Good morning. It’s Monday, Oct. 30.
- State Sen. Scott Wiener decries “antisemitism on steroids.”
- The deep humanity of Los Angeles painter Henry Taylor.
- And tributes pour in after death of actor Matthew Perry.
Israel-Hamas war
1.
Large crowds of protesters filled the streets in San Francisco and Los Angeles on Saturday to support Palestinians in Gaza. In San Francisco, as many as 15,000 people gathered under the banner “Stop the Genocide in Gaza,” marching for miles and blocking Highway 101 for more than an hour. Los Angeles protesters carried a gigantic black, green, red and white Palestinian flag and chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” S.F. Chronicle | L.A. Times
- During a pro-Israel rally in San Francisco on Sunday, state Sen. Scott Wiener denounced what he said amounted to “antisemitism on steroids these last few weeks.” “We know that this world is not safe for Jews,” he said. S.F. Chronicle
2.
Other developments:
- In a column, Erwin Chemerinsky, a UC Berkeley law professor, lamented what he described as the celebration of Jewish death on college campuses, including his own. “I am a 70-year-old Jewish man, but never in my life have I seen or felt the antisemitism of the last few weeks.” L.A. Times
- Some Muslim and Jewish students on California university campuses are saying they feel unsafe. One professor suggested the protests aren’t helping. “It’s theater where people deliberately try to dehumanize and polarize,” he said. S.F. Chronicle
- An aide to Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez resigned on Friday after making Holocaust jokes directed at the comedian Amy Schumer on social media. Mayor Karen Bass called the comments “disgusting.” L.A. Times | KTLA
Statewide
3.
Gov. Gavin Newsom accidentally knocked down a child while playing basketball at a school in Beijing on Friday. As a bank of photographers captured the event, Newsom, who played high school basketball in Marin County, spun the ball on his finger, dribbled it behind his back, then tripped and barreled into a boy half his size, both of them tumbling to the ground to the sound of gasps. Reporter Laurel Rosenhall called it “a demonstration of the risks of the indulgent photo op.” L.A. Times
4.
The artist Peter Gorman uses geographical data to create minimalist maps. A few inspired by California:
See more of Gorman’s maps. 👉 BarelyMaps
Northern California
5.
A group of 15 protesters stormed the football field at UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium and staged a sit-in on Saturday, delaying the start of a game between Cal and USC. They wore T-shirts that read “Justice for Ivonne,” drawing attention to a bizarre case involving Ivonne del Valle, a Spanish and Portuguese professor who was suspended after investigators found that she repeatedly harassed and stalked a UC Davis professor. She admitted to some of the actions, yet a dedicated cadre of her students has demanded her reinstatement. They have vowed to go on hunger strike next. S.F. Chronicle | KQED
- “She’s tired of being diagnosed as mentally ill.” A deeply reported account of del Valle’s case was published last week in the Chronicle of Higher Education, which requires your email to drop its paywall.
6.
A year after Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, the company’s business outlook appears dire, with the number of active users down by more than 30%, according to previously unreported data. But Musk delivered on one of his promises: Twitter has become far less woke. “Through dramatic product changes, sudden policy shifts and his own outsize presence on the platform, Musk has rapidly re-engineered who has a voice on a service that used to be the hub of real-time news and global debate,” the Washington Post reported.
- “I think we are sleepwalking our way into World War III.” Musk’s world view has grown increasingly dark. Wall Street Journal
7.
Nvidia CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang has seen his net worth surpass $35 billion this year thanks to surging demand for his company’s artificial intelligence chips. During a recent interview, a pair of podcasters asked what advice Huang would give his younger self when he was on the brink of founding Nvidia in San Jose 30 years ago. Huang gave an answer they weren’t expecting. “I wouldn’t do it, he said. Ultimately, he explained, the “pain and suffering” of creating the company was not worth it. SFGATE
8.
Judi Oyama is 64 years old and just qualified for the World Skate Games in Rome. Born and raised in Santa Cruz, she began skateboarding as a teenager in the 1970s, earning sponsorship from Santa Cruz Skateboards and becoming one of a handful of Asian-American female professional skateboarders. She never stopped riding. Oyama will represent the U.S. as a member of the slalom team in September 2024. NBC Bay Area
- See Oyama in action. 👉 @judioyama
Southern California
9.
On Sunday, a day after actor Matthew Perry was found unresponsive in his hot tub in Los Angeles, the L.A. County coroner said his death had been listed as “deferred,” pending the results of a toxicology report. Perry, who was 54, had publicly struggled with alcohol and substance abuse. Sources told the L.A. Times that no drugs were found at the scene of his death but that prescription medications were recovered from the home. Hollywood Reporter | People
- “Nobody wanted to be famous more than me,” Perry said this year. But he came to question that ambition, because, he said, “fame does not do what you think it’s going to do.” Washington Post
- Selma Blair. Gwyneth Paltrow. Justin Trudeau. Shannen Doherty. Mira Sorvino. See celebrity reactions to Perry’s death. 👉 L.A. Times | Hollywood Reporter
10.
Last month, a parent in Escondido, citing her Christian beliefs, complained about a book at her son’s middle school library. School officials responded by shutting down all libraries at the district’s 23 elementary and middle schools for more than a week as they conducted a “thorough audit” of their book collections. They ended up quietly removing two books: “This Book Is Gay,” a nonfiction book on sexuality and gender, and “Looking for Alaska,” a coming-of-age novel. Both are geared toward teens. Opinion over the age-appropriateness of the books has been intensely divided. S.D. Union-Tribune
11.
The work of the Los Angeles painter Henry Taylor is enjoying renewed attention thanks to a career survey at the Whitney in Manhattan. Taylor, 65, portrays the richness of Black America through portraits of people in his neighborhood: panhandlers, music moguls, his siblings, the Obamas. Critics have described the Whitney show as spellbinding. “Taylor holds nothing back in his paintings. But no matter how big and splashy and colorful they are, they never lose their human scale, their humility in the face of life’s craziness or their grace before the unsolvable mystery of other people,” wrote Sebastian Smee. Washington Post | New Yorker
12.
For four glorious hours on Sunday, there was no car in sight along a 6-mile stretch of Arroyo Seco Parkway, where 100,000 motorists typically travel daily between Pasadena and downtown Los Angeles. Instead, the historic freeway was overtaken by thousands of cyclists and pedestrians as part of Arroyo Fest, a sequel to the first event held 20 years ago. Allen J. Schaben took some great photos. L.A. Times
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