Xi and Biden meet: California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen were among those greeting Chinese President Xi when he arrived at the airport in San Francisco yesterday. The location of today’s summit between Xi and President Biden was being kept secret because of security concerns. Going into the summit meeting both sides indicated there would be an effort to smooth relations between the U.S. and China. It’s the first time Xi and Biden have met in about a year.
Trump Media: In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Digital World Acquisition Corp., indicated that Donald Trump’s Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns Trump’s Truth Social internet operation had less than $4 million in net sales. The SEC filing said that Trump’s company had lost more than $60 million. Digital World has plans to buy Trump Media and Technology Group. It filed with the SEC seeking clearance for a public stock offering and planned to put approximately $300 million into Trump’s company. The SEC announced in July that it settled fraud charges against Digital World Acquisition Corporation for making material misrepresentations in forms filed with the SEC. Digital World is headed by former Congressman Devin Nunes, who was a Trump ally in Congress.
Gaza hospital: Israeli troops closed in on the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza today and alleged that Hamas had a command center underneath the hospital. Reporters were shown a room in the hospital’s basement found to contain some weapons. Hamas has denied using the hospital as a base. President Biden said yesterday that a deal to get Hamas to release the hostages it is holding will happen. Meanwhile, crowd estimates indicate there were approximately 290,000 people at yesterday’s demonstration in Washington calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
Padres’ owner: Peter Seidler, owner of the San Diego Padres baseball team, has died at age 63. The cause of death was not revealed but Seidler had twice been treated for cancer. Seidler was the grandson of Walter O’Malley, the late owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, which became the Los Angeles Dodgers. Seidler founded a private equity fund that invested in businesses in the U.S. and Australia.
Retail and wholesale sales: The Commerce Department reported this morning that estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for October 2023 were $705 billion, down 0.1% from September but up 2.5% from what was recorded in October 2022. When food services are eliminated from the calculations, retail sales alone were down 0.2% in October from where they had been in September but up 2.5% from October 2022. The producer price index, which measures wholesale prices, dropped 0.5% in October, the biggest monthly decrease since April 2020.
Senate match: During a Senate hearing yesterday, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, challenged a witness who was testifying to a fight. The witness was Teamsters Union President Sean O’Brien. O’Brien accepted the challenge. Mullin got up and started to move toward the witness when Sen. Bernie Sanders in a loud voice reminded him he was a U.S. Senator and he should sit down and behave himself. Mullin and O’Brien challenged each other to fight later outside of the Capitol, but did not.
Cover photo of Peter Seidler courtesy of MLB
