May 31, 2024
ICYMI: News Round-Up for May 27–31, 2024
Here are just a few of the news events that took place this week:
- Donald Trump was convicted of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the so-called "Hush Money" trial. This will mark the first time a convicted felon will lead a major U.S. party into an election. Trump called the trial a "scam" and vowed to appeal the verdict. Sentencing is set to take place on July 11th.
- An Israeli airstrike hit a temporary camp in Rafah, Gaza, killing dozens of people. The bombing came hours after Hamas reportedly fired a barrage of rockets into Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu called the airstrike a “tragic mishap”, and the IDF reports that the incident is under investigation.
- xAI, an artificial intelligence startup created by Elon Musk, raised $6 billion in its latest funding round. The company is looking to build a supercomputer to compete with companies like OpenAI. Funding came from high profile sources such as Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital.
- The U.S. oil and gas industry saw two high profile pieces of consolidation news. ConocoPhillips announced plans to buy Marathon Oil in a deal worth $17 billion, and Hess shareholders approved Chevron’s $53 billion takeover bid in a close vote. A disagreement with Exxon Mobil over a Guyana project still looms over the latter deal.
- Major cybercrime operations took place this week, with the FBI and Europol taking massive botnets offline. The botnets–which are networks of hijacked computer devices–were used for a number of illegal purposes. Europol's Operation Endgame is still in effect, and that further announcements will be coming soon.
- Beijing announced a new $48 billion state-backed investment fund to help bolster the domestic chipmaking industry. The move comes amidst U.S. sanctions and export controls related to the semiconductor manufacturing.
- Hong Kong police made their first arrests under the controversial new national security laws. Six people were arrested for publishing "seditious" posts on social media platforms aligning with a “sensitive date" (the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown).