The Full Belmonte, 1/29/2023
Memphis disbands police unit
Darin Obston Jr. prays next to a makeshift memorial near the location where Tyre Nichols was beaten by Memphis police officers. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
“The Memphis Police Department permanently disbanded the special unit Scorpion in the wake of murder charges brought against five of its members in connection to Tyre Nichols' death.
The announcement came less than 24 hours after the city released police bodycam footage that showed multiple officers kicking, punching and striking Nichols with a baton as he screamed for help and pleaded for them to stop, Axios' Shawna Chen writes.” [Axios]
Times Square protest yesterday over the death of Tyre Nichols. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/AP
Scorpion, which stands for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods, was formed in 2021 to crack down on violent crime in Memphis. It has faced controversy over its tactics.
Its members often drove unmarked police cars as they patrolled neighborhoods, typically in 10-man teams.
Trump opens 2024 run, says he’s ‘more committed’ than ever
By MEG KINNARD, HOLLY RAMER and JILL COLVIN
“COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump kicked off his 2024 White House bid with stops Saturday in New Hampshire and South Carolina, events in early-voting states marking the first campaign appearances since announcing his latest run more than two months ago.
‘Together we will complete the unfinished business of making America great again,’ Trump said at an evening event in Columbia to introduce his South Carolina leadership team.
Trump and his allies hope the events in states with enormous power in selecting the nominee will offer a show of force behind the former president after a sluggish start to his campaign that left many questioning his commitment to running again.
‘They said, ‘He’s not doing rallies, he’s not campaigning. Maybe he’s lost that step,’ Trump said at the New Hampshire GOP’s annual meeting in Salem, his first event.
But, he told the audience of party leaders, ‘I’m more angry now and I’m more committed now than I ever was.’ In South Carolina, he further dismissed the speculation by saying that ‘we have huge rallies planned, bigger than ever before.’
While Trump has spent the months since he announced largely ensconced in his Florida club and at his nearby golf course, his aides insist they have been busy behind the scenes. His campaign opened a headquarters in Palm Beach, Florida, and has been hiring staff. And in recent weeks, backers have been reaching out to political operatives and elected officials to secure support for Trump at a critical point when other Republicans are preparing their own expected challenges….
In his speech, he hurtled from criticism of Biden and Democrats to disparaging comments about transgender people, mockery of people promoting the use of electric stoves and electric cars, and reminiscing about efforts while serving as president to increase oil production, strike trade deals and crack down on migration at the U.S-Mexico border.
While Trump remains the only declared 2024 presidential candidate, potential challengers, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, are expected to get their campaigns underway in the coming months.
After his South Carolina speech, Trump told The Associated Press in an interview that it would be ‘a great act of disloyalty’ if DeSantis opposed him in the primary and took credit for the governor’s initial election.
‘If he runs, that’s fine. I’m way up in the polls,’ Trump said. ‘He’s going to have to do what he wants to do, but he may run. I do think it would be a great act of disloyalty because, you know, I got him in. He had no chance. His political life was over.’
He said he hasn’t spoken to DeSantis in a long time.
Gov. Henry McMaster, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and several members of the state’s congressional delegation attended Trump’s event at the Statehouse.
Trump’s team has struggled to line up support from South Carolina lawmakers, even some who eagerly backed him before. Some have said that more than a year out from primary balloting is too early to make endorsements or that they are waiting to see who else enters the race. Others have said it is time for the party to move past Trump to a new generation of leadership.” Read more at AP News
Death in the marshes: environmental calamity hits Iraq’s unique wetlands
Rivers and lakes that have nurtured communities since civilisation’s dawn are drying up, as drought leads to hunger, displacement and simmering conflict
by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in southern Iraq
“Small gangs of buffaloes sat submerged in green and muddy waters. Their back ridges rose over the surface like a chain of black islets, spanning the Toos River, a tributary of the Tigris that flows into the Huwaiza marshes in southern Iraq.
