Author: CNN

Hong Kong
CNN
 — 

HSBC’s profits have soared as it continues to cut costs and cash in on high interest rates around the world.

Europe’s biggest bank said Tuesday that pre-tax profit grew by $4.1 billion to $8.8 billion in the second quarter compared to the same time a year before. That trumped analyst expectations of about $8 billion.

Revenue also rose by $4.5 billion to $16.7 billion. The strong performance led the London-based lender to raise its outlook for the rest of the year, citing the current consensus for global interest rates.

HSBC

(HSBC) now projects a return on tangible equity — a key measure of profitability — “in the mid-teens for 2023 and 2024, which excludes the impact of material acquisitions and disposals,” it said.

That compares with a target of “at least 12%” the bank had set out in May.

The lender also said its board had approved a second interim dividend for shareholders of 10 cents per share. The payout would come on top of an existing quarterly dividend of the same value.

HSBC’s results over the past year have shown a steady recovery from the pandemic. In May, the lender revealed a tripling of quarterly profit, in part due to high interest rates and a provisional gain it expected from buying the UK arm of failed US lender Silicon Valley Bank.

In a sign of renewed confidence, HSBC said Tuesday it would conduct another share buyback of up to $2 billion, following similar announcements in recent months.

HSBC shares rose 1% in Hong Kong Tuesday following its earnings release.

The bank has been on a stringent cost-cutting drive in recent years, turning more to automation and shedding thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in assets. In June, it also announced plans to halve the size of its global headquarters and move out of London’s famed Canary Wharf.

Altogether, the lender’s strong performance in the first half was “driven mainly by higher net interest income in all three global businesses due to interest rate rises,” CEO Noel Quinn said in a note to shareholders.

However, that sheen from rate hikes is coming under scrutiny. On Monday, a UK regulator said banks needed to do more to share the benefits of high interest rates with their customers as critics point out that many savings rates haven’t kept up with interest rates.

In a report, the Financial Conduct Authority said the nation’s top nine financial service providers, including HSBC, Barclays and NatWest, had on average “passed through only 28% of the base rate rise, compared to an average of 80% between 2004 and 2009” for the majority of cash savings accounts.

“The pace and scale at which firms pass through higher interest rates to savers needs to improve … especially at a time of higher cost of living,” said the agency.

Chariton, Iowa
CNN
 — 

It was not the kind of place you’d typically find Donald Trump – and that was the point.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hit the reset button in a cramped basement under a neighborhood grill in the tiny southern Iowa town of Chariton last week. Under a tangle of water pipes on the ceiling, the man who runs the nation’s fourth largest economy was back to politics in its most basic form, as around 100 would-be caucus-goers watched him implement a new strategy that implies that the ex-president is taking Iowa for granted.

DeSantis then climbed aboard his red and blue bus emblazoned with the “Never Back Down” slogan of the super PAC that is keeping his campaign alive. With corn fields stretching to the horizon, he sought redemption in deeply conservative Wayne County, where pickup trucks throw up vast clouds of dust from gravel sideroads. At a county fair, his heeled dress boots, vest and TV-ready haircut seemed a little incongruous as he inspected cattle barns and pig pens. “Holy cow … that’s big, a big boy,” he remarked of a muscly Angus bull calf.

The stifling humidity hanging over the fairgrounds will be a memory come January when Hawkeye State voters brave a chilly night to decide whether DeSantis will emerge with a true challenge to Trump or end up as the next punchline about supposedly soaring GOP presidential hopefuls who crashed to earth alongside Rudy Giuliani, Scott Walker and Jeb Bush.

The Florida governor, once hailed as the face of the post-Trump-era Republican Party but who is now trying to revive a flagging campaign, needs to disqualify the ex-president as a viable general election candidate without alienating millions of Republicans who adore him.

But a New York Times/Siena College poll showing second-placed DeSantis trailing Trump by a stunning 37 points Monday only underscored what has been obvious for weeks: his approach isn’t working. National polls don’t reflect the full picture of a race that plays out state-by-state. There are still more than five months before the first ballots are cast. And the first GOP debate hasn’t even taken place yet. But Trump is looking formidable, complicating an effort by DeSantis to show he’d get more than the ex-president done in the Oval Office, without the chaos.

