• Trump's hush-money judge warned against the ex-president intimidating potential jurors in his trial.
• Trump was "muttering" and "audible" while one juror was being questioned, the judge said.
• "I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom," the judge said.

The judge presiding over Donald Trump's criminal hush-money trial angrily chastised the former president on Tuesday afternoon, telling his lawyer to keep him quiet during the jury selection and warning against intimidating potential jurors.

"He was gesturing and muttering something. He was audible. He was speaking in the direction of the juror. I will not tolerate that," New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan told Trump's lawyer, Todd Blanche, raising his voice.

"I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom. I want to make that crystal clear," the judge added.

The warning came Tuesday afternoon, shortly after the questioning of a prospective juror over what Blanche called her "hostile" social media posts.

Blanche suggested that the prospective juror had earlier Tuesday portrayed herself as able to be impartial. The defense pointed out videos posted to Facebook in which she referred to celebrations in the streets of New York City following now-President Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory.

Merchan complained that the juror was "maybe 12 feet" from the defense table when Trump became "audible."

Merchan instructed Blanche to speak with Trump, sitting next to him, about "his behavior."

"My client is aware," Blanche told the judge after whispering into Trump's ear briefly.

This isn't the first time Trump's gabbing has interrupted his courtroom proceedings. In E. Jean Carroll's second trial against him, over defamation damages, the judge in that case warned against Trump heckling Carroll while she was on the witness stand.

"I'm going to ask Mr. Trump to take special care to keep his voice down in conferring with his attorneys," US District Judge Lewis Kaplan said during the January trial.

Jurors handed Trump a loss in that case, ordering him to pay Carroll more than $80 million in damages.

Merchan has been keenly aware of the courtroom dynamics while interviewing prospective jurors, a process that is expected to last about two weeks.

The 12 jurors and six alternates will have to hear about four weeks of testimony over allegations that Trump falsified business documents to cover up hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

On Monday, the first day of jury selection, Merchan said he would change the proceedings so that prospective jurors would be in the main courtroom while answering questions, rather than being squeezed into his much-smaller robing room with lawyers and Trump himself.

"I am concerned that going into the jury room with an individual juror surrounded by all of these people is just going to be overly intimidating to that juror," he said Monday.

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• US naval forces in the Middle East have been involved in shooting down malign threats for months.
• The cost of munition expenditure during this time is approaching $1 billion, the Navy secretary said.
• He said it's urgent that Congress passes additional funding to help replenish munition stocks.

The US Navy has fired nearly $1 billion in missiles to counter threats from Iran and its proxy forces over the past six months, the sea service's top civilian official revealed on Tuesday.

The disclosure underscores the depth — and the growing financial cost — of US naval involvement in the Middle East.

Since October, American warships and aircraft operating in the Red Sea have shot down scores of Houthi missiles and drones, and carried out preemptive strikes against the militants directly in Yemen.

More recently, over the weekend, American warships operating in the eastern Mediterranean Sea intercepted multiple Iranian ballistic missiles during Tehran's unprecedented attack on Israel.

"We have actually countered over 130 direct attacks on US Navy ships and merchant ships," Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense budget hearing for the upcoming fiscal year.

Del Toro told lawmakers that "the munitions that are critical to these counterstrikes are extremely important" to the Navy and said the service is nearing $1 billion worth of munitions that need to be replenished. It was not immediately clear if the presented figure included the weekend interceptions.

The various munitions that the Navy has used to intercept threats in the air and also conduct preemptive strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen are not cheap, and because these engagements have occurred regularly over the past six months, the costs add up. A Standard Missile-2 interceptor, for instance, is estimated to cost around $2 million.

The massive national security supplemental package which has been at the center of months of concerns over the future of US military aid to Ukraine includes $2.4 billion in funding to address the Navy's fight in the Red Sea, including the depletion of munitions.

The big supplemental package has already been passed by the Senate but it continues to be blocked by House Republicans, despite significant pressure from the Biden administration — and even from US partners overseas, including Ukraine — to push it through.

Del Toro said "it's critical for Congress to pass the supplemental this week so that we can actually get the additional resources to be able to supplement those munitions that will be critical moving forward."

