The Full Belmonte, 5/17/2023
McCarthy calls Biden's bluff
Speaker McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speak to reporters outside the West Wing after debt-limit talks with President Biden yesterday. Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Republicans are taking an early victory lap after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy got the White House to the table on the debt ceiling, Axios' Hans Nichols, Juliegrace Brufke and Andrew Solender report.
Why it matters: President Biden spent months refusing negotiations, citing a bipartisan tradition of raising the debt ceiling without preconditions. Now, there's new hope for a deal.
What's happening: Efforts by Democrats to peel off vulnerable House Republicans failed — none openly opposed McCarthy's strategy of tying spending cuts to a debt ceiling hike.
With just two weeks until the "X-date" — June 1, when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warns the U.S. could run out of cash — Biden dispatched top deputies to cut a deal with McCarthy's office. Their first meeting was last night.
Between the lines: Even if Biden compromised on process, allies say, he's still in a position to win on policy.
If Biden concedes to direct, one-on-one, negotiations, McCarthy is prepared to give ground as well. He’s open to a deal that lifts the debt ceiling until 2025 — beyond the next election.
The bottom line: Default is still possible. But now a deal is closer.
Intrusion at top aide's home
National security adviser Jake Sullivan leaves the White House briefing room on April 24. Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP
“The Secret Service is investigating how an intruder got inside White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan's home in the middle of the night a few weeks ago.
Why it matters: Sullivan's home was breached even though he has an around-the-clock Secret Service detail, Axios' Jacob Knutson reports.
The intrusion, first reported by The Washington Post, occurred around 3 a.m. one night in late April at Sullivan's home in D.C.'s West End.
Sullivan confronted the man and told him to leave. Agents assigned to the house, stationed outside, were unaware of the intrusion until after the man had left and Sullivan alerted them, according to The Post.
There were no signs of forced entry — a door apparently was unlocked. The man appeared to be intoxicated and confused about where he was.
Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said: ‘While the protectee was unharmed, we are taking this matter seriously and have opened a comprehensive mission assurance investigation.’
‘Any deviation from our protective protocols is unacceptable and if discovered, personnel will be held accountable.’” [Axios]
North Carolina 12-week abortion ban to become law after GOP lawmakers override governor's veto
“North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature successfully overrode the governor’s recent veto of legislation banning most abortions after 12 weeks, further restricting abortion care in the state. The override vote was completed in back-to-back sessions Tuesday night by the state House and Senate — marking a victory for the new, supermajority Republican legislature. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, an abortion-rights supporter, vetoed the measure over the weekend during a rally in front of hundreds of abortion-rights activists and voters in Raleigh, North Carolina. Cooper had spent the last week traveling around the state to convince Republicans to uphold his veto.” Read more at USA Today
AI could cause 'significant harm to the world'
“In his first appearance before Congress, Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, told a Senate Judiciary Committee panel his worst fear is that artificial intelligence technologies could cause ‘significant harm to the world.’ Fears about artificial intelligence and the push for tighter controls appeared to be bipartisan. The Biden administration has convened officials from the top companies including OpenAI, Microsoft and Google and launched an initiative to audit AI technologies. Read more at USA Today
OpenAI CEO Samuel Altman issues stark warning of danger of artificial intelligence. Wochit
Harry and Meghan in 'near catastrophic' car chase - spokesperson
“Prince Harry, Meghan and her mother were involved in a "near catastrophic car chase" involving paparazzi, a spokesperson for the prince has said.
The incident happened after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended an awards ceremony in New York on Tuesday.
In a statement, the prince's spokesperson said the "relentless pursuit" lasted for over two hours.
They added it resulted in near collisions with other drivers on the road, pedestrians and police officers.
‘While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyone's safety,’ the spokesperson said.
‘Dissemination of these images, given the ways in which they were obtained, encourages a highly intrusive practice that is dangerous to all in involved.’” [BBC]
Elizabeth Holmes loses latest bid to avoid prison and gets hit with $452 million restitution bill
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE
FILE - Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes arrives at federal court in San Jose, Calif., Oct. 17, 2022. Holmes has once again lost her bid to stay out of prison while she appeals her fraud conviction tied to a blood-testing hoax that bilked investors. In a one-page ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday, May 16, 2023, that Holmes' appeal did not show that she would have received a shorter sentence or have her conviction reversed due to errors made during her trial. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
“SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes appears to be soon bound for prison after an appeals court Tuesday rejected her bid to remain free while she tries to overturn her conviction in a blood-testing hoax that brought her fleeting fame and fortune.
