The Full Belmonte, 7/30/2023
Donors pay Trump’s legal tab
Former President Trump holds a rally in Erie, Pa., last evening. Photo: Joed Viera/AFP via Getty Images
“Stunning stat: Former President Trump's PAC has spent $40.2 million on legal costs to defend himself and his associates in the first half of this year, The Washington Post reports.
That's more than Save America — the PAC — raised in the second quarter of 2023 and brings the group's total spending on Trump's post-presidential legal woes to around $56 million.
Zoom out: The former president is facing multiple criminal investigations at the state and federal levels, and he has been indicted in Florida and Manhattan.
Zoom in: Costs are adding up as Save America, which mostly raises money through small-dollar donations from Trump supporters around the country, takes on the legal bills of almost anyone in the former president's orbit who has been pulled into the investigations, The Post notes.” [Axios]
Search for Chinese code inside U.S. bases
A U.S. Air Force Rockwell B-1B Lancer and a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker sit on the tarmac at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
“The U.S. is looking for computer code that it believes China has hidden within power grids and communication systems to disrupt American military operations, The New York Times reports.
The first signs of a Chinese malware campaign came when Microsoft detected unknown code in telecommunication systems in Guam in May, but the campaign appears to be more widespread than that, U.S. officials and industry experts told the Times.
The discoveries have raised fears that Chinese hackers have embedded code into U.S. systems that could interfere with an American effort to respond to a Beijing-Taiwan confrontation.
The big picture: ‘Chinese cyberoperations seem to have taken a turn. The latest intrusions are different from those in the past because disruption, not surveillance, appears to be the objective,’ per The Times.” [Axios]
Historically Black Fraternity Drops Florida for Convention Because of DeSantis Policies
Older and newer generations of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity pose for a photograph during the Hall-Archer-Pickard Naming Celebration at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich on Sept. 27, 2017.
Kaytie Boomer—Kalamazoo Gazette/MLive
MIKE SCHNEIDER/AP
“ORLANDO, Fla. — The oldest historically Black collegiate fraternity in the U.S. says it is relocating a planned convention in two years from Florida because of what it described as Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration's ‘harmful, racist and insensitive’ policies towards African Americans.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity said this week that it would move its 2025 convention from Orlando to another location that is yet undecided. The convention draws between 4,000 and 6,000 people and has an economic impact of $4.6 million, the fraternity said.
The decision comes after the NAACP and other civil rights organizations this spring issued a travel advisory for Florida, warning that recently passed laws and policies are openly hostile to African Americans, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Willis Lonzer, the fraternity's general president, said in statement on Wednesday that the decision was motivated in part by Florida's new education standards that require teachers to instruct middle school students that slaves developed skills that ‘could be applied for their personal benefit.’….” [Time]
The U.S. Coast Guard’s Healy icebreaker in Juneau, Alaska. PHOTO: Angela Owens for The Wall Street Journal
America’s military is lagging behind its rivals in the race for the melting Arctic.
“Once a lonely and largely impassable maritime expanse where countries worked together to extract natural resources, the Arctic is increasingly contested territory. As sea ice melts and traffic increases ( read for free) on the southern edges of the Arctic Ocean, governments are maneuvering in ways that mirror the great-power rivalries seen in lower latitudes. In recent months, Russian activity has increased in Arctic waters, and U.S. officials and analysts say China is sharing satellite and electronic intelligence from the region with Moscow. In response, the U.S. is beefing up its presence, but it has has fewer icebreakers and ports, and less experience.” [Wall Street Journal]
NEWS
War in Ukraine
“Two Ukrainian drones struck buildings in Moscow, Russia said.” [New York Times]
“Vladimir Putin sees Odesa, Ukraine, as a culturally important part of Russia, but residents there loathe Moscow after recent missile attacks.” [New York Times]
“Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite system, is often the only way to get internet access in war zones. Governments are worried about how he could use that power.” [New York Times]
Politics
“China embedded malware in networks controlling power grids and communication systems used by the military, U.S. officials said.” [New York Times]
“A political action committee supporting Donald Trump requested a $60 million refund, showing the financial pressure from his legal bills.” [New York Times]
“A small group of lawmakers, led by a prominent Democrat, expanded the N.R.A.’s power over decades. Read this secret history of the gun lobby.” [New York Times]
Other Big Stories
Salt crystals on what was previously fertile agricultural land in Iraq.Bryan Denton for The New York Times
“High temperatures and scarce water are drying out swaths of Iraq that were once part of a verdant region known as the Fertile Crescent.” [New York Times]
“New York City gave a medical services company a $432 million contract to move asylum seekers upstate. Many said they were lied to and mistreated.” [New York Times]
“A helicopter and a gyrocopter collided in midair at a Wisconsin airport, killing two people.” [New York Times]
An office building in Moscow was damaged by a Ukrainian drone attack.
