Author: openjargon

• Key Republicans in NY swing districts are standing behind Trump after his hush-money conviction.
• The lawmakers have parroted Trump's argument that the conviction undermines the judicial system.
• But that support could hurt them politically among suburban moderates and independents.

For GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill, former President Donald Trump continues to wield immense power over their political futures.

Since 2016, Trump has effectively maintained a stranglehold over the party by molding its ideological direction, keeping Republican lawmakers in line, and cultivating a political base that has remained unflinchingly loyal to him for nearly a decade.

After Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a 2016 hush-money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels, that dynamic has only strengthened.

But to the surprise of many, Trump's conviction elicited vocal outrage from a contingent of House Republicans in New York, including Reps. Marc Molinaro and Anthony D'Esposito, who represent some of the most competitive districts in the country. In these districts — concentrated in suburban areas outside of New York City — the upcoming House majority could be decided by swaths of moderates and independents.

Intense reactions

Molinaro, a first-term Republican representing the swing Catskill-and- Hudson Valley-anchored 19th district that Biden carried by nearly 5 points in 2020, blasted the Manhattan verdict.

"This is how we're going to do politics now?" he said in a statement on X. "Not through spirited debates, but by weaponizing the justice and court system to attack a political rival right before the election."

D'Esposito — a retired New York Police Department detective who flipped the Long Island-anchored 4th district in 2022 — said this week that the "best revenge" for Trump's conviction would be winning the November general election.

"It is clear to me that Democrats are so afraid of engaging in a fair fight against President Trump that they continue to weaponize the justice system in an attempt to stop him," the congressman wrote.

In 2020, Biden won D'Esposito's district — filled with the sort of affluent, college-educated voters who have been trending toward Democrats in recent cycles — by nearly 15 points.

Mike Lawler, who narrowly won the purple 17th district north of New York City, said Trump's conviction "undermines our electoral process and our judicial system" and deemed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, state Attorney General Letitia James, and Gov. Kathy Hochul as "hyperpartisan New York Democrats."

Long Island GOP congressman Nick LaLota suggested that Hochul should pardon Trump and "pre-emptively commute any sentence" that the ex-president might receive on his July sentencing date.

The sharp reactions from the House lawmakers, which are akin to Republican politicians from safely red seats in more conservative states, underlies one of the party's biggest challenges headed into November: corralling suburban voters around the GOP.

The suburban dilemma

While Biden isn't all that popular in New York State at the moment — with the latest Emerson College survey showing him with a 39% approval rating and polling ahead of Trump by only 7 points in a state that he won by 23 points in 2020 — many voters remain unplugged from the race or have indicated that they'd consider a third-party option like independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

But in a decidedly Democratic state like New York, Biden is likely to gain some ground ahead of the election.

While suburban voters on Long Island trended Republican in the 2022 midterms — a trend which could continue in 2024, especially given Trump's support among many active and retired law enforcement officials — lawmakers like LaLota and D'Esposito are still running in districts where the former president remains a polarizing figure.

In a presidential year, it's become more difficult for many down-ballot candidates from an opposing party to win as ticket-splitting has waned. And the vulnerable GOP lawmakers will be tasked with defending their records while explaining their stance on Trump, which could be a tall order for voters who believe that the former president committed a crime.

Across the country, suburban voters were already turning away from Trump even before his conviction — as former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley has continued to win significant blocs of GOP voters even after suspending her presidential campaign in March.

The decision by vulnerable New York House Republicans to tie themselves to Trump's crusade against his hush-money case is an incredibly risky one — but one that is emblematic of a GOP that remains firmly under the former president's grasp.

• Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will no longer fly to the moon aboard SpaceX's rocket, Starship.
• A statement said the voyage was scheduled for 2023, but delays made the timeline "unfeasible."
• The uncertain launch schedule prompted Maezawa to scrap the project.

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has canceled his star-studded trip to the moon aboard a rocket designed by Elon Musk's company, SpaceX.

The project's official website, dearMoon, published a statement on Saturday. Maezawa, the founder of online retailer Zozotown, first announced the project in 2018 and described it as "the world's first civilian circumlunar voyage aboard SpaceX's space vehicle, Starship."

SpaceX and dearMoon made plans to take flight by the end of 2023.

"Unfortunately, however, launch within 2023 became unfeasible, and without clear schedule certainty in the near-term, it is with a heavy heart that Maezawa made the unavoidable decision to cancel the project," the statement read.

