Trump convicted in hush money case / US lets Ukraine strike inside Russia / US and Chinese defense chiefs meet

Plus, American fossil hunter found stegosaurus skeleton worth millions of dollars

Inside Daily Brief

For May 31, 2024

Here’s your daily news briefing:

Donald Trump was convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in his criminal "hush money" case.
Washington authorized Ukraine to use a U.S.-supplied missile system to attack targets inside Russia.
The defense chiefs of the U.S. and China met on Friday for the first time since November 2022.

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Donald Trump was convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in his criminal "hush money" case in New York. The verdict puts the U.S. political system into unexplored territory ahead of the country's November election, in which Trump is set to run for president as the Republican nominee.

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Trump could face penalties of up to four years in prison on each count, but experts expect that he will receive a fine.
If Trump does receive jail time, he is likely to remain free while he appeals the verdict, which could take months, NBC News reports.
Judge Juan Merchan denied a motion for acquittal made by Trump's attorney after the jury left the courtroom.
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention is set to formally nominate him as its presidential candidate.

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Trump has been accused of falsifying records as part of an effort to cover up an alleged hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
Trump has become the first former U.S. president to be convicted of felony crimes.

What the numbers say: The number of department stores in the U.S. declined from about 11,200 in 2007 to under 6,000 in 2023. Many department stores and malls are based on outdated physical retail models that struggle to keep up with market changes prompted by the rise of e-commerce.

Some struggling U.S. malls are benefiting from the growth of Round One, a Japanese firm that is opening popular video arcades in the U.S. The company's nearest competitor is Texas-based Dave & Buster's Entertainment Inc., but Round One executives say the two firms are targeting different markets.

Dave & Buster's locations are combinations of sports bars and kid's birthday venues. Round One arcades focus on tapping into American appreciation for Japanese culture. It has built a U.S. fanbase by importing Japanese arcade game machines and providing venues to play them. The company aims to open 10 stores per year until it reaches 200 locations. Danbury Fair mall in Connecticut saw its overall traffic increase 18% in the first two months after Round One opened a location there.

U.S. President Joe Biden authorized Ukraine to use the U.S.-supplied Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) to attack targets inside Russia. The Biden administration previously prohibited such actions due to concerns about escalating the ongoing conflict and raising tensions between the U.S. and Russia.

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Ukraine has only been authorized to use the weapons on Russian targets near the northeastern Ukrainian territory of Kharkiv.
Russia's military launched a surprise offensive in the area allowing it to make territorial gains in recent weeks.
Russian warplanes have reportedly launched bombs at Kharkiv from Russia, where they remain out of reach of Ukrainian defenses.
The U.S. continues to prohibit Ukraine from using ATACMS for strikes deep inside Russian territory.

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Several European leaders have called for limits on Ukraine's use of ATACMS to be relaxed as Russia builds up its forces in strategic locations.
The U.S. initially refused to provide Kyiv with ATACMS, but changed its policy after Russia used North Korean-supplied long-range ballistic missiles against Ukraine.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun on Friday during the Shangri-La Dialogue defense summit in Singapore. The two defense chiefs were expected to address the importance of keeping open lines of communication amid concerns that rising tensions between Washington and Beijing could result in conflict.

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The encounter marked the first meeting between U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs since November 2022, when Austin met former Chinese defense minister Wei Fenghe.
In 2023, Wei was replaced by Li Shangfu, who was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018 over a Chinese arms deal with Russia.
Beijing initially indicated that Li would not meet with Austin until the sanctions were lifted, but then Li was dismissed from his post without explanation in October.
Austin is expected to speak with Dong about U.S. concerns that China is supporting Russia amid its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

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China shut down communication channels with the U.S. military following then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August 2022.
The U.S. has been strengthening relations with key allies in the Asia-Pacific region amid a rise in Chinese military activity around Taiwan.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to restore high-level military communication during a 2023 summit in California.

GOOD NEWS: A stegosaurus skeleton found by fossil hunter Jason Cooper is expected to sell for millions of dollars at an auction in New York. Cooper said that collectors who purchase fossils usually keep them for a few years before donating them to institutions and that he has given some of his finds to public collections.

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Cooper lives in Colorado on a geological structure known as the Morrison Formation, which stretches back to the Jurassic period.
He found the stegosaurus skeleton, which he called "Apex", when he went fossil hunting with his friends on his 45th birthday
The skeleton is 70% complete, which is rare for any dinosaur and especially for a stegosaurus.
Apex is almost 11.5ft tall and measures 27ft in length.

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Fossil auctions have been criticized by academics who say that allowing them to end up in private collections prevents them from being studied and viewed in museums.

Inflation in the Euro zone rose in May for the first time this year, to 2.6%. Friday's data had little impact on market bets that the European Central Bank will lower interest rates on June 6.

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The pace of consumer price increases was 0.1 percentage point above the level expected by economists polled by Reuters.
Core inflation which excludes food, energy, alcohol, and tobacco prices, accelerated to 2.9% from 2.7% in April.
Services inflation jumped to 4.1% from 3.7% over the same period.
A rise in headline inflation had been expected due to energy price growth and the unwinding of government fiscal support schemes.

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Euro zone inflation has cooled significantly from a high of 10.6% in October 2022 and has remained below 3% for eight months.

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Gregory Bridgman

Writer / Editor

Gregory Bridgman is a politics and technology researcher with a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He also holds a Master of Science from University College London and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Cape Town. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or drop him an email at gregory@inside.com.