Tesla must face a certified class action by California drivers who said Elon Musk misled them for eight years about the self-driving capabilities of his company&#8217;s electric vehicles.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin said the common question of whether Tesla lacked sensors to achieve high-level autonomy, plus its inability to &#8220;demonstrate a long-distance autonomous drive with any of its vehicles,&#8221; justified group lawsuits by two sets of drivers who purchased its Full Self-Driving technology package.
In her decision on Monday, the San Francisco-based judge also said thousands of people likely saw Tesla&#8217;s claim in the &#8220;Autopilot&#8221; section of its website from October 2016 to August 2024 that its vehicles contained hardware for full self-driving.
Tesla made a similar claim in a blog post, newsletter, and quarterly earnings call, as did Musk at a 2016 press conference.
&#8220;While these channels alone may not ordinarily be enough to establish class-wide exposure for a traditional car manufacturer, Tesla&#8217;s distinctive advertising strategy warrants a departure from the typical approach,&#8221; Lin wrote.
Tesla does not use mass advertising or independent dealers, and Lin said it was reasonable to infer that class members interested in Full Self-Driving technology went to Tesla&#8217;s website to get information.
Lawyers for Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
The Austin, Texas-based company had said it was unreasonable to assume all class members saw the challenged statements, and there was no common proof that the statements were material.
Class actions can allow larger recoveries at lower cost than if plaintiffs were forced to sue individually.
The California classes include drivers who bought the Full Self-Driving package from May 19, 2017, to July 31, 2024, and opted out of Tesla&#8217;s arbitration agreement, and drivers who bought the package from October 20, 2016, to May 19, 2017.
Lin refused to certify a class of drivers who bought Tesla&#8217;s Enhanced Autopilot package because its &#8220;core product qualities&#8221; did not require full self-driving functionality, making Tesla&#8217;s alleged false statements immaterial to purchasing decisions.
Federal officials have examined whether Tesla&#8217;s full self-driving software is safe. The software is also a key component of Tesla&#8217;s robotaxis.
The case is In re Tesla Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 22-05240.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Mark Porter)

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Tesla Drivers Can Pursue Class Action Over Self-driving Claims, Judge Rules

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country needed to rapidly expand its nuclear armament and called U.S.-South Korea military exercises an &#8220;obvious expression of their will to provoke war,&#8221; state media KCNA reported on Tuesday.
The United States and South Korea kicked off joint military drills this week, including testing an upgraded response to heightened North Korean nuclear threats.
Pyongyang regularly criticizes such drills as rehearsals for invasion and sometimes responds with weapons tests, but Seoul and Washington say they are purely defensive.
The 11-day annual exercises, called Ulchi Freedom Shield, will be on a similar scale to 2024 but adjusted by rescheduling 20 out of 40 field training events to September, South Korea&#8217;s military said earlier. Those delays come as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung says he wants to ease tensions with North Korea, though analysts are sceptical about Pyongyang&#8217;s response.
The exercises were a &#8220;clear expression of &#8230; their intention to remain most hostile and confrontational&#8221; to North Korea, Kim said during his visit to a navy destroyer on Monday, according to KCNA&#8217;s English translation of his remarks.
He said the security environment required the North to &#8220;rapidly expand&#8221; its nuclear armament, noting that recent U.S.-South Korea exercises involved a &#8220;nuclear element.&#8221;
Efforts by the United States and its allies to tackle North Korea&#8217;s development of nuclear weapons are expected to be discussed at an upcoming meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Washington.
&#8220;Through this move, North Korea is demonstrating its refusal to accept denuclearisation and the will to irreversibly upgrade nuclear weapons,&#8221; said Hong Min, North Korea analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
A report by the Federation of American Scientists last year concluded that while North Korea may have produced enough fissile material to build up to 90 nuclear warheads, it had likely assembled closer to 50.
North Korea plans to build a third 5,000-tonne Choe Hyon-class destroyer by October next year and is testing cruise and anti-air missiles for those warships.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Joyce Lee; Editing by Ed Davies and Stephen Coates)

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North Korea’s Kim Calls For Rapid Nuclear Buildup Amid U.S.-South Korea Exercises

