Law enforcement officials have released new details outlining the sequence of a deadly shooting at a San Diego, California, mosque that claimed four lives, including the two teenage attackers. According to police accounts, the two young suspects carried out a premeditated attack inside the place of worship, opening fire on worshippers and killing three men before turning the guns on themselves. Investigators are currently working under the working theory that the violence was motivated by hate, a classification that points to the targeting of the Muslim community based on religious bias. As the investigation continues, authorities are working to piece together a full picture of the attackers’ backgrounds, potential radicalization pathways, and any prior warning signs that could have been missed. The attack has sent shockwaves through the local San Diego community and sparked renewed national conversations about religious tolerance, gun violence prevention, and the growing threat of domestic extremism targeting minority faith groups. Local faith leaders have called for unity across religious communities in the wake of the tragedy, while law enforcement has pledged to increase security patrols at houses of worship across the region to prevent further acts of violence.
作者： admin
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Former Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero under investigation for role in airline bailout
MADRID – In a significant development rocking Spanish political circles, Spain’s National Court has launched a formal investigation into former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero over claims of influence peddling and potential financial misconduct linked to a public sector bailout of a domestic airline. The probe centers on the 2021 rescue of Plus Ultra, a Spanish airline with Venezuelan-linked investment, which received 53 million euros (equivalent to roughly $62 million today) in public funds drawn from the European Union’s COVID-19 economic recovery package.
In an official statement released this week, the court confirmed that it had expanded its existing investigation to name Zapatero as a person of interest, and has formally summoned the 65-year-old former leader to appear before an investigating judge for questioning on June 2. On Tuesday, law enforcement officers executed a judge-issued search warrant at Zapatero’s personal office as part of the preliminary evidence-gathering phase of the probe.
Zapatero, who served two terms as Spain’s prime minister from 2004 to 2011, remains an active prominent member of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, the same left-wing party currently led by incumbent Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. This is not the first time the former prime minister has addressed the allegations: during a March hearing before the Spanish Senate, he flatly denied any improper involvement in the bailout process, telling lawmakers he “never received any commissions from Plus Ultra.”
Founded as a low-cost long-haul carrier, Plus Ultra focuses primarily on routes connecting Spain to Latin American markets including Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador, and counts a group of Venezuelan investors among its major stakeholders. Since stepping down from national office more than a decade ago, Zapatero has built a prominent profile as an informal diplomatic mediator, with much of his post-premiership work centered on fostering dialogue between the Venezuelan government led by Nicolás Maduro and Western nations. Maduro’s administration has faced widespread diplomatic isolation from the European Union and other Western powers following a widespread crackdown on opposition political groups and claims of electoral irregularities.
Notably, Zapatero had been out of elected public office for 10 years when the Plus Ultra bailout was approved by Sánchez’s government. The investigation marks the latest corruption-related scandal to hit Sánchez’s ruling party, which has already weathered multiple other corruption probes over the past two years that have eroded public support for the administration.
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Mining heirs Gina Rinehart, Angela Bennett back in court over who picks up legal tab over long-running royalties dispute
Sixteen years after a bitter billion-dollar commercial conflict between Australia’s most powerful mining dynasties first erupted, legal representatives for the involved parties have headed back to a Western Australian court to resolve one last burning question: who will foot the staggering $100 million legal bill accumulated over more than a decade of litigation?
The dispute, which first kicked off in 2010, pits Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd (HPPL) against Wright Prospecting Pty Ltd (WPPL), another firm controlled by prominent mining heirs. The core of the conflict centered on contested rights to lucrative iron ore royalties and critical mining assets tied to the Hope Downs operation in Western Australia’s resource-rich Pilbara region. After years of pre-trial wrangling, the high-stakes case finally reached the WA Supreme Court for a full 53-day trial in 2023, with daily legal fees estimated at a jaw-dropping $250,000 – a rate that pushed total projected costs across the entire 16-year dispute to roughly $100 million, according to local media reports.
