ for the LGBTQ community in Colorado Springs, the state’s second-largest city. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, the nation’s first openly gay governor, called the attack ‘horrific, sickening and devastating.’ President Biden responded to the tragedy with calls for gun reform and a plea to end LGBTQ hate.” Read more at CNN
Club Q shooting follows year of bomb threats, drag protests, anti-trans bills
Right-wing demonstrators have increasingly mobilized over the past year against the LGBTQ community, experts say
“In the hours after the shooting, investigators did not say what led someone to open fire Saturday night in a Colorado gay bar, killing at least five people and injuring 25 others. But LGBTQ advocates across the country believe a surge of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and laws is at least partially to blame.
‘When politicians and pundits keep perpetuating tropes, insults, and misinformation about the trans and LGBTQ+ community, this is a result,’ Colorado Rep. Brianna Titone (D) tweeted Sunday.
Titone, Colorado’s first openly trans legislator, and the chair of the state’s LGBTQ legislative caucus, said anti-LGBTQ lawmakers, including one of her colleagues, have used hateful rhetoric to directly incite attacks against LGBTQ people.
Though the most recent FBI data shows the number of hate crimes against LGBTQ people remained relatively flat between 2008 and 2020, an independent analysis by the research group Crowd Counting Consortium shows that right-wing demonstrators have increasingly mobilized over the past year against the LGBTQ community.” Read more at Washington Post
Congress
“House Republicans are planning next year’s leadership after winning control of the chamber in the midterm elections. Current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is poised to take over as Speaker of the House next year after winning a vote from his Republican colleagues, but some notable GOP members want a change. GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger lambasted McCarthy on Sunday, saying he doesn’t think McCarthy will last long as speaker and will have to cut deals that will divide the Republican majority. Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Comer of Kentucky, who will likely be the next chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said the chamber’s investigation into classified documents found at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate ‘will not be a priority’ once he’s at the helm.” Read more at CNN
Climate
“The COP27 UN Climate Summit in Egypt ended with a historic resolution to help climate victims but fell short of curtailing fossil fuel usage. Negotiators from nearly 200 countries agreed to set up a ‘loss and damage’ fund meant to help vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters. They also agreed the global community needs to cut greenhouse gas emissions nearly in half by 2030. However, an attempt to address fossil fuels -- the biggest source of the planet-warming emissions that are causing the climate crisis -- was stonewalled by a number of nations, including China and Saudi Arabia. Without their support, a key proposal to phase out all fossil fuels failed. There is a little more good news, though. The US and China, the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters, have resumed formal climate talks after the latter froze negotiations this summer.
Hollywood stunner
Disney CEO Bob Iger speaks at the unveiling of the Minnie Mouse star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2018. Photo: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
“Last night's sudden replacement of Disney CEO Bob Chapek with his revered predecessor, Bob Iger, is a shocking ending to a bitter power struggle that's been building between the two for the past couple of years.
Why it matters: The move marks one of the messiest corporate succession failures in recent memory, Axios' Sara Fischer writes.
What to watch: The return of Iger, 71, may satisfy anxious investors. But eventually, Disney will need to find another CEO to run the company.
In a statement at 9:49 p.m. ET, Disney said Iger will return as chief executive, effective immediately, for the next two years — and will work with the board to find a successor.
Susan Arnold, Disney's board chair, said: ‘The Board has concluded that as Disney embarks on an increasingly complex period of industry transformation, Bob Iger is uniquely situated to lead the Company through this pivotal period.’
Disney's board voted unanimously in June to extend Chapek's contract for three years.
The big picture: The announcement sent shockwaves through Hollywood and Wall Street — and was immediately lauded by investors who've grown frustrated with Disney's performance under Chapek.
Disney's stock saw its biggest drop in 21 years earlier this month, after the company missed Wall Street expectations on revenues and profits for its final fiscal quarter of the year.
