Amar’e Stoudemire, the retired basketball star, invoked Hanukkah and his Jewish faith Sunday after being charged with misdemeanor battery for allegedly hitting his teenage daughter in the face. 

“I am of the Jewish faith, today Jewish people all over the world celebrate Hanukkah and hear the story of how we fought wickedness,” Stoudemire wrote on Instagram, after being released from jail. He denied the allegations.

Stoudemire was arrested in Miami after police said he punched one of his daughters in the jaw after she denied being disrespectful to a relative. “You’re talking back again,” Stoudemire allegedly said before hitting the child in the jaw.

Stoudemire, who played in the NBA for 15 years and is 6-foot-10 and 255 pounds, told police that his daughter “was sad because she received a whooping from him for being disrespectful and a liar,” according to court documents obtained by the Miami Herald.

Police observed blood stains on the teenager’s sweater and pants. The arrest report did not specify whether the incident involved Stoudemire’s 17-year-old or 14-year-old daughter.

The incident allegedly took place Saturday night around 10 p.m. at Stoudemire’s Miami condo after his daughter responded “what?” when her grandmother called her name. Police said Stoudemire then entered her room, accused her of being disrespectful, and punched and slapped her in the face before striking her “on the left side of her body.”

Stoudemire had a successful NBA career, including winning Rookie of the Year in 2003, and after retiring from the league in 2016 he played professionally in Israel with Hapoel Jerusalem and Maccabi Tel Aviv. 

He received Israeli citizenship in 2019 and converted to Judaism in 2020 and said that his Hebrew name would be Yahoshafat Ben Avraham. He said earlier this year that he was leaving his job as an assistant coach for the Brooklyn Nets because the position clashed with his Shabbat observance.

The post Amar’e Stoudemire invokes Hanukkah after arrest for punching teen daughter appeared first on The Forward.

(NewsNation) — After criticism from top female athletes, the International Olympic Committee is introducing new guidelines for trans athletes.

The issue of trans women competing in sports has sparked laws across the U.S. that limit participation, despite relatively few numbers of trans athletes at local levels.

Trans swimmer Lia Thomas made headlines previously, sparking debate around whether testosterone levels would give trans women an unfair advantage. Her story is part of what prompted the Olympics to revisit their guidelines.

“My understanding is that testosterone levels alone won’t be part of the deciding factor and they’re going to rely on a bigger set of criteria now,” NewsNation’s Rich McHugh reported.

While offering guidance, the IOC is leaving the final decision to the governing body of each sport. Governing bodies are advised to make sure no athletes have an unfair advantage while also needing to “consider particular ethical, social, cultural and legal aspects that may be relevant in their context.”

The guidelines also include taking the mental health of athletes into consideration, and eligibility criteria should not systematically exclude athletes based on gender identity, physical appearance or sex variations. The IOC also advised athletes should never be pressured to undergo specific medical treatment to meet eligibility criteria.

Previously, the Olympic Committee said that at the elite level, there should be no presumption that trans women have an advantage. The new guidelines are an attempt to balance fairness and human rights, and will take into account a number of scientific factors as well as advancing equality.

See the full interview in the player above.

Six people, including a 73-year-old suspect, died and one person was wounded in a shooting at a residential building in the Canadian city of Vaughan on Sunday in an incident the city’s mayor described as horrifying and shocking.

Police were called about an “active male shooter who had shot several victims” at a condominium in Vaughan, less than 50 km (31 miles) north of downtown Toronto, at about 7:20 p.m. local time on Sunday (0020 GMT on Monday).

Police found and fired at the suspect in a hallway and he was pronounced dead about 40 minutes later, a spokesperson for Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) told reporters on Monday.

Authorities then recovered dead bodies from several floors as well as a semi-automatic handgun that is suspected to be the weapon used in the shooting, SIU spokesperson Kristy Denette said.

