News From Around the Web
#1 Elon Musk Loses Court Battle With OpenAI, Fails to Get Sam Altman Booted From ChatGPT Parent Company - Sean James from Mediaite, WION, Tiamoah, Dispatchy, VOZ, TechSpot, and Elon Musk on X
A California jury ruled against Elon Musk and rejected his lawsuit that claimed OpenAI boss Sam Altman violated the artificial intelligence company’s founding mission by converting it from a nonprofit to a for-profit business. The jury deliberated for about two hours before sharing its determination at the federal courthouse in Oakland. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers accepted the unanimous decision and said, “There’s substantial evidence to support the jury’s finding,” per CNBC. Musk was one of the co-founders of OpenAI — the parent company of ChatGPT — in 2015, but left three years later after having disagreements with how the company was being run. He later sued Altman in 2024, saying he and OpenAI President Greg Brockman acted against its stated goal of developing a nonprofit AI company that “could benefit society.”
#2 Donald Trump’s Financial Disclosure Shows Purchases of Major Media Company Securities Including Paramount, WBD, and Netflix - Ted Johnson for Deadline, Whale Insider, USA TODAY, Jonathan Lemire, Rep. Mike Levin, and The Washington Post on X
President Donald Trump‘s first-quarter financial disclosure report showed thousands of transactions that include purchases and sales of securities across big tech and major media companies. The filings, released by the Office of Government Ethics this week, showed that the president purchased between $15,001 and $50,000 in Paramount Skydance securities on March 25, and the same amount in Warner Bros. Discovery on that date. The form showed a $15,001 to $50,000 purchase in WBD on March 12...
#3 Voters in Six States Head to Polls With Kentucky’s Massie Facing Trump’s Fury - Tom Ambrose for The Guardian, Julia, ABC News, Ryan Matta, Paul A. Szypula, and Elburrohouse on X
Voters will head to the polls in primaries across six states today, with the contest in Kentucky seen as a test of Donald Trump’s grip on the Republican Party. Trump launched a tirade against the state’s congressman, Thomas Massie, over the weekend as he looks to remove him from office. Massie is one of very few senior Republicans who has dared to defy Trump, with the president calling him the “worst and most unreliable Republican Congressman in the history of our Country”. He went on to call on Kentucky voters to “vote the bum out on Tuesday” on social media. Massie has been a consistent thorn in Trump’s side, voting against his signature tax and spending cuts bill, helping to force the Justice Department to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, and insisting on congressional oversight over the military actions in Venezuela and Iran. Now he faces a bruising primary against his Trump-endorsed challenger, Ed Gallrein...
#4 Unearthed Posts Show Dem Senate Hopeful Praising Vulgar Graffiti, Making Crude Porta Potty Admission - Andrew Mark Miller for Steve Guest/Fox News Politics, @TrickyDickPol/Graham Platner for Senate, Nathan Brand, Stephen L. Miller, and Adam Mossoff/Steven Robinson on X
Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who is already facing criticism over past Reddit posts, made graphic sexual comments on his now-deleted account about masturbating in portable toilets and explicit graffiti found in military restrooms. In one March 2017 post on Reddit’s r/Military forum, Platner responded to a discussion about nostalgic military smells by writing: "I still have to jerk off every time I sit in a portas----er… that blue water smell conditioned me." The archived posts were made under "P-Hustle," a now-deleted Reddit account that Platner previously acknowledged was his. In another post from March 2021 on Reddit’s r/USMC forum, Platner described a crude penis drawing inside a portable toilet while deployed overseas...
#5 Iran Says Peace Proposal Includes Reparations for War Damage, US Troop Withdrawal - THE BUSINESS TIMES, All News 4, ConflictLive, Yahoo News, Roya News English, and GREY ZONE on X
Tehran’s latest peace proposal to the United States involves ending hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon, the exit of US forces from areas close to Iran, and reparations for destruction caused by the US-Israeli war, state media reported on Tuesday (May 19). In Teheran’s first comments on the proposal, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Teheran also sought the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen funds and an end to the US marine blockade on the country, according to IRNA news agency. The terms as described in the Iranian reports appeared little changed from Iran’s previous offer, which US President Donald Trump rejected last week as “garbage”.