Navy warships and fighter jets have been tasked for months with defending key international shipping routes off the coast of Yemen, in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, from relentless Houthi attacks. Beyond intercepting missiles and drones in the air, American forces have often hammered the militant forces in Yemen before they're able to get their weapons in the air.

The Pentagon's Red Sea operations, however, have raised questions about sustainability, as the Houthis show no sign of letting up their attacks. Even over the weekend, amid Iran's attack on Israel, US forces continued to engage the militants.

Iran's attack, meanwhile, raises new concerns about sustainability, as US forces — including the Navy — were tasked with defeating dozens of threats in the air. The massive aerial barrage has prompted Israel to promise its own retaliation, sparking fears that the Middle East could spiral into even more violence.

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• Evy Rivera and Jacob Evans bought a Victorian home in Earlville, New York, in July 2023.
• The house cost $150,000, but it needs a lot of updating.
• The couple is living in the house as they renovate it, which they say could take years. 

Evy Rivera and Jacob Evans were looking to put down roots when they found their dream fixer-upper.

After living in Denver for eight years, Rivera, 34, and Evans, 35, decided to spend a few years living on the road in a camper van, taking advantage of their remote jobs. Rivera sells vintage clothes online, while Evans works as a sales manager for a car company remotely.

But in 2023, they decided they wanted to buy property, so they relocated to Rivera's parents' home in Florida while they hunted for the perfect home. They knew their search might take a while, as Rivera had a specific vision for their home.

"I was a little obsessed with 'Cheap Old Houses' for a while," she said, an Instagram account turned HGTV series focused on acquiring and renovating — you guessed it — cheap old houses.

After watching the series, Rivera and Evans fell in love with the idea of renovating a dated property while maintaining its integrity. Many millennials are pursuing this dream since fixer-uppers are often cheaper in a US housing market where prices still hover around record highs. They do, however, require additional patience and elbow grease.

Indeed, a 2023 study from the home-improvement show Today's Homeowner surveyed 1,000 Americans and found that 55% renovated some space in their homes in the previous year. The majority of people who said they renovated were Gen X or millennial homeowners.

Old home-owners often turn their renovations into passion projects, with many chronicling their journeys on Instagram or TikTok.

With their dream of a cheap house in mind, Rivera and Jacobs decided to search for an affordable Victorian home in New York and Pennsylvania.

Rivera and Evans found the perfect home in central New York

Months into their search, they stumbled upon the Dwight Reynolds House in Earlville, New York, which they said was originally completed in 1875. The 3,000-square-foot home has five bathrooms and two bedrooms, and it was listed for $150,000.

"We had seen quite a few Victorian homes already in other parts of New York," Rivera said.

"It's probably one of the most unique ones that we'd seen looking through the hundreds of listings across the northeast and US," Evans agreed.

The couple told BI they were immediately drawn to the tower that sits on top of the property, as well as the original woodworking details that could be found throughout the home.

"We loved the facade and that all of those original details were still in place," Rivera said. Although they loved those details, the house wasn't in great shape, but that didn't deter Rivera and Evans.

"We found the home really beautiful even if it was falling into disrepair, like many homes in central New York and upstate," Rivera said. "We still thought it had so much potential."

They took a virtual tour of the property with a real-estate agent, and they decided to put an offer in on the house in the summer of 2023. They were apprehensive about buying the house sight unseen, but they knew they would be able to see the property before they officially closed.

Luckily, they loved the house when they were finally able to set foot inside while they were in contract. They closed on the property in July 2023.

The renovation process started as soon as they closed on the house

When Rivera and Evans moved into their home, they focused on getting the first floor in livable shape, where they plan to live while they renovate the second and third floors.

As soon as they closed, their first order of business was cleaning the house, which was filled with old furniture and trash from the previous owners.

"The house was so dirty," Rivera said. "It took us like a couple of weeks to clean everything."

They also had to fix the siding on the front of the house promptly, as there was a hole in the wall on the front of the home as a result of rotting wood.

Today, the first floor is in decent shape. They've made the front-facing windows shine, their foyer has been updated, and the dining room feels cozy.

