International

ISIS claimed an attack that killed over 100 in Moscow

After a devastating attack in Moscow, the death toll has risen past 100 over the weekend. On Friday, four men entered the Crocus City Hall, an entertainment venue, and set fire to the stage after opening fire on concertgoers. The death toll has risen to over 130, with more than 150 wounded.

Who is responsible?

Shortly after the terrorist attack, a group known as ISIS-K, short for ISIS-Khorasan Province, claimed responsibility. The group operates out of Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkmenistan, analysts say the group has targeted Russia for its treatment of Muslims inside the country and its involvement in Syria.

The group was also behind two January bombings in Iran, as well as the bombing of the Kabul airport during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which killed 13 American troops and close to 170 Afghans.

One of the deadliest attacks on Russian soil

The tragedy is the deadliest attack in Russia since the 2004 Beslan school siege, where Islamist militants took more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of children, hostage.

Moscow Governor Andrei Vorobyov said 133 bodies had been recovered from the rubble within a day and doctors were "fighting for the lives of 107 people". In a televised address, Putin said 11 people had been detained, including the four gunmen.

For live updates on the situation, check here.

Trump could (literally) be bailed out by Truth Social

Former President and likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has to pay half a billion dollars… and his time is running out. Trump got the seal of approval on a Wall Street venture that could possibly net him six times the money he owes.

On Friday, shareholders of shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) approved a plan to merge with the private firm that owns Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, in order to take it public.

• As of Monday morning, the product of this merger, Trump Media, will be trading on the Nasdaq under Trump’s initials, DJT.

What will Trump’s take be?

Trump will have nearly 79 million shares (or around a 60% stake) in the company. It could be big for him: Even though the stock fell 14% after the merger approval was announced, Trump’s shares would be worth nearly $3 billion at their $37 Friday closing price. But it’ll probably be a bit before he can access the money in cash.

• Trump can’t sell or borrow against any shares in Trump Media for six months, which is typical for big shareholders after companies go public.

• However, he could get around that rule if Trump Media’s new board of directors vote to let Trump sell early.

  • Though it probably wouldn’t be in the company’s best interest since it could propagate a mass sell-off.

But, the deadline is an issue

Trump faced a deadline yesterday to cover a $454 million judgment handed down in a February New York civil fraud trial to avoid the potential seizure of assets by the state.

• Lawyers for Trump have argued the fine should be stayed while the full appeals process plays out.

Legal experts say there are a few ways this could go:

• The former president may secure enough cash, an intermediate appeals court may intervene to require the fine be stayed, or state Attorney General Letitia James may begin seizing some Trump Organization assets.

James has not cited any specifics on seizement, and hasn’t even said whether she would start right away. Declaring bankruptcy may be a fourth option for Trump, analysts say.

As of writing, the deadline hasn’t been met, so keep an eye out for updates.

Economy

Your favorite treat is in crisis mode

Chocolate lovers close your eyes. Global demand for cocoa has vastly surpassed the available supply, making for extremely high cocoa prices and inevitably higher chocolate prices in your local supermarket.

• Benchmark cocoa futures have skyrocketed to a record $9,649 per metric ton (as of writing), a 50% increase from a week before and 232% higher than last year.

The price explosion has caused large African cocoa processors (which take raw cocoa and turn it into what chocolate companies put in our treats) to reduce production, because they can no longer afford to buy beans.

Why are prices so high?

First off, cocoa trees only thrive in a narrow band around the equator, which is why four West African countries (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, and Nigeria) produce almost 75% of the globe’s cocoa supply, according to Bloomberg Opinion’s commodity expert Javier Blas.

• The Ivory Coast alone produces nearly half of the world’s cocoa, per Reuters.

Due to bad weather, bean disease, and a lack of investment in new trees (which has been an issue for decades), recent cocoa harvests have been dreadful, resulting in a increasingly large gap between supply and demand.

• The cocoa market will be short 374,000 tons this season, up from a shortfall of 74,000 tons last season, according to the International Cocoa Organization.

