Former US President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom at Manhattan criminal court in New York, US, on Thursday, April 18, 2024.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
Donald Trump on Saturday took to social media to deliver another tirade against the judge and the circumstances of his New York hush money trial, which wrapped up jury selection on Friday and is expected to begin opening arguments on Monday.
“THIS SCAM ‘RUSHED’ TRIAL TAKING PLACE IN A 95% DEMOCRAT AREA IS A PLANNED AND COORDINATED WITCH HUNT,” the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee wrote in one of several Truth Social posts on Saturday morning. “IT IS BEING PRESIDED OVER BY POSSIBLY THE MOST CONFLICTED JUDGE IN JUDICIAL HISTORY, WHO MUST BE REMOVED FROM THIS HOAX IMMEDIATELY.”
The rant comes a day after Trump’s attorneys requested to delay the trial to find a new location, claiming that New York City residents were too biased to find a fair jury.
A Manhattan appeals court quickly rejected Trump’s request, the latest of roughly a dozen attempts to delay the trial, which was initially scheduled to kick off March 25.
Despite Trump’s efforts to postpone, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan, who presides over Trump’s case, said that opening arguments for the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president would start Monday morning.
Trump is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to an alleged cover-up of a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Trump’s social media rants targeting Merchan and others involved in the trial have become a regular pattern for the former president, despite a gag order imposed in March.
Trump has publicly gone after the judge’s daughter, who has worked for a progressive political consulting firm, and has repeatedly called for the judge to recuse himself.
Prosecutors on Monday asked Merchan to penalize Trump for his apparent gag order violations, specifically citing three of his social media posts, which targeted several witnesses, including Stormy Daniels and his former lawyer Michael Cohen.
The prosecutors requested a $1,000 sanction for each of the three posts and asked the judge to warn Trump that future violations could result in jail time.
Merchan said he would schedule a hearing on the prosecutors’ request for Wednesday.
TAYLOR, Texas —The Commerce Department is on track to dole out all of the $39 billion in grant money allocated under the CHIPS Act by year-end, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told CNBC on Monday.
The Commerce Department is providing the money to semiconductor companies to incentivize them to build out manufacturing production capabilities in the U.S. The Biden administration announced earlier Monday that it would be providing Samsung with up to $6.4 billion in grants to expand two chip plants in central Texas — leaving roughly $16 billion left in subsidies to be distributed before the end of 2024.
“We’re on a roll. We’ve done three of these in the past month. We’ll be doing more in the coming weeks,” Raimondo said in an interview on the sidelines of Samsung’s award announcement event at its Taylor facility. “I expect all of the money in the CHIPS Act will be allocated by the end of this year.”
The award announcements so far have focused primarily on leading-edge chips, the most advanced type of semiconductors. Intel will receive up $8.5 billion in incentives to invest in projects in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Oregon, while Taiwan Semiconductor is due to receive up to $6.6 billion in grants for projects in Arizona.
Now that the biggest grants have been doled out, future award packages will focus on memory chips and investments in suppliers, wafers, and chemicals, Raimondo said.
The Samsung award announced Monday will help the company create what officials call an “advanced manufacturing ecosystem” in central Texas, where multiple steps in the chip production process will all be done on a single campus. The Taylor facility will be twice as big as Samsung’s signature facility in South Korea, Raimondo said.
“It’s a little city of manufacturing, and around it will come suppliers,” she continued. “So when I say the whole ecosystem, it’s research and development, packaging, manufacturing, job training, and all of the upstream suppliers which will make America stronger and more secure.”
This photo illustration shows an image of former President Donald Trump reflected in a phone screen that is displaying the Truth Social app, in Washington, DC, on February 21, 2022.
Stefani Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
The share price of Trump Media closed trading down more than 18% on Monday after the company in a filing said it planned to issue millions of additional shares.
DJT shares closed at $26.61. Trump Media, which created the Truth Social app and trades on the Nasdaq, fell nearly 20% last week.
The company’s dramatic slide came as Donald Trump sat in a Manhattan courtroom for the start of his criminal trial on hush money-related charges. Trump is the majority stakeholder in the company.
Since it began public trading on March 26, Trump Media’s share price has fallen more than 62%, from an opening price of $70.90 that day down to around $27 on Monday.
As a result, its market capitalization has been slashed by nearly $6 billion, leaving it at around $3.7 billion as of Monday.
The company’s intent to issue more common stock was disclosed in a preliminary prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The shares cannot be issued until a registration statement with the SEC takes effect.
The filing describes a plan to offer more than 21.4 million shares of common stock, issuable “upon the exercise of warrants,” the filing shows. Stock warrants give their holder the ability to buy shares at a predetermined price within a certain time frame.
Trump Media predicted in the filing that it will receive “up to an aggregate of approximately $247.1 million from the exercise of the Warrants.”
The closing price of Trump Media’s warrants was $13.69 as of Friday, according to the filing. The warrants are being traded on the Nasdaq under the ticker “DJTWW.” That ticker fell more than 15% on Monday.
The company also seeks to offer the resale of up to 146.1 million shares of stock from “selling securityholders,” 114.8 million of which are held by Trump himself. Trump owns 78.8 million shares of the company, and stands to obtain 36 million “earnout shares” if the stock stays above $17.50 for enough trading days.
Trump’s current stake in the company — nearly 60% of its shares — was worth more than $2.2 billion at Monday morning’s share price. Trump is not allowed to sell his shares until a six-month lockup period expires.
The lockup period is a condition of Trump Media’s long-delayed merger with the shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp., which was finalized March 25.
Trump, whose social media following was massively diminished after he switched to Truth Social following his suspension from Twitter and Facebook in 2021, has tried to encourage his followers to flock to the fledgling app. It is unclear if they have heeded Trump’s call: The company has not publicly released key performance indicators, including the number of active Truth Social users.
