How Alex Jones mainstreamed conspiracy theories – NPR
How Alex Jones mainstreamed conspiracy theories – NPR

A jury has ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay millions of dollars for spreading lies about the Sandy Hook school massacre. But his influence in right-wing media and politics remains strong.

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A jury has ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay millions of dollars for spreading lies about the Sandy Hook school massacre. But his influence in right-wing media and politics remains strong.

Matt York/AP

Name a traumatic news event in recent decades, and it’s almost certain Alex Jones has claimed it didn’t happen — or not the way you think it did.

The Boston Marathon bombing in 2013? Staged by the FBI.

The shooting of Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords in 2011? A government mind control operation.

The September 11th terrorist attacks? An inside job.

All lies.

The conspiracy theorist and radio host was confronted with his track record of fabulism this week in an Austin, Texas, courtroom. He was on trial to determine how much he should pay for defaming the parents of a first grader killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, after years of falsely claiming that no children died and the families were “crisis actors” in a “giant hoax” designed to take away guns.

“Would you agree with me that there is not a mass tragedy, mass bombing, mass shooting that has occurred in America in the past 15 years that you have not attached the words ‘false flag’ to?” Mark Bankston, the parents’ attorney, asked Jones.

“I have asked the question because I believe a lot of things are provocateur or allowed to happen,” Jones replied.

The jury ordered Jones to pay $49.3 million in damages to Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, the parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, for the mental anguish caused by his lies about Sandy Hook.

Jones has a history of prolific fabulism

Jones got his start in public access broadcasting in Austin, Texas, in the 1990s. From his early days on air, he spouted conspiracy theories about the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

When his wild claims got him fired from a local radio station, he founded Infowars in 1999 and started broadcasting over the internet and in radio syndication.

After the September 11th attacks, Jones surged to fame as a “truther,” claiming the Bush administration was behind the tragedy.

As his audience grew, Jones popularized a vocabulary for pernicious doubt: not just that officials and media are hiding the truth, but that tragic events are being engineered for nefarious purposes.

“He’s at least a catalyst of those prevailing narratives that follow almost every newsworthy tragedy, whether it’s a mass shooting or otherwise,” said Sara Aniano, a disinformation researcher at the Anti-Defamation League.

Jones’s response to Sandy Hook was perhaps the most egregious example. For years, Infowars aired falsehoods that the tragedy was invented and implied the families of the murdered children were lying.

That created a template to cast doubt on subsequent mass shootings.

“A lot of people who share these theories that those were staged by the government for gun control reasons or that the children and parents are crisis actors will reference Sandy Hook as the basis of that conclusion,” Aniano said.

The lies on Infowars had real-world consequences.

At the trial, Lewis and Heslin testified about the harassment and death threats they’ve received from people who believe Jones.

“When you say those things, there’s a fringe of society that believe you, that are actually dangerous,” Lewis said in emotional testimony addressed directly to Jones.

Infowars profits from “preaching apocalypse”

Infowars doesn’t just disseminate harmful lies; it profits from them.

According to a forensic economist called by the parents’ lawyers, Infowars’ parent company raked in $64 million in sales of supplements, survivalist gear and other products last year.

The plaintiffs also presented evidence from Jones’s own cell phone showing in 2018, Infowars was making as much as $800,000 a day.

The combined net worth of Jones and Infowars is between $135 million and $270 million, the economist estimated.

Jones is not the first person to grift off conspiracy theories, but Infowars harnessed the power of the internet to do so on a massive scale — a model that’s been imitated by anti-vaccine advocates, COVID-19 deniers and champions of baseless claims that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election.

“You preach apocalypse and then you sell stuff that can help you in an apocalypse,” said Yunkang Yang, a communications professor at Texas A&M.

Jones inside the Georgia State Capitol during a “Stop the Steal” rally against the results of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 18, 2020 in Atlanta, Ga.

Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images


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Jones inside the Georgia State Capitol during a “Stop the Steal” rally against the results of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 18, 2020 in Atlanta, Ga.

Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

Trump and Jones find common ground in conspiracism

Jones has also left a mark on conservative politics.

When Barack Obama was president, Infowars and Donald Trump both promoted the racist lie that he was not an American citizen.

Infowars was also a big spreader of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which falsely accused Hillary Clinton and other Democrats of running a child sex trafficking ring out of a Washington, DC pizzeria. Days after Jones urged his audience to investigate, a man, who told the New York Times he listened to Jones’s radio show, entered the restaurant and fired a rifle. (Jones later apologized to the restaurant owner for promoting the lie.)

In late 2015, ahead of Republican primaries, Trump called into Infowars for a mutually fawning interview with Jones.

Trump “gave those folks who are conspiracy theorists signals that he was their guy and they had a candidate who was a conspiracy theorist for the first time,” said Melissa Ryan, CEO of consulting firm CARD Strategies, which tracks disinformation and extremism.

“Trump won by being willing to appeal to this base of supporters that other people in the party would have kept at arm’s length,” she said, “lest they be called out for having extremist views.”

The early years of Trump’s presidency may have been the peak of Jones’s mainstream influence. By 2018, pressure mounted on tech companies to crack down on hate speech and harmful falsehoods. Jones and Infowars were kicked off Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Apple’s app store.

That curbed his ability to reach a wider audience, but according to evidence presented in court, he’s still making plenty of money. The forensic economist called by the plaintiffs said Jones’s deplatforming has not dented his revenues.

