NORTHWOOD (Reuters) — France and Britain on Thursday agreed to reinforce cooperation over their respective nuclear arsenals as the two European powerhouses seek to respond to growing threats to the continent and uncertainty over their U.S. ally.
The announcement came after French President Emmanuel Macron concluded a three-day state visit to Britain, where the two allies sought to turn the page on years of turbulence following Britain&#8217;s decision to withdraw from the European Union.
&#8220;This morning, we signed the Northward declaration, confirming for the first time that we are coordinating our independent nuclear deterrence,&#8221; British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a news conference alongside Macron.
&#8220;From today, our adversaries will know that any extreme threat to this continent would prompt a response from our two nations. There is no greater demonstration of the importance of this relationship.&#8221;
U.S. President Donald Trump&#8217;s questioning of burden-sharing in NATO and his overtures to Russia have led to existential questions in Europe about the trans-Atlantic relationship and Washington&#8217;s commitment to helping defend its European allies.
Europe&#8217;s primary nuclear deterrence comes from the United States and is a decades-old symbol of trans-Atlantic solidarity.
Macron said the two countries had created an oversight committee to coordinate their cooperation, a task he said was vital.
&#8220;The decision is that we don&#8217;t exclude the coordination of our respective deterrents. It&#8217;s a message that our partners and adversaries must hear,&#8221; Macron said.
The closer cooperation had nothing to do with their efforts to create a coalition of the willing to support Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia, he added.
While both sides will keep their own decision-making processes and strategic ambiguity, the move does suggest further protection for the continent at a time when the United States&#8217; commitment to Europe is under scrutiny.
Macron has previously said he will launch a strategic dialogue on extending the protection offered by France&#8217;s nuclear arsenal to its European partners.
The U.S. has nuclear arms in Europe and tens of thousands of troops deployed in bases across the continent with military capabilities that Europe cannot match.
France spends about 5.6 billion euros ($6.04 billion) annually on maintaining its stockpile of 290 submarine- and air-launched nuclear weapons, the world&#8217;s fourth largest.
Britain describes its nuclear programme as &#8220;operationally independent,&#8221; but sources missile technology from the U.S. and depends on the U.S. for acquisition and maintenance support.
&#8220;On the nuclear agreement that we&#8217;ve reached today &#8230; it is truly historic,&#8221; Starmer said.
(Additional reporting by Sam Tabahriti; Writing by John Irish; Editing by Aidan Lewis)

France’s President Macron State visit to the UK

France, Britain Unveil Nuclear Weapons Cooperation To Counter Threat To Europe

Britain

Emmanuel Macron

Europe

France

Keir Starmer

Nuclear Weapons

U.S.

WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) — The European Union said it was working on sealing a trade deal with the United States by the end of the month, while U.S. President Donald Trump promised that he would deliver further tariff notices on unnamed countries on Wednesday.
Trump broadened out a trade war that has cast a shadow over the global economic outlook when he said on Tuesday he would impose a 50% tariff on imported copper and soon introduce long-threatened levies on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.
Trump said late on Tuesday that &#8220;a minimum of seven&#8221; tariff notices would be released on Wednesday morning, and more in the afternoon. He gave no other details in his Truth Social post.
The threat came a day after he pressured 14 trading partners, including powerhouse U.S. suppliers South Korea and Japan, with tariff letters imposing levies of 25% and upwards to take effect from August 1.
<h3>NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE E.U.</h3>
Trump said trade talks have been going well with China and the European Union, which is the biggest bilateral trading partner of the U.S.
Trump said he would &#8220;probably&#8221; tell the E.U. within two days what rate it could expect for its exports to the U.S., adding that the 27-nation E.U. had become much more cooperative.
&#8220;They treated us very badly until recently, and now they&#8217;re treating us very nicely. It&#8217;s like a different world, actually,&#8221; he said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gave a guarded response.
&#8220;We stick to our principles, we defend our interests, we continue to work in good faith, and we get ready for all scenarios,&#8221; von der Leyen told the European Parliament.
A European Commission spokesperson said that the E.U. aimed to reach a trade deal before August 1, potentially even in the coming days.
However, Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti warned that talks between the two sides were &#8220;very complicated&#8221; and could continue right up to the deadline.
<h3>HIGHEST TARIFF LEVELS SINCE 1934</h3>
Equity markets shrugged off Trump&#8217;s latest tariff salvo on Wednesday, while the yen remained on the back foot after the levies set for Japan.
Following Trump&#8217;s announcement of higher tariffs for imports from the 14 countries, U.S. research group Yale Budget Lab estimated consumers face an effective U.S. tariff rate of 17.6%, up from 15.8% previously and the highest in nine decades.
Trump&#8217;s administration has been touting those tariffs as a significant revenue source. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington has taken in about $100 billion so far and could collect $300 billion by the end of the year. The United States has taken in about $80 billion annually in tariff revenue in recent years.
Trump&#8217;s administration promised &#8220;90 deals in 90 days&#8221; after he unveiled an array of country-specific duties in early April. So far, only two agreements have been reached, with Britain and Vietnam. Trump has said a deal with India was close.
(Reporting by Julia Payne, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Philip Blenkinsop, Trevor Hunnicutt, Dan Burns; Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by Alex Richardson)

FILE PHOTO: European Union leaders summit in Brussels

E.U. Seeks To Finalize Trade Deal With Trump By End Of The Month

Donald Trump

Economy

European Union

Global Politics

Tariffs

Trade War

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that his latest conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump this week was the best and &#8220;most productive&#8221; he has had to date.
&#8220;Regarding the conversation with the president of the United States, which took place a day earlier, it was probably the best conversation we have had during this whole time, the most productive,&#8221; Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
&#8220;We discussed air defense issues and I&#8217;m grateful for the willingness to help. The Patriot system is precisely the key to protection against ballistic threats.&#8221;
Zelensky said the two leaders had discussed &#8220;several other important matters&#8221; that officials from the two sides would be considering in forthcoming meetings.
Trump told reporters on Friday that he had a good call with Zelensky and restated his disappointment at a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin over what he said was Moscow&#8217;s lack of willingness to work toward a ceasefire.
Asked whether the United States would agree to supply more Patriot missiles to Ukraine, as requested by Zelensky, Trump said: &#8220;They&#8217;re going to need them for defense&#8230; They&#8217;re going to need something because they&#8217;re being hit pretty hard.&#8221;
Russia has intensified air attacks on Kyiv and other cities in recent weeks. Moscow&#8217;s forces launched the largest drone attack of the 40-month-old war on the Ukrainian capital hours after Trump&#8217;s conversation with Putin on Thursday.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksander Kozhukhar; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Diane Craft)