But Rivera and Evans say they still have a lot of work to do on the exterior of the home before they can start making headway on the second and third floors, like patching holes in their porch where squirrels and pigeons make nests.

"It's not a glamorous life at all," Rivera said of restoring their home. "If you're buying a historical home that has been neglected for a long time, you are not going to be thinking about the pretty wall colors and curtains you're going to hang up in that beautiful room."

"Yeah," Evans added, "you're gonna start with a really dirty, disgusting, boring projects, like removing the family of pigeons from the hole in your porch."

They hope they're able to get their bedroom and bathroom on the second floor in working order soon, but they have to prioritize structural issues first.

The renovations will take years to complete

The couple told BI they have spent around $9,000 on the renovation to date buying tools — primarily at estate sales — and materials, focusing on ensuring the house is structurally sound.

However, they anticipate they could spend upwards of $125,000 to $150,000 on projects as they continue working. They also expect updating their home will take years to complete because they both work full-time and because they want to maintain as much of the building's historic integrity as possible.

For instance, the home has custom-made moldings, and several sections are missing. To ensure they replace the missing patches with wood that looks similar, the couple will have to have new pieces made, which takes more time than it would to just remove the molding and replace it with something basic.

Likewise, they don't want to replace their historic windows from the 1800s, so they're looking into solutions that will keep them intact while making them more energy-efficient.

"We have to have a realistic expectation and know that this is going to take a few years," Rivera said.

They're also documenting their renovations on social media, originally posting to keep their friends and family abreast of their renovations, but they also want to show other hopeful homeowners that they can revive a rundown home, too.

"I think a lot of people think that it's not an option for them to buy a house that's not in great shape and then just live in it and slowly put some money into it," Rivera said.

"They think they need to buy a house that's 100% you know, everything updated and renovated, but it's really not an option for people," Evans said. "But I don't think a lot of people realize you could just buy a house that's not in great shape and just kind of make it your own."

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• Citadel's Ken Griffin filed plans alongside Vornado and Rudin for a 62-story NYC skyscraper.
• The mayor's office said the building would bolster an ongoing revitalization of midtown.
• Beyond NYC, Griffin has said also Miami could become the US' next financial hub.

Citadel's Ken Griffin is planning a 62-story skyscraper in the heart of midtown that New York City's mayor hopes will bolster the ongoing revitalization of the neighborhood after many buildings went vacant during the pandemic.

Real estate developers Vornado Realty Trust and Rudin Management filed plans for the project alongside Griffin (whose Citadel and Citadel Securities will serve as anchor tenants), the mayor's office said Tuesday.

Located at 350 Park Avenue, the building is expected to be completed in 2032, and will house over 6,000 jobs. It will also comprise a public concourse with seating, green space, and art.

Developers purchased air rights from St. Patrick's Cathedral and Saint Bartholomew's Church in order to construct the building. The prices they paid will fund upkeep for both churches, the Mayor's office said, to the tune of $150 million.

"This project will build on our continued efforts to energize Midtown Manhattan as the world's most important business address and an economic engine for working-class New Yorkers," Adams said in a statement.

There have been signs that New Yorkers are increasingly working in person. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the city's return-to-office rate had reached almost 80% of pre-pandemic levels, according to a new study.

For his part, Griffin highlighted in a statement the building's "incredible light, 360-degree views, and spacious layouts in one of the leading financial centers in the world."

Griffin has previously discussed how remote work can harm corporate culture, and a spokesperson for Citadel told Business Insider the company has been back in the office full-time since June 2021.

But Griffin doesn't have his sights set exclusively on New York. In November, the billionaire hedge fund manager said Miami — where Citadel moved from Chicago in 2022 — could one day overtake New York as the financial hub of the United States.

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• A NATO commander says sea cables and pipelines holding sensitive materials are vulnerable.
• Suspicious activity and instances of damage raise alarms about the potential threats from Russia, he said.
• NATO countries are using AI software, sensors, and more to protect vulnerable underwater networks.

Important deep sea cables and pipelines are at risk, warns NATO's Allied Maritime Command's deputy commander Vice Adm. Didier Maleterre.

"It's a security issue for nearly 1 billion NATO-nation civilians. We need to be protected and well supplied by our vital undersea infrastructures," Maleterre told the Guardian on April 16.

