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Democrats say Cuomo must resign. He’s refusing. What now?

The new report accusing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, of sexually harassing several women has raised the odds that he’ll be ousted from office — but it hasn’t entirely quieted fears that he’ll be <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/how-does-andrew-cuomo-survive-sexual-harassment-report.html">let off the hook</a>.
The <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2021.08.03_nyag_-_investigative_report.pdf">report from the New York state attorney general’s office</a> documented testimony from 11 women, mostly state employees, who allege that Cuomo acted inappropriately toward them. The accusations covered conduct ranging from unwanted kissing and touching to inappropriate comments. One state employee claims Cuomo groped her breast; others describe the governor telling sex jokes and commenting on how they looked.
This <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/cuomo-investigations-possible-impeachment.html">isn’t even the only scandal</a> Cuomo’s facing — investigators are looking into his handling of data on Covid-19 deaths at New York nursing homes and whether he used state resources <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/nyregion/andrew-cuomo-book-investigation.html">to write and promote a book</a>, among other matters. Criminal charges from county prosecutors <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/nyregion/cuomo-criminal-investigation.html">are also possible</a>. (In response, a lawyer for the governor <a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2021-08/8.3.21_Position_Statement_of_Governor_Cuomo.pdf">issued a statement</a> asserting that the worst of the allegations are simply untrue, and <a href="https://twitter.com/hjessy_/status/1422606964689887237">Cuomo himself claimed</a> in a Twitter video that he has a habit of touching people’s faces and doesn’t intend anything sexual by it.)
A chorus of top Democrats on the national and state levels — including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/nyregion/cuomo-biden-sexual-harassment.html">President Joe Biden</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-democratic-leader-schumer-sen-gillibrand-call-cuomo-resignation-2021-08-03/">Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer</a>, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/03/calls-increase-for-cuomo-to-resign-after-sexual-harassment-report.html">House Speaker Nancy Pelosi</a>, <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/08/03/eric-adams-says-cuomo-should-be-impeached-if-he-doesnt-resign/">New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams</a>, and <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/566141-entire-ny-democratic-congressional-delegation-now-calling-for-cuomos">New York’s entire Democratic congressional</a> <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/566141-entire-ny-democratic-congressional-delegation-now-calling-for-cuomos?rl=1">delegation</a> — have concluded that enough is enough and demanded Cuomo’s resignation.
The problem is that, for now at least, he says he won’t.
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<figcaption>In a press conference on Tuesday, August 3, President Joe Biden told reporters that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo should resign following the results of a state investigation into his behavior.</figcaption>
<cite>Win McNamee/Getty Images</cite></figure>
So, what’s next? An impeachment vote in the New York State Assembly looms, posing the threat that Cuomo could be removed from power involuntarily. But Democrats are still hoping that won’t be necessary. As New York state Sen. James Skoufis <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cuomo-should-resign-or-be-impeached-59-of-new-yorkers-say-in-new-poll">said recently</a>, the hope is that once it’s made clear to Cuomo that his impeachment and removal is certain, he’ll resign to save some face.
Scandal-plagued politicians often don’t resign because of shame or docility, but because they’ve concluded that leaving office voluntarily is the least bad, most face-saving option for them personally.
That could still happen. But Cuomo, evidently, has not yet concluded that he’s doomed. We’ve seen politicians fend off calls for resignation and beat back impeachment efforts before, even in the face of seemingly damning evidence. If Cuomo keeps refusing to go, Democrats will have two options to oust him against his will: 1) through impeachment, and 2) in the 2022 elections, if impeachment fails and Cuomo continues his reelection bid.
A scandal-spurred resignation is nothing new for New York Democrats, given the downfalls of Gov. Eliot Spitzer (in 2008) and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (in 2018). But Cuomo seems to be trying a different strategy — that of Donald Trump, who stayed in both the 2016 presidential race <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/allegations-women-have-made-against-donald-trump-n665731">after several women</a> accused him of sexual misconduct and in the White House after numerous scandals. Cuomo may also be thinking about Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam: <a href="https://www.axios.com/full-list-calls-for-ralph-northam-resignation-8eb77302-f340-4faa-8887-24432984a7fd.html">Practically every leading Democrat</a> asked him to resign when photos showing him in blackface surfaced in 2019, but he stayed in office and has since been <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/coronavirus/biden-northam-to-speak-after-virginia-lifts-covid-19-restrictions/2686114/">welcomed back into polite Democratic company</a>.
Cuomo’s political position looks far worse than Trump’s or Northam’s, though. While some top Republicans repudiated Trump on occasion, most others remained loyal to him despite years of scandals, as did the vast majority of GOP voters. But polls already show a narrow majority of Democratic voters in the state <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/566319-63-percent-of-new-york-voters-say-cuomo-should-resign-poll">saying Cuomo should resign</a>.
Northam’s scandal, meanwhile, did not involve official misconduct, so impeachment never went anywhere. But leaders of the New York State Assembly, which has the power to impeach, have said they’re very serious about pursuing Cuomo’s removal and <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2021/08/05/assembly-gives-cuomo-8-days-to-share-additional-evidence-1389556">hope to make it happen</a> within months.
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<figcaption>On Tuesday, August 3, New York Attorney General Letitia James (center) presented the findings of an independent investigation looking into allegations of sexually harassment by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.</figcaption>
<cite>David Dee Delgado/Getty Images</cite></figure>
Impeaching a governor in the New York State Legislature plays out similarly to that of a US president in Congress. The Assembly goes first, and a majority vote there is necessary for impeachment. A trial is then held in the state Senate, with a two-thirds vote there being necessary to convict Cuomo, remove him from office, and ban him from holding future elected office in the state. (One difference is that the “jury” in a potential Cuomo impeachment trial would include 62 state senators plus seven <a href="https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CNS/A6S24">judges of the New York State Court of Appeals</a>, all of whom Cuomo appointed.)
Democrats hold large majorities in both the State Assembly and State Senate, so Cuomo’s fate depends on them. As with Trump, Cuomo’s best hope may be the Senate’s two-thirds threshold necessary for conviction. If just 24 senators vote no, he’ll be able to stay in power.
Still, Democrats are hoping to avoid the ugly, protracted process of impeachment by getting Cuomo to resign. One way to do that would be to make clear that he doesn’t have enough support from state senators and that the outcome truly is inevitable — if, in fact, it is.
As of now, Cuomo still <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/02/nyregion/cuomo-fundraiser-election.html">seems set on running</a> for a fourth term as governor, and no Democrat has stepped up to challenge him in the June 2022 primary. So if he does manage to fend off impeachment — and if, improbable as it may seem today, he stays in the race — the party would face quite a dilemma.
That is, they’d need at least one strong challenger to oust Cuomo, but if several enter the race and Cuomo stays in, it may be challenging for the party to coordinate around one alternative.
According to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/nyregion/cuomo-guilty.html">the New York Times’s Katie Glueck</a>, “many Democrats hope” that Attorney General Letitia James, whose office released this week’s report on the investigation into Cuomo’s conduct, will run, but it’s not clear whether she will. An early, unified party backing one challenger would be another way to send Cuomo the message that his time as governor is up.
But Cuomo could gamble that he’s more in touch with rank-and-file party voters than his critics. Glueck writes that he’s been seeking “to connect with those voters — especially older voters — who might be sympathetic to his suggestion that many of the allegations of misconduct can be traced to ‘generational or cultural’ differences or misunderstandings.” And, if things truly get to this point, it really would be those voters who make the call.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/8/5/22607971/cuomo-impeachment-resignation-scandal">https://www.vox.com/2021/8/5/22607971/cuomo-impeachment-resignation-scandal</a>

