March 27 2024
Extradition
FLASH Truth Social up 16% after one day of trading, implying Trumps’s stake is worth $4.5b
1 Bridge collapses in Baltimore after being hit by container ship
2 China hackers prepare US cyberattacks to coincide with Taiwan invasion
3 2025 US budget $7.3t while longer term deficits spiral out of control
4 Assange extradition to US on hold
5 OPINION Russia terror attack could have been in America
3/27/1939 “March Madness” crowns its first men’s NCAA Champion
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1 Bridge collapses in Baltimore after being hit by container ship
A giant container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore at about 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Most of the bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River. Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland declared a state of emergency shortly after the ship hit the bridge, a part of Interstate 695 and a critical transportation link on the Eastern Seaboard to one of the largest ports in the country. Vessel traffic has since been stopped. Governor Moore said that there was no credible evidence of a terrorist attack. The priority, he said, was a search operation, led by the Coast Guard, to try to find people who may have been on the bridge.
The 985-foot-long cargo vessel, called The Dali, was leaving the Port of Baltimore when it lost power and issued a mayday call just before hitting a critical component of the bridge, known as a pylon or pier. Radio traffic from emergency workers suggested that the crew was struggling to steer the ship, according to audio published by Broadcastify. Most of the lights of the ship went dark abruptly, just over two minutes before the ship hit the bridge.
2 China hackers prepare US cyberattacks to coincide with Taiwan invasion
The United States and Britain imposed sanctions on China’s elite hacking units on Monday, accusing Beijing’s top spy agency of a yearslong effort to place malware in America’s electrical grids, defense systems and other critical infrastructure, and of stealing the voting rolls for 40 million British citizens. Taken together, the actions on both sides of the Atlantic underscored the escalation of cyberconflict between the Western allies and Beijing, in vastly different spheres. American intelligence agencies have warned that the malware found in U.S. infrastructure appeared to be intended for use if the United States were coming to the aid of Taiwan. The theory is that Americans would be too tied up worrying about their own supplies of electricity, food and water to help a distant island that Beijing claims as its own.
The US Department of Justice on Monday indicted seven Chinese nationals whom it said were members of APT31, a Wuhan-based hacking group run by China’s main spy service. The indictment alleges that the group sent more than 10,000 “malicious” emails with hidden tracking links to officials across the federal government, businesses “of national economic importance”, including defence, and Capitol Hill.
3 2025 US budget $7.3t while longer term deficits spiral out of control
Joe Biden unveiled a $7.3tn budget plan for 2025 which would push US debt over 100 per cent of gross domestic product, as the president laid out a fiscal agenda that boosts spending but plans to save $3tn through higher taxes over 10 years.
Under Biden’s projections, the US debt held by the public would hit 102.2 per cent of GDP in 2025, up from 97.3 per cent at the end of 2023, and rise further to 106 per cent by 2030, before falling back to 105.6 per cent by 2034. The budget deficit was set to come in at 6.1 per cent of GDP next year, while interest payments servicing the US debt would rise above $1tn per year by 2026.
The US’s budget deficit is set to soar by almost two-thirds over the next 10 years, from $1.6tn to $2.6tn, Congress’s independent fiscal watchdog has warned, as higher interest rates weigh on the government’s finances. The Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday that interest payments on US government debt would account for about three-quarters of the rise in the deficit between now and 2034. The deficit’s share as a proportion of gross domestic product would increase from 5.6 per cent in 2024 to 6.1 per cent in 10 years’ time, due to the debt-servicing costs, remaining well above the average of 3.7 per cent over the past 50 years, the CBO said.
4 Assange extradition to US on hold
The High Court in London ruled on Tuesday that Julian Assange, the embattled WikiLeaks founder, cannot be immediately extradited to the United States, saying American authorities must offer assurances about his treatment first, including over his First Amendment rights and protection from the death penalty.The decision had been highly anticipated as the moment the court would decide if Mr. Assange had exhausted his challenges within British courts. Instead, in a nuanced ruling, two judges determined that clarity on his fate would again be on hold.
The United States has sought the extradition of Mr. As sange since 2019, and the British government approved an extradition order in 2022, but he has fought his removal through the courts while detained in a high-security prison in southeast Lonon. Mr. Assange, 52, is accused of violating the U.S. Espionage Act with WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of tens of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents leaked by Chelsea Manning, an Army intelligence analyst.
5 OPINION Russia terror attack could have been in America
President Biden’s churchgoing appears to be paying off. The first big international terror attack planned in the newly strengthened terrorist haven of Afghanistan struck Russia, not the U.S. Let’s hope Mr. Biden’s luck holds. A similarly audacious attack on America that was orchestrated in Afghanistan and involved operatives who entered through America’s chaotic southern border would hit the Biden administration like a nuclear bomb. For now, it is Vladimir Putin who must manage the attack’s political aftermath. So far he is doing all he can to blame Ukraine and the U.S. for ISIS-Khorasan’s raid Friday on a concert hall near Moscow. This is neither surprising nor particularly effective. But what Mr. Putin must now face is a problem for everyone. Between the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, the global backlash against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, a string of jihadi successes in Africa, the failure to clear the Red Sea of Houthi attacks, and now a daring strike in the heart of Mr. Putin’s police state, the terrorists are crushing it.
3/27/1939 “March Madness” crowns its first men’s NCAA Champion
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