The Full Belmonte, 6/2/2022
Emergency personnel at the scene of a shooting yesterday at the Saint Francis Hospital campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“At least four people were killed yesterday in a shooting on a hospital campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma, police said. ‘It was just madness inside, with hundreds of rooms and hundreds of people trying to get out of the building,’ Tulsa police Capt. Richard Meulenberg said. Officials are still working to identify the motive of the shooter, who authorities believe died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. This comes as the US grapples with a series of mass shootings that have left communities across the country grieving. Less than three weeks ago, 10 people were killed in a racially motivated shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Last week, an 18-year-old opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers. The embattled Uvalde school police chief who led the flawed law enforcement response spoke exclusively to CNN yesterday after remaining out of the public eye for a week but declined to answer substantive questions about the massacre.” Read more at CNN
“The Tulsa attack was the 233rd mass shooting in the U.S. this year, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive — which characterizes a mass shooting as four or more people shot or killed, not including the shooter.” Read more at Axios
“A gun control package that would include a proposal to raise the minimum age to own a semi-automatic rifle is expected to pass through the House Thursday. However, the Democratic-led effort is unlikely to pass the Senate where Republicans can block gun legislation and have indicated they will not support major gun reform.” Read more at USA Today
“The white 18-year-old accused of fatally shooting 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket last month is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday after being indicted Wednesday. The suspect was charged with domestic terrorism motivated by hate and 10 counts of first-degree murder. The 25-count indictment also contains charges of murder and attempted murder as a hate crime and weapons possession. He had previously been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting, which also injured three people. He has pleaded not guilty. Federal authorities also are investigating the possibility of hate crime charges against the shooter, who allegedly meticulously planned his attack and his racist motivation in hundreds of pages of writings he posted online shortly before the shooting.” Read more at USA Today
“A woman who was injured during the Brooklyn subway shooting in April has filed a civil lawsuit against Glock Inc., the maker of the handgun allegedly used in the attack, and its Austria-based parent company.” Read more at USA Today
“John Hinckley, the man who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, will be freed from all restrictions this month, a federal judge said.” Read more at USA Today
“Baby formula manufacturers say they alerted retails of a looming baby formula shortage, but President Joe Biden said he wasn’t notified until much later.” Read more at USA Today
“President Joe Biden said yesterday there is little he can do to lower the cost of gasoline or food at the moment. ‘There's a lot going on right now but the idea we're going to be able to click a switch, bring down the cost of gasoline, is not likely in the near term. Nor is it with regard to food,’ Biden said at the White House. The President and his team are placing a heavy emphasis on the economy to try to demonstrate his commitment amid sinking approval ratings. Biden said instead of direct action to bring down gas or food prices, he is looking to ease the financial burden in other areas, like prescription drugs and child care. Meanwhile, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, is predicting an economic ‘hurricane’ is in the near future, mainly caused by the war in Ukraine, rising inflation pressures and interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.” Read more at CNN
“Anyone who borrowed money to attend a school owned by Corinthian Colleges – a for-profit institution with a history of defrauding students before its sudden closure – will have their federal student loans canceled . The mass discharge is the largest amount of debt the federal government has erased in one action and benefits more than a half million borrowers to the tune of $5.8 billion. Based in California, but with campuses nationally under the names Heald, Everest, and WyoTech, Corinthian Colleges opened in 1995, but closed in 2015 after the Education Department cut off the institution's ability to access federal money. But borrowers who had attended the college sometimes struggled to get their loans discharged . Vice President Kamala Harris, who has a history with Corinthian, is expected to formally announce the debt cancellation Thursday at the Education Department. As California's attorney general, Harris secured a judgment against Corinthian that resulted in $1.1 billion in relief for former students.” Read more at USA Today
“The decision by the US to supply advanced weapons to Ukraine has sparked concern that Russia may retaliate. Russian officials called the decision a ‘direct provocation’ after the US and the UK agreed to provide missile systems to Kyiv capable of hitting targets 50 miles away. NATO, however, does not foresee a Russian retaliation. On the ground, Russia's monthslong blockade of Ukrainian ports is also exacerbating a food crisis and is increasing food prices across the globe. The Biden administration said it is working to get temporary storage containers to help salvage some of the 20 million tons of grain that are currently stuck inside Ukraine. Still, as these efforts are underway, the US and its international partners are no closer to finding a quick and absolute solution to lifting the Russian blockade.” Read more at CNN
“New variants are poised to keep Covid-19 circulating at high levels throughout the summer, new research suggests. The next influx of infections will probably come from the newer Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, two closely related viruses that were first characterized in South Africa and that landed in the US around late March, according to the gene sequence sharing site GISAID. The CDC said BA.4 and BA.5 together accounted for an estimated 6% to 7% of new infections in the US in late May and are more likely to lead to breakthrough infections, even in people who've had Covid-19 before. Without upgraded vaccines or boosters, some medical professionals believe a lot of Americans will get sick in the coming weeks to months.” Read more at CNN
Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook's parent company Meta, has announced that she is leaving the business after 14 years.
