A heated Senate GOP primary in Ohio will be a referendum on Donald Trump. New research suggests an intermittent fasting diet could be risky. And Princess Kate is spotted out and about after weeks of online speculation about her health.
Here’s what to know today.
The Senate race that’s also a referendum on Trump
Donald Trump greets Ohio Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Bernie Moreno.Scott Olson / Getty Images
Bernie Moreno and Matt Dolan are leading the pack in today’s Ohio Senate Republican primary, and while Gov. Mike DeWine says the race is only about who will represent the state, it is widely seen as a referendum on former President Donald Trump.
Moreno, a wealthy businessman, heads into today’s race with support from Trump and his allies, who warn a vote for Dolan is a vote against the MAGA movement. The days leading up to the race have been full of attacks as Trump, Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio barnstormed the state to campaign for Moreno.
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Dolan, whose family owns the Major League Baseball franchise in Cleveland, enjoys the support of DeWine and has painted himself as a champion of Trump policies but with a much milder personality than the former president.
The primary sets up a face-off in November against Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown that many see as a toss-up.
Reporters Henry J. Gomez and Emma Barnett recap the campaigns’ road to the primary. Read the full story here.
More 2024 elections coverage:
Other elections today in Ohio and Illinois will set the stage for pivotal House battleground races this fall. Here are four dynamics to watch.
Supreme Court keeps blocking Texas immigration law
The Supreme Court extended a temporary block on a new Texas immigration law indefinitely, giving justices more time to determine the next steps to take. The Biden administration is challenging the law known as SB4, which would allow police to arrest migrants who illegally cross the border from Mexico and impose criminal penalties. The law was originally due to go into effect this month, but Justice Samuel Alito has now stepped in three times to ensure a lower court ruling remains on hold.
On Monday, the Supreme Court also rejected a bid by former Trump adviser Peter Navarro to avoid reporting to prison (which he’s expected to do today) to serve a four-month sentence for defying a congressional subpoena.
Justices also rejected an appeal by “Cowboys for Trump” co-founder Cody Griffin, who lost his job as a county commissioner in New Mexico over his role in the Jan. 6 riot. Griffin’s case concerned the same constitutional provision that Trump successfully argued in a separate case could not be used to throw him off the ballot in Colorado.
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In Haiti, stranded Americans evacuated and power stations attacked
At least 13 people were evacuated from Haiti over the weekend as security concerns mount and the shutdown of the country’s primary airport leave foreigners stranded, Rep. Cory Mills of Florida confirmed yesterday. Among them was Miriam Cinotti, a missionary who had been in Haiti for 14 years. She said she spent the past three weeks stranded in a remote village and described the challenges of coordinating her own evacuation.
In Port-au-Prince, armed groups broke into four electrical substations and left them “completely dysfunctional” by taking electrical installations, batteries, computer and office equipment and important documents, the country’s power company said. Now, several areas in and around the city are without power, including the entrance to the U.S. embassy.
Research suggests perils of intermittent fasting
Intermittent fasting, a diet that involves alternating between fasting and eating, might not be as good for heart health as previously thought, according to a new analysis. Research presented this week at the American Heart Association’s scientific sessions found that people who restricted food consumption to less than eight hours per day had a 91% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease over a period of eight years, relative to people who ate across 12 to 16 hours.
It’s too early to make specific recommendations about intermittent fasting based on this research alone, a co-author said, which hasn’t been peer-reviewed or published in an academic journal. Also, some experts said they found the analysis too narrow.
New video released as search for Riley Strain continues
Chris and Michelle Whiteid
Nashville police have released a new video showing Riley Strain on the night he disappeared, revealing new information about his movements as the search for the 22-year-old continues. The video shows Strain walking briskly past an officer on the night of March 8. The officer asks Strain how he’s doing, to which Strain replies, “I’m good, how are you?”
Meanwhile, Strain’s stepfather, Chris Whiteid, said yesterday that Strain had gone to two more bars on the same night before he was kicked out of a third. Whiteid also heard Strain and his mother FaceTiming that night and said Strain didn’t sound like he’d been drinking a lot.
