Tag Archives: performing arts

Monterey Park, California massacre: The gunman is dead, but the motive remains a mystery



CNN
 — 

It’s still not clear why a 72-year-old man unleashed a hailstorm of bullets on revelers celebrating Lunar New Year – killing 10 people, wounding 10 others and shattering the majority-Asian American city of Monterey Park, California.

And with the gunman, Huu Can Tran, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the answer may never be known.

FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES

But while mourners grieve unfathomable tragedy on what should have been the most auspicious day for many Asian Americans, authorities credit “heroes” for helping prevent even more carnage after yet another mass shooting in America.

Here’s the latest on the investigation into the Saturday night massacre:

• Tran fatally shot himself midday Sunday in the nearby city of Torrance as police closed in on his vehicle – a white van that matched one they were looking for – police said.

• Tran had gunned down 20 people at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park before driving to another dance hall in nearby Alhambra, where he brandished a semi-automatic weapon, investigators said.

• Two people at the Alhambra dance hall wrestled the weapon away from the gunman, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. “The suspect went to the Alhambra location after he conducted the shooting (in Monterey Park), and he was disarmed by two community members who I consider to be heroes,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. “They saved lives. This could’ve been much worse.”

• The weapon was a Cobray M11 9 mm semi-automatic weapon, a law enforcement official told CNN. It’s designed to take 30-round magazines that allow for rapid fire without having to frequently change magazines. The weapon was traced to the suspect, giving authorities his name and description.

• Investigators found “several pieces of evidence” in Tran’s white van linking him to the Monterey Park and Alhambra dance studios, the sheriff said, without giving further details. They also found a handgun, Luna said.

• Among those slain were two women – My Nhan, 65, and Lilan Li, 63 – the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said Monday. Nine of the 10 victims were in their 60s or 70s, and all – five men and five women – were over 50. Authorities are working to identify the others and notify loved ones.

• The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department got a search warrant for Tran’s home in the senior community about 80 miles east of Monterey Park – The Lakes at Hemet West – a Hemet Police spokesperson confirmed.

• The massacre in Monterey Park marks one of at least 36 mass shootings in the US so far this month.

When police arrived at the Monterey Park dance studio, “they came across a scene that none of them had been prepared for,” city police chief Scott Wiese said. The killer had inflicted “extensive” carnage before fleeing the scene.

A few miles away in Alhambra, Brandon Tsay was working the ticket office of the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio, unaware of the massacre. Then, the same gunman entered the business his family had owned for three generations.

“From his body language, his facial expression, his eyes, he was looking for people,” Tsay told The New York Times.

“He was looking at me and looking around, not hiding that he was trying to do harm,” he said. “His eyes were menacing.”

The gunman pointed a semi-automatic weapon at Tsay – the first gun he had seen in real life – he told the Times.

“My heart sank,” he said, “I knew I was going to die.”

Tsay struggled with the man for about a minute and a half and eventually wrestled the gun from him when the man took his hand off it, he told the Times.

“That moment, it was primal instinct,” he said. “I don’t know what came over me.”

Once Tsay gained control of the gun, he told the Times, he pointed it back at the suspect and yelled for him to “get the hell out of here.”

Tran had once been a familiar face at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, where he gave informal dance lessons, three people who knew him told CNN. But it’s not clear how often he visited in recent years, if at all.

He even met his ex-wife there about two decades ago after he saw her at a dance, introduced himself and offered her free lessons, the ex-wife said.

Tran worked as a truck driver at times, his ex-wife said. He was an immigrant from China, according to a copy of his marriage license she showed to CNN.

The two married soon after they met, according to the ex-wife, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the case.

And Tran had a hot temper, his ex-wife and others said.

While he was never violent to her, the ex-wife said, Tran would get upset if she missed a step dancing because he felt it made him look bad.

Tran filed for divorce in late 2005, and a judge approved the divorce the following year, Los Angeles court records show.

Another longtime acquaintance of Tran also remembered him as a regular patron of the dance studio. The friend, who also asked not to be named, was close to Tran in the late 2000s and early 2010s, when he said Tran would come to the dance studio “almost every night” from his home in nearby San Gabriel.

At that time, Tran often complained that the instructors at the dance hall didn’t like him and said “evil things about him,” the friend recalled. He said Tran was “hostile to a lot of people there.”

More generally, Tran was easily irritated, complained a lot and didn’t seem to trust people, the friend said.

Tran’s friend was “totally shocked” when he heard about the shooting, he said, noting he hadn’t seen Tran in several years.

“I know lots of people, and if they go to Star studio, they frequent there,” the friend said. He said he was “worried maybe I know some of” the shooting victims.

Despite a surge of deadly attacks and harassment against Asian Americans throughout the pandemic, Saturday’s attack shocked many in Monterey Park – where about 65% of residents are of Asian descent and some 100,000 people from across Southern California typically turn out for Lunar New Year celebrations.

“I’ve lived here for 37 years, and I could never have imagined such a terrible thing happening,” Rep. Judy Chu, who represents Monterey Park in Congress, told CNN on Sunday.

“This is a tight-knit community and it has been very peaceful all these years. So that’s why it is even more shattering to have this happen.”

Read original article here

Vince McMahon Plots Return to WWE

Vince McMahon,

the majority owner and former chief executive of

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.,

WWE 2.26%

plans to return to the company following his retirement last year amid a sexual-harassment scandal to pursue a sale of the business, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. McMahon, who has majority voting power through his ownership of WWE’s Class-B stock, has told the company that he is electing himself and two former co-presidents and directors, Michelle Wilson and

George Barrios,

to the board, the people said. The move to reinstate Mr. McMahon, which the board previously rebuffed, and the others will require three current directors to vacate their positions.