Tesla must face a certified class action by California drivers who said Elon Musk misled them for eight years about the self-driving capabilities of his company&#8217;s electric vehicles.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin said the common question of whether Tesla lacked sensors to achieve high-level autonomy, plus its inability to &#8220;demonstrate a long-distance autonomous drive with any of its vehicles,&#8221; justified group lawsuits by two sets of drivers who purchased its Full Self-Driving technology package.
In her decision on Monday, the San Francisco-based judge also said thousands of people likely saw Tesla&#8217;s claim in the &#8220;Autopilot&#8221; section of its website from October 2016 to August 2024 that its vehicles contained hardware for full self-driving.
Tesla made a similar claim in a blog post, newsletter, and quarterly earnings call, as did Musk at a 2016 press conference.
&#8220;While these channels alone may not ordinarily be enough to establish class-wide exposure for a traditional car manufacturer, Tesla&#8217;s distinctive advertising strategy warrants a departure from the typical approach,&#8221; Lin wrote.
Tesla does not use mass advertising or independent dealers, and Lin said it was reasonable to infer that class members interested in Full Self-Driving technology went to Tesla&#8217;s website to get information.
Lawyers for Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
The Austin, Texas-based company had said it was unreasonable to assume all class members saw the challenged statements, and there was no common proof that the statements were material.
Class actions can allow larger recoveries at lower cost than if plaintiffs were forced to sue individually.
The California classes include drivers who bought the Full Self-Driving package from May 19, 2017, to July 31, 2024, and opted out of Tesla&#8217;s arbitration agreement, and drivers who bought the package from October 20, 2016, to May 19, 2017.
Lin refused to certify a class of drivers who bought Tesla&#8217;s Enhanced Autopilot package because its &#8220;core product qualities&#8221; did not require full self-driving functionality, making Tesla&#8217;s alleged false statements immaterial to purchasing decisions.
Federal officials have examined whether Tesla&#8217;s full self-driving software is safe. The software is also a key component of Tesla&#8217;s robotaxis.
The case is In re Tesla Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 22-05240.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Mark Porter)

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Nineteen Nobel Prize winners have signed an open letter urging U.S. President Donald Trump to keep up pressure to secure the release of as many as 1,300 people imprisoned in Belarus on political grounds.
The letter thanks Trump, who raised the issue in a phone call last week with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, and urges him to do more.
&#8220;We respectfully urge you to continue your active efforts to secure the immediate release of all prisoners of conscience in Belarus. Their freedom will not only restore justice to individuals but also open the path toward reconciliation and dialogue,&#8221; it said.
The signatories included Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias, literature laureates Svetlana Alexievich and Herta Mueller, and 16 winners of the prizes for physics, chemistry, medicine, and economics.
They also called for the dropping of politically motivated prosecutions to facilitate the return of Belarusians who fled abroad en masse when Lukashenko crushed huge street protests over a disputed election in 2020.
Trump&#8217;s surprise intervention last Friday came hours after Dmitry Bolkunets, an exiled Belarusian opposition activist, emailed the U.S. president to ask him to raise the issue of the Belarusian prisoners at his summit in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Lukashenko is a close ally of Putin.
&#8220;We intend to nominate you for the Nobel Peace Prize should you help secure the release of Belarusian political prisoners,&#8221; Bolkunets wrote in the email.
Trump, who claims credit for resolving six wars, has made no secret of his desire to win the award. Later the same day, while en route to the Alaska summit, he posted on social media that he had held &#8220;a wonderful talk with the highly respected President of Belarus&#8221; in which he had thanked Lukashenko for freeing 16 people and discussed the release of 1,300 more.
He said he also looked forward to meeting Lukashenko, who for years has been ostracised by Western countries over his human rights record and backing for Russia&#8217;s war in Ukraine.
Bolkunets said he had no doubt that Trump&#8217;s decision to contact Lukashenko was a spontaneous response to his email, which was copied to several of the president&#8217;s advisers.
&#8220;Literally within 1-2 hours, the call took place,&#8221; he said, also noting that Trump had used the same figure for the number of prisoners that he had stated in the email.
&#8220;Now, Lukashenko is in a position where refusing the U.S. president would be extremely disadvantageous for him. Therefore, it is likely that he will try to somehow expedite the release process&#8230; The key here is to ensure that this focus is not lost or diluted,&#8221; Bolkunets told Reuters.
Since mid-2024, Belarus has released several hundred people convicted of &#8220;extremism&#8221; and other politically related offences, in what analysts see as a bid by Lukashenko to ease his isolation from the West. Lukashenko denies there are any political prisoners in the country.
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan, Editing by Christina Fincher)

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Nobel Laureates Urge Trump To Keep Pressing For Release Of Belarusian Prisoners