Canada has much stricter gun laws than the United States, but Canadians are allowed to own firearms providing they have a licence. Restricted or prohibited firearms, like handguns, must also be registered.

Denette said the suspect had been identified as a resident of the building but his next of kin had not consented to releasing his name. No information was shared about any potential motive.

The York Regional Police Department said it was working to confirm the identities of the victims and inform their families. Vaughan is located in Ontario’s York region and has a population of about 320,000.

“Everybody is horrified … to wake up to this news this morning, to hear it last night. People are just in absolute shock,” Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca said on Monday. The wounded person was recovering at a hospital, he said.

The SIU, which investigates deaths involving police, said it was looking into the suspect’s death and that a post-mortem was scheduled for Tuesday.

Canada’s gun homicide rate is a fraction of the United States’ rate, 2020 data showed, but is still higher than other wealthy countries and has been rising, with handguns the main weapon used in the majority of firearm-related violent crimes between 2009 and 2020.

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has been trying to tackle gun violence through a slew of measures including a ban on the sale, purchase or transfer of handguns that took effect in October.

“To the families and friends of the victims of yesterday’s shooting in Vaughan: I’m keeping you in my thoughts,” Trudeau said on Twitter.

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Twitter users voted decisively in a poll for Elon Musk to step down as chief executive of the social media platform, a backlash against the billionaire less than two months after he took over in what has been a chaotic and controversial reign.

Musk said on Sunday he would abide by the results of the poll, but did not give details on when he would step down if results said he should. He had said that there is no successor yet.

About 57.5% votes were for “Yes”, while 42.5% were against the idea of Musk stepping down as the head of Twitter, according to the poll the billionaire launched on Sunday evening. Over 17.5 million people voted.

“By Musk’s – and some analysts’ assertions – drastic measures are needed if Twitter’s business model is to remain viable. There’s an argument that without Musk at the helm, it’s going to be difficult to find someone with enough gusto to change the course of Twitter’s ship,” said Sophie Lund-Yates, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

The poll results capped a whirlwind week that included changes to Twitter’s privacy policy and the suspension – and reinstatement – of journalists’ accounts that drew condemnation from news organizations, advocacy groups and officials across Europe.

Then on Sunday, Twitter banned accounts that promoted rival social media platforms such as Facebook (META.O) in a now-deleted tweet, drawing questions even from long-time Musk supporters, including Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

Box CEO Aaron Levie called the policy “just sad.”

Since taking over in October, Musk swiftly fired top management and thousands of employees, seesawed on how much to charge for the social media firm’s subscription service Twitter Blue, and reinstated accounts banned under the previous management, including that of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

On Sunday, Musk said he would put all Twitter policy changes to vote via public polls, provoking further questions on his management style and keen involvement in the social media firm, which has left some investors in Tesla (TSLA.O) anxious that he is distracted at a critical time for the electric automaker.

Musk has been personally involved in working-level decisions from car styling to supply chain issues, and said last month he would reduce his time at Twitter, eventually finding a new leader to run it.

“Even Elon Musk’s biggest detractors didn’t imagine he would be making strategic decisions by his freshly-acquired social media platform in a Twitter poll but here we are,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“For someone who sets so much store by work ethic, Musk sure seems to spend a lot of time on social media. With Tesla shares having more than halved year-to-date, Musk needs to roll up his sleeves and get his main business back on the road.”

Tesla shares opened up about 2% on Monday, but later fell to fresh two-year low of $145.82. The stock has lost nearly 60% of its value this year.

Replying to one Twitter user’s comment on a possible change in CEO, Musk said on Sunday “There is no successor.”

“No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive.”

Musk, who was seen at the soccer World Cup final in Qatar on Sunday, has not yet responded to the results of Monday’s poll. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Twitter is now running a poll on whether it should have a policy preventing accounts that advertise other social media platforms.

The policy update would impact content from Meta Platforms’ (META.O) Facebook and Instagram, along with Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post. It would allow cross-content posting, Twitter support had said in the deleted tweet.

