The Full Belmonte, 6/15/2023
A haze enveloped Minneapolis as smoke from Canadian wildfires blew into Minnesota on Wednesday.
Severe weather
“Around 45 million people in the US are under the threat of severe storms today from the Central Plains to the Southeast. Parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle are at moderate risk for severe storms, a level 4 of 5, according to the Storm Prediction Center. This comes after more than 135,000 people in the South were left without power Wednesday night as strong winds and several tornadoes moved across the region. Meanwhile, the Midwest is dealing with a new round of smoke billowing in from wildfires in Canada that are renewing concerns over hazardous air. Smoky skies and poor air quality are expected for millions of residents in Wisconsin and Minnesota today before clearing up later this week, the National Weather Service said.”
One of Saturn’s moons appears to have all the ingredients for life.
The surface of the Enceladus captured in 2009. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/Reuters)
“The discovery: Scientists found a key form of phosphorus in Enceladus’s ice-covered ocean, according to a new study. That means it has all six elements needed for life.
Why it matters: This subsurface ocean might be the most habitable place in the solar system (other than Earth), though no actual life has been found.”
Read this story at Washington Post
The Federal Reserve decided to leave interest rates alone yesterday.
“What to know: It’s the first time since March 2022 that the central bank decided against a rate hike. Raising rates has been the agency’s main tool to fight rising prices.
Why? The increases take time to trickle through the economy. The Fed wants to wait to see whether they’re working. But it also expects hikes later this year.”
Read this story at Washington Post
Suspect in mass shooting at Colorado gay nightclub expected to take plea deal
By JIM MUSTIAN and JESSE BEDAYN
Memorials are displayed outside Club Q, the LGBTQ nightclub that was the site of a deadly 2022 shooting that killed five people, on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/Chet Strange)
“COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The suspect in a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs gay nightclub is expected to strike a plea deal to state murder and hate charges that would ensure at least a life sentence for the attack that killed five people and wounded 17, several survivors told The Associated Press.
Word of a possible legal resolution of last year’s Club Q massacre follows a series of jailhouse phone calls from the suspect to the AP expressing remorse and the intention to face the consequences at the next scheduled court hearing this month.
‘I have to take responsibility for what happened,’ 23-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich said in their first public comments about the case.
A memorial near Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Nov. 22, 2022, with photographs of the five victims of a mass shooting at the gay nightclub. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
Federal and state authorities and defense attorneys declined to comment on a possible plea deal. But Colorado law requires victims to be notified of such deals, and several people who lost loved ones or were wounded in the attack told the AP that state prosecutors have given them advance word that Aldrich will plead guilty to charges that would ensure the maximum state sentence of life behind bars.
Prosecutors also recently asked survivors to prepare for the June 26 hearing by writing victim-impact statements and steeling themselves emotionally for the possible release of the Club Q surveillance video of the attack.
‘Someone’s gone that can never be brought back through the justice system,’ said Wyatt Kent, who was celebrating his 23rd birthday in Club Q when Aldrich opened fire, gunning down Kent’s partner, Daniel Aston, who was working behind the bar. ‘We are all still missing a lot, a partner, a son, a daughter, a best friend.’
Jonathan Pullen, the suspect’s step-grandfather who plans to watch the upcoming hearing on a livestream, said Aldrich ‘has to realize what happened on that terrible night. It’s truly beginning to dawn on him.’
Wyatt Kent, whose partner was killed in the Club Q attack, speaks during an interview on June 5, 2023, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Aldrich faces more than 300 state counts, including murder and hate crimes. And the U.S. Justice Department is considering filing federal hate crime charges, according to a senior law enforcement official familiar with the matter who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing case. It’s unclear whether the anticipated resolution to the state prosecution will also resolve the ongoing FBI investigation.
Some survivors who listened to the suspect’s recorded comments to the AP lambasted them as a calculated attempt to avoid the federal death penalty, noting they stopped short of discussing a motive, put much of the blame on drugs and characterized the crime in passive, generalities such as ‘I just can’t believe what happened’ and ‘I wish I could turn back time.’ Such language, they said, belied by the maps, diagrams, online rants and other evidence that showed months of plotting and premeditation.
‘No one has sympathy for him,’ said Michael Anderson, who was bartending at Club Q when the shooting broke out and ducked as several patrons were gunned down around him. ‘This community has to live with what happened, with collective trauma, with PTSD, trying to grieve the loss of our friends, to move past emotional wounds and move past what we heard, saw and smelled.’