Now, Jones and Infowars are facing multiple trials that could put them on the hook for further damages to the victims of his lies.

Jones is trying to shield his assets through bankruptcy, but has vowed to keep Infowars alive.

But even if Jones were to go silent and Infowars went out of business tomorrow, the seeds of doubt he so effectively planted are flourishing.

“Conspiracy is a permanent part of our political and cultural discourse now,” Ryan said. “I think you can say that Alex Jones was an innovator in that.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/08/06/1115936712/how-alex-jones-helped-mainstream-conspiracy-theories-into-american-life

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Windsor Hills crash: Vigil honors victims of horrific Windsor Hills crash – KABC-TV
Windsor Hills crash: Vigil honors victims of horrific Windsor Hills crash – KABC-TV

WINDSOR HILLS, Calif. (KABC) — A somber vigil was held Friday evening to honor the victims of a multi-vehicle crash in Windsor Hills that killed six people, including a pregnant woman who died along with her young son.

Asherey Ryan was on her way to a prenatal doctor’s appointment at the time of the fiery collision on Thursday, her sister Seana Kerr told ABC7. Ryan’s 11-month-old son Alonzo Quintero and her boyfriend, Reynold Lester, were also among the deceased victims.

“Everybody’s heartbroken,” Kerr said in an interview. “She literally walked out the door, because we all live together, and she said, ‘Ok, I love y’all. I’m going to my doctor’s appointment to check up on the baby.’ We asked, ‘Oh, why don’t you leave our nephew here?’ She said, ‘No, I want to take my son for a ride.’ So, knowing that really, really broke our hearts.”

Lester’s family told ABC7 that the 24-year-old security guard was the father of the unborn child, who was listed as “baby boy Ryan” in online coroner’s records.

Two other women and a man were also killed but their names weren’t made public Friday.

Shortly after 1:30 p.m. Thursday, a Mercedes-Benz coupe ran a red light at high speed and caused the crash involving as many as six cars near a gas station at the intersection of Slauson and La Brea avenues, according to the California Highway Patrol.

READ ALSO | Woman was heading to prenatal checkup with infant son, boyfriend before deadly Windsor Hills crash

The California Highway Patrol said 37-year-old Nicole Lorraine Linton, who was injured in the collision, was taken into custody at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

Prosecutors said they could receive the case as early as next Monday and will then decide whether to file criminal charges.

“I drove to the scene,” Kerr said. “I ran past the police officers just because I wanted to feel her energy one more time. Yesterday, I truly lost it. My family was broken yesterday, and we’re still broken.”

Alonzo would have turned one-year-old on Aug. 17, his family said.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s mother said family members have set up a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses.

Ryan was a stay-at-home mother and a student, according to her family.

WATCH | Drivers left in shock after violent Windsor Hills crash kills 6: ‘It could’ve been me’

The Mercedes-Benz coupe never appeared to brake as it flew through the intersection and CHP Officer Franco Pepi said detectives are looking into whether Linton had a medical episode or was driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Several people were flung from the cars and two vehicles caught fire. News video from the scene showed the charred and mangled cars, as well as a child’s car seat among the debris covering the street.

Surveillance video showed the Mercedes careening through an intersection, striking at least two cars that exploded in flames and were sent hurtling onto a sidewalk, winding up against the gas station’s corner sign. A fiery streak led to one car. One vehicle was torn in half.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office released the following statement Friday afternoon:

“My heart goes out to the families that lost loved ones in the horrific car collision that occurred yesterday in Windsor Hills. This incredible tragedy has sent shockwaves throughout Los Angeles and the loss of so many precious lives will have a lasting impact on those that are closest to them.Our office is in close contact with the lead law enforcement agency investigating. A prosecutor has already been assigned and will be working with law enforcement throughout the weekend. We will provide updates as more information becomes available. The case could be presented to us as early as Monday.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://abc7.com/windsor-hills-crash-victims-fatal-accident-collision/12104384/

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Five takeaways from Friday’s Trump-Michels rally in Waukesha – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Five takeaways from Friday’s Trump-Michels rally in Waukesha – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

WAUKESHA – Former President Donald Trump looked to boost his chosen candidate for Wisconsin governor in Milwaukee’s Republican suburbs during a rally Friday, adding pressure to a contentious primary that will be decided on Tuesday. 

Here are five takeaways from the rally held at the Waukesha County Fairgrounds:

Tim Michels was fired up

Governor hopeful Tim Michels gave one of his most energetic speeches yet, buoyed by Trump’s late-stage appearance. The construction executive, who entered the race late and shot up in the polls after Trump’s endorsement, is hoping to capitalize off the momentum, particularly in the Milwaukee suburbs on Kleefisch’s home turf. Election integrity, Michels said, is his No. 1 priority.

“We are going to stop the Zuckerbucks, out-of-state billionaires coming into our state and taking control of our election process. It won’t happen anymore.” Michels was referring to grants to Wisconsin municipalities funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. Courts have upheld the private grants, most of which went to larger cities where Democratic voters are concentrated.

Source Article from https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/08/06/trump-rally-tim-michels-waukesha-five-takeaways/10254786002/

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Fears for nuclear safety after shelling at Ukrainian power plant – CNN
Fears for nuclear safety after shelling at Ukrainian power plant – CNN

By Vasco Cotovio and Tim Lister, CNN

Updated 9:20 AM ET, Sat August 6, 2022

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/06/europe/zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-intl/index.html

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Indiana Passes Near-Total Abortion Ban Post-Roe – The New York Times
Indiana Passes Near-Total Abortion Ban Post-Roe – The New York Times

“If this isn’t a government issue — protecting life — I don’t know what is,” said Representative John Young, a Republican who supported the measure. He added: “I know the exceptions are not enough for some and too much for others, but it’s a good balance.”

