TODAY’S WHITE HOUSE story

Trump pardons crypto titan who enriched family

What happened
President Donald Trump pardoned billionaire cryptocurrency magnate Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of Binance, the White House said yesterday. Zhou, commonly known as CZ, served four months in prison last year after he and his company pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering by terrorists, drug traffickers, purveyors of child sexual abuse material and other criminals.

Who said what
The pardon followed “months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family’s own crypto company,” said The Wall Street Journal. That company, World Liberty Financial, “has generated significantly more income for the Trump family in the past year than their property portfolio ever has annually,” and “Binance has been one of the main drivers of the growth.” A Binance deal earlier this year involving the United Arab Emirates and a World Liberty stablecoin “is poised to generate tens of millions of dollars a year for the Trumps and the family of Steve Witkoff, the president’s top Middle East adviser,” The New York Times said. But Zhao also “hired lawyers and lobbyists with ties to the Trump administration” to push for his pardon.

“I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people,” Trump said yesterday. “A lot of people say that he wasn’t guilty of anything.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Zhao was “prosecuted by the Biden administration in their war on cryptocurrency.”

What next?
Trump’s pardon “could pave the way” for Zhao to retake the head of the cryptocurrency exchange he cofounded, Reuters said, and “may offer the chance for Binance to expand in the United States.” It’s “unclear what the pardon means” for the $4.3 billion fine Binance agreed to pay the government, The Washington Post said.

TODAY’S SCIENCE Story

Dinosaurs were thriving before asteroid, study finds

What happened
Dinosaurs appear to have been thriving before a giant asteroid hit the Earth 66 million years ago, paleontologists working in New Mexico said yesterday in the journal Science. Experts have long debated whether the asteroid was the final blow to a dinosaur population already in decline or if it cut short a flourishing reptilian dynasty.

Who said what
Using “two high-tech dating techniques” on fossil beds in northwest New Mexico’s Ojo Alamo Formation, the paleontologists determined that a wide range of dinosaur species lived in the area within 380,000 years of the mass extinction event, “a blink of the eye in the geological record,” The Washington Post said. That implies “dinosaurs were still going strong up to the moment the asteroid hit,” not “gradually wasting away to extinction as many paleontologists once believed,” said study coauthor Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh.

Researchers not involved in the study had mixed responses. The “new evidence” is “very exciting,” but “this is just one location, not a representation of the complexity of dinosaur faunas at the time,” said University of Bristol paleontologist Mike Benton. Philip Mannion at University College London told The New York Times that the “robust” analysis showed that if not for the asteroid, “the Age of Dinosaurs would almost certainly have continued for much longer and might even still be the case today.”

What next?
Dinosaur fossils have been found on every continent, but “accurately dating them can be a challenge,” The Associated Press said. “More work needs to be done to date those sections,” said study coauthor Dan Peppe at Baylor University. But so far, “it seems like the same pattern that we’re seeing in North America is holding up globally.”

It’s not all bad

During deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery, a woman with Parkinson’s disease experienced “immediate improvement in her finger movements,” allowing her to play the clarinet in the middle of the procedure, said The Independent. Denise Bacon of East Sussex, England, was awake during the four-hour DBS procedure, which involves implanting electrodes into the brain to try to treat symptoms of movement disorders. Bacon said she is now “keen” to swim and dance to see if “my abilities have improved there.”

Under the radar

The WWII massacre dividing Senegal, France

A new report on the 1944 Thiaroye massacre of African infantrymen by French soldiers in Senegal found that the shooting over a pay dispute was “premeditated,” said France 24. Substantial evidence surrounding the attack was covered up by the French authorities in the months and years afterwards, the report concluded.

The incident at Thiaroye was “one of the worst massacres during French colonial rule,” said Le Monde. Its effects are still felt and mark a point of tension in relations between the two countries. “Questions remain” about the number of soldiers killed and their identities and burial locations, with modern estimates putting the death toll 10 times higher than the official figure of 35 recorded at the time, said Le Monde.

Leading up to the massacre, France repatriated about 1,300 West African troops who had been liberated from German captivity. After arriving at the Thiaroye camp, the African soldiers demanded equal treatment and overdue pay promised by France. When the payments failed to materialize, tensions rose. Days later, French forces opened fire on the unarmed men, accusing them of mutiny — a claim that historians now dispute. The 301-page report, submitted to Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye last week, “urges France to formally apologize to the riflemen’s families and communities,” said France 24.

Faye praised President Emmanuel Macron’s “courage” for acknowledging the massacre last November, and told Le Monde he believed “relations remain very good” between the nations. But in July, the Senegalese president welcomed the removal of French troops from his country. “What country can have foreign troops on its soil and still claim independence?” he told the newspaper last year.

On this day

October 24, 1992

The Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Atlanta Braves 4-3 in Game 6 of the World Series, becoming the first non-U.S. team to win the MLB title. The Blue Jays would repeat as World Series champions in 1993 but did not reach the Fall Classic again until this year. Toronto faces the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 tonight.

TODAY’S newspaperS

‘Only a memory’

“Trump said he wouldn’t touch East Wing, then tore it down,” The Sacramento Bee said on Friday’s front page. Trump “completes leveling of East Wing of White House to build ballroom,” the New York Daily News says. “The East Wing is now only a memory,” The Washington Post says, and as 2026 looms, “Obama lends his cachet to redistricting fight.” The “newest battle over districts is in Virginia,” says The New York Times. “Trump tanks trade talks with Canada” as his “sanctions strike Russia lifeline,” The Wall Street Journal says. “U.S. ‘Bibisitters’ aim to save Gaza truce,” says the Arizona Republic. “New panel to scrutinize immigration raid actions” in Illinois, the Chicago Tribune says. “San Francisco ‘surge’ on hold,” the Los Angeles Times says.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

Call from the wild

A wild black bear broke into Sequoia Park Zoo in Eureka, California, and stood at a gate to “peer in at the three black bears in their habitat within the park,” said the Los Angeles Times. The curious visitor was spotted before the facility opened, and was “very polite” while interacting with his new pals through the fence, the zoo said on social media. Wildlife officials eventually coaxed him back to his home in Sequoia Park, behind the facility.

Morning Report was written and edited by Will Barker, Nadia Croes, David Edwards, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.