The Full Belmonte, 11/22/2022
Police have identified victims of the Colorado LGBTQ night club shooting.
“Who were they? Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Derrick Rump and Ashley Paugh — two of whom were transgender — were killed Saturday night in Colorado Springs.
The latest: The 22-year-old suspect was charged with murder and hate crimes yesterday. He had a troubled past hidden by a name change as a teen.
What else to know: An Army veteran helped tackle the gunman and stop the rampage.” Read at Washington Post
Richard Fierro subdued the gunman at Club Q.Daniel Brenner for The New York Times
“A decorated former Army major says instinct took over when he helped disarm a man police say went on a murderous rampage inside an LGBTQ nightclub, killing five people and wounding 25. ‘I wasn't thinking,’ said Rich Fierro to a group of reporters Monday night. ‘I just ran over there, got him ... He ended up killing my daughter's boyfriend.’ Fierro is one of two men police are crediting with saving lives by subduing a 22-year-old gunman who opened fire Saturday night at Club Q. Fierro said that he and another young man pinned the shooter, later identified as Anderson Lee Aldrich, stripping a pistol and a rifle away from him before beginning to beat Aldrich. The other man who tackled the shooter was later identified as Thomas James.” Read more at USA Today
People visit a makeshift memorial near the Club Q nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado.Scott Olson, Getty Images
A devastating earthquake hit Indonesia yesterday.
“What to know: At least 268 people died, officials said today. The 5.6-magnitude quake was felt in Jakarta, the capital city, but hit hardest in a region dozens of miles away.
Indonesia frequently gets earthquakes, but this would be the deadliest this year. It’s also monsoon season, when the country tends to be hit by dangerous natural disasters.”Read more at Washington Post
A man walks past a house damaged by an earthquake in Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia, Monday, Nov. 21, 2022. The strong, shallow earthquake toppled buildings and collapsed walls on Indonesia's densely populated main island of Java on Monday, killing a number of people and injuring hundreds as people rushed into the streets, some covered in blood and white debris.Rangga Firmansyah, AP
Rail strike
“The US could face a crippling national freight rail strike soon after rank-and-file members of the nation’s largest rail union rejected a tentative labor deal with freight railroads. There are 12 unions that represent various types of rail workers in the US, and this particular union represents the industry’s conductors. All 12 unions have now made decisions on new contracts, with a total of four unions voting against their contracts. Now, the dissenting unions will remain on the job until at least early next month as negotiations continue to stave off a strike. If even a single union decides to strike, the others will honor picket lines, shutting down the railroads. If the strike were to continue for some time, it would be devastating for American supply chains and consumer costs. (About 30% of US freight moves by rail.) If things get really bad, Congress could intervene.” Read more at CNN
“Laid-off employees at Twitter’s Africa headquarters are now accusing the company of discrimination and intimidation. The team, which is based in Accra, Ghana, has hired a lawyer and sent a letter demanding Twitter comply with the West African nation’s labor laws. Those laws indicate they should be provided with additional severance pay and other relevant benefits, in line with what Twitter employees in other regions will receive after massive layoffs at the company earlier this month. Several of the employees also moved to Ghana for the job, and are now demanding assistance with repatriation. Meanwhile, Elon Musk says Twitter is ‘holding off’ restarting its paid verification plan after the initial rollout resulted in a swarm of accounts impersonating brands and public figures.” Read more at CNN
“Broken promises | US civil rights leaders are urging major advertisers to stay away from Twitter after Elon Musk reinstated former President Donald Trump over the weekend. They say the company’s new billionaire owner broke promises he made to them about hate speech and misinformation and setting up a “content moderation council” before he decided to reinstate controversial accounts.” Read more at Bloomberg
Twitter's slow burn
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
#RIPTwitter and #TwitterDown trended in the U.S. last week, as waves of layoffs and departures led users to fear a sudden crash.