It has, however, revealed a net loss of $58.2 million on revenue of just $4.1 million in 2023.
“The stock valuation is detached from the reality of the financials,” said Ben Silverman, head of Verity Research.
But if the stock price holds high enough for the company to issue earnout shares, Trump and other insiders could be in line to receive a windfall worth more than $1 billion at current trading prices.
Twelve news organizations on Sunday urged presumptive presidential nominees Joe Biden and Donald Trump to agree to debates, saying they were a “rich tradition” that have been part of every general election campaign since 1976.
While Trump, who did not participate in debates for the Republican nomination, has indicated a willingness to take on his 2020 rival, the Democratic president has not committed to debating him again.
Although invitations have not been formally issued, the news organizations said it was not too early for each campaign to say publicly that it will participate in the three presidential and one vice presidential forums set by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.
“If there is one thing Americans can agree on during this polarized time, it is that the stakes of this election are exceptionally high,” the organizations said in a joint statement. “Amidst that backdrop, there is simply no substitute for the candidates debating with each other, and before the American people, their visions for the future of our nation.”
ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, PBS, NBC, NPR and The Associated Press all signed on to the letter.
Biden and Trump debated twice in 2020. A third debate was canceled after Trump, then president, tested positive for COVID-19 and would not debate remotely.
Asked on March 8 whether he would commit to a debate with Trump, Biden said, “it depends on his behavior.” The president was visibly miffed by his opponent in the freewheeling first 2020 debate, at one point saying, “will you shut up.”
Trump campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a letter this past week that “we have already indicated President Trump is willing to debate anytime, any place and anywhere — and the time to start these debates is now.”
They cited the seven 1858 Illinois Senate debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, saying “certainly today’s America deserves as much.”
The Republican National Committee voted in 2022 to no longer participate in forums sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. The Trump campaign has not indicated it would adhere to that, but did have some conditions. The campaign managers said the commission selected a “demonstrably anti-Trump moderator” in then-Fox News host Chris Wallace in 2020 and wants assurances the commission debates are fair and impartial.
The Trump campaign also wants the timetable moved up, saying that many Americans will have already voted by Sept. 16, Oct. 1 and Oct. 9, the dates of the three debates set by the commission.
The Biden campaign declined comment on the news organizations’ letter, pointing to the president’s earlier statement. There was no immediate response from the Trump campaign.
But on Saturday, Trump held a rally in northeast Pennsylvania with two lecterns set up on the stage: one for him to give a speech, the other to symbolize what he said was Biden’s refusal to debate him. The second lectern had a placard that read, “Anytime. Anywhere. Anyplace.”
Midway through his campaign speech, Trump turned to his right and pointed to the second lectern.
“We have a little, look at this, it’s for him,” he said. “See the podium? I’m calling on Crooked Joe Biden to debate anytime, anywhere, any place. Right there. And we have to debate because our country is going in the wrong direction so badly and while it’s a little bit typically early we have to debate. We have to explain to the American people what the hell is going on,” Trump said.
C-SPAN, NewsNation and Univision also joined the letter calling for debates. Only one newspaper, USA Today, added its voice.
Certainly the broadcasters could use the juice that debates may bring. Television news ratings are down significantly compared with the 2020 campaign, although there are other factors involved, such as cord-cutting and the pandemic, that increased interest in news four years ago.
There were no Democratic debates this presidential cycle, and Trump’s refusal to participate in the GOP forums depressed interest in them.
Iranians are waving Iranian flags and a Palestinian flag as they celebrate Iran’s IRGC UAV and missile attack against Israel on April 14, 2024.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Iran rained a deluge of drones and missiles on Israel on Saturday night in response to a suspected Israeli strike that killed top Iranian officials in Syria, in a deep escalation of Middle East tensions.
Israel said it identified 300 “threats of various types” and eliminated “99%” of those bound for Israeli soil, according to an update from an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. He said a 10-year-old girl was “severely injured by shrapnel” but reported no additional casualties, adding that “several launches” were also made toward Israel from Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.
Last night marked the first instance of a direct attack on Israel from Iranian territory. Iran-backed factions – such as Palestinian militant group Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemeni Houthi and Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian administration – have engaged militarily with the Jewish state.
Earlier on Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had seized a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, claiming a connection to Israel.
Israel and Iran have been on the cusp of direct conflict since the start of Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, which came in response to Hamas’ terror attack of Oct. 7. Iran vowed revenge after a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, on April 1, which killed several top Iranian military commanders.
“We will not be able to comment on the claims regarding a strike in Damascus,” an Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson told CNBC by email, adding, “Iran’s attack on Israel on the night of April 14th is a direct attack on a sovereign nation, its use of proxies for the last decades and the destabilizing effect of the Ayatollah regime in the region and beyond must end.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan, has also called an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council and “demanded that they condemn Iran’s attack on Israel and designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organization.”
The European Union has blasted Tehran’s offensive: “The EU strongly condemns the unacceptable Iranian attack against Israel,” EU High Representative Josep Borrell said late Saturday on social media. “This is an unprecedented escalation and a grave threat to regional security.”
U.S. President Joe Biden also denounced the Iranian strike on Saturday as “unprecedented” and convened G7 leaders to “coordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran’s brazen attack,” according to a White House statement.
“While we have not seen attacks on our forces or facilities today, we will remain vigilant to all threats and will not hesitate to take all necessary action to protect our people,” he added.
Relations between stalwart allies Washington and Israel had appeared to slightly chill in recent weeks, with Biden warning further support would hinge on Israel taking steps to protect civilians and humanitarian aid workers in the Gaza enclave.