“This is the last straw. I give up. You can find a link to my new Mastodon profile on my site,” said Musk ally and startup fund Y-Combinator founder Paul Graham. Mastodon is a social network that has been touted as a Twitter alternative.

Twitter suspended Graham’s account after his post, but later reinstated it.

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Anese Cavanaugh.

Courtesy of Anese Cavanaugh

• Anese Cavanaugh is a business advisor and the author of “Contagious You.”
• When it comes to effective results as a leader, she says it’s all about the “human stuff.”
• Leaders should prioritize self-care, be present, and be aware of the energy they bring into spaces.

I’ve worked with business leaders and organizations for more than two decades now. I’ve watched trends in leadership and culture come and go, seen buzzwords rise and fall, and elevated thinking, innovation, and ways of creating solid business and people results. 

The majority of the outcomes and results I’ve seen be created effectively, authentically, and sustainably have been grounded in addressing “the human stuff.”

What is the human stuff? It’s the intangibles that make business, leadership, and culture work. Things like intentions, energy, presence, regard, nuanced communication, intuition, and self-care are often back-burnered as they’re harder to touch, prioritize, or get our arms around. But they’re everything. 

There are several leadership skills that I believe will be essential for us to lean into in the new year. In the interest of keeping them short and sweet, I offer you 10 here to get you started.

1. Prioritize self-care and the wellbeing of you (and your workforce)

Self-care is a leadership skill. We can’t lead at our best and hold the strongest “container” for those we love and lead if we’re burned out, exhausted, unhappy, unkind to ourselves, and not fully resourced. 

2. Be present and prioritize people

Our (true) presence is one of the greatest gifts we can give each other. Your people feeling seen will give you more. Period.

Prioritize the human, be present with them, and see them, and create guardrails, agreements for performance, and clear expectations. Then set them free to do their magic. 

3. Get clear on your intention and purpose, lead from love, and be ‘in service of’

Intention is at the root of creating impact. Moving fast and navigating the demands around us, it’s easy to forget or disconnect from intention (or not to have one to begin with).

Pausing to consider intention and to get clear on purpose — why we’re doing what we’re doing, who it impacts, and what it’s all for — clarifies actions and decisions, points energy in the right direction, creates clean yes’s and no’s, and makes those hard decisions easier.

4. Tend to the ‘soft stuff’ — the unspoken and intangible — and the cost of negative energy in your organization

Negative energy is costing us billions of dollars a year in the US — a 2017 Gallup study put us at $483 billion to $605 billion a year in lost productivity due to actively disengaged employees.

“Actively disengaged” has everything to do with the energy in your organization. While it’s been easy and tempting to skip dealing with the “soft stuff” in leadership and culture, you can’t. Leaders and organizations who want to go further faster and better will lean into it.

5. Work your first impression

You have a tenth of a second to make a first impression. Ninety-three percent of your impact is in how you’re showing up, and you’re contagious. It means something to pay attention here.

The energy and presence you bring into a room will be felt and likely taken on by others (just as you may take on theirs). You can set the tone, or you can be clobbered by it.

6. Cut the baloney. Tell the truth.

If your intentions are clean and you’re focusing on the right things, the truth works just great. Save yourself a ton of time, energy, and bandwidth to focus on the right things — as opposed to posturing, pretending, and evading hard truths.

We’re all doing the best we can. We’re human. So be human. Be humble. Ask for help. Lean into vulnerability. And create space for others to do the same.

7. Get comfortable with your discomfort

If you really want to lead and create impact, you’re going to have to get comfortable with your discomfort — comfortable with confronting the things you may not want to address head on, comfortable saying “no” to things that don’t line up, and comfortable with saying yes to things that do but that stretch you.

Your comfort with discomfort is proportional to how far you can lead. Lean in.