Amid recession fears, investors have grown skeptical that Disney's linear television and parks divisions can offset widening streaming losses.
Last week, Chapek announced layoffs, a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting measures. Similar efforts are underway at rival entertainment companies.
The intrigue: Tensions between Iger and Chapek ignited on April 12, 2020 — just two months after Iger stepped down — when The New York Times posted a column by Ben Smith revealing that the veteran media mogul wanted to reassert control of the company.
The column took Chapek by surprise.
The falling-out between the two executives, which has been widely reported, became evident as Iger hesitated to publicly defend Chapek's early blunders.
Chapek had been a surprising pick, given that the longtime parks and resorts executive had little to do with Disney's biggest bet under Iger — streaming.” Read more at Axios
Amy Coney Barrett urged to step away from gay rights case because of faith affiliation
The US supreme court justice’s history with the People of Praise raises questions about her impartiality in upcoming case
“Former members of Amy Coney Barrett’s secretive faith group, the People of Praise, are calling on the US supreme court justice to recuse herself from an upcoming case involving gay rights, saying Barrett’s continued affiliation with the Christian group means she has participated in discriminatory policies against LGBTQ+ people.
The former members are part of a network of ‘survivors’ of the controversial charismatic group who say Barrett’s ‘lifelong and continued’ membership in the People of Praise make her too biased to fairly adjudicate an upcoming case that will decide whether private business owners have a right to decline services to potential clients based on their sexual orientation.
They point to Barrett’s former role on the board of Trinity Schools Inc, a private group of Christian schools that is affiliated with the People of Praise and, in effect, barred admission to children of same-sex parents from attending the school.
A faculty guide published in 2015, the year Barrett joined the board, said ‘blatant sexual immorality’ – which the guide said included ‘homosexual acts’ – had ‘no place in the culture of Trinity Schools’. The discriminatory policies were in place before and after Barrett joined.
The schools’ attitude, the former People of Praise members said, reflect the Christian group’s staunchly anti-gay beliefs and adherence to traditional family values, including – they say – expelling or ostracizing members of the People of Praise ‘community’ who came out as gay later in life or their gay children.
‘I don’t believe that someone in her position, who is a member of this group, could put those biases aside, especially in a decision like the one coming up,’ said Maura Sullivan, a 46-year-old who was raised in the People of Praise community in South Bend, Indiana. Sullivan identifies as bisexual and recalls coming out to her parents, who were members of the People of Praise, when she was 19.
‘They decided that I wasn’t allowed to be around my sister, who was 13 at the time, without them around, because I could ‘influence’ her in bad ways. Stuff like that. So I had a tenuous relationship with my family,’ she said. ‘To be cut off from my family was the ultimate loss of community.’ Sullivan and her parents, who are no longer members of the faith group, have since repaired their relationship, she said.
Questions about the People of Praise’s attitude toward LGBTQ+ members and their families, and Trinity Schools’ policies, have resurfaced because the supreme court will hear oral arguments on 5 December in the case of 303 Creative LLC v Elenis.
It centers on a Christian website developer, Lori Smith, who has claimed an anti-discrimination law in Colorado has violated her right to free speech over same-sex marriage, which she says goes against her religious faith. Smith has said the Colorado law has forced her to ‘create messages that go against my deeply held beliefs’ since she cannot legally turn away gay couples seeking her website services.
Barrett said in her confirmation hearing that her personal religious beliefs would not interfere with her abilities to be an unbiased judge. Conservatives have also lashed out against any suggestion that her affiliation with a Christian sect could compromise her independence.
But some former members of the faith group say they see a big difference between judges who have faith and are religious, and Barrett’s affiliation with the People of Praise, a tight-knit community whose members agree to a lifelong covenant of loyalty to one another.
