Gag order: Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding in the Trump hush money trial, allocated two hours for a hearing this morning on allegations from the prosecution that Donald Trump at least 10 times violated the gag order that had been imposed on him. Trump was ordered to stop trying to intimidate jurors, witnesses, their families and others but continued to do. Trump argued that the gag order interfered with his free speech rights. After the gag order hearing, David Pecker, who formerly headed the National Enquirer, was returning to the witness stand to continue testifying about how the Enquirer was used to kill stories that could have hurt Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Campus protests: Pro-Palestinian protests against Israeli military action in Gaza continue on some college campuses in the U.S., including Columbia University, New York University, MIT, Yale and Harvard. There have been numerous antisemitic incidents reported. The Israeli military said today it staged 25 airstrikes on targets in Gaza. The military said it issued warnings to civilians to get away from areas where targets were located.
Hospitals: U.N. human rights officials have called for an investigation into reports by the Hamas-controlled civil defense agency that mass graves have been discovered at hospitals in Gaza. The Palestinians say that more than 200 bodies were found at the Nasser hospital and they charged that the victims had been killed and buried by the Israeli military. Other bodies were said to have been found at Al-Shifa Hospital. Both hospitals were attacked by the Israeli military, which said Hamas was using them as bases of operations.
Bridge collapse: The City of Baltimore has filed a lawsuit against the companies that own and operate the cargo ship Dali that hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse. Baltimore is suing Grace Ocean Private Limited, owner of the vessel, and Synergy Marine PTE LTD, which is the operator. Baltimore alleges that the crew assigned to the ship was not competent to operate it. It also is asking that a move by the companies to limit their liability be rejected.
Pepsi’s financials: PepsiCo, based in Purchase, today reported its first quarter 2024 financial results. The company reported net revenues of $18.2 billion compared with $17.8 billion for the first quarter of 2023. The gross profit in the first quarter of 2024 was $10 billion, compared with $9.8 billion in the first quarter of 2023. Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta said, “Our businesses remained agile and performed well, with a strong performance from our International business.”
Electric vehicles: The International Energy Agency (IEA) said today that the world’s electric vehicle fleet continues to show strong growth and the number of electric vehicles sold this year will reach 17 million. The IEA forecasts that by 2030 almost 20% of the vehicles on the road in the U.S. will be electric and in China about one-third of all vehicles will be electric. The IEA said that last year more than 60% of the electric vehicles sold in China were cheaper than cars powered by internal combustion engines.