While he faces classic signs of a campaign in free fall, including staffer layoffs and donor concern, DeSantis’ problems are not all self-inflicted. The ex-president remains a hero to millions of Republican primary voters. Each new indictment brings a bump in the polls and fundraising. And any party figure who criticizes Trump soon becomes a pariah.

The Florida governor has struggled to negotiate this dilemma, mostly arguing that Trump’s troubles are a distraction from the themes Republicans need to strike in the general election. But he’s now edging closer to a direct clash with Trump. After dismissing the ex-president’s “juvenile insults” Sunday, DeSantis is now testing an argument he hopes will also dawn on Republicans before voting starts – that that the ex-president would lose the GOP another election.

“There’s too many voters who just aren’t going to vote for him going forward,” DeSantis told Fox’s Bret Baier in an interview Monday. A day earlier, the governor had told voters in the Granite State that “the vast majority of Republican primary voters are either definitely going to vote for someone else or (are) willing to, you know, if you make the case.”

This seems optimistic. But DeSantis has to believe it since otherwise, there’s no rationale for a White House bid rooted in the claim that he’s the strongest alternative to Trump.

DeSantis is promising to embed himself in the lives of voters in Iowa and New Hampshire as he seeks a rebound. While his critics have lambasted his sometimes quirky on-camera interactions with voters, he put on a decent show of interest in Wayne County and seemed to be getting used to the bizarre spectacle of greeting voters in front of a scrum of cameras. Still, he’s not yet in the same league as Bill Clinton, who regarded local fairs as an American cornucopia and, thanks to his Arkansas upbringing, could hold forth on watermelons or cattle with the same dexterity he devoted to foreign policy or economics.

By Sunday, DeSantis had swapped livestock for lobsters, gamely holding a fierce looking specimen as he took his new brand of humble, grassroots campaigning to New Hampshire. “My goodness,” he exclaimed. “Thanks for coming out,” he said, as he mingled with voters.

In another sign of a change of strategy, the governor who’s more comfortable blasting Disney for being afflicted by the “woke mind virus” or bullying reporters now holds “gaggles” with a small traveling press pack nearly every day. He’s playing to small crowds and intimate venues, betting on Iowa and New Hampshire to live up to their heritage of rejecting conventional political wisdom and giving falling hopefuls a second chance.

“You have to earn it person by person. One of the things I like with being in Iowa and New Hampshire. They want to kick the tires, they want to hear from you personally,” said DeSantis, seeking to carve out a new image as a scrappy underdog. “We are not entitled to anything.”

There’s no doubt the 44-year-old Iraq war veteran is underperforming expectations and his own resume. He confounded the national trend last November, conjuring a personal red wave reelection win while Trump’s meddling helped dim the GOP’s prospects nationwide. DeSantis – a blue-collar conservative, who graduated from both Yale and Harvard Law – laid out a blueprint for a new breed of conservatism at the Reagan Library this year. His intelligence, rhetorical fluency and self-discipline, plus his record of driving far-right culture war aspirations into Florida law, lend credibility to his vow be a more effective implementer of “Make America Great Again” polices than the perpetually chaotic Trump.

Logically, he ought to be doing better than he is.

But credentials that in a more normal world might have put him on the fast track to the Oval Office may not count for much in a fight against the most famous man in the world – a demagogue who has shattered all the rules of the presidency, politics and democracy.

Less than a year after sweeping to a near-20-point reelection victory, the Florida man seen as the best hope of depriving Trump of a third successive GOP nomination needs a comeback.

DeSantis is testing the proposition that there are enough GOP caucus and primary voters who still like Trump but also believe that his legal tangles and unhinged behavior will cost the party the White House.

Keith Davis, who has served as Sheriff of Wayne County since 1997, is a Trump voter who is now backing DeSantis.

