The Full Belmonte, 11/8/2022
Election 2022: GOP predicting wins, Dems brace for setbacks
By WILL WEISSERT
“WASHINGTON (AP) — A tumultuous election season that tugged again at America’s searing political divides and raised questions about its commitment to a democratic future comes to a close on Tuesday as voters cast ballots in the first national election of Joe Biden’s presidency.
Democrats were braced for disappointing results, anxious that their grip on the U.S. House may be slipping and that their hold on the U.S. Senate — once seen as more secure — has loosened. The party’s incumbent governors in places like Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada are also staring down serious Republican challengers.
Returning to the White House on Monday night after his final campaign event, Biden said he thought Democrats would keep the Senate but acknowledged ‘the House is tougher.’
The GOP was optimistic about its prospects, betting that messaging focused on the economy, gas prices and crime will resonate with voters at a time of soaring inflation and rising violence. Ultimately, they’re confident that outrage stemming from the Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion has faded and that the midterms have become a more traditional assessment of the president’s performance.” Read more at AP News
Trump says he’ll make ‘big announcement’ Nov. 15 in Florida
By JILL COLVIN
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump said Monday he will be making a ‘big announcement’ next week as he teased a third presidential run while campaigning on the eve of the final day of voting in this year’s midterm elections.
‘I’m going to be making a very big announcement on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at Mar-a-Lago,’ Trump said before a cheering crowd in Vandalia, Ohio, Monday night, where he was holding his final rally of the midterm season to bolster Senate candidate JD Vance.
Trump explained that he wanted ‘nothing to detract from the importance of tomorrow,’ even after he had sparked a frantic effort to hold him off after he had told people he was considering officially launching his next campaign Monday night at the rally.
Trump has been increasingly explicit about his plans to seek another term, saying in recent days that he would ‘very, very, very probably’ run again and would be formalizing his intentions ‘very, very soon.’” Read more at AP News
Oath Keepers Leader Points Finger at Colleagues in Sedition Trial
Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right militia, testified that he did not order anyone to go into the Capitol on Jan. 6 and that he had nothing to do with an armed force waiting nearby.
By Alan Feuer
Nov. 7, 2022
“WASHINGTON — At the height of the chaos at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, two dozen members of the Oath Keepers militia met outside the building with their leader, Stewart Rhodes.
When some of them reported that they had just come back from inside the Capitol, Mr. Rhodes was outraged, he testified in court on Monday. Taking the stand at his own sedition trial, he said that those who had gone inside the building that day had done so of their own accord — and that he had never had a plan or had given any orders to go in.
‘When I heard that they went in,’ he told jury, ‘I said, ‘That was stupid.’’
Testifying for a second day at the trial in Federal District Court in Washington, Mr. Rhodes sought to wash his hands of much of what the Oath Keepers did on Jan. 6, laying the blame on several of his colleagues.
He told the jury that one of his co-defendants, Kelly Meggs, who went inside the Capitol with others in the group, had gone ‘off mission.’
He also claimed — for the first time — that he had “nothing to do with” an armed “quick reaction force” made of up Oath Keepers that was staged in hotel rooms in Virginia, ostensibly to rush to the aid of compatriots if things at the Capitol went wrong.
Mr. Rhodes has firmly denied there was a plan to break into the Capitol on Jan. 6 and disrupt the certification of the 2020 election, as the government has claimed. He has also argued that the Oath Keepers went to Washington that day on what he claims was a peaceful mission: to serve as bodyguards for pro-Trump celebrities like Ali Alexander, a Stop the Steal organizer, and Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime adviser to Mr. Trump.
It is rare for a defendant, especially one of his prominence, to take the witness stand, but Mr. Rhodes, who holds a law degree from Yale, has been visibly confident in putting forward several intersecting arguments.
He spent much of the afternoon sparring with a prosecutor, Kathryn Rakoczy. Ms. Rakoczy’s questions seemed designed to both poke holes in the details of his account and to chip away at his broader credibility.
Ms. Rakoczy started, for example, by suggesting that Mr. Rhodes had soft-pedaled the nature of the Oath Keepers during his first turn on the witness stand on Friday. She pointed out that while telling the jury about some of the missions the group had been involved in over the years, he had failed to mention several in which his members used weapons to confront government forces and challenge their authority.” Read more at New York Times
Nancy Pelosi Says Attack on Husband Will Affect Her Political Future
In her first televised interview since the attack, Ms. Pelosi also spoke about the first frightening moments after she learned what happened to her husband, Paul Pelosi.
Nov. 7, 2022
“In her first televised interview since her husband, Paul Pelosi, was violently attacked, Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the first terrifying moments after she learned from the Capitol Police what had happened inside their San Francisco home on Oct. 28, and said that the traumatic episode would affect her decision about her political future.
