--:-- Shemita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, May 13th. I'm Shemita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Eliot Brown: On today's show, opening statements made as Sean Combs' trial gets underway, the clean tech that could revolutionize our energy system, and House Republicans propose paring down Medicaid. But first, President Trump is in the Middle East for his first big foreign trip of his second term. He's in Saudi Arabia today and plans to visit Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as well.
--:-- Shemita Basu: His itinerary largely focuses on potential economic deals with the U.S. He's attending an investment forum in Saudi Arabia today. Its government has promised to invest $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, though the kingdom's large budget deficit will make that a hard promise to deliver on.
--:-- Eliot Brown: The UAE has pledged to spend $1.4 trillion in the U.S. over the next decade, and Qatar recently offered a gift that could be the most expensive in modern history, a $400 million luxury jet that Trump is reportedly considering to use as Air Force One, and continue using even after he leaves office by transferring the plane to his presidential library.
--:-- Shemita Basu: But while the president looks for deals to secure for the U.S., his family has been busy deepening their personal business ties with the region. And as Wall Street Journal reporter Elliott Brown told us, doing so while Trump is in office and seeking concessions from these same countries seems to blur the line between policy and personal interest.
--:-- Eliot Brown: The Trump Organization, his real estate and hotel and branding company, they said they wouldn't do foreign deals of any sort in the first term. For the second term, they've limited that to deals directly with foreign governments. That pivot has led to arrangements Brown described as ethically squishy.
--:-- Shemita Basu: Particularly the UAE and Qatar have done a surprising number of deals with the president's family, with his close associates, with his son-in-law. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, secured more than $3.5 billion worth of sovereign or royal funds from both countries, plus Saudi Arabia, for a private equity fund that he runs.
--:-- Eliot Brown: The Trump organization recently announced plans to develop a major new residential complex in Dubai. An Abu Dhabi investment firm announced plans last week to contribute $2 billion to the Trump family's cryptocurrency company. And Eric Trump, the president's son, recently signed a deal to develop a golf course in Doha.
--:-- Shemita Basu: They are building a hotel with a private developer, but the private developer struck a deal with a Qatari state fund. And so then you have Eric Trump alongside a Qatari minister launching it publicly.
--:-- Eliot Brown: So basically any one of these large number of things noted in our article would have been a scandal in most other administrations, if not every other administration.
--:-- Shemita Basu: The White House has said it ridiculous to suggest the president is doing anything for his personal benefit. And earlier this year the Trump Organization instituted a new ethics plan where the company says it will continue to donate any profit from foreign government patronage to the U government.
--:-- Eliot Brown: Government accountability groups, Democrats and others say they're concerned about conflicts of interest and how foreign governments could potentially use business deals like these to influence U.S. policy. The sort of view of analysts and former diplomats is this can be another way of sort of pressuring the president to get what they want.
--:-- Shemita Basu: And every country has something they want out of the U.S. The UAE, for instance, is really going big right now in pushing for an AI deal. Chips that are designed in the U.S. Saudi Arabia is reportedly interested, too.
--:-- Eliot Brown: In fact, that's expected to be a major topic of conversation during today's investment forum. If a deal is reached, it would mark another departure from the Biden administration, which had rejected striking similar AI chip deals over concerns that they could help give these countries with strong ties to China an edge over the U.S. in future AI developments, particularly for military and surveillance applications.
--:-- Shemita Basu: Now, let's turn to one of the most high-profile court cases of the year as the opening statements for Sean Diddy Combs' criminal trial got underway.
--:-- Robin Nunn: The music mogul, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $400 million, has pled not guilty to charges of racketeering and sex trafficking for alleged crimes that took place over a 20-year period.
--:-- Shemita Basu: If he is proven guilty, Combs could spend the rest of his life in prison. During opening statements, the prosecution told the jury that Combs' accusations included kidnapping, arson, drug distribution, sex crimes, bribery, and obstruction.
--:-- Robin Nunn: While the defense conceded that Combs is, quote, very flawed, they denied that any of his behavior amounted to trafficking and that the jury was not here to judge him for his sexual preferences.
--:-- Shemita Basu: Key to their case will be two women. The first, Cassie Ventura, Combs' ex-girlfriend. Yesterday, Combs' defense team admitted that he subjected her to domestic abuse, evidenced by 2016 footage played in court, but denied that she was forced or coerced into sex with male escorts.
--:-- Robin Nunn: Prosecutors claim a second woman, known only as Jane, was forced into similar acts and say they have incriminating texts and videos they will present.
--:-- Shemita Basu: Part of what is unique here is that Combs has been charged under the RICO Act, a law that was established to target the mafia. Combs' lead attorney, Mark Agnifolo, a former federal prosecutor, was instrumental in broadening the use of the RICO Act — that's the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — so that it was applicable to street gangs.
--:-- Robin Nunn: But now, as a defense lawyer, Agnifolo may argue that the law doesn't apply to Combs.
--:-- Shemita Basu: Robin Nunn, a trial attorney and legal analyst, spoke to CBS about what makes this case different from typical RICO cases.
--:-- Robin Nunn: Usually in those cases you see a lot more defendants. It not usually one solo person like one individual. And in this case, you don't see the 40 defendants that you would expect to see in a racketeering case.
--:-- Shemita Basu: We have one person. So these witnesses that they should be calling are really going to have to provide, I was involved. I saw this. This happened.