Mr. McMahon, whose abrupt departure in July 2022 followed disclosures by The Wall Street Journal of multiple payouts to women who had alleged sexual misconduct and infidelity, expects he will be able to assume the role of executive chairman, though he would need board approval for that, the people said.

It isn’t clear where that would leave his daughter, Stephanie McMahon. After his departure, she took over as chairwoman and co-CEO alongside

Nick Khan,

the company’s former president.

The 77-year-old sent a letter to WWE’s board in late December detailing his desire to return to the company he ran for four decades, to help spearhead a strategic-review process, the people said. Mr. McMahon believes there is a narrow window to kick off a sales process because WWE’s media rights—including for its flagship programs “Raw” and “SmackDown”—are about to be renegotiated, according to the people.

Mr. McMahon believes the media landscape is evolving quickly and more companies are looking to own the intellectual property they use on their streaming platforms, making WWE an attractive takeover target, the people said. WWE, which generates most of its revenue from selling content rights, posted its first year of over $1 billion in revenue in 2021. The company currently has a market value of just over $5 billion.

The board responded last month in a letter to Mr. McMahon that it was prepared to initiate a review process and would welcome working with him on it. However, it said it unanimously agreed that Mr. McMahon’s return to the business wouldn’t be in shareholders’ best interest, according to people familiar with the letters.

The board also asked Mr. McMahon to confirm his commitment to repay expenses incurred by WWE related to an investigation of the allegations and requested that he agree not to return to the company during government probes of the matter, the people said. Mr. McMahon said in response that he remains willing to continue working to complete any reimbursement for reasonable expenses related to the investigation, to the extent they aren’t covered by insurance, but he declined to agree to not return to the company.

He has communicated to the board that unless he has direct involvement as executive chairman from the outset of a strategic review, he won’t support or approve any media-rights deal or sale, the people said.

Mr. McMahon retired as WWE chief executive and chairman in July amid a board investigation of sexual-misconduct claims against him. The Journal reported that he had agreed to pay more than $12 million in secret settlements since 2006 to his accusers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors launched inquiries into the payments. WWE later disclosed additional payments in 2007 and 2009 totaling $5 million that it said were unrelated to the allegations of misconduct that led to its internal investigation.

WWE’s board ultimately found that the payments, though made by Mr. McMahon personally, should have been booked as WWE expenses because they benefited the company.

Mr. McMahon had told people that he intended to make a comeback at WWE, the Journal reported last month. He said that he received bad advice from people close to him last year to step down, according to the people familiar with his comments.

Write to Lauren Thomas at lauren.thomas@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Read original article here

Knight, Clooney, Grant feted at Kennedy Center Honors

WASHINGTON (AP) — A heartfelt Patti LaBelle praised her lifelong friend Gladys Knight. Sean Penn called U2 “four scrappy Dublin punks.” Ballet dancers performed for conductor and composer Tania León. Matt Damon playfully teased his friend George Clooney — a lot — while Sheryl Crow delivered a heartfelt rendition of “Baby Baby” to Amy Grant during Sunday’s Kennedy Center Honors.

Knight, Clooney, Grant, León and U2 were all celebrated at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which annually honors a select group of people for their artistic influences on American culture. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their respective spouses were in attendance, as were members the President’s Cabinet and Congress.

One audience member from the political world — Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — drew some attention. He is recovering from a brutal attack in the Pelosis’ San Francisco home in October. The couple received a standing ovation from the crowd.

Normally performers like U2 or Knight would be headlining such a show, but during the Kennedy Center event the honorees sit in the balcony and watch as their peers laud them and perform their works.

On the red carpet, Clooney, with his wife, Amal, beside him, joked that after seeing friends like Don Cheadle and Julia Roberts in attendance he was worried his tribute would be more of a “roast.” And it was a bit like that, though his friends and family showed obvious respect.

Roberts set the tone by coming out onstage with a dress emblazoned with photos of Clooney. After an introduction that alternated between funny and heartfelt she turned to a set designed to look like a smoky bar — the type Clooney might enjoy. The actor’s father, Nick Clooney, regaled the crowd with stories of a young George, including the time the 7-year-old — heartbroken over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 — gave his father all his toy guns.

Damon took the funny road, joking about how Clooney once stole then-President Bill Clinton’s stationery and wrote notes to fellow actors on it. Cheadle highlighted Clooney’s philanthropic work. But it was Clooney’s father who probably had the strongest praise, telling the crowd and his son, sitting in the balcony between León and U2′s Bono, “George’s best and most important work is still ahead of him.

Standing on a stage lit by a massive sign reading “Gladys,” LaBelle called Knight her “everything,” saying they had been friends for six decades and had seen each other through laughter and tears. “We do everything together,” LaBelle said. “I am honored to honor you tonight.”

Actor and hip-hop star LL Cool J said that whenever Knight sings she connects with people. “I once heard Gladys sing the ABCs and I thought I was in church,” he said.

Knight — usually with her backup singers, The Pips — has recorded dozens of albums with such classic hits as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “Midnight Train to Georgia.” The challenge of singing that classic in front of the woman who made it famous fell to country music superstar Garth Brooks, who is a Kennedy Center honoree in his own right. He cited Knight’s “roots in country music” before launching into the classic.

Each artist was introduced by a video compilation showing snippets of their lives. In Grant’s, her children talked about their mother’s influence on them. Crow talked about Grant’s influence on her when she was a young college student.

“Amy also taught me that it was possible to be funny, irreverent and Christian all at the same,” said Crow.

Five ballet dancers took to the stage to honor composer and conductor Tania León, who left Cuba as a refugee in 1967; her passport was stamped “Cancelado” when she left the country. The performers were from the Dance Theatre of Harlem, which León helped found when she eventually made her way to New York City. She also instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series and in 2021 received the Pulitzer Prize for her work “Stride,” inspired by women’s rights champion Susan B. Anthony.