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Three U.S. Aegis guided-missile destroyers will arrive off the coast of Venezuela in the next 36 hours as part of an effort to address threats from Latin American drug cartels, two sources briefed on the matter said on Monday.
President Donald Trump has wanted to use the military to go after Latin American drug gangs that have been designated as global terrorist organizations.
The sources said the ships are the USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham, and the USS Sampson.
A separate U.S. official told Reuters that in total, about 4,000 sailors and Marines are expected to be committed to the Trump administration&#8217;s efforts in the southern Caribbean region.
That U.S. official, who was speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the additional commitment of military assets in the broader region would include several P-8 spy planes, warships, and at least one attack submarine.
The official said the process would be ongoing for several months and the plan was for them to operate in international airspace and international waters.
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The naval assets can be used to not just carry out intelligence and surveillance operations, but also as a launching pad for targeted strikes if a decision is made, the official added.
Venezuela&#8217;s communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Without referring to the warships, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday in an address that Venezuela will &#8220;defend our seas, our skies and our lands.&#8221; He alluded to what he called &#8220;the outlandish, bizarre threat of a declining empire.&#8221;
Trump has made cracking down on drug cartels a central goal of his administration as part of a wider effort to limit migration and secure the U.S. southern border.
The Trump administration in recent months has already deployed at least two warships to help in border security efforts and drug trafficking.
The Trump administration designated Mexico&#8217;s Sinaloa Cartel and other drug gangs, as well as Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua, as global terrorist organizations in February, as it stepped up immigration enforcement against alleged gang members.
The U.S. military has already been increasing its airborne surveillance of Mexican drug cartels to collect intelligence to determine how to best counter their activities.
(Reporting By Steve Holland and Idrees Ali; additional reporting by Vivian Sequera and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Chris Reese and Christian Schmollinger)

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U.S. Deploys Warships Near Venezuela To Combat Drug Threats, Sources Say

MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russian forces have made a sudden thrust into eastern Ukraine near the coal mining town of Dobropillia, a move that may be designed to increase the pressure on Kyiv to give up land as the U.S. and Russian presidents prepare to meet.
Ukraine&#8217;s authoritative DeepState war map showed on Tuesday that Russian forces had advanced by at least six miles north in two prongs in recent days, part of their drive to take full control of Ukraine&#8217;s Donetsk region.
The advance is one of the most dramatic in the last year. DeepState said the Russians had surged forward near three villages on a section of the frontline associated with the Ukrainian towns of Kostyantynivka and Pokrovsk, which Moscow is trying to encircle by exploiting Kyiv&#8217;s lack of manpower.
&#8220;The situation is quite chaotic, as the enemy, having found gaps in the defense, is infiltrating deeper, trying to quickly consolidate and accumulate forces for further advancement,&#8221; DeepState said on its Telegram channel.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to discuss a possible deal to end the war in Ukraine when they meet in Alaska on Friday. Unconfirmed media reports say Putin has told Trump he wants Ukraine to hand over the part of the Donetsk region that Russia does not control.
There was no immediate comment on the advance from Moscow. Ukraine&#8217;s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, had ordered reinforcements to be deployed &#8220;to detect and destroy enemy sabotage groups that penetrate the line of defense,&#8221; Andriy Kovalov, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian army, told Interfax-Ukraine.
He said Russia was using its numerical superiority to try to infiltrate Ukrainian defense lines in small groups and had made 35 attempts to push back Ukrainian units, suffering heavy losses in the process. Viktor Trehubov, another Ukrainian military spokesperson, played down the development, saying the infiltration did not amount to a breakthrough.
Pasi Paroinen, a military analyst with the Finland-based Black Bird Group, said the situation had escalated rapidly, with Russian forces infiltrating past Ukrainian lines to a depth of roughly 10 miles during the past three days.
&#8220;Forwardmost Russian units have reportedly reached the Dobropillia – Kramatorsk road T0514 and Russian infiltration groups have also been reported near Dobropillia proper,&#8221; he wrote on X.
<h3>RUSSIA MAY GAIN LEVERAGE FOR TRUMP TALKS</h3>
Tatarigami_UA, a former Ukrainian army officer whose Frontelligence Insight analysis tracks the conflict, posted: &#8220;In both 2014 and 2015, Russia launched major offensives ahead of negotiations to gain leverage. The current situation is serious, but far from the collapse some suggest.&#8221;
Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, said the Russians had been able to advance because of &#8220;a partial collapse in the front&#8221; due to Ukraine&#8217;s shortage of soldiers.
&#8220;This breakthrough is like a gift to Putin and Trump during the negotiations,&#8221; Markov said, suggesting it could increase pressure on Kyiv to cede some land to prevent the Russian army eventually taking the rest of Donetsk by force.
To do that, though, Russian forces would first need to take control of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka &#8211; which Russian military analysts call &#8220;fortress cities.&#8221;
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly pushed back against the idea of ceding territory to Russia, saying any peace deal must be a just one.
Bohdan Krotevych, former chief of staff of Ukraine&#8217;s Azov brigade and a National Guard lieutenant colonel, took to X late on Monday to warn Zelensky of the threat, saying the frontline in the area was &#8220;a complete mess.&#8221;
&#8220;The line of combat engagement as a fixed line does not actually exist,&#8221; he said.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn in Moscow. Additional reporting by Dan Peleschuk and Yuliia Dysa in Kyiv. Editing by Kevin Liffey and Giles Elgood.)