But it's far more likely that the social network will face a rising tide of glitches, delays and decay as small breakdowns pile up, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer reports.
The breakdowns so far aren't in the core functions of Twitter — posting and reading messages — but around the edges:
Copyright: Twitter's automated copyright takedown system failed, Forbes reported, allowing users to upload chunks of copyrighted movies that remained online for hours before getting taken down.
Hacked accounts: Users reporting hacked accounts say Twitter has been slow to respond with solutions to recoup their profiles.
Security: Some users reported problems trying to generate two-factor authentication codes via SMS text messages.
Advertisers have immediate concerns:
Ad-agency execs tell Axios that Musk's decision to reinstate former President Trump will cause some clients to pull Twitter campaigns.
With more senior sales executives quitting, advertisers tell Axios it's become difficult to understand who at Twitter to consult about optimizing their campaigns, or even pausing them.
What we're hearing: One former staffer said Musk's mass layoffs impacted around 90% of the product and engineering ‘health’ team that's responsible for helping content moderators review reports of abuse.
Of the 560 people in that group, around 60 remained last week, the source said. The team was building a system to help Twitter to respond to reports faster.
Reality check: Musk doesn't sound worried. He continues to boast that Twitter is seeing higher usage under his ownership — and he's mocking brands and users who are fretting about the return of Trump's account.” Read more at Axios
“Twitter’s head of operations in France announced his departure in a tweet on Sunday ahead of additional firings by Elon Musk, who has reportedly terminated more than half of the company. Damien Viel, who confirmed his departure in a separate message to Bloomberg, had led the region for about seven years.” Read more at Bloomberg
Ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, left, and Twitter France managing director Damien Viel leaving the Elysee Palace in Paris in 2019. Photographer: Dominique Faget/AFP
Alabama Suspends Executions After Lethal Injection Problems
Gov. Kay Ivey ordered a temporary stop to all executions after prison officials could not access the veins of two prisoners.
Nov. 21, 2022
“Alabama’s governor issued a sweeping order on Monday suspending all executions in the state and calling for a review of Alabama’s execution process following a series of problems delivering lethal injection drugs this year.
The move by Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, comes four days after prison officials said they had been unable to insert one of two intravenous lines into Kenneth Eugene Smith before his death warrant expired at midnight. That episode was the third time this year in which Alabama executioners failed to reach a death row prisoner’s veins and the second time in less than two months that the problems forced the state to call off an execution.” Read more at New York Times
Elections
“The results of the midterm elections are still reverberating through several states. In Georgia, voters are preparing for a December Senate runoff between incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker. An appeals court has ruled the state can offer early voting the Saturday after Thanksgiving, rejecting a plea from state election officials who say that particular early voting date violates state law because it follows a shortened holiday week. State Democrats are hailing the decision as a win for voters. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge to Texas state legislative maps that critics say intentionally dilute minority voting power and result in an illegal racial gerrymander.” Read more at CNN
“Representative David Valadao won re-election, becoming only the second House Republican who voted to impeach Trump to remain in Congress.” Read more at New York Times
Flags in Kyiv commemorating Ukrainians killed in the war.Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times
“Ukraine is on the offensive along most of the 600-mile front line, but Russia still occupies about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.” Read more at New York Times
Iran
“People detained by Iranian security forces during the country’s ongoing protests have told CNN in harrowing detail about multiple instances of sexual assault and intimidation while in custody. In recent weeks, social media videos have emerged allegedly showing Iranian security forces sexually assaulting female demonstrators on the streets. Reports of sexual violence against activists in prisons have also surfaced. CNN’s reporting corroborated these accounts and uncovered many more. In some of the cases, the assault was filmed and used to blackmail the protesters into silence, according to sources who spoke to the victims. Read the victims’ stories here. As unrest continues in the country, members of Iran’s soccer team remained silent as the Iranian national anthem played at the World Cup before their match against England Monday. The gesture appeared to show solidarity with protesters back home.” Read more at CNN
“For years now, discussion of the negative impact of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union has been taboo.
