The Full Belmonte, 6/5/2023
Former Vice President Mike Pence and Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Presidential race
“The GOP presidential field will get even more crowded this week with some high-profile Republicans set to enter the race. Former Vice President Mike Pence will launch his 2024 presidential campaign on Wednesday with an announcement video and a speech in Iowa, sources tell CNN. Later that evening, Pence will join CNN for a town hall at 9 p.m. ET. The announcement of his expected entry comes as his former presidential counterpart, Donald Trump, is leading the Republican field. Meanwhile, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also plans to announce his candidacy in the 2024 race on Tuesday, joining the growing list of challengers to the party's top-polling candidates. Also among the list of GOP hopefuls is Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, who at a CNN town hall on Sunday addressed a broad range of issues and tried to make a clear break from her competition.”
Biden signs debt limit deal to avoid catastrophic economic disaster
“The nation will be able to pay its bills Monday after President Joe Biden on Saturday afternoon signed a bipartisan debt limit package, avoiding a calamitous default.
Biden has called the agreement he negotiated with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., a necessary compromise that protected Democrats’ key priorities while cutting some of the spending Republicans oppose.
•The deal is a political boost for Biden whose road to re-election would have been a lot harder with a shaky economy.
•McCarthy is perhaps the biggest political winner out of the debt-ceiling fight, but unrest among hardline conservatives remains and the fight over his speakership might not be over.
•The deal will cut $1.5 trillion from the federal budget over the next decade. It also spends more, not less, on food stamps – the exact opposite of Republicans’ goal.” [USA Today]
President Joe Biden addresses the nation on the budget deal from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Friday, June 2, 2023.
Andrew Harnik, AP
Virginia plane crash
Path of doomed plane. Photo: Flightradar24/Reuters
“Federal officials are investigating what led to a fatal crash Sunday involving a small civilian aircraft with an unresponsive pilot that flew near the US Capitol region. The crash occurred in southwestern Virginia after fighter jets were called in to intercept the aircraft, which had four people on board. Defense officials said F-16s were ‘authorized to travel at supersonic speeds’ as they raced to make contact with the aircraft to draw the pilot's attention. The jets' extraordinary speed caused a sonic boom across the Washington, DC, area, officials said, and some residents reported being startled by the sound. The US Capitol Complex was placed on ‘an elevated alert’ when the small aircraft flew near the area, according to a statement from US Capitol Police.
Mine Bank trail head, off the Blue Ridge Parkway. On Sunday June 4, 2023 a small plane crashed in the area.
Randall Wolf / Special to The News Leader
Close call with Chinese ship
Photo: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Andre T. Richard/U.S. Navy via AP
“This is the view from the USS Chung-Hoon on Saturday as a Chinese ship cuts sharply across the path of the American destroyer in the Taiwan Strait, forcing it to slow to 10 knots to avoid a collision.
The Chinese guided-missile destroyer overtook the Chung-Hoon on its port side, then veered across its bow at a distance of just 150 yards, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) said.
Why it matters: At a time of rising tension with China in the air and sea, the ‘actions violated the maritime 'Rules of the Road' of safe passage in international waters,’ the Navy said.” [Axios]
Journalists strike
“Hundreds of journalists who work for Gannett — the biggest newspaper chain in the country — plan to stage a one-day strike today during the media company's annual shareholder meeting. The journalists say Gannett needs new leadership, and specifically want shareholders to oust the company's chief executive, Mike Reed. ‘Reed doesn't care one bit about a long-term strategy to invest in the company by investing in journalists,’ said Jon Schleuss, the president of NewsGuild-CWA, the union representing more than 1,000 employees. The walkout will see participation from 24 Gannett newspapers across seven states, notably the Arizona Republic, Austin American-Statesman, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, and the Palm Beach Post.
Next "Meet" moderator
Chuck Todd and Kristen Welker during an election special in 2022. Photo: NBC News
“"Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd announced at the end of yesterday's show that Kristen Welker — NBC chief White House correspondent and "Saturday Today" co-anchor — will succeed him in September.