U.S. President Trump and Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy attend a meeting on the sidelines of NATO summit in The Hague

Ukraine’s Zelensky Says Latest Call With Trump Was ‘Most Productive’ Yet

Putin

Russia

Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelensky

President Donald Trump said he had signed letters to 12 countries outlining the various tariff levels they would face on goods they export to the United States, with the &#8220;take it or leave it&#8221; offers to be sent out on Monday.
Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled to New Jersey, declined to name the countries involved, saying that would be made public on Monday.
Trump had earlier on Thursday told reporters that he expected a first batch of letters to go out on Friday, a national holiday in the United States, though the date has now shifted.
Trump in April announced a 10% base tariff rate and additional amounts for most countries, some ranging as high as 50%. However, all but the 10% base rate were subsequently suspended for 90 days to allow more time for negotiations to secure deals.
That period ends on July 9, although Trump early on Friday said the tariffs could be even higher — ranging up to 70% — with most set to go into effect August 1.
&#8220;I signed some letters and they&#8217;ll go out on Monday, probably twelve,&#8221; Trump said, when asked about his plans on the tariff front. &#8220;Different amounts of money, different amounts of tariffs.&#8221;
Trump and his top aides initially said they would launch negotiations with scores of countries on tariff rates, but the U.S. president has soured on that process after repeated setbacks with major trading partners, including Japan and the European Union.
He touched on that briefly late on Friday, telling reporters: &#8220;The letters are better &#8230; much easier to send a letter.&#8221;
He did not address his prediction that some broader trade agreements could be reached before the July 9 deadline.
The shift in the White House&#8217;s strategy reflects the challenges of completing trade agreements on everything from tariffs to non-tariff barriers such as bans on agricultural imports, and especially on an accelerated timeline.
Most past trade agreements have taken years of negotiations to complete.
The only trade agreements reached to date are with Britain, which reached a deal in May to keep a 10% rate and won preferential treatment for some sectors including autos and aircraft engines, and with Vietnam, cutting tariffs on many Vietnamese goods to 20% from his previously threatened 46%. Many U.S. products would be allowed to enter Vietnam duty free.
A deal expected with India has failed to materialize, and EU diplomats on Friday said they have failed to achieve a breakthrough in trade negotiations with the Trump administration, and may now seek to extend the status quo to avoid tariff hikes.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Jasper Ward; Editing by William Mallard and Shri Navaratnam)

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media on board Air Force One on the way to New Jersey

Trump Set To Send A Dozen ‘Take It Or Leave It’ Trade Deal Offers

BOISE, Idaho &#8211; A man charged with stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in 2022 pleaded guilty on Wednesday to first-degree murder in a deal with prosecutors that spares the former graduate student in criminal justice the death sentence.
Bryan Kohberger, 30, previously pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and burglary charges in a gruesome multiple homicide in 2022 that stunned the small college town of Moscow in northwestern Idaho and drew national media attention.
The plea agreement, as outlined in court by the judge, calls for Kohberger to be sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison and to waive his rights to appeal or seek reconsideration of the sentence.
Relatives of at least two of the victims attended Wednesday&#8217;s court hearing, which began at 1 p.m. ET in Boise, the Idaho state capital. According to news media accounts, the families were divided about the plea deal.
Kohberger, who has remained in pre-trial custody since his arrest more than two years ago, was due to return to court for formal sentencing on July 23-24.
Under questioning from the judge, Kohberger stated that he was pleading guilty as charged to four counts of first-degree homicide and a charge of felony burglary.
He also asserted that he was doing so freely, believed it to be in his best interests, was satisfied with his legal counsel, and understood the consequences of his plea.
Answering &#8220;yes&#8221; to a series of questions from the judge, he also admitted to committing each of the crimes.
At the time of the killings, Kohberger was pursuing a doctorate degree in criminal justice at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, a short distance from Moscow, where the four victims were undergraduates at the University of Idaho.
The murders occurred during the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, in an off-campus house shared by five women.
Three of the roommates &#8211; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d&#8217;Alene, Idaho; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho &#8211; were found slain inside the house along with Kernodle&#8217;s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington.
All suffered multiple stab wounds, according to authorities.
The family of Goncalves, in a statement through their attorney, criticized the plea agreement as a mishandled, &#8220;secretive deal and a hurried effort to close the case without any input from the victims&#8217; families.&#8221;
Asked outside the courthouse prior to Wednesday&#8217;s hearing whether he believed the four life sentences provided justice in the case, the victim&#8217;s father, Steve Goncalves, said, &#8220;No, of course not. It&#8217;s daycare. Prison is daycare.&#8221;
(Reporting by Matt McKnight and Eric Cox in Boise, Idaho; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Bryan Kohberger, charged in the murders of four University of Idaho students, appears at the Ada County Courthouse, in Boise