vox Democrats say Cuomo must resign. He’s refusing. What now?

The new report accusing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, of sexually harassing several women has raised the odds that he’ll be ousted...

Will China’s national security law break Hong Kong as a business hub?

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8HyHcZkGqm2gCY1W8byu7WWhR2Q=/0x144:4000x2238/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22763980/1230368069.jpg" /></div>
The Biden administration in July issued a <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/20210716_hong_kong_advisory.pdf">warning to US companies</a>: Doing business in Hong Kong is increasingly risky. The advisory, released jointly by the departments of State, Treasury, Commerce, and Homeland Security, was basically a giant red flag cautioning companies and investors against the complications that are emerging <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/7/2/21309902/china-national-security-law-hong-kong-protests-us-sanctions">under China’s national security law</a>.
China imposed the sweeping legislation a little more than a year ago. It has since <a href="https://www.vox.com/22247655/hong-kong-democracy-activist-joey-siu-china-national-security-law">stifled</a> Hong Kong’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/8/22/20804294/hong-kong-protests-9-questions">pro-democracy movement</a> and undermined its <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-asia-blinken-china-hongkong/blinken-says-report-shows-china-undermined-hong-kongs-electoral-system-idUSKBN2B90BA">autonomy</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22554120/hong-kong-national-security-law-tong-ying-kit-trial">rule of law</a>, and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2021/07/end-free-speech-hong-kong/619577/">free speech</a> traditions.
This tenuous political climate has shaken Hong Kong, but it has not yet upended its status as a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-26/a-year-after-security-law-hong-kong-finance-hub-status-endures?sref=6ZE6q2XR">global financial capital</a>. The United States’s advisory is recognition that this might change as China continues its crackdown in the territory. International businesses — and their employees — could soon find themselves entangled in national security law enforcement.
“We are entering a much more difficult phase in terms of Hong Kong’s traditional role as a key hub for international business, with all of the rule of law protections,” said Georgetown Center for Asian Law executive director Thomas Kellogg, who recently <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/07/26/hong-kong-risky-international-business-national-security-law/">wrote an article for Foreign Policy on the potential risks companies face</a>. “That seems to be changing.”
The question is whether businesses will heed these warnings.
China, for its part, is banking that Hong Kong’s infrastructure and economic climate will still make it a destination for foreign businesses in Asia despite the crackdown. After all, trade wars, tense Washington-Beijing relations, Beijing’s atrocious human rights record, and US sanctions have yet to stop most US firms from doing business in mainland China. And that may keep Hong Kong’s economic might intact while doing little to stop its democracy from crumbling.
On July 1, 1997, Great Britain “handed over” Hong Kong to China on the promise that China would give Hong Kong a <a href="https://www.cmab.gov.hk/en/issues/jd2.htm">“high degree of autonomy”</a> for 50 years, until 2047. The setup became known as “one country, two systems.”
This preserved Hong Kong’s basic freedoms, including its independent judiciary and rights like freedom of the press. Under this arrangement, Hong Kong could also maintain its liberal economic and trade policies.
These two things aren’t fully separate. Hong Kong’s autonomy — especially its legal traditions, based on British common law — made it a stable and attractive place for global companies to do business, and the safe and reliable way to make inroads in mainland China. Hong Kong also maintained free-market policies, with an open economy and things like a convertible currency, which all facilitated international trade and business.
But if Hong Kong was once the West’s gateway to mainland China, the national security law is blurring that boundary. As the Biden administration <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/20210716_hong_kong_advisory.pdf">warned</a>: “Business and rule of law risks that were formerly limited to mainland China are now increasingly a concern in Hong Kong.”
So far, Hong Kong authorities have used the national security law to go after civil society groups, pro-democracy politicians, and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/23/hk-police-arrest-apple-daily-journalist-under-national-security-law-.html">journalists.</a> But the national security law is so broadly and vaguely written — it criminalizes the offenses of secession, subversion, colluding with foreign powers, and terrorism, none of which is particularly well defined — that it can be hard to know whether an action would run afoul of the law until it’s too late.
That makes foreign companies and employees potentially vulnerable to everything from fines and penalties, like the suspension or revocation of necessary licenses, to even imprisonment for individuals if they’re found in violation of the national security law.
For instance, there are some concerns that even <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-security-law-jolts-international-business-11593715471?mod=article_inline">run-of-the-mill banking products</a>, like financial analysis or market outlooks, could violate the law if the Chinese government feels they endanger its national security. It’s potentially the same if a company, say, does business or <a href="https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/the_risks_for_international_business_under_the_hong_kong_national_security_law_7.7.21.pdf?m=1626968393">hosts a website</a> linked to a pro-democracy activist. And none of it even has to happen within Hong Kong’s borders; the national security law is written so that it applies extraterritorially.
Beyond being targets of the law themselves, officials and experts worry that businesses will be roped into national security law enforcement.
For example, back in May, Hong Kong police ordered Wix.com, an Israeli web server, to take down a site linked to Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Nathan Law, citing the national security law. The company initially complied, but after <a href="https://variety.com/2021/digital/asia/hong-kong-national-security-law-democracy-website-1234987683/">pushback from Law and others,</a> quickly backtracked and apologized, calling it a “mistake.”
Experts I spoke to noted that this case was an attempt to shut down freedom of speech beyond Hong Kong’s borders, but that a company or firm based in Hong Kong might have a much, much harder time saying “no.”
Hong Kong authorities could also request data from tech companies on pro-democracy activists — leaving companies in a bind as to whether to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/05/technology/hong-kong-doxxing-national-security-law.html">comply or face penalties themselves</a>.
This goes back to the warning from the Biden administration that the risks in Hong Kong are starting to look like the risks in mainland China; there’s a blurring that wasn’t there before. Georgetown’s Kellogg emphasized that that hasn’t fully happened yet, but that is what everyone is watching for — that the erosion in the political and national security space bleeds over into business.
And, of course, none of what’s happening in Hong Kong can be separated from the geopolitics of it all, especially for US and other foreign firms.