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Strain had been visiting Nashville with friends from his college fraternity and went missing after he was kicked out of a bar in the city’s downtown. His bank card was found last weekend, and police say no evidence of foul play has surfaced. Read the full story here.
Politics in Brief
Government funding: Congressional leaders struck a deal on funding for the Department of Homeland Security — the last big sticking point among negotiators— paving the way for lawmakers to avert a government shutdown this weekend, two sources familiar with the talks said.
Israel-Hamas war: President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Israel’s planned military operation in Rafah, where more than a million people have taken refuge.
Trump cases: New York state Judge Juan Merchan denied Donald Trump’s bid to keep his former lawyer Michael Cohen and adult film star Stormy Daniels from testifying in the former president’s criminal trial related to a 2016 hush money payment. Also, Trump’s lawyers said in a new court filing that he has not been able to get a bond to secure the $464 million civil fraud judgment against him and his co-defendants. And in Georgia, lawyers for Trump and seven of his co-defendants in the election interference case are seeking a review of the decision not to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Biden impeachment inquiry: Devon Archer, a key witness in the Republican impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and a former business associate of Hunter Biden, declined an invitation to appear this week at a public hearing.
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Social Security and Medicare: Donald Trump hasn’t said how he would address looming shortfalls over two major retirement programs. So what are his plans for Social Security and Medicare? An NBC News examination found his views have zigzagged over the years.
2024 election: Deep-pocketed centrist group No Labels is still working to find its dream third-party presidential ticket for 2024, but it has been spurned by at least a dozen prominent figures, including Sen. Joe Manchin, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and former Rep. Liz Cheney.
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Staff Pick: In the room with a victorious Putin
Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP – Getty Images
Putin’s election win was anything but surprising – but our team’s account of their experience in the room with the victorious president and across a celebratory Moscow reveals some unusual details, including a woman who says she repurposed a diamond Chanel brooch into a symbol of support for the war in Ukraine.
— Annie Hill, platforms editor
In Case You Missed It
Princess Kate was reportedly seen shopping over the weekend following weeks of rampant speculation online about her health.
This year’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award gala was canceled after objections from the late justice’s family over this year’s winners, which include Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch.
James Crumbley, the father of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley, said in jailhouse phone calls that he wanted to destroy the prosecutor in case against him.
Medication abortions rose in the year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to a new study, accounting for about 63% of abortions in 2023.
Chicago has begun evicting some migrants from its shelters.
The father of Laken Riley, the Georgia nursing student who was killed while jogging, said in an exclusive interview that he fears her death is being exploited as a “political wedge.”
Select: Online Shopping, Simplified
Flat irons don’t just smooth your hair. You can also use them to create curls, which minimizes your need for extra hair tools, especially if you’re traveling. Here are the 14 best flat irons.
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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Amazon has been accused of listing products from independent retailers without their consent, even as the ecommerce giant sues start-up Perplexity over its AI software shopping without permission.
The $2.5tn online retailer has listed some independent shops’ full inventory on its platform without seeking permission, four business owners told the Financial Times, enabling customers to shop through Amazon rather than buy directly.
Two independent retailers told the FT that they had also received orders for products that were either out of stock or were mispriced and mislabelled by Amazon leading to customer complaints.
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“Nobody opted into this,” said Angie Chua, owner of Bobo Design Studio, a stationery store based in Los Angeles.
Tech companies are experimenting with artificial intelligence “agents” that can perform tasks like shopping autonomously based on user instructions.
Amazon has blocked agents from Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and a host of other AI start-ups from its website.
It filed a lawsuit in November against Perplexity, whose Comet browser was making purchases on Amazon on behalf of users, alleging that the company’s actions risked undermining user privacy and violated its terms of service.
In its complaint, Amazon said Perplexity had taken steps “without prior notice to Amazon and without authorisation” and that it degraded a customer shopping experience it had invested in over several decades.
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Perplexity in a statement at the time said that the lawsuit was a “bully tactic” aimed at scaring “disruptive companies like Perplexity” from improving customers’ experience.
The recent complaints against Amazon relate to its “Buy for Me” function, launched last April, which lets some customers purchase items that are not listed with Amazon but on other retailers’ sites.