8. Take 100% accountability for your experience, your leadership, and your results

You are the author of your life — what you create is totally up to you. You have zero control over anyone else or anything, but you do control you.

Take the time to set yourself up well through your self-talk, intentions, and planning. Create boundaries and take a minute to hear yourself think.

9. Prioritize and focus on the right things

You can have it all — if you must. And that may mean you’re exhausted or doing subpar on all levels.

Prioritize meaning, show up, do it well, lead well, stay well, and bring all of you to what’s most important. And then move to the next thing when you’re ready.

10. Hold a solid container for yourself and others

This means seeing the best in yourself and your people, getting curious about what’s possible for you in your growth (and for them), seeing, and believing.

Challenge people to step up — give them productive feedback and commit to being in service of their growth than you are to being liked (or comfortable). 

To your next year. Let’s lead.

Anese Cavanaugh is the creator of the IEP Method (Intentional Energetic Presence) and is an advisor and thinking partner to leaders and organizations around the world. She’s the author of “Contagious You: Unlock Your Power to Influence, Lead, and Create the Impact You Want.”

The Meta logo.

Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

• The European Union is investigating Meta over a potential breach in antitrust policies.
• As a result, the Facebook-parent company could face up to $11.8 billion in fines.
• Meta shares slipped 2.5% on Monday, and have plunged 65.6% year-to-date.

The European Union filed a complaint against Meta for a potential breach in antitrust policies, citing the close link between the company’s social network service Facebook and its online shopping platform Facebook Marketplace.

Meta stock fell 2.53% following the news on Monday. Shares are down 65.63% year-to-date as the company faces continued hits over founder Mark Zuckerberg’s $15 billion metaverse ambitions, along with a painful interest rate hikes that have beaten down tech stocks across the board. 

“With its Facebook social network, Meta reaches globally billions of monthly users and millions active advertisers,” EU Antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. “Our preliminary concern is that Meta ties its dominant social network Facebook to its online classified ad services called Facebook Marketplace.”

In a statement to Insider, Meta’s head of competition for Europe, the Middle East and Africa said, “The claims made by the European Commission are without foundation. We will continue to work with regulatory authorities to demonstrate that our product innovation is pro-consumer and pro-competitive.” 

If Meta is found guilty, the tech giant could face a fine of up to 10% of its annual global revenue, the European Commission said. Based on its 2021 figures, that means the Facebook-parent company could pay up to $11.8 billion. 

The so-called statement of objections the commission issued on Monday is a formal step in EU investigations that isn’t a final judgment.

The European Commission first launched a probe into Meta in June 2021 to investigate “possible anticompetitive conduct.”

“This means Facebook users have no choice but to have access to Facebook Marketplace. Furthermore, we are concerned that Meta imposed unfair trading conditions, allowing it to use of data on competing online classified ad services,” Vestager said. “If confirmed, Meta’s practices would be illegal under our competition rules.”

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock appeared on CBS This Morning on December 19, 2022.

Courtesy CBS This Morning

• Sen. Raphael Warnock told CBS This Morning that voter suppression was still an issue in Georgia. 
• He also addressed a WSJ opinion piece from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that called him an “election denier.”
• “We can do better,” Warnock said of voting laws. 

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock doubled down Monday on his argument that voter suppression took place in his home state of Georgia despite his win in the December 6 runoff. 

“We should not assume that because I won that voter suppression is not an issue in Georgia,” Warnock said during an interview on CBS this Morning of his victory against Republican Hershel Walker, a retired football player.

During the CBS interview, co-host Tony Dokoupil asked Warnock to respond to an opinion piece that ran in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, in which Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called Warnock an “election denier” and said his claims about voter suppression were “dangerous to public trust in elections.” 

Raffensperger in his piece was referring to Warnock’s victory speech, in which he said voter suppression occurred in the state. Warnock hasn’t changed his position. 