‘I never thought it would be Paul,’ Ms. Pelosi, 82, appearing visibly emotional, said in a sit-down interview with Anderson Cooper that aired on CNN on Monday night.
When Mr. Cooper asked if she had made a decision on whether to retire if Democrats lose the House, Ms. Pelosi said that her decision would be affected by the attack, but she did not specify how.
Ms. Pelosi said that on the morning of the attack, she was asleep at her home in Washington when she heard the doorbell ringing and knocking on her door.
Capitol Police officers told her that Mr. Pelosi had been attacked in their San Francisco home and was hospitalized, she said. She immediately got on a plane and traveled to a hospital in San Francisco where her husband lay in recovery after sustaining a skull fracture that had thankfully ‘not pierced his brain,’Ms. Pelosi said.
The interview came more than a week after Mr. Pelosi, 82, was injured when an intruder hit him on the head with a hammer early in the morning on Oct. 28 before being tackled and restrained by police officers. The intruder had demanded to see Ms. Pelosi, according to the authorities.
Mr. Pelosi underwent surgery for a skull fracture and serious injuries to his hands and right arm. Doctors said they expected him to make a full recovery.
The man charged in the attack, David DePape, later told the police that he saw Ms. Pelosi as ‘the ‘leader of the pack’ of lies told by the Democratic Party” and that he wanted to break her kneecaps if she lied to him.
Mr. DePape was charged by federal prosecutors with attempting to kidnap Ms. Pelosi and assaulting a relative of a federal official. He has pleaded not guilty to several state felony charges.” Read more at New York Times
Powerball announces delay to record-breaking $1.9B drawing
By SHAMEKA DUDLEY-LOWE and SCOTT McFETRIDGE
A customer is handed Powerball tickets purchased at Lichine's Liquor & Deli in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. Monday night's drawing is estimated to be a record $1.9 billion. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
“DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Powerball drawing was delayed Monday and it’s likely that the official results won’t be known until later Tuesday, the Multi-State Lottery Association said in a statement. The record-breaking $1.9 billion Powerball drawing was delayed because a participating lottery had issues processing sales, officials said.
‘Powerball requires all 48 participating lotteries to submit their sales and play data prior to the winning numbers being selected. Once Powerball receives the outstanding submission, the drawing can proceed,’ the lottery said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Nearly three hours after the scheduled 10:59 p.m. EST drawing, the association told the AP, ‘It’s against our policy to name the lottery that is experiencing the delay.’
The winning numbers and recorded video of the drawing will be posted to the Powerball website and YouTube channel. Players should hold onto their tickets, the statement said.” Read more at AP News
Even as Challenges Mount, Europeans Stick by Ukraine
Inflation and anxiety over nuclear weapons may be eating into some popular support for the war, but key governments remain insulated from the pressures for now.
By Jason Horowitz and Catherine Porter
Nov. 7, 2022
“ROME — The high cost of living is provoking strikes, protests and widespread grumbling. Talk about nuclear weapons has heightened anxieties and encouraged some to demand rapid negotiations. And President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is wooing politicians, including many from populist parties on the right and the left who have flirted with him in the past.
But while Mr. Putin may have bet on European fatigue and intolerance for hardship to divide the alliance and buckle its weakest members, more than eight months into Russia’s war on Ukraine, the scale of the challenges has been leveraged effectively by leaders to stiffen the public spine and Europe is holding firm.
Many analysts believe that commitment will last as long as the United States holds the line, but gains in Tuesday’s midterm elections by Republicans, some of whom have questioned the cost of the war, could alter those expectations.
Despite some kicking and screaming, governments across the ideological spectrum and the continent — in Western and Eastern Europe, in the Baltics and along the Mediterranean — are maintaining support for Ukraine and tough sanctions on Russia.” Read more at New York Times
Greece to Ban Sale of Spyware After Government Is Accused of Surveillance
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the ban after a news report claimed that he had directed the use of spyware against prominent politicians and journalists, which he denied.
By Niki Kitsantonis and Matina Stevis-Gridneff
Nov. 7, 2022
“ATHENS — Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Monday that Greece would ban the sale of spyware, after his government was accused in a news report of targeting dozens of prominent politicians, journalists and businessmen for surveillance, and the judicial authorities began an investigation.
The announcement is the latest chapter in a scandal that erupted over the summer, when Mr. Mitsotakis conceded that Greece’s state intelligence service had been monitoring an opposition party leader with a traditional wiretap last year. That revelation came after the politician discovered that he had also been targeted with a spyware program known as Predator.
The Greek government said the wiretap was legal but never specified the reasons for it, and Mr. Mitsotakis said it was done without his knowledge. The government has also asserted that it does not own or use the Predator spyware, and has insisted that the simultaneous targeting with a wiretap and Predator was a coincidence.