Governing Conservatives, most notably Brexit booster-in-chief Boris Johnson, insisted it was time to move on, and that the benefits of ‘taking back control’ were only just around the corner waiting to be plucked and savored.
Key reading:
Sunak’s Britain Is Starting to Have Second Thoughts About Brexit
UK Won’t Align With EU Laws in Post-Brexit Relationship, Sunak Says
UK’s Cleverly Says Still ‘Big Gaps’ With EU Over Brexit Deal
London Loses Crown of Biggest European Stock Market to Paris
That kind of wishful thinking has evaporated along with the UK’s economic fortunes.
The government’s announcement of some £55 billion ($65 billion) of spending cuts and tax increases in last week’s budget was a wake-up call, and discussion of Brexit has suddenly returned.
A weekend report that senior figures in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government are seeking a closer trade relationship with the EU sparked an angry reaction from Brexit hardliners who oppose any dilution of the UK’s regulatory freedoms. That prompted Sunak to deny any such plans.
Suspicion settled on Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, who favors deeper trading ties with the bloc of 450 million people on the UK’s doorstep.
That position appears to be in line with shifting public sentiment, with polls showing that six years after the referendum, a majority of voters, especially the young, now believe Brexit was a mistake.
None of which means it’s about to be reversed any time soon: Sunak, his government and party remain fervent Brexiters, the opposition has no plans to rejoin the bloc, and the EU is in no mood to grant the UK concessions anyway.
Yet the collective amnesia seems to have been broken, as evidence becomes incontrovertible that the threadbare EU exit deal Johnson struck in December 2020 is harming UK trade with its closest market.
The uncomfortable reality for Sunak is that voters no longer seem willing to ignore the elephant in the room.” Read more at Bloomberg — Alan Crawford
British luxury goods retailer Fortnum & Mason hasn’t sent its products to most EU nations this year. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
Ukraine Evacuates Civilians As Temperatures Drop
“Ukraine is bracing for a brutal winter as Russian missile strikes have damaged nearly half of the country’s electrical grid, according to Kyiv, potentially leaving millions without heating while temperatures plummet.
As many as ten million Ukrainians do not have power as a result of Russia’s bombardment, Ukrainian officials have warned, while rolling blackouts and water supply shortages have become commonplace across the country. In recently-liberated Kherson, some people are now collecting wood for heat in lieu of a stable power supply.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is ‘trying to make it the coldest and darkest and hardest winter Ukrainians have ever experienced,’ said Melinda Haring, the deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, who noted how Moscow has failed to make progress on the battlefield.
‘He wants to sow chaos in Europe and undermine Western support for Ukraine, and he also wants to break the will and resolve of the Ukrainian people,’ she added.
Of Ukraine’s 27 regions, 15 have been enduring planned blackouts that often last for at least four hours. In Kherson and Mykolaiv, both of which have been pummeled by Moscow’s shelling, Ukrainian authorities are now starting to evacuate residents before temperatures drop even further.
The World Health Organization has warned that Russia’s strikes and prolonged power outages could strain Ukraine’s hospitals and health systems, many of which have now been forced to rely on generators to continue providing medical services.
‘Continued attacks on health and energy infrastructure mean hundreds of hospitals and health-care facilities are no longer fully operational—lacking fuel, water and electricity to meet basic needs,’ Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization’s Regional Director for Europe, said on Monday.
‘Ukraine’s health system is facing its darkest days in the war so far,’ he warned.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Iran’s high-profile arrests. Iranian officials have arrested two famous actresses, Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi, for backing the anti-government protests that have swept the country, state media said. Both actresses had posted videos on social media in which they were not wearing headscarves, CNN reported.