But the U.S. – alongside the U.K. and France, according to Israeli military – intervened to mitigate last night’s Iranian attack and the assault could reignite urgency to pass a key $95 billion bill including funding for Israel and Ukraine, which has passed the Senate but stagnated on Republican opposition in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“In light of Iran’s unjustified attack on Israel, the House will move from its previously announced legislative schedule next week to instead consider legislation that supports our ally Israel and holds Iran and its terrorist proxies accountable,” said House leader Steve Scalise on social media.
“Congress must also do its part. The national security supplemental that has waited months for action will provide critical resources to Israel and our own military forces in the region,” Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican leader, said in a statement. “We cannot hope to deter conflict without demonstrating resolve and investing seriously in American strength.”
Oil futures prices are in focus after intermittently swelling in recent months on trade disruptions and delays caused by Red Sea maritime attacks from Yemen’s Houthi, who claim solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Iran is also home to vast oil resources, which it has been largely routing toward China since the U.S. reimposed sanctions during Donald Trump’s administration.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s flagship index, the TA-35, was down 0.38% at 10:23 a.m. London time.
In aviation, several airlines grounded or diverted service through the Middle East, following the Iranian attack. Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon have reopened their airspaces after brief closures on Saturday in the wake of the offensive, Reuters reports.
The price of Trump Media closed trading Friday down nearly 20% for the week.
DJT shares, which dropped by more than 8% within the first hour of trading Friday, eked out a slight gain by the end of the day.
Shares closed up 18 cents at $32.59, an increase of around .5%.
That closing price was more than $38 lower than what its shares first sold for when the social media company began public trading on March 26.
Shares of Trump Media, which owns the Truth Social app, have dropped by 47.4% so far in April wiping out billions of dollars in the company’s market capitalization.
Former President Donald Trump is the biggest shareholder in the company, owning nearly 60% of its stock. Trump on Monday is set to start jury selection for his criminal trial in Manhattan Supreme Court on charges of falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Trump Media on March 26 opened its first day of trading with a price of $70.90 per share, hitting a high of nearly $80 later that same day. During trading that day, the company’s market capitalization topped $9.5 billion.
By Friday’s close, Trump Media’s market cap stood at $4.45 billion — a whopping $5 billion lower than the high it hit more than two weeks ago.
Trump Media began public trading a day after it merged with the shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp., which was created to help a private firm go public.
Trump Media last year had revenue of just $4.1 million, and reported a net loss of $58 million.
That performance and the relatively high price of the company’s stock have drawn keen interest from short sellers, who make trades that are effectively bets that a company’s share price will drop.
As of this week, so-called short interest in DJT was $208.7 million, with 5.44 million shares shorted, according to Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners, a leading financial data marketplace platform.
There were fewer than 100,000 shares of Trump Media available to borrow to sell short. Traders who want to sell stock short must borrow shares to sell, with the expectation that they will later buy back the same number of shares at a lower price to return them to the lender, pocketing the price difference between the trades.
Trump Media has 136.7 million outstanding shares.
A week ago, traders who wanted short Trump Media shares had to pay up to 900% in annual financing costs, meaning they would need a then-$30-per-share drop within a month to break even on their trade, Dusaniwsky said.
Since then, however, financing costs for short trades in Trump Media had sharply fallen, to 200%.
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Trump Media was launched after the social media giant X, then known as Twitter, banned Trump from that app on the heels of the Jan. 6, 2021, invasion of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters.
Trump, who is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, frequently posts on Truth Social. He has used the app to condemn the four pending criminal cases he faces, along with civil lawsuits that have resulted in judgments against him topping $500 million.
Trump this week hosted a party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, to celebrate Trump Media.
“I think that Truth has become so important. It’s strong, it’s dedicated,” Trump told attendees, according to a report on the RSBN news site.
“Remember we have no debt, and we have over $200 million dollars in cash, which is very liquid,” Trump said of the company, whose CEO is former Republican congressman Devin Nunes.
“I will gladly become a Modern Day Nelson Mandela — It will be my GREAT HONOR,” the former president wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post attacking New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over Trump’s case.
It was not the first time Trump has likened himself to a martyr as he faces a flurry of criminal charges.
In an October rant against his various lawsuits, the presumptive Republican nominee also compared himself to Mandela, the former president of South Africa who spent 27 years in prison for his anti-apartheid activism.
And last week, Trump took to Truth Social to share a message that likened his legal troubles to the persecution of Jesus Christ.
Saturday’s tirade occurred just over a week before the trial is scheduled to begin on April 15.
That day, jury selection will get underway in the state’s criminal prosecution of the former president on 34 counts of falsifying business documents, allegedly in order to hide a hush money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump has accused Merchan of being compromised because of his daughter’s role at a progressive consulting firm that has worked for Democrats.
Trump’s social media rant on Saturday was the latest of several that he has posted about the judge’s daughter since Merchan first imposed an initial gag order at the end of March.
That order prohibited Trump from making public statements about the case’s witnesses, jurors and lawyers. He was also banned from publicly speaking about court staff, employees in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and their family members. That first gag order came in response to Trump’s repeated calls for the judge to recuse himself.
One day after the first gag order was imposed on March 26, Trump went after Merchan’s daughter on social media.
Soon after that, Merchan granted prosecutors a request to expand the scope of the order to prohibit direct attacks on Merchan’s family members and the family of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Under the expanded order, Trump can still criticize Merchan and Bragg individually. But he is not allowed to target their families publicly.
Playing with the fire of his gag orders is becoming routine for Trump.
In October, Judge Arthur Engoron threatened Trump with jail time for violating a similar order in a civil case and ultimately issued him $10,000 in fines.
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign seized on Saturday’s Mandela comments.
