Trump’s Trial, A Billionaire’s Resignation, & ChatGPT’s Eerie Upgrade
May 14, 2024
Hello, readers – happy Tuesday! Today, we’re talking about Michael Cohen’s testimony, Canada wildfires, Russia’s military shakeup, Indonesia’s disasters, Wisconsin ballot dropboxes, Melinda French Gates resigning, and OpenAI’s big announcement.
Here’s some good news: the U.S. women’s water polo team has a new official sponsor and spokesman – Flavor Flav. “As a girl dad and supporter of all women’s sports – imma personally sponsor you my girl,,, whatever you need,” he wrote to the team’s captain. Also, the E.U. approved a law to cut carbon dioxide emissions from trucks. Most new heavy-duty vehicles sold in the E.U. after 2040 will have to be emissions-free.
“The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It’s the age-old struggle: the roar of the crowd on the one side, and the voice of your conscience on the other.” – Douglas Macarthur
Co-Hen Sings Like A Bird

We tried to avoid it as much as we can, folks, but it’s time to talk about Trump’s criminal hush money trial, where the former president was hit with a 34-count indictment. The charges allege that Trump knowingly falsified business records to hide a sexual encounter with adult film star Stormy Daniels. On Monday, Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen testified that Trump was intimately involved in schemes to shut down tales that could have upended the 2016 campaign. “Everything required Mr. Trump’s sign-off,” said Cohen. He also recalled multiple instances of his former boss telling him to shut down stories about his sexual escapades with various women.
“I want you to push it out as long as you can,” Cohen recalled Trump telling him about the Stormy Daniels story. “Push it out past the election, because if I win, it has no relevance, and if I lose, I don’t really care.” He also said that Trump had conferred with “some friends” about the issue. “He stated to me that he had spoken to some friends, some individuals, very smart people. It’s $130,000. Just pay it. There’s no reason to keep this thing out there. Just do it. So he expressed to me, ‘Just do it,’” Cohen told the jury.
Too Hot To Not Happen Again
While Trump was caught with his pants on fire in Manhattan, there were over a hundred real-deal wildfires raging across Canada. Officials in western Canada, where most of the blazes are located, said they were preparing for “volatile wildfire activity” as some of the fires grew out of control. Some more remote communities have already been told to evacuate in the face of some fires, and locals say they’re worried about a repeat of the 2023 wildfires.
Last year, wildfires forced over 250,000 Canadians to evacuate their homes and sent massive clouds of smoke down south. That’s exactly what’s happening right now as well – smoke from the blazes has already reached northern U.S. states from Montana to Wisconsin, decreasing air quality across the region. On Monday, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Montana peaked at the “very unhealthy” zone. So far this year, there have been a total of 950 wildfires in Canada, a number that has tripled in the past three weeks.
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The Shocking Sacking Of Shoigu

- The man in charge of Russia’s war in Ukraine has been fired. Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s now-former defense minister, attended Putin’s recent inauguration ceremony and Russia’s Victory Day parade last week, but was removed from his post just a few days after. Shoigu’s firing was surprising due to his popularity and close ties to Putin, and marks the biggest shakeup in Russia’s military hierarchy since the war in Ukraine began.
- The former defense minister had survived a rough start to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, an armed uprising within Russia’s borders, and multiple stalls on the war front before he was eventually fired. His replacement is Andrei Belousov, a 65-year-old civil economist who’s served as Putin’s deputy prime minister, economic aide, and minister of economic development.
- The Kremlin said Belousov was chosen for the post because military spending is becoming more integral to the Russian economy. According to one intelligence expert, “the defence minister, especially in time of war, is essentially an administrator, there to ensure that the military has the men and materiel it needs,” which makes the economist’s appointment “an unexpected but logical choice.”
The Elements Meet On The Equatorial Emerald
- On Monday, Indonesia’s Mount Ibu erupted, shooting clouds of ash and dust high into the air. The fiery event on the remote Indonesian island of Halmahera contrasted the situation on the ground on Sumatra Island, where the country’s rescue teams are looking to save civilians in the wake of monsoons and flash floods that took place over the weekend.