Last month, Justice Jennifer Smith delivered her long-awaited landmark ruling more than two years after the close of trial proceedings. The decision handed a major partial victory to WPPL, ordering HPPL to share hundreds of millions of dollars in iron ore royalties with the rival firm. DFD Rhodes, a third entity linked to the Rhodes mining family, also secured partial success in its claim for a share of royalties. However, Rinehart retained full control over the billion-dollar mining licences for the East Angelas site, after the court dismissed competing claims over that site from WPPL and from Rinehart’s own children, John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart.
With the core ownership and royalty questions settled, the court has now turned to the unresolved issue of cost allocation. Arguments put forward by all sides reveal deep divisions over who should bear responsibility for the massive legal expenses.
WPPL’s legal team is pushing for HPPL to cover 75% of its total costs, arguing that WPPL won the majority of its core claims. But HPPL’s senior counsel Charles Colquhoun SC pushed back, noting that his client retained ownership of the highest-value asset in the entire dispute – the East Angelas tenements. “It can’t be denied that we won on the propriety claim and there needs to be some victory on that issue,” Colquhoun told the court. “It was the most important issue in the proceedings, certainly the most valuable issue in the proceedings.”
The biggest point of contention now surrounds the failed claims brought by John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart, who were seeking a portion of their grandfather Lang Hancock’s mining legacy. DFD Rhodes has argued the pair should be held responsible for 15% of total costs, while WPPL is pushing for an even higher 20% allocation, arguing that the siblings’ involvement unnecessarily lengthened the proceedings and drained significant court and legal resources.
Julie Taylor SC, representing WPPL, told the court that the siblings’ defense alone spanned 250 pages, and their closing submissions ran to 749 pages. “John and Bianca took 14 days of the hearing time for their submissions alone, all the parties had to respond to that,” she said. “A rough estimate of 20 per cent would be fair.” For their part, the siblings have argued that each party should simply absorb its own legal costs after their unsuccessful claim.
The WA Supreme Court is now reviewing all submissions from the multiple involved parties before issuing a final ruling on cost allocation, closing the book on one of Australia’s longest-running and most expensive commercial mining disputes.
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Congo reports more Ebola cases as WHO expresses concern over scale and speed of the outbreak
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — A fast-escalating rare Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has already claimed at least 131 lives and sparked over 500 suspected infections, Congolese health officials confirmed Tuesday, as the top leader of the World Health Organization (WHO) issued urgent warnings over the outbreak’s alarming scale and accelerating spread.
Health experts and humanitarian aid workers report the virus circulated undetected for several weeks after the first fatality, and delays in identifying and responding to the crisis have severely complicated efforts to contain transmission. Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba told reporters the country has recorded 513 suspected cases and 131 deaths to date, noting that all fatalities are still under investigation to confirm linkage to the current outbreak. These figures represent a dramatic jump from just one day prior, when authorities reported 300 suspected cases, underscoring how much remains unknown about the full scope of the crisis.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated he is “deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic”, and announced the U.N. health agency would convene its emergency committee later the same day to assess the outbreak and coordinate a global response. Tedros outlined key factors driving fears of further spread: transmission in densely populated urban centers, deaths of frontline healthcare workers, high volumes of population movement through the affected region, and critical shortages of targeted vaccines and treatment options.
The outbreak, formally confirmed on May 14, is caused by the Bundibugyo variant, a rare strain of Ebola for which no fully approved vaccines or specific therapeutics currently exist. Just three days after confirmation, on May 17, the WHO declared the event a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the highest level of global health alert.
Confirmed cases have already been documented across five locations: Bunia, the rebel-held North Kivu provincial capital of Goma, Mongbwalu, Butembo, and Nyakunde. The outbreak has also crossed an international border, with one confirmed case and one death recorded in Uganda in an individual who traveled from the affected Congolese region.
In Ituri province’s capital of Bunia, one American physician has tested positive for the virus, according to Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, medical director of the DRC’s National Institute of Bio-Medical Research. Dr. Peter Stafford, who was treating patients at a local hospital when he developed symptoms, works for the international medical organization SERVE. Three other SERVE staff members, including Stafford’s wife, were working at the same facility but have not reported any symptoms to date.
