Новости за 06.10.2022

Under normal circumstances, I would probably not write about former President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against CNN. The 29-page complaint, which was filed earlier this week in a federal court in Florida, claims that the network and its commentators defamed Trump by, among other things, implicitly and explicitly comparing him to Adolf Hitler. He is seeking $475 million in damages from the network for the purported impact on his reputation and his political career.

Elon Musk has done everything he could think of to get out of buying Twitter—after, of course, agreeing to buy it. This has made for some considerable confusion. He has announced several times that he was withdrawing his bid or placing it “on hold.” He has accused the company of many different varieties of shenanigans, from inflating user numbers to just being poorly run in general. He even sued the company to try to block the deal. And when inspiration was at its ebb, he just tweeted a lot. Sometimes, the tweets were bad. Читать дальше...

In the mid-1950s, nearly three in 10 employed workers belonged to a union. Now that figure is down to around 10 percent—just 6 percent in the private sector. But labor organizing and pro-worker policymaking are on the rise. At more than 200 Starbucks outlets, an Amazon warehouse, and even an Apple store, workers are banding together to ask for higher wages, better benefits, and more control over their schedules and workplace conditions.

Judge James Ho, a conservative judge who currently serves on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, made a bold announcement last month: He will no longer hire clerks from Yale Law School. Ho cited instances of what he described as “cancel culture” on Yale’s campus, including protests against conservative speakers on campus and perceived missteps by the law school’s administrators. “Yale presents itself as the best, most elite institution of legal education,” he said. “Yet it’s the worst when it... Читать дальше...

Common wisdom has it that the best long-term investment vehicle is the humble index fund, which rises and falls with the stock market. “I’ve often been asked for investment advice,” Warren Buffett wrote in his 2017 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. “My regular recommendation has been a low-cost S&P 500 index fund.” According to CNBC, roughly 80 percent of all actively managed mutual funds last year lagged the S&P Composite 1500, an index fund that covers 90 percent of all market capitalization. Читать дальше...

When Luis Buñuel won his only Palme d’Or at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival, it was for Viridiana, a Spanish-Mexican co-production about a nun whose rich uncle attempts to rape her; the next day, after he hangs himself, she inherits his country estate, righteously inviting local beggars to reside there in her care. In the film’s climactic scene, Viridiana’s leprous wards besiege the mansion in blasphemous mockery of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, upon discovery of which, Buñuel’s camera strongly implies... Читать дальше...

The days since Hurricane Ian have seen a horrifying string of information flood in. So far, 109 people have been confirmed dead. At least 55 of those deaths occurred in Lee County, Florida, where evacuation orders were issued just 24 hours before Ian made landfall. Communications have been spotty from storm-battered jails and prisons, which in the aftermath of previous storms have been the sites of horrifying conditions and unnecessary deaths.