Michael Anderson, who was a bartender the night of the Club Q attack, sits for a portrait on June 5, 2023, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Terror erupted just before midnight on Nov. 19 when the suspect walked into Club Q, a longtime sanctuary for the LGBTQ community in this mostly conservative city of 480,000, and fired an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle indiscriminately. Disbelief gave way to screaming and confusion as the music continued to play. Partygoers dove across a bloody dance floor for cover. Friends frantically tried to protect each other and plugged wounds with napkins.
The killing only stopped after a Navy petty officer grabbed the barrel of the suspect’s rifle, burning his hand because it was so hot. An Army veteran joined in to help subdue and beat Aldrich until police arrived, finding the shooter had emptied one high-capacity magazine and was armed with several more.
Aldrich, who since their arrest has identified as nonbinary and uses the pronouns they and them, allegedly visited Club Q at least six times in the years before the attack. District Attorney Michael Allen told a judge that the suspect’s mother made Aldrich go to the club ‘against his will and sort of forced that culture on him.’
Allen also has said the suspect administered a website that posted a ‘neo-Nazi white supremacist’ shooting training video. Online gaming friends said Aldrich expressed hatred for the police, LGBTQ people and minorities and used anti-Black and anti-gay slurs. And a police detective testified that Aldrich sent an online message with a photo of a rifle scope trained on a gay pride parade.
This booking photo shows Anderson Lee Aldrich. (Colorado Springs Police Department via AP, File)
Defense attorneys in previous hearings have not disputed Aldrich’s role in the shooting but have pushed back against allegations it was motivated by hate, arguing the suspect was drugged up on cocaine and medication the night of the attack.
‘I don’t know if this is common knowledge but I was on a very large plethora of drugs,’ Aldrich told the AP. ‘I had been up for days. I was abusing steroids. ... I’ve finally been able to get off that crap I was on.’
Aldrich didn’t answer directly when asked whether the attack was motivated by hate, saying only that’s ‘completely off base.’
Even a former friend of Aldrich found their remarks to be disingenuous. ‘I’m really glad he’s trying to take accountability but it’s like the ‘why’ is being shoved under the rug,’ said Xavier Kraus, who lived across the hall from Aldrich at a Colorado Springs apartment complex.
The AP sent Aldrich a handwritten letter several months ago asking them to discuss a 2021 kidnapping arrest following a standoff with a SWAT team, a prosecution that had been dismissed and sealed despite video evidence of Aldrich’s crimes. In that case, just months before the Club Q shooting, they threatened to become ‘the next mass killer’ and stockpiled guns, ammo, body armor and a homemade bomb. The incident was livestreamed on Facebook and prompted the evacuation of 10 nearby homes as authorities discovered a tub with more than 100 pounds of explosive materials.
The alleged shooter, who lived with their grandparents at the time and was upset about their plans to move to Florida, threatened to kill the couple and ‘go out in a blaze,’ authorities said. ‘You guys die today and I’m taking you with me,” they quoted the suspect as saying. “I’m loaded and ready.’….” Read more at AP News
Trump spurned chance to settle
Photo: Richard B. Levine/Sipa USA via Reuters
“Christopher Kise, one of former President Trump's lawyers, proposed last fall to try to arrange a settlement with the Justice Department that would include the return of all documents, The Washington Post reports.
Why it matters: Trump wasn't interested ‘after listening to other lawyers who urged a more pugilistic approach, so Kise never approached prosecutors.’ Now Trump faces, as he put it in a fundraising email, ‘a maximum sentence of 400 YEARS IN PRISON.’” [Axios]
Fox News
“Fox News sparked outrage for labeling President Joe Biden a ‘wannabe dictator’ on a news banner that aired during its 8 p.m. hour. The onscreen text read: ‘WANNABE DICTATOR SPEAKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE AFTER HAVING HIS POLITICAL RIVAL ARRESTED.’ It aired after former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 37 federal counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents. After receiving backlash, the right-wing network acknowledged the banner was inappropriate and said it had taken steps to address the situation internally. Fox has consistently sought to downplay the severity of the charges against Trump to appeal to its overwhelmingly pro-Trump audience. Notably, Fox News also took Trump's post-arraignment speech live to air — something CNN and other networks avoided doing because of the former president's propensity to lie.” [CNN]
“The Hill: Judge rules writer E. Jean Carroll can add Trump CNN town hall comments to a defamation lawsuit against the former president.” [New York Times]
Harry’s U.S. Immigration Docs Won’t Be Released: DHS
“A conservative think tank’s request for Prince Harry’s U.S. immigration documents to be released has been officially denied by the Department of Homeland Security. The Heritage Project had sought the files to find out if Harry had declared his past drug use before moving to the U.S. in 2020. ‘To the extent records exist, this office does not find a public interest in disclosure sufficient to override the subject’s privacy interests,’ DHS senior director Jimmy Wolfrey wrote in a letter to the think tank, which was seen by the New York Post. In his memoir Spare, published in January, Harry wrote about taking cocaine, cannabis, magic mushrooms, and ayahuasca. Sources close to the prince have previously suggested he’d been ‘truthful’ about his substance use during his American visa application.”
