The Full Belmonte, 1/26/2023
Jurors in Alex Murdaugh Murder Trial Hear Opening Arguments
Initial statements offer different views of cellphone video showing defendant on night of killings
Alex Murdaugh, in court on Tuesday, has pleaded not guilty to the accusation that he fatally shot his wife and son at the family property’s dog kennels in 2021.PHOTO: GRACE BEAHM ALFORD/PRESS POOL
“WALTERBORO, S. C.—A final jury was chosen Wednesday morning and heard opening arguments in the afternoon in the double-murder trial of disbarred lawyer Alex Murdaugh.
Mr. Murdaugh, 54 years old, is accused of fatally shooting his wife several times with a rifle and his son with two blasts from a shotgun at the family property’s dog kennels on the night of June 7, 2021. He has pleaded not guilty.
The trial is taking place in the Colleton County Courthouse in downtown Walterboro, population 5,500, about 30 miles east of Moselle, the family hunting property.
Circuit Judge Clifton Newman questioned hundreds of potential jurors in batches earlier this week on their backgrounds and knowledge of the case. Nearly all of them said they were familiar with the details from social media, true-crime podcasts and talk around town. Many potential jurors said they had gone to school, played sports or hunted with members of Mr. Murdaugh’s immediate family. Others said they had siblings, cousins and close friends on the witness list, including local sheriff’s deputies who were at Moselle the night of the killings. The judge allowed many of those with close ties to remain in the jury pool provided they said they could be fair.
On Wednesday, 12 jurors—six white women, four white men and two Black women—were chosen from the pool of 80 remaining potential jurors. Six alternates were also selected.
The Murdaughs were a household name long before the deaths of Maggie and Paul. Mr. Murdaugh is the fourth-generation of a powerful South Carolina family known for running both sides of the legal ledger as solicitors, or district attorneys, for a five-county area and as founding members of a regional law firm. For decades, his grandfather’s portrait hung in the courtroom where he is being tried; it has been removed for the proceedings.
Roughly one in 25 registered voters in Colleton County received a summons, including some members of the same household. At least two married couples were in the jury pool.
Once the jury was seated, the judge quickly moved to opening arguments.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters presented the jury a timeline of Mr. Murdaugh’s alleged movements on the night of the killings. He told jurors they would see a cellphone video that showed Mr. Murdaugh was with his wife and son minutes before they were killed, in contradiction to his original statement that he hadn’t seen them late that evening.
He said the jury would also hear testimony about a blue tarp Mr. Murdaugh is alleged to have hidden at his mother’s house which was ‘coated in gun-shot residue on the inside.’ Mr. Waters said prosecutors would be making a circumstantial case, but one that would prove Mr. Murdaugh’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
‘The emphasis is on ‘reasonable,’ he said. ‘It’s not ‘any doubt.’ It’s ‘reasonable doubt.’
Defense lawyer Dick Harpootlian told the jury that the state’s case was illogical, and he presented a different view on the cellphone video. Mr. Harpootlian said Mr. Murdaugh was in shock after finding the bodies of his wife and son and was imprecise about his whereabouts. He said the cellphone video would show them talking in a friendly manner, which makes it implausible that within minutes, Mr. Murdaugh would fatally shoot his wife and son at close range….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Donald Trump to be allowed back on Facebook after 2-year ban
By BARBARA ORTUTAY and JILL COLVIN
“Facebook parent Meta said Wednesday it will restore former President Donald Trump ’s personal account in the coming weeks, ending a two-year suspension it imposed in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The company said in a blog post it is adding ‘new guardrails’ to ensure there are no ‘repeat offenders’ who violate its rules, even if they are political candidates or world leaders.
‘The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying — the good, the bad and the ugly — so that they can make informed choices at the ballot box,’ wrote Nick Clegg, Meta’s vice president of global affairs.
Clegg added that when there is a ‘clear risk’ to real-world harm, Meta will intervene.
‘In the event that Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation,’ he wrote. Facebook suspended Trump on Jan. 7, 2021, for praising people engaged in violent acts at the Capitol a day earlier. But the company had resisted earlier calls — including from its own employees — to remove Trump’s account….” Read more at AP News
‘By reinstating former President Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, Meta is pushing him to a moment of truth about his financially troubled social-media app, Truth Social, Axios' Sara Fischer writes.
