The Full Belmonte, 4/5/2024
Israeli investigation finds the strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers was in ‘serious violation’ of procedures
“The Israeli Defense Forces said the decision to strike the vehicles was made in error and came after the IDF misidentified vehicles in the aid convoy as carrying Hamas operatives. It also found the IDF drone operators were not made aware of the aid convoy’s coordination plan, and the aid group’s logo was not visible to the cameras tracking the vehicles at night.”
Read more at Washington Post
U.S. policy toward Israel will change unless it heeds Biden on Gaza aid and civilian protections, Blinken suggests
“Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to reporters following President Biden’s call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The warning lacked specifics and came as the Biden administration continued to approve the transfer of thousands of bombs to Israel despite calls to condition aid in the aftermath of the Israeli airstrike that killed seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen charity.”
Read more at Washington Post
Judge denies, for now, a Trump bid to dismiss charges that he hoarded classified documents
“The judge overseeing the case against Donald Trump on charges that he amassed classified documents at his Florida estate has rejected, for now, his bid to throw out the bulk of the case based on the argument that he had the right to keep those documents under a federal law governing presidential records.”
Read the latest at POLITICO
Former President Trump at a rally Tuesday in Wisconsin. Photo: Daniel Steinle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“A Georgia judge rejected former President Trump's attempt to get the state's election-racketeering case against him dismissed based on First Amendment claims.” Go deeper. [Axios]
Former Trump officials are among his most vocal opponents
“Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper has called him a ‘threat to democracy.’ Former national security adviser John Bolton has declared him ‘unfit to be president.’ And former Vice President Mike Pence has declined to endorse him. As Donald Trump seeks the presidency for a third time, a vocal contingent of former officials are stridently warning against his return to power. Read more.
Why this matters:
The Biden campaign has trumpeted the criticism of former Trump officials in statements and social media posts, hoping to convince at least some Republican voters — including those who backed other candidates during the Republican primary — that they cannot support his candidacy.
Sarah Matthews, a former Trump aide who testified before the House Jan. 6 committee, said it’s “mind-boggling” how many members of his senior staff have denounced him. ‘The American people should listen to what these folks are saying because it should be alarming that the people that Trump hired to work for him a first term are saying that he’s unfit to serve for a second term,’ Matthews said.
The critics still remain a distinct minority. Republican lawmakers and officials across the party have endorsed Trump’s bid — some begrudgingly, others with fervor and enthusiasm. Many aides and Cabinet officials who served under Trump are onboard for another term, something Trump’s campaign is quick to highlight.” [AP News]
Workers dismantle the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post/Getty Images)
Baltimore bridge
“President Joe Biden will visit Baltimore today, where he is scheduled to meet with some of the relatives of the six construction workers who died in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The White House previously said Biden would be meeting with local officials and viewing the wreckage of the bridge, which collapsed last week after a massive cargo ship hit one of its support pillars. The US Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that it plans to fully reopen the channel leading to the Baltimore port by the end of May — a significant update since the disaster halted vessels in the port critical to local and national economies. Clearing the channel will also allow for the continued search for the four construction workers believed to have been trapped by steel and concrete during the collapse, officials said.” [CNN]
No Labels Will Abandon Presidential Campaign Effort
“No Labels, the centrist group that has sought to field a third-party presidential bid, is abandoning efforts to create a “unity ticket” aiming to win the White House, according to people familiar with the plans.”
READ MORE at Wall Street Journal
Jeffrey Clark’s bid to aid Trump election scheme violated attorney rules, DC Bar panel finds
“A disciplinary panel in Washington has found that Jeffrey Clark, a former high-ranking Justice Department official, violated ethics rules for lawyers in his attempt to aid Donald Trump’s bid to subvert the 2020 election.”