Bryan Kohberger Pleads Guilty To Murders Of Four Idaho Students

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) &#8211; In what she calls the &#8220;wild west&#8221; of obesity medicines, Missouri-based Amy Spencer is a pioneer.
Each week, the mother of two injects herself with weight-loss drugs, two of which are in clinical trials and not yet approved for sale by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. One comes mixed with tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Eli Lilly&#8217;s Zepbound.
Spencer, 50, is not part of any drug trial but mixes the cocktails herself, using tiny doses that she believes are safe. The total cost is about $50 monthly, as little as one-tenth of what she would expect to pay their makers for full treatment.
The drugs – glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) weight-loss medicines – are manufactured and shipped from China, according to the packaging. She orders them through online vendors.
Spencer belongs to a fast-growing group of Americans turning to what many call the &#8220;gray market&#8221; for obesity medicines, bringing cheap active ingredients from China, often labeled as for research purposes, according to import data and social media postings. It&#8217;s a trend that drugmakers Lilly and Novo Nordisk, which makes Wegovy, say is dangerous as well as illicit.
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Reuters tracked online forums and interviewed seven people who said they bought obesity medicines through this market, including an attorney in Arizona who works for a state insurance agency, a retired nurse in Illinois, and a Type 1 diabetic in Louisiana, who said the medicine helped cut her insulin intake by more than half.
For more than a year there has been demand for cheap Chinese-made powders, exacerbated by limited health insurance coverage in the U.S. Buyers told Reuters the gray market received a boost from an FDA ruling last year that U.S. compounding pharmacies – outsourcing facilities that create drugs in shortage – must stop selling obesity medicines more cheaply than the companies that developed them.
Shipments of such active ingredients from Chinese entities not registered with the FDA jumped by 44% in January from the previous month, according to research by the Partnership for Safe Medicines, a public health group focused on the safety of prescription drugs.
It said its findings are likely an undercount, because unregistered vendors may not disclose that their parcels contain medicines. Packages valued at less than $800 that enter the U.S. under the de minimis rule are not included in the data.
Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, according to government estimates, but a survey by nonprofit health policy research organization KFF found only about 8% say they have taken medicine for weight loss.
Most of the gray market buyers Reuters interviewed had told their medical providers they were taking GLP-1 medicines, but not where or how they bought them.
Insurance coverage for weight-loss drugs has recently increased, but typically only covers branded versions, according to consulting firm Mercer. Many Americans have paid out of pocket for cheaper compounded drugs. Interest in taking small doses of the drugs has also spurred the online marketplace, buyers said.
Taking to platforms including Reddit and Telegram for guidance, buyers import small quantities, often described as research materials, to sidestep regulatory scrutiny. They swap advice for navigating the market, exchanging information on vendors, shipping, and dosage, and sometimes clubbing together to cover the cost of testing the powders.
One forum is called StairwayToGray. It has more than 21,000 members on Telegram and recently was gaining nearly 1,000 members weekly. It did not respond to Reuters&#8217; inquiries, and blocked access to the forum after receiving them. It has a website where it says it does not facilitate group purchases.
&#8220;This community is filling the gaps and being our own regulators, ensuring testing and access for everyone who needs it. Because you shouldn&#8217;t have to choose between your health or your wallet,&#8221; it says.
Spencer stores her stocks in her fridge and makes them up in the kitchen – carefully measuring sterile water, rolling the vial between her fingers until the powder dissolves, and drawing the liquid into a syringe before injecting it into her thigh or belly. She has lost 24 pounds.
&#8220;This is working so well for me. It&#8217;s so easy. It&#8217;s cheap,&#8221; said Spencer, who assumes her health plan wouldn&#8217;t cover the drugs. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what I would do without this medicine.&#8221;
&#8220;VERY DANGEROUS&#8221;
In February, 38 U.S. state and territory attorney generals wrote the FDA seeking action against illegally sold weight-loss medicines, including &#8220;research purposes only&#8221; ingredients from China. &#8220;Much like with counterfeit versions, these active ingredients come from unregulated, undisclosed sources &#8230; and pose risks of contamination and inclusion of foreign substances,&#8221; they said.
Shabbir Safdar, executive director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, said unapproved drugs can have problems with sterility, purity, and consistency.
&#8220;It can be very dangerous. You&#8217;re playing the role of your own doctor, pharmacist, and FDA inspector,&#8221; he said.
Of those interviewed, only Spencer reported any problems: She once got her math wrong and overdosed, resulting in several days of severe flu-like symptoms.
Lilly said it had taken many steps to address patient safety risks posed by the proliferation of unsafe or untested tirzepatide. The company said it is filing lawsuits, educating consumers, and working with social media companies to identify and remove posts that promote unsafe products, including those described as &#8220;research use only.&#8221;
&#8220;We will continue to take action to stop those who threaten patient safety and urgently call on regulators and law enforcement to do the same,&#8221; a Lilly spokesperson told Reuters. Novo Nordisk also said it continues to take action against entities that violate laws and regulations and put patient safety at risk.
America&#8217;s Poison Control agency, which maintains the nation&#8217;s poison data surveillance system and monitors GLP-1 exposures, said it could not reliably track cases involving unregulated &#8220;research chemical powders&#8221; because they are sold under various names and formulations.