NATO allies have detected several instances of suspicious activity around underwater infrastructure within the past few years and the commander noted that the Russians have "developed a lot of hybrid warfare under the sea to disrupt the European economy, through cables, internet cables, pipelines."

Maleterre said that some of Russia's nuclear-powered submarines were built for hybrid warfare purposes, as may have been the case with a Russian sub that caught fire a few years ago. The commander's concerns come amid rising tensions between NATO.

"All of our economy under the sea is under threat," he said.

Last month, as the Ukraine war rages on, Moscow said that it planned to grow the number troops surveilling NATO member states' borders, taking up a similar stance it had during the Cold War.

Amid tensions, NATO countries have been scanning the waters extensively using sensors, satellites, various submarines, and other tools to identify culprits and protect underwater networks.

Maleterre emphasized that these underwater networks are extremely vulnerable to attacks.

"More than 90% of [the] internet is under the sea," he said. "All our links between the US, Canada and Europe are transmitting under the sea, so there are a lot of vulnerabilities."

There have been a number of suspicious incidents involving underwater infrastructure.

In October 2023, an unknown source damaged communication cables and a gas pipeline between Estonia and Finland. In February 2022, police investigators found that human involvement might have been the cause of damage to a Norwegian fiberoptic data cable. A year earlier, a lengthy section of cable disappeared.

One particular incident that garnered significant attention was the damage to the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in September 2022. Western officials were quick to blame Russia but lacked evidence to prove the country's involvement in the incident. Ukraine has also been a potential suspect.

NATO officials have long expressed concerns about the threats to key infrastructure in the maritime space. In 2017, for instance, the commander of NATO's submarine forces, told The Washington Post that "we are now seeing Russian underwater activity in the vicinity of undersea cables that I don't believe we have ever seen."

He said that "Russia is clearly taking an interest in NATO and NATO nations' undersea infrastructure."

And with the Ukraine war, those concerns have been exacerbated. Last year, NATO's assistant secretary general for intelligence and security told reporters that "there are heightened concerns that Russia may target undersea cables and other critical infrastructure in an effort to disrupt Western life to gain leverage against those nations that are providing security to Ukraine."

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• Donald Trump has complained that he's stuck in court for his criminal trial instead of campaigning.
• His lawyers reportedly made a decision not to agree to stipulations.
• He could speed things up and get out of there by stipulating basic facts.

As the 2024 election is underway, Donald Trump is set to spend the bulk of the next six weeks in downtown Manhattan, far from any swing states.

Trump has griped that his ongoing criminal hush-money trial — for 34 counts of falsifying business documents — is impairing his campaign to recapture the presidency. He has scheduled events across the country on Wednesdays, the one day each week the trial is not scheduled to take place.

"This is a trial that should have never been brought," the former president told reporters in the courtroom hallway Tuesday morning ahead of the second day of jury selection, adding, "I should be right now in Pennsylvania, in Florida, in many other states, in North Carolina, Georgia, campaigning."

Trump also has complained to reporters that the judge didn't immediately rule on his request to take a day off of testimony for his son Barron's high school graduation ceremony in May.

But there's one simple way Trump could speed things up: agree to stipulations.

In any trial, the parties have an opportunity to stipulate to a certain set of facts. That obviates the need for the lawyers to present witnesses and introduce evidence that establish things that aren't really in dispute.

"Trials can be boring in great part, and the interesting part can constitute about 10% of what's happening. And it is not uncommon where the parties will stipulate to the admissibility of uncontested evidence or even certain facts that are not an issue, so as to prevent the need to call unnecessary witnesses," explained former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Bederow.

Trump's current trial, for example, is over his hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, who says she had an affair with Trump about a decade before he became president.

The payments were facilitated by Trump's ex-personal attorney and former fixer Michael Cohen, who worked with Trump to keep Daniels quiet about the alleged relationship ahead of the 2016 presidential election, according to prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney's office.

According to The Washington Post, Trump's legal team has decided not to stipulate to anything and to fight over everything.

In the Daniels saga, there are several issues that Trump may want to dispute.

