The Full Belmonte, 12/3/2023
George Santos leaves the US Capitol after he was expelled from the House.
“The House voted to expel GOP US Rep. George Santos, a historic move that makes the New York congressman only the sixth lawmaker ever to be expelled from the chamber. The resolution passed 311 to 114, with 105 Republicans voting with the overwhelming majority of Democrats in favor of expulsion. ‘To hell with this place,’ Santos said after the vote, which followed the release of a scathing report from the House Ethics Committee.
Israel has been bombarding Gaza as combat operations resume following the collapse of a truce. The Israeli military said it struck tunnel shafts, command centers and weapons storage facilities in overnight raids.
Hisham Awartani, one of the three Palestinian college students who were shot in Vermont over Thanksgiving weekend, is paralyzed from the chest down after a bullet became lodged in his spine, his mother said. The junior at Brown University is scheduled to be released from the hospital next week.
The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s election subversion case in Washington, DC, refused to dismiss the charges against the former president, saying he does not enjoy absolute immunity for what he said and did after the 2020 election. Trump's criminal trial is set for March.
Former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who blazed trails as the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court, died at age 93. O’Connor passed away due to ‘complications related to advanced dementia,’ the court said.
TUESDAY
Former US Rep. Liz Cheney's scathing portrait of the Republican Party, ‘Oath and Honor,’ will be released. In the book, which was obtained exclusively by CNN ahead of its publication, Cheney condemns her former colleagues and party leaders as ‘enablers and collaborators,’ who after the 2020 election were ‘willing to violate their oath to the Constitution out of political expediency and loyalty to Donald Trump.’
WEDNESDAY
The fourth debate of the 2024 Republican presidential primary season will be held in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. And once again, Donald Trump is skipping the event. With about six weeks until the Iowa caucuses, Trump is the clear leader in both national and early state polling — even as he battles 91 criminal counts across four indictments. The former president has not attended any of the GOP debates, and in October, his campaign called on the Republican National Committee to cancel all future debates.
THURSDAY
The Jewish holiday Hanukkah begins at sunset and lasts for eight days.
FRIDAY
The FDA is expected to make an approval decision on the first CRISPR gene-editing treatment that may cure sickle cell disease, a painful and deadly disease with no universally successful treatment and that's more common in people with an African or Caribbean family background. Last month the United Kingdom became the first country to give regulatory approval to a medical treatment involving the revolutionary CRISPR gene-editing tool.
Friday is also jobs day. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the employment report for November. The US economy added 150,000 jobs in October, falling below expectations but still notching a solid month of employment growth. Analysts said the October reading shows the job market has finally started to cool down, which in turn may mean the Federal Reserve will hold steady on interest rates when policymakers meet later this month.” [CNN]
Israel-Hamas War
“The U.S. urged Israel to do more to protect civilians in Gaza. Its military appears to be preparing for a ground invasion in the south, to where many civilians have fled.
These maps show the scale of displacement.
Kamala Harris said that the U.S. fiercely opposes the forced relocation of Gazans to camps outside the enclave.
Released hostages have given Israelis hope that more will return.
Three-quarters of the 240 prisoners and detainees released by Israel during the weeklong truce had not been convicted of a crime, data shows.
Many Israeli mothers are grappling with anxiety as their sons go to fight in Gaza.” [New York Times]
U.S. pushes Israel on humanitarian aid
Data: AP reports, Analysis of Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University, Critical Threats Project of AEI and the Institute for the Study of War. Map: AP
“The Biden administration is pressing Israel to restore the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza to the levels seen before the collapse of the ceasefire, U.S. and Israeli officials tell Axios' Barak Ravid.
Why it matters: Aid groups warn the resumed fighting — especially in southern Gaza where 2 million Palestinians are concentrated — will significantly deepen the humanitarian crisis in the enclave.
Catch up quick: As part of the ceasefire agreement, Israel allowed a significant increase in the number of trucks carrying humanitarian aid — about 200 per day — into Gaza.