“Imagine being so self-centered that you compare yourself to Jesus Christ and Nelson Mandela all within the span of little more than a week: that’s Donald Trump for you,” Biden campaign spokesperson Jasmine Harris said on Saturday.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks after attending a wake for New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer Jonathan Diller, who was shot and killed while making a routine traffic stop on March 25 in the Far Rockaway section of Queens, in Massapequa Park, New York, U.S., March 28, 2024.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
Decades of trade deficits and a strong dollar created too many “losers” in the U.S. economy who turned to Donald Trump’s protectionist policies, according to Richard Koo, chief economist at the Nomura Research Institute — and those conditions remain.
Trump’s “America First” economic policies led his administration to institute a slew of trade tariffs on China, Mexico, the European Union and others, including slapping 25% duties on imported steel and aluminum.
As the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election, Trump has proposed a baseline 10% tariff on all U.S. imports and a minimum levy of 60% on imported Chinese products.
These policies have drawn widespread criticism from economists, who argue that tariffs are counterproductive, as they make imported goods more expensive for the average American.
Speaking to CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti Forum on Friday, Koo said protectionism was a “horrible thing,” but that Trump’s approach “does have some economic logic.”
“When we studied economics and free trade, in particular, we were taught…that free trade always creates both winners and losers in the same economy, but the gain that winners get is always greater than the loss of the losers, so the society as a whole always gains. So that’s why the free trade is good,” he noted.
Koo nevertheless argued that this rests on the assumption that trade flows are balanced or in surplus, while the U.S. has been running huge deficits for the last forty years, which have expanded the number of “losers.”
“By 2016, the number of people who consider themselves losers of free trade, were large enough to elect Trump president, and so we have to really go back and say to ourselves: what did we do wrong to allow this many people in United States to view themselves as losers of free trade?” he said.
For Koo, the key problem was the exchange rate, as the strength of the U.S. dollar incentivized foreign imports and hurt U.S. companies exporting around the world.
“We kind of let the exchange rate be decided by so-called market forces, speculators, my clients, Wall Street types, but the foreign exchange rate has to be set in a way that the number of losers does not grow to a point where the free trade itself is lost,” Koo said.
He pointed to a similar pivotal moment in 1985, when President Ronald Reagan faced the same issue of a strong dollar and rising protectionism. At the time, Reagan responded by facilitating the Plaza Accord with France, West Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom to depreciate the U.S. dollar against the respective currencies of these countries through intervention in the foreign exchange market.
“That’s the kind of thing we should have been more conscious of doing. Instead of allowing [the] dollar to go wherever the market takes [it], and then these people who are not as fortunate as we are in the financial markets, end up suffering and end up voting for Mr. Trump,” Koo added.
He argued that economists need to move beyond the idea that the trade deficit is simply down to “too much investment” and “too few savings” in the U.S., as this means deficit can only be reduced by remaining in recession until domestic demand weakens so much that U.S. companies can export more goods, which would not be possible in a democracy.
Koo again pointed to past dealings with Japan, suggesting that if the argument held that overseas companies are just filling in where U.S. companies cannot satisfy domestic demand, then the American companies fighting Japanese firms in the 1970s and 70s should have recorded huge profits due to excess demand.
“But that did not actually happen. It’s the opposite that happened. So many of them went bankrupt, so many losers of free trade were left in the streets, because it was not savings and investment issue, it was the exchange rate issue,” he said.
“The dollar should have been much weaker, and Reagan understood that that’s why he took that action.”
Istanbul Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu speaks at the 19 May Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day celebrations held at the Maltepe Event Area on May 19, 2023 on Istanbul, Turkey.
Hakan Akgun | Getty Images
Turkey’s opposition won a stunning victory across several major cities in the country’s local elections Sunday, dealing a severe blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party and handing it its largest defeat in more than two decades.
“Those who do not understand the nation’s message will eventually lose,” Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu told thousands of supporters after vote counts revealed that his center-left Republican People’s Party (CHP) had won the megacity of Istanbul by more than 1 million votes, Reuters reported.
“Tonight, 16 million Istanbul citizens sent a message to both our rivals and the president,” he said.
Erdogan’s conservative Justice and Development Party, abbreviated locally as AKP, dominates the country at the national level.
In a speech Sunday night, Erdogan admitted his party had “lost altitude” and would work to rectify its errors.
“We will correct our mistakes and redress our shortcomings,” he said from the balcony of the presidential palace. Erdogan, 70, has governed Turkey since 2003.
The sweeping opposition win municipal elections across major Turkish cities like Istanbul, Izmir, and the capital Ankara could set the country in a new direction. Erdogan himself rose to prominence as Istanbul mayor in the 1990s before later going on to win the presidency; now, analysts are speculating that Imamoglu’s win in Istanbul could make him a front-runner for the Turkish presidency in 2028.
Erdogan himself once said that whoever wins Istanbul wins Turkey. Imamoglu, a 52-year-old former businessman, has been Istanbul’s mayor since 2019. He attempted to run for president in Turkey’s 2023 general election, but was banned by Erdogan’s government from running, in a move CHP supporters say was purely political. In those elections, Erdogan’s party won big, leaving AKP on top at the national level.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Jerusalem, February 18, 2024.
Ronen Zvulun | Reuters
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says the Israeli leader will undergo surgery on Sunday for a hernia.
Netanyahu’s office said the hernia was discovered during a routine checkup, and that the prime minister will be under full anesthesia and unsconcious for the procedure.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a close confidant who also holds the title of deputy prime minister, will serve as acting prime minister during the operation, the office said.
Netanyahu, 74, has kept a full schedule throughout Israel’s nearly six-month-long war against Hamas, and his doctors have said he is in good health.
Last year, however, doctors acknowledged he had concealed a long-known heart problem after they implanted a pacemaker.