Maybe his lawyers will deny the affair ever happened. Maybe he'll say that Cohen was acting of his own accord when he facilitated the payments to Daniels, an adult film actress whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

But there are also a lot of facts that aren't really in dispute. Like the fact that Cohen worked as Trump's personal lawyer in 2016. Or that Daniels and Trump knew each other.

(Daniels and Trump were photographed together in 2006, and Daniels attended a Trump vodka event the following year.)

If Trump were to stipulate to those facts — and others — then lawyers in the case could save a lot of time by not needing to establish those foundational details in court.

Judges are normally happy when both parties in a dispute stipulate details. It means they need to adjudicate fewer disputes, and everything can move faster.

Though stipulation can certainly speed up court proceedings, it's within Trump's legal right to "put the people to the proof," Bederow, a criminal defense attorney, told Business Insider.

"It does add to the boredom factor and, from Trump's perspective, adds to the length and is consistent with his approach, which is: fight every point imaginable under the sun no matter how large, small, relevant or irrelevant," he said.

This can be "frustrating" for the court in a practical sense, Bederow said, but Trump "has a right to do it."

"He's entitled to use every mechanism under the rules of evidence to require them to prove their case," said Bederow.

But the idea that Trump has been complaining about his trial preventing him from hitting the campaign trial, while his own lawyers' reported strategy is to slow things down by stipulating to nothing is a "perfect illustration," Bederow said, "in my view of the conflict between criminal defendant Trump and Republican nominee Trump."

"The longer the case goes, and the more boring it is, and the less exotic testimony there is, the less connection of him to the central issues — the defense may feel that's helpful," Bederow said.

Still, the former prosecutor added, this tactic can only go so far.

"To the extent that the goal of the exercise was to delay until after the election, that ship has sailed," said Bederow.

"Even if he delays with these stipulations, you're talking at worst a few days," Bederow said. "That's not going to solve his problem,"

Lawyers for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on their lunch break Tuesday.

Spokespersons for the District Attorney's office also did not immediately respond.

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• Tech moguls vary greatly in their choice of cars.
• Some favor luxury sports cars like McLarens, while other favor unassuming sedans like Ford Fusions.
• Here are some of the cars driven by the wealthiest of the tech world.

The world's most successful tech moguls have many things in common, but taste in cars isn't one of them.

Some, like AI guru Sam Altman, have lavish collections of McLarens and other eye-popping sports cars.

But there are others who have been seen in the same cars that the average person can drive off the lot.

With this in mind, we decided to find out what the vehicle of choice is for some of the other big names in tech.

Scroll on to find out what the tech titans are driving:

Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is worth $185 billion which makes him the fourth richest person in the world.

Despite this, Zuckerberg has far from extravagant tastes when it comes to cars, clothes, and travel.

He's been seen in a black Acura TSX, a Volkswagen Golf GTI hatchback, and a Honda Fit — all of which are valued at or under $30,000 — and recently posted a photo on Instagram of two refurbished Ford Broncos, captioned "his and hers."

The Meta CEO has reportedly owned at least one luxury sports car: an Italian Pagani Huayra.

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos is the second-richest person in the world. Yet he doesn't seem to be too fussed about being seen in expensive cars.

The Amazon founder and former CEO was once famous for his frugal driving habits; according to the book "The Everything Store," as recently as 2013, he would drive a Honda Accord to the office.

In 2021, a Blue Origin video showed him behind the wheel of a Rivian R1T electric pickup.

He has famously splurged on a much larger mode of transportation, however — a reported $500 million superyacht.

Elon Musk

As CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk's choice of wheels won't be a huge surprise.

In a 2019 tweet, Musk revealed that he does have favorites and mostly drives the Tesla Model S Performance, but occasionally takes to the Model 3 Performance and Model X when he's with his kids.

I mostly drive Model S Performance with dev version of FSD computer. Our new Raven powertain & adaptive damping suspension is great! Next is Model 3P & then X if driving with my kids. Acceleration is fun on tap!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 18, 2019

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

More recently, in a 2023 earnings call, he said that Tesla's Cybertruck — which, at that time, had not yet been released — would soon become his everyday vehicle of choice. He's been spotted at the wheel of the polarizing design since then.