Maezawa echoed the statement with an X post, writing, "I can't plan my future in this situation, and I feel terrible making the crew members wait longer, hence the difficult decision to cancel at this point in time."

"I apologize to those who were excited for this project to happen," he added.

A dearMoon representative confirmed the cancellation in a statement to Business Insider. Representatives for SpaceX did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Maezawa announced the eight people who would fly aboard the space vehicle in a YouTube video in December 2022. The guest list included American DJ Steve Aoki, K-Pop star T.O.P., and Indian actor Dev Joshi.

The billionaire previously traveled to space in December 2021 during a 12-day trip to the International Space Station. He spent an estimated $80 million to ride aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.

Musk founded SpaceX in 2022 and recently answered questions about the company during the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in May.

When asked if artificial intelligence could speed up his space exploration efforts, Musk said that "almost no AI is used" in that field.

He added that he's not against integrating AI, but "we haven't seen a use for it."

• Scammers are using deepfake celebrity videos to steal from fans.
• Fake photos of police arresting Robert Irwin were used to set up a fake investment opportunity.
• Scams like these have stolen over $8 million in Australia alone.

Scammers in Australia are using deepfake photos and videos of celebrities to steal from people in increasingly creative ways.

Australians have lost up to $8 million to scammers using online investment platform scams this year, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

The scammers use fake news articles and deepfake videos to trick people into believing that a celebrity is asking them for a large sum of money.

In one example, scammers shared fake photos of Robert Irwin — son of the late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin — in handcuffs, accompanied by an article titled "Is this the end of his career? Robert Irwin didn't know the camera was still recording."

The fake article tells readers that a bank has filed a lawsuit against Irwin over comments he made about a crypto trading platform. It then promises to make readers rich if they invest $375 in that platform.

"We are urging Australians to take their time and do their research before taking up an investment opportunity — particularly those seen on social media," ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said in a statement.

Eye-popping investment opportunities in bogus online crypto trading platforms, especially ones that claim to use "artificial intelligence or other emerging technologies," are an increasingly common scam tactic, the ACCC says.

At least one Australian man lost over $50,000 in cryptocurrency after registering his details through an online form that he saw in a deepfake interview of Elon Musk on social media, Lowe said.

Last month, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission also warned about a sham cryptocurrency exchange using deepfake videos of Elon Musk, which also claimed to leverage AI in its software.

The FTC says most scams in the United States start on social media, with scammers trying to get victims to pay for investments in bitcoin so their crimes can't be traced.

"Investment scams are one of the top ways scammers trick you into buying cryptocurrency and sending it on to scammers," the FTC says. "But scammers are also impersonating businesses, government agencies, and a love interest, among other tactics."

"Deepfakes" use AI to replace the likeness of a person in a video or audio clip. One quick way to spot a deepfake is to do a reverse image search and check the true source of an image.

The best way to avoid a crypto scam is to never trust someone who will only accept payment in crypto or who is promising big profit returns on an investment, the FTC says.

• Retired US Navy Admiral Robert P. Burke was arrested on alleged bribery charges, said the DOJ.
• Burke denies all the charges, reported the US Naval Institute News.
• Co-CEOs of Next Jump, Charlie Kim and Meghan Messenger, were also arrested.

A retired four-star US Navy admiral was arrested Friday in connection with an alleged bribery scheme that involved a government contract.

Robert P. Burke, 62, who from 2020-2022 oversaw US naval operations in Europe, Russia, and most of Africa, has been charged with bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, performing acts to affect a personal financial interest, and concealing material facts, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release.

He could face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison if convicted, said the DOJ.

Burke denies the charges, reported the US Naval Institute News.

Yongchul "Charlie" Kim and Meghan Messenger, the co-CEOs of the company, which was not named in the DOJ release, but which was reported by the USNI News as being called Next Jump, were also arrested on charges related to their roles in the alleged bribery scheme.

The two are charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery and each face up to 20 years in prison, Said the DOJ release.

The alleged scheme involved Burke accepting future employment at the executives' company in exchange for awarding them a government contract, said the DOJ release.

According to the indictment, Kim and Messenger of New York first secured a government contract to provide training for pilots in the US Navy from 2018 to 2019, that Burke had advocated for. The Navy ended the contract and ordered the two CEOs not to contact Burke.

However, the indictment alleges that Kim and Messenger reached out multiple times to Burke, eventually having a call in which Burke said he wanted to work with the company, which Kim said would need to be attached to a deal, per the indictment.

