The Full Belmonte, 5/19/2023
Supreme Court avoids ruling on law shielding internet companies from being sued for what users post
By MARK SHERMAN
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with Google, Twitter and Facebook in lawsuits seeking to hold them liable for terrorist attacks. But the justices sidestepped the big issue hovering over the cases, the federal law that shields social media companies from being sued over content posted by others.
The justices unanimously rejected a lawsuit alleging that the companies allowed their platforms to be used to aid and abet an attack at a Turkish nightclub that killed 39 people in 2017.
In the case of an American college student who was killed in an Islamic State terrorist attack in Paris in 2015, a unanimous court returned the case to a lower court, but said there appeared to be little, if anything, left of it.
The high court initially took up the Google case to decide whether the companies’ legal shield for the social media posts of others, contained in a 1996 law known as Section 230, is too broad.
Instead, though, the court said it was not necessary to reach that issue because there is little tying Google to responsibility for the Paris attack.
‘We therefore decline to address the application of Section 230 to a complaint that appears to state little, if any, plausible claim for relief,’ the court wrote in an unsigned opinion.
The outcome is, at least for now, a victory for the tech industry, which predicted havoc on the internet if Google lost. But the high court remains free to take up the issue in a later case….” Read more at AP News
“A bipartisan bill by Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., would block members of Congress from getting paid if the U.S. enters debt default or if the government shuts down. The No Pay for Congress During Default or Shutdown Act, shared in advance with NBC News, would withhold lawmakers' pay for the duration of a debt limit breach or lapse in federal funding, an attempt to motivate legislators to prevent either situation.
The bill comes amid growing fears that the divided Congress may not meet the June 1 deadline set by the Treasury Department to raise the debt limit or risk a catastrophic default on U.S. obligations. “ [NBC News]
Disney scraps plans for new Florida campus as fight with Gov. Ron DeSantis continues
FILE - A statue of Walt Disney and Micky Mouse stands in front of the Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Jan. 9, 2019. It’s going on six months since Bob Iger returned to The Walt Disney Co., and while there’s been plenty of issues to keep him busy, one has definitely been top of mind: reconnecting with the Disney theme park die-hards and restoring their faith in the brand. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
“LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The Walt Disney Co. announced Thursday that it was scrapping plans to build a new campus in central Florida and relocate 2,000 employees from Southern California to work in digital technology, finance and product development.
The decision follows a year of attacks from Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature because the company opposed a state law that bans classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. Disney filed a First Amendment lawsuit against DeSantis and other officials last month.
Disney had planned to build the campus about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the giant Walt Disney World theme park resort, but Josh D’Amaro, chairman of the parks, experiences and products division, said in a memo to employees that ‘new leadership and changing business conditions’ prompted the company to abandon those plans….” Read more at AP News
“Locked in a bitter fight with Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, Walt Disney is closing a luxury Star Wars themed hotel and dropping plans to relocate 2,000 employees to a new $864 million corporate campus it was building in the state. Christopher Palmeriexplains the backdrop of the dispute sparked by DeSantis’s move to take control of a board that oversees municipal services at Disney World after the company publicly opposed a state law limiting the discussion of gender issues in public schools.” [Bloomberg]
A woman poses before taking part in the live action role-playing game Walt Disney World Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser at a high-end hotel in Orlando. Photographer: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times /Getty Images
Feinstein Suffered More Complications From Illness Than Were Publicly Disclosed
Senator Dianne Feinstein, 89, whose recent bout with shingles included contracting encephalitis, is frailer than ever. But she remains unwilling to entertain discussions about leaving the Senate.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, suffered a decline in health after being hospitalized for shingles in February.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times
“When she arrived at the Capitol last week after a more than two-month absence recovering from shingles, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, 89, appeared shockingly diminished.
Using a wheelchair, with the left side of her face frozen and one eye nearly shut, she seemed disoriented as an aide steered her through the marble corridors of the Senate, complaining audibly that something was stuck in her eye.
Ms. Feinstein’s frail appearance was a result of several complications after she was hospitalized for shingles in February, some of which she has not publicly disclosed. The shingles spread to her face and neck, causing vision and balance impairments and facial paralysis known as Ramsay Hunt syndrome. The virus also brought on a previously unreported case of encephalitis, a rare but potentially debilitating complication of shingles, according to two people familiar with the senator’s diagnosis who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe it.
