Tag: House

By December 2017, after further allegations were made against Mr. Spacey, including by crew members of “House of Cards,” MRC and Netflix fired the actor from the show.

In the arbitration, MRC argued that Mr. Spacey’s behavior caused the studio to lose millions of dollars because it had already spent time and money in developing, writing and shooting the final season. It also said it brought in less revenue because the season had to be shortened to eight episodes from the 13 because Mr. Spacey’s character was written out.

The arbitrator apparently agreed, issuing a reward of nearly $31 million, including compensatory damages and lawyers’ fees.

A lawyer for Mr. Spacey declined to comment.

In a statement, MRC said, “The safety of our employees, sets and work environments is of paramount importance to MRC and why we set out to push for accountability.”

It was neither Mr. Bezos’ biggest gift in recent months nor his first brush with Mr. Obama’s orbit thanks to his philanthropy. In September, Mr. Bezos, standing alongside John Kerry, Mr. Obama’s former secretary of state, pledged $1 billion through his Bezos Earth Fund for conservation, out of $10 billion he has promised to the fund.

Though Mr. Obama is out of office, he remains an important member of the Democratic Party establishment. The Obama Foundation’s previous president, Adewale Adeyemo, was a member of Mr. Obama’s National Security Council and is now the deputy Treasury secretary.

The Obama Foundation had been reaching out to administration alumni as part of its fund-raising efforts. Jay Carney, a former press secretary for Mr. Obama who is now Amazon’s top lobbying and communications executive, first raised the possibility of a donation with Mr. Bezos, according to the foundation. Mr. Obama and Mr. Bezos spoke several times about the donation and it was Mr. Bezos’ idea to name the plaza for Mr. Lewis.

News of the gift was reported earlier by the online media company Puck.

“We intend to use Jeff’s gift to help support all of our programs,” said Valerie Jarrett, a former senior adviser to Mr. Obama who is now chief executive of the foundation. “It will certainly pay for the plaza, and we’ll have funds also available for our endowment, which will allow the programs to go on in perpetuity.”

The foundation has a global leaders program with fellows in Asia, Europe and Africa, as well as programs aimed at addressing the opportunity gaps for girls and young men of color in the United States.

In 2020, the foundation received $171 million in contributions and grants and ended the year with $564 million in total assets, according to its most recent tax filing. Construction began on the center in August and the formal groundbreaking ceremony was held in September, and the foundation has raised enough money to pay for it.

Mr. Bezos has faced some criticism in recent years over the perceived slow pace of his giving in contrast to his enormous wealth. Forbes pegged his net worth at about $207 billion on Monday, second only to the $300 billion fortune of Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX.

In particular, Mr. Bezos’ gifts have at times looked small compared with the more than $8 billion in grants that his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, has announced in just 11 months. Ms. Scott has been praised not only for the size of her gifts but the way she has given the money, with few strings attached.

Unrestricted gifts, as they are known, give organizations far more flexibility than those tied to specific programs, which often leave nonprofits starved for funds essential to running their general operations. Mr. Bezos’ $100 million gift to the Obama Foundation was also unrestricted.

The donation was the same amount he gave in April 2020 to the food-bank network Feeding America for its Covid-19 response fund. At a news conference after his trip into space, Mr. Bezos announced that he had created a prize for “civility and courage” and was awarding $100 million each to the CNN political commentator Van Jones and the chef and restaurateur José Andrés to pass on to charitable causes of their choosing.

He also gave $200 million to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in a gift announced in July.

At least as far back as the robber baron era of the late 19th century, philanthropy has been both a means of using great wealth to help the less fortunate and a way for the extremely wealthy to burnish their reputations once they have finished their climbs to the top.

Mr. Bezos remains the executive chairman of Amazon, which has been broadly criticized for its labor practices. Amazon settled charges earlier this year from the National Labor Relations Board that the company had illegally retaliated against two prominent internal critics. The company defeated a union drive at an Amazon warehouse outside Birmingham, Ala., in August, prevailing in the largest and most viable labor threat in the company’s history, but faces the prospect of a new vote because of some of its tactics during the election.

Mr. Bezos created Amazon’s employment model of burning through its hourly work force, which had roughly 150 percent annual turnover even before the pandemic, The New York Times reported earlier this year.

“President Obama is strongly supportive of unions, and appreciates the fact that Jeff is being philanthropic and helping not just us but many other organizations do what they couldn’t do but for his generosity,” Ms. Jarrett said.

Before Mr. Bezos’ gift, the largest donations to the foundation were three gifts of $50 million each from Mark Walter, the chief executive of Guggenheim Partners; Glenn Hutchins, a founder of Silver Lake Partners; and Connie Ballmer, the philanthropist and wife of Steve Ballmer, the former Microsoft chief executive. Mr. Hutchins and Ms. Ballmer also serve on the foundation’s board.

According to the foundation’s most recent tax filing, the museum “will document the history of President and Mrs. Obama and the Obama administration, frame these narratives in a broader historical context and with an emphasis on civic discourse, and connect these stories to the movements and milestones that have helped to shape the nation and the world over time.”