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Russia Makes Sudden Advance In Ukraine Days Before Trump-Putin Summit

BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazil&#8217;s Supreme Court put former President Jair Bolsonaro under house arrest on Monday ahead of his trial for an alleged coup plot, underscoring the court&#8217;s resolve despite escalating tariffs and sanctions from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the target of U.S. Treasury sanctions last week, issued the arrest order against Bolsonaro. His decision cited a failure to comply with restraining orders he had imposed on Bolsonaro for allegedly courting Trump&#8217;s interference in the case.
Bolsonaro is on trial before the Supreme Court on charges he conspired with allies to violently overturn his 2022 electoral loss to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Trump has referred to the case as a &#8220;witch hunt&#8221; and called it grounds for a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods taking effect on Wednesday.
The U.S. State Department condemned the house arrest order, saying Moraes was using Brazilian institutions to silence opposition and threaten democracy, adding the U.S. would &#8220;hold accountable all those aiding and abetting sanctioned conduct.&#8221;
It did not provide details, though Trump has said the U.S. could still impose even higher tariffs on Brazilian imports.
The Monday order from Moraes also banned Bolsonaro from using a cell phone or receiving visits, except for his lawyers and people authorized by the court.
A press representative for Bolsonaro confirmed he was placed under house arrest on Monday evening at his Brasilia residence by police who seized his cell phone.
Bolsonaro&#8217;s lawyers said in a statement they would appeal the decision, arguing the former president had not violated any court order.
In an interview with Reuters last month, Bolsonaro called Moraes a &#8220;dictator&#8221; and said the restraining orders against him were acts of &#8220;cowardice.&#8221;
Some Bolsonaro allies have worried that Trump&#8217;s tactics may be backfiring in Brazil, compounding trouble for Bolsonaro and rallying public support behind Lula&#8217;s leftist government.
However, Sunday demonstrations by Bolsonaro supporters — the largest in months — show that Trump&#8217;s tirades and sanctions against Moraes have also fired up the far-right former army captain&#8217;s political base.
Bolsonaro appeared virtually at a protest in Rio de Janeiro via phone call to his son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, in what some saw as the latest test of his restraining orders.
Moraes said that the former president had repeatedly made attempts to bypass the court&#8217;s orders.
&#8220;Justice is blind, but not foolish,&#8221; the justice wrote in his decision.
On Monday, Senator Bolsonaro told CNN Brasil that Monday&#8217;s order from Moraes was &#8220;a clear display of vengeance&#8221; for the U.S. sanctions against the judge, adding: &#8220;I hope the Supreme Court can put the brakes on this person (Moraes) causing so much upheaval.&#8221;
The judge&#8217;s orders, including the restraining orders under penalty of arrest, have been upheld by the wider court.
Those orders and the larger case before the Supreme Court came after two years of investigations into Bolsonaro&#8217;s role in an election-denying movement that culminated in riots by his supporters that rocked Brasilia in January 2023. That unrest drew comparisons to the January 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol after Trump&#8217;s 2020 electoral defeat.
In contrast with the tangle of criminal cases which mostly stalled against Trump, Brazilian courts moved swiftly against Bolsonaro, threatening to end his political career and fracture his right-wing movement. An electoral court has already banned Bolsonaro from running for public office until 2030.
Another of Bolsonaro&#8217;s sons, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a Brazilian congressman, moved to the U.S. around the same time the former president&#8217;s criminal trial kicked off to drum up support for his father in Washington. The younger Bolsonaro said the move had influenced Trump&#8217;s decision to impose new tariffs on Brazil.
In a statement after the arrest on Monday, Congressman Bolsonaro called Moraes &#8220;an out-of-control psychopath who never hesitates to double down.&#8221;
Trump last month shared a letter he had sent to Bolsonaro. &#8220;I have seen the terrible treatment you are receiving at the hands of an unjust system turned against you,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;This trial should end immediately!&#8221;
Washington based its sanctions against Moraes last week on accusations that the judge had authorized arbitrary pre-trial detentions and suppressed freedom of expression.
The arrest could give Trump a pretext to pile on additional measures against Brazil, said Graziella Testa, a political science professor at the Federal University of Parana, adding that Bolsonaro seemed to be consciously provoking escalation.
&#8220;I think things could escalate because this will be seen as a reaction to the Magnitsky sanction&#8221; against Moraes, said Leonardo Barreto, a partner at the Think Policy political risk consultancy in Brasilia, referring to the asset freeze imposed on Moraes last week.
(Reporting by Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; Additional reporting by Luciana Magalhaes in Sao Paulo and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Writing by Andre Romani and Brad Haynes; Editing by Kylie Madry, Leslie Adler and Lincoln Feast)
&nbsp;

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Brazil’s Bolsonaro Arrested, Adding To Tensions With Trump

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Tesla Drivers Can Pursue Class Action Over Self-driving Claims, Judge Rules

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