Characterized by swelling of the brain, post-shingles encephalitis can leave patients with lasting memory or language problems, sleep disorders, bouts of confusion, mood disorders, headaches and difficulties walking. Older patients tend to have the most trouble recovering. And even before this latest illness, Ms. Feinstein had already suffered substantial memory issues that had raised questions about her mental capacity.
The grim tableau of her re-emergence on Capitol Hill laid bare a bleak reality known to virtually everyone who has come into contact with her in recent days: She was far from ready to return to work when she did, and she is now struggling to function in a job that demands long days, near-constant engagement on an array of crucial policy issues and high-stakes decision-making.
Ms. Feinstein’s office declined to comment for this article beyond providing a statement from the senator: ‘I’m back in Washington, voting and attending committee meetings while I recover from complications related to a shingles diagnosis. I continue to work and get results for California.’
Many people close to Ms. Feinstein, a six-term senator, described seeing her operating in the Senate in her current state as ‘frightening,, a tragic end to a formidable career in politics that they worry is casting a shadow over her legacy and her achievements. More immediately, it has resurfaced questions about whether Ms. Feinstein, who has announced she will retire when her term ends next year, is fit to continue serving even for that long.
Ms. Feinstein, a pioneering woman in Democratic politics who was once a major party power broker and a legislative force in the Senate, has stubbornly refused to consider leaving. The same force of will that led her nearly a decade ago to resist pressure from the Obama administration to keep secret a damning torture report still rears its head when she is confronted with calls to step down. The senator still sees the job as her calling and is no more receptive to a conversation about stepping aside than she was in 2018, when she decided to seek another term despite questions about her mental acuity.
People close to her joke privately that perhaps when Ms. Feinstein is dead, she will start to consider resigning. Over the years, she and many Democrats have bristled at the calls for her to relinquish her post, noting that such questions were rarely raised about aging male senators who remained in office through physical and cognitive struggles, even after they were plainly unable to function on their own….” Read more at New York Times
DeSantis launching next week
Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is now expected to launch his 2024 presidential campaign on Wednesday in Miami.
Why it matters: He plans a conservative cultural agenda aimed at delivering on his vow to ‘Make America Florida,’ Axios' Sophia Cai and Yacob Reyes report.
DeSantis ‘all but declared his presidential candidacy’ yesterday afternoon, the N.Y. Times reports, ‘telling donors and supporters on a call that only three 'credible' candidates were in the race and that only he would be able to win both the Republican primary and the general election.’
‘You have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing,’ DeSantis said on the call, organized by the super PAC backing him, Never Back Down. ‘Biden, Trump and me. And I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president — Biden and me.’
Reality check: Trump, with a six-month head start, has built a huge lead in GOP polls.
State of play: DeSantis has been campaigning for months, visiting foreign leaders, appearing in Iowa and New Hampshire — and touting new Florida laws that reflect the GOP backlash to the wave of diversity and equity initiatives that began during Trump's presidency.
‘We have battled the woke elites in Florida, and we have won, time and time again,’ DeSantis wrote in his book, ‘The Courage to Be Free,’ out Feb. 28.
DeSantis signed 80 new laws in Florida this spring, several of which have gotten national attention.
He signed a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy — one of the nation's strictest abortion laws — even as polls showed that most Floridians favor access to abortion.
Florida is now one of 18 states to ban gender-affirming care for trans youths — and one of just five states where that's a felony.” [Axios]
Tim Scott plunks down big buy
Sen. Tim Scott speaks Monday at a town hall in Manchester, N.H. Photo: Charles Krupa/AP
“Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who is expected to announce his run for president on Monday, plans a $6 million ad buy in Iowa and New Hampshire early next week, Axios Sophia Cai reports.
The ads — airing statewide on broadcast TV, cable, satellite, and radio — are scheduled to run through the first GOP presidential debate, in August.
Scott enters the race with $22 million in cash on hand, much of it left over from the $42 million he raised during the 2022 cycle.
He'll emphasize his personal story — growing up in a single-parent household, then starting a business.
Context: Trump's campaign and his super PAC, MAGA Inc., have already spent more than $13 million on ads, primarily to blast DeSantis.
DeSantis and his super PAC, Never Back Down, have spent $10 million+.
President Biden's campaign and the DNC have spent $1.6 million+.
What's next: Scott is expected to speak at his alma mater, Charleston Southern University in North Charleston, S.C., on Monday before traveling to Iowa and New Hampshire later next week.
