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Good afternoon. Here's what you should know today, April 2: | |
- Trump is preparing to turn himself in on Tuesday
- As many as eight million people could lose their Medicaid coverage
- College basketball fans are getting ready for the NCAA finals
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 | | WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich. PHOTO: The Wall Street Journal. | | |
1. Blinken calls his Russian counterpart to demand the release of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich. | |
| The U.S. secretary of state told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the continued detention of Gershkovich and another wrongfully detained American, Paul Whelan, was "unacceptable" and that they should be released immediately, according to an official statement on the call. Gershkovich was detained last week while on a reporting trip to the Russian provincial city of Yekaterinburg. He is the first American journalist to be arrested on espionage charges by Russian authorities since 1986. The Wall Street Journal, Gershkovich's colleagues and the Biden administration all deny Russia's claim that he was spying on behalf of the U.S., and have called for his immediate release. | |
| On the Ground in Putin's Russia: Evan Gershkovich's Coverage of a Country at War (Read) | |
2. Trump is gearing up for a historic week that will feature his surrender and arraignment on hush-money charges. | |
| The former president is scheduled to make an initial appearance in a Manhattan court at 2:15 p.m. Tuesday. He is experiencing a boost among Republicans, with new polling showing him widening his lead among prospective 2024 White House GOP rivals, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Officials in New York are preparing for protests and one of Trump's strongest allies in Washington, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, was encouraging people to head to the city. Streets surrounding the lower Manhattan courthouse are to be blocked off. | |
3. Individual investors, spooked by the banking storm, are losing their appetite for U.S. stocks. | |
| After reaching a monthly record in February, share purchases by individuals have slowed sharply, falling to levels not seen since November 2020, Vanda Research data show. The pullback leaves equity markets without a dependable leg of support as some investors become increasingly concerned about the possibility of a pronounced recession, rather than the "soft landing" scenario many had hoped the Fed could pull off in its efforts to tame inflation. In the coming days, investors will pore over the March jobs report for insights into how the labor market is faring. | |
| World Bank Warns of Lost Decade for Global Economy (Read) OPEC+ Members Set to Cut Production Voluntarily (Read) SVB Collapse Complicates Banks' Efforts to Unload More Than $25 Billion of Junk Debt (Read) | |
4. Millions of people could lose Medicaid coverage as eligibility reviews resume. | |
| Eligibility reviews for Medicaid recipients, which were paused during the pandemic, start up again this month. Almost 92 million people are currently enrolled in the program. Regulators estimate as many as eight million people could be ousted for procedural reasons, such as not having updated contact information. This carries high financial stakes for the healthcare industry, including hospitals that risk paying more to cover uninsured patients and insurers that could lose some of the money they get for managing state Medicaid programs. | |
5. Homelessness is shaping Denver's crowded mayoral race. | |
| Frustrated residents, business leaders and advocates for people without housing are all pressing the 16 candidates on how they plan to solve the city's mounting homeless crisis. Candidates have proposed solutions such as moving unsheltered people into more city-approved campsites, building micro communities of tiny homes and converted hotels, and launching a leasing program to get people into more stable housing. Polls so far have shown no clear favorite ahead of Tuesday's election. | |
6. The NCAA finals are here. | |
| Iowa will be playing against LSU in the women's basketball title game later today. In the men's tournament, San Diego State is set to face off against Connecticut on Monday night. The path to San Diego State's national final debut literally came down to the final second: Lamont Butler hit a game-winning shot as the clock expired to defeat Florida Atlantic, 72-71. Connecticut, on the other hand, has been deep into celebration mode by the time the final buzzer sounded in each of their five tournament games so far. | |
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