In another ruling issued late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila ordered Holmes to pay $452 million in restitution to the victims of her crimes. Holmes is being held jointly liable for that amount with her former lover and top Theranos lieutenant, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who is already in prison after being convicted on a broader range of felonies in a separate trial.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision on Holmes’ attempt to avoid prison comes nearly three weeks after she deployed a last-minute legal maneuver to delay the start of her 11-year sentence. She had been previously ordered to surrender to authorities on April 27 by Davila, who sentenced her in November….” Read more at AP News
GOP Rep. George Santos of New York faces push to expel him from Congress
“Embattled Republican Rep. George Santos of New York is facing his latest challenge from a fellow lawmaker. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., on Tuesday sought to force a vote to expel Santos from the House. The House has two days to act on Garcia's resolution, meaning a vote has to be scheduled by Thursday afternoon. Lawmakers could also try to table the move. However, the resolution faces an uphill climb in the House, which has a Republican majority and requires a two-thirds majority vote to expel a member. The resolution has nearly 50 cosponsors, all Democrats.” Read more at USA Today
Overnight history
Daniel Cameron celebrates last night at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville. Photo: Jon Cherry/Getty Images
“Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron won the GOP primary for governor, becoming the first major-party Black nominee for governor in the state’s history. He faces Gov. Andy Beshear (D) in November.
Cameron, 37, was endorsed by former President Trump, and is a protégé of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Cameron won a convincing victory in a 12-candidate field that included Kelly Craft, who was U.N. ambassador under Trump.” —AP [Bloomberg]
Cherelle Parker in a Democratic primary debate in Philadelphia on April 25. Photo: Matt Rourke/AP
Cherelle Parker won Philadelphia’s Democratic mayoral primary, likely setting her up to be the city's first woman mayor.
Why it matters: Parker’s victory over several other well-funded and viable candidates reflects the power of Philly’s Democratic establishment and positions her to become the city’s first female mayor.
Parker, 50, served for 10 years as a state representative for northwest Philadelphia before being elected to City Council in 2015.
Parker, who faces Republican David Oh in November, has embraced the police tactic of stop-and-frisk to help deter crime. She has called for hiring 300 cops for foot and bike patrols, while keeping the police budget flat.
UK and Netherlands agree ‘international coalition’ to help Ukraine procure F-16 jets
Rishi Sunak and Mark Rutte announced plans a day after Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv could soon receive fighter jets
“Prime minister Rishi Sunak and Dutch leader Mark Rutte have agreed to build an ‘international coalition’ to help procure F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine, the British government has announced.
A Downing Street spokesperson said Sunak and Rutte ‘would work to build an international coalition to provide Ukraine with combat air capabilities, supporting with everything from training to procuring F-16 jets’.
The prime minister reiterated his belief that Ukraine’s rightful place is in Nato and the leaders agreed on the importance of allies providing long-term security assistance to Ukraine to guarantee they can deter against future attacks.
'The leaders agreed to continue working together both bilaterally and through forums such as the European Political Community to tackle the scourge of people trafficking on our continent.
The statement on Tuesday came a day after Ukraine’s president hinted that Kyiv could soon receive F-16 fighter jets, saying he was hopeful of ‘very important’ decisions on the subject with the help of the UK…..” Read more at The Guardian
Kerfuffle after Biden shortens trip
President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden return to the White House on Monday. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“President Biden — who leaves for Hiroshima, Japan, today — is shortening his overseas trip next week to focus on debt-ceiling negotiations.
Why it matters: By coming home on Sunday immediately after G7, Biden will miss the first-ever visit to Papua New Guinea by a U.S. president, Axios' Hans Nichols and Justin Green report.
After Biden dropped out, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese canceled a highly anticipated summit of the Quad — a diplomatic partnership of the U.S., Australia, Japan and India — in Sydney next week.
In a scathing article, The Sydney Morning Herald said that the prime minister's "disappointment is Xi Jinping’s victory."