He'll attend Sen. Joni Ernst's (R-Iowa) Roast and Ride, an event in Iowa that involves the riding of motorcycles and roasting of meats.” [Axios]
Videos show gunman saying ‘kill me’ to onrushing officers in New Mexico rampage that killed 3
By MORGAN LEE, SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN and ANITA SNOW
“SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Videos released Thursday of this week’s deadly rampage in northwest New Mexico recorded a voice said to be the shooter urging police to ‘kill me’ and officers rushing toward the 18-year-old gunman before fatally shooting him outside a church.
‘He is yelling on the Ring footage, ‘Come kill me,’ Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe said of Beau Wilson, the high school senior who authorities say killed three older women during the attack.
‘He’s making a stand, he has opportunities to run off, he does not use those opportunities,’ Hebbe said. ‘So yes it’s my belief that ultimately in his head, he has made the decision that he is going to stand and fight it out until he is killed.’
Three older woman were killed Monday by the shooter, including a mother and daughter who happened to be driving through the neighborhood. The victims were identified as longtime Farmington residents Gwendolyn Dean Schofield, 97, her 73-year-old daughter, Melody Ivie, and 79-year-old Shirley Voita….” Read more at AP News
Zelenskyy to attend G7 summit Sunday as world leaders discuss new punishment for Russia over Ukraine
By ZEKE MILLER, FOSTER KLUG and ELAINE KURTENBACH
“HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) — Leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies vowed Friday to tighten punishments on Russia for its 15-month invasion of Ukraine, days before President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joins the Group of Seven summit in person on Sunday.
‘Our support for Ukraine will not waver,’ the G7 leaders said in a statement released after closed-door meetings, vowing ‘to stand together against Russia’s illegal, unjustifiable, and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.’
‘Russia started this war and can end this war,’ they said.
Zelenskyy will be making his furthest trip from his war-torn country as leaders prepare to unveil new sanctions on Russia for its invasion. Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, confirmed on national television that Zelenskyy would attend the summit.
‘We were sure that our president would be where Ukraine needed him, in any part of the world, to solve the issue of stability of our country,’ Danilov said Friday. ‘There will be very important matters decided there, so physical presence is a crucial thing to defend our interests.’
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats against Ukraine, along with North Korea ’s months-long barrage of missile tests and China’s rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal, have resonated with Japan’s push to make nuclear disarmament a major part of the summit. World leaders Friday visited a peace park dedicated to the tens of thousands who died in the world’s first wartime atomic bomb detonation.
After group photos near the city’s iconic bombed-out dome, a wreath-laying and a symbolic cherry tree planting, a new round of sanctions were to be unveiled against Moscow, with a focus on redoubling efforts to enforce existing sanctions meant to stifle Russia’s war effort and hold accountable those behind it, a U.S. official said. Russia is now the most-sanctioned country in the world, but there are questions about the effectiveness of the financial penalties.
The U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to preview the announcement, said the U.S. component of the actions would blacklist about 70 Russian and third-country entities involved in Russia’s defense production, and sanction more than 300 individuals, entities, aircraft and vessels.
The official added that the other G7 nations would undertake similar steps to further isolate Russia and to undermine its ability to wage war in Ukraine. Details were to emerge over the course of the weekend summit.
The G7 nations said in Friday’s statement that they would work to keep Russia from using the international financial system to prosecute its war, would ‘further restrict Russia’s access to our economies’ and would prevent sanctions evasion by Moscow….” Read more at AP News
Scoop: Yellen's private warning to Wall Street
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen leaves the stage of an Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) summit in Washington on Tuesday. Photo: Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned the country’s biggest bankers that a potential debt-ceiling default will have repercussions beyond the financial system, Axios' Hans Nichols reports.
Yellen’s frank talk with bankers, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, are part of a broader effort by top Biden officials to enlist the business community to pressure congressional Republicans to raise the country’s debt ceiling by June 1.
Yellen made her remarks in a closed-door meeting at the Bank Policy Institute, an industry association that advocates for the country’s largest lenders, in Washington yesterday, according to a person in the room.
What we're hearing: Some Biden officials have expressed frustration that the business community hasn't done more to influence Republicans to pass a debt-ceiling increase.
But it's unclear if the business groups — or even the markets — have that much influence with some of the most conservative members of Congress.” [Axios]
Supreme Court Rules Andy Warhol’s Image of Prince Breaches Copyright Laws
Closely watched case pitted photographer against artist
Andy Warhol received a magazine commission to create a portrait addressed by Thursday’s Supreme Court decision. PHOTO: LEONARDO CENDAMO/GETTY IMAGES
“WASHINGTON—A celebrity photographer won a copyright case over Andy Warhol’s use of a picture she shot of Prince for a magazine, in a Thursday Supreme Court decision narrowing the ‘fair use’ rights of artists and writers to build upon existing works to create something new.