The law’s passage came after two weeks of emotional testimony and bitter debates in the Statehouse. Even though Republicans hold commanding majorities in both chambers, the bill’s fate did not always seem secure. When a Senate committee considered an initial version of the bill last week, no one showed up to testify in support of it: The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana called it a “cruel, dangerous bill,” Indiana Right to Life described it as “weak and troubling,” and a parade of residents with differing views on abortion all urged lawmakers to reject it.

The debate was supercharged by the case of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who had traveled to Indiana for an abortion after she was raped. The abortion provider in that case, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, became a target of some on the right.

Abortion rights protesters were a regular presence at the Statehouse during the session, sometimes chanting “Let us vote!” or “Church and state!” so loudly from the hallway that it could be difficult to hear lawmakers. Several Democrats invoked the vote in Kansas, in which 59 percent of voters decided to preserve abortion rights, as an example of the political risk Republicans were taking. Democrats suggested putting the issue to a nonbinding statewide vote in Indiana, which Republicans rejected.

“Judging by the results I saw in Kansas the other day,” said Representative Phil GiaQuinta, a Democrat who opposed the Indiana bill, “independents, Democrats and Republicans by their votes demonstrated what is most important to them, and me, and that is our personal freedoms and liberty.”

Todd Huston, the Republican speaker of the Indiana House, said he was pleased with the final version of the law. But asked about the protests in Indianapolis and the vote in Kansas, he acknowledged that many disagreed.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/05/us/indiana-abortion-vote.html

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Jury awards $45.2 million in punitive damages in Alex Jones Sandy Hook trial – Reuters
Jury awards $45.2 million in punitive damages in Alex Jones Sandy Hook trial – Reuters

Aug 5 (Reuters) – U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay the parents of a 6-year-old boy killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre $45.2 million in punitive damages – on top of $4.1 million in compensatory damages already awarded – for falsely claiming the shooting was a hoax, a Texas jury decided on Friday.

Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, separated parents of slain 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, testified that followers of Jones harassed them and sent them death threats for years in the false belief that they were lying about their son’s death in the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting that killed 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

The 12 jurors decided on the punitive damages one day after determining the compensatory damages following a two-week trial in the defamation lawsuit presided over by Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in state court in the Texas capital of Austin, where Jones’ radio show and far-right webcast Infowars are based.

Jones, a prominent figure in American right-wing circles and a supporter of former President Donald Trump, had called the Sandy Hook massacre a U.S. government hoax staged using crisis actors to serve as a pretext for taking away Americans’ guns.

After the verdict, Lewis told reporters that the trial’s outcome showed that “we can choose love,” adding: “We’re all responsible for one another.”

The parents had sought $145.9 million in punitive damages and $150 million in compensatory damages. Compensatory damages are awarded to cover a plaintiff’s suffering and losses. Punitive damages are awarded to punish a defendant’s actions.

An attorney for Jones, Federico Andino Reynal, had asked jurors to return a verdict of $270,000 in punitive damages based on the number of hours Infowars devoted to Sandy Hook coverage.

Outside the courthouse, Reynal told reporters the verdict was high but that Texas law caps punitive damages at $750,000 per plaintiff.

Reynal later told Reuters he aimed to minimize compensatory damages throughout the trial knowing there is a cap on punitive damages.

“We always knew that was going to be a backstop, so the strategy worked,” Reynal said, referring to the cap.

The punitive damages were put at $4.2 million for Jones defaming Heslin by questioning that he held his dead son after the shooting and $20.5 million apiece to Heslin and Lewis for mental anguish.

“We ask that you send a very, very simple message, and that is: stop Alex Jones. Stop the monetization of misinformation and lies,” Wesley Todd Ball, a lawyer for the parents, told jurors on Friday before they began deliberations on punitive damages.

Jones sought to distance himself from the conspiracy theories during his testimony in the trial, apologizing to the parents and acknowledging that Sandy Hook was “100% real.”

The Sandy Hook gunman, Adam Lanza, used a Remington Bushmaster rifle during the massacre, which ended when he killed himself with the sound of approaching police sirens.

‘TRULY A BAD ACTOR’

The judge admonished Jones during the trial for not telling the truth during his testimony about his bankruptcy and lack of compliance with requests for documents.

Attorney Doug Mirell, a defamation litigation expert not involved in the case, said the question of Jones’s truthfulness on the witness stand could have played a role in the jury’s award of punitive damages, noting that it is unusual to award significantly more in punitive than compensatory damages.

“The jury may have simply latched on to their revulsion at the lies and decided Mr. Jones is truly a bad actor,” Mirell told Reuters.

Forensic economist Bernard Pettingill testified on Friday that Jones and Infowars are worth between $135 million and $270 million combined.

Jones’ company, Free Speech Systems LLC, declared bankruptcy last week. Jones said during a Monday broadcast that the filing will help the company stay on the air while it appeals.

The bankruptcy declaration paused a similar defamation suit by Sandy Hook parents in Connecticut where, as in Texas, he has already been found liable. The bankruptcy will also pause another defamation suit by Sandy Hook parents in Texas, Reynal told Reuters.