Biden's ‘dismount’ is a "personal blow for the prime minister, who was preparing to bask in the glow of hosting three of the world’s most powerful leaders in his hometown," the article adds.
‘China’s president-for-life, meanwhile, will be giddy with delight at the summit falling into disarray.’” [Axios]
Devastating floods in Italy claim lives and leave thousands homeless
Fifteen rivers burst their banks after heavy storms across country cause landslides and submerge villages
Angela Giuffrida in Rome
“Five people have died and thousands have been evacuated from their homes after heavy storms wreaked havoc in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, causing severe flooding and landslides.
People sought refuge on the rooftops of their homes after 15 rivers broke their banks, submerging entire towns.
The five deaths were confirmed by the prefect of Forlì-Cesena, Rai News reported. Among the victims were an elderly man and a couple who owned a company in the agriculture sector, according to Corriere della Sera. The body of a German woman was found on a beach in Cesenatico, a town by the Adriatic coast, but it is unclear if she was killed in the storms.
Italy’s civil protection agency said on Wednesday there could be worse to come. ‘The rainfall is not over, it will continue for several hours,’ the agency’s chief, Titti Postiglione, told SkyTG24 news. ‘We are facing a very, very complicated situation.’
There has been heavy rain across Italy in recent days but the worst-affected area has been Emilia-Romagna and parts of the central Marche region, where 12 people died in floods last September. The Emilia Romagna F1 Grand Prix scheduled fothis weekend has been cancelled….” Read more at The Guardian
Musk warns AI could destroy us
Screenshot: CNBC
“Elon Musk, an early board member of OpenAI (who says he named the organization), told CNBC's David Faber yesterday: ‘The advent of artificial general intelligence is called a singularity because it is so hard to predict what will happen.’
‘[T]here's a strong probability that it will make life much better and that we’ll have an age of abundance,’ Musk continued.
‘And there's some chance that it goes wrong and destroys humanity. Hopefully that chance is small. But it's not zero.’” [Axios]
Wells Fargo to Pay $1 Billion to Settle Lawsuit by Shareholders
A group of shareholders had claimed that the bank misled investors about its progress in cleaning up after a sham accounts scandal a decade ago.
By John Yoon
May 16, 2023
“Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $1 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the bank of overstating how much progress it had made in fixing the unlawful practices that regulators said had hurt millions of customers.
The agreement, detailed in court filings on Monday, is the latest in a succession of settlements and penalties the bank has paid stemming from a fraud scandal that came to light nearly a decade ago. From 2002 to 2016, bank employees, facing unrealistic sales goals imposed by their bosses, opened millions of accounts in customers’ names without their knowledge.
Wells Fargo removed top executives and pledged to regulators that it would fix the internal deficiencies that caused the scandal and other practices that put customers at risk.
The latest settlement resolves a lawsuit brought on behalf of shareholders that focused on the bank’s conduct from 2018 to 2020, after regulators identified many of the problems. The plaintiffs, including pension funds in Mississippi, Rhode Island and Louisiana, said Wells Fargo defrauded investors by giving the false impression that it was further along in the process of tackling regulators’ orders than it had disclosed at the time. The settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge in New York, was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal….” Read more at New York Times
WSJ drops Mr., Mrs.
Photo: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images
“As of today, after 134 years, The Wall Street Journal will no longer use courtesy titles — Mr., Ms., Mrs., Miss or Mx. (a gender-neutral honorific that first appeared in The Journal in 2016) — before last names.
Why it matters: Courtesy titles used to be customary in American newspapers, but long ago vanished from most publications besides The Journal and The New York Times.
Editor in chief Emma Tucker said in a note to Journal staff that editors ‘concluded that the titles in news articles are becoming a vestige of a more-formal past, and ... can slow down readers' enjoyment of our writing.’
The change ‘puts everyone on a more-equal footing and will help make our writing livelier and more approachable,’ she said in a note to readers.