“How do I convey the extent of your musical genius?” asked actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith. Jazz pianist Jason Moran, singer Alicia Hall Moran and cellist Sterling Elliott played one of León’s creations, “Oh Yemanja.”

The last honoree of the night was U2. In a video taped Saturday, U2 guitarist The Edge noted that a group of four “Irish lads” were being honored for contributions to American culture and said there’s a bond between the group and America that can’t really be explained.

Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder sang U2′s “Elevation” and “One.” Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen brought his alter ego Borat to the stage as part of the U2 tribute, pretending to mistake Biden for former President Donald Trump. Singers Brandi Carlile, Hozier and Jamala — from the U.S., Ireland and Ukraine, respectively — closed out the show with an emotional version of “Walk On.”

U2′s Bono is also known for his philanthropic work to eradicate poverty and to raise awareness about AIDS. Jamala, whose home country of Ukraine has been embroiled in nearly a year of bloody warfare after the Russian invasion, touched on that history of social activism as she introduced the night’s final song.

“It’s fitting that on the night meant to honor them they have once again used their platform to spread a message of peace. Honestly to be here in this bright warm hall this evening is really something extraordinary for me, when there is so much darkness in my home country Ukraine,” she said.

The honorees came to the theater from a White House reception where Biden praised them before a star-studded East Room crowd as an “exceptional group of artists.”

“Thank you for showing us the power of the arts and ‘We the People,’” Biden said.

__

AP White House Correspondent Zeke Miller contributed to this report. Follow Santana on Twitter @ruskygal.

Read original article here

10 medical tests every older adult should get

Maintaining your physical fitness and mental well-being is crucial to living a longer and happier life.

There are about two dozen tests or screenings older adults can get to help ensure optimal health and wellness, based on recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of experts in primary care and prevention, and on Medicare’s coverage of preventive health service.

Of course, exactly which tests you need depends on a variety of factors, including your age, weight, sex, family history and risk factors, as well as on your doctor’s recommendations.

The Affordable Care Act mandates preventive care with no cost-sharing, so in 2011, Medicare began offering a variety of free preventive-health services. Some services may need to be ordered during an annual wellness visit in order to be covered; otherwise, you may need to cover the costs out of pocket or with private insurance.

“People are living into their 90s, independently and in the community, and loving it. But in order to get there, you’ve got to do this stuff,” said Richard Besdine, a professor of medicine and public health at Brown University. “Not all of these are fatal diseases, but they can take the fun out of life. And what’s the point of that?”

Besdine said a Mediterranean-style diet and daily exercise are at the top of the list of the most important habits for aging well. Adequate sleep is also crucial, as are quitting smoking and limiting alcohol.

Mental health is equally important. Many older adults face depression, loneliness and isolation amid life changes such as the loss of a spouse. Ask a doctor for a depression screening if you or a loved one are showing any signs of depression.

And keep up with vaccines, such as those for COVID-19, shingles and the flu. Also consider getting the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23), which helps protect against meningitis and bloodstream infections, and the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13), which protects against pneumonia.

Here’s a rundown of routine tests you should get as an older adult:

Eye test
Eye health may decline gradually as people get older, but the changes may not be noticeable right away. Poor eyesight can affect your ability to drive, get around the house and perform daily tasks. Also, as you age, the risk for eye problems such as cataracts and glaucoma increases.

In addition, recent research has found that up to 100,000 U.S. dementia cases could have potentially been prevented with improved eye care.

According to a study published this year in JAMA Neurology, one of the top things you can do to help reduce your risk for Alzheimer’s and related dementias is to get vision problems corrected with the help of eye exams, eyeglasses and cataract surgery.

Researchers found that about 1.8% of U.S. dementia cases were associated with visual impairment and projected that by 2050, that total would rise to around 250,000 cases. The investigators also found that incidence of impaired vision in older adults was higher for Hispanic people, at 11%, compared with 8.3% on average for Black and non-Hispanic white people.

Last year, a study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology also suggested that certain eye conditions including age-related macular degeneration, cataracts and diabetes-related eye disease may be associated with an increased risk of dementia.

“Avoiding dementia is the No. 1 job of physicians and patients,” Besdine said. “Do everything you can to maintain your mental and physical health.”

Hearing exam
While we’re talking about dementia, get your hearing tested — and get a hearing aid if you need one.

If you have hearing loss, you have a greater chance of developing dementia, according to a 2020 Lancet commission report that listed hearing loss as one of the top risk factors for dementia.

People with moderate hearing loss were twice as likely to experience cognitive decline as their peers, while those with severe hearing loss faced five times the risk, research has found.

In the U.S., hearing aids are now available over the counter — and they cost just hundreds of dollars, rather than the several thousands that prescription devices can cost. The White House estimated that people could save nearly $3,000 by buying over-the-counter devices.

Also read: ‘It democratizes what you get’: Hearing aids are now available over the counter — what you need to know

Walmart
WMT,
+1.51%,
Walgreen
WBA,
-0.95%,
CVS
CVS,
+2.55%
and Best Buy
BBY,
+2.88%
are among the national retailers that now sell hearing aids.

Dental exam
Gum disease increases the risk of a heart attack. That alone should get you to the dentist, but gum health can also be a good barometer of your overall health. Your teeth, gums, mouth and throat need to be checked by a dentist, ideally twice a year. Medicare does not cover dental checkups, however, so private insurance or out-of-pocket payments are necessary.

Blood-pressure screening
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is common; more than half of the adults in the U.S. have it. As you age, your arteries change and become stiffer. Left untreated, hypertension can lead to strokes, heart attacks and heart disease.

Diabetes screening
After age 65, both men and women should be screened for diabetes regularly. The American Diabetes Association recommends that a fasting blood-sugar test be done at least once every three years in order catch diabetes early and manage it so it doesn’t become a life-threatening disorder.