Read it at New York Post
Group of migrants bused to downtown Los Angeles from Texas
“Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott announced Wednesday that he sent a first group of migrants to downtown Los Angeles, the latest incident involving a GOP governor transporting asylum-seekers to a state led by Democrats. Abbott said the migrants were bused to Los Angeles Wednesday because California had declared itself a ‘sanctuary’ for immigrants. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who called the move a ‘despicable stunt,’ said in a statement that city departments and advocacy groups were mobilized to accept migrants from Texas.” Read more at USA Today
Official bring new blankets into St. Anthony's Croatian Catholic Church in Los Angeles on Wednesday, June 14, 2023. Forty-two migrants, including some children, were dropped off at Union Station Wednesday and were being cared for at the church.
Damian Dovarganes, AP
What's in the Republican student loan package?
“Senate Republicans on Wednesday unveiled their plan to address America's student debt crisis as a Supreme Court decision on President Joe Biden's forgiveness plan is expected any day. The GOP package is made up of five bills meant to target rising higher education costs and address the ‘root cause’ of student debt, lawmakers said. The bills include measures such as making information about outcomes at universities more accessible and requiring colleges and universities to use uniform financial aid letters that are clear on the costs associated with attending the institution.” Read more at USA Today
Power companies quietly pushed $215m into US politics via dark money groups
Donations have helped utilities increase electricity prices, hinder solar schemes and helped elect sympathetic legislators
Mario Ariza for Floodlight
“US power companies have made political donations of at least $215m to dark money groups in recent years, according to a new analysis of 25 for-profit utilities, amid growing concerns around how they wield influence.
Such secretive donations to barely regulated non-profit groups have helped utilities increase electricity prices, hinder solar schemes and helped elect sympathetic legislators in recent years.
While dark money giving to tax exempt groups is legal, a number of utilities have faced criticism for it. In Arizona and Alabama, power companies faced blowback after they used dark money to aid the election of friendly regulators. In Michigan, regulators barred another company from using dark money entirely after it spent $43m on politics in just three years….” Read more at The Guardian
Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
“President Biden looks certain to be Democrats' pick for president in 2024. But he might not win the first two contests of the primary season if they're in the traditional first-to-vote states of Iowa and New Hampshire — a scenario that seems increasingly likely, Axios' Alex Thompson writes.
Biden's team indicates he won't be on the ballots in those states if they vote before South Carolina, his choice for the first primary.
Why it matters: Democrats in Iowa and New Hampshire are threatening to defy Biden and move ahead with their contests — even as the party warns it will strip them of national convention delegates if they jump the gun.
That sets up a scenario in which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or another long-shot Democrat could win those states — and embarrass the president.
State of play: Since Biden’s surprise decision last December to make South Carolina the first state in Democrats' 2024 season with a primary on Feb. 3, New Hampshire Democrats have bashed the White House and the DNC.
The new calendar put New Hampshire and Nevada voting second — a few days after South Carolina. But New Hampshire Democrats note that their state law requires them to have the nation's first primary — and many vow to keep it that way.
Iowa Democrats haven't been as publicly hostile. But in the past two months they've quietly moved to hold their contest the same day as Iowa Republicans, in January.
That could put Iowa first on the Democrats' calendar. But New Hampshire lawmakers and party officials have signaled they may then attempt to move ahead of Iowa.
The intrigue: In touting South Carolina to kick off the primary season, Biden’s team has said it wants voting to start in a racially diverse state to give minorities more of a say in early presidential contests.
