Tuesday, 13 May 2025
Amnesty report exposes abuse of Kenyan domestic workers in Saudi Arabia (LINK) — ground.news: 13 media reports (LINK) — 13 May 2025.
Elon Musk just hijacked Trump's Saudi visit to land a major deal: Saudi Arabia approved the use of Starlink for aviation and maritime use (LINK) 13 May 2025.
Nvidia, AMD and Amazon to cash in on Saudi Arabia's AI hub ambitions: given the green light to ship thousands of powerful semiconductors for Humain, a new entity backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, to provide an artificial intelligence hub for the Middle East region (LINK) 13 May 2025.
Trump says U.S. will remove all sanctions on Syria: had been designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. government since 1979 (LINK) 14 May 2025.
US imposes sanctions on over 20 companies it says helped send Iranian oil to China and used the proceeds to fund terrorist activities: sanctions target a network controlled by Sepehr Energy, the commercial affiliate of Iran's Armed Forces General Staff, which uses front companies to conceal oil shipments. (LINK) — ground.news: 38 media reports (LINK) — 13 May 2025.
Harvard loses another $450 million in grants in escalating battle with Trump administration (LINK) 13 May 2025.
— In a letter to Harvard, a federal antisemitism task force said the university will lose grants from eight federal agencies in addition to $2.2 billion that was previously frozen by the Trump administration.
Federal judge OKs Trump's use of Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans (LINK) 13 May 2025.
GD Culture Group, Chinese firm with zero revenue, bought up to $300 million of $Trump meme coin (LINK) 13 May 2025.
Trump fired copyright chief after she warned of AI companies violating the law (LINK) 13 May 2025.
Mali junta dissolves all political parties in latest opposition crackdown (LINK) 13 May 2025.
Voting technology firm Smartmatic accuses Fox News, Rupert Murdoch of destroying evidence in 2020 election defamation case (LINK) 13 May 2025.
— Rupert Murdoch was chairman of Fox Corporation during the 2020 election, and his son was CEO. The elder Murdoch stepped down in 2023 and his son became Fox Corp. chairman. A Fox spokesperson said the latest allegations from Smartmatic were a "desperate attempt to distract" from a recent evidentiary ruling that was decided in the network's favour.
— Smartmatic claimed the deleted texts were from November and December 2020, when numerous Fox hosts promoted the debunked lie that Smartmatic machines rigged that year's presidential election against President Donald Trump.
Germany bans largest Reichsbürger faction known as Kingdom of Germany, arrests leaders in raid (LINK) — ground.news: 256 media reports (LINK) — 13 May 2025.
— Members refuse to pay taxes and social contributions while using antisemitic conspiracy theories to justify their supposed claim to power under the leadership of Peter Fitzek, 59, who was arrested. Government said group undermines democratic order by creating a counter-state, rejecting Germany's legitimacy, and engaging in economic crimes.
UnitedHealth CEO steps down for 'personal reasons': UNH also suspended financial outlook for the year because costs of Medicare Advantage "remained higher than expected". The company expects to return to growth in 2026 (LINK) 13 May 2025.
— Last month in a call with analysts following its most recent earnings report, Witty said its "overall performance that was frankly unusual and unacceptable". Shares that day fell more than 20%, its biggest single day drop in nearly three decades. The stock fell nearly 11% in premarket trading on Tuesday.
Erik and Lyle Menendez, 54 and 57, are now eligible for parole after judge resentences them in the shotgun killings of their parents more than three decades ago (LINK) 13 May 2025.
Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan indicted on accusations she helped a man evade immigration agents (LINK) 13 May 2025.
French film star Gérard Depardieu found guilty in 2021 sexual assault trial, given a suspended jail term of 18 months (LINK) 13 May 2025.
— The judge said there was no reason to doubt the word of the two women victims, who had told the court how Depardieu had touched them on intimate parts of the body, using lewd language. He placed Depardieu on a list of sex offenders and ordered him to pay compensation of €1,000 (£840) each for "secondary victimisation", a recent innovation covering the additional suffering for the women from the trial itself.
Proton threatens to quit Switzerland over new surveillance law: "We would be less confidential than Google" — If passed, new rules would require VPNs and messaging apps to identify and retain users' data: "The only country in Europe with a roughly equivalent law is Russia" (LINK) 13 May 2025.
Daily Beast: Washington Post staff sound alarm at Bezos's CEO's drinking: CEO Will Lewis has seen a mass exodus among staff — but staffers can't even find him. (LINK) 13 May 2025.
Luxury skyscrapers, golf courses and cryptocurrency: the Trump family's business ties to the Middle East have more than tripled since the president's first term in office (LINK) 13 May 2025.
Axios: Trump's executive order to lower drug prices may not do much of that: sets a deadline of 30 days and then will see what happens. (LINK) 13 May 2025.
— The order calls for drugmakers to voluntarily cut prices or face the threat of a "most favored nation" pricing regime that would peg the cost of their medicines to what's paid in other wealthy nations, where they often sell for less. Trump posted on social media Sunday that American consumers would "almost immediately" see their drug prices fall by 30% to 80%. In reality, it would take much longer than that. Trump's 2020 attempt to tie Medicare Part B drugs to the lowest price paid by other OECD countries was blocked by a federal judge after the drug industry sued.
$20 million "Mediterranean Blue Diamond" ready to wow at Sotheby's Geneva auction on May 13 (LINK) 13 May 2025.
10 acts win a place in the Eurovision final but 5 are sent home as the music contest in Basle, Switzerland, sheats up (LINK) 13 May 2025.