Read the latest at POLITICO
Israel opens aid routes at Biden's urging
A recent UN-backed report warned that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was turning into a man-made famine. Credit: Getty Images
“Israel has agreed to increase aid deliveries into Gaza, allowing the use of the port of Ashdod and reopening the Erez crossing in northern Gaza that had been closed since that start of the war that followed the deadly Hamas attack on 7 October. This ‘major change of policy’, as Middle East correspondent Yolande Knell calls it, shows the influence the US still wields on Israel. US President Joe Biden said he was outraged and heartbroken by Israel's killing of seven aid workers in Gaza. Thursday's call with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reflected ‘a significant shift’ in the country's position, says State Department correspondent Tom Bateman. ‘The US is saying there is a limit to the support it will give Israel,’ he writes.” [BBC News]
The economy added 303,000 jobs in March, reflecting a surprisingly booming labor market that continues to beat predictions
“The labor market continues to churn out jobs at a healthy pace, thanks in part to the leisure and hospitality sector, even as interest rates remain high, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
Read more at Washington Post
Hundreds of people bypassed parts of airport security in the past 12 months.
“What they did: Sneaked past ID checkpoints, went the wrong way through exit lanes, walked through unstaffed body scanners and even boarded flights with no ticket, TSA said.
It’s a problem: The number of cases — at least 300 since March 2023 — reveals a vulnerability in air travel. TSA said it’s addressing this with new airport barriers.”
Read this story at Washington Post
The maker of a failed ALS drug removed it from the market.
“Why? A new trial showed that the once-promising treatment for Lou Gehrig’s disease doesn’t work. Amylyx Pharmaceuticals announced the plan yesterday.
The background: The FDA’s 2022 approval of the drug, Relyvrio, had generated controversy because it was based on a single clinical trial.”
Read this story at Washington Post
“Stanford University's next president will be Jonathan Levin, an economist who's currently the dean of the Stanford business school. His father, Rick Levin, was the president of Yale for 20 years.” Go deeper. [Axios]
A truck crashed and hurled 77,000 young salmon into the wrong creek.
The truck carrying spring Chinook smolts overturned along Lookingglass Creek on March 29. (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife)
“What happened? A truck loaded with about 102,000 endangered fish flipped on a sharp bend in Oregon last week. The survivors splashed into a nearby waterway. (The driver is fine.)
What now? The salmon are expected to breed in their accidental new habitat — more than 50 miles from the river where they were supposed to replenish depleted populations.”
Read this story at Washington Post
Next to the Washington Nationals’ stadium. Jason Andrew for The New York Times
High stakes
“In the coming days, the country’s best men’s and women’s college basketball teams will clash in the N.C.A.A. tournament finals. For fans, these are some of the biggest events of the year — a chance to see the best young athletes in the highest-stakes games. They are also some of the most lucrative events for sports betting apps. Americans will legally wager nearly $3 billion this year during March Madness, the American Gaming Association estimates.
Six years ago, sports betting was illegal under federal law. Today, it is everywhere. N.B.A. and N.H.L. viewers are exposed to three gambling ads a minute, a recent study found. Commercial sports betting revenue has increased 12-fold since 2019, as this chart by my colleague Ashley Wu shows:
Source: American Gaming Association | By The New York Times
What happened? In 2018, the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban, concluding that it violated states’ rights. Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia now allow gambling on games.
The old laws were strange in many ways. Other countries had allowed betting. The U.S. allowed it for some competitions, like horse racing. And millions of Americans were already betting on sports, regardless of its legality.
But the Supreme Court did not just let Americans place legal wagers. It also empowered a big industry to market sports betting apps and convince more people to gamble, through another set of rulings.
Enabling big business
Americans typically learn about free speech in the context of social and political issues. But starting in the 1970s, the Supreme Court has interpreted the First Amendment to protect advertisements. Now, if something is legal, it can be advertised, and governments can’t stop companies from marketing it. (There are some limits: Ads can’t be deceptive or misleading, for instance.)
A gambling billboard at Fenway Park. Charles Krupa/Associated Press
Supporters of this legal paradigm say that advertising lets consumers make informed decisions. “The court has taken the view that the freedom of speech, generally speaking, should let individuals decide for themselves what to believe without the government trying to say that these are bad messages,” Eugene Volokh, a legal scholar at U.C.L.A., told me. In other words: If people want to spend their savings on legal sports wagers, they should be able to find out how to do so.