“The red wave didn’t happen as we were promised it would last fall,” he said in an interview, noting that GOP landslides occurred under DeSantis in Florida and Gov. Kim Reynolds in Iowa. Davis, who particularly appreciates DeSantis for his border policies and support for the police, warned the Florida governor had a difficult path ahead but backed his decision, so far, to take a careful stance toward the ex-president. “We have got die-hard Trumpers out there. It’s going to be hard to beat him,” Davis said. “You aren’t going to sway the Trump voters by bad mouthing Trump.”

There is a palpable wish from voters who show up to DeSantis events for a more temperate GOP standard bearer.

Dee Snodgrass, from Knoxville, Iowa, was taken by the governor’s personality and discipline and believed he could make an impact on day one in the White House. “He’s the man,” she said. “He speaks well – not all politicians have that. We need someone that the voters like and who knows what he’s doing. DeSantis is likeable, and he knows what he’s doing.”

DeSantis needs to convince more voters to travel the same path. In the face-to-face style of campaigning in early voting Iowa and New Hampshire, where candidates meet some caucus and primary voters many times, he has a chance to make the sale. But even if DeSantis succeeds, Trump’s fame and popularity across a swathe of conservative southern states might still form an insurmountable firewall.

And The New York Times poll has more bad news for DeSantis. It shows that his two big campaign arguments – that he is more electable than Trump and could govern better – are not shared by most GOP voters.

In his first post-reset swing through Iowa, DeSantis had mixed results. His appeal lacks poetry and any evocation of America’s better angels. Often, he seemed to make little effort to adapt the message that helped him twice win Florida to a local audience. The ex-president had a simpler approach, telling a dinner of Republicans in Des Moines on Friday night, “There’s never been a better friend for Iowa in the White House than President Donald J. Trump.”

Still, in encounters with voters DeSantis hardly came across as the kind of barely human avatar of awkwardness that some of his critics have portrayed. He was personable and respectful, for instance telling World War II naval aviator Ralph Alshouse, an Iowa native, that “landing on a carrier – that is not something I am capable of doing, so hats off to you.”

Successful politicians bank such encounters and use them to embroider their narrative later in the race, and there’s little doubt that if he fulfills his promise to all but take up residency in early voting states, DeSantis will be a better candidate.

Jimmy Centers, a Republican political consultant in Iowa, said that there is still time for DeSantis to turn his campaign around, especially given the financial power of his super PAC, which could build a grassroots operation that could surprise Trump.

“The way it works in Iowa, it will come down go Governor DeSantis and Governor DeSantis alone,” said Centers, a former communications director for Reynolds and former Gov. Terry Branstad and who is not currently working for any presidential candidate.

“He has to be able to connect, he has to be able to put in the commitment to do these small events that are going to be totally outside what has been the norm for him the past many, many years.”

“If he really dedicates the time to it between now and September, it’s a whole different conversation then heading into the fourth quarter. That’s when the vast majority of caucus goers start to tune in.”

But what exactly has DeSantis really reset?

He built his national profile on populist anti-elitism and a public mean streak. On the trail, he still fumes against experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose Covid-19 mitigation advice he spurned by re-opening schools and businesses against federal government advice. He feuded last week with Vice President Kamala Harris and some GOP rivals about the teaching of slavery in Florida schools and vowed to go to Washington to “spit rails” at the administrative state he says allows unelected bureaucrats to hold back conservative presidents.

Such stances might scare off general election voters, but unless DeSantis can create a successful comeback narrative soon, that won’t be a problem.

His new grassroots style of campaigning is meant to show voters respect. And it contrasts with Trump, who prefers to fly into states for mass rallies rather than town halls in intimate settings. While he was in Iowa, DeSantis also repeatedly paid tribute to Reynolds after Trump alienated some caucus-goers by badmouthing the state’s popular Republican governor.

But what DeSantis is trying to do, by running a classic Iowa campaign, is a ultimately a conventional move. There’s no guarantee it will work against a twice-indicted, twice-impeached rival whose transgressions only seem to make him more beloved by the GOP base.