Breast-cancer screening
The Mayo Clinic supports screening for breast cancer beginning at age 40. Women up to age 75 should get a mammogram every one to two years, depending on their risk factors. Risk factors include having started menstruation before age 12, a family history of breast cancer, dense breasts and genetic mutations. After age 75, women should discuss the need for continued breast-cancer screening with their doctor.

Osteoporosis screening
As you age, your bones become thinner, which can make you more susceptible to fractures or breaks, especially in the hips and spine. All women older than 64 should get a bone-density scan at least once a year. Men over 70 should also consider getting screened for osteoporosis, especially if the condition runs in their family.

Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a common disease among men, especially those over the age of 65. Doctors can check for prostate cancer with a physical examination and a blood test. Some signs of prostate cancer include difficulty urinating, unexplained weight loss or blood in the urine.

Colon-cancer screening
Colorectal cancer is more common among older adults, with an average age at diagnosis of 68 for men and 72 for women. If you experience changes in bowel habits, abdominal pain or bleeding, see your doctor.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that adults age 45 to 75 be screened for colorectal cancer. Types of screening include stool tests, flexible sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy and CT colonography (virtual colonoscopy). Adults ages 76 to 85 should talk to their doctor about whether they should continue to get screened.

Skin exam
The American Cancer Society recommends regular screening for skin cancer. Be sure to ask your doctor to check your skin if you have any unusual moles or skin changes or if you’re at high risk with a history of skin cancer, have close relatives with skin cancer or have a weakened immune system.

Read original article here

CVS Is in Advanced Talks to Buy Signify Health for Around $8 Billion

CVS Health Corp.

CVS -0.49%

is in advanced talks to acquire the home-healthcare company

Signify Health Inc.

SGFY 1.34%

for around $8 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

CVS appears to have beat out other heavy hitters including

Amazon.com Inc.

and

UnitedHealth Group Inc.,

which had been circling Signify for a deal that could be announced soon. UnitedHealth never submitted an official bid, one of the people said.

There is still no guarantee that CVS will reach a deal for Signify, which has been exploring strategic alternatives since earlier this summer.

Bids for the company were due Sept. 6, but people familiar with the matter have said that an eager buyer could make a move before then.

Signify’s valuation has ballooned since The Wall Street Journal reported in August that it was for sale. Shares of the company closed at $28.77 on Friday, giving it a market capitalization of roughly $6.7 billion.

Signify works with a large group of doctors to facilitate house calls. It uses analytics and technology to help physician groups, health plans, employers and health systems with in-home care. It offers health evaluations for Medicare Advantage and other plans.

At the close of its deal this year to buy Caravan Health, Signify said that it supported roughly $10 billion in total medical spending.

The company went public in February 2021, raising more than $500 million as a result of the offering. On the day of its initial public offering, shares of the company priced above its expected range, at $24.

New York-based New Mountain Capital has backed Signify since 2017. The firm—which had more than $37 billion in assets under management as of early August—has steadily expanded Signify through a series of mergers and acquisitions since its initial investment.

New Mountain is well-versed in the healthcare sector. It previously sold the healthcare payments firm Equian LLC to UnitedHealth for roughly $3.2 billion in 2019.

For CVS, the deal builds on an effort years in the making to transform itself into a major provider of healthcare services through acquisitions and expanded medical services. The company had been struggling to counter slowing revenue from prescription drugs, which drive the bulk of its sales, and to ward off competition from

Amazon

AMZN -0.24%

for retail dollars.

CVS, the nation’s largest drugstore chain by stores and revenue, acquired Aetna in 2018, arguing that melding the insurance company’s patient data with its network of nearly 10,000 bricks-and-mortar sites would squeeze out costs while improving care and convenience.

The strategy has paid off, buoyed by a surge in demand for Covid-19 vaccines and tests at the height of the pandemic. CVS’s market capitalization has grown to more than $130 billion from around $75 billion since the Aetna deal.

The line between Amazon and Walmart is becoming increasingly blurred, as the two companies seek to maintain their slice of the estimated $5 trillion retail market while chipping away at each other’s share, often by borrowing ideas. Photos: Amazon/Walmart

The company is outperforming

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.,

which opted against major acquisitions, in the years since. Walgreens, also racing to expand into healthcare, focused largely on partnerships rather than deals. But last year it bought a controlling stake in the primary-care network Village MD, giving it doctors’ offices that CVS had said it could do without.

CVS Chief Executive

Karen Lynch

has since said that the company must have a foothold in primary care if it is to become a full-service medical provider.

CVS had previously been interested in a deal for the parent of One Medical, people familiar with the matter have said.

Amazon

AMZN -0.24%

agreed to purchase the primary-care clinic operator for about $3.9 billion in July.

The Federal Trade Commission is currently investigating the deal. The parent company of One Medical,

1Life Healthcare Inc.,

disclosed the investigation in a securities filing. The disclosure said One Medical and Amazon each received a request for additional information about the deal from the FTC.

While Wall Street has largely focused on CVS’s efforts to acquire primary-care practices, executives have also discussed ambitions to expand its in-home health presence.

A deal for Signify would represent a bright spot in an otherwise lackluster run for deals lately. Deal volumes globally are down roughly 30% this year after a flurry of activity last year, because of a drop in companies’ valuations, market volatility and other factors including Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Healthcare deal making in particular has slowed more than many other sectors. Over $200 billion of healthcare deals announced so far this year has compared with over $400 billion at this time last year, according to Dealogic. The largest healthcare deal to date this year in the U.S. is

Pfizer Inc.’s

$11.6 billion agreement in May to purchase the rest of

Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co.