A man visits the United Nations Headquarters as delegates of the Security Council delated for one extra day the vote on a proposal to demand that Israel and Hamas allow aid access to the Gaza Strip via land, sea and air routes and set up U.N. monitoring of the humanitarian assistance, at the U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., December 20, 2023.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters
Three United Nations military observers and a Lebanese interpreter were wounded Saturday while patrolling the southern Lebanese border after a shell exploded near them, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said.
The military observers are part of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, which supports the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL. UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told The Associated Press that the four wounded were in stable condition.
Tenenti said UNIFIL had informed all warring parties of their patrols as usual and the observers’ vehicle was carrying clear UN markings. The three military observers, from Chile, Australia, and Norway, were unarmed, he said.
The blast came as clashes between the Israeli military and Hezbollah militants escalated in recent weeks. Both sides have been exchanging fire since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza broke out, propelling concerns that the near-daily clashes along the border could escalate into a full-scale war.
Local Lebanese media, citing security officials, said an Israeli drone strike targeted the observers in the southern village of Wadi Katmoun near the border town of Rmeich.
The Israeli military on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, said: “Contrary to the reports, the IDF did not strike a @UNIFIL —vehicle in the area of Rmeish this morning.”
Tenenti said UNIFIL was “investigating the origin of the explosion,” but it was difficult to put investigators on the ground immediately because of the ongoing exchange of fire.
“The targeting of peacekeepers is unacceptable,” Tenenti told The Associated Press. “We repeat our call for all actors to cease the current heavy exchanges of fire before more people are unnecessarily hurt.”
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikat condemned the incident in a statement.
UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. The U.N. expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to deploy along the Israeli border to help the Lebanese military extend its authority into the country’s south for the first time in decades.
TikTok has launched a $2.1 million advertising campaign with a clear message for senators in tough reelection fights this year: Block the House bill that could effectively ban the app in the United States.
“Think about the 5 million small business owners that rely on TikTok to provide for their families,” one purported TikTok user says in the ad. “To see all of that disappear would be so sad,” says another apparent user.
The company has reserved television ad space in the battleground states of Nevada, Montana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, according to data from AdImpact.
All five states are represented by vulnerable Senate Democrats, each of whom is running for another six-year term.
Other states that will see the new TikTok ads include New York, Massachusetts and Minnesota, according to the ad buy data.
The Big Apple and Beantown are key ad markets for reaching young people and journalists. Minnesota is the home state of Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, one of TikTok’s fiercest critics in Congress. Klobuchar is also up for reelection this year.
The ads started running on Wednesday, with the buy set to end end either April 14 or April 28, depending on where the spots are airing, according to the data.
One of the new ads obtained by CNBC purports to show TikTok users warning their target audiences of how much would be lost if TikTok were banned.
“It’s gonna affect a lot of people’s livelihoods,” says a sad-looking woman.
Despite the hyperbole from TikTok, the legislation passed the House wasn’t an outright ban. Instead, it requires TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to divest the app from its holdings within about six months of the bill being signed into law.
If ByteDance fails to do so, then TikTok would not be available to download on the Apple App store and the Google Play store, all but ensuring a slow death for the app among U.S. users.
Yet despite having passed the House by a vote of 352 to 65, the TikTok bill still faces an uncertain path through the Senate.
Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, speaks during a Senate Finance Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, June 8, 2021.
Evelyn Hockstein | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., recently said senators would need time to “review the legislation” before he could share any timelines for potential passage.
President Joe Biden has said he would sign the bill if if passes the Senate. Intelligence community officials recently delivered a classified briefing on TikTok to senators.
Following the briefing, Commerce Committee chair Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said her panel might need to hold a public hearing on the bill.
A spokesman for TikTok said the ads are a way to show how the federal government could hurt small businesses if the bill passes the Senate.
“We think the public at-large should know that the government is attempting to trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans and devastate 7 million small businesses nationwide,” a TikTok spokesman explained.
The company said the buy will be larger than the $2.1 million AdImpact originally tracked, and that a majority of the investment will focus on national, as well as local, television advertisements.
The ads represent the latest effort by TikTok to make a dent in the Washington debate over whether ByteDance could protect U.S. TikTok users’ personal data from China’s autocratic Communist government.
TikTok users have swamped congressional offices with calls demanding that members vote against the ban. The number of these calls soared after TikTok encouraged their users through the app to demand lawmakers not pass the House bill.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. shared a threatening voicemail at his office in relation to a possible TikTok ban. Tillis’ office has said it’s received at least 1,000 calls about the app since the House passed their bill.
Batbold Sukhbaatar of Mongolia addresses the Millennium Development Goals Summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York, September 22, 2010.
Emmanuel Dunand | AFP | Getty Images
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday sued to seize two New York City apartments worth $14 million that were allegedly bought with proceeds from a corrupt scheme involving Mongolia’s huge copper mine, a former prime minister of that nation, and his Harvard Business School graduate son.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn details a total of $128 million in allegedly unlawful contracts granted by a Mongolian state-owned mining company to shell companies, which benefited then Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold and his family, including his oldest son.
“During Batbold’s tenure as Prime Minister, Erdenet Mining Corporation inserted a middleman with ties to Batbold into the relationship with [the commodity trading firm] Ocean Partners, allowing Batbold to siphon off millions of dollars for his personal use and benefit, which included the purchase of the” luxury apartments in Manhattan, the suit alleges.
Batbold served as prime minister from 2009 through 2012. He currently is a member of the Mongolian parliament.
Money linked to another allegedly illegal contract for $30 million from Erdernet Mining went into a bank account in the United States controlled by the eldest son, Battushig Batbold, via wire transfers referencing “car payment,” trips and travel,” “school payment,” and “interior designer payment,” the suit said.