DeSantis, who on Monday rolled out a new economic program, has also discovered that a White House run is far tougher than ruling Florida with big legislative majorities and an open line to sympathetic hosts on Fox News. Last week’s layoffs of a third of the campaign payroll seeded stories in which aggrieved staffers anonymously dished up tales of infighting between the campaign brain trust and his super PAC. Whispers from donors that DeSantis isn’t matching up to inflated expectations further dimmed his aura. A reputation for being prickly with the public further fueled doubts about his prospects.

All this only made the Florida governor’s mission more difficult. Iowa might have nurtured presidents like Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama and New Hampshire fostered comebacks by Clinton and John McCain.

But DeSantis faces the task of persuading Republican voters in both states to reject a rival who is effectively an incumbent as the de-facto leader of the GOP, who many falsely believe was forced from power in a stolen election. And he must do so without becoming political roadkill like every other GOP politician who turned on Trump.

CNN
 — 

Attorneys for suspended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have asked that the majority of the articles of impeachment brought against him be dismissed, arguing he can’t be tried for alleged actions that took place before his current term.

In a filing to the state Senate’s impeachment court on Monday, Paxton’s attorneys sought to dismiss 19 of the 20 articles of impeachment, citing a rule known as “prior-term doctrine.” The rule, they argued, would prevent an official from being impeached over alleged conduct that precedes their most recent election.

The move comes after the Texas House of Representatives impeached Paxton in May for alleged misconduct, including allegations that he used his office to favor the interests of a prominent donor. He has denied the allegations. Under the Texas Constitution, Paxton is suspended from office while the matter is pending but would be reinstated if acquitted by the Senate.

CNN has reached out to the Texas Senate about the filings.

In a second motion filed Monday, Paxton’s team also asked that evidence of “any alleged conduct” that occurred prior to January 2023 when Paxton began his third term in office be excluded from the state Senate’s trial.

“The allegations making up the Articles contain unsupported, vague, and irrelevant assertions of non-impeachable conduct,” the motion to exclude evidence stated, adding that the articles “are not based on any alleged conduct that occurred after the election of November 2022, or after [Paxton] began his third term in January 2023.”

Paxton’s attorneys said at the outset of the motion that the state House and its counsel “promised the public that the evidence against the Attorney General is ‘clear, compelling and decisive’ and ‘ten times worse than what has been public.’”

But, they argued, “now that the House Managers have been forced by this Court to turn over their evidence through document production, it is clear that the evidence the House Managers have gathered is 100 times less compelling that what has been proclaimed.”

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has since appointed former Texas Secretary of State John Scott as a temporary replacement, while Paxton awaits his September 5 impeachment trial.

During the Senate impeachment trial, the lieutenant governor will function as the judge and the senators will serve as jurors. A two-thirds vote of those present would be required to convict. Attorneys for Paxton said earlier this month he will not testify during the trial.

Paxton, a conservative firebrand who has closely aligned himself with former President Donald Trump, has brought over two dozen cases against the Biden administration as Texas’s top prosecutor.

CNN previously reported that he is also facing an FBI investigation for abuse of office and that Justice Department prosecutors in Washington, DC, took over a corruption investigation into Paxton. He is also under indictment for securities fraud in a separate, unrelated case. Paxton has denied all charges and allegations.

CNN
 — 

A zoo in eastern China has denied suggestions that some of its bears were people dressed in costume after videos of a Malayan sun bear standing on its hind legs – and looking uncannily human – went viral, fueling rumors and conspiracy theories on Chinese social media.

In a statement written from the perspective of a sun bear named “Angela,” officials from Hangzhou zoo said people “didn’t understand” the species.

“I’m Angela the sun bear – I got a call after work yesterday from the head of the zoo asking if I was being lazy and skipped work today and found a human to take my place,” the statement read.

“Let me reiterate again to everyone that I am a sun bear – not a black bear, not a dog – a sun bear!”

In videos shared on the popular Chinese microblogging site Weibo, a sun bear was seen standing upright on a rock and looking out of its enclosure.

Many Weibo users noted the animal’s upright posture, as well as folds of loose fur on its behind – making the bear look somewhat odd and fueling speculation that a human imposter might be masquerading in its place.