Todd, the "Meet" anchor since 2014, becomes NBC chief political analyst.
Welker, 46, a Philadelphia native, won acclaim as moderator of the final presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, in October 2022.” [Axios]
India
The site of a three-way collision.Atul Loke for The New York Times
“At least 275 people were killed and more than 1,000 others were injured in India Friday following a three-way crash involving two passenger trains and a freight train. It marked one of the worst train accidents in the country's history. Questions are now being raised about its massive and outdated rail network, which was built more than 160 years ago under British colonial rule. Today, it runs about 11,000 trains every day over 67,000 miles of tracks in the world's most populous nation. Crews are now toiling in extreme heat as they search for survivors and attempt to restore service by Wednesday. Many of the travelers were migrant workers, en route to Chennai, an urban metropolis in the southernmost Indian state of Tamil Nadu, officials said.” [CNN]
Wagner captures Russian commander as Prigozhin feud with army escalates
Lt Col Roman Venevitin seen telling interrogator he ordered troops to shoot at convoy of mercenaries
“Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group of mercenaries has captured a Russian commander, as the notorious leader further escalates his feud with the regular army.
In a video posted on Prigozhin’s social media channels, Lt Col Roman Venevitin, the commander of Russia’s 72nd Brigade, tells an interrogator that, while drunk, he had ordered his troops to fire on a Wagner convoy.
In the footage, which resembled clips of prisoner of war soldiers, Venevitin said he acted because of his ‘personal dislike’ for Wagner and then apologised.
Last week, Prigozhin accused the Russian army of trying to blow up his men as they were pulling back from the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut….” Read more at The Guardian
“Once seen as a radical fringe group, the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is now tied with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats as the second-most popular party in the country. It has been able to tap into public discontent over record-high migration, inflation and costly climate-protection measures to batter Scholz’s government.” [Bloomberg]
“Vladimir Putin’s new ambassador is preparing to take up his post in Libya’s capital, extending Russian influence across an oil-producing nation on the doorstep of Europe. The Wagner mercenary group that’s controlled by the president’s ally, Yevgeny Prigozhin, already has access to key oil facilities and supported last year’s months-long blockade that hit exports at the height of the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” [Bloomberg]
“One of the last bastions of opposition power in Mexico fell to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s ruling Morena party in yesterday’s state elections. By flipping the governorship of Mexico State, which has essentially been controlled by the PRI party for nine decades, Morena secured what could be a crucial asset before next year’s presidential ballot.” [Bloomberg]
News to Note
“Hundreds of thousands of Poles marched in Warsaw yesterday to show their support for the pro-EU opposition ahead of what’s expected to be a tightly contested parliamentary election in October.
China is Southeast Asia’s leading development financier, but is facing rising competition for regional sway, according to Lowy Institute research.
Hong Kong’s top court overturned the conviction of a journalist who investigated the police response to a 2019 mob attack on pro-democracy protesters, a rare victory for press freedom in the Asian finance hub.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Sweden has “fulfilled its obligations” to Turkey to bolster its counter-terrorism laws, which should clear its path for membership in the alliance.
A leaked audio of a foul-mouthed tirade by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s 2022 campaign chief looks set to deepen the crisis engulfing the government.” [Bloomberg]
Apple
“Later today, Apple will unveil its most ambitious new hardware product since the Apple Watch. The company is widely expected to introduce a ‘mixed reality’ headset that offers both virtual reality and augmented reality, a technology that overlays virtual images on live video of the real world. It could signal a new era for the company and potentially revolutionize how millions interact with computers and the world around them. Additionally, Apple will also show off a long list of software updates and may also tease how it plans to incorporate AI into more of its products, including the iPhone. The event will be livestreamed on Apple's website and YouTube at 1:00 p.m. ET.” [CNN]
Making AI fun
Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
“Character.ai, one of the hottest AI startups, does what ChatGPT does, but with personalization and role-playing.
So it can talk to you in the style of Madonna — or let you order Elon Musk around, Axios' Ryan Heath reports.