New Hampshire was 87% white in the 2020 census. Iowa was 83% white. South Carolina was 62% white.
Biden also has fond memories of South Carolina, where his primary victory in 2020 propelled him to the Democratic nomination. He has struggled in Iowa and New Hampshire. His team saw political security in pushing for South Carolina to vote first.
What we're hearing: Biden’s proposed calendar stunned many top Democrats. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the senior senator from New Hampshire, told Axios: ‘I believe the DNC's process was flawed, and that top party officials had their own agenda from the start.’
Mo Elleithee, a member of the party's Rules and Bylaws Committee and a longtime top strategist, defended the process: ‘We’re seeing a trend in politics where some people just claim the whole system is rigged when they don’t get their way. ... That's not the case here.’ [Axios]
“Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is the latest Republican to declare his intent to run for president. He filed the paperwork yesterday and teased a ‘major announcement’ during an appearance on Fox News. He's expected to announce his run during a speech at the Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute this evening.
Alex Brandon/AP
Suarez has rankled other Republicans in the past, according to NPR's Domenico Montanaro. On Up First today, he reports Suarez didn't vote for Trump in 2020 or DeSantis for governor in 2018. Montanaro says Suarez, who is Latino, has ‘had some issues with both men for their hard-line immigration policies.’ The FBI and SEC have opened investigations into Suarez for payments made to him from a subsidiary of a developer in Miami, according to the Miami Herald.
Keep up with the crowded GOP primary race with NPR's tracker.” [NPR]
Hundreds feared missing after migrant boat sinks off Greece
“A huge search-and-rescue operation is underway off the coast of Greece after an overcrowded fishing boat carrying migrants sank. It’s one of the worst disasters of its kind this year with at least 78 people dead and hundreds still feared missing. Read more.
Why this matters:
The boat was traveling to Italy from Libya, which migrant smugglers use as a main departure point for people seeking a better life in Europe.
Migration experts linked the sinking with the European Union’s failure to provide safe immigration alternatives for people fleeing conflict or hardship in the Middle East and Africa. The International Organization for Migration recorded more than 21,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014.” [AP News]
Scathing report finds Boris Johnson deliberately misled UK Parliament over ‘partygate’
By DANICA KIRKA AND SYLVIA HUI
FILE - Boris Johnson leaves his house in London, on March 22, 2023. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament about the lockdown-flouting parties that undermined his credibility and contributed to his downfall, a committee of lawmakers said Thursday, June 15, 2023 after a year-long investigation. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)
“LONDON (AP) — A committee of U.K. lawmakers harshly rebuked former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Thursday, saying he lied to Parliament about lockdown-flouting parties and was complicit in a campaign to intimidate those investigating his conduct during the coronavirus pandemic.
The House of Commons Privileges Committee found Johnson’s actions were such a flagrant violation of the rules that they warranted a 90-day suspension from Parliament, where he still served after stepping down as prime minister last year.
The committee’s sanction would have been more than enough to trigger a by-election that could have cost Johnson his seat in Parliament, but he avoided that ignominy by resigning last week after the committee gave him advance notice of its findings.
The release of the Commons committee’s scathing 77-page report Thursday touched off an angry exchange of recriminations. Johnson repeated his claim that the panel was a ‘kangaroo court’ bent on ousting him from Parliament. The committee said the defense he had provided was an after-the-fact justification and ‘no more than an artifice.’
The report and reaction to it highlight the battle over Johnson’s legacy as Britain prepares for elections that could radically alter social and economic policy in a nation struggling to overcome a cost-of-living crisis and complaints about government services ranging from healthcare to law enforcement.
The Conservative Party, which has governed the U.K. since 2010, lags far behind the more liberal Labour Party in public opinion polls.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has desperately tried to shift attention away from Johnson since he took office in September, promising to cut inflation, control immigration and reduce government debt ahead of an election that must occur by December 2024….” Read more at AP News
China Plans New Spending Drive, Other Stimulus to Revive Flagging Economy
“Beijing is planning major steps to revive the country’s flagging economy, including the possibility of billions of dollars in new infrastructure spending and looser rules to encourage property investors to buy more homes, people familiar with the discussions say.“Nigeria’s new president, Bola Tinubu, has delighted investors with decisions he’s taken in just two weeks in office. The question now is whether he can stay the course.