During closing arguments on Wednesday, Kyle Farrar, a lawyer for the parents, urged the jury to end what he called their nightmare and hold Jones accountable for profiting off their son’s death. Reynal acknowledged during his closing argument that Jones and Infowars reported “irresponsibly” on Sandy Hook but said his client was not responsible for the harassment.

The plaintiffs have accused Jones of approaching the trial in bad faith, citing broadcasts in which he said the proceedings were rigged against him and that the jury pool was full of people who “don’t know what planet they’re on.”

Reynal vowed on Friday that Jones will keep doing his job “holding the power structure accountable.”

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/jury-alex-jones-defamation-case-begin-deliberations-punitive-damages-2022-08-05/

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Indiana passes near-total abortion ban, the first state to do so post-Roe – The Washington Post
Indiana passes near-total abortion ban, the first state to do so post-Roe – The Washington Post

The Republican-dominated state Senate approved the legislation 28-19 Friday in a vote that came just hours after it passed Indiana’s lower chamber. The bill, which will go into effect Sept. 15, only allows abortion in cases of rape, incest, lethal fetal abnormality or when the procedure is necessary to prevent severe health risks or death.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/05/indiana-abortion-ban-roe-holscomb/

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Woman arrested in high-speed crash that killed 5 in Los Angeles County – NBC News
Woman arrested in high-speed crash that killed 5 in Los Angeles County – NBC News
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The last time there was a Taiwan crisis, China’s low-tech military was badly outmatched by U.S. forces. Not now. – CNBC
The last time there was a Taiwan crisis, China’s low-tech military was badly outmatched by U.S. forces. Not now. – CNBC

The last time tensions soared between Beijing and Washington over Taiwan, the U.S. Navy sent warships through the Taiwan Strait and there was nothing China could do about it.

Those days are gone.

China’s military has undergone a transformation since the mid-1990s when a crisis erupted over Taiwan’s president visiting the U.S., prompting an angry reaction from Beijing.

“It’s a very different situation now,” said Michele Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense for policy in the Obama administration. “It’s a much more contested and much more lethal environment for our forces.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping, unlike his predecessors, now has serious military power at his disposal, including ship-killing missiles, a massive navy and an increasingly capable air force. That new military might is changing the strategic calculus for the U.S. and Taiwan, raising the potential risks of a conflict or miscalculation, former officials and experts say.

During the 1995-96 crisis, in an echo of current tensions, China staged live-fire military drills, issued stern warnings to Taipei and launched missiles into waters near Taiwan.

But the U.S. military responded with the largest show of force since the Vietnam War, sending an array of warships to the area, including two aircraft carrier groups. The carrier Nimitz and other battleships sailed through the narrow waterway that separates China and Taiwan, driving home the idea of America’s military dominance.

“Beijing should know the strongest military power in the western Pacific is the United States,” said the then-defense secretary, William Perry. 

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) back then was a low-tech, slow-moving force that was no match for the U.S. military, with a lackluster navy and air force that could not venture too far from China’s coastline, former and current U.S. officials said.

“They realized they were vulnerable, that the Americans could sail aircraft carriers right up in their face, and there was nothing they could do about it,” said Matthew Kroenig, who served as an intelligence and defense official in the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations.

The Chinese, taken aback by the U.S. military’s high-tech display in the first Gulf War, “went to school on the American way of war” and launched a concerted effort to invest in their military and — above all — to bolster their position in the Taiwan Strait, Kroenig said.

Beijing drew a number of lessons from the 1995-96 crisis, concluding it needed satellite surveillance and other intelligence to spot adversaries over the horizon, and a “blue water” navy and air force able to sail and fly across the western Pacific, according to David Finkelstein, director of China and Indo-Pacific security affairs at CNA, an independent research institute.

“The PLA Navy has made remarkable progress since 1995 and 1996. It’s actually mind-staggering how quickly the PLA Navy has built itself up. And of course in ’95-96, the PLA Air Force almost never flew over water,” said Finkelstein, a retired U.S. Army officer.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has described China’s dramatic rise as a military power as a strategic earthquake.

“We’re witnessing, in my view, we’re witnessing one of the largest shifts in global geostrategic power that the world has witnessed,” Milley said last year.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/06/during-the-last-taiwan-crisis-chinas-military-was-outmatched-by-us-forces-not-now.html

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Flash floods bury cars and strand tourists in Death Valley – The Guardian
Flash floods bury cars and strand tourists in Death Valley – The Guardian

Flash flooding at Death Valley national park closed all roads into the park, buried cars and stranded about 1,000 people on Friday.

A deluge brought “nearly an entire year’s worth of rain in one morning” into the famously hot and dry park in the California desert. At least 1.7in (4.3cm) of rain fell in the Furnace Creek area; the park’s average annual rainfall is 1.9in (4.8cm).

About 60 vehicles were buried in debris and about 500 visitors and 500 park workers were stranded, park officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries and the California transport department estimated it would take four to six hours to open a road that would allow park visitors to leave.

It was the second major flooding event at the park this week. Some roads were closed on Monday after they were inundated with mud and debris from flash floods that also hit western Nevada and northern Arizona hard.

The rain started around 2am, said John Sirlin, a photographer for an Arizona-based adventure company who witnessed the flooding as he perched on a hillside boulder where he was trying to take pictures of lightning as the storm approached.

Video and photos posted by Sirlin on social media showed fast flowing water, toppled palm trees and cars trapped by debris.