The FDA&#8217;s goal is to stop illegal sales of pharmaceutical medicines at the border, said George Karavetsos, former director of the FDA&#8217;s Office of Criminal Investigations and co-author of the imports study. But understanding the true nature and intended use of small parcels arriving from China can be difficult, and the FDA rarely seeks charges against consumers for personal use, he said.
The FDA said it urges consumers to buy from licensed pharmacies and &#8220;avoid products of unknown quality,&#8221; adding it was actively protecting consumers by intercepting illegal products at ports, and warning companies that market unapproved weight-loss medicines, including those mislabeled as &#8220;for research purposes.&#8221;
Although the forums show suppliers purportedly in China, Reuters was not able to verify where the drugs originate. None of the vendors responded to requests for comment.
A Reddit spokesperson said the site prohibits facilitating transactions involving drugs and regularly shuts down groups found to be doing this. Telegram said it removes &#8220;more than a million&#8221; instances of harmful content each day, but did not comment directly.
MICRODOSE MISTAKE
Spencer has polycystic ovary syndrome and, for years, struggled with weight gain and hypertension. She decided to try obesity medicines after seeing claims on social media that microdosing them could give fewer side effects, and bought semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy, from a compounding pharmacy for about $200 per month.
She started on one-fifth of the lowest dose. Within days, intermittent joint pain she often suffered had dissipated: &#8220;I didn&#8217;t realize how badly I hurt until the pain was gone.&#8221;
The cost would reach about $500 a month if she bought the drug from Novo, which recently introduced one-off discounts.
After a week, Spencer said, her blood pressure dropped so low she thought she might pass out, so she stopped taking hypertension medicine. Her pressure stabilized, and she lost three pounds.
She wanted to understand more about microdosing, and turned to the gray market last summer. On Reddit, users described how another Novo drug in development, called CagriSema, had helped reduce inflammation and hunger pangs better than semaglutide.
CagriSema is Novo&#8217;s next-generation obesity drug candidate, still in clinical trials, so not available to the public. It combines semaglutide with another molecule, called cagrilintide, which intensifies the hormone-mimicking effects to regulate blood sugar and reduce hunger.
Spencer was intrigued.
She found a U.S. reseller saying they tested Chinese-made CagriSema through a third-party lab before selling it to Americans. On microdoses of CagriSema, Spencer could enjoy food in small quantities.
&#8220;I could say &#8216;yes&#8217; because I knew I was only going to eat four bites.&#8221;
In October, Spencer saw on Reddit that tirzepatide might also reduce inflammation. She placed a new order for vials that contained cagrilintide and tirzepatide combined, dubbed &#8220;cagri-tirz.&#8221;
Now, each Monday, Spencer injects herself with tiny amounts of cagri-tirz. On Thursdays, she uses retatrutide, a new obesity medicine by Lilly, also in trials.
As she was switching to cagri-tirz, Spencer made a dangerous mistake. She calculated her new dosage without realizing the concentration of cagrilintide in the combined vials was 10 times higher than she had taken previously. &#8220;I was an idiot. I didn&#8217;t do my math. Or rather, I did the math for the tirzepatide but not for the cagri,&#8221; she said.
Almost immediately, she began vomiting. The reaction was so severe that she had trouble moving. She forced herself to drink water but couldn&#8217;t eat. After four days, when symptoms lifted, she had lost seven pounds.
Despite the blunder, Spencer didn&#8217;t consider returning to compounded versions of the drugs or abandoning them altogether. She is not regularly monitored by a healthcare provider, but says her treatment has led to a &#8220;life-changing&#8221; reduction in weight, joint pain, and blood pressure.
&#8220;HONOR SYSTEM&#8221;
Gray-market buyer Marie, 41, shows how do-it-yourself drugmakers are organizing. She describes herself as a &#8220;soccer mom&#8221; from the Midwest and asked to be identified by her middle name to protect her privacy.
Last year, she bought a compounding pharmacy&#8217;s version of tirzepatide, paying about $470 monthly, and had lost more than 20 pounds when the FDA announced the ban on compounded weight-loss drugs. She began to worry about her supply.
Browsing on Reddit, she discovered links to Telegram and a trove of detailed instructions from experienced users for buying weight-loss drug ingredients from China. Customers said they often paid with Bitcoin or through mobile payment service Venmo.
After a month of closely following the forums, Marie made a purchase in January. The package that arrived contained 20 small glass vials of white powder with red caps. There were no instructions. The vendor who advertised the package on Telegram said it came from China.
Marie returned to the forums and joined a group of 52 other customers who paid a total of $1,020 to a Tennessee-based company called Peptide Test. Six members mailed in a vial each, and the others chipped in their share of the fee. The lab found the samples were pure. Peptide Test declined to comment.
&#8220;It&#8217;s an honor system,&#8221; said Marie. &#8220;These groups are very supportive in a way I haven&#8217;t seen on the internet before.&#8221;
Before her first injection, Marie gave her husband details of what she had done. They agreed that if needed, he would disclose everything to the emergency medics. But she was fine.
In March, Marie volunteered to organize testing a new order of tirzepatide. The group formed on Telegram after users received vials from the same vendor, which they judged to be from the same batch based on the color of the caps. In all, 38 buyers agreed to chip in for the $1,300 bill, and decided by poll that five vials would be enough.
Five people sent drugs to the lab, Janoshik Analytical in the Czech Republic, which found the vials contained tirzepatide, as purported, with purity between 99.78% and 99.85%.
Janoshik&#8217;s CEO, Peter Magic, is a former amateur weight-lifter. He said his company started out more than a decade ago testing performance-enhancing drugs for online buyers. Last year, it tested 3,050 samples of obesity drugs, up from just over 650 samples in 2023.
&#8220;We&#8217;re testing hundreds of these every week,&#8221; said Magic, whose company helps customers navigate customs requirements for shipping chemicals.
(Reporting by Robin Respaut in San Francisco and Maggie Fick in London; additional reporting by Patrick Wingrove in New York; edited by Sara Ledwith and Michele Gershberg)

