I'll be a guy, the Lexus, bragging about money, those are just props.
That's not the engine.
“That's not the emotion that my music is running on.”
That is, of course, Jay-Z. I'm John Keramonica, one of the critics behind the New York Times' 30 greatest living American songwriters project. We interviewed some of the songwriters on our list, including Taylor Swift, who hasn't sat for a video like this in a long time.
Watch all the video interviews for free at NYTimes.com/30Gradest or in the app. From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumpford, today's Wednesday, April 29th.
Here's what we're covering.
Today is the last day of arguments this term at the Supreme Court and the justices are set to consider a pair of cases that they fast-tracked to get on the schedule. The case is both center on temporary protected status or TPS, a decade-old legal protection that is allowed migrants from countries facing war or other humanitarian crises to live and work in the U.S.
“President Trump, though, has moved to revoke those protections immediately for hundreds”
of thousands of Haitians and Syrians and to expel them from the country. TPS holders, including students, doctors, and engineers, have pushed back in the courts, saying they could be killed if they're forced to return. The arguments, the justices will hear today, will focus on how and why the administration tried to revoke their status.
By law, the government must review conditions in the country's in question before making a decision, among other steps. Lawyers, representing the TPS holders, say that didn't happen here, and they argue that in the case of the Haitians, specifically, the administration acted with racial bias. They've pointed to Trump's false accusations about Haitians eating people's pets and being undesirable
because they come from what Trump called a filthy, disgusting country. On the administration's part, it has denied that race is a factor, and said the terminations are based on foreign policy and national security considerations.
The justices ruling will likely also have implications for more than a million other TPS
holders from other countries, whose protections the administration is also trying to terminate. The TPS arguments are just one of several high stakes cases the court took on, and it's last week of the term. We'll hear argument next in case 24, 1068, Monsano Company versus Dernel. One case earlier this week involved the weed killer roundup.
There have been widespread claims that the product causes cancer, and ultimately the court's decision could determine whether thousands of lawsuits against the company that makes it can go forward. And. What's to prevent the government from using this to find out the identities of everybody
“at a particular church, a particular political organization?”
The court also grappled this week with the issue of just how much personal cell phone data police can sweep up in an investigation. Some authorities have been using a technique called geo-fencing, which lets them gather location data from all cell phone users near a crime scene. That's helped them track down suspects, but critics of the practice argue that it's
unconstitutional and puts the privacy of everyday Americans at risk.
Decisions from the court on all of these cases, as well as other critical issues like birthright
citizenship and the Voting Rights Act are expected starting in late June. Now two other updates from Washington. You know, sometimes you wake up in the morning, and the first lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job. We've all been there, right?
As the feud between Jimmy Kimmel and the White House has kicked back up recently, federal regulators have ordered an unprecedented review of ABC's broadcast licenses. Back in the fall, Kimmel was briefly pulled off the air by ABC, his home network, after the Trump administration criticized comments he'd made in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination.
This past week, Kimmel drew the White House's anger again after he joked that first lady Melania Trump had the glow of a "expectant widow," just days before an alleged assassination attempt at the White House correspondent's dinner. Now, the federal communications commission says it's reviewing all of ABC's broadcast licenses, not because of the joke, but as part of what it says is an investigation into
the network's DEI policies. The move all but guarantees a drawn-out legal battle that will lock ABC in an expensive running war with the federal government. Well, the back, this time about a picture of C-shells on a North Carolina beach a year ago. James Komi, the former director of the FBI and frequent critic of President Trump, has
Been indicted again.
Trump has been openly calling for the Justice Department to prosecute people he sees as his
political enemies, like Komi.
“In the fall, DOJ lawyers brought their first case against him, though a judge dismissed it.”
In the new indictment, they're claiming that a picture Komi posted online was a threat on the president's life. It showed Shells arranged to say 86-47, 86 being slang to get rid of something and 47 being a reference to Trump, the 47th president. The indictment claims a reasonable person would interpret the message "as a serious expression
of intent to do harm." In a video released yesterday, Komi vowed to fight the charges. Back in 2015, Sam Altman sent an email to Elon Musk.
He pitched an idea, a Silicon Valley research lab that would build powerful AI systems as part
of what he called some sort of non-profit. Soon, that non-profit was founded, largely with donations from Musk.
“It was called Open AI and would go on to lead the tech industry into a new era of artificial”
intelligence. But, over the course of the next decade, that relationship fractured Musk quit Open AI and he and Altman went from being collaborators to competitors. Now, their simmering feud has come to a head with Musk suing Altman in a blockbuster trial that kicked off this week.
People in Silicon Valley are expecting high drama, but the implications of this trial are much larger than that. Kade Mats has been reporting for the times from the California Courthouse where Musk's testimony is expected to continue this morning and where Altman is also slated to take the stand. Kade says Musk is claiming that Altman took his money, deceived him, and abandoned
Open AI's original humanitarian mission, instead building the company into a roughly $700
“billion tech juggernaut in opening arguments yesterday.”
Open AI's lawyers said those claims are basically all just quote, "sour grapes," as they
worked to convince the jury not to take Musk's side. If Elon Musk wins his case, it could shift the balance of power in the AI race. Musk seeks tens of billions of dollars in damages, but he also wants to cripple Open AI. He wants to remove Sam Altman from the Open AI board of directors, and he wants to unravel the company that oversees ChatGPT and so many other AI technologies.
And in the end, that benefits the company's many rivals, including XAI, artificial intelligence company run by Elon Musk. And finally, in Japan, there is a problem, like in many countries there are short, un-nursing home staff to take care of their aging population. But there is also a potential solution that involves hear me out here, body builders.
I visited a few centers in Japan, and it was a really heartwarming scene. There were these young body builders, and they were in their tank tops showing off their muscles to this crowd of elderly patients. And they really brought a lot of joy and excitement to the centers. The residents were smiling.
They were punching their muscles and doing exercises with them. Javier Hernandez is the Times Tokyo Bureau Chief. He says a number of Japanese companies are specifically trying to recruit not just bodybuilders, but also MMA fighters and sumo wrestlers to work in senior care facilities. They're offering them, in some cases, housing, plus gym memberships, and even protein supplements.
It's a bit unconventional, but it actually makes sense a lot of these athletes are looking for work. They have shorter careers, once they get older, they don't have the opportunity to win contests or enter any kind of event. So they're struggling often for jobs. But in the care industry, there's actually a huge demand for this kind of skillset.
They are physically strong, they have stamina, they can work with people, and so these jobs in many ways make sense for elite athletes. Javier says the recruiting push is also about helping to change perceptions around who is a caregiver. The field is often dominated by women, and Japan is no exception to that. One staffer who has helped recruit men who are MMA athletes said, "There's a lot of testosterone in the room,
but when it comes to taking care of the elderly, the fighters are very tender and very caring."
Those are the headlines.
in California. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumpford, we'll be back tomorrow.