Like other charismatic Christian groups that were established in the 1970s, People of Praise members attend regular meetings, are encouraged to live communally, practice speaking in tongues and adhere to guidelines set by male leaders, or heads of a community.” Read more at The Guardian
Elon Musk rules out conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s return to Twitter
Twitter boss says he has ‘no mercy’ for those who capitalise on deaths of children, citing loss of son in 2002
“Elon Musk has said he will not reinstate the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Twitter, saying he has ‘no mercy’ for people who capitalise on the deaths of children for personal fame.
Twitter permanently suspended the accounts of Jones and his Infowars website in September 2018 for violating the platform’s abusive behaviour policy.
Jones, 48, gained notoriety for pushing a false conspiracy theory about the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in 2012, which led to harassment of parents who lost their children in the massacre. Jones has been ordered by a US court to pay more than $1.4bn (£1.2bn) to people who suffered from his false claim that the shooting, in which 20 children and six educators died, was a hoax.
Musk appeared to rule out a return for Jones in an interaction with Twitter users on Monday. The author and podcaster Sam Harris asked Twitter’s new owner if it was ‘time to let Alex Jones back on Twitter’ and ‘if not, why not?”. Kim Dotcom, the internet entrepreneur, also asked if Jones could be reinstated in the interest of “real free speech”.
Musk replied that he had lost a child – to sudden infant death syndrome in 2002 – and said Jones used the death of children to push his own agenda. He tweeted: ‘My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat. I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.’
Musk has started reinstating previously banned accounts on the platform and lifted the permanent suspension on the account of the former US president Donald Trump on Sunday after conducting a Twitter poll. The Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson has also been reinstated, along with the British-US former kickboxer Andrew Tate, who had previously been banned for citing extreme misogynistic views.
On Sunday, the US rapper Ye – formerly Kanye West – tweeted the Hebrew greeting shalom, having been allowed access to his account six weeks after it was locked after the announced that he was going ‘death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE’.
Before the wave of reinstatements in recent days, Musk had said there would be no change to the status of banned accounts until a newly announced ‘content moderation council’ had met. He had later added that no bans would be lifted until there was ‘a clear process for doing so’.
However, Musk announced at the weekend that he would reinstate Trump after hosting a poll on his own account in which a slim majority of users called for the ban to be lifted. As of Monday morning, Trump’s live account had more than 87 million followers – close to its pre-ban peak – but he had not tweeted on it, having said at the weekend that he didn’t see ‘any reason’ for returning to the platform.
Leading advertisers have paused spending on Twitter owing to concerns about moderation standards on the platform after Musk’s $44bn takeover last month.
Their concerns have been compounded by a wave of fake ‘verified’ accounts after Musk offered a blue tick to users – which verifies who they are – for $7.99 a month as part of a relaunch of Twitter’s premium service, which has since been halted. The pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly was among the businesses hit by hoax accounts after the changes to the Twitter Blue service.” Read more at The Guardian
Politics
“Lawmakers have renewed calls for accountability of Supreme Court justices after allegations that a 2014 contraception decision was leaked.” Read more at New York Times
“The government of Oman partnered with Donald Trump and his family in a real estate deal, intensifying conflict-of-interest questions as he campaigns for president.” Read more at New York Times
“Nearly a dozen possible rivals to Trump tested their messages in Las Vegas, raising Republican concerns of a divided field.” Read more at New York Times
World Cup 2022: England, Wales & other European nations will not wear OneLove armbands
“England, Wales and other European nations will not wear the OneLove armband at the World Cup in Qatar because of the threat of players being booked.
The captains, including England's Harry Kane and Gareth Bale of Wales, had planned to wear the armband during matches to promote diversity and inclusion.
A joint statement from seven football associations said they could not put their players ‘in a position where they could face sporting sanctions’.
‘We are very frustrated by the Fifa decision, which we believe is unprecedented,’ the statement read.
The governing bodies - England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland - said they had written to Fifa in September informing them about the OneLove armband but not received a response.