Amy Spencer injects herself with DIY obesity drugs purchased on the grey market in Missouri

Stung By High Prices, Americans Make Their Own Weight-Loss Drugs

WASHINGTON/PARIS/KINSHASA (Reuters) &#8211; Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo signed a U.S.-brokered peace agreement on Friday, raising hopes for an end to fighting that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more so far this year.
The agreement marks a breakthrough in talks held by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, which also aims to attract billions of dollars of Western investment to a region rich in tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper, lithium, and other minerals.
At a ceremony with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Department of State, the two countries&#8217; foreign ministers signed the agreement pledging to implement a 2024 deal that would see Rwandan troops withdraw from eastern Congo within 90 days, according to a version initialled by technical teams last week and seen by Reuters.
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Kinshasa and Kigali will also launch a regional economic integration framework within 90 days, the agreement said.
&#8220;They were going at it for many years, and with machetes &#8211; it is one of the worst, one of the worst wars that anyone has ever seen. And I just happened to have somebody that was able to get it settled,&#8221; Trump said on Friday, ahead of the two sides signing the deal in Washington.
&#8220;We&#8217;re getting, for the United States, a lot of the mineral rights from the Congo as part of it. They&#8217;re so honored to be here. They never thought they&#8217;d be coming.&#8221;
Trump was due to meet the foreign ministers in the Oval Office later on Friday.
Rwanda has sent at least 7,000 soldiers over the border, according to analysts and diplomats, in support of the M23 rebels, who seized eastern Congo&#8217;s two largest cities and lucrative mining areas in a lightning advance earlier this year.
The gains this year by M23, the latest cycle in a decades-old conflict with roots in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, sparked fears of a wider war drawing in Congo&#8217;s neighbours.
Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe called the deal a turning point. Congo Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said the agreement must be followed by disengagement.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the initialled version of the agreement.
ECONOMIC DEALS
Massad Boulos, Trump&#8217;s senior adviser for Africa, told Reuters in May that Washington wanted the peace deal and accompanying minerals deals to be signed simultaneously this summer.
However, the agreement signed on Friday gives Congo and Rwanda three months to launch a framework &#8220;to expand foreign trade and investment derived from regional critical mineral supply chains&#8221;, according to the initialled version seen by Reuters.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday that another agreement on the framework would be signed by the heads of state at a separate White House event at an unspecified time.
There is an understanding that progress in ongoing talks in Doha &#8211; a separate but parallel mediation effort with delegations from the Congolese government and M23 &#8211; is essential before the signing of the economic framework, the source said.
The agreement signed on Friday was set to voice &#8220;full support&#8221; for the Qatar-hosted talks, according to the initialled version.
It also says Congo and Rwanda will form a joint security coordination mechanism within 30 days and implement a plan agreed last year to monitor and verify the withdrawal of Rwandan soldiers within three months.
Congolese military operations targeting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a Congo-based armed group that includes remnants of Rwanda&#8217;s former army and militias that carried out the 1994 genocide, are meant to conclude over the same timeframe.
Reuters reported on Thursday that Congolese negotiators had dropped an earlier demand that Rwandan troops immediately leave eastern Congo, paving the way for Friday&#8217;s signing ceremony.
Congo, the United Nations, and Western powers say Rwanda is supporting M23 by sending troops and arms.
Rwanda has long denied helping M23, saying its forces are acting in self-defence against Congo&#8217;s army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
&#8220;This is the best chance we have at a peace process for the moment despite all the challenges and flaws,&#8221; said Jason Stearns, a political scientist at Simon Fraser University, specialising in Africa&#8217;s Great Lakes region.
Similar formulas have been attempted before, he added, and &#8220;it will be up to the U.S., as they are the godfather of this deal, to make sure both sides abide by the terms.&#8221;
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Washington, Ange Adihe Kasongo in Kinshasa and Sonia Rolley in Paris; Additional reporting by Robbie Corey-Boulet in Dakar and Trevor Hunnicutt and Steve Holland in Washington; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Alison Williams)

A Congolese civilian pushes a Tshukudu as they flee near the Congolese border with Rwanda after fightings broke out in Kibumba

Rwanda And Congo Sign Peace Agreement In Washington

Bill Moyers, a key member of Democratic President Lyndon Johnson&#8217;s inner circle and later a guiding force in American journalism during more than 40 years in public television, has died at the age of 91, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
At a time when critics said broadcast news was becoming fluffier and shallower, Moyers pursued a thoughtful, in-depth approach, bringing an intellectual perspective delivered in a soothing Texas twang.
He took an activist approach to the job and The Nation magazine called him a &#8220;radical presence&#8221; in broadcast news, which his critics said was proof that the Public Broadcasting Service network should not get federal funding.
Starting in 1971, Moyers had regular shows on public television, including &#8220;Bill Moyers&#8217; Journal,&#8221; &#8220;Now With Bill Moyers,&#8221; &#8220;Moyers on America&#8221; and &#8220;Moyers and Company,&#8221; as well limited-run series on the U.S. Constitution, faith and mythology.
Among the other topics he explored at length on his shows were poverty, racism, money in politics, climate change, income inequality, the shortcomings of the media and what he called the &#8220;pirates and predators of Wall Street.&#8221;
&#8220;He used the tools of the documentarian to wield a velvet sledgehammer, bludgeoning corporate polluters and government ne&#8217;er-do-wells with precision and grace,&#8221; New York Times media columnist David Carr wrote in 2004.
Billy Don Moyers was born in Hugo, Oklahoma, on June 5, 1934, and grew up mostly in Marshall, Texas. A dutiful, energetic overachiever, he dedicated himself to school, church and work, including a job at the local newspaper.
His early adult life would be a tug of war between the pulpit, the press and politics. He was attending North Texas State College when he first went to Washington in 1954 as a summer intern in the office of then-Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson. When he returned to school, transferring to the University of Texas, he worked on the student newspaper and Johnson made sure he had a job at the Austin television station owned by his wife, &#8220;Lady Bird&#8221; Johnson.
He also pursued the ministry, becoming ordained as a Baptist minister in 1954 and earning a master of divinity degree at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1959.
Johnson&#8217;s legendary powers of persuasion eventually prevailed and Moyers became an aide during Johnson&#8217;s unsuccessful presidential run against John F. Kennedy in 1960. After the election, Kennedy chose Moyers to be assistant director of his newly established Peace Corps.
After Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and Johnson became president, Moyers moved to the White House. He was only 30 years old but became one of the most important people in Washington &#8211; a duty-bound, deal-making extension of his boss. He served as Johnson&#8217;s press secretary, adviser, speech writer and congressional go-between. In 1965, he appeared on the covers of Newsweek and Time, which called him &#8220;LBJ&#8217;s Young Man in Charge of Everything.&#8221;
Moyers was a driving force in forging Johnson&#8217;s Great Society legislation &#8211; laws and programs that included the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the &#8220;war on poverty,&#8221; Medicaid and Medicare, conservation and aid to education.
&#8220;He taught me so much about politics and about what&#8217;s possible, about human behavior, about the consequences of decisions,&#8221; Moyers said of Johnson in a 1989 Texas Monthly interview. &#8220;At the same time, he was a driven man, a man who could consume you.&#8221;
Critics said Moyers sometimes got his hands dirty on Johnson&#8217;s behalf. He was known to leak stories and plant questions with the press corps in advance of news conferences. The Washington Post reported that he ordered the FBI to search for gay people in the administration, and CBS correspondent Morley Safer said in his autobiography that Moyers also had a role in the FBI&#8217;s bugging of civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
Moyers left Johnson&#8217;s service in 1967 &#8211; partly because he no longer believed in his boss&#8217;s war in Vietnam &#8211; to become publisher of Newsday, a Long Island, New York daily. The newspaper won two Pulitzer Prizes under his leadership, but he left in 1970 after the publisher deemed him too liberal.
Moyers then went on a bus ride around the country that he chronicled in the book &#8220;Listening to America: A Traveler Rediscovers His Country.&#8221;
He made his move to PBS in 1971 with &#8220;Bill Moyers Journal&#8221; and in 1986 he and his wife, Judith, started their own production company to make shows for public television stations.
Moyers had stints with the major networks &#8211; as a correspondent and commentator with CBS in the 1970s, and NBC and MSNBC in the 1990s &#8211; but greatly preferred the freedom and depth that public television offered.
Moyers and his wife had three children, William Cope, Alice Suzanne, and John Davidson.
(Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Rosalba O&#8217;Brien)