In addition to driving Teslas, Musk has also owned a Ford Model T, a Jaguar E-Type Series 1 Roadster. But perhaps his most impressive car is the 1976 Lotus Esprit submarine car, used in the 1977 James Bond film, "The Spy Who Loved Me," which he bought at auction in London for $997,000 in 2013.

Sam Altman

Sam Altman, the cofounder of ChatGPT-developer OpenAI, doesn't try to hide his passion for nice cars.

He has been spotted driving a McLaren F1 — a limited series that most recently auctioned for a staggering $20 million, according to J.D. Power. Yep, you read that number right.

Altman owns another McLaren, an old Tesla, and at least two other racing cars, he told The New Yorker.

Altman also has a more practical side; he has said that riding UberX in San Francisco was cheaper than driving his Tesla Roadster around. "I have an expensive car, so it's not a super fair comparison, but I still think it's interesting," he wrote in a 2015 blog post.

Jensen Huang

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is a self-styled "true car enthusiast."

In 2015, Nvidia posted a photo on Twitter of Huang receiving a Tesla Model X. Huang, standing in front of a garage full of Teslas, wrote in the caption that he loved his "new rocket."

More recently, though, Huang has given the impression of a Mercedes man. In a 2020 commercial, he appeared behind the wheel of a Mercedes S-class, touting the line's Nvidia-powered internal computers.

In the commercial, Huang said his first "nice car" was a Mercedes S-500.

"You can imagine how excited I was when Mercedes invited Nvidia to help build the computers for their next generation cars," he added.

He is now driving around in a Mercedes EQS electric luxury sedan, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Bill Gates

Bill Gates is an avid luxury car collector. He once said his biggest splurge after founding Microsoft was buying a Porsche 911 supercar, which he later sold.

The Microsoft cofounder seems to have a passion for Porsches. One of the best cars in his collection is his Porsche 959 sports car. And in 2020, he revealed in an interview with Marques Brownlee that he had bought an electric Porsche Taycan.

"It is very, very cool," he said at the time. "This is my first electric car, and I am enjoying it a lot."

Steve Ballmer

Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft, is currently the sixth-richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. But that doesn't necessarily translate to lavish taste in cars.

Ballmer is a loyal Ford customer; his father was a longtime Ford employee in Detroit, according to The Seattle Times. At one point, he drove a Ford Fusion hybrid sedan — personally delivered to him by Ford's then-president and CEO Alan Mulally.

Despite his family's wealth, the ex-Microsoft chief managed to instill that same ethic of modesty in his children. His son, Pete Ballmer, recently told BI that he still drives a 2015 Ford Focus — one which had been originally bought for Pete's younger brother in high school.

Michael Dell

Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, is known for having a lavish real estate portfolio, with properties in Austin, Hawaii, and the Caribbean. He also has his fair share of classic luxury cars. These have included a 2004 Porsche Boxster, a Porsche Carrera GT, and a Hummer H2.

It's not clear if he's owned any electric vehicles yet, but he has praised Elon Musk, who gave him a tour of a Tesla plant in Texas earlier this year. Dell posted a photo of the two next to a Tesla Cybertruck, calling the experience "most impressive and inspiring."

Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison, the cofounder and chairman of Oracle, is known for his extravagant spending habits. He collects real estate, cars, airplanes, and yachts.

When it comes to cars, his collection has included an Audi R8, a McLaren F1, a Lexus LFA, and the Lexus LS 600h L, according to the LA Times.

He's also known for giving expensive gifts, once offering a friend an Acura NSX, which costs more than $100,000.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who founded Google together in 1998, are usually among the 10 richest people in the world. That means that personal jets and yachts aren't much of a stretch for them.

However, the duo is more conservative when it comes to their car choices and have both owned a Toyota Prius.

Neither of them are strangers to electric cars — especially since they were both early investors in Tesla. Brin was the fourth person to receive a Tesla Model X crossover (sporting a white paint job) when it was first released in 2015.

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• Trump's lawyers defended his $175M civil fraud bond — and Knight Specialty — in court filings.
• The filings show that Trump used cash collateral that's only semi-committed to the bond.
• His lawyers are fighting the attorney general's office over the need for Monday's surety hearing.