What about tobacco? It’s true that cigarette companies are not allowed to advertise, even though their products are legal. But this is a special situation. Executives agreed not to market cigarettes as part of an unusual legal settlement with states in 1998. Otherwise, the Supreme Court has upheld tobacco companies’ right to advertise on First Amendment grounds.
The rulings mean that the only reliable way to prevent the mass marketing of a product is to ban it. For lawmakers, “there is this strange incentive to try to get around the First Amendment by not legalizing things or by banning products,” Jennifer Pomeranz, a public health lawyer at New York University, said. She pointed to the federal government’s prohibition of marijuana, even as many states have legalized the drug.
The consequences
The American Gaming Association says that sports betting ads guide people from illegal to legal markets, which raises tax revenue for governments and helps consumers avoid fraud.
But advertising also convinces more people to gamble. Recovering addicts complain that the deluge of ads presents a constant temptation when all they want to do is watch a game. Calls to gambling helplines have increased in states that legalized sports betting.
Legal gambling has also affected the sports themselves. Consider prop betting, in which people try to predict how an athlete will perform in a given game. Fans have threatened players who don’t meet their predictions. And athletes can bet on themselves, then adjust their play in an effort to cash out, as N.B.A. player Jontay Porter has been accused of doing. Such self-dealing could damage the integrity of a competition. For these reasons, Louisiana this week passed a ban on prop betting for college athletes.
Gambling can also bring other kinds of headaches for athletes. Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani is currently mired in a scandal after his former interpreter allegedly stole millions to pay for bets. (That misconduct involves illegal betting markets. The Athletic explained how they work.)
These issues will become more common as sports betting grows. But the gambling industry has a vested interest in getting as many people to participate as possible, regardless of the consequences. And as a result of Supreme Court rulings, lawmakers are limited in what they can do.
For more: Ohtani is performing, despite the gambling scandal. He hit his first home run as a Dodger with a 430-foot shot. See fun images of his fans.” [New York Times]
Iowa, UConn join South Carolina, NC State in Friday semifinals
“The Iowa Hawkeyes and UConn Huskies will join South Carolina and NC State in Cleveland for the women's Final Four on Friday. In the first match-up the overall No. 1 seed South Carolina Gamecocks will play the NC State Wolfpack, in their first Final Four since 1998. Iowa, a Final Four veteran, will play UConn in the nightcap, setting up a showdown between Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers. Read more
•A brilliant performance from Paige Bueckers sets up showdown with Caitlin Clark, again.
•Final Four bold predictions: How the men's semifinals of March Madness will unfold.” [USA Today]
Paige Bueckers and the UConn Huskies will battle the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Final Four.
Troy Wayrynen, USA TODAY Sports
Angel Reese Myles Loftin/Vogue
“Fashion and sports: Days after L.S.U. lost to Iowa in the Elite Eight, the team’s star forward Angel Reese was still making headlines — this time in Vogue.
She used the magazine to announce she would enter the W.N.B.A. draft and posed for a shoot with clothes from Valentino, Diesel, Wales Bonner and Christian Louboutin — the latest expression of a growing overlap between fashion and sports. The Paris Olympics this summer will be the ultimate mixing of these industries, Vanessa Friedman writes.” [New York Times]
Kiss performs during the final night of the "Kiss Farewell Tour" on Dec. 2, 2023, at Madison Square Garden in New York. Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
“Rock band Kiss has sold its name, catalog and intellectual property to a Swedish company for an estimated $300 million, AP reports.
It's part of the band's effort to find a digital presence that will live on even as its human members hang up their guitars and wipe off their makeup for good.
Pophouse, the company that bought the rights to all things Kiss, will likely launch a live show that features digitized avatars of the band members "performing" their biggest hits. The company recently did something similar with ABBA.
It's also planning to license the band's material for a biopic and a documentary.” [Axios]