In cracking down on dissent, Tehran has also increasingly turned to its judicial system, and has now sentenced four people to death for their role in the protests. In total, rights groups estimate that Iranian security forces have detained as many as 15,000 people for demonstrating.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“World’s longest-ruling dictator. After taking control in a coup 43 years ago, Teodoro Obiang, the president of Equatorial Guinea, appeared to be close to continuing his rule after the country’s Sunday election. As of Monday, initial results showed his party securing more than 99 percent of the vote. Opposition leader Andrés Esono Ondo told Reuters the vote was a ‘total fraud.’
Writing in Foreign Policy, Jeffrey Smith and Tutu Alicante described Obiang as the ‘world’s longest-ruling dictator’ in October. Washington has ‘been one of Obiang’s staunchest diplomatic and financial backers despite nearly a half century of serious human rights abuses, a clearly oppressive autocratic regime, and the fierce repression of basic freedoms,’ they wrote.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Somalia’s peacekeeper attack. Three Kenyan peacekeepers were killed when an armed attacker fired on a military base in southern Somalia on Monday, the Associated Press reported. Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack.
‘We believe the lone wolf was testing the ground for more such incidents,’ a Kenyan military official told the Associated Press. ‘We must be more careful and vigilant.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Malawi became the first low-income nation to receive financing from the International Monetary Fund under a new tool intended to help countries cope with global food price shocks.” Read more at Bloomberg
November 22, 2022
By Peter Baker
Good morning. The moon holds its own potential for exploring deeper into space.
A portion of the far side of the moon looms large just beyond the Orion spacecraft.NASA
Liftoff
“Humankind took one small step toward the moon yesterday: NASA’s uncrewed Orion spacecraft arrived at the dusty orb and dipped as close as 81 miles above the surface, part of a multiyear project to return to our closest celestial neighbor half a century after the last visit.
After several delays, NASA’s Artemis program got underway with last week’s launch of Artemis I propelling Orion into the heavens. So far, it has not provided the same drama and romance of the original Apollo moon landings. But for the first time since the astronaut Gene Cernan climbed back into his lunar module as the last person on the moon on Dec. 14, 1972, there is a sustained commitment to going back.
‘Why the moon now?’ asked my colleague Kenneth Chang, who covers the space program for The Times. ‘There’s a lot we still don’t know about the moon. Everyone sort of lost interest in the moon for 20 years after Apollo. The moon was like, ‘Oh, we’ve been there, done that, it’s just a rock, no atmosphere, it’s not that interesting.’ Scientifically, what changed is in the ’90s, people started thinking there might be water-ice on the moon. This was a major change in thinking.’
If there is water on the moon, you can split off hydrogen from oxygen and make rocket fuel. Such a prospect would be transformative because the moon could be used as a base for deep-space missions without the cost and burden of lifting heavy rocket fuel off the Earth, which has six times the gravity of the moon. ‘Scientifically, that’s a cool possibility,’ Ken told me, ‘and so people started getting interested in the moon again.’
To my thinking, Ken has one of the coolest jobs in journalism. He and I spoke yesterday after the Orion flyby.
Peter: Why are we going back to the moon now, and why haven’t we for 50 years?
Ken: We’ve tried at least two times previously. Going back to the moon takes 10 years. Even though technology has gotten better, it’s not something we can do quickly. Every new administration wanted to have its own stamp on space policy, and it got cut. This is the first time the program hasn’t gotten cut in two administration changes. Donald Trump basically continued what was going on under Obama; he changed the initial destination from Mars back to the moon, but it’s still basically the same. And then President Biden hasn’t changed it from Trump, basically.
Artemis I launched Wednesday and reached the moon this morning. This mission is meant to test this new generation of equipment. How is it going?
There have been small glitches, like the star trackers on Orion got confused, so NASA figured out how to work around that. There are small things like that going on, but that’s why they’re flying. If everything went perfectly, they wouldn’t need to do the test. So far, 99 percent of it is going pretty much as they wanted to.