“It was more extreme than anything I’ve seen there,” said Sirlin, who lives in Chandler, Arizona, and has been visiting the park since 2016. He is the lead guide for Incredible Weather Adventures and said he started chasing storms in Minnesota and the high plains in the 1990s.

“I’ve never seen it to the point where entire trees and boulders were washing down. The noise from some of the rocks coming down the mountain was just incredible,” he said in a phone interview on Friday afternoon.

“A lot of washes were flowing several feet deep. There are rocks probably 3 or 4 feet covering the road,” he said.

Sirlin said it took him about 6 hours to drive about 35 miles (56 kilometers) out of the park from near the Inn at Death Valley.

“There were at least two dozen cars that got smashed and stuck in there,” he said, adding that he didn’t see anyone injured “or any high water rescues”.

During Friday’s rainstorms, the “flood waters pushed dumpster containers into parked cars, which caused cars to collide into one another. Additionally, many facilities are flooded including hotel rooms and business offices,” the park statement said.

A water system that provides it for park residents and offices also failed after a line broke that was being repaired, the statement said.

A flood advisory remained in effect into the evening, the National Weather Service said.

Associated Press contributed reporting

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/06/flash-floods-bury-cars-and-strand-tourists-in-death-valley

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Sinema’s Puzzling Defense of the Carried Interest Loophole – The New York Times
Sinema’s Puzzling Defense of the Carried Interest Loophole – The New York Times

As DealBook reported earlier, a California federal court last Friday declined to dismiss Visa from a case brought by a woman who struggled to have sexually abusive videos, taken of her as an underage teen, removed from Pornhub. The suit argues that Visa helped monetize the illegal content via advertising, even though it has blocked the use of Visa cards for payments on Pornhub since 2020.

The legal decision has “created new uncertainty” about the role of TrafficJunky, the advertising arm of Pornhub’s parent company, MindGeek, Al Kelly, Visa’s C.E.O. and chairman, wrote in a company blog post yesterday. “Accordingly, we will suspend TrafficJunky’s Visa acceptance privileges based on the court’s decision until further notice,” he wrote. Kelly also said that his company condemned “sex trafficking, sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse.”

Mastercard put up its guard. Not a party to the suit but perhaps anticipating future litigation, it told DealBook in a statement that it was also blocking payments to TrafficJunky. “New facts from last week’s court ruling made us aware of advertising revenue outside of our view that appears to provide Pornhub with indirect funding,” a spokesman said. Like Visa, Mastercard halted direct payments on Pornhub after Nicholas Kristof highlighted credit card companies’ ties to the site in a Times Opinion piece.

The pressure has been on ever since, not least from Bill Ackman, the founder of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, who is campaigning for accountability. “I just learned that @discovercard is still providing payment services to MindGeek despite @Visa and @Mastercard’s suspension,” Ackman tweeted yesterday. “This needs to stop now!” Discover did not comment in time for publication.

Deals

  • Coinbase and BlackRock are joining forces, connecting platforms so BlackRock clients can easily access the crypto exchange. (FT)

  • Halliday, a buy-now-pay-later start-up for financing blockchain game purchases, gets $6 million in a seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. (TechCrunch)

Policy

  • The PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel is single-handedly reshaping Republican campaigns. (Daily Beast)

  • The Transportation Department proposes new rules to protect travelers from flight disruptions. (NYT)

  • Jurors order Alex Jones to pay $4.1 million for defaming parents of a child killed at Sandy Hook. (NYT)

  • The N.R.A. donated millions to groups behind amicus briefs supporting expansive gun rights in a June Supreme Court ruling. (Politico)

Best of the rest

David F. Gallagher contributed to today’s DealBook.

We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/05/business/dealbook/sinema-tax-loophole-carried-interest.html

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Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill 11, including senior lslamic Jihad leader – CNN
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill 11, including senior lslamic Jihad leader – CNN

By Andrew Carey, Abeer Salman, Amir Tal and Ibrahim Dahman, CNN

Updated 4:09 AM ET, Sat August 6, 2022

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/05/middleeast/israel-gaza-strikes-islamic-jihad-intl/index.html

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Alex Jones ordered to pay $45.2 million more in punitive damages to Sandy Hook parents – The Washington Post
Alex Jones ordered to pay $45.2 million more in punitive damages to Sandy Hook parents – The Washington Post

The damages phase of the trial that ended Friday marks the first time Jones, an influential purveyor of far-right conspiracy theories, has faced financial repercussions in court for the outlandish lies he told via his Infowars broadcast about the shooting. Since the early days that followed the 2012 shooting that killed 26 people, including 20 young children, Jones said on his program that “no one died” at Sandy Hook and that the attack was a ruse “staged” by gun-control advocates to manufacture anti-gun sentiment.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/05/alex-jones-sandy-hook-punitive-damages/

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Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill 10, including senior lslamic Jihad leader – CNN
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill 10, including senior lslamic Jihad leader – CNN

The Israeli military launched deadly strikes against what it said were Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza on Friday as tensions continue to rise between Israel and Palestinian militant groups.

Islamic Jihad said in a statement one of its senior leaders, Tayseer Al Jabari, had been killed in an Israeli strike. He was a commander in the Quds Brigade, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, the group said, and a member of its Military Council.

The Palestinian health ministry said at least 10 people were killed, including a 5-year-old girl and a 23-year-old woman. Another 75 were injured, it said. Israel insists most of those killed were militants.

A CNN producer in Gaza saw medics carrying two bodies out of a building called the Palestine Tower which had been hit in one of the strikes.