Batbold’s son, Battushig Batbold, a Harvard Business School graduate, is a member of the International Olympic Committee.
Battushig Batbold also worked as a summer associate at Blackstone in 2014, and as a mining analyst at Morgan Stanley from 2009 through 2011, according to his LinkedIn page.
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Orin Snyder, an attorney at the Gibson Dunn firm which is representing Sukhbaatar Batbold and Battushig Batbold, in an email statement to CNBC said, “The claims filed today echo allegations our clients defeated two years ago in courts around the world.”
“In those cases, we proved the claims against Mr. Batbold were the product of a misinformation campaign designed to manipulate Mongolian democracy — a campaign secretly directed by Mr. Batbold’s opponents.”
“Mr. Batbold looks forward to his day in court, when he will have the opportunity to defend himself against these unfounded claims,” the attorney said.
CNBC has reached out to Mongolia’s United Nations mission in New York for comment on the allegations in the suit.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris meet with (L-R) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), on February 27, 2024 at the White House in Washington, DC.
Roberto Schmidt | Getty Images
President Joe Biden on Saturday signed Congress‘ $1.2 trillion spending package, finalizing the remaining batch of bills in a long-awaited budget to keep the government funded until Oct. 1.
Almost halfway into the fiscal year, the president’s signature ends a months-long saga of Congress struggling to secure a permanent budget resolution and instead passing stopgap measures, nearly averting government shutdowns.
“The bipartisan funding bill I just signed keeps the government open, invests in the American people, and strengthens our economy and national security,” Biden said in a Saturday statement. “This agreement represents a compromise, which means neither side got everything it wanted.”
The weekend budget deal slid in just under the wire before the Friday midnight funding deadline, as has been typical this fiscal year with eleventh-hour disagreements derailing near-complete deals.
The Senate passed the budget in a 74-24 vote at roughly 2 a.m. ET Saturday morning, technically two hours after the deadline due to last-minute disagreements. However, the White House said that it would not begin official shutdown operations since a deal had ultimately been secured and only procedural actions remained.
The House passed its own vote Friday morning after a week of scrambling to reconcile a lingering sticking point: funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which the White House took issue with last weekend. The White House’s qualms delayed the negotiation process further, just as lawmakers were preparing to release the legislative text of the budget proposal.
This trillion-dollar tranche of six appropriation bills will fund agencies related to defense, financial services, homeland security, health and human services and more. Congress approved $459 billion for the first six appropriations bills earlier in March, which related to agencies that were less partisan and easier to negotiate.
With the government finally funded for the rest of the fiscal year, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has cleared his plate of at least one looming issue.
But in so doing, he may have created another.
Hours before the House passed the spending package Friday morning, hardline House Republicans held a press conference to lambast the bill. Moments after the House narrowly passed the bill, far-right Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a motion to oust Johnson.
If ousting a House speaker for budget disagreements feels like a familiar story, that’s because it is.
In October, after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy struck a deal with Democrats to avert a government shutdown, the House voted to remove him, making him the first Speaker in history to be removed from that position. Johnson has been trying to appease the hardline Republican wing of the House, called the Freedom Caucus, to avoid meeting a similar fate.
LONDON — Kate, Britain’s Princess of Wales, on Friday revealed she has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy.
In a video statement released Friday, she said that she had undergone major abdominal surgery in London in January, saying that it was initially thought her condition was noncancerous.
“The surgery was successful. However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present. My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventive chemotherapy and I am now in the early stages of that treatment,” her statement said.
“This of course came as a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.”
Kensington Palace said it is confident she will make a full recovery, according to the BBC.
“I am well and getting stronger everyday by focusing on the things that will help me heal; in my mind, body and spirits,” Kate later added in her speech. She asked for space and privacy while she completed her treatment. It was not announced what type of cancer it was, or at what stage it was caught.
Buckingham Palace said King Charles III, her father-in-law, was “so proud of Catherine for her courage in speaking as she did.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle also released a statement, saying: “We wish health and healing for Kate and the family, and hope they are able to do so privately and in peace.”
Kate stayed in the hospital following the surgery. At the time, there was no confirmation of what the surgery was, with Kensington Palace saying Kate, 42, hoped that the public would respect “her wish that her personal medical information remains private.” The palace suggested at the time that Kate would not be resuming public duties until after Easter.
The princess had not been seen in public since Christmas Day 2023 when she was seen walking to and attending a church service alongside the wider royal family, including her children and husband Prince William, the heir to the British throne.
An online frenzy over her condition and her whereabouts dominated social media since news of her operation. The palace had largely stayed silent on the matter, which at times added fuel to the fire.
Obsession reached a peak after a picture of the former Kate Middleton was released on Mother’s Day —March 10 in the U.K. News agencies pulled the picture later that day, issuing a so-called kill notice, finding it had been edited too heavily. Every detail of the image was scrutinized, from Kate’s hair to the children’s clothes that seemed inconsistent, to a ledge in the background that appeared warped.
On March 11, Kensington Palace posted a statement from Kate on social media, saying she edited the picture. “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C,” it read.
Since then, images and video of what appeared to be Kate appeared in British tabloid newspapers, further stoking conspiracies and conversation. Earlier this week, reports also emerged that a staff member at the hospital Kate was being treated at tried to access her files without permission to do so.
King Charles III announced in early February he had been diagnosed with an undisclosed form cancer and had begun treatment.
The recent surge in immigration into the U.S. is helping to bolster the economy despite a raft of global challenges, according to Joyce Chang, chair of global research at JPMorgan.
Meanwhile, the labor market has stayed relatively hot despite tighter monetary conditions, with unemployment remaining below 4% in February and the economy adding 275,000 jobs.
