Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Les Moonves is on his way out at CBS, Fortune gears up for our Global Forum, and female senators are making themselves heard at Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing. Here’s to a rejuvenating weekend.
EVERYONE'S TALKING
• Heated hearing. Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearing, which is going into Day 4 today, has been quite the show, and female senators have been making their presence felt.
Indeed, Sen. Kamala Harris (D–Cali.) first jumped in to request a postponement just seconds after the session was gaveled into order (she was denied). Later, Harris grilled the judge about his views on Roe v. Wade—to little effect, until she asked, "Can you think of any laws that give the government power to make decisions about the male body?" Kavanaugh stumbled until finally responding, "I'm not thinking of any right now, senator." You can watch their (awkward) exchange here. (The New York Times notes that hearings have served as something of a "campaign audition" for possible Democratic presidential candidates, including Harris, as well as Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirstin Gillibrand of New York.)
The judge's opinion on the landmark abortion ruling was also the focus of one of the many leaked emails and documents that surfaced yesterday. According to this NYT story, which links to many of those materials, Kavanaugh in 2003 questioned whether Roe is, in fact, the "settled law of the land."
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D–Hawaii) also released one of the judge's Bush White House-era emails, this one saying that government programs targeting Native Hawaiians are "of questionable validity under the Constitution" and would be "subject to strict scrutiny." Earlier in the hearing, Hirono questioned Kavanaugh on what he knew about Judge Alex Kozinski—a now-retired federal judge Kavanaugh clerked for and has remained close to—who has been accused of sexual harassment during his 30-year tenure at the Ninth Circuit. Kavanaugh denied knowledge of Kozinski's alleged abuse and said he has "no reason not to believe" Kozinski's accusers.
The drama is set to resume today at 9:30 a.m. Eastern.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
• World's most powerful. CEOs of the world's biggest corporations are getting ready for the Fortune Global Forum in Toronto on Oct. 15-17. The lineup includes VEON's Ursula Burns, Hang Seng Bank's Louisa Cheang, Duke Energy's Lynn Good, Ampere Computing's Renée James, Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation president Rachel Thomas, and Morgan Stanley's Wei Sun Christianson. You can learn more about the itinerary and apply for an invitation to the conference here.
• C(BS) ya! CBS is reportedly in the process of negotiating an exit package for Les Moonves after the longtime television titan was accused of sexual harassment and misconduct in a July Ronan Farrow piece. The price of Moonves' departure? $100 million—actually a cut from the $180 million reportedly in his contract. The report sent CBS shares rebounding. Fortune
• Perfecting your policy. Rick Rossein, a law professor specializing in employment discrimination at City University of New York, talks to Fortune about four concrete things companies can to do build better sexual harassment policies. Fortune
• NGO no-go? Olympic swimmer and Syrian refugee Sara Mardini saved 18 people in 2015 when she and her sister swam their waterlogged boat to safety—a story that's on its way to becoming a movie. In a confusing and upsetting turn of events, Mardini has been arrested in Greece for people smuggling, espionage, and being a member of a criminal organization for her work with a Lesbos NGO. Refugee advocates say police are criminalizing humanitarian action, but police are investigating the NGO and say the Mardini sisters could have been targets. The Guardian
• First lady-turned-media critic. Melania Trump joined the choir of White House voices criticizing the New York Times op-ed written by an unnamed administration official. The first lady focused her ire on the anonymous nature of the piece, adding: "To the writer of the oped – you are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions." Fortune
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: 72andSunny's Jenny Campbell is the new CMO at Tinder. American Beverage Association CEO Susan Neely is moving to the American Council of Life Insurers as CEO. Lauren Kane will be VP of communications for the National Beer Wholesalers Association. Longtime Meet the Press executive producer Betsy Fischer Martin will run the Women & Politics Institute at the American University School of Public Affairs.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
• Snooze fest. Bumble, led by founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, is introducing a new snooze feature that lets users of the dating app take a breather. The feature is notable for a tech company, since most are reluctant to make it easier for users to leave. Fortune
• First lady firsts. If Cynthia Nixon wins her bid for governor, her wife Christine Marinoni will be New York's first openly queer first lady. The New York Times has a new profile of Marinoni, who rarely talks to the press, highlighting her experiences as a community organizer, celebrity spouse and now campaign spouse. New York Times
• Stars align. Physicist and astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell was snubbed for a Nobel Prize in 1974 when her supervisor and another researcher received credit for her work finding evidence of pulsars, a special class of stars. Now Bell Burnell has won a special breakthrough prize in fundamental physics in honor of that work. The prize comes with $3 million that Bell Burnell plans to donate to fund physics scholarships for underrepresented students. Fortune
Today's Broadsheet was produced by Emma Hinchliffe. Share it with a friend. Looking for previous Broadsheets? Click here.
ON MY RADAR
30 female photographers sound off on fashion's gender imbalance Refinery29
Here are the crusaders who've spent decades fighting for gay rights in India Quartz
See Brie Larson as the new 'Captain Marvel' Entertainment Weekly
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