With their melancholic eyes, they gazed with defiance at an approaching boat, refusing to budge. Only when the boatman shrieked ‘heyy, heyy, heyy’ did one or two reluctantly raise their haunches. Towering over the boat, they moved a few steps away, giving the boatmen barely enough space to steer between a cluster of large, curved horns.
On the right bank of the river stood a cultural centre built in the traditional style of southern Iraq, with tall arches made of thick bundles of reed tied together. It catered to a large number of Iraqi tourists and a handful of foreigners who have flocked to visit the marshland region since it was named a Unesco world heritage site in 2016.
A couple of hundred metres past the cultural centre, however, the engine of the boat sputtered, and its bottom scrapped against the mud as the river dwindled into a shallow swamp, where small herons and grebes stood in water barely reaching halfway up their stick-like legs.
The foliage on the two banks also disappeared, revealing a devastating scene: what two years earlier was a great expanse of blue water, a lagoon teeming with wildlife, fish, and home to large herds of water buffaloes, had turned into a flat desert where a few thorny shrubs sprouted.
Under the scorching sun, the hot wind kicked tumbleweed across parched yellow earth, scarred with deep cracks and crumbling into thin dust under the feet. Rising above the ground were mounds of dead reed beds upon which the marsh dwellers had built their homes. A few relics of their former life lay scattered around: broken plastic buckets, some rusting metal pipe, and a kettle.
The ruin of nearly 3,000 sq km (1,000 sq miles) of this unique ecosystem is a small example of the unprecedented environmental disaster unfolding in Iraq. Rivers and lakes that had spawned farming communities since the dawn of civilisation are drying up, the country’s water reserves reduced by half, while the Iraqi ministry of water resources estimates that one-quarter of Iraq’s fresh water will be lost in the next decade.
In the province of Mosul and surrounding areas, considered Iraq’s bread basket, two consecutive drought seasons have turned large swaths of wheat and barley fields into arid lands, leading to the loss of nearly 90% of the most recent harvest. Officials believe that will continue to the next season.
After canals and rivers went dry, farmers began digging boreholes, but the unregulated use of underground water is causing a severe drop in the quality and water levels. In the southern region of Samawa, the illegal digging of boreholes has led to the total disappearance of Lake Sawa.
Meanwhile, freak sandstorms battering cities and eroding the soil have become a recurrent event owing to the drought and loss of vegetation coverage – 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres) are lost to desertification each year.
The drought is leading to the displacement of tens of thousands of people, pushing farmers to abandon their lands and move into the margins of big cities, settling in shanties on their outskirts, straining an already crumbling infrastructure and causing further destruction of agricultural lands and desertification. And in a country with a fragile security situation, rife with heavily armed militias and awash with an abundance of weapons, the competition over water, and the unregulated digging of boreholes, is creating local feuds that threaten to spill into larger conflicts.
The causes for these environmental disasters are multiple and interlinked: rising temperatures, record low rainfalls due to the climate crisis; the drastic reduction of the amount of water reaching Iraq from upstream countries, with Turkey’s extensive dam networks on the Tigris and Euphrates cutting Iraq’s share by 60%, while nearby Iran has diverted tributaries and other rivers. The temperature rise is also causing an increase in water evaporation, contributing to the depletion of reservoirs.
According to the GEO-6 report issued by the UN Environment Programme, Iraq is classified as the fifth most vulnerable country in the world to decreased water and food availability and extreme temperatures. The World Bank estimates that by 2050, average temperatures will increase by 2C and rainfall will decrease by 9%.
Iraq’s population, which is entirely dependent on the Tigris and Euphrates along with other smaller rivers for irrigation, drinking and sanitation, has nearly doubled in the past two decades. Still, in a country where corruption and mismanagement can turn a dire situation into a catastrophic one, archaic irrigation methods and depleted infrastructure that have seen no investment are wasting and polluting whatever water remains….” Read more at The Guardian
January 29, 2023
By Ashley Wu
Good morning. One company controls a wide swath of the concert industry, and lawmakers say music fans are paying the price.
