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Excerpt from fortune.com

Beijing hinted it could retaliate against the European Union in a trade dispute that shows signs of escalating the same way as China’s contest with the US.

If the EU keeps pursuing investigations into Chinese firms then China will “very likely have to take a series of measures to hit back,” said a post on Yuyuan Tantian, a social media account linked to China’s state media. Beijing has regularly used such channels as a way of signaling its thinking about trade.

The EU is investigating Chinese subsidies across a range of industries, threatening tariffs for electric carmakers and keeping firms out of rail and energy tenders. President Xi Jinping visited Europe last month seeking to dissuade the bloc from going down the same path as the US, which last week announced new charges on some imports from China — raising concerns in Beijing that American allies may follow suit.

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Excerpt from www.morganlewis.com

The US Supreme Court ruled on May 16, 2024 that the funding structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)—which is funded with money from the Federal Reserve rather than the US Congress—does not run afoul of the Appropriations Clause of the US Constitution. The Court’s decision reversed the Fifth Circuit’s ruling that the CFPB’s funding structure was unconstitutional and put a definitive end to the last pending wholesale challenge to the CFPB’s constitutionality.

In the few days since the decision, the ruling has already emboldened the agency to move forward even more aggressively with its regulatory, enforcement, and supervision agenda.

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Excerpt from economictimes.indiatimes.com

Saudi Arabia’s 88-year-old King Salman has been diagnosed with a lung infection and is currently receiving antibiotic treatment after experiencing a fever and joint pain. State media reported the news early Monday, following medical examinations at the Royal Clinics at Al Salam Palace in Jeddah.“It was found that there was a lung infection, and the medical team decided that he – may God protect him – should undergo a treatment programme consisting of antibiotics until the infection goes away,” stated the Saudi Press Agency.
King Salman ascended the throne in 2015 and has since appointed his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as the kingdom’s de facto ruler. The crown prince is widely believed to manage the kingdom’s daily affairs.

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Excerpt from www.outsmartmagazine.com

(CNN) — The US State Department issued a worldwide security alert on Friday due to the potential for terrorist attacks against LGBTQ people and events.

“Due to the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations, or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests, the Department of State advises U.S. citizens overseas to exercise increased caution. The Department of State is aware of the increased potential for foreign terrorist organization-inspired violence against LGBTQI+ persons and events and advises U.S. citizens overseas to exercise increased caution,” the alert read.

The alert comes two weeks before Pride Month begins on June 1. The department warned US citizens to stay alert in locations that tourists often visit “including Pride celebrations and venues frequented by LGBTQI+ persons.”

Earlier this week, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security similarly issued a warning that foreign terrorist organizations and their supporters may target LGBTQ events and venues as Pride Month approaches.

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Excerpt from ca.movies.yahoo.com

A Nebraska mother and teenage daughter are facing criminal charges after the teen allegedly got an illegal abortion and police say the two buried the fetus.

While the abortion allegedly occurred before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to abortion, a state law on the books since 2010 bans abortions in Nebraska at 20 weeks.

MORE: New abortion restrictions may push patients to more expensive, complicated care

Norfolk police opened an investigation into then 17-year-old Celeste Burgess on April 26, investigating concerns she had given birth prematurely to a stillborn child, according to an affidavit submitted by the Norfolk Police Investigations Unit that was obtained by ABC News.

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Excerpt from www.theaviatorme.com

Boeing’s Departing Boss Re-elected To The Company Board  The Aviator Middle East

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Excerpt from www.nydailynews.com

Credit card late fees should be capped at $8, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urged Sunday, after the U.S. Supreme Court found the federal Consumer Finance Protection Bureau’s funding to be constitutional in the face of conservative attacks.

“Junk fees, like late fees on credit cards, are meant to pile up and get so unaffordable that the customer simply drowns in debt — it’s unfair and has got to end,” the New York Dem said in a statement. “The credit card companies are making billions in fees while consumers try and pay all the fees along the way.”

While the average late fee in New York is $21, that can get compounded based on one’s balance, wreaking havoc with a consumer’s debt load, Schumer said. He noted that consumers spent $15 billion on late fees in 2022 alone. Nationally, the typical fee tops $30, the CFPB said earlier this year.