The Journal notes that honorifics were already omitted from sports coverage, ‘to avoid stilted phrases such as, 'Mr. Curry made seven 3-pointers.'‘ [Axios]
Auschwitz museum begins emotional work of conserving 8,000 shoes of murdered children
By VANESSA GERAM
Elzbieta Cajzer, head of the museum's collections department, shows a collection of shoes that belonged to child victims of the former Nazi German death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau at the conservation laboratory on the grounds of the camp in Oswiecim, Poland, Wednesday, May 10, 2023. A two-year effort has been launched in 2023 to preserve 8,000 children’s shoes at the former concentration and extermination camp where German forces murdered 1.1 million people during World War II. (AP Photo/Michal Dyjuk)
“OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) — In a modern conservation laboratory on the grounds of the former Auschwitz camp, a man wearing blue rubber gloves uses a scalpel to scrape away rust from the eyelets of small brown shoes worn by children before they were murdered in gas chambers.
Colleagues at the other end of a long work table rub away dust and grime, using soft cloths and careful circular motions on the leather of the fragile objects. The shoes are then scanned and photographed in a neighboring room and catalogued in a database.
The work is part of a two-year effort launched last month to preserve 8,000 children’s shoes at the former concentration and extermination camp where German forces murdered 1.1 million people during World War II. Most of the victims were Jews killed in dictator Adolf Hitler’s attempt to exterminate the Jews of Europe.
The site was located during the war in a part of Poland occupied by German forces and annexed to the German Reich. Today it is a memorial and museum managed by the Polish state, to whom the solemn responsibility has fallen to preserve the evidence of the site, where Poles were also among the victims. The Germans destroyed evidence of their atrocities at Treblinka and other camps, but they failed to do so entirely at the enormous site of Auschwitz as they fled the approaching Soviet forces in chaos toward the war’s end
Eight decades later, some evidence is fading away under the pressures of time and mass tourism. Hair sheered from victims to make cloth is considered a sacred human remain which cannot be photographed and is not subjected to conservation efforts. It is turning to dust.
But more than 100,000 shoes of victims remain, some 80,000 of them in huge heaps on display in a room where visitors file by daily. Many are warped, their original colors fading, shoe laces disintegrated, yet they endure as testaments of lives brutally cut short.
The tiny shoes and slippers are especially heartrending.….” Read more at AP News
SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC
“N.B.A. draft lottery: The San Antonio Spurs secured the No. 1 pick — and the right to draft French phenom Victor Wembanyama. The Charlotte Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons round out the top five.
N.B.A. playoffs: The Denver Nuggets defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic passes in the second quarter of Game 1 against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Ron Chenoy, USA TODAY Sports
N.H.L. playoffs: The final four is set and it’s not a conference-championship field many people saw coming. Here are The Athletic’s predictions.” [New York Times]
College Football Player With Down Syndrome Sues School Where He Made History
Caden Cox said he was traumatized by a campus supervisor who used slurs about people with disabilities and threatened him with a knife.
May 16, 2023
“Caden Cox made history at Hocking College in 2021 when he became the first known person with Down syndrome to play and score in a college football game. Now, he is suing the junior college, claiming he was discriminated against, harassed and assaulted.
In a lawsuit filed by his mother, Mari Cox, on Thursday, Mr. Cox accused a former supervisor at the student recreation center where Mr. Cox worked of ‘disability discrimination, physical assault, and persistent verbal harassment.’
Mr. Cox, now 23, burst onto the national sports scene in the fall of 2021, after kicking a third-quarter field goal, and went on to kick three more that season, earning a feature on ESPN. Months later, he created a clothing collection with the brand Jake Max, featuring the school’s colors….
Mr. Cox also worked while attending Hocking College, a community college in Nelsonville, Ohio, where the suit alleges he was harassed and assaulted by his boss. His supervisor, Matthew Kmosko, is among the defendants named in the suit, along with Betty Young, the school president; the board of trustees; and five unnamed college employees.
Mr. Kmosko, who resigned, was found guilty in January of menacing Mr. Cox and sentenced to 30 days in prison.
The college and the board of trustees said in an emailed statement that they would not comment on active investigations or pending litigations, but ‘will cooperate with officials.’…” Read more at New York Times
Prominent foe of female circumcision wins prestigious $1.4 million Templeton Prize
The Associated Press
In this photo provided by the Templeton Prize in May 2023, Dr. Edna Adan Ismail sits for a portrait in London. Ismail, a nurse-midwife, hospital founder, and healthcare advocate who for decades has combatted female circumcision and strived to improve women’s health care in East Africa, was named Tuesday, May 16, 2023, as winner of the 2023 Templeton Prize, one of the world's largest annual individual awards. (Tim Cole/Templeton Prize via AP)
“Edna Adan Ismail, a nurse-midwife, hospital founder, and health care advocate who for decades has combated female circumcision and strived to improve women’s health care in East Africa, was named Tuesday as winner of the 2023 Templeton Prize, one of the world’s largest annual individual awards.