‘Fifa has been very clear that it will impose sporting sanctions if our captains wear the armbands on the field of play,’ the statement added.
‘We were prepared to pay fines that would normally apply to breaches of kit regulations and had a strong commitment to wearing the armband.
However, we cannot put our players in the situation where they might be booked, or even forced to leave the field of play.’” Read more at BBC
Indonesia: Java quake kills 56 and injures hundreds
By Tessa Wong & Simon Fraser
BBC News
“An earthquake has struck the main Indonesian island of Java, leaving at least 56 people dead and hundreds injured, local officials say.
The 5.6 magnitude quake struck Cianjur town in West Java, at a shallow depth of 10km (six miles), according to US Geological Survey data.
Videos on social media showed some buildings reduced almost entirely to rubble and debris strewn on streets.
Officials warn of possible aftershocks and say the death toll could rise.” Read more at BBC
Cold and dark: Kyiv readies for ‘worst winter of our lives’
By YURAS KARMANAU and JOHN LEICESTER
“KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — When the power is out, as it so often is, the high-rise apartment overlooking Ukraine’s war-torn capital feels like a deathtrap. No lights, no water, no way to cook food. And the risk of not being able to escape from the 21st floor in time should a Russian missile strike. Even when electricity comes back, it’s never on for long.
‘Russian strikes are plunging Ukraine into the Stone Age,’ says Anastasia Pyrozhenko. In a recent 24-hour spell, her 26-story high-rise only had power for half an hour. She says the ‘military living conditions’ have driven her and her husband from their apartment.
‘Our building is the highest in the area and is a great target for Russian missiles, so we left our apartment for our parents’ place and are preparing for the worst winter of our lives,’ said the 25-year-old.
The situation in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and other major cities has deteriorated drastically following the largest missile attack on the country’s power grid on Tuesday. Ukrainian state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo reported that 40% of Ukrainians were experiencing difficulties, due to damage to at least 15 major energy hubs across the country.” Read more at AP News
New Zealand Supreme Court rules voting age of 18 is discriminatory
By Alys Davies
BBC News
“New Zealand's Supreme Court has ruled that the country's current voting age of 18 is discriminatory, meaning parliament must discuss whether it should be lowered.
The case was brought by campaign group Make It 16, which wants the voting age reduced to include 16 and 17 year olds.
‘This is history,’ Make It 16 co-director Caeden Tipler said.
The group argued that young people should be able to vote on matters affecting them, such as climate change.
The issue must now be brought to parliament, after the court ruled that New Zealand's minimum voting age of 18 was inconsistent with the country's Bill of Rights - which gives people who are 16 years and over the right to be free from age discrimination.
The ruling does not mean that the voting age will definitely be lowered.
Reacting to the ruling, Make It 16's Caeden Tipler told the BBC the campaign had been an ‘up-hill battle’ but they had always felt ‘confident’ that the Supreme Court would support their case.
‘We now have the legal backing for what we've always known,’ they said.
The 17-year-old from Auckland said they had felt frustrated at not being able to vote on issues that mattered to them in the last election in 2020.
‘I became incredibly frustrated. I felt like I knew just as much as the adults around me... I was more than capable of voting,’ they said.
Following the ruling, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she personally supported reducing the voting age to 16, but added that ‘it is not a matter simply for me or even the government, any change in electoral law of this nature requires 75% of parliamentarian support’.
Not all parties support the lowering of the voting age.