The Fed also raised its projections for its preferred measure of inflation: core personal consumption expenditure. It now expects the core PCE to come in at 2.6%, up from 2.4%, after January and February inflation prints dampened hopes that price increases were fully under control.
The core consumer price index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.4% in February on the month and was up 3.8% on the year, slightly higher than forecast.
“We are still seeing the phenomena around the globe that services inflation is still well above where it was before the pandemic, so we’re looking at 3% for core CPI, but I think one thing that was really underestimated in the U.S. was the immigration story,” Chang told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Thursday.
“The U.S. population is almost 6 million higher than it was two years ago or so, and so that has accounted for a lot of the increase in consumption, when you see the very low unemployment numbers as well.”
She noted that upward pressure on wages and housing costs, along with a resurgence in energy prices so far this year, suggest that the Fed is “not out of the woods yet” when it comes to inflation.
A recent Congressional Budget Office report estimated that net immigration to the U.S. was 3.3 million in 2023 and is projected to remain at that level in 2024, before dropping to 2.6 million in 2025 and 1.8 million in 2026.
Immigration, and particularly border crossings, is among the hottest topics in the run-up to the November presidential election. Chang suggested that other events could exacerbate the issue, particularly the unfolding situation in Haiti.
However, she argued that in terms of net impact on the economy, immigration is “a good thing.”
“From everything that we have seen, the revenues that are generated exceed the expenses. Now it is a political issue, not just here in the U.S. but you look at Europe, it’s also probably the No. 1 issue right now, but we do think that when you look at the unemployment numbers, the strength of consumption, the immigration was a big part of that,” Chang said.
Other factors that have enabled the U.S. economy to outperform its peers include its high fiscal deficit and its energy independence, Chang added. Europe has struggled in recent years to eradicate its reliance on Russia for energy supply.
Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the U.S. federal budget deficit totaled $1.4 trillion in 2023, or 5.3% of GDP, which will swell to 6.1% of GDP in 2024 and 2025.
“I think that also in an election year you’re going to see a lot of spending before Sept. 30 as well, so there aren’t really many signs that those numbers [will subside]. I think that’s one reason why I do think that higher for longer will be here to stay,” Chang added. Sept. 30 is the end of the U.S. government’s fiscal year.
With this in mind, JPMorgan sees only a “shallow” loosening cycle from the Federal Reserve, with inflationary pressures set to persist against the backdrop of high government spending and immigration.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump attends the Trump Organization civil fraud trial, in New York State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York City, October 25, 2023.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
A judge ordered Donald Trump‘s company Thursday to inform a court-appointed financial watchdog about any efforts to obtain an appeal bond.
Judge Arthur Engoron’s order came three days after Trump’s lawyers in an appeals court filing said it has been “impossible” so far for the former president to get such a bond for a civil business fraud case he lost.
Trump sought the bond to prevent New York Attorney General Letitia James as early as Monday collecting on a $454 million civil fraud judgment against him as he appeals the verdict in Manhattan Supreme Court.
His lawyers have said that more than 30 surety companies rejected writing a bond for Trump because they would not accept real estate as collateral.
Trump has asked the appeals court to pause the judgment from taking effect without having to secure a bond. That court has yet to rule on his request.
In his order Thursday, Engoron told the Trump Organization it must tell its financial overseer, Barbara Jones, “in advance, of any efforts to secure surety bonds.”
Justice Arthur Engoron sits with his clerk as he presides over the civil fraud trial of former President Donald Trump and his children at New York State Supreme Court on November 13, 2023 in New York City.
Curtis Means | Getty Images
The company also must tell Jones about any claims the Trump Organization makes to obtain the bonds, any personal guarantees by Trump or other defendants, and any condition imposed on the company.
That level of disclosure would well exceed what Trump has disclosed about a $91.6 million appeal bond he recently received from a Chubb insurance subsidiary to secure a civil defamation judgment in favor of the writer E. Jean Carroll.
Jones, who is a retired federal judge, was appointed by Engoron as the financial monitor for the Trump Organization. The company has chafed under her oversight, complaining about her in filings with Engoron.
Engoron last month ruled that Jones would remain as the monitor for three years after finding that Trump, his two adult sons, his company and two executives were civilly liable for years of fraudulently inflating Trump’s asset values for financial gain.
Joyce Chang, chair of global research at JPMorgan, explains why the Wall Street giant is raising its U.S. economic growth forecasts, and discusses how immigration is affecting the outlook.
US Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, Republican of Ohio, speaks before former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump takes the stage during a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16, 2024.
Kamil Krzaczynski | Afp | Getty Images
Donald Trump-backed businessman Bernie Morenowill win Ohio’s Republican Senate primary, NBC News projects, teeing up a high stakes November contest against incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
“What we have to do now is, as a fully united party, understand we have one mission, which is to get rid of Sherrod Brown,” Moreno said in a victory speech in a Cleveland suburb Tuesday night.
Moreno’s main opponent was State Sen. Matt Dolan, who secured the endorsement of Ohio’s popular Republican Gov. Mike DeWine early last week. Secretary of State Frank LaRose was also on the ballot, but held a steady third place, out-funded by his wealthier competitors.
Moreno’s victory sends an early message for this election year: Trump’s MAGA seal of approval may hold a power in 2024 that it did not several years ago.
“I wear with honor. My endorsement of President but from President Trump, I wear that with a badge of honor,” Moreno said.
In 2020, Trump lost the White House to President Joe Biden and the GOP lost both chambers of Congress. In 2022, many Trump-backed candidates underperformed in key races, though Republicans were able to narrowly take back the House.
With memories of that spotty track record still fresh, Ohio’s race was positioned as a test for whether the former president’s backing had renewed sway over the GOP establishment this election year.
