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- [00:00]
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Caitlin McCabe
Farm Aid, frozen by the shutdown is due to be released to help farmers harvest their biggest crop ever. Plus, a flurry of White House officials touched down in Israel to help shore up the fragile ceasefire deal.
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Anat Pilled
The next 30 days are crucial because right now they're in the first stage of the agreement, which was more of a prisoner and hostage exchange. But the US Wants to move to a second stage of the agreement, which is even thornier.
- [00:45]
Caitlin McCabe
And how? The bankruptcy of tween retailer Claire's has sent lawyers and a judge down memory lane. It's Wednesday, October 22nd. I'm Caitlin McCabe for the Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of what's news, the top headlines and business stories moving your world. We begin today with a Journal exclusive as we've learned that the Trump administration is planning to release more than $3 billion in aid to U.S. farmers that have been frozen as a result of the government shutdown, According to administration officials. Trump directed the Agriculture Department to distribute the money from a fund that was used to bail out distressed farmers during Trump's first term. Journal agriculture reporter Patrick Thomas says it will help a sector that has been grappling with the fallout from Trump's trade war with China.
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Patrick Thomas
So American farmers are in a really tough position right now between low commodity prices for corn and soybeans and rising costs for equipment, fertilizer and other farmer needs. What they were really getting concerned about during the government shutdown was that they were going to lose some of the funding for traditional safety nets that these row crop farmers often have, and that over the next 30 to 60 days, if Congress didn't reach a resolution here, they wouldn't be able to access that money after we finish the harvest season, which should be wrapping up in the coming weeks. So this helps keep farmers afloat, at least in the short term.
- [02:19]
Caitlin McCabe
Here USDA plans to resume core operations at the Farm Service Agency on Thursday. The administration is discussing a bailout of more than $10 billion for struggling farmers, but officials say that new relief is on hold while the government is shut down. Meanwhile, we're also reporting that the Trump administration is pushing officials in Argentina to limit China's influence over the distressed South American country. It comes as Wall street banks are working with the US government on a $40 billion lifeline for Buenos Aires. According to people familiar with conversations in recent weeks between Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and Argentina's economic minister, talks have touched on curbing China's access to resources and critical minerals and granting the US Expanded access access to uranium. Argentina's finance ministry declined to comment, while a spokesman for President Xavier Milei didn't respond to comment requests and A Trump nominee has withdrawn from a Senate confirmation hearing to lead the White House ethics watchdog office after report that he made racist and anti Semitic comments in a text chain. The move by Paul Ingracia came after Republican senators voiced opposition to the nomination to lead the Office of Special Counsel and Senate Majority Leader John told reporters on Monday the president's pick didn't have the votes to be confirmed. In a social media post, Ingrassia said he removed himself from the Thursday hearing because he didn't have enough votes, but didn't say he was withdrawing his nomination. U.S. leaders, including Vice President J.D. vance, are in Israel this week as the Trump administration works to keep an ever fragile Gaza ceasefire deal from collapsing. Vance is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, according to an Israeli official, following his visit yesterday to a civil military operations center monitoring the truce.
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Unnamed US Official
What we've seen the past week gives me great optimism. The cease fire is going to hold and if we get from where we were a week ago to a long term durable peace between Israel and Gaza, there are going to be hills and valleys. There are going to be moments where it looks like things aren't going particularly well. But given that and given the history of conflict, I think that everybody should be proud of where we are today.
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Caitlin McCabe
Vance also reiterated recent comments from President Trump saying that if Hamas doesn't cooperate, it will be, quote, obliterated. His remarks came after a flare up in violence in recent days, though Israel and Hamas have signaled they aren't interested in collapsing the deal. Anatpalet is on the ground in Tel Aviv and joins me now. Annette, walk us through the tensions that we've seen between Israel and Hamas in recent days.
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Anat Pilled
Yeah, the ceasefire agreement hasn't been in effect for that long, but despite that, we've seen basically dozens of clashes between the two sides. So both sides have accused each other of violations of the agreement. I think we saw the peak on Sunday after Israel struck dozens of Hamas targets. Despite the ceasefire, after what it said was a Hamas attack that left two Israeli soldiers dead. The military said that there were two other attempts to attack soldiers on Sunday. Hamas did deny any involvement in the attack and Said it was carried out by a rogue cell. But we've seen several incidents like this. And also the Israeli military has said we've had attempts of Palestinians to basically cross the yellow line. At times those people were armed, sometimes maybe not. And they have tried to thwart them, and sometimes they've killed them. So both sides are accusing each other of violations, and that's where we stand right now.
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Caitlin McCabe
We did see Hamas release the bodies of two more Israeli hostages yesterday. Does that signal that things are stabilizing? And what does it tell us about the ceasefire process so far?