“The fact that people have had to overcome barriers doesn’t mean those barriers don’t exist,” Warnock said on Monday. “We literally saw college student and seniors in lines that were hours and hours and hours long. Maybe he’s happy with that. I’m not. I think we can do better than that.”

Raffensperger is the Republican election official who gained prominence after refusing to change the 2020 voting results in Donald Trump’s favor, amid the ex-president’s false claims of election fraud. Georgia voters reelected Raffensperger in November over a Trump-backed challenger. 

Georgia Republicans passed a voting law in 2021 that expanded early voting, required identification information for absentee ballots, and restructured the State Elections Board to have more control over local election offices, among other measures. It also prohibited volunteers from voters food, water, and chairs while they wait in line. 

It was widely panned by Democrats, who accused the law of targeting Black voters for suppression. President Joe Biden called it “Jim Crow in the 21st Century.”

Despite this, Georgia saw record turnout in the 2022 elections. Yet Warnock said during his CBS This Morning interview that voting laws should be improved not just in Georgia but across the US. 

Warnock is one of the lead sponsors of Democrats’ voting rights legislation. The bill would nix state election restrictions to nationalize election laws — including automatic and same-day voter registration, making Election Day a national holiday, and allowing voters to present a broad set of ID cards when voting in person, among other provisions. 

Democrats do not have enough votes in the Senate to pass the legislation, and while Biden has called for the Senate to temporarily set aside the filibuster and pass the bill with 51 votes instead of 60 votes, not enough Democratic senators agree even in the next Congress. 

“There is nothing more sacred than the right to vote,” Warnock said on CBS. “You can have the right to vote and still not have access.”

Warnock cited a voting rights lawsuit as evidence of how voting access could improve. In November, the Warnock campaign, the Democratic Party of Georgia, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, successfully sued so that voters could have the day after Thanksgiving, November 26, 2022, as an early voting day. 

While voters elected Republicans to other statewide offices in Georgia during the midterms, Democratic voters had strong turnout during early voting. In 2020, Biden was the first Democrat to win the state since Bill Clinton’s win there in 1992. 

A Costco storefront in Mount Prospect, Illinois.

Tim Boyle/Getty Images

• Costco will likely raise its membership fee in the next six to 12 months, Wall Street analysts say.
• The wholesale club typically raises the price every 5 1/2 years or so, most recently in 2017.
• Costco executives have said a fee increase is “a question of when, not if.” 

A $5 increase to Costco membership fees could be on the horizon, bringing the cost of a basic one-year membership to $65. 

That’s according to Cowen analysts led by Oliver Chen, who wrote in a note published Monday that a Costco membership fee raise “could be likely within 6-12 months.” The Seattle-based wholesaler, which sells everything from groceries to electronics, hasn’t raised its $60 fee for a standard Gold Star membership since March 2017.

“We believe a membership fee increase is imminent in FY23 as Costco has not raised fees in 5.8 years yet has historically increased fees by $5 for regular memberships every 5.5 years,” the analysts wrote.

Indeed, this pattern of $5 fee-hike announcements has persisted since 2000: 

• August 2000: Fee increased to $45, effective September 2000
• April 2006: Fee increased to $50, effective May 2006
• October 2011: Fee increased to $55, effective November 2011
• March 2017: Fee increased to $60, effective June 2017

Cowen’s prediction aligns with what Costco executives have said about the company’s membership fees.  During Costco’s earnings call in September, CFO Richard Galanti confirmed that five-year cycle and said that while Costco wasn’t raising the fee at that time, a price increase could come in 2023.

“If you look at June of ’17, plus five years and seven months, you’re talking roughly January ’23,” Galanti said on the call. “Now I’m not suggesting it’s January ’23. I’m just saying it’s not there yet anyway.”

Galanti reiterated that price increases are coming during Costco’s December 8 earnings call, calling them “a question of when, not if.” 

“There’s no analytical framework we use other than we feel very good about our member loyalty and our strength. And if we wanted to do it yesterday, we could. If we want to do it six months from now, we can,” he said. “So, we’ll wait and see.”