The chain of delayed detection stretches back to April 24, when the first recorded Ebola fatality occurred in Bunia. The victim’s body was subsequently transported for burial to the Mongbwalu health zone, a heavily populated gold mining region, a movement that health minister Kamba says directly fueled the outbreak’s rapid escalation.
When a second person fell ill on April 26, samples were shipped to the national capital Kinshasa for testing. Congolese officials report that samples were initially screened only for Zaire ebolavirus, the more common circulating strain, and returned a false negative result. Local authorities therefore ruled out Ebola and took no immediate containment action. It was not until May 5, when WHO was alerted to an unexplained cluster of 50 deaths in Mongbwalu—including four local health workers—that officials ordered expanded testing, leading to the formal confirmation of the outbreak on May 14.
Matthew M. Kavanagh, director of the Georgetown University Center for Global Health Policy and Politics, says the false negative result left global and local responders playing catch-up with a deadly pathogen. He criticized the former Trump administration’s decision to withdraw U.S. membership from the WHO and slash global health foreign aid funding, cuts that he says weakened the very early warning surveillance systems designed to detect these outbreaks before they grow out of control.
The U.S. State Department rejected criticism on Monday, noting that Washington had moved quickly to deploy support and already committed $13 million in emergency assistance to the outbreak response.
Esther Sterk, a representative for the humanitarian medical organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), told the Associated Press that the situation remains deeply worrying and is evolving much faster than initial projections. She added that delayed detection is not an uncommon challenge for Ebola outbreaks, as the disease shares early symptoms with many other common tropical illnesses.
Ebola is a highly contagious viral pathogen spread through direct contact with infected bodily fluids, including blood, vomit, and semen. While infections are rare, the disease causes severe illness that is frequently fatal. During the 2014-2016 West African Ebola epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people, many transmissions occurred during traditional funeral practices that involve close contact with deceased victims’ bodies.
Dr. Craig Spencer, an associate professor at Brown University School of Public Health who survived an Ebola infection he contracted while working in Guinea in 2014, notes that Ebola disproportionately harms those who care for the sick, a dynamic he describes as the “disease of compassion.” Common symptoms of infection include fever, headache, muscle pain, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and unexplained bleeding or bruising.
Rising caseloads and severe symptoms have fueled growing panic among residents in Bunia’s neighborhoods. Noëla Lumo, a Bunia resident who previously lived through an Ebola outbreak in Beni, says she understands the threat firsthand and has already begun production of homemade protective cloth masks to distribute to her community.
The affected region of eastern DRC already faces overlapping crises that complicate the outbreak response. Mongbwalu is located in a remote part of Ituri province, more than 620 miles from Kinshasa, with poorly maintained road networks that slow the movement of medical supplies and response teams. Eastern DRC has been grappling with a years-long humanitarian crisis and ongoing violence from armed rebel groups, which have killed dozens of people and displaced thousands in Ituri alone over the past year. According to U.N. data, Ituri is home to more than 273,000 internally displaced people out of a total provincial population of just 1.9 million.
A U.N. official based in Bunia, speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to media, confirmed that all U.N. staff in the region have been ordered to work remotely, avoid close physical contact with others, and stay away from crowded public spaces to reduce their risk of infection.
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Rescuers search for 3 missing after German building collapse possibly caused by gas explosion
GÖRLITZ, Germany — Rescue operations entered their second day Tuesday as search crews scrambled to locate three people missing following a catastrophic overnight building collapse in this eastern German city, just kilometers from the Polish border. Local law enforcement confirmed Monday night’s structural failure may have been triggered by an undetected gas explosion, and first responders have proceeded with extreme care at the disaster site to avoid secondary hazards from potential unaddressed gas leaks, according to reporting from Germany’s national news agency dpa.