CBS News

Bill Moyers, Broadcaster And LBJ’s White House Press Secretary, Dies At 91

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Sean &#8220;Diddy&#8221; Combs used &#8220;violence and fear&#8221; to lead a criminal enterprise that helped him subject two of his former girlfriends to sex trafficking, a U.S. prosecutor said on Thursday in her closing argument at the music mogul&#8217;s trial.
Combs, a former billionaire known for elevating hip-hop in American culture, has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and two counts each of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted on all counts, the Bad Boy Records founder faces a minimum 15-year prison term and could be sentenced to life behind bars.
Over more than six weeks of testimony in Manhattan federal court, jurors heard two of Combs&#8217; former girlfriends testify that they took part in days-long, drug-fueled sex parties sometimes called &#8220;Freak Offs&#8221; with male sex workers while Combs watched, masturbated, and sometimes filmed.
The jury saw hotel surveillance footage of Combs beating one of the women in a hallway, and heard Combs&#8217; employees describe setting up hotel rooms and buying drugs for the performances.
&#8220;The defendant used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted,&#8221; prosecutor Christy Slavik told jurors in her address. &#8220;He thought that his fame, wealth and power put him above the law.&#8221;
The jury is expected to start deliberations either late on Friday or on Monday. Combs, a rapper and entrepreneur known for turning artists like Notorious B.I.G. and Usher into stars, has been held in federal lockup in Brooklyn since his September 2024 arrest.
Both alleged victims &#8211; the rhythm and blues singer Casandra &#8220;Cassie&#8221; Ventura and a woman known in court by the pseudonym Jane &#8211; testified Combs also threatened to cut off financial support or leak sex tapes when they complained about their treatment.
Combs&#8217; defense lawyers acknowledge that Combs was occasionally violent in domestic relationships, but have argued that his conduct did not amount to sex trafficking because the sex acts described by prosecutors were consensual. They are expected to deliver their closing argument on Friday.
Ventura and Jane both testified that they, at times, took part in the performances because they loved Combs and wanted to make him happy, and defense lawyers have argued he had no way of knowing that they were not participating willingly.
During her closing argument, Slavik brought jurors&#8217; attention to text messages they had seen in which Jane told Combs she felt obligated to take part in the performances out of concern Combs would stop paying her rent.
Slavik told jurors that to convict Combs, they only needed to find that one of the dozens of &#8220;Freak Offs&#8221; was the result of Combs&#8217; coercion, and that he knew or should have known that Ventura or Jane participated unwillingly.
&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t require them to say no, it doesn&#8217;t require them to try to run away,&#8221; Slavik said.
Combs did not testify. Defendants in U.S. criminal cases are not required to present evidence, and judges instruct juries not to hold a refusal to testify against defendants. To win a guilty verdict, prosecutors must prove their cases beyond a reasonable doubt.
Legal experts said the jury would need to consider the prosecution&#8217;s evidence of Combs&#8217; abuse against the defense&#8217;s evidence that the women consented to the performances in at least some instances. The 12-member jury must be unanimous to convict Combs on any of the counts.
&#8220;The question is which narrative is going to hold more weight,&#8221; said Heather Cucolo, a professor at New York Law School.
Slavik argued that Combs is guilty of racketeering conspiracy because his employees enabled and concealed his behavior.
Combs&#8217; lawyers have argued there was no conspiracy in part because his employees were not aware of anything improper about the sexual performances, and that any drugs they procured for their boss were for his personal use.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Michael Perry, Bill Berkrot and Chizu Nomiyama)

Sean “Diddy” Combs attends trial in New York federal court

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Used Violence To Traffic Women, Prosecutor Says As Trial Closes