- So far, Indonesia’s government has confirmed 44 people dead and 31 more missing due to the floods in Sumatra, which forced over 3,100 people to evacuate. Luckily, the situation at Mount Ibu hasn’t been as critical – while 13,000 people live within three miles of the crater, nobody has been told to evacuate yet. While they can enjoy watching the 16,400-foot high clouds of ash for now, the chief of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation has warned that “the volcanic earthquakes are still intense so there is a potential for a future eruption.”
More Mixed Nuts
- Children pulled from mud as hundreds die in severe flooding in Afghanistan (CNN)
- Violence is traumatizing Haitian kids. Now the country’s breaking a taboo on mental health services (AP)
- Two Americans detained in Georgia as thousands protest ‘Russia-style’ law on foreign influence (NBC)
- Zhang Zhan: Chinese journalist imprisoned for her Covid reporting due to be released after four years. (CNN)
Middle East Mixed Nuts
- U.S. warns Israel has no plan to eliminate Hamas, as IDF battles regrouped militants in northern Gaza (NBC)
- Israel proposes Palestinian Authority unofficially operate Rafah crossing (Axios)
- United Nations cuts estimates of women, children deaths in Gaza war in half (USA Today)
- Parents of over 900 Israeli soldiers urge IDF to call off ‘death trap’ Rafah attack (Guardian)
The Democratic Drive For Drop Boxes
- The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday and seemed set to overturn a ruling from less than two years ago that banned the use of most absentee ballot drop boxes in the state. This ruling could have a huge impact on the presidential election later this year, with Wisconsin as one of the critical swing states.
- In 2022, when conservatives had a 4-3 majority, the court allowed a major reduction in the number of absentee ballot drop boxes in the state, but with a new liberal majority, that’s about to be reversed. Many of the arguments pointed out that drop boxes aren’t mentioned in state law, making the 2022 ruling incorrect.
Ex-Wife & Now Ex-Philanthropy Partner
- Yesterday, Melinda French Gates announced that she’ll be resigning as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. French Gates has been involved in the organization since 2000. French Gates made the decision “after considerable reflection, based on how she wants to spend the next chapter of her philanthropy,” according to the foundation’s CEO, Mark Suzman.
- The foundation has made nearly $78 billion worth of grant payments since it was founded. While it’s not totally clear where she’ll put her focus next, Suzman noted that “after a difficult few years watching women’s rights rolled back in the U.S. and around the world, she wants to use this next chapter to focus specifically on altering that trajectory.”
More Nuts In America
- Parishioners stopped teen with a rifle from entering church with 60 children inside (NBC)
- Demolition of a key section of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge set for this afternoon after weekend weather delays (CNN)
- Un-silence of the lambs: Donald Trump (again) praises fictional cannibal Hannibal Lecter (USA Today)
- Pete Buttigieg says federal dollars should help mend Philadelphia’s Chinatown (NBC)
- Battleground Polling Shows Ticket- Splitting Pattern (NYT, $)
GPT Gets A Little Too Real
- If you already thought AI was a little bit spooky, prepare to be even more spooked – OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has released a new version of their chatbot named GPT-4o. The latest version will feature human-like conversational abilities, including handling high-pace voice conversations, recognizing emotional cues, and simulating its own emotional responses.
- The company unveiled its latest technology on a live stream, where various employees interacted with the program to display its new capabilities. They held human-pace conversations with the AI, which was able to digest prompts and reply quickly. When one employee complimented his company’s robot on how “useful and amazing” it was, the collection of 1’s and 0’s replied, “Oh stop it, you’re making me blush.”
- “It feels like AI from the movies; and it’s still a bit surprising to me that it’s real,” wrote OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a blog post about the update. “Getting to human-level response times and expressiveness turns out to be a big change.” While Altman may have been happy to see that responsiveness, many researchers are saying we should be careful of AI with human-like conversational abilities. Just last month, a team of researchers at Google DeepMind released a report showing that, as AI bots become increasingly responsive, people are more likely to become addicted to interacting with them.
More Loose Nuts
- Hunt underway for Sumatran tiger after screaming leads workers to man’s body, tiger footprints (CBS)
- Plane makes successful wheels-up emergency landing in Australia after circling airport for hours (CNN)
- ‘Explosive’ secret list of abusers set to upstage women’s big week at Cannes film festival (Guardian)
- More geomagnetic storms remain likely for today as sun continues to erupt X-class flares (CBS)
- Social media users are collectively blocking celebrities and influencers who have been silent on Gaza (NBC)