“The goal of a $8 late fee cap is not only alive, but it is likely, and I want it enacted ASAP,” Schumer said. “A cap would be a cushion for many people who don’t skirt their bills but have found that the fees just kill them.”

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Excerpt from www.aa.com.tr

World Bank and Türkiye sign $1 billion renewable financing deal  Anadolu Agency | English

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Excerpt from www.benzinga.com

 

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has initiated a significant price reduction for its iPhone models in China, as it faces mounting competition from local rivals like Huawei Technologies Co.

What Happened: Apple has launched a substantial discounting campaign on its official Tmall site in China, offering discounts of up to $318 (CNY 2,300) on select iPhone models, reported Reuters.

This move comes as Apple seeks to maintain its position in the high-end smartphone market, where it is facing increased competition from local players such as Huawei.

The discounting campaign, which runs from May 20 to May 28, is more substantial than the one Apple offered in February.

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Excerpt from uk.style.yahoo.com

Jeff Bezos announced on Wednesday that he and his wife MacKenzie are divorcing after 25 years of marriage — and it may be one of the most expensive divorces ever, after Bezos was named the richest man in the world in June 2018.

In a tweet on Wednesday morning, the 54-year-old founder and CEO of Amazon, wrote a statement explaining the divorce, saying they’ve decided to continue their “shared lives as friends.”

“We feel incredibly lucky to have found each other and deeply grateful for every one of the years we have been married to each other. If we had known we would separate after 25 years, we would do it all again,” he said in the statement.

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Excerpt from www.weny.com

The state’s highly decentralized system of administering voting means that “Michigan has 1,500 elections every big election day,” said Kyle Whitney, the city clerk of Marquette in the state’s Upper Peninsula. That helps ensure that balloting and vote-counting is secure because it’s impossible, he said, to “do one thing en masse that could influence the election on a large scale.”

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Excerpt from wirepoints.org

… Gov. J.B. Pritzker is doing a version of that right now with state lawmakers who don’t agree with the nearly $1 billion in tax hikes he’s put into his proposed $52.7 billion budget. The governor wants to hike sports betting taxes by $200 million. He’s pushing for another $500 million from tax hikes on companies. And there’s another $93 million tax hike on ordinary residents. The governor is not allowing the individual income tax standard deduction to fully rise with inflation.

To get his way, the governor, via his proxy Sen. Andy Manar, has sent out a letter to his agencies and lawmakers that effectively says “vote for the tax hikes or I’ll cut your district’s grants by $800 million.” Those are grants in the budget, typically of several million dollars, that lawmakers get for their districts to butter up their voter base. If those grants get cut, those lawmakers can become targets. As the Belleville-News Democrat reported: “While Manar’s letter was addressed to “Agency Directors,” it was just as much a message to rank-and-file lawmakers – particularly those within the supermajority Democratic party.”

Pritzker has given his Democratic allies the same false choice that school district officials often give their residents. You choose. Tax hikes or cuts to popular programs.

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Excerpt from www.sentinelsource.com

Bezos’ Blue Origin resumes space tourism with latest launch  The Keene Sentinel

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Excerpt from www.wsj.com

Facebook Parent’s Plan to Win AI Race: Give Its Tech Away Free  The Wall Street Journal

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Excerpt from fortune.com

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Reese’s Book Club dominates the literary landscape, five states will have abortion rights on their November ballots, and GM tries to salvage its $10 billion investment in self-driving business Cruise after a scary safety incident. Have a productive Monday!

– Safety first. As General Motors poured $10 billion into autonomous driving startup Cruise, GM CEO Mary Barra hoped that the investment would help the automaker pull ahead in the EV race. GM has manufactured electric vehicles since the 1990s, but has been outshone by Tesla—and GM’s strategy is still go to 100% electric by 2035. Barra believed in the technology so much she posted a video on her LinkedIn two years ago in which she was thrilled by her first ride in a Cruise car. “I can’t stop smiling,” she said at the time.

But a serious safety incident last year has put that all in jeopardy. In October 2023, a self-driving robotaxi in San Francisco hit a woman, ran over her, and dragged her for 20 feet. The car incorrectly labeled the incident a “side collision” and tried to pull over, not registering it was dragging a person along with it.