“Ms Sandberg announced her departure in a Facebook post, saying she hoped to focus on her foundation and philanthropic work in the future.
Her departure comes as Meta faces a slowdown in advertising sales and more competition from rivals such as TikTok.
Ms Sandberg is one of the most high-profile women in the tech industry.
‘When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years,’ wrote Ms Sandberg, known as a powerful second-in-command at the company. ‘Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life.’
Javier Olivan, currently Meta's chief growth officer, will take over Ms Sandberg's position in the company when she leaves.” Read more at BBC
Tesla boss Elon Musk has ordered staff to return to the office full-time, declaring that working remotely is no longer acceptable.
“The new policy was shared in emails that were leaked to social media.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the messages, one of which appeared to be addressed to executives.
People who are unwilling to abide by the new rules can ‘pretend to work somewhere else’ Mr Musk said on Twitter, when asked about the policy.
‘Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,’ he wrote in one of the emails. ‘If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned.’
Mr Musk added that he would personally review any requests for exemptions from the policy.
Mr Musk said working in the office full-time was what the company asks of its factory employees and in-person collaboration was critical to the firm's success.
"There are of course companies that don't require this, but when was the last time they shipped a great new product? It's been a while," he said in an email, one of two that was leaked and shared on social media.
‘Tesla has and will create and actually manufacture the most exciting and meaningful products of any company on Earth. This will not happen by phoning it in.’
Companies in many industries are wrestling with whether to allow the remote work practices that exploded during the coronavirus pandemic to continue.
Some sectors, such as banking, signalled early on that they would expect staff to return to the office, while others, often in the tech industry, have said they will allow remote work indefinitely. Many places have opted for a mix.
Office occupancy in the US is at about 43%, according to data from Kastle, which runs security card access systems at thousands of buildings across the country.” Read more at BBC
“The Biden administration will reduce the fees for building wind and solar projects on federal lands.” Read more at New York Times
“Adm. Linda Fagan, the new Coast Guard commandant, became the first female officer to lead a branch of the American armed forces.” Read more at New York Times
“Some local officials in liberal enclaves within red states say they won't help enforce bans on abortion if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, Axios' Oriana Gonzalez reports.
Prosecutors in Nashville, Tenn. ... DeKalb County, Ga. ... Fairfax County, Va. ... and Durham County, N.C., have all said abortion-related prosecutions won’t be a high priority for their departments, or directly stated that they will not enforce state bans.
Why it matters: That's an echo of the ‘sanctuary cities’ that don't aid in federal immigration enforcement.
Zoom in: Texas has one of the nation's most restrictive abortion laws. José ‘Chito’ Vela, a member of the Austin City Council, has proposed a resolution to decriminalize abortion locally.
Vela's office said several other Texas cities — including Dallas, San Antonio and Houston — have expressed interest in similar measures.
In Louisiana, Orleans Parish district attorney Jason Rogers says he ‘will not shift priority from tackling shootings, rapes and carjackings to investigating the choices women make with regard to their own bodies.’
The other side: At least 49 cities have passed ordinances to ban abortion even though it's, for now, protected by federal law, according to Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn, an anti-abortion group focused on helping localities outlaw abortion.