The centre-right National party opposes the move, while the Labour party is yet to state whether it would support a change in voting age or not.” Read more at BBC
The largest war in the world: Hundreds of thousands killed in Ethiopia's Tigray conflict
“No working ambulances for a population of more than 5.5 million. Hundreds of thousands killed by fighting and famine. A near-total military siege that has all but cut off essential supplies. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has preoccupied U.S. and international policymakers and military planners since early 2022. But there is another, bigger and deadlier conflict in which over the past two years the abject horrors of the war have been all but hidden to the West because of a combination of a border blockade, a communications blackout, complex regional dynamics and few visible sustained signs of meaningful engagement from Western capitals. This conflict, a civil war, is being fought in Tigray, an ancient kingdom in northern Ethiopia, on the Horn of Africa.” Read more at USA Today
Members of the Ethiopian National Defense Force hold national flags as they parade during a ceremony to remember those soldiers who died on the first day of the Tigray conflict, outside the city administration office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nov. 3, 2022.AP
Hospitals across the country are overwhelmed.
“Why? A swarm of respiratory illnesses (RSV, coronavirus and flu), staffing shortages, and nursing home closures are combining to strain an already overburdened health-care system.
What this means: Patients are waiting hours to be seen, and some hospitals have set up overflow tents and are postponing elective procedures.” Read more at Washington Post
Companies expect activist onslaught
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
“A new proxy-card format for electing corporate directors — combined with sinking stock prices — are emboldening shareholder activists, The Wall Street Journal's Lauren Thomas reports (subscription).
Why it matters: Activists increasingly are ‘pressuring companies to up their game on environmental, social and governance, or ESG, issues.’
What's happening: Companies are feeling vulnerable because of new SEC rules requiring a ‘universal ballot’ in corporate-director elections, The Journal reports.
‘In the new format, directors nominated by a company must be listed on the same ballot as those put forth by activists, enabling investors to pick and choose, rather than voting entirely with either the company or the activist.’
The bottom line: This proxy season could be the busiest on record — with better chances than ever for activists to gain a board seat.” Read more at Axios
November 21, 2022
By Eric Lipton
Good morning. The fastest expansion of legalized gambling in U.S. history has upended the sports landscape.
Lobbyists kept tabs on sports betting legislation in Kansas in April.Amir Hamja for The New York Times
A boom
“Four years ago, betting on live sports was illegal in most of the United States. Now, fans watching games or attending them at stadiums are barraged with advertisements encouraging them to bet on matchups, not just watch as spectators.
This transformation in sports betting started nearly a decade ago, at first with the explosion of wagering on fantasy sports. Then in 2018, the Supreme Court cleared the way for states to legalize wagers on live games. Today, 31 states and Washington, D.C., permit sports gambling either online or in person, and five more states have passed laws that will allow such betting in the future. Professional sports in the U.S. now are part of a multibillion-dollar corporate gambling enterprise.
This shift represents the largest expansion of gambling in United States history. Several of my Times colleagues and I spent months investigating how the industry expanded, and today I want to highlight some of our findings.
Unmet promises
Once sports betting was more broadly legalized, casinos teamed up with sports betting platforms like FanDuel and DraftKings, along with the major professional sports teams, to go state by state to push lawmakers to embrace it. Part of their tool kit for persuasion? Millions of dollars in contributions from the sports betting companies and their allies to those lawmakers’ campaigns for office.
We found that gambling industry representatives had told legislators they could expect to see significant tax benefits from sports betting. In many states, that windfall has fallen short.
Take Michigan, home to the Detroit Tigers, Lions, Red Wings and Pistons professional teams, along with another two dozen college athletics N.C.A.A. programs — in short, a whole lot of sports to bet on. Online sports betting started in that state in January 2021, and the American Gaming Association predicted that state legislators could expect to see more than $40 million a year in tax revenues. What has Michigan collected in the last year? Just $21 million in state and local taxes, according to the Michigan Gaming Control Board.
The gambling industry also pressed states to keep tax rates low on sports betting, warning that if the states pushed rates too high, sports fans would turn to the black market to place bets on unregulated sites. Those warnings were misplaced. Some states, including New York and New Hampshire, ignored the industry’s advice and installed the highest tax rates on betting. They have seen bets placed at a higher rate per capita than many low-tax states. New York has seen so much betting — even with a high tax rate of 51 percent — that the state has collected an extraordinary $546 million in taxes in the first 10 months of this year. That amount is half of all the state tax revenues on sports betting nationwide.
