Noteworthy News

[Thumpalumpacus]

Oops.

[The Valkyrie]

Oops.

I suspect this may be an understatement...

[Thumpalumpacus]

Oops.

I suspect this may be an understatement...

Leverage is a thing not just in physics.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend, Trade Edition

Europe appears to be shifting its gaze eastward, seeking assistance from China rather than the US as leaders pursue trade agreements with the Asian giant instead of American President, Donald Trump.

Double secret oopsie.

Boru

[Angrboda]

On Friday, four Republican members of the North Carolina Supreme Court issued an order attempting to disenfranchise more than 5,000 of the state’s voters. This order is part of an ongoing effort by Judge Jefferson Griffin, a Republican and the losing candidate in a recent state supreme court race, to overturn Democratic state Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs’ reelection in that race.

Four of the state’s Republican justices, in other words, are attempting to unseat one of their own Democratic colleagues and replace her with the Republican who lost his bid to unseat her.

Riggs’s victory over Griffin was very close, which is why canceling several thousand votes may be enough to change the result of this election. By official tallies, Riggs beat Griffin by just 734 votes.

Griffin’s attempt to steal this election closely resembles an even more famous court case about a contested election: Bush v. Gore (2000). Bush addressed the nail-bitingly close 2000 presidential election in Florida. Initial tallies showed Republican George W. Bush with just a 537 vote lead, and whoever prevailed in Florida would also win a term in the White House.

Democrat Al Gore, meanwhile, sought a recount of some Florida ballots in the hopes that this recount would push him over the top. But we’ll never know if Bush or Gore was the proper winner of the 2000 presidential election because the Supreme Court effectively halted that recount in Bush.

The stunning thing about the North Carolina Supreme Court’s recent decision, in a case known as Griffin v. North Carolina State Board of Electors, is that the four Republican justices behind that decision somehow managed to recreate the exact same constitutional violation that drove the Supreme Court to shut down the recount in Bush.

That’s not easy to do. One reason why Bush is widely criticized as a partisan decision is that the five justices in the majority went to great pains to limit their decision to the “present circumstances” before the Court — implying that Bush’s victory was a good-for-this-ride-only decision involving facts that are unlikely to arise again. But now they have arisen in the Griffin case.

The specific legal violation identified in Bush v. Gore was that the Florida Supreme Court ordered just three counties — counties that tended to favor Democrats — to recount their ballots, a problem exacerbated by the fact that each of these three counties used different procedures to conduct this recount. A majority of the justices concluded that this piecemeal procedure was not allowed and the state supreme court had an obligation to “assure uniformity” of election rules throughout the state.

In Griffin, meanwhile, the four Republican justices ordered voters disenfranchised in just four North Carolina counties — all of which favor Democrats — while leaving similarly situated voters in other counties untouched. That’s the exact same thing the Florida Supreme Court did in Bush. A state supreme court cannot apply non-uniform rules after an election has already happened.

For the moment, the state supreme court’s attempt to steal Riggs’s seat is on hold — a federal judge issued a temporary order forbidding the state from certifying the result of the election until after this case is fully litigated in federal court. But under Bush, there’s only one conclusion the federal courts should reach in this case: that North Carolina’s Supreme Court cannot selectively toss out ballots.

https://www.vox.com/scotus/408666/suprem...n-election

[Angrboda]

Nvidia (NVDA) stock sank nearly 7% Wednesday after the AI chipmaker disclosed that it would take a $5.5 billion hit from the US government's surprise new controls on its semiconductor exports to China.

Nvidia said in a regulatory filing late Tuesday night that the US government informed the company it would require a special license for exports of its H20 chips made specifically for the Chinese market to comply with US trade rules.

Notably, no licenses for GPU shipments into China have ever been granted, given the US government's concern that the chips could be used to build AI supercomputers in the country, Jefferies analyst Blayne Curtis wrote in an analysis following the news that the latest rule is effectively a ban.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nvidia-st...19576.html

[Angrboda]

Number of People Moving to Texas, Florida Cities Plummets

The movement of Americans across the country has declined significantly over the past 10 years, according to the latest U.S. Census data, with 87.9 percent of the population staying in the same home through those years compared to 85.1 percent a decade ago.

A majority of those who have been moving, however, have had one destination in mind: the Sun Belt—and especially Florida and Texas. In 2023, according to a recent report by Storage Cafe, Texas was the nation's top state for net migration, with 137,582 newcomers, closely followed by Florida with 136,750.

These numbers, however, dropped in 2024, as the two states face higher home prices, hefty property taxes, and climbing homeowners' insurance premiums.

According to Redfin, the former pandemic boomtown of Tampa, Florida, saw the biggest slowdown in domestic migration in 2024 of all 50 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas, with a net inflow of just over 10,000 residents. That's less than one-third the 35,000-person net inflow reported in 2023.

Net inflow indicates how many more U.S. residents move into a metro area than move out, and includes domestic moves only.

Dallas saw the second-biggest slowdown, with a net inflow of roughly 13,000 residents in 2024, down from 35,000 in 2023.

Atlanta reported a net outflow of nearly 2,000 last year, which means 2,000 more U.S. residents moved out of the city than in. That's compared to a net inflow of 17,000 the year before.

Other Florida and Texas cities—including Houston, Miami, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, San Antonio, Fort Worth and Austin—were included in the list with the biggest migration slowdowns reported in 2024.

[Ivan Denisovich]

ICC Demands Hungary Explain Why Netanyahu Wasn't Arrested During Visit

The head of Amnesty International in Europe said the court has done "what the E.U. should have: taken legal measures against Hungary for its failure to arrest a fugitive wanted for war crimes."

The International Criminal Court on Wednesday initiated proceedings against Hungary for failing to enforce the tribunal's arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his recent visit to the Central European nation.

The ICC is asking Hungary's far-right government to explain why it did not comply with its warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Such compliance is required under the Rome Statute, the treaty governing the ICC to which Hungary is signatory.

The tribunal's request cites Article 87 of the Rome Statute, which authorizes legal action against state parties who don't cooperate with the court, and gives Hungary until May 23 to respond.

Sadly I doubt that it will result in much but in times of international law being flouted by rogue states fact that attempt was made is heartening.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

^I think you may have meant 'flouted', not 'flaunted'.

Boru

[Ivan Denisovich]

^I think you may have meant 'flouted', not 'flaunted'.

Boru

I did. Thanks for the catch.