Mr. Mitsotakis has rejected allegations that he was personally running a Predator spyware scheme. ‘It’s an unbelievable lie,’ he said. He insisted that Greece’s intelligence service was not using Predator, but said someone outside the government might be.” Read more at New York Times
“Toxic gas | The EU and US declared methane a threat to Paris Agreement temperature goals at last year’s climate summit and insisted emissions of it must be slashed 30% by 2030. Since then, more than 120 countries have signed up to a formal methane-cutting pledge and many will announce action plans at COP27 in Egypt this week. The moves represent a collective effort to go after a greenhouse gas that’s estimated to be 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the atmosphere.” Read more at Bloomberg
“NATO bargain | Sweden’s new leader is making progress toward convincing Turkey he’s serious about meeting its demands in exchange for being let into NATO, sources say. Stockholm agreed to distance itself from Kurdish groups viewed as terrorists by Turkey, after earlier approving arms exports to the nation. The concessions come ahead of a planned meeting today between Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Mastodon, an open-source social network that markets itself as an alternative to Twitter, has seen a surge in new sign-ups in recent days, overwhelming the site and its founder as the tiny operation struggles to keep up. Since Musk took over Twitter on Oct. 27, Mastodon has drawn close to half a million new users, bringing total monthly active users to more than 1 million. But that’s a tiny fraction compared to Twitter’s 238 million daily active users.” Read more at Bloomberg
Photographer: NurPhoto/NurPhoto
“Musk told his followers on the eve of US midterm elections to vote Republican. Polls indicate Democrats—despite near-record employment and the Supreme Court’s elimination of federal abortion rights—are poised for losses amid stubborn inflation and new restrictions on voting access imposed in GOP-controlled states.” Read more at Bloomberg
Apple Built Its Empire With China. Now Its Foundation Is Showing Cracks.
Lawmakers’ objections to an obscure Chinese semiconductor company and tough Covid-19 restrictions are hurting Apple’s ability to make new iPhones in China.
By Tripp Mickle, Chang Che and Daisuke Wakabayashi
Tripp Mickle reported this story from San Francisco. Chang Che and Daisuke Wakabayashi reported from Seoul.
Nov. 7, 2022
“Every September, Apple unveils its latest phones at its futuristic Silicon Valley campus. A few weeks later, tens of millions of its newest handsets, assembled by legions of seasonal workers hired by its suppliers, are shipped from Chinese factories to customers around the world.
The annual release of Apple’s iPhones usually runs like clockwork, a prime example of how the U.S. tech giant has become the most profitable company of the globalization era by seamlessly navigating the world’s two largest economies.
But this year, a smooth rollout for the iPhone 14 was the latest casualty of the growing difficulties of doing business in China. Beijing’s no-holds-barred approach to stopping Covid-19 and heightened tensions with the United States have forced Apple to re-examine major aspects of its business.
A recent outbreak of coronavirus cases in the region surrounding Apple’s largest iPhone factory, in Zhengzhou, in central China, prompted local officials to order a seven-day lockdown last week. As a result, the company said on Sunday, it will not be able to produce enough phones to meet the demands of the holiday season.
For much of this year, Apple has also been the focus of a bipartisan intervention in Washington, where alarm over Beijing’s military provocations and technology ambitions has upended orthodoxy about free trade.
Word trickled out in March that Apple was in talks with an obscure Chinese memory chip maker, Yangtze Memory Technology Corporation, or YMTC, to supply components for the iPhone 14.
That collided with work being done by a coalition of lawmakers and more than a dozen congressional aides, which had spent months examining the ins and outs of Apple’s supply chain in China. The Commerce Department issued restrictions last month that prohibited American companies from selling machinery to YMTC, making it difficult for Apple to go ahead with the deal.
Apple has confirmed publicly that it talked with YMTC, which didn’t respond to requests for comment. But an Apple spokesman declined to comment when asked if the company had abandoned the possibility of working with the Chinese memory maker.
The recent developments underscore how Apple’s close ties to China, once considered a strength of its business, have turned into a liability.” Read more at New York Times
“Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is planning to begin firing potentially thousands of workers starting this week, according to a report. The job cuts could come as early as Wednesday.” Read more at Bloomberg
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
“Republican lawmakers have made little secret of their disdain for TikTok amid concerns about the Chinese government’s influence over the social-media app. But Jeff Yass, one of the biggest benefactors of the GOP, owns about 7% of TikTok parent ByteDance.” Read more at Bloomberg
Chris Evans named Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine
“LOS ANGELES (AP) — Chris Evans may have put down Captain America’s shield but he’s got a new badge of honor: he’s been named People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive.
People’s selection was announced Monday night on Stephen Colbert’s late night show and on the magazine’s website. Evans, who for nearly a decade played Captain America in Marvel’s sprawling superhero films, takes the baton from another Avenger, Paul Rudd.” Read more at AP News