Friday, March 22, 2024

3/22 WAKE-UP CALL: Trump May Get Last Minute Windfall


Shareholders of Truth Social, the social-media platform started by the former president, are scheduled to vote today on a merger with a publicly traded shell company. If approved, the deal could give Trump $3.5 billion. His supporters have driven up Digital World Acquisition’s value, gaming the complicated system of special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs. Elsewhere on the Street, Reddit shares soared to close up 48% from their IPO price, an encouraging sign for companies waiting to go public. All three major U.S. stock indexes rose to new records, boosted by investors’ growing conviction that the post-Covid surge in borrowing costs is ending soon.

The former president most immediately faces a $454 million judgment against him in a civil-fraud case in which a judge found he inflated his assets for financial gain for years. Unless an appeals court soon rules in Trump’s favor, New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who brought the case, could begin trying to seize his assets Monday.

➤MIGRANTS SWARM BORDER IN EL PASO: A group of over 100 migrants attempted to enter the US illegally by rushing a border wall Thursday, breaking through razor wire and knocking over guards in the process. Around 600 migrants amassed at the international border, as part of a ‘spring surge’ of migrants arriving and hoping to gain access to the US. The Texas National Guard were attempting to organize them into smaller groups, but the situation grew tense after some women and children were separated from adult males by the guardsmen.

Video taken by The NY Post showed one set of migrants, mostly single men, then rushing the Texas troops. A group of men with hoodies, gloves and winter jackets could be seen pulling fencing away and dashing through the concertina wire, as a group of five guards formed a defensive position to fill the gap.

➤HUMAN RECEIVES PIG KIDNEY TRANSPLANT: Doctors successfully transplanted a genetically modified pig’s kidney into a living patient for the first time. The organ was genetically edited to remove pig genes that can harm people and to add human genes to try to decrease the chance of rejection. The recipient, a 62-year-old man with end-stage kidney disease, underwent a four-hour surgery at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital on Saturday, hospital officials said. Pig kidneys have been transplanted into brain-dead people. In 2022, a critically ill Maryland man received a genetically modified pig heart; he died two months later.

➤U-S PRESSURES ISRAEL: The U.S. ratcheted up pressure on Israel with a proposed cease-fire resolution at the U.N., a forum where it usually defends the country. The draft resolution is intended to head off Israel’s offensive in the southern Gazan city of Rafah amid a humanitarian crisis. It calls for an immediate and sustained pause in fighting in Gaza tied to the release of hostages whom Hamas abducted during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The matter could go to a vote as soon as this week, according to U.N. diplomats. Other Security Council members are expected to oppose it because of wording about restarting the fighting. Israel says rooting Hamas out of Rafah, its last stronghold, is crucial for eliminating ihe U.S.-designated terror organization from Gaza. Separately, Israel is crafting a secret plan to distribute aid in the enclave that could eventually create a Palestinian-led governing authority there, Israeli and Arab officials said, causing a fierce backlash from Hamas and creating divisions in Israel’s war cabinet.


➤MENENDEZ WON'T RUN:  Embattled Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) says he won’t run in Democratic primary as he fights federal corruption charges. Menendez and his wife were charged last year with taking bribes from three business executives, including gold bars, in exchange for legislative favors. He has pleaded not guilty to the initial indictment, as well as to additional charges since then, including obstruction of justice. The senator said in a video posted to social media on Thursday that he hopes to run for reelection as an independent if exonerated in his legal case.

➤INTERPRETER CONTROLLED OHTANI'S LIFE:  The interpreter at the center of the Shohei Ohtani scandal grew so close to the baseball star that he controlled almost every aspect of his life. Ippei Mizuhara was with Ohtani virtually every day. That arrangement imploded because of Mizuhara’s links to an illegal bookmaker currently under federal investigation. Attorneys for Major League Baseball's only two-way player accused Mizuhara of stealing millions from their client to repay gambling debts.

 The Los Angeles Dodgers fired the translator, who didn’t respond to a request for comment. Baseball is the only U.S. sport that requires interpreters. With rarely more than a dozen Japanese players in the league, they often have few other people to talk to in the clubhouse.

➤CHARGES FILED IN CHIEF'S CELEBRATION SHOOTING: Two more people, including a 15-year-old boy, have been charged in connection with the deadly shooting that broke out in a crowd of roughly one million people gathered last month to celebrate the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory, Missouri prosecutors announced Thursday. The teenager was charged with unlawful use of a weapon and armed criminal action and is detained at the Juvenile Detention Center, the Office of the Juvenile Officer in Missouri judicial court’s family court division said. A certification hearing will be held to determine whether the teen should stand trial as an adult.  One man, 20-year-old Terry Young, was charged on Thursday with second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of armed criminal action, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced.

🏀NCAAB MEN'S UPSETS: No. 3-seeded Kentucky was stunned by No. 14 Oakland, 80-76, on Thursday night in its first-round clash at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.  The first round featured a few milder upsets earlier in the day, including No. 11 Duquesne beating No. 6 BYU and No. 11 Oregon beating No. 6 South Carolina, but Kentucky later found itself on the wrong side of what might already be the upset of the year. The first round featured a few milder upsets earlier in the day, including No. 11 Duquesne beating No. 6 BYU and No. 11 Oregon beating No. 6 South Carolina, but Kentucky later found itself on the wrong side of what might already be the upset of the year. The Grizzlies led almost the entire game, never letting the Wildcats get over the hump.

GET MORE ON MARCH MADNESS:  HERE

➤FRIDAY'S WEATHER MAP:



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