Why it matters: ChatGPT racked up new users at a record pace after launching last year. But character.ai is beating it on average user time, and has a much higher growth rate in monthly users, according to Similarweb, a web analytics firm.
Character.ai secured a billion-dollar valuation with less than 30 employees when it raised $150 million in venture funding in March from Andreessen Horowitz and other backers.
Crazy stat: Among character.ai users who sent a message, average time on the site was more than two hours a day the company said at the time of the raise.
How it works: Character.ai was built by Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, who left Google to build their own large language model.
The service lets you converse with more than 10 million characters — fictional versions of any person, living or dead — based on data scraped from the open internet.
Screenshots from Character.ai
Anyone can create or chat with the AI version of a character — from Billie Eilish to Donald Trump and Napoleon Bonaparte.
You can stick to humorous banter, use the characters as debate sparring partners or turn Elon Musk into your assistant, getting "him" to draft your work emails.
Conversations can be 1-to-1 or a group chat between you and a cast of characters.
One thing you can't do: strike up a romantic or erotic relationship with the characters.
Character.ai launched an app on May 24 in iOS and Android app stores that was downloaded more than 2 million times in its first week.
Similarweb data shows the web version of character.ai has beaten ChatGPT on average user time since February, keeping users on its service at least three to five times longer.
Users stay on the service for "over 29 minutes per visit," a character.ai spokesperson told Axios — on par with Instagram.
Reality check: Character.ai has little revenue. The company declined to offer any details to Axios on subscriber numbers for its $9.99 a month c.ai+ premium service.
The use of characters based on real people is a legal gray area, which could prompt lawsuits.” [Axios]
ChatGPT hits 6 months
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
“In the six months since OpenAI let ChatGPT loose on the world, conversational AI has become a gateway to online information ... an interface to computing power ... a platform for new tools and businesses ... a source of companionship and psychological support ... and a power boostfor coders.
It's also a killer and/or creator of jobs ... a maelstrom of misinformation ... a fountain of B.S. ... an amplifier of bias ... a vector for cyberattacks and fraud ... a solvent for truth — and even threatens human existence.
Why it matters: ChatGPT has been embraced more quickly in six months than either the iPhone or the web browser, Axios managing editor for tech Scott Rosenberg writes from the Bay Area.
By the numbers: A majority of U.S. adults have heard of ChatGPT, but only 14% have tried it, according to a Pew survey conducted in March and released last month.
State of play: It's still very early innings in AI's rise.
The expensive, computing-intensive technology could further entrench Big Tech's giants. Or some company that hasn't yet been started could still enter and dominate.
At the equivalent stage of the rise of the Web, Google didn't even exist yet.
What's next: The first-ever AI-influenced elections in the U.S. and across the globe. A ferocious wave of investment in the technology, crashing into a rising tide of legal conflicts over appropriation of intellectual property.
And, at some point, a cooling-down period — as the world realizes that AI, though incredibly useful, isn't a solution to every problem.” [Axios]
SPORTS NEWS
“Miami evens series: The Miami Heat won Game 2 of the N.B.A. Finals 111-108 last night. The Athletic explains what worked for the Heat.
Denver Nuggets forward Bruce Brown (11) shoots the ball against Miami Heat forward Kevin Love (42).
Kyle Terada, USA TODAY Sports
Nikola Jokic: The Nuggets center may be the best player in the N.B.A., The Times’s Sopan Deb writes. He avoids the spotlight, but Denver still loves him.
Faithful crowd: French fans are uniting behind French players at, naturally, the French Open, The Times’s Matthew Futterman reports.
She’s here: Rose Zhang, 20, turned pro last Thursday. By Sunday, she had her first L.P.G.A. Tour win, The Athletic reports.” [New York Times]
Year's second biggest opening
Photo: Sony Pictures Animation/AP
“"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," an animated sequel, had the second-biggest opening weekend of 2023 ($120.5 million), behind only "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."
"Spider-Man" played to an ethnically diverse audience, according to data exit-poll service PostTrak (The Hollywood Reporter).
The film is part 2 in a trilogy that will conclude next year.
Watch the trailer.” [Axios]