Karen Weise contributed reporting.

The rising yields eventually turned what had been a rally into a sudden sell-off. After being up nearly 1 percent in early trading, the S&P 500 closed down 0.3 percent.

Technology shares with high prices compared with the profits the companies are expected to earn over the next year — which are especially sensitive to movements in interest rates — got clobbered. The cloud technology providers Zscaler, Datadog and Fastly fell more than 6 percent.

Tech giants including Amazon and Alphabet — two companies with valuations well over $1 trillion that have significant sway in market indexes — were hit hard, helping push the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite down 1.3 percent. Amazon was down 2.8 percent and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, was down more than 1.5 percent.

Technology stocks are especially sensitive to rises in long-term Treasury bond yields, which move opposite bond prices. Those higher (and nearly guaranteed) returns on government debt offer an attractive option to investors, siphoning money out of the stock market — which is exactly what happened after Monday’s announcement.

Yields on the two-year Treasury note, which had been hovering around 0.52 percent before the announcement, climbed to 0.63 percent. The yield on the five-year Treasury bill, which captures market expectations for how the Fed’s monetary policy will evolve over the next few years, rose to 1.33 percent.

Government bond yields — which essentially act as the foundation for interest rates charged on new car loans, mortgages, multibillion-dollar Wall Street bond offerings and more — are heavily influenced by market expectations about what the Federal Reserve will do with monetary policy. The probability of a rate increase at the Fed’s June 2022 meeting, derived from prices in the Fed funds futures market, jumped to nearly 80 percent on Monday, up from roughly 67 percent at the end of last week.

The rising yields suggested that at least some investors had been betting that Lael Brainard, a Fed governor whom Mr. Biden will promote to vice chair, could instead have been chosen to lead the central bank. Many progressive groups had championed her to replace Mr. Powell.

Instead of tech shares, investors flocked to companies who appeared poised to benefit from a near-term uptick in economic activity.

Ford and General Motors pushed higher, rising 5.6 percent and about 3.7 percent, after the companies announced plans last week that would help them ensure greater control over the supply of microchips, shortages of which have hampered production. Steel makers Nucor and U.S. Steel, key suppliers of steel for car building, rose 6 percent and 4.3 percent.

Other industrial stocks, and shares of companies poised to benefit from the infrastructure bill that Mr. Biden recently signed into law, posted strong gains on Monday. Encore Wire, which makes copper electrical wiring for homes and businesses, rose more than 1.8 percent. Terex, which makes equipment used for handling construction materials like stone and asphalt, was up 2.4 percent.

Energy shares, sensitive to an uptick in economic demand for fuel, were the best performing part of the stock market, rising nearly 1.8 percent. Benchmark prices for U.S. crude oil rose 65 cents or 0.9 percent to $76.75 a barrel.

Virtual production, which relies on walls of LED screens to show a virtual location is becoming more of a mainstay for studios. Disney’s “The Mandalorian” is perhaps the most prominent example. The imagery on the screen can match the camera’s viewpoint in real time and provide lighting for the physical set.

Netflix has become more acquisitive in recent months. It announced in September that it would spend more than $700 million to purchase the Roald Dahl Story Company. It also disclosed that month that it intended to purchase its first game studio — Night School Studio — to further its efforts around video games.

In May, Alden bought Tribune Publishing, the chain that includes The Chicago Tribune and The Daily News in New York, in a deal valued at $633 million.

Lee Enterprises was founded in 1890 and owns newspapers across 26 states, according to its website. A spokesman for the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Bush stepped down in June 2018 amid accusations of domestic abuse against his ex-wife and inappropriate workplace behavior.

Elliott, which had made a hostile takeover offer for Athenahealth in May 2018, ended up co-owning the company. Veritas Capital and Evergreen Coast Capital, Elliott’s private equity arm, agreed to buy it for $5.5 billion, and later combined it with Virence Health Technologies, which Veritas had assembled from parts of G.E.’s health care division.

Athenahealth now works with more than 140,000 health care providers in 50 states.

Jesse Cohn, the Elliott managing partner who oversaw the activism campaign, said: “Elliott is proud to have worked with Veritas to help transform Athenahealth, and we welcome Hellman & Friedman and Bain Capital as new stewards of this unique and important health care leader.”

“Today marks a significant milestone for Athenahealth,” said Bob Segert, Athenahealth’s chairman and chief executive, who will continue to run the company after the deal closes.

Administration officials said they did not expect the minimum wage increase to result in significant job losses or cost increases, contending that the higher wage would improve productivity and reduce turnover, providing employers and the government with greater value.

The federal minimum wage remains $7.25 per hour, though many cities and states have laws setting their wage floors substantially higher. The House of Representatives has passed a bill to raise the federal minimum to $15 per hour by 2025, but the legislation has not advanced in the Senate.