“Russia says Ukraine targeted Moscow with drones, the latest in a series of attacks that have brought the Ukraine war to Russia’s capital. A business and shopping development in the west of the capital was hit. No casualties were reported.” [CNN]
“An American nurse and her child have been kidnapped in Haiti, according to El Roi Haiti, the Christian humanitarian aid organization she works for. Alix Dorsainvil, wife of El Roi Haiti's director, and their child were reportedly abducted.”
“Donald Trump charged ahead with his bid for the 2024 GOP nomination at a major Republican event in Iowa, largely ignoring the new charges in the federal classified documents probe. Trump, an aide and a Mar-a-Lago worker face expanded charges in the special counsel investigation.” [CNN]
“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to serve the rest of the 118th Congress as the GOP leader, the Kentucky Republican’s office said. Questions about the future of McConnell, 81, were raised after he froze for 30 seconds during a news conference.” [CNN]
“Carlee Russell, the Alabama woman who admitted to staging her own kidnapping and triggering a 49-hour-long search, turned herself in and has been charged with making false reports.” [CNN]
MONDAY
“Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira has been summoned to appear in federal court in Miami following his indictment last week in connection to the case alleging former President Donald Trump mishandled classified documents. Prosecutors allege De Oliveira and Trump aide Walt Nauta attempted to delete security camera footage at the resort after the Justice Department issued a subpoena for it. De Oliveira was also charged with lying to the FBI about moving boxes of classified documents from Trump’s residence to a storage room.
TUESDAY
The US assumes the presidency of the United Nations Security Council for the month of August.
THURSDAY
El Paso, Texas, will host a series of remembrance ceremonies for the victims and families of the August 3, 2019, mass shooting at a Walmart. The gunman who carried out one of the deadliest attacks against Latinos in modern US history was sentenced to 90 life terms by a federal judge earlier this month.
FRIDAY
Law enforcement will conduct a reenactment of 2018’s mass shootinginside Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as part of a civil lawsuit. The reenactment — which will use live rounds fired into a ballistic bullet trap — is part of a lawsuit against Scot Peterson, the then-school resource officer who remained outside as a shooter killed 17 people and injured 17 others on Valentine’s Day 2018. A jury acquitted Peterson last month of related criminal charges.
We'll also get the latest reading on the job market when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the employment report for July. Employers added just 209,000 jobs in June, coming in below economists’ expectations. However, that weaker-than-expected number fueled optimism that the Federal Reserve is on course to lower inflation without triggering a recession.” [CNN]
Saudi Arabia is set to host peace talks among Western countries, Ukraine and key developing nations.
“The meeting would bring senior officials from up to 30 countries to Jeddah next weekend, according to diplomats involved in the discussion. It comes amid a growing battle between the Kremlin and Ukraine’s Western backers to win support from major developing countries, many of which have been neutral over the Ukraine war. The efforts could culminate in a peace summit later this year where global leaders would sign up to shared principles for resolving the war. The summit wouldn’t include Russia, which has shunned any serious talk of peace.” [Wall Street Journal]
AI's scariest secret
Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios
“As tech companies begin to weave AI into all their products and all of our lives, the architects of this revolutionary technology often can't predict or explain their systems' behavior.
Why it matters: This may be the scariest aspect of today's AI boom — and it's common knowledge among AI's builders, though not widely understood by everyone else, Axios managing editor of technology Scott Rosenberg writes.