Initial search efforts deployed specially trained search canines to detect signs of life trapped beneath the thousands of tons of rubble, but when those attempts failed to turn up any leads, crews shifted strategy around 2 a.m. on Tuesday. Heavy excavators were brought in to carefully clear large debris, while teams of workers also dug through smaller fragments by hand to avoid endangering any possible survivors. Early fears that as many as five people could be buried under the collapsed structure have since been ruled out after a full accounting of local residents and visitors, police confirmed.
One distraught relative, who told reporters he had been shopping at a nearby neighborhood supermarket when the blast occurred, said his wife and cousin had arrived in the city earlier that day for a vacation, staying at one of the building’s rental units. When he rushed back to the property after hearing the explosion, he found the multi-story structure reduced to a massive, chaotic pile of broken concrete and splintered wood. Law enforcement officials confirmed the fallen building, constructed in the historic Wilhelminian architectural style popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, housed both long-term rental apartments and short-term vacation accommodation.
Located in Germany’s far eastern state of Saxony, Görlitz is the country’s easternmost city, home to roughly 57,000 residents. Its well-preserved, centuries-old old town — which remained largely undamaged through World War II — is a major draw for tourists and a popular filming location for international film and television productions, drawing production crews from across the globe each year.
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Two dead in Spain shooting, with babies reportedly among injured
A shocking act of gun violence has rocked the small southern Spanish town of El Ejido, located near the city of Almería, leaving two people dead and four others seriously wounded. Spain’s national law enforcement agency, the Guardia Civil, has confirmed that a 25-year-old man has been taken into custody on suspicion of carrying out the fatal attack that targeted his own parents and several other victims.
Local emergency dispatch received the first report of the shooting at 23:00 local time on Monday evening, which equates to 22:00 British Summer Time. Emergency responders quickly arrived at the scene, and all four injured victims were immediately transported to area hospitals for urgent medical care. Among those hurt are two young children, a 60-year-old man, and an additional adult, according to unofficial local media accounts. One of the injured children is the 25-year-old suspect’s own seven-month-old son, while the other injured child is an 18-month-old toddler, the reports add.
As of Tuesday, Spanish authorities have not released the formal identities of the suspect or the two slain victims, citing ongoing investigative procedures. Following the shooting, the suspect fled the scene and was briefly at large before turning himself in voluntarily at a local police precinct, according to Spanish news agency Europa Press.
Guardia Civil officials have confirmed that they have launched a full investigation into the attack, with investigators currently working to piece together a clear motive for the violence. What makes this attack particularly notable for Spain is that mass shootings remain an extremely rare occurrence in the country. Data from Project Insight, an organization that tracks gun violence across the European continent, shows that only four mass shootings were recorded in Spain between 2000 and 2023, making this incident an anomaly for the nation’s typically low rates of mass gun crime.
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Finnish divers recover 2 of the dead Italians from an underwater cave in the Maldives
A tragic diving disaster in the Maldives has moved one step closer to resolution, as a team of expert Finnish divers has recovered the remains of two of the four Italian divers who died deep inside a remote Vaavu Atoll underwater cave, a Maldivian government official confirmed Tuesday. The recovery mission, one of the most high-risk search operations in the Indian Ocean nation in recent years, follows a series of deadly setbacks that paused recovery efforts earlier this month. All four lost divers were located deep inside the cave system on Monday by the Finnish team, as search operations restarted after a suspension prompted by the death of a Maldivian military diver during a previous attempt to reach the trapped bodies. The tragedy unfolded last Thursday, when five Italian divers set out to explore the unregulated underwater cave system off the Maldivian coast. One of the five, a diving instructor, was recovered the same day he was reported missing, found just outside the cave’s entrance. The other four remained trapped deep in the cave’s third and largest segment, out of reach of initial local search teams. After the fatal accident that claimed the life of the local military diver, authorities suspended the search and called in international specialized expertise. The Divers’ Alert Network Europe deployed three Finnish technical and cave diving specialists with extensive experience in high-risk recovery operations, including deep dives in confined overhead environments that exceed the limits of standard recreational diving. Supported on-site by Maldivian police and military personnel, the Finnish team located all four bodies in the deepest, innermost section of the cave, with all four remains found grouped closely together. The bodies rest at an approximate depth of 60 meters, twice the maximum legal limit for recreational diving in the Maldives, which is set at 30 meters. To complete the mission, the team used specialized advanced diving technology, including closed-circuit rebreathers — systems that recycle exhaled breathing gas after filtering out carbon dioxide, allowing divers to stay submerged far longer than they could with standard open-circuit diving equipment. Initial search teams had previously mapped the cave entrance, but the extreme depth and narrow confined passages prevented early teams from reaching the trapped divers. Presidential spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef made the official announcement of Tuesday’s successful recovery of two of the four bodies, with authorities confirming that recovery operations for the two remaining remains are scheduled to continue on Wednesday. Italy’s Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the five divers were conducting an exploratory dive at roughly 50 meters when the accident occurred, a depth that already far exceeds the regulated limit for recreational diving in the country, raising questions about the safety practices that led to the disaster.
