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Yasmeen Khan, Narrating: Good morning. It's Wednesday, January 31st.
I'm Yasmeen Khan, in for Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
Coming up, how Trump's legal problems are money problems,
the billion-dollar link between scammers and Walmart,
and the practice squads that match up with the best women in college basketball.
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But first, a quick look at a few major stories in the news.
House Republicans are moving forward with an impeachment
of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The Homeland Security Committee voted after midnight, along party lines,
to approve articles of impeachment over immigration policy.
That sets up a vote in the full House.
If that vote also goes against him,
Mayorkas will be only the second cabinet secretary in history
to be impeached.
He's unlikely to be convicted in the Senate.
In the Middle East,
Hamas says it's looking at a new ceasefire proposal
developed with international mediators, including the U.S., Qatar, and Egypt.
It would involve a three-stage truce,
including the release of civilian hostages held in Gaza
and Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
"NPR" talked about timing of a potential deal
with Qatar's prime minister,
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.
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Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani: We cannot predict that it is going to have a breakthrough
and will move forward very fast or how fast it will go.
It will all depend on both parties.
Our aim is to finish this as soon as possible
and to bring the hostages back, but to put a closure for the war as well.
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Khan, Narrating: It's not clear whether the latest proposal would stop fighting in Gaza.
Hamas wants a total withdrawal.
Israel says it won't pull out troops until it wins a total victory over Hamas.
Also in the region,
the Iran-backed militia suspected in the recent deadly strike on U.S. troops
says it's suspending attacks on American forces.
The Pentagon says that won't change its plans to retaliate for the attack.
President Biden says he's already decided on the response
and that he doesn't want a broader conflict with Iran.
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President Joe Biden: I don't think we need a wider war in the Middle East.
That's not what I'm looking for.
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Khan, Narrating: Elsewhere, the U.N.'s International Court of Justice ruled today
that Russia violated some parts of a U.N. anti-terror treaty,
but it did not order compensation as Ukraine had wanted.
It's one of several cases that started before the current war in Ukraine.
Kyiv accused Moscow of supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine
and discriminating against Ukrainians in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
And a judge is striking down Tesla's multibillion-dollar pay package
for CEO Elon Musk.
The stock options and the 2018 pay deal
are potentially worth more than $50 billion.
Shareholders sued, saying it was excessive.
The case was argued in Delaware,
where Tesla and many big American companies are incorporated.
Musk said on his social-media platform, X,
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"Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware."
As soon as today, former President Trump could be ordered to pay
as much as $370 million in a civil fraud trial in New York.
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Attorney General Letitia James
has accused him of lying to banks about his finances
in order to secure better terms on loans.
This could be a second big hit to Trump's personal finances
in a matter of weeks.
Just last Friday, a jury ordered Trump to pay writer E. Jean Carroll
more than $83 million for defaming her.
That's on top of the 5 million
he was ordered to pay for sexually abusing her.
Trump's attorneys are fighting the rulings.
"Bloomberg" reports on how the total financial penalties
could impact Trump personally and politically.
All told, Trump could owe up to $458 million.
The "Bloomberg Billionaires Index"
estimates he has around 600 million in liquid assets
and a net worth of around 3.1 billion.
The exact number isn't known because his finances are so murky.
Legal reporter Eric Larson talked to us
about just how risky these cases are for Trump's wealth.
Erik Larson: If you add on significant interest potentially in the New York fraud case,
you could be getting closer to $500 million.
So for any billionaire, you know, that's a big hit, no matter what.
It would come out to about, without interest,
about 15% of Trump's total assets.
Khan, Narrating: Trump has used his legal issues
to raise money for his presidential campaign.
Those funds can be used to pay some legal bills,
but not personal expenses like paying damages.
He's using a lot of donated money to pay fees for now, Larson says.
And Trump might sell assets to get more cash.
His money, as you may know, is largely tied up in real estate.
The upcoming civil fraud decision could also strike at the heart
of Trump's carefully cultivated image as an entrepreneur.
Larson: He's built his persona around his wealth
and being a successful businessman here in New York.