The US has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-sanction-chinese-officials-warn-companies-over-hong-kong-sources-2021-07-15/">sanctioned several Chinese officials</a> involved in curtailing Hong Kong’s freedoms. Those sanctions create their own obstacles for firms doing business in Hong Kong (or China) that have to be careful to follow US sanctions law.
That alone is tricky enough, but China has also enacted its own policies that essentially punish firms for complying with US and EU sanctions, and they’re making sure those <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-prepares-new-anti-sanction-laws-for-hong-kong-and-macau-11627475091">rules extend to Hong Kong</a>, too.
Which means companies are now caught in the middle of two superpowers, at risk of violating one’s laws if they comply with the other’s. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that companies in Hong Kong have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/hongkong-security-finance/hong-kong-financial-firms-step-up-compliance-hiring-amid-u-s-sanctions-security-law-idUSKBN25V068">been beefing up their regulatory compliance staffers</a>.
A lot has changed since the 1997 handover. Hong Kong is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-protests-markets-explainer/explainer-how-important-is-hong-kong-to-the-rest-of-china-idUSKCN1VP35H">a much smaller part of the overall Chinese economy</a> — less than 3 percent compared to about 18 percent about 25 years ago.
Even so, experts said, Hong Kong still has a lot of advantages — no capital controls, a fully convertible currency — over just setting up shop in Shanghai. Major economic hubs in China don’t yet have the kind of well-developed financial infrastructure Hong Kong has. And at least for businesses, that continues to matter.
“Infrastructure is very hard to move,” Rachel Lord, the head of investment firm BlackRock’s Asia-Pacific operations <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1c0a3292-d3ff-428b-937c-1edde19294d2">told the Financial Times in February</a>. “It’s less about politics and more about the way the ecosystem is set up, and I don’t see any sign that Hong Kong loses its pre-eminence.”
For the US, this is the big problem. Companies aren’t abandoning Hong Kong (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/29/style/china-cotton-uyghur-hm-nike.html">and to some degree, mainland China</a>), despite the increased political tensions, human rights violations, and democracy crackdowns.
The Biden administration’s advisory last month might have been a warning, but it also looked a bit like a plea to businesses to take this erosion of democracy in Hong Kong, and the national security law, a bit more seriously.
“It’s kind of an attempt at ‘moral-suasion,’ to try to persuade these companies to leave, even though the commercial logic for doing so, in my view, is still weak,” said Gabriel Wildau, a political risk analyst at Teneo who focuses on China.
But unless it’s accompanied by policies forcing companies to act, that moral persuasion seems unlikely to work, many experts told me. Even as US corporations are increasingly taking stands on political and social issues at home, they are more reluctant to do so on geopolitical issues, especially Hong Kong. Just <a href="https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/voa-news-china/nba-halts-personalizing-apparel-following-freehongkong-controversy">look to the NBA</a>.
China, which has an interest in seeing Hong Kong retain its status as a global financial hub, is likely counting on the persuasion route to fail, too. As experts told me, Beijing basically wants to have its cake and eat it, too. “They want to have political control over Hong Kong, and they want Hong Kong to remain as an important regional financial center,” Wildau said.
Right now, it very much seems to be working. As <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-26/a-year-after-security-law-hong-kong-finance-hub-status-endures?sref=6ZE6q2XR">Bloomberg reported in July,</a> “more than a year after the crackdown began, signs of an investor exodus are hard to find.”
According to an <a href="https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/press_release_detail.html?id=4955">annual survey</a> by Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics Department released in late November 2020, the number of parent companies located outside Hong Kong but with business operations in the city dipped only slightly from 2019 to 2020, from 9,040 to 9,025. And even those numbers don’t say a whole lot, as it’s not clear why those companies left (beyond the national security law, there was the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic fallout), and the survey includes companies headquartered in mainland China.
Doug Barry, senior director of communications and publications at the US-China Business Council, said there’s no doubt that uncertainty and the poor relationship between Washington and Beijing is worrying businesses. But when it comes to China overall, most of their members are still maintaining their investments.
“What we tell our companies is, ‘hang tight.’ We know that this is a very difficult period that we’re going through here,” he said.
But this also isn’t business as usual. On the margins, at least, firms and corporations or even individual employees are rethinking whether it makes sense to be there. <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-global-companies-leaving-protests-china-crackdown-11622998192">The Wall Street Journal reported in June</a> that dozens of international firms have moved regional or local offices, including headed to Singapore, but also to Shanghai.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong conducted a survey of about 300 of its members in May 2021, with <a href="https://www.amcham.org.hk/sites/default/files/content-files/Survey/202105%20AmCham%20Survey%20-%20Should%20I%20Stay%20or%20Should%20I%20Go%20-%20FINAL_1.pdf">about 42 percent</a> saying they were considering or planning to move away. The respondents cited the national security law as the No. 1 issue over others like Covid-19 and affordability.
“Previously, I never had a worry about what I said or wrote when I was in Hong Kong,” one respondent wrote in the survey. “With the NSL [national security law], that has changed. The red lines are vague and seem to be arbitrary. I don’t want to continue to fear saying or writing something that could unknowingly cause me to be arrested.”
Wildau said most of what he’s seen is anecdotal, but expats are starting to see the crackdown as making Hong Kong less open, less cosmopolitan, and so foreign workers are rethinking their place in the city — though that may just mean locals will fill those jobs instead.
I reached out to employees in multinational firms and business owners who currently and previously worked in Hong Kong; most did not want to comment or declined to speak on the record over concerns about the impact on their jobs. In a lot of ways, it showed how uncertain the situation feels right now.
For China, the chilling of dissent, having people worried about what they will say or do, is kind of the point. This is the have-its-cake-and-eat-it-too strategy. And if that means some foreign workers or some businesses decide to relocate, that might be a trade-off worth making for the consolidation of Beijing’s political control over Hong Kong.
“It seems to me that Beijing sees national security in Hong Kong as a higher priority than anything else,” Tianlei Huang, a research fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said in an email. “If the national security law enforcement means some foreign companies in Hong Kong concerned about the potential pitfalls might be moving capital, assets, or operations elsewhere, Beijing will allow that.”
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/22605703/hong-kong-national-security-law-china-finance">https://www.vox.com/22605703/hong-kong-national-security-law-china-finance</a>