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Anat Pilled
Yeah, so I think that that is a good sign. So Hamas had the bodies of 28 hostages in Gaza that either died in the October 7 attack or hostages that died in captivity. And on the first day when the ceasefire came into effect, it only returned four dead bodies. Israel was pretty angered by this. But we've seen, you know, a trickle of more bodies, and it's returned a total of 15 bodies that have been confirmed by forensic testing in Israel. That means that another 13 are left in the enclave. And, you know, in the earlier days, Israeli officials were accusing Hamas of violations of the agreement, although Hamas has said that it would be very difficult to reach all the bodies. We saw Vance yesterday saying that some of the bodies are under the rubble and the location of some has been lost. So it's going to be a challenge. And Israel mediating countries have established an international force to search for these bodies. I think it's a good sign. Hamas is pressured to produce more bodies. And I think it shows that in addition to Israel, it is also under pressure from the US and the mediators to abide by the agreement.
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Caitlin McCabe
Yes. Speaking of the U.S. we've also got an influx of U.S. leaders to Israel this week. What do they hope to accomplish?
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Anat Pilled
Yes, we've really seen a flurry of officials. So we have US Special envoy Steve Witkoff, the President's son in law, Jared Kushner, we have Vice President Vance, we have Rubio coming soon. What we saw from some of the US officials is they want to make sure that Israel abides by the agreement. Witkoff highlighted that the next 30 days are crucial because right now they're in the first stage of the agreement, which was more of a prisoner and hostage exchange. But the US Wants to move to a second stage of the agreement which is even thornier and is supposed to include, you know, the disarmament of Hamas and an international force coming into Gaza. So the US Officials are pushing Israel to abide by the agreement. Don't Escalate at the same time, Arab mediators, you know, being pushed by the US to put pressure on Hamas in Israel. Some people have referred to this, jokingly as BB sitting where all these US Officials are coming and kind of making sure that everything is going smoothly.
- [08:14]
Caitlin McCabe
That's Journal reporter Anat Pilled. Anat, thanks so much for joining us.
- [08:17]
Anat Pilled
Thanks for having me.
- [08:19]
Caitlin McCabe
Coming up, corporate bankruptcy hearings are usually all business, but when the company in question has pierced over 100 million years, well, it turns out the courtroom can't keep its composure. That story and more after the break.
- [08:38]
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- [08:57]
Caitlin McCabe
Sports betting giant Giraffe Kings is entering the world of prediction markets, acquiring trading company Railbird Technologies and launching a new app that will let users place money on events. As the Journal's Katherine Hamilton explains, the venture means users can bet on sports games as well as things like elections and natural catastrophes, and is part of the company's efforts to compete with rivals.
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Katherine Hamilton
Sports betting companies have been getting increasingly interested in prediction markets, and FanDuel earlier this year partnered with the prediction markets platform CME Group. That's partly because these companies view prediction markets as a way to circumvent the strict regulations and taxes that traditional sports gambling faces. And sports betting companies are also facing more competition from companies like the prediction markets platform Kalshi, which gained traction during the 2024 presidential election and recently launched.
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Caitlin McCabe
A parlay DraftKingstock rallied after hours on the news. Meanwhile, we've learned that BlackRock is among the biggest investors in a $27 billion private debt deal behind Meta's construction of a data center in Louisiana called Hyperion. Last week, BlackRock bought more than $3 billion of bonds to finance the data center, with the project 80% owned by private credit manager Blue Owl Capital. Facebook parent Meta owns the remaining stake, according to S and P Global. The deal highlights the scale of the artificial intelligence buildout and its demand for capital. It is the largest private debt offering ever. The bond sale also stands out because S and P assigned it an Investment Grade A rating. And finally, bankruptcy hearings aren't exactly a place you think of when you hear about people swapping stories from their childhoods, dishing about their decisions to pierce their ears or bets gone wrong that landed them in the piercing chair. Anyway, but when the company going through bankruptcy is retailer Claire's, which has pierced more than 100 million ears, well, nobody can stick to courtroom decorum. Recent bankruptcy proceedings for the tween retailer devolved into stories and confessions from attorneys billing around $2,600 an hour and even the judge about their experience with the company.
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Becky Urich
Claire's filed for bankruptcy in August. And during its debut hearing that month, some of the lawyers, and also the judge got caught up in the memories. The judge talked about how his daughters got pierced at Claire's. And then there was a lawyer from another firm who volunteered his piercing stories.
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Caitlin McCabe
That's Journal bankruptcy reporter Becky Urich. She says amid all of that, Claire's found a buyer for most of its stores. That's added an interesting wrinkle for one member of the legal team from Kirkland and Ellis, which represents the retailer.
- [11:59]
Becky Urich
This one Kirkland lawyer said if Claire's finds a buyer, he will return to court and get his ear re pierced. Well, Claire's found a buyer to take over most of its stores. So last month the lawyer returned to bankruptcy court to get his ear re pierced. Now next week at the end of October, Claire's is going to be back in bankruptcy court to get its bankruptcy plan approved. I asked this lawyer if he'd be wearing an earring. He said he didn't think so, but he didn't rule out changing his mind.
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Caitlin McCabe
And that's it for what's news for this Wednesday morning. Today's show is produced by Daniel Bach. Our supervising producer is Sandra Kilhoff. And I'm Caitlin McCabe for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back tonight with the new show. Until then, thanks for listening.
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