Protesters outside the Senate this past week.Kenny Holston/The New York Times
Facing the music
“Ticketmaster has come under intense scrutiny since it botched the rollout of tickets to Taylor Swift’s tour late last year. Though the company has long been accused of anti-consumer practices, the backlash to the Swift debacle brought a new level of public attention. This week, the Senate held a hearing that explored whether Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, have an unfair monopoly over the live music industry.
I spoke with Ben Sisario, who covers the music industry for The Times, about how Ticketmaster become so dominant.
Ashley: How did we get from Taylor Swift tickets to a Senate hearing?
Ben: It was a phenomenal pop-culture moment. Taylor Swift, the biggest artist in the world, announced that she was going on tour for the first time in years. When there are millions of people trying to get a limited supply of tickets, there are going to be a lot of people left unhappy.
But Ticketmaster’s website also had a lot of problems. Ticketmaster said its system was overwhelmed by bots, which are used by scalpers to grab tickets ahead of real fans, and then sell those tickets back to them at inflated prices. When people logged on to purchase tickets, they were dumped into a digital queue with every other fan — and all the bots. Some fans said that even if they got through the line and added tickets to their shopping cart, by the time they went to check out, the tickets were gone.
It broke the internet. Huge numbers of people complained that they didn’t get a ticket and said that Ticketmaster failed to do its job. That caught the attention of politicians. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for Live Nation and Ticketmaster to be broken up, and Senator Amy Klobuchar announced a hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The complaints from fans pointed to a longstanding criticism that Ticketmaster lacks any real competition. How did the industry come to be dominated by one company?
Live Nation Entertainment as we know it is the combination of two companies: Live Nation, the events promoter — which hires artists and puts on shows — and Ticketmaster, the ticket seller. These are usually separate jobs in the live music business.
The whole world of concert promotion had been small-scale and regional until the late 1990s, when it was all rolled up and Live Nation became the biggest concert company ever. Ticketmaster had been around for a long time, but it had never been in the business of hiring artists to play shows. The two companies were already dominant in their respective industries, and in 2010, they merged.
Usually with mergers that big, the government has to ensure that the new company will protect consumer interests. Were officials worried about a monopoly at the time?
To approve the merger, the Justice Department required that the combined company agree to certain rules. One was that Ticketmaster wasn’t allowed to force venues to sign ticketing deals by threatening to deny them access to Live Nation tours. They couldn’t say, ‘If you don’t use Ticketmaster, you’re not getting X-Y-Z tours next year.’
But a few years ago, the Justice Department investigated and found that Ticketmaster had in fact done this a number of times.
And at the hearing this week, the C.E.O. of rival ticketing service SeatGeek testified that when they pitch their services, venues will be impressed with their proposal, but say that they’re worried about losing concerts if they drop Ticketmaster. Senator Klobuchar said that this is the definition of monopoly — that Live Nation doesn’t even need to exert pressure, and people just fall in line.
How do artists feel about this? Could they just sell their own tickets?
Nearly 30 years ago, Pearl Jam sued Ticketmaster, which the band said had a monopoly on concert tickets. They tried to book a tour without Ticketmaster, but it was a challenge for them to find venues to play outside the Ticketmaster ecosystem. They eventually abandoned the fight and came back to Ticketmaster.
For very large artists, it could be possible. Taylor Swift sells her own merch; maybe she could sell tickets too? But there is a status quo built into the marketplace for live music: An artist goes out and makes a deal with a promoter to put on a show, the promoter finds a venue for the show to happen, and the venue has a deal with a ticketing system for everyone who performs there. It’s not easy to change, especially when one big player controls multiple parts of it.
Back in 2018, we reported that Ticketmaster handles 80 of the top 100 U.S. venues. The company’s market share is a matter of debate, but it is still very high.
What might come after the Senate hearing?
It’s unclear. If the Justice Department does seek to break up the company, it would be a very big deal. Even though the senators were united in their displeasure about the power that Live Nation Entertainment has, I think it’s an uphill battle to change the system.
For now, those who argue that Live Nation and Ticketmaster are a monopoly say that the company’s position in the market is so strong that they can fail Taylor Swift and other huge artists like Bad Bunny, and still not be fired. And when the next superstar artist goes on tour, they will have virtually no choice but to work with Ticketmaster.