Opinion: The big mistake the US could make on Iran nuclear talks

An Israeli army statement said the military operation – which it called ‘Breaking Dawn’ – was targeting Islamic Jihad, the smaller of the two main militant groups in Gaza.

The Israeli army said the main focus of its military action was a preemptive airstrike on Al Jabari, and strikes on two anti-tank squads which were en route to carrying out an attack on Israeli forces.

On a call with reporters Friday night, an army spokesman said the two squads had been tracked for several days before the Air Force carried out its operation, adding Israel had been facing an imminent threat for several days as the two militant units moved very close to the fence separating Gaza from Israel.

A “special situation” has been declared in areas around Gaza, in anticipation of possible rocket fire, or other retaliatory attacks, the Israeli army said.

“The goal of this operation is the elimination of a concrete threat against the citizens of Israel and the civilians living adjacent to the Gaza Strip, as well as the targeting of terrorists and their sponsors,” Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz said in a joint statement.

“The Israeli government will not allow terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip to set the agenda in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip and threaten the citizens of the State of Israel. Anyone who tries to harm Israel should know: We will find you,” Lapid said.

Islamic Jihad has vowed to respond. “All options are open, with all means that the Palestinian resistance has, whether in Gaza or outside,” spokesman Daoud Shehab said on Al Jazeera. “The battlefield is open … The resistance will respond with all force. We will not say how, but it is inevitable.”

Meanwhile, Gantz authorized the call-up of 25,000 reservists on Friday evening, signaling Israel’s preparedness for a full-scale escalation.

Those immediately called up will reinforce the army’s southern command, which includes the area around Gaza, as well as units operating Israel’s aerial defense systems, among other deployments, the Defense Ministry said.

Sirens indicating incoming rocket fire were heard in the southern town of Sderot and other villages close to Gaza late Friday evening. Earlier, sirens sounded in Bat Yam, located just a few kilometers south of Tel Aviv, and in Yavne, which lies between Tel Aviv and Ashdod. Israeli media reported many rockets have been intercepted by the Iron Dome aerial defense system, with no reports of any casualties in Israel.

By midnight local time Friday into Saturday (5 p.m. ET Friday), Palestinian militants had fired 118 rockets toward Israel, according to an Israeli army official.

Eleven of the launches had failed to make it over the fence separating Gaza from Israel, the army said, meaning they had landed somewhere inside the Strip.

The rest were either intercepted or landed in open areas, the military official said.

The Israeli army said it continues to strike Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza, including a rocket-launching site near the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis. The army also said it is striking weapons production facilities.

Israel’s Prime Minister makes rare allusion to country’s nuclear weapons arsenal

Hamas, the militant group which controls Gaza, appears to be treading carefully in the midst of a serious escalation between Israel and Islamic Jihad, the smaller of the two main militant factions in the Strip.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has blamed Israel for the escalation, but his most recent statements have stopped short of threatening attacks in response, or warning of retaliation. Instead, they have emphasized the role of international mediators, and Hamas’s involvement in talks aimed at ending hostilities.

“The Israeli occupation bears full responsibility for its most recent escalation in the Gaza Strip,” a Hamas statement early Saturday quoted Haniyeh as saying. “In a phone call with senior Egyptian intelligence officials, Haniyeh reaffirmed the necessity for the ongoing Israeli bombardment in the besieged Gaza Strip to be immediately stopped,” the statement went on.

An earlier release from Hamas reported Haniyeh had also spoken by phone with the Qatari Foreign Minister in an attempt to put a lid on the violence.

When Israel and Gaza militants fought a short war in May 2021 – the fourth such war in 13 years – Hamas was clearly in the driving seat. It sought to use growing violence in and around the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem as the pretext for launching rockets toward Jerusalem, which triggered the 11-day conflict.

Tor Wennesland, the UN’s top official in the Middle East, said he was deeply concerned by the ongoing escalation between the two sides.

Referencing the killing of a five-year-old girl, Wennesland said there could be “no justification for any attacks against civilians,” and addressing militants, said “the launching of rockets must cease immediately, and I call on all sides to avoid further escalation.”

The UN, along with Egypt, has often played a key intermediary role between Israel and Palestinian militants in restoring a ceasefire after hostilities have broken out.

Wennesland said the UN was “fully engaged with all concerned” to try to avoid a further deterioration. But he added “the responsibility is with the parties to avoid this from happening.”

Friday’s strikes come after Israeli forces captured a senior Islamic Jihad commander, Bassam al-Saadi, during a raid on Monday night in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin.

During the operation, a 17-year-old Palestinian linked to Islamic Jihad was shot dead in an exchange of gunfire with Israeli soldiers, according to the Israeli military. The Palestinian health ministry said he had been shot in the head by Israeli forces.

Saadi was one of two wanted terror suspects apprehended in the raid, Israel said. The Quds Brigade, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, said it was mobilizing its forces across the Palestinian territories in response.

Recent months have seen repeated Israeli operations in and around Jenin, after several fatal attacks inside Israel were carried out by Palestinian gunmen from the region. Thirty Palestinians have been killed in the raids since the start of the year, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Neri Zilber in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/05/middleeast/israel-gaza-strikes-islamic-jihad-intl/index.html

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Pentagon chiefs’ calls to China go unanswered amid Taiwan crisis – POLITICO
Pentagon chiefs’ calls to China go unanswered amid Taiwan crisis – POLITICO

U.S. military leaders strive to maintain open lines of communication even with potential adversaries such as China to prevent accidents and other miscalculations that could turn into a full-blown conflict.