Costco has intentionally kept its membership price consistent in 2022 “given the current macro environment, historically high inflation, and the burden it’s having on our members and on all consumers in general,” Costco executive Bob Nelson said in June. 

Costco’s current membership price puts it in line with other warehouse clubs:

• BJ’s charges $55 a year for its standard Inner Circle membership.
• Walmart-owned Sam’s Club raised the cost of its basic membership to $50 annually in October, up from $45. 

Elon Musk and Nailya Asker-Zade.

Dan Mullan/Getty Images; Nailya Asker-Zade via Telegram

• Elon Musk was photographed at the World Cup final with a sanctioned Russian TV presenter.
• Nailya Asker-Zade has been sanctioned by the UK and Canada during the ongoing Ukraine war.
• Musk was also seen Sunday with Jared Kushner and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk was spotted at Qatar’s World Cup final on Sunday with a sanctioned and pro-Russian TV presenter. 

Nailya Asker-Zade — who multiple Western governments have sanctioned — posted a selfie of her and Musk to Telegram just after Argentina beat France on penalty kicks at the stadium in Lusail City.

“Argentina beat France on penalties in the World Cup final. I agree with Elon Musk’s assessment of the match: ‘A duel in the desert. A better game could not have been wished for.’ I saw how he shared his emotions about what is happening on the field on his Twitter,” she wrote. “I also have a lot of bright emotions — I will tell you soon.”

Her comments were an apparent reference to an earlier tweet of Musk’s, where he published a video of the moment Argentina claimed victory. 

A TikTok video that was posted on Sunday also showed the moment Musk poses for the photo with Asker-Zade.

Asker-Zade is a 35-year-old presenter at the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK), who has been sanctioned by both the UK and Canada in the wake of the ongoing Ukraine war. According to the UK government, Asker-Zade is suspected to be in a relationship with Russian banking oligarch Andrei Kostin, who chairs the sanctioned VTB Bank.  

“As such, she is associated with two entities (VGTRK and Kostin), both of which is or has been involved in obtaining a benefit from or supporting the Government of Russia by carrying on business as a Government of Russia-affiliated entity,” the UK said in its reasoning for the sanctions. 

In addition to Asker-Zade, Musk was also photographed at the game on Sunday with Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Jared Kushner and Elon Musk look on during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Final match between Argentina and France at Lusail Stadium on December 18, 2022 in Lusail City, Qatar.

Dan Mullan/Getty Images

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) chats with Elon Musk (R), Founder of Tesla and SpaceX at Lusail Stadium.

Photo by Mustafa KamacÄ/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Musk, the new Twitter CEO, has had a rocky start to his tenure at the social media powerhouse. He’s suddenly announced changes to the social media company’s rules, unbanned right-wing influencers and conspiracy theorists, and suspended multiple high-profile critical journalists from the site. 

On Sunday evening, Musk tweeted a yes-or-no poll asking users if he should step down from the head of Twitter.

When the poll closed Monday morning, 57.5% of voters told him to quit.  

Translations by Oleksandr Vynogradov

International cooperation is the only way to halt biodiversity losses. But the action promised so far isn’t enough

The 23 targets in the Cop15 biodiversity agreement announced in Montreal on Monday are insufficient to prevent further irrecoverable losses, including among the many species threatened with extinction. The deal is not legally binding, leading to concerns about the prospects for implementation. The track record of global biodiversity plans is terrible. Every one of 20 targets set at Aichi in Japan in 2010 was missed.

The new agreement was finalised despite complaints from African countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), home to one of the world’s largest rainforests, which is threatened by oil and gas exploration. The description of the US’s role as “an interesting asterisk” by the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, was too mild. It is shaming and alarming that the US was at the talks as an “influencer” and not a participant, because the Senate has refused to ratify the UN convention on biological diversity.

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