"Special Counsel pushes to revive prosecution on classified documents."
Views expressed in this U.S., World, and Geopolitical News update are those of the reporters and correspondents. Accessed on 27 August 2024, 0012 UTC.
Content and Source: https://www.wsj.com.
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Russ Roberts (https://trendsingeopolitics.blogspot.com).
Good afternoon. Here’s what you should know today, Aug. 26:
| - The Kroger-Albertsons-FTC food fight goes to court
- Study 300,000 of Elon Musk’s own words to see his political metamorphosis
- Dance purists say less painful ballet shoes are beside the pointe
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By Zlati Meyer
| Thanks for reading What’s News! Look for the 🔐 to enjoy a free article on us—and share the link with a friend (or forward the whole newsletter!). |
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What to Watch
|  | Donald Trump has been running to return to the White House while facing four different prosecutions. PHOTO: SETH WENIG/ASSOCIATED PRESS |
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1. Special counsel Jack Smith’s team urged a federal appeals court to reinstate Donald Trump’s classified-documents case.
| He said that a federal judge made grievous errors and ignored decades of precedent (🔐 read for free) when she found his appointment unconstitutional and dismissed charges that the former president illegally retained classified documents after he left the White House. Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, said in her ruling that she wasn’t persuaded by decisions, including by the Supreme Court, upholding the legality of outside prosecutors’ appointments. If upheld, the decision could jeopardize what the Justice Department has long used to avoid conflicts of interest in investigations of politically powerful people. A Trump spokesman didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. |
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2. The world is watching Iran since Hezbollah’s attack on Israel yesterday, retaliation for the July killing of one of the Tehran-backed militia’s senior leaders.
| Iran had said it too would inflict a “painful response” on Israel after the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran hours after the Hezbollah commander’s death. Tehran is looking for a response that will deter Israel from further attacks while also avoiding triggering a regional war. A key question now: Will Iran use Hezbollah’s strike—which the group has proclaimed a success—as cover to avoid further escalation? The strike followed what Israel called a pre-emptive attack. Israel said that no major damage occurred. Casualties and damage in Lebanon were also limited, according to Hezbollah. After a heavy exchange of firepower, both sides signaled a desire for de-escalation. |
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3. Kroger and Albertsons were in court to defend the largest supermarket merger in history.
| The FTC, which wants to block the $20 billion deal, says that creating a food giant could lead to higher prices for consumers and stifle wage increases for workers. The chains’ stores compete against each other in thousands of local markets. Kroger says it must grow to go up against low-priced rivals such as Walmart and Costco. Kroger’s prices today are 10% to 12% below Albertsons’, the food retailer’s lawyer told the court, and Kroger says it would invest $1 billion to lower prices at the Albertsons stores. In the U.S., prices for food at home were 26% higher as of July than at the end of 2019. |
| Dow Hits Record as Oil Surges (Read) Red Lobster Set to Bring on Former P.F. Chang’s Leader as CEO (Read) Crypto Bros Aren’t Flipping Watches. That’s an Issue for Luxury Brands. (Read) Can You Work in Finance and Be a Good Person? Not on ‘Industry’ (Read) |
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4. The CEOs of major banks like to wield influence—except in presidential politics.
| Though they opine on topics such as immigration, tariffs and bank-capital rules and donate to their companies’ PACs, top bankers are diplomatic about whom they want to lead the country. Endorsing a candidate doesn’t gain them much and taking a political stand could alienate employees and customers and strain the bank’s dealings with the White House and its appointees, current and former bank executives say. Meanwhile, an increase or decrease in the corporate tax rate after the November election might impact companies’ growth and investment, so finance chiefs are considering both scenarios. |
| Campaign Lays Bare Debate Over What It Means to Be a ‘Real American’ (Read) |
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5. Elon Musk’s social-media posts chronicle his hard turn to politics.
