U.S. and world news for March 27

Israeli strike: A nationwide strike spread through Israel today in protest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s continued efforts to take over Israel’s court system and have corruption and other criminal charges against him dismissed. Many of the protesters warn that Netanyahu is trying to turn Israel into a dictatorship.

Strike in Germany: Train, plane, marine freighter and bus traffic came to a halt today in Germany as a result of a one-day strike organized by labor unions. The unions are demanding pay hikes of more than 10% for workers. Management at various German transportation companies has been offering 5% raises.

Deal on Silicon Valley Bank: Effective today, First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company based in Raleigh, North Carolina, takes over Silicon Valley Bridge Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The failure of the Silicon Valley Bank among with the failure of Signature Bank touched off the recent banking crisis. The FDIC said the 17 former branches of Silicon Valley are now First”“Citizens branches. The FDIC estimates the cost of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank to its Deposit Insurance Fund to be approximately $20 billion.

Grand jury: The Manhattan grand jury hearing the case about Donald Trump’s payment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels was scheduled to convene again today, but it’s not known whether it will be voting today on whether to indict Trump. Republican James Comer of Kentucky, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, said on CNN yesterday that the hush money case should be investigated by the federal Department of Justice.

Factory explosion: The death toll has risen to seven in Friday’s explosion at the R. M. Palmer chocolate factory in West Redding, Pennsylvania. The cause of the explosion that leveled one building and damaged three others is under investigation.

Twitter’s value: A memo from Twitter’s owner Elon Musk to members of the company’s staff that has been leaked says that Twitter is worth less than half of what Musk paid for it, Musk bought the company for $44 billion but the memo says it is now worth only $20 billion. In the memo, Musk said he foresees Twitter eventually being worth $250 billion.

Cover photo via Utenriksdepartementet UD / Flickr Creative Commons