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ASX bounces back after Monday’s ‘poleaxing’, banks and Woolworths lead gains
After suffering steep single-day losses on Monday, Australia’s domestic sharemarket staged a notable rebound on Wednesday, clawing back most of its earlier decline as broad-based sector growth was supported by a global drop in crude oil prices tied to easing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
Nine out of 11 tracked market sectors posted gains by the close of trading, with only the technology sector edging 0.4% lower and the materials sector holding steady amid stagnant iron ore prices. The benchmark ASX 200 index climbed 99.4 points, or 1.17%, to settle at 8604.7, while the broader All Ordinaries index rose 1.08% overall. The Australian dollar dipped slightly to around 71.3 US cents amid concurrent strengthening of the US dollar.
Leading the session’s gains was the consumer staples sector, lifted after banking giant JPMorgan upgraded its rating on supermarket giant Woolworths. The upgrade pushed Woolworths shares up 3.7% for the day, pulling the entire sector upward alongside it. “The ASX200 has bounced back from yesterday’s poleaxing in a solid fashion, regaining a good chunk of the 105 points lost in yesterday’s demolition derby,” explained Tony Sycamore, a market analyst with international trading firm IG.
The drop in global oil prices that supported market sentiment came after former US President Donald Trump announced he would postpone a planned military strike on Iran, a decision made at the request of major Middle Eastern oil producers Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Trump also confirmed that “serious negotiations are now taking place” with Iranian officials to de-escalate regional tensions, though Sycamore noted market analysts remain skeptical of a quick, lasting peace deal. “Frankly, we’re not overly convinced about the near-term prospects of a peace deal and suspect the motivation to hold fire stemmed from the weekend’s fresh drone attacks on the UAE and Saudi Arabia,” he added.
The de-escalation of geopolitical risk calmed global bond markets and pulled crude prices lower: international benchmark Brent Crude fell 1.3% on the day, while US West Texas Intermediate futures dropped 0.9%. For Australia’s materials sector, a concurrent slip in iron ore futures erased potential gains, leaving the sector flat overall. Mining giant BHP dipped 0.1%, Fortescue Metals fell 0.3%, and rare earths producer Lynas Rare Earths dropped 4.3%.
Notable outliers in the resources space included Perth-based Northern Minerals, whose shares surged 21.7% after the company confirmed it would comply with Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ order requiring Chinese investors to divest their stakes amid a months-long boardroom takeover conflict. Mineral Resources also posted a 2.6% gain after announcing it would restart its Western Australia-based lithium mine in response to recovering global lithium prices. Bellevue Gold added 2% after extracting the first batch of ore from its new high-grade Deacon North mine in Western Australia.
Across the financial sector, Australia’s big four major banks all recorded gains between 1.3% and 2%, while QBE Insurance climbed 2.9% and insurance broker Steadfast rose 3.7%. Real estate stocks also recovered from Monday’s broad sell-off: industrial property giant Goodman Group gained 1.8%, shopping centre operator Scentre Group added 1.4%, and diversified developer Stockland rose 3.1%.In the telecommunications space, the sector as a whole climbed 2.7% to hit a six-month high. National carrier Telstra gained 2.6%, CAR Group rose 3.7%, and employment platform Seek added 3.4%. Infrastructure owner Tuas, which saw its shares crash 63% on Monday, rebounded 17.6% in Wednesday’s trading.