vox Will China’s national security law break Hong Kong as a business hub?

The Biden administration in July issued a warning to US companies : Doing business in Hong Kong is increasingly risky. The advisory, releas...

Amanda Knox, in her own words

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The new movie Stillwater stars Matt Damon as an American father trying to exonerate his daughter, who’s been charged in Europe with the murder of another young woman. Director and co-writer Tom McCarthy <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/07/stillwater-movie-matt-damon-amanda-knox">told Vanity Fair</a> his film was directly inspired by the story of <a href="https://twitter.com/amandaknox">Amanda Knox</a>, an American college student imprisoned for eight years in Italy over a murder of which she was ultimately exonerated.
But Knox had no role in making the film. Instead, she says she found out about the movie the way a lot of people did: When the trailer came out. She told <a href="https://www.vox.com/today-explained">Today, Explained</a> host <a href="https://www.vox.com/authors/sean-rameswaram">Sean Rameswaram</a> that the Stillwater filmmakers told a fictionalized version of her story without any input from her or regard for the actual outcome of her case.
“The way that Stillwater has chosen to represent my story in their story is that the Amanda Knox character has special knowledge and was at the very least indirectly involved in the killing of the Meredith Kercher character, which is a myth,” says Knox, who now co-hosts a podcast called <a href="https://www.knoxrobinson.com/labyrinths.html">Labyrinths</a>. “It is the false narrative that was presented by the prosecution that has been debunked by evidence and yet is the ongoing myth that is an obstacle towards me reintegrating into society in a successful way and being taken seriously as a person.”
To hear Today, Explained’s full conversation with Knox, listen to the episode above or wherever you get your podcasts, including <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/today-explained/id1346207297">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYXJ0MTkuY29tL3RvZGF5LWV4cGxhaW5lZA==">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/3pXx5SXzXwJxnf4A5pWN2A">Spotify</a>, and <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/vox/today-explained">Stitcher</a>. This episode was produced by <a href="https://www.vox.com/authors/will-reid">Will Reid</a> with help from Emily Sen. The following <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gj99mFsc4hLd-aktedxlOO3SmMLESdT_ptcRKffa5a0/edit?usp=sharing">transcript</a> has been edited for clarity and length.
<hr class="p-entry-hr" />
<h4>Amanda Knox</h4>
I thought, wow, they’re telling the story of my dad. And my dad has an incredible journey that he went through to try to save me from wrongful imprisonment over in Italy. Once again, art is turning reality into art. That’s just what art does. And fingers crossed, they do a good job. But at the same time, I thought, well, how are they going to be doing this story? And then I did some research and found out that they were not doing it in the most ethically responsible way.
<h4>Sean Rameswaram</h4>
So no disrespect to Matt Damon, but we’re going to spoil his movie a little bit here.
<h4>Amanda Knox</h4>
Yeah, I feel I’m allowed to spoil his movie a little bit. I’m sorry, but I feel a little entitled to that at this point.
<h4>Sean Rameswaram</h4>
Sure. So unlike the reality of what happened with your story, this movie has the sort of Amanda Knox character, Matt Damon’s character’s daughter, actually hire someone to do something bad to her roommate? Is that accurate?
<h4>Amanda Knox</h4>
So, yeah, the way that they present it in the film is that she, first of all, had a sexual relationship with her roommate, which was, you know, I was accused of having a sexual — at least forcing a sexual relationship upon my roommate, of raping her. I did not do that. And I had no sexual relationship with her. And furthermore, in the Stillwater story, she asked some guy to get rid of her roommate for her, but did not intend murder. But that person took it upon himself to commit a murder.
So she, in a way, is indirectly responsible for this crime that happened to her roommate and what they have done in that process of fictionalizing my story. You know, they say we decided to take the premise of the Amanda Knox story, but then, you know, change it in a whole new direction. It’s like, well, that whole new direction fictionalized away my innocence and furthermore was not a new imagining of this story. That is just the case that the prosecution brought to court.
It’s the same sort of story that I encounter in the real world where people go, you know what, there’s just something about her. I bet she’s guilty, kind of, sort of, somehow. I bet she knows something. She was somehow involved. Even if she didn’t plunge the knife, even if she’s technically innocent, she’s probably in some way responsible somehow for this crime. And that’s what is presented in the film.
And that is to the detriment of my character and my reputation. And that has a consequence. It’s not a new imagination. It’s not like they decided to, like, go off in a completely new direction. They didn’t. They reinforced a false narrative that I have been battling for over a decade now.
<h4>Sean Rameswaram</h4>
Tom McCarthy, who co-wrote and directed this movie, told Vanity Fair, I believe, in an interview that he was inspired by your story and that, quote, “He couldn’t help but imagine how it would feel to be in Knox’s shoes.”
<h4>Amanda Knox</h4>
Mmm-hmm.
<h4>Sean Rameswaram</h4>
That being said, he did not try to contact you to find out what it is like to be you. Is that right?
<h4>Amanda Knox</h4>
Yes. In no way was I ever approached to better understand what it was like to be in my shoes or to be in my father’s shoes. And that, I think, speaks a little bit to the problem of true crime, where there’s a sense of kind of entitlement to sit back and do this like armchair not just detective work, but also empathy work, where we just say, “Oh, I’ve heard of this person in this context, and I don’t really remember them as a person. They were just kind of this character.” I feel a little bit like Dracula, where everyone gets to have their own spin on it.
And I’m just an idea of a person that everyone just gets to have their own take. And what’s odd about that is if I were completely off the grid, say, if I came back from my wrongful conviction and totally disappeared and rebuked any opportunity to speak to my experience, I would better understand the creatives not thinking, “Oh, maybe Amanda Knox is going to have something to say about the fact that we’re taking her story as like the kernel and the heart of our story.”
But I’ve actually been very, very vocal since I came back about, like I said, how my own narrative was stolen from me, how this story has been misrepresented in the media, how the very fact that this is like when people think of “the Amanda Knox saga,” and there’s been a lot of recycling of this mistaken misappropriation of the story in even reviews of Stillwater as people refer to the Amanda Knox saga.
They’re referring to the murder of my roommate, Meredith Kercher, by this other person, Rudy Guede. And yet my name is the name that is associated with that story. And my own story is one that sort of is like pushed off to the side as not being as important as that story. My own story is a very different story. It’s tangential, but it’s me being an innocent person who is trying to fight for my innocence and get my life back for what I am accused of, something that I didn’t do.