If he gets hit in two weeks with damage awards that eat away his cash
just at this moment that he wants to show voters how successful he is,
that he's invincible, it does chip away potentially at that persona.
Khan, Narrating: And one thing is certain: Trump's legal bills are growing.
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He also faces 91 criminal charges.
You probably know about the danger of financial fraud schemes,
but you may not know just how much money
scammers are moving through America's biggest retailer.
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Craig Silverman: Walmart became a place that,
you know, more than a billion dollars' worth of consumer fraud losses
flowed through over just a period of about a decade.
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Khan, Narrating: "ProPublica"'s Craig Silverman has been investigating
what some federal prosecutors call "The Walmart Scheme."
Now, Walmart isn't accused of direct involvement with the criminals,
but "ProPublica" found that scammers like to use Walmart's gift cards
and financial services because of lax security.
In a typical scam,
fraudsters will call someone with a fake emergency,
maybe that they owe the IRS money and have to pay immediately or go to jail.
They'll demand payment
in thousands of dollars' worth of gift cards bought at a Walmart.
The con artist then uses the gift cards to buy more gift cards at Walmart.
This launders the money so the victim can't get it back
when they realize they've been scammed.
And then the scammer ultimately resells the gift cards online.
Walmart tells "ProPublica" that it has strong anti-fraud efforts in place,
and it has blocked millions of dollars' worth of suspicious money transfers.
But "ProPublica"'s reporting
finds that criminals consistently use Walmart stores in their schemes.
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Silverman: Walmart became a focus of a huge amount of consumer fraud for a few reasons.
One is the scale.
There is a Walmart close to almost everybody in the United States.
And so if I'm a scammer and I need to get somebody somewhere
to get money out of them, a Walmart becomes convenient.
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Khan, Narrating: As Walmart continued to expand its financial offerings,
that scale only grew.
Gift cards have been used by fraudsters for years, not just at Walmart.
In 2018, several states worked with Target, Best Buy and Walmart
to tighten up security.
But Walmart was slower than the other retailers.
Silverman also says
Walmart's anti-fraud training program for its employees isn't adequate.
Silverman: If you're working, say, the customer service desk at a Walmart,
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you need to be trained in not only how to have somebody return a pair of boots,
you also now need to know about money laundering.
Walmart is supposed to be training its associates who are running a cash
to sort of spot the signs of somebody buying gift cards in a state of duress
or somebody buying a large number of gift cards.
We found examples in court cases where people were buying,
you know, more than 10,000 dollars' worth of gift cards in one store
or spread out over just a couple of stores.
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Khan, Narrating: There's much more detail in this "ProPublica" investigation,
including how a Virginia man spearheaded an operation
to launder millions in gift cards.
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You can check out the full story on the Apple News app.
Now to the world of college sports.
Imagine every time you stepped onto a basketball court,
you were there purely to get run over.
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"The Athletic" recently took a look at a group of players who do just that.
They are the men who volunteer to practice with some of the best women on the court.
These guys are skilled, but not as skilled as the players they're practicing with,
like Stanford's Cameron Brink,
Southern Cal's Juju Watkins, and Iowa's Katelyn Clark.
The practice players study the opposing team's offense and defense,
helping to prepare these college stars for what they might see in the real game.
There's a whole lot of cardio and checked egos involved.
Isaac Pruitt, a member of the Iowa practice squad,
said that he was once guarding Clark so close
that their fingers interlocked when she took a three-point shot.
She made it anyway.
He described playing against her to the local publication "Hawk Central."
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Isaac Pruitt: She'll hit two shots that you're just like, "Wow."
The stuff that she hits in games, it's, like, it's incredible.
But I'm like, "No, yeah, she's hit that on me before too."
So, that's the same way with all of us practice players and managers.
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Khan, Narrating: Kaitlin Clark is currently chasing the all-time scoring record
for NCAA Division I basketball and has a chance
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to rack up some more points tonight against Northwestern.
You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
And if you're already listening in the News app right now,
we've got a narrated article coming up next.
"Bloomberg Businessweek" looks at how Eli Lilly's new obesity treatment
could become the best-selling drug of all time.
If you're listening in the Podcasts app,
follow Apple News+ Narrated to find that story.
And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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