In corporate news, Geelong-based carbon fibre wheel manufacturer Carbon Revolution announced that creditors had approved a restructuring deal that will allow the firm to exit voluntary administration. The company, which was originally listed on the ASX before being delisted from the NASDAQ in February, produces lightweight wheels that deliver significant efficiency gains for heavy electric vehicles, but intense competition from Chinese EV manufacturers eroded its market valuation from a peak of AU$500 million to just AU$30,000 in recent years.
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New Zealand’s government plans to cut 14% of public sector jobs to slash spending
AUCKLAND, New Zealand – New Zealand’s incumbent center-right National Party government has announced a far-reaching plan to downsize the country’s public sector, slashing nearly 9,000 positions — equivalent to 14% of the current public workforce — by mid-2029 in a push to cut billions in government spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis revealed Tuesday during a speech to a business audience in Auckland, the nation’s largest city.
Under the proposal, the cuts will bring the total public service workforce in Wellington, the country’s capital where most public servants are based, down to 55,000 from the projected 63,700 headcount in December 2025. This adjustment will reduce the share of public servants in New Zealand’s overall population from 1.2% to 1%, matching Willis’ stated goal of aligning the country’s public sector size with global benchmarks. “That’s unsustainable, it’s unaffordable and it’s out of step with international trends,” Willis told the gathering, adding that critical front-line roles including military personnel, primary and secondary school teachers, and hospital doctors will be fully exempt from the layoffs.
Beyond workforce reductions, the plan includes a multi-year program of budget cuts for most public agencies, starting with an initial 2% funding trimming in the national budget set to be released at the end of May. If the National Party government secures re-election in the upcoming November general election, it will follow the initial cut with two additional 5% annual funding reductions for most departments. The government also intends to consolidate the public sector by significantly shrinking the current 39 government departments and agencies, though no final target number has been released. Additionally, Willis mandated that public services speed up adoption of artificial intelligence and digital tools, arguing the sector has fallen behind on modern technological integration.
In total, the package of cutbacks is projected to save 2.4 billion New Zealand dollars ($1.4 billion USD) over the course of the restructuring period. The National Party, which has held power since 2023, campaigned in the last election on a platform of public sector downsizing, and has blamed the previous center-left Labour administration for the growth in public service headcount. During Labour’s time in office, the number of public servants grew from 48,000 to 63,000 after the party reversed a public sector job cap implemented by the prior National government. At the time, Labour argued the cap had forced agencies to overspend on external contractors and consultants to avoid hiring full-time employees, creating more costs than it saved.
Notably, the layoffs will be phased gradually over multiple years, and Willis has not yet released details on how positions will be selected for elimination. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who has positioned his administration as a more responsible fiscal steward than its predecessor amid ongoing sluggish national economic growth, framed the plan as a step toward a more efficient, effective public sector. “The public service is not a make-work function,” Luxon said Tuesday, adding he found the prospect of a streamlined public sector “exciting.”
The announcement has already drawn fierce pushback from opposition groups and public sector unions. Chris Hipkins, leader of the opposition Labour Party, warned that cutting such a large share of the public workforce would inevitably erode the quality of public services delivered to New Zealanders. Duane Leo, a spokesperson for the union representing tens of thousands of public servants, called the restructuring plan “an act of willful destruction.” Political analysts note the cuts come as the government works to demonstrate tangible progress on economic recovery ahead of the upcoming national election in November, when voters will decide whether to return the National Party administration to power.
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Elon Musk just lost another lawsuit. Will he keep fighting?
Over the past year, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has racked up a growing list of legal setbacks across his sprawling business empire, and his recent defeat in a high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman marks the latest in this string of unfavorable court outcomes.