The DOJ indictment alleges that Burke met with Kim and Messenger in Washington, DC, in July 2021 where he agreed to influence other officers to award another contract to Kim and Messenger's company, a contract that Kim valued in the "triple digit millions."

It is alleged, Burke later ordered his staff to award Messenger and Kim's company a contract to train naval personnel in Italy and Spain. According to the release, the contract was worth $355,000.

Burke began working at the company in October 2022 at a starting salary of $500,000 and a grant of 100,000 stock options, said the DOJ release.

"Admiral Burke used his public office and his four-star status for his private gain," said US Attorney Matthew M. Graves in the DOJ release.

"The law does not make exceptions for admirals or CEOs. Those who pay and receive bribes must be held accountable. The urgency is at its greatest when, as here, senior government officials and senior executives are allegedly involved in the corruption," he said. 

According to Burke's lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, Burke made his first appearance in court in Florida late Friday afternoon and is set to be arraigned in Washington, DC.

"We intend to go to trial and we expect that he will be found not guilty," Paralotre told the USNI News.

"The biggest problem with this indictment is the timeline. The DOJ wrongly believes that there was a job offer and job agreement far earlier than there was. There is no quid pro quo, no job for contracts whatsoever," he said.

"It looks odd he did later go work for them but he did not get into serious contract negotiations until the appropriate time and with the appropriate permissions."

In a statement, the US Navy told USNI News the service "cooperated with this investigation from the onset. We take this matter very seriously and will continue to cooperate with the Department of Justice."

• AI will force about 12 million workers to change jobs by 2030, a McKinsey partner said on Thursday. 
• Job losses will hit four key sectors, including administrative, customer service, and manufacturing.
• But automation could affect 30% of tasks across everyone's jobs.

There's no way to sugarcoat it. AI is going to disrupt a lot of jobs in the coming years.

The technology is set to bring about "12 million occupational transitions" between now and 2030, Kweilin Ellingrud, a senior partner at McKinsey and director of its Global Institute, said at the firm's media day this week. "That's about, give or take, the pace of occupational transitions we had during COVID."

Some areas will see growth, namely roles in healthcare and STEM, Ellingrud said. About 85% of the jobs that AI will likely impact, meanwhile, fit into four categories — administrative assistance, customer service and sales, food service, and production and manufacturing, according to McKinsey.

Many of those jobs involve repetitive work, data collection, and elementary data processing, all of which could be handled by automation, according to a McKinsey report co-authored by Ellingrud. The report estimated that about 11.8 million workers in roles with shrinking demand will need to move into new lines of work by 2030.

But everyone should prepare for at least some changes to their current role.

Between the widespread adoption of generative AI and what Ellingrud called "old school automation," about 30% of everyone's work will need to adapt to the changes the technology will bring to the workplace.

• The Bilderberg Meetings draw an elite gathering every year to discuss global issues.
• The closed meetings began after WWII to promote dialogue between Europe and North America.
• At the 70th annual meeting this weekend, attendees will discuss AI and global conflicts.

It's not easy to remain secret in an age of near-constant surveillance and endless information sources.

But some powerful groups, somehow, have managed it — at least to some degree.

Such is the case with the Bilderberg Meetings, a tight-lipped, off-the-record gathering that summons its participants once a year to discuss global issues and encourage "dialogue between Europe and North America," according to the group's website.

The group is hosting its 70th annual meeting this weekend in Madrid, where attendees will discuss a range of contemporary issues.

Here's what we know.

Founding

The annual events are hosted by a group called Foundation Bilderberg Meetings, led by a steering committee of elite members from government, business, tech, and the press.

The first meeting in May 1954 was held at a hotel in The Netherlands, from which the meeting gets its name.

"Representatives from economic, social, political and cultural fields were invited to informal discussions to help create a better understanding of the complex forces and major trends affecting Western nations in the difficult postwar period," according to the Bilderberg website.

Known group members have included former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller, who was once chairman of the Chase corporation.

Recent Meetings

Past meetings have been hosted in Portugal, the United States, Switzerland, and Italy.

"Throughout the years, the annual Meetings have become a forum for discussion on a wide range of topics — from trade to jobs to technology, from monetary policy to investment, and from ecological challenges to the task of promoting international security," the group's website says.

Despite its secrecy, the group does put out a brief agenda. In 2018, it apparently discussed populism, inequality, and artificial intelligence, among other top issues.