Lawyers for Donald Trump are defending the "respected" insurers behind his $175 million civil fraud bond in a series of new court filings.

The papers, filed in Supreme Court in Manhattan, challenge the need for next Monday's surety hearing, at which Trump's fraud trial judge and lawyers for the state attorney general's office will scrutinize both the cash and the company behind the bond.

The filings confirm that Trump has used cash, not property, to back the bond.

"The $175 million bond is collateralized by $175,304,075.95 in cash held in a Charles Schwab account pledged to KSIC, and KSIC has the right to exercise control over that account," Trump's lawyers wrote in the bond's defense.

The bond company is able to gain control of the account with two days notice, the lawyers also wrote, suggesting that Trump, and not the bank or the bond underwriters, actually controls the cash.

This wording — that the insurer "has the right to exercise control" over the money — appears to fall short of what bond writers usually demand of their cash customers.

Usually, underwriters demand an irrevocable letter of credit stating that the money is secure in a bank account and can only be withdrawn after the appeals have ended. Such letters of credit give no wiggle room — the money is "irrevocably" committed to the bond.

Attorney General Letitia James is allowed, under New York's civil practice rules, to ask for proof that Knight is financially sound and that the bond's collateral is sufficient.

The final call on whether the Knight bond sinks or swims will be up to New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who has set a Monday hearing on the matter.

Trump's bond was underwritten by Knight Specialty Insurance Company, based in Los Angeles, run by billionaire Trump supporter Don Hankey, a so-called king of subprime car loans.

"KSIC is a respected, well-capitalized, Delaware-domiciled insurer that has long underwritten surety bonds and other types of insurance placed around the country," Trump's lawyers wrote.

Beyond Trump's Schwab account, Knight "independently maintains more than $539 million in assets and $138 million in equity," the filings say.

Beyond that, the insurer "has access to more than $2 billion in assets and $1 billion in equity" through its parent company, Knight Insurance Company," the filings say.

Read Trump's memorandum of law in support of his $175 million bond here.

The attorneys signing the filings include Christopher Kise, Alina Habba, and Clifford Robert, who represented Trump in his 10-week civil fraud trial.

Trump needs the bond to be in place while he appeals his big loss in the case.

In January, Engoron, found him liable for a decade of defrauding banks by lying about the net worth of his assets.

Without a bond in place, state Attorney General Letitia James could immediately collect on Engoron's massive judgment against him.

Trump's portion of the penalty started out in February at $454 million but has now risen, due to the judgment's continually-accruing interest, by nearly $6 million, according to a penalty-interest calculator maintained by the Associated Press.

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• Apple's share of the global smartphone market shrank nearly 10% in the first quarter of 2024, IDC reported.
• While the iPhone maker is still a force to be reckoned with, other rivals are gaining ground.
• Here are three of Apple's biggest competitors.

Apple is no longer the undisputed top dog of the smartphone world.

So who are Apple's biggest rivals and the rising threats trying to eat its lunch?

Global shipments of iPhones contracted nearly 10% in the first quarter of the year, according to a recent report from International Data Corporation, a market research firm.

That means Samsung has overtaken Apple in global smartphone shipments.

While Apple customers have been known to show loyalty to the company, the IDC report suggests that may be changing as competition heats up.

Apple has faced flagging demand in China, one of its biggest markets, amid heightened competition from manufacturers like Huawei.

Here are the companies that are gaining ground on Apple — or overtaking it — in the smartphone wars.

Xiaomi's market share exploded.

Xiaomi is a name little known to most Americans, but don't understimate it. The Chinese company is ranked 360th on the Fortune Global 500 list — higher than Netflix, Uber, and, Capital One.

Its most recent offering, the Mi 14, debuted in October to strong demand in China. Xiaomi also makes the Redmi Note series of smartphones.

Though China is its largest market, according to Reuters, Xiaomi is only fifth in market share there, as Vivo, Huawei, Honor and Apple occupy the top four spots. But Xiaomi has established a strong presence outside of China, particularly in India.