--:-- Robin Nunn: RICO's are complex cases, which will require prosecutors to prove that Combs ran a sort of criminal enterprise. But it also expands the statute of limitations and therefore the scope of the case.
--:-- Shemita Basu: Here's how CNN legal analyst Ellie Honig said the defense might play out.
--:-- Ellie Honig: So I think the first defense is going to be this was consensual. These were long term relationships. And even if these were abusive physical relationships, that would be a state level domestic violence charge.
--:-- Shemita Basu: But that would not necessarily be a federal racketeering conspiracy.
--:-- Ellie Honig: Relatedly, I think you're going to see the defense go after the victims, the witnesses. They're going to say, first of all, these were consensual relationships. Second of all, though, I think the defense is going to try to cast doubt on the motivations.
--:-- Shemita Basu: They're going to point out the fact that all of these victims have civil suits against Sean Combs. And so I think the defense is going to say this is a pile on.
--:-- Ellie Honig: The trial is expected to last around eight weeks.
--:-- Shemita Basu: Let's turn now to a big development in American energy infrastructure, what Vox calls the holy grail of clean energy.
--:-- Umair Irfan: Because of the rise of lithium-ion batteries, our capacity to hold electricity in batteries that service our energy grids has increased fivefold in the last few years.
--:-- Shemita Basu: And this year, new battery installations are posed to almost double compared to 2024.
--:-- Umair Irfan: Vox's Umair Irfan explained for us why this is such a big deal.
--:-- Shemita Basu: The way our power grid works typically is that we have large centralized generators, and then they send power along long transmission lines and then distribution networks to our homes, our offices, and businesses.
--:-- Umair Irfan: The main issue with that is that electricity has to be used pretty much as soon as it's produced.
--:-- Shemita Basu: And so generators have to match the demand instantaneously, minute to minute, second by second, in order to keep the power grid stable.
--:-- Umair Irfan: But battery-based energy storage is changing that and fast. It allows electricity from solar and wind to be stored and used when needed. Or as backup power in emergencies when transmission lines are damaged.
--:-- Shemita Basu: A big reason why this tech is advancing so quickly is because batteries have become a lot cheaper than they were a few decades ago.
--:-- Umair Irfan: They're better at holding denser amounts of energy.
--:-- Shemita Basu: Arafan cited a few other reasons. It has a lot of benefits. It doesn't typically compete with generators directly because it stores energy.
--:-- Umair Irfan: It doesn't generate electricity on its own. And oftentimes it charges up using electricity that would otherwise go to waste.
--:-- Shemita Basu: And so essentially, a lot of times it's using electricity that's effectively free.
--:-- Umair Irfan: The other good news here is this type of energy storage is cleaner than traditional methods.
--:-- Shemita Basu: The American power sector is the second largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. It also getting old and in need of expensive repairs.
--:-- Umair Irfan: And so batteries buy us some time. They help allow some stability and redundancy to provide additional power when it's needed, when parts of the grid have to go down.
--:-- Shemita Basu: Texas is a prime example of seeing this progress in action. Last year, batteries provided more power than ever before to the state, and it made a difference during some brutal heatwaves, when Texans didn't have to worry about limiting their AC use.
--:-- Umair Irfan: For all of us, these advancements mean we could be entering a new era of energy usage, one where heatwaves won't leave us without power for days.
--:-- Shemita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following.
--:-- Shemita Basu: House Republicans published their proposal to deliver on Trump's tax-cutting agenda with a bill that suggests substantial cuts for Medicaid.
--:-- Shemita Basu: Analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the plan would bring down spending by $715 billion over the next decade and, quote, reduce the number of people with health insurance by at least 8.6 million by 2034.
--:-- Shemita Basu: Republicans plan to lower that number largely by tightening eligibility and work requirements.
--:-- Shemita Basu: But internal divisions remain. Some House Republicans said this proposal didn't go far enough, while Senator Josh Hawley warned in The New York Times that big cuts would be, quote, morally wrong and politically suicidal.
--:-- Shemita Basu: In other news, Trump signed an executive order demanding drug companies lower their U.S. prices within 30 days.
--:-- Shemita Basu: For the first time in many years, we'll slash the cost of prescription drugs, and we will bring fairness to America.
--:-- Shemita Basu: Drug prices will come down.
--:-- Shemita Basu: According to Reuters, the U.S. pays the most for prescription medicines in the world, often nearly three times that of other developed nations.
--:-- Shemita Basu: But Trump's order didn't detail how the administration would enforce these changes, which it hopes to achieve through voluntary commitments.
--:-- Shemita Basu: In his first term, Trump attempted to reduce drug prices paid by Medicare, but was blocked by a federal court.
--:-- Shemita Basu: And finally, the NBA draft lottery saw a shock first pick for the Dallas Mavericks, giving them the right to secure Duke's 6'9 forward Cooper Flagg, one of the most coveted players of the last decade.
--:-- Shemita Basu: The Mavs had just a 1.8% chance of winning the draft lottery and jumped 10 spots to grab the number one pick.
--:-- Shemita Basu: ESPN calls it the biggest jump by any team in lottery history.
--:-- Shemita Basu: The draft will be held in June.
--:-- Shemita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shemita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shemita Basu: New York Magazine has this grabby headline about ChatGPT and higher ed. Everyone is cheating their way through college.
--:-- Shemita Basu: It examines the way that ChatGPT is, as one tech ethicist put it, short-circuiting the learning process.
--:-- Shemita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shemita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