Why it matters: Trump raised hundreds of millions of dollars to create Truth Social after he was barred from many platforms after 1/6. Now he has to decide between sticking to his new company — or reaping the benefits of diving onto Facebook and Instagram.
What's happening: Trump was invited back to Twitter in November but hasn't tweeted, out of solidarity with Truth Social.
Nick Clegg, Meta's president, global affairs, told Sara and me that he doesn't know if Trump will accept the invitation.
What I'm hearing: Trump doesn't view Facebook as a direct competitor to Truth Social. So he might dive in there faster than he has on Twitter. And his campaign has long viewed Facebook as one of his super powers.
The big picture: In the past two years, Meta has instituted a slew of new rules that address everything from speech denouncing elections to newsworthy, yet controversial, speech from people in power.
After yesterday's announcement, Meta staffers met with Trump associates to explain the new guardrails that are being implemented as his accounts are reactivated, sources told Axios.
Between the lines: During Trump's campaigns and presidency, Twitter was his megaphone. Facebook was his cash register.
Re-engaging on Facebook and Instagram would give Trump the ability to advertise to his more than 57 million followers across them as he pursues his 2024 presidential campaign.
Reality check: It could signal to investors in the company that is looking to take Truth Social public that he’s not confident Truth Social can deliver on its promise of reaching 56 million users by 2024.
‘If Trump elects to start using Facebook and [Instagram] again it will be a sign of weakness and an admission that his efforts to reach audiences more directly have failed,’ a former senior Trump official told Axios.
Those platforms ‘smacked him in the face, and if he comes back crawling, it's pathetic,’ the former official added. ‘It highlights how useless Truth is. It's a test of who needs who more.’
Behind the scenes: Trump has had internal conversations about rejoining Twitter, NBC's Marc Caputo and Jonathan Allen report.” [Axios]
G.O.P. State Lawmakers Push a Growing Wave of Anti-Transgender Bills
Four states could ban transition care into young adulthood. Lawmakers in several others want to restrict drag shows in ways that could affect transgender performers broadly. It’s part of a long-term plan.
By Maggie Astor
“Over the past three years, Republican state lawmakers have put forward a barrage of bills to regulate the lives of transgender youths, restricting the sports teams they can play on, bathrooms they can use and medical care they can receive.
But even by those standards, the start of the 2023 legislative season stands out for the aggressiveness with which lawmakers are pushing into new territory.
The bills they have proposed — more than 150 in at least 25 states — include bans on transition care into young adulthood; restrictions on drag shows using definitions that could broadly encompass performances by transgender people; measures that would prevent teachers in many cases from using names or pronouns matching students’ gender identities; and requirements that schools out transgender students to their parents.
The flood of legislation is part of a long-term campaign by national groups that see transgender rights as an issue on which they can harness voter anger — as with the campaigns against remote learning and critical race theory that reshaped many school boards and lifted Republicans in Virginia’s elections in 2021 — though the midterm elections provided little evidence of it….” Read more at New York Times
House Republicans Press for Details of Hunter Biden’s Art Sales
Oversight panel wants testimony from art dealer of president’s son next month
The prices for Hunter Biden’s latest art collection range from $55,000 to $225,000, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. PHOTO: SAUL LOEB/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
“WASHINGTON—House Republicans on Wednesday pushed for details about sales of Hunter Biden‘s artwork, an early move as they step up an investigation into the business dealings of President Biden’s son.
In a letter, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability renewed a request that Republican lawmakers had previously made while in the minority to the younger Mr. Biden’s art dealer, Georges Bergès. House Republicans said Mr. Bergès hadn’t responded to previous requests, but now that they have the majority, their latest demand could carry more weight and presage a congressional subpoena that would ratchet up the pressure on the New York City gallery owner to cooperate with the inquiry.
‘Despite being a novice artist, Hunter Biden received exorbitant amounts of money selling his artwork, the buyers’ identities remain unknown, and you appear to be the sole record-keeper of these lucrative transactions,’ wrote Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, in the letter to Mr. Bergès.
