1 In battle for soul of Republican Party, monopoly policy becomes a fault line
2 UN passes Gaza ceasefire, US abstains
3 FL bans social media for those under 14
4 Obscure commercial real estate market signals caution
5 Conditions ripe for return of ISIS
3/26/1953 Polio vaccine announced
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1 In battle for soul of Republican Party, monopoly policy becomes a fault line
“Antitrust and antimonopoly has historically been deeply bipartisan,” Khan said in a recent interview in her spacious Washington office lined with 1920s political cartoons. “Conceptually, conservatives view concentration of power skeptically, and there has been a recognition that concentration of corporate power can in some instances be deeply antithetical to liberty.” Since being appointed by President Biden three years ago, the 35-year-old Khan has turned the obscure federal agency into a high-profile battleship aimed at the big corporations she says have distorted markets and harmed consumers. Her aggressive actions against Big Tech and other industries have inflamed the business community, and not all have been successful. But in an anomaly in this partisan age, a group of conservatives has cheered her efforts, seeing her as a fellow traveler in the populist cause. The “Khanservatives,” as they call themselves, tend to be younger and Trumpier, part of the growing ranks of Republicans who question unfettered markets and see big corporations as an adversary to their constituents.
Most Republicans, to be sure, aren’t embracing Khan. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan hauled her before the committee for a four-hour grilling in July, where he and other GOP representatives accused her of abusing power and bullying companies. “She has pushed investigations to burden parties with vague and costly demands without any substantive follow-through, or, frankly, logic, for the requests themselves,” Jordan said.
2 UN passes Gaza ceasefire, US abstains
The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during the month of Ramadan, as well as the immediate release of the Israeli hostages. America abstained, allowing the vote to pass. The vote underscores the growing rift between America and its close ally. In recent weeks Joe Biden has sharpened his tone towards Israel. He has come under increased pressure, at home and abroad, over the appalling toll of the war and the mass displacement of Gaza’s population.
3 FL bans social media for those under 14
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Monday that prohibits people under 14 years of age from having social-media accounts, regardless of parental consent, one of the most restrictive laws aimed at curbing social-media access for minors. Under the new law, social-media companies are required to close accounts believed to be used by minors under 14. The platforms must also cancel accounts at the request of parents or minors, and all information from the accounts must be deleted.
Minors who are 14 or 15 years old can obtain a social-media account with parental consent, according to the new law. Accounts already belonging to teens of that age must be deleted if a parent or guardian hasn’t consented.
4 Obscure commercial real estate market signals caution
There’s a new red light flashing when it comes to commercial real estate. An obscure investment product used to finance risky projects is facing unprecedented stress as borrowers struggle to repay loans tied to commercial property ventures. Known as commercial real estate collateralized loan obligations (CRE CLO), they bundle debt that would usually be seen as too speculative for conventional mortgage-backed securities. In just the last seven months, the share of troubled assets held by these niche products surged four-fold—rising by one measure to more than 7.4%. For the hardest hit, delinquency rates are in the double digits. That’s left major players in the $80 billion market rushing to rework loans while short sellers ramp up attacks on publicly-traded issuers. The pain of course is part of a broader, post-pandemic shakeout in the $20 trillion US commercial real estate market, which almost brought down New York Community Bancorp and has elicited warnings from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Yet industry observers say few products are more exposed than CRE CLOs. “The CRE CLO market is the first shoe to drop in terms of defaults in the CRE debt markets,” said Mark Neely, director of alternative investments at money manager GenTrust. “The loans inside CRE CLOs tend to be for transitional properties, so the borrowers are counting on reselling them before the loan matures. But today many borrowers can’t sell properties for anywhere near where they bought them.”
5 Conditions ripe for return of ISIS
A recent security sweep inside a sprawling fenced refugee camp holding 44,000 people turned up a raft of weapons, dozens of Islamic State militants and a Yazidi woman who had been held by the group for nearly 10 years. For many, the horrors of Islamic State ended when a U.S.-led military campaign collapsed the group’s self-styled caliphate in 2019. But five years later, tens of thousands of civilians are still being kept in camps including in Al-Hol, which are filled with the families of Islamic State militants and others inadvertently swept up in the chaos of northeast Syria. The camps are part of a bigger problem. Some 9,000 Islamic State fighters are being held separately in a network of detention centers in the same region.
The immediate challenge for the U.S. and its international partners is to ease the humanitarian plight of the camps’ residents and combat Islamic State’s stubborn efforts to radicalize the population. But the more daunting question is how to ensure thousands of the camps’ residents and imprisoned fighters are repatriated to their home countries before the region is racked by further turmoil. If a future U.S. administration were to pull its support for the Syrian Democratic Forces, or withdraw American forces, security at the camps and detention centers could collapse, potentially sparking a revival of Islamic State.
3/26/1953 Polio vaccine announced
In 1952—an epidemic year for polio—there were 58,000 new cases reported in the United States, and more than 3,000 died from the disease
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