Xiaomi does not sell its phones in the US. This is partially due to political concerns, according to IDC researcher Nabila Popal, who told Android Central in 2022 that "after what happened with Huawei," no Chinese tech company "would want to risk investing heavily in a market that can any day can simply 'ban' them."

Xiaomi also sells an electric car, launching the Speed Ultra 7, or SU7, last year — succeeding where Apple threw in the towel.

In the first quarter of 2024, shipments of Xiaomi smartphones grew 33.8%, as the company solidified its spot as the third-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.

Transsion also had a strong start to the year.

Transsion is the company behind the Tecno, Itel, and Infinix lines of smartphones. Another Chinese manufacturer that most Americans probably won't have heard of, Transsion does particularly well in Africa, where it is the top seller with its "ultra low-end devices," according to an IDC report.

The company's presence in Africa has been bolstered by the Digital Silk Road, a component of China's Belt-and-Road development initiative, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Its phones have multiple SIM card slots, allowing users to switch coverage easily, and were among the first to support keyboards for African languages, according to CFR.

Transsion's most recent offerings include the Tecno Phantom V, a foldable device reminiscent of Samsung's Galaxy Z.

Samsung is king.

Samsung is the most well-known iPhone competitor to North American consumers. Its offerings, including the recent Samsung Galaxy S24, are generally some of the most popular and accessible Android phones.

The South Korean company recently released the Galaxy Z Flip 5, a foldable phone that may have spurred Apple to at least explore a similar option.

Now, Samsung is working toward integrating AI into the Galaxy line.

The company is also notable for its non-smartphone offerings, including appliances and, soon, wearables like the Galaxy smart ring.

Samsung edged past Apple to take the top spot for global smartphone manufacturers, even though its shipments shrank slightly (less than 1%) in the first quarter of 2024.

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• Polling for the 2024 election has shown Biden losing ground with younger voters to Trump.
• Gen Z and Millenials sided with Biden by ~20 percentage points in 2020, but that lead may be gone.
• Younger voters are historically less likely to vote than older-aged ones.

In a presidential race expected to be as tight as ever, polling increasingly shows younger voters shifting toward former President Donald Trump. But the group has historically been fickle and difficult to get to the polls, which the Republican Party has made increasingly difficult.

A survey conducted by Marist Poll in late March showed that 2 percentage points more Gen Z and Millenial-aged voters said they'd vote for President Joe Trump over Biden in a two-person race. A recent New York Times/Siena College Poll showed a similar result, with Biden winning over 1 percentage point more of Gen Z and Trump 1 percentage point more of Millenials polled.

Gen Z and Millenial voters sided with Biden by a nearly 20-point margin in 2020, and Trump only lost five key states by less than 100,000 votes.

As a recent analysis from Split Ticket demonstrated, a pollster's methodology and how it weighs a survey's results can lead to wildly different results. For example, while a survey using live text interviews showed young voters preferring Biden over Trump by 10 percentage points, one done using an online opt-in panel resulted in Trump winning over the age group.

If results from Marist, Siena College, and others prove accurate, it'll be a massive blow to Biden's reelection chances. Still, his campaign can rest somewhat easier knowing younger voters have historically been some of the least likely to make it to the polls.

Data compiled by the University of Florida Election Lab shows that since 1986, more than 50% of voting-aged Americans between 45 and 59 and more than 64% of those 60 or older have participated in presidential elections. But over the past 34 years, voters between the ages of 18 and 29 managed to breach the 50% mark only once, in 2020.

If the younger electorate this election has become more red-leaning, it's tough to assign much credit to state-run Republican Parties. Several have passed legislation in recent years restricting which documents can be used for identification on election day, potentially hampering the influence of young voters.

For example, after turnout from voters aged 18 and 19 surged 81% between 2018 and 2022, Idaho prohibited college IDs as a form of identification at polling stations. A proposed piece of legislation in Texas in 2023 also attempted to ban polling stations on college campuses, though the bill never got past committee.

Appealing to younger voters in college towns and campuses may also take a mental adjustment from some conservative influencers and leaders, like Turning Point USA founder and executive director Charlie Kirk. In 2020, he reportedly told a group of GOP activists and donors it was "a great thing" when colleges shut down their campuses amid the pandemic as it would hurt Democrats.

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