The success of Moreno, 57, a politically inexperienced entrepreneur who made his living as a luxury car dealer and blockchain investor, over career politician Dolan boosts Trump’s comeback thesis.
“It’s evident that Donald Trump’s endorsement for Bernie Moreno was a key factor,” Dolan told reporters after conceding the race to Moreno.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump greets Ohio Republican candidate for US Senate Bernie Moreno during a rally at the Dayton International Airport on March 16, 2024 in Vandalia, Ohio.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
With Tuesday’s primary battle in rearview, Moreno’s campaign now shifts to general election mode as the Republican party counts on him to unseat Sen. Brown and help regain Senate control.
There has already been GOP head-scratching over Moreno’s ability to flip the Democratic seat. Especially after he faced backlash following an Associated Press report that linked his email address to a 2008 account on a casual sex website seeking “Men for 1-on-1 sex.”
Moreno’s lawyer later released a statement saying that a former intern for Moreno had created the account as a prank.
In the days leading up to the Senate race, a Democratic PAC spent millions on ads that were intended to boost Moreno, reflecting Democrats’ belief that it would be easier for Brown to beat Moreno in November than Dolan.
Ohio has turned redder over the past few election cycles, and Trump won the state in 2016 and 2020. The Republican Party has been looking to capitalize on the Buckeye State’s red wave in order to help the party take back control of the Senate.
“Ohio is maybe one of the states that decides who controls the United States Senate,” Gov. Mike DeWine said on Sunday. “So there’s a lot at stake in this election.”
Donald Trump and his co-defendants were in talks with insurance giant Chubb for a $464 million appeal bond in the former president’s civil fraud case, but the company backed out — days after it raised eyebrows for giving Trump a bond in a separate case, according to a Trump lawyer.
Chubb was one of more than 30 companies that refused to craft a bond that would put the massive business fraud judgment on pause, attorneys for Trump said in a New York appeals court filing Monday.
The attorneys in that filing asked the appeals court to “put the brakes” on the judgment before New York Attorney General Letitia James can start to collect on it — a process that could begin as soon as next week. James has said she will seize Trump’s assets if he cannot pay the judgment.
A panel of judges on that court has yet to rule on Trump’s request to pause the judgment without him having to post a fully secured bond.
Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, said in that filing that Chubb was the only company willing to consider underwriting an appeal bond secured by a blend of liquid assets and real property.
The other companies — which included Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Liberty Mutual, Allianz, and Travelers — wanted only cash or other liquid assets.
Appeal bonds aim to prevent the loser of a court judgment from using the appeals process to delay or avoid paying their penalties. The bonds also ensure that, if the appeal is unsuccessful, the plaintiff can quickly receive their award.
Chubb was “actively negotiating” with Trump and his co-defendants, Garten said. But “within the past week,” he said, Chubb reversed course and “notified Defendants that it could not accept real property as collateral.”
“Though disappointing, this decision was not surprising given that Chubb was the only surety willing to even consider accepting real estate as collateral,” Garten said.
Garten’s statement came more than a week after it was revealed that a Chubb subsidiary gave Trump a $91.6 million appeal bond in a separate civil case where he was found liable for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of rape.
Chubb faced swift scrutiny for underwriting that bond. News outlets noted that Chubb’s CEO, Evan Greenberg, previously had been appointed by Trump to a trade policy advisory committee and to a business group aimed at combating the economic toll of Covid-19.
On Wednesday, Greenberg sent a letter to investors, customers and brokers who had expressed concerns about that bond.
“As the surety, we don’t take sides, it would be wrong for us to do so and we are in no way supporting the defendant,” Greenberg wrote. “When Chubb issues an appeal bond, it isn’t making judgments about the claims, even when the claims involve alleged reprehensible conduct.”
He added that Trump’s bond in the defamation case was “fully collateralized.”
Records show that Trump used a Schwab brokerage account as collateral for the Carroll-related bond.
CNBC asked Chubb on Wednesday if the company was talking to Trump’s team about obtaining a bond in the business fraud case.
In response, Chubb said, “As a matter of policy, we do not confirm or deny whether we are engaged in business discussions with businesses or individuals.”
A Chubb spokesman did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Monday’s court filing.
The lawyers argued in that filing that Trump will face major harm if he is forced to quickly sell parts of his real estate portfolio to get enough cash to obtain a bond.
They said it would be “impossible” for them to post a complete appeal bond, despite their “diligent efforts.”
That’s largely because the few surety companies willing to write a bond this large will not accept “hard” assets, like real estate, as collateral, they said.
Since the person appealing often loses again, surety companies consider the bonds “hazardous” and usually demand that they are fully backed by liquid assets, said JD Weisbrot, president and chief underwriting officer at JW Surety Bonds.
Unlike banks, which are better equipped to attach liens and sell properties, insurance companies are “not in the business of holding real estate,” Weisbrot said in an interview with CNBC.
Still, Weisbrot agreed with Trump’s lawyers that the size of the bond is “unprecedented.”
“I have never heard of a bond being required of this size of a private organization,” he said.
With a deadline fast approaching for James to collect on the fraud judgment, the Republican presidential nominee has taken to social media to vent his rage against the case.
The trial judge “actually wants me to put up Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for the Right to Appeal his ridiculous decision,” Trump posted Tuesday morning on his social media site Truth Social.
“I shouldn’t have to put up any money, being forced by the Corrupt Judge and AG, until the end of the appeal,” he claimed in a later post.
In fact, New York court rules require Trump to post an appeal bond in order to keep James from moving to collect on the fraud judgment.
“Nobody has ever heard of anything like this before. I would be forced to mortgage or sell Great Assets, perhaps at Fire Sale prices, and if and when I win the Appeal, they would be gone,” Trump wrote on the site.