After talks on extending the ceasefire collapsed, the Israeli military stopped the entry of aid trucks and fuel from Egypt into the enclave and resumed its ground offensive and bombardment of Gaza.
Behind the scenes: Secretary of State Tony Blinken called Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer on Friday and stressed that Israel must allow aid into Gaza at the same level it did during the seven-day pause in fighting, a U.S. official said.
Shortly after the call, Israel allowed about 50 trucks with humanitarian assistance to enter southern Gaza, but it didn't allow fuel into the area.
Yesterday, Israel allowed about 100 aid trucks to enter Gaza, including two trucks with fuel, an Israeli official said.” [Axios]
America's military aid
Data: SIPRI. Chart: Tory Lysik/Axios
“The U.S. provided Israel with over 70,000 weapons — aircraft, ground vehicles, missiles and bombs — via military aid between 1950 and 2022, Axios' Tory Lysik, Aïda Amer and Shoshana Gordon report from an analysis of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's Arms Transfers Database.
The big picture: Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign military financing, with most of that aid coming in the form of weapons grants.” [Axios]
“At the U.N. climate summit, the U.S. announced a new requirement for oil and gas producers to detect and fix leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.” [New York Times]
DeSantis drama
DeSantis at a rally in Newton, Iowa, yesterday. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
“The tumult at the super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is worsening:
Three more senior officials left the organization yesterday, with the Iowa caucuses just six weeks away, on Jan. 15, Axios' Alex Thompson reports.
Interim CEO Kristin Davison, a close ally of consultant Jeff Roe who has guided the Super PAC, stepped down after only being in her role for 9 days, Politico scooped.
Communications director Erin Perrine and director of operations Matt Palmisano also departed, AP reports.
Zoom out: Yesterday was supposed to be a day of triumph for DeSantis. He was celebrating hitting his goal of visiting all 99 counties in Iowa, a trek he began in May.
Despite spending $16 million on advertising ahead of the Iowa caucuses and securing the endorsement of the governor, DeSantis' campaign has been rocked by instability — and overshadowed by former President Trump.
Split screen: While DeSantis was taking his 99-county victory lap, Trump was mocking him at a rally 100 miles away, saying the Florida governor's campaign was falling ‘like a very seriously wounded bird.’” [Axios]
German tourist killed and two others injured in central Paris attack
Man known to authorities as radical Islamist detained after German man killed and two – one British and one French – injured near Eiffel Tower
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Sun 3 Dec 2023 06.04 EST
“A man who had served a prison sentence for planning a radical Islamist attack and who was undergoing psychiatric treatment allegedly stabbed a German tourist to death and wounded two others – one British, one French – in a neighbourhood near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Saturday night.
The attack took place shortly after 9pm near the Bir Hakeim bridge in an area popular with tourists. France is on its highest alert for attacks against the background of the war between Israel and Hamas.
The alleged attacker first targeted a German couple near the bridge, fatally stabbing a 23-year-old man who was a German-Filipino citizen. A passing taxi driver intervened to stop him, but the suspect ran away across the bridge to the other side of the River Seine, attacking two more people – a 66-year-old British man and a 60-year-old French national. He allegedly injured one with a hammer….” Read more at The Guardian
Boomers' big fear
Data: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Map: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals
“As America ages, senior care — in-home and at facilities — is increasingly out of reach, Axios' April Rubin and Erica Pandey write.
Why it matters: Nearly 70% of seniors will need long-term care services as they age, per Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies.
But just 13% of adults 75+ who live alone can afford assisted living — and only 14% can afford in-home care, according to the center's analysis of 97 metro areas.
For context, more than 40% of Americans 65+ live alone. When considering seniors over 80, that share jumps to nearly 60%.
There's also a growing shortage of care providers:
This year, every state reported a shortage of care workers — and 43 of them saw permanent closures of care facilities, such as group homes and assisted living centers, according to a KFF survey.
America has at least 600 fewer nursing homes than it did six years ago, according to a recent Wall Street Journal analysis.
Between the lines: U.S. life expectancy is on the rise. With that, care needs to last longer.