Writing for a 7-2 court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said a print licensed by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts to publisher Condé Nast served essentially as a substitute for the photograph Lynn Goldsmith shot of the musician for an earlier magazine assignment, despite differences in color, material and cropping.
As a result, she wrote, Warhol’s print was merely derivative of Goldsmith’s photo rather than transformative.
‘The purpose of the image is substantially the same as that of Goldsmith’s photograph. Both are portraits of Prince used in magazines to illustrate stories about Prince,’ Sotomayor wrote, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
To that extent, Sotomayor said, the Warhol Foundation was competing with Goldsmith, a photographer who has shot rock stars including Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen. Both licensed pictures of Prince to magazines after the musician, then 57, died April 2016 of a fentanyl overdose.
That’s what mattered, Sotomayor wrote, regardless of aesthetic judgments one might make regarding Warhol’s famous style or the verisimilitude of Goldsmith’s photography.
‘To hold otherwise would potentially authorize a range of commercial copying of photographs, to be used for purposes that are substantially the same as those of the originals,’ Sotomayor wrote.
A photograph of Prince by Lynn Goldsmith and a Warhol artwork were included in court filings.
Sotomayor’s opinion prompted an impassioned dissent from Justice Elena Kagan, who faulted the majority for failing to grasp Warhol’s revolutionary impact on visual art.
‘He reframed and reformulated—in a word, transformed—images created first by others. Campbell’s soup cans and Brillo boxes. Photos of celebrity icons: Marilyn, Elvis, Jackie, Liz—and, as most relevant here, Prince. That’s how Warhol earned his conspicuous place in every college’s Art History 101,’ Kagan wrote, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts.
‘It is not just that the majority does not realize how much Warhol added; it is that the majority does not care,’ Kagan wrote.
Kagan’s dissent warned that by limiting the concept of transformative use, Thursday’s decision ‘will stifle creativity of every sort. It will impede new art and music and literature. It will thwart the expression of new ideas and the attainment of new knowledge. It will make our world poorer,’ she wrote.
Nonsense, said Sotomayor. ‘It will not impoverish our world to require AWF to pay Goldsmith a fraction of the proceeds from its reuse of her copyrighted work,’ she wrote. ‘Payments like these are incentives for artists to create original works in the first place.’
The majority opinion focused on the leading copyright case of recent decades, the 1994 opinion upholding 2 Live Crew’s appropriation of the Roy Orbison song ‘Oh Pretty Woman’ for a hip-hop parody that included such lyrics as ‘big hairy woman.’
The court upheld the 2 Live Crew song as fair use not because songwriter Luke Campbell added lyrics or converted Orbison’s crooner from rock to rap. Rather, it was because it transformed the song from an earnest ballad to a winking parody, she wrote.
Goldsmith said she was ‘thrilled by today’s decision and thankful to the Supreme Court for hearing our side of the story. This is a great day for photographers and other artists who make a living by licensing their art.’” [Wall Street Journal]
First full-size 3D scan of Titanic shows shipwreck in new light
By SYLVIA HUI
In this grab taken from a digital scan released by Atlantic/Magellan on Thursday, May 18, 2023, a view of the bow of the Titanic, in the Atlantic Ocean created using deep-sea mapping. Deep-sea researchers have completed the first full-size digital scan of the Titanic wreck, showing the entire relic in unprecedented detail and clarity, the companies behind a new documentary on the wreck said Thursday. (Atlantic/Magellan via AP)
“LONDON (AP) — Deep-sea researchers have completed the first full-size digital scan of the Titanic, showing the entire wreck in unprecedented detail and clarity, the companies behind a new documentary on the wreck said Thursday.
Using two remotely operated submersibles, a team of researchers spent six weeks last summer in the North Atlantic mapping the whole shipwreck and the surrounding 3-mile debris field, where personal belongings of the ocean liner’s passengers, such as shoes and watches, were scattered.
Richard Parkinson, founder and chief executive of deep-sea exploration firm Magellan, estimated that the resulting data — including 715,000 images — is 10 times larger than any underwater 3D model ever attempted before….
The Titanic was on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City when it hit an iceberg off Newfoundland in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912. The luxury ocean liner sank within hours, killing about 1,500 people.
The wreck, discovered in 1985, lies some 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) under the sea, about 435 miles (700 kilometers) off the coast of Canada….” Read more at AP News