The Biden administration has ordered vaccinations for workers in large companies and members of the federal work force, but the effort has met resistance across the country. Florida is among states that have challenged federal mandates in court.

The new Florida law prohibits employers from enforcing strict vaccine mandates, allowing employees to choose exemptions that include health or religious concerns, pregnancy or anticipated pregnancy, and having had the virus and recovered from it. Unvaccinated workers could instead undergo periodic testing or wear protective equipment, at the employers’ cost. Fines for violation could cost $10,000 a day per employee violation for businesses with fewer than 99 employees or up to $50,000 per employee violation for larger businesses.

Government entities and school districts are also restricted by the Covid mandate ban.

Disney World previously struck a deal with employees to require theme park workers to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus to keep their jobs, and the company defended that rule in a statement Saturday. “We believe that our approach to mandatory vaccines has been the right one as we’ve continued to focus on the safety and well-being of our cast members and guests,” the statement said.

More than 90 percent of active cast members in Florida have verified they are vaccinated, the company said, before it sent a memo to employees halting the mandate.

Walt Disney’s website tells visitors it has been “very intentional and gradual” in operating safely, recommending guests exercise caution: wearing face coverings, checking for symptoms and getting the shots. “We encourage people to get vaccinated,” it says.

Todd Gregory contributed to this report.

• Markets closed: The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, as will bond markets.

Friday

• Black Friday: The traditional start of the holiday shopping season kicks off. Many shoppers have started early, concerned over whether product shortages and supply chain disruptions will make it harder to find the gifts they want.

In the streets of Barcelona, a group called War Against Cerberus decided to fight back.

When lawyers of private equity firms come with police officers to force residents from their homes, members of the group — some of them longtime housing activists — surround the building to block their entry. As residents are pushed out of apartments, the group sends squatters to occupy properties owned by the firms elsewhere in the city — sometimes breaking in to gain entry.

The activists even took over the offices of a Cerberus real estate servicer in Barcelona for a time last year.

According to War Against Cerberus, dozens of families have occupied buildings owned by private equity firms in Barcelona, which has long been a target of outside investors. That can translate into years of courtroom hearings and millions of dollars in legal fees to remove the squatters.

“This property belongs to Cerberus,” said Ana María Banegas, a resident who, along with a dozen other families, has occupied a building in central Barcelona since April and now refuses to leave. “And from this home, we aim to pressure them.”

Miquel Hernández, a spokesman for War Against Cerberus who helped Ms. Banegas find the home where she is squatting, accused the private equity firms of profiting from the economic distress caused by the pandemic.

“They’re treating them like any other asset,” he said, referring to the homes owned by the firms.

The problem has caught the attention of Spain’s national government, led by a left-wing coalition. It has proposed the imposition of rent controls on investment funds and other large landlords.

The proposed legislation, supported by Barcelona’s mayor, Ada Colau, would allow for rent caps for owners with more than 10 properties in areas where rent increases have outpaced inflation.

“We have to civilize a market that has gotten out of control,” said Ms. Colau, a former housing activist who rose to power with an organization that fought against foreclosures. “A problem that was bad before the pandemic has suddenly gotten worse.”

Spain imposed a partial moratorium on evictions for much of the pandemic, but only for those in “vulnerable situations,” such as single parents. In cases that went to the courts, the judiciary was seen as siding largely with the landlords.

In the first quarter of 2021, evictions of renters in Spain rose by 14 percent compared with the same period the previous year, according to the government. By the second quarter of this year, they surged to eight times as many as in the same period in 2020.

Samuel Aranda contributed reporting from Barcelona.

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Austrians Protest Lockdown and Vaccine Mandate

Thousands in Vienna over the weekend demonstrated against the measures, which include a nationwide lockdown.

[drums] [chanting] [drums] [whistles] [drums]

The new Covid wave is being driven by widespread resistance to vaccines, despite the growing prevalence of vaccine and mask mandates. Austrian officials have said they will enforce a nationwide vaccine mandate in February, the first European nation to do so.

Austria, where 66 percent of the population is vaccinated, reported more than 14,000 new cases of the virus within 24 hours on Sunday. Over the past week the Netherlands has been averaging more than 20,000, while Germany has seen roughly double that number.

The German health ministry said on Monday that the country was facing a dwindling supply of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, which was partly developed in the country, as it races to provide booster shots.

And while the European Medicines Agency is poised to approve the vaccine for use on children 5 to 11 this week, first doses will not begin until Dec. 20, when shots for children are scheduled to be delivered to European Union countries, Mr. Spahn, the health minister, said.

The opposition to the lockdown and vaccine mandates in Austria is being fueled in part by the far-right Freedom Party, which has used its platform in the Austrian Parliament to spread doubt about the effectiveness of the vaccines and to promote ivermectin, a drug typically used to treat parasitic worms that has repeatedly failed against the coronavirus in clinical trials.

But the fury is not limited to far-right activists, as the throngs that filled Vienna’s streets on Saturday attested. The police estimated the crowd at 40,000, with many families and others far outnumbering the right-wing extremists.