Write to Laura Cooper at laura.cooper@wsj.com, Sharon Terlep at sharon.terlep@wsj.com and Cara Lombardo at cara.lombardo@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Read original article here

Vince McMahon Retires as WWE CEO Amid Sexual Harassment Scandal

Vince McMahon, the king of U.S. wrestling, retired as chief executive officer and chairman of

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.,

WWE 0.62%

following disclosures by The Wall Street Journal of multiple payouts to women who had alleged sexual misconduct and infidelity.

In a news release, the 76-year-old executive said his daughter, Stephanie McMahon, and the company’s current president, Nick Khan, will take over as co-CEOs. Ms. McMahon will serve as chairwoman.

“As the majority shareholder, I will continue to support WWE in any way I can,” Mr. McMahon said in a statement.

Stephanie McMahon will serve as chairwoman and co-CEO of WWE following her father’s retirement.



Photo:

Lauren Justice/Bloomberg News

Mr. McMahon didn’t respond to requests for comment, The company has said it is cooperating with the board investigation. Mr. McMahon won’t retain any role in the company’s creative content, according to a person familiar with the matter.

WWE describes Mr. McMahon as critical to the success of the company, which runs the world’s most famous wrestling business and reported record revenue of $1.1 billion last year. WWE said in regulatory filings that losing Mr. McMahon would put its entire business at risk.

Addressing the crowd at the start of WWE’s “Friday Night SmackDown” event in Boston, Ms. McMahon noted her father’s retirement and led the crowd in a chant of “Thank you, Vince.” Appearing emotional, Ms. McMahon mouthed “I love you, Dad,” into the camera.

Mr. McMahon temporarily stepped aside as chairman and CEO in June, when the company’s board of directors announced it would investigate allegations of misconduct against both Mr. McMahon and another executive, John Laurinaitis.

Mr. Laurinaitis didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The announcement followed a report in the Journal that Mr. McMahon had agreed to pay a secret $3 million settlement to a former employee with whom he had allegedly had a sexual affair.

The Journal later reported that Mr. McMahon had agreed to pay more than $12 million in hush money settlements over the previous 16 years to suppress allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity.

Those payments went to four women, including a former wrestler to whom McMahon agreed to pay $7.5 million in 2018 after she alleged he had coerced her into performing oral sex.

World Wrestling Entertainment Chairman Vince McMahon during the WWE ‘Monday Night Raw’ show in Las Vegas in 2009.



Photo:

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The woman alleged Mr. McMahon demoted her and ultimately declined to renew her contract in 2005 after she refused further sexual advances, according to people familiar with the matter. The wrestler and her lawyer approached Mr. McMahon in 2018 and negotiated the payment in return for her silence, the people said.

In another deal, a WWE contractor presented the company with unsolicited nude photos of Mr. McMahon she reported receiving from him and alleged that he had sexually harassed her on the job, according to people familiar with the woman’s 2008 nondisclosure agreement. Mr. McMahon agreed to pay her roughly $1 million, these people said.

And in a 2006 agreement, a former manager who had worked 10 years for Mr. McMahon before he allegedly initiated a sexual relationship with her was paid $1 million to keep quiet about it, according to people familiar with the deal.

In his statement, Mr. McMahon said it had been a “privilege to help WWE bring you joy, inspire you, thrill you, surprise you, and always entertain you.”

WWE in June confirmed details of the Journal investigation and said at the time that a special committee of the board “is conducting an investigation into alleged misconduct” by Messrs. McMahon and Laurinaitis, head of WWE talent relations.

The Stamford, Conn.-based company appointed Ms. McMahon interim CEO in the wake of the investigation. She stepped away from her role as WWE’s chief brand officer in May, writing in a LinkedIn post that she was “taking this time to focus on my family” but that she planned to return.

The 12-member board includes several WWE executives and members of the McMahon family, including Mr. McMahon; Ms. McMahon; her husband,

Paul Levesque,

better known as the wrestler Triple H; and Mr. Khan. Man Jit Singh, a former Sony Pictures Home Entertainment executive, is the lead independent director and is running the inquiry, the Journal reported.

The company on Friday also announced that Mr. Levesque will resume his position as EVP, talent relations.

Write to Ted Mann at ted.mann@wsj.com, Joe Palazzolo at joe.palazzolo@wsj.com and Denny Jacob at denny.jacob@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Read original article here

Former Theranos President Ramesh ‘Sunny’ Balwani Begins His Defense

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani wasn’t in charge at Theranos Inc., and the blood-testing company was neither his idea nor his creation, his attorney told a jury Tuesday as the second criminal-fraud trial involving the defunct Silicon Valley startup got under way.

The responsibility for the rise and fall of Theranos rests on founder and Chief Executive

Elizabeth Holmes,

attorney Stephen Cazares said in opening statements as he outlined the main points of Mr. Balwani’s defense.

“Sunny Balwani did not start Theranos, he did not control Theranos,” said Mr. Cazares. “Elizabeth Holmes, not Sunny, founded Theranos and built Theranos.”

By the time Mr. Balwani joined Theranos in 2009 as president and chief operating officer, Ms. Holmes had spent six years building “a small but sophisticated company,” said Mr. Cazares. His knowledge of the company was largely based on what Ms. Holmes, who was also his girlfriend, and Theranos scientists told him, Mr. Cazares said.

Elizabeth Holmes’s former top deputy at Theranos, Ramesh ‘Sunny’ Balwani, faces charges of defrauding investors and patients about the startup’s blood-testing capabilities, which he denies. Photo: Getty Images

Mr. Balwani, 56 years old, faces a dozen counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud for allegedly lying to investors and patients about the blood-testing startup’s technology. Mr. Balwani helped run the company from 2009 to 2016 alongside Ms. Holmes, and helped finance it by underwriting a $13 million loan and buying $5 million in stock. The two had a romantic relationship that spanned more than a decade and was intertwined with their co-leadership of the company, according to evidence in the case.