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) &#8211; China&#8217;s auto industry has inflated car sales for years through a burgeoning government-backed grey market that registers new cars right off the assembly line and then ships them overseas as &#8220;used&#8221; vehicles.
These so-called &#8220;zero-mileage&#8221; cars have never been driven but they are being exported as used to markets like Russia, Central Asia and the Middle East, allowing Chinese automakers to show growth and to dispose of cars that it would be difficult to sell domestically, according to a Reuters review of government documents and interviews with five auto dealers and car traders.
&#8220;This is the outcome of an almost-four-year price war that has made companies desperate to book any sales possible,&#8221; said Tu Le, Michigan-based founder of consultancy Sino Auto Insights.
The practice only gained national attention after the boss of Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor criticized the sale of zero-mileage used cars within China in May. On June 10 the People&#8217;s Daily newspaper condemned the sale of zero-mileage used cars domestically.
The paper, which often signals the positions of China&#8217;s top Communist Party leaders, blamed these fake used cars for driving down prices amid a withering domestic price war and called for &#8220;tough regulatory action&#8221; to restore order.
But the export and sale of fake used cars is actively encouraged by regional governments in China, according to a Reuters review of state media reports and government documents.
Local governments have embraced the practice as vital to meeting ambitious targets for economic growth set by Beijing, according to a Reuters review of local policy documents and state media articles.
Reuters has identified 20 local governments in China &#8211; including major export hubs like Guangdong and Sichuan &#8211; that have described their support for the export of zero-mileage used cars in publicly available government documents.
The tactics include creating extra licenses for the export of zero-mileage used cars, fast-tracking tax rebate claims, investing in export infrastructure, and funding networking events to encourage zero-mileage used-car exports, the government documents showed.
The zero-mileage used car export market works like this: as a fresh car emerges from the assembly line, an exporter buys the car either directly from the automaker or from a dealer, registers it with a Chinese license plate, and then immediately marks it as a second-hand car for shipping abroad. Along the way, the automaker books the car as sold and logs the revenue.
The support for the practice from local governments would make little sense anywhere outside China&#8217;s centrally planned economy. But here, showing rapid growth in sales and employment can bring about promotion or unlock new funding while missing economic targets that trickle down from Beijing can lead to demotions of local officials.
Because these export firms both purchase and sell a single car, the transaction value is double that of new or used-car purchases, so local governments court them to set up shop on their turf to quickly and artificially boost their GDP statistics, two Chinese auto industry executives said.
The tactic is only one sign that China&#8217;s car industry – the world&#8217;s largest – is allowing production to outpace demand, driving a protracted domestic price war and spurring accusations of automotive &#8220;dumping&#8221; abroad.
Cui Dongshu, the secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association, praised the practice earlier this month during an online panel discussion hosted by Tencent’s news portal, saying it was an alternative channel for automakers in China to access certain markets overseas that they may not be able to access due to rising trade barriers globally.
He added that it also helped to satisfy overseas demand for China-made cars in countries where Chinese brands had yet to enter.
Reuters contacted all the local governments mentioned in this article for comment but none responded. China&#8217;s State Council and commerce ministry did not respond to a request for comment. China&#8217;s foreign ministry referred queries on the practice to &#8220;the department in charge,&#8221; without elaborating.
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
Local government support has taken various forms, from simplifying paperwork, to allocating extra quotas for local vehicle registrations, to setting up free warehouses for zero-mileage used cars close to China&#8217;s land and maritime borders, the Chinese documents showed.
In February 2024, the planning commission of the southern city of Shenzhen, one of China&#8217;s richest cities and a tech hub that is home to Huawei and Tencent, pledged to expand the export of zero-mileage used cars as part of efforts to reach an annual target to export 400,000 vehicles of all kinds.
Nearby, the southern Chinese metropolis Guangzhou announced earlier this year it had created a mechanism to support and accelerate the export of zero-mileage gasoline vehicles by allocating extra quotas for local registrations that are otherwise capped to mitigate traffic congestion and air pollution in the city.
Xinmi, a district of Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of China&#8217;s third-most populous province of Henan, said in February that it helped local firm Xinjiasheng Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd to &#8220;promote zero-mileage used car exports, in order to use exports to drive domestic sales.&#8221;
Reuters found a dozen local governments were boosting the export of zero-mileage used cars as part of their strategy or core to their plans for growth.
Sichuan province, one of China&#8217;s most important economic engines, said in October in a policy document it had supported the creation of an &#8220;online export ecosystem for zero-mileage used NEVs&#8221; by promoting e-commerce platforms like Alibaba International, where 100 Sichuan-based used-car sellers are now active.
Xinjiasheng Supply Chain Management and Alibaba did not respond to requests for comment.
MARKET SHIFTS
The practice began sometime after 2019 when China allowed used cars to be exported to other countries. Now thousands of traders are involved in passing off new cars as used to qualify for the channel, according to Wang Meng, a consultant for the China Automobile Dealers Association.
Of the 436,000 used passenger and commercial vehicles exported by China in 2024, 90% are estimated to be &#8220;zero-mileage,&#8221; Wang said.
China overtook Japan to become the world&#8217;s largest exporter of new cars in 2023 and exported 6.41 million vehicles last year, according to the China Passenger Car Association. Of these, about 6% would have actually been zero-mileage used cars, according to Wang&#8217;s estimates.
Two dealers and two industry experts said the majority of zero-mileage used cars are gasoline powered and thus less desirable in the Chinese market. But electric vehicles, which are subject to generous government-funded purchase subsidies, also make up a significant portion.
Huanyu Auto, a used-car seller in China&#8217;s west metropolis of Chongqing, expanded to the zero-mileage used-car business in 2022.
The returns were so good in 2022 and 2023 that they were able to earn 10,000 yuan ($1,400) in profit off an electric sedan that they had purchased in China for 40,000 yuan by selling it in Central Asia, said William Ng, director of the firm&#8217;s international market division.
Criticism has started to mount. On June 7, Zhu Huarong, chairman of Chinese automaker Changan called for a crackdown on exports of zero-mileage used cars at a Chinese auto conference, saying the practice could &#8220;enormously damage Chinese brands&#8217; image&#8221; abroad. Changan did not respond to a request for further comment.
Xing Lei, the Massachusetts-based founder of consultancy AutoXing which provides insights on Chinese EV companies to foreign investors, said the practice could cause foreign investors to assess Chinese automakers&#8217; sales skeptically.
&#8220;How many are real or inflated? No one knows,&#8221; he said.
&#8216;DUMPING&#8217; CONCERNS
The proliferation of new cars being shipped for sale with &#8220;used&#8221; tags is reinforcing fears that China is dumping subsidized vehicles overseas, at a time when Beijing is scrambling to find export markets outside the United States, now heavily protected by tariffs.
Some countries, concerned that the influx of cars will crowd out local dealers and confuse consumers, are starting to push back.
&#8220;We&#8217;re definitely seeing friction and tension in markets where there are already manufacturers on the ground there,&#8221; said Michael Dunne, a consultant who closely follows the China auto industry.
Russia in 2023 issued a government decree effectively banning zero-mileage used cars from brands that already had official distributors in the country. The commerce bureau of Heihe, a Chinese city that sits on the China-Russia border, said last November on its website that this applied to Chinese brands such as Chery, Changan, and Geely.
Geely declined to comment while Chery and Changan did not respond to requests for comment.
Other countries&#8217; market regulators, including Jordan, are finetuning their definition of used cars by mandating a longer period after a vehicle&#8217;s licensing or production before it is classified as used.
Ng, of Huanyu Auto, said growing competition from new entrants such as mom-and-pop stores and even TikTokers selling zero-mileage used cars was causing the trade to become less lucrative.
&#8220;They used to sell vases, wine and are now selling cars in the same way,&#8221; he said of the new entrants. &#8220;This is chaos.&#8221;
(Reporting by Beijing and Shanghai newsrooms; Additional reporting by Gleb Stolyarov in Tbilisi; Editing by Mike Colias and Michael Learmonth)