Baby boomers had fewer children than older generations, limiting the amount of family help for aging adults.” [Axios]
COP28's backdrop: Earth's hottest year
Data: CICERO. Chart: Tory Lysik/Axios Visuals
“DUBAI — Each COP summit tends to inch the world forward toward a lower carbon future.
Yet after 27 of these meetings, one thing is abundantly clear: Global emissions, as well as the resulting uptick in worldwide average temperatures, are dramatically outpacing outcomes from the COP process, Axios' Andrew Freedman writes.
Zoom out: Judging a COP's success or failure depends on the eye of the beholder; coming during the final month of the hottest year in Earth's recorded history, perhaps the climate itself should be the arbiter.
Zoom in: The role of these summits is not to directly control an emissions knob, but rather to set the terms of debate and help countries determine how ambitious their climate programs should be.
But at the end of the day, it's up to each nation, through their voluntary pledges, to decide how to make the energy transition.
The bottom line: One test to apply after Dubai is whether this summit helped in bending the emissions curve downward, thus preventing more significant climate-related damage later on.” [Axios]
“More than 49,000 people died from suicide across the U.S. in 2022, a 3% rise over the year before, according to a new report released Wednesday by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the lead author of the report, the number in 2022 is the highest ever recorded in the U.S. But the suicide rates for people aged 10-14 and 15-24 declined for the first time in nearly a decade, offering a glimmer of hope.” [NPR]
Crystal Ball
Brett Davis/USA Today
Will the SEC get left out?
“In a few hours, the College Football Playoff committee will announce its field of four teams. Amid more uproar than usual (basically, because the SEC might not make it), let’s keep this simple.
First, here are the two easiest calls:
Michigan, 13-0: Undoubtedly the No. 1 seed, snuffing No. 16 Iowa, 26-0, a week after beating Ohio State. After the Wolverines’ season of overlapping dramas, they’re simply the country’s best team to this point.
Washington, 13-0: Friday night’s 34-31 win over No. 5 Oregon was a heater, one that doubled as the Pac-12’s bittersweet goodbye. The Huskies’ offense can hang with anybody’s.
And here are your choices for the other two spots:
Florida State, 13-0: Smothered No. 14 Louisville, 16-6. Now will the committee do the unprecedented, snubbing an undefeated power-conference champ, one that beat LSU by more points than Alabama did? The discourse centers on FSU’s QB situation. This team is not the same without the injured Jordan Travis, done for the year.
Texas, 12-1: They trucked No. 18 Oklahoma State, 49-21, in a circus that included a Dr. Pepper toss controversy, the Big 12 commissioner being booed (for rooting against the conference-realigning Longhorns) and the Undertaker awarding the game’s MVP trophy, a title belt. Most importantly, the Longhorns still boast a 10-point September road win over the eventual SEC champ. Speaking of …
Alabama, 12-1: Yesterday’s 27-24 win over No. 1 Georgia ends the Dawgs’ three-peat bid, but does it outweigh that loss to the aforementioned Texas (plus the Tide needing convoluted miracles just to beat 6-6 Auburn one weekend ago)?
To me, Bama’s the obvious out. Incredible turnaround, but too many subpar games along the way. That’d make for the first SEC-free Playoff ever, unless you count future SEC team Texas — and surely the last such Playoff, since it’s expanding next year anyway. (Either way, not my problem. Have fun, committee!)
Watch the bracket’s revelation on ESPN at 12:15 p.m. ET, if you want, or just look at any app on your phone a few seconds later. By “any app,” I of course am referring to The Athletic app.
Otherwise, scan our updated bowl projections before the 41-game extravaganza starts filling out. Our CFB newsletter, Until Saturday, will have a snappy breakdown of the full bowl schedule in your inbox, first thing tomorrow morning.
