Israel strikes Iranian consulate in Syria after huge US weapons transfer – National & International News – MON 1Apr2024

Value of Trump media company stock plummets just days after shares go on sale.

Israel bombs Iranian consulate in Damascus after huge US weapons transfer.

NATIONAL NEWS

Value of Trump media company stock plummets just days after shares go on sale

Shares in Donald Trump’s media company Trump Media and Technology Group (trading as DJT), lost 20% of their value when markets opened today. Shares in the company went up for sale last week in a deal that was projected to be worth about $11 billion. Trump owns 60% of the company, meaning that his net worth would increase by about $6 billion. Today’s loss reduced that by about $1 billion.

DJT is the media company behind Trump’s social media platform Truth Social. The platform’s management has been plagued by problems since it launched in 2021 after Trump was banned from Twitter. Among other things, in 2022, it was reported that one of the platform’s major contractors was owed over $1.5 million that was never paid. The tumble in price today came after TMTG reported losses of nearly $60 million last year with only about $4 million in revenue.

Despite its cachet among Trump’s fans, the platform has never managed to draw a large enough user base to cover its expenses through advertising revenue. While Truth Social has claimed nearly 9 million sign-ups, analysis shows it only has about 5 million active monthly users. Its competitor Twitter/X has about 421 million active monthly users.

Analysts say that DJT’s massive initial evaluation – which would not be expected with the platform’s management woes and weak financial performance – is likely driven by small investors who wanted to show their support for Trump during his presidential campaign and legal travails.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Israel bombs Iranian consulate in Damascus after huge US weapons transfer

Over the weekend, it was reported that the Biden administration was transferring billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Israel. The full list of armaments hasn’t been made public (and likely won’t be) but among the weapons the Biden administration authorized for transfer were:

• 1,800 MK84 2,000-lb bombs,
• 500 MK82 500-lb bombs,
• and 25 F35A fighter jets.

The White House approved this transfer despite weeks of public finger-wagging over Israel’s prosecution of its military campaign in Gaza (which many consider tantamount to genocide). The transfer came days after the State Department announced that it saw “no evidence” that Israel was violating international law with US weapons. This is despite evidence that Israel has targeted innocent civilians, hospitals,  schools, UN facilities and workers, journalists, and medical personnel. It is illegal under US law to transfer weapons to any country that is violating the Geneva Conventions and other international laws meant to protect civilians in conflict.

This morning, an Israeli airstrike flattened the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, according to state media reports. Israel has not commented on its involvement, but Israel typically does not confirm or deny carrying out such strikes on foreign soil. Hossein Akbari, Iran’s Ambassador to Syria, who was working in the embassy next door, said that the attack killed 7 people. This included Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi, Zahedi’s deputy Sardar Haji Rahimi, and five other members of the IRGC.

Akbari also said the consulate was struck by 6 missiles launched from F-35 jets.

When asked about the strike by reporters, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that US officials are “looking into it”. 

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