It might sound like an implausible gambit. But zoos in China have courted public ridicule in the past for trying to pass off pets like dogs as wild animals.

In 2013, a city zoo in the central Henan province angered visitors by trying to pass off a Tibetan Mastiff dog as a lion. Visitors who had approached the enclosure expressed shock when they heard the “lion” bark.

Visitors at another Chinese zoo, in Sichuan province, were shocked to discover a golden retriever sitting in a cage labeled as an African lion enclosure.

Native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, sun bears are the world’s smallest bear species. Adult bears stand at heights of up to 70 centimeters tall (28 inches) and weigh between 25 to 65 kilograms (55 to 143 pounds), experts say.

They do not hibernate and are also characterized by amber colored crescent shaped fur patches on their chests and long tongues which help them extract honey from bee hives – earning them the name “beruang madu” (honey bear) in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Their numbers in the wild are at threat by poachers and deforestation, declining by 35% over the past three decades, according to conservation groups like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center (BSCC) in Sabah, Malaysia.

Sun bears are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

CNN
 — 

Who among us hasn’t woken up with worries on our mind?

Lizzo’s “Barbie” movie song “Pink” now has an alternate version just for those kind of mornings.

The minute-long “Pink (Bad Day),” plays as Margot Robbie’s character in the movie is having an existential crisis.

“Hey, Barbie. Why so stressed?” Lizzo sings. “Could it be those irrepressible thoughts of death?”

“P, Panic. I, I’m scared. N, nauseous. K, death,” the tongue-in-cheek song continues.

Listen to the alternate version here.

Mark Ronson curated the movie’s soundtrack, which includes Lizzo’s original version of “Pink.” The happy song opens the “Barbie” movie, where in Barbie’s world, everything is perfect.

Lizzo sings, “Pink goes with everything. Beautiful from head to toe, I’m ready to go, you know, you know.”

The soundtrack also includes Nicki Minaj, Dua Lipa, Sam Smith, Ice Spice, Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Haim, PinkPantheress, Karol G and FIFTY FIFTY.

“Barbie,” directed by Greta Gerwig, debuted in theaters on July 21. Along with Robbie, the movie stars Ryan Gosling, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Dua Lipa, Will Ferrell, America Ferrera and more.

The new music, which is now available on streaming platforms, comes because of “an overwhelming demand from fans,” according to Atlantic Records, which released the song over the weekend.

New York
CNN
 — 

It’s a tale of two movies and a box office triumph: “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” maintained incredible momentum into their second weekends.

“Barbie” wore several hats this weekend, with domestic “Barbie” impressing with $93 million in gross revenue and international “Barbie” bringing in around $122 million, making it the No. 1 release worldwide.

It is the largest domestic second weekend performance ever for Warner Bros., which distributed the movie. (CNN and Warner Bros. are both owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.)

“Oppenheimer” also had a blowout weekend, with a domestic total of $46 million, according to estimates from media analytics company Comscore, bringing its worldwide total to almost half a billion dollars. Universal, which distributed the movie, estimated Oppenheimer will be Nolan’s biggest non-superhero film of all-time in 40 regions, and his biggest film ever in 28.

Crucially, these numbers reflect that not only is there high energy and excitement for movies, but an appetite for the movie theater experience.

“Barbenheimer was never going to happen on your TV, it’s just not,” said Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of the National Association of Theater Owners in the United States. “You have to go into the theater to experience it.”

Repeat viewings are also fueling box office earnings. Midwest-based chain B&B Theaters estimated that across its 55 theaters, more than 2,100 people saw “Barbie” both opening weekend and this weekend, and almost 500 returned to see “Oppenheimer.”

“Hollywood” is often considered interchangeable with “the movie industry,” and O’Leary notes that there has always been a strong movie theater culture in the United States.

After the pandemic ravaged theaters and public screenings, people are now looking forward to “sitting in a theater with world-class projection and sound systems, having an immersive experience alongside other people,” he said.

“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” will trigger more and more people going to the movies by reminding them “the best of what the theatrical experience can be. It’s a reawakening,” he added.