Ms. Holmes was found guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy in January in a separate criminal trial.

Ms. Holmes and Mr. Balwani were indicted together in June 2018, but U.S. District Judge

Edward Davila

agreed in March 2020 to Mr. Balwani’s request to sever the trials so they would have separate court appearances. Judge Davila presided over Ms. Holmes’s trial and is also overseeing Mr. Balwani’s proceedings; the same assistant U.S. attorneys who brought Ms. Holmes’s case are also prosecuting Mr. Balwani’s case.

Mr. Balwani’s trial had faced delays due to a prolonged jury selection and the Covid-19 pandemic, and because Ms. Holmes gave birth to a baby boy last year, which postponed her own trial.

The government has accused Mr. Balwani, like Ms. Holmes, of misleading investors, business partners and patients about the capabilities of Theranos’s technology and its finances. Theranos claimed it could test for more than 200 health conditions using just a few drops of blood from a finger prick. Prosecutors have alleged and witnesses in Ms. Holmes’s trial testified that the company used its proprietary device for just 12 types of patient tests, and those tests could be inaccurate. Theranos relied on commercial blood analyzers for the majority of its tests, lawyers for both sides have said.

Mr. Cazares said that Theranos used investor money as it promised—to build the company. When Mr. Balwani left in May 2016, Theranos had hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank, patents and hundreds of blood tests developed by Theranos scientists, Mr. Cazares said.

“The money was there, the business was there,” said Mr. Cazares. And Mr. Balwani, whose stake in Theranos was worth as much as $500 million on paper, walked away from Theranos without selling any stock.

By the time Mr. Balwani left in 2016, Theranos was struggling with unreliable and inaccurate blood tests, deteriorating retail partnerships, unhappy investors and regulatory scrutiny, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Regulators had uncovered major deficiencies in the lab he oversaw. The company dissolved in 2018 following civil lawsuits, a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over fraud charges in which Theranos didn’t admit or deny wrongdoing but paid a penalty, and the federal indictment.

The government’s indictment alleges fraud spanning from 2010 to 2016, during which Mr. Balwani was at the company. In Ms. Holmes’s trial, she described Mr. Balwani as her closest business mentor who had influence over how she ran the business—though he wasn’t the ultimate decision maker.

The government’s opening statements gave a preview of a case that echoed the one against Ms. Holmes.

“This is a case about fraud. About lying and cheating to obtain money and property,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney

Robert Leach.

Mr. Balwani “did this to get money from investors, and he did this to get money and business from paying patients who were counting on Theranos to deliver accurate and reliable blood tests so that they could make important medical decisions.”

Mr. Leach said Mr. Balwani was responsible for what he described as false financial projections that were given to investors. Mr. Leach said Mr. Balwani told investors to expect Theranos would have $990 million in revenue in 2015, when in fact the company had less than $2 million in sales, among other projections Mr. Leach said were misleading.

Mr. Cazares countered that allegation, saying Mr. Balwani accurately portrayed the company’s expected revenue growth based on an agreement from

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.

to put Theranos blood-testing devices in thousands of retail pharmacies.

Mr. Balwani is an entrepreneur and immigrant from a family of farmers, who became wealthy from his own success in tech startups before going to work at Theranos, Mr. Cazares said. Mr. Balwani had worked as a software engineer and had a business degree when he went to the blood-testing company, where he was put in charge of the lab despite having no medical or laboratory experience.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

What do you think will be the outcome of the Balwani trial, and why? Join the conversation below.

Mr. Cazares took issue with the government for charging Mr. Balwani without reviewing a database that contained all of Theranos’s lab testing data, including 9 million patient test results.

The database is a thorny issue. The government subpoenaed a copy of Theranos’s proprietary lab-result database, but in August 2018, just days after the government received a copy on an external hard drive, Theranos officials destroyed the entire database, the Journal has reported. The government later learned that a passcode needed to make use of their hard drives was missing.

Before Mr. Balwani’s lawyers outlined the broad strokes of his defense, prosecutors on Tuesday described Mr. Balwani as one-half of a business duo that lied to cheat investors and patients out of money. “They were partners in everything, including their crimes,” said Mr. Leach.

Mr. Balwani was a full participant in the lies Theranos spread, Mr. Leach said, driven by its dwindling cash reserves and unreliable technology. The company went years without revenue and its cash had diminished to $6.9 million by 2013, he said.

For a time, said Mr. Leach, their fraud scheme was enormously successful: They raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors, and it “brought them fame and adoration.”

Mr. Leach told the jury that they would soon see text message exchanges Mr. Balwani and Ms. Holmes shared during their yearslong personal relationship, which was largely hidden from Theranos investors, employees and board directors. Prosecutors also introduced hundreds of these messages during Ms. Holmes’s trial, showing the two worked in tandem as the top officers of a multibillion-dollar company and as romantic partners.

“They candidly explained to each other how bad things were inside Theranos at the time they were touting Theranos as a revolution in healthcare,” said Mr. Leach.

Theranos and the ‘Sunny’ Balwani Trial

Write to Heather Somerville at Heather.Somerville@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Read original article here

Putin appears at big rally as troops press attack in Ukraine

Meanwhile, the leader of Russia’s delegation in diplomatic talks with Ukraine said the sides have narrowed their differences. The Ukrainian side said its position remained unchanged.

The invasion has touched off a burst of antiwar protests inside Russia, and the Moscow rally was surrounded by suspicions it was a Kremlin-manufactured display of patriotism. Several Telegram channels critical of the Kremlin reported that students and employees of state institutions in a number of regions were ordered by their superiors to attend rallies and concerts marking the eighth anniversary of Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, which was seized from Ukraine. Those reports could not be independently verified.