But the last call Milley had with his Chinese counterpart, Chief of the Joint Staff Gen. Li Zuocheng, was on July 7, the Pentagon said. The two spoke by secure video teleconference about the need to maintain open lines of communication, as well as reducing risk, according to a readout from Milley’s office. Austin, meanwhile, met in person with Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe in June on the sideline of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

“The secretary has repeatedly emphasized the importance of fully open lines of communication with China’s defense leaders to ensure that we can avoid any miscalculations, and that remains true,” Todd Breasseale, the Pentagon’s acting press secretary, told POLITICO in an email.

China on Friday announced that it was halting certain official dialogues between senior-level U.S. military commanders, including the regional commanders, as well as talks on maritime safety. The announcement does not specifically apply to Austin and Milley’s counterparts, and officials said they are still open to communication between those leaders.

White House spokesperson John Kirby said while the announcement “does not completely eliminate the opportunities for senior members of our military to talk,” it increases the risk of an accident.

“These lines of communications are actually important for helping you reduce the risk of miscalculation and misperception,” Kirby said Friday. “You have this much military hardware operating in confined areas, it’s good, especially now, to have those lines of communication open.”

China is conducting military drills around Taiwan that have broken multiple precedents and fundamentally changed the status quo in the region. Beijing this week launched missiles into Taiwan’s territory, including at least one that appears to have flown over the island, and has sortied ships and aircraft across the median line separating Taiwan’s territorial waters from mainland China.

The U.S., which does not officially recognize Taiwan’s independence but sells weapons to the island, wants to avoid a situation such as on April 1, 2001, when a U.S. Navy EP-3 signals intelligence aircraft and a Chinese J-8 fighter collided in mid-air, prompting an international dispute.

The risk of such an incident is increasingly high. China has recently ramped up aggressive activity in the Pacific, particularly the East and South China seas, alarming U.S. officials. Chinese aircraft and ships have buzzed and harassed U.S. and allied pilots, even conducting an “unsafe” intercept with a U.S. special operations C-130 aircraft in June.

Yet canceling military dialogue is significant, but not unprecedented, experts said.

“Historically this is definitely part of the playbook,” Schriver said. “Mil-mil [communications] historically is on the chopping block when we have problems with China.”

But Kirby condemned the move as “irresponsible” at a time of escalating tensions.

“We find the shutting down of military communications channels at whatever level and whatever scope and at a time of crisis to be an irresponsible Act,” Kirby said.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/05/pentagon-china-calls-taiwan-00050175

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Driver Arrested in Deadly Windsor Hills Crash – NBC Southern California
Driver Arrested in Deadly Windsor Hills Crash – NBC Southern California

CHP officers arrested a woman Friday who they say caused a fiery multi-car crash in Windsor Hills that killed 6 people, including a baby and a pregnant woman.

Nicole L. Linton, identified by multiple law enforcement sources as a nurse from Texas, will be booked after she’s released from a hospital where she’s being treated for injuries she sustained in the wreck.

The arrest was also confirmed by members of Linton’s family.

Public records in Texas show someone with the same name as a registered nurse with a current, valid license.

Kaiser Permanente released the following statement regarding the crash:

“Everyone at Kaiser Permanente is deeply saddened by Thursday’s horrific crash. It’s impossible to imagine the pain those involved are experiencing. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy. At this time, we are not able to comment on what has been reported as a criminal investigation. Any further questions about should be forwarded to law enforcement authorities.”

The high speed crash happened around 2 p.m. Thursday at the intersection of Slauson and La Brea Avenues and was captured by a security camera at a gas station nearby.

As of Friday morning the CHP said 6 people died in the crash and at least 8 others were injured.

Source Article from https://www.nbclosangeles.com/local-2/driver-arrested-in-deadly-windsor-hills-crash/2958101/

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Pentagon denies plea to help with migrant buses to Washington – BBC
Pentagon denies plea to help with migrant buses to Washington – BBC

In a news conference on Friday, Mayor Bowser, a Democrat, said the city would resubmit “a more specified request for help”, and continue to work towards converting the DC Armory or nearby military bases into migrant processing centres.

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62444300

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Parkland school shooting jury visits untouched, bloodstained classrooms – The Guardian
Parkland school shooting jury visits untouched, bloodstained classrooms – The Guardian

Roses brought to honor love on that Valentine’s Day in 2018 lay withered, their dried and cracked petals scattered across classroom floors still smeared with the blood of victims gunned down by a former student more than four years ago.

Bullet holes pocked walls, and shards of glass from windows shattered by gunfire crunched underfoot at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, where shooter Nikolas Cruz killed 14 students and three staff members.

Nothing had been changed, except for the removal of the victims’ bodies and some personal items.

Twelve jurors and 10 alternates who will decide whether Cruz gets the death penalty or life in prison made a rare visit to the massacre scene on Thursday, retracing Cruz’s steps through the three-story freshman building, known as Building 12.

After they left, a group of journalists was allowed in for a much quicker first public view. The sight was deeply unsettling.

Large pools of dried blood still stained classroom floors. A lock of dark hair rested on the floor where one of the victims’ bodies once lay. A single black rubber shoe was in a hallway. Browned rose petals were strewn across a hallway where six people died, and Valentines Day gifts, such as toy bears, and cards lay where they had tumbled in the havoc.