But I had nothing to do with my roommate’s murder. I did not incentivize it. I did not have prior knowledge or any special knowledge of it. I did not participate in it. And the way that Stillwater has chosen to represent my story in their story is that the Amanda Knox character has special knowledge and was at the very least indirectly involved in the killing of the Meredith Kercher character, which is a myth.
It is the false narrative that was presented by the prosecution that has been debunked by evidence and yet is the ongoing myth that is an obstacle towards me reintegrating into society in a successful way and being taken seriously as a person.
And if people want to claim that they are just inspired by my story but that they are taking it in a new direction, then why is it that my name is perpetually used to promote these new imaginings? Like if your story really rests on its own merits, then let it rest on its own merits. And also, like, I think that Stillwater is so, so close to my own story that anyone who watched it ... if Tom McCarthy didn’t own up to the fact that it was based on my story, people would call him out on it. So he’s in this interesting position where he kind of wants his cake and he wants to eat it too.
Where it’s not Amanda Knox’s story, but it is Amanda Knox’s story. It’s Amanda Knox’s story when I’m selling it and when it’s recognizably Amanda Knox’s story and takes all those elements that we think are super fascinating and, like, the sex and the mystery and the twist. But it’s not Amanda Knox’s story when it has to do with what Amanda Knox feels about it.
<h4>Sean Rameswaram</h4>
Amanda, your story has been turned into entertainment over and over and over again. I’m guessing you’ve probably asked yourself and or a lawyer whether or not that’s legal?
<h4>Amanda Knox</h4>
I have asked myself that, particularly when the Lifetime biopic came out, which came out while I was still on trial and depicted scenes of me killing Meredith that they ultimately took out because I sued the crap out of them. I have seen it and I’ve wondered how is it possible? And the reason is because public figure laws do not protect people like myself from having a stake in their own story.
At this point, it’s less of a legal issue and it’s more of an ethical human conversation that we need to have because it has been overlooked. We should be asking those questions. And what is the impact of our art? The measure of art should be whether or not it’s a good story and it makes us feel things and whether or not it resonates as truthful to the human experience. You know, we’re having a cultural moment where we’re acknowledging cultural appropriation, where we’re acknowledging how broad swaths of people have been represented by others in art, right?
And whether or not that has been done in a morally humanizing, ethical, responsible way that’s based in reality. And ultimately, my position on that kind of thing is anyone should be allowed to tell a story. It just needs to be real and human and not at the expense of those people that you are representing.
And what we haven’t had yet is a conversation about individuals and whether or not individual identities like my own are being appropriated or misappropriated. And at whose expense are they? Is that it? Is that identity that you are recasting being humanized and ethically reimagined? Or are you just once again resting upon stereotype or mythology that is ultimately false and irresponsible?
<h4>Sean Rameswaram</h4>
And you wrote about this. First on Twitter, subsequently for the Atlantic. Have you had a chance to speak to, say, I dunno, Matt Damon or Tom McCarthy — the co-writer and director of Stillwater about this?
<h4>Amanda Knox</h4>
Uh, no. But I have extended the invitation for a conversation because ultimately that was my goal. My goal was not to do, like, celebrity bashing. If anything, I wanted to point out something that I felt was overlooked and extend the invitation to have a conversation about something that a lot of people have just taken for granted.
<h4>Sean Rameswaram</h4>
Meredith Kercher was murdered in, I think, 2007, and shortly thereafter your life was turned upside down by what became this global headline-grabbing scandal. One positive development between then and now, I feel like, is that you didn’t have a voice in that international scandal. It was perpetuated by a media that was drawn to a seemingly salacious story, but now you do. If Matt Damon or Tom McCarthy or Malcolm Gladwell or Lifetime had come to you and said, “Amanda, we want to tell your story,” what would that story be?
<h4>Amanda Knox</h4>
That’s a really great question, because there are lots of different entry points. One of the things that I felt like has not happened since the beginning of all of this is there hasn’t really been a story where I’m actually the peripheral figure in all of these events. Of all the people who were involved in the events and the actions that took place, I was one of the most peripheral people with the least amount of agency. So whatever I did ultimately didn’t matter. Things were just happening to me.
And a story that really hasn’t been told yet is one that centers on the people who had the most agency. So the person who did murder Meredith Kercher and the Italian authorities who made decisions about who to arrest and when and how and what story to tell to the media, these are all people who are making choices that have lasting consequences for innocent people. Meredith and myself and my codefendant included, like I’m totally peripheral to the murder. And I really had very, very little say in what happened to me. I’m kind of a boring character when it all comes down to it.
<h4>Sean Rameswaram</h4>
So what you’re saying is if all of these people came to you to tell your story, you’d say, like, there’s probably a better story to tell.
<h4>Amanda Knox</h4>
Or if you’re going to tell my story, it’s the story of someone who is processing the experience of going through something. It’s not me making things happen, right? A lot of my story is just me sitting in a prison cell reading a book hoping that that stuff is going to get worked out. Or, you know, one of the stories that I would love to tell, because it’s an interesting one that a lot of the exonerated face is the “Now what?” after you get out of prison after spending time in prison for something you didn’t do.
How do you reintegrate into society again after you’re processing the sort of collapse not just in, you know, your own life, but also your faith in society, your faith that society has your back and that what you’re going to do is going to matter and that you can plant roots. How do you carry on to do even just, like, the really simple things of meeting people and going on a date and getting a job?
These are all challenges that exonerees have a really interesting sort of surreal twist as they enter into the world. And that’s been a deep challenge for me of trying to reestablish my identity after it was stolen and after I couldn’t ever, ever get it back, because it’s not like I came back to a world where I got to be just Amanda Knox again.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/22611401/amanda-knox-story-stillwater">https://www.vox.com/22611401/amanda-knox-story-stillwater</a>

vox Amanda Knox, in her own words

The new movie Stillwater stars Matt Damon as an American father trying to exonerate his daughter, who’s been charged in Europe with the mu...