#6 Goodbye Trump, Hello Putin: China Welcomes Russian Leader Facing Pressure at Home - Mithil Aggarwal for NBC News, CNBC, euronews, China pulse, RussiaNews, and Matthew Levitt on X
Days after hosting President Donald Trump, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is welcoming another big guest, with Russian President Vladimir Putin arriving Tuesday as Beijing seeks to project itself as a stabilizing force on the world stage. If Trump’s state visit last week was about managing ties between the superpowers, Putin’s is about reassuring a long-standing partner whose leader calls Xi a “dear friend.” For Putin — whose two-day visit this week is his 25th to China as president — it is crucial to reaffirm ties with China amid an intractable war with Ukraine he seems increasingly unable to win, which is helping fuel rare signs of public dissatisfaction...#7 Adani Group Stocks Rise After US Drops Fraud Charges Against Gautam Adani - Surbhi Misra for Reuters, Peter Heyck, 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐣 𝐊𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐫, Washington Eye, 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐫 𝐇𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐢, and ANI on X
Shares of Adani Group companies jumped as much as 5.3% on Tuesday, after the Trump administration moved to dismiss criminal fraud charges against billionaire Gautam Adani, easing a key legal overhang on the ports-to-power conglomerate. The U.S. Justice Department on Monday moved to drop charges accusing Adani and associates of paying bribes to secure power supply contracts in India, while Adani Enterprises separately settled allegations tied to liquefied petroleum gas imports from Iran. Shares of the group's flagship, Adani Enterprises (ADEL.NS), opens new tab, rose as much as 2.71% and were last up 1.75% at 2736.70 rupees by 1:45 p.m. IST...#8 Trump Administration Proposes Welcoming Thousands More Afrikaners to the U.S. As Refugees, Citing “Emergency” - Camilo Montoya-Galvez and Joe Walsh for CBS News, Africalix, MariyamNawaj, Mario Nawfal, World Peace, and INDEPENDENT PRESS on X
The Trump administration is doubling down on efforts to resettle White Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees in the U.S., proposing to increase the government's refugee cap to welcome thousands more of them, according to a State Department plan sent to Congress and obtained by CBS News. The administration has effectively closed the U.S. refugee program for most nationalities, except Afrikaners from South Africa, arguing they're the victims of racial oppression for being White. The South African government has denied persecuting the ethnic minority, composed of descendants of European settlers, mostly from the Netherlands...
#9 US Senate Confirms Trump's Pick to Lead Land Bureau - NEWSMAX, vanessa, KOAT.com, KOB 4, DanteA, and Vet Voice Foundation on X
The U.S. Senate voted on Monday to confirm Steve Pearce, a former oilman and congressman from New Mexico, to lead the Bureau of Land Management. Pearce was one of 49 nominees for federal positions that were confirmed in one Senate bloc vote of 46-43. The BLM, a division of the Interior Department, manages more than a tenth of the nation's surface area. Pearce is the former owner of an oilfield services company and supports President Donald Trump's goal to increase fossil fuel development on public lands. Democrats and conservation groups opposed Pearce's nomination in part because he has advocated for sales of federal lands to pay down the deficit...
#10 What TSA Gold+ Means for Airport Security and Your Next Trip - Kathleen Wong for USA TODAY, Liquidity Sniper, Drew Grimaldi, Bai Vuiii, and Illphated on X
After a fraught past year of government shutdowns leading to long airport security lines, the Transportation Security Administration is launching a new public-private partnership program called TSA Gold+. As first reported by Gate Access, TSA shared an internal memo with employees on May 14 announcing the new program as an "innovative extension" of the Screening Partnership Program (SPP), which currently contracts with private companies to operate the security screening of air passengers at 20 U.S. airports under TSA guidelines...