Ben Sisario has written for The Times since 1998. His first live concert was Henry Mancini sometime in the early 1980s, with his parents.
For more
Barclays Center in Brooklyn switched from Ticketmaster to SeatGeek in October 2021. This month, it switched back to Ticketmaster.
Senators deployed a lot of Taylor Swift puns during the hearing. Here are the best ones, according to Slate.” [New York Times]
America moves south
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
“The South is on track to become the U.S.'s population center for the first time in history, AP reports.
By the numbers: Last year, the South grew by 1.3 million people through births outpacing deaths and domestic and international migration, according to population estimates from the Census Bureau.
The Northeast and Midwest lost residents, and the West grew by just 153,000, primarily because a large number of people left for a different region.
Six of the 10 states with the biggest growth last year were in the South — led, in order, by Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Georgia.
Immigrants are also moving south, with top destinations such as Austin and Florida cities like Sarasota, Jacksonville and Fort Myers, Axios' Stef Kight reports.
And the share of Black Americans living in the South is ticking up after decades of decline, per Brookings.
What's happening: More affordable homes, lower taxes, warmer weather and the flexibility of remote work are among the leading factors driving people south.
What to watch: If this trend outlasts COVID, it could impact the reallocation of political power through redistricting after the 2030 census, AP notes.” [Axios]
Loneliness of remote layoffs
Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios
“The recent wave of layoffs in the tech industry and beyond is exposing a harsh reality of the remote and hybrid working world.
Virtual layoffs add a layer of loneliness and stress distinct from in-person job cuts, Axios' Erica Pandey writes.
Some 58,000 tech workers have already been laid off this month, per Crunchbase News. Around 140,000 were let go in 2022.
Thousands of those workers are getting laid off in their home offices or living rooms — immediately losing access to email, Slack and their community of colleagues, The New York Times' Emma Goldberg writes.
The experience is especially jarring for younger workers, many of whom joined their jobs remotely.
Madeline Whitney, a 2022 college graduate, was working from home when she was laid off from Yext, a mid-size tech company, this week. She joined a call that popped up on her calendar, and after a five-minute conversation, her job was gone. Within 15 minutes, her email was cut off.
‘The hardest thing was that we didn't get to say goodbye,’ she says.
Her colleague Anna Karl, another new graduate, was laid off the same day.
‘When you're dealing with the hybrid environment, you don't have people there for you to talk about it or ask for recommendations for new jobs,’ she says. ‘There are so many people I loved working with that I'll probably never see again.’” [Axios]
Novak Djokovic claims 10th Australian Open title, 22nd Slam
By HOWARD FENDRICH
“MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Novak Djokovic climbed into the Rod Laver Arena stands to celebrate his 10th Australian Open championship and record-tying 22nd Grand Slam title Sunday and, after jumping and pumping his fists with his team, he collapsed onto his back, crying.
When he returned to the playing surface, Djokovic sat on his sideline bench, buried his face in a white towel and sobbed some more.
This trip to Australia was far more successful than that of a year ago — when he was deported because he was not vaccinated against COVID-19 — although difficult in its own ways: a bad hamstring; some off-court tumult involving his father. Yet Djokovic accomplished all he could have possibly wanted in his return: He resumed his winning ways at Melbourne Park and made it back to the top of tennis, declaring: ‘This probably is the, I would say, biggest victory of my life.’
Only briefly challenged in the final, Djokovic was simply better at the most crucial moments and beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5). As a bonus, Djokovic will vault from No. 5 to No. 1 in the ATP rankings, a spot he already has held for more weeks than any other man….” Read more at AP News
NFL playoffs: Vegas believes some classics could be coming
By DAVID BRANDT
“If Vegas oddsmakers are correct — and there’s a reason those casinos are huge and luxurious — then football fans are in for a treat this weekend.
The NFL’s conference championship weekend is here: The Philadelphia Eagles will host the San Francisco 49ers for the NFC title while the Kansas City Chiefs host the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC. Both games are Sunday.