The chip shortage is getting worse

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Starting next week, General Motors is again <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/03/gm-to-shut-truck-assembly-plants-again-cites-global-chip-shortage.html">halting the assembly lines</a> of several pickup truck plants because the company doesn’t have enough computer chips. The plants had been back up and running for just a week following a shutdown in July, which was also caused by the chip shortage.
These production halts may not stop anytime soon. “I do think we’ll continue to see impact this year, and it will have a tail into next year,” <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/gm-posts-2-8-billion-profit-raises-full-year-view-11628078479">warned</a> CEO Mary Barra on Wednesday. And Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger similarly <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57996908">predicted</a> last month that things won’t get back to normal for at least a year or two.
Now, the impact of the supply crunch is spreading to consumer tech. Apple CEO Tim Cook <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/27/apples-iphone-hot-streak-will-run-into-global-chip-shortage.html">warned last week</a> that a limited supply of semiconductors would hurt sales of iPhones. Microsoft is struggling to make <a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/from-ps5-to-ford-f-150-how-a-global-chip-shortage-is-impacting-everything/">enough</a> <a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/xbox-series-x-restock-best-buy-and-amazon-come-through-with-more-consoles/">Xbox consoles</a> and Surface laptops. Elon Musk told a court last month that the chip shortage meant Tesla would only be able to manufacture about half as many <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/13/elon-musk-says-tesla-powerwall-production-lagging-due-to-chip-shortage.html">Powerwall home batteries</a> as it thinks it can sell. One San Francisco sex toy company <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/Global-chip-shortage-could-hamper-Bay-Area-16106846.php">even stockpiled microcontrollers</a> to fend off future supply chain problems.
It’s clear that the global chip shortage shows no sign of abating anytime soon. In fact, it seems to be getting worse. While the White House is racing to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/12/readout-of-white-house-ceo-summit-on-semiconductor-and-supply-chain-resilience/">expand chip manufacturing</a> in the US to avoid future shortages, it could be years before that government investment actually pays off for consumers. So for now, the chip industry will continue to be hampered by the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, as products ship with missing features and higher prices — often after long delays.
“The administration is saying, ‘Well, this is temporary,’” <a href="https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=194874">Willy Shih</a>, a management practice professor at Harvard Business School, told Recode. “People are spending a lot of money to expedite things, and somebody’s going to have to pay for it.”
In an effort to measure the scope of the chip shortage, Recode reached out to nearly 30 companies that use, design, and make chips, including General Motors, Qualcomm, and Hewlett-Packard. All of the companies that responded said they were affected by the shortage.
The electronics maker Toshiba told Recode it’s stuck paying higher prices for components while Toyota said the company’s supply chain issues continue to affect production at its North American facilities. BSH, which makes Bosch appliances, said some products have lead times as long as six months.
While companies are adapting in their own ways, most didn’t anticipate a resolution anytime soon. Instead, companies see the chip shortage as an industry-wide problem that could go unresolved <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/stmicros-average-chip-prices-up-5-so-far-this-year-ceo-says-2021-07-29/">until</a> <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/chip-shortage-drag-into-2023-ps5-xbox-series-x-gpu-supply-issues">at least</a> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/gm-posts-2-8-billion-profit-raises-full-year-view-11628078479">next year</a> and quite possibly into <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/04/moodys-analytics-on-global-semiconductor-shortage-and-governments.html">2023</a>.
Almost every major automaker has been affected by the chip shortage. Last month, Ford Motors announced that its second-quarter profits had fallen by 50 percent, more than half a billion dollars, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/business/ford-q2-earnings.html">largely due</a> to the lack of semiconductors. Stellantis, the Dutch automotive conglomerate, <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/chrysler/2021/07/29/microchip-shortage-hits-jeep-gladiator-production/5422071001/">stalled production</a> of its Jeep Gladiator pickup in July because the company couldn’t secure enough chips. And Subaru’s chief financial officer, Katsuyuki Mizuma, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/jeep-dodge-maker-posts-strong-results-amid-higher-demand-and-prices-11627983391">recently said</a> that, thanks to the chip shortage, the company has just seven days worth of inventory on hand, compared to the 45-day supply of cars the automaker normally has.
These supply chain woes began in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, when lockdowns worldwide shuttered manufacturing plants, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22336388/gm-chip-shortage-ford-semiconductors-biden">disrupting the supply of semiconductors</a> while simultaneously driving a surge in demand for devices like laptops and gaming consoles. Sensing an economic slowdown, many car companies jumped off the line for chips. Semiconductors can take up to six months to make, so when automakers canceled their orders, consumer tech companies were able to swoop in and buy those chips. When car demand returned and automakers needed semiconductors again, there weren’t enough to go around.
Car buyers are now feeling the consequences of the difficult-to-predict pandemic in the form of vehicles missing features, higher prices, and a scarcity of options. GM has sold some of its newest pickups and SUVs without <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22336388/gm-chip-shortage-ford-semiconductors-biden">advanced gas management systems</a> or <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/13/22575836/gm-wireless-charging-cadillac-chevy-tahoe-chip-shortage">wireless charging features</a>. Renault <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-06/chip-shortage-forces-carmakers-to-strip-out-high-tech-features">stopped installing the large screens</a> that sit behind the wheel of its Arkana SUV models, while Nissan left navigation systems out of thousands of cars.
Tesla even turned to rewriting its vehicles’ <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/26/22595060/tesla-chip-shortage-software-rewriting-ev-processor">code</a> so that the company could make use of the chips it did have at its disposal. But even that hasn’t completely spared the company from the shortage’s impact. CEO Elon Musk <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/26/22595060/tesla-chip-shortage-software-rewriting-ev-processor">told investors</a> in July that the company was finding it particularly difficult to secure chips needed for its airbags and seatbelts, essential features for a car.
All of these problems combined are affecting price tags, too. Some 13 percent of people buying a car in April paid above sticker price, compared to 8 percent in 2020, one analyst <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/7/22423479/semiconductor-shortage-new-car-truck-prices-sales">told The Verge</a>. In fact, the chip shortage has now gotten so dire that it’s not just fueling high prices for new cars, but higher prices for <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/car-sales-drop-record-high-prices-chip-shortage/">older vehicles, too</a>. This means consumers looking to buy a new car have three limited choices, Consumer Reports <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/buying-a-car/global-chip-shortage-makes-it-tough-to-buy-certain-cars-a8160576456/">wrote</a> in July: “Look at models you weren’t previously considering, hold off on buying, or fix your old car if it’s in rough shape.”