O’Leary expects the movies to perform well for weeks to come, noting there’s been a rise over the past several years in very strong holdover weekends. That could be partly due to energetic word-of-mouth stoked by social media.

“At their core, consumers want to go see a compelling story, they want to be entertained,” he said. “If stories resonate with people… they tell other people.”

The overwhelming appreciation for these creative projects means that the ongoing Writers Guild of America and actors union SAG-AFTRA strikes could be a dark cloud over the these financial successes, according to some analysts.

“There’s pressure to resolve (these labor disputes) because the possibility of revenue is built on the foundation of having movies and actors to promote them,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “For now we have high-profile films, but that pool will be drying out.”

The production limbo caused by a lack of negotiations on the part of studios are leading to a ripple effect where the release dates for those projects will also be postponed. According to Boxoffice Pro chief analyst Shawn Robbins, this means that in the second half of 2023 and throughout 2024, theater chains will need “to keep a weather eye on the horizon for problems beyond their control.”

“While it’s important to celebrate the good times right now and realize they can be a barometer for the future, it’s just as important to recognize the fight for equality by so many who play a part in creating the content we see on our screens, large and small,” he added.

CNN
 — 

The Frisco, Texas, police chief issued an apology on Friday after a family from Little Rock, Arkansas, who were headed to a basketball tournament in Grapevine, was mistakenly pulled over in a “high-risk stop,” after a Frisco officer ran the car’s plates as being from Arizona, instead of Arkansas, leading police to believe it was stolen, according to body camera video and information released by police.

On July 23, a Frisco police officer saw a black Dodge Charger with an out-of-state license plate leave a hotel and ran a check of the vehicle’s license plate. According to a news release from Frisco Police, when entering the information, the officer mistakenly entered the plate as being from Arizona, instead of Arkansas, causing an incorrect registration return and leading the officer to believe that the vehicle was possibly stolen.

The officer then initiated a “high-risk traffic stop” on the Dallas North Tollway and waited for backup officers to arrive, the release said. Police closed the southbound lanes of the tollway and conducted the high-risk stop, which the department said is “standard procedure for stolen vehicles.”

Body camera video from two officers, released by the department on Friday, shows the mother who was driving and her 6th grade son, who was in the back seat, being ordered out of the vehicle.

“Slowly exit the vehicle. Face away from us. (…) Turn around. Do not face us,” says one officer who has his gun drawn toward the car. “Everybody in the car – hands outside the window. (…) Driver, slowly lift up your shirt, only for us to see your waistband. Slowly spin around.”

“If you reach in that car, you may get shot so be careful. Do not reach in the car,” the officer shouts once they have been told, by the driver, that her licensed handgun is locked in the glove compartment.

Police say an incident review is underway.

“We made a mistake,” Frisco Police Chief David Shilson said in a statement Friday. “Our department will not hide from its mistakes. Instead, we will learn from them. The officer involved quickly accepted responsibility for what happened, which speaks to integrity. I’ve spoken with the family. I empathize with them and completely understand why they’re upset.”

The body camera video shows the officer who initiated the stop taking the mother aside and questioning her about her car’s tags. The woman tells the officer that the children in the back of the car are her son and nephew. Meanwhile, body camera video shows the driver’s husband talking to a second officer, saying “Listen sir, this is my wife’s car. We’re just in a basketball tournament.”

“I’m a basketball coach. Look at this bro,” he continues, as his son can be heard crying.

“I got conceal carry … Y’all put a gun on my son for no reason.”

A Frisco police sergeant then arrived, and officers realized a mistake had been made.

One officer explains that it was an honest mistake.

“That’s a terrible experience,” responds the father. “You all got to do your job, but we’re all legit,” he said.

“It looks like I made a mistake,” the officer tells the family after her sergeant ordered officers to stand down and called off the high-risk stop. “So I ran it AZ for Arizona, instead of AR – and that’s what happened.”

The father then responds, “It could have gone all wrong for us.”

Distraught, the driver’s husband can then be seen turning away from the officers and breaking down in tears.