So far he’s abolished a costly fuel subsidy, suspended the contentious central bank governor and signaled that an exchange rate policy overhaul is imminent. The stock market has soared to a 15-year high on optimism he has the mettle to implement the difficult political decisions needed to turn Africa’s largest economy around….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
That Nigeria needs a reboot is beyond doubt. Half of adults are under- or unemployed and oil production — the lifeblood of the economy — is at lows last seen in the 1980s. The government spent the vast bulk of revenue it collected last year on servicing its debt and the figure could top 100% this year.
The scrapping of subsidies on gasoline, which consume billions of dollars each year, will go some way toward stabilizing public finances. And the removal of Godwin Emefiele as the central bank governor is the likely precursor to the end of a multiple exchange rate regime that’s underpinned a thriving black market.
But the hard part lies ahead. Government institutions are dysfunctional, corruption is endemic and insecurity remains a perennial problem. Armed bandits and Islamist militants have free rein across large swathes of territory.
Even bigger asks will be to create jobs and tackle poverty in a nation where about 40% of the population of more than 200 million live in poverty.
Question marks also remain over the 71-year-old Tinubu’s commitment to clean governance. He’s been dogged for decades by corruption allegations that’s he’s denied but never completely dispelled.
The early days of the Tinubu administration have been a case of so far, so good. But Nigeria has had many false dawns before — there is a still a long way to go.— Mike Cohen ” [Bloomberg]
“President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that Russian forces fighting in Ukraine don’t have enough advanced weapons despite a tripling of arms output, as Kyiv’s forces pressed a counteroffensive backed by a new infusion of allied support. ‘It became clear that we lack many things — high-precision ammunition, communications, drones,’ Putin told Russian reporters and war bloggers in a televised meeting late yesterday. ‘We have them, but we lack quantity.’
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko suggested Russian tactical nuclear weapons have already arrived in his country, even as Putin said delivery would only begin next month.” [Bloomberg]
While artificial intelligence could provide potential economic benefits of as much as $4.4 trillion, about 4.4% of the world economy’s output, those employed in areas ranging from sales and marketing to customer operations run the risk of losing their jobs, a new report by consultants McKinsey & Co. says.” ” [Bloomberg]
“India’s northeastern state of Manipur has cut off its 3.5 million people from mobile internet services for more than a month as ethnic clashes over a dispute involving access to affirmative action benefits continue to erupt. Here’s what we know about the fighting that’s left more than 100 people dead and over 37,000 in refugee camps.
India’s frequent internet shutdowns hurt its most impoverished, who depend on government social protection programs, according to a new report.” [Bloomberg]
“Abroad, the flamboyant and scandal-prone Silvio Berlusconi may have been dismissed as a clown, but he laid the template for how a billionaire could become leader of a Group of Seven country — one that Trump followed closely. Berlusconi’s death leaves a void at the heart of his political party, Forza Italia, and his business empire. The irony is that the passing of a man who to many was the embodiment of toxic masculinity appears to have solidified the power of two women: Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and his eldest daughter and heir to much of his business conglomerate, Marina Berlusconi.” [Bloomberg]
Berlusconi and his partner Marta Fascina cast their vote at a polling station in Milan in 2022. Photographer: Matteo Bazzi/AFP/Getty Images
Donald Trump arriving in New Jersey yesterday.Doug Mills/The New York Times
A simple test
Two weeks ago, a federal judge sentenced Robert Birchum, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel, to three years in jail for removing hundreds of secret documents from their authorized locations and storing them in his home and officer’s quarters.
In April, a judge sentenced Jeremy Brown, a former member of U.S. Special Forces, to more than seven years in prison partly for taking a classified report home with him after he retired. The report contained sensitive intelligence, including about an informant in another country.
In 2018, Nghia Hoang Pho received a five-and-a-half year sentence for storing National Security Agency documents at his home. Prosecutors emphasized that Pho was aware he was not supposed to have taken the documents.
These three recent cases are among dozens in which the Justice Department has charged people with removing classified information from its proper place and trying to conceal their actions. That list includes several former high-ranking officials, like David Petraeus and John Deutch, who each ran the C.I.A.
Now, of course, the list also includes Donald Trump, who was arraigned in a Miami federal courthouse yesterday and pleaded not guilty to 37 charges.
Above the law?
Are federal prosecutors singling out Trump because of his signature role in American politics? Or are they basing their decision to indict him solely on the facts of the case?
