Crypto News: A history of violence

The hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband was like something out of a horror movie.

The intruder allegedly told police the Speaker of the House was his intended target, and that he planned to take her hostage and break her kneecaps if she didn't tell "the truth."

Key reading:

One week out from the midterm congressional elections, it's a stark reminder of how febrile the political atmosphere in the US has become.

President Joe Biden blamed political rhetoric for the attack. Donald Trump, the former president eyeing a 2024 comeback, has said nothing.

While Republicans and Democrats alike condemned the act, the political backdrop tells its own story about the guardrails of democracy.

The US today is subject to a steady drip of outlandish conspiracy theories that range from questioning the result of the 2020 presidential election — widespread among Republican candidates — to a belief the country is run by a clandestine network of pedophiles.

America has a history of political violence, with the assassination of presidents going back to Abraham Lincoln.

Now, though, violence has become dangerously normalized, from regular mass shootings to a collective shoulder shrug at the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

Similarly, there seems little chance the Pelosi assault will change the outcome of the congressional elections, with the Democrats' prospects for holding onto Congress fading as voters focus on economic concerns that Republicans have made central to their campaign.

The US isn't entirely unique in this respect.

Back in 2016, a British lawmaker campaigning for the UK to stay in the European Union was stabbed to death by an English nationalist a week before the Brexit referendum.

For all the public shock, the UK voted to leave regardless. Five months later, Trump pulled off his upset win.

History has a habit of surprising, and of repeating itself. — Flavia Krause-Jackson

Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrive to greet children during a Halloween event at the White House yesterday. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

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Uncertain passage | Russia warned that the security of ships sailing Ukraine's Black Sea grain-export corridor cannot be guaranteed without additional conditions, increasing trade risks after the Kremlin suspended involvement in a key accord. The Defense Ministry in Moscow said movement of vessels along the corridor was "unacceptable," and President Vladimir Putin told reporters he wants Ukraine to guarantee there are no threats to Russian ships.

Deliveries of Ukrainian crops to ports are grinding to a halt amid uncertainty about further Russian disruption, according to the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club.
Follow our rolling coverage of the war here.

Deafening silence | Angered by his election loss, supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro blocked hundreds of roads across Brazil yesterday and restricted access to Sao Paulo international airport, forcing the cancellation of some flights. Bolsonaro, who has yet to concede to his old foe Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva or even address Sunday's election outcome, is expected to comment to the nation today.

Bolsonaro supporters block a road to protest the results of the runoff. Photographer: Pedro Vilela/Getty Images South America

Misinformation worries | Twitter froze some employee access to internal tools used for content moderation and other policy enforcement, curbing their ability to clamp down on misinformation ahead of the US midterms. People who work in Twitter's Trust and Safety organization are unable to alter or penalize accounts that break rules around misleading information, offensive posts and hate speech, except for the most high-impact violations that would involve real-world harm, sources say.

Elon Musk's Twitter investors include a Saudi Arabian prince and a unit of the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said the Saudi backing should be scrutinized by a government panel that reviews national security risks from foreign investments in the US.
Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers, Musk tweeted in response to author Stephen King's criticism that the platform reportedly plans to charge users about $20 a month to keep their Blue Check verification.

Central banks bought a record amount of gold last quarter as they diversified foreign-currency reserves, with a large chunk coming from as-yet unknown buyers. Bullion prices have been pressured this year by aggressive US interest-rate hikes as the Federal Reserve tackles inflation, but support has come from other areas, such as retail buyers in Asia and central banks.

Not enough | Turkey isn't satisfied with promises made by Sweden to crack down on Kurdish separatists in the Scandinavian country and is unlikely to lift objections to its NATO membership bid unless it takes more definitive steps, the ruling party said. The remarks, ahead of visits by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and new Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, signaled Turkey won't automatically fall in line with other members and ratify the bid.

Exit hopes | Chinese stocks roared back from a rout and the yuan strengthened after unverified social media posts circulated that a committee was being formed to assess scenarios on how to exit Covid Zero. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said he's "not aware" of such a committee. Markets have rallied on periodic reopening chatter in the past, only to be left disappointed, and authorities have intensified lockdowns since the recently concluded Communist Party congress.

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Denmark is headed to the polls today after Social Democrat Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called an early general election as she faces a backlash over a disastrous pandemic-era mink cull decision.
Israelis began voting today in their fifth general election since 2019, with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plotting his return as part of an alliance that could empower the nation's far right.
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows challenging the validity of Jan. 6 Committee subpoenas, ruling that members of the committee can't be sued for doing their work.
North Korea threatened "powerful" actions if the US doesn't halt military drills with partners including South Korea, in what might be an effort by Kim Jong Un to lay the ground for his first nuclear test in five years.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government said it's inevitable that all Britons, especially the richest, will have to pay more tax to restore stability to public finances.
South Korea's police chief said officers in the field didn't do enough to prevent the weekend's deadly crowd crush despite numerous calls to an emergency line warning that masses of people were growing to dangerous levels.

And finally ... Dong Wanwan had been working for the past three months on the production lines at a Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou, China, when Covid began spreading and the world's largest iPhone factory was shut off from the outside world, Linda Lew writes. As trash piled up in the hallways and food became scarce, the 20-year-old set off on a 25-mile journey to get home. She was one of hundreds, if not thousands, whose ordeal was captured on videos and photos, exposing the toll of Covid Zero and adding to a groundswell of resentment toward the strict lockdown policy.