Corporations Can Vote Now & Why A Texas Primary Has Republicans Worried

Hi readers, happy Thursday! Today we’re covering a key primary in Texas, more Iran war whiplash, a surprising gas deal between U.S. allies, big numbers in Beijing, how corporations can vote in elections, the UFC White House event, and trouble at the Times.

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.” ― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

Even Elections Are Bigger In Texas

On Tuesday night, Trump-backed challenger Ken Paxton upset four-term incumbent John Cornyn in Texas’ Republican primary for one of the state’s U.S. Senate seats. His victory means he’ll face Democrat James Talarico in November’s general election – while Paxton seems to have Trump’s whole-hearted backing, other Republicans are worried that he could make the GOP lose its first Senate race in Texas since 1988.

Why might Paxton’s primary win cost Republicans a seat in the Senate? Well, putting it nicely, he has a bit of a checkered past. After being elected Texas Attorney General in 2014, Paxton was quickly indicted on three charges of felony securities fraud charges in 2015 – after delaying the criminal trial for 9 years, he was able to come to a pretrial agreement without admitting wrongdoing in the case. While that was going on, he was also impeached by Texas’ (Republican-controlled!) House of Representatives for abusing his office to help investor Nate Paul, one of his political donors. He also had an extramarital affair with one of Paul’s female employees, but that’s neither here nor there – after a two week trial, the state Senate acquitted him of all 16 articles of impeachment.

“While Republicans are facing their nightmare scenario, tonight Democrats are one step closer to winning a Senate majority, and in November, Texas will send James Talarico to the Senate,” wrote Democratic leaders in a statement. “Ken Paxton is so corrupt that even his own party tried to remove him from office, and during his tenure as Attorney General, criminals have walked free while Paxton and his wealthy donors have profited at the expense of Texas families.” 

More War Whiplash

Yesterday, Iranian state TV claimed that it had obtained a draft peace document aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping. According to the supposed agreement, shipping traffic in the strait will return to pre-war levels within a month, and will be overseen by Iran and Oman.

Soon after that report was released, Trump dismissed the claims in a cabinet meeting attended by the media. “Nobody's going to control (the strait),” he said. “It’s international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we'll have to blow them up. They understand that, they’ll be fine.” His statement seems like a veiled threat to Oman, which is a key U.S. ally in the Middle East.

Later in the day, the U.S. military launched another round of strikes on Iran despite the ongoing ceasefire between the two countries. According to an anonymous U.S. official, the military shot down four Iranian drones in the operation and also hit a drone ground control station in the city of Bandar Abbas, a city on the coast of the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices had dipped 5% in response to the earlier news, but rose back 2% to close out the day at $90.38 a barrel.

This Gas Deal Came Naturally

• Yesterday, Canada and Germany announced a landmark energy deal which will see Canada send one million tons of liquified natural gas (LNG) to Germany each year. The deal, the first of its kind between the two countries, is set to begin in the early 2030s and will last for up to 20 years.

• The gas will come from Ksi Lisims, an LNG export facility on Canada’s west coast that doesn’t actually exist… for now. LNG export facilities are specialized plants that receive natural gas (in its gas form) via pipelines, turn that gas into a liquid by bringing it down to −162 °C (−260 °F), and load it onto specialized tanker ships for transit. Ksi Lisims is a pet project of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who said that this deal means the project should be able to secure funding “in a matter of months” and begin construction soon after that.

• Zooming out from the non-existent LNG facility, the deal is a win for Germany given Europe’s energy issues, which have been made worse by the Russia-Ukraine and U.S.-Israel-Iran wars. It’s also a ding for U.S. – both because two of its close allies worked out the deal without Washington’s involvement, and because this could signal the beginning of a Canadian push to become a bigger LNG exporter competing with its southern neighbor.

A Bright Spot For Beijing

• China’s government released some economic data from the month of April yesterday, showing impressive growth in its industrial sector. Industrial profits jumped 24.7% last month, a steep increase from the 15.8% they saw in March and the largest profit increase the country has seen since November 2023

• The numbers are good news for Beijing – and ward off fears that the economy could get bogged down by rising oil prices – but they also highlight China’s increasingly uneven economic growth. While industrial exports continue to chug along, most other sectors of the economy are struggling to keep up: investment, industrial production, and retail sales were all down in April, and core unemployment is also hovering near record-high levels.

• “The external environment is complex and volatile, while ⁠the ​mismatch between strong domestic supply and weak [domestic] demand remains pronounced,” said one statistician. “Some enterprises are still facing operational difficulties.”