‘It is not at all clear — not even to the scientists and programmers who build them — how or why the generative language and image models work,’ Palantir CEO Alex Karp wrote recently in The New York Times.
Zoom out: For decades, we've used computer systems that, given the same input, provide the same output.
Generative AI systems, by contrast, aim to spin out multiple possibilities from a single prompt.
You can easily end up with different answers to the same question.
Between the lines: Four researchers published a paper Thursday showing that users can defeat "guardrails" meant to bar AI systems from, for instance, explaining "how to make a bomb."
The major chatbots, like ChatGPT, Bing and Bard, won't answer that question when asked directly. But they'll go into great detail if you append some additional code to the prompt.” [Axios]
Cases of Tick-Borne Illnesses Are on the Rise. Some Experts Believe Climate Change is the Cause
A staff member of the Institute of Zoology, Department of Parasitology, at the University of Hohenheim, shows a dead female wood tick.
Marijan Murat/picture alliance—Getty Images
“(NEW YORK) — In 2022, doctors recorded the first confirmed case of tick-borne encephalitis virus acquired in the United Kingdom.
It began with a bike ride.
A 50-year-old man was mountain biking in the North Yorkshire Moors, a national park in England known for its vast expanses of woodland and purple heather. At some point on his ride, at least one black-legged tick burrowed into his skin. Five days later, the mountain biker developed symptoms commonly associated with a viral infection — fatigue, muscle pain, fever.
At first, he seemed to be on the mend, but about a week later, he started to lose coordination. An MRI scan revealed he had developed encephalitis, or swelling of the brain. He had been infected with tick-borne encephalitis, or TBE, a potentially deadly disease that experts say is spreading into new regions due in large part to global warming.
For the past 30 years, the U.K. has become roughly 1 degree Celsius warmer (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) on average compared to the historical norm. Studies have shown that several tick-borne illnesses are becoming more prevalent because of climate change. Public health officials are particularly concerned about TBE, which is deadlier than more well-known tick diseases such as Lyme, due to the way it has quickly jumped from country to country….” Read more at Time
Ledecky makes history
Katie Ledecky celebrates after winning the women's 800m freestyle final in Fukuoka, Japan, yesterday. Photo: Marko Djurica/Reuters
“American swimmer Katie Ledecky won her 16th individual world championship gold medal in Japan yesterday, breaking the record previously held by Michael Phelps.
It was also her sixth gold medal in the women's 800-meter freestyle. She's the first swimmer in history to win a single worlds event that many times — and she's done it consecutively, ESPN reports.
What to watch: Ledecky is the favorite to take home gold in the women's 800- and 1500-meter freestyle races at the Paris 2024 Olympics. She's already the most decorated female swimmer of all time with six individual Olympic golds.” [Axios]
Nero's Theater found
People walk in the excavation site of the ancient Roman emperor Nero's theater, 1st century A.D., in Rome on Wednesday. Photo: Andrew Medichini/AP
“The ruins of Emperor Nero's lost theater — referred to in ancient Roman texts, but never found — have been discovered under the garden of a future Four Seasons Hotel, steps from the Vatican.
Why it matters: The findings provide a rare look at a stratum of Roman history from the Roman Empire through to the 15th century. Among the discoveries: 10th-century goblets and pottery pieces that are unusual because so little is known about this period in Rome, AP reports.
Archaeologists found marble columns and gold-leaf decorated plaster, leading them to conclude that Nero's Theater — referred to in texts by Pliny the Elder, an ancient Roman author and philosopher — was indeed there, just off the Tiber River.
Previously only seven glass chalices from that era had been found. The excavations of this one site turned up seven more.
Archaeologists had excavated deep under the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere since 2020 as part of planned renovations on the frescoed Renaissance building,
The palazzo takes up a city block along the broad Via della Conciliazione leading to St. Peter's Square.
What's next: The portable antiquities will be moved to a museum. The ruins of the theater will be covered again after all studies are completed.
The hotel is expected to be open for the Vatican's Jubilee 2025, when 30 million people are expected to flock to Rome.” [Axios]
”Lives Lived: Mari Ruti was a professor at the University of Toronto who wrote books about gender and sexuality. She died at 59.” [New York Times]