The gambling odds are tight for both games, though both home teams have a slight edge. The Eagles are a 2 1/2-point favorite while the Chiefs are favored by 1 1/2 points, according to odds from FanDuel Sportsbook.
The winners will meet in the Super Bowl on Feb. 12 in Glendale, Arizona.
All four teams have legitimate reasons for confidence Sunday:
— Let’s start with the Chiefs. Kansas City has arguably the top quarterback in the sport with Patrick Mahomes under center. He’s battling a high ankle sprain that he suffered during last week’s win against the Jaguars, but the All-Pro selection went through a full week of practice to prepare for the Bengals.
‘It’s about being a competitor,’ Mahomes said this week. ‘You want to be out there, especially in these games.’
Mahomes gets a lot of the publicity, but he also has help. Tight end Travis Kelce is among the game’s elite while defensive tackle Chris Jones had 15 1/2 sacks this season.
— Now we move to the Bengals, who are coming to Kansas City with loads of hard-earned confidence. The two teams are playing for the fourth time in under 400 days and Cincinnati won the previous three meetings — all by three points.
Quarterback Joe Burrow has been at his best against Mahomes, including his comeback win in last year’s AFC title game. He’s coming off a season in which he set Bengals records for completions (414), pass attempts (606) and touchdown passes (35).
The Bengals haven’t lost since Halloween, winning 10 straight.
— Over in the NFC, the Eagles and quarterback Jalen Hurts have had a dream season. Hurts is having a breakout, MVP-caliber year and its hard to top the pass-catching duo of A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, who both easily topped 1,000 yards receiving. Linebacker Haason Reddick leads the defense with 16 sacks.
Also, the game is in Philadelphia. That’s a place where fans can get a little — what’s the polite word — enthusiastic?
Hurts is battling a sore throwing shoulder, but it didn’t seem to be a problem in last week’s dominant win against the Giants.
‘I’ve felt better, but it doesn’t really matter,’ Hurts said. ‘I’ve got to get it done.’
— And finally, the 49ers. They have won 12 straight games, including seven in a row since rookie Brock Purdy, a seventh-round draft pick, took over at quarterback after Jimmy Garoppolo was injured.
Purdy is set for perhaps his toughest test yet Sunday, when he faces an Eagles defense that led the NFL with 70 sacks and must deal with an imposing road environment. But Purdy isn’t easily rattled and the 49ers have a loaded roster that includes running back Christian McCaffrey and defensive end Nick Bosa.
Here are some other things to know during the postseason:
WHAT’S THE UPCOMING SCHEDULE?
SUNDAY
San Francisco 49ers at Philadelphia Eagles, 3 p.m. EST, Fox
Cincinnati Bengals at Kansas City Chiefs, 6:30 p.m. EST, CBS Read more at AP News
Hamlin thankful, speaks publicly for 1st time in video
By JOHN WAWROW
“ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Damar Hamlin released a video Saturday in which he says he’s thankful for the outpouring of support and vows to pay it back, marking the first time the Buffalo Bills safety has spoken publicly since he went into cardiac arrest and needed to be resuscitated on the field in Cincinnati on Jan. 2.
Noting he continues to make ‘much progress’ in his recovery, Hamlin said now was ‘the right time’ to speak since the Bills’ season ended and because he needed time to recover and gather his thoughts.
‘It was just a lot to process within my own self — mentally, physically, even spiritually. It’s just been a lot to process,’ he said. ‘But I can’t tell you how appreciative I am of all the love, all the support and everything that’s just been coming in my way.’
Hamlin then said he has come to peace with what happened on the field when he collapsed after making what appeared to be a routine tackle of Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins, who struck Hamlin squarely in the chest….” Read more at AP News
Parting shot
Photo: DroneBase via Reuters
“People fish on the frozen Gull Lake near Brainerd, Minn., during the annual Brainerd Jaycees Ice Fishing Extravaganza.” [Axios]
“Tom Verlaine, whose band Television was a pioneer in the New York punk scene of the 1970s, died at 73.” [New York Times]