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Excerpt from www.wionews.com

To counter China’s increasing influence in the electric vehicle (EV) market, Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are set to unveil their inaugural joint strategy for automobile production and sales within the region.

This collaborative initiative, as reported by the Nikkei newspaper on Monday, aims to establish a solid framework by 2035, focusing on several strategic areas including decarbonisation, mineral resource procurement, and investment in next-generation automotive technologies.

Scheduled for discussion during the economic ministers’ meeting between Japan and ASEAN members, potentially as early as September next year, the strategy will address the growing necessity for enhanced cooperation in personnel training and sustainable production practices.

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Excerpt from accelerationeconomy.com

While a news report last week speculating about Oracle landing a $10-billion cloud deal with Elon Musk’s xAI triggered great shock and wonder within the media, it turns out that Oracle chairman Larry Ellison offered a big, fat, and very public hint about this whole possibility two months ago.

Among the widespread media coverage last week, Investors Business Daily’s headline proclaimed, “Oracle Stock Jumps On Report of $10B Cloud Deal With Musk’s AI Startup.” The accompanying article said in part, “Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is in talks with Oracle on a multiyear, $10 billion cloud-computing deal…. Musk’s xAI startup would become one of Oracle’s largest customers, according to the report.”

Okay, fair enough — AI is the hottest business topic in the world today, and the cloud is the engine that’s powering the AI Revolution, and Oracle’s unique approach to cloud data centers has made the company a highly disruptive and fast-growing player in the Cloud Wars.

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Excerpt from www.fiercepharma.com

Pfizer unit wins $107.5M verdict in cancer-drug patent case against AstraZeneca  FiercePharma

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Excerpt from tokenpost.com

Shiba Inu, the popular meme coin, is experiencing a period of growth and increased utility. Amoré Orthodontic Aligners, a company that specializes in orthodontic care, recently announced that it will now accept SHIB as payment for braces, retainers, and other services.

Amoré Orthodontic Aligners, a prominent supplier of orthodontic care, has announced that it would now take Shiba Inu (SHIB) as payment for its services, demonstrating cryptocurrency’s expanding popularity. This revelation follows Shiba Inu’s sponsorship of the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Canada, which reinforces the meme coin’s potential for real-world applications, as per Coinfomania.

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Excerpt from insidethemagic.net

Disney CEO Bob Iger promised one thing when he returned to lead the Mouse House: he would slash budgets, lay off employees, and make investors money. He’s now keeping the first two parts of that promise by cutting yet more money for traditional television and pouring even more billions of dollars into the struggling Disney+ streaming service.

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Excerpt from thewest.com.au

The State’s largest producer of domestic gas is on the front foot to tout the credentials of the energy source amid ongoing environmental pressures.

Chevron’s Australia director of operations Danny Woodall told a media tour on Monday that a stable policy environment would ensure its $50 billion Gorgon project — located on Barrow Island off WA’s north-west coast — would be viable well into the future.

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Excerpt from progressivegrocer.com

Prices will be lower at Target this summer across more than 5,000 national and own brand products.

Target is helping its customers get ready for summer by lowering prices on more than 5,000 products throughout its stores. Price cuts have already gone live on 1,500 food, beverage and household essential items, with more price cuts planned throughout the summer.

New, lower prices will be reflected on everyday essentials like milk, meat, bread, soda, fresh fruit and vegetables, snacks, yogurt, peanut butter, coffee, diapers, paper towels, pet food and more. Price cuts will be seen across both national brands and Target’s own brands such as up&up, Everspring and Good & Gather.

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Excerpt from www.casino.org

Former U.S. president and ex-casino magnate Donald Trump has significantly fewer campaign dollars in his 2024 war chest than his Democratic opponent Joe Biden, but a powerful group of Republican Jewish donors seek to change that reality.

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) works to strengthen ties between the Jewish community and GOP decision-makers. The nonprofit additionally focuses on improving relations between the U.S. and Israeli governments.

With unrest on college campuses and in major cities across the country regarding the Israeli war with Hamas in Gaza, with protests focusing on freeing Palestine, the RJC says it’s “more energized than ever” to support Trump’s candidacy for the White House.