• However, supply is only piece of the puzzle. In the past 30 years, global demand has doubled as chocolate transitioned from a luxury item to an everyday treat.

So will chocolate prices increase? Sadly, they already have. Prices for chocolate products at US retail stores grew 11.6% in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to market research firm Circana. In the near future, chocolate companies Hershey and Mondelez stated they’ll have to raise prices for chocolate lovers.

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Grab Bag

Amazon is investing in Mr. Beast

Mr. Beast is taking his talents from YouTube to Amazon Prime Video. Amazon’s streaming service has been struggling to keep up with other services, but it’s hoping to turn things around by bringing on YouTube’s most-followed creator: MrBeast.

What will he be doing?

Amazon MGM Studios announced last week that MrBeast, or Jimmy Donaldson, agreed to a deal with the studio to host and executive produce Beast Games for Prime Video.

Donaldson is known for his extravagant YouTube videos that garner hundreds of millions of views: like “Survive 100 Days Trapped, Win $500,000” and “1,000 Blind People See For The First Time.” The massive creator also hosted a real-life Squid Game contest in 2021 that got over half a billion YouTube views, so he’s a pretty safe bet for the platform.

Beast Games will have 1,000 contestants fight it out for a $5 million grand prize, which is the largest “in the history of television and streaming,” according to Amazon. Currently, there’s no word on when it’ll air on the platform.

Why not just stick to YouTube?

While influencers don’t typically transition well into Hollywood, Donaldson has a better chance than many:

• The MrBeast brand, which includes monetized videos, branded merchandise, snacks and a fast food chain, profited $82 million from June 2022 to June 2023 (more than double that of any other digital creator), according to Forbes.

• Plus, he already has 245 million subscribed fans.

And Amazon is hedging its bets on his statement: The company has spent billions in recent years on original content and it hasn’t paid off in the slightest, with lackluster numbers backing its shows.

Facebook is promoting AI spam

While Facebook might be home to your older relative’s strange political posts, it now has more (actual) spam than ever. A new analysis from Stanford and Georgetown (which has not yet been peer-reviewed) found that Facebook’s algorithm is promoting AI-generated fake images. A lot.

What does the study say?

Researchers studied 120 Facebook spam and scam pages that posted at least 50 AI-generated images each. In all, the posts they looked at had hundreds of millions of interactions, most of which from real people who believed the images were real, unaware they were actually made by AI.

• In Q3 2023, a post with an AI-generated image was in the platform’s top 20 most viewed pieces of content.

• Some of these spam pages are even buying Facebook ads, according to 404 media.

It has a snowball effect

Facebook started using the “Suggested for You” feed in 2022 to gather posts from people and pages you don’t follow, but the feature appears to be prioritizing AI images over natural ones.

• Plus, if you interact with an AI image, you just get more AI-generated images… not more images based on the content of the image you saw.

Why post a bunch of AI content? Pages used to share clickbait links (that everyone has seen) like “You’d never guess the age of Leo DiCaprio’s new GF!” However, posts with articles linked in them have been getting more attention from Facebook’s algorithm in recent years.

• As a result, scammers have adapted: Now the pages will post an image and then add links to ad-riddled clickfarms or risky dropshipping websites in the comments instead.

After what seems like a millenium, Meta has seen more people than not criticising the content on its app. But it (finally) has recognized when enough is enough. Last month, the company declared it would start labeling AI-generated images.

Fast Facts

Parrot Play: Twenty domesticated parrots learned to play a touch-screen game that had them tap circles with their tongues, which could enrich the parrots’ brains, according to a new study.

Mount Neverest: Meet the families that took their kids, as young as two, to Everest base camp.

Space Soup: Luxury space travel company SpaceVIP brought in a two Michelin star chef to make a $495,000 meal while on a space balloon in the stratosphere.

Dirty Deals: China and Russia made a deal with Houthi militants to provide political support for the Yemen-based group in exchange for their ships sailing through the Red Sea without being attacked. 

Big Surprise: Boeing warned investors it’s looking at a big loss for Q1 as it struggles with the continued fallout from a door plug coming off a plane midflight in January.