--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, November 21st.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Here's what we're covering. House Republicans have voted to block the release of a potentially damning report about Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump's pick for attorney general.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The House Ethics Committee had been investigating the former Republican representative for years, over a slew of allegations, ranging from sexual misconduct to illicit drug use.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: After an hours-long meeting yesterday, all of the Republicans on the committee voted not to share what they'd found, arguing that because their report wasn't complete, it should stay under wraps.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The decision sets up a potential clash with the Senate, where both Democratic and Republican senators have asked to see the committee's findings, before they vote on whether to appoint Gates as the country's top law enforcement official.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One Republican suggested the Senate might even subpoena the House Ethics Committee to get the report.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, the Times has obtained one of the pieces of evidence the committee had access to, a chart showing a web of payments made on Venmo between Gates, dozens of his friends, and associates of his who allegedly took part in drug-fueled sex parties.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Notably, the chart documents payments from Gates to two women, who reportedly testified to the committee that he'd hired them for sex.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The complex diagram was drawn up by federal investigators when they were considering charging Gates for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old, charges that were ultimately never filed.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The document doesn't show any payments from Gates to the teenager, though it does show that one of Gates' friends, who was charged and pleaded guilty to sex trafficking, did send her hundreds of dollars.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Gates has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: From a moral perspective, we cannot turn a blind eye to one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the modern history of this world a humanitarian disaster that we are significantly funding
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In the Senate yesterday, Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, pushed for a series of measures to block U.S. weapons transfers to Israel.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He argued that ongoing shipments are violating American laws that prohibit sending arms to countries that break international laws or cut off the flow of humanitarian aid.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The measures were overwhelmingly rejected, but 17 Senate Democrats and two independents showed support for the effort, considerably more than previous similar votes.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's a sign of growing frustration inside the Democratic Party about how Israel is carrying out the war in Gaza, where it's been accused of numerous human rights violations.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Also in Congress yesterday, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson backed a move from far-right lawmakers to require that single-sex restrooms on Capitol Hill only be used by people of, quote, that biological sex.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The effort was designed to target Sarah McBride, a newly elected House Democrat and the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In response, McBride said she would follow the new rules, quote, even if I disagree with them, and said the restrictions were an effort to distract from the real issues facing the country.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: For the past 10 weeks, there's been a court case in the south of France that has transfixed and really shaken the country.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Catherine Porter covers France for The Times. She's been reporting on the closing arguments that started this week in the staggering case of Giselle Pellico.
--:-- Catherine Porter: Pellico's now ex-husband is accused of drugging her and for years inviting other men to their home to rape her while she was unconscious.
--:-- Catherine Porter: He recorded much of it on video. Fifty men are now on trial.
--:-- Catherine Porter: I've been watching this case throughout the weeks from the courtroom, and one really remarkable thing that has resonated across the country is Giselle Pellico and her poise, her dignity, her calm in the courtroom.
--:-- Catherine Porter: She made this very brave and unusual decision to open this trial to the public.
--:-- Catherine Porter: And every day, people line up starting right after 6 a.m. to be able to witness this and applaud her as she walks in and as she leaves the courtroom.
--:-- Catherine Porter: She has barely been in tears. She has barely been angry. She has managed to keep a complete calm and poised.
--:-- Catherine Porter: In fact, one of the things she said early in the case was that she wanted shame to change camps, to change sides, that it shouldn't be the victim that feels ashamed, it should be the accused.
--:-- Catherine Porter: And she has literally embodied that concept, each day walking in, not breaking down in court, and leaving to cheers of women who have come from around the south of France in order to witness this trial.
--:-- Catherine Porter: Many of them say that they have faced rape themselves, and they feel this huge catharsis to be able to watch it, someone else's trial, watch it happen in the public eye, unfold, and to hear this reckoning that's happening because she opened the door to her own horror.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The U.S. government has asked a federal judge to force Google to sell off Chrome, its popular web browser.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The request is part of the government's antitrust lawsuit against Google.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This summer, the judge found that Google had illegally maintained a monopoly in online search, and he asked the lawyers who brought the case to present solutions.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Justice Department didn't stop at Chrome. It also made other requests, including that the judge give Google a choice, either sell off Android, its smartphone operating system, or stop making Google products mandatory on phones that use it.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Taken together, these are the most dramatic requests in a tech antitrust case since the government tried unsuccessfully to break up Microsoft in 2000.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And they're among the worst-case scenarios for Google. Chrome is the most popular web browser in the world. Android is the most popular smartphone software.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So they're a huge part of Google's elaborate ecosystem that keeps people using Google products.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A Google executive called the proposals extreme and wildly overbroad.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The company has to present its own solutions to correct the monopoly next month.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Ultimately, the judge won't rule on the issue until the middle of next year, so any major Google shakeup is a ways off if it happens.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, we're going to begin at $800,000.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Last night, a highly conceptual piece of art went on the auction block at Sotheby's.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One million is with me already, actually.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Bidders from around the world threw their offers into the mix.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They pushed the price higher and higher until the winner clinched it.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's slipping through the auction room at $5,200,000, and I'm going to sell it here, the world's most expensive banana, at $5,200,000.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A real ripe banana taped to the wall with duct tape sold for $5.2 million, plus another million in fees.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The piece is by the artist Maurizio Catalan, and it's titled Comedian.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: We are looking at an ordinary banana and an ordinary piece of duct tape.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: However, what makes the ordinary extraordinary is the intention of the artist who put this together.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Sotheby's head of contemporary art called Catalan a brilliant provocateur, and he has a history of shocking the art world.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He once installed a solid gold toilet at the Guggenheim.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He first debuted the banana duct tape piece a few years ago and said it was a satirical commentary on the art market and what art is considered valuable.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The winning bid last night came from Justin Sun, a crypto entrepreneur who watched the auction from Hong Kong.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He said for him, the piece bridges the worlds of art, internet memes, and cryptocurrency.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And he said he plans to eat the banana.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Today on The Daily, a man from Venezuela who had entered the U.S. illegally was found guilty yesterday in the murder of the nursing student Lakin Riley.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A look at how her death fed into the heated national debate over border security. That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.
