Weekend Papers Summary
.NEW YORK TIMES
-Officials released video of the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, a Black man, by officers who are also Black and now face murder charges. The footage does not show what prompted the officers to pull over Mr. Nichols, who can be heard saying, “I’m just trying to go home.”
-From Sacramento to Memphis, Tyre Nichols Cut His Own Path
Social media posts show that Mr. Nichols did not trust prevailing systems. Yet, a friend says, he also considered trying to change policing from the inside.
-Memphis had avoided most bitter divisions over policing. Until now.
Across the US, the Tyre Nichols video has been met with sorrow, anger and exhaustion.
-Court releases video of Paul Pelosi hammer attack, adding chilling details.
Police body camera footage, surveillance video and other material disproved but could not stop right-wing conspiracy theories about the attack.
-At least 7 people were killed in an attack in Jewish Area of East Jerusalem
The police said a 21-year-old man with a handgun shot people on the street at close range, then fled and was killed himself by police gunfire.
-Republicans re-elect head of the RNC after a heated challenge. Ronna McDaniel won a fourth two-year term to lead the Republican National Committee, fending off a heated challenge after the party’s poor midterm showing.
-The man who pepper-sprayed officer on Jan. 6 gets nearly 7 years in prison. Officer Brian Sicknick died a day after the Capitol riot. Another man initially charged in the assault was sentenced to time served.
-Pro-Trump rioters clashing with the police outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Analysis: Tanks alone won’t turn the tide of the war in Ukraine. To ensure the Ukrainian military can use all the Western-provided equipment effectively, the US will have to step up its training program.
-Russia outlawed an independent news site and a rights group, stifling voices critical of its invasion.
-The National Archives does not have the ability to enforce its request that former presidents and vice presidents scour files for classified documents.
-An expert panel votes for stricter rules on risky virus research. The White House will decide whether to adopt the panel’s recommendations on so-called gain of function experiments.
-Crime has diminished in New Yoirk City’s subway after an increased police presence. Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams said major crimes fell 16% in the three months since more officers were assigned to the system.
-What will happen when AI makes BuzzFeed quizzes? The site announced plans to use tools from the creator of ChatGPT to create content. Former quiz writers aren’t surprised.
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
-Japan and the Netherlands will restrict exports of chip manufacturing tools to China after reaching a deal with the US designed to make it harder for the Chinese military to develop advanced weapons. Several people familiar with the trilateral agreement said the countries reached an agreement on Friday after a final round of high-level talks at the White House. The accord comes three months after Washington imposed unilateral export controls that barred US companies from selling advanced chip making equipment to Chinese groups.
-With Ukrainian forces having made some decisive advances before winter set in, Ukraine and its allies are now racing to establish the new tank force in time for a possible offensive later this spring. However, it could take several months for the bulk of the force to arrive, and it could be considerably smaller than Kyiv had hoped. Some military analysts fear that western tanks may not prove to be the game changer that many Ukrainians and their supporters imagined — even if the Ukrainians are talking up the potential.
-It is easy to view the US government’s latest legal challenge to the power of Big Tech as a case of too little, too late. Years of almost negligent disregard from the trustbusters has allowed a handful of companies to entrench themselves in the booming digital markets. But as another lawsuit from Washington lands, there is a sense that something significant is shifting, and that even relatively small victories could go a long way.
-A top American air force general has predicted that the US and China will probably go to war in 2025, in the most dramatic warning yet from a senior military officer about the likelihood of a conflict over Taiwan. General Mike Minihan, head of US Air Mobility Command, said the two military powers were likely to end up at war because of a series of circumstances that would embolden Chinese president Xi Jinping.
-A Palestinian gunman killed at least seven Israelis in a shooting outside a synagogue on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Friday, as tensions continued to soar in the wake of the deadliest Israeli raid on the occupied West Bank in years. Police said the gunman, whom they identified as a 21-year-old resident of East Jerusalem, arrived outside the synagogue in Neve Ya’akov around 8.15pm local time as worshippers celebrated the Sabbath.
-US prosecutors have asked a New York judge to prevent Sam Bankman-Fried from contacting his former FTX colleagues and from using encrypted messaging apps, claiming the crypto company founder communicated with potential witnesses in his looming criminal trial.
-The army food scandal broke as Ukraine was pleading with its western partners to supply it with tanks and other critical arms supplies for the fight against Russia’s invasion forces. The country’s bid to become an EU member state will depend on credible rule of law and anti-corruption reforms. It was the first domino in a cascade of stories that would lead to resignations and sackings of senior government officials, as well as the biggest government shake-up since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
-Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is pardoning convicts to allow them to fight in Ukraine as members of the Wagner paramilitary group, the Kremlin has admitted. Russia also dismissed the US Treasury’s move to label Yevgeny Prigozhin’s group, which is playing an increasingly prominent role on the front lines as Putin’s full-scale invasion enters its 12th month, as a “transnational criminal organization”.
-Wall Street banks including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are warning that Washington is heading for the riskiest debt ceiling confrontation since 2011, when the US lost its risk-free credit rating. The fight over the debt ceiling could be the most important issue facing the US economy in 2023, according to a JPMorgan note to clients on Friday.
-Salesforce appointed three new directors to its board on Friday as the software giant seeks to fend off criticism from activist investors and turn round a business being hit hard by the broader tech downturn. The San Francisco-based group has appointed Arnold Donald, former chief executive of cruise operator Carnival Corporation, Sachin Mehra, chief financial officer of Mastercard and Mason Morfit, chief executive of ValueAct Capital, an activist fund that is also an investor, according to people familiar with the matter.
-This week Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest people, and his sprawling eponymous business empire have been in an unwelcome and costly spotlight. Hindenburg Research, a US-based short seller known for targeting Twitter and electric vehicle start-up Nikola, said it had taken positions against listed Adani Group companies such as Adani Enterprises and Adani Green Energy. Hindenburg accused the group of “pulling the largest con in corporate history”.
NY POST
-Protests over the police beating death of Tyre Nichols turned violent in Times Square Friday night as several arrests were made, including of a man who stomped on the windshield of an NYPD police cruiser. At least three people were handcuffed in the Crossroads of the World after getting into some sort of confrontation with police in the street. In another chaotic scene, one of the protesters hopped on the hood of a police car and cracked the windshield with his foot. Several police officers quickly moved in to grab the man and then they led him through the crowd into a police precinct, footage shows. The Times Square protest was one of several that erupted in the Big Apple as the sun went down. Others originated in Union Square and Grand Central Terminal. While the night began peacefully, tensions between protesters and NYPD officers grew as it got later into the night.
-Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk met two top officials in President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday in Washington to discuss how the car maker and the Democratic president could work together to advance electric vehicle production and speed electrification of US vehicle networks.
Musk met John Podesta, a Democratic stalwart who serves as senior adviser to the president for clean energy innovation, and Mitch Landrieu, who oversees infrastructure spending, a White House spokesperson told Reuters.