In 2012, Susquehanna International Group, the trading and investment giant cofounded by Yass, made an early investment in ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company. That stake now comprises about 15 percent of the company and is worth an estimated $40 billion. A bit under half of that holding—somewhere in the neighborhood of $18 billion—belongs to Yass personally.

Yass has an enormous financial interest in ensuring that TikTok operates legally in the United States—and that interest could increase after the House passed legislation this week seeking to compel the sale of the company to US investors under threat of an all-out ban. If that tactic works, then Yass could be well positioned to assume a larger ownership share. (Former treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin said that he wants to form a group to buy TikTok.) In the meantime, Yass has showered Republicans, right-wing PACs, and big-business groups with millions of dollars in donations.

Under a Missouri statute that has recently gained nationwide attention, every petitioner for divorce is required to disclose their pregnancy status. In practice, experts say, those who are pregnant are barred from legally dissolving their marriage. “The application [of the law] is an outright ban,” said Danielle Drake, attorney at Parks & Drake. When Drake learned her then husband was having an affair, her own divorce stalled because she was pregnant. Two other states have similar laws: Texas and Arkansas.

In a 23-page decision from Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, the court concluded that "the prosecution of this case cannot proceed until the state selects one of two options. The district attorney may choose to step aside, along with the whole of her office, and refer the prosecution to the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council for reassignment. Alternatively, [special assistant district attorney] Wade can withdraw, allowing the district attorney, the defendants, and the public to move forward without his presence or remuneration distracting from and potentially compromising the merits of this case."

The trial itself is currently scheduled to start in mid-May, but earlier this month Judge Cannon held a hearing to hear arguments over moving the trial to a new, later date. Smith's team proposed July 8 as a new date, while Trump's lawyers argued that the trial should take place after the 2024 presidential election.

Cannon did not issue any rulings or make any formal scheduling changes regarding the trial's start date, which is still scheduled for May 20.

"A lot of work needs to be done in the pretrial phase of this case," the judge said.

"The People do not oppose a brief adjournment of up to 30 days to permit sufficient time for defendant to review the USAO productions," the DA's office wrote."

"We note that the timing of the current production of additional materials from the USAO is a function of defendant's own delay," the DA's office said. "[D]efendant waited until January 18, 2024 to subpoena additional materials from the USAO and then consented to repeated extensions of the deadline for the USAO's determination."

The Federal Trade Commission and the antitrust division of the Department of Justice have asked the US Copyright Office (PDF) to exempt "commercial soft serve machines" from the anti-circumvention rules of Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The governing bodies also submitted proprietary diagnostic kits, programmable logic controllers, and enterprise IT devices for DMCA exemptions.

"A defendant like Freed must have actual authority rooted in written law or longstanding custom to speak for the state. That authority must extend to speech of the sort that caused the alleged rights deprivation," Barrett wrote. "If the plaintiff cannot make this threshold showing of authority, he cannot establish state action."

A new federal policy cracking down on so-called "judge shopping" could impede Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s ability to thwart Biden Administration policies by strategically filing suits in geographic areas with only one judge.

The Judicial Conference of the United States, the policymaking body of the federal courts, said Tuesday that the new rule will apply to all civil cases that seek to block or mandate state or federal actions.

Under the policy, judges would instead be assigned through a random selection process spanning the entire judicial district. Texas has four districts splitting the state by north, south, east and west.

Two years into office, President Donald Trump authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to launch a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media aimed at turning public opinion in China against its government, according to former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the highly classified operation. Three former officials told Reuters that the CIA created a small team of operatives who used bogus internet identities to spread negative narratives about Xi Jinping’s government while leaking disparaging intelligence to overseas news outlets. The effort, which began in 2019, has not been previously reported.

The state Ethics Commission on Wednesday dismissed a complaint alleging that Miami Mayor Francis Suarez improperly received tickets to last year’s Formula 1 race in Miami from billionaire Ken Griffin, concluding the mayor repaid the cost of the VIP passes to the Sunday race for him and his wife.

But the investigation did not address other key questions raised in the complaint, namely who provided his other VIP passes throughout the three-day Grand Prix weekend from May 5-7.

Records released by the Ethics Commission show Suarez did not cut the $14,000 reimbursement check to Griffin until two months after the event — about a week after Miami Herald reporters first raised questions about the legality of Griffin inviting the mayor and his wife to the Grand Prix and a big-ticket after party.

An American company that paid the now indicted FBI informant Alexander Smirnov in 2020 is connected to a UK company owned by Trump business associates in Dubai, according to business filings and court documents.

Smirnov is now accused of lying to the FBI about Hunter Biden and his father, President Joe Biden, alleging that they engaged in a bribery scheme with executives at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Smirnov’s accounts to the FBI, beginning in 2020, that federal prosecutors now say are fabrications, served as a major justification of the House impeachment investigation into the Bidens.