Demand for chips is still incredibly high, and there’s no reason to expect a sudden surplus of semiconductors to arrive in the next few weeks. Right now, there are only a small number of chipmakers across the globe, and much of the world’s supply of semiconductors come from a single company based in Taiwan: <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/16/2-charts-show-how-much-the-world-depends-on-taiwan-for-semiconductors.html">TSMC</a>.
Chipmakers are already producing chips at their maximum capacity, according to Falan Yinug of the <a href="https://www.semiconductors.org/">Semiconductor Industry Association</a>, a trade and lobbying group that represents the chip industry. “Chip production has, in fact, increased substantially, and more chips have shipped in recent months than ever before,” Yinung told Recode.
Again, making a single chip takes an incredibly long time. At the same time, building more chip manufacturing plants, sometimes called fabs, requires years of engineering and construction and <a href="https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/01/globalfoundries-next-generation-chip-factories-will-cost-at-least-10-billion/">billions of dollars</a>.
The White House is still trying to offer some short-term relief. Biden administration officials have already brokered negotiations between semiconductor makers and car companies, helping push <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-20/biden-team-sees-gains-in-chip-supply-relief-ahead-for-carmakers?sref=Wg6QzS2e">more chips back</a> into the hands of automakers. That’s made the auto giants happy while frustrating others. Medical device makers, who use chips for everything from patient monitoring systems to assistive robots for surgery, <a href="https://www.advamed.org/industry-updates/news/advamed-encourages-administration-to-consider-patient-needs-as-it-addresses-semiconductor-shortage/">urged</a> Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to avoid “prioritizing one industry over another.”
The Commerce Department recently concluded a 100-day review of the US semiconductor supply chain, which the White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/06/08/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-supply-chain-disruptions-task-force-to-address-short-term-supply-chain-discontinuities/">said</a> resulted in collaboration with the chip industry and a task force to identify potential disruptions in the supply chain. The agency is also pushing for a $52 billion program to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-developing-plans-spend-52-billion-chips-supply-commerce-department-2021-07-22/">incentivize more chip manufacturing</a> in the US, a plan that will need congressional approval.
“It’s not like you can just build a plant in 30 days. It takes roughly about 2.5 years,” <a href="https://whitman.syr.edu/directory/showInfo.aspx?nid=pcpenfie">Patrick Penfield</a>, a supply chain management professor at Syracuse University, told Recode. “We’ve got Intel. We’ve got a couple of smaller fab manufacturers, but it’s gonna take time — and I think there needs to be more of an investment.”
Although they scooped up the chips that automakers abandoned earlier in the pandemic, consumer tech companies are now running out of semiconductors as well. This is causing the price of laptops and TVs to rise and delays in orders for smartphones and gaming consoles.
The market research firm Strategy Analytics <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chip-shortage-reaches-smartphone-makers-11626695523">estimated</a> that, on average, the global wholesale price for phones grew 5 percent between April and June. Laptop, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/chip-shortage-electronics-prices-tvs-displays/">TV, and accessory prices</a> have also <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chip-shortages-are-starting-to-hit-consumers-higher-prices-are-likely-11624276801?mod=hp_lista_pos1">spiked</a>. One investment research firm <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chip-shortages-are-starting-to-hit-consumers-higher-prices-are-likely-11624276801">told the Wall Street Journal</a> that HP alone had raised the price of printers by more than 20 percent over the course of a year. At least one phone maker, China-based electronics company Xiaomi, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chip-shortage-reaches-smartphone-makers-11626695523">delayed the shipment</a> of a new device model in India. Sony also warned customers in May that there won’t be a large supply of the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-10/sony-warns-tight-playstation-5-supply-to-extend-into-next-year?sref=Wg6QzS2e">PlayStation 5 until at least 2022</a>.
The problem has gotten so bad some chip shipments are being <a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/chip-shortage-sees-people-cling-filming-cpus-to-their-bodies-and-millions-of-dollars-worth-of-components-seized/">stolen by smugglers</a>. <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-global-chip-shortage-is-creating-a-new-problem-more-fake-components-as-fraudsters-cash-in/">Fraudsters have even started selling counterfeit chips</a> to dupe smaller electronics makers. Now, there are growing sales for special X-ray machines to identify those counterfeit parts, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chip-shortage-has-spawned-a-surplus-of-fraudsters-and-fake-parts-11626255002">the Journal</a>.
Though the latest devices often tout their highly advanced chips, they also need simple semiconductors, too. And right now, it’s these basic chips that are in <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-06-22/how-globalfoundries-may-go-from-forgotten-to-savior-of-the-chip-shortage">the shortest supply</a>. This category of components includes “commodity chips that do these mundane things like display drivers or timers or microcontrollers or power management chips,” Shih, the Harvard professor, told Recode.
In announcing how chip shortages would impact iPhones, Tim Cook told analysts that it was “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-tesla-to-take-hit-from-chip-shortage-a-sign-of-problems-intensity-11627474416">legacy nodes</a>” — simpler chips that can be manufactured using <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/28/chip-shortages-for-ipads-and-macs-may-cool-apples-hot-streak.html">older techniques</a> — that were hindering production. Whirlpool <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chips-shortage-appliances/fridges-microwaves-fall-prey-to-global-chip-shortage-idUSKBN2BL0ZY">similarly struggled</a> with the sparsity of microcontrollers, which are also relatively uncomplicated chips, in manufacturing its washing machines, microwaves, and refrigerators.
As the chip shortage has hit consumer tech, chip designers and makers have promised to boost supplies and manufacturing capacity. A spokesperson for Qualcomm, which makes chip processors for devices like smartphones, told Recode that the company is making a lot of adjustments and said that it ”continue[s] to see strong demand in every single business outpacing supply.”
Intel told Recode that the company boosted its central processing unit by double digits compared to last year, bolstered by the high demand for new electronics. It is also expanding its manufacturing capacity, and in March, the company announced that it would invest $20 billion to build <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/23/intel-is-spending-20-billion-to-build-two-new-chip-plants-in-arizona.html">two new chip-making fabs</a> in Arizona. Still, Intel says the high demand for semiconductors is a challenge, and that the shortage could stretch into 2023.
As the chip shortage continues to rattle car and laptop makers, consumers are all but certain to feel the consequences, possibly in price hikes as high as 10 to 15 percent, Penfield, the supply chain expert at Syracuse, told Recode. So for now, whether you’re hoping to snag a pickup truck or a laptop for back-to-(virtual)-school shopping, it’s best to buy as early as possible. As Penfield warns: “It’s going to be a difficult holiday season.”
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/8/5/22611031/chip-shortage-cars-electronics-automakers-gm-tesla-playstation-xbox">https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/8/5/22611031/chip-shortage-cars-electronics-automakers-gm-tesla-playstation-xbox</a>