Sean Trende, a political analyst with RealClearPolitics, has offered a helpful way to understand these questions — and specifically when a former president should, and should not, be charged with a crime.
Start by thinking about all the other people who had engaged in behavior similar to that for which the ex-president was charged with a crime. If just some of those other people were charged, the ex-president should not be, Trende wrote. Prosecutors have a large amount of discretion about which cases to bring, and they should err on the side of not indicting a former president because of the political turmoil it is likely to cause, he argued.
But if the ex-president did something that would have caused anybody else to be charged with a crime, he should be, too. ‘The president shouldn’t be above the law,’ Trende explained.
There is ample reason to believe that the document case against Trump falls into the second category: Had any other American done what he is accused of doing, that person would almost certainly be prosecuted. ‘The real injustice’” the editors of The Economist magazine wrote yesterday, ‘would have been not to indict him.’
Consider: Prosecutors have accused Trump of removing classified documents from government property and bringing them home with him. Those documents contained sensitive information, such as military plans and intelligence about foreign militaries. Trump made clear to others that he knew he should not have the documents and took steps to mislead investigators about them, prosecutors claim.
It’s true — as Trump’s defenders repeatedly point out — that other government officials, including President Biden, Mike Pence and Hillary Clinton, have also mishandled classified information without having been charged with crimes. But those cases were very different from Trump’s. The transgressions seemed to be accidental. The officials returned the documents when asked. They did not try to mislead federal investigators.
Trump’s alleged actions instead resemble those of the obscure officials I mentioned at the top of today’s newsletter. His behavior also seems to have been much more brazen than that of Deutch and Petraeus.
This pattern helps explain why legal experts have been much more supportive of the Justice Department’s indictment of Trump than of the case in New York charging Trump with violating campaign-finance law. The New York case has made some experts uncomfortable because it lacked a clear precedent. It does not seem to pass Trende’s standard for when a former president should be charged with a crime. There are no good analogies.
The New York case relies on a novel combination of statutes to charge Trump with a felony for hiding payments he made to conceal a sexual encounter. Perhaps the most similar case — the trial of John Edwards, a former Democratic presidential candidate, also on charges of concealing payments connected to an affair — ended with an acquittal on one charge and a hung jury on five others.
By contrast, the list of analogies to the document charges against Trump just keeps growing. Next week, Kendra Kingsbury, a former F.B.I. analyst, is scheduled to be sentenced to federal prison. She has pleaded guilty to having brought hundreds of classified documents to her home in Dodge City, Kan.” [New York Times]
Bud Light dethroned by Modelo
Photo Illustration: Mario Tama/Getty Images
“May sales of Modelo Especial knocked Bud Light from the top spot it has held for over two decades, Axios' Sareen Habeshian writes from Nielsen data analyzed by Bump Williams Consulting.
The Mexican lager controlled 8.4% of U.S. grocery, convenience and liquor store sales in May. Bud Light fell to 7.3%.
Why it matters: Bud Light sales have been falling since April, amid conservative backlash over the brewer's relationship with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender activist.
Reality check: Bud Light retains its top ranking, year-to-date (9% vs. 8%).” [Axios]
Oscar-Winning Actress Glenda Jackson Dead at 87
“Oscar-winning actress Glenda Jackson has died at the age of 87, her agent announced Thursday. ‘Glenda Jackson, two-time Academy Award-winning actress and politician, died peacefully at her home in Blackheath, London this morning after a brief illness with her family at her side,’ he said in a statement, noting that she’d just finished filming the upcoming drama The Great Escaper with actor Michael Caine. Jackson shot to fame in the 1970s after her role in the Oscar-winning Women in Love, and she went on to receive a Tony Award for her work in theater. In the early 1990s, she set acting aside to launch a career in politics, joining the House of Commons as a Labour MP.”
Read it at BBC
Gustav Klimt's “Dame mit Fächer” — Lady with a Fan. (Sotheby's via AP)
“Klimt’s last portrait will be up for sale with $80M estimate
A late-life masterpiece by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt could become the most expensive painting ever sold in Europe when it is auctioned later this month. “ [AP News]
Why are orcas attacking boats?
“Tales of orca ambushes have started gaining more traction online as reported incidents off the Iberian coast jumped from 52 in 2020 to more than 200 last year, researchers say. Experts think the rest of the population could be mimicking the behavior.” Read more at USA Today
An orca pod attacks a boat off the coast of Morocco.
USA Today