The spacecraft is scheduled to return to Earth on Dec. 11. What else is ahead for this mission before then?
NASA officials want Orion to be out in deep space for a set of time to make sure nothing weird happens from radiation. And the last big thing they want to test is the heat shield. They’re coming back at a really high velocity, and they want to verify that the heat shield survives re-entry.
The next mission, Artemis II, set for 2024, will have a four-person crew fly to the moon but not land. If you’re going all that way, isn’t it frustrating not to touch down?
Yeah, but you want to make sure the life support systems work properly. And secondly, under the plan, the lander won’t be ready by then. It’s really complicated, and you don’t want to risk lives unnecessarily.
The Artemis III mission that will finally put humans again on the surface, including the first woman and first person of color, will be in, what, 2025, if everything goes perfectly? Or is that a stretch?
That’s a huge stretch. Outside experts are saying 2028 would be the earliest. It’s very optimistic that they can get Artemis II off in 2024.
You studied physics at Princeton and later got a master’s in physics, worked at a supercomputing center and were working on a doctorate but gave it up to go into journalism. Why?
I wasn’t that good a physicist. During grad school, I spent one summer at a San Francisco Chronicle program where they had grad students work to improve communication between scientists and journalists, and I realized that was more fun than doing science.
If you could be the first journalist to fly to the moon, would you want to?
I used to. I wanted to become an astronaut, at least for a while. Then I saw ‘First Man,’ the movie about Apollo 11 that showed what the mission was like. I remembered I’m afraid of heights and I’m claustrophobic, so those rockets may not be the best for me.” Read more at New York Times
Beyond Meat Is Struggling, and the Plant-Based Meat Industry Worries
A few years ago, business was booming. That growth has slowed, with some wondering if the number of consumers has reached its limit.
Nov. 21, 2022
“For a while, it seemed Beyond Meat was taking over the world.
Its faux burgers and sausages were landing on dinner plates in homes throughout the United States and on the menu boards of chains like Subway, Carl’s Jr. and Starbucks. When the company went public in 2019, its shares skyrocketed as investors bet that the meatless movement was finally having its moment. During the pandemic, Beyond Meat’s grocery store sales surged as curious consumers tried its vegan options.
But these days, Beyond Meat has lost some of its sizzle.
Its stock has slumped nearly 83 percent in the past year. Sales, which the company had expected to rise as much as 33 percent this year, are now likely to show only minor growth. McDonald’s concluded a pilot of the McPlant burger — made with a Beyond Meat patty — this year with no plans to put it on the menu permanently.
In late October, the company said it was laying off 200 people, or 19 percent of its work force. And four top executives have departed in recent months, including the chief financial officer, the chief supply chain officer and the chief operating officer, whom Beyond Meat had suspended after his arrest on allegations that he bit another man’s nose in a parking garage altercation.
What investors and others are debating now is whether Beyond Meat’s struggles are specific to the company or a harbinger of deeper issues in the plant-based meat industry.” Read more at New York Times
Turkey takeout
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
“Record food prices + shortages of turkey and cranberries are prompting more Americans to make dinner reservations instead of home-cooked meals, Axios' Jennifer A. Kingson and Kelly Tyko report.
More people are ordering catering and takeout this year — from pies and side dishes to entire feasts.
Why it matters: The trend is great for restaurants, eager to recoup pandemic-lost revenue. And it's reshaping the ‘home for the holidays’ ideal: Convenience and value can trump tradition and family recipes.
A Wells Fargo analysis finds that for the first time in decades, it's more economical to dine out on Thanksgiving Day than to shop for, cook and clean up after the traditional meal.
‘We are seeing it explode,’ says Brendan Sweeney, CEO of Popmenu, a tech company that handles online orders for restaurants. He's tracking mom-and-pops with as much as $65,000 in advance orders.