Employee repairs a second hand car at a used car market in Beijing

Smoke & Mirrors In China’s Auto Industry: New Cars Exported As ‘Zero-Mileage Used’ To Inflate Sales

Automobiles

Business

China

Communist China

ISTANBUL/BAGHDAD (Reuters) -Iranian authorities are pivoting from a ceasefire with Israel to intensify an internal security crackdown across the country with mass arrests, executions and military deployments, particularly in the restive Kurdish region, officials and activists said.
Within days of Israel&#8217;s airstrikes beginning on June 13, Iranian security forces started a campaign of widespread arrests accompanied by an intensified street presence based around checkpoints, the officials and activists said.
Some in Israel and exiled opposition groups had hoped the military campaign, which targeted Revolutionary Guards and internal security forces as well as nuclear sites, would spark a mass uprising and the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.
While Reuters has spoken to numerous Iranians angry at the government for policies they believed had led to the Israeli attack, there has been no sign yet of any significant protests against the authorities.
However, one senior Iranian security official and two other senior officials briefed on internal security issues said the authorities were focused on the threat of possible internal unrest, particularly in Kurdish areas.
Revolutionary Guard and Basij paramilitary units were put on alert and internal security was now the primary focus, said the senior security official.
The official said authorities were worried about Israeli agents, ethnic separatists and the People&#8217;s Mujahideen Organisation, an exiled opposition group that has previously staged attacks inside Iran.
Activists within the country are lying low.
&#8220;We are being extremely cautious right now because there&#8217;s a real concern the regime might use this situation as a pretext,&#8221; said a rights activist in Tehran who was jailed during mass protests in 2022.
The activist said he knew dozens of people who had been summoned by authorities and either arrested or warned against any expressions of dissent.
Iranian rights group HRNA said on Monday it had recorded arrests of 705 people on political or security charges since the start of the war.
Many of those arrested have been accused of spying for Israel, HRNA said. Iranian state media reported three were executed on Tuesday in Urmia, near the Turkish border, and the Iranian-Kurdish rights group Hengaw said they were all Kurdish.
Iran&#8217;s Foreign and Interior Ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
CHECKPOINTS AND SEARCHES
One of the officials briefed on security said troops had been deployed to the borders of Pakistan, Iraq and Azerbaijan to stop infiltration by what the official called terrorists. The other official briefed on security acknowledged that hundreds had been arrested.
Iran&#8217;s mostly Sunni Muslim Kurdish and Baluch minorities have long been a source of opposition to the Islamic Republic, chafing against rule from the Persian-speaking, Shi&#8217;ite government in Tehran.
The three main Iranian Kurdish separatist factions based in Iraqi Kurdistan said some of their activists and fighters had been arrested and described widespread military and security movements by Iranian authorities.
Ribaz Khalili from the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) said Revolutionary Guards units had deployed in schools in Iran&#8217;s Kurdish provinces within three days of Israel&#8217;s strikes beginning and gone house-to-house for suspects and arms.
The Guards had taken protective measures too, evacuating an industrial zone near their barracks and closing major roads for their own use in bringing reinforcements to Kermanshah and Sanandaj, two major cities in the Kurdish region.
A cadre from the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), who gave her nom de guerre of Fatma Ahmed, said the party had counted more than 500 opposition members being detained in Kurdish provinces since the airstrikes began.
Ahmed and an official from the Kurdish Komala party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, both described checkpoints being set up across Kurdish areas with physical searches of people as well as checks of their phones and documents.
(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi and Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Aidan Lewis)

People walk near a mural of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran

Iran Cracks Down At Home After Israel War: Mass Arrests, Executions Follow Ceasefire

Iran

Politics

Microsoft has been hit with a lawsuit by a group of authors who claim the company used their books without permission to train its Megatron artificial intelligence model.
Kai Bird, Jia Tolentino, Daniel Okrent, and several others alleged that Microsoft used pirated digital versions of their books to teach its AI to respond to human prompts. Their lawsuit, filed in New York federal court on Tuesday, is one of several high-stakes cases brought by authors, news outlets, and other copyright holders against tech companies including Meta Platforms, Anthropic, and Microsoft-backed OpenAI over alleged misuse of their material in AI training.
The complaint against Microsoft came a day after a California federal judge ruled that Anthropic made fair use under U.S. copyright law of authors&#8217; material to train its AI systems, but may still be liable for pirating their books. It was the first U.S. decision on the legality of using copyrighted materials without permission for generative AI training.
Spokespeople for Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. An attorney for the authors declined to comment.
The writers alleged in the complaint that Microsoft used a collection of nearly 200,000 pirated books to train Megatron, an algorithm that gives text responses to user prompts. The complaint said Microsoft used the pirated dataset to create a &#8220;computer model that is not only built on the work of thousands of creators and authors, but also built to generate a wide range of expression that mimics the syntax, voice, and themes of the copyrighted works on which it was trained.&#8221;
Tech companies have argued that they make fair use of copyrighted material to create new, transformative content, and that being forced to pay copyright holders for their work could hamstring the burgeoning AI industry.
The authors requested a court order blocking Microsoft&#8217;s infringement and statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each work that Microsoft allegedly misused.
(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and David Gregorio)

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