Retailers said Amazon did not seek their permission before sending them orders that were placed on the ecommerce site. They do not receive the user’s email address or other information that might be helpful for generating future sales, several sellers told the FT.
“We consciously avoid Amazon because our business is rooted in community and building a relationship with customers,” Chua said. “I don’t know who these customers are.”
Several of the independent retailers said Amazon’s move had led to poor experiences for customers, or hurt their business.
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Sarah Hitchcock Burzio, the owner of Hitchcock Paper Co. in Virginia, said that Amazon had mislabelled items leading to a surge in orders as customers believed they were receiving more expensive versions of a product at a much lower price.
“There were no guardrails set up so when there were issues there was nobody I could go to,” she said.
Product returns and complaints for the “Buy for Me” function are handled by sellers rather than Amazon, even when errors are produced by the Seattle-based group.
Amazon enables sellers to opt out of the service by contacting the company on a specific email address.
Amazon said: “Shop Direct and Buy for Me are programmes we’re testing that help customers discover brands and products not currently sold in Amazon’s store, while helping businesses reach new customers and drive incremental sales.
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“We have received positive feedback on these programmes. Businesses can opt out at any time.”
President Donald Trump said Tuesday night that Venezuela will turn over 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States, to be sold at market value and with the proceeds controlled by the US.
Interim authorities in Venezuela will turn over “sanctioned oil” Trump said on Truth Social.
The US will use the proceeds “to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” he wrote.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright has been directed to “execute this plan, immediately,” and the barrels “will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States.”
CNN has reached out to the White House for more information.
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A senior administration official, speaking under condition of anonymity, told CNN that the oil has already been produced and put in barrels. The majority of it is currently on boats and will now go to US facilities in the Gulf to be refined.
Although 30 to 50 million barrels of oil sounds like a lot, the United States consumed just over 20 million barrels of oil per day over the past month.
That amount may lower oil prices a bit, but it probably won’t lower Americans’ gas prices that much: Former President Joe Biden released about four to six times as much — 180 million barrels of oil — from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 2022, which lowered gas prices by only between 13 cents and 31 cents a gallon over the course of four months, according to a Treasury Department analysis.
US oil fell about $1 a barrel, or just under 2%, to $56, immediately after Trump made his announcement on Truth Social.
Selling up to 50 million barrels could raise quite a bit of revenue: Venezuelan oil is currently trading at $55 per barrel, so if the United States can find buyers willing to pay market price, it could raise between $1.65 billion and $2.75 billion from the sale.
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Venezuela has built up significant stockpiles of crude over since the United States began its oil embargo late last year. But handing over that much oil to the United States may deplete Venezuela’s own oil reserves.
The oil is almost certainly coming from both its onshore storage and some of the seized tankers that were transporting oil: The country has about 48 million barrels of storage capacity and was nearly full, according to Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group. The tankers were transporting about 15 million to 22 million barrels of oil, according to industry estimates.
It’s unclear over what time period Venezuela will hand over the oil to the United States.
The senior administration official said the transfer would happen quickly because Venezuela’s crude is very heavy, which means it can’t be stored for long.
But crude does not go bad if it is not refined in a certain amount of time, said Andrew Lipow, the president of Lipow Oil Associates, in a note. “It has sat underground for hundreds of millions of years. In fact, much of the oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been around for decades,” he wrote.
new video loaded: Nvidia Shows Off New A.I. Chip at CES
transcript
transcript
Nvidia Shows Off New A.I. Chip at CES
At the annual tech conference, CES, Nvidia showed off a new A.I. chip, known as Vera Rubin, which is more efficient and powerful than previous generations of chips.
This is the Vera CPU. This is one CPU. This is groundbreaking work. I would not be surprised if the industry would like us to make this format and this structure an industry standard in the future. Today, we’re announcing Alpamayo, the world’s first thinking, reasoning autonomous vehicle A.I.
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At the annual tech conference, CES, Nvidia showed off a new A.I. chip, known as Vera Rubin, which is more efficient and powerful than previous generations of chips.