But wait, there's more: Next Saturday we have Army-Navy, the FCS semifinals and the conclusion of the best Heisman race in years. Thanks to Oregon’s loss, Bo Nix fell back behind LSU QB Jayden Daniels, now an overwhelming -1400 favorite at BetMGM. Hey, it’s not all bad for the SEC.” [The Athletic]
December 3, 2023
Good morning. We’re covering Times critics’ favorite films of 2023…
Teyana Taylor in “A Thousand and One.” Aaron Ricketts/Focus Features
A good year for movies
“I found myself at the movies this year more often than last. The data suggests that I’m not alone.
The number of tickets that U.S. movie theaters sold this year is up 23 percent compared to 2022, according to The Numbers, which tracks film industry statistics. With a month left to go, the domestic box office has already grossed $800 million more than it did last year, according to Box Office Mojo. And though neither metric has yet rebounded to prepandemic levels, it finally feels like the movies are, in some sense, back.
Maybe it was the last gasp of widespread Covid precautions. Maybe it was the monotony of at-home streaming or just the desire to finally get off the couch. Maybe it was the popcorn. But I suspect that much of the reason Americans flocked to theaters this year had to do with the quality and variety of what was on offer there.
A quick scan of The New York Times’s list of the year’s best movies makes the point. The films, picked by the critics Manohla Dargis and Alissa Wilkinson, span a number of genres, including dramas and biopics. They came from legacy studios, tech companies and independent studios alike. They’re the work of veteran directors like Wes Anderson and Steve McQueen, as well as new ones like A.V. Rockwell and Celine Song.
What electrified our critics this year? For one thing, they recoiled at the ‘ordinary evil’ — as Alissa terms it — at the center of the Martin Scorsese film “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which chronicles a spate of greed-based murders against members of the Osage Nation in the 1920s. Our critics also lauded several visually striking, sharply observed documentaries, including one that follows a Chilean journalist’s descent into Alzheimer’s, and another that explores trans and nonbinary identity.
Both Manohla and Alissa make the point that originality, freshness and subverted expectations seem to have won Americans’ wallets this year, not just the critics’ praise. Instead of an action-adventure blockbuster or franchise sequel, the year’s top-grossing movie was Greta Gerwig’s technicolor-pink “Barbie.” The “Barbenheimer” phenomenon — a pop-cultural fusion of Gerwig’s movie and the Christopher Nolan film “Oppenheimer,” which also made our critics’ lists — became a meme-able magnet for theatergoers, myself included.
The movies rebounded this year despite the labor strikes that paralyzed Hollywood for months. Still, the resurgence doesn’t settle all questions about the future of the industry, like whether theaters can fully recover their pre-Covid luster or audiences have lastingly turned the corner on big-budget superhero C.G.I.-fests.
But for now, as Manohla concludes, 2023 was ‘terrific movie year.’ I can’t wait for the sequel.
For more
Read Manohla and Alissa’s full lists, which also tell you where to watch their top picks and name a few runners-up.
Several of this year’s best movies were based on books. Check out The Times’s list of the year’s 10 best.
If you prefer your screen time episodic, here’s The Times’s list of the year’s best TV shows.” [New York Times]
“Lives Lived: Larry Fink’s intimate black-and-white photographs were both social commentary on class and an exuberant document of the human condition. He died at 82.” [New York Times]
Photo: Diane Bondareff/AP
“Rockefeller Center visitors now can recreate an iconic Manhattan photograph with a new ride: The Beam.
Seated on a steel girder, tourists are spun around from a 69th-floor outdoor observation deck for views of the city. Look familiar?
Photo via Getty Images
The famous 1932 photograph, "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper," depicts 11 ironworkers on a steel beam while 30 Rockefeller Plaza was under construction.
The Beam is a heck of a lot safer, with locking seat belts, back frames and the floor of the observation deck close below, the N.Y. Post notes.” [Axios]
THE WEEK AHEAD
What to Watch For
“This year’s winner of the Turner Prize, for British artists, will be announced on Tuesday.
Fox News will host a town hall in Iowa on Tuesday with Donald Trump.
The fourth Republican presidential primary debate is Wednesday. Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy are expected to participate.
Hanukkah begins on Thursday.
Leaders of the E.U. and China will meet on Thursday for a two-day summit in Beijing.” [New York Times]