| The billionaire went from business information, memes and dad jokes to almost daily messages about politics, according to WSJ’s analysis of nearly 42,000 of his exchanges on X between 2019 and the end of July. (Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X.) The Tesla chief’s big political moment came in July when he informed his almost 200 million followers that he was backing Donald Trump for president. The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic marked a turning point; a tweet saying, “The coronavirus panic is dumb” was his first to garner more than one million likes in the WSJ’s analysis. Popular Musk topics include free speech and the news media, race and gender, international affairs and immigration. He and his representatives didn’t respond to questions about his X posting patterns. |
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6. For Chinese AI developers, where there’s a will, there’s a Nvidia chip.
| U.S. export controls prevent Chinese companies from directly importing these small AI powerhouses, so they’re turning to brokers to access faraway servers outfitted with Nvidia’s sought-after technology. Computing-power buyers and sellers as well as the middlemen aren’t breaking any laws, lawyers familiar with U.S. sanctions say. Cloud companies say the export rules don’t restrict Chinese companies or their foreign affiliates from accessing U.S. cloud services using Nvidia tech. The chipmaker, which declined to comment, has said it complies with U.S. export regulations and expects its partners to do the same. |
| IBM Shuts China R&D Operations in Latest Retreat by U.S. Companies (Read) 🎥 Why China Is Building Its First Megaport in Peru (Watch) |
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The Numbers
| ~1 million | The number of Americans that long Covid has booted from the workforce, economists estimate. More than 5% of adults in the U.S. have the chronic condition, which is most prevalent among Americans in their prime working years. Symptoms include fatigue, changes in memory, shortness of breath and trouble concentrating that last at least three months after a Covid infection, according to the CDC. |
| 0 | The number of Major League Baseball players who’ve played for both teams in the same game. That’s expected to change tonight when a Toronto Blue Jays vs. Boston Red Sox matchup that was suspended on June 26 resumes. At the time of the rain break, catcher Danny Jansen was at bat for the Jays, but in July, he was traded to the BoSox. When the game picks up tonight, Jansen will catch for the Sox, the team manager said. |
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Quoted
“There cannot be long-range restrictions in Ukraine, when terrorists do not have such restrictions.”
| —Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on Telegram, urging Kyiv’s allies to allow his troops to use Western-made weapons to strike deep inside Russian territory. Earlier today, Moscow’s barrage damaged Ukraine’s already strained energy infrastructure and killed at least three people, according to the country’s air force. The West’s restrictions stem from fears of escalating a conflict with a nuclear power. |
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Catch Up
| - Telegram CEO Pavel Durov Is Being Held in Probe of Online Criminality, France Says (Read)
- U.S. Nuclear Missile Silos Need Modernizing, but Fixes Aren’t Coming Soon (Read)
- Why Philadelphia Is Bucking a Nationwide Surge in Evictions (Read)
- Do Americans Have a Constitutional Right to an AR-15? Gun-Rights Groups Ask the Supreme Court (Read)
- Joshua Kushner and Karlie Kloss Pay $29.5 Million for Malibu’s Iconic Wave House (Read)
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This Week in History
| | Germany invaded Poland, starting what would become World War II. |
German Chancellor Adolf Hitler defied the warning that Britain and France would come to Poland’s aid unless he withdrew his troops, saying that he was “ready to wage a 10-years’ war in order to gain its rights and ultimate peace in Europe.” At the time, President Franklin Roosevelt said the U.S. would stay out of the conflict; that changed after Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941. By the time World War II ended in 1945, almost every country was involved and an estimated 85 million military personnel and civilians had died, according to the U.S. Defense Department. Now, Björn Höcke wants to be the first politician to head a far-right German government since World War II, and polls say he has a chance. |
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Take a Break
| | Less painful ballet shoes are here, but some dancers refuse to use them. |
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Beyond the Newsroom
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Welcome to my geopolitics blog site. This is a Hawaii Island news site focusing on geopolitical news, analysis, information, and commentary. I will cite a variety of sources, ranging from all sides of the political spectrum.