Mr. Comer wrote that, since the House Republicans’ last requests, Mr. Bergès had held another exhibit featuring Mr. Biden’s artwork at his SoHo gallery.
Mr. Biden’s latest collection was posted by the Georges Bergès Gallery on Instagram earlier this month. The paintings are a mixture of ink and acrylic on metal, depicting abstract flowers and trees. The prices for the art range from $55,000 to $225,000, according to Mr. Comer’s letter.
Mr. Comer asked for a response by Feb. 8 and for Mr. Bergès to sit for an interview with the Oversight Committee before Feb. 15.
The White House deferred comment to Hunter Biden’s legal team, which didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter. Mr. Bergès didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Oversight Committee has said the younger Mr. Biden would be a focus of their investigations this year into the Biden family’s business dealings. They have said they wanted to see if the Biden family sold access to government officials or have been unduly influenced by monetary interests….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Vaccine boosters
“Updated Covid-19 boosters are cutting the risk that a person will get sick from the coronavirus by about half, research from the CDC shows. For adults between the ages 18 and 49, the studies showed Covid-19 boosters lowered the odds of getting a symptomatic infection caused by the BA.5 subvariant by 52% and cut the odds of getting an infection caused by XBB or XBB.1.5 by 49%. For adults 50 to 64, the new boosters reduced the odds of getting sick with Covid-19 by 43% for BA.5 and 40% for XBB subvariants. For those 65 and older, the boosters cut the odds of an infection with symptoms by 37% and 43% for the BA.5 and XBB subvariants, respectively.” [CNN]
Air travel
“The US Transportation Department is investigating the Southwest Airlines holiday travel meltdown that stranded millions of travelers, a spokesperson for the department said. The probe includes an examination of whether Southwest is scheduling more flights than it can handle. The airline, America's largest domestic carrier, canceled more than 16,700 flights between December 21 and December 29 -- costing it between $725 million and $825 million. Meanwhile, bad weather caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights in the US on Wednesday, with Southwest once again hit particularly hard. The airline is being especially impacted by a winter storm pushing through the Midwest due to its strong presence in many of the cities affected, including Chicago, Indianapolis and Cleveland. The latest batch of cancellations comes as Southwest is expected to report its fourth-quarter financial results today.” [CNN]
Backlash grows against DeSantis decision to block AP African American studies class
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is facing mounting backlash regarding his administration’s decision to prohibit an Advanced Placement high school course on African American studies, with Black leaders rallying in the capital, a prominent civil rights lawyer threatening to sue and state lawmakers urging him to reverse the decision.
Attorney Ben Crump accused DeSantis of violating the federal and state constitutions Wednesday by refusing to permit the course. His legal team noted that a federal judge found a 2010 law in Arizona that banned a Mexican American studies program from Tucson schools unconstitutional and officials ‘motivated by racial animus.’
The state Department of Education contends that the class is ‘inexplicably contrary to Florida law.’ A new education law championed by DeSantis requires lessons on race be taught in ‘an objective manner’ and ‘not used to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.’ Some education advocates and teachers say the law is so broadly framed that it is having a chilling effect on the teaching of Black history.
‘If he does not negotiate with the College Board to allow AP African American Studies to be taught in classrooms across the state of Florida, these three young people will be the lead plaintiffs in a historic lawsuit,’ Crump said before he introduced the students.
Crump has been involved in several high-profile civil rights cases involving Black Americans and vowed that DeSantis ‘cannot exterminate our culture.’
The latest controversy in Florida education policies began this month, when the DeSantis administration said a pilot Advanced Placement course on Black history would not be approved by the state Department of Education because it violated state law and ‘lacks educational value.’
The state Education Department listed ‘concerns’ in the curriculum, including topics covering ‘Intersectionality and Activism,’ ‘Black Feminist Literary Theory’ and ‘Black Queer Studies.’
‘Now who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory?’ DeSantis said at a news conference this week. ‘That is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids.’
But critics of the governor, who has made eliminating what he calls ‘woke indoctrination’ from schools and businesses a key part of his platform, say he is unfairly targeting Black history by not allowing the course to be taught in Florida. Other Advanced Placement classes, such as European history, have not been scrutinized by the DeSantis administration.