“We’re so sorry that happened like this. We had no intent on doing this, you know?” another officer tells the family. “We’re humans as well and we make mistakes. I’m not justifying anything, I’m just saying, like, it wasn’t a computer that ran it. It was our human error that did this. So please forgive us.”

According to police, the incident review was initiated that day to determine “what happened, how it was managed, and to evaluate what needed to be addressed to prevent this from happening in the future.” Police said an ongoing review would identify further changes to the department’s “training, policies, and procedures” needed.

“I apologized on behalf of our department and assured them that we will hold ourselves accountable and provide transparency through the process. This incident does not reflect the high standard of service that our officers provide on a daily basis to our residents, businesses and visitors,” the chief added in his statement.

Rochester, New Hampshire
CNN
 — 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday unveiled his economic agenda, a broad mix of conservative and populist guideposts that puts corporate boardrooms, federal bureaucrats, China and President Joe Biden’s domestic policy on notice.

The platform, which his 2024 presidential campaign has dubbed the “Declaration of Economic Independence,” nationalizes many of the concerns the Republican has raised as governor about the country’s direction under Biden. At the top of the list is severing economic ties with China, a focus that echoes a key priority of his top rival for the GOP nomination, former President Donald Trump.

“We are today declaring our economic independence from the failed elites and policies that have harmed this nation’s middle class,” DeSantis said at an event Monday. “We will diversify, and we will expand our economy. We will reward hard work and ingenuity. We will usher in a new era of growth, prosperity, and civic pride. We are a nation with an economy, not the other way around.”

The rollout of his economic agenda comes as DeSantis, who is known for his battles in the culture wars but less on kitchen table issues, pivots from focusing his candidacy on past victories in Florida and toward offering Republicans his vision for the country. It follows a reset of his presidential campaign amid dwindling resources and concerns from donors and supporters that his pitch has yet to sway GOP voters.

According to a fact sheet released by his campaign, DeSantis, if elected, will “unleash our domestic energy sector,” typically shorthand for easing regulations on oil, gas and coal industries, while eliminating incentives championed by Biden for people to purchase electric vehicles. He promised his plan would bring 3% economic growth, a level of expansion the country has not regularly seen in two decades.

As he has repeatedly promised, DeSantis would also slash federal bureaucracies that he claims are stymying small businesses and holding back the economy to the benefit of corporations, though his proposal did not outline which agencies might be on the chopping block.

Leaning into more populist ideas, DeSantis also proposed a ban on individual stock trading by members of Congress and executive branch officials. Earlier this month, bipartisan legislation was introduced by New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley to ban stock trading and ownership by Congress, executive branch officials and their families.

The word “woke,” a near constant fixation of DeSantis that has fueled past confrontations with corporations and guided his economic policies as governor, is largely and noticeably absent from the agenda. It is referenced just once: a vow to continue to fight “woke corporations” using environmental, social and governance policies to guide their businesses, something he has attempted to curb in Florida.

DeSantis said he would, as president, work with the private sector to accelerate and develop vocational and apprenticeship programs “with a goal to become number one in the world for skilled trades by 2030,” as well as extend the individual tax rates and initiate a “purging” of tax carve outs and loopholes pushed by lobbyists.

The proposal also said DeSantis will “not be afraid of using his veto pen” when it comes to government programs “wrought with waste, fraud, and abuse.”

As he refocuses his message, DeSantis faces an uphill climb to convince Republicans its time to move on from Trump. In the latest New York Times/Siena College poll, Trump’s lead over DeSantis and the rest of the Republican field appears unwavering. In the national survey, 54% of Republicans would pick Trump to represent the party in 2024, with support for DeSantis well behind at 17%. No one else escaped low single digits.

Perhaps more troubling for DeSantis is that voters remain unconvinced that he gives the party a better chance of beating Biden or that he would be a more effective executive – the two key arguments of his candidacy. On the question of electability, 58% of Republicans said Trump has better odds of beating Biden while 28% said that of DeSantis. About two-thirds of Republicans surveyed remain convinced Trump would have an easier time getting things done.