Noem — a Republican who for a time seemed poised to enter the 2024 presidential race and has billed herself as a potential vice presidential pick for former President Donald Trump as he campaigns for his own reelection — faced backlash as well as widespread scrutiny after initially sharing the video on Monday night. The governor herself starred in the promotional clip, which was styled like a typical infomercial and saw her giving praise to "the team at Smile Texas," a cosmetic dental office, for performing a procedure that Noem praised for fixing her teeth and giving her a smile that she said she "can be proud of."

It was not clear when Cannon might rule, but the outcome will determine whether the case proceeds or whether, as Trump’s lawyers hope, it is thrown out before ever reaching a jury — a rare action for a judge to take.

"I understand the technology," Mnuchin said during an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "It's a great business, and I'm going to put together a great group to buy TikTok."

While he declined to provide specific names, Mnuchin said that his group would be organized in a way "so that no one investor controls this."

The hope was that by replacing the advocates in the disciplinary hearings with trained lawyers, the civilian panels could be persuaded to impose tougher discipline. The department pushed for more money in this year’s budget to hire attorneys to work on discipline cases. Four have been hired so far, and began training last month, according to officials.

But even as the LAPD increasingly brings more legal firepower to the table, the composition of the panels remains unchanged. Most civilian hearing examiners are former prosecutors, judges, clergy or arbitrators.

Martin Garcia’s departure as chairman of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District is coming a week after the district’s administrator, Glen Gilzean, left to accept an appointment by DeSantis as interim elections supervisor in Orange County, the home of Orlando, at half his district’s $400,000 salary.

The Republican governor also recommended that a former senior advisor, Stephanie Kopelousos, be named the district’s new administrator. Kopelousos was a director of legislative affairs for DeSantis and previously served in other administrations of Florida governors.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee quashed six counts in the indictment, including three against Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee. But the judge left in place other counts — including 10 facing Trump — and said prosecutors could seek a new indictment to try to reinstate the ones he dismissed.

Since January, bills to shield pesticide manufacturers from lawsuits have been filed in three states where Bayer has a major corporate presence: Missouri (where Monsanto is headquartered), Idaho (where it has a phosphate mine), and Iowa (where it has a manufacturing plant). Daniel Hinkle, an attorney with the American Association for Justice, who works with trial lawyer associations throughout the country, predicted that if these bills succeed, Bayer will push similar legislation in a number of other states next year.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday granted Donald Trump’s lawyers an extension to reply to their own motions in the former president’s classified documents case, MSNBC’s Lisa Rubin reports.

Flint, Mich., has one of the country's highest rates of child poverty — something that got a lot of attention during the city's lead water crisis a decade ago. And a pediatrician who helped expose that lead problem has now launched a first-of-its-kind move to tackle poverty: giving every new mother $7,500 in cash aid over a year.

On a recent day at her clinic, pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha is helping get out the word about the new program, which started in January.

Barnett's body was found in a vehicle in a Holiday Inn parking lot in Charleston on Saturday, police said. One day earlier, he testified about the string of problems he says he identified at Boeing's plant where he once helped inspect the 787 aircraft before delivery to customers.

Police say officers were sent to the hotel to conduct a welfare check after people were unable to contact Barnett, who had traveled to Charleston to testify in his lawsuit against Boeing.

"Upon their arrival, officers discovered a male inside a vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound to the head," police said in a statement sent to NPR. "He was pronounced deceased at the scene."

But The Washington Post reported that the transcript of their conversation showed a more nuanced situation: Biden brought up Beau's death — and remembered the month and day.

"What month did Beau die? Oh God, May 30," the transcript says, according to the Post.

Two others present quickly interjected with the year, the Post reported.

The Times noted that while Hur stressed that Biden "did not remember when he was vice president," the transcript shows a different tale: Biden quickly recognized his errors when mistaking which years he was vice president and asked for clarification.

Read full transcript here: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/full-text-robert-hur-biden-classified-documents-interview-pdf-rcna142956

Gender identity and sexual orientation can be discussed in Florida classrooms as long as it is not a part of formal instruction, a legal settlement says.

The settlement, announced on Monday, clarifies the scope of a controversial state education law, but left it standing.

Plaintiffs had challenged Florida's 2002 parental rights bill, arguing it could marginalise LGBT youth.

Then Minneapolis Public Works employees represented by LIUNA Local 363 announced on Monday that members had approved a new contract that includes a raise of nearly 30 percent over the next three years, the biggest wage increase the local had ever secured, as well as health and safety protections, limits on temp workers, greater union rights, and other wins.

Meanwhile, St. Paul teachers, who planned to strike this week, reached a tentative agreement on Tuesday that averted their action. Details aren’t yet available, but teachers had been fighting for pay increases that keep up with surrounding suburban districts, parity for hourly employees, and more services for students struggling post-pandemic, such as fully funded mental health teams.