Elsewhere, Russian troops continued to rain lethal fire on Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, and pounded an aircraft repair installation on the outskirts of Lviv, close to the Polish border. Ukrainian officials said late Friday that the besieged southern port city of Mariupol lost its access to the Azov Sea, and Russian forces were still trying to storm the city. It was unclear whether they had seized it.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces are blockading the largest cities to create a “humanitarian catastrophe” with the goal of persuading Ukrainians to cooperate. He said the Russians are preventing supplies from reaching surrounded cities in central and southeastern Ukraine.

“This is a totally deliberate tactic,” Zelenskyy said in his nighttime video address to the nation, which was recorded outside in Kyiv, with the presidential office behind him.

In a rare public appearance by Putin since the start of the war, he praised Russian troops: “Shoulder to shoulder, they help and support each other,” he said. “We have not had unity like this for a long time,” he added to cheers from the crowd.

Moscow police said more than 200,000 people were in and around the Luzhniki stadium. The event included patriotic songs, including a performance of “Made in the U.S.S.R.,” with the opening lines “Ukraine and Crimea, Belarus and Moldova, it’s all my country.”

Seeking to portray the war as just, Putin paraphrased the Bible to say of Russia’s troops: “There is no greater love than giving up one’s soul for one’s friends.”

Taking to the stage where a sign read “For a world without Nazism,” he railed against his foes in Ukraine with a baseless claim that they are “neo-Nazis.” Putin continued to insist his actions were necessary to prevent “genocide” — an idea flatly rejected by leaders around the globe.

Video feeds of the event cut out at times but showed a loudly cheering crowd that broke into chants of “Russia!”

Putin’s appearance marked a change from his relative isolation of recent weeks, when he has been shown meeting with world leaders and his staff either at extraordinarily long tables or via videoconference.

In the wake of the invasion, the Kremlin has clamped down harder on dissent and the flow of information, arresting thousands of antiwar protesters, banning sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and instituting tough prison sentences for what is deemed to be false reporting on the war, which Moscow refers to as a “special military operation.”

The OVD-Info rights group that monitors political arrests reported that at least seven independent journalists had been detained ahead of or while covering the anniversary events in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

High above the conflict, three Russian cosmonauts arrived Friday at the International Space Station wearing bright yellow flight suits with blue accents matching the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Video of one of the cosmonauts taken as the capsule prepared to dock with the space station showed him wearing a blue flight suit. It was unclear what, if any, message the yellow uniforms were intended to send.

When cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev was asked about the yellow suits, he said every crew chooses its own suits, and they had a lot of yellow material they needed to use “so that’s why we had to wear yellow.”

Since the war started, many people have used the Ukrainian flag and its colors to show solidarity with the country.

Back in Moscow, Putin stood on stage in a white turtleneck and a blue down jacket and spoke for about five minutes. Some people, including presenters at the event, wore T-shirts or jackets with a “Z” — a symbol seen on Russian tanks and other military vehicles in Ukraine and embraced by supporters of the war.

Putin’s quoting of the Bible and an 18th-century Russian admiral reflected his increasing focus in recent years on history and religion as binding forces in Russia’s post-Soviet society. His branding of his enemies as Nazis evoked what many Russians consider their country’s finest hour, the defense of the motherland from Germany during World War II.

The rally came as Vladimir Medinsky, who led Russian negotiators in several rounds of talks with Ukraine, said that the sides have moved closer to agreement on the issue of Ukraine dropping its bid to join NATO and adopting a neutral status.

“That is the issue where the parties have made their positions maximally close,” Medinsky said in remarks carried by Russian media. He added that the sides are now “halfway” on issues regarding the demilitarization of Ukraine.

Mikhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, characterized the Russian assessment as intended “to provoke tension in the media.” He tweeted: “Our positions are unchanged. Ceasefire, withdrawal of troops & strong security guarantees with concrete formulas.”

Zelenskyy again appealed to Putin to hold talks with him directly. “It’s time to meet, time to speak,” he said. “I want to be heard by everyone, especially in Moscow.”

In other developments, U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke for nearly two hours in a bid by the U.S. to deter Beijing from providing military or economic assistance for Russia’s invasion.

Earlier Friday, one person was reported killed in the missile attack near Lviv. Satellite photos showed the strike destroyed a repair hangar and appeared to damage two other buildings. Ukraine said it had shot down two of six missiles in the volley, which came from the Black Sea.

The early morning attack was the closest strike yet to the center of Lviv, which has become a crossroads for people fleeing from other parts of Ukraine and for others entering to deliver aid or join the fight. The war has swelled the city’s population by some 200,000.

Zelenskyy boasted that Ukraine’s defenses have proved much stronger than expected, and Russia “didn’t know what we had for defense or how we prepared to meet the blow.”

But British Chief of Defense Intelligence Lt. Gen. Jim Hockenhull warned that after failing to take major Ukrainian cities, Russian forces are shifting to a “strategy of attrition” that will entail “reckless and indiscriminate use of firepower,” resulting in higher civilian casualties and a worsening humanitarian crisis.

In city after city around Ukraine, hospitals, schools and buildings where people sought safety have been attacked. Rescue workers continued to search for survivors in the ruins of a theater that was being used a shelter when it was blasted by a Russian airstrike Wednesday in Mariupol.

Ludmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament’s human rights commissioner, said at least 130 people had survived the theater bombing.

“But according to our data, there are still more than 1,300 people in these basements, in this bomb shelter,” Denisova told Ukrainian television. “We pray that they will all be alive, but so far there is no information about them.”

Satellite images on Friday from Maxar Technologies showed a long line of cars leaving Mariupol as people tried to evacuate, as well as devastation to homes, apartment buildings and stores.