DeSantis pushed back against the idea that Trump has a “stronghold” on the majority of the party during a Sunday visit to the Granite State.

“I don’t think he’s got a stronghold on the majority. I think he’s got a stronghold on some. But I think the vast majority of Republican primary voters are either definitely going to vote for someone else or willing to, you know, if you make the case,” DeSantis said.

“I’m the candidate that’s more likely to beat Biden. I’m more reliable on policy. I think we’ve seen my record in Florida, and I’m much more likely to actually get all this stuff done,” he added.

Republicans appear eager for a candidate who can nudge the country in a different direction. About 70% of likely Republican primary voters considered the nation’s economic conditions “poor,” per the New York Times/Siena College poll.

DeSantis is aggressively touring early nominating states as he attempts to gain more favor with voters. Last week, he swung through Iowa on a six-stop bus tour with the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down, speaking at more intimate events with voters. In New Hampshire on Sunday, he made two retail stops at a diner in Derry and a lobster pound in Seabrook, in addition to fielding questions from voters at former US Ambassador Scott Brown’s “No B.S. BBQ” in Rye.

DeSantis will continue to campaign in New Hampshire Tuesday before heading back to Iowa for more events with Never Back Down on Friday.

Islamabad, Pakistan
CNN
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At least 54 people died after a suicide bomber attacked a political convention organized by an Islamist party in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, police said.

Shaukat Abbas, deputy inspector general of police, said 12 of those who died were under the age of 12.

More than 100 were injured, 17 critically, in the attack targeting members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party, who had gathered in the town of Khar, Bajaur district, close to the border with Afghanistan.

Local police said the attacker detonated explosives near the convention’s stage.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the terrorist group’s media affiliate Amaaq News. The group said it was part of its ongoing conflict against democracy, which it views as hostile to the principles of “true Islam” and in opposition to its “divine law.” 

The local branch of ISIS has previously targeted JUI-F party leaders as it considers them apostates.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif “strongly condemned” the blast, according to a statement released by his office.

An investigation is underway, and the prime minister’s office has requested a report from Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, the statement added.

The leader of the JUI-F party, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, expressed “deep sorrow and regret” following the blast, in a statement released by his press office.

“‎Peace be upon JUI workers,” the statement added. “The federal and provincial government should provide the best treatment to the injured.”

One witness said more than 500 people were attending the convention when the blast occurred.

“A powerful explosion knocked me unconscious,” Rahim Shah told Pakistani news outlet Dawn.

When he came around there were “people screaming and even shots were fired,” he said, adding there was blood everywhere.

Pakistani political parties are beginning campaign preparations ahead of elections due later this year.

New York
CNN
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Manchester United and Adidas are extending their apparel-sponsorship contract in a record-breaking £900 million ($1.2 billion) deal that lasts for another decade.

The German sportswear company will continue making kits and other apparel for the British football team, in one of the biggest Premiere League sponsorships that began in 2015, following the team’s defection from Nike.

Manchester United said on its website that the Adidas partnership has “excited fans around the world with forward-thinking initiatives, iconic designs on the pitch and fan-favorite culturewear off of it” and that new deal “increases the focus” on its women’s team for new apparel.

“We are extremely proud to announce the extension of the contract with Manchester United,” Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden said. “Adidas and Manchester United are two of the most important brands in international football and it is very natural for us to continue our cooperation.”

Monday’s deal is a marked increase from the previous deal, which was worth around £750 million. Commercial deals like these can be lucrative for sports teams as their international appeal grows and selling fashionable clothing becomes an additional revenue stream.

The deal comes as the world-famous club is possibly up for sale. Last year, its American owners, the Glazer family, said it has begun a “process to explore strategic alternatives,” which might include a total sale. That was welcome news to the team’s fans as its ownership is deeply unpopular with them since the leveraged buyout of Manchester United left the club burdened with a net debt of $626 million, according to the organization’s latest accounts.

Forbes ranks Manchester United as the world’s second most valuable team, assessing the 145-year-old team at to be worth $6 billion. Shares of the team perked up 2% in trading following the news.