Little oversight
Many of the states also allowed the gambling industry to give out hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of tax-free bets to gamblers, essentially marketing the industry. The promotions are intended to entice new customers to form a new habit: placing wagers on games. It is the modern-day equivalent of the free bus ride to Atlantic City casinos with a roll of quarters thrown in for the slots. Arizona sports betting operators alone gave out $205 million in free bets. But for states, the result was large shortfalls in expected tax revenues in places like Michigan and Virginia. Some, Virginia included, moved to curtail the tax-free bets.
The promotions were one example of how regulators were outmatched in trying to oversee the industry as it grew so rapidly. Rule enforcement was scattershot, punishments were light or rare, and regulators often looked to the gambling industry to police itself.
One casino company, Penn Entertainment, teamed up with David Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, who has a history of misogynistic and racist behavior, turning him into a public spokesman for sports betting.
University involvement
To market their expansion of sports betting, gambling sites reached unusual agreements with at least eight universities, including Michigan State, the University of Colorado at Boulder and Louisiana State University. The schools became partners with the companies in exchange for millions of dollars in payments. These deals generated questions about whether promoting gambling on campus — especially to people who are at an age when they are vulnerable to developing gambling disorders — fits the mission of higher education.
More to come
At least $161 billion in wagers have been placed since sports betting was broadly legalized in the United States. This explosion of gambling is just the start. Betting companies have made clear that the ultimate goal is to bring so-called iGaming to states across the nation, where customers can use their mobile phones to play blackjack, poker and other casino-style games.” Read more at New York Times
The Times investigation
“Gambling lobbyists plied lawmakers with cigars and alcohol.” Read more at New York Times
“States have required few consumer protections and often turned to the industry to help shape regulations.” Read more at New York Times
“Louisiana State University encouraged students to gamble, including those under 21.” Read more at New York Times
Desperate for growth, Penn Entertainment enlisted Portnoy, a self-described ‘degenerate gambler,’ to help.” Read more at New York Times
WORLD CUP
Fans at the World Cup’s opening game.Tasneem Alsultan for The New York Times
“The host’s opening loss: Qatar stepped onto the world stage with an elaborate opening ceremony, then immediately stumbled as its national team lost to Ecuador, 2-0.
Today’s matches: England will rely on an experienced squad to take on Iran at 8 a.m. Eastern. The Netherlands against Senegal follows at 11 a.m. and the U.S. plays Wales at 2 p.m.
The U.S. captain: Tyler Adams, 23, possesses an intense nature shaped by family games like an egg-and-spoon relay that devolved into shouting.
Pronunciation: You’re probably saying Qatar wrong.” Read more at New York Times
A historical mystery, solved
“Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address lasted two minutes, so brief that the photographers in attendance missed the moment. Because of that, experts have never been sure about where, exactly, he delivered the speech. Now a former Disney animator and self-described ‘Lincoln freak’ says he has solved the mystery.
The sleuth, Christopher Oakley, analyzed other photographs from the day to triangulate the photographers’ positions, then merged them with 3-D modeling software. After years of research, he presented his findings last week to the Lincoln Forum, a gathering of scholars and enthusiasts, and received a standing ovation.
Harold Holzer, the forum’s chairman, called Oakley’s work ‘ingenious.’ For enthusiasts, he said, discovering the exact location ‘is as crucial as discovering where Moses got the Ten Commandments.’” Read more at New York Times
“Lives Lived: Jason David Frank played the Green Ranger and later the White Ranger on the 1990s children’s television show ‘The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.’ He died at 49.”
Jason David Frank waves to the crowd as he makes his way down Peachtree Street in the annual DragonCon parade through downtown Atlanta, Georgia, on Aug. 31, 2013.
Jonathan Phillips—Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP