Good morning. We’re covering a Times investigation into deals involving Trump and the U.A.E. Also:
- The U.S. and China reached a framework deal on TikTok.
- The man accused of killing Charlie Kirk left a note.
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Plus, an Emmy for “The Pitt” sends a message.
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| The New York Times |
The U.A.E got A.I. chips; Team Trump got crypto riches
President Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and a member of the United Arab Emirates’ ruling family, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, have become business partners, enriching the president and his inner circle, according to an investigation by The New York Times.
The arrangement between Witkoff and Sheikh Tahnoon gave the Emirates access to the most advanced American-designed A.I. chips.
At the heart of their relationship are two multibillion-dollar deals.
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| The New York Times |
- In May, one of Sheikh Tahnoon’s investment firms agreed to deposit $2 billion into World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency start-up founded by the Witkoff and the Trump families.
- Two weeks later, the White House agreed to allow the U.A.E. to buy hundreds of thousands of the world’s most advanced and scarce computer chips.
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There is no evidence that one deal was explicitly offered in return for the other, but the confluence of the back-to-back deals tested the limits of ethics rules, which are intended to bar officials from participating in matters that could benefit themselves or their relatives.
At one point, when the U.A.E. was pressing hardest for access to the chips, a senior executive was simultaneously working for both World Liberty and Sheikh Tahnoon’s A.I. company. One of the chief U.S. negotiators was David Sacks, Trump’s A.I. and crypto czar, who worked with Elon Musk at PayPal and later became a Silicon Valley investor and Trump fund-raiser.
The cryptocurrency deal also created a financial link between the Trump family and Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. Binance’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty to money-laundering violations in 2023, has applied for a presidential pardon.
The Times reviewed correspondence and interviewed more than 75 people to reveal how the deals got done. Read the takeaways from our investigation here.
Plus: Reader questions about A.I., answered by our expert journalists.
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| Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent following talks with Chinese officials in Madrid yesterday. Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters |
The U.S. and China moved closer to a TikTok deal
The U.S. and China have agreed on an outline of a deal to resolve concerns about the Chinese ownership of TikTok, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said yesterday. Trump will speak with President Xi Jinping of China to “complete” the deal on Friday, he added.
Bessent said the deal was between “two private parties" and would shift the social app to U.S.-controlled ownership. The deadline is set to expire tomorrow for the app to be sold by its Chinese owner, ByteDance, or face a ban in the U.S.
Context: TikTok has faced accusations for years that it poses a national security risk because Beijing could use the app to seek sensitive data on Americans, or to spread propaganda.
Related: China’s antimonopoly regulator said that Nvidia, the leading U.S. chip maker, had violated antitrust law.
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| F.B.I. officials outside the home of the suspect’s parents in Washington, Utah, on Friday. Kim Raff for The New York Times |
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| Sajjad Hussain/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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| Ye Fan for The New York Times |
Duane Dimock proudly owns one of the world’s best collections of low-quality records. He collects cereal box records, a forgotten format that emerged in the U.S. in 1950s in which a thin plastic film was used to stamp records onto — you guessed it — cereal boxes.
At the peak of the trend, artists as big as the Monkees and the Jackson 5 had their greatest hits pressed into cardboard, helping to sell millions of boxes of cereal. Most of these records were eventually thrown out or destroyed, but today a small community of collectors hunts for the survivors.
Lives lived: Kim Seongmin, a former military propagandist who fled North Korea for the South and broadcast news to North Koreans, died at 63.
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| Elliott Verdier for The New York Times |
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| Katherine LaNasa, Noah Wyle and Shawn Hatosy from the cast of “The Pitt.” Daniel Cole/Reuters |
‘The Pitt’ went back to TV basics
When HBO Max’s “The Pitt” beat out Apple TV+’s “Severance” for best drama at the Emmy Awards on Sunday, it sent a message that people wanted to watch something different on TV. The series centers on doctors, residents and nurses over the course of a day in a busy hospital struggling with costs.
For much of the last decade, the members of the Television Academy who vote on the awards have been selecting high-concept, high-budget prestige dramas. “Severance” feels made with that purpose, but “The Pitt” is a throwback to the network-style series that used to dominate television. It’s got a lower budget and a relatively unknown cast. Noah Wyle, who plays the weary Dr. Michael Robinavitch in the series, won for best lead actor in a drama. Here’s the full list of Emmy winners.