What's happening: The cost of food away from home increased 5.8% this year over 2021 — versus 9.8% for a standard grocery trip, Wells Fargo found.
Factoring in time and effort, ‘you could spend about the same on a dish at a restaurant as you would preparing it at home,’ Wells Fargo found.” Read more at Axios
“Chocolate and Chip won their freedom yesterday as Joe Biden pardoned the two turkeys in what has become a quirky Thanksgiving tradition under US presidents of both parties. Making light-hearted references to the Democrats’ success in the midterm elections, Biden quipped, ‘the votes are in, they’ve been counted, verified. There’s no ballot stuffing, there’s no ‘fowl’ play.’” Read more at Bloomberg
Biden pardons Chocolate at the White House. Photographer: Ting Shen/Bloomberg
“Women outnumber men in the New York Philharmonic for the first time in its 180 years of existence.” Read more at New York Times
Women now make a up a majority of players in the New York Philharmonic, but they dominate some sections of the orchestra more than others: 27 of the ensemble’s 30 violinists are women. Credit...Calla Kessler for The New York Times
“Penguin Random House’s deal to buy Simon & Schuster collapsed, breaking a pattern of consolidation in the publishing industry.” Read more at New York Times
SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC
“49ers win abroad: San Francisco looked like a contender last night in Mexico City, walloping the Cardinals, 38-10, in front of a raucous crowd.
Cancellation: Virginia and Virginia Tech agreed to call off their season finale football game this weekend after a shooting this month that killed three Cavalier football players.” Read more at New York Times
WORLD CUP
Fans before the U.S.A. vs. Wales in Doha, Qatar.Erin Schaff/The New York Times
“Victory overshadowed: England beat Iran, 6-2, with ambitious play. Some spectators were forced to stash flags and shirts protesting the Iranian government.
Tough draw: The U.S. tied with Wales, 1-1, after the Welsh superstar Gareth Bale scored on a penalty kick.” Read more at New York Times
Messi’s Argentina Stunned by Saudi Arabia in World Cup Opener
The soccer legend scored an early goal, but two Saudi goals in the second half clinched one of the most shocking upsets in World Cup history
By Joshua RobinsonFollow and Jonathan Clegg
“LUSAIL, Qatar—Lionel Messi landed at his fifth World Cup this month projecting an unusual air of calm. He had found his form again at Paris Saint-Germain. His Argentine national team was on a 36-game winning streak. And, at age 35, he was playing without the weight of a soccer-crazed country on his narrow shoulders.
Messi even spoke about enjoying his games with the national team for the first time, savoring every moment of what is likely the last World Cup of his glittering career. Messi finally said he was happy.
It all felt a little off. Anyone who had watched Messi’s 15 years of toil in the sky blue-and-white of Argentina knew that the national team wasn’t exactly his happy place. Until he lifted the Copa America last summer, he usually swelled with pride when he pulled on the jersey, only to be crushed by pressure. For more than a decade, Messi made traveling to the World Cup with Argentina look about as enticing as going for a weekend retreat with your boss.
On Tuesday, normal service abruptly resumed. With an utterly shocking 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia, ranked No. 51 in the world, Messi found himself staring at the latest in a long list of national team disappointments.
Saudi Arabia’s Salem Al-Dawsari, second left, celebrates after scoring his side’s second goal.PHOTO: RICARDO MAZALAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
As far as World Cup upsets go, the game immediately joined the ranks of all-time stunners, alongside France losing to Senegal as defending champion in 2002, Italy losing to North Korea in 1966, and England losing to a little-known soccer upstart known as the U.S. in 1950. The difference this time was that none of those sucker-punched favorites had Lionel Messi in the lineup.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Lives Lived: Bao Tong tried to stop the Chinese government from cracking down on the Tiananmen Square protests and was the highest-ranking official imprisoned over the demonstrations. He later became a critic of the Communist Party. He died at 90.” Read more at New York Times