Monday’s ruling against Musk adds to a timeline of losses and costly settlements that stretches back to late 2024. That December, Musk agreed to resolve long-running disputes with former Twitter executives and thousands of ex-employees of the social platform, which he rebranded as X after his 2022 acquisition. He had spent years fighting to avoid paying the severance and negotiated damages the group was owed, ultimately walking away from the conflict with a settlement.
Just three months later, in March 2025, a judge ruled against Musk in a lawsuit brought by Twitter investors, who alleged he had misled them with public statements he made during his $44 billion takeover of the platform. That same month, another judge dismissed a separate lawsuit Musk filed against major brands that pulled advertising from X following his acquisition. Earlier this month, a judge also overturned key funding cuts enacted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the cost-cutting body Musk helped create and lead in 2024, ruling that the targeted grant reductions amounted to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.
With Musk’s latest loss in the high-stakes OpenAI legal battle, industry observers and legal experts are debating whether this growing streak of defeats will push the world’s wealthiest person to dial back his reputation for aggressive litigation. “No one is invincible,” explained Shubha Ghosh, a law professor and practicing attorney at Syracuse University. Still, Ghosh notes that it would likely take far more substantial consequences than the losses Musk has sustained so far to push him to abandon his combative approach to legal disputes. “In a lot of ways, he is just another businessperson asserting his rights, I don’t think he’s abusing the legal system. Whether he uses it effectively, I’m not sure,” Ghosh added.
Beyond his well-documented tendency to reject conventional business and legal norms, Musk also possesses unmatched financial resources that allow him to absorb the costs of repeated legal defeats. With his substantial stake in SpaceX, which is widely expected to go public in the near term, Musk is on track to become the world’s first trillionaire — a net worth so large that even cumulative legal fees, fines and settlement costs are unlikely to deter him from filing future lawsuits. For example, a $1.5 million fine levied by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for Musk’s failure to properly disclose his early accumulation of Twitter stock is functionally insignificant for someone with his fortune. When a judge invalidated Musk’s multi-billion dollar Tesla pay package in late 2024, he simply reincorporated the entire electric vehicle maker in Texas and secured shareholder approval for a new, even larger compensation package.
“I don’t see him stopping,” said Dorothy Lund, a law professor at Columbia Law School. “It seems like there is no one who has been able to put real consequences on him or his actions. He does what he wants and sometimes gets a slap on the wrist, so why would he change?”
Shortly after Monday’s ruling in the OpenAI case, Musk made his frustration public via a post on X, arguing the decision created “a free license to loot charities if you can keep the looting quiet for a few years!” He also publicly criticized the presiding judge, calling the jurist a “terrible activist” and pledged to file an appeal of the verdict.
Ghosh points out that Musk’s outsized personality sets him apart from most other global business leaders. For example, Musk chose to proceed with his very public, high-profile legal fight against Altman — a one-time mentee who has become Musk’s public rival — even as SpaceX prepares for its upcoming public listing. Typically, when a private company prepares for an initial public offering (IPO), its leadership enters a regulatory quiet period mandated by the SEC, during which executives avoid making public statements that could improperly influence share pricing. Most CEOs curtail all non-essential public commentary during this window, but Musk has rejected this standard practice entirely.
Lund notes that few business leaders share Musk’s willingness to continue fighting in court and the public sphere even after repeated setbacks. “He is not afraid of public opinion, he’s not afraid of taking big swings,” Lund said. She acknowledges that this willingness to disregard risk is a valuable trait for entrepreneurs, but it does not translate seamlessly to the legal system. Lund adds that even famously aggressive corporate figures like Carl Icahn, the activist investor who inspired the iconic greedy capitalist character Gordon Gekko in *Wall Street*, do not match Musk’s level of unapologetic brazenness.
“If and when this will blow up for him, I don’t know,” Lund said. For Lund, the only public figure with a similar approach to conflict and legal action is former President Donald Trump, who is known for impulsive public comments and frequent lawsuits against perceived opponents. “Musk is a singular individual, but negative things never seem to stick to either of them,” Lund added.