Trump’s trial gets a toothache

The first time someone's ever been excited about dentist appointment? [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a lurid Manhattan reality show of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - [Anonymous juries]( make sense. - Toss [your trash]( at the [earth’s expense](. - The [bird flu]( is getting intense. - Adidas [hops over]( Nike’s fence. Jury Duty Do you know anyone in Manhattan who got a toothache over the weekend? Maybe they’re an investment banker, a security engineer, a retired wealth manager or a physical therapist? Have they been suspiciously MIA during working hours? If your answer to all three questions is yes, then you might know someone in Trump’s criminal trial. Or you’re an orthodontist. The court adjourned [slightly early]( this afternoon for an alternate juror’s emergency dentist appointment — on [National Jelly Bean Day](, no less! — [per]( the Associated Press. Cue the [hysterics]( about how Judge Merchan thinks dental hygiene is more important than Barron Trump’s graduation ceremony. But the appointment begs the question: Why are jurors anonymous in the first place? As it turns out, it’s not so that they can get a root canal in peace. “Given Trump’s own bombast and the vehemence of some of his supporters, it’s easy to see why the judge wants to keep the jurors’ identities from the public ... What’s harder to work out is whether we should be concerned about how common the practice has become,” Stephen L. Carter [explains](. “If the jury is told by the judge that their names will be secret because they or their families are at risk, it is difficult to imagine how they can sit in the courtroom day after day maintaining the required presumption that the defendant is innocent.” Trump’s allies online ([Vivek Ramaswamy]( and [Elon Musk](, to name a couple) put the court [at risk]( as well. “That’s a phenomenon usually confined in the US to mob or terrorism prosecutions, but in an era when a former president glowingly [compares himself to]( ‘the great gangster’ Al Capone, here we are,” Timothy L. O’Brien — who was [live-tweeting]( from the courthouse all morning — [writes]( (free read). During opening arguments, the prosecution promised a “damning” testimony while the defense attempted to humanize Trump, calling him not only a former president, but “a person who’s just like you and just like me.” Which: I don’t know about you, but I really hope I never end up in a New York City courtroom with a porn star, a doorman and a former tabloid CEO. Similar to how he so often behaves on [Truth Social](, “Trump is veering from rage to petulance, and from slumber to intimidation, in the courtroom because he’s the star of a lurid Manhattan reality show he isn’t producing or directing,” says Tim. No amount of juror dentist appointments is going to stop this train wreck from pulling into the station. Bonus Politics Reading: - The US seems on the cusp of releasing a [$61 billion aid package]( for Ukraine. What next? — Marc Champion - “We want that seat” [is no reason]( to push Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire. — Stephen L. Carter - House Speaker Mike Johnson showed [true leadership]( by bucking MAGA extremists. — Patricia Lopez Hot Trash The twin sister to National Jelly Bean Day is, of course, Earth Day. Mother nature needs her Red 40 just like the rest of us! In that spirit, we’re kicking things off with this F.D. Flam [column]( about our literal dumpster fire of a country. “Every year, Americans dump over [250 million metric tons]( of garbage into landfills, where it seems to magically disappear from our lives. In reality, our trash either gets fossilized or digested by vast populations of methane-emitting bacteria,” she writes. And unfortunately, we just found out that our garbage emits wayyyyy more methane than we realized. You see, collecting data on trash is a logistical nightmare. “Landfills are very complex, dynamic environments,” Dan Cusworth, a climate scientist at the University of Arizona told F.D. There are hills, cliffs and random divots. “You can imagine the area where trash is being actively dumped — it’s too dangerous for someone to walk there.” Until recently, the only way to measure methane involved some brave soul hiking around on top of it. Although, thinking about it, middle school me would have gladly volunteered. In the 6th grade, my sledding hill of choice was located in a waste transfer station. It’s all making sense now, I know. Now, F.D. says we have these fancy [aerial remote sensing systems]( that can fly over hundreds of landfills to determine the true scope of the problem. The bad news is that all the apple cores and eco-friendly silverware you’ve carelessly tossed into the trash aren’t disintegrating in the ground as you wished. Instead, when your food scraps or other biodegradable stuff are “under 80 tons of other waste, bacteria resort to a different, oxygen-free (anaerobic) process that produces lots of methane.” Methane, of course, traps heat in the atmosphere, heating the planet — and cooling growth at the same time. Mark Gongloff [says]( “worldwide income will be 19% lower by 2049 than it would have been without global warming.” “Imagine you were running for king of the world on a platform of slashing economic growth by 20% forever. You’d be lucky to get your own family to vote for you. And yet humanity insists on running the global economy on fossil fuels that are doing exactly that sort of damage,” he writes. But we’re not beyond redemption — there is a way to avoid the worst. Instead of, say, firing ten T-bones on your charcoal grill this summer, go to the farmer’s market! Minimize your food waste! Turn what you don’t eat into animal feed. “Limiting warming to 2C (or even lower, if we can manage it) will make us not only safer and healthier but richer,” Mark reminds us. And uh, while we’re at it, maybe we lay off the jelly beans, too. Bonus Climate Reading: - To avoid US-style premium spikes in the UK and Europe, home insurers will need to [reduce risk.]( — Lara Williams - Biden is making [a simple wager]( by restricting drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. — Liam Denning - The US is neglecting what could make it a future [clean-tech superpower](. — David Fickling Telltale Charts Elsewhere in concerning farm-to-table developments, Lisa Jarvis [says the bird flu outbreak]( shows no signs of improvement. Last week, we found out that H5N1 is spreading not just from birds to herds, but among cows. We need to learn more about how that transmission is working, but officials at the US Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control appear to be twiddling their thumbs. Lisa says “there’s a palpable frustration among infectious disease experts that the agencies are being too protective of critical information and too timid in surveilling the virus.” Sound familiar? Low-rise sneakers with rubber soles are BACK, baby! Or, at least that’s what Andrea Felsted and all the [influencer girlies]( I follow on Instagram are telling me. The popularity of Adidas’s retro sneakers “was the main driver of last week’s upgrade to forecasts for full-year operating profit to about €700 million ($745.4 million) from €500 million,” Andrea [writes](. All signs point to the maker of Gazelle, Campus and Handball Spezial shoes overtaking Nike in growth for the first time in five years in 2024. Further Reading Businesses can help [wean customers]( off high-fee credit cards. — Bloomberg’s editorial board Rishi Sunak’s [anti-tobacco bill]( is endangering his political health. — Martin Ivens Outsider CEOs and entrepreneurs are [shaking up]( the Paris billionaires’ club. — Lionel Laurent Since when did Indonesia become China’s [new best friend](? — Karishma Vaswani JPMorgan’s [pandemic cash gamble]( was smarter than Bank of America’s bet on bonds. — Paul J. Davies Walmart’s marriage of the [everyday RFID tag]( and AI promises to bolster productivity. — Thomas Black ICYMI Columbia’s [protests]( are spreading. The IDF [intelligence chief]( resigned. Elon Musk’s [robotaxi]( puts Tesla in a bind. Kickers Did Manischewitz just [yassify matzo](? “An octopus [took my camera](” is an epic excuse. Is [Nelly Korda]( the Caitlin Clark of golf? (h/t Kristen Bellstrom) Inside the Wild West of [human composting](. Notes: Please send Juror Number 4’s email and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Threads](, [TikTok](, [Twitter](, [Instagram]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](