The College Board said in a news release Tuesday that the ‘official framework’ of the course will be released Feb. 1, replacing the pilot program and incorporating feedback from high schools and colleges. It does not mention input from public officials.
A College Board spokesman declined to comment on whether the curriculum was being adjusted in light of the DeSantis administration’s concerns. AP classes take two to six years to develop, according to the board, and ‘are regularly reviewed thereafter.’…” Read more at Washington Post
Book bans
“Efforts are underway in Florida counties to comply with a law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that requires the approval of books in classroom libraries. Some teachers in the state are expressing ‘fear’ and ‘confusion’ around the implementation of HB 1467, which requires that books be pre-approved materials or vetted by a media specialist trained by Florida's Department of Education. The law also indicates violations could be considered a third-degree felony. The contentious law marks just one of several efforts backed by DeSantis to legislate what can be taught in Florida schools. Just this week, the governor commented for the first time on the state's rejection of a new proposed AP course on African American studies for imposing what he called a ‘political agenda.’” [CNN]
Ukraine
“An air raid alert is in place across Ukraine today after Russia fired more than 30 missiles at the country this morning, the Ukrainian Air Force said. The attacks come after the US and Germany said Wednesday they would send tanks to Ukraine to aid its defense efforts. Moscow, however, sees the delivery of modern tanks to Ukraine as "direct involvement" in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today. Amid the heightened tensions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is "not interested" in meeting his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for peace talks. "After a full-scale invasion, for me (Putin) is nobody," Zelensky said in an interview with Sky News that aired today.” [CNN]
People gather in the subway station being used as a bomb shelter during a rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023.
Efrem Lukatsky, AP
“Impeachment attempt | Leftist parties in Peru lodged a motion seeking the impeachment of President Dina Boluarte, escalating a political crisis that’s seen fatalities and protests across the country since she was sworn in last month. Boluarte took over from Pedro Castillo after he was impeached and arrested for trying to suspend congress, triggering Peru’s worst violence in decades as his supporters tried to oust the incoming government.” [Bloomberg]
A protest in Lima on Tuesday. Photographer: Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images
“Denmark plans military conscription for women, as the Nordic country seeks to significantly boost the size of its armed forces.” [Bloomberg]
“Rich exit | President Xi Jinping’s decision to dismantle Covid travel restrictions is accelerating an exodus by wealthy Chinese, who could fuel billions in capital outflows as they plow cash into property and assets abroad. Since the end of Covid Zero in December, many rich Chinese spooked by a crackdown on industries like technology, real estate and education have begun traveling overseas to check out property or firm up plans to emigrate.” [Bloomberg]
Palestinians say Israeli troops kill 9 in West Bank raid
“JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians, including a 60-year-old woman, and wounded several others during a raid in a flashpoint area of the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, in the deadliest day in years in the territory.
The violence occurred during what Palestinian health officials described as a fierce, daytime operation in the Jenin refugee camp, a militant stronghold of the West Bank that has been a focus of nearly a year of Israeli arrest raids. The conflict spiked this month, with 29 Palestinians killed since the start of the year. It was not immediately clear how many of those killed Thursday were affiliated with armed groups.
The fighting comes weeks into Israel’s new government, its most right-wing ever, which has pledged to take a hard line against the Palestinians and ramp up settlement construction on lands the Palestinian seek for their hoped-for state. It also comes days before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to arrive in the region and push for steps that might improve daily life for the Palestinians….” Read more at AP News
'Natural behavior': Why a London-sized iceberg breaking off of Antarctica isn't concerning scientists
“An iceberg almost the size of Greater London has broken free from an ice shelf and is floating away from Antarctica.
A crack known as Chasm-1, which has been ‘developing naturally’ over the last few years across the Brunt Ice Shelf, extended northwards, severing the west part of the ice shelf on Sunday during a spring tide, the British Antarctic Survey said in a statement.
Scientists say the impact of this new huge iceberg, around 600-square-miles in size and 490 feet thick, is unpredictable.