44 of those cities are in Texas.” Read more at Axios
“A jury has found both Amber Heard and Johnny Depp liable for defamation in their lawsuits against each other. The jury awarded $15 million in damages to Depp, a legal win for the actor. The jury awarded Heard $2 million. Depp sued Heard, his ex-wife, for defamation over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in which she described herself as a ‘public figure representing domestic abuse.’ Though Depp was not named in the article, he claims it cost him lucrative acting roles. Heard countersued Depp for defamation over statements his attorney made about her abuse claims. Depp sought $50 million in damages and Heard sought $100 million. Depp was not present in court when the verdict was read, but released a statement that said, in part, ‘the jury gave me my life back.’ Heard also released a statement saying she is ‘heartbroken’ over the verdict.” Read more at CNN
“The trial will be remembered as the first major courtroom event to go viral in the TikTok era. Memes and clips, most favoring Depp, propelled interest in the celebrity trial, Axios' Herb Scribner and Sara Fischer report.
At times, the trial drew so much online engagement that interest surpassed the leaked Supreme Court decision and war in Ukraine.” Read more at Axios
“Wednesday, California’s reparations task force released an extensive report on how the state and the federal government perpetuated harm against Black Americans long after the abolition of slavery.”[Vox] Read more at Associated Press / Janie Har
“The nearly 500-page report details how government policies have led to poor economic, educational, and criminal justice outcomes for generations of Black Americans.” [Vox] Read more at NBC BLK / PR Lockhart
“The report demands financial reparations and recommends creating a government office to help descendants of people enslaved during the 19th century get compensation.” [Vox] Read more at Washington Post / Emmanuel Felton
“The task force’s recommendations included: Free tuition at California colleges and universities, planting trees to help cool Black neighborhoods, and eliminating discriminatory policing.” [Vox] Read more at California reparations task force
“The group will issue its final report with recommendations for the sort of reparations Black Americans in California should receive by July 2023.” [Vox] Read more at Cal Matters / Lil Kalish
Image caption, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu
“Turkey will be known as Türkiye at the United Nations from now on, after it agreed to a formal request from Ankara.
Several international bodies will be asked to make the name change as part of a rebranding campaign launched by the Turkish president late last year.
‘Türkiye is the best representation and expression of the Turkish people's culture, civilization, and values,’ Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in December.
The UN said it made the change as soon as it received the request this week.
Most Turks already know their country as Türkiye. However the anglicised Turkey is widely used, even within the country.
State broadcaster TRT was quick to make the change as soon as it was announced last year, explaining that among the reasons for the image rebrand was the association with the bird traditionally associated with Christmas or New Year or Thanksgiving.
It also pointed out to the Cambridge English Dictionary's definition of one of the meanings of the word as ‘something that fails badly’ or ‘a stupid or silly person’.” Read more at BBC
“SINGAPORE—Residents gathered at the gates of some housing compounds in Shanghai late Tuesday to stage a countdown to midnight, when the city’s government lifted anti-Covid-19 restrictions that had kept them holed up inside their apartments—in many cases for more than two months.
Shortly after the deadline passed, a convoy of cars emerged from the gates of one complex, sounding their horns and with national flags draped over their hoods, videos circulating on social media showed. Passengers could be seen standing with their heads out of sunroofs. Firecrackers sparkled in the night sky as a festive mood entered the city after weeks of chaos, frustration and mounting despair.