In classroom after classroom, open notebooks displayed uncompleted lessons. A blood-coated book called Tell Them We Remember sat atop a bullet-riddled desk in the classroom where a teacher, Ivy Schamis, taught students about the Holocaust.

A sign attached to a bulletin board read: “We will never forget.” Two students died there.

In the classroom of the English teacher Dara Hass, where the most students were gunned down, there were essays about Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban for going to school, and who has since become a global advocate for education access for women and girls.

The door of Room 1255, teacher Stacey Lippel’s classroom, was pushed open – like others to signify that Cruz shot into it. Hanging on a wall inside was a sign reading: “No Bully Zone”. The creative writing assignment for the day was on the whiteboard: “How to write the perfect love letter.”

And still hanging on the wall of a second-floor hallway was a quote from James Dean: “Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.”

In slain teacher Scott Beigel’s geography classroom, a laptop was still open on his desk. Student assignments comparing the tenets of Christianity and Islam remained, some graded, some not.

Prosecutors, who rested their case after the jury’s tour, hope the visit will help prove that Cruz’s actions were cold, calculated, heinous and cruel; created a great risk of death to many people and “interfered with a government function” – all aggravating factors under Florida’s capital punishment law.

Under Florida court rules, neither the judge nor the attorneys were allowed to speak to the jurors – and the jurors weren’t allowed to converse with each other – when they retraced the path Cruz took on 14 February 2018, as he moved from floor to floor, firing down hallways and into classrooms.

Before the tour, the jurors had already seen surveillance video of the shooting and photographs of its aftermath.

The building has been sealed and the Broward county school district plans to demolish it whenever prosecutors approve. For now, it is a court exhibit.

Cruz, now 23, pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder.

After jurors returned to the courtroom on Thursday from the rare crime scene visit, the mothers of two victims testified that the massacre permanently cast a pall over not only every Valentine’s Day but other important family celebrations.

Helena Ramsay, 17, died on her father’s birthday. “That day will never be a celebration and can never be the same for him,” her mother, Anne Ramsay, said.

Hui Wang, whose 15-year-old son Peter was killed, said the shooting occurred the day before lunar new year. A planned celebration was canceled that year and every year since then. “This day of unity became a day that hurts the most,” she said.

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/05/parkland-shooting-jury-visited-high-school

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Flash floods strand 1K people in Death Valley National Park – The Associated Press – en Español
Flash floods strand 1K people in Death Valley National Park – The Associated Press – en Español

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Flash flooding at Death Valley National Park triggered by heavy rainfall on Friday buried cars, forced officials to close all roads in and out the park and stranded about 1,000 people, officials said

The park near the California-Nevada state line received at least 1.7 inches (4.3 centimeters) of rain at the Furnace Creek area, which park officials in a statement said represented “nearly an entire year’s worth of rain in one morning.” The park’s average annual rainfall is 1.9 inches (4.8 centimeters).

About 60 vehicles were buried in debris and about 500 visitors and 500 park workers were stranded, park officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries and the California Department of Transportation estimated it would take four to six hours to open a road that would allow park visitors to leave.

It was the second major flooding event at the park this week. Some roads were closed Monday after they were inundated with mud and debris from flash floods that also hit western Nevada and northern Arizona hard.

The rain started around 2 a.m., said John Sirlin, a photographer for an Arizona-based adventure company who witnessed the flooding as he perched on a hillside boulder where he was trying to take pictures of lightning as the storm approached.

“It was more extreme than anything I’ve seen there,” said Sirlin, who lives in Chandler, Arizona, and has been visiting the park since 2016. He is the lead guide for Incredible Weather Adventures and said he started chasing storms in Minnesota and the high plains in the 1990s.

“I’ve never seen it to the point where entire trees and boulders were washing down. The noise from some of the rocks coming down the mountain was just incredible,” he said in a phone interview Friday afternoon.

“A lot of washes were flowing several feet deep. There are rocks probably 3 or 4 feet covering the road,” he said.

Sirlin said it took him about 6 hours to drive about 35 miles (56 kilometers) out of the park from near the Inn at Death Valley.

“There were at least two dozen cars that got smashed and stuck in there,” he said, adding that he didn’t see anyone injured “or any high water rescues.”

During Friday’s rainstorms, the “flood waters pushed dumpster containers into parked cars, which caused cars to collide into one another. Additionally, many facilities are flooded including hotel rooms and business offices,” the park statement said.

A water system that provides it for park residents and offices also failed after a line broke that was being repaired, the statement said.

A flash flood warning for the park and surrounding area expired at 12:45 p.m., Friday but a flood advisory remained in effect into the evening, the National Weather Service said.

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/floods-nevada-weather-government-and-politics-7e823cb4ab832c8a69587020c3a4eb2a

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A jury finds Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of a Sandy Hook shooting victim – CNN
A jury finds Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of a Sandy Hook shooting victim – CNN

By Brian Stelter, CNN Business

Updated 6:15 PM ET, Fri August 5, 2022

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/05/media/alex-jones-punitive-damages-sandy-hook/index.html

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China suspends cooperation with US on range of issues, sanctions Pelosi over Taiwan trip – CNN
China suspends cooperation with US on range of issues, sanctions Pelosi over Taiwan trip – CNN
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    CNN’s Gawon Bae and Yong Xiong in Seoul, Emiko Jozuka in Tokyo, Eric Cheung in Taipei, and Sam Fossum in Washington contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/05/asia/nancy-pelosi-taiwan-china-tokyo-intl-hnk/index.html

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