‘Rooted in her Muslim faith, she receives this year’s award in recognition of her extraordinary efforts to harness the power of the sciences to affirm the dignity of women and help them to flourish physically and spiritually,’ said the announcement. Among her achievements: the founding of a hospital and university which have significantly reduced maternal mortality in Somaliland.
The Templeton Prize, valued at nearly $1.4 million, was established in 1973 by philanthropist Sir John Templeton. It honors those ‘who harness the power of the sciences to explore the deepest questions of the universe and humankind’s place and purpose within it.’…
smail, 85, said she would donate some of her prize money to the U.S.-based Friends of Edna Maternity Hospital, for use in purchasing new equipment, hiring educators, and “training the next generation of health care workers that East Africa so desperately needs.”
Ismail was born in 1937 in Hargeisa, the capital of what was then British Somaliland. Her father was a doctor; due to his influence, she was covertly tutored alongside her brothers until she was 15. A scholarship exam, normally reserved for boys, qualified her to study in Britain, where she received an education in nursing and midwifery.
She returned to her homeland as its first medically trained nurse-midwife. According to the prize announcement, she was the first woman to drive a car in her country and the first appointed to a position of political authority as director of the Ministry of Health.
She later joined the World Health Organization, serving as regional technical officer for maternal and child health from 1987-91 and WHO representative to Djibouti from 1991-97.
She left her international career to return home with a dream of building a hospital. After newly re-formed Somaliland declared its independence in 1991 — though it remains unrecognized by foreign powers — its government offered her a tract of land previously used as a garbage dump.
She sold her assets to build the hospital, and raised more funds worldwide after a profile of her appeared in The New York Times. The Edna Adan Maternity Hospital opened in 2002.
While Somaliland’s health care system was in disarray, the hospital made great strides, dramatically reducing the maternal mortality. Its education program became Edna Adan University in 2010; it has trained more than 4,000 students to become doctors, nurses and other types of health professionals. More than 30,000 babies have been delivered at the hospital, where 80% of the staff and 70% of the students are women.
Despite its lack of international recognition, Somaliland remains self-governing in its territory in northern Somalia.
Ismail is an outspoken critic of female genital mutilation, a painful and sometimes life-threatening practice performed in some Muslim and non-Muslim societies. When she was 8, her mother subjected her to FGM without the knowledge of her father, who was outraged.
As a practicing midwife early in her career, she was confronted with grievous complications during childbirth from the FGM scarring. After attending a 1976 conference in Sudan at which participants from Muslim countries that practiced FGM spoke about its effects, she was inspired to raise the issue at home.
As a director in Somalia’s health ministry, Ismail began to speak out on FGM — initially shocking her audience and attracting threats, but also building widespread interest. She encouraged women to come forward and men to stand up for them.
‘Islam forbids female circumcision,’ Ismail said in a video filmed for the Templeton Prize. ‘Every day I’m reliving and remembering, I’m recalling that pain that happened to me when I was 7 or 8 years old. The wounds may heal but the pain never leaves you.’
In some countries, women scarred by FGM are obtaining medical treatment and therapy to overcome or reduce trauma that dates to childhood, but Ismail said this was not a priority in Somaliland.
‘We are still struggling to find medical treatment for life-threatening childhood diseases, injuries, and assistance to women during childbirth,’ she told The Associated Press via email. ‘I feel that whatever energy and resources we have should be devoted to help prevent diseases ... rather than reversing the trauma that healthy little girls should not have been subjected to in the first place.’
While progress has been made, FGM is still practiced in several countries; cases have come to light in Britain, the United States, and elsewhere. Ismail’s fight to end FGM continues through her international advocacy and at her hospital.
Previous winners of the Templeton Prize include Mother Teresa of Kolkata in 1973, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa in 2013, and conservationist Jane Goodall in 2021. The 2022 prize went to physicist Frank Wilczek.” Read more at AP News