Additional World News

• Trump policies risk financial crisis, ECB warns (Semafor)

• Could Russia Hit Harder? It at Least Wants Ukraine to Think So. (NYT, $)

• Thai court acquits opposition politician accused of royal insult (Reuters) 

• Israel launches more than 120 airstrikes against Lebanon in a day (Guardian)

• Pentagon puts building blocks in place for Cuba invasion (Politico)

• Kuwait says it faces a missile and drone attack as shaky ceasefire in Iran war again challenged (AP)

Orbital Edge Accelerator Applications Extended to June 4

The Orbital Edge Accelerator program is now accepting applications through June 4, 11:59 PM ET.

Entering its second year, Orbital Edge is a unique accelerator designed to help startups developing market-changing, space-enabled technologies access capital, mentorship, strategic partnerships, and potential orbital flight opportunities through the ISS National Laboratory® ecosystem.

The program is supported by the ISS National Laboratory®, alongside investment and ecosystem partners including Context Ventures, Cook Inlet Region, Inc., Draper Associates, Draper University, E2MC, and Stellar Ventures.

If you are building technologies at the intersection of space, innovation, and commercialization, this is an opportunity worth exploring.

One Corporation, One Vote

• Corporations just can’t stop winning! Earlier this week, a judge ruled that corporations do indeed have the right to vote in elections – or at least, in local elections in a Delaware beach town named Fenwick Island. 

• The decision was passed down in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) ​of Delaware town against Fenwick Island’s government. The ACLU was hoping for a court order blocking the town from counting the votes of “non-human artificial entities” in elections. Fenwick Island has allowed corporate entities to vote in elections since it was incorporated in 1953; currently, about 12% of all registered “voters” in the town are actually just corporations.

• In his decision, Delaware Superior Court Judge Craig Karsnitz ruled that corporations’ ability to vote does not violate an elections clause in Delaware’s ​state constitution which states that “All elections shall be ⁠free and equal.” The mayor of Fenwick Island said that the municipal government believes that “a property owner who pays taxes and is subject to our ordinances should ​have a say in who represents them on our Town Council.”

The Octagon Of Freedom

• Trump’s ballroom retrofit isn’t the only controversial construction project tearing up the White House grounds right now. This week, crews began constructing the stage for the upcoming UFC Freedom 250 event, which is set to take place on June 14. The arena will feature massive arches covered in stars and stripes, the UFC’s usual octagon cage, temporary stands for a crowd of 5,000 people, and two large screens for the audience to view the action on. 

• The event is part of a wider celebration of the U.S.’s semiquincentennial. Which is a fancy way of saying it’s the country’s 250th birthday. Other celebrations include an IndyCar race (which will see racers drive through the streets of Washington, D.C.), the so-called “Patriot Games” (some sort of U.S.-only Olympic Games), and a Great American State Fair on the National Mall.

Additional USA News

• The paper trail linking a US fuel trader to a notorious Mexican cartel (Reuters)

• Former US Attorney General Pam Bondi diagnosed with cancer (BBC)

• More people are going hungry now than at height of pandemic (NPR)

• Newsom vows 100 percent tax on DOJ ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ payouts (Politico)

• Justice Department launches a criminal investigation into Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll (CNN)

• Biden sues Justice Department to stop release of audio and transcripts tied to special counsel probe (AP)

Troubling Times At The Times

• It’s been a few months without controversy at the New York Times – which of course means that there’s now another controversy at the New York Times. Earlier this month, the New York Times Guild and the separate Times Tech Guild (which represent 1,500 and 700 Times workers, respectively) both filed unfair labor practice charges against the newspaper, alleging that the company is violating labor laws by not disclosing how it’s using AI to track productivity in the workplace.

• One of the AI tools in question is named DX. It allows the company to track employee productivity, which includes their coding output and for some reason the number of times they use generative AI. While Times higher-ups framed it as a way to track company-wide metrics, the Tech Guild says that the newspaper is using it to discipline individual employees. “Now people in disciplinary situations are suddenly having read back to them, ‘You only did one [pull request] per week, per whatever, and that’s 25 percent below industry standard,’” said one union representative.

• “All this [data] reasonably could be expected to … help us understand how we’re doing, but not the way that they’re using it and implementing it, which we think is amounting to a de facto quota,” he added. The Times Guild is currently renegotiating its contract with the company, and is pushing for protections against AI – these include a request that AI tools aren’t allowed to operate autonomously within the company and that staff are compensated for their work being used in any AI model training deals that the company signs.

Additional Reads

• The next revolution in hip replacements (BBC) 

• Why is Ferrari facing such a backlash to its first electric car? (Guardian)

• Uber president says AI spending is getting ‘harder to justify’ (Verge)

• A New Species of Tiny Octopus Was Discovered in the Galápagos Islands (Wired)

• DOJ charges Google staffer over Polymarket trades netting $1.2 million (NPR) 

• What 370,000 College Essays Tell Us About A.I.’s Effects on Creativity (NYT, $)

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