vox The chip shortage is getting worse

Starting next week, General Motors is again halting the assembly lines of several pickup truck plants because the company doesn’t have eno...

How Olympic divers make the perfect tiny splash

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VclpGnLklIRrIYKnstpJ3xpA4Uw=/0x38:1920x1043/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22763483/VDC_XES_011_how_divers_get_small_splashes_CleanThumb.jpg" /></div>
Elegant Olympic dives fly by in a matter of seconds. Because of that, it’s hard to know what to look for when you try to judge the sport from your couch. One thing that’s easy to see, though? The splash.
If you’ve watched any Olympics diving coverage, you may have noticed the splashes athletes make are tiny. Divers spend years training to perform with a minimal splash, in the same way gymnasts train to stick their landings.
In this video, Team USA’s head diving coach Drew Johansen explains the three major components he uses to guide his athletes toward smaller splashes.
<ol>
<li>The above water: As divers approach the water, they must extend their body into a rigid, straight line. Importantly, they must put their hands one on top of the other with flat palms, to create what’s called a rip entry (named because it sounds like a piece of paper is being ripped as the diver hits the water).</li>
<li>The swim: After divers hit the water, they must swim their arms out while keeping their lower body rigid. This helps disperse some bubbles.</li>
<li>The underwater save: As divers submerge, they pike (or fold in on themselves), trying to catch more bubbles with their bodies. This helps break big bubbles into smaller bubbles, making them less splashy when they rise to the surface.</li>
</ol>
When performed correctly, a perfect dive will use all these components to make a tiny splash.
And while the sport of diving isn’t all about splashes, a small splash is the perfect punctuation to a job well done.
You can find this video and all of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLXo7UDZvByw2ixzpQCufnA">Vox’s videos on YouTube</a>.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/8/5/22609527/olympic-divers-perfect-tiny-splash">https://www.vox.com/2021/8/5/22609527/olympic-divers-perfect-tiny-splash</a>

vox How Olympic divers make the perfect tiny splash

Elegant Olympic dives fly by in a matter of seconds. Because of that, it’s hard to know what to look for when you try to judge the sport fr...

Video: AOC Puts Mask On For Photo Op With Crowd Of Leftists, Then Removes It Again Immediately

Radical Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was caught on video mingling with a crowd of fawning leftists, many of whom donned face masks when it was announced a photo would be taken, then along with AOC herself immediately removed the coverings as soon as the photo op was over.
The action took place outside the Capitol building, where it isn’t mandatory to wear masks.
It seems that either these people, including AOC believe that they are only at risk from catching and spreading COVID when a camera comes out, or they know that housing their mouths in face diapers gets significant social media clout.
Or perhaps a third reason might be that they know they are at risk of an online drubbing from their own mentally unhinged kind for not wearing masks at all times.
Whatever the reason there’s zero logic or science behind it. Here’s the video:
Of course, AOC, who earlier in the year <a href="https://summit.news/2020/11/20/aoc-wants-government-to-pay-people-to-stay-home/">suggested</a> the government pay people to stay imprisoned in their homes, is all too familiar with the art of the <a href="https://summit.news/2019/06/26/aoc-criticized-for-wearing-600-watch-during-crying-border-photo-op/">fake photo op</a>.
AOC joins a host of other <a href="https://summit.news/2021/07/21/democrat-who-featured-in-infamous-maskless-flight-pic-calls-for-universal-mask-wearing/">Democrats</a> including <a href="https://summit.news/2021/01/22/biden-violates-his-own-mask-eo-by-failing-to-wear-mask-for-photo-op/">Biden</a>, <a href="https://summit.news/2020/09/11/petition-to-prosecute-pelosi-draws-thousands-of-signatures/">Pelosi</a>, <a href="https://summit.news/2021/03/18/john-kerry-caught-flouting-airline-mask-rule-while-flying-first-class/">Kerry</a> and <a href="https://summit.news/2021/08/03/obama-slammed-for-organising-birthday-party-with-700-people/">Obama</a> who don’t appear to believe the rules they so <a href="https://summit.news/2021/07/30/video-house-gop-protest-dumb-mask-mandate-by-walking-into-other-half-of-building-where-theyre-not-mandated/">vociferously advocate</a> for everyone else apply to them.
<div class="JeU2RUQf"><a href="https://www.infowarsstore.com/specials-clearance/limited-supply-flash-sale?ims=wpicg&utm_campaign=LimitedsupplyFlashsaleHERO&utm_source=Infowars+Hero&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=LimitedsupplyFlashsaleHERO" target="_blank"><img src="https://api.directus.libertycdn.com/uploads/_/originals/FlashSale-hero-385.jpg" /></a></div>
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source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/video-aoc-puts-mask-on-for-photo-op-with-crowd-of-leftists-then-removes-it-again-immediately">https://www.infowars.com/posts/video-aoc-puts-mask-on-for-photo-op-with-crowd-of-leftists-then-removes-it-again-immediately</a>

news Video: AOC Puts Mask On For Photo Op With Crowd Of Leftists, Then Removes It Again Immediately

Radical Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was caught on video mingling with a crowd of fawning leftists, many of whom donned face masks...