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Friday, March 15, 2024

3/15 WAKE-UP CALL: Former Treasury Secretary Eyes TikTok Bid

Steven Mnuchin said he is putting together a consortium to try to buy TikTok. The former Treasury secretary’s enthusiasm shows that interest would likely be high if Congress succeeds in passing legislation to force a sale of the Chinese-owned social-media platform, which has 170 million-plus U.S. users. The House yesterday approved a bill that would ban TikTok if parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell it. TikTok has said that separating the U.S. portion would be impractical and undercut the app’s appeal as a global product. Some officials fear the app gives Beijing a way to collect data on Americans and influence public opinion. TikTok and ByteDance didn’t respond to requests for comment today. The latter has said that it wouldn’t comply with any Chinese government demand for data and that it never had such a request. Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has expressed interest in owning TikTok, and Microsoft, Oracle and other tech heavyweights tried to buy the app when the Trump administration pushed for a ban.

➤REPORT: TRUMP OKAYED CIA CHINA CAMPAIGN: Two years into office, President Donald Trump authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to launch a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media aimed at turning public opinion in China against its government, according to former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the highly classified operation.

Three former officials told Reuters that the CIA created a small team of operatives who used bogus internet identities to spread negative narratives about Xi Jinping’s government while leaking disparaging intelligence to overseas news outlets. The effort, which began in 2019, has not been previously reported.

During the past decade, China has rapidly expanded its global footprint, forging military pacts, trade deals, and business partnerships with developing nations. The CIA team promoted allegations that members of the ruling Communist Party were hiding ill-gotten money overseas and slammed as corrupt and wasteful China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which provides financing for infrastructure projects in the developing world, the sources told Reuters.

➤SCHUMER STEPS IN IT:  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is taking a lot of heat over his comments about Israel. During a floor speech Thursday, the Senate majority leader called on Israel to elect a new prime minister and advance a two-state solution for Israel and Gaza. Schumer said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was one of four obstacles to lasting peace. Republicans quickly demanded he apologize for his comments. 

The top four GOP lawmakers held an impromptu press conference during their annual retreat at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, just after Schumer's statement. "As we were in a work session here within the last half hour, there was a buzz among the audience as people were seeing notices come across their phone as something that was rather shocking to us," Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said. He suggested in an interview with Fox News Digital that the House may move ahead with a standalone Israel aid package, given the "urgency" after Schumer's comments.

➤FEDS ASK DELAY IN TRUMP CASE: A New York prosecutor asked Thursday to postpone by 30 days Donald Trump’s trial on charges of falsifying financial records to pay hush money to women so the former president can study new evidence in the case. Judge Juan Merchan had set the first-ever criminal trial of a former president to begin March 25. But Trump’s lawyers asked for a 90-day delay while they study 73,000 pages of new evidence received from federal prosecutors on March 4 and another 31,000 pages received Wednesday. More records are expected next week. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said he was prepared to start the trial on time, but out of "an abundance of caution" was willing to delay by 30 days “to ensure that defendant has sufficient time to review the new materials.” Merchan hasn't ruled on the requested delays yet.

➤JUDGE REJECTS TRUMP STALL BID: A federal judge on Thursday rejected a bid by Donald Trump to throw out his classified documents criminal case, and appeared skeptical during hours of arguments of a separate effort to scuttle the prosecution ahead of trial. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon issued a two-page order saying that though the Trump team had raised “various arguments warranting serious consideration,” a dismissal of charges was not merited. Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, had made clear during more than three-and-a-half hours of arguments that she was reluctant to dismiss one of the four criminal cases against the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee. She said at one point that it would be “quite an extraordinary” step to strike down an Espionage Act statute that underpins the bulk of the felony counts against Trump but that his lawyers contend is unconstitutionally vague.

➤DAD GUILTY OF INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER:  James Crumbley, father of a school shooter in Michigan, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, a second conviction against the teenager's parents who were accused of failing to secure a gun at home and doing nothing to address acute signs of his mental turmoil. Crumbley and his wife, Jennifer Crumbley, whose teenage son murdered four students and injured seven other people at Oxford High School in November 2021, are the first parents in the nation to be held criminally accountable for a child's school shooting. In February, Jennifer Crumbley was convicted on involuntary manslaughter charges.   When the jury foreman read the verdicts, sighs of relief could be heard from the victims' families. James Crumbley shook his head from side to side as each guilty verdict was read.


➤RETAIL SALES STALL:  U.S. retail sales rebounded less than expected in February, suggesting a slowdown in consumer spending in the first quarter amid rising inflation and high borrowing costs. The signs of slowing economic activity are, however, unlikely to spur the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates before June as other data on Thursday showed a larger-than-expected increase in producer prices last month.

The labor market also remains fairly tight. Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week and annual revisions to the weekly claims data showed laid-off workers were quickly finding new work and not spending as long a period of time on jobless benefits as had been previously thought.

➤3 MEN CHARGED IN CHIEFS VICTORY PARADE SHOOTING:  Three Missouri men have been charged in connection to illegal firearms used at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade shooting that killed a mother and injured over 20 people last month, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday. Twelve people brandished firearms in a crowd of nearly one million people in Kansas City, Missouri, and at least six of them fired shots, according to court documents. Two AR-15-style pistols were among several guns police found after the shooting, and prosecutors said at least two of the firearms were illegally purchased. The complaints announced Wednesday do not allege the three Kansas City men were among the attackers last month, but instead focus on the illegal trafficking of firearms used in the shooting. 

➤NEW SPORTS STREAMING SERVICE: Sports fans wonder whether a new streaming service can improve how they watch their favorite teams. The alliance of Disney’s ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery is scheduled to go live this fall; the companies haven’t announced its name or cost yet. The new streamer’s appeal depends on what sports you like to watch. It will offer access to most major sports content, including all nationally broadcast NBA and NHL games. You can catch the vast majority of sports content not available there on Paramount+ and Peacock instead. Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+ own the remainder of NFL and MLB rights, respectively. The new service won’t offer regional sports networks, which is what might prompt some people to continue to pay for cable TV.

➤STORMS STRETCH FROM THE ROCKIES TO THE MIDWEST: At least six people were killed in possible tornadoes in the U.S. state of Indiana on Thursday, as violent storms ripped through the region, including neighboring Ohio. The three deaths occurred a trailer home park in Winchester, Indiana, about 70 miles northeast of the state capital, Indianapolis. The powerful winter storm walloped Colorado on Thursday with heavy snowfall, closing schools, knocking out power and canceling hundreds of flights as thunderstorms threatened the Midwest and Mississippi Valley with potentially damaging hail and tornadoes.

Experts said it could be the worst winter storm Colorado has seen in years, with up to 3 feet of snow expected in areas. Officials warn of whiteout conditions on roads in the mountains and across a large portion of the Denver and Boulder metro areas as parts of major highways, including I-70, have been shut down. As the storm moves on: Potential tornadoes and large hail threaten parts of north-central Texas into the Midwest as storms move east over the area Thursday, forecasters said.

➤FRIDAY'S WEATHER MAP:



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