The break off is the second major calving from this complex glaciological structure in the last two years. In February 2021, another giant iceberg, around 490-square-miles, broke off from the northern section of Brunt.
Scientists at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) who monitor the behavior of the ice shelf — the part of a land-based ice sheet that floats on the ocean — first observed this crack extending in 2012 after having been dormant for some decades, according to the European Space Agency.
The BAS Halley Research Station, which relocated 14 miles inland of Chasm-1 a few years ago after it began to widen, was unaffected by the recent break off. With six Halley research stations on the Brunt Ice Shelf since 1956 – the calving event, although unexpected time-wise, has long been anticipated….” Read more at USA Today
Elon Musk Explores Raising Up to $3 Billion to Help Pay Off Twitter Debt
Billionaire has held talks with investors about selling new Twitter shares
Twitter’s unsecured bridge loans, which total $3 billion, are the most expensive portion of the $13 billion debt package.PHOTO: JEFF CHIU/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Elon Musk’s team has held talks with investors about raising up to $3 billion to repay some of the $13 billion in debt tacked onto Twitter Inc. as part of his buyout of the company, people familiar with the matter said.
In December, Mr. Musk’s representatives discussed selling up to $3 billion in new Twitter shares, people familiar with the matter said.
Mr. Musk’s team has said to people familiar with the finances of the company that an equity raise, if successful, could be used to pay down an unsecured portion of the debt that carries the highest interest rate within the $13 billion Twitter loan package, people familiar with the matter said.
Paying off the debt would provide welcome financial relief to Twitter, which has struggled to keep advertisers on the platform. In November, Mr. Musk said Twitter had suffered ‘a massive drop in revenue’ and was losing over $4 million a day. He also said that month that bankruptcy was a possibility for the company, although Mr. Musk later shared more upbeat prospects for the company, saying he expects Twitter to be roughly cash-flow break-even in 2023 as he has slashed some 6,000 jobs.
The state of the fundraising talks couldn’t be learned. In mid-December, Mr. Musk’s team reached out to new and existing backers about raising new equity capital at the original Twitter takeover price.
Mr. Musk’s advisers had hoped to reach a deal to raise cash at the initial takeover price by the end of 2022, according to an email sent to prospective investors at the time. However, some prospective backers said they balked at the terms, given concerns about Twitter’s financial performance. The Musk team didn’t specify a funding amount or purpose for the fundraise in the email….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Hot diet: Climatarian
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
“Move over, locavores:
A slew of new labels — from ‘climavore’ to ‘reducetarian’ — reflect the trend of people eating with sustainability in mind to reduce their climate "foodprint," Jennifer A. Kingson writes in Axios What's Next.
Why it matters: Food manufacturers, restaurants, and supermarkets are racing to cater to the zeal for lower-carbon eating choices.
What's happening: People are eschewing plastic packaging, ingredients flown in from afar, and foods that are environmentally damaging to produce.
The ‘eat local’ mantra is being replaced by the notion that whatyou eat is more important — since transportation is sometimes just a small part of your meal's carbon footprint.
Restaurant chains — including Chipotle and Panera — are putting ‘carbon labels’ on their foods.
There's a dizzying nomenclature affiliated with climate-conscious eating, with meaningful yet hard-to-parse differences.
"Sustainatarians" eat some meat but filter their diet through an environmental lens.
"Regenivore" — food from companies actively healing the planet — is a hot labeling trend, the N.Y. Times reported.” [Axios]
Global green-energy spending tops $1T
Data: BloombergNEF. (Electrolyzers had no investment until 2021.) Chart: Alice Feng/Axios
“Spending on the global transition to carbon-free forms of energy totaled at least $1.1 trillion in 2022, Andrew Freedman writes in Axios Generate from data out this morning.
Why it matters: This is the first time that such funding — including tech for renewables, and electric vehicles and charging stations— topped the trillion-dollar mark for one year.
China is significantly outspending every other country, at about $546 billion — about half the global total
The U.S. ranks a distant second.” [Axios]
“Lives Lived: As a domestic servant in South Africa, Myrtle Witbooi experienced the inequities of servitude firsthand. As an activist, she helped lead national and international unions to address them. She died at 75.” [New York Times]