--:-- Yasmin Khan: Good morning. It's Wednesday, January 31st. I'm Yasmin Khan, in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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. But first, a quick look at a few major stories in the news.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: NPR talked about timing of a potential deal with Qatar's prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jasim Al Thani.
--:-- Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jasim Al Thani: We cannot predict that is it 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: President Biden says he's already decided on the response and that he doesn't want a broader conflict with Iran.
--:-- Joe Biden: I don't think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That's not what I'm looking for.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: And a judge is striking down Tesla's multi-billion dollar pay package for CEO Elon Musk. The stock options and the 2018 pay deal are potentially worth more than $50 billion.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Shareholders sued, saying it was excessive. The case was argued in Delaware, where Tesla and many big American companies are incorporated.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Musk said on his social media platform X, never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware.
--:-- Elon Musk: 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Attorney General Letitia James has accused him of lying to banks about his finances in order to secure better terms on loans.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Trump's attorneys are fighting the rulings. Bloomberg reports on how the total financial penalties could impact Trump personally and politically.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: The exact number isn't known because his finances are so murky.
--:-- Eric 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: It would come out to about, without interest, about 15% of Trump's total assets.
--:-- Eric Larson: 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Eric Larson: The upcoming civil fraud decision could also strike at the heart of Trump's carefully cultivated image as an entrepreneur.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: He built his persona around his wealth and being a successful businessman here in New York.
--:-- Eric Larson: 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: And one thing is certain, Trump's legal bills are growing. He also faces 91 criminal charges.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Craig Silverman: ProPublica's been investigating what some federal prosecutors call the Walmart scheme.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Craig Silverman: 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Craig Silverman: And then the scammer ultimately resells the gift cards online.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Walmart tells ProPublica that it has strong anti-fraud efforts in place, and it has blocked millions of dollars worth of suspicious money transfers.
--:-- Craig Silverman: But ProPublica's reporting finds that criminals consistently use Walmart stores in their schemes.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Craig Silverman: And so if I'm a scammer and I need to get somebody somewhere to get money out of them, a Walmart becomes convenient.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Craig Silverman: In 2018, several states worked with Target, Best Buy, and Walmart to tighten up security. But Walmart was slower than the other retailers.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Silverman also says Walmart's anti-training program for its employees is inadequate.
--:-- Craig Silverman: If you're working, say, the customer service desk at a Walmart, 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Walmart is supposed to be training its associates who are running a cash to spot the signs of somebody buying gift cards in a state of duress or somebody buying a large number of gift cards.
--:-- Craig Silverman: We found examples in court cases where people were buying more than $10,000 worth of gift cards in one store or spread out over just a couple of stores.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: There's much more detail in this ProPublica investigation, including how a Virginia man spearheaded an operation to launder millions in gift cards.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: You can check out the full story on the Apple News app.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Now to the world of college sports. Imagine every time you stepped onto a basketball court, you were there purely to get run over.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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 Kaitlin Clark.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: There's a whole lot of cardio and checked egos involved.
--:-- Isaac Pruitt: I was once guarding Clark so close that our fingers interlocked when she took a three-point shot. She made it anyway.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: He described playing against her to the local publication, Hawks Central.
--:-- Isaac Pruitt: She'll hit some 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.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: So that's the same way with all of us practice players.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Kaitlin Clark is currently chasing the all-time scoring record for NCAA Division I basketball and has a chance to rack up some more points tonight against Northwestern.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Bloomberg Businessweek looks at how Eli Lilly's new obesity treatment could become the best-selling drug of all time.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: If you're listening in the Podcasts app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Thanks for listening to Apple News Today.