From midnight, the Shanghai authorities said most of the city’s 25 million residents were free to leave their apartments and residential compounds to go to work, with all businesses cleared to resume normal operations. Officials are eager to get China’s most economically important city running again.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee is here and a good time is predicted for all during the four-day holiday – most especially, Brits hope, by the 96-year-old monarch herself . Four days of celebrations honoring the queen's 70 years on the throne began Thursday with a display of British military traditions. First is the Trooping the Color, an annual military review that has marked the sovereign's official birthday since 1760. The queen is expected to join the working members of her family on the Buckingham Palace balcony at the end of the event. But the backdrop for this jubilee is the uncertainty of the queen's public appearances, which have waned since she tested positive for COVID-19 in February in addition to ‘episodic mobility problems.’ Jubilees aren't uncommon in British royal history but Elizabeth has celebrated more than any other monarch. The 2012 Diamond Jubilee celebrated her 60 years on the throne.” Read more at USA Today
The official Platinum Jubilee portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, photographed at Windsor Castle in May 2022, released by Buckingham Palace on June 1, 2022.Royal Household/Ranald Mackechnie via AP
“Amid record overdoses, British Columbia will try decriminalizing possession of small amounts of drugs for three years.” [Vox] Read more at AP / Jim Morris and Rob Gillies
“Hundreds of Russian soldiers deserted or refused to fight in Ukraine, according to documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal as well as accused soldiers and lawyers defending them.
Moscow is in a bind over how to punish service members without drawing attention to the problem. On the other side of the battlefield, nongovernmental organizations’ private drillmasters are training Ukraine’s citizen soldiers in everything from shooting to first aid because Kyiv authorities are stretched thin. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said supplying his country with long-range weapons doesn’t increase the risk of it attacking Russian territory, as some Western allies fear.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“As the world climbs out of the pandemic, it’s become clear that women are less likely than men to return to the workforce, a failing that could shave trillions of dollars from global economic growth. As Ronojoy Mazumdar and Archana Chaudhary report, the forecast is particularly bleak in developing countries like India, where female labor-force participation fell so steeply that it’s now in the same league as war-torn Yemen.” Read more at Bloomberg
“A 20-year-old woman who was born with a small and misshapen right ear has received a 3-D printed ear implant made from her own cells, the manufacturer announced on Thursday. Independent experts said that the transplant, part of the first clinical trial of a successful medical application of this technology, was a stunning advance in the field of tissue engineering.
The new ear was printed in a shape that precisely matched the woman’s left ear, according to 3DBio Therapeutics, a regenerative medicine company based in Queens. The new ear, transplanted in March, will continue to regenerate cartilage tissue, giving it the look and feel of a natural ear, the company said.” Read more at New York Times
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have discovered the world’s largest plant off the Australia coast — a seagrass meadow that has grown by repeatedly cloning itself.
Genetic analysis has revealed that the underwater fields of waving green seagrass are a single organism covering 70 square miles (180 square kilometers) through making copies of itself over 4,500 years.
The research was published Wednesday in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Scientists confirmed that the meadow was a single organism by sampling and comparing the DNA of seagrass shoots across the bed, wrote Jane Edgeloe, a study co-author and marine biologist at the University of Western Australia.
A variety of plants and some animals can reproduce asexually. There are disadvantages to being clones of a single organism — such as increased susceptibility to diseases — but ‘the process can create ‘hopeful monsters’ by enabling rapid growth, the researchers wrote.” Read more at AP News
Dustin Johnson plays a shot during the 2022 PGA Championship.PHOTO: CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES
“Dustin Johnson, a two-time major champion and longtime world No. 1, highlights the initial list of golfers participating in the first tournament hosted by LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed upstart league that has thrown the industry into tumult.
Johnson, who had previously indicated he wouldn’t participate in the series bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund, is one of two top-20 players listed in the field for the circuit’s inaugural tournament, scheduled for June 9-11 at Centurion Club outside London. Louis Oosthuizen is the other, according to LIV Golf.
Johnson’s anticipated inclusion in the event is a coup for the new venture, which has found itself at odds with the PGA Tour and embroiled in controversy. In May, a PGA Tour executive sent a memo to its players saying they were not authorized to participate in the event. Most of the world’s best players, outside of Johnson, are not participating despite the offer of record prize money.
The decision has already cost Johnson a sponsor and will likely bring repercussions from the PGA Tour.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
“In these photos, model maker Freya Groom poses with an 18,000-brick Jubilee display at Legoland Windsor Resort in Windsor, England.
Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
The display took 280 hours to build.” Read more at Axios
“Lives Lived: As a C.I.A. whistle-blower, David MacMichael called out the Reagan administration’s policies on Nicaragua, a revelation that helped lead to the Iran-Contra Affair. He died at 95.” Read more at New York Times