Early morning barrages also hit a residential building in the Podil neighborhood of Kyiv, killing at least one person, according to emergency services, who said 98 people were evacuated from the building. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 19 were wounded in the shelling.

Ukrainian officials said a fireman was killed when Russian forces shelled an area where firefighters were trying to put out a blaze in the village of Nataevka, in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Two others were killed when strikes hit residential and administrative buildings in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, according to the regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko.

Maj. Gen. Oleksandr Pavlyuk, who is leading the defense of the region around Ukraine’s capital, said his forces are well-positioned to defend the city and vowed: “We will never give up. We will fight until the end. To the last breath and to the last bullet.”

———

Associated Press writer Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, and other AP journalists around the world contributed to this report.

———

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Read original article here

To detect omicron, take an at-home COVID-19 test right before a holiday gathering, experts say

Friends and families relying on at-home rapid COVID-19 tests to safely celebrate the holidays should do those tests as close to the point of arrival as possible, and not one or two days earlier or even the morning of. 

The standard thinking until now has been that performing a rapid test one to three days before an event, such as an international flight or a party, was enough to demonstrate that someone wasn’t sick at the time of the test. 

Rapid, or antigen, tests can detect if you have a current infection, though they are considered less sensitive than PCR tests.

But the new omicron variant, which is driving the surge in cases in the U.S., has changed that thinking. This variant is more transmissible, has a shorter incubation period than other strains, is causing breakthrough infections among the vaccinated, and it’s hitting the U.S. at the start of the holiday season. 

“There have been plenty of examples where perhaps you test negative in the morning, but you could be testing positive by the afternoon or the evening,” said Rachael Piltch-Loeb, an associate research scientist at NYU School of Global Public Health and a preparedness fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

One of those examples comes from an office holiday party in Oslo, Norway, in late November. Eighty-one out of 110 people who attended the party had confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19, according to preliminary research published Dec. 16. Everyone who attended the party was fully vaccinated, primarily with the mRNA shots, though no one had received a booster. Each person had to get a negative test one to two days before the party.

“That’s really dramatic transmission,” Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and ​​director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, told SiriusXM last week. “This thing goes through red lights at 300 miles an hour.”

This is why some public-health experts are instead suggesting that it’s better to conduct rapid at-home tests within minutes of arriving at a gathering of any kind.

“I would argue that a much more reliable result, even amidst omicron, is a test taken 15 minutes before you enter into a gathering,” said Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist who recently left Harvard to join eMed, which markets at-home COVID-19 tests, as chief science officer.

Mina made the remarks Tuesday during a press call. 

Not only is omicron thought to be more transmissible than other SARS-CoV-2 strains, it also is believed to have a much shorter incubation period, of two to three days, compared with four days for delta and approximately five days for the original strain of the virus. Within weeks of omicron’s detection in the U.S., it’s already the most dominant version of the virus in the U.S. 

“It replicates incredibly quickly,” Piltch-Loeb said. “That’s why we’re seeing shorter incubation periods with this variant. And that’s also why our protocol for using rapid tests should be a little bit different.”

The emergence of this particularly vexing variant heading into the second pandemic holiday season has renewed COVID-19 anxieties for some people and raised broader questions about how best to use tools like at-home tests. Though they are considered a positive addition to the pandemic toolbox, rapid at-home tests are also expensive, at least $10 per test, and not always easy to find on store shelves.

Experts say the tools that have been available all along this year—vaccination, testing, using outdoor space to gather, if possible, and masking—still work. We just have to make some tweaks, especially how we use and supply rapid at-home tests. 

Mina recommends that people perform rapid tests in their cars in the driveway when they arrive at a party or gathering and to keep the tests at room temperature, saying that cold temperatures can damage their effectiveness. 

“There’s a real need to be able to live life in the safest way possible while still having it move forward,” he said. “Rapid tests are one of the most powerful tools that have not really been utilized in a powerful way in this pandemic.” 

The White House said Tuesday it is planning to provide 500 million free rapid, at-home tests to people in the U.S., starting in January.

At the same time, the exponential growth in new COVID-19 cases over the last week has fueled demand for at-home tests, including Abbott Laboratories’
ABT,
+2.75%
BinaxNOW, iHealth Labs. Inc.’s at-home antigen test, and Quidel Corp.’s
QDEL,
-0.42%
QuickVue At-Home test. (The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that the BinaxNOW and QuickVue antigen tests can pick up omicron as well as other variants.)

Many pharmacy chains that carry at-home COVID-19 tests say they are seeing unprecedented demand for these products right now. Some tests are unavailable to purchase online. The stores say they can be found on shelves, though purchases are now being limited. 

As of Tuesday, CVS Health Corp.
CVS,
+0.11%
said it is limiting the purchase to six at-home tests per order. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.
WBA,
+0.90%
has a limit of four at-home tests per purchase, and Walmart Inc.
WMT,
+0.13%
limits orders to 8 testing kits, according to statements from each company. On Wednesday morning, several tests were out of stock online at these chains. 

People can also get in-person rapid or PCR tests at clinics and mobile testing sites; however, in regions undergoing surges, like New York City, that can require waiting sometimes hours to get a test, and results can be delayed. 

“I personally believe that we’re way beyond the days of standing in line,” Mina said. “And I’m totally disheartened to drive down Boston [Street] and see people standing in the cold in line to get a PCR test because they can’t get a rapid test anywhere.”

Read more of MarketWatch’s coverage of rapid, at-home COVID-19 tests:

‘This is a critical moment,’ Biden says, while rolling out free, at-home COVID tests as omicron spreads

Biden plans to distribute 500 million at-home COVID-19 test kits. Here are the states and cities already providing free tests.

Is it safe to travel for Christmas as omicron spreads? Here are 5 steps to stay healthy during the holidays

Read original article here