Current members of the Steering Committee include business magnates like conservative megadonor Peter Thiel, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

2024 Bilderberg Meeting

Agendas are publicly released "shortly in advance" of meetings, a spokesperson for Bilderberg Meetings said in a statement to Business Insider.

Members attending this weekend's meeting in Madrid will discuss artificial intelligence, geopolitical conflicts, the economy, the climate, and the "changing faces of biology," according to a press release.

"Thanks to the private nature of the Meeting, the participants take part as individuals rather than in any official capacity and hence are not bound by the conventions of their office or by pre-agreed positions. As such, they can take time to listen, reflect and gather insights. There is no detailed agenda, no resolutions are proposed, no votes are taken, and no policy statements are issued," according to the press release.

Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is listed as a member of the Steering Committee for Foundation Bilderberg Meetings.

• Palestinian Islamic Jihad released videos of the hostage Alexander Troufanov.
• Troufanov, an Amazon cloud engineer, was abducted by Hamas on October 7.
• Around 240 people were taken hostage in the terror attacks, many still captive months later.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad released two videos this week showing Russian-Israeli hostage Alexander Troufanov, an Amazon cloud engineer.

The videos prompted Troufanov's family to call on Israeli officials to do more to secure his release.

PIJ, a militant group that operates in Gaza alongside Hamas, released the first video on Tuesday.

In the short clip, Troufanov speaks calmly and in Hebrew.

He said: "In the next few days, you will hear the truth of what happened to me, as well as the other prisoners in Gaza," per a translation by The Jerusalem Post.

"Wait patiently," he said.

The context in which he is speaking was not clear. Hostages are rarely able to speak freely in such videos.

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum, an advocacy group for the hostages, released a statement on X in response to the video, saying: "The Trufanov family has authorized the use and publication of the video released today by the Islamic Jihad, after 235 days in captivity, showing Alexsander Trufanov."

(The statement used a variant spelling of Troufanov's name.)

It argued that the apparent evidence that he is alive should prompt the Israeli government to do more to strike a deal for the return of the hostages in Gaza.

Troufanov was kidnapped from Nir Oz kibbutz alongside his grandmother Irena Tati, his mother Yelena, and his girlfriend Sapir Cohen during Hamas' October 7 attacks on Israel, The Times of Israel reported in December.

His mother, grandmother, and girlfriend were released in November, the Israeli outlet Haaretz reported.

Troufanov's father was killed in the attacks, the report added.

The first video showing Troufanov did not provide any indication of when it had been filmed.

In a second video, released by PIJ on Thursday, Troufanov appears to refer to the Israeli government shutting down the Al Jazeera news channel's operations in the country on May 5, per The Times of Israel, suggesting that the footage was taken after that date.

Troufanov worked as an engineer at Annapurna Labs, a subsidiary of Amazon, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The Israeli chipmaker was acquired by Amazon Web Services in 2015 in a deal that reports suggested was worth up to $370 million.

Russia's TASS news agency reported that the country's Chief Rabbi, Berl Lazar, said in February that Russian President Vladimir Putin was aware of Troufanov's situation and was working to help free the hostages in Gaza.

Putin "has all the information about the hostages who have Russian citizenship. There are three of them, and Alexander Trufanov is only one of them," the rabbi said, per Tass.

It comes as President Joe Biden unveiled a new Israeli proposal to end the conflict in Gaza.

The three-stage proposal offers a "roadmap to an enduring ceasefire – and the release of all the hostages," a post on the president's X account reads.

The plan, which was delivered to Hamas by Qatar, would begin with a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas of the Gaza Strip.

It would also include an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages, a "surge" of humanitarian aid, and a reconstruction plan for Gaza.

Hamas has said that it viewed the proposal "positively."

More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict so far, according to figures from Gaza's healthy ministry. Around 1,200 people were killed in Israel during Hamas' October 7 attacks, with roughly another 240 taken hostage in Gaza.

PIJ is the second-largest armed group in Gaza after Hamas

According to the US Director of National Intelligence, PIJ is a "Sunni Islamist militant group seeking to establish an Islamist Palestinian state."

The group's military wing, the al-Quds Brigades, has been involved in multiple attacks on Israel since the 1990s — mostly small-arms, mortar, and rocket attacks launched from Gaza, per the DNI.

While PIJ has frequently worked with Hamas, the two groups remain rivals, with ideological differences and occasional disagreements over their strategies toward Israel.